Zoe Ball’s great midlife reinvention and why working in a cafe makes total sense
Just weeks after presenting her last radio show for the BBC, Zoe Ball has swapped breakfast shows for gardening and beach cafes. There’s something wonderful about embracing ‘the big pause’, says Rosie Nixon, who argues that this is just the first step for a great next chapter
It is not easy to step away from a busy and prosperous career that has defined most of your working life. This is why I felt a pang of recognition when I heard that, since Zoe Ball stepped down from her high-profile Radio 2 breakfast show, she has been spending days gardening and working in her ex-husband’s beach cafe in the Brighton area. She has since announced that she will return to Radio 2 in a more low-key weekend slot after enjoying some downtime.
In an interview, her son Woody described how amusing it was seeing his parents enjoying a relaxed lifestyle after indulging in more manic activities while he grew up.
“These crazy party people I grew up with are now gardening, making puzzles and working in the local cafe,” he told MailOnline. “It’s very funny to see that transitional period, just as I’m kind of leaving the nest and now at the start of something big for me in music.”
Ball, who will be 55 this year, made an emotional sign-off from her final Radio 2 show days before Christmas. She made almost £1m annually while working for the corporation but said she was stepping away from her hosting stint to “focus on family” after the death of her mother Julia. Her decision to take some time out before embarking on her “new adventures” is something to applaud.
I felt the same way when I made the decision two and a half years ago to leave my role as editor-in-chief of Hello! magazine and a fast-paced world which appeared glamorous and outwardly “successful” but inwardly was causing me deep unhappiness.
I had thrived in my role for a long time, but, after 16 years, I was exhausted; my health was suffering, my hormones raging, I wasn’t there for my family as I wanted to be and I was desperate for something new.
I am not alone: one recent report revealed that 88 per cent of UK workers may have experienced some degree of burnout over the last two years and the statistic is particularly high for the over-45s.
That frenetic pace of life was no longer tenable and as I look forward to turning 50 this summer, I am so pleased I had the courage to make a change and my working life is now centred around supporting other midlife women to find greater purpose and fulfilment in theirs. But it wasn’t an overnight process or by any means straightforward.
Sometimes we need to gift ourselves the opportunity to be in a state of pause for a while, and ideally before our health takes a serious turn, when that pause might be on medical advice.
Being in a state of “transition” can be emotional, discombobulating and hard to navigate. You need supportive networks around you, understanding friends and family and a willingness to extend the same self-compassion to yourself, that you so readily extol to others.
As I began to share how I was feeling, wanting to reinvent my working life in midlife, it became clear that many, many other midlife women were feeling exactly the same.
Training to be a life coach was a huge change for me – not only for learning a new skill, but also for the self-awareness it evoked and I am now making it my mission to bring the huge benefits of my “Reinvent like a Pro” concept to hundreds of others.
My top tips for midlife reinvention
“Reinvent like a Pro” comprises three stages: Pause, Reflect and Organise.
Pause: the pause is critical, it involves taking some time on your own or with a coach to have the intentionality to think about your life in terms of where you’re at now, what has come before and how you might like to feel in the future. No planning, just stopping to put the focus on your own personal development.
This is often a really emotional moment and on the retreats I host it has become clear that many working women haven’t given ourselves this precious opportunity for a very long time. Consider that we are a generation of midlife women who have been brought up with the belief we can be the same as men in the modern world – but the fact is we have different bodies, we have babies, a menstrual cycle, we have different hormones and bells and whistles that require we rest a little more. Something we’re not very good at doing!
And if we don’t do that, many of us hit burnout round about this time of life, or experience gut issues, depression, anxiety, perimenopause and menopause symptoms, thyroid issues, and irritability. Our bodies simply cannot cope with the same level of intense activity, over a prolonged period, that many of us have been used to. A little bit of empathy in a supportive environment to open up a conversation can be life-changing.
Reflect: spend time getting to know yourself better at this stage of life. What are your values, or motivators, the things that get you up and out of bed with a spring in your step? What are your strengths? Understanding what “enough” means to you, in terms of status and money can be really eye-opening and help you to begin to curate your vision for your next chapter. It may not be clear at first, but if you give yourself enough time, clarity will come.
Organise: change comes from action. After the first two stages, we can move forward. Having identified what’s important to you and what you want to be known for in your next chapter, consider your options, what serves your new needs and plot the small steps to get you there.
At this point, it is important to consider what is in your control and what you can do in the next week and the next 24 hours. Build an accountability circle with trusted confidantes to keep you on track. Whatever you do, keep moving forward, even if the steps feel small some days.
There is no set rule about how long you need to be in each stage. For Ball, the pause stage was brought on following a bereavement. The DJ was left “bereft” in April 2024 after the death of her mother, whom she cared for before she was moved to a hospice.
This is often a trigger for change in midlife, as is divorce, redundancy or the children leaving home. All of these big life events pull what really matters in life into sharp focus. But slowing down to reassess isn’t always easy. For some of us who are used to being in a permanent ‘action’ phase, pausing can feel strange and indulgent.
But it is wise to give yourself a chance to properly reflect before rushing straight into another big life decision like starting a new job. Careering into something new without proper pause can take away the enjoyment and sense of achievement from it. And sometimes it can mean you repeat patterns which just make you unhappy.
Ball is right to enjoy the quiet pace of her winter before she is ready to revel in the spring of her next chapter. I have no doubt will be just as successful and even more purposeful and fulfilling than before.
Find out more about Rosie’s Reinvention Retreats here
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