One missed step changed Mary Ryan’s life.

In 2013, Mary fell down a flight of stairs at work. She suffered multiple injuries and a brain injury that left her without much of her mid-to-long-term memory and around 70% of her vocabulary.

She knew the knowledge was still there. She just had to find a way back to it.

So Mary started experimenting.

Music. Singing. Scrabble. Reading. Community. Curiosity.

Rather than simply asking, “Why has this happened to me?”, she became fascinated by how her brain was working - and what she could do to rebuild it.

In this episode of Unstoppable Women, Mary and I talk about recovery, resilience and what happens when something completely unexpected forces you to rebuild.

We also explore Mary’s extraordinary career in medical technology. Over almost 30 years she has helped bring safe and effective medical devices to market around the world and, during the pandemic, helped support the delivery of 11,683 ventilators to the NHS.

Now she is making another major change.

After nearly 14 years with one company, Mary has handed in her notice and is launching her own consultancy - taking decades of expertise, relationships and experience and using them to build something of her own.

We talk about:

• Rebuilding after something changes your life in a split second
• Why curiosity became such an important part of Mary’s recovery
• Music, memory and finding her words again
• Building a life around trauma rather than allowing it to become your whole story
• Recognising the value of decades of experience
• Leaving a successful career to create something of your own
• Why letting your light shine can give someone else permission to do the same

There’s a beautiful idea from Mary in this conversation: difficult experiences don’t necessarily disappear. But as you build more life around them, they no longer have to be the biggest part of the circle.

About Unstoppable Women & Unstoppable by Design

I'm Julie Tague, founder of Unstoppable by Design.

After experiencing profound personal loss, rebuilding my life as a widowed mum and creating a successful career in the public sector, I came to realise something that now underpins everything I do:

No woman is as stuck as she thinks she is.

I work alongside women at turning points to help them build what's next - step by step. Together we prioritise, make decisions, create momentum and manage the practical project of designing a new life.

This isn't coaching; it's strategic partnership.

I'm your project manager for change - helping you make the hard decisions, holding you to account and turning good intentions into meaningful action.

Every episode of Unstoppable Women shares the story of a woman who has navigated change, challenged expectations and rewritten her future - not because life was easy, but because she chose to keep moving.

If Mary’s story makes you think differently about what might be possible in your own next chapter, follow Unstoppable Women and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.

What does it mean to build a new life without erasing the one that came before?

In the final episode of this series of Unstoppable Women, I’m joined by Anna Thomas Raju for a deeply personal conversation about love, loss, burnout, identity and the person we are still becoming.

Anna shares her experience of losing her husband Bill to cancer, finding love again and learning that grief and happiness can exist alongside each other. We also explore the patterns that contributed to burnout - proving, pleasing, carrying too much and believing that saying yes made her valuable.

One of Anna’s biggest lessons is beautifully simple:

“I am enough right now. But I can always grow.”

We talk about asking for help, allowing other people to show up for us, leading with empathy and why none of us ever really becomes the ‘finished’ version of ourselves.

After 25 conversations with remarkable women, Still Becoming feels like exactly the right place to end this series.

🎧 Unstoppable Women - E25: Still Becoming with Anna Thomas Raju

About Unstoppable Women & Unstoppable by DesignI'm Julie Tague, founder of Unstoppable by Design. After experiencing profound personal loss, rebuilding my life as a widowed mum and creating a successful career in the public sector, I came to realise something that now underpins everything I do:No woman is as stuck as she thinks she is.I work alongside women at turning points to help them build what's next - step by step. Together we prioritise, make decisions, create momentum and manage the practical project of designing a new life.This isn't coaching; it's strategic partnership.I'm your project manager for change - helping you make the hard decisions, holding you to account and turning good intentions into meaningful action.Every episode of Unstoppable Women shares the story of a woman who has navigated change, challenged expectations and rewritten her future - not because life was easy, but because she chose to keep moving.If this episode resonates with you, subscribe, leave a comment and share it with a woman who might need to hear it.

What if grief isn’t something you have to beat, but something you learn to live alongside?

In this episode of Unstoppable Women, Julie Tague talks to Tetyana - an HR professional, coach and former rhythmic gymnast whose life changed when her husband died by suicide.

