This week I'm joined by Cole Zesiger, a breakup and relationship coach who has helped over 2,000 people navigate heartbreak.

After going through a divorce at 23 and jumping into a rebound relationship that also ended, Cole rebuilt his life from scratch and now teaches others how to do the same. He also just released his first book, Exes and No's: The Breakup Advice You Don't Want to Hear.

This is one of the rare episodes where we have a male guest, and I loved getting Cole's perspective on breakups, rebounds, and what it actually takes to be ready for love again.

What we cover:

• Why breakups are so devastating. It's not just losing the person, it's losing the entire future you imagined with them.

• The science behind heartbreak. Studies show that romantic rejection activates the same brain patterns as withdrawing from hard drugs. This explains why we do irrational things after a breakup.

• The truth about no contact. Why treating a breakup like a detox is often the fastest path to healing, and why it's also the best strategy if you genuinely want to get back together.

• Can you actually get back with an ex? Cole shares when reconciliation works, when it doesn't, and a story about a couple who reunited after divorce and are still going strong years later.

• The rebound trap. Why jumping into a new relationship too quickly often just delays the grief, and how Cole learned this the hard way.

• How to know when you're ready to date again. Not "fully healed" but "happy enough" with your life that you won't just take the first person who shows interest.

• The dating rules that keep you single. Why building a rigid checklist after heartbreak often backfires and screens out great people for meaningless reasons.

• How to talk about your ex on early dates. The difference between making your ex the main character of the story versus making yourself the main character.

Resources mentioned:

Cole's new book, Exes and No's: coachcolezesiger.com/exsandnos

Work with Cole: coachcolezesiger.com/booking

Cole on Instagram: @coachcolezesiger

Connect with Emma:

Instagram: @turning30coach

Join the Turning Community: https://www.turning30coach.com/turning-lp

If this episode helped you see breakups differently, please subscribe, rate, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Think you need fireworks on the first date to know they're the one? In this episode, Emma challenges everything we've been taught about how love is supposed to feel at the start.

What we cover:

The difference between a fast burn and a slow burn, and why rushing through the early stages of dating often means skipping the check-ins that actually matter.

Why those "I just knew" stories you see on Instagram aren't the full picture, and what most love stories actually look like behind the scenes.

The dating masks we all wear. Even if you think you're being your authentic self, Emma explains why it takes time for the real versions of both people to show up.

How Emma and Ellie navigated the early days of their relationship, including why a three-week trip apart actually helped them.

Practical tips for slowing down without dragging things out, from choosing better date activities to reframing how you ask important questions.

Why going slow at the start often leads to things speeding up later, and how to trust that process when you're feeling the pressure of your 30s.

Connect with Emma:

Instagram: @turning30coach

Join the Turning Community: https://www.turning30coach.com/turning-lp

If this episode shifted something for you, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a friend who's in her dating era.

Ever caught yourself saying "I'm doing everything right, so why isn't it working?" You're not alone. In this episode, Emma unpacks that phrase so many women use when they join the Turning community, and what it often reveals underneath.

What we cover:

Is there really such a thing as "doing all the right things" when it comes to love? Emma challenges the idea that love works like other areas of life where effort equals results. Unlike your career or friendships, love has an element of randomness and divine timing that we simply can't control.

The difference between wanting love and being open to it. Emma shares her own story of how she turned down Ellie two years before they got together, not because she didn't want a relationship, but because she had deep inner work to do first. Desire and openness aren't the same thing.

How to tell if you're truly ready. Emma offers a simple thought experiment: imagine someone handed you an envelope containing a real, past-the-honeymoon-phase relationship starting tomorrow. What comes up for you? Your honest reaction might reveal more than you expect.

What to actually focus on during this chapter. Instead of treating single life as a waiting room, Emma encourages you to get curious about what genuinely lights you up and to do the inner work that opens your heart to receive love when it does arrive.

Resources mentioned:

Free journaling guide: https://chipper-builder-227.kit.com/journal-guide

The Turning Community for women in their 30s calling in love

Coming soon: a workshop on how to open your heart and call in your next chapter

Connect with Emma:

Instagram: @turning30coach

Join the Turning Community: https://www.turning30coach.com/turning-lp

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a friend who needs to hear it xo

This is a special bonus episode following the Love After 35 email series, where I’ve been sharing real stories from women who met their partners later than expected (many in their late 30s and early 40s).

