ep. 021 • My Process for Freestyling Pieces

Chelsea Stevenson: You know, one of the questions that often comes up with conversation when I'm discussing henna and discussing my processes, especially with newer artists or those artists who are used to working from a book. They may be festival artists, or they may be artists who perhaps are used to working by requests—right?—where their client comes in and has a photo that they want recreated or something like this.

Oftentimes, what I'll hear from these artists is that when I encourage them to make the switch over into working by time, and when I make the recommendation for them to work freestyle, they're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! How do I do that?" And so, if you are one of those artists who perhaps, um, struggles with creating designs on the fly, if you're one of those artists that struggles with creating freestyle pieces for your clients, today's episode is just for you.

Welcome to the Hennapreneur podcast — the exclusive podcast of its kind dedicated to giving you an honest look at the realities of making a living as a henna professional. I'm your host, Chelsea Stevenson, a tea-loving, shoe-collecting mother of three in constant search for the most poppin' pair of earrings and the perfect shade of red lipstick.

I'm also a professional henna artist and business strategist who went from barely being able to piece together a fluid design to being the owner of the most celebrated henna boutique in my city. I'm on a mission to help henna professionals to harness their skills and grow vibrant, profitable businesses that they absolutely love.

If you want to make more money with your art, you are definitely in the right place. Let's get to it!

Hey hey hennapreneurs ! Have you ever wondered about my process for creating designs for my guests? I am going to break my process down for you with three simple steps, and hopefully you can take these and implement them for yourself in your own business and in your own appointments. And I'm hopeful that with these tips in mind, you'll go into your next appointment feeling a lot more confident in creating your pieces.

So, the first thing that I like to do when I'm visiting with my guests is I like to take inventory of what my clients need, okay? So I have a rule at my henna boutique and I share this rule with my clients when they come to visit. I want them to ask for what they want, okay? And there's a whole reason for that. And I'll talk to you guys about that on another day, right? But I just want you to understand that the culture of my businesses is that I want my clients to feel empowered to ask for what they want. And the truth is, for better or for worse, you know, we oftentimes, as women, we have not been and we are not socialized to acknowledge and much less verbalize the desires that we have. For me, I want to create a space for my clients where when they come to see me they feel competent and they feel comfortable not only expressing their needs and expressing their desires, but I also want them to understand that I am going to do my very best to make what they want happen, right? And this is where it's so important for you to have a rapport with your clients and why it's so important for you to be open with them even as you are sharing what the experience will be like when they come to see you prior to them making the booking, right? Even just thinking about how you're creating content to represent your business on social media or on your website. For example, you need to be very clear that you're there to serve them and that your goal is to make what their vision is happen, right?

And so, for me, the first thing that I like to do is ask them what it is that they want. And I'll, I'll ask, you know, are we getting henna for any particular reason or what am I doing for you today? What brings you in today? And I want for them to be very specific and I want for them to tell me what it is that they like and what it is that they want. I also, and this, again, is why it's so important for us to have candid conversations with our clients in order to build that trust around our ability to provide them with a really quality service. You have to also be honest, right?

You have to have integrity when you're speaking with your clients and you have to set clear expectations. Expectations are so, so important. And so when my client tells me, "Okay, I want this type of design and I want it to be of this size.” or "I want it to look like this." but she's purchased a session that only allows for me to, you know, to create a portion of what she's identifying, well, then I need to be very explicit with her and I need to be direct with her and honest with her about what I am able to do and what I'm not able to do. Now, for me, inside of my business, it's really important that I'm able to deliver either exactly what my client is wanting or very close to it.

And to be honest, my goal is always to wow my client. My goal is always to exceed their expectations in terms of what I actually deliver to them. And so, with that said, you know, I do, I'll ask for them to describe what it is they're wanting to have done, if they have an image of something that inspired them or something like this that they'd like to use as reference, then great. But I just want to kind of hear from them what exactly they're hoping to leave with. And then I do what I can to create the piece that they're envisioning for them. If I'm not able to make it happen, right?

