Today’s episode is a replay of a conversation between my friend Kate Hejde and I on her podcast, How You Pictured It. This may be one of my favorite podcast interviews ever, as it is vulnerable and real. Kate and I are discussing our personal experiences with grief, and what it is like to be a business owner while going through life and the grieving process.
The Shoot It Straight Podcast is brought to you by Sabrina Gebhardt, photographer and educator. Join us each week as we discuss what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff too, Shoot It Straight Podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
Make sure you’ve hit that follow or subscribe button on your favorite podcast player to get notified each week as we air new episodes!
Subscribe on Your Favorite Podcast Player
Apple Podcast App | Spotify | Amazon | Google Podcast
Connect with Sabrina
Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest
This episode is brought to you by The Round Table, a community built for female photographers who want to continue growing their business while forging industry friendships along the way! Every month, you get access to three new pieces of content covering a vast variety of topics from myself and guest speakers. Come join us and get access to the content and private Facebook community!
Review the Show Notes:
How my business and relationships changed while navigating grief (5:53)
You need photos that are more than “just the kids” (15:48)
Shifts in Kate’s business through grief (19:45)
Giving yourself grace and time (24:15)
Grieving the vision you had for your life (27:35)
Shifting your prices to support yourself through grief (31:08)
Connect with Kate:
Episode Links:
Review the Transcript:
Sabrina Gebhardt
Today’s episode of the shoot straight podcast is a little bit different. So this is a replay of an interview that I did on my friend Kate’s podcast, how you pictured it. We’re talking all about what it looks like to run a business, and also be walking through grief. As you can imagine, if you know anything about my personal story, this has really impacted my life and my business over the last five years. So this interview is a really candid, honest and vulnerable conversation with Kate, where we share our personal stories on this very topic. Trust me when I tell you this episode is fantastic. And if I’m being honest, this is probably my favorite interview that I’ve ever done. So without further ado, I hope you enjoy the episode. Welcome to the shoot it straight podcast. I’m your host, Sabrina Gephardt. Here I will share an honest take on what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur. while balancing business motherhood and life. myself along with my guests will get vulnerable through honest conversations and relatable stories because we’re willing to go there. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in yet willing to talk about the hard stuff to to shoot it straight podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
Kate Hejde
I’m joined today by Sabrina Gephardt, I had the pleasure of meeting Sabrina last year at the reset conference and then hearing her speak this year, voto native, and part of what her talk was sparked a little bit of curiosity for me and an idea for this conversation. Today we’re going to be talking about grief and running your business through grief. Sabrina, do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself to start?
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, sure. Um, first of all, I can’t believe that we’ve only known each other a year. Longer than that, yeah. When you said that’s when we met. I was like, really? That’s when we met. It’s only been a year. But yes. So I’m Sabrina Gephardt. I am a lifestyle family and newborn photographer in Fort Worth, Texas. And I’ve been doing that for over 12 years now. And I’m also a business coach and an educator, have a mastermind and a membership and all the things and like Kate said, I love to speak at conferences. I’m one of those weirdos that really enjoys public speaking. Like it’s never that it. Thank you. It’s never been hard for me. I really do kind of love being up there. And I also have a podcast as well called shoot it straight. So that’s me.
