Last updated: 2026-04-13
Member Spotlight: Aubrey E. – Personal Training Studio Owner, Building with Stability and Purpose
Aubrey E. owns and operates a private personal training studio. After a car wreck that could have ended much worse, she walked away from alcohol and into the kind of clarity that let her expand her business, open a second location, and start exploring what else she can build. Two years sober and just getting started.
“I’ve been worlds more emotionally and mentally stable, and that has proved to be exceptionally beneficial to both my top and bottom line.”Aubrey E., Owner & Founder, The Well PF
A Tree, a Wake-Up Call, and a Decision
Aubrey does not dance around what happened. She wrecked her car into a tree. Nobody got hurt. But the message was impossible to ignore.
“It was an eye opener for me that quite honestly alcohol would ruin my life if I continued to allow it to.” There was no negotiating after that. No moderation plan. No “I’ll cut back.” Just the recognition that if she kept going, something worse was coming.
That is a turning point a lot of founders recognize. Not the final catastrophe, but the moment right before it, where you can still see clearly enough to choose a different path. Aubrey chose. April 8, 2024.
The Ebbs and Flows Stopped
Before sobriety, Aubrey’s business had a pattern she could not explain at the time. Ups and downs that tracked with something she was not ready to look at.
“The ebbs and flows that came with my former drinking patterns. I’ve been worlds more emotionally and mentally stable, and that has proved to be exceptionally beneficial to both my top and bottom line.”
That is the thing about running a business while drinking. The instability does not show up as one big disaster. It shows up as inconsistency: good weeks followed by off weeks, energy followed by fog, momentum followed by stalling. When the drinking stopped, the pattern broke. And the business responded.
The stability was not just emotional. It was operational. When the founder is steady, the business gets steady. That connection is something most entrepreneurs in recovery discover quickly.
Taking Care of the Leader First
Aubrey does not say sobriety changed how she leads. She says it enhanced it. The bigger shift was in how she takes care of herself as a leader.
“I was last before, after all the other things got done. However, that to-do list regenerates daily, so I was consistently not taking great care of myself. Now I know I must take care of myself if I want to stay sober.”
That reframe is everything. Most founders treat self-care like something they will get to after the work is done. But the work is never done. The to-do list regenerates every single day. If you wait for it to be empty before you take care of yourself, you never will.
Sobriety forced Aubrey to put herself on the list, not because it felt comfortable, but because staying sober required it. And that shift made her a better leader for everyone around her. It is the same principle behind applying the 12 steps to your business: the internal work drives the external results.
No Room That Held Both Worlds
The hardest part for Aubrey was not the sobriety itself. It was finding a place where she could talk about both recovery and business at the same time.
“I was opening a new location for my company last year and as I was talking about it with my sponsor, I knew she didn’t have the entrepreneurial perspective.” Her sponsor was great for recovery. But the business side needed a different kind of support.
She also ran into something that trips up a lot of founders in recovery: people in the fellowship sometimes read growth as just the addictive obsession for more, or an ego thing. “On the contrary, I was very mindful through my entire expansion process.”
That gap, where recovery people do not understand business and business people do not understand recovery, is exactly why mastermind groups for sober entrepreneurs exist. You need a room that holds both.
What She Wants Every Sober Founder to Know
“Both addiction and entrepreneurship are incredibly individualized. Both involve a human that doesn’t necessarily fall into certain stereotypes or ways of thinking or doing things. Both would likely ask to be listened to.” Stop trying to fit either into someone else’s template.
When another sober entrepreneur tells Aubrey they feel alone, she does not give a speech. She invites them to the meeting. “I’m sharing this group with them. Come join us sometime.” That is the whole move.
Her Support System
- Sponsor and ongoing step work
- 12-step fellowship meetings
- Other recovery groups she participates in
- Sober Founders for the entrepreneurial perspective her other groups cannot provide
What Sober Founders Changed
Aubrey has been coming for less than a month. But the impact landed immediately.
“I definitely feel more solidly supported that if and when I have something I am having difficulty with or want to bounce a question or idea off of like-minded people, I now have a place to do so, which is wonderful.”
The meetings filled a gap that her other recovery spaces could not touch. “It’s been wonderful to have real discussion about questions or challenges versus just following a text and sharing my own singular perspective. I’m so appreciative of the genuine conversation with other sober entrepreneurs.”
That distinction matters. Aubrey does not need another room where people share and move on. She needs a room where people talk back and forth, challenge each other, and actually solve problems together. That is what she found.
What She’s Building Now
A company she is proud of, and the start of something bigger. Aubrey is exploring other ways she can be of service in the world beyond her studio. That kind of thinking, building something that matters beyond revenue, only shows up when the noise of addiction is gone and there is space to ask the bigger questions.
“I’d recommend Sober Founders to anyone who feels alone at times in their sober entrepreneurial journey, particularly due to the challenges they face as an entrepreneur.”Aubrey E.
Looking for a room where sober founders actually talk back and forth?
Aubrey found it here. The free weekly mastermind is where sober founders get real conversation, not just sharing into the void.
