208: When Nothing Is Converting, Here’s What You Actually Control

Welcome back to the Shoot It Straight podcast, my friends. If you’re in a slow season right now and it is causing you to start to go quiet, to pull back, or even to start spiraling in comparison, this episode is for you, and I’m not going to sugarcoat anything, because you know that here on the podcast, we keep it real.

Hence, the title, Shoot It Straight. Listen, slow seasons are universal. We’ve talked about this on the podcast before. It’s a conversation I have with every woman that I coach and all of my business friends. Frankly, slow seasons are universal. It is everly, i- up and down, up and down. It’s a rollercoaster.

There are some years that are absolutely incredible, and we are all thriving and killing it, and it is rainbows and glitter. And then there are years where we are all just barely hanging on. And then there’s years where it doesn’t seem to make any sense, okay? Slow seasons are universal, but the response that I see, especially women entrepreneurs have to these slow seasons, honestly makes it worse.

So this episode, I’m, I’m recording it in hopes to kind of interrupt that pattern, so to speak. I want to get you out of the pattern that you may have found yourself in if you’re in a slow season or have been in one in the past. And I want to give you something actionable that you can take away immediately, because you know that I love to leave you with action steps, okay?

I don’t wanna just talk at you. I want you to feel like you have a plan, at least one step forward. Before I go any further, I have a favor to ask. I have not done this in a while. I have not asked for this favor in probably 100 episodes, and it’s really long overdue. If you have not subscribed to this podcast, will you do that real quick?

Will you just hit pause and hit subscribe? Also, if you have never left a review, I would absolutely give you the biggest virtual hug if you would leave me a review. I know that you hear people ask for these two things all the time, and it’s because it actually matters. The more subscribers I have, the more reviews I have, the more that the podcast gods push this out to other women like you who can benefit from all of this free content that I pour into the show.

And so it would be so meaningful to me if you would do one or both of those things

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.

We- we’re talking about slow seasons. They’re universal. Everybody has them. It’s frustrating. And here’s what I see wrong. Here’s what I see happening when people are having a slow season that I wish they would not do, okay? Common, common things. What most female entrepreneurs that I see, specifically photographers, because that’s a lot of you, is that when things are slow, they go quiet.

They just disappear. They are posting less. They’re sto- they’ve stopped showing up for their audience. Maybe it’s s- they’re not sending emails anymore. They’re not creating content. They start ignoring their website. They stop showing up, and oftentimes they are blaming something else. They’re blaming the algorithm.

They’re blaming email deliverability. They’re blaming, “No one’s clicking. No one’s listening. No one hears me. What’s the point?” Okay? So they get into this negative spiral of, “Things aren’t working, so I’m just not gonna show up anymore.” And then this spiral turns into comparison and self-doubt and pulling back, and that, it actually makes it worse.

It starts to create and, quote-unquote, “prove the point” that they are in fact in a drought, which is what they were scared of. Things slow down. They get nervous. They go quiet. Post less. Stop showing up. Blame the algorithm. Blame other things. They start comparing to others who maybe are not in a slow season or don’t appear to be in a slow season.

They have d- self-doubt. They pull back. And then they’re basically proving the point of, “See? Things are slow. See? Nobody’s booking me. See? I’m not getting paid. See? See? See? See? See?” They’re proving the point that things are slow. The truth is, the market never stopped. At time of recording, summer of 2026, no matter how slow your business is, people are still spending money.

The market has not stopped. It may be slower. People may have less discretionary income. But there are still millions and millions of people who have plenty of discretionary income and are spending it very freely. Everyone’s still going on vacation this summer. Everyone I know is still putting their kids in summer camps.

All of my friends who have their kids in private school are still enrolling their kids in private school. People are still shopping like crazy, spending like crazy. The market has not stopped. You may have experienced a dip in your business, but what really happened is that your visibility stopped And it made things worse.

I want to share a really personal story here that is, you know, kind of embarrassing, but we keep it real here, so I’m going to just tell you, and I have not shared this publicly yet. You’re, you’re gonna be the first to hear the details of this story. I wrapped out, up the eighth launch of Root to Rise just, uh, very, very recently.

