Julie Waas of Julie Waas Coaching Host of Midlife Unleashed with Julie Waas
Julie Waas of Julie Waas Coaching is a Certified High Performance Coach, a lawyer, a professional abstract artist, an author and a speaker who brings a unique blend of professional expertise, creativity, and lived experience to the stage. With over three decades of experience as an attorney, Julie is trained in clarity, precision, and problem-solving — skills she now applies to empowering midlife women to transform uncertainty into opportunity. As a self-taught artist who began her art career in 2021 and has exhibited in galleries in New York, Miami, London, Madrid, Innsbruck, Milan and Venice, she has redefined her own midlife journey by embracing creativity and reinvention, offering audiences a perspective that is both relatable and inspiring. Julie is the author of the Unstoppable Mornings Journal and The Midlife Reboot, available on Amazon. Both the journal and the book offer practical resources designed to help women release the past, reset their habits, and reignite their futures with confidence. She also hosts Midlife Unleashed with Julie Waas, her YouTube channel dedicated to habits, mindset, and momentum strategies for thriving in the second half of life. Julie’s mission is simple: to inspire women to see midlife not as a crisis, but as their launchpad to a vibrant, purpose-driven second act.
You saw your mom go through a midlife crisis. How was her experience a catalyst for you to chart a different course in the second half of your life?
Watching my mother navigate midlife was one of the most formative experiences of my life — and honestly, one of the most painful. She hit that season and seemed to lose herself in it. She didn’t have a map, a community, or a language for what she was feeling, and I watched her shrink when she could have been soaring. I made a vow to myself, at age 16, that when my children went to college I would not go to bed for 6 weeks and sink into a depression, but would make the most of the next part of my life. When I my youngest son left for college I remembered the vow I had made to myself, and I made a decision. I was not going to inherit my mother’s story. I was going to write a different one. My mother’s experience didn’t break me; it woke me up. It made me fiercely committed to figuring out not just how to survive this season, but how to absolutely thrive in it and then to turn around and light the path for other women doing the same thing.
You are a World-Renowned Certified High-Performance Coach. How are you helping women navigate midlife?
My work is about one thing: helping women stop treating midlife as a chapter that’s closing and start recognizing it as the steppingstone to what could be the best half of their life. I work with women who are accomplished, capable, and still somehow feel like they’ve lost their footing because the roles that defined them for decades have shifted. The kids are gone. The career has plateaued. The marriage looks different now that the nest is empty. And suddenly there’s this wide-open space that should feel like freedom but feels more like fog. What I do is help them find clarity in that fog. We work on identity, on energy, on vision, not in a fluffy, vision-board way, but in a concrete, what-are-you-actually-going-to-do-differently-starting-Monday way. I believe in implementation over inspiration. Because inspiration fades. Momentum doesn’t, once you build it.
“For so many women, midlife — especially the empty nest — brings a quiet but powerful question: ‘Who am I?’ Explain.
That question sneaks up on you. You spend twenty-plus years being someone’s mom, someone’s partner, someone’s colleague, someone’s caretaker — and you are so good at it, so devoted to it, that somewhere along the way you stop asking what you want. You stop filling your own cup. And then the kids leave, or the job changes, or you find yourself saying “who am I? when I’m not taking care of everyone else’s needs”. That question is not a crisis. It’s an invitation. It’s the beginning of the most honest, most courageous conversation you’ll ever have. And the women I work with discover that who they are on the other side of that question is more expansive, more powerful, and more themselves than they’ve ever been.
Tell us about The Empowered Life Framework.
The Empowered Life Framework is the foundation of everything I do with my clients. It’s built around five pillars: Clarity/Reflect, Courage/Refocus, Energy/Replicate, Momentum/Replace, and Alignment/Reignite. Most women come to me strong in some areas and starving in others. They might have clarity on what they want but none of the courage to pursue it, or tremendous energy but zero direction. The framework is structured to so that each step builds on the previous step, leading the client to a plan for their future and ready to step into the second half of their life with confidence and clarity. It’s not about radical reinvention for its own sake. It’s about radical alignment: getting every part of your life pointed in the same direction, so you start building an extraordinary second half.
What are the key steps to unlock your best life?
The first step is the one most people skip: they get honest about where they actually are, not where they wish they were or where they think they should be. That’s why my program starts with reflection. You can’t build a real plan from a fictional starting point. The second step is getting clear on who you are and what you genuinely want, not what your mother wanted, not what Instagram tells you a great life looks like, but what lights you up. The third is courage to move forward with your plan, without asking permission or making any apologies. The fourth is building daily habits and rituals that reinforce your vision — this is where Unstoppable Mornings comes in, because how you start your day is how you live your life. And the fifth is community. You need people in your corner who believe in your second act even on the days you don’t. That’s not optional. That’s oxygen.
Tell us about the Unstoppable Mornings Journal and your book, The Midlife Reboot. What are some of the takeaways?
Unstoppable Mornings was born out of my own morning practice — the rituals that kept me grounded, focused, and moving forward even on the hard days. It’s a guided journal designed to help women reclaim the first hour of their day as sacred space for themselves. Not scrolling. Not reacting. Intentionally setting the tone for who they want to be. The Midlife Reboot, which came out in February 2026, goes much deeper. It’s the book I wish had existed when I first hit that crossroads moment. The core message is this: midlife is not a dead end — it is a launchpad. Some of the big takeaways are: first, your identity is not your role, and losing a role doesn’t mean losing yourself. Second, reinvention is not reserved for the young. In fact, the women who wait until midlife to go after what they really want often do it with a ferocity and focus that younger women simply don’t have yet because they have decades of wisdom and experience behind them, and no longer worry what other people might think of them. And third, the best chapter of your life is still ahead of you, but it requires your full participation. You don’t drift into an extraordinary second act. You choose it, every single day.
Please share a few client success stories.
A client of mine was a professional with years of experience who had just entered the empty nest. She was unsure about her career trajectory, lacked confidence in herself and did not know what to do with herself now that her children were in college. With each private session, I witnessed her gain tremendous self-confidence and direction as to what she wanted to do with her career and her life. She excelled at work and began dancing again—something she had put off for many years while raising her family. She also became a speaker, sharing the wisdom she had accumulated in the first half of her life. It was so fulfilling to watch her blossom with each passing week. Another client had been a successful entrepreneur, building and selling several businesses, but feeling scared as she was about to start a new business that was completely outside of her comfort zone. After working together, she realized her inner strength and value, regained her confidence and successfully started her new business.
You were recently a speaker at Women Thrive 2026. Share your experience. What topics did you cover?
The Women Thrive 2026 Summit was a fabulous event. As one of 50 speakers, not only did I speak on the stage, but I also had the opportunity to be part of a community of amazing women who are committed to empowering women. I am so grateful that I was selected to be part of this event.
My talk was “The Midlife Reboot: Stepping into Your Second Half with Confidence and Clarity.” In my talk, I covered my story and why I am so passionate about helping women in midlife to maximize the second half of their lives. I explained that you start by deciding to start. Not by having a perfect plan. Not by waiting until the kids are settled or the timing is right. You decide that your second half matters and then you take one courageous step. I provided 3 steps that the audience could take immediately to begin the process of their own midlife reboot. That’s how momentum is built. That’s how an unstoppable life is lived.
What Next?
I plan to continue building my coaching business so that I can help as many midlife women as possible. I also plan to continue speaking on stages and podcasts, and plan to offer workshops and retreats for midlife women in 2027.
