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The Midlife Mentors: Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Midlife Mentors, with me, James. Me, Clare. Little bit late doing this one. But we're getting out of the weekend. Yeah. It's either the weekend. It's either a Saturday or a Sunday.

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The Midlife Mentors: It is. We should really start recording these earlier in the week. We always get to… Sometimes. We do sometimes. We do sometimes, but we're here! We're here. We're here. I was slightly confused whether it was a Saturday or a Sunday, then. It is indeed a Saturday. It's a Saturday, isn't it? What have you been up to, Claire? Well, we did a workout, and then the gym. What, you mean, today? In general, in life. Well, I went on a Christian youth camp for my church last weekend.

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The Midlife Mentors: Which was… I did it last year, it was amazing.

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The Midlife Mentors: But, yeah, I don't get any sleep. I'm in the kitchen, like, don't worry, don't worry anyone, I'm not actually doing any of the cooking, I'm like the skivvy. I know, I'm like the skivvy, but, you do sleep in a dorm, and there was lots of snoring going on, so I had a zero sleep, but that was fun. That was really fun.

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The Midlife Mentors: That's all I've really been up to. Obviously, working, coaching, and bits and bobs. Yeah, I would say I've been onboarding for another multinational, I'm coaching some of their senior leadership, so that's been, exciting, getting rolling with them. And yeah, writing the book, our editors sent the full draft back, so now we're in full edit mode. Which is good, because that's hit summer, because actually it does quieten down in August, doesn't it? Just generally, everyone's… even, like, London.

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The Midlife Mentors: You can look outside and see there's loads of car parking spaces, which is unusual for this road. So you can tell that everyone's kind of disappearing, but we're in for more hot weather this week coming. Oh, did you have to mention the weather.

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The Midlife Mentors: Of course, have to.

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The Midlife Mentors: Anyway…

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The Midlife Mentors: diving on in to what we're talking about today. Yeah, well, we like this one. We like this one a lot! I mean, we've noticed this, but there's been, I think, a few news stories in the last few weeks, so is Midlife having a moment? And in fact, becoming a movement? And I think this is so interesting, because when we started this podcast back in 2019, loads of people said, oh, you shouldn't call it

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The Midlife Mentors: you shouldn't use the word midlife. Don't call it the midlife. No one wants to be associated with midlife. I think we had loads of people told us it was a terrible idea. We had a real backlash to it, and, like, a real wobble, but we'd already started doing it, and in our… in our

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The Midlife Mentors: souls, and, like, we really had this gut instinct that it was gonna… that it sh…

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The Midlife Mentors: it was going to be a thing, and actually that we wanted to champion midlife, and really see the positives in it, which is what our ethos is all about. Everyone was like… I remember, after we'd started doing some stuff, they were like, oh, I don't… yeah, midlife's not a great idea, because no one… yeah, no one wants to admit they're in midlife. I just don't think anyone… you're going to get any traction with it. Yeah, and if… listeners, I'm going to transport you back in time.

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The Midlife Mentors: to those hazy days of 2019, pre-COVID, you know, we were out there, we were talking about midlife hormones, we were talking about the impact of perimenopause, menopause, I was talking about andropause, but all this stuff, it sounds funny now, like, people just weren't… it wasn't on the radar. No. Women still felt that, you know, menopause is something to navigate quietly, there wasn't a lot of information.

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The Midlife Mentors: Hardly any men talking about testosterone.

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The Midlife Mentors: Yeah, if people said they were struggling at midlife, it's just like, oh, you know, you're having a crisis, or you're just getting older. But we fast forward to today, well, you know, look at the wealth of media and material around menopause now, you know, there's primetime TV shows.

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The Midlife Mentors: There's countless books, there's programs, there's coaches, there's supplements, there's clothing, and I thought there's even menopause festivals now, so not menopause retreats, we've seen, there's actually menopause festivals. I'm gonna say one was, like, Menopause a Luzolola or something. I don't even know what you just said, but it does sound terrible, quite frankly. At the same time, we've had, I think, a bigger increase in longe

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The Midlife Mentors: longevity as well, and of course, you know, GLP-1s have come in and transformed that whole conversation around, you know, weight loss, and what is healthy aging. And I think we've seen a big change in the workplace as well. You know, go back five, six years.

