188: A Peek Behind The Scenes

 Welcome to Shoot It Straight. The podcast for women building businesses and lives they actually want. I’m Sabrina Gehart, 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.

Welcome back to the Shoot at Straight Podcast my friends. Today is a really fun, super behind the scenes type episode. I’m just going to share something that has been going on in my business, something that I’m really excited about this year. It’s new. I haven’t shared about it publicly yet, and so the podcast, we’re doing it.

This is, this is where we’re sharing, so this is really truly an off the cuff, no notes. Where my heart is, what’s happening? All of that. You’re to get, you’re getting pulled behind the curtain. So earlier this year, you know, if you’re a listener of the podcast, uh, I generally start the year at the Route to Rise alumni retreat.

And this year was the same. Uh, it was the first week of January we were in Palm Springs sitting around the room and it was, I, I wanna say day two of the retreat. We kind of had a morning powwow after breakfast where we just touched base. Everybody shared what they were working on for the day, and then we were about to split off and continue working on our individual projects before our afternoon.

Fun. Everybody had gone around and shared, I didn’t share what I had been working on because you know, I’m there to facilitate and support everybody else there, right? Like the event’s not for me, it’s for the women that are in the room. But one of the girls said, well, what were you working on? You know? And I was sharing that I was working on a new freebie at the time, my 14 day business reset, getting it buttoned up to, you know, launch and.

She said, is it just for photographers? And I said, no, it’s actually for all like female business owners. And this was right before the launch of my new brand and my new website. All of that really is geared towards just working and supporting women, not just photographers anymore. And she was like, oh, that’s so awesome.

And I was telling the girls about it. And you know, I said, when I have the, you know, the link ready, I’ll share it with you guys. I’d love for you to check it out. And then somebody else in the room chimes in and says, Hey, have you ever thought about hosting a retreat like this for non photographers?

Because I’ve gotten some dms of people who have seen my stories while I’m here and they’re wondering like, is is there something like this for non photographers? I said, oh, you know, that’s funny that you ask that. I’ve gotten some messages too, and I’ve actually, I’ve definitely thought about it, especially with the new brand launching, and I just, I’ve been coaching women for so long that I’m ready to work with other women.

I have coached women that are not photographers before, but it’s never been a, a public thing, right? Like I, I haven’t done an official quote unquote program for non photographers or an official event for non-photo photographers. I have had women reach out to me that want one-to-one coaching who are not photographers, and I have worked with them, so I just, my heart has been expanding.

Right. And the conversation came up about, you know, would you ever do this? I was, I was just honest with them. I was like, yeah, I would actually love to do it. And I kind of already feel like I, I know the gist of what the vibe would be, but the hard thing is scheduling it because in the first half of the year, I’m so loaded down with education.

I’m running route rise. I’m hosting the alumni retreat. I’m hosting a Spring Root Rise retreat. I’m speaking at conferences, normally I’m attending conferences. It is so busy, like there’s no time in the first semester of the year to do it. And then the fall is tricky, you know? Um, because that goes into a lot of business owners busy season.

If they are, um, selling a product or, you know, the photographers, the artists, all of those are super busy at the end of the year. So it’s just kind of like, like when would I do it logistically? I kind of threw out, you know, I’ve always thought maybe summer would be an option, but I feel like, you know, would that work?

Would people be willing to take time away from their family’s vacations to do something? And one of the women there who I’ve known for a very, very long time, since before I became an educator, she’s a dear friend. She shouts out, oh my gosh, it’s Root to Rise Summer camp. And when I tell you that I had an immediate full body download, it was.

The wildest thing. I immediately looked at her and I said, oh my gosh, it is. And my mind was on fire exploding with what it’s gonna look like, what it’s gonna feel like, what we’re gonna do. And I, when I tell you I hit the ground running, I hit the ground running. The women in this room have all worked with me before.

Many of them have turned into friends, and they literally were laughing at me because they could see everything firing. Okay. They could see my brain exploding. So I left that retreat. Super excited about the potential of root rise summer camp, and I came home and a few days later. My husband came home from work and I was in my office, uh, wrapping up for the day, and he comes in and we’re just chitchatting.

