151: Ask Me Anything: Answering YOUR Questions

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151: Ask Me Anything: Answering YOUR Questions 3

Ask me anything! In today’s episode, I’m celebrating over three years and 150+ episodes of the podcast by answering your questions. I’m diving into business advice, personal experiences, and all the fun things you want to know. 

The Shoot It Straight Podcast is brought to you by Sabrina Gebhardt, photographer and educator. Join us each week as we discuss what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff too, Shoot It Straight Podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight

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 Welcome to the Shoot at Straight podcast, where honesty meets heart and real talk actually means something. I’m your host, Sabrina Gebhart, and each week we get vulnerable, practical, and just a little bit bold so you can feel seen, supported, and ready to take the next step in your photography journey.

Let’s go.

Welcome back to the Shoot to Straight podcast, my friends. Today we have a really fun episode, so the podcast has been alive for three plus years at this point, and I’ve never done what I’m about to do, but I got the idea from a friend and I thought, yeah, that sounds fun. We’ve got enough loyal listeners, enough of you are sending me what messages on a weekly basis, telling me how much you love the podcast and you love having me pop in your ear.

And so I thought, I think we’re ready for this. We are ready for a podcast. Ask me anything. And that’s what we’re doing today. How this works is a couple of months ago I dropped a question box on Instagram and I also, you may remember, mentioned that this was coming. On the podcast and I asked you to DM me questions.

So this is a combination of questions that were asked in, uh, Instagram from you, the listener. You heard the podcast, you heard I was gonna do an a MA and you sent me a question or you saw me drop the question box that said we’re gonna do an a MA on the podcast. What do you wanna know? This is a combination of that and it’s really fun.

I think there’s about 10 questions here, and they really do span a lot of topics. We’ve got some super educational businessy things. We’ve got some mom type things. We’ve got some really fun random questions, and so literally I have the questions in front of me. And that’s it. We’re just gonna roll with this.

It’s gonna be like we’re hanging out and having an organic conversation over coffee or non-alcoholic margaritas. Maybe this is what, like it’s hanging out at the retreat. We’re just sitting around after dinner, chilling. Random stuff comes up, right? This is what it’s like when you build relationships with people.

You talk business, you talk personal. So that’s what we’re doing today. We’re doing an A MA. It’s kind of a random lineup of questions, which I personally love. I wanted it to be random, and you guys came through with the questions. So we’re just gonna dive right in. I’m gonna tell you what the question is.

I’m gonna answer it. We’re gonna go down the list, okay? Okay. First question, how long does it take for all of your changes from an SEO perspective to work? So the short answer is you can expect three to six months. This is a long game. You have probably heard me say this on the podcast multiple times.

This is more like planting seeds for the future. This is not like flipping a switch and just all of a sudden go, you’re gonna get a lot of traffic. That’s not how this works. If you’re consistent with your SEO efforts. You are planning out really thoughtfully what you’re doing. So you’re doing keyword research, you’re writing keyword rich blog posts.

You are renaming your images, uh, with, you know, you’ve thought out what the names are gonna be if you are doing those things consistently, number one and thoughtfully number two, that’s the key. You have to be doing them both. There’s kind of a loose timeline. Again, Google is always changing, so please do not hold me to this.

But generally speaking, within a three to six month window is when you’re gonna start to see things shift. So the first couple of months I. After you’ve started doing these things is when Google is crawling your new content, your new pages, the updates, et cetera, but you’re not gonna really see any changes in traffic, okay?

You’re not going to see the blog post you hit publish on last week, just all of a sudden pour in inquiries. That’s not going to happen. Months three and four, you may start to see rankings improve, especially if you thoughtfully chose like less competitive keywords, things that are easier to be found for.

I. And then, you know, month 5, 6, 7, that’s when if you have been consistent and you are cons, consistently doing things thoughtfully and intentionally, that’s when you’re going to start to see traffic increase. Okay? You’re gonna see that organic traffic increase noticeably, and here’s what you need to know.

