[00:03:25] But my measure of success to this day is not revenue it’s not monetary almost to a fault in a way. It’s, the work I’m doing is trying to really understand that it’s empowering to have money. And really important to understand where my money is coming in and also, how I’m spending it and to really value that and take care of my assets that way, if you will.

[00:03:49] Alice Tang: Very good. What really gave me the biggest goose bumps is you said is the amount of impact. To the people around you make them believe [00:04:00] probably if we watch all the, Sadie Lincoln videos in the past, we know that pre barre3 is so focusing on the body shape rather than the fitness and the health and the balance.

[00:04:14] Sadie Lincoln: Yeah. 

[00:04:14] Alice Tang: I think women have a certain standard that sometimes it’s unrealistic. 

[00:04:19] Sadie Lincoln: Yeah. Yeah. The external measures of success are so valued in our culture, overly valued. I think there’s an imbalance around, shaping your body externally into a certain mold that is defined by societal norms to be successful, worthy, belonging, sexy, which really doesn’t serve any of us.

But more importantly, I think internal measures of success are what serve us when we feel really alive in our bodies. When we feel really strong in our bodies, when we feel really honest in our bodies that’s when we’re motivated from an inside [00:05:00] perspective. Exercise becomes incredibly rewarding and something we wanna do.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with external measures of success. It feels good to get to a weight goal or to build more muscle and to see a little, definition. There’s nothing wrong with that. I just think we’re way outta balance with it. It’s gone too far. 

[00:05:20] Alice Tang: Thank you for redefining fitness for all of us, women and men. Now what is the value of money for you, Sadie? You mentioned that the money just came after you made the impact and it allows you to do a lot of different things that you haven’t thought about. So would you share a little bit with us? 

[00:05:40] Sadie Lincoln: Yeah, I think from a business perspective one thing I’m proud of.

Is that we’ve been in business for 14 years, we have 176 studios. We have an online subscriber base in over 98 countries. So we’ve scaled our company considerably. We’ve grown on cash flow, [00:06:00] no outside private equity has come in to date. So we would put our money back into the business.

I just, I enjoy taking my money and pouring it into things I believe will make a difference. That is very natural for me. It is not a stretch for me. And we also franchise, so really our investors are people, Investing in their own studio. So we have been able to scale through other people’s, investment that way.

But overall, I think we probably could have taken more cards off the table. But we chose to pour it back in. And I think that’s true in my personal life too, where I pour my money is on my kids’ education, experiences. A home that I always wanted growing up, like that was important to me.

Things like that. I feel very blessed to be able to do. 

[00:06:51] Alice Tang: Very good. So it looks like the freedom that you have given to yourself and your family and plus the impact that you could [00:07:00] further give to this world of fitness and thus the population and leveraging what you said just now is the dance.

And there’s a lot of people joining this movement. How many people joining, the more they are the then will last longer and deeper. 

[00:07:19] Sadie Lincoln: Yeah. 

[00:07:20] Alice Tang: Thank you, Sadie. Next question is about bias. This year international women’s days theme is break the bias and naturally being a woman. We talk about, there is a bias about a sex gender, but I’m not here only talking about that.

 What other biggest bias on your road of success that you have met and you conquered?

[00:07:46] Sadie Lincoln: I think probably the bias that external measures matter more than internal measures. When we go out and we have looked outside for money in the past and it just didn’t work out.

And I just still find it [00:08:00] interesting that we measure success by a pretty narrow view. Even in business it’s, how quick did you make that widget scale? And how profitable can you be? And of course, those things are important. That’s a creating a healthy business. But what I always ask is, okay, maybe we weren’t so profitable, but we’ve built this incredible foundation that’s sustainable. Let’s measure how resilient we are as a company, how recession proof we are, how we can last because we’ve built such a true culture let’s measure how people feel when they leave the studio. Let’s measure that body confidence as a value for our company.

And it’s just really interesting that conversation barely exists. And people kinda look at me sideways when I talk about it. But I do think that’s a bias. I think there’s feminine [00:09:00] energy and there’s masculine energy and we all have both. Feminine energy archetypically is about more inner wisdom.

Those kinds of things like collaboration, culture, connection sustainability. Masculine energy is about crushing it, winning competition showing up on the stage, getting a lot of locations, and a healthy profit margin , and that’s important too. But I think we’re biased that direction versus, some of the more inner feminine sides of leadership.

[00:09:32] Alice Tang: That’s also explain the balance. I think if we are not happy, you can have a lot of money and you’re not happy. 

