131. Life Lately, Real Talk, and What's Next for the School of Midlife

In This Episode: midlife coaching, women over 40, Best Life Retreat, personal growth, identity shift, inspiration

✨ Show Notes:

We're back—with boxes, big feelings, and big updates.

In this casual catch-up episode of The School of Midlife, Laurie Reynoldson shares a behind-the-scenes look at what’s been going on: selling a house, moving into a new one, and navigating midlife transitions with as much grace (and humor) as possible.

It’s part life update, part pep talk, and part reminder that perfection isn’t the goal—real life is.

Plus: some major announcements about what’s coming to the podcast this fall—including an inspiring new guest series, the return of the Best Life Retreat in Sun Valley, and Laurie’s personal reflections on how a first-grade moment nearly held her back from a life of public speaking.

💡 In This Episode:

• The truth about what it’s like to move homes in midlife (with no internet 😅)
• Why Laurie’s finally embracing public speaking after decades of fear
• A preview of the incredible midlife women coming to the podcast guest series
• Why the Best Life Retreat almost didn’t happen—and why now might be the best time ever to say yes
• A surprising invitation to bring Laurie in as a speaker for your group or event

🔥 Favorite Quotes:

“You can’t keep waiting to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life.”
 “It’s not about a perfect life. It’s about a life that feels like yours.”
“This retreat has changed women’s lives—and it might just change yours, too.”

📣 Special Announcements:

• 🎤 New! Two episodes per week! Solo episodes on Tuesdays, guest interviews on Fridays
• 🧳 Best Life Retreat in Sun Valley is officially ON! Use coupon code LASTCHANCE50 to save 50% off this year’s final spots. Click here to learn more.
• ✉️ Want Laurie to speak at your group’s next event? Email her right here!

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Transcript

[00:00:00] 

Welcome to the School of Midlife podcast. I'm your host, Laurie Reynoldson.

This is the podcast for the midlife woman who starting to ask herself big life 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, we're learning all of the life lessons they didn't teach us in school and we're figuring out finally what it is we want to be when we grow up. Let's make midlife your best life.

 Hey friends. Welcome back to another episode of The School of Midlife podcast. I'm your host, Laurie Reynoldson, and can you believe it is the first Tuesday in September? Where did summer go? I understand that I trained for and completed an endurance hiking [00:01:00] event. I mean, that's what I was doing for the first half of my summer.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back, I, I'll drop a clickable link to the show notes in what I did in July. It's bananas. I still can't believe I did it. I'm just, I'm thrilled to have finished it so that I don't have to go back and do it again, but. Um, I, I mean, that was the first half of my summer, right?

And so when you take six weeks of summer and you essentially devoted to doing something else, then, um, the last six weeks of summer, they go really fast, even faster than normal.

So it is September. I am here for it. I love September. It is my favorite, like one of my favorite times of the year because I love getting back into the routine. I love that it's nice and cool in the mornings, and it gets darker at night, so I feel like I can go to bed a little bit earlier and I'm not missing out on anything. September just has this. Get back in the swing of things mode. And I, [00:02:00] I don't know about you, but I am here for it.

Today's episode is gonna be a bit of a mishmash because it's been a little while since I've talked to you, So I've got a couple of things that I wanna just share about what's going on in my life. Uh, some really exciting things to tell you about, about the podcast, but if it feels a little random. Um, it is, and part of that is we're, we're in the process of moving.

So yes, if you are watching on video, this looks like a different background. It's because we're getting ready to stage our house. It's gonna go on the market this week. And, um, we are at that stage of moving where we have literally pulled everything out of every closet out, out a very storage area in the garage, and it's all sitting in the house so that every time we walk by it, we're like, oh, right, we need to pack that box, or we need to pack that box.

But the whole idea is we're going live with the listing this weekend. We're having a couple of open houses and we're using our furniture to [00:03:00] stage the house instead of bringing in professional stagers, because honestly, our house looks pretty damn good. We're just cleaning some things up a bit.

