174: Embracing White Space and Seasons of Ease with Jillian Dolberry

Sabrina: On today’s episode of the Shoot Straight podcast, I have a replay of an interview I did earlier this year with my friend Jillian Berry of the Grace Filled CEO podcast, and we talked about embracing white space and seasons of ease, and it’s really a perfectly timed replay. Now that we are coming up to the holidays, things are slowing down for most of us.

And this discussion was really beautiful, especially if you listened to a episode a couple of weeks ago when I talked about the importance of white space. This is really just going to hammer that home even more. Jillian and I had a really great conversation about this and I can’t wait for

you to hear it, so let’s dive in.

Welcome to the shoot at Straight podcast, where

Sabrina: 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.

Jillian: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Grayfield CEO podcast. Today we are chatting with Sabrina Gehart. I’m so excited for you guys to hear our conversation. And Sabrina, welcome to the podcast.

Sabrina: Hi my friend. I’m so glad to be here. You were on mine recently and so it’s fun that we get to do a little swap.

So I can’t wait to see where our conversation takes us today.

Jillian: I know I can’t wait either. I always love chatting with you. We always chat before and after and we just have a lot, I feel like, in common with season of life and all the things in, um, a lot of the same ideals and values and things that we really focus on in our business.

So I’m excited to chat with you. I want everyone to know. Who you are, what you do. And so tell us a little bit about you, your business, your

Sabrina: family life, all of those things. Again, my name’s Sabrina. I live in Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas. The Fort Worth side, if you’re a Texan, you know. Okay. Not the Dallas side.

We’re in the Fort Worth side, and I married to my college sweetheart. We actually just celebrated 20 years. Oh, congrat last week. Congrat. Which feels truly monumental. Um, and so we, what’s your anniversary? June 4th.

Jillian: Okay. Ours is June 9th. Okay. I

Sabrina: love that. Yeah. So yeah, we just hit 20 years, which is really exciting.

And we’re one of those cheesy couples that can say like, we’re happier now than we’ve ever been. It’s just, it’s been a beautiful journey. I’ve got three kids. I’m in, um, a season of life where I’ve got big kids now. Um, I’ve got a rising senior. Which breaks my heart. We could have a whole conversation about that.

I’ve got a rising senior, that’s my girl, and then I have two boys. One is a rising freshman and then one we had as a surprise. So he’s a rising fourth grader. So we’ve got quite a big gap there. Um, and they keep me busy. We’ve got two dogs. But as far as my business is concerned, I started my photography business.

14 years ago, and I am a family and newborn photographer. But about halfway through that journey, about seven, almost eight years ago now, I started to step into education. And at first it was just one-to-one mentoring, which was really cool because if you would’ve asked me years and years ago if I ever had any interest in teaching, like hard, no, absolutely not.

I don’t think I could teach people. Um, I don’t think I know enough. But I kind of fell into that and as I got to work with women one-on-one, I fell in love with a part of me that I didn’t even know existed. So I did that for a few years, just the one-to-one mentoring in addition to photography. And then in 2019 I decided I’m ready to take the education side a lot bigger.

And so that’s when I started like all of the online education stuff and. Since then, so I guess that’s six years now, five years now. I have a podcast, I have a mastermind. I coach women one-to-one. I speak at conferences. I have a couple of courses, like I have my hands in all of the things. And that now, uh, currently at time of recording is a much bigger part of my revenue and my business than my photography, but I am still a practicing photographer.

So I’ve got a newborn session next week. I just, that has come, that part of my schedule has just gotten so much smaller, but it still feeds me creatively in a way that coaching doesn’t. So that’s why I haven’t quite let that go yet.

Jillian: Yeah. I love that so much. Well, first of all, actually, I have, I have so many questions.

First question is, are you taking a 20 year anniversary trip?

Sabrina: Yes. Okay. But we, it’s not planned yet. We’re, um, I have treated myself to hiring a travel agents this time, which we’ve never done. Yeah. It’s, it’s been on my kind of horizon. Uh, this one firm that’s located here in Fort Worth, um, and they specialize in like luxury travel.

And I was like, you know what? That’s gonna be the gift to me is not having to plan it. Right? Yeah. And so we’ve literally just started that conversation. Um, so it’ll be before the end of the year. It’s probably gonna be October or December, but she’s in the process of putting together some different ideas with different locations, different timelines, and she’s gonna like present them to me.

So yes, but I don’t know when or where yet.

