The 8 Archetypes Every Midlife Heroine Needs in Her Pocket

Or...Meet the Heroine Cast

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Call for Heroines delivers bi-weekly Pocket Quests™ and travel-soaked Postcards from a Midlife Elsewhere, both designed to help you shift your story and reclaim your plot.

Picture a ballroom full of golf bros, cheap cologne, and performative loyalty. That’s your sales conference.

Never been to one? Lucky you.

A sales conference is an event where all the salespeople of medium to large companies congregate to (supposedly) receive updates on business strategy and direction, get educated on new initiatives, and celebrate company progress and individual performance. Are you bored by all that corporate speak? I am, and I just wrote it.

The truth is that sales conferences are none of those things. They are toxic, testosterone-filled, alcohol-drenched excuses used to compare golf scores, one-up your boss, and (for some, not all) prey on the single, or not, lower-status employees who were stupid enough to attend, thinking it was a requirement for career advancement.

Does this sound like I have personal experience? You bet I do. Here’s the story.

I once worked for a major telecom company. My job was developing a global sales opportunity management tool (non-corporate speak—a system that helped salespeople project how much money they would make for the company). I was young (late twenties), ambitious, and apparently, as you will soon discover, painfully naive.

“Come to San Diego!” My boss said. “I want you to present to the global salespeople and meet Big Frank (not his real name), who oversees Consumer Sales. You’ve been developing the system for business sales. I’d like you to convince him to fund the development for the consumer side.”

Now, this was before I had experienced the debauchery of a sales conference firsthand, so a weekend in San Diego in a gorgeous hotel with extravagant meals, drinks, and entertainment on the house sounded good to me. I had a tiny baby at home, so any trip where I was guaranteed a full eight hours of sleep sounded like bliss.

Imagine the scene: the final night, after my (pretty brilliant, I must say) presentation, still glowing with success, I finally get an audience with Big Frank. I’ve been stalking him all weekend, but he’s a very important guy, and not much interested in software developers who don’t make him any money. But the party is winding down, and Big Frank is alone and standing at the bar, getting himself a drink.

I introduce myself and my project. He’s a bit wobbly and squinty-eyed, but I seem to have caught his attention, and I’m thinking to myself. “I’m doing it. I’m selling the project. He’ll fund the expansion, the boss will be so proud, I’ll even get a promotion!”

Big Frank interjects a few questions but mostly seems dazzled by my aptitude and commitment to the project (at least that's what I tell myself as I start to imagine what I’ll do with the raise I’m about to land).

“I’d like to hear more,” Big Frank says, “But it looks like the party’s over.” He sweeps his hand around the room to indicate the sparseness of people. It’s past midnight. I mourn the eight hours of sleep I gave up waiting for Big Frank. “You can get on my calendar next week, or walk with me and we’ll discuss further.”

I’ll never get on his calendar. His assistant is an old-timey gatekeeper who saves his meetings for her favourites (mostly the high-ranking execs who bring her gifts of jewelry, or handbags from their overseas adventures). I walk with him. We get in the elevator. I’m still talking. He’s still listening. He’s interested. It’s working!

Then we’re standing in the hallway before his hotel room door. I’ve just told him an ‘intriguing’ data point about the software I’m creating (twenty-five years later, I can’t believe I ever thought there was anything intriguing about any of it), and Big Frank says. “That’s fascinating. Come in and tell me more, I might have to get you on my calendar next week anyway, so that you can come by and we can plan next steps to get this project going.”

This is it! I’ve sold the project. We’re going to Disney World.

I step across the threshold into his hotel room, where he throws his briefcase into the corner, gestures to offer me a seat on the bed (next to the bedside cabinet where there is a photo of his family), and I hear a loud, crystal clear voice. It’s as though the woman speaking is in the room with us, and I even look around in confusion.

“Leave!” She says. “Now. This man doesn’t see you as you hope to be seen.”

My stomach flipped. My vision cleared.

I left. I didn’t look behind me.

I can see you sitting there shaking your head, my heroine. You can’t believe how dumb I was. You might even be thinking that if something had happened to me in that room, it would have been my own damn fault. But in my defense, I was young, and although plenty experienced with lecherous men, inexperienced with lecherous men who I was trying to impress.

But one honest… you’ve had this moment too, I know it. When you heard a voice inside of you calling out in a moment of danger, confusion, or just plain boredom. Maybe yours didn’t happen in a hotel hallway. Maybe it was in a boardroom. A marriage. A doctor’s office.

It took a while to understand. But that voice? It wasn’t fear. It was one of my inner heroines.

And thank God for her, one of my future, healed, wise women. She came to save me.

That was Tess talking.

Tess knows what it feels like to bust her ass working in a man’s world, only to discover at the end that she was never seen for who she really was. That she was invisible.

We all have these heroines inside of us, and once you know how to unlock them, you can speak to them all the time. And the best news is that you don’t have to figure out who they are. Because I’ve been coaching women for twenty-five years. I know them pretty intimately. So from now on, I’ll be weaving the wisdom and insight of these healed heroines into our Pocket Quests™ and Adventure Quests™.

If you’ve already met one of your inner heroines, please share in the comments. Sharing these moments makes us more likely to recognize the voices when they speak out inside us.

Tess revisited me several times throughout my corporate career until she finally said…

”Honey. You’re not strong enough to break through that glass ceiling because there are no women here willing to help you. You’d be better off busting your ass in service of yourself and your own company.”

I followed her advice.

Who are the Midlife Heroine Archetypes?

I’ve created eight vivid, symbolic women drawn from archetypes you’ll recognize from every powerful story you’ve ever loved. Think of them as your inner narrative mentors. Each one embodies a particular flavor of stuckness, spark, or transformation that shows up on the heroine’s path.

