Eleanor Mills spent 23 years at The Sunday Times as an editor, writer and interviewer, and she has talked to everyone from the Dalai Lama to Sheryl Sandberg. She was also a truth teller from the age of five, when her dad would take her aside before lunch guests arrived and say, “Darling, no remarks.”

Then one day she was called into a meeting where there was a box of tissues on the table. Her career, her status and her identity went in a single morning, just as the world shut down in March 2020. Instead of going back to newspapers, she built Noon, a community for women in midlife, and gave us the word Queenager.

In this honest, funny and very human conversation, Eleanor talks about what it was really like to be a young woman in a newsroom, what it feels like when the cloak of power comes off, and why she believes the end of one life is the beginning of something better. This episode contains strong language.

In this episode we cover

• Growing up a “truth teller” and why women who speak up are so often told to be quiet
• What it was like to be a young woman in a newsroom, and the price of admission
• Interviewing the Dalai Lama and Sheryl Sandberg
• Chairing Women in Journalism and mentoring hundreds of young women
• The day she was made redundant: the tissues, the tugboat and the sense of a car crash
• Losing her identity and the “cloak of power”, and what she found underneath
• The trip to Jamaica that changed her direction
• Why she called her company Noon
• What a Queenager is, and why we needed a new word
• The “midlife clusterfuck” and Noon’s research with Accenture on the big life events many women face by 50
• The myth of Inanna, the figure of eight and going “through the eye of the midlife needle”
• Finding joy again through swimming in the pond
• Rethinking work, money and age in a 100-year life
• What is next for Noon

About Eleanor Mills

Eleanor Mills is a journalist, author and founder of Noon.

Eleanor is the UK’s premier expert on “midlife”. She founded NOON.org.uk, a media platform and 50k plus community of midlifers, to change the narrative around ageing. After all, in the 100 year life, 50 is only halfway through. It’s noon, lunchtime, and midlife isn’t a crisis but a chrysalis when we finally get to become the people we always wanted to be. Building on this mission, her first book on midlife, Much More to Come: Lessons on the Mayhem and Magnificence of Midlife (2024), is a Times bestseller.

Prior to setting up Noon, Eleanor was Editorial Director of The Sunday Times and Editor of The Sunday Times Magazine. Known as one of the most high profile journalists of her generation and a top flight interviewer, she has interrogated everyone from Mikhail Gorbachev to Sheryl Sandberg, David Cameron to One Direction, Theresa May to the Dalai Lama. She still writes regularly for UK newspapers and magazines and appears as a broadcaster on TV and radio.

Connect with Eleanor

• Noon: https://noon.org.uk/
• Instagram: @uponnoon
• Email: eleanor@noon.org.uk
• Book: Much More to Come, published by HarperCollins: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/much-more-to-come-eleanor-mills?variant=56328100610427
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleanor-mills-88a8a827/

About Fran

Fran Willoughby is an intuitive mentor and coach, evidential medium, Reiki practitioner and the host of The Power of the Truth. Through Mojo Motivator she offers mediumship readings, oracle card readings, Reiki healing and coaching, helping people find clarity, connection and confidence through life’s biggest transitions. Find out more or book a session at www.mojo-motivator.com.

Send us Fan Mail

If you have a story that you think would be good for the podcast, please do get in touch by emailing thepowerofthetruth@mojo-motivator.com.

Alex Croxford was a television executive with a marriage that looked perfect from the outside when her own affair brought it all down. Today she helps women who have been where she was, and she is clear from the start that nothing here is about justifying infidelity.

In this honest, wide-ranging conversation, Alex and I talk about the loneliness hiding inside a “good” marriage, the years of quiet self-betrayal that so often come before the betrayal, and the shame that followed. We talk about what it took to tell the truth, the friendships she lost, the Instagram reel that went viral, and why she believes you can take full responsibility for what you did without being punished for it for the rest of your life.

This episode contains strong language.