After collecting dozens of submissions over the past year and interviewing women on this podcast for over six years, I've noticed clear patterns in how women find love after 35. In this episode, I'm breaking down the seven most common patterns and what you can learn from them.

The 7 Patterns:

1. The struggle before the shift - What every woman experienced before meeting their partner
2. Divine timing and serendipity - The unexplainable moments that led to love
3. Building a beautiful single chapter - What women were actually doing while single
4. The work that preceded love - What changed internally before they met their person
5. Surrender and acceptance - The mindset shift that opened them up
6. It felt different - Why the right relationship doesn't always feel how you expect
7. The advice they all give - What every woman says to her younger self

Join the Turning Community

If these stories resonate with you and you're thinking "I want that to be me," come inside the Turning Community. This is where you do the work these women did: the internal healing, the mindset shifts, the building of a beautiful single chapter.

Inside you get:

• The Turning Curriculum (two full courses on dating and building your thirties chapter)
• Live group coaching with Emma
• A 24/7 community of over 100 women from around the world
• Expert guest workshops on relevant topics
• Daily accountability challenges
• Support from women who understand exactly what you're going through

Join Now: https://www.turning30coach.com/turning-lp

Sign up here for the Love After 35 email series which goes live on January 9th 2026.

What if the love you're searching for is already here- you just need to become the match for it?

In this episode, Emma sits down with writer and storyteller Bryn Daylor to explore one of the most transformative love stories you'll hear. Bryn shares her journey from a challenging divorce at 30, through years of emotionally unavailable relationships, to meeting her fiancé in the most unexpected way.

But this isn't just a love story. It's about how Bryn used writing as a tool to liberate herself from old patterns, heal deep wounds around intimacy and worthiness, and ultimately manifest a relationship that felt like coming home.

Together, Emma and Bryn unpack the messy, vulnerable parts of dating in your 30s, the practice of surrendering control, and why learning to be alone might be the most important prerequisite to finding lasting love.

Inside this episode:

• Why quitting dating for 90 days terrified Bryn more than staying single forever, and what she discovered about herself when she finally stopped buffering with male attention
• The exact writing practice Bryn used to manifest her partner (and why it wasn't just a manifestation checklist)
• How to massage the stories from your past so they stop holding you hostage and start propelling you forward
• The difference between journaling and storytelling, and why vulnerability on the page builds trust in real life
• What happened when Bryn’s partner canceled their first date the day before (and why she didn't write him off)
• Why being with uncertainty is the key to calling in an extraordinary life

If you've been single longer than you expected, if you're tired of emotionally unavailable people, if you're scared that love might not find you in time, this episode is for you. Bryn’s story proves that the relationship you want isn't just luck. It's about doing the inner work, releasing the grip of old stories, and trusting that your person is already on their way.

Connect with Bryn:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bryndaylor/

Join the Turning Community:The only online community space specifically designed to support single women in their thirties to enjoy their single chapters and call in a life partner. The doors are now open and we are accepting new members for January. Sign up here.

What if the key to everything you’re calling in — love, purpose, peace — isn’t in your mind, but in your heart?

In this deeply grounding and expansive conversation, Emma sits down with Estelle Bingham, therapist, spiritual teacher, and author of Manifest Your True Essence, to explore a whole new way of thinking about manifestation — one rooted not in mindset hacks or vision boards, but in emotional truth, inner child healing, and the heart’s intelligence.

Estelle shares how our deepest beliefs, past experiences, and ancestral patterns shape what we attract, and how learning to listen to our hearts can transform not just what we call in, but how we relate to ourselves along the way.

• What “heart-led manifestation” really means, and how it differs from the traditional mindset-based approach.
• Why the unconscious mind and unhealed inner child can block what we’re trying to manifest.
• How ancestral and intergenerational trauma (epigenetics) can quietly shape our patterns in love, money, and self-worth.
• The power of self-compassion, curiosity, and trust when you’re tired of “doing the work” but not seeing change.
• How to move from survival mode into embodiment, and why your heart is your most powerful manifestation tool.
• A simple, science-backed heart practice you can do anywhere to reconnect with yourself and create coherence between your heart and mind.

