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What is your constant presence hiding?
You answer the questions. You solve the problems. You remember what everybody else forgot. And because you keep showing up and making it work, everything looks like it is working.
But what happens when you step away?
The Sabbatical Workshop is a live 75 minute experience for founders, executives, nonprofit leaders, and high responsibility visionaries ready to uncover what still depends on them, and begin building the systems, support, boundaries, and financial plan to finally step away.
It happens twice every month. Pick the Wednesday that fits your calendar and come.
Scroll inside the calendar to pick your date.
In Her Own Words
The rest that changed everything.
Before it was a method, it was a decision Kara made for herself. Watch the story of the sabbatical that started it all.
Reserve my seat Live every 2nd and 4th Wednesday. 25 leaders per room.
Be Honest
You keep saying you are just busy.
The right time keeps moving. It has been moving for two years. Tap each one.
Every time one thing ends, something else needs you. You have gotten so good at anticipating, fixing, and carrying that constant availability starts to feel like leadership.
It is not.
If everything stalls the moment you step away, that is information. The question is whether you are ready to look at it.
What My Sabbatical Taught Me
Your presence can hide broken systems.
Mine did. Then I prepared to step away for three months, and this is what became visible.
Planning to remove myself did more than give me rest. It showed me what my presence had been hiding, and it became the foundation of this work.
You do not know what your constant presence is hiding until you prepare to remove yourself.
Kara James
I am ready to look Live every 2nd and 4th Wednesday. 25 leaders per room.
The Workshop, Twice a Month
We are going to use your rest as a strategy.
This is not a webinar about taking more bubble baths. I am not going to tell you to put your phone on Do Not Disturb and light a candle. And this is not 75 minutes of me convincing you that you deserve rest.
You already know you are tired.
We are going to look at why stepping away still feels operationally, financially, or emotionally impossible, and begin building a real plan around it.
On the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month, I take a focused room of leaders through the sabbatical planning process live. We go straight at the reasons you still cannot step away.
Live on Zoom
75 minutes of teaching, reflection, and strategy.
Intimate room
Capped at 25 leaders, on purpose, every time.
Live coaching and Q and A
Bring your real questions.
Interactive workbook
Begin building your plan in the room.
Save my spot Free every time. Twice every month.
I could put 500 people on Zoom. I'm choosing not to.
This workshop works because we get honest. Because leaders can ask the question they don't want to ask in front of 500 strangers. Because I want room to coach.
I want room to hear what's actually getting in the way. I want this to feel like a working session, not another webinar playing in the background while you answer emails.
That's why we're keeping this room focused and intimate.
So save your spot early and come be in the room when it begins.
What You Will Leave With
Not a fantasy. A starting point.
By the end of the workshop, you will have begun identifying:
- Where your leadership or organization still depends too heavily on you.
- What may need to change in your systems, support, and decision making.
- The financial questions you need to answer before stepping away.
- The patterns that keep pulling you back into constant doing.
- The first steps toward creating your own sabbatical plan.
And most importantly, you will leave with a different question.
Not: how do I find time to rest?
But: what would I have to build differently for rest to become possible?
The Strategist Behind the Work
Kara James
Executive. Founder. Strategist. Visionary. Builder of things that move.
Kara James has spent more than two decades turning complex visions into things that actually work. She spent 15 years in senior corporate leadership, across Risk Management, Continuous Improvement, and the Office of the CEO, leading high level initiatives that saved more than $20 million.
Then she built again. Kara co-founded and scaled a nonprofit from the ground up, raised more than $4.5 million, and built partnerships across schools, courts, corporations, and communities. She became the person you call when the vision is big, the stakes are high, and somebody has to figure out how to make it work. And for years, she did.
Until preparing for a fully funded three month sabbatical exposed a leadership truth she could no longer ignore. Her brilliance had made it possible for broken systems to keep functioning. Her ability to anticipate problems hid the problems. Her capacity to carry more meant more kept being handed to her.