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The Midlife Mentors: I mean, menopause wasn't really talked about. Now, you know, we certainly deliver a lot of menopause workshops, menopause allyship workshops for men. There's… there's working groups, there's committees, there's… Policy? Yeah, policies in place.

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The Midlife Mentors: And I think, actually, the government announced in the last couple of weeks, there was some announcement with the NHS government about the need for menopause policies in the workplace. Yeah, but I do remember when we were talking about menopause.

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The Midlife Mentors: When we were approached, actually, it wasn't us going out seeking,

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The Midlife Mentors: workshops and stuff, like corporate well-being workshops. It was actually people seeking us out, because we were talking about the midlife arena, and we were talking about… The Midlife Experience. The Midlife experience, and we were talking about hormones and things like that. So we actually had companies coming to us.

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The Midlife Mentors: Saying, would you like to run this workshop on menopause? And it was just menopause, it wasn't andropause at all, it wasn't any men's health around midlife, it was all women's. And James and I actually thought, well, we've been talking about it, so actually, we do feel like we should get a qualification

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The Midlife Mentors: Around menopause, and really kind of dive into it. So that's what we did, actually. And that was probably back in 2021, I think.

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The Midlife Mentors: But still… And we did our hormone course before that. Before that, so we did our hormone course before that, but specifically menopause, because we were being asked to go into organizations. We just felt, like, integrity-wise, we should just do, like, an actual menopause course.

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The Midlife Mentors: So, and get a qualification. So, we did that, but still, there were a few people asking about it, but then we…

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The Midlife Mentors: But even if we did approach anyone, or started having conversations within organizations, they're all a bit like, oh no, you know, it's… it's… we're not really talking about that. And like James said, the explosion of, like, talking about

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The Midlife Mentors: menopause well-being in the workplace just exploded very, very, very quickly. I'd say around 22, 23, it just went crazy. I do feel, we'll probably talk about this in a minute, like, menopause overload. I just think there is…

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The Midlife Mentors: a lot of misinformation out there. I think they call it menoashing, don't they? Where, like, everything has now got menopause slapped on it, and a bigger price tag. And I'm not… I'm not sure I completely… well, I don't agree with all of that, but, certainly…

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The Midlife Mentors: just going back to the fact that we were talking about midlife, we always wanted it to be

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The Midlife Mentors: really, really positive, and because we'd been speaking to so many midlifers over the years about how negative they kind of saw the whole experience, and that there was nowhere really to guide them around what to do for their physicality, what to do for their hormones, what to do for their mindset, what to do with their emotional well-being, what to do with their beliefs, and, like, what's next, their purpose, their

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The Midlife Mentors: passion. There was just nothing there. It was all very kind of like, hush-hush, let's not talk about it, let's put our heads down, let's just get on with it and try and struggle through it the best we can. So even back in 2019, we were kind of wanting to lift the lid on it, and give you really

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The Midlife Mentors: practical things that you could do to start feeling better, looking better, all that kind of stuff. I mean, I think in many ways, it obviously has been really positive for women, that this information is out there, it's now openly talked about, there are so many resources available, it's recognized in the workplace, et cetera, et cetera. It's brilliant.

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The Midlife Mentors: But I think it's actually been, I'm gonna position it as, like, I think it's been the gateway to start talking about midlife more generally. I agree. I think menopause has been the entry point.

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The Midlife Mentors: And what's interesting, you know, have we reached peak menopause? And obviously, like, anyone going through it, it's still, you know, a valid and important experience, but in terms of what's out there, as Claire… as Claire referenced there, you know, special menopause, bedding, menopause clothes, yeah, and certainly conversations I have with, big companies, their HR, their DEI, they're like, menopause is

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The Midlife Mentors: is done to death, we need to find something else. And they're now going, well, what's the male experience? So I think that's really encouraging, and I think the next iteration will be like, whoa, how does the male and female experience marry up? And we'll start talking about midlife in general terms, which kind of loops back to how we started. Yeah, and we don't want to frame, kind of, like, the whole meadow washing as criticism. It's not… No, it's a sign of success. It is a sign of success that we…

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The Midlife Mentors: I'll try and speak here.