Jillian: Okay. Well, I at least, at least you have accountability in doing that. Yeah. I think that that’s really important. My husband and I started doing, um, all inclusive trips. Mm-hmm. And I, I guess it was, we started at our 10 year anniversary and it was kind of on a whim because we had friends going and they were like, you guys should come.

And we looked at each other. We were talking about taking a trip like out west and doing some hiking and stuff. But at the time it was cheaper to do an all-inclusive, right? Yeah. Like somewhere else in another country. And so we did that and then we were like, oh, we’re never, we’re never doing anything else, right?

It’s crazy. Yeah. In this season of life to go somewhere where all of your needs are taken care of and prepaid and you don’t have to pull your card out like that is gold. So anyway, I say all that to say. I am all for having someone else plan and pull it together, and I think that that is such a great gift to yourself.

So I had to camp on that for a second, but I, and you’ll have to update me on where you decide to go. Okay. Because I wanna hear all of it. I wanna go back to what you said about feeling like education, like you’re not a teacher. What, what was that mindset for you? Because I feel like a lot of people feel that when they get into something where they’re, they do the thing, they start the business and they do the thing because they’re good at it or because they enjoy it and they love it.

And they want to learn more about how to do it better. And then you get to a point where you’re like, oh, I could teach people or coach people on how to do this the way that I’m doing it because I have found my groove. And then the education piece is kind of the next step in doing it in a wider range.

But what was that mindset that was kind of keeping you. I guess in a smaller head space around that or keeping you from feeling like you could move into that quicker?

Sabrina: Yeah, it was definitely just some really gnarly imposter syndrome. I didn’t have that like big name recognition that some of these other photographers at the time had online where they had, you know, like 75,000 followers and everybody knows who they are and they’re always the keynote speakers at at things and they’ve had these long running programs or whatever.

I didn’t have any of that. I was just this like little guy. And so that was a big part of it. Like what? What do you mean you want me to teach you? You know what I mean? And because that’s how it started was I was getting dms, I was having people DM me, do you offer mentoring? I would love to work with you.

And the first, I wanna say probably 10 requests. I was like, no, I don’t. Thank you. That’s so kind. And I just kind of passed ’em off. And then eventually I was like. Wait a minute, like, maybe I should say yes to one of these and see what happens. It was really an imposter syndrome of who am I, um, what could I possibly teach you?

What could you possibly want to know from me? And I have no experience in teaching. So there are a lot of educators out there who did either go to school for education or they spent a few years in the education system, or they homeschool, so they have some sort of knowledge about like how to quote unquote.

Properly educate, create curriculums and all of that. So I didn’t have any of that either. And um, but like I said, eventually I had enough people popping in asking me the question that I kind of took this pause and I was like, I mean, maybe I do have something to offer. Eventually somebody asked, and I said, I asked for her email and I sent her an email and I was like, listen, I’ve never done mentoring before, but I’m considering it.

If you’re willing to be my Guinea pig, let’s go. Here’s what I think this would look like. And that was that. Yeah.

Jillian: So just kinda like, like bloomed from there of you. One person told another person, told another person, told another person, and you just kind of built it from there.

Sabrina: Yeah, so I, um, I only did in-person mentoring at the time because a lot of people were asking to come photograph a session with me.

They wanted to see how I was doing things, how I was using light, what I was doing with families. Again, this was, you know, eight years ago-ish. So the quote unquote lifestyle photography genre was not nearly as massive as it is now. Everybody knows what it is now. Back then it was fairly new, but that was my bread and butter, and so people were just curious, how are you working in clients’ homes?

How are you using lighting when things are different in every location? And then also the business side of things, right? Seeing how I ran my business. And so I just kind of like threw together a timeline of if somebody wants to come work with me, you know, we’ll we’ll do this and then we’ll do this and we’ll photograph a session and then we’ll do this.

And then we’ll have a call, you know, a couple weeks later to answer questions. And I just ma literally made it up and told this first girl that like you were gonna be my Guinea pig, slapped a price on it and just went with it. And it was. So amazing to see so many light bulbs go off for her and to be able to show her how to do things better, faster, skip all of the mistakes, you know, and just really help somebody fast track.

And I loved the comradery. Woman to woman that literally blossomed something in my soul that is an absolute huge part of my life and my every day and my why is community now and lifting women up. And it literally started from this little tiny seed.

Jillian: Yeah. Ooh, that’s good because. That’s how it starts. And I, I love that you said it awakened something in you, because that tells me it already lived there.

