Welcome to the Messy Middle - Why we're Unravelling

Welcome to Unravelling the Diary of a Midlife Mess—the podcast for women who feel like they were handed midlife with no manual, no warning, and chin hairs that appeared overnight. 

One day you’re navigating the school calendars and career growth, and the next, you’re wondering who the woman in the mirror even is. 

Each day feels like a Midlife Lucky Dip, where you’re unsure if you’ll meet your confident queen or your emotional wreck, if this is you... You're in good company.

In this first episode, I share my own messy midlife unravelling. From closing businesses to questioning my identity as a wife, mum, mentor and businesswoman, it’s been a wild ride. 
But through it all, journaling became my lifeline—helping me untangle the mess and start asking better questions.

So if you’re ready to stop trying to hold it all together and start pulling at the threads of your own journey, this is the place for you. 

Hit follow or subscribe, and let’s unravel together.

Want a beautiful one-page companion to this episode?
 Grab the free Midlife Clarity Map with reflective prompts that pair with the whole series.
 

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Unravelling the Diary of a Midlife Mess. If something resonated with you today, I’d love to hear your thoughts, come join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram @themessymiddlelife or visit https://sharonwilkesburt.com/ for more resources and support.

Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review if you’re enjoying the journey so far! If you're ready to dig a little deeper into your own midlife transformation, check out my Journal through the Messy Middle course , it’s the perfect way to start untangling what’s next.

• Join me inside Journal Through the Messy Middle — a self-paced course to help you get clear, feel more like you again, and find solid ground in the wobbly bits of midlife.

👉 Journal Through The Messy Middle

• Want a gentle nudge each week to keep going? Come hang out in the Prompt Club - Monthly themes, weekly journaling prompts, and a live Journal Circle call to help you reflect, reset, and reconnect.

👉 Messy Middle Prompt Club

You’re not too late, too much, or too lost. This is just the middle ...and there’s gold in here.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Unravelling the diary of a midlife mess… 

A podcast for women who feel like they landed in this season unprepared, uninformed and frankly bloody annoyed that their eyebrow hairs disapeared overnight… but ironically chin  hairs are thriving,   and  Waking up each morning like a midlife lucky dip’—am I the confident queen, the emotional wreck, or the woman who just wants to run away to a cottage in the woods

My name is Sharon Wilkes-Burt. I am your host—and, let’s be honest—the midlife mess in question. I work mostly in the life coaching space, helping women who feel like they’ve somehow lost themselves along the way.

Midlife can sneak up on you. One minute, you’re young and cool then you’re juggling work, kids, relationships, and all the roles you thought defined you. Then suddenly, the kids are grown, your career feels done but not quite done, and you’re looking in the mirror wondering “Who’s this chick”  and where the hell the old you go 

Maybe you’ve swapped school drop-offs for caring for ageing parents, or you’ve ticked all the expected life boxes—career, family, mortgage—and now you’re left asking, What’s next?

And while you’re trying to figure that out, society is out here acting like women over 40 should just fade into the background. Like we’ve somehow hit an expiry date on being relevant, attractive, or ambitious. 

And let’s not even get started on the hormonal rollercoaster that makes you feel like a stranger in your own body—one minute you’re fine, the next you’re crying because you can’t remember your own email password.

So, this is the space where we talk about all of it—identity shifts, self-worth wobbles, and how to start treating ourselves with the same kindness and care we’ve spent years giving to everyone else. Because midlife isn’t the end of the story—it’s the plot twist where you finally start putting yourself first

"Before I became a qualified life coach, I spent over 30 years as a hair and makeup artist. And here’s the thing—with being up close and personal with thousands of women…

You get to listen to their stories, hear the often terrible things they say about themselves that they’d never say to another woman. You hear their secrets, their lies and have a front row seat to their meltdowns. 

Thanks to my career, I was honing emotional intelligence long before I ever had a certificate to prove it. Empathy, client care, reading between the lines, and knowing when someone needs encouragement—or just a quiet, safe space to breathe—are second nature to women in the hair and beauty industry. 

Yet, these skills, though abundant, often go unrecognised.

"Over time, I realised that what I loved most wasn’t just the transformation on the outside—it was seeing women light up when they felt seen, heard, and understood.  And I know that from talking to very many women in this season navigating the joys of menopause that when we start talking on issues such as brain fog, HRT, hair loss, itchy skin, insomnia and we all start nodding that there is so much power in being understood.

 My own unravelling started in 2020, pulling me down a path where I took all those years of ‘unofficial’ coaching and finally made it official.”

Like millions of others  in 2020, I was labelled a non-essential worker—left at home to bake banana bread and gain weight.” 

At some point during this time I became aware of how much of my self worth was wrapped up in my job, my role, my identity as a business owner, hairstylist, make up artist, educator and without those and the weekly platitudes that came from happy clients…. Who was I?

This question had me pulling at a thread that led to 5yrs of unravelling… that looked like walking away from a 30yr career, closing not one but two successful business,  dealing with the fallout of failed relationships, parenting adults and caring for parents… and all the time… having no idea who the woman in the mirror was!

And the thing that got me through it? Journaling. Writing my way through the mess—day after day, page after page. Which is why this podcast is called Unravelling the Diary of a Midlife Mess. Because if there's one thing I've learned, it's that writing things down—venting, questioning, untangling—can be a lifeline when everything feels like it's coming undone.

What can you expect from this series? 

Over the next five episodes, I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned (and what I’m still figuring out) about identity, confidence, and self-kindness in this messy midlife season.

There’ll be stories from my own unravelling, the kind of questions that get you thinking, and plenty of honest conversations about what happens when you finally stop trying to hold it all together and start pulling at the threads instead.

Because midlife isn’t about having all the answers — it’s about learning to ask better questions.

"So, if you’re ready to unravel the old stories and start figuring out what comes next, you’re in the right place. I’d love for you to join me on this journey—“…Where I face up to my own imposter syndrome  that’s yelling …( like who the hell are you to do a podcast) The weirdness of talking to myself - because seriously give me a face to chat to and I’m away, and the discomfort of putting it out in the world. 

hit follow or subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, and if something in today’s chat resonates, I’d love to hear from you. Let’s get stuck into this beautiful, messy, midlife conversation.