199: Why Photographer Friendships Are a Business Strategy

Welcome to Shoot It Straight, the podcast for women building businesses and lives they actually want. I’m Sabrina Gebhardt, 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’re ready to grow without losing yourself in the process, you’re in the right place.

I am so excited about today’s episode of the podcast because this is something that I am crazy passionate about. It has absolutely changed the trajectory of my business and my life, and that is not an exaggeration. It is why I’m so passionate about this subject, and I want you to commit to listening to the whole thing.

I don’t want you to hear me say where we’re going, and then think, “Oh, this is fluffy and I don’t need it.” No, no, no. This is not a fluffy episode about finding your tribe and finding your people. This is a case study for why the relationships you build with other photographers are one of the highest leverage things that you can do for your business and your life, and that is not an exaggeration.

I am going to give you concrete examples, both from my life and also from students’ lives. And so if you are one of those people that doesn’t have a business bestie, doesn’t have your tribe, hasn’t found any people yet, and you don’t think that it’s important, and you think… You see other people talking about it and you’re like, “Yeah, that’s fine for them, but I’m, I’m doing fine on my own,” just, just hear me out.

Just hear me out on this. There is a cost that you are paying for going it alone. I paid this cost early in my business, so I know the price very, very well, and I have seen many women paying the same price. It’s the cost of admission for going it alone. Many people start their business, and they may have business-y friends or industry-aware friends, but it’s rare that they start out the gate and they already have, like, a business bestie.

That’s kinda not really a thing. What happens is, uh, along their path, they meet people, and those relationships form. And until that happens, until they prioritize making these connections and these relationships, there’s a cost, a price you pay of doing everything alone, and that is loneliness and solitude.

And I know that may not seem like a big deal, but again, having lived this personally and being on the other side of it, I can tell you it is a vast difference. Vast difference. There is so much constantly questioning yourself when you are alone. There is a loneliness that you don’t even realize is there because it’s the only way you’ve ever known things.

You don’t realize it’s there until you have filled the hole and you realize how much better it is without the hole. There’s also this constant feeling behind because you don’t have anyone to, like, have a reality check with. You don’t have anyone to share your thoughts with that really gets it. You’re also missing out on a lot.

You’re missing out on shared knowledge, referrals, opportunities, introductions, and again, those are things that you don’t even know you’re missing. It’s like you don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t even know you’re missing this stuff. Isolation is not a neutral thing. It is not a, “Oh, I’m just… I’m going it alone.

It’s fine.” It’s an expensive price that you are paying in addition to not only the loneliness and the missing out on such joy. You’re, again, you’re paying these prices of missed knowledge, missed opportunities, constantly questioning yourself. Like, there’s so much negative in the going it alone. It’s, it’s actually shocking.

And again, I was there. For, like, the first two years of my business, I was there in that seat running this business from the chair in my living room, ’cause I didn’t even have an office back then, staying up late, nap time hustle, trying to figure things out, learning from blogs and YouTube and just winging it, never having anyone to bounce ideas with, never having anyone to ask questions with, constantly in my head.

And it didn’t seem like a bad thing at the time. It just seemed like I was growing a business and learning a business and trying things. And yes, it was hard, but I did not realize the price I was paying. I did not realize how much I was missing until that hole was filled. So if you are listening to this and you’re thinking, “I don’t have time.

I don’t have time to get myself out there and put myself in situations where I can make business besties, meet women, connect with people that are in the same industry, make these, these friends,” sure. I get that you’re busy. I get that you’re busy, but saying that you don’t have time for those things is like saying that you don’t have time to work out.

I get it. We’re busy. Maybe you don’t have time to go to the gym. But you are, in either of those situations, choosing not to work out, choosing not to prioritize putting yourself in situations where you can connect with people. You’re choosing the slower, more painful, lonelier path that is going to cost you in the long run.

It’s going to cost you more than it saves you. Prioritizing your physical health saves you in the long run. Yes, it’s hard to figure out working that into your schedule getting to the gym or finding time to run or whatever it is that you wanna do, but in the long run, you’re better for it. You feel better, you look better, your physical health lasts longer, you have a longer and healthier life.

It’s the better choice to just figure out how to take care of your physical body on a regular basis for all of the wins that you get on the other side. I’m saying the same thing here. It is better for you to find the time to meet the group, to go to the conference, to join the retreat, to whatever that is, so that you can make these relationships and these friendships because in the long run, it is so much better for you.

Dare I say, it will make you more money. It will bring you more joy. You will have so much more peace and ease. You will find success faster. It will be more fun. Yeah, it’s complicated to find time to do those things, to leave your kids, to leave your family, to pay for the ticket, to go to the thing. But in the long run, it is the best investment that you can make.

