Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode Seven: Sadie Lincoln, Founder Barre3

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Episode Seven: Sadie Lincoln, Founder Barre3 · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Hurdle, a podcast that talks to top
0:05
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and badass humans who got through a tough time
0:08
Speaker 1: in their life a hurdle of sorts by leaning into wellness.
0:12
Speaker 1: My name's Emily a Body And for those of you
0:14
Speaker 1: just listening in for the first time, Hey, thanks for
0:18
Speaker 1: coming to hang out with me. I'm a certified trainer,
0:21
Speaker 1: run and spin coach, also a writer, editor, and podcaster
0:24
Speaker 1: living here in New York City. On today's episode, I
0:27
Speaker 1: sit down with Sadie Lincoln, the founder and CEO of
0:31
Speaker 1: popular ballet bar Workout Bar three, which now boasts more
0:34
Speaker 1: than one hundred and twenty five franchises, exotic retreats, and
0:38
Speaker 1: a massive online digital community. Crazy to think that none
0:43
Speaker 1: of this would have been possible if the mother of
0:45
Speaker 1: two didn't face her own hurdle moment in two thousand
0:47
Speaker 1: and eight, which had her and her husband Chris, selling
0:50
Speaker 1: absolutely everything they owned on Craigslist and moving to Portland
0:54
Speaker 1: to open the company's flagship studio Quick Thanks to the
0:57
Speaker 1: sponsor of today's episode, Ultra, I cannot tell you how
1:02
Speaker 1: many questions I get every single day about what sneakers
1:05
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1:07
Speaker 2: New slash.
1:08
Speaker 1: Guys, there is no single one hundred percent must buy
1:11
Speaker 1: option for every person, but if you're looking to run
1:14
Speaker 1: injury free, and really who isn't, then putting on a
1:17
Speaker 1: pair of Ultras could be exactly what you need. Again,
1:21
Speaker 1: the brand is called Ultra a L t R. You
1:24
Speaker 1: can find them at Ultra running dot com. If you
1:28
Speaker 1: haven't done so yet, click on over to hurdle dot
1:30
Speaker 1: us Slash Featured, where you can enter your email address
1:33
Speaker 1: and stay in the loop with my newsletter and you'll
1:36
Speaker 1: find answers to listener emails, which, by the way, you
1:39
Speaker 1: can always feel free to drop me a line at
1:41
Speaker 1: Emily at hurdle dot us. And in there you'll also
1:44
Speaker 1: find tidbits from my guests, fun stuff, and last but
1:48
Speaker 1: not least, I feel the need to throw a little
1:51
Speaker 1: itty bitty disclaimer in here right now. When I recorded
1:54
Speaker 1: with Sadie, my voice was one hundred percent shot. You'll
1:58
Speaker 1: definitely hear that throughout the episode. That's an understatement, So
2:01
Speaker 1: thanks as always for bearing with me. I guess that's
2:04
Speaker 1: what I get for teaching eight plus spin classes while
2:07
Speaker 1: training for the Boston Marathon in one week. I promise
2:11
Speaker 1: you from Sadie's totally wild stories from her unconventional upbringing
2:15
Speaker 1: to her wisdom on how to truly honor your body.
2:18
Speaker 1: This episode, well it's one of my favorites so far.
2:21
Speaker 1: And with that, well let's get to hurdling. Really really excited,
2:43
Speaker 1: total understatement to be sitting here today with Sadie Lincoln,
2:47
Speaker 1: the owner of a family of bar studios called Bar three. Sadie,
2:52
Speaker 1: Happy to have you here today, Happy to be here.
2:55
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot to cover here. When did
2:58
Speaker 1: you first get into working out? You just you as
3:02
Speaker 1: you are. I always moved intuitively, and I've come to
3:06
Speaker 1: redefine working out as moving and feeling good in my body,
3:11
Speaker 1: at home in my body. And I grew up moving intuitively, walking, hiking, dancing, I.
3:19
Speaker 2: Went to art schools.
3:20
Speaker 1: I danced when I was little, and then I discovered
3:23
Speaker 1: that workout, working out was a thing. In the eighties,
3:27
Speaker 1: Jane Fawness, me and my mom met her in our
3:30
Speaker 1: living room with our VHS recorded tape.
3:34
Speaker 2: So what you're saying is, Jane Fauna didn't actually show
3:37
Speaker 2: up in person, and I know we would would have
3:40
Speaker 2: liked to think.
3:41
Speaker 1: So that's when I discovered, you know this whole thing
3:44
Speaker 1: called working out in fitness. I captivated my attention for sure.
3:48
Speaker 1: It was joyful and fun. And in college I went
3:52
Speaker 1: to UCLA. I went to City College first. I always
3:54
Speaker 1: liked to give that copyat started teaching group exercise at
3:58
Speaker 1: UCLA and just loved it. I didn't know it was
4:01
Speaker 1: going to be my life's work. But you know, here,
4:04
Speaker 1: I am.
4:05
Speaker 2: What kind of classes were you teaching at first? At UCLA?
4:08
Speaker 1: Mostly step and I did a little hip hop, cardio, kickboxing, slide.
4:16
Speaker 2: Slide, Yeah, oh gosh, do you remember the slide? I mean,
4:19
Speaker 2: let's talk about it.
4:20
Speaker 1: If you're listening and you remember the slide, you're you're
4:24
Speaker 1: nodding your head and laughing right now. So we wore
4:26
Speaker 1: you know, when you go into an open home, you
4:28
Speaker 1: have to wear those little booties on. We wore the
4:32
Speaker 1: little booties and it was this plastic kind of yoga
4:35
Speaker 1: mapp looking thing and you would slide. It was lateral training,
4:38
Speaker 1: so you slide side to side, and it was kind
4:40
Speaker 1: of it was an epic fail because it wasn't safe
4:42
Speaker 1: in a group, so people were like literally flying off
4:45
Speaker 1: the thing. You could only go side to side. There's
4:48
Speaker 1: only so much choreography you could do with it. You
4:50
Speaker 1: got paid to watch people fall in there pretty much,
4:54
Speaker 1: and for people to watch me on a stage fall
4:56
Speaker 1: in my ass. Yet I'd love to kind of rewind,
4:59
Speaker 1: if only for just a second, to talk about your upbringing,
5:02
Speaker 1: because I know it wasn't exactly conventional. Yeah it was
5:07
Speaker 1: my normal, but yeah, I guess in retrospect, not everybody's normal.
5:12
Speaker 1: So you're probably referring to my mom and my aunt's house,
5:15
Speaker 1: and my mom and her found her best friends for life.
5:21
Speaker 1: It's a true love story. They're still best friends to
5:24
Speaker 1: this day. When they were in their early twenties, they
5:27
Speaker 1: dropped out. They were part of the county counterculture in
5:29
Speaker 1: the sixties and found each other, and they lived really
5:35
Speaker 1: close to nature. They called themselves like, my mom doesn't
5:38
Speaker 1: like the word hippie because it has such a stereotype
5:41
Speaker 1: to it, so she has to be defined. She's like,
5:44
Speaker 1: we're intellectual country hippies. They lived close to the land
5:48
Speaker 1: and all connected and ended up all having children. The
5:54
Speaker 1: dad's split different different men. Dad split, and they were
5:58
Speaker 1: they basically said, hey, let's write our kids together. Let's collaborate.
6:02
Speaker 1: You know, it's out of practicality but also just it
6:05
Speaker 1: was a time of trying a different way. And we
6:07
Speaker 1: ended up moving from house in New Mexico to Eugene, Oregon,
6:11
Speaker 1: and all of us did, and we would just kind
6:14
Speaker 1: of rent homes near each other and roommate. My mom
6:16
Speaker 1: and Liz, for example, were roommates, and Sophia and I
6:19
Speaker 1: lived together, and down the street Miguel and Lucia and
6:22
Speaker 1: Shea and Susan.
6:24
Speaker 2: I love the name Sheia.
6:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, we all have funny names. My real name's Mercedes.
6:29
Speaker 1: I was named by a sheep herder. I'm not kidding you.
6:33
Speaker 1: My mom, we all were born at home, and my
6:35
Speaker 1: mom didn't name me for a week. And there is
6:38
Speaker 1: this guy named jan Waldez, I kid you not, who
6:41
Speaker 1: would come by every day and check on my mom
6:43
Speaker 1: as she was pregnant and just really like took her
6:45
Speaker 1: under his wing. And when I was born, she didn't
6:48
Speaker 1: name me for a week, and he named me after
6:52
Speaker 1: his mother, Mercedes. Fast forward again. You are at UCLA.
6:57
Speaker 1: You're teaching group fitness, including slide. When are you at
7:01
Speaker 1: the point where you start to realize, like, maybe I'm
7:04
Speaker 1: going to do something with this when I leave here.
