A Reintroduction to the To 50 and Beyond Podcast (2024)
Episode 298
Hey there! I'm happy to be back with you after a summer hiatus.
I started To 50 and Beyond when I was 50 way back in 2018, so it would be a great time for a reintroduction. Things have changed since then and I have figured some things out that I want to share with you.
I talk about the evolution of the podcast, and why I still believe midlife is the best time to remove anything from your life that you don't enjoy or find value in, including alcohol.
I share where I am after celebrating 11 years of sobriety on 8/11/13, and why I'm passionate about helping other midlife women find freedom from alcohol.
I also discuss the importance of embracing change, even when you don't have everything figured out. Whether you're considering sobriety or any other life change, I encourage you to take that first step and trust that you'll figure things out as you go.
Looking ahead, I reveal my plans for the podcast, including a shift towards more solo episodes and a desire to go deeper in our conversations.
I reaffirm my commitment to being authentic, supportive, and compassionate as we navigate the challenges and opportunities of midlife and sobriety together.
Thank you so much for listening! I appreciate you!
If you're new to sobriety, download The Daily Sobriety Toolkit to help you plan your day with purpose and self-care.
Links mentioned in the episode:
The To 50 and Beyond Trailer
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Lori Massicot:
Hey there. This is episode 298 of the 250 and Beyond podcast. And that introduction was the very first introduction I released in February of 2018. I no longer say midlife babes or ladies, which I said later on in the episode, and thank goodness there is now editing software that takes out the ums from the recording. I have changed a lot since then, and I've figured so many things out about podcasting and of course life as I've gone along. I still believe midlife is the best life. And it's the time to remove anything from your life that you don't enjoy or find value in, including alcohol.
For me right now, midlife is the time where I am filtering out things that I don't want to do anymore. I'm thinking about the things that I do want to do with this precious time that I have left. I took a hiatus from the podcast the past couple of months to get my head straight and focus on myself and it's very refreshing, you know, and you feel like you're just pushing yourself and you're going in so many different directions. You got so much on your mind and we think that we got to keep pushing and pushing and pushing.
I recorded an episode where I talked about how I changed my mind and how I decided to take a break and I heard from a lot of you on that topic. I will say that the break was such a good idea that I feel so much more energy and clarity and a better understanding of who I am and where I am in life and where I want this podcast to go. And so if you're ever questioning taking a break or giving yourself a break from something that you're working up against, do it. That's my advice to you today. Do it.
So since I took the last couple months off, I thought it was an opportune time to reintroduce or introduce you to the what and the why and how we do things on 250 and Beyond and how things are changing up a bit. I really think in general, after I sat down to write this out, we should all reintroduce ourselves at least once a year because we are changing. 250 and Beyond is no longer a little podcast. I put those first episodes out and didn't tell anybody about it. 38 people downloaded that first month. I'm like, wow, who are they and how did they find it?
This podcast has reached women from all over the world and men because it's a podcast for the most badass generations of them all. We talk about getting older and freeing ourselves from alcohol so we can make this time in our lives a different experience from what we've already lived, a better experience. New. Refreshing. Challenging. Exciting. Badass. Those are some of the words that come to the top of my mind.
It's 2024 today. I'm still Lori Massicot. Still the same. I was born on November 11th, 1967. I started drinking in 1982, and as you heard, I stopped drinking on August 11th, 2013. I just celebrated 11 years of sobriety. Which seems like forever. That gal back on August 11, 2013, oh boy. If somebody had said, one day you're gonna be 11 years sober, she would have said, ah, I don't see it. I cannot do it. There is no way. That is forever to me. It really does seem like forever, but it's not.
I've been with my husband Bill since 1997 and our son Spencer is now 23. He's six foot two, has a full grown beard. I'm a certified life and recovery coach through the International Association of Professional Recovery Coach. I lean heavy into my 30 years of drinking experience and my sobriety and all the research I do to help women find freedom from alcohol. I call myself the midlife sobriety coach, I own it because my specialty is helping midlife women find freedom from alcohol to discover more of themselves along the way.
I really want you to work on the relationship with yourself and spend less time working on the relationship with alcohol. And there is not a day that goes by in my life where I'm not thinking about the work that I do and how I can help you. I didn't start the podcast to make money, however, just by showing up here weekly for the past six and a half years, weekly-ish, I do like the breaks. The podcast has brought so many incredible women into my life, into my programs and my private coaching and email inbox. It has really helped me grow a business that I'm beyond proud and grateful for.
