Here’s the thing: when I created Midlife by Design, the goal was never to drift into the second half of life by default, but to intentionally curate it.
For a long time, I thought I needed to have every single answer across every area of life. But true lifestyle design isn’t about knowing everything; it’s about knowing who to bring to the table. My zone of genius has always been Self-Discovery and Quality of Life (slow, simple & intentional living aligned with the seasons to be exact 😉). But to build a well-rounded life, we need trusted, grounded guidance across all five of our core life pillars.
That’s why I am thrilled to introduce our Midlife by Design In-House Experts.
Rather than chasing generic advice online, this page is your home base for monthly expert-led Q&As. Once a month, our panel answers real questions submitted by you, giving you actionable insights on hormone health, financial sovereignty, modern relationships, and second-act entrepreneurship.
Below, meet the specialists who are helping us curate our next chapter:
Meet Our In-House Experts
1. Self-Discovery & Quality of Life
Lead Host & Curator: Kiran Singh
Focus: Identity shifts, intentional living, sensory home design, and personal development.
About: Founder of Midlife by Design, focusing on helping women design their next chapter by choice, not default.
2. Relationships & Connections
In-House Expert: Linda Cooper
Focus: Relationship therapy, boundary setting, and navigating midlife relationship dynamics.
About: Linda Cooper is an author, writer, and founder of Rise Wise, exploring the deeper identity, relationship, and body shifts of midlife. Drawing on her professional background and lived experience, Linda helps women navigate the midlife convergence with greater awareness, self-trust, and conscious choice. She is the author of When EVERYTHING Changes: The Midlife Collision of Body and Life, The Conscious Coach, and the upcoming Rise Wise.
Connect: https://lindarosecooper.com
In-House Expert: Mina Yang
Focus: Relational wisdom, emotional intelligence, intentional connection, and boundary dynamics.
About: Mina Yang writes for the woman who has built an extraordinary life and still lies awake wondering why love hasn’t caught up. A relationship coach, RTT hypnotherapist, and author of Boss Lady Boss Love, she helps high-achieving midlife women understand why they keep repeating patterns in love, and change them at the subconscious level where they actually live. She found her own way through, later than she expected and better than she imagined, and now helps other women do the same at Musings on True Connections on Substack.
Connect: www.minayang.com
In-House Expert: Olivia Dreizen Howell
Focus: Starting over after divorce, relationship transitions, domestic labour dynamics, and rebuilding self-trust.
About: Olivia is a divorce educator, clinical hypnotherapist, certified coach, and co-founder of Fresh Starts Registry, the premier expert-led divorce support network. She specialises in guiding midlife women through relationship shifts, letting go of unsupportive patterns, and intentionally rebuilding their identity and confidence after a major life transition.
Connect: www.freshstartsregistry.com/olivia
3. Health & Well-being: Nutrition Specialist
In-House Expert: Adrienne Bitar, PhD
Focus: Midlife nutrition, bone health, osteoporosis prevention, and evolving dietary needs in menopause.
About: Dr Adrienne Bitar is a cultural historian of food and nutrition, Cornell lecturer, co-founder of Seen Nutrition, and advisory board member for the National Menopause Foundation and the Bone Health & Osteoporosis Foundation. She specialises in science-backed nutritional strategies for midlife vitality and long-term health.
Connect: www.seennutrition.com
4. Health & Well-being: Fitness & Movement
In-House Expert: Dr Melanie Wintle, DC, CSCS
Focus: Joint health, spinal alignment, posture, corrective exercise, and functional movement over 40.
About: Dr Melanie Wintle is a Doctor of Chiropractic, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and founder of Move Well Health. She specialises in helping women eliminate midlife aches and pains, restore physical confidence, and build functional strength so they can keep moving freely and living fully in their next chapter.
Connect: www.movewellhealth.ca
5. Health & Well-being: Menopause & Hormone Specialist
In-House Expert: Kristyn Zalota, MA, NCMP
Focus: Perimenopause, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), stress management, and Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM).
About: Kristyn is a Certified Menopause Practitioner, founder of Menopauser, and member of the European Menopause and Andropause Society. Holding an MA from Yale, she translates complex medical research into clear, practical answers regarding HRT, hormone health, and intimate midlife wellness.
Connect: www.menopauser.com
In-House Expert: Stacy Naugle, EAMP
Focus: Perimenopause, hormone balance, cognitive health, and sleep.
About: Stacy Naugle, M. Ac., is a Metabolic Capacity & Leadership Longevity Advisor for high-performing women 40+. With more than 35 years in clinical practice, she helps women understand the physiology underneath changes in energy, cognition, sleep, recovery, and performance during midlife.
