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In this episode of Time To Press Pause, Ellen Williams sits down with Susan L. Combs, President of Combs & Company LLC and founder of the nonprofit Pancakes for Roger.

Susan’s press pause moment didn’t come from long reflection, it arrived suddenly, under pressure, and with real consequences.

After her nonprofit received an unexpected $20,000 donation, the donor later demanded that a large portion of the funds be redirected to an unvetted project.

What followed was a high-stakes leadership moment involving legal threats, board deliberation, and the responsibility of stewarding money that wasn’t hers, but belonged to the mission.

In this conversation, Susan shares how she:

• Pressed pause during a crisis instead of reacting emotionally
• Brought her board together to evaluate hard options quickly and ethically
• Chose integrity over convenience, even when it hurt financially
• Used the experience to strengthen governance and prevent future risk
• Learned why leadership sometimes means making decisions you won’t celebrate, but can live with

Ellen and Susan also discuss:

• Why nonprofits must be run with the same rigor as businesses
• How to handle emotionally charged conversations and legal threats
• Why being able to “sleep at night” is a powerful leadership compass
• The importance of tone-checking responses before reacting
• How moments like these shape better leaders and stronger organizations

This episode is a powerful reminder that pressing pause isn’t always calm or comfortable, sometimes it’s urgent, stressful, and necessary to protect integrity.

Learn more about Susan: https://combsandco.com

Learn more about Pancakes for Roger: https://pancakesforroger.org

Learn more about Ellen: https://thesalientstrategist.com

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In this episode of Time To Press Pause, Ellen Williams speaks with Judy K. Herman, CEO of Relationship Wellness LLC, psychotherapist, author, and retreat facilitator who has spent decades helping heart-centered professionals step away from the noise of life so they can return transformed.

Judy’s press pause story doesn’t begin in a boardroom.

It starts in a graduate school classroom, in the middle of a troubled 30-year marriage, when she realized something had to change, and that something was her.

What followed was a decisive choice: to step away from her day-to-day life and invest in an individual spiritual retreat in Canada.

That quiet, intentional pause gave her clarity about her marriage, her identity, and the life she wanted to build next.

From there, Judy:

• Became a therapist to better understand her own story and help others with theirs
• Wrote Beyond Messy Relationships, blending her personal journey with client-centered insights
• Developed her A.I.R. framework for a “vibrantly authentic life”:
  • Awareness
  • Intentionality
  • Risk of growth
• Learned that you can’t change another person—you can only take responsibility for your own next step

She talks with Ellen about how retreats, body wisdom, and daily micro-pauses can become catalysts for major life shifts and why once you see something clearly, you can’t go backwards and unsee it.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How a single retreat became a defining turning point in Judy’s life
• Why partnership (or the lack of it) shapes both families and businesses
• What it really means to take the “risk of growth” in your personal and professional life
• Why well-intentioned pushback from others can’t be the final word on your decisions
• How to use body signals, journaling, and daily pauses to know when it’s time to press pause

If you’ve ever felt something in your life or leadership isn’t quite aligned, but you can’t yet name what it is, Judy’s story will give you language, frameworks, and courage to explore it.

Learn more about Judy: https://judycounselor.com

Learn more about Ellen: https://thesalientstrategist.com

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In this special Thanksgiving episode, Ellen Williams sits down with Mas Moriya, filmmaker, producer, and founder of Filmclusive, a platform he built from scratch to make hiring in film, TV, and gaming more transparent and equitable.

Mas was once an up-and-coming creative working with the likes of Alicia Keys.
But after the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes, rising production costs, and the LA fires, the industry around him collapsed.

Friends with feature films, fellowships, and awards were suddenly saying:

That turning point pushed Mas into a powerful pause, a year-long reset where he stepped away from filmmaking entirely to understand what was broken in Hollywood and how to fix it.
What he found wasn’t just economic failure… but a systemic lack of tools, structure, and support for working creatives.

So he taught himself software engineering and design, leaning heavily on analogies (including Pokémon!) to understand complex concepts.
Yes, The story Mas Moriya shared included a very creative idea on how to learn a new skill.

And that learning led him to build Filmclusive, a market network designed to end pay-to-play capitalism in Hollywood and give creatives free access to opportunities and digital tools.

In this episode, Mas and Ellen discuss:

• How Hollywood’s economic shifts are pushing out working creatives
• Why the industry still depends on spreadsheets and 10 disconnected tools
• The moment he realized no platform truly served filmmakers and performers
• How AI and analogy-driven learning helped him teach himself to code
• Why small daily pauses can lead to major life pivots
• The leadership lesson Mas believes every CEO should practice

A perfect episode for anyone navigating change, reinvention, or the courage to build something new.

Learn more about Mas: https://www.filmclusive.com/about-founder

Learn more about Ellen: https://thesalientstrategist.com

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