In this companion episode to The Queenager Podcast episode with Carol Vorderman, host Eleanor Mills and coach Wendy Lloyd discuss the biggest takeaways from Carol, the broadcaster from humble beginnings turned political firebrand.

You'll find the inspirational takeaways from Carol Vorderman and how they might help you take action and make positive change in your life.

Eleanor Mills is the founder of NOON, the UK's leading network for midlife women. She's also author of the bestselling book Much More to Come.

Wendy Lloyd is a Women’s Centred transformational coach. To find out how Wendy can support you through your midlife reinvention, visit www.dramafreeyou.com and book a FREE 30 minute coaching call.

BONUS EP 5_CAROL VORDERMAN

Stay tuned for how details on how to secure a heavily discounted bottle of their gold standard skin solution. Wendy.

Hello. This time it's the turn of Carol Vorderman. What's your first takeaway from that chat?

And so I think, you know, you couldn't help but get from this, it's like, this is a perfect time. Shining example of [00:01:00] how to mobilize your passion and really do something with it. You know, and, and also, you know, Carol Met has, has no shame or fear of really showing that she's, she's cross about some of the stuff going on.

So I think this is really inspiring in terms of, yeah, well, you know, we, we, do get to this point in our life and there can be a lot of midlife fed upness and we could probably make that a stronger word. So I love the way she kind of shows, you know, that you can just kind of grab things by the balls and, and, and go for it.

Her mum was a single parent, but also the warmth and the way she talks about how although they really didn't have anything, she didn't [00:02:00] feel poor because it wasn't like now when everything was kind of, you know, Instagram was busy beaming people with Maseratis into your kind of front room. She just thought that that was what life was and she had lots of aunties and cousins around and she felt She felt very loved and kind of very secure.

But I think that that sense of when she was growing up, that there was a bit more of a safety net, that she got free school meals. She went to a local school, which really encouraged her. She's one of the most intelligent women I've ever met. And at 16, managed to get herself from a poor family. very small Welsh town to Cambridge University.

Because she wanted to be an astronaut. I mean, I just love that. And then someone told her that she couldn't be an astronaut, she might be able to be, you know, an Air Force pilot. But she has that incredible force. And I'm afraid the Tory government really felt it last time. I think it's largely down to Carol that they lost the election.

And as we know, you know, the media, especially the traditional media, does not like people, especially women, to go and do something differently and to speak up and to have a say about stuff. And they want us to stay in our lanes and all those awful phrases. And she's really kind of said, you know, I'm gonna.

do what I really feel passionately about. And I'm also just not going to perpetuate these narratives about women competing against women and, you know, all those kind of negative things about how women look and how we're judged. And she's had to carry that on her shoulders for a long time. And she's just really navigating that with a lot of courage.

The best bit in the book, I think, is when

And that sense [00:04:00] of finding her true voice, her true power, tapping into her wisdom, um, at 60. And also the way that she links politics with people's real lives and Too often people think, oh, well, politics got nothing to do with me, it's just them over there. And she, in the book, brilliantly links everything in our lives from the fact that, um, if you live in one of the poorer places in Britain, you're twice as likely to die as you're giving birth, or if you're a person of colour, your baby's twice as likely to die, all that kind of thing.

as being political decisions. So I think she's, I think she's, I think it's really powerful. And I think she's been so written off for so many years as a kind of somebody who's kind of clever, almost a bit like a performing monkey, you know, with, with the kind of countdown stuff and the sexy skirts. And I think she's just really, really like blowing the doors off all the rules.

And I think Carol Vorderman, illustrates that in spades. So I love that. Yeah, that

It's kind of when you decide to go over the top and really speak your truth. And that really connects. So if you're listening to this and you've got something a burning bee in your bonnet, you get [00:06:00] burning,

And I love that Carol herself, again, in midlife, she is a woman who is living the personal life that she wants to lead. And she has several partners. She's very open about it. She's, it's all very kind of informal and relatively casual, but it's respectful and everybody is free. No one's getting hurt in the equation.

It's consensual. And I think, And again, it's a really powerful thing for someone in Carol's position to, to stand up and do that. Because obviously, again, it's something that, you know, uh, many newspapers have laid into her for. Oh, the kind of slut shaming is absolutely ridiculous. Yeah,

And, you know, I think Carol is brilliant because she's just saying, I'm living life on my own terms. And she's brilliant talking about a queen at being a queen age of being. [00:07:00] The rules don't apply. We're a pioneering generation. There have been women like us at this point with this kind of freedom, this kind of platform, the right to do what we want, and no one's going to tell us not to.

[00:07:17] Eleanor Mills: And also one of the really interesting bits of the conversation that we had, I liked was how social media gets a really bad rap, but Carol could not have done what she's done without social media.

I could not have built the Noon community without social media because in the old days, uh, Media, as you know, was completely ruled by people who ran television stations, editors who ran newspapers. There was no other way of speaking directly to the public than by going through those gatekeepers.

And that freedom is worth a lot. And that's what I love about Carol, because she just represents that sense that we can say what we like and nobody can stop us. And that makes me feel good. Gleeful.

So I, yeah, I think her story is, is powerful on all those levels from her personal life through to the political and then just what she's done professionally and how it's kind of really embodied something that she feels massively strongly about. And she's definitely proven to us that her intelligence is beyond the sums.

Yes.

So Carol, I salute you. I also think you're one of the bravest people I know. To work with Wendy and be supported through your midlife reinvention. Visit her website, dramaforyou. com, and book a free 30 minute coaching call. That's it for the Queen Ager debrief. For more resources, check out our website, noon.

org. uk, and sign up to my weekly Queen Ager newsletter. And there's my book, Much More to Come, Lessons on the Magnificence and Mayhem of Midlife. Which has just been published by HarperCollins. Thanks to our sponsor, And Begin, the age renewal skincare experts. We all like to look our healthiest, glowing best, particularly in midlife, which is why And Begin's expert dermatology team use gold standard ingredients to help you.

[00:10:19] Dr Sharon Blackie: What's left? When the essence of everything that wants to find you is burned away, what's left? And, then, how do you take that, that what is left, that kind of essence of you, whatever it might be, and re imagine yourself? Thanks