183: Q1 2026 Business Bestie Chat with Colie James

Sabrina: On today’s episode of the Shoot It Straight podcast, we’ve got another quarterly business bestie chat with Coley James. If you have been listening for a while, you will remember that for two years, that episode was always hosted here on Shoot It Straight. Well, we’ve moved it over to Coley’s podcast, the Business First Creatives, but we are still bringing you the episodes over here because they are just that good.

Today we are talking about all the things that we are looking forward to in 2026, and honestly, it’s a really, really fun episode. So let’s dive in.

Welcome to Shoot It Straight, the podcast for women building businesses and lives. They actually want. I’m Sabrina Ebhart, and around here we believe in clarity over hustle, alignment over burnout, and giving yourself permission to want more, more ease, more beauty, more income, more space to live. So if you are ready to grow without losing yourself in the process, you’re in the right place.

Colie: Hello? Hello y’all. Welcome back. Sabrina and I are here for our Q1 of 2026 Biz Bestie Chat. You know, back by demand, I think between the two of us. So many of you tell us that this is your absolute favorite podcast episode that either one of us does, and so we are happy to bring it back to you for another quarter, another year.

Hello my friend. How are you?

Sabrina: Hi. Uh, I’m great. I’m excited for this chat. I feel like I’ve lived a whole damn life since our last one, so I feel like we may have a lot to

Colie: talk about. And for context, it hasn’t even been that long since I’ve seen Sabrina. Guys. I was with her in Palm Springs just last week, and when this airs, that would have just been a few weeks ago.

But we were sad ’cause we didn’t actually take a photo together. So I feel like we’re never gonna do this again. We’re gonna be together again very soon and I will make sure that we take photographic proof that we were in fact at the same place at the same time.

Sabrina: Yes, I know. I was very sad about that. I do have photos of you from our, our group dinner, but mm-hmm.

Not you and I together, which is a bummer. So yes. Just us,

Colie: which,

Sabrina: yeah.

Colie: I mean, next time we should have Kelly or someone like that be like, no, like get your big girl camera and take a real picture of us. Yeah. Because I feel like we should probably have, oh my gosh, Sabrina. Okay. Next time we’re together, we should get a nice photo so that when we do these biz bestie chats.

Yes, we should. The podcast. Oh my gosh, yes. Okay. So who would be listening to this? Natasha, um, Kelly, one of you, Kelly and Natasha.

Sabrina: One of you. One of them. One of you will take a picture of us girls, some one of y’all’s taking a photo. Bring your camera.

Colie: So guys, in case you are new and you haven’t heard a biz bestie chat yet, this is how these roll.

Every quarter Sabrina and I get together and we are basically bringing a conversation that we would probably have in Voxer. To the podcast for you guys. What we do is we look backwards at the previous quarter to look at what our goals were. We’re gonna give you guys an update on what we said we were gonna do, did we do the damn thing?

And then we’re gonna tell you what we are planning for this current quarter so that you can hold us accountable in the next episode.

Sabrina: I love it and it’s the simplest format and it’s so fun. And this is, this is our third year, right? Like we’re starting year three of these? Yes. We’re in three. Yes. I mean, look at us.

Go This. So proud of us. I’m episode nine,

Colie: if

Sabrina: we’re Count.

Colie: Yeah. Amazing. This is nine and we are currently in our third year of this. I mean, yeah, eventually we’re probably gonna do something more with this guys, but right now you’re just getting it, you know, quarterly. And that’s enough. All right, so I’m gonna kick off since I am technically hosting this.

That’s the other thing. Sabrina hosted it for like the first almost two years and now I’m doing the hosting. So I do most of the talking and like the steering us. And so I hope you like my voice guys. So for Sabrina Girl. In Q4, you said that your goals were your big migration, which at the time that this episode airs, everything will be live.

Everything is fabulous. Everybody should go check out your new website. So let’s start there. What is the update, other than it all being done by the time this airs for your big rebrand?

Sabrina: I feel like I lived, like I said, I feel like I’ve lived a whole life since the last time we talked because doing a big rebrand and a migration had been, it was like a six month project, but.

It’s kind of like slow at first. So while it took six months, like the bulk of it was in Q4, you know? Mm-hmm. Like the changing all the fonts everywhere, changing all the colors everywhere. Having photo sessions to represent the new brand, building the new website, double checking the new site. Getting everything rebranded inside of thrivecart to match, which that may still not be done by the time this episode is live because there are so many things, right?

Like I’ve changed the things that I can change globally, but now I need to go in and actually have all of the freebies rebranded so that the mockups can be rebranded. I mean, it’s like. It’s if you give a mouse a cookie, it’s a million steps behind every single step. And you don’t realize all the steps until you’re in it and you’re like, oh shoot, I gotta go back and do this other thing.

Oh, and then I gotta do this other thing and then I gotta do this other thing. So we are 90% there. We are enough, like you said, the site is live. I am fully in in thrivecart. I have paused my membership with Kartra. I’m feeling so much relief. To be mostly on the other side, but there are still like little details and things that need to happen.

But overall, I am so thrilled with how everything turned out. I’m so happy to be in thrivecart. I am so happy to have one email platform for all of all of the people I’m reaching out to. I’m obsessed with my new website, my rebrand, so everything is great.

Colie: I mean, today is literally when I go, when I went through Sabrina’s new website, guys, and it’s amazing.

I of course sent her notes on all the ways that it was fabulous, and then the tiny little things that I saw, but, and I didn’t express this to her yet, but I think the most interesting part of it for me is I actually own the same template. Now, my website is not done completely with it. A few of my sales pages are.

But like I was literally taking mental notes for myself, like, oh my gosh, I’ve never thought about doing my page like that with this template. I should probably go do that in the next few weeks. So it was really interesting for me in a way that I don’t think it would’ve been if I didn’t personally own the same template that you used for your new.

