Time To Press Pause - Real-Life Stories for Founders
Time to Press Pause is the leadership podcast for founders, executive leaders, and high-performing professionals who want to lead with greater clarity, confidence, and intention.
Hosted by Ellen Williams, the creator of the Progress From Presence philosophy and founder of The Salient Strategist.
Through her podcast, workshops, and Creating Time book, she helps founders and executive leaders develop Leadership Presence, create strategic clarity, and build sustainable success.
Each episode features conversations with business leaders, entrepreneurs, authors, and experts exploring Leadership Presence, strategic clarity, intentional leadership, creating time for what matters most, sustainable success, and the power of pressing pause in a constantly connected world.
Time To Press Pause - Real-Life Stories for Founders
The Cost of Not Pressing Pause, with John de Jong
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What happens when your body forces you to stop before you're ready?
In this episode of Time to Press Pause, Ellen Williams sits down with entrepreneur and business owner John de Jong to explore how two unexpected pauses completely changed the course of his life, leadership, and business.
The first came after a ruptured appendix nearly cost him his life.
At the time, John was a sales manager in the automotive industry, working long hours in a high-performance culture where showing up mattered more than personal well-being.
Even while recovering from major surgery, the pressure to return to work never stopped.
That experience became the turning point that led him to leave a successful career, buy a small business, and redefine what leadership would look like for himself and the people around him.
Years later, another pause arrived.
When COVID shut down businesses across Canada, John was forced to lay off his entire team and rethink how his company could continue serving clients in a completely different world.
That challenge led him beyond signs and marketing into helping businesses become discoverable online through SEO, Google Business Profiles, and now AI search.
This conversation explores:
• recognizing when your body is telling you it's time to pause
• why respect is one of the most overlooked leadership qualities
• leaving a successful career to build a business around your values
• how COVID created a second opportunity to reinvent the business
• the evolution from SEO to AI-powered search
• why human experience still matters in an AI-driven world
• building a business that supports your life instead of consuming it
• the hidden cost of ignoring your own well-being
John also shares why entrepreneurship helped him regain control of his life after struggling with depression, and how creating a business rooted in service transformed the way he thinks about success.
More importantly, this episode explores something deeper:
The cost isn't pressing pause.
The cost is waiting until life makes the decision for you.
If you're a founder, executive, entrepreneur, or leader who feels constant pressure to keep pushing forward, this conversation is a reminder that your greatest leadership advantage may come from knowing when to stop.
Key Themes:
Leadership Presence • Entrepreneurial Leadership • Strategic Pause • Burnout Prevention • Leadership Under Pressure • Mental Health • Business Reinvention • AI & Search • Values-Based Leadership • Creating Time
Connect with John de Jong:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-de-jong-alleykat/
Website: https://igetyoufound.com/
Connect with Ellen Williams:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenwilliamsny/
Website: https://thesalientstrategist.com/
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Time-Ellen-Williams/dp/1637778481/
Subscribe to Time to Press Pause for more real conversations about leadership, growth, presence, and creating time for what matters most.