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The Midlife Mentors: But it is, actually, and, like, we're really… we're really excited the fact that people, like, women… well, actually, people, men and women, have a lot more information about how to navigate this time. So, from the woman's experience and the man's experience, like, there is so much interest. What I've loved about the development of the menopause conversation is James has been asked to go into organizations so many times and talk to men.

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The Midlife Mentors: about the menopause experience, and actually how gratefully that has been received, how wonderfully that's been received. Because men… men just… no, I'm generalizing here, but men are a bit like.

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The Midlife Mentors: a little bit like rabbits caught in the headlights in certain… some of the menopause workshops I've run with James.

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The Midlife Mentors: or without James, men just don't always feel comfortable asking those questions. They don't want to put their foot in it, they don't want to ask the wrong question. I think when James runs them completely on his own, there's a real safety net. There's, like, a space for them to ask questions to James about how they can best support women. So it's been… it's been absolutely amazing, and obviously, with anything that goes through a trend, you're always going to attract, yeah, products, influencers.

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The Midlife Mentors: books, apps, all that kind of stuff. But yeah, just be careful.

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The Midlife Mentors: who you follow, guys. Be careful what you're listening to. Yeah. Well, I think it's been a great gateway, you know, I'm gonna give it, for those of you that love your house music, maybe menopause was the,

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The Midlife Mentors: Okie and Ramplin going to Ibiza and discovering, who in 87 in the lyric music. And it's introduced… it's made Midlife the bigger story, and certainly, you know.

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The Midlife Mentors: culturally, I think we start to see more stories about Gen X, about midlife. What is the lived midlife experience now? I know, Stephen Armstrong, who's been on our podcast before, he's always now being asked to write stories about Gen X, about midlife, and that they get really high click-through rates. So, it's becoming a thing. I think it's the doorway

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The Midlife Mentors: And we're seeing a much broader shift. You know, people are like, well, I am in midlife, maybe that's actually something to celebrate.

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The Midlife Mentors: How do I stay healthy for longer? How do I keep working with purpose? How do I stay strong? How am I not pulled off course by things like GLP-1s, you know, where I can basically

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The Midlife Mentors: paid to be skinny with no effort needed, but actually now people are already starting to wake up, say, oh, hold on a minute, what are the long-term health effects? And actually, I saw a report today, I think it was the University of Philly?

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The Midlife Mentors: over a year's use, then it's hair loss in women, alopecia, 70% of cases. So, yeah, I think as we use these things, things have become…

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The Midlife Mentors: more evident. As we've always said, you know, it's about the fact that you're losing muscle mass at midlife anyway, so just… just be careful if you're restricting your diet and your nutrition too much. Yeah, and just, we're going off on a segue here, but just to reiterate when we talk about GLP-1s, we're not anti-GLP-1s when they're used in a medical, setting, and they are balanced with, I suppose, some of the psychological aspects as well.

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The Midlife Mentors: Like, why we might have been overeating, why we don't have a great relationship with food.

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The Midlife Mentors: balance with, yeah, good nutrition, strength training, all of that stuff, but it's when it is just being used on, you know, people are just buying it off the black market. This is what always worries James and I.

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The Midlife Mentors: people buying it off the black market, they're using it for aesthetic reasons, and they're not really thinking about the long-term implications of it, and you're just kicking a lot of health issues down the road for yourself. So, just wanted to add that in here. Yes. I think maybe another way to frame it is, like, is encouraging. People are like, well, how am I healthy? How do I have a better second half of life? You know, we know people are living longer.

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The Midlife Mentors: And I think there's awareness around that, so it's kind of now, okay, well, how do I not only live longer, but live healthier? I want my quality of life, my health span to be great.

