Midlife Crisis Or A New Direction?

The problem with making life changes when you hit a certain age is that people often just think you’re having a midlife crisis. Or in women’s cases, that you’re going through the change and it’s sending you a but boogaloo. So, for the purposes of clarity, yes, I am perimenopausal, and no, I am not having a midlife crisis. I think I had that at about 22. I’m well over it.

Now I still wouldn’t rule out buying a Porsche or taking on a toyboy but I don’t think many people would so much as bat an eyelid if I did that anyway. But recently, workwise, I’ve kind of been sussing out a few new directions, because let’s face it, every man and his dog is now a social media expert. And Covid taught us all that the arse can fall out of any industry overnight if the circumstances dictate. So, I had a look at where my wins had been in recent times. Surprisingly it wasn’t in the areas I had been doing for years.

Prepare To Change

I’ve been playing around with various different pieces of content for a while now. Content about business stuff, marketing and social media is boring. There are literally a million other people doing it and if I’m being honest, I really didn’t enjoy swimming in that pool. There are a lot of snakeskin oil salesperson types. It’s just not me. Now don’t get me wrong, I still love marketing and PR work, it’s my bread and butter after all, but content-wise, the circles of people involved in it drain me and give me the ick.

Luckily, and surprisingly, my most popular content, the stuff that gets way more engagement, way more views and gives me loads more job satisfaction, is my more personal stuff. Especially the dating posts. My goodness, you lot love them. Even though I write from a female perspective, and a female over 40 at that, I find I get a lot of male readers. And a lot of questions in my inbox from men.

My content for over 40’s is also really popular. I recently posted a photo on Instagram after I’d used a new foundation. It wasn’t a sponsored post, but I’d seen a lot of younger beauty types posting about it and wanted to give an opinion from someone older that doesn’t have young, line-free, skin. The post went down a treat and I had loads of messages about the product and how best to use it. The brand also reached out to me wanted to work together in the future. Bonus!

Being Relatable

If you’ve been using the internet for longer than five minutes then you’ll be aware of the influencer boom. It’s not really a term I like, but it’s a thing and I doubt it’s going away anytime soon. I prefer content creators. Anyway. There is a lack of older “influencers”. Personally, I don’t really think I’m down for taking makeup tips from a 20-year-old, perfect skin, not aged a day girl that applies half a bottle of foundation and insists on using the entire tube of concealer under her eyes (bad look for us with fine lines and wrinkles). I’m certainly not going to take relationship advice from said twentysomething that has never had a divorce, a child, a cheating ex or just enough life experience to know that you aren’t likely to have met the love of your life by the time you’re 21.

No offence to all the Molly Mae types, but we have absolutely nothing in common and I doubt you’d find me relatable either.

The point is we older types also use the internet. We’re the fastest-growing demographic on social media, yet there is very little relatable content for us. This probably explains why my ramblings about trying to date in your 40’s are so popular.

It’s Not A Midlife Crisis

So, from now on, I’ve given you fair warning, if you see me posting about stuff that isn’t work-related, I’m not having a midlife crisis. Well, I can have another one if you like if you find that would be relatable content. I think it’s time for a new direction. It’s time to follow what I actually want to do. I started doing this 15 years ago now. I started out on this content-creating journey as a Mummy Blogger. That cap obviously doesn’t fit anymore. In truth it never really did, but it was a whole different world back then.

Now, I like fashion and beauty, food and films, helping others navigate divorces and dating all over again. I’m just a woman in her 40’s, starting on the HRT, single parent of a grownup child, a dog that never leaves me alone (even in the bathroom) and if I won the lottery I’d probably blow it all in a year ordering from shopping apps. Do you still get a buzz when your packages turn up? I love it.

I wouldn’t call it a midlife crisis, more a midlife revolution. I’ve spent so long in this content creating game doing what the so-called experts say you should do. But just because I work in marketing, it doesn’t mean that’s all I can talk about. I’m also a writer. I write for magazines and all sorts of stuff. So, I might as well make use of that and create content that’s relatable to women and men that are just like me. Or at least avoiding their own midlife crisis or just trying to get through each day without feeling the need to have a mini nervous breakdown.

New Directions

So, I apologise if you’ve always followed me for the business content. Granted there hasn’t been much of it lately anyway. I will still do bits here and there but mostly aimed at people like me running businesses or being freelance, self-employed. But for my own sanity and to actually get the satisfaction back that I always used to get from creating content, I think I owe it to myself to give this new direction a go. Throw caution to the wind and post my outfit and makeup posts. Rant on about dating dilemmas and relationship red flags. I’ll even throw in some YouTube content for good measure.

After all, the millennials didn’t invent the internet. It was our generation that started all this. I’m still available to hire for work or if you’re a brand, yep, I can do those collaborations as well.

I might even start writing about HRT patches!

And if you’re only here to perv over my photos, then crack on, I really don’t mind.