If you’ve been doing everything right (journaling, therapy, affirmations) but still feel stuck, this episode will meet you where you are.

It’s for the woman who’s exhausted from trying to fix herself, who’s wondering if she’s fallen behind, and who’s craving a softer, more embodied way forward. Estelle and Emma remind you that you don’t need to “earn” love, peace, or joy, you just need to come home to yourself.

Because healing and manifestation aren’t about forcing outcomes. They’re about remembering who you are, and trusting that the universe responds to the frequency of your truth.

Connect with Estelle:

Estelle Bingham, known as “The Heart Whisperer”, is an holistic therapist, healer, and metaphysical teacher. For over two decades, she has dedicated her life to guiding others through profound journeys of healing and empowerment, helping them embody their true joy and potential.

Book:  'Manifest Your True Essence'

Website: www.estellebingham.com

IG: estelle.bingham

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@estelle.bingham

Connect with Emma:

IG: @turning30coach

Join the Turning 30 Membership: turning30coach.com/membership

In this deeply personal episode, Emma sits down with psychotherapist and mind-body expert Nicole Sachs to explore the unexpected connection between our emotional world and physical symptoms.

For the first time publicly, Emma shares her own journey through debilitating postpartum health issues - eczema, joint pain, vertigo, and the crushing fear that something was seriously wrong. What she discovered changed everything: her body wasn't broken. It was speaking.

Nicole, author of Mind Your Body and creator of the Journal Speak method, explains how chronic pain, anxiety, and mystery symptoms are often our nervous system's way of protecting us from overwhelming emotions we haven't processed.

Through stories, science, and radical self-compassion, this conversation reveals why the cure you're seeking might not be in a prescription — it might be in your own pen.

Inside this episode:

• Why your chronic pain or anxiety might be your body's alarm system, not the actual problem, and what that means for healing

• The Type T personality: how perfectionism, people-pleasing, and high achievement can literally show up as physical symptoms in your body
• Journal Speak explained: Nicole's specific 30-minute daily practice (20 minutes of raw, unfiltered writing + 10 minutes of meditation) that helps release the emotional reservoir fuelling your symptoms
• Emma's vulnerable story of postpartum chronic illness, medical despair, and the moment everything clicked when she discovered Nicole's work
• The neuroscience of why your nervous system creates pain as protection. And how self-compassion is the missing piece most of us never learned
• How anxiety, insomnia, and obsessive thought loops are interchangeable with physical pain, and why healing one often heals the other

If you're in your 30s and your body feels like it's betraying you (or if anxiety has become your constant companion), this episode is for you.

Maybe you've been told there's nothing wrong, or that you'll just have to "manage" your symptoms forever. Maybe you're exhausted from trying everything and getting nowhere.

You're not broken. You're not making it up. And you're definitely not alone.

What if the pain, the panic, the sleepless nights aren't life sentences, but invitations? Invitations to finally listen to the parts of yourself you've been too busy, too scared, or too conditioned to silence.

This work isn't about perfection. It's about presence. It's about pausing long enough to ask: What is my body trying to tell me?

You deserve to feel at home in your own skin. And that journey? It can start today.

📲 Connect with Emma (Turning 30) on Instagram at @turning30coach

Nicole Sachs, LCSW is a psychotherapist, bestselling author, and internationally recognized leader in mind-body medicine. She's the creator of JournalSpeak®, a transformative practice that has helped thousands heal from chronic pain and anxiety. Nicole is the author of Mind Your Body and host of the podcast The Cure for Chronic Pain. She serves on faculty at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies and is based in Los Angeles and New York. Learn more at nicolesachs.com.

• Instagram: @nicolesachslcsw
• Book: Mind Your Body (available in audio and print)
• Podcast: The Cure for Chronic Pain

Join the viral workshop that’s helped thousands shift their energy around love and timelines: F**ck the Timelines, find love and live your own path in your thirties– Happening LIVE this Saturday, October 4th 2025. Save your spot!

In this solo episode, Emma dives into one of the most thrown-around – and misunderstood – phrases in the personal development and dating world: “Trust the timelines.”