Tetyana shares what it meant to suddenly hold life together for her children, why trauma made change itself frightening and how she eventually learned to “partner with grief” rather than constantly fight it. She talks about rebuilding confidence, returning to movement through yoga and contemporary dance, finding love again and taking the first tentative steps towards building her own coaching business.

This is not simply a conversation about loss. It’s about what comes afterwards - and how grief, ambition, love and genuine joy can all exist in the same life.

About Julie Tague & Unstoppable by Design

Julie Tague is the founder of Unstoppable by Design and host of Unstoppable Women. After experiencing profound personal loss, rebuilding her life as a widowed mum and building a successful career in the public sector, Julie created Unstoppable by Design around one central belief:

No woman is as stuck as she thinks she is.

Julie works alongside women at turning points as a strategic partner and project manager for change - helping them make decisions, create momentum and turn intentions into meaningful action.

Every episode of Unstoppable Women shares the story of a woman who has navigated change, challenged expectations and found her own way forward.

🌐 www.unstoppablebydesign.co.uk

Content note: This episode contains candid discussion of suicide, bereavement and emotionally abusive relationships.

What happens when the life you've built isn't the life you imagined?

By our forties, many of us find ourselves asking quiet questions we'd never expected: Who am I now? Is this really what success looks like? Why does my life feel so different from the one I pictured?

In this episode, I sit down with leadership expert, facilitator and executive coach Jess Annison to explore the identity shift that so many women experience in midlife. Together we discuss the hidden grief of letting go of the life you thought you'd have, why we often measure ourselves against outdated expectations, and how we can redefine success for the woman we've become today.

Jess shares her own story of ambition, motherhood, career change and learning to stop seeing different as less. We explore gratitude, updating the stories we tell ourselves, and why asking "Who am I now?" might be one of the most important questions we ever answer.

If you've ever found yourself thinking:

• I thought my life would look different.
• I'm not where I expected to be.
• I'm ready for what's next but don't know where to begin.

...this conversation is for you.

🔥 About Unstoppable Women and Unstoppable By Design

I'm Julie Tague, founder of Unstoppable by Design.

After experiencing profound personal loss, rebuilding my life as a widowed mum, and creating a successful career in the public sector, I came to realise something that now underpins everything I do:

No woman is as stuck as she thinks she is.

I work alongside women at turning points to help them build what's next—step by step. Together we prioritise, make decisions, create momentum and manage the practical project of designing a new life. This isn't coaching; it's strategic partnership. I'm your project manager for change: helping you make the hard decisions, holding you to account and turning good intentions into meaningful action.

Unstoppable Women is the podcast from Unstoppable by Design, sharing real, honest stories from women navigating change, identity and growth—and redefining what it means to be unstoppable. Every episode tells the story of a woman who has navigated change, challenged expectations and rewritten her future—not because life was easy, but because she chose to keep moving.

If this episode resonates with you, I'd love you to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

🌐 www.unstoppablebydesign.co.uk

For years, Franka van der Poll believed she was simply too much.

Too impulsive. Too emotional. Too restless. Too intense.

She spent decades chasing adventure, throwing herself into relationships, fitness and work, always searching for something she couldn't quite explain. Then everything changed. A routine foot operation left her with chronic pain. Isolation during the COVID lockdowns in Spain pushed her to breaking point.

It was only later, after receiving an ADHD diagnosis, that her life finally made sense.

Not because the diagnosis changed who she was.

Because it changed how she understood herself.

In this deeply honest conversation, Franka shares the extraordinary journey behind that realisation. We talk about childhood, grief, identity, chronic pain, perimenopause, resilience and the freedom that comes from finally understanding your own mind.

Along the way, we also laugh our way through the unbelievable stories behind her book, SWIPE Love - from disastrous online dates to the strange world of dating apps, and the moment she realised she'd become addicted to swiping rather than searching for love.

This episode is funny, emotional and full of hope.

• ADHD in women and why it is so often missed
• The hidden impact of chronic pain and depression
• Perimenopause and self-understanding
• Why diagnosis can be liberating rather than limiting
• Online dating, identity and finding humour in life's chaos
• What it really means to rebuild yourself

If you've ever wondered whether you were the problem, this conversation is for you.

Unstoppable Women is a podcast about reinvention.