You, you have to keep going at that point. You have to keep going. I know the goal for most people is they wanna be on page one. A lot of people wanna be number one. There is nothing wrong with any of those goals, okay? I’m totally okay with you having those goals. It takes a lot of work to move up the list, and it takes work to stay at the top of the list.

Okay? So I will say generally speaking, once you get to the top, you can slow your efforts down a little bit. But you can’t just stop making changes. You can’t just stop blogging because you will fall down, your ranking will plummet. So this is something that you have to work really, really hard at to get to where you wanna be, and then you can back off a little bit and go into kind of a maintenance mode.

So that’s the general update. Again, Google is always changing. Things are always being shaken up, but at time of recording, that’s what you can expect. Next question, how hard is it to make it to all the kid things and be a business owner? Also asked similar question, how do you balance being a mom and running a business?

That is the million dollar question, is it not? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked this question over the years, whether it’s from my photo clients, we’re having Mom to mom conversations. Or the women I’m coaching, or dms, I mean, literally, I get asked this all the time. I even get asked this by my friends who are not in the industry.

This question comes up so much. How do I balance being a mom and running a business? How do I make sure that I have time for all of the businessy things and also all of the kid things? First and foremost, the highest on the very tippy top of the list is giving myself grace. I don’t. I drop the balls in my business.

I miss some of the kids’ stuff. It’s not a perfect system. There are seasons that have been better than others. I will say in the last, you know, five to seven years of my business, I’ve been much better at holding boundaries, doing better in both parts, both as a mom and as a business owner. But the first 5, 6, 7 years of my business, it wasn’t always that great.

Number one is giving myself grace because there are some times where your business is the priority and there are some times where your kids are the priority, and there’s sometimes when you have to step back and put yourself as the priority. It is this constant dance. I. And depending on how many kids you have, ’cause you know things get more complicated, the more kids you have, the more chaotic it may seem in different seasons.

And there are some times when it feels like your business is moving really quickly and it’s growing and it’s expanding and that feels really good. And if you feel in flow and ease, and then there are other times where you feel like you can’t keep up with your business because of all of the kid commitments and the family commitments and all of that.

What I have learned is to really pay attention to what season of life my family is in before I start planning anything in my business. So how I’m doing that is at the top of every year when I’m looking at a global perspective of what I have happening that year, what I want to happen that year, I am thinking about my family first.

I’m thinking about when is my daughter’s volleyball season? When are we gonna be traveling? When is she gonna have tournaments, when are we gonna have, you know, weeknight games? I’m thinking about my youngest football seasons. Like when are those times gonna be? I’m thinking about our college football season because we have season tickets.

I’m thinking about, um, my middle and when are basketball tryouts going to be and when is that? And then I’m also thinking about when are our family vacations? When are big things that I need to plan for and set aside time for? So I’m, I’m thinking about the seasons of all of that first, and then I’m.

Putting together the puzzle of what my business year can look like so that it aligns with what’s happening in our, in our personal life. That being said, you can’t plan for everything. Kids get really sick and have to go to the hospital. They break bones, family members pass away. Unexpected stuff happens that throws everything just out the window, and that’s where Grace really pays a huge role in how it all works.

I know you’ve heard me say this on the podcast before, if you’ve been a listener for a while, as photographers, we are not in the business of creating oxygen. We don’t have true emergencies with our clients, which is we’re so, we’re so lucky for that. We are not curing cancer. We are not in life or death situations.

The vast majority of our business can be put down if it needs to be or can be shifted if it needs to. And there have been plenty of seasons in my life when that happens and I have to lean into family stuff and reschedule clients or ask for extensions on deadlines, tell people no, et cetera. It doesn’t feel good, but it’s necessary.

So that’s my first answer, is giving myself grace. And then planning for the seasons that we are in as a family, whether that be sports seasons or age seasons, right. Like when I was in the season of having a newborn, like maternity and having a newborn and then having, you know, toddlers or in the seasons of the kids are all in preschool where they all have that like nine to noon window, okay?

And then they come home and it’s chaos all afternoon, whatever the quote unquote season is in your household, planning your business around that. And then the other thing is how, uh, you know, the question of how do you balance being a mom and running a business is I outsource a lot. That should not be a surprise to you.