And I said, Hey, I wanna talk to you about something. I have an idea. And he literally looks at me and says, oh no, I don’t like where this is going, because generally when I say that statement, something’s happening. Right? Something has happening and it’s generally expensive. Okay? So I immediately start laughing.

I’m like, no, no, no. Hear me out. Hear me out. And I just loosely pitched him the idea. I wanna host a retreat in the summer in this particular area of the country. And I think it would be really fun. I would make sure that I time it where, you know, our 18-year-old would be home to help with the boys. You wouldn’t need to take time off work.

But the fun part is what if you guys met me up there after the retreat and we could have like an adventure? ’cause we’ve never visited there before. And he’s like, yeah, I mean, maybe we’ll talk about it later. So it wasn’t an immediate yes, but it also wasn’t an immediate no. So I kind of sat on it for about 10 days, and in my mind, I’m still.

Mulling. I’m still building, I’m still ideating. I’m still sharing the idea with a couple of friends. I’m making a spreadsheet with cost and expenses because that’s what my brain does. I go to the logistics. I’m looking around, I’m telling my retreat coordinator, we are moving forward without officially doing anything yet.

’cause I mean my, I need to have my husband’s support, obviously. And let me just have a little sidebar there. I think this is really important to insert. I don’t normally give my husband. Any say in my business and my business decisions whatsoever, this is my business, not his. I do things that are best for myself, my clients, my business, and he doesn’t get a say.

He runs his own business and he does his own thing. And I don’t get a say in that. The only reason that I wanted him on board was because this is a summer event. So logistically is a little more complicated than when I plan retreats during the school year. This is a summer event, and also because like I said, I wanted our family to have a little vacation adventure on the back end of this, which is a detour from what we normally do in the summer.

Okay. So he needed to be involved in this a little bit. So I just wanna have a side there because I cannot tell you how many women that I have in my dms or that I start coaching that tell me how much their husband gets to have an input on their business and what they spend money on and what they commit to and their time.

And I always push back so hard because I’m like, but it’s your business. Why do they get a say in how you are spending your business finances, how you are choosing to spend your work days, what you are committing to investing in? Honestly, that could be a whole other episode. I’m not trying to break up anybody’s marriage.

I love a supporting husband, but you are running your own business. They don’t get a say. I think that makes us smaller. That puts us back in the 1950s where we have to ask permission to do things. You know, don’t come at me with the hate messages, but I really, really feel so strongly about that. Anyways, so that was a side note.

The only reason that I was wanting to get him slightly on board is ’cause it’s gonna affect our summer. I give it, you know, seven to 10 days and I don’t bring it up again ’cause I don’t wanna pester, you know, don’t wanna pester. And in my heart of hearts, I know he’s gonna say yes because he doesn’t say no to me.

He just needed some time to come around to the idea, okay, we’ve been married 20 years, I know how this man works, but I’m still doing things, making forward progress behind the scenes, right? I’m planning what I can plan, I’m having conversations, I’m ideating, things are happening. So about 10 days later, uh, we’re on a walk and I’m like, Hey, so like, can we talk about this again?

And he’s like, yeah. And he said, so tell me again. Well, like, what is it? And I said, here’s the idea behind it. Here’s what I wanna do. Here’s where I want it to be. I’ve already looked at the dates, I’ve earmarked it like, you know, our daughter’s gonna be home. She’s not gonna have left for summer camp yet.

She can help with the boys. It’s gonna be this many days. Then you guys could come up, meet me, et cetera, et cetera. Give him the whole rundown. And he goes, yeah, okay. I think that sounds good. So I officially have a green light at that point. 24 hours later, I have booked the house. I have locked in the dates because I had done all the legwork, right?

At that point we are. We are a go route to Rise. Summer camp is happening. So what is Route to Rise? Summer Camp Route to Rise? Summer camp is a experience for women business owners, and it is part work, in part play. This is my favorite kind of retreat to hold and I cannot wait to bring this to life. We are going to be in New England.

