TIme of Your Life

Meredith's client tried to kill her, but how did she move on from that place to reinvent her life, master the fear of the everyday and end up in a place where she now mentors midlife women? Listen in to what I think is one of the most interesting interviews I've done, with a woman who tells us what the midlife crisis is really about

Finnish-born international skincare expert, makeup artist, and beauty director Riku Campo has worked as a makeup artist since 1988 and has lived in the United States since 2003. His work has been featured in major fashion and beauty magazines and ad campaigns for L’Oreal, Neiman Marcus, Saks, Smashbox, Guess, and others, and he has worked with some of Hollywood’s most renowned actresses. Riku is passionate about showing the beauty of many different women by highlighting their own personal style. Instead of following strict rules, he believes in using makeup to bring out joy and confidence and in this podcast he tells us exactly what to use, how to create a great lip look, why skincare is so important and how all women over forty can look amazing with just a few products.

This amazing woman is Michele Paradise. Michele Paradise is an international speaker and personal development coach on Deepak Chopra's digital wellness platform Jiyo. She has 20 years experience working with people from all walks of life who want to make changes in their lives but are still stuck after trying every other option. She works quickly and thoroughly to get the results you want and need so that you can move forward with your life. Before she began helping people to make profound and lasting changes in their lives she was an international runway model and you may be wondering how she made such an extreme life change. When Michele was a model she suffered from anorexia nervosa and there were very few people around who knew how to help her and many of her colleagues were also suffering, so she embarked on a journey to figure out what she could do to free herself from the 'monkey on her back'. She was always interested in human behavior and at that moment realized that she wanted to help others get the 'monkey off their back'. After years of studying several methodologies such as NLP, Hypnotherapy and Havening Techniques, she had the tools to make a difference in people's lives with issues around weight, anxiety, trauma and most importantly their relationships with themselves because that's where it all begins. In this show we talk about the menopause, our relationship with ourselves and how we can use this to create better relationships with those around us. It's a fantastic show (if I say so myself) so listen in HERE Contact Michele at: info@changeyourmindforgood.com www.micheleparadise.com YouTube: michpara

In this podcast I talk to Amy Schmidt. Amy is also a podcaster, author, public speaker, blogger, Founder and CEO of Fearlessly Facing Fifty. Her mission is to empower and encourage women over forty to go all in and not lose their identity or become invisible. Her family has moved many times over the years for her husband’s career and she was the CEO of home and family. Now it’s her time, and she’s written her book Cannonball, available on Amazon, which came out in June this year. In this programme we talk about why we both want to help women in midlife embrace the next two decades of their life fully, our own experiences of midlife and Amy's key mission to help midlife women let go of fear and fulfil their dreams now. Amy can be found at www.fearlesslyfacingfifty.com and her book Cannonball, is out on Amazon now.

Judy Schoenberg and Linda Lautenberg are co founders of EvolveMe, a company that helps midlife women transform and reinvent their careers. Linda returned to work after an eighteen year break and Judy pivoted her career in midlife so they brought two different stories to their work. Both found the process isolating and so created EvolveMe to ensure that the help was there for other women wanting to do the same. This show explores the challenges that face midlife women either changing career during these years or returning to work but also the solution that these two amazing ladies have found. I love their work and hope you do too. www.evolveme.work

Severine Menem is a registered Nutritional Therapist and Health Coach for women over 40 struggling with weight loss and menopause symptoms. She is also a Menopause Trainer for Financial Services organisations looking to establish menopause initiatives designed to support their female talents going through the menopause. In this podcast we talk about how miraculous food can be in helping defeat the symptoms of menopause, how it sets women up for later life and exactly what makes the perfect menopause diet. www.severinemenem.com

Our October box is packed with products from one of my favourite brands, Code Beautiful. In this podcast co-founder Sarah Cross talks us through each product in the box, how she created it and why it is the ultimate in class. Sarah talks about finding recyclable components, ultimate colours and perfect products for you and me to get our make up done fast and still look fantastic!

David Lieber has been involved in health, beauty and wellbeing his whole life. This passion led him to own and run health clubs, gyms and spas where he was at the forefront of creating wholly holistic experiences for his clients. David transformed the French aromatherapy skincare brand Decléor and helped build it into the global brand it is today but it is the distillation of this integrity, dedication and knowledge, which is poured into every drop of Slow Ageing Essentials. In this podcast we talk about his career in beauty, his beliefs on living well and self care plus creams for “celluleeet”, as they call it in France!

Tina Malhamé has journeyed far and wide in her career as a clothes designer. Tina was named by the high street guru, George Davies, as the most prolific designer on the High Street. A career spanning many years she has designed collections for well-known stores, Next, Monsoon, Laura Ashley, Anokhi, Daniel Hechter in Paris, Per Una and more. This success brought countless awards for design, including the Christian Lacroix Award for International Linen Design. In this programme we talk about how she got started, how she juggles life, her work with Terence Conran and George Davis before setting up her own business www.nologo-chic.co.uk. These days, Tina creates beautiful designs that are perfect for midlife women, but she's also fascinating and I think you'll love her.

In the final part of my series on Age Gap Friendships Carol and I talk about her time abroad as a teenager, her training as a nurse at Barts and reconciling with an estranged daughter in her hospice. I hope you find her testimony as moving as I did and I hope that this encourages you to explore your own age gap friendships - they are one of the most rewarding types you can have.

In the second of my two programmes on age gap friendship I interview my friend Carol, who is seventy three years old to my fifty seven. She talks about her time as a nurse at St Barts in London, moving to the USA on an exchange programme in her teenage years and what life has taught her. While Nancy is at the stage in her life where it’s all before her and all to play for, Carol has reached the stage where she is in a hospice. Whereas with Nancy, I talked about how are relationship compares to that she has with her mum, this programme talks about how Carol’s conversations with me differ from those she has with her daughter and how midlife women connect the generations.