Kate Hejde
That’s exciting. So let’s just kind of jump into this cat photo native, when you were talking you were talking about some big experiences and how they lead to changes in your business. I go ahead and tell us what those were and then we’ll kind of go from there.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, sure. So I’ll give you the short the short version of this since you know we don’t want this to be like a two hour podcast. Within six months of one another. I lost my grandmother, who was my person. She’s my Mimi. She was my soulmate. We traveled together. She raised me for several years. She was my best friend in the whole world. I lost her to cancer, which was at the exact same time and in the exact same place as Hurricane Harvey in Houston. So I lost her the night before the hurricane hit, which means I got stranded in Houston, in her home alone for seven days. And so I was grieving the loss of her. I was also grieving all of my friends and my family all were still in Houston. So I was grieving all of their losses as well. So it was like an internal grief with external grief on top again within six months, so those two big things happened. I also had an emergency appendectomy, which emergency was unexpected to know that I was going to have surgery and then a recovery process. We also sold our home, bought a new home, moved into set home then moved out of the home to do a renovation, we gutted the thing down to the studs. While we were living in a tiny little Airbnb going through that I got a call that my mom was unresponsive and had to rush back to Houston and I actually lost my mom that same day, which was completely unexpected. I knew that Mimi was going to pass gastric cancer and it had been years my mom was like a fully unexpected out of nowhere loss. And all of that happened within six months. And I have three kids and a full time business and was renovating house and like life just kept going. Right and then all of a sudden Yeah, about about six months later, I woke up one day and realized I’m not okay and I haven’t been okay for a really long time. And that sparked a whole load of changes in my life and am I done? Unless,
Kate Hejde
yeah, yeah, I, I lost my dad last December. So I guess it’s been a year over a year, December 2020. Unexpectedly, he was diagnosed with cancer. And then the next week, he had a heart attack and passed away. So it was really fast and set in. And he was kind of my person, like, my mom and my brother are besties. And my dad and I were besties. Kind of, and I mean, I have a really close relationship with my mom, too. But yeah, losing my dad was shocking. And then that came after, you know, already, I felt like I was experiencing grief before that, grieving the life I had before the pandemic. So I think it’s just interesting to see that there’s all different kinds of grief, and how we deal with that, and how it affects our business is kind of what I wanted to talk about today. I know for me it I mean, the grief of the pandemic, in my previous life, I made big changes to my business. And then when when I lost my dad, I had to make changes to so let’s talk about kind of what some of those changes were that you made with that shift?
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah. So for me, a lot of it was realizing that I had built this business that was completely unsustainable. And the crazy thing is that if you would have asked me before any of this happened, I would have been like, No, my business is fantastically sustainable. Like, I felt like I was doing everything right. I was charging, charging high prices. And I was I thought I was in control of my calendar, and I had an assistant and I was using automations. And I was outsourcing my editing. And I was doing everything right on paper. But a big part of what I realized was going well was I was actually not allowing any time for myself until like, rejuvenate myself and take care of myself. And my calendar was packed so tight, that if anything happened, within six months, a lot of things happened. I had no room to shift and ebb and flow with my clients. And it was just a constant letdown of people, right? Like, I can’t serve you now I can’t do this, I can’t even reschedule you, I just have to cancel you, you know. And it was just that over and over and over again. And so the biggest change for me has been really reevaluating my capacity, and how much I can take on not just client facing work, but also like the podcast and my coaching and different things, and allowing way more of a time buffer for when life does happen.
Kate Hejde
That’s huge. Yeah, I think so I lost my dad in December. So it was slow season for photography. But like, the last thing I talked to my dad about was my podcast, like I was just learning the podcast. And, you know, I, I felt, honestly, it was a little bit like guilt that I needed to get get it up and published and going. Because that’s, that’s what I had talked to him about last. And so figuring out how to, like do that and still allow for, like recovery and adjustment in your like how you feel like there’s a lot and I feel like, I mean, I don’t you’re further out than I am from that big event. But I, it lasts a long time. Grief lasts a long time. And I don’t think that we realize that. And what that what that even means, you know, like, what does grass mean?
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, it is definitely. It’s definitely something that falls into the category of you have no idea what it’s like until you’re in it, right? It’s just like our parents tell us like you’ll never know how much you love a child until you become a parent. This is the same, like you can never understand grief until you’ve been thrown into the fire. And it has been such a learning process for me of allowing myself the grief because it comes in waves. And the first year is very hard and everything is raw, but then it just pops in sometimes. I mean, I am five years out from this. And just last week, I woke up one morning and I realized that in my dream, I had heard Mimi’s voice talking to me and it like I like shut me down. I woke up and I was like, yeah, oh my gosh, she was there. And it just brought it all back. You know. And so it is just this constant cycle. And as business owners, it’s hard because like it’s we have our kids, we have our family and then we have this business baby and we feel like we can’t stop and we don’t want to stop because we love it. But But recognizing when we have to pull back and allowing ourselves that space is absolutely huge to being able to move forward at all, you know?
