172: White Space: The Secret To My Most Creative Ideas

 Welcome to the Shoot at Straight podcast, where honesty meets heart and real talk actually means something. I’m your host, Sabrina Gehart, 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 it Straight podcast, my friends. It’s December. For most of us, that means that things are slowing down. Sure. The holidays are crazy. They’re chaotic. There’s a lot of events, a lot of places we have to be a lot of shopping and wrapping and decorating and food, but your business hustle should be over.

At this point, most of the listeners are photographers or in the creative space, and unless you’ve got a brick and mortar or you’re selling actual products, you are probably starting to slow down for the year. And I wanna talk about white space. This is something that I’ve talked about before. Maybe you’re new here, maybe you haven’t heard this in a while.

Maybe you need this pep talk. But today we’re going there and what’s a little bit different is it’s not going to be from the perspective of you need this right now, because hopefully you’re giving yourself that in this post busy season window that we’re in. But today I wanna talk about planning for it when you are mapping your calendar for next year.

Unless whitespace is new to you, you know some of this is, is going to be a little bit repetitive again. Hear me out. Okay. This is gonna be a short, sweet episode today. If Whitespace is new to you, I’m gonna talk. I’m gonna tell you about it, talk about it, explain what it is and why it is so imperative to implement in your business.

So you know that your best ideas never come. When you’re just sitting at your desk typing away or in the middle of a session photographing clients or busy doing anything, really, they come when you have space, you know what I mean, right. When you’re on a walk, when you’re in the shower, when you have a weekend away, when you take a nap, these are all times when we get these sparks, these hits, these lightning bolts of clarity and creativity.

I have so many stories of, and examples of when this has happened, a couple of them, uh, that really stand out to me that you will appreciate the listener. I remember when I was starting to flush out the idea of what is now my root to rise mastermind. I knew kind of the container I wanted it to be in. I knew that I wanted it to have a retreat.

I knew what I wanted the support to look like, but I was still building it. I was still flushing out, well, what does this mean and what do we call it and how is this going to work and how am I going to market this to women? Right. It was, it was an idea that was being birthed, but it wasn’t fully there yet.

I was getting a massage. I was so relaxed and I was actually face down. If you’ve ever had a massage, you know, you’re like face down in the pillow where you get like all the wrinkles on your face. I was face down, so I can’t see anything and I’m so relaxed and I’m not even really thinking about anything at that point.

Literally, root to rise came to my mind, those words. I have practiced yoga for a long time, and that is terminology from yoga. And for whatever reason, it popped into my mind and I immediately latched onto that. And from that piece of clarity, from that creative knowing, from that phrase hitting me, I immediately knew this is the name of the program, and everything else came together after that when I was in the middle of a massage.

I have another story like that where, um, I was taking a nap. It was the summer and you know, we’ve got some more flexibility in our lives in the summer and I was taking a nap, like a little cat nap. And while I was sleeping, I kid you not, while I was sleeping, I had the idea for my course marketing that attracts literally while I was asleep.

I woke up from it and it was like the whole blueprint had been laid out for me. I was so jazzed to create it, to put it together, to get it out into the hands of women so that it could help them market their business. I have had those two experiences from moments where I was completely at ease, not doing anything.

There’s also countless times when I have been in social situations, having conversations with friends, whether at dinner or over drinks or whatever, and. The relaxed nature and the fun and the joy and the laughter of those conversations sparks for big ideas came about our creativity lives in space. When we have space, that’s where we’re going to today is I really am going to hammer home.

I’m hoping that I’m gonna hammer home the importance of building in white space into our lives so that creativity can breathe. So that we can have that clarity that comes from being able to breathe. I had a conversation today with one of my one-to-one clients and what we’re going to be working on next year, and this is one of the things she talked about.

Was how she felt so creatively stifled this past year because she had no time for herself, no time to breathe, no white space, no time to create and play for herself. And so that’s one of the things that we’re going to work on together next year, is how can we make her business still as successful in as much, if not more revenue, while also giving her the time and the freedom to have that white space.

Having white space is so important, so let’s back it up. For the people who renew or don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, what is white space? It is time, like a block of time where you don’t have any inputs or outputs. You are not needed for anything. You are not parenting. You are not businessing, you are not with your clients.

You are not running errands, you are not doing chores, you’re not doing anything, and no one needs anything of you. That is what white space is. So when you have white space, you can go for a walk, have a fun lunch with friends, get a pedicure, take a nap, read a book, paint your watercolors, whatever. Fill in the blanks.

You’re doing something unless you’re just, you know, napping or laying around, which is great too. You’re doing something, but there’s no requirements of you. No one needs you. You are free as a bird. Are you ready to uplevel your photography business with more ease, profit and clarity? Root to Rise is my five month mastermind for female photographers who want to refine their systems.

Elevate their client experience, skip the burnout, and step into their next level with confidence. It’s a unique coaching experience that blends group support, one-to-one coaching and guest expert trainings. You can join online only or upgrade to include an absolutely incredible in-person retreat. The next round open soon and spots are limited.

So get on the wait list now at sabrina gehart.com/mastermind-waitlist.

So that’s what whitespace is. It’s time where we are intentionally setting aside to have that time freedom. And what I always tell the woman I coach, and you, the listener, is that you will never just casually find white space in your calendar. We’re too busy for that. You know that. We’ve got kids and businesses and communities and spouses and parents, and the list goes on and on.

We don’t just casually come upon free time, like that’s not a thing. We have to make free time happen. So you have to plan for it with the same priority as you would a session, a doctor’s appointment. Anything else? Okay. Creativity needs this white space to breathe. Okay. Creativity. Clarity is bred in those moments of boredom.