Sabrina: Yeah, that just goes to show you shout out to show it. Shout out to Tonic. I mean, you can do so many things with templates, you know, and people, some people shy away from like buying a template and I’m like, but why? Mm-hmm. It’s starting. You can, especially with especially a show at template, right? Like.

WordPress, not the same. A show at template. You can absolutely make it whatever you want, and it’s absolutely incredible. So I had a great designer do the 10 most important pages on my site. Mm-hmm. So if you listeners go look at it, the sexiest pages she did, and I did all of the minor ones because when you have a website that’s got 50 pages to it, I mean.

I could not afford to pay her. Yes. To do all 50 pages. So the others are, they’re good enough and eventually they will get made better. But everything matches and it looks great, and there’s so many fun elements to it. And I was telling someone on another podcast that I feel like I was nervous to go through a rebrand because I had been under the same visual brand for so long, and I really did identify with it and love it.

But I outgrew it. I kind of outgrew it without realizing it, but going through the rebrand process. Working with a professional, helping me through that process as we got to the new brand and as we were building the new site. I realized it felt like coming home to something like, it felt like landing. Of course, this is where I landed.

It feels so aligned with my personality and me and where I’m taking my business and the women I serve. And it’s just, it’s, she’s just so fun.

Colie: I totally agree and I feel like I was just like you. I remember sitting at dinner and you telling me, Hey, I’m doing a rebrand. And I’m pretty sure I said, what the fuck do you mean a rebrand?

Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what I said. Yeah. And you know, now that everything is done, even when you told me your colors, you know, I could tell you now, I was a little side eyed. I was like, wait, what? You’re, because I really do associate you because the colors that you had before. We’re really aligned with you, but now that I’ve seen the entire rebrand, I do feel like the colors are really aligned with your business.

Yeah. And so I do see that as a little different. I mean, yes, you fit in with your business, don’t get me wrong. Yeah. But I feel like your last brand. Personally felt very aligned for me seeing you. Yeah. But this one is like, no, this is her elevated brand. Yeah. This is where Sabrina’s gonna be going for the next five, 10 years.

So

Sabrina: yeah, it was really like, again, I felt aligned with my old brand, but I, I grew out of it without realizing it, which. Hi. When you live eight to 10 years, of course you grow up and your taste change and things change, you know, and I just hadn’t taken my brand along with me. So it’s, it’s similar to my old brand in that it’s very colorful, it is very bold.

It is very fun. But she just, she grew up, she grew up and got little makeover. So, yeah. I’m, I’m really happy to be on the other side of it though, because it’s a, it’s a slog to go through. Yeah, it really is. Yeah.

Colie: So, speaking of, you know, goals that we had last quarter, uh, I had a goal related to systems in session, which I’m gonna hold off, I’m gonna talk about that in a minute.

But my other major goal for Q4 was to do the fifth anniversary or the fifth birthday launch for Sierra Blueprint, which is the offer that kickstarted my entire system side of my business, which now that is the only side of my business. I was really excited about doing a five-year birthday bash. I, you know, I promoted it.

I think that I did the launch very well, but at the end of the day I was like, I’m done. And I literally channeled my inner Sabrina when a couple biz bestie episodes ago when she finally released her course that we built together inside of Digital Course Academy. And she’s like, I felt like it was a ball and chain, and I just finally cut it off.

I felt the same way. So just in case no one has noticed, the CRM blueprint is no longer an offer that is in my offer ecosystem. I’m going all in on systems in session and then email like you mean it, which I’m gonna give you an update on that in this episode as well. But CRM Blueprint, I am currently fulfilling the three week system support that I offered the people who joined during that birthday Bash.

But at the end of the day, when I am done with those people and this support Sprint is done, CRM Blueprint is done, and I feel fantastic about that.

Sabrina: Gosh, doesn’t it feel so good when you really settle on a place and you’re like, no, this is gonna be great. Not carrying that weight. Like, so one of the things that we talked about with our friend Ami, before I decided to officially set my course down is she’s like, that makes sense to me, but also, are you sure?

’cause I mean, it’s already built and it could be passive. And I’m like, yeah, girl, but I don’t think you understand. Even when something is passive, it’s still, and it’s like the nagging little bug in the back of your mind that’s like, but why aren’t you selling? Or Why aren’t you talking about it? Or Why isn’t it, you know?

And to just be able to be like, no, we’re done here. It is so good. It feels so good to just move on.

Colie: And for me it was admitting that the business coaches were right. So I’m gonna say you guys know that I’ve had quite a few coaches this year, and almost every single one of them, when I would give them my offer ecosystem was like, okay, so wait, CRM, blueprint and Systems in session are the same thing.

And I’m like, they give you the same result. Yes. They’re like, okay, but then they’re competing with each other. And the funny thing is, I don’t think that I had as much of a problem when it was a DIY course, and it was a done for you VIP day. I mean, we’re talking about a thousand dollars versus $5,000.

We’re talking about you doing the whole thing and me doing the whole thing. But now that the done for you is also gone. And I’m focusing on done with you. It was more of a competition between the two than I wanted to admit. And for me, internally, you’re talking about, oh, but it’s passive. But for me it was okay, but like, which one do I talk about?

Right? And like if I’m talking about one, am I guiding people towards one? They were actually a better fit for the other. It’s not even about the money, right? Yeah. It’s just about how I’m talking about the offers on content. And I always felt like, well, if I’m gonna be pushing, no, you can totally DIY it.

Okay. And then I turn around and I say, no, you need my help. Like, right. That just didn’t feel good. It didn’t feel authentic. It, it was competing constantly in my mind. And I feel like the moment I let that course go, I was like. Okay. I love talking about systems in session. My clients are getting amazing results that I never thought was possible, and then everything else just got easier.

And so it’s only been, I mean, not even two months since I did that. Yeah. But I feel like my business and my offers are so much clearer now than they have been in the last few years,

Sabrina: which is such a great feeling that clarity frees up so much bandwidth to ideate and. Market clear. I mean, it just, it’s the, it’s the best feeling.