Kate Hejde
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well Nia, like you’re saying it does come in waves and like You could wake up totally fine, and everything’s going great that day, and then something stupid happens and you, like lose it and you kind of have to stop working for the day sometimes. And that yeah, having that buffer space and that whitespace, as you call it, typically Yeah. Kind of scheduled in so you can allow yourself to adjust and really make those changes is huge.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, another thing that has been really valuable to me in this process, and I guess, I had done a good job before all of this, of really cultivating, working with the kinds of clients that like, understand, right, I have such an incredible client base. And even now that I’m in coaching and education, like my students, and the kind of women that I cultivate into my circle, are so understanding. But back when all of this was happening, like I said, I was beyond the point of like, let me reschedule, you know, your loss within slow season, mine was literally through busy season. And so I was, I was to the point, and I do not recommend this. This was like an emergency situation. But I was to the point where I was refunding people’s money, and then emailing them and telling them, I like I’m sorry, I can’t, and which is horrible. But let me just tell you, 100% of the people came back to work with me later, 100% of the people sent their well wishes and checked in not just via email, but like text messages and checked in with me months later. And so the relationships that develop in my business, and I still am developing now are so much more than just client, like, like a business relationship, like there’s a personal report there. And I have always been what I call like an open book, like, I can share my story with the lady at the grocery store and the guy like just I’m an open book. And yeah, I’m not saying you have to be but for me, it has served me because in the five years since all of this has happened, I have written about it on my blog, I have written about it in newsletters, and I have been very candid about what’s happening in my personal life and how I’m handling it. And I have had so many people, unfortunately, over the last five years who have been welcomed into quote unquote, the grief club, and have circled back around with me and have told me I remember when you wrote about this, I remember when you said this, I remember. And it’s like it’s serving them all, you know, which is like, yeah, horrible thing. But it’s also beautiful. And these are relationships I have in my business, we’re not even talking about my peers, my friends, we’re talking about clients, you know. So it’s something that you carry with you forever, right? Well, then I think that the opportunity for that vulnerability and sharing your experiences is huge. And really does like it does make you and makes you a person it makes you have that connection with the people that are in your sphere. And in knowing that maybe you could help somebody else when they’re going through this.
Kate Hejde
It’s a really amazing thing to like to know that you can be like, hey, you know, it did last a lot longer than everyone said it would like, yeah, it’s okay that still in five years later, and I heard her voice and my dream.
Sabrina Gebhardt
I can’t tell you how many time you know. So I’m, I’m going to be 43 next month. Okay, so I’m in the years that my friends and I call like cancer, divorce and parents dying, like those are the years we’re in. It’s horrible. Yeah, okay. But I can’t tell you how many times I have seen a client’s share about the loss of a parent on social media. And I immediately DM them, and I’m sending them more than just, I’m praying for you. But it’s like a heartfelt I know what this feels like, if I can help you in any way, you know, like, I’ve gone on this path ahead of you, how can I help you through this? Again, it just goes so far beyond me taking their photos and they then paying me you know, it’s like now relating to, to them truly from human to human. And like that deep relationship, even if they don’t ever hire me again, for photos. It’s like not that Right, right. It’s so much farther than just business. And it’s allowing those relationships to, to carry you forward, I guess. Well, and I
Kate Hejde
