How Sadie Lincoln Is Helping Women Heal Through Movement and Community

POH-Frank: Sadie, let’s start with your personal story: what originally drew you into the world of fitness and wellness?

Sadie: My very first memory was watching my mom do yoga in her room guided by a little paperback book she had in the late 70s. This evolved to us both doing Jane Fonda VHS at-home workouts in the 80s. While attending UCLA in the early 90s I discovered in-person group exercise classes and I was hooked! I became an instructor and eventually helped lead the instructor training program on campus at the John Wooden Recreation Center. I remember telling a fellow instructor that I wanted to pursue fitness as my career. She let me know she had just secured a job with a large business consulting firm and dismissed my dream: “It’s not like you can make fitness a career?!”

Back then it was not a clear path but I was called to create one for myself. I loved the group energy, community, and sense of belonging I had when teaching. But my other motivation was something I hid. I silently struggled with an eating disorder for a decade as a teen and young woman. I discovered fitness and was hooked immediately to the promise of reshaping my body so I could become more attractive and more worthy of belonging. This inner shame was part of what drove me at the time.

Fitness was (and still is) sold to consumers with a promise around attaining a physical ideal that further amplified my inner pain versus helping me get healthier. This silent pain continued into my 10-year career working for a large fitness chain right out of grad school but ultimately led to a major ah-ha moment that was the inspiration behind creating my own brand of fitness.

POH-Frank: You’ve shared that your upbringing was quite unique, growing up in a communal environment. How has that shaped your values today as a leader and entrepreneur?

Sadie: I promised my mom I would always clarify that we weren’t in a commune. Ha! But yes, she did come together with her dearest women friends to raise their kids in a new way. Like many of their counter-culture generation, they were questioning the nuclear family norms and were discovering how to be empowered as single mothers together. They formed their own chosen family and together we are still very close.

There are certainly parallels between what I created and what my mom created and I didn’t really figure this out until my therapist pointed it out to me in recent years! I was raised in a circle of women supporting each other and this is what I have created at barre3. We are a company of over 200 studios all owned and operated by women. Our barre3 workouts are taught with a mindful approach and designed to give each client agency in their bodies and to be present in their bodies just as they are.

By the time I launched barre3 I knew that I was not the only one silently struggling with body image issues or the only one who needed a community of support. And I knew that the best way to solve this problem was to intentionally build a network of women around me who brought their own wisdom and valued this vision as much as I did. It’s pretty clear to me now that this was intuitive because it closely aligns with how I was raised.

POH-Frank: Was there a single defining moment — a clear pivot — where you knew you had to leave the corporate fitness world and create something of your own?

Sadie: When I was pregnant with my first child I started to do yoga at home—just as I had watched my mother do as a young child—but also incorporated elements of barre, pilates, and traditional fitness I had learned over the years. More importantly, it was the first time in my life I started to exercise as a ritual of appreciating my body in the present moment. I started to modify moves based on my own inner wisdom and curiosity about my ever-changing body.

I was driven by compassion around the new shape and experience of my body as a soon-to-be first-time mom. And for the first time in a long time, I fell in love with fitness. This was a radically different experience than being driven by shame and trying to conquer the shape of my body. I will never forget saying out loud to myself: Woah, maybe I haven’t been failing fitness all these years. Maybe fitness has been failing me!

This was the seed of barre3. I started to weave together my favorite disciplines with a radical new approach to help women unlearn the conditioning that we aren’t enough as we are and instead to start exercising as a way to honor our bodies and grow from there.

POH-Frank: You and your husband took a huge risk—selling your house, downsizing, and going all-in to build barre3. What gave you the courage to take that leap?

Sadie: Once I became crystal clear on the problem I was called to solve, there was no turning back. I am honestly in awe when I look back on how bullish and confident both of us were in our defiant approach to starting something new together. We sold our house on Craigslist for goodness’ sake! We were invigorated and truly energized by doing things our own way and based on our own values versus comparing ourselves to what others were doing.

I will say that this inner-knowing and confidence was also backed with research. We wrote a lengthy business plan that supported our core values but also our values around building a sound financial model of success.

THE BARRE3 CONCEPT & PHILOSOPHY

POH-Frank: For those who are new to barre3, how would you describe its core philosophy and how it differs from traditional fitness programs?

Sadie: We infuse a very specific mindful approach to traditional fitness that not only leads to physical results like strength, mobility, and endurance, but also emotional and mental results like feeling energized, empowered, connected, resilient, and a sense of belonging. These psychological benefits combined with the physical changes you will experience in our classes are truly transformative.

POH-Frank: Barre3 places a strong emphasis on mindfulness and body wisdom. How important is it for you that people reconnect with their bodies in a non-judgmental way?

Sadie: Being driven by compassion is way more rewarding, results-driven, and sustainable, so why don’t we all do this? Because we are conditioned every day to be driven by shame. It is truly a practice to unlearn the conditioning we all receive that we are not enough as we are. This preys on our deepest human need to belong.

The good news is that when we create a space that invites compassion over judgment the belonging part is super-charged. We all heal in community and this is precisely what has motivated a global movement at barre3.

WOMEN’S WELLNESS & EMPOWERMENT

POH-Frank: Barre3 has always had a strong focus on women. In your view, do women have unique physical, emotional, or psychological needs when it comes to fitness and healing?