Mm-hmm. It is the best feeling. So I’m happy for you.

Colie: I guess I’m gonna, I’m gonna kind of talk about email, like you mean it now, because what I’ve done with email, like, you mean it was directly a result of systems in session. So again. For the latter half of 2025, I really focused on done with you, and I did that for myself.

I did that for my own mental health. I did it for my capacity. I am willing to admit that to anybody who asks. But what I didn’t realize was the amazing results that my clients got. That was even so much better than when I built them $5,000 systems and handed them over. Yeah, like every single one of my clients in Systems in session has gotten to the end because we technically are only doing one of your offers, whatever you consider to be your signature offer, and then you take what we do.

You duplicate it, you customize it, you do all the things to do your second offer, your third offer. Mm-hmm. However many you have. But my clients were able to take what we did, and some of them did an entire new offer. I mean, one person was two hours. She’s like, oh no, Coley. Before our call today, it took me two hours to take everything that we did for families, duplicate it, change the proposal, rewrite the emails, amazing, do the workflows, and now it’s all ready for you to review.

And I was like, amazing. But like seriously, like Like literally two hours. Yeah. She’s like, no, I timed it for you. I’m like, these are my people. They know me. Yes. Yes. But them getting these client results has pushed me to change email. Like you mean it So email like You mean It is a client communication course that I created in June of last year, and I did it because what I realized through helping people set up their own systems was people have a problem communicating with their clients.

Yes. You may have a broken workflow, but you guys are just automating really crappy emails, and so you’re not booking people because your workflows are broken, but also because you’re not really enticing them to book with you in the first place. You’re not letting client communication do the job that it could do.

And so I sold the course in June 18 slots, and then I sold a handful more, and then I didn’t sell anymore. The passive aspect in quotes, uh, wasn’t working. Yeah. Then I did a challenge where I did a three day client communication challenge, and then I sold a couple. But what everybody kept on saying was, oh, Coley, but like, I just wanna do systems in session.

Like, should I still buy email? Like you mean it? Mm-hmm. And I was like, well, no, ’cause I mean, then we’re gonna do your client communication together. And so I was on the verge of getting rid of e email, like you mean it as well. I was like, you know, it’s a course. Maybe people just aren’t buying courses anymore or they’re certainly not buying my courses.

But then I interviewed two of my students from e email, like You mean it? Literally listening to them tell me their wins from redoing their client communication. Mm-hmm. I was like, no. Okay. I can’t quit. Yeah. Like they got such good stuff. Yeah. And these episodes are linked in the show notes if you would like to listen to them, but their results were so amazing.

I was like, no, I have to figure out how to fix this. I took a DIY course and I turned it into a done with you quarterly client communication sprint. So in other words, amazing, you’re still doing the same thing, but I’m gonna hold your hand to make sure that you actually write the emails, because if you do this.

The results that you get and the wins from just updating your emails may delay your need to give yourself assistance. Overhaul for a couple months. Yeah, maybe for a while. And so going into 2026, I have two main offers and both of them are done with you. And let’s just all cross our fingers that Coley holds to her boundaries.

And she doesn’t let burnout come anywhere near her because I feel like I’ve done a complete 180. Yeah, in 2023, I was like, how can I deliver these things more passively? And in 2026 I’m like, no. How can I help you do the things with the accountability that you need? Yeah. So that’s like my big update for 2026.

Sabrina: Yeah, and part of that circles back to a couple of quarters ago when we talked about like our human design and how we were starting to get into that. Part of that is, that’s what feels good to you and your type is like seeing. Them succeed, right? Yes. And so, yeah,

Colie: I love that. And I’m just gonna put a plug out because Sabrina and I actually recorded a podcast episode where we talked about how human design is affecting how each of us runs our businesses.

And that actually went live last week on my podcast, business First Creatives. So if you haven’t listened to that episode. You love just listening to Sabrina and I chat. It’s like one of these biz bestie chats, but like all we talked about was human design and how absolutely obsessed each of us are with it.

So if you didn’t listen to that episode, go back and listen. ’cause it was a good one. The other part that was on your goals was your route to Rise, launch, and now, yeah, route to Rise 2026 is in full swing. So how did that go for you at the end of the year?

Sabrina: This was a very interesting launch, so to catch the listeners back up, route to Rise historically was a program that ran twice a year, and I always launched the next run.

While the first one was wrapping up. So there was always a lot of like, kind of fomo, a lot of buzz people sharing online, which helped me market it, right? And so I was always closing one and starting another. Well, in 2025, I did not have a fall run of the program. So the program wrapped in May. And then I didn’t do anything.

I mean, I did stuff, but I wasn’t running a, I wasn’t running root rise. So the root rise name was not going around, was not being tagged, people weren’t talking about it. So we knew that going into the launch, we being my team of support people, and we created a lot of social media content, a lot of email content.

We reboot the sales page. We did a lot of very intentional work to tee up that launch because we felt like it needed to be woken up a little bit. Since I was not currently running the program, I was so excited about how all of that turned out. And then the actual launch kicked off, and the way that I launched that program is kind of unique.

I launch it in tears. So the first people that get notified are alumni. I have a very high return rate. I have a 40% return rate of people that do the program. Again, they get to find out first. Then my membership group gets to find out and then the wait list and then the public. So it’s this four tier launch and that’s always served me really well.

Like if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. So I just, I did that again, but what happened this time was that as the tiers of launch went, I was not getting the enrollment that I normally got, the alumni enrollment. I think I got like one. The membership enrollment, I think I got like one, so by the time I got to the public last fall, I only had like two or three spots filled.

Mm-hmm. Listeners. I have never gone into public launch with less than 10 seats full. I, it’s just, I was like, huh, this is interesting. And I’m gonna be real honest. I was really nervous. I was like, did I shoot myself in the foot not having a fall run and losing that marketing momentum, do people not want this program anymore?