I talk about it all the time, and I haven’t always outsourced a lot. It’s definitely been something that I’ve been unloading tasks to people more and more over the years, but I value time more than anything. I would rather make a lower profit, have less money in my pocket, but have more time freedom.

That’s where I am. That is my priority. That may not be your priority, and that’s okay, but that’s mine. So when I was only a photographer, I. That really only looked like outsourcing my editing and having an assistant help with contracts, invoices, and communication type things. She would also attend mini session events and then help with random kind of special one-off projects that I had.

I. So I was offloading a lot of the business communication logistics stuff, and then I was also offloading my editing, which freed up a lot of my time. But as I stepped into education and as I have expanded my education suite over the years, I have brought on a ton of team members, right? I have a designer, I have a podcast manager, I have a content strategist, I have a bookkeeper, I have a coach.

I have. A blog writer I have, I don’t know. I’m sure that’s not everybody. I have a whole lot of people in my pocket. Because I love all the different facets of my business the way it is today. I love having a podcast. I love having a mastermind. I love having courses. I love having a membership. I love also having photography clients.

I. I love all the different pieces, so I need a big team to help give me as much time as possible so that I can do all the things so that I can record podcast episodes, have blog posts, hit every month, have emails going out, have content scheduled in groups, have help with my editing, have help with my booking of clients.

Also, that I can serve my people really well, and also be with my family as much as possible. So that is my answer for that. Moving on. This is such a fun question. What’s your biggest guilty pleasure? And it can’t be Taylor Swift. I was cracking up when she put that in, uh, the question box because you guys know me so well.

You’ve heard me say on the podcast many, many times that Taylor Swift and her lore and like the Taylor Swift side of TikTok is definitely my guilty pleasure. But if I’m going to have to give you one outside of that. Currently this year it has been shopping with my stylist, Betsy. So you’ve probably heard me say that I hired a stylist at the very end of last year, and it has absolutely been a game changer and something that I wanted to do for a really long time.

And we have worked together like six times at this point. And. Eight months maybe, and it is my guilty pleasure. I don’t even really feel guilty about it, but I have done way more shopping than I have in the past. But I, the, the part of it that doesn’t make me feel guilty is because it’s very intentional shopping with her guidance.

My shoe collection has like tripled since working with her. I, no, I was a shoe minimalist before. Okay. So it, like, it needed to triple I have purchased more pairs of shoes. I’ve completely overhauled my wardrobe. Maybe you heard me say that. I, she came over and did an in-person like closet detox with me and I got rid of 17 large trash bags worth of clothes from my closet.

All went to donation. It just sit with that 17. Like the huge black trash bags. Okay. My friends. So, and then we’ve been slowly but surely working on building it back up with intention by season and it has been so fun. I. I have worked with her to curate, so first we curated like a fall winter wardrobe, and then we curated a spring summer wardrobe.

She also styled me for two different retreats and a conference. She also styled me for my branding photo session. I. It’s been really cool to work with her, um, in such a unique way. So that has absolutely been my biggest guilty pleasure over the past year and I have no signs of like, slowing down or stopping.

It’s been so dang fun. Next question. What is your most embarrassing moment as a photographer? This is so easy, uh, for getting a session, for getting a session. I will never forget. This was probably nine years ago at this point, eight or nine years ago at this point. I remember where I was in my house and it was my old house, so at least seven years ago.

’cause that’s when we lived there. But I think it was eight or nine years ago. I remember where I was when this client called me and said, are you running late? We’re ready whenever you get here. And I’m sitting in my desk, at my desk, in my old office, not even remotely thinking I had a photo session. Not dressed and ready to go out into the world and like my, my stomach dropped, and this wasn’t even the first couple of years in my business.

So definitely my most embarrassing moment. It’s happened to the best of us. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, you’re lucky. I think it’s kind of inevitable as a photographer is just like a rite of passage, but. That was definitely my most embarrassing moment. It was horrifying, but it was also kind of a wake up call because I was that busy.

