Her Intentional Reset: Career changes and second acts for women in midlife

Every doctor told Brittany Gieske the exhaustion, the stubborn weight, and the symptoms with no clear cause were just "normal" postpartum life. She didn't believe it — so she found the answers doctors never tested for, then walked away from a ten-year corporate career to make sure other women didn't have to go looking alone.

Brittany is a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner (FDN-P) and founder of The Metabolic Method, where she helps women get past the hormone, metabolism, and gut-health roadblocks that "eat less, move more" can't fix. In this conversation, she walks through what functional weight loss ac...

You're good at your job, you're juggling everything, and somewhere underneath all of it there's a quiet question you haven't answered yet: what do I actually want to do next? The problem isn't that you don't know how to work hard — it's that no one ever taught you how to listen to yourself.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

This week is a replay of one of our favorite conversations as we wrap up our first Her Intentional Reset Experience: The Artist's Way Creative Cluster. Molly shares how The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron kept showing up...

There is a moment when something finally feels like you — not the version that carpools and manages spreadsheets, but the version that has been waiting. Marissa found hers in a color drape. She didn't blow up her life — she built a new one, slowly, intentionally, one client at a time, and she's here to show you exactly how she did it.

ABOUT THIS REPLAY:

This is an encore of Marissa's episode, with a fresh update on where Marissa is now.

ABOUT MARISSA RAY:

Marissa Ray went from dental office manager and self...

Ruby wrote her first book on a dare — an accountant who'd never wanted to write, plotting a love story in her head at the kitchen table. Four books, a number-one release, and an Audible deal later, she'll tell you she still can't believe she did it. What she won't say upfront: she wrote the book that hit number one while going through breast cancer treatment — and did it anyway.

ABOUT THIS REPLAY:

This is an encore of one of our early episodes, with bonus content and a fresh update from Ruby added. After the cold open...

Returning to work after a career break? Here's what stay-at-home moms get told: the years home don't count, you'll come back at a lower title, and you should take whatever salary is offered. Leah Tilstra rejected all three — and walked back into engineering at Abbott with a senior title and a sign-on bonus after twelve years raising four kids.

How did she pull it off? She refused the apologetic part-time re-entry, used one old work relationship to land the right R&D team at Abbott, and walked into salary negotiations with a clear number and the willingness to...

Six months in, Molly has a lot to celebrate — real connections she never expected and a podcast she taught herself from nothing that landed in the top 10% globally within three weeks. But being proud of something you built is exactly why you protect it. So this update is about what comes next: slowing down on purpose, and building a show — and a life — that she can actually sustain.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

In her second solo check-in, Molly shares one joy and one thing she's proud of, then gets honest about what's next for the show. She's...

A midlife career change she didn’t initially choose. Meghan spent years as the operations leader who had to deliver the layoff news — and she cried the first time she did it. Then, a few waves later, it was her. She handed over her badge in a parking lot, took a summer to stop bracing, and picked up a substitute teaching license just to have somewhere to be. A year later she’s halfway through a Master’s of Teaching, and about 95% sure this is her second act. Which, if we're honest, is about as sure as any of us get.<...

Cindy spent 35 years in skincare and loved every bit of it — the thriving practice, the clients who felt like family. Then perimenopause hit, every test came back normal, and a doctor told her "it's too late for you" and wrote a prescription for antidepressants. What happened next wasn't a breakdown. It was an Indeed search, a midlife career change into an accelerated nursing degree in her 50s, and a new mission: making sure no woman gets dismissed the way she was.

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Cindy Ravn is a registered nurse and public health nurse providing re...

Larissa Loden never wanted to be an entrepreneur. She grew up watching her family's small business run on feast or famine and swore she'd never recreate that chaos — so she became an art teacher instead. Then her assistant principal handed her the permission slip that changed everything. A decade after that career pivot, she runs a multimillion-dollar jewelry brand — and the question she now says every woman rethinking her career should ask herself came from her own coach: is your business building you, or draining you?

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Larissa Loden is the founder and crea...