I really don't measure the success of the podcast by the numbers. But by the stories I hear from listeners and hearing this one thing that I have heard so often, and this is when I feel like it's just like, cha-ching, cha-ching. This is what I hear. It sounds like you're talking directly to me. Oh, I kind of got a little teary eyed when I said that because that is and was my goal.
Like I was pondering the idea of starting a podcast in 2016. That's when it started. I owned a cleaning company, just me, myself and I, and I would clean all day while listening to my favorite music. And then I was introduced to podcasts in 2015. I fell in love. I actually loved going and cleaning. Well, I loved going and cleaning all day anyway. Cleaning is my thing. I love it. But then it was like I added this next level to my day because I was learning and I was listening to new things and I was empowering myself to change. I was learning about online business and how to do things.
And the idea of me having a podcast came right around 2016. I started to dream about it. It's just a dream. It's never gonna happen. And I started to think about there's gotta be a gal out there just like me going through the same kind of stuff that I was going through with my perimenopause and, of course, my drinking and making the decision to stop drinking. And what if I talk to her, that one person, and that's really what I set out to do. And that's why just hearing that back, it sounds like you're talking directly to me. If you've ever thought that, and you've never told me that, and you want to send me an email, just know you'll make my day. Okay?
But getting back to like just listening to podcasts and having that dream, that vision, maybe someday I can sit down and record this podcast. I want to change. I want to grow. I want to uplevel my life because at that time I had been sober for a few years and I've always been comfortable with change. I've actually craved it from a very young age. I like the idea of growth and doing things differently. For me, that is the meaning of life, the purpose of our lives. But I always seem to do the same stuff over and over again, expecting a different outcome. Until I made the choice to stop drinking. From that point on, I've been on a self and life discovery experience that I never thought I would be on. That dream, I dreamt it, but I never thought I would actually experience it.
And that is one of the reasons why I decided in February of 2018 to step into my closet with my iPhone and record that introduction episode. I had a burning desire to talk about midlife and menopause and our drinking and of course the option of sobriety. I really wanted to have the conversations that we find difficult with our closest girlfriends. I wasn't having those conversations. That is what I wanted to do here on 250 and Beyond because I really felt alone and misunderstood when I quit drinking and also when I was in perimenopause. No one around me was doing it. And I knew that there was at least one gal out there who needed to know that sobriety was an option for her because I didn't. She didn't need to keep drinking because that is what she had always done. And because everyone around her was drinking too, there was a different option.
So I played that introduction episode back during my break because I wanted to hear what I said about the podcast in the beginning. If it had changed that mission, if I had changed. I don't enjoy listening back to my voice. So if you're thinking, well, why wouldn't you know that anyway? Well, for one thing, it was six and a half years ago and I do not go back and listen, but I knew that I had to do the hard thing and listen to it before I recorded this episode and the reintroduction to the podcast, going forward, and I'm really glad that I did because I have changed, of course. Yay. Thank goodness. And the mission of the podcast has changed as well.
What I heard in that episode was a gal who didn't have anything figured out. She was introducing a podcast that was going to talk about menopause. She didn't say that the podcast was about sobriety at all. Sobriety was new for me at that time, even though I was going on five years without drinking. I wasn't sure of how far I was going to put myself out there. I was very nervous to put myself out into the world. What would Aunt Sally think? Would she listen? What would she say to me about it? And by the way, Aunt Sally is a fictional character.
Anyway, I had no idea of what I was doing back then. I have a tendency to jump in before having everything figured out and then I beat myself up later for it with all the, you should have done this, not that. That's kind of where I was with the podcast. I haven't done things like the normal podcaster. And I always got to take time to own my process. And that really is what I have done over the last couple of months.
I was also really doubtful that I would ever record more than a few solo episodes when I started because the idea of interviewing someone was terrifying. But here we are today, episode 298, lots of interviews. This doesn't include all of the bonus sitch on Saturday episodes that I have done, if you know, you know, and we are here together, whether this is your first episode or your 298th or more. I will never discount how cool it is that we have found each other.
I know you. You are on a quest for change in your life. Midlife makes change inevitable for more than the change of life reason. We get to a point where we are sick and tired of our bullshit, doing the same things and expecting different results, being our own worst enemy, and allowing our excuses and people pleasing and alcohol to take over our lives. We are aware of the time we have spent doing what we don't want to do, and we become more and more aware of the time we have left to change what happens next for us. And then it's like, ooh, we get stuck.
If you are somebody who is waiting to have everything figured out before you start, whatever it is you want to change in your life, and you're waiting and exhausting yourself, then I hope you can hear this message today. You will figure it out as you go. It's mindset over strategy. I didn't have a strategy when I started the podcast other than show up, be yourself, kind of. Don't go full in to yourself. Maybe give it a year or so. Now I can say confidently, I am myself completely. Like if you came over to my house and had a cup of coffee, this is who you would be getting. So if you don't like me now probably won't want to come over and have a cup of coffee. And that's okay.