Um, let's say, for example, even somebody recently here, I had a client who came and she, when she came to visit, she'd only booked a 15-minute session. And in booking that 15-minute session, she also wanted to have, like, a half sleeve done. And so I explained to her, "Well, you know, I see that you're signaling to, um, to your arm and when you do that, I'm seeing like, it, I'm reading that as you're wanting coverage that's basically, you know, a half sleeve and is that right?" And she said, "Yes". And I said, "Okay. Well, you know, today we have a mini session. So, um, here's what I can do within the 15 minutes. I, you know, I'm seeing— the motioning that you're showing me, um, for me, reads, as you want something, that's going to give you a lot of coverage and it's just not going to be possible for me to create that sort of piece within the constraints of the session that you've booked today. But if you want to do something on that area of the body, we can certainly do a half sleeve piece, but it's going to require for me to use elements and motifs that are going to create more space, um, that are going to be a little bit larger, that aren't going to have the intricacy that perhaps you may have seen elsewhere that you may have seen even on, you know, within my own portfolio. Um, and so at that point, you know, by me being clear with her and letting her know "this is what you can expect", right? It evens the playing field so that everyone goes into the appointment with the same understanding of what she is— what it is that she's going to walk away with. And so this is really important.

I want to be able to give her what she wants, but I also want her to understand, um, you know, what my, what my limits are and what my boundaries are and what the capacity is for me to be able to provide that. So in having that clear communication between the two of us, it makes, um, you know, guiding and curating that experience for her a lot more clean and it reduces for sure the possibility for there to be, you know, disappointment once the design is complete. In that case with that client, um, you know, after me explaining, explaining that to her, she's like, "Oh, you know, okay. Perfect! That's fine." Um, and we went ahead and we created her piece.

Um, but it is, it's just so important for you to get a really good gauge on what it is that your client wants. And then you're going to then express to them whether it is that you can provide that for them, confirm it, or let them know, "Hey, you know, that's not something that we can do today because of—" and give your reasoning and then you'll provide what they can expect. And then, you know, come to an agreement. You know, does that sound good with you? You know, what do you think about that? Uh, what are your thoughts? And at that point, you guys can settle into what work is actually going to be done. So that's the very first step that I do. I want to take inventory of what my client's needs are and what I can provide for them.

So the second piece is, and this kind of ties into what I just shared, is that the second step for me is I'm ideating a rough draft of what I'm going to create inside of my mind's eye. So what's helpful for me is to have an idea, again, of what sort of size we're looking at, uh, what size design. There are a couple key pieces that I take into account. The first is coverage, I also consider intricacy, and I consider body topography, right? So, basically when I say that, what I'm saying is I am mentally calculating—as my client is describing to me what it is that she wants—I'm mentally calculating for myself how much I can create, how detailed I can be—right?—how detailed I can make her piece, and how I can position that piece on her body that's going to be the most flattering for her unique body typography.

So, um, you guys know, you know sometimes you'll have someone who comes to you and they want to have a design done. And like they've found the int— the— an image on Pinterest or something. And they come to you with this design and the design looks great on whoever hand— whoever's hand that is, but it's not going to fit them. You know, the person in the picture has longer fingers or the person on the picture has a wider hand or the person in the picture has XYZ, right? And they don't. Um, when you're working on the body, this is something that happens very, very often.

For me, as someone who works, uh, very frequently doing extended sessions, doing bodywork, doing—whether that's prenatal work or whatever—um, and so in creating these larger pieces on the body, you have to be kind of cautious, right? If you have a client who comes to you and they've got a picture of a henna design on a body shape and a body type that is not like theirs, then there are things that we consider that they're not considering. For example, you know, if you have someone who comes in and they want to have a particular design done on their waistline and the person in the photo—or on their back, right ?—and the person in the photo has a particular body type and they don't, well, now you're going to have to navigate that conversation with them about how, "Hey, you know, when I complete this design here, you have to understand that there are going to be folds in the body," for example. Or, um, you might see even in the way that they carry their weight, right? In the way that they stand, their posture, that their shoulders, uh, you know, they, they might hold their shoulders back in a certain way that might cause the design to warp in the center of their spine, right?

