You're Not Done Yet - Welcome to the Movement

If you've been feeling like something in your life is shifting... like everything looks fine on the outside, but something feels different on the inside... this episode is for you. Rachel Perry introduces the Not Done Yet movement, shares her own messy, real midlife reinvention story, and sets the tone for what this podcast is all about: community, courage, and the second act you didn't know you were ready for.

In this episode:

• Why midlife feels so disorienting — and why that's actually a good sign
• The quiet questions so many women are asking: Is this it? When is it my turn?
• Rachel's three major pivots since turning 44 (including leaving a million-dollar partnership)
• Why we dismiss ourselves in midlife — and how to start listening to the nudge instead
• What the Not Done Yet movement is and who it's for

Links & Resources:

• Free Not Done Yet Reset Clarity Guide → rachelaperry.com/notdoneyet
• DM Rachel on Instagram or TikTok → @rachelaperry

Loved this episode? Share it with a midlife friend who needs to hear it. We need this community, and she needs to know she's not done yet either.

Transcript

Why Midlife Feels So Weird

The Quiet Question: Is This It

Leaving Success To Find Alignment

The Nudge Gets Loud At 50

Free Clarity Guide And Community

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Not Done Yet, the podcast for midlife women who know deep down their story isn't finished. I'm your host, Rachel Perry, and here we're going to talk about what's really happening in this season of life: the identity shifts, the quiet questions, the courage it takes to listen to yourself again, what it actually looks like to step into what's next, and why our boobs are hitting our knees. If you've ever looked at your life and thought, wait, is this it? Girl, you're in the right place. Because midlife isn't the end of your story. It's the moment you start paying attention to it. So take a breath and let's talk about what's really going on and what you want to do with it. Because, sister, you are not done yet. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the new podcast, You're Not Done Yet. I am so excited that you are here. I'm so excited to be here. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Rachel Perry, and I have been in the midlife reinvention zone for the past, gosh, six years. I turned 51 last week. And I have such a passion for women at this stage of life because it's kind of scary. It's weird. A whole thing happens, right? Like, what the heck is happening? Our bodies are changing, our desires are changing. People don't need us the way they used to need us. And now what? Right. And that's what this podcast is for, or who it's for. This is what this podcast is going to do. Um, it's it's my goal is for us to just connect and build a community. This is a movement, sister. It's called the Not Done Yet Movement. We are not done yet. You know, I have been in business, online business for 13 plus years. And I realized that is not where I'm meant to be right now. Now I can teach you how to build a business 100%. If that's where you are and you, that's what's next for you, I'm your girl. But it's about more than that. So let me start with this. If you've been feeling like something in your life is shifting, like everything looks fine on the outside, but something feels different on the inside, you're not crazy. And you're definitely not alone. And even if everything doesn't look fine on the outside, but something still feels different on the inside, you're in the right place. You know, what I'm learning is you get to this point in midlife where you've done what you were supposed to do. You've built a life. Many of you have raised kids, you've shown up in your roles, and on paper, everything, it looks good, right? Maybe you're in a job and you're just kind of coasting right now, or maybe you're at this point where you're like, well, I I have like nine years left, or I have five years left, or you're just kind of coasting. Or some of you might be in this stage where you're you've had some big things that you've had to walk through and you're sort of in this recovery space. Maybe you're newly divorced, maybe you are recovering from cancer, maybe uh you've lost a parent. The thing is, is internally, when we reach this midlife stage, and I'm saying midlife is like 45 to 60, but girl, listen, if you don't fit into that age bracket and you're here, you're still welcome. But I think what happens is internally something starts to feel off, not wrong, just not the same. And thoughts start creeping in, like, is this it? You know, or is this all there is for me? Or when is it my turn? I heard someone say that. Um, she said, you know, my kids are off at college now, and my my career is just kind of there. But but what about me? Like, when is it my turn? And when we ask ourselves that, like when we're