224: Why We Changed Everything About the Retreat with Colie James

Sabrina: 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.

Colie: Hello. Welcome back to Shoot It Straight podcast. I am Colie James, not your normal host, but Sabrina will be on the mic with me today. We are here to talk about the changes that Sabrina is making to Root to Rise for the next opening, which is, you know, 2027, guys, is right around the corner. If you have not listened to our Biz Bestie Chat from Q4, that aired on both of our podcasts two weeks ago, and live, while we were recording that, we decided that we were going to record this bonus episode so that we could specifically talk about the changes that she is making to Root to Rise for the very next run.

Sabrina, welcome to your own podcast.

Sabrina: Hello, my friend. I love this. I love… I mean, how many times have I said this in conversations? We should have our own podcast.

Colie: We should. And so I- I just

Sabrina: like talking to

Colie: you … literally, I think that should be our goal for 2027. I think so too. So I’m gonna say it now. Okay.

It gives us a whole two months to put that shit together. Yeah. So let’s, like, write that down on our vision board. I’m here for that. Not that I’ve ever done a vision board- … but maybe I’ll have one for 2027. So in our Biz Bestie Chat, we kind of alluded to the fact that we were making changes to Root to Rise.

We started by talking about all of the changes that we’ve made to the… And guys, I say we because I’m a co-coach, so I feel like I’m entitled to say we just so that you guys are clear on why I’m doing that. But in the current run, there were a lot of structure changes since- Yep … the previous one. Yep. And so let’s just start by kind of recapping those, because everything that you’ve done to the online structure is carrying forward into 2027.

Yep. So just give us a rundown of what that is, and then we’re gonna talk about specifically why you feel like it’s the best choice to continue it into 2027.

Sabrina: Yeah. So 2027 will be the ninth run of this program, which is wild. And in the coaching education space, that’s, I mean, kind of unheard of, that something is that long-running and successful.

And every single time I’ve run this program, I have done some sort of minor tweak. Maybe it’s a change to the material, something gets added or taken away. Maybe it’s a new expert or a different timeline. There’s always been minor tweaks, ’cause I’m always making it better and refining it. I’m listening to what my students need.

I’m also looking at what I need for capacity, how I can serve them better, how it can work better on both sides. And the 2026 fall run that we are in right now was the biggest sweeping change to the program that I’ve had. I didn’t just do a minor tweak. I did kind of a massive overhaul. And- Truthfully, it started from the place of I did not have the capacity to have one-to-one Voxer conversations with as many people as I was having.

And the first seven runs of the program, I loved it, and it was wonderful, and it allowed me to really deeply coach women. But I want the listeners to hear, imagine what it’s like having 15 or more one-to-one Voxer conversations multiple days a week for months on end. It was really starting to get hard, and the thing about it was the more I thought about it, the more I realized I’m basically having the same conversations with everybody.

There’s a little bit different of, you know, their unique situation, but we’re all talking about pricing, we’re all talking about launching, we’re all talking about new offers, we’re all talking about burnout. And so I started to ideate, could I take that away, but still have the program have the same intimacy and impact for my students?

And I’m gonna be very, very clear. I was real nervous. Very nervous, y’all. I was r- I was really, really nervous that I was going to, quote-unquote, “break the program.” And it was one of those things where I just, I knew it had to change, and so I looked at if I take that away, what can I put back in to make sure that they still have the support?

So what we did is we took Voxer away, but we added in, we doubled the calls, ‘kay? So we added in instead of one call a week, now we have two calls a week, and we made the program longer. So it went from, like, a 28-call program over four and a half, five months, to a 48-call program over six months. So the reason we did that is the teaching is all still there.

That’s what one of the calls every single week is, and then the other call is office hours, which is where there’s nothing planned. You come, you ask your questions, and you get coaching. This is where it’s, we’re replacing Voxer. This is where you get to ask me your specific question, and I can help you dig into your specific situation.

But what’s actually better about office hours now is that you also get to hear from your peers. You do. I’m not the end-all be-all, and that’s one of the things I say on the very first call of the program every run is, “I am your host. I am your guide. I am not going to be necessarily the one that gives you the most impactful piece of information during this six months together.

