Welcome back to No Filter Fridays - caffeine-fuelled and chaos-approved.

I’m sharing the warts-and-all reality of rebuildingThe Mama Assembly™ from scratch - because too many of us try to figure it all out alone.

Each week I pull back the curtain on what I’m trying, testing, and learning as I go - the stuff that might just save another small business owner a few headaches (or a few hours lost to Canva).

If you’re at the start or somewhere in the middle of your own build, this is for you.

(If you missed how it all began, catch up in Season 2, Issue 1: The Epiphany to Pivot.)

Season #2 | Issue 5: The Great Midlife Unleashing

If you’d told me even a month ago that I’d be going live on TikTok, I would have laughed and gone back to loading the dishwasher. TikTok Lives were for dancers, teenagers, and people who knew how to contour. Not midlife mums who drink cold coffee on purpose because reheating it feels like admin.

But then I hit “Go Live” one morning with no script, no plan, and zero clue what I was doing.

And something I didn’t expect happened.

Women showed up.

Not in a “this is fun” way.
In a “I’ve been waiting for someone to crack the door so I could walk through it” way.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had more women share their midlife plans with me than I’ve ever heard in my entire career.

Plans they’ve never typed before.
Plans they’ve never said out loud.
Plans they’ve been quietly sitting on while doing school lunches and performance reviews and washing the damn soccer socks that never dry.

And it’s made something very clear.

We are not drifting.
We are not confused.
We are not spiralling.
We are not “having a moment.”

We are plotting.

There is a quiet revolution happening in women around our age.
A realisation that you can be grateful for your life and still hungry for more of yourself.

That you can love your family and still want something that belongs only to you.
That you can do what you’ve always done and still crave a new chapter.

Once you start the conversation, the floodgates open.

Women are starting businesses.
Changing careers.
Studying again.
Picking up paintbrushes.
Writing books.
Moving countries.
Requesting flexible work.
Walking away from managers who drain the life out of them.
Choosing themselves in ways that would have felt outrageous ten years ago.

And as more women have asked me how to take the first step, I realised something important:

Most of us don’t need motivation. We need permission.
Or at least someone to say, “Hey, you don’t need to be perfect. Just begin.”

So today I released something special.
A simple Beginner TikTok Guide.
For the women who want to take up space.
Not for virality.
Not for trends.

For visibility.
For voice.
For courage.
For claiming a tiny corner of the internet that’s theirs.

But this is what I didn’t expect…

The messages I’ve been getting since launching it are not:
“How do I get more followers?”
They’re:
“This made me feel like I’m allowed to start.”

That’s why this issue matters.

Because “starting” is the real transformation.
Starting is the conversation.
Starting is the spark.
Starting is what opens the door for other women to whisper their plans too.

Three Starter Tips for the Midlife Woman Who’s Ready to Reclaim a Little Space

1. Start with one tiny, imperfect action.

Post a clip. 
Go live for two minutes.
Upload a photo.
Do a 10-second video.

You’re not building an audience yet.
You’re building a nerve.

2. Don’t wait to feel confident. Confidence is the reward for doing it scared.

If I waited until I felt ready, I’d still be reorganising my bookshelf pretending I was “researching.”

Your first videos will be awkward.
Congratulations.
That means you’re doing it right.

3. Use social media to document your journey, not perform perfection.

Women are connecting with the real stuff.
The messy middle.
The “I’m figuring this out in real time” energy.

Your voice is your niche.
Your story is the value.

And I hope stays with you:

You don’t need to burn your whole life down to begin again.
But you do need to begin.

What’s in it for you?

It’s not about TikTok.
It’s not even about social media.

It’s about reclaiming the part of you that wants more.
It’s about building something that outlives your job title.
It’s about finding your people by letting yourself be seen.

My task for you this week

Tell me in the comments:

What’s the thing you’ve been quietly plotting?

Doesn’t matter if it’s big or small.
Doesn’t matter if it’s half-baked.
Doesn’t matter if it’s only just a whisper.

Say it out loud.
Not for me.
For you.
Because once you say it, you’re already one step closer.

✨ Stay in the Loop

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	💬 No Filter Fridays Real talk on reinvention, resilience, and rebuilding life after corporate. Every Friday, I share the messy, hilarious, and liberating reality of starting over. 👉Subscribe to No Filter Fridays
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Thanks for reading,

Gill x

Fuelled by caffeine, curiosity, and occasionally vodka.

If You’re Curious What I Actually Did This Week…

(Warts, wins, caffeine, and chaos below 👇)

If you think content creators just “post a few videos,” let me give you a small taste of the chaos.

🧩 This week I:

• released my Beginner TikTok Guide for Midlife Women
• fixed my Shopify footer because it was personally offending me
• reorganised Trello (again)
• drafted this NFF issue about four hours later than planned because I was busy setting up my new product and promoting it
• prepped for my first TikTok Live and had several “ara we doing this?” chats with my future co-host
• started cross-posting to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube… and gained my first ever YouTube follower
• showed up for Pantry Day with my community crew
• received the biggest bunch of sunflowers from my friend Sharon, who has somehow tolerated me for forty five years
• planned my 50th birthday party (decorations, catering, invite lists, themed cocktails, grazing table decisions, sleepover logistics) then forget every conversation I had that night and woke up with a mysterious cut on my toe
• started mapping out my daughter’s birthday party, which is two weeks after mine because of course it is
• squeezed in a spray tan and got my hair done because building a brand does not excuse bad roots
• completely flipped my LinkedIn and TikTok strategy to personal brand first, company second
• cleaned up all my TikTok handles and aligned everything under my name + The Mama Assembly ecosystem
• created alt text, first comments, CTAs, and workflows - EVERYWHERE!
• and still managed school runs, sport runs, and drinking coffee like it is a medical requirement

Honestly… I’m thriving.

And more importantly, I’m moving.

Because once you start talking, you realise you’re not the only one plotting something big.

📊 WOW (Week on Week) Summary = FULL TRANSPARENCY

Because reinvention’s not just a feeling, it’s measurable progress.

Progress isn’t always viral, sometimes it’s visible in the quiet metrics.
Every post, every subscriber, every small step builds the rhythm.

This Week’s Build-in-Public Check-In

Small numbers. Real progress. Zero fluff.

• LinkedIn impressions jumped from 1,474 → 1,771 because I finally stopped hiding behind The Mama Assembly and started showing up as me
• Gill Townsend followers grew from 1,154 → 1,157
  
• No Filter Fridays subscribers nudged from 176 → 180
  
• TikTok I got my first diamonds on my very first Live and my followers grew to 102 → then back to 80 because I deleted every bot, ghost, and banned user
  (If you have them, remove them. They confuse your algorithm and inflate nothing but your ego.)
• Facebook dipped 349 → 347
• Instagram held steady at 256
  
• Pinterest stayed at 7
• YouTube is still sitting proudly at 1 subscriber, and honestly that one lone person deserves a mug
• Website subscribers climbed 216 → 217
  Every single human counts when you’re building something from scratch.

It’s not viral.
It’s not dramatic.
It’s not the overnight success story social media loves to sell.

It’s steady.
It’s real.
It’s midlife momentum.

And if deleting bots makes your follower count drop - good.
You’re clearing space for the people who are actually meant to be in your corner.

Progress isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s hidden in the numbers, the quiet proof that momentum’s building.