We're on Sabbatical, Friends!

Hey, friends! We’re on sabbatical the whooole month of December - January 6th. We’re taking some much needed time off to catch up on home life, unwind our brains, maybe have an existential crisis or two, and travel/dream a little. If you want to follow along with our travels- you can follow us here- @chelseahallphoto or my personal @tangeriiine . I’m a bit less censored on my personal, you’ve been warned. lol

If you want to read more about sabbaticals and our business journey, scroll on!

I take a small yearly campervan trip to Joshua Tree. I’m an introvert and being in the desert is peaceful and just good to my soul. Normally it’s about 3 days, but this year we’re doing a full on 10 day trip: NV -> UT -> AZ -> CA.

But what the heck is a sabbatical?

If you Google it, the Dictionary definition of Sabbatical is “a period of paid leave granted to a university teacher or other worker for study or travel, traditionally one year for every seven years worked.” So, traditionally when you think of sabbaticals, you think of professors. They’d typically take this time to research, or write a book, or relax and just fill their cup to give it their all for the next 7 years. Unfortunately, I can't take a full year (YET, that’s totally a goal), but if you do the math, I’m due for my own sabbatical, and a month is a great place to start.

When I first started my business, one of the very first business podcasters I listened to was Sean McCabe of Seanwes. I heard him talking about this mythical notion of rest and fighting burnout. I didn’t quite understand what he meant by burnout. I was used to going to school full time, while working multiple jobs, running a college newspaper being one of them, and I just assumed that hustling was the norm. I had plenty of energy to keep me going and somehow survived multiple all-nighters throughout college without a drop of coffee (I didn’t discover the liquid of life until after college, what a shame).

Here’s why I’m taking one:

While I don’t necessarily feel like I need to explain myself, we all deserve a break, friends, I’m totally a type 4 enneagram & TBH, & I like explaining and feeling understood. PLUS I had a fun typing up a short summary of my work life over the years and I feel like it may be a beneficial read for my fellow entrepreneur friends.

My start:

I’ve been a photographer since the age of 15, I started with a point and shoot digital camera and shortly after took a film class in high school. I went to college for mass communications with a focus in photojournalism and worked at the WSU newspaper for all 4 years in school. I started as a volunteer photographer, moved up to chief photographer, and then took over as Editor-In-Chief my senior year.
I started my business in 2012 at the beginning of my senior year, the next year I photographed my first wedding. That’s baby, college me above and a few photographs from my first wedding below. Just LOOK at that logo. LOL

After graduating, I was bound and determined to make photography my career. To do so, I took a 32 hour part-time teller position at US Bank. I needed to cover my bills and I thought having the extra time to focus on my business would be beneficial. I quit after about 1.5 years, because “working for the man” was seriously bringing me down, I’m really just not cut out for it. I started working 2-3 jobs for other small businesses, on top of working my own business to sustain it and keep it going. I’d do the work for other companies and then come home and work until well into the night working on my business. I didn’t start paying myself until 3 years in.

I was burning the candle at both ends so I could make working full-time in my business a reality. After a couple years in and doubling my business every year, I was finally making enough to go full time. I went full time in 2016, I believe (I honestly forget at this point and sometimes I say 3 years ago and sometimes I say 4, it tends to all blur together). I started working EVEN harder, I was a MAJOR workaholic,. Like there were, and still sometimes are, days that I’d work 9 am - midnight, spending all day at my desk. Culling, editing, emails. Culling, editing, emails. Over and over. I couldn’t relax, I didn’t know how to and when I tried the anxiety was rough. I felt this immense guilt over relaxing, I felt lazy.

BURNOUT:

I was totally in the boss babe hustler group, ALL about the grind. Those were the years that I first started experiencing burnout. Because if I wasn’t working, I wasn’t making money, and my business wasn’t advancing. But if I was working all the time, I also wasn’t relaxing, or seeing my friends and family, or filling my cup, or refreshing my creative energy.

I thought burnout was just part of the process for me and my seasons would go as follows:

Spring- Yay! Sessions and weddings start back up again!
We’re so excited! Here we go! 
& I’m so excited to edit, I missed you Lightroom!

Summer- Ok, it’s picking up fast, but we got this.
Y’all, it’s too hot. Why am I melting at this outdoor wedding!? No worries: we still love you summer couples.
& Oh, shit. Our editing queue is getting PACKED. 

Fall- What is sleep? What is home cooked food? What is sunlight?
I haven’t been outside my house in days staring at the computer and when I am, I’m at a session or a wedding. I haven’t seen my friends or family in months.
& OMG, if I have to edit one more f*cking picture. Damn, I’m feeling BURNT OUT.

Winter- We’re wrapping up fall weddings/sessions and we’re finally able to get some rest, thank you *prayer hands emoji*.
I don’t want to leave my house ever again, why I do have so many holiday events to plan and attend.
& New year, new me. More like; New Year, taxes/booking season.

Winter, our “slow” season would come up and we’d be thankful for a moment of rest, but then we’d realize that we were still working the same amount with doing taxes and marketing and booking. It wasn’t really time off, just a rest from our cameras and from Lightroom.

I have averaged about one week off a year for the last 7/8 years we’ve been in business and I’m ready for a legit break, friends. You feel me? I’m ready to dream for a little bit.

My ideal morning is a slow one. Cuddling my cats in bed and slowly slipping my coffee. Listening to NPR Politics Podcast while I walk or jog on the treadmill. I strive to make every morning a slow morning. My best days start with slow mornings.

Rest & Relaxation:

I no longer believe in the hustler lifestyle. I believe that rest is part of the process and must be scheduled in. This may seem “duh” to you if don’t run a business, but to those who do, you get it. It’s so easy to carried away and work every minute of your life and it’s so easy to ignore things and get buried in your work. It’s easy to work tirelessly for years and then look up for a moment and think “how did I get here?”

Over the last two years, I’ve transitioned my view on entrepreneurship and taken rest & relaxation a little more seriously. I’ve gotten sick of the burnout feeling I get every year and I’ve been actively fighting it.

For example, last year, we scheduled office hours and decided we will no longer take meetings after 6pm. We also brought in, Brittney, our wonderful office assistant and blogging badass to assist with office duties. This year, we’ve scheduled mandatory days off (Mondays), and we won’t take portrait sessions Friday - Monday. If we have a weekend off from weddings, it’s dedicated towards friends and family. I don’t always get a full weekend off, but I’m not going to lie, this year feels different. It feels lighter. It feels happier. I’m thankful.

Joshua Tree is my happy place. There is nothing more serene than driving through the Mojave in the winter, windows down, 65 degrees, listening to a chilll playlist.

I scheduled my sabbatical this year, because it’s now or never. If I don’t do it now, if I don’t take the time to reflect on my life and my business and my future, if I don’t take the time to fully relax, when am I going to do it? The time is now.

For my sabbatical, besides our trip and the holidays, I plan on focusing on nothing. I’m going to take the time to dream, to journal, to organize or do home projects, but only if I’m feeling up to it, because once you plan those things on your calendar the obligation weighs on you and having an empty calendar feels light as a feather.

Whatever comes of my sabbatical, whether I dream up my next big step or just relax, I know that something magical is going to come of it. Do you plan time off now? Would you plan a sabbatical? Let me know in the comments!