115: From Empty to Abundant

Welcome to the shoot it straight podcast. I’m your host, Sabrina Gebhardt. Here, I will share an honest take on what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing business, motherhood, and life. Myself, along with my guests, will get vulnerable through honest conversations and relatable stories, because we’re willing to go there.

If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff too, we’re here for you. The shoot it straight podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.

Welcome back to the shoot straight podcast. My friends, today’s episode is going to be a little baby mini short and sweet something, but I want to address this in real time. It is late October and I have been having a lot of similar conversations with photographers lately. Both from my current students and students that are enrolling in my mastermind or one to one coaching for next year.

This is the time of year where I’m just having a lot of conversations with a lot of photographers all over the country in different phases of life and business, but I’m hearing something over and over again, and I want to address it here in real time. This is what I’m hearing, that people feel empty, women are feeling completely sucked dry, they are going through the motions, but the spark is not there, it’s gone.

And I’m wondering, have you felt the same way before, or maybe do you feel that way now? Have you ever had a season where you just feel completely drained? And I know I talk a lot about burnout on the podcast, but that’s not exactly what I mean here. I’m meaning about when the well feels dry. Maybe it’s, you feel uninspired.

Maybe you just feel like you’re going through the motions of your days. Maybe you’re exhausted physically and every day completely takes it out of you. Or maybe it’s even a spiritual emptiness. Wherever you feel that you know that you are completely depleted. And that’s what I want to talk about really quickly today.

How can you go from feeling this emptiness back to feeling abundant again? Maybe you want to feel that sparkle. Maybe you want to feel full again. Either way, you’re not sure how to get back to that place. So today I want to give you just a little bit of encouragement for how to move forward and to go from this emptiness back into a place of abundance.

First of all, you’re not alone in this. Like I mentioned, I’m hearing this a lot lately, and if I’m being completely honest with you, I have felt this way recently. this year as well. Okay. This weariness, this feeling of being completely depleted, it comes during times when we are pouring into others and other things, and we’ve stopped pouring into ourselves.

We know that we need to put the oxygen mask on first. Everyone knows that, but for whatever reason, we’ve stopped doing it. And when we stop pouring into ourselves day in and day out, we eventually become drained. It’s just the way of life. And it’s so, so common during busy season. Our schedules have become jam packed with client sessions and editing lots of hours and squeezing in all of the personal life, right?

Fall sports and fall fun and holidays and family gatherings. And when our schedules become full, the first thing we do is to look for areas to cut back and to find margin. That is our human nature. And unfortunately, what most women do is cut out the things that are actually supporting themselves. We stop going to the gym.

We stop hitting our step goals. We reschedule therapy appointments. We reschedule hair appointments. We stop going to Bible study. We stop calling a friend for coffee. We stop waking up early for quiet time. We allow ourselves to find margin in our schedules by taking out every single thing that is keeping us healthy and sane.

And then we get late into busy season and we wonder why we feel so depleted, why we feel so empty, why we feel like we’re just going through the motions. When you stop pouring into yourself, mind, body, and spirit, you become empty. It’s as simple as that. Today’s episode is brought to you by route to rise a four month mastermind and retreat for female photographers.

That is where personal development meets business growth. During the four month experience, students have weekly calls focusing on a variety of topics that both better their lives and their businesses. Think topics like goals, boundaries, money, and marketing. And many, many others. The program also includes incredible guest teachers, a private Facebook community and weekly Voxer hours where you get individualized guidance and mentoring from me on topics that matter to you and your business.

One of the best parts of the experience is definitely the three day in person retreat. Consider this the most fun girls weekend ever. We eat well, do yoga, photograph three sessions, work through portfolio reviews, take headshots and build deep friendships. I can tell you that the women who have gone through this program have had some absolutely incredible transformations.

Reached massive goals and changed the trajectory of their businesses. If you wanna get on the wait list to be notified when enrollment opens again soon, you can head over to the link in the show notes and get on that list. And now back to the episode.

And unfortunately, most of the photographers I talk to think that it has to be this way in the. They are resigned to thinking that they must give away all of their time to clients, and then the little tiny bit of time they have left over to their families and their children, and they think that’s just the way it is.

I want you to hear me when I say this, that is a lie, 100%. It is a lie and it is not true. I have coached hundreds of women on this over the years, hundreds. You can have a different fall. You can make a boatload of money during busy season and still feel abundant and joyful. It does not have to be an either or situation.

You can have both. Okay, so you’re feeling drained. You’re feeling empty. You’ve stopped pouring into yourself. Now what? What’s the solution? I mean, is it obvious to say that you have to start pouring back into yourself again? Like immediately this week, as soon as you stop listening to this podcast, the longer you ignore this, the longer you continue to feel this way.

And the longer you feel this way, the closer you get to burnout and you don’t want to go there. Friend, you know what you need to do, but it’s hard to do things alone. So my recommendation to you is to get support, find someone to do these things with at least until you’re back in the routine again. Think about it.

When you have a therapist, a trainer on a committee. You have people to do things with, you have people holding you accountable. When you do things with support, you will always go farther and faster. You are more likely to attend the group fitness class. If you’ve promised to pick a friend up on the way, because she’s counting on you, you’re more likely to go on the walk.

If you’ve made plans to walk with someone else, you’re more likely to do the mindset work. If you’ve already paid the coach and booked the call, you’re more likely to meet with the nutritionist. If you’ve made the appointment and paid the deposit. You’re more likely to go to the Bible study if you’ve made plans to host it in your home this week.

How can you get someone else involved to hold you accountable while you get back on track? That’s my first recommendation. The other, and you know that this is coming, is to consider how you can prevent this from happening again. What can you put into place to ensure that next October feels different?

This is something that we just talked about in a recent mastermind coaching call. And one of my students who’s done the program three times said that this practice was a huge game changer for her. She can now see and feel how immensely different her fall is this year than in years past, because she was committed to breaking the cycle and to taking care of herself through the fall.

And she’s doing just that. She’s living proof that you can have both financial abundance and personal abundance. It doesn’t have to be either or. So if you’re listening to this on the day that this episode airs, today is the last day to enroll in my mastermind for 2025. If you’re interested in learning more or you just want to chat with me about whether or not it’s a good fit for you and where you are in business and in life, come find me on Instagram at Sabrina Gebhardt Photography.

Send me a DM and let’s chat. I can send you a link with information. You can ask questions. We can also take it to a one on one zoom call if you want. I’ve been having a lot of those conversations this week. Okay. I’m happy. I’m more than happy to listen to your story and offer some guidance. I don’t want you to feel depleted.

I don’t want you to feel empty. I don’t want you to continue to put yourself last. I want you to thrive. I want you to feel abundant. I want you to have both and success and the internal abundance because you are taking care of yourself. It is possible, my friend. It is. That’s it for today. We’ll see you next week.

Thanks so much for listening to the shoot it straight podcast. You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode at SabrinaGebhart. com backslash podcast. Come find me and connect over on the gram at Sabrina Gebhart photography. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you hit that subscribe button and leave me a review until next time, my friends shoot it straight.