So Kara did what strategists do. She studied the pattern. She rebuilt. And she created a framework. Today, Kara uses sabbatical planning as a leadership strategy, helping leaders uncover what their constant presence may be hiding and build lives, teams, and organizations that do not require their exhaustion to survive.
I know how to make almost anything work. My freedom began when I stopped asking whether I could carry it, and started asking why I was still carrying it at all.
Kara James, The Sabbatical Lady
Social Proof
Real leaders. Real rest that did not cost them the mission.
Working with Kara has truly changed my life. Through our time together, we did not just strategize, I found my voice, my clarity, and my confidence as a leader. I have saved over 30 hours a week, and I am not the same person I was before. Kara gave me the space and permission to fully step into who I am, mentally, spiritually, and professionally.
Yolonda T.Executive Director, Lazera Ministries
Kara coached me through one of the hardest seasons of my life. When I came to her, I had lost my voice and my sense of purpose. She walked with me through rediscovering both. I became a better teacher, a better leader, and a better version of myself. Her coaching is not surface level. It reaches the places that actually need healing.
Mitra B.Teacher, Metro Nashville Public Schools
I was in a dark place in my leadership. Burned out, overwhelmed, and unsure if I could keep going. Kara helped me create a plan for my life that pulled me out of that space. She did not just give me strategies. She helped me reclaim my power. I walked away transformed, clear, and ready to lead from strength instead of survival.
Renee H.Co-Founder and Executive Director
I had never even heard the word sabbatical before Kara. Her coaching called me higher and gave me permission to honor what I actually wanted. She helped me build what I needed to step away, and I took a fully funded sabbatical. She does not just tell you that you deserve rest. She helps you build the life that makes it possible.
Emerald M.Executive Director, Moves and Grooves
Questions, Answered
Everything you need to know.
When exactly does it meet?
Every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, live on Zoom, for 75 minutes. Two chances every month, all year.
Which date should I pick?
Whichever one your calendar can actually protect. The teaching is the same in both rooms, so choose the Wednesday you can attend fully present instead of half in a meeting.
What if I miss the one I registered for?
Come to the next one. That is the reason this runs twice a month. Your registration also sends you the replay, so nothing is lost while you wait.
Can I come more than once?
Yes, and many leaders do. The framework stays consistent, but the coaching, the questions, and the room change every session. Leaders often return at a different stage of planning and hear something completely new.
Do I need to be planning a sabbatical right now?
No. You may be six months, a year, or several years away from taking a sabbatical. The planning process itself can show you where your life, leadership, or organization has become overly dependent on you. You do not need a departure date to begin asking better questions.
Is this only for nonprofit leaders?
No. This workshop is for founders, executives, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, and other high responsibility leaders who have become deeply necessary to the work they lead.
Is this a burnout workshop?
Not really. Burnout may be part of your story, but you do not have to be falling apart to belong here. Some of the leaders who need this conversation most are still performing at a very high level. The question is not whether you can keep going. The question is whether you want to keep leading this way.
Is this therapy?
No. This is a leadership, planning, and reflection workshop. We may talk honestly about the emotional patterns connected to rest, responsibility, and stepping away, but this is not a replacement for therapy or mental health care.
Will there be a recording?
Because this is designed as a live, interactive experience, I strongly encourage you to attend live. That is where the coaching and the room happen. Everyone who registers receives the replay, so if you cannot make it live, save your spot and watch when you can.
Is the workshop really free?
Yes. Every session is free to attend. It is the front door to deeper work, and it stays open twice a month.
One Last Question
What would become visible if you stopped holding everything together?
Not forever. Not recklessly. Not tomorrow. But long enough to see the truth.
What decisions would stall? What questions would still come to you? What lives only in your head? What have you been calling leadership simply because you became good at carrying it?
Your sabbatical does not begin the day you leave. It begins the moment you become willing to look at what is making it so hard to step away.
The next room opens on the 2nd or 4th Wednesday, and there is another one two weeks later. You do not need the perfect month. You need a Wednesday.
Save my spot Free. Live every 2nd and 4th Wednesday.