As the founder of Executive Metabolism™, Stacy brings together Western physiology, lifestyle medicine, East Asian Medicine, and decades of clinical pattern recognition to help women understand what is changing in their bodies and preserve the capacity to keep doing the work, pursuing the ambitions, and enjoying the life they’ve built. Her work addresses a question many accomplished women quietly face in midlife: How do I keep being the woman who can do all the things I still want to do?
Connect: www.executivemetabolism.com
In-House Expert: Hotflash inc menopause + midlife by Ann Marie McQueen
Focus: Perimenopause, menopause research, hormone health updates, and evidence-based midlife wellness.
About: Ann Marie McQueen is an award-winning health journalist and founder of Hot Flash Inc., a global platform helping over 70,000 women navigate midlife. Drawing on nearly 30 years in journalism, she combines evidence, expert insights, and lived experience to cut through fear, hype, and polarisation; delivering the “true truth” on women’s health with journalistic integrity.
Connect: Website
6. Business & Finances: Female Entrepreneurship
In-House Expert: J. Friedman Fast, MBA
Focus: Second-act business strategy, monetisation, and creative independence.
About: Jenn Fast is a reinvention strategist and the founder of Reinvention with Jenn Fast, where she works with women in midlife who are ready to build something of their own. After a 30-year corporate career, the last 10 as an executive assistant to the C-suite, she left in her 50s to start her own business, bringing with her the systems, priorities, and executive function she spent a decade running for senior leaders. She holds an MBA and is a certified coach. Host of The Comeback Show podcast, she believes most midlife ventures stall because they are built on inspiration rather than infrastructure, and she helps women build the latter.
Connect: https://reinventionwithjennfast.com
In-House Expert: Sara Winslow
Focus: Midlife career pivots, second-act business building, overcoming corporate bias, and leadership confidence.
About: Sara Winslow is an author, speaker, and founder of Ambitchous Collective. She previously served on the advisory board for Florida International University’s Business Women in Leadership program. Drawing on a career in pharmaceutical, medical, and legal services in the US and UK, she writes about women’s achievements, gender bias, and building an independent path through reinvention at midlife.
Connect: Website
7. Business & Finances: Personal Wealth & Money
In-House Expert: Ridhi Raheja, Next 30, Your Terms
Focus: Financial sovereignty, wealth strategy, and financial confidence in midlife.
About: Ridhi Raheja completed two years of Certified Financial Planner coursework before deciding it wasn’t her jam, then spent 25 years in mortgage lending instead, funding more than $500 million in loans and ranking in the top 1% of loan officers nationally. She held a Certified Divorce Lending Professional (CDLP) certification. She is now retired and does not sell financial products or services. She writes Next 30, Your Terms, a Substack for women navigating divorce, caregiving, housing, and retirement, with practical tools alongside every post.
Connect: www.ridhiraheja.com
In-House Expert: Sarah Barry
Focus: Life transitions, non-financial retirement strategy, career pivots, and identity after major work roles.
About: Sarah is a Certified Professional Retirement and Life Transition Coach, multi-award-winning author of 9 Habits of Happy Retirees, and writer of the What Comes Next newsletter. She helps people navigate the non-financial side of retirement and major life transitions, with a particular focus on identity, purpose, structure, and connection.
Connect: https://sarahbarry.com
In-House Expert: Nicholle Overkamp, CFP®, ChFC®
Focus: Financial sovereignty, midlife investing, wealth building, and money mindset.
About: Nicholle Overkamp is a Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Financial Consultant, founder of PowHERhouse Money Coaching, and co-author of Money Bitch. She specialises in helping women build wealth, master their finances with confidence, and step into total financial independence without shame or jargon.
Connect: https://powherhousemoney.com
How to Submit Your Questions
Our experts are here for you. At the start of each month, look out for our callout on Substack Notes. DM me your questions or email hello@kiransinghuk.com, and our experts will answer selected queries in our monthly roundup column.
Have a specific question right now? Leave a comment below or reply to this email, and we’ll queue it up for our upcoming edition!
Reader Note: Each monthly edition of the Midlife by Design In-House Experts roundup will be free for all subscribers for the first 30 days! After 30 days, past roundups will move exclusively into The Midlife Circle archive for our paid members.
Thank you for building this table, Kiran, and for inviting me to take a seat at it. You are not only introducing each of us to your community, you are also giving us the gift of getting to know one another.
I feel so lucky to be part of this phenomenal group of strong, successful, and compassionate women, and to contribute what I know about money and financial confidence. ❤️
For years, family and work occupied center stage. In midlife, women move from the supporting cast to the main cast in one another’s lives. We don’t need to carry every answer when we know which women to bring to the table.