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The Midlife Mentors: as well as my lifespan. Yeah, and I suppose we are seeing this shift. I know James has just mentioned about what we're seeing in the media, but we are seeing, I feel, correct me if I'm wrong, and if you don't feel this way, do let us know, because I'm interested to know what you listeners are experiencing as well, but I do feel, like, through this menopause journey that we've been on in the last few years in the media, and with books and programs and things like that.

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The Midlife Mentors: There is more of that… this word, kind of, like, celebration, especially for, like, there's midlife women.

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The Midlife Mentors: that we know, that are famous, that are really kind of, role models for us. Really good role models. And they are being kind of… yeah, there are those influencers, role models, celebrities, that are really standing strong in their femininity at midlife. They're really, like, championing. This is… this is a really good thing.

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The Midlife Mentors: this is a really great time of our life, with the wisdom that comes with age. This is not about, like, worrying too much about what we look like and trying to, you know, grab hold of our youth. Like, what does this mean of our stage of life? What can we be capable of in the second half? And I do really feel like there are some really strong midlife women out there, championing… championing… I can't speak today.

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The Midlife Mentors: Which is great when you're doing a podcast, but really championing that kind of narrative. That excites me. I do see more of that. I think that's really actually important. You've touched on an important cultural point there, because we've kind of gone full circle, you know? We used to really admire

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The Midlife Mentors: age as something to be respected and wisdom and experience, you know, we'd have the elders to go to, you know, particularly the wise older women within communities, and we kind of lost that in the world. Closely. Something that we hear from clients all the time, female clients, is like, you know, after a certain age, you just feel invisible, right? You're not really marketed to, people don't look at you anymore, but we're seeing a change, like, that, like, celebrating this

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The Midlife Mentors: this new.

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The Midlife Mentors: second age, right? This kind of, like, menopause and beyond, as Claire said, I think that's really, really exciting. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, and there's still work to be done, so I'm not saying that, you know, like… Of course, the job isn't done. No, so there's a… there's a lot of marketing that is still kind of aimed towards, like, listen, 100%, like, peop… the whole longevity movement, you know, there's two sides of that. One part of me really, like.

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The Midlife Mentors: likes it and kind of agrees with it. What can we do to feel healthy? So not just, like, live longer, but live healthier. But then there's also this kind of darker side that's like, you've got to…

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The Midlife Mentors: like, hold on to your youth as much as you possibly can. And there is a lot of marketing still,

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The Midlife Mentors: for… particularly aimed at women, that has that underlying message of, don't lose your looks, don't lose your body. So there is still a lot to be done, but we are seeing, like we've been saying, this kind of beautiful shift, because of the menopause, I think, conversation, that women are standing up going, no, don't you dare be, don't you dare… no one sits baby in the corner.

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The Midlife Mentors: Don't get smaller, don't get invisible, stand up, and be really, really proud of who you are and what you're becoming in the second act. Oh, well, that leads us quite nicely into looking at the way that the work environment is changing. So we know we've got an aging workforce. We know that there's record numbers of young people not in education, employment, or training. We also know, we've heard the stories about AI replacing a lot of roles.

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The Midlife Mentors: and that hammer falling, in particular, on the older workforce. So, I think in the last couple of years, we've seen a lot of people kind of 50, 55 plus, a lot of attrition from the workforce. I certainly know from conversations we've had with people in government in the past.

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The Midlife Mentors: there's a big segment of people who are missing in that kind of midlife age group. They've left employment, but they're not actually claiming anything, and so no one knows quite what they're up to.

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The Midlife Mentors: But I do see signs that this trend is starting to reverse slightly. We've got the government encouraging menopause action plans, as we've said.

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The Midlife Mentors: But I think employers are starting to realize something bigger than that, that our workforce is changing, and that the over-50 workforce is growing faster than any other age group, by the way.

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The Midlife Mentors: So, there are organizations now going, okay, how can we redesign not only our recruitment, but our retention around experienced workers? Because what the value that they bring, the judgment, the experience, you know, the lived experience of being in those roles.