Sadie: We absolutely have different needs all around. Our physiology is very different from men and yet most exercise programs are designed with men in mind. Women’s physical needs change at different inflection points every month during the menstruation years, but also through the seasons of life from puberty, to conceiving a child for those who choose this, to recovering after childbirth both physically and emotionally, to peri-menopause and menopause.

These stages of life combined with the externally focused pressures women face to be attractive on the outside is incredibly underestimated as detrimental to our health. My team and I talk about this often and the need to tell our stories and give other women permission to do the same. The amount of content and imagery that we now get fed each day with social media has taken this to a whole new level.

POH-Frank: Do you believe that women today face a lack of supportive community spaces, especially while balancing careers, motherhood, and societal expectations?

Sadie: I will say that there are more and more places for women and I am here for it! It is really exciting to see in mass media and at business conferences a buzz around innovating based on what women need in fitness and wellness. One example of this is the proliferation of support for women entering menopause both through community events and in mass media.

I am proud to be a part of a growing community of other brands and thought leaders carving out very specific spaces designed by women and for women. It is important for us to continue to support women in business because my story is one of millions—so many smart women want to get out in the world and solve problems they are directly experiencing but we all need support. I believe that the more women we have investing in companies, sitting on boards, leading companies, and innovating new fitness and wellness solutions—the better the solutions we will have for women professionally, in motherhood, and in society as a whole.

POH-Frank: You’ve empowered so many women through franchising. How important was it for you to build a business model that allows women to become business owners themselves?

Sadie: It is foundational to our movement and our commitment to designing fitness by women for women. For the past 17 years we have grown one studio owner at a time franchising with women—these women are who have invested in this mission and in a very authentic way. I think it would have been harder for us to stay true to what we do if I owned all these studios with investors who were likely men and not directly impacting or relating to our product.

POH-Frank: In a corporate world still largely dominated by men, what has your own experience been like as a female founder and CEO?

Sadie: I have strategically surrounded myself with both men and women who support women in business. I do not tolerate being dismissed as a woman in business. Instead, I focus my energy on all the incredible people out there who understand how explosive our growth and opportunities are with women at the helm.

We just welcomed our new president Emerald Lopez who comes to us with a phenomenal track record driving transformational growth with a people-first approach to leadership. It is an absolute privilege to empower new women and other values-aligned leaders to drive barre3 into our next era.

HEALING & PERSONAL GROWTH

POH-Frank: On a more personal level: what has your own healing journey looked like throughout these years of building and leading barre3?

Sadie: There is nothing like building a business to learn about yourself. I have found this experience to be deeply humbling and healing, both professionally and personally. Personally, I took on too much in the early years and ironically as barre3 boomed my body was in chronic pain and I was struggling with depression and self-doubt more than ever. All the problems I set out to solve were magnified as I became a public figure for barre3.

Being fit on the inside, versus being attached to what I looked like, was certainly tested when I found myself on the national stage, with a book deal, and DVD series. I really struggled and made some poor choices including partnering with producers who photoshopped me and convinced me to change my approach to fitness to sell more. This whole experience combined with leading a fast-growing company while raising young kids took me to my knees. But it was also an absolute gift.

I pulled myself up and learned how to structure barre3 around our very specific core values even if this meant taking a short-term financial hit. The payoff would come later—and it certainly has! As a mother who was struggling to feel close and present with my kids, I learned the power of mindfulness and that I needed to be very intentional about how I spent my time.

I also learned to LET GO and empower other amazing team members to drive the growth of barre3 far better than I could alone. Physically, I started modifying more than ever in class to heal my chronic joint pains—and I have! Modifying is a practice of standing up for yourself at barre3 and I had to go through this journey to really learn the importance of protecting our way of teaching. I could go on and on but these are some of the biggies.

POH-Frank: Are there specific healing practices, either physical or spiritual, that you personally turn to when you need to recalibrate and ground yourself?

Sadie: Beyond barre3, here are a few:  Yoga Nidra is my favorite meditation practice and I do this almost every day and definitely when I need to be grounded. John Vosler is my teacher and I adore him and have learned so much from him. Time in nature is an absolute must. I take long hikes weekly year-round and I have learned the art of just sitting in my yard doing nothing as well.

I started morning pages from The Artist’s Way, which is essentially journaling every morning right when I wake up with no plans to ever read it again. I find it cathartic to write without any expectation or attachment to what comes through me.

POH-Frank: Many women struggle not only with physical health, but also with emotional burnout and mental overload. How does barre3 address these deeper layers of wellbeing?

Sadie: This is what we are all about. In every class we guide clients through a noticing practice of sensations in their bodies and then how to modify postures based on those sensations and what they really need in the moment. This practice of honoring your body and how you feel is essential to addressing burnout and overload. It isn’t an intuitive practice and I know many women, myself included, need to be reminded that it is ok to take the time to really care for ourselves as we would anyone else we love.

POH-Frank: Does barre3 also offer guidance beyond the physical practice—towards emotional, mental, or even spiritual support?

Sadie: Yes, and it is all baked into the classes we teach. We are very efficient this way!

POH-Frank: Thank you Sadie for your time – it was wonderful talking to you.