Are you feeling overwhelmed or stuck in a season of non-stop work? Are you feeling physically exhausted, unmotivated, or overwhelmed by your busy schedule? If you've ever wondered about the impact a sabbatical could have on your personal well-being and business growth, this episode is for you. I'm Halle Heather, and in this episode of the "Take Your Shot" podcast, I share why I decided to take a month-long sabbatical during the busiest time for wedding photographers and how I prepared for it.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why I am taking a full month off for a sabbatical: Are you constantly "on"? I'll share my personal experiences leading up to the decision to take a break and why it’s necessary for long-term success.
• How I Prepared: Learn how I ensured my business would run smoothly without me. I set up automated systems and delegated tasks to keep everything on track while I take a step away for a bit.
• Goals of Taking Time Off: I talk about the goals I have for my time off from my business, including enhanced creativity, better personal relationships, and a fresh perspective on my work. 
• Strategic Planning During the Sabbatical: This break is not just about rest; it is an opportunity for me to rethink my business strategies. I’ll discuss how I used this time to evaluate and plan for the future, focusing on what services or projects to prioritize when I returned.

Resources Mentioned:

• CRM for Automation: I’ll explain how mastering automation with Dubsado helped maintain my client relations effortlessly. Get started with Dubsado here: takeyourshotcollective.com/dubsado 
• Hiring a Virtual Assistant: I’ll share the benefits of bringing on a virtual assistant to manage routine tasks, which allows me to focus on more impactful aspects of my business. takeyourshotcollective.com/wedding-workflows 
• Book Recommendation: I recommend reading "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry" by John Mark Comer, which offers insights into managing the hustle of modern life. Find the book here: https://amzn.to/3RqKX2X  
• Related Podcast episodes: How to take a sabbatical with Ivan Amssan 

Other resources:

• Join the free online community, apply for coaching with me, or download some of our free business resources here: takeyourshotcollective.com/links 

If you're thinking about taking a break or looking for ways to refresh your passion for your work, listen to this episode. My goal is to help you recognize the signs of burnout and equip you with practical tools to manage your business efficiently while taking the breaks you need. Tune in to change how you think about work, rest, and finding balance.

Episode Show Notes: https://takeyourshotcollective.com/why-im-taking-a-month-off-in-the-middle-of-busy-season/

I'm taking a month off in the middle of busy season!

Shure MV7-1: So it is currently the busy season we are in the thick of summer, summer has just begun. Weddings have been in full swing for over a month now. And as a wedding photographer, I'm doing what might be considered one of the craziest things. And I am taking the month of July off. So let me just preface and say this.

I have been planning for this for over a year. Last year. I actually blocked the month of July off because I knew I just wanted to take some time to step back and enjoy summer. And also I'm basically calling it a sabbatical. So I'm not going to necessarily be not working at all. I just am not going to be taking on any client work.

And so I'm going to kind of do you guys. Behind the scenes and talk a little bit about kind of what my thought process was behind why I wanted to do this, what I've been doing to prepare. And if you want to do something similar, give you some practical steps and tips on how you can do something similar.

So this is what I'm excited to talk to you guys about, and we're going to dive right in.

So whether you're operating as a side hustle or you're looking for tips and tricks on how to improve and scale your business, you, my friend, are in the right place. You don't have to figure it all out on your own, and I'm so glad you're here.

Shure MV7-1: Okay. So let's have some real talk. How have you been feeling? Like how are you really, have you been feeling really stoked and excited about your work? Have you been feeling really just like motivated and passionate about what you're doing? Or are you feeling a little bit overwhelmed? Maybe you're feeling a little stuck.

It comes with its challenges. You wear so many hats and this is something that I've experienced a lot over the years. And so I'm just going to share a little bit about like my. My ex journey last year and kind of how I was feeling. What I was doing and kind of like what has informed my decision to take the month of July and just like really step back for a bit.

, and I'm considering it just like my sabbatical or some intentional time off kind of a mix of the two. And, , basically this is what I've been doing. So to kind of tell you a little bit of a story. So last year was a really kind of crazy year for me. I feel like. In terms of like my business for photography, like we were thriving, everything was so great.

