Rediscovering Connection with Shelley Doyle

#38 - Amy Schroeder - Redefining Midlife: We Are in The Midst

• Shelley Doyle • Season 1 • Episode 38

Share episode

In this bite-sized episode, I sit down with Amy Schroeder, founder of The Midst, an online magazine that’s redefining what it means to thrive in midlife.

Amy shares how a personal blog about perimenopause turned into a global community of women living midlife on their own terms. We talk about the power of honest storytelling, the importance of connection, and why midlife isn’t a time to slow down—it’s a time to step fully into who we are.

We also dive into:
✅ How midlife is the longest and most transformative stage of life
✅ How The Midst is moving from online to offline
✅ Balancing work, family, and creativity—without burning out
✅ Using AI to scale ourselves (without losing our essence)

If you’ve ever felt like midlife was something to “get through” this conversation will make you think again.

🎧 Join us for a fresh, empowering take on middle age.

Timestamps
00:00 – Intro: Meet Amy Schroeder & the story behind The Midst
02:15 – The origins of The Midst: From personal blog to global movement
05:30 – Midlife is not our parents’ middle age—how we’re redefining it
09:20 – The importance of storytelling & collective voices
12:10 – Transitioning The Midst from digital to in-person events
15:30 – How AI is changing content creation & personal productivity
17:21 – Closing thoughts & where to find The Midst

🔗 Find The Midst Online:
🌍 Website: https://the-midst.com/
📩 Newsletter: The Midst on Substack https://substack.com/@themidst

💬 Connect with Host Shelley Doyle:
🌐 Website: The Communiverse https://thecommuniverse.com/
📌 LinkedIn: /shelleydoyle https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelleydoyle/

---
I hope our conversation inspires you to rediscover connection in your personal or professional life.

Subscribe now and let the magic unfold.

Love & sparkles,
✨Shelley

About Your Host

Hello you, I’m Shelley Doyle, founder of The Communiverse.

Through our 90-day program, The Social Wealth Roadmap, we empower remote and relocated leaders, founders, and creators build real-world social wealth—so they feel connected, trusted, and supported, both online and offline, no matter where they are in the world.

We also support hybrid and distributed teams, combining cutting-edge research on social well-being and social wealth with two decades in corporate communications to deliver mind-shifting talks, workshops, and programs around the world.

Find out more at TheCommuniverse.com or find me on LinkedIn.

Global Workshop Tour "Beyond Screens" is in full swing! Booking now for 2025

To hear when new episodes drop, subscribe to my weekly newsletter, or check out recent episodes.

Amy:

what's been most helpful about hearing other women's stories. Is that women who are contributing to us to the myths are so transparent and thoughtful and it's, it's delightfully surprising sometimes, like how much detail some of these women will share about their stories. And so that's encourages me to then be transparent and, you know, share some of this. Not everything is beautiful in midlife, right? There's challenges we have to overcome. And so it's encouraging me to. Share more too.

Shelley Doyle:

Hello and welcome to Rediscovering Connection. I am Shelley Doyle and I'm here today with Amy Quaver Schroeder, founder of The Midst, which is an online magazine geared for people who are not just rolling into middle age, but really rocking into middle age with some really cool features and contributors. It's been on my radar since a friend of mine Was featured at a as a midterm profile. She's a coach from the UK now living in Munich, Germany. Hello, Joe Fitty. Um, so I've been reading the midst regularly. I get all their newsletters, uh, and just a big fan. It's like, yeah, we're uh, we are kind of shaping a different path for middle age. Um, and I'm excited to kind of be in this, in this like kind of crew thinking that this is the time of our lives. Um, so yeah, really big welcome to Amy. Thank you so much for being here with me this morning. Thank you, Shelly. And thanks for reading the midst. Yeah. Pleasure. So the podcast is all about rediscovering connections. So what I love to do is speak to guests who have found new ways to rediscover connection in their own lives. And in the lives of people that they really resonate with. So I imagine you to be someone that, you know, you conceptualize the idea of this online magazine and now it's all coming to fruition. Like how has it changed the way that you connect to people that you totally vibe with?

Amy:

I started the myths as something else. There's a little bit of story to this. I started as a personal blog called jumble and flow. this was, you know, five years ago. And at that time, uh, I was in my early forties. I'm 48 now and I was writing about my frustrations with perimenopause and, uh, the inability to get a proper diagnosis from my doctor or just any, any recognition from several doctors, actually, that I was in perimenopause. So I started just writing about my experience. And when I did that, um, I started sharing it on my social media. And. Suddenly, lots of women around my age were saying, Me too! I'm going through similar symptoms and frustrations and I don't know what to do. Help, help, help. So that's really how it started. And um, I, after writing, you know, about peri menopause for a little bit, People started reaching out to me and saying, can I contribute my story too? And I said, absolutely. And from there, we expanded to not just covered perimenopause, but lots of midlife, modern midlife experiences ranging from, you know, job changes and raising kids, or deciding not to have kids, family, um, situations and. Personal, personal relationships, et cetera. And, um, as, as part of that evolution of just having many voices, creating sort of a collective of voices, then that's when I'm like, you know, we're in the midst of so much right now, this midlife experiences. It's not my mom's middle age. This is a whole it's, you know, we're redefining what middle age means now. And that's where I decided to change the name, uh, to the midst. And we officially launched as the midst, um, like sort of bigger, better, um, in January, 2024. And, um, you know, through that experience and just from hearing from so many women who read us, but also write for us, um, I'm just, my outlook on middle age is definitely, you know, much more than my mom's middle age now. And I'm excited. And, um, you know, I remember when I first started writing, it was about my, 40, being in my 40s and now here I am on the eve of turning 50 in a couple of years. And I'm, I feel confident. I feel ready.

Shelley Doyle:

Yeah. Yeah. And I always think of lifespan. Like I think we could be living to a hundred comfortably. We could be living to a hundred these days. And I, and I think of my life then I'm like, I'm not even halfway. And then I look at my children who are six and eight and I'm like, they are babies. Like they are so like. At the very, very beginning of their life and I think a lot of the time we expect a lot from our kids and it's like they are so small and little so having that perspective I think really shifts things. Another thing I've heard recently is that Um, so you have your childhood up until you're about 20, and then, and then you have your adulthood, but you kind of, you're still children, so you're, you're, we're currently in our 20s of adulthood, and I'm like, oh, that's a shift.

Amy:

Yeah. that way, yeah, but I like that. Yeah. And, you know, middle age, to your point, right. If, if we could live to be a hundred and that's sort of one, our, one of our goals at the myths is to think about how to live our, you know, healthy, fulfilling lives so that we can live longer. When we think about it living longer, it makes me realize that middle age is probably the lengthiest period of our lives, right? There's all different connotations and definitions of midlife and it's, you know, open to interpretation, but we're kind of looking at it as around 40, uh, starting at around 40 and it could go up to, you know, some people think of like in, into their mid late sixties as being Still in midlife. So I mean, if you think about that, that's like a big chunk of your life.

Shelley Doyle:

And that's an intriguing perspective because I think of my mom who was a young mom. She's now only in her mid 60s. So actually we're kind of at a similar stage, even though I've got little children, so it's a different life. Um, but yeah, we're, we're cruising the midlife together, actually. I understand you have been in journalism throughout your life. I wonder if you just want to walk me through just a little bit of that journalistic journey.

Amy:

I started at an early age. I started, um, my first fanzine, if you will, when I was in, you know, like 12 or something. But I, I really got my journalism career started. Uh, when I was in college at Michigan State University at age 19, I started a publication called Venus about women in the arts and creative culture. And uh, I built that organically, you know, bootstrapped it with very small budget. And grew it into an internationally distributed publication after doing it for nearly 10 years, I ended up selling the publication to a bigger, uh, publisher in Chicago. And I stayed on working with the original. Publishers for a couple of years, And then I stopped doing it, uh, for about a decade and work for other bigger publishers and other companies in content. So I kind of feel like the midst is kind of a continuation of what I had started a long time ago A lot of the people that I met through that experience Now are helping me grow the midst.

Shelley Doyle:

So this is a continuation. Yes, that's right. Very cool. Um, um, yeah, there's so many different elements to the magazine and no, I know you've been doing some physical events recently as well. And there's. talk that there might be one coming to Seattle, which I would love to get down to if that happens. Um, when you talk me through a little bit of these, like how it's turning from online to to offline and, and how that's felt as an evolution.

Amy:

Yeah. Well, you know, we At The Mist, we spend a lot of time up front just building our collective voice, and I'm careful saying collective voice because it's not like it's just my story, right? It's a culmination of stories from many women around the world sharing their modern midlife experience, um, and so I bring that up because You know, at this point we have hundreds of articles, right? About everything from perimenopause to divorce and dating in midlife and starting a company in your forties or fifties. We've covered so much ground and territory. Um, it just felt like a natural next step to, um, take our community to the next level. And they were asking, you know, we, we heard from a number of our readers saying, so are we going to meet? How are we going to meet in person someday? Um, so we had our first in person event in Chicago in October 2024, and it was fantastic. Um, and so now we're thinking, how can we grow this beyond just that first event? So we're starting to think about other cities. And what we recently did a It's just a, you know, uh, informal survey to ask, to generate interest from our readers. Like, if you live in one of these six cities in the U. S., would you like to meet up? And it's been so fun to hear what people are saying, like from you, we heard from you too. Yeah. Um, and so I'm excited to see. What we can grow, you know, grassroots style. I

Shelley Doyle:

love it. And that's like collaboration, like getting the interest before putting on the events. So, you know, that you've actually got some bums on seats before you've even got it off the ground. That's such a savvy approach. I love it. Um, and how about in your, in your own life? So you've got the magazine and that's attracting. I'm sure, I'm sure you've got readers that you know from your own community. Um, and how is, how is the work of the midst like transferring like your knowledge? I imagine you're learning so much about this stage in women's life. Like are you able to share that with like your best buddies and be like, wow, did you know that this was even a thing? How is that kind of crossing over? Into your personal life.

