Create Your Best Empty Nest

Permission to Want More: One Woman's Fascinating Story of Waking Up After the Kids Left- Part 1

What happens when the kids leave and you realize you've been living everyone else's life but your own? If you're in the empty nest season and you've been sitting with that quiet, uncomfortable question of "who am I now?" -- you are not alone. And you are not too late. In this episode, I sit down with my neighbor and friend Maureen Mehr, president of the nonprofit Who I Really Am, singer-songwriter, and woman who spent decades quietly putting her own life up on a shelf while she raised her family. She didn't even realize she'd done it until the kids were gone and the house got quiet. What finally cracked her open? A phone call from her son. He was moving to Kansas City and taking her grandkids with him. She hung up the phone and fell apart. And then she grabbed her laptop and started figuring out what was next. What followed was a graduate degree, international nonprofit work, a music career, and a life she's finally living on her own terms. In this first part of our conversation, we talk about: * What the empty nest transition actually feels like when it hits you out of nowhere * How women slowly disappear into motherhood one small sacrifice at a time * Why so many of us can't answer the question "what do YOU want?" without referencing our kids * The stories we tell ourselves that keep us stuck in the supporting role of everyone else's life * What it means to finally get comfortable not having all the answers * Why alignment feels completely different from pushing and forcing This episode is for the woman who loves her kids fiercely AND suspects there's more for her too. You don't have to choose. That's the whole point. This is part of our series: How to Stop Living Through Your Kids and Start Living Your Own Life. 🌿 START HEREIf the kids have left and you're sitting with that quiet question of "Now what?" -- take the "Who Am I After the Kids Leave?" quiz. In about five minutes, you'll have more clarity on this season than you've had in months.👉 marianneiverson.com/quiz 📞 READY TO STOP CIRCLING AND ACTUALLY START?You've been thinking about this long enough. On a free Next Chapter Jumpstart Call, we'll get clear on what this season is really asking of you and map out your first real step forward. Not someday. Now.👉 marianneiverson.com/call

Eye-opening Advice about "Firsts and Lasts"

The last school lunch you packed. The last time you're the first number they call. The last time someone's practice schedule tells you what the week looks like. Those lasts are yours too, and they deserve to be felt. But here's what nobody talks about: after all that busy evaporates and the house goes quiet, a lot of women stand in the middle of it and think something is wrong with them. The fog. The "I don't know who I am outside of this role" feeling. The sense that their best years are behind them. They're not broken. They're in the cocoon. In this episode, you'll get a completely different frame for this season. Not as something ending, but as something beginning. For you. On purpose. Here's what we cover: Why YOUR lasts matter just as much as theirs, and how to start honoring them The caterpillar metaphor that reframes the lost, foggy feeling so many empty nesters carry Why the empty nest isn't fall. It's spring. And what that means for what's coming next for you The pickleball story that is six words of pure permission Three things you can do today to start collecting your own firsts If you're a mom whose kids are grown or almost grown, and you can feel that shift coming but don't know yet who you're becoming, this episode is for you. START HERE If the kids have left and you're sitting with that quiet question of "Now what?" — take the "Who Am I After the Kids Leave?" quiz. In about five minutes, you'll have more clarity on this season than you've had in months. 👉 marianneiverson.com/quiz [https://www.marianneiverson.com/quiz] 📞 READY TO STOP CIRCLING AND ACTUALLY START? You've been thinking about this long enough. On a free Next Chapter Jumpstart Call, we'll get clear on what this season is really asking of you and map out your first real step forward. Not someday. Now. 👉 marianneiverson.com/call [https://marianneiverson.com/call] Keywords: empty nest transition, empty nester identity, life after kids leave home, who am I after my kids leave, empty nest depression, rediscovering yourself after motherhood, midlife reinvention, purpose after 50, life coach for empty nesters, women over 45, next chapter after kids, empty nest emotions, finding yourself again, mom identity loss, life coach for moms

The Truth About Losing Your Purpose

The house is quiet… but no one talks about what happens inside of you. You thought you’d feel relief when the kids moved out. More time. More freedom. Maybe even a little excitement. Instead… you feel lost. Like something important disappeared...and you can’t quite name it. In this episode, we’re talking about the part of the empty nest that catches so many women off guard: the loss of purpose after motherhood. Not just missing your kids… but missing the version of you who always knew what mattered that day. If you’ve been Googling things like: * “Why do I feel lost after my kids leave?” * “Empty nest syndrome and identity loss” * “How to find purpose after kids move out” * “Who am I now that I’m not needed the same way?” …this episode is for you. We’re getting honest about: ✔ Why the emptiness isn’t just about your kids ✔ The hidden grief of losing your everyday purpose ✔ Why the best moms often feel this the hardest ✔ The difference between staying busy and actually feeling fulfilled ✔ One simple way to start finding yourself again today This is your Reflect moment. Not to fix it. Not to rush past it. But to finally name what’s really going on...so you can begin to reclaim what’s next. Because nothing has gone wrong with you. You’re not broken. You’re in the space between who you were… and who you’re becoming. And there is a way forward. 💛 If this episode hits home, take the next step: 🌿 START HERE If the kids have left and you're sitting with that quiet question of "Now what?" — take the "Who Am I After the Kids Leave?" quiz. In about five minutes, you'll have more clarity on this season than you've had in months. 👉 marianneiverson.com/quiz [https://www.marianneiverson.com/quiz] 📞 READY TO STOP CIRCLING AND ACTUALLY START? You've been thinking about this long enough. On a free Next Chapter Jumpstart Call, we'll get clear on what this season is really asking of you and map out your first real step forward. Not someday. Now. 👉 marianneiverson.com/call [https://marianneiverson.com/call]

