We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lindsay Hurty, Ed.M.. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lindsay below.

Lindsay, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Evergreens and watering wells were the inspiration behind Everwell’s name.

When the business was just a dream, I wanted her name to be meaningful and aspirational. To get there, I just started a long list of words that I liked (truly hundreds of words). ‘Ever’ and ‘well’ were among my favorite. I played around and connected a bunch of different words in different ways, and when I typed out e-v-e-r-w-e-l-l on my screen… I felt inexplicably connected to it. I loved it.

Then images of the evergreens and watering wells showed up in my mind’s eye. And the meaning behind it all came together…

Our audience is mostly midlife women, and evergreens are the only plants that retain their leaves year round, perpetually growing stronger while spreading their roots, which reminded us of women.

And watering wells act as reservoirs for sustenance and survival, and are traditional gathering spots for communities and women.

It felt perfect.

Then, for many months, I said it aloud as many times and in as many ways as I could—just like I did when I was choosing names for my children. This was to be sure I didn’t get annoyed by the name. Luckily, my love for it only grew.

As our business has taken shape and pivoted quite dramatically during the pandemic, for many who engage in Everwell, the name has come to represent a mindset. Regardless of who you are or what you do, to be everwell is to live authentically, with a growth mindset.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Sure! Simply put, I help people become more self-aware. I’ve been described as a teacher of the soul and a seed-planter. My special sauce is that I ask good questions; I listen with care; I offer words that guide; and I’ve got a knack for connecting adults back to themselves and to each other.

More officially, I’m a Harvard-educated former high school English teacher turned self-development educator. In 2019, I co-founded Everwell – an education platform + inspiration network for women.

I live to learn, and my favorite topic is people (and who we are on the inside). I consume an obscene amount of relevant content to inform my perspective and stay current as an educator. I’ve designed, facilitated or hosted 350+ programs, including my signature online course, SELF SCHOOL. In a variety of contexts, I guide adults through courses, workshops, retreats, experiential gatherings + conversations. I’m all about meaningful connection as a gateway to transformative inside-out awareness and wellness.

I’m also a writer–I’m drafting my first book at the moment. And my weekly email reflections to my audience may be the thing that sets me apart in this field. My email subscribers are primarily midlife women (but not exclusively), and each Saturday morning I send written vignettes that are like colorful snapshots of real family life laced with poignant memories that make room for deepened self-awareness. They’re like little love stories that focus on parental-child love, friendship-love and self-love. Through everyday human observations, my goal is to weave in nostalgia and create bittersweet moments of insight, discovery and meaning for ever-evolving grown-ups. These pieces serve as reminders that we all live inside a vast history of experiences that revisit us in unsuspecting, unannounced and, often, magical ways.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2016, I was a full-time stay-at-home mom with 3 young kids under 5 with a gut feeling… a gut feeling that I was called to pursue something else for myself, alongside motherhood.

Now, I’ll say it like it was: I loved being a mom to little kids; I was a natural at the emotional, social and logistical part of it; I fit in to mom culture; my husband’s salary and insurance through work carried us financially… life was good. AND… privately, I started to feel uninteresting to the world beyond my kids. I was a Harvard-educated woman with a former career as a high school English teacher where I thrived; and now, although I was a useful and productive as a volunteer, I felt unfulfilled, and sometimes…I’ll just say it: bored.

Not to mention, a huge part of the job as a Stay-at-Home Mom is tending to the home’s organization and cleanliness and all food prep and cooking. And I was pulling a C- at best most days in those categories. Being a mom to my 3 growing kids was—and is—undoubtedly my calling, but full-time Home CEO was simply not my calling. It didn’t feel good that 50% of my job—housework + cooking— was not only hard for me, but I also kind of sucked at it, and I dreaded it. I wanted to strike a better balance as a mom who is an individual, growing person with her own gifts and strengths and talents. I wanted to unlock what was calling for ME to do, while still being a home-based mom with my kids much of the time. Tall order.