think as photographers too, it gives us such a different perspective. Like I’ve always known photos are important, but then when all you have left is a photo and they say that but like yeah, you don’t realize it until it’s there. And you’re like, Well, shit, I wish I had a video, you know, or I wish I had a voicemail to or, you know, like the last family pictures we had taken. We’re in 20 Like what? 18 Maybe which I that’s pretty good. I feel like for an extended family session but it, especially through a pandemic, right? Yeah. But, you know, those things are way more important than I ever realized. And I always have been like, will like extended family sessions. But now I’m like, No, I’ll take your extended family photos, bring your parents, let’s go like, let’s get the photos of grandpa.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, I’ve always hated the extended family sessions. But now the same, same thing. I’m like, grandparents, yes, let’s do it. You know, it’s made me have this total new appreciation for all of the relationships that matter within a family. And it’s not something that I necessarily advertise. But for my existing clients, when they ask, it is an easy yes, for me, because now I can, I can serve them in that way. Because I know how valuable right,
Kate Hejde
I also realized that well, so one thing that I noticed, this sucks, but I noticed that all of the photos that I have taken have always just been of the kids. You know, like when we’re together, it’s photos of the kids doing whatever, not my parents with the kids, or, you know, just my parents and I, or those kinds of things we’ve never, none of us are very good about turning the camera on the adults in the room. And, like, I realized how important that is to like how, how unseen we are sometimes by each other. And how undocumented.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, yeah, it’s so true. And that was actually something that I shared right after losing both meanie and my mom was, my grandmother was the family historian, okay, she had all the photos and all the albums and all the things and it was my job to go through them. And then when I lost my mom, it was, again, my job to go through them. And I actually shared about that stuff on social media about all these photos that I was finding, and when they were from and me as a baby and me with these different people and and I just, you’re right, like we’ve always known how deeply important photos are. So many people think it’s frivolous. But at the end of a life, that is what is left. And I am constantly telling my clients, like the photos from your family session or your newborn session, or your motherhood session or whatever. They’re not about the kids. They’re about giving this gift to your kids when you’re not there anymore, so that they can see how you looked at them when they were three years old, how they fit in your lap, how all these things. It’s about you being there, too. And I actually, I have a line in my FAQs now about sessions, I will not photograph just the kids quote unquote. If you asked me that I straight up say, No, I don’t do that I can refer you to somebody else. And here’s why. And I give this whole explanation about how it is so important for you to be seen with your kids. Yeah, well, and I like I noticed too, like just taking pictures of mom and dad together without the kids to like those things. There’s just so many opportunities that we miss. And a lot of it’s out of vanity
Kate Hejde
for for the person in front of the camera, but right really, it’s so important to think about everyone that’s involved. And remember, like how you’re gifting your children, these photos, not of them, but of who you are with them, too.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And, you know, I can tell you as having that job having that role of going through all of the photos, I never once looked at those photos and said, My mom looks like crap. My grandmother looks like crap. They look tired. They couldn’t use the hair cut, they needed to lose weight that those thoughts literally did not even ask my mind. Like it’s not, that’s not a thing, right? It’s not a thing at all. We make it out to be a thing, but it’s not. It’s not.
Kate Hejde
Yeah, we did. We had a big day of going through photos. And like, I’m so grateful for my mother in law, who is the family historian and my husband’s side of the family because my side of the family is not very good at that. But she had like she had pictures of him at birthday parties and you know, stuff like that and just sitting there and sifting through those photos and remembering things. It’s just an important. It’s important. And Like recently I went through a photo album with my kids of it was of my mom before they were even born. I had made a photo album for my mom for her 50th birthday. And so that was fun to like, look at, you know, here are her parents and here’s me me as a baby and yeah, those things. Yeah, love it. Yeah, so my mom is a Me Me too.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Oh, I love that. I love that. Yeah, so I’m curious. I’m curious since your loss is more recent than mine, and different Yeah, every is always different. It was always different. What has that looked like for you as a business owner and as a running a business and be Being a mom like what has shifted for you since then?