How to Ignite Your Spark After Years of Feeding Everyone's Fire

You spent years being everything for everyone. The one who remembered, planned, fixed, showed up, and held it all together. And now… the house is quieter. The calendar isn’t packed the same way. And when someone asks, “What do you want?” your mind goes blank. Not a pause. A blank. If you’re an empty nest mom wondering who you are now… this episode is for you. In today’s conversation, we’re talking about what it really means to rediscover yourself after motherhood and how to find purpose after your kids leave home without forcing it or faking it. Because that “I don’t know” feeling? That’s not a problem. It’s your starting point. Inside this episode, you’ll learn: • Why feeling lost in the empty nest phase is completely normal (and what your brain is doing) • How to start reconnecting with yourself after years of putting everyone else first • A simple way to shift from “I don’t know who I am anymore” to noticing what lights you up • The truth about empty nest syndrome, identity loss, and midlife reinvention • How to begin finding your spark again, even if it’s been years Not someday. Now. If you’ve been searching for: how to reinvent yourself at 50, life after kids move out, empty nest support for moms, or how to feel excited about your life again… You’re in the right place. Because this season? It’s not the end of your story. It’s the part where you finally get to come back to yourself. 🎧 Hit play and let’s start finding your spark again. 🌿 START HERE If the kids have left and you're sitting with that quiet question of "Now what?" — take the "Who Am I After the Kids Leave?" quiz. In about five minutes, you'll have more clarity on this season than you've had in months. 👉 marianneiverson.com/quiz [https://www.marianneiverson.com/quiz] 📞 READY TO STOP CIRCLING AND ACTUALLY START? You've been thinking about this long enough. On a free Next Chapter Jumpstart Call, we'll get clear on what this season is really asking of you and map out your first real step forward. Not someday. Now. 👉 marianneiverson.com/call [https://marianneiverson.com/call]

Getting Off Autopilot: How to Wake Up Your Own Life

You waved goodbye, walked back into a quiet house, and felt something you weren't expecting. Not just sadness. Something deeper. A hollow feeling that whispered: I don't know who I am anymore. If that's where you are right now, this episode is the one you didn't know you needed. In this episode of Create Your Best Empty Nest, coach Marianne Iverson gets honest about something nobody talks about in the empty nest conversation: autopilot. Not the kind where you're checked out or ungrateful. The kind where you were so fully, lovingly present for your family that you forgot to stay present for yourself. Marianne shares her own story, from coaching her daughter's soccer team when she was three years old to standing under the stadium lights on senior night twelve years later, looking around at the friends she'd built her whole life with, and realizing she had no idea what came next. That moment changed everything. In this episode you'll learn: * Why the empty nest identity crisis hits so hard, and why it has nothing to do with your strength or your faith * The 5 ways women lose themselves on autopilot while doing everything right * Why staying busy is keeping you more stuck than slowing down would * How to start rebuilding your identity on purpose, not by accident * The one step that gets you off autopilot for good This episode is for the woman who feels lost but can't explain why. Who's high-functioning on the outside and quietly hollow on the inside. Who keeps herself moving because stopping means sitting with a question she doesn't have an answer for yet. You're not behind. You're not broken. You've been on autopilot. And waking up starts right here. Create Your Best Empty Nest with Marianne Iverson is the podcast for women navigating empty nest syndrome, midlife identity, and the question of "who am I now?" with honesty, warmth, and a clear path forward. START HERE If the kids have left and you're sitting with that quiet question of "Now what?" — take the "Who Am I After the Kids Leave?" quiz. In about 90 seconds, you'll have more clarity on this season than you've had in months. 👉 marianneiverson.com/quiz [https://www.marianneiverson.com/quiz] 📞 READY TO STOP CIRCLING AND ACTUALLY START? You've been thinking about this long enough. On a free Next Chapter Jumpstart Call, we'll get clear on what this season is really asking of you and map out your first real step forward. Not someday. Now. 👉 marianneiverson.com/call [https://marianneiverson.com/call]