like, you know what, now it's my turn, then we have other questions that come up, such as, well, what does that mean? What does that look like? I have no idea what that means. I have no idea what's next for me, right? And the thing is, is we owe it to ourselves at this stage in our lives to listen to that nudge, to that thought, and to to pursue it, not just let it go. There's so many, we dismiss ourselves in midlife so much. I think maybe because we've been doing it for so long, we because we've, especially in my case, have been raising kids, you know, and my kids are older now. I have a 15-year-old, an almost 18-year-old, and a 19-year-old. And they don't need me the way they used to need me, right? I don't need to drive them everywhere anymore. Um, they don't necessarily want to talk to me about everything anymore. My oldest is at college. He doesn't need me like he needed me. And that's a real shift. It's like, oh, wait a second. It's not like we have tons of time on our hands, but there does there's a shift that happens where it's like, wait a second. So I've actually shifted or pivoted or taken a leap, whatever you want to call it. I've done that about three times in midlife, like since I was 44, y'all. And that's that's big because every single time I pivoted, y'all, I didn't know what I was doing. I really didn't. I didn't know what was next. I just knew that I had this push. I knew that I had this nudge that I couldn't ignore. The first pivot, and probably the biggest pivot, was leaving a million-dollar partnership. I taught women who were in network marketing or MLMs how to party on Facebook. And my business partner and I had the best time. We had the best time doing it. There were wigs involved. And y'all, we made a lot of money and we were very successful. We had the fame, we had the the um, we were trailblazers. It was amazing. But something happened and I realized wait a second, I don't, I don't feel, I'm not, this isn't where I'm meant to be anymore. And it was so hard because it didn't make any sense. It didn't, it made no sense because uh it was a very lucrative business. It was fun. We were helping women build their businesses. It was fun, it was great. I was making good money. We were able to build a freaking screen porch on our on our house and redo our bathrooms. Like life was good. But it's not just about money, is it? It it didn't feel right. I didn't feel aligned anymore. I wasn't content, I wasn't happy. And so I chose to leave the partnership. And that was really, really hard. That was like a divorce. It was like a business divorce. And y'all, I was very, I spun, I spun out for a little while, but I knew that that's not what I wanted to do anymore. And I knew that I wanted to serve women in a different way, but I didn't know how. So I ended up, and I and actually also let me preface it with this. I also decided I didn't want to serve network marketers anymore. I just felt like I was being led to something else. But well, and I took the leap, I left my partnership, and guess what? I ended up serving network marketers again. Not because I well, I don't know. I I it it wasn't that I didn't want to serve them. It's just that I knew that that wasn't where I was meant to go. But I got scared and I didn't really know this other world. And so I fell back on what I did know. And I served some amazing women, and I and I don't think that that was a mistake, but I just I'm sharing this because I want you to know that I've done it messy. I've done it messy, and that's why I'm here is to help you do it a much easier way because it it wasn't easy. It really wasn't easy. I built up a lot of debt. I, you know, did still didn't feel fully content and fully aligned, but I kept going because I was able to serve some amazing women. But then when I turned, I think it was like 48 or 49, I thought, you know what? I'm just still not, I don't really want to teach people how to build their network marketing businesses anymore. This is why I left my partnership. I need to listen to this nudge because the nudge was getting loud. So then what I did is I decided, well, you know what? Network marketers, it was around the time that so many companies were just closing and they weren't giving anyone any warning. And so people were literally losing everything from their network marketing companies because the companies just closed without warning. And these were women who were leaders and who were, they were relying on that income to pay their mortgages, to pay for their kids' schools, to pay for their car payments. And it was hugely demoralizing, terrifying, all the things. And I thought I can't sit by and watch this happen. The network marketing industry is not something that you can rely on anymore. And so I decided that I was going to lean into teaching network marketers how to build a backup plan, how to have something on the side. Well, I did that and I loved