I was that scattered. I was that all over the place that I forgot a session all together. Forgot it. The next question, I think we’re in question five at this point. This question simply said, what are your Taylor Swift predictions? So I’ll keep this short and sweet in case you’re not a swifty and you don’t care.

I don’t want you to hit skip. We’ve still got a lot of juicy questions to go. Um, but Taylor Swift predictions, so I am recording this on June 18th. Okay. So I’m putting a timestamp in this just in case before this episode airs some sort of announcement is made. I think she’s already engaged. I also think she could also be married.

I know that’s wild. I’m leaning more towards, they’re already engaged than married. I just, I have thought that for several months, and actually for those of you that are swifties, if you go all the way back to the Airs tour, I don’t even remember which city it was, but the whole crazy thing where Travis came out on stage and he was a part of the show, um, a part of the act for one of the songs, and everybody like lost their mind because that was so unheard of.

Historically, if you followed her, she has pretty limited public interactions with boyfriends. Like nothing on the red carpet, definitely nothing on stages. You know, they would have like paparazzi walks and like date night photos and stuff, but really very, very limited public engagement with past boyfriends.

If you followed her and Travis for a while, you know that they are very public. I. So the swifties all out there think that they’re very public because he is allowing her to be public and supports her being public. And then there’s this whole lure about like all of her other past boyfriends couldn’t handle being public with her and it was too much and blah, blah blah.

Anyways, all that to say, when she brought him up on stage and put him into the act during the A tour, which we all know largest grossing tour of all time, like huge global impact, I. I literally Vox my Swifty friends the next day and I was like, I think they’re engaged because it just felt like such a big moment to be like, not only are we super public, but I’m bringing him into the show and he’s like a choreographed part of the show for one night.

Not to mention it was in the Tortured poets department set, which is an album that he has songs. That are about him on that album. They started dating at the beginning of the ERAS tour and so this was towards the end and so to, to come full circle. They met, started dating, fell in love, and she wrote songs about him and then is performing songs about him and he is part of the program like, can you just sit with that for a minute?

That happened and I immediately was like, yeah, I think they’re engaged. I think they’re engaged. And that was probably a year ago now at this point. So that’s, that’s my prediction is that I think if they haven’t already quietly gotten married, I kind of think they’re gonna do it very quietly and then it’s just all of a sudden gonna be public knowledge like way after the fact.

So we’ll see if that’s true. Hey, friend, real talk. Do you know your marketing personality? Because if you’re feeling stuck, burned out, or like you’re throwing spaghetti at the wall, when it comes to your marketing, this is your next step. I created a totally free quiz called What’s Your Marketing Personality?

And it’s going to help you figure out what you’re naturally good at, what might be tripping you up, and how to market your business in a way that actually works for you and not against you. It’s quick, it’s fun, and best of all, you’ll walk away with a personalized strategy to help you attract more of the right clients without doing all the things or losing your mind.

So if you’re ready to finally feel confident in your marketing, head to sabrina gehart.com/marketing-quiz and take the quiz. And I can’t wait to hear what your results are now. Back to the episode. Okay, next question. How do you find a quote unquote direction with your marketing when you serve mothers in all stages of parenthood?

Okay, so I thought this was such an interesting question and I did a little digging to the person who asked this question, and she is a family and newborn photographer who also photographs the seniors occasionally. And so she really is serving moms in all the seasons from maternity, newborn, toddler school, high school, et cetera.

And so she was asking like, how do I know how to target these women when I feel like I’m talking to, to them in their in different stages? My advice to her and to you, the listener, is this, I think more about targeting women, woman to woman. Okay. And not just moms at certain stages. Yes. I think marketing to certain stages can absolutely play a part, especially if you are a niche.

So if you only photograph newborns, absolutely your marketing can be super targeted. But for those people that serve families and newborns or seniors and families, it’s a little more general. I think that’s a really great opportunity to lean into what I call connection marketing, and that is woman to woman.

How can you connect to her, not just about the season of motherhood she’s in? Because if you go and hang out with women, yes, you’re gonna talk about your kids probably a little bit, but that’s not all you talk about. You’re talking about what you’re binging on tv, the best book. You recently read this vacation you went on, um, this epic dinner you had the other night.

