Middling Along

Sara Barnes on resilience, rediscovering nature (and herself) and redefining adventures

Join us for a gorgeous conversation with writer and passionate cold water swimmer Sara Barnes.  

 

Over the past decade, Sara’s journey has been nothing short of remarkable. From barely being able to walk in her fifties to reclaiming an active, outdoor life amidst the stunning landscapes of the Lake District, she’s navigated major surgeries, embarked on solo campervan adventures through Scotland, and published not one but two compelling books: The Cold Fix and her debut novel, The Winter of Our Lives.  

 

In this episode, Sara shares her transformative story of resilience, discovery, and connection. Discover how cold water swimming became a powerful tool for overcoming anxiety and reconnecting with nature—and yourself. She reveals creative ways to get your own "Cold Fix," the importance of community, and how immersing in nature can shift your perspective on aging, confidence, and what’s possible.  

 

Sara also discusses her solo adventures, including a campervan journey that taught her invaluable lessons about adapting, slowing down, and embracing the present. Plus, she explores her dream of moving to France and how health scares helped her realize what truly matters—less stuff, more experience, and the freedom of just being.  

 

Whether you're a seasoned swimmer or curious about taking the plunge for the first time, Sara’s insights will inspire you to step outside your comfort zone, reconnect with nature, and discover your own limits and capabilities.  

You can find Sara and her beautiful images of wild swimming at https://www.instagram.com/bumblebarnes/?hl=en

Sara’s books:

The Cold Fix (Vertebrate Adventure Books, 2022)

The Winter of Our Lives (HarperCollins, 2023) 

(and for the interview with Siobhan Daniels I mention in this episode, check out: https://middlingalong.com/episodes/middling-along-13-siobhan-daniels-on-the-retirement-rebellion-and-her-solo-vanlife-travels-around-the-uk/) 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org  

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/  

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ 

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/  

Elizabeth Willetts on Flex, career pivots, and taking control of your career journey

Join us in this inspiring episode as we sit down with Elizabeth Willetts, the founder of Investing in Women, a groundbreaking job board and community dedicated to empowering women and promoting family-friendly workplaces. With over 17 years of recruitment experience, Elizabeth is passionate about helping professionals find fulfilling flexible and part-time work that fits their lives.

 

What You’ll Learn:

• The mission behind Investing in Women and how it supports both women and forward-thinking employers.
• Elizabeth’s journey in the recruitment industry, including her experiences at one of the Big 4 firms and a leading UK recruitment agency.
• Insights into the benefits of flexible work arrangements and how they can help close the gender pay gap.
• A behind-the-scenes look at Elizabeth’s debut book, Flex, a dynamic guide for anyone seeking to build a successful career on their own terms.
• Tips for career pivots, including how to leverage your network and build relevant skills when transitioning to a new industry.

Key Highlights:

• Discover the challenges faced by parents in the job market and how Investing in Women addresses these issues.
• Hear Elizabeth’s thoughts on the importance of hybrid roles and flexibility in today’s workplace.
• Learn about Subject Access Requests (SAR) and how they can empower individuals who have faced redundancy.
• Elizabeth shares her top advice for those considering a career change, including the significance of crafting thoughtful cover letters and documenting achievements.

You can get your own copy of Flex: Smart Strategies to Build a Successful Career Around Your Life at https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Flex-by-Elizabeth-Willetts/9781394267798

Find Elizabeth at https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-willetts/ and sign up to her newsletter and/or job board at https://investinginwomen.co.uk/

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

 

Lucy Melville on midlife reinvention after a double dose of loss

What do you do when life throws you two cataclysmic curve balls in a short period of time that fracture your whole identity? My guest today is Lucy Melville. Lucy is a widow, and mother of three young people. Her husband Brian died of stage IV lung cancer in July 2023 just 6 weeks after diagnosis whilst her youngest child was still at school. Just one year after losing her husband, Lucy was unexpectedly made redundant from the job that kept her functioning through her grief. 

In this moving and emotional interview, Lucy talks us through the surreal process of finding out about Brian’s diagnosis and navigating the speed of his illness and ultimately his death just a short time later. She describes the impact on her and her children of losing the husband and father they adored, and then being rocked again by dealing with both an empty nest as her children left home, and the compounded grief of losing the job (and second ‘work family’) that had kept her steady through her bereavement. 