I wanna talk to you about something for a second. I see this all the time in the industry, photographers who are good at what they do. They are genuinely talented, but they still feel like they’re one slow season away from questioning everything they’ve ever done. They are still making decisions from a place of scarcity.

They’re still running their businesses in a way that quietly exhausts them. I know that feeling because I’ve lived it, and I also know what it costs to stay there longer than you have to. Root to Rise is my mastermind for photographers who are done waiting for things to click on their own. It’s a high-touch group program, and it’s one I’ve been running for years, which means it’s been refined, tested, and built on what actually works, not a theory, not what worked for someone else, what is working for photographers in real businesses at real stages of growth.

The women inside Root to Rise aren’t just growing their revenue. They’re changing how they think, how they make decisions, how they show up. That’s the work, and that’s what makes the results stick. The next cohort isn’t open yet, but the waitlist is, and that’s where you wanna be. Waitlist members get first access, more details, the chance to have a conversation with me before the door’s open to anyone else, and a discount at enrollment.

If you’ve been circling this and wondering if it’s for you, that’s your answer. Get on the list, sabrinagebhart.com/mastermind-waitlist. The link will be in the show notes. Back to the episode. So I’m gonna share some very specific stories, and these are gonna feel kind of random. I’m just gonna kind of popcorn through them, but I wanna give you some physical, like actual, tangible stories that you can hear me say from myself and from students because I really wanna hammer this home, ’cause I can talk about how important relationships are.

I can talk about how fast your business is gonna grow. I can talk about how being in the room is the most powerful thing you can do for your business I can talk about how much having a business bestie will change your life, but it doesn’t really land unless I can give you concrete examples, right? So I’m gonna do that.

Number one, you know who Colie James is. If you don’t, if this is the first episode you’ve ever listened to on this podcast, first of all, welcome. Uh, let me get you caught up. Colie James is my business bestie. We do a quarterly call together on this podcast called the Quarterly Business Bestie Chat, where she and I go off the cuff and we have a very off the cuff conversation about what’s happening in her business and life, what’s happening in my business and life.

We’re holding each other accountable, we’re spurring each other’s ideas. It’s a great chat. It’s an audience fan favorite, okay? We’ve been doing it for over two years now. She’s also been on the podcast many times to talk about many other things, and I’ve been on her podcast, The Business First Creatives, many times talking about many things.

Here’s the story of Colie and I. I met Colie James for the first time when I attended a retreat that she hosted. She and another photographer hosted a retreat, and I went as a student, and I love to tell the story that she did not like me at first. She says that’s not true. I beg to differ. Um, I did not think she liked me, but this was a retreat and there was, I don’t know how many other women there were there, maybe five.

So it was a smallish group, seven or eight of us, and we spent the weekend doing what one does at a photography retreat. We photographed some sessions. We went through some editing. We talked about business things. We ate together. We stayed up late. All… It was very fun. But that’s where I met Colie.

Fast-forward, like a year later, we stayed in each other’s circles. We followed each other on social media. We weren’t immediately friends. But fast-forward, like, a year, and we had both joined a program at the same time, and we saw each other in the Facebook group, like when you see, like, members of the group, and we saw each other and she messaged me and she goes, “Oh my gosh, you’re taking this class too?”

And I said, “I am.” She goes, “Let’s make an accountability pod together and, like, get on Zoom once a week.” And I said, “That’s amazing. Let’s do that.” And so that is where it began. We started getting on Zooms once a week, and then we would see each other at conferences that we would both go to, and slowly our friendship blossomed.

And now I have met her husband, I have met her daughter, I have seen her in different states. She’s been to my house. We see each other multiple times a year. We talk every other week on a scheduled Zoom call. We Voxer and text more frequently than that. We are very intertwined in each other’s lives, and it’s not just business anymore.

But she knows my business and my life so deeply and I know hers, that we are able to support each other in ways beyond what you could imagine. She has solved business problems for me, and I have solved business problems for her. We have t- seen each other through personal things. We have ideated things She’s hopped on last-minute Zooms for me when I was stuck with a tech thing and I was desperate for help.

We have done those things for each other. That’s what having a business bestie is. It’s being able to have somebody to call and say, “I’ve got a crazy idea,” or, “I’m having this really crappy thought,” or, “I’ve got this really tough client.” And we met seemingly from a random setup, a random situation where I was her student, and now all these years later, here we are because I got in the room.

Because I got in the room. Another story I have. The very first time that I spoke at a conference, I was super excited and also super nervous because, you know, hi, I’m speaking at a conference for the first time. I’m not a nervous public speaker, but raising your hand and saying, “I’m gonna speak in front of a group of people on this topic, and I’m gonna have slides, and I’m gonna…”

Uh, y- you know, it’s… If you’ve never done it before, you get a little nervous, and so I was really, really nervous. I had a group of women that showed up, traveled to that conference to be my hype squad, to be my hype squad the first time I spoke. Did they get other things out of the conference? Yes. Did we love seeing each other and connecting?