Sonja Nesse got into fashion — the industry she'd dreamed about since she was 16. Then she saw the inside: the waste, the conditions, the clothes made to last two washes. It conflicted with everything she valued. Instead of walking away, she carved out the work that brings her joy and built Neranese, a sustainable small-batch label made in Los Angeles that puts people and planet first.

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Sonja Nesse is the founder and designer of Neranese, a small-batch clothing line made in Los Angeles from low-impact and deadstock materials. She trained at UW-Madison and Fa...

Six months into this midlife career change experiment, Molly’s pulling back the curtain — not on a guest, but on herself. Two lessons the guests keep teaching her, two mind shifts that have quietly changed how she thinks about money and risk, two things that have flat-out not gone to plan, and two she’s reworking heading into the back half of the year.

It’s an honest midyear check-in for any woman in her 40s or 50s rethinking her own second act. Then, rolling into the holiday weekend, she replays the episode that started it all: Joanna E...

Melanie had every reason to stay: the title, the paycheck, the 401(k) she’d be walking away from as a single woman with no one to fall back on. Then a mentor asked her one question that made all of that beside the point — how many women are you NOT reaching by playing it safe?

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Melanie Kiss spent nearly 30 years in healthcare before founding Chicas Abroad, a women’s adventure travel company she built on the side and didn’t go full-time on until 48. Now the author of two books — a practical travel gui...

Gina realized teaching no longer fit, but the bigger pull was her desire to live abroad and build a life that felt more expansive than the one she had in Atlanta. This episode follows how that desire led her from the U.S. classroom to the Philippines, then into digital nomad life, expat living, and a location-independent business.

Gina Oliver shares how she and her husband chose the Philippines, learned to navigate visas, housing, remote work, and culture shock, and eventually built Wave Enterprise into a location-independent podcast and social media studio. The conversation also gets practical...

At home with her young kids, Carrie found herself with the space to ask a question a lot of women in midlife quietly carry: if I could do anything I wanted, what would it be? The honest answer didn't fit the career she'd already built — and figuring out what to do about that took more than one try.

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Carrie Fabris spent 20+ years in corporate leadership at companies like Google, Travelocity, and Sabre before leaving to start her coaching firm, Career Frame. When it didn't take, she went back to corporate for two ye...

You’re good at your job, you’re juggling everything, and somewhere underneath all of it there’s a quiet question you haven’t answered yet: what do I actually want to do next? The problem isn’t that you don’t know how to work hard — it’s that no one ever taught you how to listen to yourself.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

In this episode, Molly shares how The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron kept showing up in her life right when she needed it — and why that’s not as mystical as it sounds. Then she br...

From Wall Street trader to fashion entrepreneur, Jennifer Conrad moved from New York to Madison, WI, on September 11, 2001. While coping with the events of that day, Jennifer identified a need in her new city — and a vision for what to do next. So she did what a former day trader would do: she trusted her gut, moved quickly, and built it herself.

Jennifer, Founder & President of Twigs, an elevated, fashion boutique, will discuss how she built this career pivot on instinct and discipline, how she's kept the business strong through pandemics and recessions for two decades, the im...

You've got a hobby you can't stop doing. But between the caregiving, the family, the life that's already full, you're not sure there's room for it to become anything more — or if you're even allowed to find out.

A gentle note before you listen: this episode includes Jenny's experience with postpartum depression and suicidal thoughts. If that's a tender topic for you, please take care with this one. Support resources are linked below.

ABOUT THE GUEST: Jenny Huynh is the baker behind Wildflower Macarons, a home-based small business in Eden Prairie, Minnesota that she started in...

Returning to work after a career break? Here's what stay-at-home moms get told: the years home don't count, you'll come back at a lower title, and you should take whatever salary is offered. Leah Tilstra rejected all three — and walked back into engineering at Abbott with a senior title and a sign-on bonus after twelve years raising four kids.

How did she pull it off? She refused the apologetic part-time re-entry, used one old work relationship to land the right R&D team at Abbott, and walked into salary negotiations with a clear number and the willingness to...

You spent 20+ years building real expertise — the kind you can't fake — and now you're staring down a layoff, a restructure, or just a quiet voice asking if this is really it. What if the skills you've spent two decades building are the exact foundation you need for something that's finally yours?