And then I figured things out as I went. My mindset was, let's see what happens. Same thing with giving up alcohol. There was no plan, no strategy. It was me and the reason why I didn't want to drink on a daily basis. That's what kept me going until I gave myself time to see how it went and what I needed for myself and other things that I could do for myself.
As far as the ready part, this is what I do. If I'm thinking about doing something, it's on my mind constantly like the podcast was like, Oh, that's such a dream. I want to do it. I want to do it. Step inside your closet one day and just do the damn thing because I don't want to think about it anymore. That was the same with where I was with my drinking and not drinking. I thought about it for two years. I thought about it is an understatement. It took over my life, the questioning, what is going to happen? I found that I was looking at, you know, what is the outcome here? What is the end game for you with your drinking? So I had to go all in and do the damn thing. And then I figured it out as I went.
So as far as the ready part for you, if you're at that point with whatever it is you want to change in your life, ask yourself what needs to happen before you're ready and see what comes up. Yeah. Just see what comes up and maybe that'll use your mind a little bit.
Going forward with the podcast, let me tell you this real quick. My family and I were on vacation in Maui this summer and every morning I would get up, I would pour my coffee and I would go out on the balcony with a lovely view of the ocean and swaying palm trees and I would sit and stare and breathe and sip my coffee in peace and quiet 5 a.m. before anybody was up and out. Cause we were doing the sunrise, of course, every morning in Maui, like if you're in Maui, like get up and get the sunrise in, Spencer.
I brought my journal out every morning, but I didn't write very much until the last day we were leaving. The first thing that came to my mind was, and it had been on my mind, I wrote out, I want to go deeper. I want to go deeper in my life. I want to go deeper in my work. Deeper keeps coming up for me. I'm not sure what that looks like right now, for you, or me, but I will figure it out as I go. I'm going to follow my curiosity with you to have better conversations with ourselves and here on the podcast.
I know how many sobriety podcasts there are out there today. I know this podcast started out more about midlife and menopause, but of course it has evolved. I've stepped into my voice more and more as we've gone along. I've seen more and more the need for these topics that we share here. As I've met so many of you, what an honor that has been.
We will continue to have conversations focused on sobriety and getting older and conversations about life and goals and many more topics that fall under that midlife umbrella. We'll continue to talk about the things we don't find easy to talk about with our closest people. And I will continue to spread awareness of living alcohol free later in life. I know there are gals out there who don't know this option is for them. They don't even know about podcasts yet, so I always appreciate it when you share it with another midlife gal, another midlife babe.
My mission here is to continue to build you up, give you lots of realness and love and compassion with a firm hand, ooh, right on the middle of your back to give you support, a little push towards where you want to be in life without pressure or judgment. You deserve to hear you can do it. Go for it. I'm with you. I've got you.
I don't want to be a celebrity for this. I don't want to be a self help guru. I want to be the gal I needed when I quit drinking the voice I could listen to when I was in my hundredth fuck it moment or felt alone and confused and anxious. I want to be the gal I needed back then but not only back then I want to be the gal that I need here today at 56 years old with all the big scary questions like, what is the meaning of life? What is my purpose? All of these things.
The gal I need to hear is the gal who is being herself and talks openly, knowing that it's okay because she is not for everyone. And everyone is not for her. She doesn't hold back. She speaks from her heart and through her own experiences. That's what I will promise you here going forward on the podcast.
I will be figuring some things out as I go forward for the remainder of 2024. As I do something that scares me, but also brings me a lot of relief when I think about it. And this is something that I figured out on my hiatus. And that is to bring you a predominantly solo show. I will have guests wriggled in that I handpick, but for the most part, it's you and me every week, and if I don't show up, that means I needed a break and will be back the following week.
I can't do pushing myself anymore. I crave slowness and flow. My trying to hustle days are over, I think, for right now. I'm just not in that hustle mode. I don't know if I ever really was, it just was trying to be, and that was exhausting me.
I can't even put into words right now how much I appreciate you for listening. I know a lot of you, I've met a lot of you, I feel very fortunate for that. A lot of you are inside Team Alcohol Free or my past communities. A lot of you I have worked with in my private coaching or have met in my email inbox. I just think about you and I appreciate your stories and I appreciate you telling me your pain points and the challenges that you are facing and what's coming up for you
Recent episodes
Sober Gal Summer: What’s In & Out
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Could you help me spread the word?
There is another option besides drinking in midlife.
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