Eighth run of this program, and it started off very slow. Like, really, really slow. And it was pretty alarming to me because, again, it’s the eighth run of this program. I have been doing it for years in economic ups and downs, and different seasons, and different price points, and it had never been this slow, right?

But it’s one thing if you launch something new and it’s slow and you’re like, “Oh, well, you know, maybe there wasn’t proof of concept,” or, “Maybe I didn’t educate my audience on it enough.” But when there’s something that has proof of concept, that has historically done really, really well, that you know how to successfully launch, and then all of a sudden it doesn’t, it’s kind of like, “Whoa, whoa, wait, what’s happening?”

I was honestly feeling every one of those wrong responses that I just described. Truly, I was. I was second-guessing the offer, the price, what was included, the changes that I had made to the program. I was second-guessing the timing of the launch, and I started seeing and paying attention to what other people were doing around me, because other business peers were launching things that seemed to be going okay-ish, right?

I want you to hear that all of this was also happening while I was on vacation with my family, okay? So I was trying, and I really was deeply relaxed, pretty offline, really plugged into enjoying my family and making memories. But in the back of my mind, I was like, “I did everything right,” quote, unquote. I had created tons of strong content with my content strategist.

I felt really good about the content we created. Um, my emails were dialed in and all of them were scheduled in advance, and I felt really great about those. The sales page was really strong. I had updated all of the things. I felt really good about the work that I had done, and yet, the launch wasn’t going well.

Then I made a decision We’re gonna recommit here. And I decided kind of with my tail between my legs that I’m gonna extend the deadline. I had set the arbitrary deadline to begin with, and I was like, “You know what? I’m not ready to shut this down yet. I am not ready for enrollment to close and to have a group this small.

This just does not feel good. So guess what? I’m the boss. I’m in charge. I’m going to recommit and make some changes.” So I extended the deadline. I got back home from vacation, back into the office, and I went to work. I finished strong. I doubled down on the things that I could control, which I’m going to talk about in a minute The launch finished really, really well.

It, I ended up doubling enrollment from when I would have originally closed the doors. And I feel it’s still not the largest launch I’ve ever had. It’s absolutely not. It’s on the smaller end. It’s not the smallest I’ve ever had. It’s not the largest. But I feel so good about where things ended up, and a lot of that had to do with my own energy.

So this launch in particular taught me more about what I’m gonna share with you than anything else I could have learned in a, quote-unquote, “good season”. Right? ‘Cause oftentimes we’re not learning lessons when things are good. We’re learning lessons when things are bad, when things are less than ideal.

That’s when we need to have our eyes open, paying attention to what can we do, what can we change, what do I need to be learning here, how can I move forward? And that’s exactly what happened in this season. Like I mentioned before, there are four things that you can control when we’re talking about launching something, whether it’s, you know, a mastermind like mine, or fall mini sessions, or, um, your summer calendar, or a yearbook program that you have, or whatever it is, whatever kind of industry you’re in.

Okay? When you are selling something, when you are launching something, which is another word for just a marketing sprint that focuses on one thing, when you are doing that and it feels like it’s not going well… Also, I can say outside of launching, this doesn’t even really have to apply to launching, so to speak.

That just happens to be the story that I told. It can also just be, “My business feels really slow. It’s felt really slow for months.” Okay, this applies to you, too. There are four things you can control, and it’s really important that when things are slow, we focus on the controllables. There’s a lot of things that we can’t control, and we’ll talk about those, too, and what I see so often is that we start focusing on the things that we can’t control.

And it is so frustrating ’cause you know what? It is. It is so frustrating. But we have no control over those things, and when you spend your energy focusing on the things that you can’t control, you’re literally getting in a tizzy for no reason, and you’re wasting your time. So let’s focus on the things that are controllable, the things that I can do differently, the things that will make a difference.

So those four things. Your marketing. I know, and we talk about that all the time here. Your marketing. Are you actually showing up consistently, or are you just coasting? Whether or not consistently for you is email, blogging, SEO on your website, collaborations, social media, or a combination of, of those things, whatever your marketing channels are, are you showing up consistently or are you just coasting?

