ep. 007 • Is Doubt Standing Between You and Success?

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Chelsea Stevenson: Welcome to the Hennapreneur podcast. The exclusive podcast of its kind, dedicated to giving you an honest look at the reality of making a living as a henna professional. I'm your host, Chelsea Stevenson, professional henna artist and business strategist. I teach budding henna artists and seasoned henna pros alike how to build vibrant, profitable businesses doing what they love. I went from being the girl who could barely piece together a fluid design to being owner of the most celebrated henna boutique in my city. And with years of experience growing my own business and helping others to do the same, I'm here to spill all the tea on what it takes to be a bonafide hennapreneur. Our show starts in just under 60 seconds, but first, here's a quick shout out to my sponsors.

This episode is sponsored by the Hennapreneur eMagazine! Whether you're just getting started, you're ready to go pro, you've got a solid business, or you're ready to scale, Hennapreneur has a free downloadable e-magazine that's ready just for you with insights on how you can better build your business in that phase of the game. Each volume features articles specifically for that particular part of the henna journey. So head on over to hennapreneur.com and download your free copy today! All right, let's get to the show!

Hey, hennapreneurs! You know, I just came from meeting with some other business owners and something was said, and I found it to be really insightful, and it really inspired me. And I immediately knew, "This is something that I have to come and share with my people!" A conversation was being had about ways that we keep ourselves motivated and um, different, um, ways that we as business owners will advocate for ourselves and we'll just, we'll realign ourselves when the going gets tough, right? And so, of course, um, we reached a place where we were kind of just sharing different mantras that we use or sharing different affirmations that we might use and so forth. And someone shared something that I thought was just so rich and so juicy and I now have it on a Post-it note and, um, have been using it to remind myself, um, as I, you know, tackle some new goals in my own business. And that is, "Your doubts create mountains and your actions move them." And when I heard those words, I thought, "Oh my God." Like, "How, how, how true is that?" Right? Like, I don't know about you, but inside of my own business, there are constantly times where I find myself challenged with, um, "What if I do this?" Um, "Will my clients like it?" Uh, "What if I say this wrong?" Uh, "What if people take that the wrong way?" "What if I do this thing here? Can I do this thing even? Is this a good idea? Could someone else do it better? Am I good enough? Am I, am I, am I, am I..." and the truth is, all of those doubts? They're all, they're all just thoughts, right? Right. Like all those things, they- and they produce nothing. They're useless thoughts. And those thoughts though, they are powerful. They have power, they have weight to them, but only if you allow them to. And so every time I, I sense a doubt about whether I'm capable or if I'm smart enough or if I can do that or if that's a good idea or anything, you know, anything I, anytime I have those, those moments of doubt, each one of those doubts does serve as a mountain that it stands in the way of me and my ultimate goal, of me and where I'd like to go, of me and that thing that I'm trying to achieve, right? But, it is so true that every action that we take moves one of those doubts, moves one of those mountains out of the way.

Now for me, I, I have to tell you, I do- I have quite a, um, I know I have a unique personality. I'll call it a unique personality. Um, and you know, when I feel fear, then that's when I'm ready to go after something. Once I feel fear, once I feel really shook, you know, that's where I'm like, okay, I'm all in because that's what it takes to motivate me as a person. And um, I recognize that not everyone is that way, but I do want to invite you to look at what doubts you have right now that are standing in the way of your dream. Like, do- what do you want? What do you want for yourself and for your business? Do you want to be known as the best bridal henna artists in your city? Do you want to be, you know, page one on Google for corporate henna artists? Do you want to work with celebrities? Do you want to do destination work? Do you want to travel as a henna artist? Do you want to teach classes? Do you want to lead the industry into more ethical, sustainable henna practices? Maybe you have dreams of opening a henna studio, or perhaps you just want to be able to make the ends meet at the end of the month. Whatever it is that is your dream, whatever it is, that is your goal with henna. You really have to give yourself some space to consider what doubts are standing in between you and those dreams. What, what mountains have you created out of fear, out of worry, out of a place of lack or fear of scarcity. Our doubts create those mountains.

When's the last time that you told yourself you couldn't do something? Why are you talking yourself out of chasing after that goal? I don't know what these things are to you. I don't know what the answers are for you, but I'll tell you this, our minds are powerful, powerful tools and one of the things that I've learned over the past nine years as a hennapreneur is that our mind is equally powerful when it comes to debilitating us, as it is when it comes to supporting us and moving us forward. So if all you're doing is rolling around negative thoughts, if all you're doing is rolling around doubts of, "Can I? Should I? Am I good enough?" Versus cultivating thoughts of abundance and cultivating thoughts of, "Yes I can," and power, then those mountains will always stand in your way. But beyond actually shifting your thoughts. If you want to see results, you're going to have to take some action. Action is what moves those mountains. Action shows you that you can. Action takes that mental affirmation and makes it tangible, and once it's tangible, then the way that you see yourself, the way that you see your business, the way you see how capable you are, totally begins to change and the confidence that comes from that place, that's confidence! Whew. That's something that money just can't buy.

If I could, I want to invite you to do a little homework. Okay. Sit down with a piece of paper and I want to invite you to write down what those goals are. If nothing, like in a perfect world, if nothing were in the way, if there were no challenges, if you could just wake up and it was the perfect day in the perfect life, what would that look like? What would your henna business look like? What would your clients look like? What would your day look like? Write it all out. See what that goal is, feel it, and really, really allow yourself to savor it. Allow yourself to feel what it would be like to be in that place and then, because your mind is going to do this, there's something, I mean, that's the way that the ego works. The ego works to keep us safe. Our ego is there to say, "No, no, no, don't do that over there because things might go wrong," right? Our ego, there's, it has a purpose, but you can't allow your ego to keep you from doing the things. The ego will keep you from being successful because its job is to keep you in a space that's comfortable and safe.

So as you start to write out what that perfect day will look like, and as you read over it, inevitably, what's going to happen is your ego is going to chime in and tell you why all of those things are impossible and here is where it gets really interesting for each of those reasons why it's impossible. I want to challenge you to write down three reasons why it is possible. This is something that's actually, it's a technique that's used in cognitive behavioral therapy, and it's very, and it's very useful, especially if you are someone who finds yourself procrastinating. I'm a procrastinator. As a hands up, okay? If you find yourself procrastinating or if you find yourself doubtful, if you find yourself shying away from actually taking action, here is a great way for us to kind of change that: So for each of those opportun- for each of those reasons why things won't work out or why it's not possible, write down three reasons why it is. And then you're going to write down three things that you can do right now to move toward that goal. And these don't have to be massive tasks. They can be small, but they should require forward action. And once you've got some action going, baby, that's where momentum happens. Momentum, if you want to be propelled forward, it's going to require that you start. Momentum requires action. So even if you're starting with a very small task, it's better than doing nothing. So this little piece of homework even gives you some momentum to move forward towards your goals. I'll leave you again with the quote because I thought that it was just so good, "Your doubts, Hennapreneurs, your doubts create mountains, but your actions move them." I'll talk to you guys next time.

Hey babe! I wanted to give you a quick thank you for tuning into the show today. That was super cool of you to hang with me all the way until the end. Of course, I've got all the links that you might need from this episode inside of the show notes that you can find at hennapreneur.com/podcast.

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