13 - Golden Time and Boundaries - Building a Business That Puts You First with Sarah Hoyle

In this heartfelt episode, Rebecca is joined by Sarah Hoyle – photographer, mindset coach, and founder of two thriving businesses. From her early career as a secondary school teacher to launching Sarah Hoyle Photography and later Nurture You, Sarah shares her inspiring journey of navigating motherhood, burnout, and rediscovering herself through creativity and self-care.

Together they discuss the power of morning routines, why setting boundaries is essential in self-employment, and how movement and meditation became anchors in Sarah’s life. She opens up about the realities of postnatal depression, the trap of always being ‘on’, and the decision to truly be present for her children. This episode is a beautiful reminder that when we prioritise ourselves, everyone benefits – at home and in business.

Expect real talk, powerful takeaways, and a few golden time rituals that might just transform your mornings too.

Useful links :

Insta: http://www.instagram.com/nurtureyou_from_sarahhoyle/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sarahhoyle-nurtureyouphotography-and-coaching/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Nurtureyoufromsarahhoyle/

🎙️ Edited with precision by podcast editing master, Mike Roberts of Making Digital Real

⏺️ Got feedback, a question, or want to be on the show? Leave me a voice message by CLICKING HERE – we might even feature it in a future episode!

✨ Subscribe, follow, and share with anyone who’s growing their business between the bells.

🔗 Connect with Rebecca on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rebeccanewenham
🌐 Learn more about Get Ahead: getaheadva.com

Transcript

When you become self-employed, it is so easy to just want to work every second of every day and be available all the time for your clients because, you know, time is money, time is money, and if you miss an email and you don't reply straight away it feels like you're going to lose that client or, you know, you become slightly obsessed. I have had a wonderful conversation with Sarah and I know you're going to all find what she's got to share really practical and really inspiring. She's got a great story and her highlights of having golden time every morning before everyone else gets up is a rather lovely concept and bringing in movement and boundaries as well too and I know how valuable that is in my world so I'm sure you're going to resonate.

With everything she's got to say in this episode so I will leave you to listen to the wonderful Sarah. Sarah, a huge welcome to Between the Bells. It's a real treat to have you on and I know you've got a lovely story to share with everyone so over to you to share your business story with us.