It was just dormant for whatever reason. And it took, it’s almost like some, like God was putting something on your plate and knocking on your door and saying, I need you to listen to this. And you’re like, oh, thank you. That’s so kind. Right, right. I’m good. Right. And then you finally said yes. And when you did that, something new awakened in you.

And I think that’s such a cool visual, cool story. So when you went from like. Working with people one-on-one and mentoring and you’re realizing, okay, like I love this, I love watching this. I love being a part of it. It’s like created this new perspective for me. How did you, how did your mindset go from doing that to.

Curriculum and teaching.

Sabrina: Yeah, so I had attended my first retreat experience, um, a couple of years before I started educating. So I spent the first two, almost three years of my business winging it and like YouTubing my way through figuring things out. Right? That’s what a lot of us do. We’re like, we don’t wanna invest in anything.

We’re scared to invest. So it was just like. Blogs and YouTube and you know, forums and stuff like that. Just figuring things out. And then I finally got to like a breaking point in my business where I was like, if I’m gonna take this seriously and really do something well, I, it’s time to put money where my mouth is.

Like I’ve got to invest and double down and really take that huge leap in growth. And so in that year, I attended a retreat weekend and I also went to a conference and I also did like a one day thing all with different types of photographers, all people who I’d. Kind of looked up to. So I went from never investing to investing hard and fast, and that really did flip a switch for me, and I kind of learned from those experiences about what my vote most valuable takeaways were and experiences were, what I loved about them, what I could pass on.

Going through those educational experiences as a student, I kind of had this story in my mind of, man, I would love to be one of those speakers up on that stage. Man, I think it’d be so cool to be like, looked up to quote unquote, right? Like I knew that I had the desire to become one of those leaders. It just kind of sat in the background for years because again, of imposter syndrome, who am I?

Like I could ever do that. That kind of story that we tell ourselves. I was doing the one-to-one mentoring for several years and then all of a sudden it just like awakened. I was like, okay, I, I am qualified enough to do this kind of stuff now. Like, let’s go. It’s, it was no longer a story of who am I? You know, you can’t teach anything.

’cause I had gotten women results after results, after results, after results. It just finally, like, I just got a green light internally that like now’s the time to go for it. And that was, um, in 2019. And the first thing I wanted to do, I wanted to jump all the way into the deep end and apply to be a speaker at conferences.

And so I started that process, which is, if the listeners have never heard this, it’s, you get a lot of nos in the beginning. You’re supposed to get a lot of nos. You just have to start doing it right. You have to start getting your name out there and then the pandemic hit. And so I hadn’t really made any true with air quotes, true progress in the growing my education.

I had been putting my name out there and starting to get the ball rolling, but nothing had really materialized yet. And then the pandemic hit and everything was at an absolute halt. And a friend of mine kind of put a bug in my ear. She’s like, what if you do like an online group program? Make it totally free, just because we were all like freaking out.

And this is like literally right after everything lockdown. Everybody’s like, oh, our business is over. Yeah. We’re not gonna, you know, I mean, we’re all spiraling, right? And she’s like, do it as like a, as like a encouraging thing to keep people going and moving forward and, ’cause we have nothing else to do with our time, literally.

And so I was like. Huh, that’s an idea. I very quickly jotted down, okay, if I was gonna have six weeks of calls with a group, what are the things I’d wanna teach on? What do I want them to know? How would I want the group to feel? How many people do I want it to be? And that stuff just poured outta me so easily.

And so I decided to take applications and I literally like threw it out there to an email list, threw it out there on social media, and I was like, we’re gonna do this six weeks mastermind and it’s gonna be business and I’m gonna tell you everything I know and it’s totally free ’cause the pandemic stinks.

Uh, but you have to apply ’cause I wanted to make sure I picked the right women. And I had so many, as you can imagine, so many applications. And I picked, I wanna say it was like 12 women, and we dove in. And it was absolutely incredible. First of all, most of those women are still with me. Five years later and have paid to work with me in very high capacities, which is just a a fun business side note that like you can give away something for free that’s incredibly valuable and still turn those into clients.

That was never the goal, but seeing it now is kind of cool. But all of those women, when the six weeks were up, they were like, no, no, no. We’re not ready to be done yet. Can we keep going? Do you have six more weeks of curriculum in you? And I was like, well, give me a few days to think on this. I don’t know.

And I was able to come up with something and I told ’em, I said, listen, I, I’ve come up with stuff, but I’m not gonna do this for free again. I put a little price point on it and. A hundred percent of them enrolled, and that’s how it was born. That’s how group education was born, was seeing how I was able to facilitate the kind of community that I wanted, and I was actually able to educate them in a way where they still had that impactful growth, even though it wasn’t one-to-one.