7:06
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't know I could have this thriving
7:09
Speaker 1: career in fitness. But I loved what I found at
7:13
Speaker 1: the Wooden Center at UCLA was a love for teaching
7:16
Speaker 1: teachers how to teach. So I ran the fitness instructor
7:19
Speaker 1: training program for a little bit, really enjoyed that, and
7:23
Speaker 1: ended up getting a full ride graduate assistant ship to
7:26
Speaker 1: the College of William and Mary, where I helped build
7:29
Speaker 1: their fitness instructor training program. Awesome, and so there was
7:32
Speaker 1: a thought, maybe I'll work on college campuses and help
7:35
Speaker 1: students be involved in fitness, because you know, I think
7:39
Speaker 1: it's good. So many young women out there need that
7:41
Speaker 1: to feel really at home in their body while they're
7:43
Speaker 1: in college. I was really passionate about that body positivity
7:47
Speaker 1: and taking care of yourself that way. And then one
7:50
Speaker 1: thing led to another. I ended up working for a
7:53
Speaker 1: big fitness company. And after college and a.
7:57
Speaker 2: Big fitness company, I would think that it's safe to
8:01
Speaker 2: say a big fitness company is probably an understatement. Yeah, yeah,
8:04
Speaker 2: it's twenty four hour fitness.
8:06
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I joined when we ride out of grad school,
8:10
Speaker 1: when we had I think around twenty twenty five gems,
8:13
Speaker 1: and I thought it was just going to be there
8:15
Speaker 1: for a couple of years, and I ended up being
8:17
Speaker 1: there for close to eleven years, and by the time
8:20
Speaker 1: I left, we were at four hundred and thirty locations globally.
8:23
Speaker 1: I wow to direct for the CEO for minne of
8:25
Speaker 1: those years and really cut my teeth. It was the
8:29
Speaker 1: you know, school of hard knocks basically got my working MBA,
8:32
Speaker 1: you know, learning the business inside note And so by
8:35
Speaker 1: the time you leave twenty four hour Fitness, you have
8:39
Speaker 1: met your husband. Yes, yeah, So tell me a little
8:42
Speaker 1: bit about how you met your husband.
8:44
Speaker 2: Chris.
8:46
Speaker 1: We just got back from San Francisco. Actually, we were
8:49
Speaker 1: celebrating our twenty year meeting anniversary. We met at a
8:52
Speaker 1: super Bowl party. That's really awesome that you guys celebrate
8:55
Speaker 1: things like that. One day, my to be husband, wherever
8:59
Speaker 1: you are in the world, how we will celebrate things
9:01
Speaker 1: like that.
9:02
Speaker 2: It's truly.
9:02
Speaker 1: I was just talking to my brother about this last night.
9:05
Speaker 1: It's I there's something when you find that person. I
9:10
Speaker 1: think it's lucky. You know, there's a certain amount of
9:14
Speaker 1: luck and charm in it. Like if I hadn't gone
9:17
Speaker 1: to that party that day, I would have never met him,
9:19
Speaker 1: And thank goodness I did, because I would not be
9:22
Speaker 1: sitting here talking to you about this company that we've
9:25
Speaker 1: built together. If I hadn't everything we've built together. So
9:28
Speaker 1: we really we do.
9:29
Speaker 2: We acknowledge our meeting day even more.
9:31
Speaker 1: Than our you know, our wedding day, because I think
9:33
Speaker 1: it's even more important.
9:36
Speaker 2: That's really special.
9:37
Speaker 1: Chris also worked at twenty four Hour Fitness, and one day,
9:42
Speaker 1: Chris kind of proposes to you that maybe you both
9:45
Speaker 1: shouldn't work at twenty four Hour Fitness anymore. Yeah, well, exactly.
9:51
Speaker 1: We had had our two We had two babies. They
9:53
Speaker 1: are eighteen months apart. We finally bought a house, which
9:56
Speaker 1: is really hard to do in San Francisco for anyone
9:59
Speaker 1: who's listening in the area, you know what I'm talking about.
10:02
Speaker 1: We are actually considering leaving twenty for our Fitness and
10:06
Speaker 1: running yoga studios for Mark, because Mark Mastrop's the founder
10:10
Speaker 1: of Twenty for our Fitness, but also had other really
10:12
Speaker 1: exciting investments and I was really passionate about yogas, so
10:15
Speaker 1: that was an exciting opportunity. But so we're on that
10:20
Speaker 1: path and Chris came to me one day with this
10:22
Speaker 1: idea of, you know what, let's sell our house because
10:28
Speaker 1: this is what we've worked for our whole lives is
10:30
Speaker 1: to buy this house, right, but let's sell it and
10:33
Speaker 1: use any money we make off at the house to
10:36
Speaker 1: take a year off just to be together and be
10:39
Speaker 1: with our kids and let go of this career path.
10:43
Speaker 1: We're on this climbing the ladder, you know, kind of
10:46
Speaker 1: climbing our way to the top, if you will. And
10:49
Speaker 1: it was such an amazing pivot point for us just
10:52
Speaker 1: to sit down and realize we can do that, Like,
10:55
Speaker 1: we don't have to go this path, you know, we
10:57
Speaker 1: can actually be creative and conventional and figure out something
11:02
Speaker 1: for us. You know that that works for us, And
11:04
Speaker 1: that that led to the idea of, well, maybe we
11:07
Speaker 1: don't want to not work for well, I didn't want
11:09
Speaker 1: to not work for a you.
11:11
Speaker 2: And I was going to.
11:12
Speaker 1: Say, how did you feel when he like presented you
11:14
Speaker 1: with this idea? Was it exciting or were you like,
11:17
Speaker 1: are you kidding?
11:18
Speaker 2: So in love with him at that moment?
11:21
Speaker 1: For one thing, he's really analytical and grounded and more of.
11:25
Speaker 2: A you know, he thinks things through.
11:28
Speaker 1: I am new shiny thing adventure seeker, always wanting to
11:31
Speaker 1: do the crazy thing. So for him to come to
11:33
Speaker 1: me with such an out of the box idea, you know,
11:36
Speaker 1: really was symbolic of how much he saw me and
11:40
Speaker 1: how well.
11:41
Speaker 2: Suited we work for each other.
11:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're both, you know, dreamers, and we both want
11:47
Speaker 1: more out of life, and we were both lonely. Honestly,
11:50
Speaker 1: we were fighting lonely as a couple, and this was
11:54
Speaker 1: one way to figure out.
11:55
Speaker 2: Let's let's not do that. Let's let's go a different direction.
12:00
Speaker 1: Let's build community, let's build a life for ourselves that
12:04
Speaker 1: is meaningful. And then we said, well, maybe maybe we
12:09
Speaker 1: can create a job that affords us this for our
12:12
Speaker 1: whole lives. It's not just a year off. Maybe we
12:16
Speaker 1: can actually create a career that's rewarding. So when you
12:21
Speaker 1: first when you first stepped back, did you did you
12:24
Speaker 1: take any of that time just to kind of relax
12:27
Speaker 1: and exhale, or was it really from the get go,
12:30
Speaker 1: we're gonna do this, and we're gonna sit down and
12:34
Speaker 1: we're going to figure out how do we make a
12:37
Speaker 1: life where we get to decide our own path. It's
12:41
Speaker 1: interesting when you said did you take time? I've been
12:44
Speaker 1: thinking a lot about time and that time is different
12:47
Speaker 1: than energy, right, Energy management is different than time management.
12:52
Speaker 1: So I could have taken six months. But if I
12:55
Speaker 1: wasn't ready for it those six months, I would have
12:59
Speaker 1: needed those six months, but they would have been harder.
13:01
Speaker 1: I needed six minutes because I was so ready for
13:04
Speaker 1: it right energetically.
13:06
Speaker 2: I was like, we just we're just.
13:08
Speaker 1: So clear in that moment, both of us what we
13:12
Speaker 1: wanted that we didn't need a lot of time. And
13:16
Speaker 1: I call that like warrior state, when you're just in
13:18
Speaker 1: that slow state of inner warrior. I know what I'm doing,
13:22
Speaker 1: I'm on the right path. The blinders automatically come up,
13:25
Speaker 1: and I just we literally just looked inside and went
13:29
Speaker 1: with our gut from then on. And of course, when
13:31
Speaker 1: that happens, everything lines up, everything falls into place. It
13:36
Speaker 1: was just one two three. When we sold our house
13:38
Speaker 1: on Craigslist. We packed, I do that, we do. We
13:45
Speaker 1: did really all that matters we need to do to
13:48
Speaker 1: a couple of realtors, and we both of us. I
13:50
Speaker 1: mean again, I think entrepreneurs are like this. You know,
13:54
Speaker 1: you see a problem and you fix it. And it
13:55
Speaker 1: just didn't makes sense for the way they were marketing
13:58
Speaker 1: our home. I felt like we could market at our home,
14:00
Speaker 1: and so we did. We figured them out. I don't know,
14:03
Speaker 1: but those kinds of things just started happening, you know,
14:06
Speaker 1: one thing after another. This is very different than deciding
14:10
Speaker 1: to sell your home on Craigslist and eventually start a
14:14
Speaker 1: major company with you know, one hundred and twenty six
14:17
Speaker 1: different locations. I just kind of got into a warrior
14:21
Speaker 1: state myself about deciding that I needed to take an
14:24
Speaker 1: international trip by myself. Yesterday I put down a spontaneous
14:30
Speaker 1: deposit and apartment and booked to flight, and I'm going
14:33
Speaker 1: to Italy.
