Middling Along

By: Emma Thomas
Listen for free

  • Summary

  • Middling Along is the podcast for ‘midults‘ who want to spend their middle years thriving, not just surviving. Voted as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause at https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/ - Emma speaks to a wide range of guests who entertain, inform, and inspire in equal measure!
    Copyright 2021 All rights reserved.
    Show More Show Less
Personal Success
Show More Show Less
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2
Episodes
  • Carla Miller on how to deal proactively with Overwhelm

    Carla Miller on how to deal proactively with Overwhelm
    Dec 4 2024

    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 short review online!

    If your workplace wants to become more ‘menopause friendly’ then please let them know about the work I do at http://www.managingthemenopause.com

    Follow me over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause

    Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share

    We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause here: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/
    Show More Show Less
    34 mins
  • Lyndsey Simpson is Redefining life (and work) for us over-50s...

    Lyndsey Simpson is Redefining life (and work) for us over-50s...
    Nov 20 2024
    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 short review online! If your workplace wants to become more ‘menopause friendly’ then please let them know about the work I do at http://www.managingthemenopause.com You can also find me over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause here: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/
    Show More Show Less
    35 mins
  • Nahid de Belgeonne is here to Soothe our frazzled selves!

    Nahid de Belgeonne is here to Soothe our frazzled selves!
    Nov 7 2024
    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 short review online! If your workplace wants to become more ‘menopause friendly’ then please let them know about the work I do at http://www.managingthemenopause.com You can also find me over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause here: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/
    Show More Show Less
    32 mins

What listeners say about Middling Along

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
No Reviews are Available