In this episode I chat to Kelly Keating: executive coach, master's student, and founder of new festival kid on the block, Wild and Wiser, a festival for women redefining success in midlife.

Kelly spent almost 30 years in corporate life before leaving at 47 to build a portfolio career around coaching, creativity, and connection. In this conversation, Kelly shares the story behind her reinvention, what finally pushed her to go all in, and why she decided to put on a festival.

Key topics covered

• Kelly's squiggly career path from a grammar school girl labelled as "naughty" to account director, RNLI transformation lead, flexible working champion in financial services, and startup, before going all in on coaching
• discovering a love of facilitation and bringing people together to improve systems using lean methodology
• Flexible working advocacy and championing job sharing long before COVID, training hundreds of managers on job design
• Her "fluid career": Kelly references the concept from Colin Newland: blending multiple strands of interest rather than following a linear path
• The pivot point when her father died unexpectedly at 70, which became the catalyst: "What am I waiting for? Life isn't a practice run."
• Why put on a festival? The convergence of Kelly's love of festivals, her wedding venue in Wareham Forest, the "Aspiring Women" network she'd built over 15 years, and a desire to amplify brilliant female voices
• The Wild and Wiser ethos: by women, for women; embracing nature, intuition, and the wisdom you've always had

About Wild and Wiser Festival

• Dates: 19–20 September 2026
• Location: Wareham Forest, Dorset (glamping, camping, and day tickets available

Links & resources

• Wild and Wiser festival: wildandwiser.co.uk
• Instagram: @wildandwiser
• Use Emma's code WWWKD10_EMMAT at checkout for a 10% discount on a weekend ticket

If life keeps speeding up and the demands keep stacking up (kids, parents, work, your own busy brain) then this one's for you.

In this episode I interview speaker, writer and self-development expert Lily Silverton about her book Prioritize This: A Practical Guide for Thriving in a World That Won't Slow Down.

We dig into three chapters that land hardest for the midlife squeezed middle: stress, overwhelm, and procrastination and some practical, brain-based tools for each. Lily is candid about her own experiences navigating the combination of a seriously ill father and young children, and why she has no time for self-help advice written for people with no heed for the demands of real life.

We discuss:

• The two most robust, evidence-backed interventions — movement and social connection.
• Building your own bespoke stress toolkit (the "pick and mix", not the prescriptive programme)
• SITs and SATs: stress-inducing vs stress-alleviating thoughts, and turning the dial down on catastrophising
• The multitasking myth — why it's really task switching, and what each switch costs you
• Three questions to cut through overwhelm
• Procrastination as emotional management, not time management - aka "what feeling am I avoiding?"
• AI, the hamster wheel, and whether technology will actually save us time...

Resources and Links:

• Lily's books: Prioritize This and The Priorities Method journal
• Exercises and downloads at the Prioritize This website: https://www.prioritisethis.com/
• Instagram: @lily_silverton
• Website: lilysilverton.com
• Substack: https://prioritisethis.substack.com/

Don't forget you can find out how to work with me and the back archive of this podcast at www.thetripleshift.org/starthere - and if you enjoyed this episode please do write us a short review to help others discover Middling Along!

We say "I've got nothing to wear" standing in front of a full wardrobe. Samantha Harman's argument is that the sentence has nothing to do with clothes — it's about not knowing who we're supposed to be.

In this episode I talk to best-selling author, stylist and former journalist Samantha Harman about her book Just Get Dressed: Why You Have Nothing to Wear and What to Do About It — a styling book with no pictures and no body-shape rules, built instead around the inner work most of us avoid. It's a conversation about generational trauma, the prehistoric brain, the martyrdom of the women in the squeezed middle, and why getting dressed in the morning is so flipping hard.

What we cover:

• Why "nothing to wear" is never about a lack of clothes... and what your wardrobe is actually a manifestation of (beliefs, identity, class, politics, generational trauma)
• The problem with the personal styling industry: more rules, more prescription, more exhaustion
• Epigenetics and the prehistoric brain — why being a visible woman registers as dangerous, and why the fabulous outfit stays on the hanger
• Clothing as a business tool — and why men have always been allowed to use it while women get judged for it
• The "bag of potatoes" meeting: how an ill-fitting supermarket shirt quietly costs you authority, presence and opportunity
• The compare-and-despair cycle and the social-media misery machine: and the reminder that all of it, even "authentic" personal brands, is marketing
• Enclothed cognition: why what you wear changes the actions you take (and how you handle Barry from accounts)
• Midlife as an opportunity, not a decline — finances, time, intelligence, and finding the rooms with brilliant women in them
• Two exercises from the book: meeting the 5-year-old who's really running your wardrobe, and the letter from your 90-year-old self
• Emotional spending, scarcity tactics and how retailers weaponise your feelings — plus the fast-fashion harm hiding behind "retail therapy"
• The wardrobe edit as a non-negotiable business activity — and the one thing to do first: get rid of what you hate

Find Samantha here:

• Just Get Dressed: Why You Have Nothing to Wear and What to Do About It - available on Amaz*n, or justgetdressed.com
• https://www.instagram.com/styleeditoruk/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-harman-style-editor/

Enjoyed this episode?

Follow Middling Along wherever you listen, and consider leaving a review — it genuinely helps other midlife women find the show. For weekly research and commentary on midlife wellbeing, subscribe to Emma's Substack, The Messy Middle: https://middlingalong.substack.com/