14:33
Speaker 2: For ten days. Traveling alone frightens me. This idea of
14:37
Speaker 2: like being so completely by myself in this place that's
14:41
Speaker 2: unfamiliar but also so whimsical. But it wasn't about what if,
14:46
Speaker 2: what if? What if? It was just like, this is
14:48
Speaker 2: exactly what I'm supposed to be doing right now.
14:51
Speaker 1: And so I can totally hear you when you're like
14:53
Speaker 1: I needed six minutes. It's like I had those twelve
14:56
Speaker 1: minutes to sit down think to myself, is this right?
15:00
Speaker 2: And then I was like, it's one hundred and twenty
15:02
Speaker 2: five percent right? This is it?
15:05
Speaker 1: Why is it right? What about the frightening part is right?
15:09
Speaker 2: I think? What's magical?
15:10
Speaker 1: I love that you just asked me a question I
15:12
Speaker 1: don't know of anyone on my podcast is after asking
15:15
Speaker 1: me a question. I think it's right because this idea
15:18
Speaker 1: of getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, so many people talk
15:22
Speaker 1: about how wonderful it is to push your comfort zone
15:25
Speaker 1: and to go outside those borders. And for me more
15:28
Speaker 1: than ever, as I take on more entrepreneurial adventures and
15:33
Speaker 1: with this podcast and with being a freelance writer and
15:36
Speaker 1: editor full time, it's like why not now? Like if
15:39
Speaker 1: not now? One, I've been thinking a lot about creating.
15:43
Speaker 1: I think it's really important for all to move forward.
15:47
Speaker 1: I love the quote it's the sand and the oyster
15:50
Speaker 1: that makes the pearl. So it's the discomfort, right, the rub,
15:54
Speaker 1: the getting out of your comfort zone that creates beauty,
15:58
Speaker 1: and the oyster is the conditions for that, the place
16:01
Speaker 1: for that. And when I think it's good to be
16:05
Speaker 1: intentional about that and you bringing yourself to a different place,
16:08
Speaker 1: a different conditions in a different country can be the oyster, right,
16:12
Speaker 1: And there's like so much beauty that can come out
16:15
Speaker 1: of that. And I've been thinking about that a lot
16:17
Speaker 1: in terms of our studios, that we create the conditions
16:22
Speaker 1: where people who want to move forward in their lives
16:24
Speaker 1: high performers are. You know, in general, the people we
16:27
Speaker 1: attract can get out of their comfort zone, adapt to
16:32
Speaker 1: make their own and get exactly what they want out
16:34
Speaker 1: of it, and ultimately lead from within. And I think
16:38
Speaker 1: that is health, that is fitness, that is well being,
16:41
Speaker 1: that is moving forward. The fitness industry, by and large
16:45
Speaker 1: that I grew up in was not about that. Yes,
16:48
Speaker 1: it was about good intentions and about getting stronger and
16:51
Speaker 1: being healthier, but it was more about following formulas that
16:56
Speaker 1: were science based or that someone else did that really
16:58
Speaker 1: worked for them, such as, you know, you have to
17:02
Speaker 1: do cardio for thirty minutes three times a week, you
17:04
Speaker 1: need to do strength training, you need to eat these
17:06
Speaker 1: things and donat these things, and you know there's a
17:08
Speaker 1: restriction part of it, and this formula that we're all
17:12
Speaker 1: to follow, And it was really about copying a formula
17:15
Speaker 1: and the outcome we were all attached to, right, We're
17:19
Speaker 1: attached to this ideal of what fitness looks like and
17:22
Speaker 1: it's all external measures of success mostly, and that whole
17:28
Speaker 1: system failed me, and I felt like a failure. I
17:32
Speaker 1: had a lot of shame around it because I was
17:34
Speaker 1: following and copying all these systems and it didn't work
17:37
Speaker 1: for me. And when I discovered, oh wait a second,
17:41
Speaker 1: you know, maybe I copying skips understanding, maybe I shouldn't
17:45
Speaker 1: follow anymore.
17:46
Speaker 2: And I want to.
17:46
Speaker 1: Actually hone in on this a little bit, because effectively,
17:49
Speaker 1: this would be your hurdle moment. And at the time,
17:53
Speaker 1: you were pregnant and you were working still at twenty
17:58
Speaker 1: four hour fitness, and you kind of had and I'll,
18:01
Speaker 1: of course let you put this into your own words,
18:03
Speaker 1: but from my understanding, it was this total body feeling
18:07
Speaker 1: that you knew that you needed to make a big
18:09
Speaker 1: change for yourself, for your body. I love reflecting back
18:16
Speaker 1: of when I was pregnant. It's such a special time.
18:20
Speaker 1: Before I was pregnant, I think I was outside of
18:25
Speaker 1: my body. I went through many years of being outside
18:27
Speaker 1: of my body and looking from the outside in and
18:31
Speaker 1: being critical of my body, and you know, measuring my
18:35
Speaker 1: success based on what my body looked like. I didn't
18:37
Speaker 1: feel good in my body. I didn't I felt disconnected
18:40
Speaker 1: from my body. And even though I was working my
18:44
Speaker 1: ass off, I was running, I was trail running, I
18:46
Speaker 1: was you know, spinning, I was working hard, you know,
18:50
Speaker 1: to do all these things to be healthy and feel good, but.
18:52
Speaker 2: It wasn't working. You were following the formula.
18:55
Speaker 1: I was following the formula dutifully and very attached. My
19:00
Speaker 1: identity was attached to that because I was in the
19:01
Speaker 1: fitness industry as a leader. When I got pregnant, I
19:05
Speaker 1: remembered what my body was for, right, and that really
19:11
Speaker 1: health is about being intuitive and looking inside and honoring
19:15
Speaker 1: this body I get to live in.
19:17
Speaker 2: And there is.
19:18
Speaker 1: Nothing more intuitive than growing a child. I mean, you
19:21
Speaker 1: can't think your way through it, like now I'm going
19:23
Speaker 1: to grow the toes. You know today is brain development?
19:27
Speaker 1: You know, like there's nothing it's you.
19:29
Speaker 2: Just trust, you just trust.
19:33
Speaker 1: And for me, being pregnant just brought me inside my body,
19:38
Speaker 1: back to my roots how I grew up my power
19:43
Speaker 1: and intuition, and that is my truth strength is intuition.
19:47
Speaker 1: I think it's all of our truth strengths. Really, when
19:50
Speaker 1: we're born, we're born with it, and life rights on
19:53
Speaker 1: us over time and we're all pulled from our inner knowing.
19:56
Speaker 1: And I took that moment when I was pregnant. I
19:59
Speaker 1: started instead of running or power walking or going to
20:03
Speaker 1: the gym or you know, getting there, I stopped moving
20:06
Speaker 1: and I slowed down and I worked on breath breathwork yoga,
20:10
Speaker 1: my own home practice, and in those moments, and I
20:14
Speaker 1: just walked because I liked walking in it, you know,
20:17
Speaker 1: and enjoying the.
20:18
Speaker 2: Woods and forest.
20:21
Speaker 1: And in those moments, you know, I think I remembered
20:24
Speaker 1: what healthy really was, and it was from it's leading
20:26
Speaker 1: from within.
20:27
Speaker 2: And so when you're.
20:28
Speaker 1: Having these realizations and thinking about leading from within, you say,
20:33
Speaker 1: at first, you guys thought that you wanted to open
20:36
Speaker 1: yoga studios, but this is really about the time that
20:39
Speaker 1: you started to conceptualize that you wanted to make something
20:42
Speaker 1: that was truly your own.
20:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, truly my own. Yeah.
20:46
Speaker 1: And that was that's when the fear kicks in a
20:48
Speaker 1: little bit, right, a lot, and I crowded out fear
20:52
Speaker 1: the word fear with courage, and I just kept thinking,
20:55
Speaker 1: this is courageous, right, That's the other side of fear,
20:57
Speaker 1: is courage. And I think fear it has a place
21:01
Speaker 1: because it's what it's sort of the catalyst. It's the excitement,
21:04
Speaker 1: it's the adrenaline, and then courage is where you take
21:07
Speaker 1: it to the next level. I had to I wrote
21:09
Speaker 1: the word courage. I'm a little yellow, sticky, and I
21:11
Speaker 1: put it on my vanity. So I saw it every
21:13
Speaker 1: single day as I was cultivating this idea of I'm
21:18
Speaker 1: going to create something. I'm just going to create something,
21:21
Speaker 1: and I'm going to put my blinders on. I loved
21:23
Speaker 1: yoga so much of it, but I didn't want to
21:25
Speaker 1: follow a tradition or a heritage, you know, I didn't.
