WELCOME TO THE PAUSE NETWORK®
Community, connection and practical business support for self-employed people moving through perimenopause, and beyond.
Perimenopause changes how you work.
Not just your energy, but your focus, your confidence, your capacity, your tolerance for noise, and sometimes your sense of who you even are in your business.
You can be capable and ambitious and still find yourself staring at your laptop wondering why everything feels harder than it used to. You can have a business that looks fine from the outside, while quietly carrying an emotional and practical load that feels too heavy to hold alone.
The PAUSE Network® exists for this season.
You’ve found a business ecosystem for midlife self-employed women who want their work to keep working, without having to override themselves to make it happen.
Inside The PAUSE Network®, there are three core types of support: community, mentoring, and practical implementation.
The community is where you land. It’s where you can work alongside other women who get it, without having to explain yourself. It’s connection, solidarity, and the quiet relief of realising you’re not the only one.
The mentoring is where the mental load starts to lift. It’s a place to talk things through, make decisions, untangle what’s looping, and find your next step without forcing clarity that isn’t there yet.
Practical implementation removes friction. It’s the websites, funnels, audits and systems that stop everything living in your head and give your business structure you can actually rely on; offering peace of mind that your business is still very much ‘open’ even when you’re feeling ‘closed’.
Your business is shaped by your energy, your capacity, your values, and the season you’re in. It lives alongside you, not instead of you.
Strategy matters. Structure matters. Money matters. But none of it matters more than you.
WHAT IS PERIMENOPAUSE AND WHY DOES IT AFFECT YOUR BUSINESS?
Perimenopause is the transition leading up to menopause, which is defined as the point when you’ve gone 12 months without a bleed. After that, you’re considered post-menopausal. This transition can begin quietly in your late thirties or forties and may last anywhere from four to ten years. For many people, it arrives gradually, without much context for what is actually happening.
As hormones fluctuate, your brain chemistry shifts too. Oestrogen plays a role in memory, focus, emotional regulation and stress tolerance, so when levels rise and fall, it can affect how clearly you think, how steady your mood feels and how resilient your nervous system is under pressure. Things that once felt manageable can start to feel heavier or more complex. Not because you’re less capable, but because your internal wiring is adjusting.
This can show up in deeply personal ways. Confidence may dip. Anxiety can appear where it never used to. Low mood might linger longer than you expect. Decisions that once felt straightforward can suddenly feel loaded or exhausting. When your work depends on your clarity, creativity and emotional steadiness, these shifts don’t stay neatly contained. They ripple outward.
If you’re employed within a company, some of this may be buffered. There are colleagues or line managers, sick days, formal structures and UK legislation that offers protection from discrimination. There is at least some shared responsibility for the load.
When you’re self-employed, you are the structure. You are the strategist, the organiser, the communicator and the safety net. So when your mental clarity shifts or your emotional resilience dips, it can feel destabilising rather than inconvenient. You may start questioning yourself, wondering whether you’re still capable of working the way you used to, whether your focus will return, whether the income you’ve built is secure, or whether this change is temporary or something more permanent.
This is often where fear creeps in.
Many of us have heard of perimenopause, but we weren’t told how profoundly it could affect our sense of competence, our financial stability or our identity inside our work.
But, I am happy to say that this transition is not only about loss…
For many of us, perimenopause also brings a reduced tolerance for what drains you, a stronger instinct about what actually matters, a softening into self-compassion alongside a firmer boundary around what you will no longer accept. The people-pleasing loosens. and the unnecessary hustle starts to feel a little ridiculous.
So, in this phase there is grief for the younger body an d mind we leave behind, but there can also be liberation.
The PAUSE Network® exists because ignoring the difficult parts doesn’t make them disappear, and pushing through as if nothing has changed usually costs more than it gives.
Instead, we acknowledge the shift and build from there. We create steadier structures that support fluctuating capacity. We adjust pace without shame. We speak honestly about the emotional weight of running a business in this ‘season’ of life. We make room for both the wobble and the fire.
Perimenopause is a biological transition that can strip away what no longer fits and shows ou what does.
When you’re self-employed, this natural transition deserves to be worked with, not hidden.
You’re changing, and you deserve a business that supports you.
The PAUSE Network® is here to help you evolve with intention.
Get what you need from The PAUSE Network
Here, community and business support sit side by side.
You can work alongside others who understand this season of life, receive mentoring to untangle decisions, attend online and in-person events, and receive practical business support that can help make your business easier to run.
You don’t have to choose between belonging and progress. You can have both.
② Mentoring
This is for when you need someone alongside you while things are shifting. When you’re navigating change, adjusting your offers or your pace, rethinking your model, or trying to work out what your business is becoming next.
The mentoring space give you room to untangle decisions, steady your thinking and move forward with clarity. It’s thoughtful guidance, grounded accountability and selective practical input, all shaped around who you are and what you can realistically hold right now.
