How to Build a Sustainable Business Without Social Media | Family-First Founder Profile

Building a sustainable business without social media is possible, but it looks very different from the advice most entrepreneurs hear. Instead of constant visibility, it relies on long-term systems, strong relationships, and a clear definition of success that isn’t tied to likes, launches, or urgency. 

In this inaugural edition of the Sandcastle series, I sit down with Taylor Aller, a mom, multipotentialite (check out her TEDx Talk all about it!), and strategist who’s been intentionally social media free since 2019. She helps multipassionate entrepreneurs grow their businesses that support real life instead of competing with it. 

I met Taylor through a networking group we’re both members of, where a simple coffee chat turned into a nearly hour-long conversation about maternity leave, referrals, long-range planning, and what it actually takes to grow a business that can withstand life. She was thoughtful, generous, and refreshingly honest, everything this series is meant to highlight.

What follows is an edited version of our conversation. It’s a look at what it means to build slowly, intentionally, and sustainably, without social media at the center of your business.

Read on for an edit of our chat, or click below for a fly-on-the-wall listen of our entire Voxer thread instead. And check us both out in Dr. Michelle Mazur’s Make Marketing Suck Less Summit for more insights.

“Being pregnant with kiddo number three, something I definitely want is a nice, delicious maternity leave. With each of my babies, we’ve planned for a year off. I’ve never taken that. I always end up getting itchy and going back to work, four to eight hours a week, once they’re six to nine months or so. I kind of keep that until they’re 18 months, and then I go full-time. 

But with this kiddo, we’re planning for me to take a year. Usually, my brain ends up a little bit too active. My husband and I both take a year off, so baby gets to be at home with her dad, and I get to go do my thing for four to eight hours, which is…a nice break.”

“What I want is to take that time and space. And like every single maternity leave I’ve taken, although the fear reduces each time, I’m afraid of that time away. I’m afraid that if I pause or slow things down or switch gears during maternity leave, everything I’ve built will crumble. I’m afraid all the leads will dry up.

I’m afraid that anytime I have a baby, it changes me a little bit. What if I change a lot?”

“On the flip side, this is the biggest gap between my babies that I’ve had, and I want to play in my business more. I want to leverage the time I have left before the baby comes to really play in my business as much as I can before taking a significant pause. But I’m afraid of doing too much. I’m growing a human at the same time, and I have two other wonderful kiddos and a husband and aging parents that I need to show up for.”

I’m afraid of doing too much, although a part of me really wants to do more and kind of milk everything I can.”

Even when the finances are accounted for, women are not wrong to fear what extended breaks can cost them. The data on motherhood and career progression shows that roughly one in four women leave the workforce in the first year after having a child, and many remain out for years longer, whether by choice or circumstance.

That risk lingers beneath every decision to slow down, pause, or step away. Not just the fear of lost income, but the deeper questions: Will the work still be there? Will I still be me? Will everything I’ve built quietly unravel while my attention is elsewhere?

So I wanted to know how Taylor thinks about that risk differently, and more importantly, how she’s designed her business to withstand it.

That’s where I asked her about the systems she’s built to support real-life seasons, including a full year of maternity leave, without everything falling apart.

“I would say I have a threefold system. The first is that I have a strong network of referrals.”

“For my practice at the clinic, there are other RNTs here that manage my patient caseload while I’m away. At the college, there [are] different faculty that step in. With consulting, I refer to different consultants [and] coaches. I have a really strong referral system that either subcontracts and steps into my business or that I refer out, so that the people that I’m working with ultimately are still getting the solutions that they need.”

“In a selfish way, it helps my business stay alive, but truly it’s because I care. I care about my students, my patients, [and] my clients, and I want to make sure that they have what they need while I’m away. I’m treating everybody that I work with with deep care, and I think that that matters.”

They know that I care and that I will be coming back.”

“[I also have] a long runway, introducing people intimately to each other, so that when I do step away and it is time to transfer that care or that service over, it’s all very natural. I let them know when baby’s here. [Then] throughout leave, I’ll touch base with different updates or let them know when I’m expecting to come back.”

I really give a lot of heads up on that runway to both my referral partners, but then also my clients, patients, and students too.”

“The second fold is that I do a lot of visibility in the three to six months before baby comes, so that all of that can start to go live as I’m off. It’s usually borrowing other people’s channels because you know I’m not on social media. I have podcast interviews coming out. I have different bundles…to build email lists. I’ve got swaps. I’ve got different features.

All those types of things are kind of getting locked and loaded now so that throughout the three to six months that I’m on leave initially, all of that visibility will be going out.”

“Email sequences are all planned, prepped, and scheduled and ready to go. So if I do want to do an ad hoc email or let people know about baby, I can choose to do that.

But otherwise, communication is still happening there.”

