Meet Tammy.And the woman who unleashed her.
One loves the spotlight. The other would rather be backstage at the craft services table. Together, we're making midlife a hell of a lot more fun.
The Confession
Hey, there. I'm Jen.
Believe it or not, Tammy Takes Over Midlife™ started with a bout of perimenopausal insomnia, a little AI, and a completely ridiculous competition with one of my best friends.
There I was, wide awake in the middle of the night at home in Portugal, when I decided to send my friend Chad, who lives in Indiana, an AI-generated picture of myself decked out in glorious 80s fashion.
Chad fired back with an equally fabulous picture of himself à la Sonny Crockett from Miami Vice.
Well, obviously, I couldn't let that go unanswered. So I made my own Miami Vice picture and then raised him one: me, looking positively aristocratic, in Downton Abbey.
How it started
And that's how we spent the next few hours. Sending each other increasingly ridiculous pictures of ourselves in different eras, challenging each other to come up with something even better.
The rest of the night
The next morning, I showed my husband what Chad and I had been doing while the rest of the civilized world was sleeping.
He took one look at my wild '80s alter ego and said something along the lines of, "What if SHE did all the public-facing stuff for your business? She's hilarious! She could be your voice!"
Because he knows I AM AN INTROVERT. With a capital I.
Put me in front of a camera or ask me to speak to a room full of people, and it feels like a Dementor has sucked the soul right out of my body.
(One day I'll tell you about our audition for The Amazing Race in 2004. Let's just say we took public humiliation to a whole new level.)
The ironic thing is, I've lived a pretty adventurous life, taken some big risks, and never had much trouble doing things my own way. I can be pretty bold, so people mistake me for an extrovert all the time.
And unfortunately, these days, having something worth sharing apparently means you also have to become an internet personality. We're expected to document everything, share everything, and spend more time broadcasting our lives than actually living them.
And in the personal development world? There's a whole extra layer. Book tours! Speaking engagements! Talk shows! Podcasts! Sharing your wisdom with the world while looking effortlessly fabulous under studio lighting!
Now, I love what I do. I love the women I work with. And I love helping people make their lives easier, healthier, and brighter.
But the thought of putting my entire life on public display makes me want to crawl out of my body and quietly relocate to a small cottage in the woods.
Turns out, the solution to not wanting to be an internet personality was to invent one.
So I shared the picture with a few friends, who immediately responded with some variation of "THIS IS EVERYTHING!"
And just like that, Tammy was born.
Now, I adore people and love a good adventure, but I have absolutely no desire to become an internet sensation.
Tammy, on the other hand?
She was practically born for the spotlight.
She's the unapologetic Beth Dutton of my soul (minus the sociopathy). My bigger, louder, more outrageous alter ego who gets to say the things my mama taught me to keep to myself. And she gets to live out all the ridiculous fantasy fiction I've been writing in my head for years.
So I brought Tammy to life as my fictional midlife mascot. She gets the attention, the spectacularly questionable adventures, and a fabulous 80s wardrobe.
Born for the spotlight
And me? I get to do what I love most: connect with women personally, without a stage or a spotlight, and bring my whole heart to the work we do together.
But there's a bigger reason I created her. I wanted to bring more laughter, irreverence, friendship, and FUN into midlife reinvention. Because life is serious enough, and I think we've all earned the right to enjoy ourselves while figuring things out.
And that's why Tammy Takes Over Midlife™
She's here to challenge us to stop playing it safe, stop putting our dreams on hold, and make this the biggest, boldest, most outrageously fabulous chapter of our lives yet. Because honey, we're not wasting another minute of it.
I bring the coaching experience, and Tammy?
She gets to have those nights that stay in Vegas.
Lucky bitch.
And yes, there's some serious experience behind all this nonsense.
I've spent more than 20 years helping women navigate health challenges, major life transitions, and the occasionally spectacular mess of being human.
Before all this, I worked in university research, finance, and the culinary world. I moved to Italy, got hit by a semi-truck (literally), and reinvented my career more times than I care to count.
I founded Thyroid Loving Care, became a four-time author, and went on to help more than 150,000 women improve their health and navigate major changes in their lives. I've worked with everyone from Emmy Award-winning celebrities to women juggling careers, families, and the million things nobody ever seems to notice they do.
Then I turned 50.
And wouldn't you know it? Suddenly, I was navigating some of the very same midlife challenges I'd spent years helping other women through.
My hormones were throwing a party I hadn't been invited to, I was exhausted, my marriage needed attention, and I realized that even with a life I loved, I'd somehow let my own needs slide further down the list than I wanted to admit.
So I started making changes. And out of that experience came The Reset, a practical, whole-life approach to figuring out what needs attention, what you actually want, and how to start making room for yourself again.
The perfect mullet.I'm business in the front. Tammy's party in the back.
Tammy brings the laughs, the outrageous stories, and a long history of spectacularly questionable decisions. I bring the coaching experience, over twenty years of professional practice, and a genuine love of helping women make meaningful changes in their lives.
Together with our wonderful human coaches and community, we're creating a place where women can have honest conversations, make some exciting discoveries about themselves, and enjoy the hell out of the process.
Because midlife can be a fabulous chapter of your life. And there's no reason figuring it out can't be fun.