CEO Mama Newsletter: 33rd Edition

Hey ,

I don't want it all anymore.

I'm not talking about giving up. I'm talking about waking up.

Because the version of "having it all" we were handed? It was built for machines, not mothers. It runs on optimization, performance, and the myth that ambition only counts if it costs you everything.

That version didn't make me more powerful. It made me disappear.

The Summer I'm Choosing Something Different

This summer, like all since becoming a mom, I don't have childcare and we’re using this time to travel to the UK/Europe before our baby arrives this fall. 

But, I've still got revenue targets. I've still got dreams. I’m just no longer trying to be everything at once.

Instead, I'm becoming someone I actually want to be around: A woman who knows how to choose.

Some days I nail it. Other days I'm quickly answering Slack messages while my daughter tugs at my shirt asking for snacks. Both are real. Both are okay.

Because choosing isn't shrinking, it's sovereignty.

We were taught that ambition means saying yes to everything. I'm learning that real ambition is knowing what to say no to.

The Myth That Almost Took Me Down

"Having it all" is a lie dressed up as empowerment. It's built on masculine ideals of productivity and linear growth. It requires separation: from our bodies, our cycles, our children, ourselves.

We were sold the dream that we could be corporate titans, perfect mothers, and domestic goddesses if we just organized better.

But that isn't ambition. That's extraction.

It takes and takes from us, then applauds how well we hide the toll.

Maybe we were never supposed to want it all. Maybe that was the trap.

What I'm Choosing Instead

• Creative, strategic hours instead of stretched, resentful ones

• Revenue built on resonance, not reach

• Motherhood that's integrated, not sidelined

• Seasons that honor my capacity, not override it

I don't want balance. I want alignment. I don't want it all. I want what's mine.

(I still fall back into old patterns. I still question myself. The unlearning isn't linear. But it's liberating.)

What's Been Surprising Me

Here's what I didn't expect:

My business grew most when I stopped performing growth. When I worked from alignment instead of anxiety, everything shifted.

Not because I did more. Because I stopped disappearing inside the doing.

When I quit trying to impress people who weren't even watching, I created offers that actually changed people's lives.

When I stopped striving for relevance, something irreplaceable emerged.

Success isn't the reward for abandoning myself anymore. It's what happens when I remember who I am.

Questions I'm Sitting With

• Who benefits from us believing we have to do it all?

• What would break open if we stopped trying to prove we're enough?

• What are we carrying that was never ours to hold?

• What if we're the generation that breaks this cycle?

The New Ambition

There's no gold star for over-functioning. No award for mothering perfectly. No bonus for keeping everyone comfortable while we disintegrate.

My ambition now is generational.

To show my daughter what it looks like to choose power with softness. To lead without abandoning my body. To build a business that doesn't require shrinking my soul.

Maybe the most radical thing we can do isn't to want it all, but to want only what's true. Only what's ours. Only what makes us more alive.

What I'm releasing this month: The need to be impressive

What I'm calling in: Permission to be real, even when it's inconvenient

Your turn. What would you stop trying to "have" if you trusted that who you are is already enough?

With love and a little rebellion,

Natalie

P.S. If this is hitting you in the chest and you're ready to build something that feeds your life instead of consuming it, consider applying to join the CEO Mama Membership.

SHARE THIS MEMO: Know a woman who needs permission to want differently? Forward this to her. Sometimes we all need a reminder that our worth isn't measured by our willingness to carry the world.