it. But something wasn't right and something wasn't connecting. And I think part of it is that oftentimes people who are in network marketing, it's hard to see the other side because that business takes so much of your time. You don't really have time to build something on the side. Okay, because the network marketing business kind of was the side, right? That was the side gig. And for many, that's what's become their full-time job, except they're just not being paid full-time wages. So anyway, when I turned 50, I thought, okay, I this isn't it either. This isn't it. And I felt so ridiculous because I've been trying all these things. It felt like I was throwing spaghetti at the wall, but not just like one or two pieces. I was getting a whole saucepan full of spaghetti. I was throwing at the wall. It was everywhere. And then when I turned 50, I realized, wait a second, this isn't it. This is not it. And I need to follow this nudge. Y'all, it has taken me a full year to figure out where that nudge was taking me. And I had to do a lot of mindset work and a lot of sort of self-discovery. But I realized, and we're going to talk about this in more in upcoming episodes, but I was so concerned about what other people were thinking. I was so focused on getting validation from other people that I wasn't able to see what was right in front of me. And like I said before, this is what I help women in midlife do now, so that they don't have to go through the six years of searching and trying to figure things out. Because here's the thing: one thing I did right is I took the leap. I listened to that nudge and I followed it. And if you have a nudge, I'm going to encourage you, it's time to take that leap because this there's a reason you feel the way that you do. And that moment, that thought, it's not a breakdown. It's not a crisis, it's awareness. You know, I kept thinking I would figure it out. And then I kept ending up somewhere that didn't feel right. And that's okay. The thing is, is I was still making moves. And what happens is that we start to feel like this panic, like, what the heck? What's next for me? But what happens is your life changes, your roles shift, and you finally have space to hear yourself again in this stage of life, right? You are not done yet. You're not done yet. And that feeling that you have, those thoughts that you get, that little nudge that you want something more, or is this it? Or I wonder if, right? Friend, that is not something to ignore. It's something to listen to. And like I said, I listened to my those thoughts and those nudges many times, several times. Um, and it took me a really long time to get to where I am now. You're not gonna have to go through all that muddle that I did, because now I'm gonna show you what to do. So if you relate to this, if this is, if this is you, if you have some nudges, if you're like thoughts, well, you're not thoughts, but if you're having thoughts where you're like, okay, what's next? Is this it? You're in the right place because this is exactly what we're gonna keep unpacking here. I'm so, so happy that you are here. And listen, I have some special things for you. Let's start with the free. If you are in that stage, you're getting those nudges. I have something called not done yet clarity guide. It was called the not done yet reset. So I had to pause there for a second. Basically, this is gonna help you figure out what those thoughts are telling you. It's just a very short, guided audio. It's on a video, but you can listen to it. And it's a little tiny workbook. It's nothing big, but it will help you figure out where you're going and what these thoughts are telling you. So you can just go to rachelaperry.com forward slash not done yet, or you can DM me on Instagram and just say, hey, Rach, I would love that free guide that you've created, the not done yet free guide. So you can DM me or you can just go to rachelaperry.com forward slash not done yet. And I got you, girl. And I'll be back for the next episode of Not Done Yet. What? Isn't that the best title? Because y'all, we are not done yet. Hey, thanks for being here. I'm super excited. Oh, and listen, if you are loving this so far, I would love it if you would share this with some of your midlife friends. Because, sister, we need this. We need this community. We need everyone to know we are not done yet. We are not done yet. And all those questions and the confusion and what the heck is this? And why is my face drooping the way it is? And why are my boobs reaching my knees? Do I need a facelift? All those things, okay? Why am I having a hot flush in the middle of the of the room when I'm at an appointment that happened to me today? I was like, what is happening? Do I need to call my doctor and get more progesterone? Like, I don't know. Sister, this is where we're gonna talk about it all. And I am so happy you're here. Ah, this is gonna be fun, girl.