E116 Midlife's Dark Places and Pivots with Marie-Pierre Stien

My guest, Marie Pierre Stien, 54, is a listener of the podcast. In fact, she binged on the entire library of over 100 episodes over several weeks and then reached out to me, sharing her story in an email, that in turn changed MY story and that of the Experience 50 Podcast. Marie and I have become mutually smitten with each other.

Marie found the Experience 50 Podcast when she was searching for a way out of what she refers to as a "dark place". At the same time that she had listened to all of the prior episodes, I had taken a hiatus of several weeks because I was in a bit of a "dark place". And yes, those are the very words I used at the time, her words. Marie wrote to me. Her message was very emotionally honest about the difficulties she had been experiencing and the impact of my podcast on "shaking her up", helping her find her way to find purpose and light.

Moving out of the dark

As you will learn in our chat, she continues her successful career in business, while creating, selling and giving away her whimsical art and accompanying stories under the name P.M. Neist.

In this conversation, you will be drawn into her story of

• her surprise by the midlife transition experience
• finding herself in a dark place without a sense of purpose
• working through her feelings of resentment toward her parents for steering her career away from her dreams
• creating a life without a pre-set script
• her year of "Yes"
• what shook her up to make changes
• changing her life through addition, not subtraction
• embracing her artistic self and putting her work on display
• creating Project 105, her weekly gift of a piece of art to a stranger
• becoming a podcast co-host of AARP Houston's Prepare To Care
• finding her way out of the dark place

Her advice for creative souls who chose a traditional career: Do it! Life is so short!

I must thank Marie for helping me to see the impact of Experience 50 on listeners. Her email meant the world to me and "shook me up", getting me back to the microphone with a renewed sense of commitment and appreciation for the difficulties that so many of us encounter as we reinvent ourselves at this age.

You can use the links above to visit Marie's artwork, listen to her podcast and subscribe to receive the weekly Project 105 newsletter.

Please email me your midlife story at [email protected].