Why you must work both in and on your business
By Hannah Moss
Running a heart-centred business requires both focus and perspective. Discover why balancing working on vs in your business is essential for sustainable growth.
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Have you ever tried walking through the woods at night with a torch?
Your beam lights up the path right in front of you. You can see the stones, the roots, the muddy patches. It helps you place your feet carefully, step by step.
But if you only look at the torchlight, you might miss the wider landscape around you. The bend in the path ahead. The fork in the trail. The clearing just beyond the trees.
To understand where you are – and where you're going – you need to occasionally lift your head and take in the broader scene.
Running a business is a lot like this.
Sometimes you need the torchlight view: focused, detailed attention on the work right in front of you. Other times you need the lantern view: a softer, wider light that reveals the bigger picture.
Our latest Marketing Mantra is simple:
Zoom in, zoom out.
Because your business needs both.
Why your business needs both focus and perspective
Many wellbeing entrepreneurs are brilliant at the doing.
Teaching classes. Writing newsletters. Planning workshops. Supporting clients. Creating content.
You care deeply about your work, and you’re naturally drawn to being present with your students or clients. That’s a beautiful thing.
But there’s a subtle trap here.
When you spend all your time working in your business, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture.
- Are your offerings clear?
- Is your website guiding people towards booking?
- Is your brand communicating what makes you unique?
These are the kinds of questions that arise when you step back and start working on your business instead.
Both perspectives are essential. Without the focused work, nothing gets done. Without the strategic view, your efforts may drift without direction.
That’s why we encourage our clients to regularly zoom in and zoom out, to balance working on vs in your business.
The torchlight and lantern view of your business
We often think of this as the difference between a torchlight and a lantern.
The torchlight helps you focus on detail:
- writing a blog post
- designing a workshop
- refining your pricing
- replying to enquiries
- improving your website copy
These tasks require concentration and precision.
But the lantern gives you a wider perspective. It helps illuminate the bigger picture of your business:
- your brand positioning
- your audience
- your long-term goals
- how your services fit together
- the journey people take through your website
This broader view is often where the most powerful insights happen.
For example, when working with clients through our Brand Strategy Package, we often see huge “aha” moments when they step back and see their business from a higher vantage point. Suddenly things that felt messy or confusing start to make sense.
That’s the lantern view at work.
Such a fascinating exercise...
"We were feeling a little stuck in our business and needed help. The work we did with Guy and Hannah in the Brand Strategy Package was very useful, as it helped us more clearly define what we offer, who our audience is, and how to better communicate with our audience using the right messaging. We got some great recommendations off the back of our workshop together, and we really enjoyed the experience of going deep into our brand values and purpose. It was such a fascinating exercise, which we highly recommend to others!" – Mads Brydegaard, Yogidia
Working on vs in your business
This balance is often described as the difference between working on vs in your business.
Working in your business means delivering your services and doing the daily tasks that keep things running.
Working on your business means stepping back to refine the structure and strategy that supports those activities.
As we saw in our Vision before action Marketing Mantra, working in your business is related to taking action, whereas working on your business is more about your goals and vision.
If you’re a yoga teacher, therapist or coach, it’s easy to spend nearly all your time in the “in the business” zone. Classes to teach. Clients to support. Retreats to organise.
But without regular moments to zoom out and review the bigger picture, your business can start to feel chaotic or stagnant.
For example:
- Your website might not clearly guide people towards booking.
- Your offerings might feel confusing or overlapping.
- Your brand might not reflect the depth of your work.
Sometimes a simple structural shift can transform things; such as refining the user journey on your website, as we discuss in our article on how to structure your yoga website.
But you can only see those opportunities when you step back.
A real example from Wildheart
Interestingly, this balance between focus and perspective shows up naturally within our own team.
At Wildheart, our skills complement each other beautifully.
Guy tends to hold the lantern view. He’s brilliant at seeing the long-term strategy, the bigger picture and the underlying structure of a brand. He also brings a strong technical and design perspective to our work.
Hannah, on the other hand, thrives in the torchlight view. She loves the detail: the planning, organising, project managing, content creation, research and refining that brings a project to life.
