486: I'm Taking a Break - the bossbabe podcast

Podcast Summary: The Bossbabe Podcast

Host: Natalie Ellis
Episode: 486: I'm Taking a Break
Date: October 9, 2025

Episode Overview

In this heartfelt solo episode, host Natalie Ellis opens up about her decision to take a genuine break for maternity leave and what that means for both her audience and business. She moves beyond curated continuity, choosing honesty over hustle, and addresses the fear—and freedom—that come with stepping away. Natalie candidly discusses how she prepared her team, business systems, and mindset to support this pause, offering practical insights for ambitious entrepreneurs who may also be considering a break.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Breaking the “Always On” Illusion

Natalie challenges the cultural pressure to always be present and productive, especially as a woman entrepreneur.
- Quote:
  “I don’t want to play a part in modeling a version of success that says you have to pretend you are on all the time and you’re not taking any breaks.” (02:12)
She admits to initially planning to batch episodes to simulate her presence, but found it inauthentic.
Natalie stresses the value of aligning actions with core values, especially as a leader advocating for freedom-based business.

2. The Fear of Taking a Break

This is Natalie’s first real break from the podcast, and she openly discusses her anxiety about losing momentum.
- Quote:
  “I definitely have a fear that taking a break could just completely tank my downloads, my momentum... I’m terrified about that.” (03:55)
Despite the fear, she chooses trust in her audience and the business’s foundation over succumbing to metrics-driven anxiety.

3. How She Prepared Her Business for Maternity Leave

A. Building and Empowering a Strong Team

Natalie describes her “small but mighty” team as a critical support.
- Shared joyful anecdotes, like a surprise baby shower, highlighting genuine care and positive company culture.
- Quote:
  “We are a small but mighty team … every single person is just an A++ player.” (05:00)
- She intentionally fosters a work environment that feels personal and supportive, contrasting with narratives that discourage “family-like” company cultures.

B. Systems & SOPs for Smooth Operations

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are documented and roles clearly defined.
The team is empowered to make decisions and pivot if needed, operating with both a concrete plan and the flexibility to innovate.
- Quote:
  “They know that if they want to pivot, if they want to do something else … more power to them. The business is theirs for them to play with.” (07:15)

C. Financial Preparation & Automated Revenue

Evergreen funnels and automation ensure steady cash flow.
The business could operate without new revenue during her absence, thanks to disciplined financial stewardship.
- Natalie shares a surprising year-on-year revenue increase, even though growth wasn’t her focus.
- Quote:
  “We are doing even better than last year, which is mind-blowing because it was never even the intention.” (08:44)
- She reflects that focusing on systems, people, and service leads to success—even during seasons of personal downtime.

D. Clear Communication & Boundaries

Automated “out of office” messages and team contacts are set up for partners and collaborators.
Advice for solo entrepreneurs: use pin posts, email responders, and scheduled content.

4. Embracing Uncertainty and Honesty

Natalie avoids pretending everything will run perfectly; she recalls her previous maternity leave with unexpected challenges.
- Quote:
  “My last maternity leave did not go as planned … I thought I’d set the business up in a great way and a few weeks in, I’m dealing with crying phone calls of launches not going well.” (10:15)
She promises a future recap on what worked and what didn’t, emphasizing learning in real time.

5. Mindset Shifts Around Taking a Break

Trust your audience and the value you provide, rather than clinging to constant output.
- Quote:
  “Growth isn’t fragile. Momentum is built on value over time, not a few missed months on the podcast.” (11:15)
Natalie urges listeners to question when they’re sacrificing integrity or alignment for the sake of appearances.

6. Gratitude and Looking Ahead

Expresses deep appreciation for her supportive community and team.
Emphasizes that rest and success can coexist—a message she hopes resonates with other entrepreneurs.
- Quote:
  “Rest and success can still coexist. It is not one or the other.” (12:25)
Invites listeners to revisit previous episodes, follow her on Instagram for personal updates, and anticipates sharing new insights upon her return.

Notable Quotes & Moments

“I don’t want to play a part in modeling a version of success that says you have to pretend you are on all the time and you’re not taking any breaks.”
(02:12, Natalie Ellis)
“I definitely have a fear that taking a break could just completely tank my downloads, my momentum... I’m terrified about that.”
(03:55, Natalie Ellis)
“We are a small but mighty team … every single person is just an A++ player.”
(05:00, Natalie Ellis)
“We are doing even better than last year, which is mind-blowing because it was never even the intention.”
(08:44, Natalie Ellis)
“Growth isn’t fragile. Momentum is built on value over time, not a few missed months on the podcast.”
(11:15, Natalie Ellis)
“Rest and success can still coexist. It is not one or the other.”
(12:25, Natalie Ellis)

Important Timestamps

00:07 – Natalie sets the scene for a different kind of episode and introduces her current state: maternity leave
02:12 – On choosing authenticity over the “always on” entrepreneur image
03:55 – Discussing fears of lost momentum and trusting the audience
05:00 – How company culture and team strength are key to success
07:15 – Empowering the team to pivot and innovate during her leave
08:44 – Surprising financial results and lessons from focusing on systems, not sales
10:15 – Reminiscing about previous maternity leave challenges
11:15 – Mindset shifts: valuing honesty and trusting momentum
12:25 – Closing remarks on integrating rest and business success

Final Thoughts

Natalie’s personal, transparent approach offers listeners both inspiration and tactical advice for planning breaks without guilt or fear. She models leadership, integrity, and trust in both her team and community, reminding all ambitious women entrepreneurs that it's not only okay—but necessary—to sometimes step back and recharge.