Jillian: Okay. So now tell me what that, the version of that looks like today, because that was five years ago, right? Right. So tell me what it looks like today.

Sabrina: So I have a program now that’s called Root to Rise, and it’s my kind of my bread and butter program. Um, I’d say it’s what it, I’m most known for. And, um, it is a five month mastermind and there’s also the option for you to attend an in-person retreat if you want.

You can do online only or you can attend the retreat, but the group is always 20 or less. And, uh, I don’t take applications. I just let you join at this point because I trust that I bring in the right kind of women because I do. And, uh, it’s a very well-oiled machine at this point. We, let’s see. We just wrapped our sixth run of the group.

So, um, it’s well-oiled. It’s absolutely incredible. I teach most weeks and then we have a guest expert come once a month on various topics. And the underlying premise of the program is better yourself to better your business. So it’s part personal development and part business development put together.

And I’m still fostering that deep community. Uh, and so that’s what, that’s what it’s turned into. It’s my favorite thing I do. Um, seeing the transformation that I can take women through in five months while also helping their personal life and their, their mental health, and also giving them a newfound community because these women will finish the program and then they continue to voxer or go visit or see like, they literally become business besties with their cohort.

It’s absolutely magic.

Jillian: It’s wonderful. As someone who started it from you, wanting that community too, of like gathering people together and then see where it is today. That is incredible. Do you ever just take a minute to just like Revel and enjoy in

Sabrina: that? Oh my gosh. Every time. Well, yes, the answer, the short answer is yes.

Um, a couple of things happen like clockwork. Every single run of the program. Number one, I will come home from the retreat, not even before I come home from the retreat. I close the door after everyone leaves and I start weeping like ugly, ugly crying. And it’s that overwhelming sense of I cannot believe that I have been called to do this.

I cannot believe that this. For me, I cannot believe that I get to foster this and host this and that. These women choose me. I mean, it just, it is the most humbling. It is. It is one of the times in my life where I am so certain I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to do. You know what I mean? And it’s just that overwhelming joy that happens every single time.

And then when we wrap the program. Every single time when I’m kind of like writing that recap email and that recap caption on Instagram, I just am overwhelmed that I got to hold space and support these women for so long. And the craziest thing is I have a very high rate of people that return. Um, I have a 40% return rate of women who do the program at least twice.

I have a lot who’ve done it three or four times, and that also speaks volumes and it. It just is absolutely mind blowing that they want to continue to be in my sphere and work with me and take things to the next level, and that I get to see them and support them in such a, in such a beautiful way.

Jillian: What do you feel like is the thing that makes them do it again?

Because that’s a little bit crazy to me. It’s not in a, not in a bad way, but in a shocking way. Yeah. If you invest in a program and get through the end, typically, I know for myself, I’m like, whew, I don’t have to pay for it for a little while. Right. And of course, if it was a good program, you think about like staying involved in some way, but doing the same program again.

Tell me what you feel like that is.

Sabrina: So the way the program is taught is, and this goes against everything in like become an educator, rules creative program rules, I do not have a very specific program promise of this is what you will learn. And so the way it is built is, and I tell this to women over and over again, my, this is something my, my therapist says, you never step in the same river twice.

So what you take away from our talks and the lessons and everything changes every single run because of the season of life you are in, because things are different. It’s like watching the same movie over and over again. You pick up stuff, you’re like, oh my God, I never noticed that before. I never saw that part before.

Right? Your transformation may not be as mind blowing as it was the first time. But you still are optimizing and things are getting better. And so that’s how the program is laid out. The topics are general enough that every time we have a discussion, every group we have a discussion with, it’s different because of the season of life you’re in, what’s going on in the world, and also the women contributing to the conversation, right?

Everybody’s bringing different stuff to the table. And then the other things that are different. I have different guest speakers each run, um, and I plan those based on what’s happening in the industry in real time. So what do women need right now? So the guest speakers change, and then we also read personal development books together and have a, a book club as part of our program.

And those change every time. So there’s enough unique aspects of each run, not to mention the retreats in a different location. People kind of go crazy over where’s the next retreat, you know? Um, so that’s a little part of it too. And then a really unique part of the program is that every single participant gets one-to-one Voxer access to me on a weekly basis.

And obviously what we’re talking about on Voxer is totally unique to what’s happening in real time, in their mind, in their family, in their heart, in their business, whatever. Um, and so there’s enough things that change or morph that people. Keep coming back.