And we are in the very lucky, luxurious stage of moving where we already own the other house. we just finished some construction projects there and we are ready to, to move in, but it's this really interesting kind of, we're straddling two different houses at this point. Some of our stuff is at the new house. Some of our stuff is here.

We are getting to the point where all of the clothes have to be outta the closet so that we can take pictures of the house and make it look like, you know, it's nobody's living here. So it's kind of a funky, funky time for us right now.

And then add on top of that, they are coming to connect the internet at our new house tomorrow morning. Which means I, I will [00:04:00] not have internet access at my current house where my entire office is set up. Sure it is in a different setup than it was before, but my, my options at this point are continue to keep working in my current office where I have all the creature comforts. I mean, even if a bunch of the fun decoration stuff has been put away, I mean, I still i've got my desk and I've got my chair and you know, I've got my big computer screen and I've got this lovely microphone that I can speak into.

Um, so my options are continue working here with no internet or work from the other house. Like I would take my computer and I would take my microphone, but I would have no desk, no chair. 'Cause there's literally no furniture in the new house yet. And there won't be until. Next Monday when the moving truck comes. So I am all sorts of what am I gonna do and, and when it came to time to like look at the calendar and [00:05:00] think, oh shit, I gotta record a podcast for tomorrow. 'cause we've been in replay city.

I hope you've been listening to the replays. I especially picked them just because I knew I needed a couple of weeks off to get ready for this move. Um, not surprisingly when I was looking at the calendar, I thought, oh, for sure I will, I'll be in perfect spot to go live on the podcast the first week in September, the second week in September.

And I, I don't know, I'm kind of run up against a deadline here, so suffice it to say, I hope you listen to the replays because they're there for a reason. I especially picked them because of kind of the conversations I was having with women, and they certainly seemed like they were messages that that needed to be heard again.

But. Fast forward to today. Um, I'm trying to figure out what am I gonna do for next week because I will need to record another episode and where am I gonna do it? I mean, I won't have any furniture. I don't know. [00:06:00] That's a whole nother issue for another week. I will worry about that a week from today. 

Like I said, we have pulled everything out of every cupboard, every drawer, every closet, and it's just in the middle of the house. And so you walk in and it's, you kinda look around, you're this like what fresh hell is this? I mean, what happened here? Luckily we haven't had any people stop by, although I think that they would understand that we are in the middle of a move, so maybe they would give us some grace.

But I am, I'm definitely ready to have all of my clothes and my toothbrush and my office setup in the same area where I am showering and sleeping every day. I mean it, it doesn't seem like that. That's too much to ask, right? So we're moving. Big deal. I'm losing the internet. I will let you know what I figure out, because I don't think I wanna wait until next Monday when the moving [00:07:00] truck comes to wait to record the episode.

Because what happens if something goes wrong and then it's super late in the, I I don't even wanna go there. It seems super stressful, so I will figure out something. We will have a brand new episode next Tuesday, I promise. That's a, that's a light promise, just because it seems like things have been going not wrong with this move, but certain things that I can't predict. So more likely than not, we will have a brand new episode next Tuesday. And if you log in and there's a replay, you'll know that the shit went down. At least that'll be a good story for the next week. But anyway, that's the first thing I wanna talk you about.

Second thing is I had the most amazing time talking with the Boise Breakfast Club, uh, last week. If you get my newsletter, you know that I was speaking to this incredible group of women. We get together once a month. [00:08:00] There is always a guest speaker and they ask me to, talk about pivoting in your business or life.

I change it up a little bit because honestly, every time I hear the word pivot, all I can think about is that "Friends" episode where Ross gets a free couch and then he enlists Rachel and Chandler to help them get it up the stairs. And he just keeps going, pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot. If you haven't seen it, go to YouTube. Take a look at it. It's super funny. It's, it's, it's like one of, it's an iconic "Friends" episode. So when they asked me to talk about pivoting, I was like, well, I can't talk about pivoting because I can't get past "Friends".

