💫 The Power of Trust, Featuring Sadie Lincoln, Founder of Barre3
Dear FFF,
Eons ago, I started going to a little fitness studio in my Portland neighborhood called Barre3. I loved the combination of balance, core, strength, and yoga — enough sweat to feel alive but not so much that I’d have to lie down afterward with an ice pack.
What really hooked me was the language. Every instructor spoke in a tone of empowerment and non-judgment: “Listen to your body.” “Honor where you are today.” “You do you.”
After decades of grimacing through classes where I was scolded to push harder! or go lower! this one felt different. It was all about strength with compassion, words that resonated the most when I was stressed out of my mind with companies and kids.
My favorite instructor? Sadie Lincoln, the founder herself.
At the time, Barre3 had just two studios. Today, it has 206, across the U.S., Canada, and the Philippines — all but six are franchises, and all are owned by women.
How cool is that?
💪✨🌿
From Bootstrapped to Global — on Cash Flow and Faith
When I zoomed recently with Sadie, I wanted to understand how she’d built something so expansive, yet so rooted in calm.
Turns out, she’s still bootstrapped. Still growing on cash flow, with no institutional investors. She and her husband, Chris, knew from day one they wanted to franchise — and wrote their first business plan around that model before they even opened a studio.
“We really thought it through,” she told me. “We did the business plan, the financials, the P&L — all with the goal of starting a franchise network in the Pacific Northwest. But our first franchise actually opened in Manila.”
That first franchisee was a client who loved the workout so much she wanted to bring it home to the Philippines. Nearly every franchisee since has followed that pattern: a client who experiences the class, feels the magic, and says, I want to do this, too.
Local Ownership, Global Sisterhood
Sadie’s model celebrates local ownership as part of the brand’s soul. “Franchising is local,” she said. “Our owner in San Diego, Selena, is a business owner in her own community. She’s there, in her studio, creating authentic relationships. That’s what makes it work — she’s representing Barre3, but in her own way.”
It’s a subtle but powerful reframe: franchising not as corporate cloning, but as distributed trust.
When I asked how she advises aspiring franchisees, she didn’t hesitate:
“Vet the franchisor. Are they in it for the long haul? How much support will you really get? Go talk to other franchisees — they can tell you everything.”
💪✨🌿
Letting Go (Without Losing Grip)
These days, Sadie has stepped back from day-to-day operations, hiring a new president, Emerald Lopez. When I asked how long Sadie planned to stay involved, she smiled:
“I don’t have a timeline. I just keep asking myself, How do I best serve Barre3? And where do I not serve it anymore?”
Then she added what might be one of my favorite founder lines ever:
“Owning a business is a practice of letting go. Just as parenting is.”
She compared her evolving role to coaching from the sidelines — both for her 20-something kids and for the company she birthed. “The more distance I have,” she said, “the clearer I am in making decisions that are right for Barre3.”
“It’s key not to be enmeshed with your brand. Just like we birth children, but they are not us — they’re their own souls. It’s the same with a business. Barre3 isn’t mine; it’s something I started. It’s now being created by amazing people out in the world.”
Yes, exactly. Our businesses, like our children, are part of us but not ours to control. We bring them into the world with everything we have, then hold them lightly as they grow, stumble, and transform. And at some point, we have to let go. We have to trust that we’ve given them the tools they need to become what they’re going to become.
💪✨🌿
Trust, But Make It Accountable
Sadie is quick to note that “trust” doesn’t mean handing the universe your business plan and lighting sage.
Her new President’s leadership philosophy is high accountability + high empowerment.
“That,” Sadie said, “equals trust.”
True trust isn’t woo-woo. It’s the opposite of fear.
She explained, “Where some people get lost with the trust thing is, like, I just trust the full moon and the magical fairy dust and I’m gonna completely empower everybody because I’m so trusting, right? But no. What I mean is that when you’re in a trusting space, you’re not in fight or flight. You’re not making fear-based decisions like ‘I might run out of money’ or ‘I’m not relevant anymore.’ You’re balanced, you see things clearly, and you can plan thoughtfully for what’s ahead.”
💪✨🌿
Trust as a Founder Superpower
I told Sadie that I’ve written plenty about focus, courage, and grit — the classic trio of founder virtues — but the fourth, faith/trust, keeps eluding me, leading me to write deeply personal, spiritual pieces, out of sync with business, over the top.
Sadie just nodded. “It IS a spiritual practice,” she said. “Running a business can be one if you let it.”
💪✨🌿
My Takeaway
We talk a lot about control as founders — steering the ship, holding the vision, keeping the wheels on. We talk about how little we actually do control: attitude, effort, what we put into our bodies, our words.
But what Sadie models is almost the opposite of control.
It’s not blind faith. It’s confident release.
It’s building accountability, then loosening your grip.
It’s knowing when to lead, when to delegate, and when to breathe.
As Sadie put it, “The more I let go, the freer I am — and the better decisions I make.”
And that, dear founders, might just be the Barre3 move we all need to practice next.
💪✨🌿
What do you need to loosen your grip on?
With faith (and maybe a few micro-pliés),
~Mia
P.S. In the unfolding of FFF, I’ve found I love writing about amazing women like Sadie. For more FFF profiles, click here.
P.S.S. For more stories about superpowers in action, like pivot, focus, and empathy click here.