Kate Hejde
Yeah, it’s been really interesting. I, it was really hard. So I actually had two newborn sessions the week after he passed away, which, like, I think, I think he passed away. Wednesday, and I had a session Friday. And oh, it was honestly really good for me to have that session. Because it was just the newborn and parents and I got to just like, enjoy that baby and enjoy the new life. And it felt kind of full circle. You know, my dad loved babies. And they were talking about, you know, the lullaby that they play at the hospital. And that had gone off. Like when I got to the emergency room after he had passed that, you could hear that, and it was like, oh, you know, like that. Loss and new life. But the changes to my business, so I, like I said, I was in slow season. And I had just started the podcast, it was really hard for me to keep going, honestly, I had already been on antidepressants, and sleeping meds, thankfully, and had a therapist, thankfully, all from pandemic stuff. So, yeah, that was good. But business wise, I, you know, I just kind of took it slow. And luckily, like, my, my income is not the main income for our house. So I was able to take some time, and kind of slowly work when it made sense. But yeah, yeah. And then. And then it’s really, like, caused me to kind of reevaluate what I want to do, and make sure that I’m not doing things that I don’t want to do. And those like, I always have preached that right, like, yeah, since since when my, my third was born, I started senior photography when Henry was born, and I was doing in person sales. And I, you know, I made great money at it, but I didn’t enjoy it, because of the time away from family. And so, like, I made that pivot not to do that anymore, and found ways to work during, you know, school hours and, and having that loss, they just, like, re amplified that. And also re amplified my need for more time for myself in the week to where I can go see my mom. Yeah. And spend time with family outside of work hours when, when it happened, like, uh, well, of course, it was 2021. So, we had just kind of started seeing each other again, you know, like, Yeah, we didn’t see each other for a lot of the pandemic, because we were worried about getting each other sick. Which is like wild, right? And then it shifted my priorities about like, finding time for the other important things for me, like, not just work, I love work, I love doing my job. But it’s important for me to go have lunch with my mom once a week, or make sure I see my mother in law too. And my husband’s grandma’s still around. So really prioritizing that family time outside of just my little unit too, because we are homebodies Yeah, we can stay home on a weekend. Gladly. And like, that’s totally fine with all of us. But it’s been really good for us to kind of remember that those other relationships are really important. And valuing those that time with people outside of our house, and friends, and all of it honestly, like it just made, it made me feel like life is too short to be working all the time. Or, you know, to not take advantage of the opportunities that exist.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, totally. I mean, so everything that I did that shifted and everything you’ve done that shifted, it’s all about getting more time back. Right. And, and it’s hard because when you are an entrepreneur, like we feel like every waking second we have should get poured into this thing we’ve created, or maybe are pouring all of our time into it just because we love it. And we’re excited about it and we’re passionate about it. But there’s, there’s part of it that’s like, What’s the rush? Like? Why can’t I still aim towards this goal and this dream and this whatever measure of success, but why does it have to be at that pace? Why can’t I just say it’s going to take me two years instead of one year and allow myself more time to breathe, right? Like, for me, a lot of the time I have built in is just to give myself grace, right? Like you said, if I’m having a day where it hits me, and I’m really sad, or my kids come home from school sick, or whatever life happens, it’s like just giving myself the grace to not be under pressure all the time. You know? Yeah. Yeah.
Kate Hejde
Yeah, absolutely. And finding ways to, I mean, it’s been a lot about like, Okay, I just need to hire somebody out for this task, or use a program for this task to like, make things a little faster. But also, I feel like, just seeing that, that connection piece with wanting to connect with my people, also makes me want to connect more with my clients and like, the people that I’m serving and how, how can I make a difference for somebody versus how can I make money from somebody? Yeah, yeah. That’s, that’s huge. I feel like thinking about what, what purpose you’re serving in their life? Yeah. Because you are, you’re going to make an impression on people no matter if it’s good or bad.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, totally. And I think I think time plays into that, too, like having the time and the bandwidth to really develop a relationship beyond just this, that client that that exchange of money and services, right, but really developing a relationship and like you said, serving them, like, how can I serve them? How can I really make an impact that matters? How can I show them that I see them and value them. And a lot of that comes with bandwidth, right? Because when you’re in a factory cranking out sessions, constantly, you don’t have the mental bandwidth for that. And it’s not enjoyable. But when you cut your sessions in half or down by 75%, and you can really pour into people you’re playing a bigger role, but also like that connection piece, like you said, it’s, it’s fulfilling to you to like we need the connection is so bad, you know? Yeah, yeah. That’s my word this year is
