Giving Myself Permission to Pause: Podcast and Offers Update, Moving, and Redefining Success I Ep 188

"This felt hard to do, but my soul feels nourished and free!" - Sara

Sara records a voice note while waiting to pick up Ben and announces she’s pausing the education side of her business, including the podcast, and will not relaunch Outsourcing Made Easy (OME) with group coaching calls this fall after running it each y for 6 years.

She explains the shift is about honoring her evolving self, and she’ll accept education opportunities like mentoring or VIP days case-by-case; the OME course-only library and Facebook community will remain available.

She shares a major personal season of uncertainty involving selling their house, losing their 16-year-old dog Abby in December, and eventually finding a better home with a river in the backyard, which contributed to her need for spaciousness. She encourages listeners to accept ebbs and flows, practice self-compassion, and design a business to meet personal needs rather than chase constant growth.

Timestamps

00:00 Car Voice Note Intro

01:49 Big Business Pause

02:55 Why OME Is On Hold

05:48 What Still Available

08:50 House Hunt And Loss

13:20 Ebb Flow Lessons

17:31 Self Compassion Reset

23:14 Design For Your Needs

26:29 Stay Connected Outro

Resources

- To inquire about Outsourcing Made Easy or 1:1 mentoring, inquire directly with Sara on IG @saramonikaphoto or her email sara@saramonika.com