Jillian: I think that is genius. Creating a program that can.

Really adapt and evolve with where people are. Do you do them back to back where people are like joining and then they just continue?

Sabrina: Yeah. So up until this year, yes. Um, I would always have, um, a group that did January to May and then a group that did July to October. And so yes, people would finish the one and immediately enroll in the next, so they like wouldn’t get off the train.

However, in 2025 for the first time ever, I only ran a spring run and I’m not doing a fall run. And so from the business perspective. Time will tell if how that’s gonna go, uh, because I don’t have that immediacy in re-enrolling.

Mm-hmm.

Sabrina: Uh, and so will these women come back next year? I don’t know. We will see.

We will see what happens, but personally, I knew that I couldn’t. I couldn’t, I did not want to be managing a group in the fall when I have a rising senior. She plays a fall sport. I want to be fully available for her last homecoming, all of her last games, all of the things. And I knew that that meant stepping back from something.

And so I decided to set the fall run of the program down this year. It, it may come back in the future. I’m not sure.

Jillian: TBDI love that you made that decision for yourself. Because that was, regardless of what it looks like on the other end for people coming back, or it might change your numbers a little bit, but you’re also making the dec, the decision to choose your family and not stare at those numbers.

And I bet it’ll be hard, like even, because even if. It looks different next year or it looks different and it will look different this year. And how that feels in terms of like you are saying no to something. So the numbers may change. And how, I know for myself, I really struggle with the numbers reflecting how I feel about myself in business, reflecting how I feel about the worthiness.

And listen, me and the Lord have a whole conversation about it daily.

Sabrina: Yeah.

Jillian: But it’s something that, you know. When you, when you have that somewhere burned inside of you, that questioning if you’re enough. Little moments like that, like really kind of pick at that scab. Yeah. And so I just find so much admiration for you making that decision for yourself because that was the right decision for you.

Yeah. And I wanna know, like as you, as your kids get older, as your family like dynamic evolves and you’ve gotten new things popping up, like your daughter’s a rising senior, you, she’s gonna have different activities. What is that conversation that you have with yourself? Take us through inside of your brain of like, is it an easy decision for you or is it a hard one, and why is it hard or why is it easy?

Sabrina: I will say this season of having high schoolers is so unexpected. In many ways I love it. So anybody listening when you’ve got littles and you’re like scared to have teenagers, it’s awesome. Okay. It’s really, really fun. But it is busier than any other season because of how involved they are and how much they have going on and all of that.

It’s a different animal. And obviously I’ve never had a senior before. I don’t. All I know is what I’ve heard from my friends, you know, that have gone before me. And emotionally though, I know that I’m going to be an absolute wreck. My daughter currently at time of recording is working at a summer camp, and this is the first time she’s ever done this.

She’s already been gone for almost three weeks. She’s got another week left, so a full month away from home. She flew on an airplane by herself for the first time to get out there and saying goodbye to her at the airport. I mean, you would’ve thought somebody died, like, and I literally cried for 12 hours.

I couldn’t stop. I was just so emotional about her being gone and her being out in the world. And is she okay? And, and we only get to talk once a week ’cause they don’t have their phones. And there was just so much unknown. And then it also opened up the wound of like, and then she’s gonna leave for college.

You know, this whole thing. Yeah. And that told me, I was like, oh man, if I’m this much of a mess and she’s just going to summer camp, like buckle up for her senior year because the, the last of everything is just, I’m gonna be a wreck. And so I don’t know what it looks like. I don’t know what it’s gonna feel like.

I’m making my best guess and I’m trying to set myself up for success, but honestly, last summer, so a year ago when I was thinking through, I was on vacation. We go to Colorado every summer and because I’m fully rested, we’re gone for two weeks. I often have like the ideas, right? Because that’s when ideas come and thoughts come and, um, when we’re fully rested and, and relaxed.

And it just, I had this intuition of like, huh, currently I was like mapping out what the open like card open and enrollment was gonna be for the next run of the program in early 2025. Generally, I’m thinking a year ahead. So I’m like, okay, the next one’s gonna be this, and then the next one’s gonna be this.

And I kind of have an idea of what’s happening. But I had this intuitive hit that just like, it was like a lightning bolt that was like, are you sure you should do two next year? And I immediately was like, well, I mean, why not? That’s almost a six figure launch. Like, what are you talking about? Not doing it twice?

I just kind of sat with it. The more I thought about what could it look like if I didn’t, that’s when I, my brain started to fill in, well, you’ll be more available for your family and your daughter in senior year, number one. Number two, maybe there’s something else that you’re creating space for, um, that if you do two runs of the program, your capacity, there is no space for anything.

