Outing an old myth. When women reach the C-suite, they close the door behind them.

That may have been true before but it certainly hasn’t been my experience over the past 14 years of coaching.

What I’ve witnessed instead is amazingly talented women hiring me to help them build their legacy.

This week we lost another Unapologetic Icon, Gloria Steinem, the co-founder of Ms. Magazine and a relentless advocate for gender equality, reproductive rights, and women’s civil rights.

We also stepped into season three of of our ‘Say it Sister’ podcast. The new season arrived at a moment of profound loss for the feminist movement.

This blog is dedicated to Dolly Parton and Gloria Steinem’s lives and impact. May they continue to light our fires from the other side. It’s also an invitation for you to reflect on your own journey - where do you need to stop apologising for being you in your life?

A reflection on corporate leadership, creativity and midlife reclamation. From the backstage of fashion and beauty to coaching women leaders to own their brilliance.

How going back through my own corporate career helped me to feel more aligned and whole.

We’ve been talking a lot about empowerment and how it can feel disempowering when it’s used out of context for women.

Let me elaborate. Women are naturally powerful. They don’t need anyone to put the power inside them. They don’t need permission to be who they are. They give themselves permission to feel and show their power.

True empowerment is like the hummingbird’s wings that can be felt in the chest when a woman remembers who she is.

I’m not quite sure where to start with this story - perhaps because I have so many personal experiences of perimenopause. And also because, since I began coaching in 2012, I’ve witnessed the journeys of countless women navigating the same confusing, life-changing territory.

This is the story behind The Menopause Advantage™, my menopause coaching programme for women leaders and the organisations that want them to thrive.

This is also the work that I needed to do when I was at my lowest perimenopausal, postpartum edge.

Why women struggle to receive (and how to open the door)…

I work in the field of desires, dreams and needs - sometimes its a glimmer or a gentle nudge, other times it’s like being hit by a truck (which has actually happened to me.) 

We are experiencing a calling of the feminine in many areas of our world, work and lives - seeking ways to take off our masks and personnnas safely, so we can breathe and regulate. This is the work many of us are doing right now.

But here’s what’s coming up strongly for me: the inability of women to receive fully.

This isn’t my usual post-holiday post. After a week by the sea, my mum’s words: “I thought I’d never see the sea again, let alone swim in it,” landed deep, bringing up grief, ageing, and the quiet confrontation with mortality that comes with midlife.

I’m finding myself held by opposites: love and fear, love and grief, joy and uncertainty, while caring for a young child, a puppy and elderly parents. I’m learning that grief can begin long before loss, and that wisdom is forged not by avoiding pain but by moving through it with honesty and love. In this post, I share what I’m discovering about aging, reality, and the courage it takes to stay heart-led. I also introduce a new, limited August offer, The Inner Temple, for women who are ready to return to their core, reclaim their life bus, and step into their full magnetic potential.

This picture changed the course of my year. What has followed has been mind blowing!

When I first began dreaming about my 50th year, I was met with doubt so big I almost let go of the vision completely. But something inside me said no.

Read more…

You’re the Part That’s Missing…

This message came through to me recently… and I know it’s not just for me. It’s for all of us. So many women are living pulled outward - giving, doing, responding, holding everything together.

We become so focused on what’s needed from us that we lose connection with what’s needed for us. The hamster wheel becomes normal. Expected. Even praised.

But it’s not where we’re meant to live.

When your identity shifts, it can feel deeply uncomfortable.

There is a particular kind of unease that comes with leaving one version of yourself behind and stepping into another. Sometimes the next version isn’t even fully visible yet.

You are no longer who you were, but not quite sure who you are becoming. That in-between space can feel uncertain, unsettling, even lonely. And yet, that is where growth lives.

Aging is one of those shifts. It asks us to release old definitions, old expectations, and old attachments to who we thought we were meant to be. It invites us to listen more closely, to soften into change, and to trust that identity is not fixed. It is living. It moves. It evolves.