It’s gonna be from the group.” And so office hours now, you get coached by me, but you also get support from your peers, which is great. So that was a huge change. Another change to, again, add in a level of intimacy and community was we now have small group pods, and that is where the women get to participate on Voxer with a group of, there’s three or four in each group.

And I have a, a pod leader for each group, and it is an alumni, and the only role they have is making sure that the group stays talking, right? Checking in and, and, and seeing how everybody’s doing. There’s not any real teaching there, it’s really just accountability and support. And these pods are… It’s really fun to see, because I don’t know what’s going on in those pods.

I’m not in the conversations, but I’m hearing outside of like, “Oh, I, I brought this to my pod and we solved this problem,” or, “They helped me come up with this thing.” And it’s really great because the community is deepening even more than it ever has, which is really, really awesome. The third big change to the program is that we have co-coaches, which Colie is one of them.

We have three co-coaches, and each of those co-coaches has two or three of their own calls sprinkled throughout the program where they show up and they give some guidance, maybe a little teaching, and they answer questions, have conversations about their expertise. Colie is our systems co-coach, Jaden is our social media co-coach, and then Brianna is our messaging and human design co-coach.

And that has been such a cool layer of not just having one call with a guest expert, but being able to touch base with them again and again. And the co-coaches give themselves access to our private circle group for the week of their call, so women can ask questions and tag them and get feedback outside of just that one-hour call.

So those are the three biggest changes. And again, that was a pretty sweeping overhaul, right? Like, the content I’m teaching is the same, but everything else structurally was different. And the best news is that specifically the alumni that are in the program right now are loving the changes. And that, to me, was the gold star of approval that we didn’t break it, we did actually make it better

Colie: I will say as a co-coach, because I’ve actually been a part of Route to Rise since the very beginning, there is actually only one run where I did not do anything, and that was the run after I was the in-person co-teacher.

So I mean, I took one, I took one run off, guys, but otherwise I’ve been there. And I personally love that I get on the call, I get to teach them whatever it is that I’m gonna teach them, and then I do my normal professor… I don’t know if the other co-coaches are as blunt as me, but I hop into the circle and start tagging people- Yep

with hilarious GIFs. Like, “Did you do what I told you to do? I would like to see your homework.” I mean- Right … that’s the perspective that I take, and I personally love it, which is why I’m so excited about the next run, that we’re keeping this version of the online portion of Route to Rise going. But I think we left off, like, the most important part is that the current run didn’t get a retreat.

Sabrina: Did not, yeah.

Colie: We did not meet in person, guys.

Sabrina: Yeah, we did not. That was fully a personal decision. The listeners know that my daughter moved off to college, and I believe I’ve mentioned on here that my middle child moved to a new school. So we had a whole lot of school year changes, and I could not fathom hosting a retreat in the fall when I didn’t know what the college calendar was gonna be, when we were gonna go visit her, if any of my kids were gonna need extra support.

And it just worked out that I was like, “You know what? I just, I, I wanna do the program. I’m ready to launch these changes, but I don’t think we’re gonna do a retreat.” And it was fine. Like, it’s been actually totally fine. I have missed not having a retreat, and it feels weird not having a place for us to meet together, but it’s just, it’s what I needed and, uh, in this season, and it’s been great.

Colie: Yeah.

Sabrina: But I’m ready to bring it back.

Colie: Uh, there you go. Yeah. That’s a nice kickoff, Sabrina. Yeah. So we’re gonna talk about next, um, what 2027 is going to look like. We already said all of these sweeping changes that she made to the online portion are, you know, staying. That is what it’s gonna look like in 2027, but she is bringing the retreat back.

I’m just gonna say it. She’s bringing the retreat back. I will be there. Sometimes I invite myself. Yes, you will. Sometimes I have a role. This time I have a role. She has also decided that now that she has made these changes to the online portion, and in her words, she did not break that shit, we are gonna take a stab at changing what actually happens in person when we are all together in 2027.

So Sabrina, let’s talk about the biggest change that’s happening to the retreat, which is, and imagine that I’m giving you a drum roll.

Sabrina: The biggest change to the retreat is that we are not going to photograph any families. We are not gonna have any photo sessions.

Colie: And I wanna say, guys, I have literally been telling her to do this for two and a half years.