That’s where it becomes this. It’s like a spark let’s, let’s say it’s like a spark and you can’t ignite it. You can’t get the spark going or the flame going when there’s too much else going on because everything else is stifling it. Okay? Like when you’re trying to get a camp fire going and there’s that little spark and you’re like trying and trying and trying to get it going, it needs the fuel.

Of white space to explode. It needs the fuel of boredom to grow. Okay? Without it, it is just a stifled pile of wood. It’s not going anywhere. Creativity needs that space. And so if you’ve ever suffered from, you know, feeling creatively, stifled, feeling like you don’t have clarity, feeling like you are just running from one thing to the next to the next, and you’re, you know, you’re running around like a chicken with your head cut off.

Feeling like you can’t breathe, feeling frustrated in your business or your life feeling depleted. Those are all signs that you don’t have enough white space in your life. White space is also a regular thing. It is not just a great vacation. While I would love to encourage you to take a week off every single month and have this grand vacation, that’s not the same thing going on vacation takes effort.

It’s the stress of packing and getting to the airport. It’s getting into the room and unpacking its excursions and adventures and figuring out what you’re doing in a new place. Maybe there’s a different currency or a different language or a different time zone wrangling kids or spouses. It’s not the same.

Sure, some vacations are laying on a beach and reading a book, and that is absolutely relaxing. And you may absolutely have some wonderful creative ideas and feel recharged, but that feeling of creativity and recharge post vacation does not last. You know that you’ve gone on a dreamy vacation before and come home and you feel great, and then a week later you’re really, really at the bottom of the barrel again, because that’s how busy our lives are.

The difference is when you plan white space regularly, you are constantly refueling. You are constantly refueling yourself from that depleted state, right? So we know what white space is, we know why we need it, so that our creativity can breathe, so that we can have that clarity. What are ways that you can create it, right?

There’s lots of ways that you can utilize, I, I should say, not create, utilize white space. I’ve mentioned some of them before. There are other ones that are smaller, simpler things. Uh, I do think going on a walk is a great one. If you’re in a place where weather allows you to do that often, allowing yourself to have phone free mornings, that’s not fully white space, but it does give you a whole, it takes a whole lot of weight off your brain, right?

The mental load is much lower when we set the phones down, or if you use a brick, you know, brick your phone. Um, having time alone doing almost anything alone is a little bit of a breather compared to being at home and wrangling people and clients and all of that. But the biggest, best thing that you can do your, for yourself on a regular basis is those open blocks of time on your calendar to just be with yourself and give yourself what you need in that moment, whether it’s an outing or a quiet moment at home, or reading on your porch or whatever that is.

When I talk about you having to protect this time and prioritize it like it’s any other appointment that looks like scheduling it and putting it on all the calendars. If you’ve got a family calendar, a digital calendar, a planner, whatever that means, putting it on there and then prioritizing it and put a boundary around it, that probably means saying no to things so that you can protect it.

It’s hard to do, especially if we have come from a place of always doing for others, always going, always checking off lists, always feeling the need to be productive. It’s really hard to prioritize this white space. It feels frivolous. It’s absolutely critical, and I am really gonna encourage you and tell you that the, the beauty of it is you’re actually going to be more productive when you let yourself have white space regularly.

It’s like a beautiful little, like two for one, right? You get rest. Time to reset and have some creative juices going and gain some clarity from the peace in your brain in white space, but you also are gonna be more productive on the other side. It’s really, really is magic. So when we think about next year, I want you to commit to prioritizing this for next year, weekly basis.

Okay? Whether that’s two hours, four hours, a whole day, whatever it is, it needs to be with childcare. Needs to be alone and it needs to be something where you’re not working. Okay. Time of day is, I’m cool with whatever you want. If you’d prefer having evenings or weekend mornings or afternoons or whatever you want, I don’t care when it is.

It also doesn’t have to be the same time every week. If you need more flexibility than that, it can. It can rotate. It can be on different days and different times. If you like a schedule, maybe it’s always the same one. Maybe it’s Thursday mornings, those are yours. Pick something. Find something that will work for you, but it’s never gonna come if you don’t block off that time.

Never. Because we’re busy and you know that. I want you to give yourself the gift of white space in 2026, and then let this be an experiment. See how your body responds? You’re gonna have little to no burnout. You’re gonna have more ideas, more clarity, more joy. You’re gonna be more productive. Things will feel easier.

If it sounds like magic, it’s because it is. This is one of the very first things that I talked about when I was, um, a new speaker. Literally at that conference, the very first talk I gave was about white space, and I called it the silver bullet. It’s magic. It is an absolute game changer for you, for your business, for your family, for your relationships, and I want you to have it in 2026 because you deserve it.

It is the most productive thing you can do is the best gift that you can give yourself. So I would love to invite you to give yourself an hour of white space this week. Can you carve out one hour for yourself, one hour for yourself? Let it be whatever you want. Don’t try and fit in an appointment. Don’t try and schedule something.

Let it be a free hour. Let’s say it’s noon on Fridays, noon on Friday happens, and you get to get up from your computer. And say, what do I want? And if that’s an hour nap, or an hour book read, or an hour walk, or whatever it is, give yourself the gift of an hour just this week to see what beautiful things can come from one hour.

And then imagine if you gave yourself a block of time every single week, how great you would feel. That’s it for today, my friend. Starting next week, I’m going to spend a few weeks replaying some interviews from earlier this year where I was the guest on someone else’s podcast. This is allowing me to feature some other incredible women over here and bring the conversations to you over on the shoot at Straight podcast, and I will be back in January with new episodes, but don’t miss the ones that are coming because they’re all fantastic and I just love creating community.

You guys know that. And so this is my way of virtually introducing you to some incredible women. So I hope you’ll check those out. We’ll see you next week. 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.