21:29
Speaker 1: I just didn't want to follow anything. I wanted to
21:33
Speaker 1: just go with my guts. And I knew so much
21:37
Speaker 1: about the body at that point that I could, you know,
21:39
Speaker 1: I could hold on to that wisdom. I knew so
21:41
Speaker 1: much about yoga and fitness and kind of choreograph sequence,
21:45
Speaker 1: you know, all the all the kind of mechanics I knew,
21:48
Speaker 1: and so it was it was my time to just think, Okay, now,
21:51
Speaker 1: let all that go, let the business books go. I
21:54
Speaker 1: don't need to read about those anymore, and just just
21:56
Speaker 1: build this in a way that it's like scratching my
21:59
Speaker 1: own edge over and over again.
22:00
Speaker 2: What do I need? What do I want? What feels
22:02
Speaker 2: good in my body? You know right? That's yeah. So
22:06
Speaker 2: when you when you have all of these thoughts and
22:10
Speaker 2: you start to think about what feels good in your body,
22:13
Speaker 2: when does it become when does it transform from just
22:17
Speaker 2: an idea to I'm going to create a method of
22:21
Speaker 2: sorts and really power through with this idea of creating
22:27
Speaker 2: not just a method, but a business right away.
22:31
Speaker 1: And I think part of my journeys was that I
22:36
Speaker 1: worked for eleven years and so I knew the business.
22:38
Speaker 1: It wasn't like I was trying to figure out what
22:40
Speaker 1: the business was. So again, I had the mechanics, I
22:43
Speaker 1: had the blueprints. I knew how to find real estate,
22:46
Speaker 1: build out a beautiful studio, branding, marketing, how to sequence,
22:50
Speaker 1: how to balance the body.
22:52
Speaker 2: I knew anatomy.
22:53
Speaker 1: I had all those those those things that I've worked
22:56
Speaker 1: you know, in my twenties basically for a decade. So
23:00
Speaker 1: this now it was about creating instead of creating a
23:05
Speaker 1: method of exercise. This is one thing I was really
23:07
Speaker 1: clear on. This is not the Sadie Lincoln method. This
23:11
Speaker 1: isn't a method of exercise. I'm not going to be
23:13
Speaker 1: attached to anything except a love of learning and a
23:18
Speaker 1: love of continual, continuous, kind of fluid discovery of what
23:23
Speaker 1: balance means in the body. And so that's the only
23:26
Speaker 1: thing to this day we're connected to at R three.
23:28
Speaker 1: The three is a symbol of balance like a triangle,
23:32
Speaker 1: which is a lovely balanced shape. And we're not trying
23:35
Speaker 1: to be balanced. We are in a practice of discovering,
23:41
Speaker 1: really recognizing imbalances, and being okay with imbalances because.
23:47
Speaker 2: That's what living is.
23:48
Speaker 1: We're imperfect people, that's what humanity is all about. And
23:52
Speaker 1: so instead of being shameful of imbalances, recognizing them and
23:56
Speaker 1: working towards a more balanced state. And that was that
24:00
Speaker 1: was my like to this day, my north star that
24:05
Speaker 1: allowed me to make all the business decisions decisions.
24:07
Speaker 2: I did talk to me.
24:09
Speaker 1: A little bit about a bar in general. I think
24:12
Speaker 1: some people listening at home might not have a full
24:15
Speaker 1: understanding of what a bar kind of work out really entails.
24:18
Speaker 1: So talk to me about how you view bar, where
24:21
Speaker 1: you drew some of your inspiration from, and then how
24:24
Speaker 1: that ultimately became what you teach inside of the studios. Well,
24:29
Speaker 1: the ballet bar is what we're talking about, and I
24:33
Speaker 1: just think it's the most beautiful prop right and it's
24:37
Speaker 1: a place to support yourself. It's as soon as you touch,
24:40
Speaker 1: it's just like instant posture and grace and connectivity. And
24:46
Speaker 1: I was taking some bar classes I taught for a
24:49
Speaker 1: bar studio for a little bit and the bar phenomenon
24:55
Speaker 1: that we know today and my major competitors Pure Bar
24:58
Speaker 1: Bar Method, Daily Methods fifty seven and I'm so appreciative
25:04
Speaker 1: of every single one of them. They're all, for the record,
25:07
Speaker 1: founded by amazing strong women, which I think is incredible,
25:12
Speaker 1: and they're all wildly successful, and they are also all
25:18
Speaker 1: tied to a heritage called the Lottie Brick Method, and
25:22
Speaker 1: they honor that heritage. I'm not tied to that. I'm
25:26
Speaker 1: a little inspired by it, but it's not where I
25:29
Speaker 1: pull from. I use the ballet bar more as a
25:33
Speaker 1: prop to allow people to be supported. So, if you
25:37
Speaker 1: think about it, one thing I love about the ballet
25:40
Speaker 1: bar is that it wraps around the room like a circle,
25:43
Speaker 1: so it automatically creates community. We're all in a circle together,
25:46
Speaker 1: shoulder to shoulder, and yet each of us are turned
25:49
Speaker 1: towards that ballet bar and allowed to honor our truth.
25:52
Speaker 1: There's the sense of being an individual and being able
25:56
Speaker 1: to do exactly what's right for you at the ballet bar.
25:59
Speaker 1: So I have a very specific philosophy that the ballet
26:02
Speaker 1: bar supports that's about honoring your truth actually not doing
26:08
Speaker 1: what your neighbor's doing next to you, not competing with
26:10
Speaker 1: your neighbor next to you, but instead literally and figuratively
26:14
Speaker 1: standing up for yourself at the bar and doing what's
26:16
Speaker 1: right for yourself. I will be the first person to
26:19
Speaker 1: raise my hand and say, I feel as though I'm
26:23
Speaker 1: not very good at bar, although I do love Bar three.
26:27
Speaker 1: The West Village Studio here in New York City is
26:29
Speaker 1: absolutely gorgeous and bright, and it makes me feel so
26:32
Speaker 1: happy when I walk in there. But for me, it
26:35
Speaker 1: definitely is walking in there and looking for balance because
26:38
Speaker 1: I am a very big runner. I have very weak hips,
26:42
Speaker 1: and so I go into a bar class and I'm
26:44
Speaker 1: doing things like cliaise, different movements that really focus in
26:49
Speaker 1: on the glutes and the hips, and man, is that
26:51
Speaker 1: a humbling experience?
26:53
Speaker 2: Yeah? We follow.
26:55
Speaker 1: Our approach has three steps. We hold the body in
26:58
Speaker 1: an isometric hold, which most bar studios do. These two
27:01
Speaker 1: first steps, you hold the body in an isometric hold
27:04
Speaker 1: where you're taxing your muscles at the deepest point and
27:07
Speaker 1: in squats lunges we call it horse post, which is
27:10
Speaker 1: a less turned out position than the second position. And
27:15
Speaker 1: then we add on a controlled, small range of motion
27:19
Speaker 1: to really work on stamina, endurance, resilience. That's when the bodies,
27:24
Speaker 1: the muscles start to fatigue and fail. And then the
27:27
Speaker 1: third layer that we put on is large range of motion,
27:30
Speaker 1: which is functional movement, like a full squat, sitting all
27:32
Speaker 1: the way down and standing all the way up, and
27:34
Speaker 1: it's all we're not jumping, and yet it's incredibly challenging
27:40
Speaker 1: and you know, tests your you know, it pushes you
27:43
Speaker 1: out of your comfort zone, but in a sophisticated, mindful way.
27:46
Speaker 1: We work with physical therapists, so a lot of times
27:49
Speaker 1: people will say, you know, that's like physical therapy, but
27:51
Speaker 1: more entertaining.
27:52
Speaker 2: It's fun.
27:53
Speaker 1: It's to music, to speed driven. Yeah, runners love it. Yeah,
27:58
Speaker 1: because of the stability. Yeah, it definitely keeps me humble.
28:01
Speaker 2: I once went to an event and there were a
28:04
Speaker 2: lot of men at the event doing bar and that
28:07
Speaker 2: was just wonderful because you see these guys all the time,
28:10
Speaker 2: you know, pushing sleds down turf and doing furpees and
28:13
Speaker 2: box jumps and all the things, and you bring them
28:16
Speaker 2: in front of a ballet bar, Yeah, you see something else.
28:20
Speaker 1: Well. The men who come the most religious lead of
28:25
Speaker 1: Bar three are usually athletes and they've discovered that it
28:29
Speaker 1: helps them do what they love to do better. And
28:31
Speaker 1: that's really what we're about. It's not about what happens
28:34
Speaker 1: in the sixty minutes you're doing Bar three. It's really
28:37
Speaker 1: about how that sixty minutes informs the rest of your
28:40
Speaker 1: day and what you love to do. You start concepting
28:44
Speaker 1: what you don't know will be called Bar three. Yet,
28:47
Speaker 1: where does the name Bar three come from? I pretty
28:49
Speaker 1: much knew right away I wanted to name this magical.
28:52
Speaker 1: I feel like you just like it was like there
28:54
Speaker 1: was a roadmap and it was in your head and
28:56
Speaker 1: you just kind of started to write it all down.
28:59
Speaker 2: That's what happens.
29:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I I wanted to name both christ and I
29:06
Speaker 1: wanted to name our studio three, but you can't trademark
29:09
Speaker 1: that it's two generic. Then Studio three was our next pick,
29:13
Speaker 1: and that was already trademark. I knew I wanted to
29:15
Speaker 1: use the ballet bar, and I decided to call it
29:18
Speaker 1: BAR three, and that that positioned me right in the barniche.
29:22
Speaker 1: And I didn't ten years ago, Bar wasn't what it
29:24
Speaker 1: is today, right, I didn't really realize, you know, that
29:28
Speaker 1: I was going to be a part of this heritage
29:31
Speaker 1: you know, it's one of my challenges as a business
29:34
Speaker 1: person because we are so different than a lot of
29:36
Speaker 1: the other BAR programs. But it's also, you know, a
29:41
Speaker 1: happy accident because it's been really fun to ride this wave,
29:44
Speaker 1: this exciting wave of bar. It's become a thing now.
29:47
Speaker 1: Oh you know, it wasn't ten years ago. Now it's
29:49
Speaker 1: a category. People say bar they and people drop off
29:52
Speaker 1: the three. Oh I got a bar? Which bar?
29:54
Speaker 2: You know? Bar three?
29:56
Speaker 1: So tell me about opening the first Bar three studio.
30:02
Speaker 1: We opened in Portland, Oregon and the Pearl District, which
30:06
Speaker 1: is a beautiful, beautiful area in Portland and that's where
30:10
Speaker 1: you live now. And before we opened again, all this
30:13
Speaker 1: magic happens. I feel like when you're in that flow state.
30:17
Speaker 1: We rented a little house in a neighborhood called Irvington
30:20
Speaker 1: in northeast Portland, and I walked down to the health
30:23
Speaker 1: food store, which was wildness at the time, and I
30:26
Speaker 1: was kind of thinking, gosh, I wanted to start classes.
30:28
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll do them in our attic. But we had
30:30
Speaker 1: this funky little house and was like I didn't have
30:32
Speaker 1: any friends yet, you know. And I walked upstairs and
30:36
Speaker 1: there was a studio that was built out for basically
30:39
Speaker 1: bar classes. It had a ballet bar, all the props
30:44
Speaker 1: I needed. What was it being used for? On community classes?
30:47
Speaker 1: This woman was teaching calnetics senate, which was also inspired
30:52
Speaker 1: by the Lottie Burke method. So I started teaching classes
30:55
Speaker 1: there while I was building my first studio, and it
30:57
Speaker 1: became kind of a like an underground kind of favorite.
31:00
Speaker 1: And so the day we opened Bar three, I had
31:03
Speaker 1: a full, full group, full class.
31:05
Speaker 2: It was fun.
31:06
Speaker 1: I love it's just like so I saw the studio
31:09
Speaker 1: and then I opened Bar three.
31:10
Speaker 2: It's a lot of work.
31:11
Speaker 1: I mean, of course, there's no question, but I think
31:14
Speaker 1: when you're doing something you left to do, the work
31:16
Speaker 1: is so rewarding it doesn't feel hard. But I mean
31:19
Speaker 1: we had all kinds of h back issues we had
31:21
Speaker 1: to you know, at the time, we were just you know,
31:23
Speaker 1: every penny counted and we're bleeding money. And at the
31:27
Speaker 1: very last minute when we're about to open the studio,
31:29
Speaker 1: we had this big h back thing and we had
31:31
Speaker 1: to spend another ten thousand dollars to fix it, and you.
31:34
Speaker 2: Know, almost broke us.
31:36
Speaker 1: So you think about this bar studio, you open it,
31:39
Speaker 1: it's a full class, which is outstanding. When did you
31:42
Speaker 1: really feel like you had the workout kind of down
31:46
Speaker 1: to what you wanted it to be. Did you feel
31:49
Speaker 1: like that going into opening the studio to teaching your
31:52
Speaker 1: first class, or did you kind of in a way
31:56
Speaker 1: have a lean startup mentality where it was like, I
31:58
Speaker 1: think I have the basics and this is going to
32:00
Speaker 1: evolve with me. It's still evolving. So again, it's not
32:05
Speaker 1: a method, it's an evolving, continuous flow of innovation. And yes,
32:13
Speaker 1: I have one hundred and ten percent work. I was
32:16
Speaker 1: so confident. I taught for twenty years and I believed
32:21
Speaker 1: in myself and my ability to teach.
32:23
Speaker 2: I'm a teacher.
32:23
Speaker 1: I love teaching, and when I look back at the
32:28
Speaker 1: teachers have inspired me the most in education, it's people
32:30
Speaker 1: who believed in me and allowed me to shine and
32:34
Speaker 1: they made sure I was seen and heard. And that's
32:37
Speaker 1: what I focused on more than the methodology. I focused on.
32:40
Speaker 1: Every single client who walks in this door is going
32:42
Speaker 1: to know they are seen, they are heard, and they
32:45
Speaker 1: are empowered to make every second, every minute, every hour
32:50
Speaker 1: work for them and what they need. And that's my
32:52
Speaker 1: job as a teacher is to teach you how to
32:55
Speaker 1: move in a way that feels good in your body,
32:57
Speaker 1: that challenges you, that pushes you, but also so you know,
33:01
Speaker 1: inspires you to leave from within. And that I was
33:05
Speaker 1: absolutely confident about. Every client who comes into that room
33:08
Speaker 1: informs the experience just as much as the teacher does.
33:12
Speaker 1: We set that intention every time, and our clients know it.
33:14
Speaker 1: They're a part of the process, They're part of the class.
33:17
Speaker 1: You start teaching classes at the beginning, how many classes
33:20
Speaker 1: are you personally teaching a week? And then how long
33:23
Speaker 1: until you start to train other people to teach the classes.
33:28
Speaker 1: I taught nineteen classes a week, all of them basically
33:34
Speaker 1: for I think maybe five or six weeks.
33:36
Speaker 2: It was nuts.
33:38
Speaker 1: And then I knew that I wanted to teach as
33:43
Speaker 1: many classes as I could and literally touch my clients'
33:48
Speaker 1: liides and bodies and get to know them in the
33:51
Speaker 1: beginning and find people, attract people who I knew could
33:55
Speaker 1: move me forward and who really got what I was
33:58
Speaker 1: doing because it was so different than anything else out there.
34:01
Speaker 1: I didn't want to go hire yoga instructors or plates instructors.
34:05
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring people in and start fresh, and
34:09
Speaker 1: so that's what I did. My first founding instructors had
34:12
Speaker 1: never taught before, but they had definitely had experience in
34:15
Speaker 1: dance and athleticism and anatomy. They had a real command
34:18
Speaker 1: over the body. So it took a little while to
34:20
Speaker 1: get that first group up and running, but once they
34:23
Speaker 1: did it, just you know, it went from them there,
34:25
Speaker 1: and those founding instructors ended up being some of the
34:29
Speaker 1: leaders to this day of my company. So nineteen classes
34:31
Speaker 1: is a lot. I teach us spin at a studio.
34:36
Speaker 1: Actually I was there before I came here today, And
34:40
Speaker 1: obviously you can tell because this is a podcast and
34:42
Speaker 1: you are listening to my voice. It's rough man. Nineteen
34:46
Speaker 1: classes is taxing, obviously, not just on the voice, but
34:48
Speaker 1: on your body. And just this constant state of service,
34:52
Speaker 1: which I think is really interested and being in service
34:55
Speaker 1: to other people. I think that's a really beautiful thing.
34:58
Speaker 1: I think it's an amazing quality. I think that we
35:00
Speaker 1: should all live with some sort of aspect and mentality
35:04
Speaker 1: of how important it is to be in service to
35:06
Speaker 1: other people. But obviously, by bringing in other people, you
35:10
Speaker 1: started to understand that this needed to be a little
35:13
Speaker 1: bit bigger than you. What did it feel I get
35:16
Speaker 1: first to kind of give up some of that control
35:19
Speaker 1: back to my north Star balance. It's not balanced to
35:22
Speaker 1: teach nineteen classes a week. It's not balanced to be
35:26
Speaker 1: only in service to other. It's balanced to be in
35:29
Speaker 1: service to yourself and then other. And that was missing.
35:34
Speaker 1: And I knew that for an amount of time I
35:36
Speaker 1: needed to do that, give completely generously right, and then
35:40
Speaker 1: I also consciously knew I needed to take care of myself.
35:44
Speaker 1: It wasn't hard to give up that control, and I
35:47
Speaker 1: invited it in because one thing I was raised with
35:51
Speaker 1: is a value around collective wisdom that I do not have.
35:54
Speaker 1: All the answers is not the saving Lincoln method. My
35:57
Speaker 1: success is going to be based on what other people
35:59
Speaker 1: contribute to this class. And so those first instructors brought
36:03
Speaker 1: in wisdom. Jenny Johnson, who continues to lead our company,
36:07
Speaker 1: she was a chiropractor.
36:09
Speaker 2: She was my chiropractor.