Kate Hejde
connection. Oh, because I like I felt like I was missing it so much. And after I went to the show it spark conference in November, it was like, Oh, I really do need people like even more now than ever. Right. And so that kind of has been my kind of guiding force this year is how can I talk to people and enjoy people? And you know, I think a lot of that is from that loss too. And the grief of, of the pandemic like that grief of like the life you had before Coronavirus and I, you’re in Texas, so I think things hit you a little bit differently there than Yeah, Colorado. Yeah,
Sabrina Gebhardt
I did. So
Kate Hejde
it’s been it’s been a it’s been a interesting thing, because like, honestly, I, my kids came home from school that March and then they didn’t go back to school for a full year we homeschooled for a year. So really put my business on hold for that and shifted and pivoted for, for that. And like it really has been interesting that that grief of Yeah, who I used to be.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Totally and, and that’s, that’s the kind of grief that I don’t feel like gets talked about very much. Anytime you had one vision of your life, and then it changes. That’s grief, right? And so whether it’s the pandemic or whether it’s you thought you weren’t going to be a mom, and then you got pregnant, or you thought you were only gonna have two kids, and then you had a surprise third kid, or there’s a there’s all kinds of grief that aren’t necessarily like these horrible things, but, but people don’t realize that anytime you had one vision, and you’re going full steam ahead and something dramatically changes and causes some sort of pivot, you are grieving the change. Again, it might be bad, but you’re grieving the life you thought you were going to have. And now trying to like reestablish, okay, just kidding. Now we’re doing this other thing over here, you know, and I think people don’t allow themselves to feel that grief. Like, right, oftentimes, right? Oftentimes, they’re like, Oh, well, we’re just doing this other thing. And then they try and blow past it. And then all those emotions, I mean, then you’re getting into a whole therapy situation, you know, but like, allowing yourself the time and space to be a human and be like, Oh, well, I liked where I was going. And I’m bummed and that’s okay. Yeah,
Kate Hejde
you know, yeah, yeah, giving your space that yourself this space for those feelings to exist and being like not feeling guilty about being sad about something like I feel like we shove our feelings down so much and it’s not good for us. Now and again, there. need therapy for that. But yeah, just having that that kind of space in your business, though, to allow for those periods of grief, even if you’re not, you haven’t experienced the loss of loss of a loved one. Like you said, having a third baby when you didn’t expect to write, I had my third baby about a year earlier than planned. And it was like, it was a gut punch to like, re figure all of my goals. And I mean, that’s, that’s where that in person sales thing. And senior photography came in, I had planned to go to a conference for that I went 14 weeks pregnant. And like, made those shifts still and then and then it happened and baby was here. And it was like, Well, this is not, this is not working. So having to like adjust to that was huge, too.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah. So obviously, we both made changes to like our time and our capacity. Yes. Which also there’s like a boundary there, right? Like we’re setting firm boundaries about what we can take on and what we can’t and saying no more. I’m curious. Even though you said earlier that like your household does not rely on your income. Did those boundary shifts and those time parameters? Did you raise your prices or change your pricing structure to?
Kate Hejde
Yeah, I did. So when so when I switched off of doing in person sales, I raised my family pricing significantly and switched to soft proofing for those clients. And it made a huge difference for, for how I felt about my work, how of like, I didn’t feel burnt out anymore, because I wasn’t, you know, I wasn’t paying making pennies for leaving my three kids. Like my kids are really close in age, they’re 20 months, and then 28 months apart. So I had a four year old, a two year old and an infant. Like it was bananas at that time. And making those shifts so that I could spend time with them. I mean, also, no one wants to babysit three kids that are that close. Right. Really hard to find childcare.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, I think I think there’s a big piece, like a big money piece there that, you know, I mean, we start our business because we’re like, I love taking photos. I love capturing memories. And it’s all exciting at first. But I think part of allowing, at least I know, for me allowing myself to have a lighter calendar and not take on as much I do need that financial payout. Yeah, to feel like it’s okay to feel justified. Right? Yeah. Like, yeah, like I am, I am helping support my family and my income does matter. And if I’m not making a certain amount, then I feel like I have to take on more. And so there’s a requirement to like, raise your prices. Yeah. So that you can breathe a little easier and feel supported and feel okay, with only taking half as many sessions or whatever. Yeah. And that is such a that comes with time and experience. Like, yeah, I feel like every podcast, every speaker, every class is like raise your prices at newer photographers, or like la la, plugging their ears just kind of ignoring it. But I don’t care how you look at it, from what perspective you need to raise your prices.
