“There were three elements that allowed it to work. My confidence that this was the right choice for right now, combined with having a partner who really bought in to stepping in to provide more support. Along with having a babysitter we really trusted,” said Neha Ruch, Best Selling Author and Entrepreneur.
For the first time, there are new flavors of professional choice, that better suit the needs of moms. The pandemic and economy gave rise to more hybrid, remote, and fractional work. Which in parallel forced more employers to consider the needs of caregivers and pilot fresh models.
Neha’s journey, from choosing a break from paid work to entrepreneurship is a masterclass on building and evolving a fulfilling professional life. One that works in concert with your values and family’s needs.
Choose Alignment Over Speed
Neha explained that her platform turned business was not an “overnight” success. “It’s important to note it was nine years of planting seeds that have now come to fruition. The foundational offering has not changed and interestingly, it’s all about shifting what is available to us.”
She took her own “power pause” from paid work and nurtured her vision to redefine career breaks for ambitious women leaning into family life. This process, both gradual and intentional, led to a movement, business and book.
Get Clear About Your Direction
Neha said, “When I stepped into my full pause, I did what I often suggest to other women, which is to write about your ‘ideal self’ in five years. Including what you are doing, spending time on, where you live, how you feel in your body and what your relationship is like with your kids. Write everything in great detail.”
It helps to balance your longer-term vision with patience. She added, “I knew I was not going to become that person the next day, but the exercise revealed what I really wanted to be working on.”
Start Small, Build Process
In part one from our interview Neha shared why and how she initially downshifted and then paused her career altogether to focus on motherhood before emerging as an entrepreneur.
She explained, “I set up a free site on Squarespace and committed to three posts a week on the topic of motherhood and identity. It began with creative exploration because I had a lot of lived experience planting seeds for this idea alongside family life.”
Women’s businesses are still underfunded, and we’re often discouraged from pursuing our brilliant concepts. If we don’t receive immediate validation, it can trigger stress and self-doubt. However, you can shift what you measure from outcomes to your process.
Resist Comparison
Neha often hears from moms who are worried their big ideas won’t perform as well as others out in the world and wisely reminds us to avoid comparison. “Focus on, ‘how much time do I actually want to allocate to this right now, realistically? And can I trust that I can keep going and be consistent, because I still believe in this?’ I think consistency was everything.”
Traditional careers tend to lack flexibility yet often provide accolades and financial stability. So if you move into entrepreneurship, the bumpiness can feel excruciating. However, you can build the skills. Neha said, “I think trust is something that we build in relationships. And in the relationship with yourself, it’s built with practice and experience.”
Focus on Your Growth
Neha said, “A lot of times people think a pause means, ‘well, now we’re just going to be in servitude to our family.’ I reframe it instead as, ‘we’re shifting time and focus to help manage and spend time with family. But we’re also going to grow alongside them.’ Whether you stepped into a pause with reluctance or excitement, you can set small measurable ways to move yourself forward.” Yes! Of course, for moms, personal development isn’t only about willpower. So how can you create the time?
Develop Your Plan
Neha said, “Once I figured how to use naps and night times to plant seeds with this project I was so excited for, I thought I was going to hire a babysitter on Thursday afternoons and go to networking events. However, then I had my next kid and it brought me to my knees.”
Like many of us the shift from one two children, had a significant impact. She added, “I realized, ‘oh no I have not figured this out’ then it was this moment of pause within a pause. I had to shift focus because I was feeling overwhelmed and there was more stress in my home. You can usually tune into the signs so I knew needed to shift.”
And Be Willing to Change it
Neha explained, “I thought, ‘how can I hold this project a little bit more lightly?’ I need something different until I get my footing in parenting two children. And I realized I needed to redefine my relationship to help. So, for one year we had a mother’s helper for four days per week. Which was the most amount of help we’d ever had, and it took me a lot to get over my own hump there which, is not a reflection on anyone. I didn’t really love having people in my home and a lot of times, felt like I was always taking care of them.”
Moms generally love giving yet don’t like to ask for help, and some feel also conflicted hiring for it. But while pursuing a big idea, it’s essential to find some flavor of childcare and/or household help that works for you. Whether you outsource, spouse source, eliminate tasks or are fortunate to have a ‘village’ of family or friends.
Learn to Free up Space in Different Ways
Neha was intentional about reclaiming space. “In 2021 my kids aged into school so I thought, ‘oh, I can start to dial this work up now.’ As I put more energy into that, I started to see more reward and watch my kids grow and expand. It was a constant adjustment on all fronts. Including how much my husband and I expected of each other, what kind of care we had in the home and what we were focused on as a family. Some years we totally dropped the ball and chose to let go of our expectations around meals. Then other years, it changed. And we felt like, ‘no meals are actually a priority.’”
And Recalibrate Frequently
Neha explained frequent recalibration, choice and communication within your family is key to make your version of work/life bliss with children a reality. “This idea of seasonal check-ins, especially as the kids get older, is something we still do. And we did it this past fall right before my work picked up with the book publication and it served us well.”
Many thanks to the talented Neha Ruch!
Check out her delightful book: The POWER PAUSE: How to Plan a Career Break After Kids and Come Back Stronger Than Ever and follow her great adventure on her website, Instagram and Linked In.
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About Neha:
Neha Ruch is the thought leader who rebranded stay-at-home motherhood for a new generation of ambitious women — providing the language, vision, and validation to see time in family life not as a detour, but as a powerful, enriching chapter. As the founder of Mother Untitled, the leading platform for women embracing career pauses to focus on family, Neha has catalyzed a cultural shift: reframing motherhood with dignity, ambition, and intention.
Now, that mission continues under a bold new banner: THE POWER PAUSE. With a growing audience of hundreds of thousands, Neha is a sought-after speaker, influencer, and commentator on the intersection of women, work, parenting, and identity. Her transformative insights have ignited a national conversation — one that celebrates the pause not as time off, but as time deeply on purpose.
After 10 years working in Brand Strategy and receiving her MBA from Stanford, Neha decided to pause her career after the birth of her second child. She quickly encountered outdated stereotypes associated with being a stay-at-home mother — stereotypes that seemed more fitting to a bygone era than her own experience or the modern women she was meeting. She became determined to create the world’s first collective of ambitious women on career pauses — or downshifts — to reshape the narrative around stay-at-home motherhood and give visibility to the gray area within which many women find themselves during a pause from traditional work outside the home.
Her book, “THE POWER PAUSE: How to Plan a Career Break After Kids – and Come Back Stronger Than Ever” was an instant USA Today bestseller, named one of Oprah Daily’s top self-help books for 2025 and published with Putnam, Penguin Random House in January 2025. Neha lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her husband, their two children, and their dog Coconut.