Yeah, I've been running my first business now for about 12 years and before that I was a secondary school teacher so I used to teach photography and art and I was the head of department and when I got married and had my first child I realised that there probably was more to life than just trying to run around and get to my job which was really tricky balancing dropping off my little one to nursery, getting to the classroom and then doing full day's teaching and then picking up my little one so it was it was full on in the early days and I realised that there was more to life and I wanted to do something different so I did start thinking about how can I maybe start my own business. I had a background obviously in photography and art so I knew I wanted to do something really creative and I was inspired my dad's bless him had his own business for the last 20 years before he retired so there was always that inspiration there from my dad that it could be done so running your own business just wasn't something that people really talked about that much but my dad was my inspiration so yeah I in the back of my head I always thought could I do it could I do something for myself so when my first baby was really small I started Sarah Hall Photography and that came about because I was hanging out with lots of mums obviously for the first time in NCT groups and all of that everyone obviously had their own babies I was going to baby groups so I thought I could start by photographing lots of little babies and that's how it started so I started off doing fairly inexpensive photo shoots as you do when you when you're new to these things and then as it happens a friend of a friend of a friend said oh have you ever done wedding photography and I hadn't at that point so I thought well let's just give give that a go and so I shot my first wedding in 2013 and it was nerve-wracking and I never worked so hard in my life I think I did a 12-hour shift that day I was exhausted I just thought I really want to nail this really want to do it perfectly for this couple really really passionate about being successful as a photographer so yeah did that and they were so they loved the photos I even though it was really hard work I absolutely loved photographing weddings so I thought this is definitely the space I want to go into so from there it just kind of snowballed really so I did still keep with family photography as well but my main main kind of focus became the weddings and I had a second child in that time too and when she was born I was able to say bye-bye to the teaching career because I'd gone back part-time after my first and when I decided there I'll talk for a while I was wearing two hats I was part-time photographer part-time teacher and then yeah when Sophie came along I was able to say goodbye to teaching I was earning enough and busy enough in my wedding photography business to yeah to say bye to that and that was a huge relief I have to say I yeah I wasn't enjoying the teaching anywhere near as much as I probably should have been so I was really happy to to hang up that part of my life and become full-time Sarah Hall photography so that's that's how that happened and then more recently in the last 12 months I've also started my second business which is called Nurture You and that has come off the back of quite a personal transformation story I guess in a nutshell I had postnatal depression after both the girls and also ended up physically suffering quite a bit after the births and developed a health condition that's yeah really was pretty tricky to navigate and the postnatal depression with that I was in a really dark place and so I've come out the other side through lots of hard work and therapy and working on myself and learning loads about the mind and how powerful it is so now because of what I've been through I really want to help other women I want to help other women feel confident and show them that there is hope and so Nurture You was born that is a personal branding photography and mindset coaching service all kind of rolled into one because as I said I'm pretty passionate about helping women feel good about themselves because I know what it feels like to be really low and have no self-esteem and be in a dark place so I want to help people to yeah feel good about themselves and then also that can translate to in front of the camera when they have their their photos taken for their own business so female empowerment is what Nurture You is all about so I'm running those two businesses alongside each other at the moment oh Sarah thank you for being so yeah real with us I really appreciate that and on many levels I can relate to you know my mum set up her own business so she like your your dad was very much a role model for me and I think it's probably you suddenly realized that it was a parent yourself what a responsibility and actually how important what we do translates to our our children as well and I love the fact that you were able to say bye-bye to the teaching it it led you to where you are now didn't it so that's really interesting and juggling two businesses but it's been lovely for me to see you transitioning in the last 12 months and you can see the energy that you've got doing something else as well and I think that you've encouraged a lot of people that you can do more than one thing and have two different businesses that have a similar synergy but that runs sort of side by side so that's wonderful so thank you for that I was going to say I know you've got some favorite tools to share with us so um what would you like to share if you start your morning in a positive way it's just sets you up then for the rest of the day so these were tools that I was introduced to when I was really suffering when I was really low and I I know that if I don't stick to this I can as things just start unraveling really quickly so I just feel like it's really really key to have a strong morning routine for your mental health and for as I said setting up setting yourself up for the rest of the day so that you can be productive and positive so I like to um I get up super early I like to have nice quiet I call it my golden time before anyone else gets up before the chaos of children and my husband and all of that the cats are always up early anyway so they they're my company early in the morning so I like to sneak down to my I've got a summer house office in the garden so I come down to my office with my lovely cup of coffee and one of the cats usually follows me as well and then I would like to do a meditation that's been a key part of helping me just stay grounded and focused and allowing me to have those those mindful moments throughout the day where you are very present and so your brain isn't spiraling and getting overwhelmed because I feel like in the past that's been a real pattern of mine to just feel incredibly anxious and busy and especially obviously with all of the stuff that I'm juggling it you know that again that can unravel really really quickly so the meditation first thing in the morning it's not it's not a really long meditation I will do like a yoga knee drill or something like that for 10-15 minutes but making sure I do them every single day it really is so beneficial and and over time you can definitely see how that is um really really beneficial if I don't do it so say for instance during the school holidays and and the summer holidays are the worst when my routine kind of falls apart if I don't do them regularly I can definitely feel you know the stress levels rising again and start to feel a bit more um anxious and overwhelmed with everything that's going on so yeah early morning get up nice cup of coffee alone time um the meditation and then once I've done all the packed lunches and the breakfast and the getting the kids out the door I still take one of my kids to school still walk her to school the other one's older now so she deals with herself just basically moving getting out walking so the drop-off is about sort of 15 minute walk so that in itself if I'm short for time it's great just to get myself out of the house and then sometimes I would like to do either a longer walk or I go for a run after the school drop off and twice a week I do like to get myself down the gym as well so having all of that mindfulness the movement physically moving it just really really helps set me up positively and feel good about myself and obviously gets all the good juice flowing doesn't it so yeah I notice it hugely if I don't have those things set up so yeah having a strong routine first thing I think is one of the main things that keeps me sane in all the craziness. Oh gosh I hear you and I think it's habit forming isn't it and I think it's very the to forget that and just sort of go on auto mode in the morning so well done it sounds like yeah and I hear you as well about the summer holidays and my girls are now uni age and older so I don't have that in quite the same way but I do always remember that slightly fearful feeling of oh gosh six weeks is looming but actually like you've said if you can make sure that you're looking after yourself then everyone else benefits don't they from that so it's just the planning. 

