I spent the weekend in a field in Cheshire with hundreds of women.

Womanifest. Two days of workshops, speakers, fire walking, silent discos, and women from every kind of business and background figuring things out together. On paper it's a festival. In reality it's something I don't see nearly enough of in business: a room, or in this case a farm, where people stop performing and start telling the truth.

Somewhere in the middle of the weekend, I walked across fire.

An actual firewalk. Barefoot, over hot coals, in a field, with a line of women waiting behind me. And here's the thing about a firewalk that nobody tells you: the walk itself takes about four seconds. The bit that matters is the moment just before. Standing at the edge, staring at the coals, waiting to feel ready.

You never feel ready. Nobody does. The women who crossed didn't feel ready either. They just stepped.

And I couldn't stop thinking about how many business owners I've sat with who are standing at the edge of their own version of that walk. The price rise. The difficult conversation. The email in drafts. The decision they already know the answer to. Waiting to feel ready, as if ready is a thing that arrives if you stand there long enough.

It isn't. It never was. Ready is what happens about four seconds after you step.

And somewhere in the middle of all of it, I noticed something I've been chewing on ever since.

The most common thing I heard all weekend, in different words, from different women, was this:

"I thought it was just me."

The pricing wobbles. The Sunday night dread. The decisions that go round and round at 2am. The feeling of being completely surrounded by people and still carrying the whole thing alone. Every single one of them thought they were the only one, right up until they said it out loud in a field and thirty other women nodded.

Business ownership is lonely. We know this. But here's the bit nobody says, and after 17 years in franchising I'll say it:

Franchisees might be the loneliest business owners of all.

Which sounds backwards, doesn't it? They're the ones with a network. A head office. A field team. Regional meetings, annual conferences, a WhatsApp group full of other owners. On paper, a franchisee is the least alone business owner in the country.

But I ran three franchises of my own before I ever worked in head office, and I spent years supporting hundreds of owners after that. And I can tell you what actually happens.

At the regional meeting, everyone's fine. In the network survey, everyone's fine. On the conference dance floor, everyone's fine. Because the people in the room aren't just your peers. They're the brand you represent, the head office that measures you, and the owners you quietly compare yourself to. So you say you're fine. And you drive home alone with the truth.

The truth is usually some version of this: the job changed under you and nobody named it. You bought a franchise to run groups, or deliver care, or serve customers, and somewhere along the way it became managing people, reading spreadsheets and making decisions nobody trained you for. You're not failing. You're just quietly further from fine than anyone in your network knows.

I've sat with over 1,000 business owners now, franchised and independent, and the pattern is the same everywhere. Owners don't stall because they lack training. They stall because they lose connection: to their why, to their people, and to anyone they can be honest with.

And here's where the field in Cheshire comes back in.

Because the thing Womanifest gets right is the thing the best franchise networks get right too, and it isn't strategy. It's belonging. When I was leading districts, the numbers people remember are the 62 new groups and the 91% growth. But none of that came first. What came first was building a culture where owners backed each other, where the struggling ones weren't hidden, and where somebody noticed when your spark went out. The belonging came first. The numbers followed. Every single time.

So whichever seat you're in, here's what I'd offer you from my weekend in a field:

If you're a business owner: find your room. Not a feed, an actual room, with people who'll let you say the unsaid thing. It will do more for your business than the next course you're eyeing up.

And if you're a franchisee reading this with a lump in your throat because the network is lovely and you're still lonely: it is not just you. It never was. It's the most common thing I see, and it's fixable.

I came home with ash on my feet, a full heart, and the same conviction I always come home with:

Nobody builds anything alone. And nobody should have to.

And if you're standing at the edge of your own fire right now, waiting to feel ready: step. Ready arrives about four seconds later.

Michelle x

P.S. If any of this landed a bit close to home, my door's open. One honest conversation can do more than months of carrying it alone. Book a Clarity Call