And then three days after that, we were out in Moab shooting another wedding. And then we also traveled to New York, Seattle, like so many different things within like that entire summer, along with like shooting weddings across the country, like you name it, we were, we were literally shooting everywhere. And, , well that is something that I had worked so hard for when I actually finished last year, I kind of looked back and realized, man, like I did not get to enjoy. As much of this, as I was hoping, as in, I had all these beautiful photos of all these beautiful places I got to do, I got amazing weddings that I got to be a part of.

Like, I seriously, I love our clients. Like we are so thankful for the people that we get to, , serve and be a part of like, just telling their story. It's, it's incredible. And I absolutely love it. But when I look back of like the photos of myself, like in a lot of these locations, doing a lot of these things. I know I enjoyed a lot of it, but I also felt like man, like, Who is that girl?

I've kind of been like hitting the ground, running, working on so many different avenues of like passion projects and things that I've absolutely loved doing. And don't get me wrong. I love doing this podcast, but it has not been easy for me. Um, in terms of like running my regular, you know, photography, videography business with Luli photo and film, as well as like launching a completely new business, which is the, you know, take your shot collective and. We know we had our first workshop this year and we spent some time living on the road.

And like, there was just so many things that we've done and, . When I think about just like my life and the trajectory that we're going and the go go, go that I've been living in. Something has to change. Um, and, and, and the biggest thing that I really realized is like, yes, these are all really good things.

Like if you want to be seen as successful, it's almost like you have to talk through how busy you are and then people kind of have this like respect for you. And I feel like I've lived that way. My whole life. Like, I've kind of had this performance mindset where I feel like I'm like really it's part of my personality to kind of like earn people's approval.

And I do that through hard work. I've always had a really strong work ethic. I get that from my dad. Honestly, I love my dad. He is someone who like, he's always been in sales. He's traveled so much over the course of my life. And like he's someone who was like, so invested in his career that like, that's, it's just really hard to turn it off.

And I have definitely inherited that from him. And, um, and while it's provided like a great, you know, a foundation for our family, I do realize like, man, it's really hard to kind of turn that off and like figure out how to be present. And I think he's, he's definitely gotten a lot better with that as he's become a grandpa and like watch my nieces and nephews and all of that come around.

And when you run your own business, it's awesome. However, It can be really hard to separate work and life. And it can be really hard to find that balance. And I got this text last week from one of my friends and she out of the blue was like, Hey, Holly, is there by chance? Like a reason, like you're mad at me or something I haven't heard from you in a while. Um, and I just want to make sure we're okay.

And I got that text and I was like, man, like something has to change. And I, and I've been planning this sabbatical for the month of July for a while now. So I'm really looking forward to that, but I've been just having these kinds of indicators happening recently where I'm like, yeah, this is, this is a really good thing.

And so the, the weather being warm enough for you to like go outside and enjoy in all, going for bike rides and going for runs and swimming in the lakes. Like it's a pretty short season and. Or my course of being a wedding photographer, almost a decade now is like, wow. I'm like, I've been like spending all my summers constantly, shooting weddings and editing weddings and repeat and repeat and repeat.

, and while I absolutely love weddings and that's not something I ever really want to like, stop doing. Um, there does come a point in my life where I just need to find, like, what does it look like to have more balance? So I'm going to talk a little bit about like, what exactly I've been doing to kind of prepare for this, some of the benefits of, you know, having a sabbatical and like what you can kind of do to kind of think through, if this is something you need to do for yourself.

And then if you actually want to do this, I want to share with you kind of some practical steps that you can be taking.

Uh, I was inspired by one of my friends, Michael bane. She took the month of July off last year and she literally traveled Europe and was doing like all these crazy things. , I think her month of July is going to look very different than my month of July. In fact, I already canceled one of the trips I had to Yellowstone because I realized, man, I just, I need to be more present.

I can't do this, but I, um, blocked it off. And basically anytime I got any sort of wedding inquiries for the month of July, I turned them away. I refer them to my friends. I was basically saying, you know, I'm not available to take your wedding, but here's the people I recommend. , and, and, and I didn't feel this need to like explain myself.