That's a huge thing as well so if you're yeah if you're running on empty and you're frazzled and stressed it just permeates into everybody else doesn't it you start getting a bit snappy with the kids start losing your temper then they're crabby back and it just yeah it doesn't serve anybody. No no no that's very true so have you got a bell ringer moment then Sarah to share some most important takeaway? Set boundaries that's my biggest biggest bell ringer moment is I have learned that when you're when you become self-employed it's so easy to just get just want to work every second of every day and be available all the time for your clients because you know time is money time is money and if you you miss an email you don't reply straight away it feels like you're going to lose that client or you know you become slightly obsessed that every minute you should be on your phone and looking at Instagram or posting on Instagram or you know checking your emails and being being visible all the time and I fell into the trap of just having my phone in my hand constantly and not really being present with my children so obviously I had the time before they got home from work as from school etc but then when they would get home from school I would still be half being mum half wanting to be Sarah Hall photography as well so but I wasn't doing either of them 100% obviously I was really split and torn and that was just really stressful as well it was really overwhelming because I've got one kid asking me for snacks and to put the telly on and then I'm half going oh no I've got to reply to this email about this wedding and this bride is demanding that and this so I was really torn as to what to do and my husband noticed that I wasn't present as well and I was constantly picking up my phone and being distracted by notifications and to me it was the most important thing in the world I have to be working on this otherwise this is not going to work this is the key to success is always being available and we had a chat and he was saying that it you know it's not fair on the family it's not fair on him and the children and then suddenly I had like this moment of realization that actually I'm doing the reason I'm doing all of this is so that I can be there for my children and do the school drop-offs the reason I left teaching was that so I had flexibility to be there for my family and I was then I was sabotaging all of that by being on my phone and and not actually being present so I've set myself boundaries now so when the kids get home from school that's it I don't do any more checking on Instagram or the email the phone goes away and you know I make the dinner and I sit with them and we always make sure as a family we have dinner together so we catch up with each other because it's so it's really fleeting these days especially with a pre-teen that's going off to clubs after school and she's got guides and whatnot and the other one's got brownies and we're all really really busy all the time so making sure that we have that time together with a sit-down dinner is really important and then if I want to once children are in bed I can then pick up the phone and do work but actually because I get up so early I'm usually in bed by half nine anyway so I don't really like to look at my phone again it goes away and then I've got that headspace and mentally that is just really really so much more healthy so yeah boundaries boundaries but I still relate to that Sarah that wanting to be the good girl and the good girl in every aspect of your world and I think yeah I think your husband did absolutely the right thing to sort of flag it and again with older kids I know that you won't get that time back so the sitting down for family meal yeah is is vital so I know some of my guests don't have a school drop-off anymore you've already sort of pre-empted this you've mentioned that you still have that time so have you I mean we've covered your your favorite morning routine already I guess haven't they really the school drop-off shout out was going to be going to a different space and working so I know I said of my lovely summer house office it's gorgeous but it can be lonely and I can just end up in my own head and kind of questioning myself so what I do like to do is perhaps after the gym I've got I'm very lucky next to my gym is a lovely coffee shop so I do like to take my laptop along and just sit in the coffee shop for a couple of hours and I just feel like that change of environment it is amazing for my energy it just brings a completely different energy it just focuses me as well I'm a huge fan of kind of time blocking my days to try and avoid procrastination as much as possible and if I've blocked out two hours in the coffee shop I've got this task to do and this task to do I find like I do it whereas if I had those two tasks to do at home I'd get distracted by the cats or the washing machine or going oh I'll just go make another coffee and you know all of that so yeah it really focuses the mind just changing your environment for where you work so that's a really that's a really favourite sort of tip from me is to just change it up change it up and actually support a local coffee shop at the same time is a rather nice way of doing it isn't it so yeah absolutely and probably my favourite part of my between the bells is the so teacher Sarah what have you got for us today um well I probably alluded to quite a lot of this already but my I always say look after yourself first so there's that saying isn't there um when you are on an aeroplane you always put your own oxygen mask on first before someone else's so that is the analogy that I like to live by look after yourself you cannot pour from an empty cup if you are exhausted overwhelmed burnt out you're not going to be able to serve anybody your family your business your clients so make sure you you are number one so again going back to the time blocking I block out the walks the runs the gym time and that's non-negotiable no one else can can get in the way of that because for me that is so so important for my mental health and again as I said before about my morning routine the meditation and having that alone time is just really really important so looking after yourself and take breaks like again being you know self-employed we think we have to work all of the time you know if you need to take half term off with your children your business will be there when you come back it's not going to disappear in a week take that amazing time with your children and your family I have taken yearly yoga retreats to Marrakesh my amazing yoga instructor runs these divine retreats and yeah they are incredible so that's like three or four days away and you always come back re-energized and feeling much more inspired and more ideas for the business fresh ideas so if you're plodding along on that treadmill you're not going to serve anybody so look after yourself is my main main homework tip for everybody. No I love that and it's certainly not selfish is it I think sometimes you can think oh I've got so many other things I could be doing but you're so right and it's that sort of boosting yourself up and I love the idea of the yoga I do used to do a lovely boot camp retreat in Portugal that was exercise and a bit of boozing and it was rather lovely almost yeah I'm missing that well oh so brilliant thank you I knew this would be a fantastic episode because not only the business that you do but the fact that you know you've had a story and you've got where you've got to through learning and I love that you're supporting women in so many different ways so we'll obviously share all your links in the show notes I know you've got a workshop which will have happened by this time this goes live but I know that you'll be running more in the future so thank you so much for joining me on between the balls