179: Everything Is New and Here’s Why: The Story Behind the Rebrand

 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 straight podcast, my friends. Today’s episode feels. Pretty personal. If you are listening to this on the day it goes live, you may notice something different. My website looks different, the podcast looks different. My brand looks different. Maybe even some of the things I’m gonna say will feel a little bit different too.

But I wanna be really, really clear about something before I get any further into this episode. This episode is not about design. It’s not about colors or fonts or aesthetic, it’s about why everything changed and why this rebrand did not happen overnight. My friend. I wanted to record this episode first before anything else so that you can hear the backstory, not the highlight reel, but what really went on that prompted this rebrand and what happened in the process.

So the truth is that from the outside, everything was working. My business before this rebrand was very, very solid. I had offers that were selling and do doing very, very well. I had a lot of repeat clients. I had brand recognition. My brand made sense, but internally, something had started to feel a little bit off, and it felt like the brand that was working was great and all, but it didn’t feel like me anymore.

You know what I mean? I’m sure that if you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you know that in the last decade my identities, so to speak, have changed and grown. I have several identities as a photographer, as a coach, as a mentor, as a mom, as a leader, as a speaker, and I was feeling kind of stretched between all of those versions of myself.

And if we’re being really, really honest. The truth is that my brand was old. It was like eight years old, and honestly, if I did the math and really went back, I think it’s closer to 10, it was really, really old. I loved that brand for so long. I grew my business exponentially with it. I started my coaching business with it.

I had incredible impact and growth with it. My old brand was unique and it worked for a really long time. People knew me and my brand. They were synonymous. The colors, the brightness, the fun, the femininity. I had a call with my coach last summer and in that discussion it kind of hit me. I had outgrown my brand without even realizing it.

Honestly, I realized that I outgrew it, but I had absolutely no idea what came next. I wanna be very clear here that this realization that I had outgrown my brand was extremely uncomfortable for me. There’s a very specific discomfort that comes from realizing your brand hasn’t caught up to who you are and who you’ve become.

Maybe that doesn’t resonate with you because you’ve only been in business for a few years, but put yourself in my shoes. I’ve been in business for 15 years this month. In the first few years of my business, I did think that a brand was just colors and fonts and a logo. I changed my quote unquote brand, I don’t know, five times in the first three or four years, just as the wind blew.

As trends changed, as I saw something prettier, that was fine, you know, for a beginner. But when I really got serious, the brand that I just left behind is, is was the next phase for me. And it was the first time I had hired somebody to get to know me. What was important to me and who my ideal clients were and design a brand with intention.

When that brand was born, I was obsessed with her. I was obsessed with her. She was so aligned with me and my personality and what I loved, and again, she took me through. Starting to speak as a speaker. She took me through starting this podcast. She took me through the beginning of my mastermind and coaching, and so many really expansive, beautiful things this old brand took me through, and I was so aligned and so happy with her that I no longer felt the need to constantly change my brand because I was obsessed and it was so perfect.

So I put on that brand as an identity because they were one and the same. And so last summer when I came to this realization that, that I had outgrown my brand, I became very, very uncomfortable because I didn’t know what that meant for me. Nothing was wrong per se. My brand wasn’t broken, but it just wasn’t true to me anymore.

A lot of time had passed. Since that brand was created, a lot of changes had happened to my business and my life. Not to mention I’ve just gotten older, my tastes have changed. You know, we morph and my brand was still sitting back. She hadn’t come along with me. Here’s what I wrestled with in this process, and I don’t think we talk about this part enough.

I had built this brand. And it had carried me so long and it felt like a part of me, right? It was an identity that I wore and that I was aligned with. It felt like a part of me, and all of a sudden it just didn’t resonate with me anymore. I agreed with that statement, but also I felt really guilty because I had built something lasting and real, and I had so much gratitude for where it had taken me, but I also felt extremely untethered.

I almost felt a grief about it. I was sad to let it go. And also uncertain about what came next. If that wasn’t my brand anymore, who was I? So then what? I had made this decision to pur pursue something new, but I didn’t know what, I was confused, and this is why I hired experts to help me through the process.

And as a bonus to celebrate this week, you will be hearing from several of them in bonus episodes. One thing I’ve learned is that clarity doesn’t come from the chaos. It comes after integration. That means that I made the decision to move forward without knowing where I was going. And if you’ve been a listener of this podcast for a while, you, you probably know that about me, that I trust my instinct and my intuition, and I move when that happens.