But I'm mentioning it because I love speaking to women about living their best life.

And if you would've asked me years ago, probably even like [00:09:00] three or four years ago, if I wanted to come and talk to these women, essentially keynote, the Breakfast Club, I would've been like, uh, I don't know. I'm not sure.

Because for decades of my life. I didn't want to speak in public. Because I was afraid I was gonna be judged. I was afraid I was gonna do it right. What would they think of me? I didn't wanna be seen as as dumb or unprepared.

And all of that goes back to something that happened to me at an all school assembly in first grade. I don't have time to get into it now, but suffice it to say, it happened a very long time ago, and I've been carrying this baggage as it relates to speaking in public, speaking on stages pretty much my whole life.

I, I, I mean, how old are you in first grade? Are you six or seven? Like something happened to me when I was that old and [00:10:00] for. Uh, 40. Let me do the math. I, I'm not even gonna do the math. That's too much math for me. 46 years, 47 years, instead of actually jumping at the chance to talk about what I do and how I help women, instead of doing that, I have kind of avoided it.

And it wasn't just in coaching or at the School of Midlife. I did that in my legal career. I mean, I didn't have to go to court all that much, but I presented in front of city councils and county councils, public hearings on land use and development issues all the time. More than I would actually like to count. And every time before that happened, I wouldn't sleep the night before, maybe even a couple of nights before. I would practice [00:11:00] ad nauseam what I was going to say to the point where if I didn't have it memorized, I felt like I was completely unprepared.

The problem with memorizing something though is if somebody asks you a question and then you have to answer their question because that's, that's part of testifying at a part of presenting at a, at a public hearing. You get to answer the question and reframe it so that it works in your client's favor, but then it completely throws you off the memory game instead of being a little bit more nimble in being able to react.

You know, it was always like, oh shit, where was I in this talk? So I, I invariably would memorize it. I would, um, every free moment I had leading up to the hearing, whether it was in my car, driving to work or driving home, I would essentially recite my entire presentation when I was out for a run beforehand. I mean, it was bananas. Like [00:12:00] all I was doing was eating, sleeping, breathing, my presentation. Because I wanted it to be perfect. And I felt like because of what happened in first grade that it had to be perfect.

And I, I mean, whether you've listened to the School of Midlife for a long time, whether you're an OG or whether you are new to us, you probably know that... my guess is you can guess what I feel about perfection, right? It's, it's unattainable. We shouldn't even try it. And yet so many of us spend so much time worrying about making something perfect when that isn't even a reasonable expectation.

There's, I. I can talk about something that happened in moot court and law school. That's way too long of a story though. Suffice it to say, for most of my adult life, I did not wanna speak in public. I would avoid it at all [00:13:00] costs. What's really interesting though, when I think about what I wanna do with the School of Midlife, not only do I wanna write a book and which I'm working on, but I also have this vision of.

Keynoting large stages. Sitting on panels in front of thousands of women. Speaking on stage, which means at some point I gotta get comfortable doing it. And the beautiful thing about talking with the Breakfast Club women last week was I was so comfortable. It wa I there, I didn't feel any need to be perfect.

I just felt the need to get this message out. The message that you can't keep waiting to figure out what you wanna do with the rest of your life. That in order to find the fulfillment and happiness and satisfaction that you're seeking, you actually kn have to know what you want in your life. [00:14:00] And because I'm so passionate about what it is I do at the School of Midlife, last week was just an opportunity for me to share all of the goodness that is coming outta the School of Midlife and all of the opportunities that are available to women, whether they're in midlife, whether they're younger than midlife, whether they're older than midlife.

Honestly, I kind of think that if we would start doing this work earlier, then there would be no get to midlife and think what's next for me? It's kind of like when you first meet with a financial planner and they're like, well, you should have started saving for retirement in your twenties. And then, you know, they show you. Compounded what it would look like, how much you would have in your account now.

And you're like, well, that would've been really good to know, like 20 or 30 years ago. Right? And since I wasn't able to do that, what are you gonna [00:15:00] do to help me out now?