Lucy talks honestly about how isolated, invisible, and abandoned she felt at this time in her life, but also the subsequent reinvention after her long dark night of the soul, and finding hope and renewed sense of identity through her new business venture River Light Press. 

Listen in to hear Lucy’s advice for anyone grappling with difficult times right now, and be inspired by her heroine’s journey to light and a new life. 

You can find Lucy at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymelville and River Light Press at https://www.aurorametro.com/river-light-press/ 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

Lauren Currie is a woman on a mission - to start a confidence revolution

My guest today is Lauren Currie OBE, the Founder of UPFRONT, an organisation on a mission to change confidence, visibility, and power for 10 million women. 

I start by asking Lauren what does confidence means to her personally and how she has learned to cultivate it?

Lauren describes confidence, not as a lack of doubt or feeling ready, but learning to show up and speak up even when full of doubt. She is, she says, still on a confidence journey. The world is not a place that is kind to confident women - she is continually unlearning, reconnecting with her gift for being onstage and inspiring others, and saying yes to hard things before feeling ready for them. Confidence differs across our lives and it’s vital we all can see that being modelled to us. 

We might appear very confident to others, but just because they can’t see our inner critic or our fears, doesn’t mean they’re not there. We all have moments of self doubt and nervousness, and confident people don’t feel confident all the time…

Lauren explains how the Upfront Bonds work: impressively, the average salary increase post-attendance is 46%, and 82% of attendees are more likely to apply for a job they wouldn’t have applied for before the Bond. 

Lauren also talks about past career mistakes: rather than failures, she sees these as lessons in disguise, data, insights, information, and opportunities to be better and grow. 

We also discuss her upcoming book “Taylor Meets The Trick” which aims to help children and families understand the patriarchy and was inspired by her son Atlas, who has long blonde hair and is often mistaken for a girl. Taylor learns about the rules for boys and rules for girls, and through the book starts challenging the neat little boxes that we are expected to fit into. There are also guides and resources at the end to support adults to continue the conversation.

Tune in to listen to all of this, plus Lauren’s experience of moving to Sweden, her advice for anyone with a young family thinking about moving to another country, and what she would change if we gave her a magic wand! 

 

You can find out more about Lauren and her work at Upfront by visiting  https://www.weareupfront.com/, and https://www.instagram.com/upfrontglobal/ 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

Elizabeth Dalziel on capturing menopause through the camera lens

My guest this time is Elizabeth Dalziel - a photographer with an illustrious string of assignments under her belt. She’s lived and worked in more countries than most of us will visit in our lifetimes! She has won awards for her work covering the Iraq war, the 2004 Tsunami in Asia, and - closer to home - documenting the homeschooling of her children during the pandemic.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer aged 48, she was put into a chemically-induced menopause and plunged immediately into a maelstrom of hot flashes, mood swings, brain fog, depression and more. 

She felt like she was falling apart….but Elizabeth has used her experience to fuel her creativity and created a brilliant photojournalism project that includes self-portraits, images of friends (depicting their own symptoms and struggles), images from different cultures around the world, and images of prominent activists and medics working in the menopause space. 

Tune in to find out more about Elizabeth’s personal experience of menopause, her creative processes, and the insights she has gained from her work with women in other cultures and countries. 

You can find the series at https://www.elizabethdalziel.com/index  

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

 

Christine Armstrong on workplace trends, getting visible, and why indecision is expensive!

My guest today is Christine Armstrong, a keynote speaker, researcher, and author focused on the world of work. Over the past four and a half years, she has produced more than 200 videos in her weekly vlog, addressing major work-related topics such as hybrid working models and the role of AI in productivity. Each Friday morning, over 6,000 viewers from more than 20 countries tune in to gain insights into the future of work. Christine is also the author of The Mother of All Jobs: How to Have Children and a Career and Stay Sane(ish), published in 2018. This book is based on six years of interviews with working parents, employers, leadership experts, and caregivers.