That is, again, content, emails, showing your work, talking about who you are. This is the lever that most people stop pulling on when their results slow down because they feel like nobody’s coming, my marketing’s not working, working anyway, so I’m just going to stop doing it. And that becomes a foregone conclusion because when you stop marketing, your business will slow down.

So if your business is already slow and you stop marketing, it’s just going to get worse. You are adding fuel to that fire of slowness. You cannot stop marketing. You can change what you’re doing because it’s something that you can control, and that’s something that I really would recommend. If you have always been doing marketing one particular way, I don’t care if it’s always worked for you historically, if it has stopped working for you, it’s time to look at doing something different.

We can’t stay stuck in a rut, right? That’s not gonna get you anywhere. Just because it’s worked before does not mean we are going to continue to work. The game is different in 2026. You know how many people are being found by AI? You have got to be willing to look at your marketing with fresh eyes. Maybe you haven’t been on social media for a long time.

Maybe it’s time to go back. Maybe you’re only emailing your list once a quarter. It’s time to start emailing them more. Maybe you only post about sessions and images that you’ve taken from sessions. Okay, it’s time to start giving people something to connect with and start creating your own personal brand.

There’s a lot of ways to change your marketing because you have control over it. That is something you can control. So again, looking at it with, am I really showing up consistently, and is it time to do something new? And if so, what does that look like? Another thing that you can control is your energy.

Clients, followers, people on your email list, they can tell when you’re defeated. They can tell when you are stuck in fear. They can tell when you are stuck in scarcity. They can also tell when you’re not in it, okay? They can tell. And h- this is a perfect example of the story I just told about my Root to Rise launch.

I had done everything, quote unquote, right, but I was on vacation. I may have been posting to social media and showing up every single day with pre-written content, but I was not actually in it with my head in the game because I was on vacation. Rightly so, I was on vacation. But as soon as I came home and I said, “Nope, we’re not shutting this down yet.

I need to get my head in the game,” and I did, I locked in, and my content was totally different the following week. The way I showed up, the way I got on and did talking heads, the content that I created on the fly, the DMs that I sent, the emails that I sent, the messages that I respond to, the way that I followed up with people was totally different than how I had been showing up because energetically I was in the game.

I had come back from vacation and locked into launch mode. Your clients can feel that energy. And again, they can feel the energy of scarcity and defeat. It is so obvious when I am following a photographer or I see a photographer posting, and every other day in their stories they’re talking about a special, a deal, a discount, a promo, book now, get in.

I, I just… I want to give them the biggest hug and say, “You are a flashing red light for fear,” and people can feel that, and it’s not sexy. Nobody’s interested in that. They want to work with somebody who is confident, who is calm, who trusts herself and her business. And energetically, y- you’re giving off negative vibes.

You can control your energy. So really think about what are you putting out there, and are you creating the things that you’re putting out out of scarcity or from a true heart of service? How can I serve my audience? How can I connect with my people? How can I really be genuine instead of just hawking a sale out of scarcity.

Another thing that you can control is your creativity. I kind of alluded to this before, but when is the last time that you did something different? I know different is uncomfortable. I know different is hard. I know different is scary. But you have to be willing to do things differently than what you’ve done before because if what you’re doing is not working, you gotta do something different or you are just saying, “I, I’m, would rather my business die than do something differently.”

Doing something different, new, is not nearly as uncomfortable as failure. So if the negative feelings you have right now about this slow season and your business are freaking you out I would hope that you would be f- in the position of I’m willing to do anything because anything’s gonna feel better than what I feel like right now.

So get creative. What is something that you can do differently? Can you try a new format on social e- media? Can you try an- a different angle for your offer? Can you find a new way to show off your work? People can tell when there is, like, a stagnant vibe to your brand. We can. I’m sure… Let me give you an example.

I’m sure that there are tons of people that you follow online that you don’t actually see their content anymore. Maybe you have followed them for years and you’re like, “Wait a minute, I haven’t seen Jenny in forever. I wonder what’s… Maybe she’s not in business anymore,” and you go type in the search bar, like, their handle and you’re like, “Oh, no, I just haven’t seen any of this stuff.”

It’s probably because the things they were sharing became stagnant to you, and therefore you stopped engaging with it. You stopped giving it a heart, you stopped giving it a comment, you stopped responding to stories, and therefore the algorithm stopped showing her stuff to you. That’s what happens when your work becomes stagnant, when your content becomes stagnant, when your emails become stagnant.