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The Midlife Mentors: That's not to say that there's still an ageism problem. I think, you know, we've talked about this before on other podcasts, like.

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The Midlife Mentors: recruitment consultants will admit that they discard, you know, CVs over… I think it was a 52 or something like that, which is absolutely shocking, but it is changing. I know there are certain organizations out there that are actively recruiting over 50s and over 55s, because they want them for their workforce, and also recognizing that their customer base is falling to that age demographic.

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The Midlife Mentors: So I don't necessarily want to be talking to a 22-year-old who hasn't got the same cultural references as them. Yeah, and I don't know what the stats are, but this has just popped into my head, because I have read this, even a few years ago, so I'm sure the stats have shifted, but, the biggest…

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The Midlife Mentors: growth of entrepreneurship is in the over-50s. And this… this is what kind of, like, ties into what James was saying about

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The Midlife Mentors: conversations we've had with people in government, where they're just kind of missing. They're not necessarily claiming benefits, they're not in work, but maybe there is this opportunity that

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The Midlife Mentors: because of AI, we talked about AI a bit before, but because of that, because of the changing workforce, because, I suppose also of how expensive it is to live these days, there's this kind of,

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The Midlife Mentors: I find it quite exciting that

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The Midlife Mentors: 50-plus people are thinking, I suppose, like, a little bit more on their feet. They're having to be a little bit more flexible, they're having to be a little bit more open-minded.

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The Midlife Mentors: And actually thinking, okay, what skill set have I got? What else can I do? Either to supplement, actually, the job that I'm doing, or to gradually shift into being my own boss. And it's not necessarily a comfortable shift. We might be being forced to make those decisions, but…

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The Midlife Mentors: you know, as entrepreneurs ourself, there are massive lows, don't get me wrong, but there are huge… I would never change it for the world. Being, you know, being an entrepreneur.

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The Midlife Mentors: It's great! It really, really is great, because you get to… yeah, you get to kind of steer your own ship, you get to do something that really means something to you, is meaningful, that's purposeful. So yeah, I just wanted to throw that in there, because I think that's quite…

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The Midlife Mentors: I think that's quite interesting and very exciting again. It's like, 50 isn't the age that you just start sliding downhill. Actually, 50's the age when you start becoming an entrepreneur and doing something with your life that you really, really passionately want to do. Well, I think both individuals and companies are waking up to the idea of this kind of portfolio career. It's like, oh, maybe we don't want to employ a 55, 56-year-old full-time in a role, but could they be a fractional role?

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The Midlife Mentors: And we're seeing people, like myself, right? I wear several hats. You do. So, and it's really exciting to do. It keeps you really engaged, and I think companies are waking up to that. It's like, we can have a fractional CMO, we can have a fractional finance officer, but they're bringing loads of experience with them, they're getting real value for them.

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The Midlife Mentors: Well, that's something, sorry, it's something that I'm doing as well. I was like, oh, yeah, you are. Well, I do two days a week for my church as well, and, like, that's something that has brought, lots and lots of, not just because of the job, because I love it, but also because wearing those different hats, if you are people like James and I, you do really like, well, people, you like, variety, it keeps you switched on, actually, so…

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The Midlife Mentors: I do feel that there's going to be more of a move anyway to that portfolio career thing, and us 50 plus, well, I'm not there yet, need to embrace it. Well, I was about to do some cheerleading for Gen X, actually. I think we are, as a generation, uniquely placed. If we think back to our boomer parents, you know, there were technological advancements, but certainly, you know, when my father left his job retired.

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The Midlife Mentors: I don't… email or the internet was maybe only just starting, and suddenly, like, companies weren't using it when our parents retired. They had a very stable career trajectory with, yes, there were geopolitical events, but in terms of tech disruption.

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The Midlife Mentors: Not that much.