Back in 2019, before “furloughed” was even a word, I wanted to write a book called 20/20. The idea being that the more I look at life, the more I think it important that every woman (frankly every man as well) should have one friend that is twenty years older and one that is twenty years younger. 2020 put paid to publishing that book as so many other issues seemed far more important, not least of which our individual health, but I wanted to revisit this subject. Of course, we have relatives with these age gaps, but it’s not the same as a friend and we can learn so much that helps our other relationships from our 20/20 friends. In this first programme of two, I interview my friend Nancy, now twenty three. We talk about why we are friends, her life, what influences her and how we have mutually influenced each other. We also talk about how she should marry one of my sons but that’s a different thing all together! Age gap friendships are the key to spanning the generations and how midlife women pull it all together.

Karen Ruimy is a multi-disciplinarian in the truest sense of the word. Born in Morocco and raised in Paris, she spent eight years working in the finance industry until, at the age of 28, she experienced the spiritual awakening which prompted her to trade it all in. She has been devoted to her soul’s calling ever since – and that trajectory has carried her through spiritual healing, writing, dance, music and philanthropy. It’s an unusual trajectory, but an organic and authentic one, underpinned by a passionate pursuit of self-discovery and wellbeing. Now, as the founder of Kalmar, Karen has created a holistic wellbeing experience which allows others to access some of what she has made her life’s work, realigning the mind, body and soul through energy and intention-setting, allowing every individual to move forward on their own unique journey to wellbeing. In this programme we talk about how her career in finance wasn't making her happy, how everyone - including her parents - thought she was mad to walk away from it and how you recreate the feeling of joy in a fragrance. Karen is a real free spirit in the beauty world and her new innovations of sprays for yoga mats and more will surely be one of the huge successes in years to come.

Rebecca Hopkins has always been passionate about British beauty and started making her own products with her sister Clare after spotting a gap in the market for natural skincare that delivered true results. Fifteen years on, their commitment to beauty that works naturally remains the same and Balance Me has grown into an international brand with over 65 industry awards and a cult following of beauty editors and celebrities. In this podcast we explore how she got started, the midnight drive (when eight months pregnant) to rescue stock for a John Lewis order and how roses remind her of her parents and home.

Lucy Tucker has been in the nail industry for over 25 years with her passion and creativity second to none, she remains highly regarded in the industry and a major Instagram nail star. Over the last 2 decades, Lucy has gained a vast amount of celebrity clients these include Julianne Moore, Rita Ora, Cate Blanchett, Gal Gadot, Anne Hathaway, Olivia Coleman and Lucy was the manicurist on The Spice Girls tour last summer. In this show we talk about how she became a celebrity nail technician, simple nail art for you to try at home, the fact that we’ve both worked with OPI and the latest Chanel nail colours – it’s pure beauty from and expert.

Scott Hutchison-McDade is the founder and visionary behind Wellbeing Radio That's it, that's all he gave me as background on him which must be about as Zen Buddhist as you can get, but this programme probes why he started Wellbeing Radio, what he wants it to achieve, who his favourite broadcaster is (I'm just saying, she's really, really good) and why he's now crowdfunding to expand. In short, if you fancy getting involved with Wellbeing Radio with a donation to Wellbeing Radio's Crowdfunding, then this programme gives you a little insight, beyond your favourite programmes, as to what we're all about.

Helena Biggs began her career at Scratch magazine in 2009 and holds the position of commercial editor, overseeing all editorial in the UK office and masterfully established the Scratch Stars Awards as the nail event of the year. As a highly regarded nail and beauty journalist, Helena has appeared on TV shows such as Sunday Brunch and ITV’s Daybreak and June 2013 saw Helena’s first book, Nail Art: Inspiring designs by the world’s leading nail technicians sold over 100,000 copies in the first six weeks. Named a finalist in the B2B Beauty Journalist of the Year category in the Fashion & Beauty Monitor Awards 2014 and again in 2015, Helena’s unwavering enthusiasm for the industry is infectious. In this programme we talk about how the woman with the longest nails in the USA uses the bathroom, the benefits of cuticle oil, how nail salons intend to reopen and your top colours for 2020 - it's all about beauty this week!

Zoe Oughton is an expert reflexologist, but was in corporate travel before taking up this career. Her own experience as a reflexology client was so impressive that she switched careers but extended her learning into relexology for fertility, maternity and hand reflexology. In this show we talk about how reflexology helps midlife women with the menopause, anxiety, stress and coming out of lockdown. Zoe’s practice covers Manchester and Cheshire. www.relaxingreflexology.com

Jane Scrivner is an expert in organic oil skincare and her incredible range wins awards left right and centre. She is quite happy to say that she created the range for herself, but there's no doubt that it works for so many other women. This podcast explores how she came to launch her own range, what organic means to her and why oil. She is a visionary in modern skincare and I hope you love her as much as I do.

Fay Afghahi started her career in beauty at Elizabeth Arden, but that wasn’t going to be where she stayed. In short, Fay had a meteoric career becoming Managing Editor of Elle magazine Arabia before she gave it all up to start her own brand, Kerahealth. Fay’s passion is hair loss in women (men too) as she knows how that feels and how it impacts mental health and wellbeing at any age. In this programme we explore how she got to hair loss, an unsexy end of the beauty market, but an area that is just so impactful for so many women, particularly in midlife. Fay talks candidly about her own struggles with thin hair and why this is so important to bring into everyday discussions. www.kerahealth.com