I mean, I was all kinds of up in my head. And I did some work with my coach, actually a couple different coaches. I was talking to friends. I was like, I need you guys to hype me back up, like what’s happening? And I just continued to put one foot in front in front of the other during the launch, and I continued to show up.

All of my emails had been scheduled. I felt amazingly confident about them. My website, I felt con confident about the social media content had been planned by my brilliant content strategist. So I just had to show up, right? I had to continue to just show up, like things were great. So I did that and I was very intentional with paying attention to who was clicking in the emails, who was clicking in the stories.

I was very hyper aware of like who was doing what, kind of in a stalker situation, and I was getting like a gold star in my social media. I was checking in multiple times a day. I was DMing with people, I was commenting on things. I was just very, very engaged. It started off really, really slow and there was a point where I was like, am I gonna have enough people to be able to run this program?

Like I really was like, maybe the retreat gets canceled. I don’t know. All in all, it ended up going extremely well. It was. The second highest launch I’ve ever had for the program, both in number of students and in revenue. So that’s a huge win, especially coming off of the disaster that 2025 was for a lot of people.

My biggest win, I think was that because, because of the. Attention that we put into the prep for the launch with all of the copy and the social and everything. And the fact that my only job was to show up and to like get a gold star for 10 days on social media. And that was my full-time job. I had more incredible conversations with women than I’ve ever had during any launch, and not all of them converted.

Uh, in fact, probably half of them didn’t convert. You know, a lot of them were like, it’s not the right time, or I need to save, or whatever. And that’s fine ladies, that’s fine. I, I will never push you into something. I loved getting to talk to women because they were asking questions. They wanted to hop on Voxer.

They wanted to voice DM back and forth, and I love that ’cause. I love hearing. Where women are and what they want, and just getting to know people. So it was like 10 days of like really beautiful chats. Mm-hmm. And I, I absolutely loved that. And I had never had a launch that went that way. Most of the time historically, women were like, oh no, I’ve been watching this forever.

I’m ready to join. And they just joined. So this was a very different experience and it ended up being great. But I loved, I loved people reaching out and asking the questions. I don’t know if it’s because buyers were more cautious last year, at the end of 2025, or if it’s the, maybe my emails and my marketing teed up those conversations or what it was, but.

It ended up being really fun. I was nervous at first. It ended up being great and the, and the results were fantastic. So,

Colie: I mean, and I, I wanna just like tee this up because you and I have had this conversation. I do feel like whether it is related to the economy, hesitation in buying a trust recession, whatever the words are that the current people are using.

People are more hesitant to buy, you know, four figure offers. I think that all of us can agree on that, but I think that the thing that you and I talked about is people just need more reassurance and they actually want to like have real conversations because I am like you. I see value in every single sales call, whether you call it a discovery call, a consultation, whatever.

I see value in every single one of those because it usually gives me insight to something that is concerning my audience that I have never experienced, or that is, you know, that that is just not coming across in the conversations that I’m having with my current clients. Mm-hmm. And so one of the things when I told you about the CRM blueprint.

I will never forget this conversation, and I’m gonna say it out loud now. When I told you that I had only sold three spots so far, you told me, well, Coley, I’ve been in the dms. Like, have you been contacted the people who were, you know, clicking and all this? And I said, Sabrina, I do that, but I’m not doing it for CRM Blueprint.

Like if I’m gonna do that, it’s gonna be for systems in session. And I think literally 12 hours later was when I decided, no, this course is done. Yeah. Like I’m not telling people yet. But like, I think that was the moment that I was like, no, Sabrina’s telling me what to do. And I’m sure if I did it, I would’ve had more people enroll like I would’ve.

Yeah. But at the end of the day, I don’t wanna have conversations like, like that to convince you to DIY. It not when I now have all of this evidence for my clients that doing it with them is giving them confidence as business owners. Inside their systems that they’ve never had. And so I am happy about that for you.

And plus, yeah, I mean, I’m gonna say this for the audience ’cause you don’t need to hear this, but. When you’re running a launch, it is to get people to convert in the current launch, yes. But a lot of it is to bring new leads into your business. Yes. Because those are the people that you nurture on your email list, you nurture in your social media content.

They end up first in line to buy. Exactly Next time. And again, I wanna make sure that you guys understand this. I’m not saying that everything is related to buying, but I am saying that a lot of people don’t talk about that aspect. And so, you know, you’re bringing in leads for a launch. The runway of how long someone needs to convert varies a lot.

But in general, in this current climate. A lot of people that are new to your audience are not going to convert in your current launch. They’re gonna convert in your next one or even the one after that if the offer is right for them.

Sabrina: That’s exactly it. And, and. I also want the listeners to hear like this.

Truly, neither of us are saying this from like a sleazy salesperson perspective. ’cause neither of us are that vibe. We are not those people. But genuinely having these conversations with so many women about the program, like I said, probably half of them didn’t convert and that’s great for them.

Absolutely. But you better believe that those women are now watching even closer. They’re seeing the things that are being talked about and they’re reading every email I send and they are deciding if the next one is ready for them, is the right time, you know, and, and ready for them to join. And it may take them longer and that’s okay.

You know, that’s okay because once, once they make that commitment. They’re like, they’re the star students. They’re the ones that are like, I’ve been waiting for this. I am all in. They show up to the calls, they do the work. They, they are ready to go. And, and I love that. So it is, it can be a longer game for some people and you have to believe in your business and your offers enough to be okay with that long game.

Colie: Yeah, and I’ll say like, today, I didn’t even get a chance to tell you my Q1 of systems and session is now sold out. Literally, I sold a spot yesterday. I sold a spot this morning and now it’s done. What I wanna bring up to the audience is yesterday’s buy was a previous client in one of my courses and she bought systems in session.