One perspective without the other wouldn’t work nearly as well.
Strategy without detail never becomes reality. Detail without strategy can lead to lots of activity but little direction.
But together, they create balance.
And the same principle applies to your business too.
Running a business is a bit like driving
Another way to think about this is driving a car. When you’re driving, you can’t just stare at one thing.
You’re looking at the road ahead, but you’re also:
- checking your mirrors
- noticing your surroundings
- watching for changes in traffic
- anticipating what might happen next
Your awareness constantly shifts between focused attention and open awareness (which, incidentally, also happen to be the two broad umbrella types of meditation).
If you only stared at the metre of road directly in front of the bonnet, you’d miss important information. And if you only gazed at the horizon, you’d probably drive straight into the kerb.
Running a business requires the same kind of awareness.
Sometimes you need to zoom in and focus on the immediate task. Other times you need to zoom out and assess the direction you're heading.
Make space to switch modes
The key is not to treat this as a one-off exercise.
Many people step back once – perhaps when creating their website or launching their business – and then get swept into the day-to-day work again.
But your business evolves. Your offerings change. Your audience grows. That means your perspective needs to shift regularly too.
Some simple ways to create space for this might include:
- scheduling a monthly strategy session with yourself or a mentor
- reviewing your website and messaging every few months
- mapping out your offerings and customer journey
- getting an external perspective on your brand
Sometimes just having someone outside your business reflect things back to you can reveal opportunities you hadn’t noticed.
A lot of food for thought and great input...
"The brand strategy workshop that Hannah and Guy ran for me was very well structured and comprehensive. It showed me some glaring shortcomings in my approach that I was sort of aware of but that nobody had spelled out this clearly to me before. Because of them, I am currently in the process of rethinking my entire brand and content strategy. Their analysis gave me a lot of food for thought and great input. Highly recommended!" – Nick Schäferhoff
If you ever feel like you’re too close to your own ideas to see clearly, that’s exactly the kind of thing we help with during a free consultation.
The mantra to remember
Running a heart-centred business isn’t just about working harder. It’s about working with awareness.
There’ll be moments when you need to concentrate deeply and get things done. And there’ll be moments when you need to pause, step back and look at the bigger picture. Both are essential.
So, the next time you find yourself caught up in the details, remember this simple mantra:
Zoom in, zoom out.
Focus on the path beneath your feet. But don’t forget to lift your head and see the landscape too. You need to balance working on vs in your business.
If you feel too close to your business to see clearly, an outside perspective can make a huge difference. During our free consultation, we’ll explore your brand, website and marketing together and help you identify practical next steps for growth.
Before we wrap up, here are a few common questions we hear about working on vs in your business – to help you put this mantra into practice.
How do I know if I’m spending too much time working in my business?
A common sign is feeling constantly busy but not seeing much progress in your business overall. You might be teaching classes, responding to emails or creating content all day, yet still feel unclear about your direction, offerings or marketing. If everything feels reactive rather than intentional, it may be time to step back and spend some time working on your business.
How often should I step back and work on my business?
Ideally, build this into your routine rather than treating it as a one-off exercise. Many business owners benefit from setting aside a monthly strategy session to review what’s working, what’s not and where they want to focus next. Even taking an hour every couple of weeks to zoom out can make a big difference.
What kinds of things count as working on my business?
Working on your business usually involves strategy and structure rather than day-to-day tasks. This might include refining your brand message, reviewing your website, planning future offerings, clarifying your audience or improving your marketing approach. These activities help create a clearer path for your business to grow.
Why is it so hard to see the bigger picture in my own business?
When you’re deeply involved in your work, it’s easy to become too close to your ideas to view them objectively. This is completely normal. That’s why many entrepreneurs find it helpful to speak with mentors, consultants or collaborators who can provide an outside perspective and help illuminate opportunities they might otherwise miss.
What’s the first step if my business feels a bit scattered right now?
Start by zooming out. Take some time to reflect on your overall goals, your audience and the core purpose behind your business. Clarifying these foundations often makes it much easier to simplify your offerings and create a clearer direction moving forward.
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