We begin our discussion by exploring the recent trend of larger companies implementing Return to Office (RTO) policies and the public’s reactions to these changes. Christine references U.S. research indicating that 43% of Americans would prefer to divorce their partner rather than return to the office full-time! She highlights that flexibility is often sacrificed for what she terms “endless contactability,” where employees feel compelled to check emails late into the evening. Unfortunately, many older male leaders, who have benefited from traditional work models, struggle to understand this shift. Christine also cites research by Nick Bloom, which shows that since the pandemic, companies have begun hiring from broader geographical areas, resulting in doubled commute times and making full-time office work less appealing. She predicts that we will see a variety of working arrangements tailored to each company's brand and talent pool.

In terms of making the most of time spent in the office, Chistine’s advice is to be strategic about using that time: use it to build strong networks, figure out ‘who do I want a relationship with?’, ‘how do I build that?’ 

 

We hear a lot now about the importance of personal branding and I ask Christine for her advice on how to do this when we have been socialised not to brag about our achievements and doing it gives us the ick? First of all, she suggests we initially have to accept and get comfortable with the fact that some people just won’t be ‘our people.’  Her second piece of advice is to imagine talking about ourselves to our friends - if what we’re saying feels uncomfortable it’s probably too showy, but if you talk about what you’re good at and it’s objectively true, then go for it! If you can, use humour, and vulnerability always tends to endear your audience to you. 

 

I ask Christine about AI in the workplace and where she sees this having the most impact on the workplace in the next 5 years. 

Her response was that some jobs will require people who can manage the AI in combination with very strong technical skills (using AI to enhance what they are doing already), many other roles will require strong communication skills, ability to make ethical decisions, and to be able to strategize.

I was interested late last year when I saw Christine talking about how she and her husband use an adapted version of the ‘Workshop your life’ methodology to plan out their year ahead. As Christine advises, we need to stop seeing work and life as separate and start to view it as one system and think about the whole and how it all fits together.  Doing this exercise once a year helps them to tackle tricky issues but not in the heat of the moment and get aligned so that they are not constantly bumping up against negotiating those difficult conversations when flashpoints occur. I’ve included a few links below in case you feel like giving it a try yourself! 

 

We conclude by discussing the current trends Christine and her team are exploring, particularly the rising unpredictability, polarization, and stress levels in today’s world. In uncertain times, people tend to adopt black-and-white thinking, become more anxious, and prioritize immediate concerns. Therefore, the role of leaders is crucial; they must provide reassurance, clarity, and effective communication.

 

You can find more on Christine and her work at https://www.armstrongpartners.co.uk/ and if you fancy watching her weekly vlogs, sign up to her newsletter, or watch via her LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thechristinearmstrong/ 

Find out more about how to Workshop your Life here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/relationships-are-the-source-of-results_workshop-your-life-9-exercises-for-high-quality-activity-7271839576732712960-LkXo/  

The Year Compass (https://yearcompass.com/) is another good option. 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

 

 

Dr Nicky Keay banishes the Myths of Menopause

My guest this time is Dr Nicky Keay: Nicky is a medical doctor with expertise in the field of exercise endocrinology and a lecturer at University College London. Her clinical and research work is focused on women experiencing peri/menopause and with exercisers, dancers and athletes.

Her book Myths of Menopause was published at the end of 2024 and Nicky has taken a novel approach to the subject, using the theme of Greek mythology, with Athena, goddess of wisdom as the cover star!  

 

The book itself brings together chapters from a wide range of experts in their individual fields, from brain health to bone health to exercise. Nicky and I discuss some of the most prevalent myths of menopause in this episode, not least the negativity around menopause and the ‘narrative of decline’ that links in to the pervasive gendered ageism in society (or Western society at least!). We discuss lifestyle changes and the temptation to believe in (and spend money on) ‘quick fixes’ that are out there. 

 

We also touch on myths around HRT, risks relating to breast cancer, and the under-emphasis on cardiovascular disease, which ultimately causes the deaths of many more women each year.  Nicky also offers advice for those who are under 45 and struggling with symptoms but not being listened to by their doctor. 

