What do you do when the worst week of your life hands you your next chapter?

On this episode of The Midlife Makeover Show, Wendy Valentine welcomes back bestselling author — and her own book coach! — Amy B. Scher for a conversation about grief, healing, and hope. In 2011, Amy lost her dad and, five days later, her 22-year-old cousin to murder. Fifteen years on, that grief became her debut novel, The Unexpected Afterlife of Salon Rose: equal parts murder mystery, darkly funny coming-of-age story, and love letter to the people we’ve lost.

Amy and Wendy dig into why moving on doesn’t mean leaving our loved ones behind, how grief pushes us to ask the questions we avoid when life is running smoothly, the signs that our people are still with us, and why the very worst weeks of our lives can quietly line us up for what’s meant for us next.

✨ What You’ll Learn

• Why moving on from grief means moving forward WITH meaning — not leaving your loved ones behind

• How grief pushes you to ask the questions you never ask when everything’s going smoothly

• Why a novel can heal in ways self-help can’t — “doing the work without doing the work”

• What real resilience means: unlike a palm tree, YOU choose what you bounce back to

• How our loved ones keep showing up — signs, synchronicities, and staying connected after loss

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What happens when you plan perfectly for retirement… and still end up feeling completely lost?

In this episode of The Midlife Makeover Show, Wendy Valentine sits down with George Jerjian — retirement mindset mentor, Emmy recipient, and award-winning author of 12 books — to talk about the part of retirement money can’t organize: your identity.

At 52, George was given six months to live. The diagnosis was wrong, but instead of life snapping back to normal, he drifted for nine years — until a 30-day silent retreat changed everything and he chose to unretire on his own terms. Now he guides people through what he calls the Identity Renaissance, using the DARE Method® he built from working with more than 21,000 retirees.

If you’re staring down the “what’s next?” question feeling stuck, restless, or invisible, this conversation is your reminder: your best chapter isn’t behind you — it’s the one you design next.

✨ What You’ll Learn

• Why even the best-planned retirements can leave you feeling stuck, restless, and invisible — and the part money can’t organize

• What the Identity Renaissance is — and how to navigate the “liminal space” between your old title and your new self

• Why asking “Who do I want to be?” unlocks “What do I want to do?” in your second act

• How George’s DARE Method® moves you from drifting to a purposeful, self-designed next chapter

• Why your mindset needs a “software update” for the 20–30 bonus years ahead

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Author Spotlight: Preferment™ by Anne van Leynseele — the research-backed alternative to retirement, trading "what now?" for a mission worth waking up for (from a five-time career reinventor and award-winning chocolate farmer!). Grab it on Amazon and https://www.rarifiedlife.com

What would it take for you to give up YOUR ghost?

In this episode of The Midlife Makeover Show, Wendy Valentine sits down with Samantha Rose — Emmy award-winning television writer and New York Times bestselling ghostwriter of nearly twenty books — to talk about what happens when the woman behind everyone else’s stories finally tells her own.

After losing her mother to suicide in 2020, Samantha began writing to process her grief… and discovered she had been living as a ghost in her own life. That writing became Giving Up the Ghost: A Daughter’s Memoir — winner of Best Memoir at the San Francisco Book Festival — and the first book ever published under her own name. Together, Wendy and Samantha explore grief, healing, finding your voice in midlife, and why it’s never too late to stop playing small and finally be seen.

If you’ve ever felt invisible in your own life, this conversation is your permission slip.

✨ What You’ll Learn

• Why so many women become the “ghostwriter” of their own lives — and how to stop

• What “giving up the ghost” really means — and how to give up yours

• How writing (or any creative outlet) helps grief move through your body

• Why unprocessed grief waits for you — and how to finally give it a voice

• How to step out of the shadows and be seen — even as an introvert

🎧 Tune in now

✨ Watch the video replay

👉 Connect with Samantha Rose

🌟 Explore All Things Midlife

📖 Order Your Copy of Women Waking Up

📸 Follow the fun on IG

Author Spotlight: Preferment™ by Anne van Leynseele — the research-backed alternative to retirement, trading "what now?" for a mission worth waking up for (from a five-time career reinventor and award-winning chocolate farmer!). Grab it on Amazon and https://www.rarifiedlife.com