Amy:

Well, I think what's been most helpful about hearing other women's stories. Is that women who are contributing to us to the myths are so transparent and thoughtful and it's, it's delightfully surprising sometimes, like how much detail some of these women will share about their stories. And so that's encourages me to then be transparent and, you know, share some of this. Not everything is beautiful in midlife, right? There's challenges we have to overcome. And so it's encouraging me to. Share more too. So I would say I, in addition to doing the myths, I still work full time in tech and, um, you know, the balance of, you know, building a business while working full time is, it's a lot. And, um, I have to say, I recently, I just last week was interviewing for a full time job in tech and, uh, we got into some really interesting territory where the employer was asking me how I could scale myself with AI. And, um, I have a lot of thoughts and opinions on that. Um, long story short, they ended up changing their initial, you know, saying that we're offering a full time job and asking if I would take a contract position for a short period of time so that they could essentially experiment on me, with me, to see how I could scale myself with AI. I ultimately decided not to do it, but it, that experience inspired me to basically figure out how can I scale my content production process, um, with AI. So that's sort of a new challenge that I'm, uh, working on. And I think it's this whole figuring out how to scale yourself with AI or how to use AI is going to be a big topic for our, for us, right? These days. People. So I'm writing it right now and I'll be publishing that soon. So

Shelley Doyle:

interesting. And that's it. Like there's, there's so two sides of it, like thinking about editorial being unique and human, um, versus leaning on the expertise of AI to proof our copy and ensure that it flows and make sure that the order of it, and that's sometimes what I do, like, I'll be like. Don't change the copy, but just check on the flow, and just make sure that it's in the right order for readers to, like, work their way through it. Um, but yeah, it's really, it's, it's a very, very interesting time, and that thought that you just shared of being Asked how you would scale yourself and how that thought has now gone. Okay. How could I, for my own benefit, not necessarily for this big tech company that wants to extrapolate all of my knowledge and then just automate it, but how can we do this for ourselves, for our own lives?

Amy:

Exactly. Yeah. So I'm excited because a lot of my. Work in tech for the past decade has been writing executive thought leadership for, you know, big time tech founders, right? Essentially like ghostwriting and helping themselves tell their own stories. And you know how it is, I think so many women will resonate with this, is that I have more than 20 years of experience doing what I do. So, um, I have systems and processes by which I get things done efficiently, quickly. Um, and. I, you know, I think there's parts of AI that can help me, you know, expand that, right? Like help me to document like some of my processes. But still, I think some of the questions I ask of people I'm ghostwriting for, they could be done by AI, but I still just think that there's, there's a human factor that needs to be involved to help drive the scale, if you will, of, of AI.

Shelley Doyle:

And do you want to give away all of that knowledge so readily that you've accumulated for the last 20 years, or could that become another kind of business venture of its own? Exactly. So that's, yes, that's exactly what I'll be writing about

Amy:

coming up here.

Shelley Doyle:

Yeah. So good. Um, I'm conscious that we are coming to time. Um, maybe let's just see one more question. So I know you have young children too. Um, how, how do you balance all of these, all of these balls that you are juggling in the air? Um, and find, find time for, for all of, for everything.

Amy:

Yes, I have. So I have twin nine year old girls. Um, one has severe special needs and she needs a lot of special care. How do I balance it all? I, you know, I work remotely that has helped so much. Um, I'm pretty regimented with my time. I have a daily, you know, agenda for myself. And, um, in addition to getting all of my work done. Done sort of my double day and taking care of my family with my husband. Um, I get a lot of sleep. I think that helps a lot. I use, I honestly have to get at least eight and a half hours, if not nine hours of sleep. So I'm always feel well rested and, um, I eat, try to eat healthy. I exercise. I think by having like a regular regimen for, for all of my, my health, um, to keep my health well. Uh, I think that helps me balance all the work that I have to do and to just make things go so much more efficiently. Beautiful. Yes. Scheduling,

Shelley Doyle:

scheduling, scheduling, Amy, it's been a pleasure and I'm excited to contribute to the MIDS, so watch this space. and best of luck, and I really hope that one of those physical events does come near me soon. We will of course, uh, include links in the show notes. But maybe just share the URL of where people can find the magazine.

Amy:

Sure. If you google the myths spell M I D S T, you'll see that we have both a website that's the myths. com and then we also have the myths sub stack and that's our exclusive newsletter.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Shelley Doyle

Host