In this episode we cover

• Why Alex calls the affair a “portal”, and what was on the other side
• The loneliness and numbness she didn’t know she was living with in a marriage that looked perfect
• “Choose me” energy, and how it can switch off our discernment
• Self-abandonment and the pressure cooker of years of saying yes when we mean no
• The shame that followed, and why taking accountability is different from punishing yourself
• Trying to repair the marriage, and what happened when it couldn’t be saved
• Losing friendships, and what it means to outgrow a version of your life
• The reel that went viral, the messages of thanks and the trolls
• Why she believes people deserve the chance to redeem themselves
• Control, surrender and trusting that you’ll be okay
• This episode contains strong language and honest conversations about sex and suicidal feelings.

About Alex Croxford

Alex Croxford helps women who have had an affair turn the pain of what happened into the beginning of their awakening. She was the one who cheated, so she knows that shame from the inside. Her somatic, parts-informed coaching helps women take full responsibility for their choices without punishing themselves for the rest of their lives, understand the self-betrayal that so often sits underneath, and choose who they become next.

Connect with Alex

Website: https://www.alexcroxford.com/
The Deeper Love Podcast: https://www.alexcroxford.com/podcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamalexcroxford/

If this episode has affected you

If anything in this conversation has brought up difficult feelings, you don’t have to carry them alone. The Samaritans offer free, confidential support at any time on 116 123.

About Fran

Fran Willoughby is an evidential medium, Reiki practitioner, Intuitive mentor, and the host of The Power of the Truth. Through Mojo Motivator she offers one to one mentorship, mediumship readings, oracle card readings, Reiki healing and circles, helping people find clarity, connection and confidence through life’s biggest transitions. Find out more or book a session at www.mojo-motivator.com.

Send us Fan Mail

If you have a story that you think would be good for the podcast, please do get in touch by emailing thepowerofthetruth@mojo-motivator.com.

Beverley Poole swam 30 lengths one day and had a major heart attack the next. She had no chest pain. For months she had been telling doctors something wasn’t right, and she was told it was her age, her anxiety or the menopause.

Beverley is a business mentor, a former health and human development lecturer and a STEMI heart attack survivor. In this episode she speaks honestly about the warning signs she was told not to worry about, what happened on the night, and why heart attacks can look so different in women. We also talk about the stress that came before it, the financial lessons she learned the hard way, and a moment that night she still can’t fully explain. This is a conversation about advocating for yourself when you’re not being listened to. I hope it reaches the people who need it most.

In this episode we cover:
The warning signs Beverley was told not to worry about
Why a heart attack can happen without chest pain
What it means to advocate for yourself
The stress and survival mode that came before it
The financial cost of illness, and what she wishes she’d had in place
Why she set up her Heart Attack Survivor page
The truth she wants you to take away

About Beverley Poole
Beverley Poole believes good work starts with telling the truth and being fully present. For over 20 years she has applied that across business, education and working on local and central government projects. Her career runs from the City of London and a major banking group to founding and selling her own company to a PLC subsidiary, and leading the analysis for a £2.6m Department for Education skills programme that engaged more than 450 employers. As founder of Aspire4Business she mentors leaders on strategy, scale and exit, and has supported more than 70 businesses. She is a Board Trustee, Chair of a local skills board and a university business mentor, and she speaks on leadership, resilience and women’s heart health. Her new offer, Chapters Concierge Bureau, supports discerning executives, dual-income households and families.

Connect with Beverley:
Website, Chapters Concierge Bureau: https://www.chaptersconciergebureau.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverley-poole-business-builder/
Instagram, business: @beverleypoolebusiness
Instagram, Heart Attack Survivor page: @heartattacksurvivor_encore

If this episode has affected you:
This episode shares Beverley’s personal experience and is not medical advice. If you’re worried about your heart or any symptoms, speak to your GP, call 111, or call 999 in an emergency. The British Heart Foundation Heart Helpline is open weekdays 9am to 5pm on 0808 802 1234 (freephone), or visit bhf.org.uk. If you’re struggling, Samaritans are on 116 123, any time.

About Fran
Fran Willoughby is an evidential medium, Reiki practitioner and intuitive facilitator, and the host of The Power of the Truth. Through Mojo Motivator she offers mediumship readings, oracle card readings, Reiki healing and coaching, helping people find clarity, connection and confidence through life’s biggest transitions. Find out more or book a session at www.mojo-motivator.com.

Send us Fan Mail

If you have a story that you think would be good for the podcast, please do get in touch by emailing thepowerofthetruth@mojo-motivator.com.