I have to admit, the start of this week was shaky. Returning to work after the Easter holidays, moving between roles and spaces - it doesn’t come as easily as it once did. Transitions feel different now. Heavier. Slower.

Perimenopause has a way of asking for more. More space. More time. More care. I’ve realised I can’t push through in the same way anymore. My pace has changed. And while part of me resists that, another part is learning to honour it. There’s a depth that comes from this season of life, an inner knowing that feels hard-earned and undeniable.

When I work from that place, what I offer is powerful. Impactful. Real.

Easter came and went a little differently this year. I gave myself permission to be a full-time mother. Not only to my daughter, but to myself too. I’m learning, deeply, what it means to choose happiness. To dream again. To tend to the parts of me that need care, wonder, and space to grow.

Self-employment gives me that freedom. Yes, it impacts the bottom line when I step back, but there’s something far more valuable I gain in return: presence. When I focus on just one role, one rhythm, one way of being, I get to fully experience it. And in that presence, there is magic.

So we dedicated two whole weeks to cultivating it.

The seven-year-old and the almost fifty-year-old both got fully stuck in. Each day became its own little world of wonder-cartwheeling in open spaces, discovering fairy rings, writing letters to the fairies in our local area, earning brownie badges, and even meeting the Mad Hatter at Mother Shipton’s Cave. Read more here.

Chasing Magic: A Midlife Quest for Daily Enchantment

Lately, I’ve been on a dreaming quest - a search for magic and everyday enchantment.

What began as a simple desire for more feel-good energy and a chance to rediscover myself as an almost-fifty-something has started to shift things in ways I didn’t expect. Wonder, connection, and joy have been quietly showing up, reminding me that magic often lives right under our noses.

This week I’ve been fully immersed in dreaming — not just the idea of it, but the practice.

I said yes to an invitation to a workshop that turned out to be life changing. The theme was managing our perfectionism. Since becoming a mum, my inner perfectionist isn’t quite as loud, but she’s still there.

Taking time to pause, breathe, and be moved by the wisdom of the horses reminded me to stay present, leave it all at the door, and ground myself. I learned so much about myself… but most importantly, my hope and faith in life returned.

A blog about a week that didn’t go to plan…

Sometimes life interrupts your big dreams to remind you of what really matters.

When you open up to your dreams, the blocks in your way suddenly become crystal clear. Then comes the choice: Do the work and face them or go back to sleep

Politics is hitting leaders hard with “political depression” surging amid Trump-era turmoil. The Guardian reports therapists overwhelmed and UK stress costing 22.1 million lost working days last year alone. Many of the challenges we face from pandemics to global instability and cyber threats are forms of collective trauma.

Our new partnership with crisis management specialist Emma Streets has been designed to support companies through any crisis. Our training blends trauma-informed coaching with crisis strategy, equipping Yorkshire businesses to spot workplace trauma, communicate with compassion, and build unbreakable cultures.

This blog is about directive dreaming during a week full of highs and lows. I’ve made a commitment to chase daily enchantment - to let myself actively pursue what feels good, magical and of course dreamy.

A blog about guilt, dreams and stepping into my 50s… As I look ahead to this next decade, I’ve hit a few emotional and practical obstacles. Prioritising my own desires and needs feels selfish and almost impossible.

I’ve made myself a promise that I will allow myself to dream.

I can see myself now, sitting alone at a little table in Italy, wearing a floaty “fufu” dress - likely to be Dolce & Gabana, twirling pasta on my fork. Not because I want to escape my life (I don’t), but because I want to reconnect with who I am - beyond roles and responsibilities.

Stay tuned…

For some reason, I felt called to write this today. I think many of us are sensing that now is the time for more love. Maybe it’s a reminder for you, too - to stop searching outward, and instead, to journey home. Because this; this is the heroine’s journey.

Taking time out over Christmas brought real clarity. When you do the leadership maths, being a working woman under most existing frameworks simply doesn’t add up.

Leadership systems were built within patriarchal structures designed for men; assuming a consistent baseline of energy, availability, and life-stage stability. Women’s bodies don’t work that way.