40ish & Figuring It Out
40ish & Figuring It Out is a real, funny, and refreshingly honest podcast about life in your 40s — the messy middle where you’re too old for drama but too young to retire.
Host Katie Koelliker dives into the chaos of midlife with humor and heart — from hormones and parenting to purpose and personal growth. No filters, just real talk, relatable stories, and a few laugh-until-you-cry moments along the way.
If you’re somewhere between “I’ve got this” and “What the heck am I doing?” — this podcast is your new safe space.
✨ Because no one has it all figured out… but we’re doing pretty damn well for forty-ish.
40ish & Figuring It Out
Forty And Unfinished
If you grew up thinking 40 would come with matching containers and a neat life plan, you’re in good company. We’re kicking off a fresh season of honest, funny, and deeply human conversations about what it really means to be 40-ish: reinventing without apology, parenting through chaos, and choosing progress over perfection. I share the wake-up that came with turning 40 and the decision to create a space where we get to be beginners again, build confidence in small steps, and decide who we want to be now.
Across the episode, we map out the show’s rhythm—three drops a week blending intimate solo updates, interviews with women who’ve rebuilt careers and passions, and a Friday pop culture segment. You’ll hear why the Victoria Beckham documentary is our first breakdown: it’s a smart lens on public identity, private resilience, and the cost of performing for everyone else. We’ll explore identity shifts after 30 and 40, friendships in midlife, parenting teens and toddlers, starting over on purpose, and becoming someone you actually like.
The heartbeat here is permission. You don’t need your life figured out by 40, or ever, to live it well. I talk about my own perfectionism—wanting to be great on day one at podcasting or even embroidery—and the choice to swap pressure for play. Expect real life, real story, humor, growth, and a whole lot of grace. If you’re feeling behind, unseen, or simply ready for a reset, you’re in the right place.
Hit follow, share this with a friend who’s also navigating the in-between, and tell me: what are you still figuring out? Your voice shapes this community. Leave a review, send a DM on Instagram at 40-ish podcast, and let’s build this season together.
Follow me on Instagram @40ishpodcast
Okay, to be honest, did anyone else grow up thinking that turning 40 meant you'd finally have your life together? Because I really did. I thought a 40-year-old me would be graceful, organized, probably allergic to chaos, and definitely owning at least one matching Tupperware set. Instead, I'm still figuring out why I walked into this room five seconds ago. So if you're somewhere in that beautiful space between I'm grown and Am I really, you're exactly where you're meant to be. And this podcast is for you. And if you're listening to this on launch day, newly 40-year-old who somehow keeps discovering that life doesn't follow the timeline that we thought it would. And honestly, that's really the best part. This podcast is for anyone navigating a new season, reinventing themselves, parenting teens or toddlers, rebuilding confidence, starting things later in life, or just trying to enjoy the ride instead of perfecting it. We don't do pressure here, we do real life, real story, humor, growth, and a whole lot of grace. So let me tell you a little bit of about how I even got here. So coming up on 40 hit me in a way I did not expect. Not in a crisis way. It was more a wake-up kind of way. Like, oh, I finally get to decide who I want to be now. My entire adult life has been built around being married, parenting, supporting my kids, coaching, working, organizing my family like it's a full-time logistics department. And somewhere in the middle of all that, I realized I hadn't checked in with me in a really long time. I thought by 40 I'd be more settled. Instead, I'm starting to expand. Questioning things, trying new things, letting go of old versions of me, and learning how to take up space again. And honestly, starting this podcast was part of that shift. Choosing something that's just for me and letting it grow into something for all of us. Here's what you can expect from 40-ish and figuring it out. Honest conversations about midlife, whether that's personal stories or health stories, letting go of perfection, navigating identity changes, whatever that may look like for you or others that you're listening to. Parenting big kids, which I know a lot of us in this season of life could be parenting teenagers, some people are parenting toddlers, and some people are parenting their parents. So it really varies, and sometimes we're doing all three. Rebuilding confidence, pivoting careers or passions, which is something I know many of us have done. Several of the people that you'll be hearing from have done this. Feeling behind, which I know I totally do, feeling unseen, and feeling empowered again. Some episodes will be solo, just you and me. Some episodes will be interviews with women who have reinvented themselves, coaches, creators, experts, moms, and people with stories that remind us we're not alone. And yes, I'll sprinkle a little bit of my soccer life in there because that's a huge part of who I am. But this show is really about the human side of the journey, not the sport. I'm trying to do three episodes a week. So one episode will most likely be an interview, and the other two will be solo episodes