Each episode features a woman who has faced one of life's defining moments - grief, illness, divorce, redundancy, burnout or a complete change in direction - and discovered that their greatest challenge became the catalyst for their next chapter.

These conversations are honest, practical and deeply human, reminding us that no woman is as stuck as she thinks she is.

I'm Julie, founder of Unstoppable by Design.

I help women at turning points stop waiting for confidence and start creating momentum. Through one-to-one partnerships, retreats, workshops and the Unstoppable Women community, I help women reconnect with who they are and take purposeful action towards what's next.

If Franka's story resonates with you, I'd love to help you write your own next chapter.

🌐 www.unstoppablebydesign.co.uk

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the podcast, leave a rating and share it with someone who needs to hear that they were never broken either.

What does it really take to build a successful business?

In this episode of Unstoppable Women, Julie Tague sits down with four-time entrepreneur, author and business mentor Beth Mazza to unpack the realities of building businesses that last.

Beth is the author of Entrepreneur Like a Mother and has founded, grown and successfully sold multiple companies. Drawing on decades of experience, she shares honest advice for entrepreneurs, founders and anyone looking to build something meaningful.

Together they explore:

• Why success is built on resilience rather than perfection.

• How to create a business that supports your life before chasing a bigger vision.

• Why execution will always outperform ideas.

• What failure can teach you if you're prepared to listen.

• How to build long-term value instead of short-term wins.

• Why the people you surround yourself with matter more than you think.

About Unstoppable Women

Hosted by Julie Tague, founder of Unstoppable by Design, Unstoppable Women is a podcast sharing honest conversations with women who have navigated life's biggest turning points and created success on their own terms.

Each episode goes beyond the story to uncover the practical lessons, mindset shifts and strategies that listeners can apply to their own careers, businesses and lives.

Whether you're starting a business, navigating change or looking for inspiration to take your next step, this episode will leave you with practical advice and the confidence to keep building.

If you enjoy the podcast, please follow Unstoppable Women on Spotify and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.

Connect with JulieFounder, Unstoppable by Design🌍 https://unstoppablebydesign.co.uk🔗 linkedin.com/in/julietague

What happens when you achieve everything you thought you wanted and still find yourself asking, "Who am I now?"

In this episode of Unstoppable Women, I sit down with coach, facilitator and founder of The Third Chapter, Remi Baker.

Growing up as one of the only mixed-race children in Ashtead, building a successful career in PR and eventually becoming a CEO, Remi spent years succeeding in environments that expected certain things from her. Yet one of the most powerful parts of her story is her willingness to question whether the version of success she had achieved was still the life she wanted to live.

We talk about identity, reinvention, midlife transitions, receiving an ADHD diagnosis at 60, and the courage it takes to stop being who everyone else expects you to be.

This is a conversation about reclaiming yourself, embracing change and recognising that the next chapter isn't always about becoming more - sometimes it's about becoming more yourself.

If you've ever found yourself at a crossroads wondering what's next, this episode is for you.

About Unstoppable Women

Hosted by Julie Tague, founder of Unstoppable by Design, Unstoppable Women shares honest conversations with women who have turned challenge into clarity, uncertainty into momentum and life's twists into new beginnings.

Because no woman is as stuck as she thinks she is.

In this episode of Unstoppable Women, Julie Tague sits down with Jen Radcliffe for a powerful conversation about career change, identity, self-trust, and what happens when life forces you to ask: if not now, when?

Jen shares her journey from leading major change and transformation work in the public sector to building a transformative coaching practice that helps women reconnect with themselves during times of change. Together, Julie and Jen explore what it means to quietly lose parts of yourself while still looking capable on the outside - and how to find your way back.

This episode is for any woman who has ever felt stuck between who she is and who she is becoming.

They talk about:

• career transition and redundancy as a turning point

• confidence vs self-trust

• rediscovering creativity, joy and curiosity

• family challenge, grief and the weight women carry

• friendship, rituals and the quiet power of community

• doing it scared and choosing not to play life small

Hosted by Julie Tague, founder of Unstoppable by Design, Unstoppable Women is a podcast sharing honest conversations with women who have turned challenge into clarity, adversity into growth, and reinvention into momentum.

If you are navigating a turning point in your career, identity or life, this episode will remind you that you are not alone - and that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is choose yourself consciously.