So yeah, if women would start putting themselves first in their own life and figuring out what they wanna do earlier, then we wouldn't have this, this strange midlife experience, right? Because we wouldn't, our identities wouldn't be changing at the same time. Our hormones are changing. Anyway, suffice it to say it was a lovely morning. I'm so excited. I, I'm so glad that I got the opportunity to go speak with them. I'm sure that there will be more events like that that I'll share with you coming up.

And if you are someone who does any programming for your business or a trade group or a group of women that you belong to and you're looking for speakers, hit me up. That's exactly what I do. Even if you're not in Idaho. I travel all the time. There's a clickable link in the show notes with my email on it. Let's talk if you, if you are in that position, I would love to come speak with your group.

[00:16:00] Speaking of talking with women and leading them through incredible exercises. The retreat is on. The Best Life Retreat is happening in October in Sun Valley, Idaho. It is my favorite weekend every year just because of the incredible women who attend and how they. Change how they walk out of the hotel differently than they walked in in just three and a half days. It's incredible. I love it so much. It's my favorite, favorite weekend.

And it almost didn't happen. If you are on my email list, then, you know, and, and if you're not on my email list, you absolutely should be on my email list. I send out a weekly newsletter every Sunday. It is chockfull of shopping guides and recipes and coaching tips and books to read, shows to watch things, to listen to pod, other podcast [00:17:00] episodes that I'm finding really interesting, just different bits of information to help you live your best life in midlife and beyond. It's, it changes every week. It's great. There's a clickable link in the show notes. Get yourself on the email list.

Anyway, it almost didn't happen because as of last week, zero women had signed up for the retreat this year and I am not laughing because I think that that's funny 'cause it's not. It is simply a, that's where the state of the world is, where the world feels really heavy right now. So it also feels like I couldn't, as a woman, I couldn't possibly take time for myself because I'm, you know, I'm trying to, to be good for the people around me.

And I, I totally get it. But this is the first year since I've done the retreat that zero women had signed up before last week. Nada. Zero. Zilch. Not, not like zero people. [00:18:00] Zero. And because I love it so much and because I had a deadline, a kind of a go, no go deadline with the hotel. I offered the retreat at 50% off. If you have been around here a while, You know that that is an incredible discount.

I mean 50% off. Are you kidding me? That's actually less than it's going to cost me to put on the retreat, which, you know, I'm not in business to lose money for sure. But I am in the business to give women the tools and the framework and the strategies and the information to help them create their very best life and midlife and beyond.

And if that means that in order to host this retreat that I will not make back my investment, That's okay. I'm not gonna keep doing this. You know, if, if we don't, next year, if there aren't enough [00:19:00] people signed up to even break even, no more retreat. I think though, that it just, the timing is just not right for a lot of women. I get that just because of like everything's on fire, right? It just feels like there's so much going on.

There's so much going on. And if you are able to get away, spend some time working on you and your dreams, and figuring out what you want to do with the rest of your life, There is. I don't know if, if this is too... you know what? I'm just gonna say it. I can't think of a better way for you to be spending your time than that.

Think about the ripple effects. Think about your legacy. Think about what can happen in your life, in your family, in your community, everywhere. The impact that you can have by [00:20:00] just focusing on you and your life for three and a half days. It is incredible. There are women that come to this retreat and yes, like I was talking about, they, they leave a different woman than when they came in, in the very best way.

They, they say that this retreat changed their life. I mean, that, that is incredible to me. It, it's not surprising to me, but if you are open to it, this can be the best weekend that you have had maybe ever.

There are still some spots available and I know that a couple of weeks ago I was like, last chance you can't get in anymore. But because the retreat is still a go, we, we are going, it's for sure gonna happen in October. If you are thinking, you know what? I would really like to do that someday. It's 50% off. The investment will never be this low again. And I'm not saying that to be [00:21:00] dramatic. I'm not trying to put the heavy sale on you.