36:10
Speaker 1: Actually she became one of our first instructors, for example,
36:13
Speaker 1: and she brought in this amazing awareness of the spine
36:15
Speaker 1: and the body and anatomy that you know contributed and
36:19
Speaker 1: moved us forward.
36:20
Speaker 2: What was one of the biggest lessons you learned up
36:23
Speaker 2: front about opening a business that was truly your own
36:26
Speaker 2: because you obviously you co founded this with your husband.
36:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, opening a business of my own I think
36:36
Speaker 1: one of my greatest lessons. I think this is true
36:39
Speaker 1: for a lot of people I've learned who are gift
36:42
Speaker 1: generously type of people who want to help people.
36:47
Speaker 2: I ended up hiring people who needed me, you know.
36:53
Speaker 1: And I had that pattern for a while where I
36:57
Speaker 1: wanted to I want to help people.
36:59
Speaker 2: I inherit, that's what I do. I want to help people.
37:01
Speaker 1: And I also have unbridled optimism in people, and so
37:05
Speaker 1: I had a tendency to hire people who I wanted
37:07
Speaker 1: to help versus hiring people who could help me right,
37:11
Speaker 1: hiring people who I really needed and I could lean
37:13
Speaker 1: on and trust that that's okay, you know, to not
37:17
Speaker 1: have the answers and to not always be the caregiver
37:19
Speaker 1: or the one that helps people, but to find people
37:21
Speaker 1: who can make me stronger and make me better. And
37:25
Speaker 1: when you own your own company, you're kind of put
37:29
Speaker 1: on a pedestal as the all knowing and constantly breaking
37:34
Speaker 1: down that wall and being really humble and vulnerable that
37:38
Speaker 1: way and saying I'm creating this, but I don't really
37:42
Speaker 1: know everything.
37:43
Speaker 2: In fact, I know this month.
37:45
Speaker 1: Like a teeny bit a small lem I need you,
37:49
Speaker 1: and I deserve people who are better than me. And
37:54
Speaker 1: I think at the core that's that's been my work
37:57
Speaker 1: is that I deserve the A player, right, and I
38:01
Speaker 1: deserve to create a company that attracts the A player,
38:05
Speaker 1: because I think that ultimately leads to what I call
38:07
Speaker 1: workplace awesomeness when there's a lot of people that make
38:10
Speaker 1: it happen.
38:10
Speaker 2: Kind of people.
38:29
Speaker 1: Taking a quick break to give the sponsor of today's
38:32
Speaker 1: episode Ultra a little bit of love. Just last week,
38:35
Speaker 1: I snagged myself a pair of a sneaker of Theirs
38:38
Speaker 1: called the Solstice, part of their recently launched Fast and
38:41
Speaker 1: Light collection. If you're the kind of person who wants
38:44
Speaker 1: an option to wear from a studio workout class to
38:46
Speaker 1: Aaron's and brunch, well I'd say the Solstice is a
38:50
Speaker 1: pretty good bet. Plus at ninety bucks, well that's pretty
38:53
Speaker 1: hard to be. If you're less of a hit of
38:55
Speaker 1: a critique fitness class kind of person with coffee in hand,
38:59
Speaker 1: and more of one of these I'm gonna get outside
39:01
Speaker 1: springs almost here kind of people, well then they've got
39:05
Speaker 1: a different shape and style for whatever you're craving. Maybe
39:08
Speaker 1: you want to run the trails or just hit a
39:10
Speaker 1: few sprints, whatever you want to do. Ultra's got options again,
39:14
Speaker 1: that's a l t R A Ultra find them at
39:17
Speaker 1: ultrarunning dot com.
39:19
Speaker 2: Let's get back to it. Okay.
39:40
Speaker 1: I'm sitting back here with Stadie Lincoln, the founder of
39:43
Speaker 1: Bar three, and so we're at the point where she's
39:46
Speaker 1: running a successful bar studio in Portland, and it's about
39:52
Speaker 1: how long until you decide, all right, we're going to
39:55
Speaker 1: do more than one of these. Before I opened my
39:58
Speaker 1: first studio, he knew where was the second one? The
40:02
Speaker 1: second studio, Well, we decided to franchise, and our first
40:08
Speaker 1: franchise partner was actually a studio in Manila in the Philippines,
40:13
Speaker 1: which was not part of our plan. You didn't want
40:16
Speaker 1: an international growth strategy. We had a Pacific Northwest plan
40:20
Speaker 1: to open twenty four studios. That was our first plan.
40:23
Speaker 1: We have I think six studios now in Manila and
40:26
Speaker 1: they're all doing really well. Do more and more people
40:29
Speaker 1: start to come to you about franchise, yeah, right away.
40:31
Speaker 1: Our second right right thereafter was I think Vancouver, Washington,
40:36
Speaker 1: which is just twenty minutes from Portland and Bend, Oregon,
40:40
Speaker 1: which is three hours from Portland. Seattle was quickly after that,
40:44
Speaker 1: and then we kind of went all over. I mean,
40:46
Speaker 1: Chris and I had so much experience in multiun operations
40:49
Speaker 1: and how to scale a company, and so we really
40:52
Speaker 1: put that to work quickly. And that was one of
40:54
Speaker 1: the things that motivated us is we had, you know,
40:57
Speaker 1: unique wisdom in the industry, and so we wanted to
41:01
Speaker 1: share that with other entrepreneurs. That's why we decided to franchise.
41:04
Speaker 2: And it's so interesting.
41:05
Speaker 1: So say I decide that I want to franchise a
41:09
Speaker 1: Bar three location, how does that process even start? Usually
41:14
Speaker 1: inside out? So you've had some experience with Bar three,
41:18
Speaker 1: you genuinely love it and connect with it and see
41:22
Speaker 1: yourself in the story. That's really important to us. You
41:26
Speaker 1: have business background, and you know, you really have that
41:30
Speaker 1: drive to have something that's your own, and you want
41:33
Speaker 1: to be connected to a movement, something that's bigger than yourself.
41:36
Speaker 1: Those are those are the main characteristics that work for us.
41:40
Speaker 1: We have a tab on our website franchise with us
41:43
Speaker 1: or grow with Us. I can't remember with the exactly
41:44
Speaker 1: which is at this point you used to be growth
41:46
Speaker 1: with us. I think it might be franchise, I forget
41:47
Speaker 1: become part of the family. Become part of the family.
41:50
Speaker 1: And it's truly we decided to franchise. We're basically growing
41:54
Speaker 1: that way. I could have gone and raised capital, right,
41:59
Speaker 1: and then you never did that. No, okay, So Chris
42:02
Speaker 1: and I are majority owners. Mark Mastaff was our original
42:05
Speaker 1: investor for the very first studio, so he was supportive
42:07
Speaker 1: even when you two decided to leave twenty four hours.
42:10
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, completely. You don't find that a lot. Yeah.
42:13
Speaker 1: He believes in me, he always has and he knew,
42:18
Speaker 1: you know, I was going to do something on my own.
42:20
Speaker 1: You know, we both had that entrepreneurial spirit. So yeah,
42:23
Speaker 1: we decided to basically grow franchising because it's growing with
42:28
Speaker 1: someone who believes in us and who believes in sustainable
42:32
Speaker 1: growth versus growing and selling right, growing to get to
42:37
Speaker 1: hit that financial number. Right, This is growing to help
42:41
Speaker 1: people in more communities.
42:42
Speaker 2: That's our growth model. So now currently there are one
42:46
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty six bar three locations. Are you still
42:51
Speaker 2: actively growing? Is that a goal of yours?
42:54
Speaker 1: Do you have other goals that you would say, maybe
42:57
Speaker 1: take a little bit more priority. At this point, we're
43:00
Speaker 1: still growing with franchise partners, and you know, we are
43:04
Speaker 1: in We've set up our business so that we can
43:07
Speaker 1: grow slowly. We are not just a franchise company. I
43:11
Speaker 1: also have online classes, so we stream online workouts and
43:15
Speaker 1: people are actively participating in those in ninety eight countries. Wow. Yeah,
43:20
Speaker 1: So that's been an incredible business for us and an
43:22
Speaker 1: amazing way to bring Bar three to people's homes and
43:27
Speaker 1: their lives in a in a convenient, more affordable way,
43:31
Speaker 1: you know, for people who can't go to a boutique
43:33
Speaker 1: exercise studio and who frankly.
43:35
Speaker 2: Don't want to.
43:36
Speaker 1: We want they want to kind of work out their
43:38
Speaker 1: their own on their own terms. So that's been a
43:40
Speaker 1: great revenue model for us. And then we have our
43:43
Speaker 1: owned studios, so we own six studios. That's a revenue stream.
43:46
Speaker 1: We have retail that's a revenue stream. So I diversified
43:49
Speaker 1: so that when I franchise with someone, I'm not motivated
43:54
Speaker 1: to franchise just for a land grab and to grow big.
43:57
Speaker 1: I'm franchising with someone because they believe in what we're
43:59
Speaker 1: doing and they're going to make us better.
44:01
Speaker 2: Random thought is there are three in Los Angeles.
44:05
Speaker 1: I haven't found her or him yet anyone listening?