I had a conversation with her, she said, let me think it over next morning, I woke up to a paid, um, you know, thrive Cart notification. The other person had contacted me over the summer a couple of times, and then she just bought, that’s five months later. Okay. And she bought an audit in between. So she paid me to look at all of her stuff and tell her how to fix it, and then she was like, no, now I’m ready for you to help me fix it.

Right. So everybody’s path, not only to hiring you, but to deciding in general, what is most important for them in this season of business? What needs to be prioritized? Sometimes people just need to have a lot of conversations to get there. Yeah, and we’re currently in Q1. This is when all of the things happen.

Now, I don’t really recommend that any of you run out and do what Sabrina did,

Sabrina: which

Colie: is to do it all at once. ’cause like she said, it takes six months and there are plenty of people that you know do SEO and maybe an A website rebrand or you know, systems, or they get brand photos. Like not many people do the entire thing at once, but.

I do feel like Q1 is when all of us start to feel the itch of, well, I have all these things that I want to redo in my business. What should I tackle first? Mm-hmm. And so I feel like you all need to have conversations with people in those industries, in those specialties so that they can help you decide what is the biggest priority because.

You may think that giving your website an overhaul is the most important thing, and you have a conversation with a website designer that’s, that’s like, no, I mean actually like your website’s really good and they give you, you know, all of these things that kind of give you the confidence and the expertise to know that a different set of tasks is what needs your attention more.

Sabrina: I, I will say, I think all of the good, the good people will do that. They will be okay with turning you away if that’s not actually what you need. Not everybody will do that. That’s true. You know, some people, I assume everybody’s like us, Sabrina. They’re not. They’re not. But I, I will say, I’m gonna believe that the majority are.

I think it’s a always a great idea to talk to the experts and tell them what you’re struggling with and let them give you their outside perspective within their expertise.

Colie: Because sometimes, I mean, and I’m not even gonna say like a lot of us, I will say me myself, like I’m including myself in this. We are too close to our businesses to really see what needs to be changed.

Again, I’m gonna tell you guys like this whole dragging the CRM blueprint around, I mean, I just think I was doing it out of spite. I was like, no, I’m hitting the fifth. Birthday. Like this is the course of launch. We are doing this, launch, all of this. This. What do you mean I should get rid of it? Like, right.

And you know when you have, I will say all of my coaches were phenomenal. And it’s not that they tried to push me to do it, even though in the end, guess what guys? I did that. But they gave me all of the information. They told me why they believe, and then I had to come around to that decision on my own. I think I was more at peace with it because I did it that way, rather than listening to Emily be like, you know, and I think, you know, Emily, if you’re listening, I love you.

She just kept pushing me on the results. Okay, but what’s the result of this offer? Okay, but what’s the result of this offer? Okay, but how do you help somebody decide which one they need? And I had an answer, but it turns out that answer was creating more work for me than it needed to if I just had one offer and I’m like, this is how I can help you.

Yeah. Is this what you need? Alright, let’s come back around to the last thing was you created quite a few tiny offers and new freebies and testing your ads and all of the things. And so how is that going? ’cause it’s an ongoing process of course, but, uh, how’s ads going for you?

Sabrina: Yeah, ads were great. I turned them off at the beginning of November because don’t pay for ads in November, period.

Mm-hmm. Don’t pay for ads in December, period. And then I was gonna turn ’em on in early January and I was like, that makes no sense. I’m about to be rebranded publicly, like all of the ads are gonna need to be rebranded. So I just was like, okay, I gotta get on the other side of that. So the goal is by the end of this month, I will have, I’m gonna turn the same ads on because they did.

Well, I’m just going to rebrand the graphics and the creative to match. But when I ran them in September and October, I ran them to tiny offers for the first time. Historically, I had just been running ads to freebies. I love playing with ads. I think they’re so fun. Ran ads to my first paid offers and they were great.

Brought in paying customers and I was profitable the whole time and, you know, made money. And most people bought, so the way that worked is you ran it to a, a tiny offer and then you inside the offer, they had an option to. Add on something and then also be upsold something after checkout. Mm-hmm. So there was the option for three products actually, and most of them bought at least two of the three, which was really fun.

So I’m absolutely gonna kick the exact same thing back off, just new creative. That’s gonna be the first thing. I do have a lot of plans for ads in 2026 that’s kind of like. My entire strategy, I don’t have it mapped out yet, but in my mind, that’s gonna be a big, big focus for the year because I really want to get into retargeting ads and awareness ads.

I kind of wanna dabble in all the ads at once. I have a really solid organic content strategy because I have a professional that helps me, and she’s a genius at what she does. She’s amazing. Jayden, we love you. She’s amazing. We love you Jaden. She’s amazing. But what I’m realizing is there’s a place for both, and Jayden and I actually talked about this on our call last month where my organic stuff is rocking and rolling.

So when we layer in a paid strategy that supports it, I mean, I’m ready to like pop off in 2026. So it, I’m here for it. I’m gonna watch you from the sidelines and cheer. Okay? And then maybe after every successful ad, I’ll like teach you how to do it and then we can get yours going.

Colie: The funny thing, guys, is that Sabrina thinks that I don’t know how to run ads.

I, I know how to run them. I know how to look at the data. I, you know what? You know what? This is, this is the quarter. ’cause you know, you know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna bring this up to Chelsea, which is the next thing that we’re gonna talk about on this podcast, but I’m gonna bring it up to Chelsea.

We’re gonna, we’re gonna get it in there for Q2. Sabrina, I promise everybody listening heard me, especially now that I feel like my offer, she’s been saying that for like two or three, two quarter. But can I, can I tell you something though? The things that I would’ve run ads to, all of them are gone. Yeah.

And so

Sabrina: that’s one of the things I learned. Last year when I was getting into the tiny offer ads, all of my tiny offers were created for the ads. Mm-hmm. And so it was pulling things out of other stuff. You’ve got the stuff, you just have to slap it together and get it in a format that’s ready for some, you know, 11 22, 30 $3 offer.