And I sat with that and I talked with my coach about it and. When I made the decision, it felt immediately right, like there was no, Ooh, am I on the fence? Should I throw together another run of the program real quick? That never happened, and at time of recording right now, I just wrapped. The early group, and so now I’m heading into the part of the year where I would normally be preparing for the next group, and I don’t have that, and I have a ton more capacity on my calendar, which if we’re being honest, makes me a little uncomfortable because that’s not normal for me.

But I still am a hundred percent confident that it was the right decision. And I think it’s gonna be a both and situation where yes, I have more time to be available to my daughter, but also I think there’s something else that’s gonna be birthed in this time. And I will say the faithfulness of God as far as like making up income, I have onboarded three new one-to-one clients in the last two weeks.

They’re gonna be with me through the end of the year, and that makes up a huge chunk of income that I wouldn’t have had, and I also wouldn’t have had the capacity to serve them in addition to all the other things. It’s pretty cool to see it slowly unfolding.

Jillian: Thank you for sharing that. You’re uncomfortable.

About this season. I appreciate that a lot. Yeah, and I’m sure everyone listening appreciates that too because like I hear your story, I hear where you’ve started and, and parts of evolve, all the whole journey up to this point. It’s impressive. Sabrina, you’re impressive to me, and I’m sure everyone listening to this is like, oh, I like, what a cool story.

I can’t wait to be where Sabrina is someday. I also just have so much respect and. Gratitude when people who have achieved so much and who are doing really impressive things are like, I’m really uncomfortable about this, but discomfort and peace can coexist.

Sabrina: Exactly.

Jillian: And like I love that. I’m feeling your peace about it.

Sabrina: Yeah. But

Jillian: I also appreciate that you’re like also uncomfortable. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think that’s a really powerful thing. I wanna know, what do you think God is trying to tell you about this season? Like what do you, ’cause I think that we all, we nev, none of us ever know what he’s up to. Right. Yeah. We can speculate, but what are you speculating that God is potentially teaching you in this season?

Sabrina: Yeah, there’s definitely a huge level of trust in that it’s all going to work out and that we will be taken care of and. Again, in a really big way because financially this was a huge risk on paper. It makes absolutely no sense. So before I made that decision to set a second run of the program down, I had been called to make a decision to let go of two other things earlier last year, and those gave me almost immediate.

Like, I immediately was hit with, oh, here’s why this is happening. Or kind of a, a reward of like, oh, you followed through and here’s the, I was able to see do the other side of the decision much quicker for both of those things. And so it gave me the boost of confidence to make this even bigger. Decision, this bigger leap of faith.

Um, because as business owners, when things are working and we’re enjoying them, it’s not like I wasn’t enjoying this. It’s my favorite thing I do, I was enjoying it and it was working really well. To set it down does not make any sense. And so I think the level of trust of not only financially will we be taken care of because I am in a household where my income matters and I’m not in one of those places where it’s just fun, extra money.

We pay bills off of my income, so. Also the trust that something is coming, whether it’s me realizing I want more time with my family and I need to pull back from things, maybe that’s gonna be the lesson. Or maybe it’s something bigger is ready to be birthed and I need the time and the space to make it happen, even though I don’t know what it is.

So I just, I really think it’s a trust and it, like I said, I am. There are days where I’m more uncomfortable than others. And I really thrive off of routine. I love planning. I’m like a planning freak. I love to have my whole year plan out. And when I look at the second half of this year, and it’s a whole lot of nothing, I’m kind of like, oh man, you know, it makes me really uncomfortable, and this is something that I’m talking about with my therapist.

This is something I’m talking about with my coach. I have a lot of support to work through this, but I still trust that I made the right decision. And it’s a really cool feeling to be able to sit in that trust and it’s kind of like I’ve gotten on the ride and I don’t know where it’s going, but I’m like, okay, this is gonna be amazing.

Can’t wait to see what happens.

Jillian: I think I’m personally in a season where it’s like a, I think that my challenges are trusting myself. Trusting my gut. Mm-hmm. And trusting God. Mm-hmm. And like, figuring out like the two work together, I think, because obviously like the spirit lives within us and, but it feels, it’s so hard to articulate like how those two come together and how.

All of these decisions that don’t make sense on paper are going to be fruitful on the other side. And, and the people that you like, your therapist and your coach and your husband, and like the people that you trust to guide you through seasons like this. Where do you feel like, how do you feel like all of that pieces together?