And this is another perfect example of that. I did not know where I was going, but I knew I needed to go somewhere. I knew that with the team that I hired, we would figure it out together, and I just had to trust the process. So it started with a consultation call. Before even hiring my designer, I needed to have someone else sit with me in this space and in these feelings to know if I even made sense.

And she saw me, she heard me, she validated me, and it was everything I needed. And that’s when it happened. That’s when I officially gave myself permission to let my brand mature. Let’s talk about what’s actually new and what isn’t new about my brand. What is new, the language I’m using, the messaging, the positioning, the clarity I have and the elevation.

Everything feels cleaner, more intentional, more honest, and I keep telling people, it’s like my old brand grew up. What has stayed the same? My values are exactly the same. My heart for women and seeing women succeed is exactly the same. My lived experience and the eyes in which I coach through is the same, and my style of leadership is also the same.

It’s not changing. I’m not changing who I am as a coach, who I am as a leader, what I value. My brand just grew up. She finally caught up with who I am. This isn’t a departure from who I am, it’s just a realignment to who I am today, not who I was a decade ago. So if you’re listening to this and you’re thinking, my business looks fine, but something feels off, I want you to hear this.

That feeling is not failure. It’s information. It’s information. And it should be perking your ears up, that it’s time to listen and it’s time to sit in what that could mean. Outgrowing a brand is a sign of growth. It’s a good thing. It means you’ve been in business long enough to figure stuff out and to get even more clear on what you want and who you are and who you serve.

It’s a sign that you’ve grown up and it’s time for your brand to grow with you. And the other thing I want you to hear is that you are allowed to evolve publicly. It’s not gonna be comfortable. It’s definitely not gonna be clean. It’s gonna be messy, but you’re allowed to do it. You don’t have to just rip the bandaid off and say, surprise, here it is.

Which may feel like what I’m doing to you if you’re listening to this today, but now that this rebrand is live, if you go back and you listen to episodes from before the holidays and you go back and you peek at social media and things I posted and what I’ve been talking about, it actually hasn’t been a secret.

I may not have said the words exactly. Hey, I have a new rebrand and it’s gonna be announced on this day, but I’ve been talking about changes in my business, things that we’re working on. I’ve been using new language. A lot of the messaging that is a part of my new brand I’ve been using already. I’ve been sneaking and and dripping things out, right?

And so I’ve been slowly evolving publicly and it has felt very messy to be in the metal. Okay. The other thing I want you to know is you don’t actually have to burn everything down, but you do need to be honest with yourself what could be next for you. And if you’re like, I was like you and I know something’s off, but I don’t know what, I cannot emphasize this enough.

Reach out to an expert. They can help you see what you’re too close to see, and they can help you untangle things. We are so close to our brands and to our business. We can’t see beyond what’s right in front of our face, but we’re too close to things and that’s where you need an expert who is looking from the outside in.

They have clarity. They can see crystal clear exactly what, what we can’t let them do their job, let them pull you out and help support you through the process. Over these next few episodes, I’m gonna be sharing conversations with the women who helped bring this to life. My strategist, my designer, but I wanted you to hear from me first.

So thank you for being here. Thank you for growing with me, and if this episode stirred something in you, I want you to pay attention to that. One more thing before we wrap up. If you’ve been listening and. You are in a position where in this year you wanna make more money, but your business feels you’re just tired.

You don’t wanna burn yourself out, you don’t want to hustle, you don’t wanna work super hard and you feel frustrated. I have something that I made for you. It’s called the More money, less Burnout, and it is a 14 day business reset and it’s completely free. Each day you’ll get a short audio. They’re all under three minutes.

With one tiny coaching shift to help you create more income, better boundaries, and honestly a little bit of breathing room in your business. This is not homework heavy, it’s not huy. You can do it at your own pace, and you can grab that now at sabrina gab hart.com/business-reset. I’ll also link it in the show notes for you if that’s easier.

That’s it for today, my friends. We’ll see you tomorrow as we start the week of bonus episodes to celebrate this fun, exciting, new change in my business. We’ll see you then. 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@sabrinagephart.com slash podcast.

Come find me and connect over on the gram. At Sabrina Gab Hart 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.