Yeah. Even when I went to Savannah and I actually led a photo session, I was like, “Sabrina, like, we should stop doing these. Like, there should be less photo sessions.” So I’m personally, like, over the moon to be at the first one where there are no photo sessions. Yeah. Because I don’t know if the listening audience knows this by listening to you.

I mean, you say it over and over again, but sometimes people don’t hear you when you say this. Her return rate for alumni is incredible. The fact that she has people who were in the very first run that still choose to come back and join Route to Rise again means that their business is very different now than it was then.

And I do believe from my outside perspective that Sabrina is attracting more and more photographers that really don’t need all of that coaching that she used to provide in photography sessions at the retreat.

Sabrina: Yeah, definitely. And I have told people this from the beginning in the very first run of Root to Rise, I am an okay photographer.

I am a great business person. Um, and so i- if I’m being quite frank, when, when Root to Rise was born and I really did think, “Okay, I wanna host a retreat. I want there to be a mastermind attached to it. What does this look like?” And I’m starting to put the building blocks together of what this program is gonna be, I added in photo sessions because I thought that’s what everybody did and we had to do that.

Colie: But they probably did want them then. I do wanna say, like, the industry has changed a lot. Like, think about the fact that you met me. Right. I mean, can you imagine if you had came to my retreat back then and photography wasn’t part of it? Like, that was so early in the lifestyle photography era, and then particularly for me, where I take the perspective of being way more documentary when I was going into people’s homes.

I really did need to teach people my techniques back then. Right. I don’t think it’s as needed now. I mean, both lifestyle and documentary family photography are pretty mainstream at this point. Yeah. So I mean, back then, Sabrina, they needed it.

Sabrina: Yeah. Yeah. A- a- and, uh, but I, I do wanna say it was from the perspective of not I’m giving you this skill and I’m solving problems for you because I think you need it, because remember, before Root to Rise, I mentored in person.

Like, people would fly to me and come shoot sessions with me for years and years and years. I mean, that’s how I met Natasha. Hi, Natasha. But, uh, and so people did need to know that. And in my particular area, I was one of the first in-home photographers to, like, nail it and do it well. And but I, I really did.

When I put the retreat together, I was like, “Well, there has to be photo sessions ’cause that’s what people do.” You know what I mean? Yeah. And I, and it was fun. Don’t get me wrong. They’ve always been fun. But here’s what I want the listeners to hear. They are fun, and they are sexy, and when you sign up to go to a retreat, you just assume you’re gonna do photo sessions.

But I have hosted so many retreats now, you guys. Spring is gonna be c- Colie, what, 13?

Colie: Mm-hmm.

Sabrina: 14? I mean, it’s, it’s li- it’s a lot. I think it’s gonna be 13. I think it’s gonna be lucky 13. Um, maybe it’s 14. Anyways, I’ve hosted a lot of retreats, you guys. And I can tell you right now, the photo sessions are the least impactful thing of every single one.

Period. Mic drop. We could end this conversation right now. And they’re the least impactful thing- Always, by far and away, and yet they take up the most time.

Colie: And the stress, ’cause you know-

Sabrina: Oh, Lord …

Colie: like

Sabrina: honestly-

Colie: Oh, Lord … coordinating that is my worst nightmare. And

Sabrina: when I was the- A lot of these grays that are showing right now on video- Right

are from, are from the, yes, the stress of that.

Colie: When I was the co-teacher in Savannah, I chose not to teach photos. I chose to teach video because- Mm … you know, no one else had came to your retreats to teach video. Yeah. I usually got a lot of questions from people about making films and all of the things.

And so that was actually the first time that you eliminated one of the shoots- Yeah … to give me an extra slot to actually make the films with them. Right. Because that was one of the things that I told you. I’m like, “No, I can teach them how to turn on their camera and film it, but that’s not actually the, the part that people- Right

struggle with.” Right. It’s the actually taking the footage- Right … and putting it into a film. Yeah. But when Sabrina was like, “Would you like to, you know, find your own model family?” The, the speed in which I went, “No.” You were like, “Absolutely not.” In fact, I will not come if I have to find- Oh … my own model family.