But if you think that at some point you would like to do something with your life, I'm telling you, get your ass to Sun Valley this October. The investment will never be this low again. You'll still get the same life transforming coaching. We will, you'll still get to go to these, the spa in the afternoon, all of your drinks, your food, a luxury hotel room, all of that is included. All you gotta do is get yourself there. So travel's not included, but everything else once you get there, is included.

I mean, think about that. When is the last time you went on a vacation and didn't have to plan everything for everyone? No, no, no. That's. This is by design. You get yourself there. I will take care of the rest.

The discount code is LASTCHANCE50. There's a clickable link in the show notes to get some information about the retreat. If you have any questions, send me an email, send me a text. Let's, let's have a [00:22:00] conversation about it.

But if you are at all thinking about it, I cannot underscore this enough, but it will never, the investment will never be the slow again. So if you can handle it, if you can make time in your schedule, I need, I need you to be there at 6:00 PM on Thursday and we will be done by about noon on Sunday.

If you can make time in your schedule, please, please, please do this for yourself. If you have any questions, let me know. Um, that special 50% off will be available for probably until middle of September or until we have eight women. So if it sells out, it sells out.

That's that's there. We only have so many spots 'cause we like to keep in intimate. We want everyone to have the best experience that they can have. So 50% off. Get yourself signed up. Link in the show notes.

Last thing [00:23:00] on my random list of things that I wanna talk about today is new this week, the School of Midlife podcast is going to start dropping two episodes each week.

When I started the podcast in, was it March of 2023? March or May of 2020 when I started the podcast in 23, let's just go with that. My idea was that I really wanted to shine the light on midlife women who were doing incredible things in midlife. And we have had some guest episodes in the past two and a half years.

They have been great, super well received. Honestly. They just take a little bit more scheduling and a little bit more editing. And honestly, I just didn't think that far in advance. Right? So [00:24:00] we would get people, I, I would get them in the queue and then the scheduling would mess up and whatever. I just didn't put a priority on it.

That is changing. Starting this week, there will be two episodes of the School of Midlife. The regular one with just me will continue to drop on Tuesdays.

The second one, which will always be a guest episode, will drop on Fridays, maybe Thursdays, I don't know, end of the week, Thursday or Friday. I haven't figured out yet. I, I need to look at that. I will get back to you on that.

Suffice it to say, if you are following the podcast and you absolutely should be following the podcast, all you gotta do is click that little, uh, plus sign up there or the word follow, and then the episodes automatically populate to your feed. It's, it's super easy. You'll continue to get me on Tuesdays, and then whenever, Thursday or Friday the second episode drops, it'll just automatically pop up.

I want to just give you kind of a [00:25:00] teaser on what's coming, a little taste of, of what we're gonna be talking about in September. These are in no order, by the way. I just wanna let you know what's coming.

So just in September, We will be talking with a woman who had this dream to live abroad. Fast forward, uh, like within a year, she bought her dream apartment in Spain and now spends six, eight weeks, several times a year in Spain. Amazing. That conversation, I love it. If you're somebody who like me, who loves to travel, you will love that episode.

Um, also had an incredible conversation with an in award-winning painter who didn't start painting until she had retired from her teaching career. And it wasn't like she retired early. I mean, she did, but it wasn't like she retired in her thirties or forties. This is a woman who retired in her fifties [00:26:00] and then went on to have this incredible career as a painter.

I also had a, a great conversation with an author who is publishing her first book this month in September. This isn't something that she's done before. It is a, a fan, fantastic conversation. I think she is up next week. Don't quote me on that, but the same week that her book comes out, I will be talking with her on the podcast.

And that leads me to this week. At the end of this week, you are in for a treat. I am talking to Dr. Christine Li, who is a procrastination coach. We had a absolutely fascinating discussion about what procrastination really is. Um, I, I don't wanna give too much of it away. It, it is something that absolutely you wanna tune in and listen to.

