This Week at The After Party: The Power Shift

 🥂 Opening Toast 

“To the women too experienced to be overlooked — and too bold to be silenced.”

The most unstoppable force in the modern workplace isn’t a 25-year-old hustling for a title, it’s a 45-year-old woman redefining what leadership, legacy, and leverage look like.

We’ve spent years mastering the balance between intuition and intellect, between saying “yes” to opportunity and learning the freedom of “no.” We’ve learned that titles can change, industries can evolve, but confidence built through experience never expires.

Women are rewriting workplace culture, by walking away from burnout, setting boundaries that stick, and building careers that finally align with their brilliance. Whether you’re consulting, launching something new, or leading from a different kind of office (your laptop, your home, your heart), this is your era.

Forget the myth that success peaks in your 30s. Midlife women are one of the fastest-growing groups of entrepreneurs, consultants, and executives in the U.S.

According to a 2024 Harvard Business Review study, women aged 40–59 now start businesses at nearly twice the rate of those in their 20s and 30s. Why? Because experience is our greatest currency.

We’re leaving toxic offices, rigid schedules, and glass ceilings for boardrooms we build ourselves. We’re no longer asking for a seat at the table, we’re designing the damn table, sending the invites, and curating the menu.

The power shift after 40 doesn’t come from a title. It comes from presence. From knowing who you are and what you won’t tolerate. From charging your worth, whether it’s a keynote, a consulting package, or a career pivot that finally reflects your value.

This isn’t a comeback story. It’s a command performance.

🎤 Mic Drop

The secret to staying relevant isn’t chasing trends. It’s owning your expertise so deeply that you become the trend. When you’ve lived through economic shifts, cultural resets, and a thousand reinventions, your perspective is your edge.

Every meeting you lead, pitch you make, or story you tell carries the weight of lived experience. You’re not behind — you’re seasoned, strategic, and powerful.

🔍 Ask Yourself

• Where have I been undervaluing my experience?

• What story am I still telling myself about “too late” or “too old” — and what’s the truth instead?

• If I treated my 20 years of experience like an asset, not baggage, how would I show up differently this week?

✍️ Challenge of The Week

Rewrite your LinkedIn headline to reflect who you really are now, not who you used to be. Drop the modesty. Add the authority. Your headline is your handshake.

Example:
Instead of “Consultant helping businesses grow,” try:
👉 “Former exec turned strategy consultant helping brands scale through experience-driven leadership.”

📚 Want To Go Deeper?

Here are a couple of great articles that reinforce this week’s theme:

• 🔗 Forbes: How Gen X Women Turn Midlife Into Prime Time Through Entrepreneurship

• 🔗 Forbes: 50 Over 50 2025 - This year’s list of women 50+ thriving in business, entrepreneurship, and life.

• 🔗 Her Agenda: How Women Are Launching Their Most Successful Startups After 40

🪞 Note to Self

You didn’t come this far to play small. Power isn’t something you earn — it’s something you remember.

👑 The Guest List

Julia Boorstin — Journalist. Author. Advocate for Women in Power.

Julia Boorstin is the kind of woman who studies power not to critique it, but to redefine it. As CNBC’s Senior Media & Tech Correspondent, she’s spent nearly two decades at the intersection of innovation and influence, covering how technology and media shape the world we live and work in.

Before CNBC, she cut her teeth as a business writer at Fortune magazine and earned her degree in history from Princeton University, a fitting foundation for someone now rewriting the story of leadership itself.

In 2022, Julia released When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn From Them, a groundbreaking book that examines how women rise by transforming the very definition of success. Drawing from in-depth interviews with over sixty CEOs and founders, she discovered that female leaders don’t climb the traditional corporate ladder, they rebuild it. Her findings revealed a pattern: women lead through empathy, adaptability, collaboration, and authenticity, qualities often undervalued in corporate culture but essential for lasting impact.

For women in midlife, Julia’s work is both a reflection and a rallying cry. She reminds us that experience isn’t a limitation; it’s a superpower. The instincts, intuition, and resilience forged over decades in the workforce aren’t just relevant, they’re revolutionary.

In a world obsessed with youth and speed, Julia’s message is clear: wisdom, emotional intelligence, and earned confidence are the ultimate competitive advantages.

As we step into The Power Shift, Julia Boorstin stands as proof that leadership after 40 isn’t a second act, it’s the main event.

🔍 Want to Learn More About Julia? Check out the links below! 

📚 “When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn from Them.” This groundbreaking, deeply reported work from Julia Boorstin reveals the key characteristics that help top female leaders thrive as they innovate, grow businesses, and navigate crises 

🎧 “How CNBC’s Julia Boorstin Built Her Career by Taking Chances, Over Preparing, and Creating Opportunity,” Her Money with Jean Chatzky

🎥 Talks at Google: Julia Boorstin discusses her book When Women Lead, which brings together the stories of over sixty of those female CEOs, featuring new interviews with Katrina Lake, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jenn Hyman, Whitney Wolfe Herd

 🎁 Party Favors

This week’s favors are all about helping you kickstart your power era.

📚 Buy it! Nothing says “I’m walking into my power era,” more than an Apple 2025 MacBook Air 13-inch Laptop with M4 chip. You’ll be ready to take on just about anything, anywhere.

 👚 Use it! Your Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Checklist for 2025: Stand Out and Get Results - Having an optimized LinkedIn profile is no longer optional—it’s essential. Whether you’re looking for a new job, aiming to connect with prospects, or building a personal brand, your profile needs to work harder for you.

🧘‍♀️ Wear It! Elisa Silver Pendant Necklace in Ivory Mother-of-Pearl by Kendra Scott. This pendant necklace can be paired with any look, providing that extra touch of timeless style.

📣 Last Call…

Before we turn the lights up...

What if this next chapter isn’t your second act, but your real debut? Hit reply and share what your messy middle is teaching you.

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_{(Fellas, if The After Party isn’t quite your scene, that’s cool. But chances are, you know a woman who needs this energy. Be a hero, hit forward)}

Until next week,