School of Midlife cover art

School of Midlife

School of Midlife

By: Laurie Reynoldson
Listen for free

About this listen

This is the podcast for high-achieving women in midlife who want to make midlife their best life.


Women who have worked their entire lives, whether that’s in a traditional career or as the CEO of their household, or for many women, both. And they look around at their life in midlife, and think “I’ve worked my ass off for this?”


They have everything they always thought they ever wanted, but for some reason, it feels like something is missing.


This is the podcast for midlife women who are experiencing all sorts of physical changes in their bodies, while navigating changes in every other part of their lives, too: friendships, family life, work life.


This is the podcast for midlife women who find themselves wide-awake at 2.00am, asking themselves big questions like “what do I want?” “is it too late for me?”, and “what’s my legacy beyond my family and my work?”


Each week, we’re answering these questions and more at the School of Midlife.


When it comes to midlife, there are a lot of people talking about menopause and having a midlife crisis. This isn’t one of those podcasts. While we may occasionally talk about the menopausal transition, but that’s not our focus. Because we believe that midlife is so much more than menopause. And it’s certainly not a crisis.

At the School of Midlife, we’re looking to make midlife our best life.


© 2025 School of Midlife Personal Development Personal Success Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 152. The Holiday Episode Every Overwhelmed Midlife Woman Needs to Hear

    152. The Holiday Episode Every Overwhelmed Midlife Woman Needs to Hear
    Dec 9 2025

    What if you didn’t have to do it all this holiday season?
    What if you could actually enjoy this time of year—without the resentment, exhaustion, or crushing mental load?

    In this timely and honest episode of The School of Midlife, Laurie shares a powerful coaching conversation with a client who realized she was doing the holidays on autopilot—baking cookies no one eats, mailing cards no one remembers, and hosting a party that felt more like pressure than pleasure.

    Together, they walk through how to tell the difference between a holiday obligation and a true opportunity—and how to make peace with letting go of traditions that no longer serve you.

    If you’re tired of performing your way through the holidays (while secretly counting down to when it’s over), this episode is your permission slip to do things differently this year.

    💡 In This Episode:

    • How to create joyful, intentional holidays without losing your mind
    • The pressure of family traditions—and how to stop outsourcing your peace
    • A simple coaching exercise to separate holiday “to-dos” from “should-dos”
    • The energy shift that happens when you drop the guilt and reclaim your time
    • How one client redesigned her entire December—and actually started looking forward to it
    • Why your happiness this season matters just as much as everyone else’s

    🎯 Don’t Miss:

    Laurie’s final free masterclasses of 2025 start this week!
    → How to Not Live the Same Year Every Year
    → Learn more about The Best Life Lab and how you can start 2026 with clarity, courage, and a plan that fits the woman you are now.
    🎟️ Link to register is right here!

    🔥 Favorite Quotes:

    “Your happiness and peace and fulfillment around the holidays is just as important as everyone else’s.”
    “If it's only an obligation—not an opportunity—it doesn't belong on your calendar.”
    “You are a grown-ass woman. You don’t have to make fruitcake just because your grandma did.”

    📩 JOIN MY MAILING LIST
    https://www.schoolofmidlife.com/newsletter

    👉 CONNECT WITH LAURIE:
    📩 Email Laurie

    💻 Website

    On Instagram

    On LinkedIn

    Work with Laurie
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • 151. Hope Is Not a Strategy: How to Create a Midlife You Love Now

    151. Hope Is Not a Strategy: How to Create a Midlife You Love Now
    Dec 2 2025

    You don’t need to blow up your life. But you do need to stop waiting to live it.

    In this deeply reflective solo episode, Laurie is back in the studio (fresh off a trip to Paris and a new haircut) with a wake-up call for midlife women everywhere: if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself living the same year over and over again—and call it a life.

    From the blur of daily routines to the invisible waitlist we put our dreams on, this episode unpacks why high-achieving women often postpone their own fulfillment—and what it actually takes to start living with more intention, starting now.

    💡 In This Episode:

    • Why the end of the year feels so jarring—and what to do about it
    • The difference between living and just preparing to live
    • Why most women don’t need reinvention—they need intention
    • How to stop deferring your dreams “until after…”
    • A heartfelt invitation to attend either the Best Life Planning Day and the last live masterclass of the year...or both!

    🔥 Favorite Quotes:

    “For most of us, we have fewer years ahead than we’ve already lived.”
    “Hope is not a strategy. Wishing and praying don’t create a best life. Intentional action does.”
    “You don’t need to blow it all up. But you do need to do some things differently.”


    🎯 Upcoming Events:

    • 🗓️ Best Life Planning Day (Boise): A one-day retreat to create clarity, intention, and a real plan for 2026. No suitcase. No PTO. Just space to focus on you.
    • 💻 Final Live Masterclass: How to Not Live the Same Year Every Year — 5 days of coaching to change your next 365.

    Don’t wait another year to start living the life you actually want.

    📩 JOIN MY MAILING LIST
    https://www.schoolofmidlife.com/newsletter

    👉 CONNECT WITH LAURIE:
    📩 Email Laurie

    💻 Website

    On Instagram

    On LinkedIn

    Work with Laurie
    Show More Show Less
    27 mins
  • 150. When You Finally Trust Yourself Enough to Start Living the Life You Actually Want | Conversation with Wendy Harrop

    150. When You Finally Trust Yourself Enough to Start Living the Life You Actually Want | Conversation with Wendy Harrop
    Nov 21 2025

    What if you let go of the rulebook and gave yourself permission to create a life that feels like a dream you actually want to be living? This week on the School of Midlife podcast, we’re talking to Wendy Harrop—a retreat host, event planner, and farm-dwelling dream-weaver—who did just that.

    After years of living the good-girl life, checking the boxes, and doing what was expected of her, Wendy woke up to a deeper longing: one where she gets to be the main character. She didn’t burn it all down in a blaze of midlife crisis. Instead, she took one brave step after another—choosing joy, curiosity, and adventure over obligation.

    In this powerful conversation, Wendy shares the story of how she moved from California to a 200-year-old farm in Massachusetts, why hosting retreats for women is her calling, and what it means to live with delight, even when things don’t go according to plan. Whether you’re feeling stuck, restless, or just quietly wondering “is this all there is?”—this episode will remind you that midlife isn’t a dead-end... it’s a damn invitation.

    👂 In this episode, we talk about:

    • Letting go of shoulds and embracing your actual desires
    • What it looks like to be the curator of your own life
    • The power of women gathering in intentional, beautiful spaces
    • Living with delight—even when life throws curveballs

    📌 Mentioned in this episode:

    • Wendy’s upcoming retreats
    • Her dreamy Airbnb on the farm in Massachusetts

    📩 JOIN MY MAILING LIST
    https://www.schoolofmidlife.com/newsletter

    👉 CONNECT WITH LAURIE:
    📩 Email Laurie

    💻 Website

    On Instagram

    On LinkedIn

    Work with Laurie
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 1 min
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.