Now there was a slight problem. I had no idea what I wanted to do, besides being a mom. So I did what a teacher knows how to do, and designed myself a curriculum with the goal to craft myself an intentional midlife plan. My curriculum involved going inward, taking inventory, tuning in, finding clarity, and cultivating confidence, so that I could make thoughtful decisions about what was next for me. And I created a personal career re-entry timeline that was realistic for my family and delighted me beyond measure.

Through my self-created curriculum to figure out my midlife mom calling, I figured out what I really wanted to do… which was to be an educator…but for adults…women…midlife moms, most especially.

My own stay-at-home mom stage made me realize that I’m in love with the midlife mom journey! I feel so connected to fellow moms who are at the earliest stages of figuring out how they want to evolve with intention as an individual woman WHILE being a devoted mom.

So I started my new career that was 100% aligned with my calling, by inviting local midlife moms to gather in my living room when my kids were in school (my two youngest still in preschool), and offer a process and tools to help moms move through midlife transitions and figure out what sparks them alive so they could design their fulfilling midlife plan. To guide my students, I used the exact same self-created curriculum that I used for myself.

And moms loved it. I knew I was moving in a good direction for myself. I could feel it in my gut.

Once I got into a groove with workshops, I partnered with a dear friend and we spent the next two years dreaming up and designing a local gathering space and community for women. We called it Everwell, and we opened our doors the fall that my youngest started kindergarten, in 2019.

As the co-founder and Education Lead of Everwell, I felt more alive in my work than I ever had! We were building something meaningful and important at the local level. And I was striking a balance between motherhood and following my calling as an educator and entrepreneur.

Then, 5 months after we opened our space, and were flourishing—surpassing all our goals and projections— COVID hit. Naturally, we hadn’t planned for a pandemic. And after lots of pivots and a long, hard, expensive fight, we closed the space in December of 2021. And my business partner lost her passion.

I found myself entirely alone in a failed business with scary debt, and I didn’t know what to do.

I recognized that I had a choice. I could walk away from our failure, learn some lessons, and find another path for myself to earn back the money I’d lost and owed.

Or, I could have faith in my calling. I could accept the crash and burn and change and discomfort, and give myself permission to keep pursuing my calling, but go about it differently.

I clearly remember sitting outside with my husband one winter night all bundled up by a fire pit, staring at the flames, and feeling so sad about the state of my business, and the loss of my partner; I was embarrassed about the failure, and scared of the debt that I’d created for us. I admitted to him, with a tight throat, that I’d hate myself if I gave up on my calling. I needed, and our family needed, for me to feel alive in work other than motherhood. I needed to have an impact outside of our family in a real way. Otherwise, I would not be fulfilled as a human being—my soul would hurt—and I’d be filled with regret.

Now, my calling was only a cost-center at this point, and we both felt it—we were struggling to make ends meet—but we agreed that my spirit relied on me trusting my inner knowing, which was to forge into a revised path as the educator + entrepreneur that I am, while being a full-on mom when the kids were home from school.

I put all my energy into creating an online course for other midlife moms, like me, who want to find a meaningful balance between motherhood and their calling. I called it Everwell SELF SCHOOL.

My mission in SELF SCHOOL is to help midlife moms plan what’s next by doing thoughtfully designed inner work to effectively expand into one’s own version of a meaningful midlife.

And in the years since, I’ve been continuing to build out the Everwell Education Platform.

Today, I’m fulfilled, and, finally, building financial success. And above all, I’m grateful to be THRIVING as a Calling-Committed Mom.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I learn SO MUCH from books. Here’s a selection of my favorite ones for entrepreneurs:

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks
The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck
Playing Big by Tara Mohr
The Road Less Stupid by Keith J. Cunningham
Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller
Identity Leadership by Stedman Graham
It’s About Damn Time by Arlan Hamilton
We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers
Fair Play by Eve Rodsky
Professional Troublemaker by Luvvie Ajayi Jones
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker
SPARKED by Jonathan Fields
How to Know a Person by David Brooks
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

I regularly listen to these podcasts:
Akimbo by Seth Godin
Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield
Scale with Success with Caitlin Bacher

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lindsayhurty.com AND www.theeverwell.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsay_everwell/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayhurty/
• Other: Innovation Women: https://speaker.innovationwomen.com/user/13817