- Intuitive Wedding Storytelling self-paced course

- Crystal Clear Marketing self-paced mini course

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

So I just arrived early to pick up Ben from school and I was really inspired to just record this voice note on my phone here. I I'm just sitting in the side of the road on my car, just parked the car in front of Ben's school because I'm early and I just really want to share this with you because I think there's just a lot that I can share in a way that could help you feel either not alone if you're also navigating something like what I'm navigating. Uh or maybe even it could be a permission slip for you to you to follow your instinct and your gut to do what you want to do, even if it feels scary. And something that I've been wanting to share on the podcast and just in general, um I want to share with you now, but I just didn't know it just didn't feel ready. It just didn't feel ready, and I don't know, I I like to share things with like more lessons and insight or when I'm fully embodied in something instead of when I'm kind of in it and still trying to figure it out. And I think I've reached this point where I'm still in it to a point and trying to figure it out, but I have so much more clarity and confidence with where I am that I'm just actually excited to share it with you. And I feel like this will be very cathartic for me. I think it's gonna be really freeing for me to just say this out loud and like put it out there and announce it, and I think it's like my final step. And you're probably like, what the fuck, Sarah? Like you're building this up, like what is going on? And I don't know, like it might be big news to you, it might not be like for me, it feels like a big shift and a big deal, but essentially I've decided to pause, just take a pause in the education side of my business. I've decided to just pause the podcast and you know the recent episode that I shared. Um, I did already kind of share how I just I don't know. I I need to like have some spaciousness from the podcast, only podcast if I'm inspired or anything like that. And yeah, I just want to officially kind of say it out loud that I just I don't know as an artist, um, I just need space for for a bit, and I don't I don't know why. I'm just following the instinct because in human design I'm a generator and I know that if I'm feeling excited and lit up about something, that means I'm doing it in an aligned way, and I can like work on something for hours and hours and days and days, and it doesn't feel like work, and I feel energized and and something is shifting inside of me and I don't know what it is. Um and I'm just excited to just give myself permission to pause. Like as a heads up, I'm not even going to be relaunching Omi this year. I've been launching my outsourcing made easy program for photographers every October for the past, I think it's been five or six years now. I think I did it six years, and I'm like, wow, I can't believe I've done it all that time, and and it just it I don't know, the it I need a change, something needs to shift because fall is like the time of year where I really want to just be even more grounded in nature and presence and time with my family, and instead of running two businesses at the peak season, because essentially you guys know like fall is um like peak season for photography, and also it was for my outsourcing made easy course, so it was just like too much all at once, and at one point it didn't feel like too much, at one point it energized me, but uh time times are changing, I'm evolving, and I'm deciding that I am no longer going to say yes to things just because I've done them before a certain way and they were successful. I I'm really becoming like more open and fluid to the idea of evolving and changing things over time, and it's okay that at one point it worked and maybe it doesn't work for me anymore. And a huge part of this that is hard for me is that I feel like I'm letting people down because I feel like I have so many of the answers that photographers are looking for when it comes to burnout and systems and workflows and hiring affordable help that you know actually works for them and their budget and how they do things and they're happy with the support. Like I have all those answers, like I've been outsourcing for nine years now, and I just feel like I'm just like letting people down if I don't launch it, but I have to put myself first, I have to put my energy first, and I I don't know what the future holds. It could mean that Omi morphs into an a new experience type of program, it could evolve into an in-person workshop or a retreat, it could evolve, I don't know, it could become you know Omi 2.0 and I like totally recreate the course with even more knowledge that I've accumulated over time. I don't know yet, but I think why I'm excited to share this with you is like that's life, and us going through chapters of clarity happens to everyone, and us going through chapters of I don't know, I don't freaking know the answers, I don't have it figured out, I don't I don't see the steps ahead, I'm in the fog. That happens to everyone too, and I wanted to to share that with you, and I do want to say that um I one thing that I do want to say is that I am going to be accepting um education opportunities on a case-by-case basis, depending on my uh capacity, energy, alignment, all these things. So I do want to share, like if you are you know feeling drawn to me for like a mentoring session or a one-on-one VIP day where you know you come over to my place and we we strategize your business, we look at your blind spots, we can even set up like a practice session, all these things. Like I'm I'm really proud of the experiences that I create and deliver and I'm in very high integrity that um whoever does trust me to support them on their education journey. I really give it my all and I don't take it lightly. So if that feels aligned to you, just like reach out, DM me on Instagram at Sarah Monica Photo, Sarah