of me. One will be kind of a real life update type of a thing, um, talking about any topics going on in life, health, different things, then interviews, and then um I'm gonna be doing Friday episodes that'll be a little bit more pop culture related, maybe breaking down anything. So, what am I into right now? For the first set of those, I'm gonna be breaking down episode by episode the Victoria Beckham documentary that's on Netflix. So I really enjoyed that and I feel like it really relates to this season of life, and so I'm gonna be breaking that down episode by episode. So if you haven't watched it, go watch it and hear my takes on it, or maybe wait to hear my takes on it and see if you think it's worth the watch. But I I definitely liked it. So, what's at the heart of all of this? It's simple. You don't have to have your life figured out by 40, or ever really. I mean, honestly. We all keep growing and we all keep learning. If somebody has it figured out by now, they need to share the secret sauce, but I'm pretty sure nobody has it figured out. We may act like we do, but we definitely don't. We don't graduate from growing, we don't age out of learning who we are, and we don't need to apologize for changing. I hope this podcast becomes a place where you feel seen and a reminder that reinvention is allowed at any age. Here's a little sneak peek of what's coming up this season. Identity shifts after 30 and 40, how to stop performing for everyone else, building confidence again, friendships in midlife, parenting through chaos, starting over on purpose, becoming someone you actually like, interview episodes with women who are rebuilding, reinventing, and thriving. Plus a lot of surprises. Like I said, there's gonna be solo episodes with me, plus all the interviews. So it's gonna be a fun time. If you're listening and thinking, yep, this is exactly the season I'm in, then I would love for you to stick around. Follow the show, share it with friends who are also navigating the in-between, or DM me what you want to hear more about. I know I asked some of my friends and some of them just had lists and lists and texts of all sorts of information that they wanted to hear about. So I'm really hoping to tackle a lot of those topics. This is a community and you're part of it now. I want to hear from you and be engaged. Follow me on Instagram at 40-ish podcast. We'll be linked in the show notes. And I'm trying to start a discussion page on Facebook if you guys are interested in being able to have a community that we can discuss and talk about. So send me a DM on Instagram if you're interested in joining a discussion page as well. Every episode I'm ending with one question: What are you still figuring out? What are you still processing in life? So for today, here's mine. I'm still figuring out how to let myself be a beginner again. I always feel like I have to be a perfectionist at everything that I do. With podcasting, I feel like everything has to be absolutely perfect. And it's really hard for me to not be a beginner. I mean, it's really hard for me to be a beginner at anything. So trying new things without needing to be perfect at them, choosing play over pressure, and trust that it's okay not to know what's next and still moving forward. So that's something that I'm still trying to figure out and I'm still working on because, like I said, I feel like I have to be an expert at everything that I'm doing. So it's really, really hard for me. And I'm sure that there's a lot of you out there that can totally relate, but that is really how I am with a lot of things. And for those of you that know me personally, you know that's exactly how I am. And if I can't do things perfect right at the beginning, I sometimes I just shut down. So I'm still figuring out how to process through that, be a learner, be a beginner, and not be an expert at everything, you know, within the first days or weeks of trying something. I love embroidery and I do it on and off because I want to be absolutely perfect at every stitch, everything, versus just doing it because it's something that I love to do. So I always get on myself because that is something that I started doing with my mom when I was a tween, and I loved still doing it, the focus of it, the relaxation of it. And anyway, that is just something that I'm still again trying to figure out how to not be perfect at everything. Find me on Facebook or Instagram and let me know what you're still figuring out in this season of life. Thank you so much for spending this first episode with me. And again, if you're listening on launch day, today is my official 40th birthday, November 26th. So here's to a 40 for me, and I'm looking at a great next 10 years. But whether you're 30, 40, 50, or just feeling 40-ish at heart, I'm glad you're here. We'll figure it out together. I'll see you in the next episode. Stay tuned after today's episode for a little surprise, a birthday present from me. 40-ish and Figuring It Out is produced and edited by me, Katie Collicker. Sound mixing, also me. We're a very efficient one-woman show over here. The music for this episode was created using the Suno app. Special thanks to Suno for providing licensed royalty-free music through their platform. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode.
SPEAKER_00:I found a gray hair on my pillow last night. Laughing at the mirror, like who gave you the right? Just join me every glove if I have one baby. I'm still standing and I'm fine from done. Coffee's cold when my fire's burning.