I don’t know if that, that question makes sense, but I think what I’m, what I want, what I want. To share with us is where do they all meet together? Yeah. In what moments do you feel like, do you feel like they all piece together cohesively or is there ever something from one of them where you’re like, that’s not matching up with the other?

Does that make sense? Yeah.

Sabrina: Uh, my, my lineup of support will say is very cohesive. My husband, now that we’ve been, you know, married for 20 years together for 25, he. Follows my lead in a lot of these big intuitive decisions because he’s seen it work out time and time again. Hmm. Um, we have had big decisions in our marriage, um, in our family, uh, with business and various things in all the years, and some of them do feel like they’re out of left field.

And I have to, I’ll get the hit and I have to kind of tell him why I’m thinking this and how it’s happening in my brain. And, uh, he eventually is like, okay, let, let, let’s do it. And it works out. And so I think he’s seen it happen enough times now that he’s just kind of like, okay, I can’t wait to see what happens.

You know, it’s not, there’s not really any pushback. My therapist, we really work through, for me personally, being busy is a coping mechanism from my childhood. Mm-hmm. And so she’s constantly reminding me that I am safe. I am safe in my life, in my home, in my family, in my relationships. I don’t have to be busy to be safe.

So that’s how we’re working through the discomfort part of an empty calendar, not an empty calendar. A fairly wide open calendar. Okay. Right, but empty in comparison probably to what used to. Oh, vastly, yes. Yes. And then my coach is. She’s a brilliant businesswoman, um, who’s years ahead of me in her, her knowledge and her ability, which is why I hired her.

But she’s also an extremely intuitive coach, and so she’s really great at. You know, when I, when I first brought her this thought of like, I’m kind of considering not doing the mastermind twice, she was really good at asking me thoughtful questions to get me thinking in different ways about, well, what could it look like and why are we thinking this?

And, and so she really supported my own decision through it. And that’s the key is supported my decision, not putting her own business mind into it. Right? She wasn’t inserting herself into the situation. She was helping me. Come to the place that I needed to come to, to make a decision. So it’s been really cool.

And as a business coach, she definitely, we have definitely talked about. Okay, well. Can we come up with ways to make up that money that makes sense, um, that feel like they fit in this season, that feel like they will work, but also still allow all that time and space and ease in the second half of the year that I am being called to.

Um, and so we’ve worked through some of those things and done some things earlier in the year. And again, we really brought on some additional one-to-one clients. And so it’s been, it’s been really great. So the three of them are a really cohesive fit because. Um, they’re bringing something different to the table, but it oddly is always we’re all coming to the same conclusion.

Jillian: Yeah. And you have the same goal, so may I speak to what I’m seeing? Sure. Okay. I, first of all, I love to listen to people talk about where they’re at and where their head’s at, where their head, heart, and purpose and success all meet and. I just from a spectator in this conversation, just solely in this conversation, I see that God has pieced together this team of people who are all sitting in, sitting in the seat that they need to sit in, in their own lives so that they can support you in this season.

And I think that that’s a really powerful thing. It sounds really simple. It sounds like people are like, you know, when everyone in a business is doing their job the way that they’re supposed to do it, right? And their role, like it’s, it’s amazing how much that doesn’t exist, right? But when it does exist, it creates this.

Harmony between all of them. And it really allows each person to sit where they’re supposed to sit and do what they’re supposed to do and own what they’re supposed to own. And I see, I see that and I feel that in what you’re sharing with me. Yeah. Um, not all business coaches will actually coach.

Unfortunately, not all therapists will actually guide you down the right path. Right. Um, not all husbands will trust your lead. And I feel like. What a beautiful thing when all these things kind of come together. And so I, I so appreciate your vulnerability and sharing all of that for hanging in there and my processing of your story to ask the questions.

And I think, I think that it just speaks a lot of who you are as a person, but who you are as a business owner and the season that you’re in. And so I, I so appreciate you sharing all the things that you have. I wanna know, and I want our listeners to know where you’re giving yourself grace in this season.

Because while you’re in something new, you’re like charting new territory for yourself. You’re less, it’s less about building and more about refining where you are and pulling back a little bit and sitting in a new season for you. I wanna know where you’re giving yourself grace in business and life. So for

Sabrina: me, if, if the listener hasn’t picked up on this yet, I am a doer.

I’m a doer. I like to be busy. I like to have things going. I like to be good at stuff. I’m an Enneagram three textbook all the way, and I am in a season of not picking things up, but setting things down. And it’s been this way for the past six months. And now that we’re heading into this. Area where I have all this time, my brain tends to say, well, I could create this and I could do this, and let’s throw this out there and let’s add this.

