At 27, Laura England walked away from everything - a long-term relationship, her business, and the life she thought she was building - and ran off for a “Mamma Mia summer” working on cruise ships in Greece.

What looked like escape became something much bigger.

In this episode, Laura shares how she rose into senior roles at sea, only to walk away again - this time signing a 12-month lease with no clients and no safety net, determined to rebuild from scratch on her own terms.

We talk about pivoting at any age, detaching self-worth from career, navigating comparison, and finding the courage to begin again - even when it feels reckless.

If you’ve ever questioned your direction or wondered whether it’s too late to change, this conversation will remind you: your life isn’t written in permanent marker.

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What if the reason you feel stuck right now… is because you’re trying to get back to who you used to be?

After speaking to Talia about her accident and the moment her life completely changed, I kept thinking about something she said: she wasn’t meant to be that person before. This is who she’s meant to be now.

And it made me reflect on my own life - and on so many of the women I work with.

We think resilience means rebuilding what we had.

We think strength means getting “back to normal.”

But what if it doesn’t?

In this coaching episode, I’m asking you to stop trying to return to an old version of yourself. Instead, I want you to consider who you could become because of what’s happened.

If you’re feeling derailed, stuck, in transition, questioning your job, your direction, your purpose - this episode is for you.

I’ll share the mindset shift I see time and time again in the women who create real change. And I’ll ask you the reflective questions that might just help you take one small, intentional step forward this week.

Because maybe this isn’t about going back.

Maybe this is your moment to reinvent.

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Discover mid-life coaching with Lisa

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Connect with Lisa

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YouTube: The only place to watch every episode of Real Women's Stories with Lisa Quait

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At just 25, Talia Lazarus faced the unthinkable - a life-altering accident that nearly took her life and left her having to learn to walk again. What followed wasn’t just recovery - it was a complete reinvention of who she thought she was and what she wanted out of life.

In this deeply personal episode of Real Women’s Stories, Talia shares the raw, unfiltered truth about pain, identity, and transformation. We go beyond the physical injury to explore the emotional wreckage that followed: the panic attacks, the grief for the person she used to be, and the moment she realised that surviving wasn’t enough.

Rather than returning to her old life, Talia chose something radically different. She burned her old world to the ground - not out of anger, but out of clarity - and started again with a mission to help others do the same.

Through her work with her I Got Back Up podcast, Talia now supports people rebuilding after trauma, teaching them what she had to learn the hard way: resilience isn’t about bouncing back - it’s about rising up with purpose.

Join us for a story of survival, reinvention, identity rediscovery, and the courage it takes to walk into a life you never thought possible.

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Discover mid-life coaching with Lisa

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Connect with Lisa

Instagram: Follow Lisa

Facebook: Follow Lisa

YouTube: The only place to watch every episode of Real Women's Stories with Lisa Quait

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.