Yeah. That’s just not happening. So I mean, I know from the, you know, the hosting perspective and then also being a co-teacher, how stressful it is to coordinate with these families- Oh, yeah … and make sure that, you know, everything is good. And I don’t actually know that you know this or that I told you guys, I think I did.

When Sabrina attended my retreat all those years ago, she actually got a backup family for the session that we did for my part, because at that point- Oh, I didn’t know that … I co-hosted- Yeah … with someone else. She did lifestyle photography outside. I was doing lifestyle documentary photography inside. But my family had to cancel because they were sick, like one of the kids was sick.

Oh, I didn’t know that. So the family that you actually documented, which is my favorite family- Yeah, yeah … of all time- They’re so great … was, I called the mom and I’m like- She was like, “Help” … “Hey, help.” Yeah. I have eight photographers coming, and I don’t have a model family. I’m like, “Can you tell Christian that he will be my best friend if he just says yes?”

And you know from being there how fun they are. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, they let their son play hockey in the house. Yeah. They kick soccer balls. I mean, it couldn’t have been any better, but literally I got them to agree to do that I think- Yeah … eight days before you guys were coming.

Sabrina: Yeah, yeah. It is the stress that goes into, and, and the time, because it’s, it’s creating the form for people to apply.

It’s sharing it on social media and emailing your list and getting people to apply. It’s pi- it’s going through all of the applications, getting on a Zoom call to meet with them, are they actually a good fit? Picking a backup family just in case, like needing to see their home. Is their home good enough, or do we need to do it somewhere else?

I mean, so much stress goes into it. Not to mention, you have seen this firsthand, the weather stress. Which was always stressful for me because I go into… I’m, I’m an indoor, in-home photographer, and what if it’s gonna rain the whole time we’re there? And that’s what happened in Destin. We had to stack, we had to reschedule all of our photo sessions, which we actually had four in Destin, okay?

We had four in Destin, and we actually had to stack them and move them forward because we were expecting terrible, terrible storms, and two of the four were beach sessions. And, like, you want gorgeous light and all this. So those poor Destin girls, literally they arrived and immediately- We immediately ship.

we had a powwow, we immediately had a powwow and I was like, “Schedule’s changing. We’re chasing the weather. We’re gonna have one session right now, and then we’re having three back to back in the morning.” So by, like, 1:00 PM on the first full day, we had shot four sessions. It was- Wow … we were all fried. In fact, we were so fried, and our schedule w- since we had pushed everything so far forward, our schedule actually freed up.

It was storming after lunch that day, and half the group, including myself, went and took a nap because we were all- Lovely … so, like, depleted and I was like, “We actually have a chunk of time. Everybody wanna reset?” And I could not believe. I was laying down and I was like, “Am I about to go to sleep at my own retreat?

Yes, I am.” And, but it was great. We had a great time, and it worked out perfectly, but the stress. There’s stress about… But I, I want you to hear, listeners, the stress is not why we’re removing it. It’s a bonus for myself that we’re re- the stress is gonna be gone, but we’re removing it because you don’t actually need photo sessions.

The women who participate in Route to Rise, for the most part, are not beginners. You have a beautiful portfolio. You have a massive enough body of work. You need time to work on your business and do the stuff that you’ve been saying you’re gonna do, and you need hand-holding and eyes on things. That is always the most impactful.

That and the community aspect, which I promise will still be there and will still be incredible for the spring retreat. But we’re not gonna spend all this time driving to sessions, photographing sessions, and I’m not gonna kick you out of a retreat with a whole bunch of backlog of images you now have to edit.

We’re gonna do the stuff that matters even though it may not seem like the sexy stuff, right? We’re gonna do the stuff that matters so that you walk away from the retreat actually having made a really big impact in your business. And- Having checked some shit off the list … have checked some stuff off, and laughing your ass off, maybe crying, making a new business bestie.

Like, and it’s still gonna be awesome. It’s still gonna be the level of retreat that I am known for, so I promise you that

Colie: I agree, and I’m excited, and I can’t wait. And the funny thing, uh, well, you know what? We’re not gonna get into that. Let’s talk about what we’re actually gonna do if we’re not gonna do photos.