Transcript

A (0:00)

Foreign.

B (0:07)

Welcome back to the Bossway podcast. It is just me today. There is no guest and this episode is going to be a little bit different to any that I have been doing. So I just want to be really honest with you about where I'm at and what is next for this podcast. So I am currently on maternity leave as you're listening to this. And up until a few weeks ago, my plan was to use a of batched content that I put together so that I could keep releasing episodes every single week and so that it would feel like I was never gone. Right. And I feel like that's what we're taught to do, isn't it? To keep the engine running, to keep appearances up. But when I sat with that, it just felt really off to me. Like the actual doing of it, totally fine. Can do that in a day. Can we can get, you know, the three months of episodes done in a day. That's not a big deal. But it just felt really off because it just felt so inauthentic. Almost as if I'm showing or proving that I'm still showing up when actually I'm really honoring taking a maternity leave. I'm really honoring being with my baby and recovering from birth. And I don't want to play a part in modeling a version of success that says you have to pretend you are on all the time and you're not taking any breaks. I have spent so many years telling high performing women, myself included, that freedom based business is about alignment. And if I secretly worked, you know, all nighters to create this fake continuity, or if I, you know, was stretching myself thin or I'm like faking it and putting it out like as if I'm still actually working, I would be breaking my own rule. And I'm going to be totally honest with you, there is definitely fear here because I have never taken a break on this podcast before. I've been really open about that, that, you know, I think the consistency is really, really important. And I definitely have a fear that taking a break could just completely tank my downloads, my momentum. And that when I come back from maternity leave, I'm going to be starting completely from scratch. I am going to be real with you. I'm terrified about that. And I cannot live my life or run my business based on fear. I choose to believe that I've built something way bigger than a metric. And I'm trusting that those of you who are still interested will still be here when I come back. And so before I stepped away from the business, I have Been doing many, many things to set myself and my team up for success. You know, the first thing I'll say is my team has just never been in a better place. I've never had a stronger team. And we are a small but mighty team. There is not a lot of us, but we are a really great team. We work together really well. Every single person on the team is just an A plus plus player. And so that is the biggest part of the puzzle, is having a team that are competent, that you can trust. And what's been really amazing is I have felt so much support from every single person on the team. They threw me a surprise baby shower the week that I was going on mat leave. And I just feel like everyone genuinely cares about the business, but we also genuinely care about each other as women, as human beings, as mothers, as friends, as co workers, we all genuinely care about each other. And that is something that I've listened to all kinds of people talk about company culture. And some people say, you know, companies aren't family and company culture shouldn't be like that. And I actually choose to run a business that does feel like that. I choose to run a business business where people do talk as much personally as they do business. And that's what feels really good. We spend so much of our time at work, away from our families, and so why shouldn't you have a team that you genuinely care about and you like to hang out with? You know, when we get together in person, we just have the best time. When we're on our team hangouts, you have the best time. I used to get Sunday scaries going into meetings. I don't get that anymore because I'm so excited to catch up with everyone and hear about the weekend. And I'm going on a tangent, but that's the first thing. You know, it's really, really important. Beyond that, I've done a bunch of other things. I have set up some really great systems and SOPs. My team have very, very clear processes documented. They are empowered without me needing to micromanage. In fact, they're probably so happy to just have all of this. You know, we're not the kind of company that micromanages each other. We all have our own roles, and so everyone has processes and sops the way that they do things. And that's been great. I've also made sure that everyone knows exactly what the plan plan is for, you know, the next three months. And beyond that. In fact, we're all planned out for launches until the end of 2026, which is wild, but they have a plan and they also have flexibility on the plan. They know that if they want to pivot, if they want to do something else, if they want to test something, they want to get creative, more power to them, the business is theirs for them to play with. And I trust them and I know that they've always got the best intentions. And so there's a full concrete plan that we can be following. And if they want to veer from that while I'm out, then they get to do that. That's awesome. We also have automated revenue streams, so we've set up funnels and evergreen assets that have our cash flow steady without any live launches. You know, if we didn't make a dollar in the business from the day I went out to the day I come back, we'd still be absolutely fine. And that's because we manage our money really, really carefully. At Boss Babe, I always have. I take money really ser. Stewarding money really seriously. And so that's something that I have been sure to do. It's also crazy. This is also a tangent, but last year I've told you guys that we have had our biggest revenue and profit year ever. Last year, right? This year, you know, I got pregnant over the holidays and so I came back to work, you know, in January. We, the whole team, we always take a light mode over the holidays, which basically means we're just to going all offline for two weeks and then we come back in January. I came back in January and then very quickly, morning sickness kicked in for me and I just told myself, listen, this is not the year for you to be growing. Like last year was a huge growth year. Amazing. Crushed it. Love that for