Your emails have a better viewing rate than social media by a long shot, but if every email is the same, people will stop opening them. They will stop marking… They will start marking them as spam. They will start deleting them before they’ve even looked at it. You’ve got to be willing to do new things.

One of the things that I often get the most pushback on is collaboration, and it’s so funny because collaboration is, like, generally speaking, once you find a good one, it gives you the quickest wins. So I don’t know why people are so scared of it, probably because they don’t wanna be turned down, probably because they don’t wanna be embarrassed, but guess what?

It’s no different than the position you’re in now. So if you’ve never tried collaborating with another business or another person in your area that has the same ideal audience, I highly recommend you suck it up and give that a try. Do something different. Be creative. And listen, we live in a beautiful, glorious time where we have AI to help come up with ideas.

I do not want AI to be your content creator. If AI is fully writing all of your emails and creating all of your content, that’s probably why things are slow, because people can tell a mile away. Use AI to ideate. Use AI to polish. Use AI to help you fill in the gaps. Don’t use it for your black-and-white content creation, okay?

But if you need some new ideas, oh my gosh, AI is great for this. Great for this. So spend some time with it. Ideate. Mix your creativity with the creativity of AI and come up with something magical. Do something different The fourth thing that you can control is your client experience. You have full control over your client experience.

Are your past clients raving about you? ‘Cause if they’re not, something’s gotta change. Are you asking your past clients for referrals? If not, and business is slow, this is a real easy low-lift thing that you can do. Are you nurturing the people who already know you and trust you, the people who have worked with you time and time again?

What can you do to serve them better to make it a no-brainer that they are shouting your name from the rooftops, that they are recommending you in, in all of the online forums when somebody’s asking for a local photographer? People who can open doors for you with collaborations. Take care of your people.

They… Again, if they’re not raving about you, if they are not giving you the referrals, if they are not willing to open doors for collaborations, if they are not having this, um, incredibly vibey relationship with you, your client experience needs work. And if your business is slow, you’ve got time on your hands So let’s make it better.

Start to finish, every single touch point, how can your clients have the best experience ever? And when I say client experience, I’m not talking about thank you notes and client gifts. Sure, that can be part of your client experience. I’m talking about every step and touch point they have with your business from filling out your contact form on your website all the way through getting their gallery and post-gallery delivery.

Every email, every text, every conversation, every Zoom call if you do that, every guide you send them, every single thing they open, read, hear, touch, all of that is all part of your client experience. You need to go through it with a fine-tooth comb and optimize it, make it so that it is easy, it is simple, they are taken care of, so that they walk away from the experience with you, and they have no other option but to rave about it.

To absolutely rave about it. Honestly, I like to tell my clients, “Your clients should be raving about you before they even see their images.” That’s, that’s what I’m talking about. They had such a great experience during the booking and onboarding process. They had such a good experience in the session prep process.

They had such an incredible experience at the session with you that they are obsessed with you, and they haven’t even seen a single image from the gallery. That is when you know your client experience is top tier. Those are the four things that you can control. Here’s what you can’t control. You cannot control the algorithm.

I wish we could. I mean, would not that… Wouldn’t that be just so incredible if we could control the algorithm? We can’t. You cannot control the algorithm. You also cannot control what other photographers in your area charge. You also cannot control what the economy is doing, what the politics in our country or in your area are doing.

You can’t control what competitors are launching and selling. You also cannot control if other people say yes to your offers or not. You can’t control what somebody else does. You have no control over any of those things, and therefore, you need to stop obsessing over them You need to stop obsessing over why that reel got no views after it took 30 minutes to make.

Stop obsessing over how frustrated you are that another photographer in your area has the most beautiful work, and she’s charging a third of what you charge. Stop obsessing over the fact that, quote-unquote, “The economy’s down, therefore I won’t book anyone.” Stop obsessing over the offers that your competitors are launching and whether or not you got ghosted or you got a yes.