③ Practical implementation
Sometimes you don’t need another conversation, you just need the thing built, refined or simplified.
That might look like a website that reflects who you are now, a sales page that feels clear and aligned, a funnel that supports your energy rather than drains it, or a Notion workspace that brings calm to the back end of your business.
This is where ideas become structure. The practical layer that removes friction, lightens mental load and gives your business something solid to stand on.
① Community
Our twice weekly online coworking sessions give you a place to show up, check in and move things forward without having to manufacture motivation.
Monthly Inner Leadership Days offer a longer, more spacious reset. A guided day to step back, tend to your business, make decisions you’ve been circling, and regain a sense of direction, all within a supportive group rhythm.
And soon, we’ll be bringing this energy into real rooms. In-person meet ups and workshops are coming, creating space for connection beyond the screen, where conversation, collaboration and solidarity can deepen even further
WHO THIS IS FOR
The PAUSE Network® is for self-employed people navigating perimenopause or the years beyond, who want their business to evolve with them.
You’ve recognised that something has shifted and your capacity isn’t what it used to be…your focus comes and goes, you’re questioning your pace, your offers, or even your identity inside your work.
If you’re noticing that the way you used to run your business no longer fits, this space was built with you in mind.
You might be newly self-employed or years into running your own thing. You might feel steady some days and foggy on others. You might want community. You might want mentoring. You might need something practical sorted.
There’s no personality test to pass here.
If you want your business to feel sustainable and less lonely, you’ll likely feel at home inside The PAUSE Network®.
WHY THIS MATTERS TO ME
The PAUSE Network® was born through lived reality, not strategy.
I realised I couldn’t run my business at the speed I used to. Perimenopause was asking me to change.
I needed a space where I could openly talk about the utter sh!t-show that was unfolding in my brain - Who the heck was I? What is going to happen if I can’t do my work anymore? How will I earn a living if my brain has melted? Who am I if I’m not ‘this’ anymore.
I couldn’t find a place to go for self-employed women going through this. Yeah, sure there were loads of events for self-employed people, but nothing that I could find for me. For us.
Running a business at 40+ hits differently. It’s not just the finances, it’s the emotional load. We’ve worked too hard, for too long, to hand our autonomy back to a world that still doesn’t really know how to value us. Self employment isn’t just income. It’s dignity. It’s choice. It’s the quiet truth that we still get to decide [and I don’t know about you - but I’m far to feral at this point to be let back into a ‘workplace’ after 4 years of being out in the wild].
My wish is for The PAUSE Network® to become a kind of sanctuary, where we find medicine in solidarity and togetherness.
I want this to be a place where the emotional weight of running a business in this season of life can be set down, witnessed, and shared.
So, if you’ve been craving a space where you can exhale, move at your own pace, and feel held in the process, you’re welcome to take a seat.
“I’ve joined quite a few of the PAUSE Network co-working sessions now... the working blocks really help to focus my mind and not overwhelm myself if a job is quite large. Heather helps clarify what each person is going to set out to do, & how much they’d like to check back in with as well, which is a hugely empathetic way of guiding the session. In these intervals you can share as much or as little as you like, with Heather & the other members offering insights if needed, before the next working block begins.
I’ve been so productive during these sessions, so much so that I look forward to the next one, as I know that I will get so much more work done than when I’m left to my own devices….”
— Paget, Scholars Cakes“For me there’s several reasons [why coworking works well for me]… Accountability – it helps to eliminate faff and distractions. Life is so unbelievably loud these days and our attention is constantly being pulled in so many different directions, which is exhausting. But when you’re co-working you are working in community, so there’s accountability for what you said you’d do and there’s a reciprocal accountability, honouring listening and being interested in what others are doing. Community – building relationships with women. This is nervous system work. We’re working together and we’re co-regulating. Women are wired for connection and our nervous system needs connection to thrive. The PAUSE Network specifically – you don’t have to explain why you’re tired or why you’re feeling XYZ. The community just gets it. There’s no performance, just support, laughs and connection. Being in community with fellow supportive women is also boosting our oxytocin. ❤️”
— Maxine - Somatic Yoga and Nervous System Educator“…It’s such a lovely group of supportive women and it’s great to have some company and support. Just having you all on for a couple of hours whilst I’m working makes me so much more productive.”
— Alex, Travel Counsellor“When you’re at home by yourself, you just tend to get distracted very easily and it can feel quite lonely… Whereas when I come to the co-working sessions, we have these 25-minute bursts of work that are really productive. We check in, we have a chat, and it’s like the ideal balance of connection and chat, but actually getting stuff done. I’ve found that I’m so productive in those two hours and I also had a really good time. So it makes work fun. I would highly recommend coming along.”
— Lauren, Cosmicology.space