[00:09:40] Sadie Lincoln: Oh, for sure. And it’s same thing in the body. It mirrors the body. Like I think a lot of us are told this story that if we lose the weight. And we gain the muscle and we do the things to get to that external measure that then we’ll be happy, then we’ll belong. I know I thought that for many years, as [00:10:00] a young woman, I thought if only I could be look like this, then I will be winning. Then I will be successful and happy. And when I got there, I wasn’t.

And I think that’s true with money too. You make the million dollars, you get the million dollar check or have that million dollar deal or whatever it is. If we are attached to that being happy. Being the answer. There’s so much grief in that because you get there and it’s actually really not, it’s not.

Someone, I don’t remember who this was said. Yeah. You have to find happiness first and then the million dollars makes you happier.

There’s really something to that. It’s both and, it’s not either.

[00:10:43] Alice Tang: There is a lot of truth to that. And I like to just say it from another angle, if you do the right thing and make sure we watch the benefits to our customer or clients, depending on what business you are in. 

[00:10:56] Sadie Lincoln: Yeah.

[00:10:56] Alice Tang: If they got help, they got what they want. [00:11:00] The money will just come.

[00:11:01] Sadie Lincoln: That’s right. 

[00:11:02] Alice Tang: The money will not come forever, continuously sustainability, and receivingly, if you did the wrong thing and we saw in the news, there is many people who’ve done the wrong thing. Yes. And out of the blue it’s gone. 

What is the number one piece of advice you would give to another woman who want to get there? Just like you. Let’s say they want to get to their third year, that Sadie Lincoln was some 11 years ago.

What is your number one piece of advice to them? 

[00:11:32] Sadie Lincoln: I think a financial goal is a one part of the mix. I think it’s healthy to have a financial goal. I think more important is what do you really, what really matters most to you? As you’re building whatever you’re building for yourself and your life. Along the way, like what other measures of success are equally, if not more important to you than that million dollar mark. Measure those too And I [00:12:00] would even say. For me, I’ll just speak for me, being motivated by the other things is what led to the million dollars. If I was just motivated to make a million dollars, I probably would’ve, but then I wouldn’t have had anything else. I wouldn’t have had the sustainability and the growth and the ability to continue to create and innovate. 

It maybe would’ve stopped there. So I think it’s more expansive to measure what matters most to you. And one of those things could be money and that’s okay. 

[00:12:29] Alice Tang: Could be. But then, once again, when you do the right things, it will come. I resonated with your comment because I have some personally dirty laundry, but that made me have a very low self-esteem and ego for longest time.

 So I want to change that for other women, you can do differently. You don’t need to be as stuck as me or for so long. So my goal is to really helping them to be in charge so that they can make sure that they can call the [00:13:00] shots even in their most difficult time in their life.

[00:13:04] Sadie Lincoln: Yeah. 

[00:13:06] Alice Tang: I know there is a lot of big decision, huge decision you need to make. 

And when the stakes are high , how do you do that?

[00:13:15] Sadie Lincoln: When the stakes are high? It’s such a good question. The stakes are high right now. In my business, fitness is one of the hardest hit industries during this pandemic era and I think one person told me once he said, you cannot have the feeling, the emotion of fear and faith at the same time, it’s impossible.

Or you can think of faith as hope. And I think that when the stakes are high, I had to be a more conscious, practice to be motivated by faith and hope versus fear. And to look at all the data, look at all the realness of the world and continue to make decisions based on our [00:14:00] core values.

Our strength is an organization, our belief that we can do hard things together as a group. Problem solving, giving each other grace, all these things that are so important right now, if we are operating from fear those things would be a lot harder to problem solve than to see. And it’s the only way we’ll get out of this is if we have faith and if we have hope and if we continue to just persevere.

And I think the stakes are high, but also like I have the faith thing is we can still risk. We can still take calculated risk as a business because I believe so much in what we’re doing and that the future needs us as an organization. But again, that’s more of a conscious practice now, whereas both my husband and I, we’re not frozen by taking risk. We actually really calculated risk. It was more natural for us. Now we have to be more conscious and aware that we still need to do that, even though the [00:15:00] stakes are higher and our revenue is down. It’s an interesting time for sure. 

[00:15:05] Alice Tang: It’s an interesting time for a lot other business whether it is the fitness business or outside, because really the pandemic has changed a lot.

For many of us, there’s no way that we can go back. I love what you said about faith and and hope. I once heard that hope is aggressive expectation of a good result. 

[00:15:26] Sadie Lincoln: I love that. 

[00:15:27] Alice Tang: Not able to see it yet, because if you can see it, it’s easier, but you haven’t been able to see it.

I always remember that.

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