The data’s not hard. I think there’s a lot of strategy in the ecosystem of like, what’s leading to what, and then what are you retargeting to, you know? I love that. And what’s, yeah, totally. So like that’s where I wanna put my energy this year is building that ecosystem. ’cause I think that’s gonna be just so fun.

And honestly, I was interested in it before, but I, I really don’t think I was in a place that would’ve made sense before. I think my business is in a place and I have enough offers, at enough levels that actually make sense together now that I think my ecosystem’s gonna be. Pretty amazing.

Colie: Totally agree.

So we need to, we need to get you there. And you know, Sabrina and I have plans together for the rest of 2026, which we will talk about, probably not on this episode, but maybe on the next biz bestie quarterly chat. But I think I just set my new goal of, I’m gonna just ask her about her ads because I, again, guys, I love ecosystems.

I love the numbers, I love the analytics. I mean, the last time that I ran ads was a very long time ago, but I was literally obsessed with the ads. Mm-hmm. And oddly enough, if I’ve never actually said this on the podcast, my best performing ad was actually Sabrina. Me. Do

Sabrina: you, do you know that? No. What do you mean?

When you ran it to the podcast?

Colie: When I ran it to the podcast. I mean, I did all of the things, you know, you do the carousels. I did not know that. You see which one they’re clicking on. What bothered me most? What did we talk about? Uh, that was actually one of your really early episodes. It was, it was your, it was your genius.

It was outsourcing and I think it was not burning, it was avoiding burnout. Okay. Whichever episode that is, I will put it in the show notes. Okay. But there was a clip of you talking about it and your clip. Outperformed everything else that I did and I’m not at me just talking about in click at, I’m talking about yours was the only one.

’cause when you run podcast ads, they are very unique. Mm-hmm. In that when you are running it to, let’s say a tiny offer or even a freebie, the conversions are clear. The conversions can be tracked with a podcast. They actually can’t be tracked. Right, right. Because you could send them to your website, but then you don’t know if they’re listening.

But then if you’re sending ’em directly to like Apple or Spotify mm-hmm. You have no way of knowing. But yours was the only one that I could see for every. Two clicks on yours. There was one download. Wow. And I knew that it was nothing but the ad because at that point, that episode was so old, there was no way that people, no way, were finding it organically.

It just, it wasn’t possible. Versus the other ones like. Some of them were newer. It’s like, well, you know, that could have been that, you know, I had it on this Instagram post or whatever it was. But yeah, Sabrina was my highest performing ad.

Sabrina: I love that I and you saying that, reminding me that you ran them to ads.

I wasn’t planning on doing a podcast ad in my ecosystem, but I totally am now because why not? It’s, I’m literally gonna try them all at, it’s fun. I’m excited. I I’m just excited to try

Colie: them all, so. Oh, you know what I’m gonna tell you ’cause you’re probably smarter at ads than me, and so I just wanna like sprinkle this in.

First of all, initially I forgot in one of my ad sets to limit the audience to like, women, like Yeah. So I actually got a lot of men that were looking at one set of ads, turn that off, fixed it very quickly. But the other thing that I found really fascinating was I didn’t think about the fact that I was sending everyone to an Apple link.

And again, this was years ago. I think people have more common sense than I had back then. I realized that I was sending everybody to Apple, and if you have an Android, like what? So then I went in there and actually said, if you have an Android, you were sent to this one. If you have an Apple, you were sent to this one.

But yeah, I mean, I learned a lot of things when I ran the ads.

Sabrina: I just, yeah. Yeah. I will say a hot tip for you. When you get an ad going to a tiny offer, send them directly to a Thrive Cart checkout page. Mm-hmm. Not a sales page on your show up page. The data’s much better night and day better. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Thrive Cart actually is one-to-one. Conversions. Show it. Show it doesn’t play nice with the Pixel. We love show it, but I love show it play nice. And I’m okay with you not playing with a Pixel. I’m still obsessed with you. But if you ha like build, just build a a checkout page to send ’em directly over there.

Colie: Where are we going in the rest of Q1 in 2026. Sabrina, what are your plans?

Sabrina: Well, I have a new baby and she’s called the first class lounge, and currently she has been free. All of the month of December and all of the month of January, she’s been free. So if you are listening to this on drop day, you can come join us at the first class lounge on Instagram.

It is a free community for women photographers and other business owners, so we are not just limiting it to the photographers. And this has replaced my round table membership, so. I spent a lot of last year mulling over what to do about that membership. That membership turned five and the core, my God, it turned five.

Five. The core women in that group are still the core women in that group, but it had kind of stalled. So stalled meaning, you know, after five years they’d asked all the questions and I’d coached them on all the things, and we weren’t getting a whole lot of new enrollment, and it just kind of like. You know, things need to change.

You need to shift things and mix things up. And I hadn’t done that in a way that made sense. And so I spent a lot of last year trying to figure out how to make it better, make it work. And the first thing I did was early in Q uh, end of Q3, maybe beginning of QI think it was in Q3, I moved it off of Facebook onto Instagram.

’cause I was like, that’s the first step. Everybody hates Facebook. We don’t wanna be there anymore. We’re going onto Instagram where everybody is. Anyways. I continued to just kind of mull over, like what would make this group a, what would make this a better experience, a better vibe, like, where do I wanna take this?

Finally, like had the epiphany of what I wanted to do with it, what I wanted it to look like, and. Kind of when I had that, like all the light bulbs went off and it was just kind of like an immediate download of like, oh my gosh, I know where this is going, and it’s been really, really fun. So I decided to do the group for two months for free to intentionally bring in a lot of new people.

I know intuitively as the leader of the group that. A lot of what we need is fresh blood. Mm-hmm. We need people asking new questions, coming from different perspectives. Women who are not just photographers because, hey, we all have the same problems, systems, marketing, burnout, client experience. I don’t care what industry you’re in, it’s all the same.