you, this does not need to be a year that you are growing. You need to be growing a human being. You need to be focused on taking care of yourself. You need to be making sure that your business is. Is really clean and robust on the back end. You know, lots of pouring into team, pouring into systems, pouring into clients, all of that stuff. And listen, I'm very good at looking at the money. I do look at the money, but I don't really obsess over, like, how are we doing year on year, month on month, all of that kind of stuff. I have the metrics that I look at and I kind of stick to that. And just before I went on mat leave, my CFO sent me a year on year comparison where we were at up until September this year compared to last year. And we are doing even better than last year. And I cannot even believe it. Like, we are doing so much better revenue wise than last year, which is mind blowing because it was never even the intention. And it's been one of those things that has really shown me and I think strengthened my faith too and like taking a break and stuff. But it's just showing me when you do the work to really build incredible systems, when you hire incredible people, when you show up in your zone of genius and you're not worried and sweating about all the little things that could go wrong, or are you, you know, growing and all? Like, if you just do the thing you do really, really well and you focus on serving clients and you focus on doing a good job for people, amazing happens. So I'm so surprised about that, which has been awesome. But yeah, it's just put us in a great, great position, which feels really good for taking a break. And then another thing that I've done is just had really clear communication boundaries with partners and collaborators. You know, I've had my Art of Office on for a month. Matt leave. Just saying. I'm. I'm preparing to go on Matt Leave. You know, I won't be doing any interviews, we won't be bringing any guests on the podcast, and I probably won't be replying to your email. So you will be back in three months if this is so important. And so they just know who to contact instead. They know what to expect. We've lined all that up and I've been doing that throughout the year so that there's no surprises and no one's kind of left in the dark. But even if you're a solo entrepreneur, you can adapt things like this. You can have your email autoresponders, you can schedule content advance. You could have a pinned instag post to let people know your timeline. So I've just been putting all those things in place. And I also don't want to come in here and like, preach about, oh, I've planned this perfect mat leave and everything's going really well, all that stuff. Because listen, I'm recording this just as I'm about to go out, and I don't know how it's gonna go. I assume it's gonna go swimmingly. I'm assuming it's gonna be amazing. And if any of you have listened to the podcast for the last few years, you'll know my last maternity leave did not go as planned. And I thought that I'd set the business up in a really great way a few weeks into my Mat leave. I, you know, I'm dealing with crying phone calls of launch is not going well, and I'm coming back to lots of things that I couldn't have predicted. And I don't want to be sitting here saying, oh, I've crushed it, and then come back and be like, you guys kind of messed that up. It wasn't. So, yes, I trust it's going to be great. And I'd rather do, like, a recap of how I did it properly when I come back and give you, like, an honest overview of this work. This didn't. I would do this differently or whatever because there's always going to be things you can improve on. So I'll definitely do that when I come back. And then listen, if you are listening to this thinking, I could never step away, I get it. What has helped me is a couple of things that I've, like, shifted my mindset toward that I'm telling myself. And the first thing is trusting my audience. Right. I really think people respect honesty more than just constant noise for the sake of it. I think people will appreciate that I'm being really honest about this more than, like, if I'm trying to fake it and pretend that I'm online when I'm not. And the second thing is, I'm telling myself growth isn't fragile. Momentum is built on value over time, not a few missed months on the podcast. And so I really had to ask myself, where am I clinging to appearances instead of honoring my capacity? And then if I trusted my work and my community, what break would I allow myself? And so that's what I'm doing. I'm hoping you'll all still be here when I come back. I hope that I set a better example than this, like, hustle 24 7, because it's just not me, and that's just not the way that I want to run my business. I just would feel so out of integrity to pretend that. So there are so many episodes on the podcast you could go back and re listen to. We have so many videos on YouTube. And maybe you'll just be following along on Instagram. You know, I'm sure my stories will be full of baby snuggles and mum life moments. I am so grateful that I planned my mat leave to be during fall and the holiday season. Like, couldn't have planned that better. Very Cap recorded me. My last one was during summer in Texas, which, listen, could have probably planned that better. But we live and we learn, all right? And then when I come back, I'm Just really excited to continue diving into freedom based business and then share whatever this next few months has in store for me. Because if any of you are mums out there, you know, we can plan, follow the plan, but we never know what's going to unfold. And so I'm sure there are going to be so many things. And so I just want to close this by, you know, saying thank you for being the kind of community that makes this choice feel really safe. Your support means absolutely everything to me and I hope that me taking this pause might be able to remind you that rest and success can still coexist. Right. Rest and success can still coexist. It is not one or the other. And so until I come back, I just want to say thank you for listening, thank you for support me, and thank you for joining me on this journey of trying to do things different and build businesses and lives that are free and aligned and beautiful. So with that, I will see you on the other side of maternity leave and I'm sure I'll have so many downloads for you. All right, I'll see you soon. Wait, wait, wait. Before you go, I would love to.