Your favorite thing that you just ordered online, like your conversation is spanning way more than just a very specific season of motherhood. Sure. You are probably talking about nap time hacks for your 2-year-old, but that’s not all you’re talking about. So when you are marketing to somebody who’s in a, in different stages of parenthood or whatever, I think you need to back up and think, okay, outside of that, how can I connect with, with my ideal clients, how can I connect with these women?

What can we talk about? That’s your answer. Next question is, what has hiring a stylist done for you? So, I love this question because they follow me on Instagram and see that I’m sharing, um, about my journey with hi hiring Betsy, my stylist, and I’m sharing, you know, outfits over there every once in a while.

And just kind of talking about that process, it has been so much more transformational than I expected. So I mentioned earlier that, you know, it’s my current guilty pleasures working with her and shopping with her. But I had that on kind of my vision board and my goal list for a really long time, like for years and years to have a personal stylist.

And it always felt a little out of reach, a little expensive if I’m, if I’m being honest. And so I just kind of kept skipping on it. And part of like, there was a little part of me that was skipping it because I never felt good in my body. I know that you can probably feel me in that we never feel good in our body, right?

I don’t wanna say never. It’s rare. We, uh, as women, our bodies change month to month, year to year, season to season. And I’ve just been kind of in this constant shift with getting older and perimenopause and blah, blah, blah, all of that. But at the end of last year, I reached a savings goal. I told myself that that was going to be my reward, that I was finally going to do it.

I was finally gonna hire someone, reach out and have a consultation and go, and I was tired of being held back by my body. I was tired. I was just tired of the story. So I reached out to have a consultation kickoff with her and start the process. She asked me, you know, she’s got obviously tiers of packages and ways to work with her and stuff.

And she asked me, you know, what are you, what are you envisioning this looking like? And I was like, listen, honestly, I want all of it full service, top to bottom. I wanna start with a clean out, then I wanna go shopping together. Then I want style boards. Then I want, then, then, then like I just, I wanna go full throttle.

I’m gonna do this and I am going to do this. Right? And so the very first thing she did well, the first thing we did was, you know, she planned out a style board for me to like my personality, and we talked about what direction we were gonna go and all of that, and which was an absolutely phenomenal process.

That was all virtual. The first thing we did in person was, like I mentioned earlier, she came over to my house and we did a closet detox. That was three or four hours maybe, and it was a mind blowing experience because that’s the moment that I knew that this was more than just getting new clothes. This was more than just overhauling my personal style.

This was more than just getting dressed with intention. This was about confidence and mental work that I didn’t even know I needed. If I’m being honest with you, she looked me in the eye and there were several moments that she said things to me and I literally was almost in tears. They weren’t bad things.

They were just things like woman to woman. I. She was seeing me doing her job, seeing me, and telling me things that I hadn’t realized that I needed to hear. And it has just been such a game changer in the way I think about myself, the way I get dressed, the way I go out into the world, the way I show up in the world, the whole thing.

It is so much more than just, I want my clothes to look better. I want better clothes. Like I had thought of it as. It was gonna be like a fun shopping experience. Like that’s what I thought hiring a personal stylist was gonna be. And it is that, but it is so much deeper than that. And it has been the most incredible experience.

That’s why I said earlier that like, I’m not even close to stopping. So like we’re just like, she’s on payroll forever and ever. Amen. And it’s just a really incredible experience. So if you don’t have that on your bucket list, add it. Because I wish I would not have waited this long, quite honestly. Okay.

Question number eight. How many people are doing the round table and are you going to move it to Instagram? So a little backstory, this woman that asked this question is in the round table. And what you, the listener don’t realize right now is that the round table is undergoing some changes. And right now we’re testing those changes out.

Uh, the biggest of which is that. I am testing moving the group from Facebook to a private Instagram page, and at time of recording again, it’s June 18th and we have been in this test space for about a month, and so far it’s going great. So what does this look like? I have a private feed in Instagram. You have to request to join.

