Why Jereshia Took a Sabbatical and What It Taught Her About Business Sustainability

After seven years of hustle, launches, and holding space for clients at scale, Jereshia Hawk made a bold decision: she stepped away from her business for a year-long sabbatical. It wasn’t because she burned out. It wasn’t because she was forced to. Jereshia did it because she wanted to model what intentional rest could look like for women of color building powerful, profitable brands.

That sabbatical changed everything about how she approaches business.

Redefining Sustainability Through Capacity-Based Business Models

Before the sabbatical, Jereshia ran a multi-six-figure group coaching empire. Think: 70+ clients in one program, multi-tiered offers, a full team, launches, and no sales calls—just DM conversions. Her business was lean and high-performing, but she was maxed out on responsibility.

Post-sabbatical, Jereshia flipped the script. She now works with six to eight 1:1 clients, at a pace that honors her desire to start a family and heal from years of survival-mode hustle. Instead of chasing scale, she now builds with capacity and sustainability in mind.

For Jereshia, sustainability isn’t just about money. It’s about aligning how she sells, serves, and rests with the season of life she’s in.

How Jereshia Sells Now: Waitlists, Intimate Marketing, and Exclusive Access

Rather than always being “on,” Jereshia uses curated waitlists as a nurturing tool. For digital courses, she offers the first module to waitlist members. For private coaching, she shares quarterly case studies and private insights exclusively with that list. This creates depth, intimacy, and a safe decision-making space for high-caliber clients who value privacy.

Email has become her primary sales tool. Her emails feel like personal letters. She teaches, shares, and builds trust. That shift alone transformed her revenue.

Making Business Model Decisions Based on Self-Trust and Seasons

Before the sabbatical, Jereshia followed a model that matched her ambition. After her time away, she now asks better questions:

• What is my true capacity this season?
• What kind of responsibility do I want to hold?
• If my preferences were policies, how would my business look?

That’s how she landed on intimate, high-value 1:1 coaching and revenue-sharing agreements. It meets her capacity and delivers deeply transformative results for her clients.

What Sabbaticals Can Teach Us About Entrepreneurial Freedom

In her conversation with Dielle, Jereshia shared how other industries—athletes, teachers, VCs—build rest into their professional cycles. But in entrepreneurship, rest is treated like a reward for burnout. Her sabbatical wasn’t an escape; it was a strategic move to reclaim agency, heal from trauma, and reimagine what success looks like.

Jereshia emphasized that women of color in business often don’t feel safe choosing rest unless they’re forced to. But joy, peace, and healing are reason enough.

A Season-Based, Sustainable Business Is the New Luxury

Jereshia no longer chases arbitrary numbers. She asks, what is enough? Then she builds around that. Sustainability is seasonal. Sometimes it’s high-growth, sometimes it’s spacious. What’s key is that you stay in self-trust, make decisions from clarity, and give yourself permission to build what fits you.

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