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The Midlife Mentors: The generation below us, millennials, they were born into a tech world, you know, they're anchored to their devices, but Gen X, we've had to navigate it all. We've had to, you know, get our music collection on vinyl, bin it, buy CDs, bin it, buy mini-discs, move to MP3s, bin our, little… remember those little iPhone players? And now it's all on our phone and streaming services. Just one example, we were born into a world with the Cold War, we lived the fear of the Cold War.

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The Midlife Mentors: Berlin Wall came down, the world was suddenly free, 9-11, suddenly loads of parts of the world are off-limits again. At the same time, we've had the internet disrupting, disrupting, now AI. So we're probably the generation that's coped with the biggest amount of changes. It made us extremely resilient… I was gonna use that word. And good to cope with change, which I think is a really useful skill to have

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The Midlife Mentors: If you want this portfolio career, and also for companies to go, well, hey, these people are super adaptable and capable.

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The Midlife Mentors: We're also very creative.

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The Midlife Mentors: Right? I know I can… I don't know whether we all were. I think James and I probably think we were super creative, because we were… I suppose those creative industries, James was… I suppose this is a creative, but journalism, I was PR, there was events, there was comms, and there was… there was music, it felt very creative.

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The Midlife Mentors: back in the day when we went out into the world of work, and I think that creativity, and absolutely, I was going to use that, that word resilience really popped into my head as James was speaking. You have to be flexible, adaptable, and that's made us really resilient. So.

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The Midlife Mentors: I'm just… I'm excited for you guys that are listening to this, going, oh, you know, I might not very… much… if you are thinking this, please don't. But you might be thinking, oh, you know, I haven't got very much to give, you know, I'm just a bit over the hill, who would want me? I'm like, oh my goodness, you've got so much to give, so many skills that actually other generations don't have.

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The Midlife Mentors: Mmm.

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The Midlife Mentors: So, what's next? What's next in midlife, or what's missing currently? Well, the starting point for this was talking about how menopause, I think, opened the conversation, it's been the gateway in, but where we're still behind, of course, is what about men?

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The Midlife Mentors: you know, the andropause is still not a term most people recognize, most men and women aren't aware of the impact of low testosterone, how that shows up for men, but I think

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The Midlife Mentors: certainly that conversation is changing. I'm getting asked about it more and more and more, and doing more and more work with organizations around it to understand it, understand the impact on their leadership teams, on their male workforces, and what they can do.

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The Midlife Mentors: to help support them better. So, I think that… that's coming, and then I think after that, it's gonna be a broader conversation, as we said. It's like, well, what's the midlife experience

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The Midlife Mentors: you know.

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The Midlife Mentors: outside of those gender identities, what is it? What do we want to get from it? How do we get more fulfillment? How do we make sure we're aligned with our values? Yeah. Which is the stuff we really love. Yeah, and I think one of the things I really want to champion James about is…

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The Midlife Mentors: is going into a space that is difficult. You know, that andropause conversation, there have been… particularly by female journalists, by the way, I hope this is changing, but actually, I haven't really seen much change.

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The Midlife Mentors: But a few years ago, when he was talking about this, female journalists actually slammed viciously, and I mean viciously, slammed the door in his face.

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The Midlife Mentors: Obviously, online. But they were just so, so rude, and it just, just fired me up to, like, encourage James to do it even more, because I'm like.

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The Midlife Mentors: If that's the attitude of some female journalists, that needs to change. And they have a duty of care to talk about this, but also, there are women out there that want to know what's going on for their men, and they are not serving anyone by not having this conversation. So, if you are a female journalist listening to this, if you know any female journalists, I know that you should be having this conversation about men and their experience

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The Midlife Mentors: of Midlife. Instead of putting… it's not pitching andropause against menopause. They're two very different experiences, but we should be coming together. Men and women are better together. There's a unity that needs to… when we're dividing, or constantly, the world is divided enough.

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The Midlife Mentors: So why can't we just bring these experiences we're both having at midlife together, so people are happier in their relationships, in their working environments?