You can only request if you are in the round table. You only get that link if you, you know, sign up to participate. Um, if you’re listening now and you wanna check it out, you can join the Roundtable, sabrina get part.com/membership. The, the premise was number one, we spend way more time on Instagram than we do Facebook.

So it’s a more intuitive location. Number two, you can change the settings in your Instagram so that that private account becomes a priority. So instead of it competing with the algorithm, you’re always seeing, like it’s always pushed to the top if there’s an update or something new is posted. And then the other part was getting to share more in real time.

So if something comes up in my business, I’m sharing about it live. If I’m working on something, I’m sharing about it live. I am doing more q and As and answering more questions on a weekly basis. I’m going live over there. And so it’s been really interesting because they’re getting way more from me, but it also feels like a lower lift from me because it’s kind of done on the fly.

Her question, how many people are doing in the Roundtable? Currently, there’s about 60 women in the group. And are you going to move it to Instagram? The question? The answer is, we’re still to be determined. We are going to continue testing it in this format and I’m committed to testing it that way through the end of July.

And then I will make a decision. If I had to give you a gut reaction right now at time of recording, I think it probably will. Move to Instagram, which means that the group calls will stay the same. So we’ll have community when we show up on Zoom together several times a month, but instead of having a Facebook group, we will move that piece to Instagram.

I think that’s probably what’s gonna happen, but it is not official yet. Okay. Question number nine. What route to Rise location has been your favorite? Okay. This is such a hard question. Because I, I genuinely loved every single one for different reasons. Each retreat had different benefits, and you know, we had different guest experts teaching different types of things, and they’ve all been incredible in their own right.

I have no negative vibes from any retreat. Every location has been beautiful. Every home has been beautiful. Every group of women has been great. If I had to say my favorite, I think maybe my, the most unique thing that we got to do at one was in Destin. Instead of having a going to a restaurant on our last night of the retreat for like a celebratory last night dinner.

Instead of doing that, we had a bonfire on the beach, and that was a really cool experience because it was so different. It was definitely a different kind of experience. ’cause instead of sitting around a table and being waited on and having a meal and all being in conversation together, we were sitting around a large bonfire and we had gotten a bunch of pizzas for takeout and we were just kind of like mingling in different groups and sitting and eating and everything.

So it was a totally different vibe, but I kind of loved that. So that was really unique. The downside to Destin is we got a lot of rain while we were there, and so we had to shift our schedule. But I. It worked out perfectly and it was totally fine. A bunch of us got naps while we were there too, because of the random schedule shifting because of the rain.

But gosh, I mean, I really did love all of them. I have such a special place in my heart for Austin, because that was the first one I. San Diego was incredible. Uh, we had incredible beach session and, and that was really, really fun. Um, we had really cool headshot in San Diego because we went to Balboa Park and there was all these cool places to walk around and do headshot.

Washington DC was really, really neat because the group was really small and we, our guest educator was Na, was Natasha Sewell and she lives there and we got to go to her house, which was really cool. All of them have been so incredible. I, I really don’t have a favorite, but if I had to pick a most unique, I would say Destin just because of the bonfire, because that was really, really special.

Okay. Last question for this, a MA episode is this, what are some health changes or habits you’ve made that have made the biggest difference? This is a really hard question because I have made so many changes over the years and they’ve been like layered in, and so I kind of lose track of like when certain things got added or whatever.

But I’ll say the three or four things that are coming up from you right now, number one therapy, and maybe you don’t wanna hear that, but I think everybody needs a therapist. And maybe you don’t need one all the time, but you definitely need one for a season. I. And then maybe you can put it on hold and then maybe you need to pick it back up.

I know it’s inconvenient. I know it’s expensive, but it’s a game changer. It really is a game changer because when you are better, your business is better. And that’s the whole premise behind my Root to rise Mastermind is better yourself while you better your business. And I’ll tell you right now, most of the women in that program, if they don’t already see a therapist, they start seeing one in the program.

I’m not kidding. It’s that impactful. So therapy is the first one. Uh, working out in the morning has been huge for me. That was a really big sticking point for me. About 10 years ago. Mm, maybe not 10 years ago, maybe eight years ago. I just, I was tired. I loved sleep. I did not wanna get up when it was still dark outside to workout.