And so like, I wanna help you through your stuff and I wanna create a place where we can ask questions. And it’s not the heavy lift of a course, it’s just an Instagram group, you know. So the group now has, every Monday I drop a question box and I am answering coaching questions. Whatever you wanna ask, I will answer it.

And then we also have a couple of Zoom calls a month. Um, we’re still having guest experts pop in. And, uh, we’re doing like a very light virtual book club, like holding each other accountable to read, you know, a book here and there. And I’m also sharing a lot more behind the scenes of like, what’s really going on in a multi-six figure business.

You know, so they get to see kind of the messy stuff. And it’s been really fun and people are coming along and the engagement is picking up and it’s, it’s starting to move in the right direction. So in Q1, it is going to officially launch back to a paid membership. It’s gonna launch the week of Valentine’s Day, so it’s gonna be a Valentine’s theme for the girls.

And so I, I am actively right now building that launch out and what that strategy is gonna be, my hope is I’m hoping to get the Instagram group to 300. Free members so that when it enrolls, I’ll keep a hundred of them. I’m hoping, I feel like keeping a 30%. It’s good that I feel like that’s a, a reasonable goal.

So we’ll see. You know, it’s, it’s gonna be a surprise. Maybe everybody falls off. Maybe nobody wants it. I don’t know. We’re gonna test the waters. I, the listeners, if you’ve ever heard me on here before, which, how have you not, I’ve been on your podcast a million times. I love to just try stuff. So we’re gonna see It definitely does need to go back to a paid thing because it takes up a lot of my time.

But I’m really enjoying it and it’s been. You know, reinvigorated again, and it’s just been really fun. So first class Lounge, if you want to learn more about it on my website, it’s back slash membership. It’s fun. Awesome. I’m, I’m excited with where it’s going. Yeah. So that’s the big, that’s the big focus for Q1 for me.

I am hosting a Route to Rise retreat in Q1 in early March, will be in Austin this year. That’ll be my 11th retreat that I’ve hosted, which is cor. Crazy and then I will be making a very big decision. You don’t even know this yet. I be making, how did you come on this podcast and say shit like that? Sabrina, come on.

You don’t even know this yet. I will be making a very big decision about something that I am 90% sure is going to launch in March at some point is something brand new that I. So excited about, I haven’t been this excited about something since Root Eyes was born. Ah, well now I need to know. I am. So we need to hurry up with the podcast.

Like my whole body is radiating. Yes. It was an idea that actually came from Palm Springs, um, and the whole thing downloaded immediately. And I just have to get Steve on board. That was literally last week. I know. It was. And the whole thing has already, the whole thing is there. Yes. Okay.

Colie: I’m here for it.

Okay. So stay tuned

Sabrina: world. Yeah. You may hear about it in Yeah, it’s, it’s, I’m really excited. So I’m kind of like building that in the background. So,

Colie: so in the same vein where Sabrina is taking something that she currently had and she’s kind of like relaunching it, doing all the things, um, that’s what email like, you mean?

It is for me in Q1. Going forward, as Sabrina said, we are both people who just like to test shit and see what happens. So. In this migration of taking email like you mean it and turning it into a done with you offer. My first opportunity to do this starts next week on February 2nd. It is going to be a five day sprint.

Where we map your customer journey. ’cause if you haven’t heard me say how you shouldn’t be doing anything in your business or specifically anything in your systems until you map out your customer journey, you just haven’t been paying attention. But we’re gonna map out your customer journey and we’re gonna write every single email that you need to deliver it from inquiry to delivery in five days now.

Amazing. How is this gonna work? I don’t know. You know, stick around and find out. Right now I have already planned one of these five day sprints for every quarter. Now my hope is that it’s gonna be group, which it is for this first one. You are gonna get access to me for the audits and all the things. But just like Sabrina said, we like to test things and see if it doesn’t go well.

I might actually migrate it to be a true one-to-one done with you offer where you can schedule it any week. I said that out loud and uh, someone that I had a strategy call with was like, no. So, you know, I took that advice, it went in my head. It did not go in one ear and out the other. I am, you know, sitting with it.

But as of right now, it will be a group done with you. You do get access to me one-to-one though. So, I mean, I’m not lying when I say that, but right now it’s only gonna be available once a quarter. I love that. The second big thing that I did is I have decided that, not for just Q1, but going forward in 2026, I’m gonna say it out loud right now.

I don’t wanna do anything in my business besides two things going forward. I wanna record this podcast because I love talking to my guests. I love sharing tips with you guys, and this is my marketing channel that I actually enjoy. So the podcast, I just wanna record the episodes. And the second thing that I wanna do is I want to focus on client delivery, which again, I think is hysterical since I tried so hard to get out of it two years ago.

But. I have done a lot of work on myself and making sure that the boundaries are in place. And one thing that I’m really excited about for Q1 is that I used to have three days of calls available. It was Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Mondays are my marketing, working on my business day. Wednesdays are self-care.

I think you guys all know at this 0.9 am I am in therapy every single week, and after that I don’t have anything on my calendar. But I managed to also get my Fridays back. So right now I have a couple of hours set aside to record a podcast episode if I need to or to check in with my done with you clients.

But otherwise, all of their weekly calls are now on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and so I am getting to this place where I’m checking in with my clients every week. I’m giving them the accountability that they need, but I’m also making sure. That I am really being stringent, if you will, with the time that I’m spending in client delivery and continuously updating and improving the experience that I am giving to each and every one of my clients.

So that is what I’m doing in 2026, and so that I can hit my goals. I hired someone to be a fractional CMO going forward. Amazing. So, Ms. Chelsea Quint will be on the podcast soon, but basically what she did in December was she gave me an entire new positioning and messaging dashboard for systems in session.

’cause I think we all know that offer is never going anywhere. I’m probably gonna offer that until I am no longer in business. But she gave me this entire dashboard and then she gave me a 30 day sales plan. When I tell you that I got on my quote unquote strategy call to talk about the sales plan, and I was like, no, like for now, you can just skip this.

