Welcome Back to No Filter Fridays
This is where we celebrate the messy, meaningful, and mildly caffeinated reality of leading, living, and learning with humour, honesty, and zero perfection required.
Season #2 | Issue 1: The Epiphany to Pivot
The Moment Everything Shifted
When the redundancy vibes started six to nine months ago, I did what most of us do. I went into fix-it mode.
How could I scale my side hustle?
What could I automate, sell, or systemise before the axe dropped?
So I started reshaping The Mama Assembly. I moved away from the slower handmade & personalised gifts and dove into every new idea I could find.
Dropshipping. Affiliate marketing. Digital downloads. eBooks.
If it promised passive income, I was researching it by midnight.
On the surface, I looked calm and capable, like I was doing a thing.
Underneath, I was a duck on caffeine, paddling like mad trying to find direction.
Then, last weekend, it hit me.
I don’t need to have the final version of this business figured out.
I just need to start documenting the version I’m building right now.
No more polished updates.
No waiting for perfect.
Just real talk about what works, what flops, and what actually moves the needle.
Why I’m Pivoting My Creative Business
For a while, No Filter Fridays was my outlet for leadership and growth, the lessons behind the boardroom and the burnout.
But somewhere along the way, the lines between my personal brand and my business started to blur.
I was trying to sound polished and professional, while also wanting to be real and relatable.
The Mama Assembly was evolving, but I was still showing up like corporate-me, careful, measured, filtered (mostly).
It got confusing, for me and for anyone watching.
Was I building a brand, a business, or both?
Now I realise it doesn’t have to be one or the other.
It can be all of it.
This space is where the real stories live - the messy, creative, caffeine-fuelled blend of leadership lessons, motherhood, reinvention, and the kind of humour that keeps us sane when life feels like it’s held together with sheer stubbornness.
Because women like us aren’t one-dimensional.
We can run meetings and do school pickups.
We can chase goals and chase kids.
We can build things that matter and still laugh when it all goes sideways.
This pivot isn’t about walking away from leadership. It’s about redefining it.
It’s about aligning work and life with who you are now, not who you were when you started.
The Midlife Moment No One Talks About
I’m fast approaching 50, and this reinvention doesn’t feel like starting over.
It feels like entering my third act.
A lot of women and men reach this same point and start asking the same question.
What do I actually want the next 15 to 20 years of my work life to look like?
We’ve built up experience, resilience, and more transferable skills than we ever give ourselves credit for.
But now it’s about purpose, not titles.
It’s about building something that fits who we’ve become, not who we were a decade ago.
And yes, it’s scary.
Part of me worries that putting everything out there could hurt my future options if I ever go back to a traditional job.
What would people think when they search my name?
But we only live once.
And if it ever comes to walking dogs instead of implementing million dollar projects, then so be it.
I love dogs.
People always say we should bring our whole selves to work.
Well, this is my whole self.
Success, failures, swear words and all.
It doesn’t make me less at my job.
It makes me relatable, open, honest, and happy to laugh at myself.
This pivot is about more than business.
It’s about choosing authenticity over approval and creating a version of success that actually feels good.
From Redundancy to Reinvention
This season marks the start of my build-in-public era, and you’re invited to come along.
If you’re also pivoting, scaling, or starting again, consider this your permission slip to experiment out loud.
Each Friday, I’ll share what I’m trying, what’s working (and what’s not), and the real lessons from behind the scenes.
Because reinvention isn’t neat. It’s messy, motivating, and surprisingly communal when we stop pretending we’ve got it all together.
“Stop waiting to have it all figured out. Start showing the messy middle, because that’s where the magic lives.” - Gill Townsend
What’s Next for The Mama Assembly
This new chapter of No Filter Fridays sits at the heart of a creative home for women building life on their own terms.
You’ll find stories, products, and ideas designed for real life - messy, meaningful, and occasionally sweary (token in the token jar!) - because growth rarely looks polished.
So here’s to the pivot.
To changing our minds, re-imagining what’s next, and giving ourselves permission to start again, mid-sentence.
It’s good to be back.
And even better to be moving forward.
✨ Stay in the Loop
Love a mix of real talk and real tools?
Join both corners of The Mama Assembly™ community - because sometimes you need a story, and sometimes you need a system.
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💬 No Filter Fridays
Real talk on reinvention, resilience, and rebuilding life after corporate. Every Friday, I share the messy, hilarious, and liberating reality of starting over. |
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☕ The Mama Edit Where honest stories meet practical perspective. Motherhood, mindset, and the messy middle; part motivation, part organisation, always real. |
Thanks for reading,
Gill x
Fuelled by caffeine, curiosity, and occasionally vodka.
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