Kate Hejde
Yeah. And for me, the biggest shift was like realizing that what people were paying me for was not just my skill in the pictures that I was taking, but it was for my time away from my family. And like, that made it easier for me to charge more, because my family is worth more. It’s a mindset thing, like, obviously, I’m worth that much to but at the time, that wasn’t how I felt about it, but but feeling like, my time away from my family was worth that much versus the photos that I’m delivering, which I mean, you’re also giving an experience and blah, blah, blah, but I you know, there’s there’s a huge value and see that you’re valuable and that you have worth to not just the clients, but to the people that you’re missing it on to.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, totally. I mean, anytime you say yes to something, you’re saying no to yourself, your family, your personal time. And when you look at it like that, and you’re like is this extra job that I’m already capacity, but it’s taking on this extra job worth missing out on the XYZ with my family and 99% of the time the answer is going to be no, no. Right. And yeah, I think that’s such an important thing with having a business that’s sustainable through the ups and downs of life is charging enough that you can have the capacity, the time capacity to say no to things, you know, yeah, yeah. So
Kate Hejde
that you can like deal with the grief when it comes up and make those shifts and changes to Yeah, okay, we should probably wrap it up. But I’ve enjoyed this conversation so much. I could keep going. I know but I know that it’s, it’s so so hard to put a cap on things right. But I do want to respect your time and our audience’s time. So I’ll go ahead and wrap it up for now. But Sabrina, where can people find you? Where Where should we find you online?
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, so the easiest place is probably Instagram at Sabrina Gephardt photography. I’m there most days. I personally, my personal favorite feature of Instagram is the DM like Voice Memo thing. So if you ask me a question, or you say, if you ask me a question or say hello, I am probably popping in and you’re going to hear my voice. So don’t let that frighten you. Let that be welcoming that I love it when people come say hello.
Kate Hejde
Very cool. And Sabrina, you also have the round table membership. Do you want to talk about that?
Sabrina Gebhardt
Yeah, sure. So I have a little monthly membership. There’s about 55 women and growing currently it is just women. Sorry, guys, me. Yes, including K, there’s a lot of fun people in there. But it is very heavily focused on community, which is the connection piece, the having women friends that understand what you’re doing is so huge. But my whole premise behind this group is enough information every month to keep you accountable and growing without overwhelming you. So there’s, there’s three pieces of content every month. And that looks different every month, which is really fun, because it’s always keeping you on your toes. But it’s almost always one guest speaker and then there’ll be some sort of teaching from me or a q&a or hot seats. And then there’s generally some sort of download, like a behind the scenes video or a Thai watch. Yeah. So it’s really, it’s enough to just you can totally digest three things a month, right. And then other than that, it’s just the community like it is such a safe space to questions or share struggles or wins. And it’s just a little group that I’m so proud of. And I’d love to have anybody that wants to join in, join it, and it’s $22 a month. So
Kate Hejde
super affordable, which is awesome. I’m excited to dive into the video you sent out to Jay Yes, looks so good. And there’s some other trainings that I have to dive in still to. But it’s been really nice to be part of another little community and having, I think it’s so important to have a sounding board and have people to talk to that are experiencing the same things as you are as solopreneurs like, we don’t have that as solopreneurs we work by ourselves. But this is my this is my office. Here I am alone all day. So you know, it’s really important to have that, that connection piece. I love that. All right. Thank you so much, Sabrina.
Sabrina Gebhardt
Thanks for having me friends. Before you leave today, I have to tell you about the round table. This is a community I built for female photographers who want to continue growing their business while forging industry friendships along the way. If you enjoy my teaching style on the podcast, then I know you will absolutely love the roundtable. In this group, you will learn practical ways to move your business forward while finding community and accountability with like minded photographers. Every month you will get access to three pieces of content over a broad variety of topics. In the past, we have covered things like pricing, editing, goal setting, website reviews, social media, and even videos for me behind the scenes at real sessions. Members have also had the opportunity to learn from incredible guest speakers and industry leaders on a huge variety of topics. I pride myself in giving you just enough education every month to keep you growing and moving forward. While not overwhelming you with content. Oh and the private Facebook community is absolutely incredible. Consider it your space to ask all the things get all the support and make real life business besties. If you’re ready to join us and take this podcast relationship a bit deeper, you can head over to Sabrina gephardt.com backslash membership and enroll today.