What does it actually mean to trust your timeline?

And what if the timeline you’re trying so hard to trust… was never even yours to begin with?

Emma unpacks:

• Why so many of us internalized timelines we didn’t choose – from family narratives, societal norms, and outdated expectations.

• What happens when we unknowingly live inside “timeline traps” – always trying to catch up, compare, or calculate how far behind we are.

• The real difference between passive trusting vs. active alignment (and why sitting back and waiting doesn’t actually bring love).

• The powerful energy shift that happens when you Fuck the Timelines and start honoring the life you’re actually meant to live.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re running out of time, like everyone else is ahead, or like your love story is taking too long- this episode is your reminder:

You are not late. You are right on time. And there’s a whole new way to live and love in your 30s.

💥 Doors to the Turning membership are OPENING again on October 4th – for the final time in 2025. Join a global community of women redefining their timelines, doing the deep work, and creating connection, confidence, and clarity like never before.

Ever feel like you're stuck in a pattern you desperately want to break but don't know how? In this raw and honest solo episode, Emma tackles one of the most common struggles women face in their 30s - knowing you need to change but feeling paralyzed by uncertainty.

Responding to a vulnerable question from a member in her Turning community, Emma dives deep into why we get stuck in inaction even when the universe is "screaming" at us to make a move. She breaks down the real reasons behind our fear of uncertainty, why we don't trust our future selves, and the dangerous belief that someone else will come save us from our current situation.

What You'll Learn:

• Why fear of uncertainty keeps you stuck (and how to embrace it instead)
• The truth about trusting your future self to handle whatever comes
• How to shift from "feel the fear and do it anyway" to actually taking action
• Why you need to accept that you're going to fail - and why that's actually good news
• The "one life mentality" that creates urgency without panic
• Practical steps to stop waiting and start moving toward what you want

Key Takeaway: Life meets you at the level of your audacity. Nobody is coming to save you - you have to save yourself. And the good news? You're absolutely capable of handling whatever comes next.

Perfect for anyone who's tired of their own patterns, knows they need to make a change, but feels stuck in analysis paralysis.

Follow Emma on Instagram @turning30coach

Want to become part of Emma’s inner circle and get coaching on demand in a community of global members in their thirties? You are invited to join us in the Turning Community.

Sign up to the waitlist for the Turning Community for early access and bonuses: doors open again October 4th!

What happens when the relationship never comes… but the desire to become a mother won’t go away?

In this raw and powerful episode, Emma sits down with a very special guest (also named Emma) who shares the story behind her boldest decision yet: becoming a solo mum by choice (SMBC) at age 40.

After spending her 30s in the cycle of heartbreak, therapy, dating disappointments, and fertility panic, and going through a big break-up at age 39, Emma reached a breaking point. Tired of waiting and knowing she wanted to have a family of her own, she chose herself instead and started the journey to solo motherhood. She now has a beautiful one year old son and is sharing her journey and life as an SMBC on her Instagram.

This isn’t the glossy Instagram version. It’s the messy, deeply human story of letting go of the fantasy, grieving the love that never arrived, and finding power in a path she never expected to take.

Together, we talk about what it means to actually take control of your timeline and how liberating, terrifying, and beautiful it can be to rewrite your story when life doesn’t go to plan.

Inside this episode:

• The hidden grief of being a woman who “did all the right things” and still ended up alone
• The silent pressure cooker of fertility timelines and the panic that sets in after 35
• How Emma reframed solo motherhood from Plan B to powerful, aligned choice
• What dating, therapy, and burnout taught her about self-worth and agency
• The spiritual and emotional reckoning that comes before big, life-altering decisions

Whether you’re curious about solo motherhood as a potential future option, questioning your own timeline, or grieving the gap between where you are and where you thought you’d be, this one’s for you.

📲 Connect with Emma (Turning 30) on Instagram at @turning30coach

📲 Connect with Emma (SMBC) on Instagram at @emma.kate.james

Are you ready to turn your thirties into the best decade yet?

The doors to Turning are reopening in a few weeks, and you are invited to come and join the party. Sign up to the Turning waitlist here to get first access and special bonuses.