We are going to be on the coast of Maine in June, June 13th through the 16th with the optional day to stay one extra night at the end for an extra fun bonus day. There are 10 spots for Route Dry Summer Camp, and we are going to dig into your marketing while we’re there. And this is where you, the listener, need to trust my expertise in hosting retreats.

Route try. Summer camp is gonna be the 11th retreat that I’ve hosted. No, that is a lie 12th. It is going to be the 12th retreat I’ve hosted. This experience is going to meet every attendee where they are within their marketing. Okay? So the premise is that you’re gonna get out of the marketing weeds when you think about your business and the things that you do day to day to keep it moving forward.

Marketing often falls at the bottom right, because we have so many client facing things that have to get taken care of. We have so many tasks that are recurring on a weekly basis. The marketing falls at the bottom always. It doesn’t matter what kind of business owner you are, and so the goal is to pull you out of your regularly scheduled weeks.

You’re gonna be away from your family. You’re gonna be away from your clients. You’re gonna be away from the distractions of home, and we are going to focus on your marketing. If you are someone who struggles with emailing your audience regularly, we’re gonna plan that out. If you are someone who struggles with creating content that actually reaches people on social media, we’re gonna figure that out.

If you are someone who’s never set up an email list, we are going to get you set up. If you are someone who needs to build a funnel off of a freebie and selling a product with a whole bunch of emails, we are going to do that. If you are someone that wants to map out launches for things, we are going to do that.

It is going to be unique to the attendee so that it meets everyone where they are. But we are going to work on your marketing. We are gonna get you out of the marketing weeds of your business. There is going to be group time where we ideate and powwow together as creative business owners where we are sharing things that worked for us, things that didn’t work for us.

Hey, have you thought about this? What about this idea? We’re going to mastermind together. You are also going to get individual time with me to ask your questions to work on your business. And then the most beautiful part is you are going to get time to do the thing. So half of every day is gonna be a workday, and during that time you, we will have group time, we will have individual time, and then you are gonna go off and do the thing so that you are gonna leave summer camp having the funnel built or the emails set up, or things scheduled or content mapped, or whatever it is that you need to do to get outta the marketing weeds.

So it’s gonna be really unique to each attendee, and then we’re gonna have fun. It will be the best. Most vi bougie New England summer situation. We are going to have craft time and game time and dinner nights and you know, hanging out in pajamas. We are going to go shopping in small port towns and the people that choose to stay and add on an extra day are going to have some water activities.

It is going to be. A vibe. That’s all I can say. It is going to be such a vibe and so much fun. The weather up there, that time of year is gonna be like low seventies for the high brisk evenings. We’re gonna walk to the beach in sweaters. Oh my gosh. I just literally cannot wait to experience this weekend.

We are going to start on a Saturday at noon. We’re gonna work and play on Saturday. We’re gonna work and play on Sunday. We’re gonna work and play on Monday. Then people are gonna check out Tuesday or have the option to stay all day Tuesday, stay Tuesday night, and then check out on Wednesday. That is Route to Rise summer camp.

I’m going to have the wait list linked in the show notes because it is launching very soon, but there is a caveat to this. It is launching next week to my first class lounge members. First, they are getting first dibs. There is a very real possibility that it will sell out before it gets to the public.

So that means if you are listening and you are not inside a first class lounge, you may be hearing about this and you may be super jazzed and it may be too late for you. And to that, I am sorry. I would still absolutely put your name on the wait list because that tells me that you were interested in summer camp this year or next year or in the future.

I cannot wait to host this experience for women, not just photographers. Because I know how transformational and life-giving these little working weekends are when you step away from your business and you’re able to put your head down and do the thing, and this experience Route to Rise summer camp is going to be the absolute perfect mix of getting stuff done.

Also relaxing and having community, laughing with women, making new business besties, seeing a place maybe you’ve never seen before, getting to experience joy. It is the best of both worlds. And again, I can promise you that because yes, I’ve never hosted summer camp before, but this is going to be my 12th retreat.

And I can tell you right now, this is going to be absolutely an incredible experience. So if it sounds fun, get on the wait list and send me a message. Let me know that you’re excited about it. That’s it for today, my friends. We’ll see you next week. Thanks so much for listening to the Shoot at Straight podcast.

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