44:11
Speaker 2: We wait, we wait, I would I want to be
44:13
Speaker 2: there yesterday. Yeah. I love Los Angeles.
44:15
Speaker 1: I lived there for six years and we haven't found
44:18
Speaker 1: the right partnership yet.
44:20
Speaker 2: When we do, we will be there.
44:22
Speaker 1: Same thing with Chicago, San Francisco, you know, some of
44:25
Speaker 1: those those bigger markets. Yeah, you want to get it right.
44:28
Speaker 1: Yeah for sure. Well, anywhere I'm anywhere, I want to
44:31
Speaker 1: get it right. So we take just as much time
44:34
Speaker 1: figuring out, you know, in Arkansas or Alabama, who were
44:37
Speaker 1: partnered with. But yeah, it just so happens that in
44:41
Speaker 1: those those areas we haven't. We haven't found the partner yet,
44:44
Speaker 1: but we will. It's coming. Yeah, it's coming. Yeah. Yeah,
44:49
Speaker 1: La needs us, I think so I was just there.
44:52
Speaker 1: La needs us. We have a place there. Yeah, it'll happen.
44:55
Speaker 1: You said something that I kind of want to touch
44:57
Speaker 1: upon on the idea of at home workouts. I've seen
45:01
Speaker 1: some of your online content before. How does it feel
45:06
Speaker 1: to know that there are just people watching you at home?
45:11
Speaker 1: I feel like that's got to be such an interesting thing.
45:14
Speaker 1: It's so wonderful. Yeah, it's well, it's great when I
45:18
Speaker 1: meet people who you know, I've been hosting retreats, and
45:21
Speaker 1: so I'm about to host one and then outside of Bend,
45:25
Speaker 1: Oregon on a ranch with one hundred and twenty people,
45:27
Speaker 1: And we have a bunch of people coming that are
45:29
Speaker 1: online subscribers only, and so to be able to react
45:32
Speaker 1: and interact with them live is amazing. We have a
45:35
Speaker 1: real connectivity online. We have comment boards and basically there's
45:40
Speaker 1: a dedicated master trainer whoever teaches the class for the week,
45:44
Speaker 1: who talks to the people all the time online. So
45:47
Speaker 1: we have that kind of connectivity, but nothing beats being
45:49
Speaker 1: in person and really talking to people about their experience.
45:52
Speaker 1: And at retreats or master classes that I've taught where
45:56
Speaker 1: people come, I find all kinds of things, including that
46:00
Speaker 1: our online workouts are.
46:01
Speaker 2: Part of their homeschooling For people who homeschool their kids,
46:03
Speaker 2: how cool is that?
46:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, people who have overcome injury or how are going
46:09
Speaker 1: through grief from losing a lost one or a divorce
46:13
Speaker 1: or something that makes them not want to go out
46:17
Speaker 1: in the world, you know, and yet being at home
46:20
Speaker 1: is a place that they can be healthy and heal
46:23
Speaker 1: and grow with me. Busy moms, new moms, men, way
46:27
Speaker 1: more men do the classes at online because I think
46:30
Speaker 1: there's such a mistake about studios, bar studios as being
46:32
Speaker 1: a female thing, kind of girly, right, and we're really not.
46:37
Speaker 1: We're about everybody, all genders or anybody, anybody. Yeah, now,
46:43
Speaker 1: ten years later, celebrating the ten year anniversary, how.
46:47
Speaker 2: Do you feel.
46:49
Speaker 1: I am genuinely more excited today about Bar three than
46:54
Speaker 1: I was the day I opened Bar three. I'm honored.
46:59
Speaker 1: It's just amazing to sit in this position, and for me,
47:03
Speaker 1: I'm really thinking about bigger picture stuff like social justice.
47:07
Speaker 1: You know, I sit in this position of responsibility. I
47:11
Speaker 1: have one hundred and twenty six studios with incredible partners
47:14
Speaker 1: who run those studios, and incredible women and men who
47:18
Speaker 1: come to those studios to be at home in their bodies,
47:21
Speaker 1: to be able to stand up for themselves and what's
47:23
Speaker 1: right for themselves. They do more than build muscle and
47:26
Speaker 1: sweat in our classes. Our classes are basically a metaphor
47:30
Speaker 1: for standing up for yourself or being empowered, for being
47:33
Speaker 1: connected with your community. And those are the kinds of
47:37
Speaker 1: philosophies and ideas that we're really focused on as a company.
47:41
Speaker 1: My big, hairy, audacious goal is to be a part
47:44
Speaker 1: of a world where every single woman is at home
47:47
Speaker 1: in her body and ultimately empowered. I say women because
47:52
Speaker 1: I think it's a historical moment and time right now,
47:54
Speaker 1: and we all have permission to say that now we
47:57
Speaker 1: haven't been at home in our bodies, we haven't felt safe.
48:01
Speaker 1: It's such an eye opener, you know. I feel I've
48:03
Speaker 1: always felt so confident and just with all this stuff,
48:06
Speaker 1: with the me Too movement and all this stuff that's
48:08
Speaker 1: been coming out, I've had a reflection about that that,
48:10
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, like I haven't even felt confident in
48:14
Speaker 1: my own body, you know. And I grew up with
48:17
Speaker 1: all women in a totally supportive environment and completely safe environment,
48:22
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, we can do something about that,
48:26
Speaker 1: and we are doing something about that, and it feels
48:29
Speaker 1: really really, really good and exciting. What's a piece of
48:33
Speaker 1: advice that you'd offer to yourself before that first client
48:38
Speaker 1: came through your studio door the first time.
48:42
Speaker 2: Looking back on it right now.
48:46
Speaker 1: I think I would I would teach her to meditate.
48:52
Speaker 1: That younger version of myself I was mindful, but I
48:56
Speaker 1: think that would have really served me, taking time to
48:59
Speaker 1: see it and be still two times a day and
49:02
Speaker 1: you just breathe, Yeah, for how long about Well, it
49:06
Speaker 1: just depends. I don't have a lot of rules around it.
49:09
Speaker 1: I'm pretty intuitive about it, and I don't have I
49:11
Speaker 1: don't follow a specific discipline. So between I would say
49:17
Speaker 1: probably eight and twenty minutes. Twenty twenty is the sweet
49:20
Speaker 1: spot for me. If I can get to twenty it's
49:22
Speaker 1: usually that's when I know I'm really in the zone
49:25
Speaker 1: because it flies and I look at the clock, I'm like, whoa,
49:27
Speaker 1: I've been here for twenty minutes, you know, eight minutes
49:30
Speaker 1: super doable. But even like right before this podcast, just
49:34
Speaker 1: taking on my walk here, just taking you know, mindful
49:37
Speaker 1: deep breaths. I learned something that I'd love to share
49:41
Speaker 1: with you and everybody that when you sigh, when you
49:44
Speaker 1: let down an XL you it's going to sound silly,
49:46
Speaker 1: but when you go like that and you put your
49:51
Speaker 1: hand on your heart like I'm doing, that, vibration literally
49:54
Speaker 1: settles the mind of body and it brings you into
49:57
Speaker 1: your body. It's like a quick quick way to like energize,
50:03
Speaker 1: get in your body and be ready to give generously.
50:07
Speaker 2: Hmmm, yeah, I think all sigh I'm ready to give generously.
50:13
Speaker 2: Sign It really works. It works. I love I love.
50:18
Speaker 2: It's like a quick hack into like, yeah, zen mode.
50:21
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be signing all day now. What would you say,
50:26
Speaker 1: is one of your favorite failures from building bar three?
50:31
Speaker 1: I love that favorite failure so many. I would say
50:38
Speaker 1: my favorite failure is the one that gave me so
50:42
Speaker 1: much empathy and motivation for helping high achievers get through injury.
50:49
Speaker 1: I at one point when I was teaching a gazillion classes,
50:52
Speaker 1: I was also training a superstar celebrity, and I had
50:56
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on me, and my body broke
51:00
Speaker 1: and my mom said to me, Sadie, you are literally
51:03
Speaker 1: embodying your company right now. It's too much, and it's true.
51:06
Speaker 1: And I was literally on my hands and knees. My
51:08
Speaker 1: low back just feeled me. It was the most for
51:12
Speaker 1: any of you who are physical and you get an
51:15
Speaker 1: injury and you get that physicality taken out of your
51:18
Speaker 1: life right away, and your identity is attached to that,
51:20
Speaker 1: and your happiness is attached to that.
51:23
Speaker 2: It is the most humbling, demoralizing, frustrating feeling. And what
51:29
Speaker 2: I learned from that experience is the power of adapting
51:32
Speaker 2: moves and modifying and honoring injury and looking at injury
51:37
Speaker 2: as a true gift and a true voice and true wisdom,
51:42
Speaker 2: instead of pushing it away as shame, like when you're injured,
51:45
Speaker 2: you're old, or you did something wrong, or you're not
51:48
Speaker 2: strong enough, or you're not good enough. There's so much
51:51
Speaker 2: shame attached to injury. For me, it was a great
51:54
Speaker 2: lesson of power and body wisdom and honoring my truth
51:58
Speaker 2: and my greatest failing. Truly, I can definitely relate with injury.