, and as a business owner, like, you don't have to explain yourself, like, you can just say, I'm not available and they don't have to know why, like, why you're not, and they're not entitled to know that. Um, they're my reason why isn't, because I'm booking another wedding. It's because I've intentionally decided to take that time off.

And so I've been doing both of those things. , if you have not listened yet to the episode with Cameron, Antia about systems and how to set that up, like literally please go back and listen to that because it is life changing and I've actually taken a lot of that to heart. And that's. Been something that like Luke and I, Luke was a systems engineer.

Like he has worked on like processes and everything for manufacturing, like that's part of his background. So he's always been really passionate about it. I've always been more disorganized, creative, like let's just do these things and not have like as much of an organized system. So it's been really fun to kind of like. Take our strengths take kind of like these things we want to do is set a vision for our business and really get things a lot more streamlined.

, this is kind of just like a random plug for it, but please, if you have not looked at a CRM, feel free to try dub Sato. I'll link it in the show notes, we've got a referral code you can use, and it is, game-changing like literally it is the best. So, , we've done a lot of workflows through that.

And then recently I've been actually doing some of that for actually producing the podcast. So, , I've loved doing this podcast, but I'll, I'm going to be completely transparent with you guys. It's taken a lot of work. , it's been a hundred percent up until this point self-produced so I have been doing the editing.

I've been doing all of the posting on social media, content creation, everything that goes along with that. , from blogging to emailing guests, corresponding all of that. And I kind of got to this breaking point where I was like, man, I'm not going to be able to take this sabbatical in July if I don't get help.

I've also been doing things like, you know, planning in advance and having batch recording days and really trying to make sure that my schedule currently is set up in a way where I'm able to kind of focus on. My specific tasks at hand, I will say I've been doing a little bit of a push right now because with the month of July being a lot more lighter in terms of what I'm taking on for meetings, like I'm not taking on client work and I'm really hoping to mitigate or completely remove, , taking on any additional meetings for the month of July, because I get, I really want that time to be intentional. , and so I've been kind of packing in the last couple of weeks as we are here in June.

So that is something that I've been doing just to kind of prepare. And I think if you're thinking about whether or not this is something that you should consider, some things are just kind of look at and think about, and, and really like plan ahead on like this isn't something that you can just be like, okay.

So if you're thinking that this is something you want to do, It's really important to kind of think ahead about, okay, if this is something you wanna do next year, look at your calendar, what makes sense for your lifestyle? And when would you find that? Most beneficial for me? I love summer summer is my favorite time. I love being out on the lake.

I love doing triathlons and races and seeing friends and family grow outs. You name it like that is like my jam. I love it. And I always get this like really, like, I just always feel really sad when I'm like too busy to enjoy these things I love. And so that's why I chose the month of July. It's also so, so hot here, like in July, like it could get really humid and hot and honestly, sometimes those barn weddings in July can be super hot and sweaty and honestly I could go without, so we're good.

We're good. So that is like part of my intention behind choosing that. And so if you're thinking, man, like, I don't know if this is something I should do.

Like maybe you feel emotionally or physically exhausted if that's you, it might be time to take a step back and like figure out how can you. Recharge, maybe you need to take some sort of sabbatical or time off. , or maybe another warning sign would be it. You have a little bit of lack of motivation or passion for your work.

I know that weddings can, every single wedding is unique and different in its own way. However, I know that it can be really repetitive and there can be things where it's like, man, I got another Saturday doing this. , like away from family and friends and not being at the lake lake, sometimes you can get in your head and you can be kind of like almost discouraged like that you're missing out on things.

And maybe you lose a little bit of your enthusiasm because , sometimes maybe the work you're doing can feel repetitive. And so I think there's a lot of things that we can do to. You know, re spark that passion and have it. Um, but if you're feeling burnt out on your pole, And on top of that, like unable to be as passionate about your work.

And when you come back and pick the camera back up, you'll be able to really feel like, okay, man, like I'm ready for this. Like sometimes you just need that space. I know. I feel that with a lot of things, I do that a lot with social media. Like if I'm feeling like, man, I'm just burnt out. I don't mind taking a step back.