“The third one is [that] being a multipotentialite is really helpful. I can slowly turn off different taps of the different businesses or income streams that I have going on. And I can slowly turn them back on again.”

“Even though we plan for me to take a year, I get way too antsy. I’m in a really wonderful position to be able to choose to turn on a tap for four hours a week or eight hours a week, whether that’s going to the clinic for a Tuesday morning [or] picking up one class at the college that I’m teaching, [or] taking on one consulting client.

I’m not having to firehose everything and jump right back in 40 hours a week.”

What struck me most wasn’t just the structure of Taylor’s systems, but the relief baked into them. The ability to step back without panic. To adjust without everything snapping. To know there’s more than one way to keep the lights on.

That instinct isn’t rare. According to recent data, 83 percent of Americans say having multiple income streams is essential for long-term financial security . Not optional. Essential.

When you hear Taylor talk about turning taps on and off, it doesn’t sound like financial gymnastics. It sounds like breathing room. Like a business designed to bend with life instead of breaking under it.

Which raises the next, bigger question. If flexibility like this doesn’t happen by accident, how far ahead do you actually have to be thinking to build it?

That’s what I wanted to ask her next.

“My answer may or may not shock you, but I am living and planning four years in advance at a time. I’ve developed what I like to call the ‘make it happen method,’ where I take the next four years of my life, and I reverse engineer.”

Click here to learn more about the Make it Happen Method, download the planner, and listen to the private podcast.

“I think about four years from now, where do I want my business to be, my family to be, me as a person, as a woman, as a wife, as a mother. I think about that in a four-year window, and then I reverse engineer it so that I can get really good guideposts and direction markers.

And then in that first year, I really break that down, and that’s where I really zoom in and take action.”

“I’m rechecking every quarter, every year, and taking stock. Have things changed? Has my business changed? Life changed?

There [are] a lot of variables that are not in your control as a parent, and it requires constant evaluation and reevaluation.”

“To me, my version of success is not hitting seven or eight figures and having a team of 30. To me, success is making a decent amount financially to support my family and the dreams that I want to have. And have time with my kids while they’re young, and have time for myself too.

That trifecta [is my definition of] balance.”

“Having a business that not only provides that [trifecta], but does that with longevity, that is the key to success for me. It’s not something that’s a flash in the pan or microwaveable.”

“I am most in awe of and inspired by women-owned businesses that have been in business a decade, two decades, three decades. That is where I’m striving.”

“To me, four years feels like a short period of time when I’m considering the longevity of the businesses I’m building and the career that I have. I love what I do. I love to work.”

“Retirement will be an option or a choice at some point, and I’m preparing for that. But I love working. I love being busy. To me, success is having that version through sustainability and through longevity.”

Four years.

In a world trained to think in weeks and launches, that kind of horizon feels almost rebellious. Taylor isn’t rushing toward the next shiny outcome. She’s building with the assumption that she’ll still be here, still working, still living a full life years from now. That long view changes everything. It quiets urgency. It rewards patience. It makes room for seasons instead of sprints.

And she’s not alone in needing that perspective. Nearly a quarter of new U.S. businesses fail within their first year, and almost half never make it to five. After a decade, about 65 percent have closed their doors entirely. Those numbers aren’t just statistics. They’re reminders that longevity isn’t accidental, it’s intentional.

But longevity also demands knowing what actually counts as progress.

So I wanted to understand how Taylor measures progress when she’s not chasing likes, impressions, or viral moments. How does she know it’s working? What numbers matter, and which ones does she consciously ignore?

That’s what I asked her next.

“Have I always been like this? I wasn’t always. I was definitely a multipotentialite my whole life. I was that kid that you asked, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and I would list like six different things.”

“When you’re a kid, everyone’s like, ‘That’s so cute.’ But when you’re 12 and 15 and 17, and you’re still saying those things, they’re like, ‘Well, you need to pick something.’ I remember being really hurt by that.

My answer never changed, but others’ perception of my answer really changed.

Because I was young and impressionable, I thought that meant there was something wrong with me. I spent many years trying to fit that mold of success. And I did. I succeeded in a lot of ways. I made a lot of money. I won a lot of awards. I’ve been featured in different places. I’ve traveled internationally.

I’ve done all kinds of things. I have tons of accolades in a variety of different industries.”

And it was not successful to me. There were points where I made lots of money, and I was in huge amounts of debt.”

I lost myself completely.

I felt like I was cutting off parts of myself to fit this box that I was never meant to fit in. I need like six or seven boxes and like doodle space in the margins.”

I really just hit that wall of burnout. If anybody has had an experience with burnout, like true burnout, you know what I’m talking about.” I had digestive issues, sleep issues, mental health issues. At that point, I was broke trying to do everything. I blew through the success, quote unquote, financially.

It was one of the hardest parts of my life.”