No H Monica of the K. And yeah, if it feels alive, if everything lines up for both of us, amazing, and I would be so happy and honored to support you. And um, the good news too is that outsourcing made easy, the course itself is like a really incredibly like knowledgeable library of my step-by-step system of how I outsource successfully, and that is available, it's always available. So many of my students just dive into OMI and follow the steps and get results without doing the group coaching calls. So essentially, I won't be relaunching Omi this um this fall with the group coaching calls as well. Um, but if you do want to get Omi as just the course itself, uh feel free to message me if you're at a place where you want to hire an affordable and amazing editor or virtual assistant and be supported this season and beyond, that will still be available to you and accessible, and we can chat about that and I can get you signed up. So I don't want to hold that back because it's already created, it already creates incredible results for people. So I mean, there's no reason for me to be like, no, it's not available, like it's fully available. You can sign up and just log in and get started. Um, and I will always still be uh in the outsourcing made easy Facebook community. So all of my current students and past alumni's like whenever they're implementing they have questions, I that'll stay open. I'm not closing that, I'll always stay open. Whereas any questions can always ask me. So if you do sign up for Omi that way for just the course, like no group coaching calls, um, you still have access to this incredible community of over 200 photographers now that um know how to outsource this way and ask the questions, crowdsource from them, ask me questions, clarifying questions, so you still have access to support, just not the group coaching calls. That's what I'm kind of pausing. So yeah, I I don't know, I feel so free, especially if you saw my recent announcement of how I Rory and I ended up finding a house finally. Oh my gosh, it was it was a journey. Um, long story short, we back in December we found a house we really loved. We're like, holy shit, we really want it. Let's start getting our house ready for sale. Um December 21st, our dog Abby passed away. That's a whole story. It but I will say it was perfect timing. She was already 16 years old, everything was leading up to it, and I I I it couldn't have gone better if I can say that, because I it just there's just so much nuance to the story, but basically as soon as I felt ready to let her go because I could see I think it's time for her, that's the day. The day I said I think I'm finally ready to pick a date and like say goodbye because I can see she's not happy anymore. Um that's the day she chose to go. And we still had to we still had to rush to the vet and and put her down, but it wasn't like a very it wasn't like a horrific thing or anything like that. She just fainted, had a seizure, all these things that she was already experiencing. But she passed away in my arms at 3 33 p.m. Wow, 3 33 p.m. And as soon as I saw that that number, I was like, wow, Abby, thank you for that. Because I was always so terrified of not making the right decision and choosing the wrong time and letting her go too soon. But we her and my soul were so I was gonna say before I got rudely interrupted by my car turning off. Okay, her and my soul were so in sync, so aligned the last three weeks and that day, and I just I'm just so thankful that she sent me that as a sign 333, like Sarah, this was the right time, thank you. And so, yeah, long story short, Abby passed away in December as we were packing up the house to get it ready to sell, and then January, February, it was a whole thing of like we bought the house we wanted, conditional, um, as we were getting ready to sell our house, and then the condition fell through on the house we wanted, it just didn't meet the standard that we needed, so we had to let that house go, unfortunately, and then we're still in the process of selling our house, and oh, it's a whole it was it's it's a long story, and I'm trying to even remember because now it's April. I'm like, what even happened? But basically, we ended up going ahead with it and selling our house anyway because I felt that the universe was like dangling the other house in front of my face as a carrot. Like, here, here, here's a house you want. Come on, get ready to sell your house. Because the universe knew that I would not let go of the current house we were living in unless I know where we're living next. And you know what? I I trusted the process, we sold our house, we we timed the market really well. We were really happy with what we got for the house, and I was also panicked because I didn't know where the heck we were gonna freaking be living in three months from then, and then during wedding season and everything. Um, but the universe delivered, and um literally I was saying this or something better, and the house that we found shortly after we sold our house, I think it was three weeks after, is so much better and also has the credit river in our backyard, and we have so much spaciousness in the backyard, in the front yard on a quiet road, like all the bedrooms we wanted, the flow of the house. We have a sunroom. We get to we got the house for like a lot less money, so we're able to actually invest money to renovate to make it our own right off the jump, and everything worked out like so much better than I could have imagined. And I had to trust the process, and it was a long time. It was December, January, February, March, um, March, and then the first bit of April. So four and a half months of like in the weeds of not knowing what our f my future is looking like, and then I just didn't have energy or creativity to to podcast and share, and that's and I'm realizing in life that there's these ebbs and flows, and it's okay. It's okay that I get to take this time for myself because now that I've actually given myself the permission to