Your Business Needs a Skeleton, Not a Cage

Note: So this might not be the perfect metaphor, it's still being fleshed out (ba dum tsh) but since it is Halloween today, I just HAD to post it. I mean, how can I not post something that talks about skeletons and businesses on Halloween???

Rethinking the Framework of Your Creative Business

During a recent voice work session, I stumbled into a conversation that completely shifted how I think about structure in business. It started with a simple body awareness exercise—the kind where you scan through your body, release tension, and let gravity do its work. But it evolved into something much more profound.

The Problem with How We Hold Ourselves Up

Here's a truth about the human body: your skeleton exists to hold you up. Your muscles exist to move you around. But most of us? We're using our muscles to do the skeleton's job. We're creating stress and tension where it doesn't need to exist, expending energy inefficiently, simply because we're not aligned properly.

Sound familiar? Because I'd argue many of us operate our businesses the same way.

The Jungle Gym vs. The Skeleton

When I think about business frameworks, I imagine something external—like a jungle gym. Rigid. Inflexible. Something you have to operate within, grow around, adapt to. Almost like a cage or a shell containing you.

But what if your business framework isn't supposed to be external at all?

What if it's internal—like a skeleton?

What Changes When the Framework is Inside

Think about it this way: when you start a business, you might have one vision. You create systems around that vision. But then you evolve. You shift. You discover new directions. And if your framework is external—if it's that rigid jungle gym—you're stuck. You have to tear it down and rebuild.

But if your framework is internal? It moves with you. It supports you regardless of what's happening around it.

The Bones of Your Business

So what actually constitutes the skeleton of a business? Some of the fundamental structural elements:

• A way for people to find you

• A way for them to book time with you (if that's your model)

• A way for them to buy what you offer

• A way for them to pay you

These are the bones. The non-negotiables. The internal structure that makes something a business rather than just a hobby or a dream.

The Flesh Makes You Unique

Here's where it gets interesting: if you strip a skeleton of its flesh, you can't tell much about the person. You can't identify their nationality, their personality, their style, their story. You need the muscles, the skin, the hair—all those details that make someone uniquely themselves.

Your business is the same. Every successful business has similar bones, but what you put around those bones is entirely individual. Your voice. Your approach. Your values. Your aesthetic. The specific way you serve your people.

The framework supports you from the inside. It doesn't contain you from the outside.

Moving Forward with Internal Structure

I'm still processing this idea, letting it percolate. But I keep coming back to this: what if we focused less on building elaborate external frameworks and more on strengthening our internal structure? What if we made sure the bones were solid, properly aligned, doing their job—and then let everything else be more fluid, more responsive, more alive?

Your business doesn't need to be contained. It needs to be supported. There's a profound difference between the two.

What does your business framework feel like to you? Is it supporting you or containing you? I'd love to hear your thoughts.