I mean, I'm somebody who feels like I am a great procrastinator. I do my best work under pressure. And [00:27:00] she was like, Hmm, really? Maybe you don't, and here's why. I, it was completely enlightening for me.

The other thing that's really cool that Christine is doing is she is doing a declutter challenge because she talks about the relation to the clutter in your house and the energy and procrastination, and it's this how she ties it together. , Beautiful. I don't wanna spoil it.

Anyway, she is doing a declutter challenge starting, Uh, next Monday I'm gonna do it. I, I'm so excited about it. I, like I said, September is the perfect time to get back into the routine to build some new habits, and it's only week long, right?

You'll hear a lot more about Dr. Christine Li and this declutter Challenge in the EPIs, the second episode this week. So the one that we'll drop at the end of the week. If you know right now that you absolutely are in, that this [00:28:00] something definitely piques your interest about it the code to register is www.procrastinationcoach.com/laurie, L-A-U-R-I-E.

I will also put a clickable link in the show notes. Like I said, I'm doing it. I hope you join me. It'll be incredible. Don't miss the episode on Friday. Um, but. It, it'll be a good one for sure.

My hope is in bringing you these incredible stories, these invigorating, inspiring conversations with these women that you will be inspired. That if you are able to see and hear how it's been possible for someone else. Like, representation matters, right? So if you are able to see what women are doing in their forties and fifties [00:29:00] and sixties for the first time ever, and they are excited about it, they're completely enthusiastic about sharing this second life. This, this Act three that they're in, it is incredible. I cannot wait to share 'em with you.

And, and again, I really hope that by listening to these podcasts or watching them, if you're watching them on YouTube, that they will inspire you to try something new, to maybe go in a different direction, to trust your gut and do things in midlife that maybe you had only thought about or dreamt about and, and maybe thought, you know what, that could never happen for me.

These conversations are so good. I, I am so excited that this is finally coming to fruition. Um, similarly, if you know a midlife woman, somebody in her forties, fifties, or sixties who's doing incredible things that you think has a, a great story, that that should be shared with the School [00:30:00] of Midlife listening audience, let me know. I would love to talk with her, get her on the podcast.

Gosh. Um, this episode has gone a little longer even than I thought. I, I'm a long-winded, what can I say? Um, I, I would promise you, I'd say that next week's episode, there will be more of a theme. I don't know. I mean, I, I started it off with the fact that I don't, I'm not even gonna have internet access, so I don't even know what the next week's episode will be look like.

But it'll be a good one. I promise you that. It'll probably be less random than today's was, but for me, this is good to be able to just kind of catch you up on what's going on in my life. And I am as always, grateful to have you here.

Super exciting things coming. Not only two episodes, a some really incredible things coming in late September, early October for the School of [00:31:00] Midlife, which I'll be talking about more as we move into that.

But make sure you tune in for the second episode of the School of Midlife Podcast this week, and if you are so interested, get your name on the list for the retreat.

Thank you so much for being here today, my friends. Have a great week. I will see you right back here next week when the School of Midlife is back in session. Until then, take good care.

Let me ask you something. When was the last time you stepped away from your life to actually focus on your life? No emails, no group texts, no one asking, what's for dinner? Just space. Just time for you.

If one day sounds like a dream, imagine what an entire weekend could do. 

I am inviting you to join me for the next Best Life Retreat in breathtaking Sun Valley, Idaho, a luxurious, intimate escape, designed specifically for midlife women like you .

We will spend the weekend diving [00:32:00] into powerful group coaching sessions that help you reconnect with who you are, what you want, and what your best life looks like right now. And between those breakthroughs, you'll enjoy sunrise hikes, spa treatments, gourmet meals, curated cocktails, and the best gift bag you've ever seen.

This isn't a vacation, it is a turning point. One woman has even described the weekend as: that retreat changed my life. Space is limited to just eight women, and when the spots are gone, they're gone. So if you're craving some space, clarity, connection, and maybe even a little magic, click the link in the show notes and grab your seat right now. And I'll see you in Sun Valley .