Now, Sabrina has already told me before we hit record that we are not ready to actually announce what the sessions will be. But- Yeah … we’re just gonna give you kind of like a this is what we’re thinking kind of situation. Yeah, yeah. So Sabrina, take

Sabrina: it. And I, I will say, we can get into this in a second, but I’m also, I don’t think I’m gonna publish my schedule anymore.

There, and there’s a reason for that. So I’m gonna, you’re gonna loosely know what’s happening at the retreat, but I, I’m not going to… I, and his- and historically I’ve always had, like, the whole schedule on the sales page when you decide to join. Of course she has. I’m not, I’m not doing that anymore, and we can get into why in a minute.

But loosely speaking, we’re still gonna have the incredible community fun experiences. We’re still going to have time for games and laughter, and you’re gonna be eat really, really well. All of that stuff is a given. We’re gonna be staying in a gorgeous home. All of that stuff, like, it is still Sabrina level retreat, okay?

You’re gonna have a blast, I promise. But what are we gonna be doing? One thing that we’re gonna be doing that I’m really excited about, and we actually did this at the spring retreat in Austin this year, but it was a surprise. Like, we didn’t plan it this way. It just, it was kind of a last-minute surprise that we did, and it went so freaking well and everyone was obsessed with it that I was like, “I feel like this should be a thing going forward.”

My retreat coordinator, her name is Cheyenne, and she is a really talented photographer out of the Austin area. And she does families, but she also does, like, commercials and br- like commercial and brands. She also on the side owns and runs her own modeling agency, which is absolutely popping off and we’re so proud of her.

Look up Ladybird Management. It’s insane. But anyways, she does all kinds of incredible commercial work with models, and so she knows what she’s doing. So in Austin, we had instead of doing headshot swapping, which we had always done, where we, like, photograph each other and get really silly and playful, and it is really fun, we had Cheyenne do headshot minis, branding minis for everybody, where everybody got 15 minutes.

They got to bring their own stuff. We were in a studio. And it was insanely fun because we all went together, and we’re, like, hooting and hollering and making each other laugh, and we’re playing music and watching Cheyenne do her thing, and it was really, really cool. But everybody walked away with professional level, like not just silly little headshot swap, but, like, a whole gallery of images from an insanely talented photographer that they could update their website, update their socials and all this.

So we’re doing that again in the spring, and Cheyenne is gonna do it for everybody there, which is incredible, and I’m super excited for everybody. So you’re gonna walk away with new images of yourself, which is a huge win, a huge bonus. Woo-hoo. Right? Yeah. But then the rest of the retreat is going to be Colie and I teaching- Hi.

Colie: I’m coming again. I

Sabrina: told you. Colie’s, Colie’s coming, and she’s a big part of this retreat. Um, she and I just go well, so well together. Um, she and I are going to be… We’re gonna have basically teaching blocks and then working blocks. So we’re gonna teach a thing, and then everybody’s gonna split up and do that thing.

You hear me? So we’re not just teaching, teaching, teaching, teaching and giving you a laundry list of things where you’re inspired and excited, but you’re not actually ever getting it done. Kinda like when you go to a conference and you’re like- Mm-hmm … “Oh my God, I wanna do all these things,” and you leave with a notebook, and then you get home and you’re so busy that the notebook never gets touched.

No, we are teaching and doing, and teaching and doing. So you’re gonna learn and actually implement while we are there. And there’s going to be, I, I wanna say there’s four or five different blocks on the schedule, where it’s like teach, work, teach, work, teach. So it’s gonna be several things, okay? I’m not ready to tell you what those are yet, but imagine having a time where you get to go and learn something, ask the expert questions, get their eyes on your thing, and then have them sit with you while you do the thing.

Mm-hmm. So you’re gonna leave the retreat with certain things and certain parts of your business, like, overhauled, and also imagery to, like, update your website and your socials. I mean, it’s gonna be so awesome because these women are gonna leave with the, like, pride of, “I not only just had the best, most fun weekend, but also, damn, I did all that stuff, too.”

Colie: Mm-hmm.

Sabrina: Yeah. I’m excited.

Colie: And the one thing that I wanna kick in, this doesn’t have anything to do with Root to Rise, guys, but when Sabrina says that you go to an amazing conference and you walk away with a notebook of things, I want you guys to hear me when I say this, ’cause Sabrina does it and I do it, and so everybody else should just do it, too.