Yes. But these women, who had all been my students at one point or another and had turned into friends through our relationships, just like Colie was my teacher first and then we became friends, this group of women prioritized coming to this conference that they otherwise would not have gone to. Let’s just be really real here.

It was… They didn’t need to go to this conference. They came to see each other and to support me. They used my speaking for the first time as an excuse to come to this conference and get together to be my hype squad. That’s what business friends do. That’s what a community does. That’s what your industry peers do, and those women all started off as my students and then became my friends.

And some of them, I’ve met their kids and their husbands or been to their homes. Some of them, I’ve photographed. We’ve seen each other through life changes, and it’s beautiful what happens when you have peers who are living the same life that you are. They live in different parts of the country. They have kids that are different ages.

They’ve been married different amounts of times. Maybe they do different niches here and there. But at the very core, they are ambitious women running photography businesses, balancing motherhood and marriages. Having those relationships is so valuable, and having their support while I did something new and scary was absolutely priceless to me, and I will literally never forget it There are women in Root to Rise.

Every single run of the program, okay? We’ve gone through seven runs now. Every single run of the program, they meet in Root to Rise. Whether they attend a retreat or they just do online, they meet these women and they take their connection off the internet. Generally, that first starts as, like, maybe they’ll DM each other on Instagram, and then they’ll take it to Voxer ’cause they wanna talk more often.

But what I’ve seen is so many times these women connect in person. They end up traveling the country to see each other. They end up hiring each other for photos. They’re, again, they’re Voxering each other daily or weekly, and they become champions for each other through every season. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen on Instagram, somebody will share as an Instagram story, and it’s two of my students who live in wildly different states across the country, and they have met in person for one reason or another and they tag me in it, and I feel like the proudest mama bear that I gave them that connection.

They met in a group. They met in a mastermind. And now they have someone that is in their corner every day, that is deeply knowing them and seeing them and helping them move forward. It is so, so valuable. Every time I have gone to a conference or hosted a retreat or attended a retreat, my world expands.

Every single time I have met someone or connected deeper with someone who has understood my same thoughts, my same struggles, the wins, the, the losses. And every single relationship that I start, it’s like I’m, I’m a flower that’s blossoming even more, like a new seed in my garden has been planted. My world expands.

My heart, the joy, all of it, it just gets better and better and better. Business feels lighter and easier. My tribe is growing. It’s because I’m getting in the room, because I’m connecting with people. I can’t tell you how many times I have mentored someone or done one-to-one coaching, and our relationship ends up pivoting or growing into a friendship beyond just that business relationship and that coaching relationship or that mentee-mentor relationship.

I have had friends who have handed me opportunities and connections and introductions that have moved me and my business forward in ways that I never could have manufactured alone. Never. Because of relationships. I want you to hear me say this. You don’t just need community for that warm, fuzzy feeling.

You may think, “I’ve already got enough friends,” or, “I don’t need a lot of friends.” That’s not what we’re here for. I want you to build community because of the referrals, the knowledge, the accountability, having a hype squad on your hardest day The expansion that will only happen when somebody believes in you and they say it out loud.

Business is better when you’ve got your tribe. Business is better when you have relationships with other people who get it. And here’s the thing, your life is better too. All of those examples I gave you are friendships that are not just about business. My life is so much more rich because of every single one of those women and connections.

You don’t just need this for the warm, fuzzy feeling of I’ve got a bunch of friends on the internet. You need it for all the other reasons. And my friend, this is what Root to Rise is built on. Yes, the curriculum, the strategy, all of it’s amazing. I will coach the heck out of you. I believe in the program and the platform and the container and everything about it.

But the women, the women that come into this program, the friendships that outlast this program, that’s what it’s really about. That’s the life-changing part. That’s what I find so much joy in. It’s not just seeing my students succeed, it’s seeing them succeed together and cheer each other on, and I want that for you.

The wait list for the next run of Root to Rise opens on June 10th, and I hope that you will be on it. It’s going to be an incredible run this fall, and we’ve got some exciting changes to the program that I’m really, really jazzed about, and I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, this is going to be the best run we’ve ever had.

I’m so lit up about what’s happening this fall, and I would love for you to participate with us and get to see what the fuss is all about. So you can put your name on the wait list at the link in the show notes, or you can find it at sabrinagebhart.com/mastermind-waitlist. That’s it for today, my friends.

We’ll see you next time. 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 sabrinagebhart.com/podcast. Come find me and connect over on the Gram @sabrinagebhartphotography. 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.