Some lessons are inherited. Others have to be lived.
Mamie Ruth & Co. was built from both. Rooted in the quiet strength and wisdom of the women who came before her, and shaped by the unexpected pauses that changed her own life, Sonia Robinson created Mamie Ruth & Co. around a simple belief: the moments that interrupt our plans can also change how we lead, grow, and move forward. This is the story behind The Power of the Pause™.
THE WOMEN BEHIND THE NAME
Before there was a company, there was Mamie and Ruth.
Mamie Ruth & Co. is named for Sonia Robinson's great-grandmother, Mamie, and grandmother, Ruth, two women whose lives shaped her understanding of strength, hard work, faith, and what it means to lead without needing to be the loudest voice in the room.
Mamie embodied a quiet kind of leadership. She paid attention. She listened. She knew when to speak, when to wait, and when to trust what experience had taught her.
Ruth carried those lessons forward, helping shape a family legacy grounded in perseverance, responsibility, and the belief that how you move through difficult seasons matters just as much as getting through them.
Their influence became part of how Sonia learned to work, lead, and make decisions long before she had language for The Power of the Pause™.
WHEN THE LESSON BECAME PERSONAL
For a long time, moving forward meant not stopping.
Sonia had built a career around hard work, momentum, and saying yes to the next opportunity. Then, at thirty-six, with two young sons at home and a career she had worked hard to build, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She kept working through a double mastectomy and chemotherapy, determined not to lose the momentum she had built. But recovery eventually demanded something ambition had not: a willingness to stop.
The pause was uncomfortable. It felt uncertain. At times, it felt like falling behind.
But with distance came perspective.
Stepping away created space to examine what she wanted from her work, how she wanted to lead, and whether continuing to move simply because she could was the same as moving in the right direction.
That season began to reshape Sonia's understanding of resilience. Resilience wasn't always about pushing through. Sometimes the stronger move was to stop long enough to listen, reflect, and decide what deserved to come next.
That lesson would eventually become The Power of the Pause™.
FROM LIVED EXPERIENCE TO LEADERSHIP WORK
The experience became a story. The story became a philosophy.
In 2025, Sonia published Pause: Sometimes Stillness Is the Strategy, a memoir about family, hard work, faith, and the experiences that reshaped how she understood resilience and forward progress.
But the story didn't end with the book.
The lessons Sonia had lived began showing up in her work with leaders. Business owners facing the demands of growth. Professionals navigating career transitions and unexpected interruptions. Organizations trying to lead well through change.
Different circumstances kept revealing the same pattern: urgency makes it easy to keep moving. The pause creates space to decide whether the direction is still right.
That insight became The Power of the Pause™, the philosophy at the center of Mamie Ruth & Co. Today, it comes to life through coaching, The Pause Experience™, keynotes, and professional development, helping leaders step back from urgency and make their next move intentionally.
MEET SONIA ROBINSON, MBA, APR
Leadership experience on both sides of the pause.
Sonia Robinson is a pause strategist, author, speaker, coach, and communications leader whose career has been shaped by both building momentum and learning when to step back from it.
Today, she serves as President of BAILOR, where she works with small business leaders navigating growth and the leadership demands that come with it. As a BAILOR Certified™ Coach, she helps business owners strengthen their leadership, build more scalable organizations, and prepare for what the next stage of growth requires.
She is also an adjunct instructor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville, where she teaches public relations and brings real-world communications and leadership experience into the classroom.
Through Mamie Ruth & Co., Sonia brings those worlds together through The Power of the Pause™, helping leaders and organizations approach growth, transition, and change with greater intention.
Author. Speaker. Coach. Educator. Leader.
Different roles, but one belief underneath them: better decisions begin with a pause.
WHAT WE BELEIVE
The pause isn't the absence of progress. It's part of the work.
The Power of the Pause™ is grounded in a simple idea: stepping back is not stepping away. Sometimes it is how we see what forward should actually look like.
Leadership matures through reflection.
Experience alone doesn't make us better leaders. Growth happens when we create space to examine what we've learned, question what no longer serves us, and allow our leadership to evolve.
Growth changes what leadership requires.
What got you here may not be what carries you forward. As businesses, careers, and responsibilities change, the way we lead has to change with them.
Urgency and importance are not the same thing.
The loudest demand can easily become the next decision. A pause creates enough distance to distinguish what needs attention now from what actually deserves to shape what comes next.
Stillness can be strategic.
Not every season calls for more action. Sometimes the most productive thing we can do is stop, pay attention, and make the next move intentionally.
WHAT COMES NEXT