“I was watching an Elizabeth Gilbert video. She talked about jackhammers and hummingbirds. The jackhammers are the experts. From the age of two, they only want to do one thing. And then there are hummingbirds that cross-pollinate the world. They have six or seven, 15 different things that they want to do. They have half degrees. They’ve lived in different countries.

They have a combination of different experiences and businesses.”

“I realized, yeah, I’m a hummingbird. My husband jokes that I’m a hummingbird with a jackhammer. I’m not a half-asser. I full-ass everything.

[Realizing] that was when things really changed.”

“My metrics of success were very, very different. It was not about accolades. It was not about vanity metrics.

It was having longevity.

It was having enough financially and actually determining what that number was. Not letting my feelings determine that there’s never enough. We know what enough is now. I can pull back on the gas pedal when we’re approaching or crossing that number.”

Right now, I’m in the time of building my family. That is success to me at this moment. I’m never going to get this time back with my kids in the younger years.”

“Some of my metrics are hard numbers, percentages, and data. And some of it is also feeling and feedback from the people that matter most:

Looking at that longer horizon keeps things in check. I imagine myself four years from now guiding me now. That has served me really well. Being off social media quiets that noise a lot.”

There’s a quiet relief in hearing someone name the moment when chasing success stops feeling successful. When the accolades stack up, the calendar fills, and yet something essential feels missing. Taylor’s story isn’t about opting out of ambition. It’s about refusing to amputate parts of herself to fit someone else’s definition of winning.

Burnout didn’t just slow her down. It clarified what mattered. Time became a metric. Enough became a number. Longevity became the goal.

But clarity doesn’t always arrive gently. Sometimes it comes after we ignore our own instincts for far too long.

Which made me wonder about the moments before all of this clicked. The times she didn’t listen to her future self. The lessons that came the hard way.

So I asked her one final question: what does she wish she had trusted sooner?

“Something that I wish I learned sooner, and that I didn’t listen to until it got really hard, was that other people or society or family pressures, their definition of success is not something that I have to follow. It took me a while to figure that out.

You get to define success and redefine it over and over.

For the season, for my family, for my kids, for the future. It is not based on what the noise is saying. I still get tempted by some of those voices and echo chambers. It’s a lesson that I’m learning and relearning constantly.”

The other one that was also painful to learn, but I wish I would have learned sooner, is that the right relationships matter. I’m a very go deep kind of person. I’m introverted, so my favorite way to get to know people is one-on-one and to go deep really fast.

The moment I feel like I can help someone, I’m there helping.”

“I have found that while my heart is in the right place, depending on the relationship, it’s very easy for somebody like me to get taken advantage of. I’ve been in situations where I look at myself going, how did I get here?

I’m working in their business for free, doing all these things.”

“I’m a big fan of collaboration over competition. I think there’s more than enough room for everybody at the finish line. But with that mindset, if I’m not careful, I can get taken advantage of.

I can get pulled into a whole bunch of situations.”

“I wish I had learned sooner the art of discernment. Although I don’t think you can really learn it without that experience. I don’t have to curb that side of me that wants to jump in and help.

I love that part of me. I would never want to mute that.”

It’s more about being discerning about which direction that goes in. Understanding the reciprocity of really good relationships.

That has allowed my business to grow exponentially if I want it to.”

Every[one] outside of business, too. That’s why a lot of us go into business. We want a certain lifestyle with our friends and with our family.

Those relationships really matter.”

Learn More About Taylor at her website: www.tayloraller.com.

Don’t forget to sign up to hear our free sessions in Make Marketing Suck Less. We touch on this and even more.

Listening to Taylor, I kept thinking about how much permission women still need to give themselves. Permission to build slowly. Permission to change. Permission to define success in ways that look nothing like the highlight reels we’re shown. This conversation wasn’t about opting out of ambition. It was about choosing longevity over noise, discernment over urgency, and designing a sustainable business without social media, one that can bend with real life instead of breaking under it.

At its core, this conversation touched on so many of the questions founders quietly carry. How to step away without everything falling apart. How to build income that flexes with life. How to think long-term in a short-term world. And how to redefine success in a way that actually honors the season you’re in. 

This is the first installment in a recurring series I call Sandcastles, where I’ll be sitting down with founders who are doing just that. Building on their own terms, questioning the defaults, and choosing longevity over noise. I hope these conversations give you both permission and perspective as you shape a version of business that fits your life, not the other way around.

Sources:

The Impact of Motherhood on Women’s Career Progression: A Scoping Review of Evidence-Based Interventions: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11047346/

Wealth-Building in 2025: Generational Investing Trends & Statistics: https://www.ipx1031.com/investing-statistics-by-generation/#:~:text=83%25%20of%20Americans%20Say%20Multiple,Growing%20investments%20%E2%80%93%2023%25

Understanding Small Business Survival and Failure Rates: https://www.lendio.com/blog/small-business-survival-and-failure-rates