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The Midlife Mentors: And one of the things I also want to say is, James, you might not know this, but if you…

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The Midlife Mentors: I want James to come in and speak at your work about this, or you're just interested in having a conversation with James about this. Here, this is my PR hat going on. But he's got a website. Tell everyone your website that actually completely focuses on andropause. It is jamespdavis, D-A-V-I-S dot com. jamespdavis.com. Yeah.

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The Midlife Mentors: Exactly, and you've actually had people reach out to you because of that website now, just by googling it, so you know it's getting… andropause is getting more traction. So that's my big plug for my amazing husband. Yeah, so I think it… I think… I think it'll be… that we will see a focus on men's midlife next, alongside the existing menopause, and then I think we're going to look at it in a different way. I think it'll be like, oh, they're different journeys in the same season of life.

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The Midlife Mentors: let's stop treating it as this individuated thing, and see it as a shared one. How do we all come together and explore and get the most from this midlife experience? Which moves on to our book.

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The Midlife Mentors: Yes.

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The Midlife Mentors: Which you'll hear more about in the coming weeks, as we… as we finish it. So, I mean, I think that was just our take, that there's been, you know, quite a few stories recently about… about midlife, everything ranging from… from work policy, NHS guidelines, to festivals, and we think it's really, really exciting, and it just makes us smile, you know, when we do think back to…

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The Midlife Mentors: 2019, and people going, don't use the word midlife, no one likes that.

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The Midlife Mentors: Yeah, yeah, I know there has… But let us know, do you like the term Midlife? Do you like to think you're not midlife?

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The Midlife Mentors: Yeah, let us know, that's a really good question. Please let us know. I'm proudly midlife, I love it. I am as well, I love it! I do… I think that's what I felt in 2019. I was like, I… I don't see there's any shame or rejection of…

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The Midlife Mentors: I mean, I found my 20s and 30s absolutely horrendous, to be quite honest with you. They were full of ups and downs, and I think that wisdom that comes about, as you get to know yourself better, your 40s, for me.

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The Midlife Mentors: I've just… I've really loved them. Yes, they have been full of ups and downs as well, but I think just stepping into a more grounded version of myself, that's what it's all about. So, yeah, I… I gladly open the doors to my 40s and into my 50s. I really do, I really do. But yeah, I feel like this is just chapter…

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The Midlife Mentors: Chapter 1, really, I feel like we are stepping into more, conversations about midlife generally, midlife men, relationships, all that kind of

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The Midlife Mentors: Staff.

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The Midlife Mentors: Yeah. I'm just gonna actually throw something in here as well. So, I've had the idea, I'm starting, I only push it really on LinkedIn now, because that's my main platform, but I just thought, I think there's a lot of men could still do with some…

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The Midlife Mentors: Support.

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The Midlife Mentors: who maybe don't feel comfortable reaching out or showing up, so I'm gonna do, once a month, the last Thursday of the month, I'm gonna do this thing called the second half session.

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The Midlife Mentors: it's gonna be me, on a Thursday morning. I'll spend, like, 8 to 10 minutes only, like, framing some psychological aspect of midlife, and the tools we can use around it, and then just open Q&A for anything. So, go find me on LinkedIn, James Davis. I'll put the link in the show notes as well, actually. Yeah, connect with me, and then sign up for that. Are you going to do that live on LinkedIn or on Zoom? No, I'm gonna do it on Zoom, because I don't know how to do it live on LinkedIn.

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The Midlife Mentors: There we are. I'm honest. Well, yeah, and also the faff of linking it all up. Oh, yeah, you have to do all kinds of integrations. We're faff-free these days. It'll be on Zoom, it'll be a nice, like, small group of like-minded people.

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The Midlife Mentors: you'll learn something valuable. It's free, I'm not trying to sell you anything. I'm just there to basically get some guys together who want to move forward in life.

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The Midlife Mentors: And provide that support and that network for them. It sounds amazing! So, just a closing question. I know we've kind of asked this throughout, peppered throughout, but do you think we're witnessing a passing moment, or is the start of a genuine midlife movement? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Let us know.

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The Midlife Mentors: That's it. That's it! See you next time! Bye, bye-bye!