If you'd looked at my life from the outside, you probably wouldn't have guessed anything was wrong. I'd built businesses, raised a family and was confident, opinionated and never shied away from tackling the difficult situations that every business faces.
Yet, in the quiet of the night, when it came to making decisions about my own future, I found myself in a constant state of indecision. Deep down, I knew I couldn't carry on as I was. I was exhausted, often emotional in private, overwhelmed by the daily demands of holding everything together, yet unable to admit to myself—let alone anyone else—that something had to change.
For another six years, I stayed in that uncomfortable place. The irony is that it became comfortable because it meant I didn't have to ask myself the difficult questions. I carried on doing what I'd always done: looking after everyone else, staying strong and convincing myself that I'd work it out eventually - when I had time.
Deep down, though, I knew there was one question I couldn't avoid forever.
What do I really want?
I knew I was the only person who could answer it, but I had no idea where to begin.
A chance coaching conversation
The turning point came completely by chance. A friend asked if I would join a small coaching group she was running because she needed another person. I didn't really know what coaching was, but I agreed to help her out.
I often say those two hours changed my life, but not because I walked away with all the answers. They changed my life because, for the first time in years, I gave myself permission to stop and think about me.
I found myself in a space where I felt safe enough to be really honest with myself. There was no judgement, no pressure to come up with a solution, just time to think about where I was and what I wanted from the years ahead.
That experience became the start of something much bigger. It helped me recognise the value of everything life had taught me and to see my years of experience through a completely different lens. I continued working with a coach and, over the months that followed, my assumptions were challenged, my beliefs tested and, little by little, I began to see a future I hadn't allowed myself to imagine before.
For the first time, I started thinking seriously about my later years. Not with fear or uncertainty, but with curiosity. What did I want this next stage of life to look like? And if these really could become some of the best years of my life, what needed to change for that to happen?.
Sometimes we don't need someone to tell us what to do. Sometimes we simply need the space to hear ourselves think.
Discovering a different future
As I reflected on everything I'd experienced over the previous forty years, I started to see my life differently. I'd started my first business as a single parent when my daughter was just a few months old. I'd built and sold two businesses before meeting my husband and, together, we spent the next 25 years building a successful online retail business and a digital agency. Along the way I'd led people, managed huge technology changes, navigated through the 2008 global economic uncertainty and experienced both the highs and the inevitable challenges that come with running a business. Yet I'd never really stopped to think about what came next when it felt like time to exit the business.
Slowing down was never part of the plan. Until, at 57, I reached a point where I could hardly get out of bed. I dreaded the day ahead, not because I couldn't do the work, but because I no longer enjoyed it. I was exhausted, and what had once given me energy and purpose had become something I simply endured. I started questioning myself in ways I never had before. Had I lost my drive? Was I simply getting older? Was this just what happened at this stage of life?
Surrounded by colleagues in their twenties and thirties, it was easy to convince myself that perhaps I'd had my time. But coaching helped me see things differently. For years I'd thought ageing was something to manage. Instead, I began to realise it had given me something incredibly valuable.
- Experience.
- Perspective.
- Resilience.
- Wisdom.
It was through coaching that I realised I didn't have to choose between everything I'd achieved and everything I still wanted. I could step back from my role in the business and channel everything I'd learned into something I'd been doing for years without ever recognising it.
- I loved coaching.
- I loved mentoring.
- I loved helping people think differently about themselves and what was possible.
For the first time, I could see a future that genuinely excited me. I wanted this next stage of my life to be about something that truly mattered. I wanted to wake up each morning with a sense of purpose, knowing I was using everything I'd learned to make a difference to anyone who, like me, had spent years building careers, businesses and families and had reached a point where something no longer felt quite right, even if they couldn't yet explain why. That decision led me to retrain as an Executive Coach at Henley Business School. Henley gave me the coaching framework. Life had already given me the experience.
That was the beginning of ProAge.
Why I do what I do
Today, I have the privilege of working with senior professionals, leaders and business owners across the UK and internationally. From London to Madrid and Copenhagen, I've discovered that careers, industries and cultures may be different, but the conversations are remarkably similar.
The women (and sometimes men) I work with have spent years building careers, businesses and families. They often reach a point where they begin to question what they want next. Not because they're unhappy, and not because they've failed, but because they've changed.
They want to feel excited about the future again. They want more clarity, confidence and a stronger sense of purpose. Most of all, they want permission to think about themselves without feeling guilty for doing so.
That's why I created ProAge.
The PROAGE Clarity Framework™
Over time, I began to see the same patterns emerging, both in my own journey and in the women I coached. Those patterns became the foundation of the PROAGE Clarity Framework™—a practical coaching framework built on the belief that the years leading to and beyond traditional retirement aren't about winding down. They're about creating the freedom to choose how you want to use everything you've learned.
For previous generations, this stage of life often marked the beginning of retirement. Today, many women aren't ready to stop contributing, they simply want to contribute differently. They want to use their experience, wisdom and perspective in ways that feel more meaningful, purposeful and aligned with who they've become.
The PROAGE Clarity Framework™ helps women Pause, Awaken and Evolve. It creates the time and space to step out of autopilot, reconnect with what matters most and confidently shape what's next on their own terms. Because I don't believe meaningful change comes from reinventing yourself. I believe it comes from recognising the value of the person you've already become.
Ageing has undoubtedly brought challenges into my life, but it has also brought perspective, confidence and purpose. That's why I believe growing older isn't about becoming less.
It's about becoming more of who we already are.