, if I can't show up authentically, it's really hard for me to show up at all. And I think that's really important to take that time off. , and that, and that also goes a long, long line with like your creativity too.

So like, if you're feeling like you're not motivated or passionate. It could also like make you less productive. It can make you feel less creative and it kind of creates this cycle of just not really. Being able to be the best that you can be. And then you kind of get down on yourself and you're like, man, like, it's easy to compare yourself to other people who are just killing it and doing such a great job.

And if you're neglecting your personal wellbeing and not taking those, you know, Taking rest seriously. Like it can be so easy for it to just go even more downhill from there. I know for me, sometimes it could be. It can be really difficult for me to like actually, you know, get good sleep or maybe I'm, you know, , neglecting like meal prepping for the week.

I know I've been actually a lot better since joining CrossFit and joining a lot of like, , I don't know, just different like workout classes. I've been doing them every single morning and that's been getting me out of bed. So I've been really good about like taking care of different aspects of my wellbeing.

And so again, I have this new assistant and she's been incredible. I'm super excited and thankful for her. And it's been really fun training her in on things. And I think what's gonna be interesting is as I kind of take a step back when I come back in August, what I really want to do is evaluate, okay, is this something I need to be doing?

Or is this something I can let go? So those are the things I'm still going to evaluate and try to figure out like what that'll be. , maybe it might look like going biweekly versus weekly with the podcast. We don't know. , I love doing it weekly and this is something that I love doing. I've also thought about doing two a week because I love the podcast.

Like we don't know. Do I need to do more of the podcasts, less of the podcasts? I don't know. That's something that I'll be evaluating. Another thing that I'm going to be evaluating on my sabbatical is. Well, first and foremost, just kind of like where I want to take things with, take your shot collective.

And so that is something that I know people have been asking about as well. And I'm very passionate about it. I just have not had the time to really dive in and think through, okay, what type of programs do I want to offer? What type of products do we want to have? Um, I don't want to just sit there and be like, oh, I can just like, take a couple of days, throw it out there and okay.

Call it good. And then sell something. Like I'm not, I'm not in this business to sell something for the sake of selling something. I want to make sure that I'm instead flipping it and thinking, how can I create the most value for each and every person who tuned into the podcast every single week, or who decides to invest in any of my programs?

Because I'm giving it right back. I'm serving you in every possible way where we're setting up beautiful shoots. We've got amazing just content to go over in terms of education and, and that, and that is worth every penny. And like, that's how I want people to feel. Every time they work with me is I want them to feel like, man, I'm getting way more than what I paid for.

And, and, and that's something that's easier said than done. And there's so many people out there who will just put a product. Out there for the sake of making money. And I'm just telling you right now, that's not what I value. And, and, and so I want to be able to sit in my values over the next month and really think through, okay, what does this look like for take your shot?

Collective? What does this look like for our future? And just making sure that we have a. A really solid plan and really able to like pour into the things that we want to be using to serve you guys and like putting out there for you guys. Cause again, I'm not going to put something out there for the sake of putting it out there.

I know of my family can feel that friends can feel that, like I kind of get in this mode of wherever I am. I'm all there. And it's really hard for me to connect in other places when I'm so focused on. You know, wedding season, for example. So what I want to do is I want to be really good about just trying to make sure that I am. You know, Like looking at how can I come back and have more of a balance when I come back to work.

So, , obviously there's going to be things that are still going to be running and, and I'm just still have my hands in. , when it comes to taking the sabbatical, it's not going to be a completely hands-off sabbatical and there could be different ranges of it too. Right. There's some where people walk away, they will not check their email. And, and that, and they just have someone taking care of all of that.

We've got so many automations again, we've used up Sato to automate so many parts of our business and I can utilize that. And that's great. And I'm looking ahead of already. Already kind of jumped ahead and have been doing a lot of timeline meetings with people like I've had to kind of look at, okay, what are the things that are going to require my meetings?