like pause me showing up and guiding other photographers and sharing and teaching because I felt like I was just an overflowing well with all that before, it's okay for me to take a pause because now I get to just focus on being a photographer, running my photography business, which is so incredibly well set up. With I have a primary editor, I have a secondary editor, I have someone calling for me, I have a virtual assistant where I'm literally moving in five weeks from now, and my busy season starts in three weeks. I have three back-to-back um double hutter wedding weekends, I have sessions, but I'm not even panicked that all that is happening while we're moving because I'm supported. I have my incredible rock star team that I'm so proud of like what I've built. And not only are they rock stars and amazing, but they're also affordable. And it makes sense in you know, the context of like running a business that you designed, that I designed by choice to be to be profitable, to support other humans in work that they want to do, other freelancers, right? Like my team is so happy and excited they get to like also work from home and have a client that trusts them and is in it for the long term with them and all of that, that stability that I get to give them. Like it's amazing. And now instead of like giving my additional energy to the podcast and and creating courses and all that stuff, I get to create a home, a new home. I get to enjoy this transition instead of be overwhelmed by it. I get to feel at peace with the transition. And I'm I know that this is all interlocking perfectly for me in a way like I can't even design this because what are the chances that the time that I don't have as much energy and inspiration to for education, that it actually everything aligned with the perfect house for us. The timing is incredible. It's so incredible. It's not an accident, and there's something that is going to bubble up to the surface for me from this experience. And after we're done renovating our house and I have this new place, like I mean, I have a freaking river in the backyard, we're gonna end up having a sauna. I all like I there's something in me that's like I want in person back again, like in-person workshops, in-person experiences, like, and I could just see picture there just creating these experiences for you. And I I I hope that that's like I hope that that's the way it ends up going, but I don't know because again, I'm still in the mystery of it, I'm still in the question mark of it, and I'm sitting in that and being okay with it, and it feels so fucking liberating. It feels so liberating, and it feels like I don't know why I put this freaking pressure on myself for the past three years to feel like like I have to hold on to this education thing or else I'm a failure. I don't know where that came from. That's programmed somewhere, and I think it's programmed in as a collective and in our society that if we don't constantly grow maybe monetarily or like visibility-wise, like that we're failing, but like no, like why don't people teach us or talk about that it's okay to ebb and flow in life and business? It's actually part of our natural cycle, like seasons, we all go through seasons, and the one thing that can't be forced is energy and creativity, right? So yeah, I'm feeling really good about that. And there was something else that I was going to say. Um yeah, so if you I don't remember, it was something I was like in a flow and then it it dissipated, but it's okay. So if you are in like a season of you feel like something needs to shift and you don't know what yet, like it's okay. And just know that it's literally your soul and your body charging for the next something, the next fresh idea, the next thing you're excited about. Like let let yourself rest, let yourself take a pause. And oh, actually, now I remember what I was gonna say. I don't know why I put so much pressure on myself because I thought I was gonna be a failure. I and and but when I look at when I think of like artists, like singers, right, or actors, you know, they're not there's some artists that are maybe in flow for a really long amount of time, like a whole bunch of years kind of sequenced together, like like Taylor Swift. She she is on this like journey of like, I have this idea for a next album, next album, next album. Like she's on fire and in in just in such alignment, and she's tapped into that gold of how to navigate life and create through it that she could just constantly pump out like art, right? But then there's other artists that pump out the art that are that like for years and then need to pause and a quiet time and they kind of fall off the face of the earth for a couple years, three years, five years, then they come back. Like Hilary Duff, for example, right? She had her career started when she was younger, and then she went into focus on motherhood and family life, and now she's like popping back out again, refreshed and re-excited and re-energized. And like, am I thinking that they are a failure? Like those people that need those ebbs and flows, those pauses in between. I'm like, I don't think so at all. I actually admire them more for just fucking doing what the fuck they want to do without needing outside permission and just giving themselves that permission. And I am not out here like judging them or who are they to be taking a break. Like, no. So if we're not judging other people for taking breaks and we are giving them compassion, we are understanding to that, why can't we give that to ourselves? Like, let's give ourselves the gift of compassion, of understanding, of being gentle with ourselves. And something that I've heard lately that I really love the concept of is self-parenting. It's like talk to yourself how you wanted to be parented or talked to, or how if you have an imaginary, you know, past you, if you imagine them right beside you, like you're when you were six, just like look at them to your to your right or to your left, and imagine that's you as a