Can you just tell me about the bigger offer and like how does it work and when can I pay you? Was basically what I asked her on this call, but she is going to be planning, telling me the podcast episodes that I need to record related to my marketing efforts, my sales campaigns, all of the things. Then she is actually going to be helping to create the content with my team members that already exist.

So basically she is taking me out of the content creation business for Coley James, and I’m so excited again. That’s awesome. I have to record a podcast episode. Then they take that and they do everything else with it, and I’m not gonna be in the messy middle anymore. So that was my gift. She was my Christmas gift to myself.

I put that on thread. That’s amazing.

Sabrina: No, that’s amazing. I love that. I, I forgot to add, so I haven’t actually done my goals yet for the year I had to get on the other side of the rebrand in the migration. I could not even think straight. So I’m giving myself the end of January, I have, I literally have a whole planning day marked off the very last Friday of the month that is for me to, which is

Colie: tomorrow if you’re listening to this podcast on launch day.

Sabrina: So I, and I, I literally am like, I, I get the whole day to finally sit down. ’cause I love to goal set, but I just had to get on the other side of things. So I haven’t actually done that yet. But one of the things that popped up for me when I was making, I did a vision journal this year instead of a vision board and.

One of the things that kept popping up for me that I was interested in, just as for fun, is, and I can say this out loud ’cause I’m, I’ve already started this is, I’m on TikTok. Woo. Oh my gosh. I know. I, I’m

Colie: picking up my phone. Y’all, I’m going to find her on TikTok. I have,

Sabrina: it’s the same handle as my Instagram.

So, and which listeners? I have a new Instagram handle. It’s XO Sabrina Gehart, which was so cute. So, so cute. So anyway, I have been a TikTok user for a couple of years now, and. I enjoy TikTok. It’s fun. It’s not the same vibe as Instagram. It’s definitely not the same vibe as Facebook. It’s just fun. And I was like, you know what?

I feel like there’s a place for me over here, but I was kind of confused because I don’t want it to be what Instagram is. I don’t wanna show up on TikTok as a coach. I don’t wanna market over there. I just want it to be fun. So it’s more like behind the scenes of like day in the life of a mom who works from home and has dogs that don’t start bark, stop barking, you know?

Or like how I’m keeping my brain straight or come plan with me or whatever. And so I’ve just. Just started at time of recording. It’s like the end of my very first week. I’ve got, I’m, I’m committed to posting something Monday through Friday and not overthinking it. Okay. You know, I’m not expecting to go viral or anything like that.

I’m not sure. By the time this airs, maybe I will have told my email list. I don’t know. Right now it’s just kind of, I don’t, well, they’re finding out now. They are, but it’s been fun and I, I want it to be a fun space because that’s how I view TikTok and, um, I don’t know. So anyway, 2026. I’m over there.

Colie: Oh, I mean, I feel like you and I have like swapped seats.

Like what? What Twilight zone is this? Because literally the thing that I have done over the last two weeks, like, you know, at the end of the holidays and then going in, because I just had my official onboarding call with Chelsea on Wednesday of this week. But of course if she’s gonna be running marketing, sales, all of those things, she has to know, you know, what we’re selling when.

So I actually have every single one of my sales campaigns planned. For the rest of 2026.

Sabrina: Yeah. When

Colie: have I ever in life? Yeah. Opened my mouth and said that

Sabrina: in January. Never. Yeah. That’s amazing. I normally am in that position. Mm-hmm. And I love that position because, again, clarity, like, you know, when you’re talking about what, and when you’re thinking about what, and it’s just really great.

And I, I can’t wait to have that clarity. I, I. I think I have a little of it. I, like I said, I have something new and exciting that’s probably coming and I know when that’s gonna be. I have kind of envisioned what Roots rise for the fall is gonna be, spoiler, it’s gonna be a little bit different. Um, oh. So we are bringing it back to two.

Okay. Well that’s an announcement itself. I think I’m, I’m pretty pretty sure about it, but it is going to be. It’s going to be a limited edition. Okay. This is what I’ll say. So, so I have, I have a little bit of clarity about things. Um, I just don’t know when I’m going to be talking about, you know, my personality portrait course.

Mm-hmm. My marketing course. The, and you need to know those things because you, I need to, but also, but also those could be things that just run off, run on the ads. Ads. So, I don’t know. I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m happy for us, Sabrina. I feel like 2020, it’s a good year. 26 is

Colie: gonna be amazing for us. I actually don’t have that long until I see you again and we have already marked off extra days on that trip to just be together, which is gonna be fabulous.

And by the time we hit the Q2 call, you and I will be doing our weekly chats with each other. So I’m excited about that. Know I’m excited. Me too. And guys, we haven’t done one yet, so we can’t tell you about it, but when we get back together in Q2, you guys can hear all about how Sabrina and I are supporting each other in 2026.

All right, girl. You you got anything else that we, that we missed that we need to hit?

Sabrina: I feel like that was a lot. No, no. I’m, I’m really excited about this year. I feel really good about it. I love that I started the year off with the rebrand. That’s fun energy to start with. So, no, I’m, I’m in a good spot.

Okay,

Colie: well guys, again, this is the biz bestie chat. It’s where Sabrina and I just give you guys the real shit every quarter and we would love to have you back in Q2 where you can hear all about how our plans went well or they flopped because as you can see, none of neither one of us holds back on telling you if it worked out.

If it didn’t, how we pivoted. Like that’s what these chats are for. Yeah. All right, so I wanna say. Thank you for listening to both the Shoot It Straight podcast and Business First Creatives. But that’s it for this episode. We will see you guys next quarter. Bye.

Sabrina: Thanks so much for listening to the Shoot It Straight podcast.

You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode at. Sabrina gebhart.com/podcast. Come find me and connect over on the gram at Sabrina Gebhart Photography. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you hit that subscribe button and leave me a review. Until next time, my friends shoot it straight.