I've been scheduling my engagement sessions for before the month of July. And, and that is something that I've been intentionally doing. So I could be caught up on all my shoots and editing before July 1st. So. I'm really excited for it. I'm I'm not really, I don't really have any massive expectations.

I do just have these goals of, you know, I really want to make sure I'm sitting in intention and really just kind of looking at and reflecting on this current year and where it's at. I'm really thankful for all the things we've accomplished. I also do feel like it's really important to just have balance.

Like I've had things happen in my personal life.

Right?

Shure MV7-4: And like I'm seriously so excited for just what's to come. And I'm so thankful for just the opportunities I have, even just as someone who is able to take a step back from my business, and I have been able to plan for this

And I'll also need to recognize too, that, like, this is something that I've had to work for. It's not something that I just, all of a sudden woke up one day, decided like, oh yeah, I'm just gonna take next month off.

Like, no, this has taken a lot of time to prepare for. And things are still going to go as usual, right? Like I've got automations in place. . I've also got podcast episodes queued up and ready to go for the month of July. So things are going to still be running. This is just kind of a little behind the scenes on kind of, what's really going on kind of where my heart's at, what I'm really chewing on in the season and kind of the reasons behind my intentional time off

and a huge inspiration for this too. I just want to give a shout out to Ivan Amerson.

Like, , it wasn't necessarily something he was planning on doing the first time. He just like, kind of burnt himself out to the extent where it ended up bringing him into the hospital. And so, , there are so many different reasons why people will take on a sabbatical and while mine has been kind of this, like I have just been feeling kind of this, , ebbs and flows of just feeling really good at my business.

And then feeling like I'm really burning out and just kind of feeling like there's just a little bit off balance that I want to kind of take care of and also just like live more intentionally. And so I think this is like, One of the first steps I could be taking. And while I'm super thankful for just like the strides I've taken in this business and how Luke and I have been just like working through so many different ways and areas to streamline our businesses, automate things and like, Get things off of our plates to provide more pallets.

Shure MV7-1: So this has been kind of a fun episode sharing a little bit about kind of where I'm at in the season and what I have hopes for in the future and things that I'm going to be working on and coming back to you guys with, and when I come back in August, but if you guys have any questions at all, like I'm still going to be around like, feel free to shoot me messages on. On Instagram or shoot me an email.

Like that's going to be totally great to like connect with you guys. And like, if there's any specific ways that you want me to like, be serving you or have ways that I can connect with you, like I do offer one-on-one coaching. Um, that's not gonna be happening in July, but I'm going to be opening up some spots for starting in August, if anyone is interested.

And if, and if you can't, if you can't have capacity to take a full month off, maybe look at your schedule and figure out, maybe you can like plan for like a week off or two weeks off, like look for those time periods. Like, and then maybe out like one or two years, you can look at maybe taking a more extended period of time.

Like, I just want you to figure out for yourself, like, What does recharging look like for you? Where do you need to find that in your life? And how can you do that? Um, because it's so important to not just like hope it happens. Like it takes intentionality. You're not just gonna all of a sudden wake up one day and be perfectly balanced in life.

Like that is a skillset. That is something that takes time. You have to evaluate for yourself, where do you want to be spending your time? And what do you need to let go of? And unless you have that clarity, It's always going to be that hustle, bustle grind. Um, and busy-ness that our culture just will never stop praising, right?

So, um, it's a really good book. It's life-changing, it's also just like faith-based too. So if you're into that highly recommend it really good book. And I could probably do a whole episode on that as well, but I'm really excited for this sabbatical. I'm really excited for you guys to, in your own businesses.

So. So let's stay connected. And if you're thinking of taking time off, shoot me a message. Let me know if this has inspired you in any way, shape or form, because as you know, I'm just talking to a computer screen right now in my microphone, in my office. I would love to know who actually listened to this podcast.

So she'll be a message tag me on Instagram. I want to hear from you. That is probably my favorite part when I get those messages, because I just love to know that like what I'm putting out there is actually making a difference. So if that was you today and you enjoyed it, I'd love to hear from you.

We'll see you next week. Thank you for tuning in, and I hope you have an amazing day.