You cannot control any of those things. Obsessing over the uncontrollables is a way that makes you avoid the work that you can do on the controllables, because you’re spiraling. You’re choosing to step into a spiral. You’re choosing to step into frustration instead of focusing on what you can control I want to give you some really simple questions, a really, really simple audit, something that you can take away this week because that’s what we do on the podcast.

Four questions. Number one: When did I last post consistently for 30 days? I do not mean post 30 days in a row. I don’t even po- mean posting five days a week for 30 days. Whatever consistently is for you. If consistently for you is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, great. When’s the last time you did that consistently for an entire month?

Second question: What’s my energy been like in my content? And be real honest with yourself. Are you approaching your contac- content from the perspective of sale, deal, I need people to book this, here’s another offer, here’s another idea, here’s another thing? Or has it been from the energy of, like, I’d love to work with you, here’s what I have available, and just going on about your day, posting about other things, not always pushing and hawking an offer.

Then I want you to ask yourself, “Have I tried anything new in the last 60 days?” Have you tried anything new in the last 60 days? And then last question, when did I last reach out to a past client? I want you to take one of those questions, pick one, and do it this week. Pick one. Pick one. If you pick the first one, when did I last post consistently for 30 days, and you’re like, “You know what?

It’s been a few months,” ’cause you go back and you look and you realize, oh, I actually haven’t been as consistent as I thought. Great. Awareness is the first step. And then I want you to map out 30 days of content that’s good, different, unique, try something new. Second question if that’s what you’re gonna pick: What’s my energy been like in my content?

Be real. Be real. And if you don’t think you can judge your content, uh, with true honesty, ask a friend. Ask a friend. And if you realize, you know what, it does seem a little scarcity, s- a little beggy, a little, you know, not really the vibe, okay, double down. What are, what’s the next few pieces of content gonna be, and how are you gonna shift your energy in how you show up?

If the question is, have you tried anything new in the last 60 days, I really want you to go through and look. Look at the last 60 days of content. Look at the last 60 days of emails. Think about what you’ve been doing. Have you just been, like, ruminating and poor me, nothing’s working, or have you actually tried something new?

And if you realize that you haven’t, perfect. I want you to look at the next 60 days and come up with some ideas for new things that you’re gonna try. You don’t have to map 60 days of content, but think about is there a new spin on your email? Is there a new collaboration? Is there a new this, that, or the other?

A new kind of content? What can you do differently in the next 60 days? And then if you decide to do the last one, when did I last reach out to a past client? Be honest. Have you ever reached out to a past client? Was it a year ago? I want you to think about that. If it’s been a while, I want you to pick out some past clients to reach out to.

Generally speaking, if you photograph newborns, I want you to think about all of the newborns that you have photographed that are six to nine months old, and I want you to reach out to those clients and remind them that it would be a great time for a milestone session or to book their one-year session.

Then I want you to think about any family or newborn that you photographed a year ago and reach out to them. “I loved photographing you last summer,” or last fall or last whenever you’re listening to this episode. “I would love to work with you again.” It does not have to be complicated, my friends. Reach out to the people who have already worked with you.

They have already paid you. They already love you, and see if they can book you again. In closing, you don’t need a fully brand-new strategy. I don’t want you to be stuck in the spiral of, “Everything’s down. My business is slow. I’m a failure.” You just need to recommit to the business that you already have.

Get out of the spiral of negativity and focus on what you can control. The market is still here. There is still so much money going around, people paying for all kinds of frivolous things. We are not in a depression, thank goodness. The market is still around. Are you? Are you still around? Are you still in it?

And if the answer is, “You know what? Honestly, I haven’t been in it,” that’s okay. That’s okay. You can change your mind now. Let this be your pep talk to get back in the game. I would love for you to share this with a business friend who maybe has seemed like they’ve gone quiet lately. Maybe you’ve heard them talk about things being really slow and things being a little bit of a struggle.

I would love for you to share this as some encouragement with another business owner that could use it. And if you feel, uh, led to, sharing it on Instagram would be amazing. I really would love the help. And if this episode gave you even one thing to think about, again, asking for that favor, hit Subscribe so you don’t miss the next one, and I would love some new reviews on the podcast.

That would make it so special for me. 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 at xo.sabrinagebhart.

And if you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you’d hit that subscribe button and leave me a review. Until next time, my friends.