I committed to a group program and going with friends so that I could get used to it. And within two weeks I was addicted. And the funny part of that story is my husband for years and years and years, as long as I’ve known him, has been an afternoon or evening workout guy. And I have been telling him for years that he needs to come to the mornings.

And he gave me the same feedback, like, he’s too tired, it’s too early, you know, it’s not gonna feel good, whatever. And finally this year he was like, okay, I’m gonna try it. I’m, I’m gonna try it. I’ve heard you say it enough. We’re gonna go for this. And within a week and a half, he was like, you’re right.

Mornings are where it’s at. And so now it’s, it’s kind of great because now we have this extra touch point together where we work out together in the mornings, um, which is just super fun. Um, so if you have never been a morning workout person, I would encourage you to try it. It does wonders for my mental clarity in the morning and also for my energy the rest of the day.

But the next tip I was gonna say, um, kind of goes along with that, is allowing myself to take a nap when I need to. It’s not all the time, it’s not even every week. It’s definitely ebbs and flows with hormones and time of the month and all of that, but allowing myself the guilt-free moment of, you know what?

I am really tired right now. I’m gonna lay down for 45 minutes and close my eyes. That has been a game changer because sometimes that’s what you need to get through, right? Especially if you’ve got, you know, a big afternoon or evening or kids’ sports or whatever, allowing yourself. Again, guilt free. The ability to lay down and just reset is huge.

Is absolutely huge. And then the last thing is tracking macros. And I wish this was like one of those funny YouTube channels where I have like the, the sounds in input, and it could be like wah tracking macros. I have a love hate relationship with tracking macros. Okay, number one, I hate doing it. I don’t like spending the time doing it.

I don’t like having another app that I’m logging into on a daily basis. I don’t like being so rigid. But here’s the thing, when I’m not rigid, I slide. I snack more. I, I’m just lax more, I’m getting larger portions. Everything is just a mess and I notice it in the way. I feel. I’m more inflamed, I’m more bloated.

I have more gut issues. I just, I don’t feel good in my body, but when I’m tracking macros, mentally I hate it, but physically I love it. Because like all of the opposites, right? I’m less inflamed, I’m less bloated, my gut feels better. I don’t have like the afternoon sugar slump as much, and so I just, I’m, I’m in that spot right now, currently at time of recording where I’m trying to get like back on the wagon of tracking macros every day and getting into that habit because I feel better with them.

So that’s it for today’s episode of, um, ask Me Anything. Uh, this was 10 random questions. I hope you got something out of it. Whether it was something fun or something practical, I would love to hear from you if you liked this episode or not. Is this something that we should do on a regular basis? Maybe once a quarter?

Um, I’d love to hear from you. So send me a DM over on Instagram at Sabrina Ghar Photography. Let me know what you thought. And that’s it for this week, my friends. We’ll see you next time. Thanks so much for listening to the Shoot at Straight podcast. You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode@sabrinagehart.com slash podcast.

Come find me and connect over on the gram at Sabrina Gehart 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.

Review the Show Notes: 

How long does it take SEO changes to work? (2:38)

How hard is it to balance being a mom and running a business? (5:37)

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure – and it can’t be Taylor Swift? (12:32)

What is your most embarrassing moment as a photographer? (14:51)

What are your Taylor Swift predictions? (16:09)

How do you find a direction in your marketing? (20:08)

What has hiring a stylist done for you? (22:22)

How many people are doing The Round Table and will you move it to Instagram? (26:36)

What Root To Rise location has been your favorite? (29:07)

What are some health changes or habits that have made the biggest difference? (31:39)

Connect with Sabrina:

What’s Your Photographer Marketing Personality? Quiz: sabrinagebhardt.com/marketing-quiz

The Round Table: sabrinagebhardt.com/membership

Root To Rise Mastermind: sabrinagebhardt.com/mastermind-waitlist

Instagram: instagram.com/sabrinagebhardtphotography

Website: sabrinagebhardt.com

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