 

You can find out more about Nicky at https://nickykeayfitness.com/ and Myths of Menopause is available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Myths-Menopause-Increasing-Wisdom-Sequoia/dp/1914110404 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

 

 

Carla Miller on how to deal proactively with Overwhelm

This week I delve into ‘the Big O’ - aka Overwhelm, with Carla Miller.  Carla is a leadership coach and best-selling author of ‘Closing The Influence Gap: A practical guide for women leaders who want to be heard’ which reached #1 in the Amazon charts for Business Leadership Skills and was a finalist in the 2023 Business Book Awards.  Carla was CEO of Tiny Tickers and then Managing Director of Charity People, a leading charity recruitment consultancy alongside founding her own coaching business. She is also the host of the chart-topping podcast – Influence & Impact for Female Leaders 

 

We start with chatting about Carla’s own brushes with overwhelm, and move on to examine how overwhelm and burnout are linked, plus Carla’s experience of early menopause and why menopause can often contribute to feelings of overwhelm. 

 

Carla tells us a few of her strategies for managing overwhelm including:

• Normalising that most people feel overwhelm at some point in their lives. No one is giving 100% all the time.
• Figuring out what we might be able to ‘care less’ about at times we might be struggling.
• Coping with company cultures that have a tendency to keep overloading employees: I love Carla’s suggested wording “that sounds amazing, we are fully committed at the moment, so if we are going to start doing that what are we going to stop, to make the space for that?”
• How to avoid over committing - how many ‘shoulds’ are real and how many are our own expectations of ourselves or perceived expectations of others.
• Unless it’s a ‘hell yes!” don’t commit to things on the spot - buy yourself some time to think about it before saying yes and then regretting it (or worse, resenting them!).

 

We also cover ‘non-promotable tasks’ in the workplace (aka office housework), as well as the differences in the types of feedback that men and women get in the workplace. Coincidentally, the same day I wrote these shownotes, I came across these stats from a recent report: About 76% of top-performing working women received negative feedback from their bosses compared to just 2% of high-achieving men (according to a new report from management software company Textio, which analysed stats performance reviews for more than 23,000 workers across over 250 organisations). About 88% of these outstanding women workers receive feedback on their personalities, while the same is true for only 12% of their male counterparts, according to the report.

 

As Carla rightly points out, prioritizing our own needs is not selfish. Many of us feel uncomfortable advocating for ourselves (in and out fo work), but the only person that’s going to be the best advocate for you, is YOU! (I wish I had understood this better in my 20s and 30s…and 40s!).

 

You can find Carla at https://carlamiller.co.uk/ and if you want to work on ‘how to say no’ then why not sign up for her free 5 day “how to say No” challenge at carlamillertraining.com/sayno 

And if you struggle with people-pleasing behaviours, you might also find this episode with Nat Lue helpful: https://middlingalong.com/episodes/middling-along-natalie-lue-helps-us-discover-the-joy-of-saying-no/

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

Lyndsey Simpson is Redefining life (and work) for us over-50s...

My guest this time is Lyndsey Simpson: founder & CEO of 55/Redefined. Recognising a gap in the market for a brand that answers the call of the ‘bet-your-ass-I-can’ over-50s, Lyndsey set up 55/Redefined to fly the flag for those who may be getting older but have no intention of slowing down (inspired - not retired!). 

 

Just five years ago, Lyndsey was planning to retire early from her role as CEO of an HR firm when a special assignment lit a fire in her imagination. She was shocked that the hundreds of retired bankers she recruited for that assignment almost all agreed that retiring had been a huge mistake…

 

The statistics are quite stark: by 2030 50% of the UK workforce will be 50 and over (and in places like Spain, Italy, and Germany they are already almost hitting that marker). 

 

Over 50s now are healthier and wealthier than previous generations: we don’t dress or think like our parents did and mostly don’t want the same things - but society (and the world of work) has not caught up with this…

 

Listen in to our fascinating chat to find out more about:

 