When you take the time to invest in an experience and go to a conference, you should always be adding one extra day so that you can sit- At least. At least. So that you can sit in a hotel or your Airbnb, whatever it is, and literally make sure that you do at least your top three priorities from a conference.

And I have been doing that for years. Sometimes Sabrina and I do it together after a conference. But- We wanna make sure that you’re not just consuming knowledge, that you are actually implementing it. And so to me, that was one of the really nice things about the changes that you made to the online portion, and I’m super excited to see what that looks like in the retreat format.

Because I feel like when I was the teacher in Savannah, to a certain degree I did that. Yeah. Like, not only did everybody learn how to make a quick 60-second film from me while I was showing them my footage and choosing the clips that I was gonna use, and I was explaining why, and I was literally showing them in Premiere Pro how you clip, how you use the audio.

But then by the end of that retreat, so many of them had finished their- Yeah … one-minute films, so that they then had something to show potential clients, “Hey, I’m gonna be doing this filmmaking thing. This is what it looks like. Would you like one?” Right. And I think that that was one of the biggest things that, at least when I went to Savannah, that I saw them walk away with, and I was like, “Okay, this is good.

My professor brain is happy that they checked it off, and I basically gave them a grade, and then they went out into the world and they used it.”

Sabrina: Yeah, exactly. And one of the things we’ve always done at the retreat, which we s- we’ll s- this will still be a part of the retreat experience, is have a mastermind where we sit around and every single person brings one question or problem to the group, and we work together as a hive, as a true mastermind, so that she has an action plan or a solution to walk away with, okay?

So every single person is getting a problem solved, a solution, whatever. And that two or three-hour window is always incredibly impactful. That’s one of the things that people were like, “That, that two or three hours was worth the whole weekend.” Because when you get women together to really, like, dig in and solve each other’s problems, it’s so inspiring and fun, and also it makes you feel seen.

And to know that this thing that’s been weighing on you is now solved and you have a way forward is incredible. So we will still be doing that. That session will still be a part of the retreat. But the whole weekend is gonna feel like that now, right? Because we are going to be doing the things. I, I don’t want women to leave overwhelmed.

I want them to leave relieved.

Colie: Mm-hmm.

Sabrina: Right? I want them to leave with, like, “That thing got done, and also I made a new friend, and I had a blast, and I feel like ref- my cup is refilled. You know, I got time away from my kids,” whatever. All of those things that are so important about the retreat. So I know it may not seem as sexy on paper that we’re not doing sessions, but I really hope that you can hear me tell you, as someone who has done this for so long and so many times, I promise you, you don’t need the sessions.

You’re

Colie: not gonna miss it. I’m not

Sabrina: gonna miss it. I promise you you’re not. I promise you, you are not going to regret coming and not doing photos. I promise. You just won’t.

Colie: Okay. So where are we going, Sabrina?

Sabrina: We are gonna be in Nashville.

Colie: Nashville. Yay. It’s a, it is a nonstop flight. Here’s my rule, guys. I am only willing- Yes

to go places that I can get on one plane and one plane only, because if you wanna talk about stress, going somewhere where I have to- Oh, lord … have a layover is- Yeah … always… I mean, anybody that knows me knows I have multiple planes booked just in case one airline screws me, I can get on another one. So I’m very excited about Nashville.

And Nashville’s been on your list, I swear. For a while.

Sabrina: For, like, three years? It’s been on my list for a while.

Colie: Yeah.

Sabrina: Yeah. And I don’t know why I haven’t done Nashville yet. I, I… Other places have just… I don’t know, whatever. But for whatever reason, we’re finally doing Nashville. The retreat dates are March 4th through the 7th, and, um, it’s gonna be really great.

We’ve got a really darling place that we’re gonna be in. Um, our house is really great. The location is really great. Uh, I’m, I’m really jazzed. I love Tennessee. I love Nashville. It’s such a fun place. We should have some excellent food while we’re there, which will be fun. Uh, and like you said, it’s easy to get to for almost everybody.

It’s a, it’s a pretty big hub, so it shouldn’t be complicated for any of our friends to get there. It should be easy. Should be really easy. Okay.

Colie: So when this airs, everybody, if you are listening to this episode today, it is literally the last day for you to join the wait list to join us in Nashville next year.