Like literally just yesterday, I sent a Voxer to my coach and said, I know I’m not hosting a retreat this fall, but I really feel like I should be. I mean, it was coming up for me again that like, am I sure that I shouldn’t be doing this? And so I’m really pushing a lot of things to a parking lot. I’m letting myself ideate.

I’m letting myself talk through things. I’m letting things bubble up, and then I’m putting everything in a parking lot and waiting until I have that intuitive inspiration of this is the thing, it’s time to go, and maybe that thing’s not going to come. Um, so I’m, I’m giving myself grace to. Kind of react in an opposite way than I normally should.

Again, it’s uncomfortable to do that, but I know that’s what I’m supposed to be doing right now. And similar to that, in a, in a more day-to-day perspective. At time of recording, we are in our third week of summer. It’s going okay. Um, it’s going okay, but I am really just leaning into the fact that. It doesn’t have to get done.

I’m not in the business of emergencies. Nothing I do for the very most part. Every once in a while I’ll have a coaching client who reaches out and they’re like, oh, I have a quick question I need an answer to. Other than that, I, I don’t deal in emergencies. Everything can wait. Everything can get pushed to tomorrow, to next week, and I’m supposed to have shorter days and slower days in the summer so that I can swim with my kids and.

Go to the movies and sleep in or take longer walks. And so I’m really allowing myself to fall into that ease of every day’s not gonna look the same. It’s not a routine. And so it’s literally like a daily pep talk almost of it’s okay, this is fine. This is what ease is. This is the beauty of entrepreneurship.

This is the beauty of the life I’ve built. If I don’t get my stuff done today and it gets pushed to tomorrow, it’s not a big deal. I don’t deal in emergency. So there’s a lot of. Actual grace for myself with my to-do list in the summer.

Jillian: I’m gonna ask a more poignant question. Where are you giving yourself grace in the financial changes that your business is having?

Sabrina: Yeah, so I am literally, this is where my bookkeeper is, comes in clutch. She is an amazing woman. Shout out to Kelly Marshall. Um, and we do profit first. So that’s the way I run my business, which I love, and that gives you so much freedom and comfort. Um, but she is also an, uh, a very talented money mindset coach, and she’s also really big into intuition.

And so we make decisions based on paper and what we can see in data, but also trusting that what is bubbling up is, is right and that things are gonna work out. And so she has been super supportive in, well, let’s look at the numbers. What is gonna happen when this revenue falls off? And what’s gonna happen if we put this in instead, or this other thing, or what if we let nothing come in and actually looking at the data of when do I need to make adjustments to different allocations in profit first to support things so I can continue to take a paycheck.

But also the intuitive part of, well, we don’t a hundred percent know yet, but so far you look okay on paper. So far it’s looking good. We don’t have any reason to panic, so we’re not, and so having her support because she’s in my numbers and in the business telling me, you may feel uncomfortable, but you don’t need to, we’re fine.

Here, has been huge.

Jillian: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. I really appreciate. I always like to know where people are humbling themselves and giving themselves grace in their business because it’s. It’s really important I think, for us to realize that even it doesn’t matter where we all are in the season.

We’re all trying to give ourselves grace in so many different ways, and we have to. I believe that that’s the foundation of being able to continue to build and stay in business because if we’re not giving ourselves grace, then we’re putting, like, the opposite of that is putting pressure on ourselves to do more, be more whatever.

Fill in the blank. And that’s, that’s where things crumble. That’s where things, that’s where we wake up in the morning and we’re like, we can’t do this anymore. Right? So Grace is the absolute foundation of being able to continue to show up. So I so appreciate you sharing all of that, being vulnerable about your story, sharing where you started, where you are today, and if you could just share with the listeners where people can connect with you, because I’m sure everyone at this point is a Sabrina fan and we’re gonna wanna follow along on your journey.

So tell everybody where they can find you.

Sabrina: Yeah, come find me on Instagram, Sabrina g Hart Photography. It’s a mouthful. I’m sure you’ll have it in the show notes. Um, I’m over there. I’m one of those weirdos. I still really enjoy my community over there. I’m having fun. It’s a fun space for me. Um, if you send me a dm, I will probably voice DM you back because I love to just have conversations, but come find me there.

Jillian: Perfect. Well, thank you so much for sharing everything. It’s been a pleasure having you and I hope we’ll get to chat again soon.

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.

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