Have you ever had one of those blinding flashes of insight? The sort of thing where nothing around you looks the same ever again?

At the beginning of each year, I think back over my clients, alliance partners, speaking audiences and colleagues from the previous year.

I bring each person and group into my mind and push the replay button on our conversations and our time together to review what worked and where I could improve. (Think of it like the life review you get before death - without the awkward dying part).

My passion is in making complex concepts simple, and helping leaders to improve their skills, their teams and their businesses.

Every year I look for patterns in the people I have come in contact with to try to work out how I can help more people in the coming year.

This year was different.

Not just because of COVID, but because of one major trend that didn’t just jump out at me; it gently unfurled with all the subtlety of a 4000-metre tall giant painted blue who screamed, "Look at Moi".

You see, I realised that almost everyone I had worked with, sat with at networking events, spoken in front of or had strong alliances with in the past year, were over 40. (Ok – most were probably over 45, but it’s rude to ask someone’s age unless they are in pre-school or in an aged care home when this information is literally worn as a badge and shouted to the rooftops).

That realisation had me thinking.

How many small business owners are out there who are in their midlife? Was my experience of the myriad of midlifers over the past 12 months something extreme and unique to me, or were there really an awful lot of midlife entrepreneurs out there?