ABOUT GUEST: Courtney Reimer is the founder and principal strategist at Sounds Great, a podcast strategy company, and the host of the podcast Talking the Talk. After two decades as a senior executive at Spotify, Audible, MTV, and Discovery — including executive producing Archetypes with Meghan Markle — she was...

The universe doesn't always shout — sometimes it whispers for years before it knocks. And if you keep ignoring the knock, eventually it hits you over the head with a frying pan — and for Molly, that frying pan had a name: layoff.

ABOUT GUEST: If you're a woman in your 40s or 50s sitting with a quiet voice that keeps asking is this really it? — this episode is your origin story too. Her Intentional Reset host Molly Wipperfurth shares the real timeline behind her own midlife career change: the slow burn that started long before the layoff, the person...

There is a moment when something finally feels like you — not the version of you that carpools and manages spreadsheets, but the version that has been waiting. Marissa found hers in a color drape. She didn’t blow up her life — she built a new one, slowly, intentionally, one client at a time, and she is here to show you exactly how she did it.

About Marissa Ray

Marissa Ray went from dental office manager and self-described introvert to House of Colour franchise owner with a waitlist and a TV segment — not by quitting her life ove...

You've spent years inside corporate America watching how the game is played — what gets negotiated behind closed doors, what's actually in that separation agreement, and what your employer is hoping you never think to ask. Carol Thompson spent 12 years as a corporate HR director before walking away to build her own consulting practice from scratch — and in this conversation she hands you both sides of the playbook: how to set your rates, land your first client, and build a location-independent business without a brick and mortar, how to job search in the age of AI including what recruiters actually want...

A midlife career change can feel like trading everything you've built for a leap into the unknown — especially when you're starting over in a field that doesn't know your name yet. If you're a woman over 40 staring down a layoff, a restless feeling, or a career that no longer fits, the question isn't whether to pivot — it's how to do it without throwing away 20 years of hard-won expertise.

Joanna Ehresman spent 13 years as a senior marketing executive in wealth management before a layoff forced the question she'd been avoiding: what do I actually want? Her answer was inte...

A passion-led career change does not transpire instantaneously; rather, it is a gradual unfolding of deliberate actions and reflections. Hailey Smith's journey exemplifies this principle, as she transitioned from an essential worker to the founder of Simply Creative, a thriving art studio in Minneapolis. Throughout our discussion, we delve into the pivotal 2AM moment that catalyzed her decision to leap into entrepreneurship, as well as the meticulous planning she undertook to establish a sustainable business model. Moreover, Hailey shares invaluable insights on the significance of community, accessibility, and the importance of nurturing one's creative instincts. Listeners will glean practical...

She always knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur. She just needed something worth building. Tina Hegna spent over a decade in corporate accounting — not because she'd given up on that dream, but because the right application hadn't found her yet. Then she walked into a Burn Boot Camp class as a member, and everything clicked.

What happened next was anything but simple — one franchise became three, a pandemic tested everything, and an intentional decision to scale back to one location turned out to be the most strategic move she ever made. In this conversation, Tina unpacks the...

Ruby Raynes shares her extraordinary journey as both an accountant and a romance author in this engaging episode. Remarkably, she composed her third book, "Jasper," while battling breast cancer, demonstrating her resilience and dedication to her craft. In our conversation, Ruby illuminates the significance of her writing not only as a personal outlet but also as a means to amplify queer voices and foster community support. Her narrative underscores the importance of representation and the power of storytelling in creating spaces of acceptance and joy. Ultimately, Ruby's story is one of perseverance, self-discovery, and the unwavering belief in the...

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You’re capable, driven, and successful by every outside measure. But somewhere in the back of your mind, a quiet voice keeps asking: is this career still right for me?

Her Intentional Reset — a podcast hosted by Molly Wipperfurth is for women in their mid30's, 40s and 50s navigating midlife career change. Each week, Molly talks with real women who’ve made career pivots — not because they had to, but because they wanted to. Honest conversations about what inspired the shift, the financial realities, the trade-offs, and what lif...