a new way to work (3 layers of a business that works)
by jo baquiirin | 25 March 2026
i love beaches with soft, smooth, soothing sand. nothing calms me more than the ocean. the sound of the waves on a quiet summer day. but have you ever tried running on soft, smooth, soothing sand? it hurts. you use extra energy to move your feet. sand castles? they’re so satisfying to make. until the waves wash them all away.
you know, i think of the traditional way of working as building on sand. i used to pour my energy into a vision that was never mine. i used to always grind for what’s “exceptional” by arbitrary standards. i was always working within the limits of a box they put me in.
schools tend to do this to us - and lucky for me i was a teacher. it was a normal thing to feel like the whole school year will collapse in front of me if i allowed myself to follow its natural rhythm - which included challenging the box, questioning the vision, and wondering if grinding for “exceptional” was even worth it. but for many years, i never allowed myself any of those.
and then i moved to japan. where i worked for a vision i didn’t understand, where “exceptional” was on another level, and where the box became incredibly smaller. but i kept building my sand castle. one, two, three years i stayed. until everything crumbled before my eyes. my mental health took a toll. i tried to stay afloat with my trusty unhealthy habits & the fallacy of “hustling for the good life”.
honestly, building on sand is fun.
but no matter how hard you “hustle”, the waves will always wash it away.
and this is why yōso studio was born.
we love japan, we don’t love the work culture. so we took everything we loved about it: the way of life, the philosophies, the importance of being so deeply grounded in your values. because when you’re grounded in your values, nothing can discourage you from working toward your vision, not even the waves.
i call this now our “bedrock”. it’s this immovable foundation of our studio. it’s what allows us to take longer vacations. or spend a wednesday morning on a long walk without fear that the business will collapse. while the sand is about living in a box for someone else’s dreams, bedrock is the very depth of your life. building the very foundation of who you are, in your core, and how you want to live.
the three layers of yōso studio’s bedrock:
(1) the human flow: i despise the 24/7 founder myth. this pace is unsustainable & destructive to anybody’s health - physical, emotional, spiritual, & mental. we were meant to honor our flow. each of us works differently. contrary to what schools & offices taught us. some fast, some slow. some need more rest than others. neither is the “right way to work”. we should be allowed to feel that in our bones.
so we’ve traded our “always-on” mentality for journaling, reflections over coffee, and lengthy conversations. because these habits make the work possible. stepping away when you feel like your head is gonna explode from a single client email is gentler to your well-being than “pushing through” and “dealing with it” and “hustling” when you truly cannot do anything anymore. you are human, everyone needs a deep breath, honor your flow.
(2) intentional decision-making: something we learned early in our journey. a client relationship soured. we had 2 options: to stay quiet & give them what they wanted to “keep the peace” or stand our ground & watch them leave with all future projects out the door. intentional decision making is literally this for me. will i forget our core values even existed & allow someone to walk all over us just so we don’t lose all our projects?
had i been younger, with the mindset of a traditional teacher, i would’ve “done the right thing”. i would’ve “taken the higher road”. what’s funny is…even if you did nothing wrong, you think you have to be “the bigger person”. but i wasn’t that version of myself anymore. i knew that this world will test you & it will keep testing you until you learn how to fend for yourself. i decided nothing can move our bedrock, especially not a difficult client.
because you can always find clients, again and again. but losing your integrity & self-respect from letting people push you around? that’s the real loss. business is way way more than the money.
(3) the self-sustaining ecosystem: we tend our business to be a portal into calm & serenity. when the ecosystem is nurtured properly, it attracts the right people naturally, without the need for frantic shouting. we plant seeds today so we can reap the rewards in the future.
the intentional way of building step-by-step, for the right people to stumble on us tomorrow or next year and the next and the next, is what we’re after. in the beginning, the desperation to feel the results “right now” is strong. we allow ourselves to feel it, but we quickly let it go. because rome wasn’t built in a day. so what’s the rush? savor the journey.
this is both a business & a lifestyle.
yōso studio was born from our passion for the japanese way of life. we wanted to start a business, obviously. but through it, we also wanted to change the way we worked. coming from traditional jobs & the ingrained culture of what “working hard” looks like, we wanted to spend our days nurturing something we truly believed in. something we truly wanted to pour our energy into. something that truly reflected us as people.
our reflections & meetings include decisions & conversations that stay grounded in our bedrock as a small studio. it’s never about how many things we ticked off our to-do list. it’s always about how we nurture what we have so that we continue to attract those who share our philosophy. we journal, we travel, we write, we have lengthy conversations, and we take long walks. we’ve found that when the bedrock is built with intention, the ‘work’ takes care of itself.
because yōso studio is who we are…an extension of how we live our life.
so if you’re currently building on sand, feeling the tide pull at your feet every time you try to rest, i want you to know that there is another way. you don’t have to wait for the collapse to start digging for your bedrock.
and…you can start digging (with us) in our first workshop on 22 april 2026. we’ll help you lay the first layer:
understanding what an intentional life looks like for you.
we’re gathering 8 women who are tired of building on sand, ready to dig for their bedrock & who want to build intentional, self-sustaining businesses that reflect the life they want to live.
60 minutes of storytelling, guided reflections, & real conversations. an hour of exploring what it means to build intentionally.
if this resonates, this is your invitation to join us. $54 AUD. reserve your seat here.
and if you’re not ready for the workshop yet, that’s okay. just remember: you don’t have to wait for the collapse to start digging.
要素 yōso — essential elements only.
stay soulful,
jo from 要素 yōso studio
