When Success Feels Like a Costume: Menopause, Business, and the Midlife Identity Crisis
When Success Feels Like a Costume: Menopause, Business, and the Midlife Identity Crisis
“Whose Life Is This?”
The awkward identity crisis no one warns soul-led entrepreneurs about
So here's how it started.
It wasn’t a breakdown. Or a dramatic epiphany in Bali.
It was a random Tuesday morning, in my kitchen, coffee in hand, staring at my color-coded calendar thinking,
“Whose life is this?”
Everything around me looked... correct.
Client calls booked. Family humming along. Business hitting goals.
But inside? It felt like I’d shown up to someone else’s life, wearing someone else’s skin, pretending to be excited about things I used to love.
Plot twist: I wasn’t failing. I was evolving.
The problem was, no one had told me how terrifying and awkward growth can feel when your outside still looks like success.
Turns out, your soul doesn’t care about your perfectly optimized business model.
When Purpose No Longer Fits the Strategy
Let’s talk about the invisible pressure of being a soul-led entrepreneur.
We’re not just building businesses — we’re holding space for transformation, channeling wisdom, navigating energetic shifts, parenting, meal prepping, and trying to hydrate.
And somewhere in the midst of all that, we’re supposed to scale to multiple six figures, meditate daily, and “show up consistently” on Instagram.
The conventional business world says:
Just niche down, optimize your funnel, and hustle harder.
But for those of us building businesses that are extensions of our soul, that advice lands like fingernails on a whiteboard.
Here’s the thing...
When your internal landscape shifts — from hormones, healing, trauma release, grief, or just waking up — your business starts to feel like an ill-fitting costume.
Even if it’s still “working.” Especially when it’s still working.
The Quiet Crisis Among Coaches & Healers
I talk to coaches, healers, and practitioners every week who whisper versions of the same story:
“I used to love what I do... but now it just feels like a grind.”
“I built my dream business and now I want to burn it all down.”
“Something’s off. I can’t keep going like this.”
Let’s name it:
Burnout, fatigue, disillusionment, loss of identity — these aren’t personal failures. They’re symptoms of a deeper misalignment between the sacred work we’re here to do and the systems we’ve been told to use to do it.
And menopause? Perimenopause? They’re the soul’s ultimate pattern interrupt.
Not a curse. Not a pause. But a portal.
If you’re a woman running a mission-driven business while navigating the hormonal storm that no one prepared you for... I see you.
Apparently, white-knuckling your way through another launch isn’t a sustainable growth strategy. Who knew?
When Authenticity Means Burning the Script
At some point, I had to get radically honest.
The version of me who could “push through anything” was slowly unraveling.
Turns out, I wasn’t just tired — I was addicted to doing. Same difference, right?
I had to trade performance for presence.
Mascara for mindfulness.
And urgency for actual nervous system regulation (revolutionary, I know).
Here’s what I’ve learned:
You can’t coach others into alignment if you’re secretly dissociating from your own body.
You can’t heal others while gaslighting your own exhaustion.
You can’t magnetize clients if your energy is resentful and wrung out.
Leadership isn’t about showing up perfect.
It’s about showing up whole.
Which sometimes means pausing, pivoting, or dismantling what no longer fits.
Authenticity isn’t a branding strategy. It’s a physiological state.
How I Rebuilt My Business Without Burning Out
I had to rebuild everything.
Not just my brand — but my relationship to my body, my time, my business, and my worth.
What emerged is what I now call my Power Stack — a model rooted in nervous system wisdom, sacred feminine energetics, and practical business architecture that doesn’t require me to sacrifice my health, my family, or my soul’s voice.
Let me break it down (without the buzzwords):
Energy Sovereignty → Align your offers, schedule, and commitments with your actual capacity (not your caffeine level).
Hormone-Aware Business Design → Structure your months, launches, and content around your energetic seasons, not someone else’s formula.
Aligned Visibility → Show up when your message is clear and your energy is clean. No more forcing daily reels out of obligation.
Emotional Integration Tools → Because you can’t scale what your nervous system can’t safely hold.
Offer Simplification → More offers ≠ more impact. Say less, earn more, deliver deeper.
This is how you menopause-proof your mission.
This is how you evolve without burning it all down.
And yes, sometimes it still feels messy. But it no longer feels misaligned.
Let’s Talk About the Pivot You’re Not Posting
So here we are.
If you’ve ever looked around your beautiful, blessed life and thought:
“This doesn’t feel like mine anymore…” — you’re not broken.
You’re becoming.
This is the unbecoming-before-the-becoming.
The deconstruction of an old version of you that was never meant to scale into this next chapter.
If you’re a soul-led coach, healer, or space holder who’s secretly navigating this shift — I’d love to hear from you.
💬 What parts of your business or identity are asking to be redefined right now?
Drop a comment or message me. Let’s have the real conversation. No pretense, no pretending. Just real women, doing sacred work, in real bodies.
Because we didn’t come here to perform.
We came here to transform.
P.S. If this article hit home, you’ll love the full podcast episode this was born from. I go deeper into nervous system wisdom, menopausal pivots, and building a business that feels like you again.
🎧 Listen to the full episode here → https://open.spotify.com/episode/162KBCvAISaJOZb8FP98j9
