Kathy is a nurse practitioner who went into menopause in 2017. That alone is not what makes her interesting. What makes her interesting is what she did with it. She took her own experience navigating menopause and turned it into a business that has now grown to over 126,000 followers, built entirely organically, entirely on her own voice, and entirely while she was still working full time in a hospital.

A Little Bit of Delulu

When I asked Kathy how she knew which season of life she was actually in, whether the version of herself she was becoming was real or just something she was telling herself, her answer surprised me. She called it delulu.

“When I decided to reinvent myself, I always wanted a business of my own,” she told me. She had gone to school to become a nurse, then went back for her master’s to become a nurse practitioner. She loved that career. But somewhere along the way she noticed something in herself. She wanted more.

She started watching other women build things online and thought, I know I could do that. So she did. And in true delulu fashion, she blocked nearly everyone she knew before she posted a single video, because she understood something a lot of people never accept. You are going to be cringy at first. It is going to be awkward. You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable before anyone else gets comfortable watching you.

The Video That Changed Everything

For a long time, nothing worked. Kathy told me she was getting no views, no engagement, nothing. She watched twenty somethings telling women in their fifties how to lose fat and felt a growing frustration. So one day she filmed a video in her basement. It was grainy. A pool table was half blocking the camera. And she asked one simple question on camera. Do you want to learn how to lose fat from a twenty something in a crop top, or from a fifty three year old woman who actually lost the menopause belly fat herself?

That video is the one that finally broke through. It taught her something important about content and about life. You actually have to say what you think.

Why Community Matters More Than Ever

One of the most powerful parts of our conversation was about community, and why so many people insist they can figure everything out alone. Kathy does not buy it.

“I find that most people are longing for community,” she said. She talked about how many of her followers are empty nesters, or caring for aging parents, or simply living in a season where connection feels harder to find. She believes we need each other to laugh, to be real, to be relatable.

What struck me most was a story she told about a woman who reached out to her after following her for an entire year. Kathy was walking her dog at the time. She wrote back immediately and gave the woman her personal cell phone number. They ended up talking for fifteen minutes right there on the sidewalk. The woman was stunned that a real person had actually responded.

Kathy pointed out something we do not talk about enough. In an age where so many accounts are run by AI and automated messaging tools, a genuine reply from a real human being has become rare enough to feel like a gift.

Learning to Take Care of Herself First

Balance has not come easily. Kathy built her first business to over 100,000 followers while working full time, raising two boys, and caring for an aging mother. She admitted she does not always get the balance right. These days she protects a window of time each morning, between eight and eleven, for exercise, coffee, and anything that is not directly tied to work. The rest of the day goes to her community and her content.

Investing in Herself

We talked about the cost of building something real. Kathy did not hold back. She told me she once spent eight thousand dollars for a three day experience at Disney, going behind the scenes with a director to learn about client experience. That investment, she said, paid for itself many times over because it completely changed how she treats her own clients.

Her advice was simple. If someone has already walked the path you are trying to walk, pay them for the shortcut. Do not spend the next ten years figuring out what they already know.

She also talked about a moment that tested her comfort zone in a completely different way. A woman she had only met online invited her to fly out and stay at her house for a weekend business retreat. Kathy almost said no. A friend convinced her to go anyway, telling her the woman hosting had built millions of dollars in other companies and that there was nothing to lose. Kathy booked the ticket, told herself she could always take an Uber to the airport if it felt wrong, and went. That weekend turned into one of the most valuable mentorships of her career.

What She Does Now

Kathy’s work today has grown into two connected paths. The first is helping women navigate menopause and midlife health, from hormone replacement therapy to strength training to the kind of practical daily habits that actually move the needle. The second is helping women, of any age, find their authentic voice in their content and messaging, especially in a moment when so many people sound the same because they are all leaning on the same AI tools without teaching those tools to sound like them.

She also spoke candidly about the work she does helping women navigate GLP1 microdosing, particularly those who do not fit the traditional criteria for treatment but are still struggling with real symptoms. She is quick to point out she is not there to convince anyone of anything. She simply offers information and lets women make their own informed choices with their own providers.

Closing Thoughts

What stayed with me most from this conversation was Kathy’s belief that women in their fifties are just getting started. Not winding down. Not fading into the background. Just getting started.

Her husband still cannot fully explain what she does for a living, and she loves that about him. Her mother in law thinks she is retired. Strangers online ask how her little business is going. None of that matters to Kathy, because she knows the truth. She left a stable career to build something bigger, and she is not slowing down.

About me:

I am currently a Master Facilitator for The Elliott Group in addition to being on the board of advisors for our Cultural Transformation Department in ELLIOTT ARMY.

With over 14 years of client service experience, I have held substantial leadership roles in the automotive industry. I’m also an accredited coach, a speaker, a triathlon finisher, and a wife. To contact me for engagements, you can reach me at [email protected].

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