six-year-old. And you know, imagine the six-year-old comes to you and is like, oh, I don't know, I'm like such a failure because I don't know like what subject is my favorite right now or whatever. And then it's like you're like, oh, it's okay. Like you have time, and just like take it a step at a time, give yourself space, give yourself grace to just explore. Like, you don't have to have all the answers right now. You're so young, right? Why can't we talk to ourselves like that? No matter what age we're at, we're still so young. It's all everything is relative. Like when we're 80, we're gonna look back at ourselves at 35 and be like, oh my gosh, we were so young. Why were we so stressed? Why did we feel like we needed all the answers, right? Like, let's just take a breath, slow down, accept the ebbs and flows, and fuck, I fucking love it. I love this. I feel so at peace, and I feel like I'm actually reaping what I've built in my photography business, what I created. All those years that I've, you know, put in to like grow my SEO, my word of mouth, my Instagram and and my team. It's like this was why I did that. I get to now transition uh Ben and myself and Rory into a new location, into a new home in the midst of my busy season without feeling overworked or busy or panicked or stressed. Like I all have spaciousness and I'm so grateful that I was able to create this for myself and also give my permit myself permission to enjoy it, right? 'Cause what the fuck is the point of us working so hard to then Get there and then still think we just have to continue working, working, and growing and growing, and not actually giving ourselves permission to enjoy it. Like, then we never will. We never will if we don't pause. So this is take this is the permission slip I am handing you. Here you go. I'm handing it over to you. Grab it, and whatever the permission slip you're waiting for, like you choose what this permission slip is for, right? Because we all have different life circumstances, things we're going through. So you choose something that you want permission for, and you fucking give it to yourself. You don't need anyone else telling you, including me right now. But in case it helps from a friend, I'm giving you permission, like, do what the fuck you want, because as long as you are happy, that is what will create that sustained energy. And I honestly believe that the end goal is for us to build. Actually, I wrote a note here, and I want to make sure I I find it. I hope my voice note is still recording. Yes, it is. I'm just gonna quickly find it. Okay, so what I want to leave you with is for you, like photography business-wise, right? How about we design our businesses not to succeed, but to meet our needs? Because there's a difference there. Because if we design our business to succeed, that is of course needed. But if we continue to push, push, push and kind of chase this like quote unquote, like success, this measure of success. I have to constant constantly grow, grow, grow. If I'm not going up, I'm going down, that means I'm a failure, I'm going backwards. Like, no, like you choose your vision of what success means to you in life, in business, take action towards that, grow your business to that, to that success, whatever you define it. But the definition of success for you needs to be created based on your specific needs and no one else's. And I feel like I've reached that. And I just I had the biggest clarity. I just kept chasing, chasing, chasing. I felt like the way to be successful is to have only like this girl boss energy. But what about like spaciousness? What about peace? What about running a business where like I'm not like back-to-back calls all day or anything like that? It's just I have so much spaciousness. Like this year, I'll be working two hours a day uh on weekdays, and then I have so far 23 weddings booked, so 23 days, and then engagement sessions. Maybe I'll have like 10 of those or something, 12 of those. So, like outside of that, I'm like, oh my gosh, I have so much spaciousness, and that creates like a $200,000 a year revenue for me. That's fucking incredible, and that was my goal. That was my goal so many years ago. I'm like, I want to make $200,000 in revenue. I want to shoot the way that I want to shoot. I want to be free to be myself, my personality, and I want spaciousness in my days. So I have time for family, spontaneous moments, time to rest, time to be with nature, work out, you know, friends, family. I don't want to be booked back to back to back and always working and have a freaking busy schedule every single day. Like, no, that's not what I want. So you choose your success and design your business based around your needs. And if that speaks to you, um, I would be honored to support you again. Like I mentioned earlier. I I just I really want to just like put this out there, and whoever reaches out to me, it'll just be it'll all align the way it's meant to be because I'm still very passionate about helping photographers and and all of that. I think I just need a pause of podcasting. I need a pause from creating courses, I need a pause from that. But when I can, you know, connect with someone like one-on-one and just tap into that energy and help problem solve. Um, you know, I'm on fire and it feels so great. And so I would be honored to support you if it feels aligned for you. And yeah, I think that's it. So for now, I'm just gonna sign off and then I don't know what the fuck is coming up, but I would love to stay connected with you. I do know I love hang out on Instagram still, so you can catch me in my stories, all the behind-the-scenes stuff and everything. So yeah, uh follow me on Instagram at Sarah Monica Photo, Sarah No H Monica with a K. DM me if you had any insights from this episode. Like, please, because I love connecting with you, just chatting, just connecting. I just it just I just love love you all, and hence I miss in person stuff, and hence why my soul is feeling gravitated to that. And we will see, but alright. Bye.