Now, even if you’re, you listen to this and there was even the slightest inkling that you’re like, “Okay, this is the, this is the one that I’m going to join,” go join the wait list anyways, because the wait list people get a nice bonus. And Sabrina and I always talk about the fact that we don’t understand why some of y’all are not taking advantage of this when you end up joining anyways.

I know. I need you to go to the website. Sabrina’s about to give you a link because I should have asked her for it before I opened my mouth. But you guys are gonna go sign up for the wait list, and it actually opens, it’s open to the wait list tomorrow.

Sabrina: Now. No,

Colie: now. Now.

Sabrina: Mm-hmm.

Colie: Now. Yep, it opened yesterday.

And then it will open to the public next week. Yep. So, you know there’s always limited spots, guys. Yep. So, you know, earlier is better. Yes. But Sabrina, what is the link? I know it’s gonna be in the show notes- Yeah … but I always like to say it out loud.

Sabrina: It’s sabrinagebhart.com/mastermind-waitlist. Mm-hmm. And you definitely wanna get on the wait list.

There’s a discount if nothing else. Like, why, why wouldn’t you? ‘Cause there’s a discount, right? And, uh, limited spots. There’s limited spots for the whole capacity of the mastermind, but obviously for the retreat. It’s much smaller, and those spots generally go pretty quick. I will say, uh, at time of recording, uh, there’s already one, two, three, four, 10 people that I’m having conversations with about it.

Mm-hmm. So by the time you hear this, there could be a whole bunch of spots already gone. I- Yeah … I don’t know. That wouldn’t be unheard of. That generally happens with this program. And I’m so honored because, again, like I said, it’s so long-running that you can trust it, and it’s impactful. And like Colie said, I have a 40% return rate, which is, like- Insane

not meant to be a humble brag, but it’s, it’s… It just floors me. It floors me that I have women that wanna come back over and over and over again. And, uh, I love to continue to serve them, so I’m sure we’ll have some alumni already signed up by the time that this airs, which will be exciting.

Colie: Okay. So guys, again, March 4th through the 7th in Nashville, me and Sabrina, and Cheyenne, ’cause we can’t forget about Cheyenne.

Yep, Cheyenne will be there. She’s gonna be there too.

Sabrina: Yep.

Colie: Um, so go to sabrinagebhart.com/mastermind-waitlist and join. Sabrina, do you have any closing thoughts? ‘Cause I mean, you know, you’re about to go into launch mode. Bless you, girl. I’m gonna be here as your support person. Um, but is there anything else that you wanna drop before we wrap this up?

Sabrina: I don’t think so. I’m feeling very, very excited about this next run of the program. I can’t believe it’ll be 2027. Mm-hmm. Like, what are we talking about? But, uh, there, like I said, there’s already a lot of buzz around it, so I think, I think that 2026 was a weird year for people, and people are ready to move on, and they’re ready to set their sights on the next year.

And I’m honored that so many people are talking about maybe taking me along for the ride. So, uh, I can’t wait to see who joins this program for the next group. It’s always just the most incredible group of women, and it’s gonna be a great run.

Colie: All right. Guys, you guys have all the details. If you didn’t listen to our Q4 Biz Bestie chat, please go listen to it.

It aired two weeks ago. And I’m gonna leave you with one more thought before we say goodbye. The funny thing is, we decided that I was gonna be the guest teacher literally two weeks ago on a co-coaching call. Live. I mean, the girls will now know that this is what we were talking about. Yes. But she’s literally like, “I just texted you.

Read it.” And I read it, and I was like, “Absolutely, I’m in.” And of course, none of them knew what this meant. Yeah. So hey, ladies, this is what we were talking about on our call two weeks ago. Yeah, that was funny. But again, all of the details are on the website. It’s gonna be amazing, and I hope… I’m, I’m excited to see what new faces we end up, um- Me too

having join us, not only for the online portion, but specifically for the retreat.

Sabrina: Yeah.

Colie: All right. Do you know that I don’t know how Sabrina closes this off? And so I’m gonna do what I do on my own podcast, which is, all right, that’s it for this episode. Sabrina will see you next time. Yep. Bye. Bye,

Sabrina: friends.

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.