52:03
Speaker 2: Last year I hurt my lower back and triggered some
52:07
Speaker 2: arthritis in between my elfour and L five and there
52:11
Speaker 2: was nothing to use the word humbling again more humbling
52:14
Speaker 2: and having to really take a step back. You know,
52:17
Speaker 2: we're both super active people. Take a step back. Not
52:21
Speaker 2: work out every day, not even sometimes. I used to
52:25
Speaker 2: go to yoga. I still go to yoga now that
52:27
Speaker 2: I've recovered. I still go to yoga on what I
52:30
Speaker 2: think classify are my active rest days. But for me,
52:34
Speaker 2: even doing upward Dog or something you know, gentle and
52:38
Speaker 2: simple that we view like that, it was a lot
52:40
Speaker 2: for me and to honor that my body needed a
52:43
Speaker 2: break and I needed to listen. That was so difficult.
52:47
Speaker 1: It's also detaching from what exercise means and what achievement means.
52:51
Speaker 1: I realized I was so attached to yoga. You know,
52:55
Speaker 1: it was like my church, right six am, I did
52:57
Speaker 1: my yoga practice, And it's not the.
53:01
Speaker 2: Be all end all.
53:02
Speaker 1: You know, there are so many other ways to be healthy,
53:05
Speaker 1: And to this day I have to unbrainwasha wash myself
53:07
Speaker 1: about that, Like I don't need to exercise in the
53:10
Speaker 1: traditional sense every day.
53:12
Speaker 2: Right, any day?
53:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, as long as we're moving and we're healthy, and
53:16
Speaker 1: we're engaged, and we're at home in our bodies, then
53:19
Speaker 1: it's okay. We are doing something. We've been told the
53:22
Speaker 1: story from the fitness industry because it makes money that
53:26
Speaker 1: if you do this, you are successful, If you do this,
53:28
Speaker 1: you are healthy, and we all need to remember that
53:31
Speaker 1: that's just not true. Talk to me a little bit
53:34
Speaker 1: about what a typical day of wellness looks like for
53:37
Speaker 1: you right now. I know obviously you said that you meditate,
53:40
Speaker 1: but how does that all kind of jive for you?
53:45
Speaker 2: Well?
53:45
Speaker 1: First of all, wellness to me, wellness goes back to
53:49
Speaker 1: how I define wellness goes back to how I also
53:51
Speaker 1: define balances. Actually, wellness is about recognizing imbalances and working
53:56
Speaker 1: towards a more balanced state. So a typical day of
54:00
Speaker 1: wellness for me would be about recognizing, acknowledging imbalances in
54:04
Speaker 1: my life, seeing them, not pushing them away, not glossing
54:08
Speaker 1: them over, seeing them, recognizing them. Oh wow, today, I
54:12
Speaker 1: only slept four hours last night. Like I'm tired. My
54:15
Speaker 1: voice is a little like a shot. You know, I'm
54:17
Speaker 1: recognizing that that's an imbalance, and I'm realizing today instead
54:21
Speaker 1: of going shopping on in between podcasts, I'm going to
54:24
Speaker 1: go you know, rest or meditate, you know, and work
54:28
Speaker 1: towards a more balanced state so I can give generously
54:30
Speaker 1: to my next interview.
54:31
Speaker 2: You know, that's wellness.
54:33
Speaker 1: Letting go of trying to go to it because there's
54:35
Speaker 1: so many great group exercise classes and.
54:37
Speaker 2: You're in the Mecca.
54:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, letting go of that, Like, that's not what I
54:40
Speaker 1: need today, you know, I need to go sit in
54:42
Speaker 1: Central Park or you know, lay in like fetal position.
54:47
Speaker 2: My brother's apartment with my blankets over my head.
54:50
Speaker 1: So that's it's recognizing it and acknowledging it and not
54:54
Speaker 1: glossing over it just because you just brought him up.
54:56
Speaker 1: I think it's so interesting to point out that your brother,
54:59
Speaker 1: Miguel is the founder of we Work, and we're currently
55:02
Speaker 1: sitting in a we work Great now.
55:04
Speaker 2: Did you tell him that you were coming to one? Yeah?
55:07
Speaker 2: I'm super duper proud of Miguel. So it's so interesting
55:11
Speaker 2: to think of like your upbringing and that you both
55:13
Speaker 2: have just been so wildly successful. It's crazy because we're
55:17
Speaker 2: poor Hippie Goods and our mom sorry mom, Yeah no,
55:22
Speaker 2: they're proud of it. They were decidedly poor, like they
55:24
Speaker 2: chose to before. Yeah, we're yeah, says something about hippi
55:29
Speaker 2: kid upbringing. You know, we're we're not afraid to try
55:32
Speaker 2: things and risk and be creative. I don't know what
55:35
Speaker 2: it is, but Miguel's truly phenomenal. I love him to pieces.
55:38
Speaker 2: And Kyle.
55:39
Speaker 1: Kyle's my other brother that's not talked about as much,
55:41
Speaker 1: and he was one of the founding team members for
55:43
Speaker 1: We Work and really helped create this whole thing. He's
55:46
Speaker 1: the baby of our family, the baby. He's the youngest,
55:49
Speaker 1: and he.
55:50
Speaker 2: Just had his baby, so we're all really excited. I
55:54
Speaker 2: can imagine. Yeah, well again, I can't sing enough praises
55:58
Speaker 2: about we Work. I'm in a we work probably for
56:01
Speaker 2: four days a week. It's amazing.
56:03
Speaker 1: It's also we work is also about collective wisdom, collaboration,
56:08
Speaker 1: you know, not being the answer, but bringing people together
56:11
Speaker 1: for greatness. And it's interesting both of us, you know,
56:14
Speaker 1: we grew up that way and both of our businesses
56:16
Speaker 1: reflect that value. What do you think is next for
56:21
Speaker 1: you personally and professionally? Next for me, I think really
56:28
Speaker 1: working on our social mission as a company. I you know,
56:31
Speaker 1: our product mission is to teach remarkable classes. Our business
56:34
Speaker 1: mission is to have a sustainable model of growth versus
56:38
Speaker 1: just growing to be sold right, and my social mission
56:41
Speaker 1: is really about women being at home, safe and at
56:45
Speaker 1: home and their bodies all around the world and really
56:47
Speaker 1: figuring out what that means and figuring out how to
56:49
Speaker 1: activate this company around that. And the Bresada Ranch retreat
56:53
Speaker 1: I'm doing. I'm bringing in one of my friends, Don Dapaani,
56:57
Speaker 1: who's a Hindu priest and really focuses training high performers
57:01
Speaker 1: on this idea of focusing on what matters and managing
57:04
Speaker 1: your energy every day on what matters. That's one step forward.
57:07
Speaker 1: I'm finding teachers like that to help me figure out
57:10
Speaker 1: how are we going to do this as a company.
57:12
Speaker 1: Last question, ten years ago, you were a beginner. Everyone
57:18
Speaker 1: every day in some aspect of their life is a beginner. Yeah,
57:21
Speaker 1: what is one valuable piece of advice you would give
57:25
Speaker 1: to someone who's on the brink of starting something new.
57:30
Speaker 1: I love that you said everybody's a beginner. Every day
57:33
Speaker 1: is new. I think that would be my advice. My
57:36
Speaker 1: other advice is you know the answer, Like even though
57:39
Speaker 1: it's new, you know the answer, just you know, look
57:43
Speaker 1: inside and that tomorrow is going to be a new
57:46
Speaker 1: new and then the next day is going to be
57:48
Speaker 1: a new new. You know, there is never never a
57:50
Speaker 1: dull moment being an entrepreneur. That's people who are entrepreneurs
57:55
Speaker 1: are generally seekers. They want to grow, they want new,
57:59
Speaker 1: they want to be They have that student mentality and
58:02
Speaker 1: to just hold on and ride that wave because you know,
58:07
Speaker 1: it's pretty rewarding.
58:09
Speaker 2: Sadie, I'm so happy you could come in here today.
58:11
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for sitting down with me. It's
58:14
Speaker 2: my pleasure.
58:15
Speaker 1: Please take a moment and leave a quick review of
58:18
Speaker 1: Hurdle by clicking the link with the description to this episode.
58:22
Speaker 1: We all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to
58:25
Speaker 1: hear about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at
58:28
Speaker 1: hurdle dot us. Connect with the podcast on Instagram and
58:31
Speaker 1: Twitter at Hurdle Podcast and of course check us both
58:35
Speaker 1: out on social media, Sadie, how do they find you?
58:37
Speaker 1: How do they find Bar three all over social media?
58:41
Speaker 1: So Instagram it's just bar three and my Instagram, Sadie Lincoln,
58:47
Speaker 1: So pretty easy. And then our website's bar three dot com.
58:49
Speaker 1: Thank you again, Sadie. You can find me on social
58:52
Speaker 1: at Emily Abodi. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next
58:57
Speaker 1: time