Stop Building Someone Else's Dream Studio

You're building your business. You're showing up, teaching classes, managing your team, posting on Instagram, trying to grow. And for a minute, things actually feel pretty good.

Then you see it.

Another studio owner posting about her packed schedule. A competitor who just opened a second location. Someone in your industry talking about seven-figure revenue. And just like that, you're in your head. Should I be growing faster? Am I missing a strategy? What are they doing that I'm not?

That's the comparison trap. And here's what I need you to know: it will slow you down more than a bad marketing campaign, a difficult teacher, or a slow January ever could. Mostly because it pulls you out of building your business and puts you to work building someone else's.

The Question That Changes Everything

Before you hire your next teacher, before you sign a lease on a second location, before you overhaul your pricing or your schedule or your social media strategy—I want you to stop and write down the answer to this question:

What do I want this business to do for my life?

I know. A lot of y'all just felt resistance reading that. We've been conditioned not to need—to give, to serve, to show up for our students and our communities. You may have built this studio precisely because you wanted to help people. And that matters enormously.

But here's the thing: if this business isn't serving you, that over-giving doesn't stay noble forever. It grows into resentment. It grows into overwhelm. It grows into burnout. I actually saw a reel just this week from a studio owner who was shutting down her yoga studio because she was so burnt out from the previous year. And I'd be willing to bet she never stopped to ask herself what she actually wanted from the business she was pouring herself into.

That question isn't selfish. That question is CEO-level thinking.

Two Types of Businesses. Two Completely Different Strategies.

Here's a framework I love—it came from the Wealth Collaborative at one of our Grow Mastermind in-person retreats, and it reframes everything.

There are two types of businesses: enterprise businesses and lifestyle businesses.

An enterprise business is focused on rapid growth, high scalability, and maximizing value. It typically requires significant capital, a strong independent team, repeatable systems, and a clear process that doesn't depend on the owner to run. The person building an enterprise business is often thinking about an exit—building something they could eventually sell. Think franchise. Think Solidcore-style expansion. That's an enterprise mindset.

A lifestyle business, on the other hand, is designed to support the owner's preferred life. The focus is on freedom, consistent income, and sustainability over aggressive expansion. The owner is often embedded in the business—it's built around their strengths, their relationships, their way of teaching and leading. And that's not a weakness. That's a choice.

Here's my honest example: this coaching business is a lifestyle business. When you join one of my programs, you're getting access to me. My thinking. My coaching. It's built around who I am. If I walked away tomorrow, the business would need significant restructuring to stay just as successful—because a big part of what makes it work is me being in it.

Why do I run it that way right now? Because I have two young kids. It matters to me to be there in the morning with them. To control my schedule. To make the money I want to make without sacrificing the life I want to have. That's my answer to the question. And it filters every single decision I make in this business.

Why This Is the Root of the Comparison Trap

When you don't know which type of business you're building, comparison becomes inevitable.

You see a studio owner scaling fast—multiple locations, a big team, a massive social following—and you think, that should be me. But you can't see behind the curtain. You don't know how much they're spending on ads. You don't know how many hours they're working or how much time they're away from their family. You're looking at the Instagram highlight reel and comparing it to your full behind-the-scenes reality.

And it's not just unfair—it's apples to oranges. If they're building an enterprise business and you're building a lifestyle business, you are literally running two different races with two different finish lines. No wonder you feel behind. You're measuring yourself against goals that were never yours.

This is what makes decisions so hard when you're stuck in comparison mode. You're not making them from clarity. You're making them from anxiety. And those two things produce very different results.

How to Use This Framework Right Now

I want you to actually do this. Not just nod along and keep scrolling.

Grab your phone, open your Notes app, and write down your answers to these questions:

1. What do I want this business to do for my life? Be specific. How much money do you want to take home? What does your schedule look like? What are you doing with your time outside the studio? What does your life feel like?

2. Does the business model I'm currently building match that answer?

3. Am I making decisions from my own clarity—or from watching what other studios are doing?

If you're building a lifestyle business but trying to keep up with someone building an enterprise—hire more staff, open more locations, push for faster growth—you're going to feel perpetually behind and perpetually overwhelmed. Not because you're doing it wrong. Because you're playing the wrong game.

And if you do want to build an enterprise business? Great. I love that ambition. But then we need to make sure your coaching, your strategy, and your investment decisions are aligned with that goal—because enterprise growth requires things like documented systems, a repeatable instructor training process, profit optimization from day one, and often, capital. That's a different conversation than lifestyle business strategy.

Neither path is better. They're just different. And once you label yours, everything gets clearer.

The CEO Move for 2026

Getting clear on which type of business you're building isn't a nice-to-have going into this year. It's foundational. It's the filter through which every other decision gets made—who you hire, how you market, whether you expand, how much you pay yourself, what programs you invest in.

The comparison trap loses its grip when you know what you're actually building. Because you're no longer looking sideways at someone else's studio wondering if you're doing enough. You're looking straight ahead at your own vision, your own goals, and your own definition of success.

That is how you build a sustainable, profitable business that serves you as much as you serve your students.