They’re not role models. Sometimes they help you name what you didn’t know you were carrying. Sometimes they say the thing you’ve been thinking but couldn’t admit. Sometimes they crack the plot wide open (like Tess in Big Frank’s hotel room)

And just like in every great story, you’re never just one archetype.

You’re a whole cast.

These Tarot-style vignettes that you’ll see popping up in our quests in the future aren’t random wisdom; they’re story moments—glimpses of women who live and have lived the same three-act structure as you.

When one of them shows up, she’s never here to give you answers. She’s here to prompt you into considering another perspective or recognizing a part of yourself you’ve squashed.

These fictional women are based on the idea of classic story archetypes, but are drawn from my coaching experience and the stories women have told me over the years. You’ll recognize them even if you’ve never met them before. They’re the rebel, the quiet intuitive, the overfunctioning planner, the exhausted shapeshifter. They show up in myths, books, movies... and, let’s be honest, in your own internal monologue at 2 am.

They’re not necessarily who you should be. They’re reflections of who you might secretly be right now.

Also, remember that you're never just one. This isn't a sorting hat situation.

You’re a whole damn ensemble cast (except you’re not Hermione, only I get to be Hermione).

So if you see one of them in the sidebar saying something that makes you go “ugh, yes, she’s right” but she’s not the heroine you most identify with… that’s the point.

The Heroine Archetypes are narrative guides. Throughout the Heroine’s Adventure, they represent inner mentors who’ve already walked parts of the path ahead of you.

• When you’re stuck in overthinking, Juno shows up with the compass.

• When you’ve burned out from trying to be good, Rox says, screw good, be true.

• When you’re ready to escape the endless loop, Mara maps out a new way.

These characters don’t live in a novel. They live in you.

The question isn’t “Which one am I?”

It’s “Which one do I need right now?”

Let’s meet them and go on a pocket quest together.

Meet the Midlife Heroine Archetypes

There’s a part of you that’s quiet but brilliant.

A part that says no.

One that burns everything down to see what rises.

One that holds the whole damn world together while pretending she’s fine.

These aren’t fantasies. They’re not someone you wish you could be.

They’re all you.

I’ve invented 8 voices you’ve silenced, shamed, or forgotten.

It’s time to call them back.

Here they are. A tarot deck of inner mentors. A girl gang of archetypal truth.

Tess

• The Corporate Perfectionist

• She was excellent. Now she’s invisible.

• She asks: Who are you without the performance?

• She knows: Doing everything right can still leave you lost.

Cleo

• The People Pleaser

• She handled it all. Then forgot herself.

• She asks: What would your life look like if it was yours again?

• She knows: You can’t recover yourself while keeping everyone else upright.

Rox

• The Strong One

• She carried the weight. Now she’s laying it down.

• She asks: What if strength isn’t holding on but letting go?

• She knows: Being loyal to everyone else almost cost her herself.

Lark

• The Dutiful Achiever

• She did the responsible thing. Now she wants the beautiful one.

• She asks: What if the creative life isn’t too late it’s just beginning?

• She knows: Should is the quiet killer of joy.

Mara

• The Successful but Unfulfilled

• She has the life she chose. And now she’s questioning the choice.

• She asks: What’s left when there’s nothing left to chase?

• She knows: Retirement isn’t an ending it’s a blank page.

Juno

• The Creative Fairy

• She’s overflowing with vision. And buried under grief.

• She asks: What happens when you stop outrunning your feelings?

• She knows: Your magic needs roots not more wings.

Faye

• The Wounded Wise Woman

• She sees everything. Except her own unraveling.

• She asks: What truth have you swallowed so long you forgot the taste?

• She knows: Insight is not healing. Naming it is just the beginning.

Nico

• The Shapeshifter

• She became who they needed. Now she wants to become herself.

• She asks: What does it mean to belong to yourself?

• She knows: Identity isn’t a costume, it’s a reclamation.

To read the more detailed stories of each archetype, click here. And to figure out your primary midlife archetype, take the quiz.

The Pocket Quest

Download the Pocket Quest Workbook Here.

When you’re stuck in an old pattern (people-pleasing, overfunctioning, overthinking), you don’t need more advice. You need access to a wiser, braver voice already inside you. This quest helps you identify that voice and practice letting her lead.

Why bother completing this quest?

Because otherwise:

• You’ll keep defaulting to survival strategies that no longer serve you (performing, proving, and perfectionism).

• You’ll miss the real-time opportunity to respond from your truth instead of your habits.

• You’ll stay in loops instead of shifting your story.

Over four days this week, we’ll practice recognizing and responding to your inner heroine’s wisdom, especially when old patterns hold you back.

Try this even if you’re skeptical. It may all sound a bit woo-woo, but this is actually an extremely structured framework.

Day 1:

Take the Midlife Heroine Archetype Quiz (or revisit your result if you’ve already done it).

Write down:

• Which archetype spoke to you?

• What part of her feels familiar?

• Where might she be showing up in your life right now?

Day 2:

Pick the archetype that makes you twitchy. (Yes, the one who feels too bold, too reckless, and far from who you are today.)

Write down two things she might do in your current life that you never would. Think "What would Nico do?" or "How would Rox say no?"

Day 3:

Try just one of those things, even if it’s tiny, even if it’s just role-playing it in an email draft or mirror pep talk.

Write:

• What happened?

• What did you feel?

• What did you learn about yourself?

Day 4:

Write a thank-you note to that inner heroine (Tess, Rox, Nico, etc). She showed up for you. Reflect on:

• How her voice felt

• What you want to ask her next time

• Where else she might be helpful

Read about the inspirational trip that instigated a major change to the mission: