GNT #158: When demand pulls you in the wrong direction

Welcome to Grow North Thursday - One idea each week to help you grow with purpose, earn sustainably, and design a life you love.

Forwarded this? ​Subscribe here.

Prefer to listen? I'm testing a special audio version for the next few weeks. Click here to listen [5 min] and email me back if you liked this option.

read time: 3 minutes

TL;DR: Demand can validate the wrong direction. Before you scale what’s working, make sure it aligns with the life and business you actually want to build.

A few years ago, Ed and I planned to build a sauna in our basement.

We had fallen in love with traditional Finnish sauna. The ritual of it, the way it forces you to leave all the tech at the door, the calm that settles in, and the deep sleep afterwards. We knew we wanted sauna, and the culture that surrounds it, woven into our daily life.

Then we read Rich Dad Poor Dad and had a different thought.

If we’re going to build this, could it be an asset?

So instead of building it in our basement, we built a wood-fired sauna on a trailer.

The idea was simple: build it, rent it out, and generate income. Let it pay for itself.

At first, the model looked promising. Bookings came in quickly. People were excited.

But the lived experience of mobile rentals was different than we expected.

It meant hauling equipment across the cities, setting up in unfamiliar spaces, answering the same stove questions over and over, and staying “on” the entire time. We were not facilitating calm experiences. We were managing logistics.

We kept trying to optimize it with better instructions, tighter systems, and more efficiency.

What we weren’t questioning was whether we even wanted to scale that version of the business.

Looking back, I can see that this is exactly how confirmation bias works.

In today’s newsletter, I want to unpack how confirmation bias quietly shapes your growth decisions once demand shows up, and how to make sure you are scaling the right thing for you, not just the thing that looks successful.

Let’s get to it.

The subtle way confirmation bias shows up in business

Confirmation bias is not loud. It does not announce itself. It simply nudges your attention toward the evidence that supports what you already want to believe.

In our case, the belief was simple: this is a smart asset.

So when bookings came in, that reinforced the story. When revenue looked healthy, that reinforced it again. When people complimented the concept, it strengthened the narrative.

What received less attention was how the work actually felt.

The constant troubleshooting. The fragmented evenings. The mental load of managing something that was supposed to represent calm.

We interpreted traction as proof of direction.

That was the mistake.

Demand is information. It is not strategy.

And when you are building something from scratch, especially something you care about, it is easy to confuse the two.

A simple filter before you scale anything

If something in your business starts gaining momentum, pause long enough to run it through a few questions.

→ First
If this doubled tomorrow, what would your week actually look like? Not just financially, but operationally and emotionally.

Consider your calendar, your energy, your level of focus, and the kind of problems you would be solving more often.

→ Second

What is this truly optimizing for? Every business model has a built-in bias. Some prioritize scale and visibility. Others prioritize margin, control, or lifestyle.

Be explicit about what matters most to you right now, because if you do not define that clearly, the market will define it for you.

→ Third

Are you improving this because it is aligned with your long-term vision, or because you are trying to justify a decision you already made? There is a difference between refining something that fits and defending something that does not.
 

Our shift

When we stepped back and looked honestly at the rental model, the issue was not whether it could grow. It probably could have.

The real question was whether we wanted to build a business centered around transporting, setting up, and troubleshooting events.

That wasn’t why we started.

We started because we loved the experience of sauna and what it created for people.

So we shifted the model.

Instead of prioritizing mobile rentals, we focused on hosted sauna sessions in nature at Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Eagan, MN. We design the environment. We stay present. We guide the rhythm of the experience rather than reacting to it.

What we discovered surprised us.

The aligned model did not just feel better, it performed better too. Clearer positioning, strong word of mouth, and more sustainable energy on our side.

Once the business matched the vision, growth became cleaner for us.
 

Takeaway

You don’t need to scale everything that starts working.

You do need to pause long enough to ask whether it aligns with the business and life you’re trying to build.

Demand can validate the wrong direction.

Alignment is what compounds.

Before you move forward, consider this:

If this doubled next year, would I be proud of what my days actually look like?

I'm always rooting for you. See you next week.

-Colleen

📩 If you’ve found value in this newsletter, please forward it to a friend. It’s the biggest way you can support my work, and I appreciate it so much.

For more short, grounded ideas throughout the week, you can follow me on LinkedIn.

If someone forwarded this to you, you can subscribe here to get it each week.

p.s. If you want to experience sauna in nature the way we originally imagined it 🔥, you can join us at Saunable in Lebanon Hills Regional Park. We’d love to have you.