Ambition has been handed to women in one shape. It’s the C-suite, the power suit, the least possible time with loved ones. Neha Ruch, founder of The Power Pause, is pushing back.

Neha was running brand at a tech company when she became a mom and took her foot off the gas. The questions came fast. Won’t you be bored? Are you giving up your ambition? ln 2016, at the height of the ‘Lean In’ era, she started a mom blog that someone at her business school reunion called “cute.” Some women called her ideas anti-feminist. It all became The Power Pause: a movement, a community, and a bestselling book giving a generation of mothers new language for ambition, identity, and the choice to step back without stepping out.

In this episode of It's Called a Re:Brand, Cat owns up to being one of the people who didn't get it at first, until she left her own job. They explore why Neha says women proved their place in the workforce "by pretending we were the same as men," the identity hit that comes when the title goes away, why owning your choice is what makes a pause powerful, the "serious self-study" that builds an identity bigger than any job, and Neha's take on Emma Grede’s controversial return-to-office comments that set the internet on fire. Plus, Neha’s take on the best rebrand of all time (it's Crocs).

It's Called a Re:Brand is a live podcast brought to you by Re:Brand — a women-first professional community of nearly 2,000 members. We talk to the women rebranding themselves and their industries, proving a pivot isn't a failure, it's called a rebrand.

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