Neha Ruch, founder of Mother Untitled and author of the groundbreaking book The Power Pause, is reshaping how women view career pauses and motherhood.
With a background in brand strategy and a personal journey that defied societal expectations, Neha empowers modern mothers to see these moments as opportunities for growth, not setbacks. In our conversation, she shares the inspiration behind her movement and why embracing “the pause” can redefine success for a new generation.
What inspired you to create Mother Untitled, and how does it reflect your own journey into motherhood?
When I had my first child in 2016, it was the height of the Lean In movement and the Girl Boss era. Meanwhile, after a decade in brand marketing and an MBA from Stanford, I knew I wanted more time to lean into family life. I immediately felt the societal pushback and judgment that in some way I was “giving up”. I started Mother Untitled to start a new collective of women reshaping the narrative about pausing or shifting careers.
How did your background in brand strategy shape your approach to modernizing the view of stay-at-home motherhood?
Brand strategy is about finding the story that's true on the inside of a brand (in this case a mission) and finding where it matches the story on the outside in culture. That's where you achieve resonance. For us, we achieved that as the world was reexamining work and family and recognizing the value of parenthood and it allowed us to connect to the truth of our mission which is that parenting is awe-inspiring intellectual and emotional work that demands time and respect.
What does “the power pause” mean, and why do you think it’s an important concept for women today?
The Power Pause is a reframing of stay-at-home motherhood or career downshifts as the opposite of a death knell for your career — and instead, as a chapter where you’re shifting time for other priorities that can actually inspire and ignite immense growth and perspective.
Is there a particular story or message from The Power Pause that feels especially personal or meaningful to you?
It's hard to choose a story from the hundreds of real women that I interviewed for this book but the one that stands out is an interview with a mother in the closing chapter. She reflects on having stayed-at-home full-time, worked out of the home full-time and existed in between and it was all hard work. When we recognize it as hard work we empower women to get the support they deserve.
How do you handle work-life balance, especially with the demands of running a retail business?
With 6 kids between the two of us, it's a daily struggle to find a work-life balance. We’ve found blocking our time works best for us—if we can focus for a solid few hours on work tasks, then we can focus on motherhood. It is difficult to do both at the same time. Magic Playbook is a full team effort and we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without our team.
What advice would you give to ambitious women considering a pause to focus on family?
Remember this is for right now. No choice has to be permanent and you can come back and reexamine this choice in a year or other increment of time. Once you know that, you must remember that ambition is defined by the determination to do things you care about. It's natural that what you care about will shift.
With that in mind, you can use this chapter to grow and expand your network and interests in ways you wouldn’t imagine.
What do you see as the biggest misconception about stay-at-home motherhood, and how can we begin to shift the narrative?
Sadly if you poll the American public about who they think of as the Stay-At-Home mother they will still say June Cleaver - a remnant from 1950s fictional television. It's time to toss out the tropes that haunt this decades old caricature. The reality is modern women are having children older and have accrued education and work experience, they have more involved partners than any generation and access to tools and technology and communities such that are still growing and creating. There is a far more vast gray area between the black and white ideas of stay-at-home and working mothers and we need to be able to enable women to pause and shift without shame and with more support.
Where can we buy The Power Pause?
For those interested in exploring Neha Ruch’s transformative approach to career pauses and motherhood, The Power Pause is available through major retailers including Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Hudson Booksellers, BAM!, Amazon, and Target. To find your preferred retailer, visit Mother Untitled, where you can choose from all six options.