• 100 year lives and how many of us will want or need a more harmonious and blended life phase of work and life in our Third Quarter (50-75) and potentially even into our Fourth Quarter;
• How the over 50s are the only growth talent pool and the only growth consumer pool;
• How, despite the extent to which advertising is skewed to youth (at present), 75% of all wealth is held by 50-70 year olds and by 2040 62p of every pound spent online in the UK, will be spent by an over-50 consumer (brands take note!);
• Why companies who ‘get it’ are seeing great results from mirroring demographics across customer service roles, product design, marketing, and advertising, and focusing on multigenerational teams;
• The work 55/Redefined is doing to smash inaccurate stereotypes around older workers: for example, the data shows that over 50s are 200% less likely to take a day off sick and five times less likely to leave for another job within their first 18 months in a company than employees under 30;
• Why we are all underestimating our own longevity by decades: a 40 year old now will have a life life expectancy of 98!
• The massive benefits that come from creating blended intergenerational teams;
• The need for a radical shift in working patterns, since flexibility is THE number one thing that would keep people in work for longer (whether that is in order for them to balance caring responsibilities, change careers, find better work life balance or spend time travelling) - and that mindset shift will need to come from both companies and individuals;
• How mindset shifts around salaries, prestige and self-worth will also open up opportunities for change and growth in our Third (and Fourth) Quarter;
• Lyndsey also shares the example of her own brother, who, after 30 years working in supermarket retail, has retrained as an audiologist in his late 40s and started an entirely new career 

 

If you want further inspiration and examples of people who have pivoted and careers check out https://life-redefined.co/ 

 

If you’d like to check out roles from employers that are actively hiring over 50s take a look at https://jobs-redefined.co/ 

 

If your organization wants to read the research and reports created by Lyndsey’s team (or work with them), check out https://work-redefined.co/ 

You can follow Lyndsey herself on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndsey-simpson-045b034/?originalSubdomain=uk

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

Nahid de Belgeonne is here to Soothe our frazzled selves!

This is the 100th episode of the Middling Along podcast! 

In a week of overwhelming world political developments, this podcast feels particularly timely...

This time I welcome Nahid de Belgeonne: Nahid has had a varied career having previously worked fashion, publishing, technology and wellness.  During her perimenopause, she swapped bricks and mortar studios in central London for her online clinic and now lives by the sea.

Her Soothe Programme helps women recover from Burnout, anxiety and trauma and she has translated all her expertise into a book called ‘Soothe, the book your nervous system has been longing for.’  

Nahid talks to me about her own struggles with chronic anxiety, stress-related skin conditions, neuralgia, and almost dying from gangrenous appendicitis because she refused to listen to her own body - and subsequently learning how to ‘rewire’ the brain through movement.  Her in-depth research into why certain things work and why they are good for you led her to write ‘Soothe’ and the programme it is based on. 

 

Listen to our chat to find out more about:

• How we are conditioned to do more, and more, and more…putting ourselves at the bottom of the priority list;
• How if you regulate yourself you also non-verbally regulate those around you - a win-win;
• How important it is to carve out time when your brain is not being constantly stimulated;
• How, if you are wholly engaged with what you are doing, your levels of contentment go up;
• That you feed information to your brain through your senses, interoception - listening in to the signals your body is sending you;
• Why we need to internalize our comfort instead of externalizing it;
• Why we need to be dealing with microstressors as they happen throughout the day instead of saving them all up and trying to ‘deal’ with them at the end of the day. 
• What the seemingly simple act of rocking can do for our bodies and brains.

As Nahid says in the book: “The brain’s job is to keep us alive by budgeting our resources…Your brain is constantly predicting what will happen to you next…”

Our brains are working so incredibly hard in the modern world aren’t they? Did you know that our visual distance gets fixed if sitting all day looking at a screen, which sends alarm signals to the brain. Walking in green spaces is a great antidote, even just for a short period of time - but walking in general is also helpful, the way our eyes move when we walk is also calming for our brains!  

 

Nahid also suggests that we treat your phones as a rare and precious commodity rather than an appendage! The importance of social connections and interactions for a healthy nervous system cannot be underestimated...there's so much more in this episode I'd love you to discover.  

For now, I’ll leave you with my favourite quote from the book:

“...what if ambition, speed and acquisition were not the only human goals? What if we also valued sensing, exploring, learning, the beauty of the process, resting, creating, pausing, resetting, repairing, calibrating, or even compassionately being?” 

 

You can find more about Nahid’s work on her website:

www.thehumanmethod.co.uk 

Buy the book at https://www.waterstones.com/book/soothe/nahid-de-belgeonne/9781800817104 

You can find her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehumanmethoduk/ 

You can also find her on Substack: https://nahiddebelgeonne.substack.com/ 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/