So like, there are things that we consider, that we need to be considering when we're creating our designs or when we're ideating the design prior to creation, and we need to be able to communicate those things to our clients. So, uh, for me, in this second step, as I'm listening to what my client wants, I'm also creating for myself like a rough draft of how I can make that happen for them in a way that's going to be the most flattering for them, in a way that's also going to respect the length of the session that was booked, right? Because we are business owners. And so we're not just doing henna for fun. Of course we enjoy our work, but we're being paid for that. And so if you were paid for 15 minutes of service, then render 15 minutes of service. If you were paid for the hour of service, then render an hour of service. Um, and there are, you know, there are times when you're going to have clients who you come to really know and love.

And, uh, you know, you might want to give them a little bit of extra time so that you can really, you know, play with your designs or you want to, um, you know, share a little bit more of your skill with them as a personal treat, that's fine. That's your prerogative. But that does not need to be regular practice for you inside of your business, period. Right? And so as I, um, you know, approach the freestyle process, which for me, the majority of my work is done fr—, uh, freestyle. In terms of, um, you know, guests that I host here at the henna boutique, I anticipate that about 98% of my clients are going to have a freestyle piece. It is very, very rare that I'll have someone come with an image and say, "Here, make this for me."

And so, um, for me, as I'm approaching that freestyle process, I want to be able to have a rough draft kind of created in my mind's eye in order to guide where I'm going to be, you know, where and how I'm going to be applying this design to my client. Now, the last thing is, and this was where, like, it gets a little bit woo, but like, you're just going to have to take my word for it, okay? With these things balanced out in my brain, right? Um, and, and to be clear, like, me taking these assessments, like hearing what my client has to say, creating this rough draft for myself in my mind, having this conversation with my client like this, literally it takes me moments to ideate and, um, and it takes me just a few moments, you know, a few minutes to have those conversations with my clients.

So once I've done those things, then I allow energy to come into play, okay? So I am the type of person, the way that I approach my art is, I believe in co-creation. And I believe in the power of an energetic exchange between the client and artist. This is an intimate art. It is an art form where we are occupying someone else's space. We are touching their body, right? There's connection, literal— like a literal physical connection between us and them as we're doing this work. We are speaking with them oftentimes about very intimate things as well, right? And so you can't ignore the connection that's being made with your client.

For me, I strongly feel that the designs that I create are inspired by their wearer. And so I encourage my clients to talk while we're working. Um, I want to hear from them. I have learned to kind of hone in and, and be open to that energetic exchange. Um, I've learned to, uh, to hear, uh, erhaps, um, the type of person that my client is.

And so it's often very easy for me to be able to assess, you know, is this someone who's going to want a design that's more structured or one that's more floral or one that's more organic or one that, um, you know, plays in the negative space. Um, is this someone who's more bold or they're a little bit more dainty, right?

There are things that you can pick up about your client and their personality that are going to allow for you to create a, you know, a more, uh, unique piece and a piece that's more expressive of them and their style and their essence, right? And that's what I hope to capture with my art. I love to let my hands guide the way

when I'm designing pieces for my clients, but I'm doing that in a way that's inspired solely by the energy that they bring to that exchange and by the, you know, the insights that I'm able to collect from them in the conversation that we're having. And so of course, like, um, as you're starting to hone that skill, there are things that you can do that are helpful to, um, kind of pinpoint what you may take into mind as you're freestyling your pieces for your clients.

So, for example, you might look at the, um, you know, the clothing that they wear or the handbag that they buy. This is one that I really like to lean into because when you think about it, you know, how many people, you know, purchase a wallet or purchase a handbag and how long do you use that handbag, right?

Oftentimes, that's a purchase that you make and then you use that bag for a while, right? And so we purchase those things really thoughtfully. And so you might, you know, see the handbag that your client brings to the appointment, for example. And if you see that there's a bunch of florals on it, then like, that's a very clear indicator of what sort of style she has versus if you have someone who has a, you know, a handbag that's like a very sleek designer piece, for example, that may be someone who is looking for something with a little bit more structure, um, and that has nice crisp, clean lines in their piece. So this, for, you know, for you, just from a practical perspective, If you're not yet, I'll call it "in tune" with those sort of energetic exchanges, there are still certainly practical things that you can assess to help you to define what, uh, elements to use inside of your designs and how you're going to create for your client. But I really do want to encourage you to connect, uh, by way of conversation with them while you're working or prior to when you're working if, you know, if it's hard for you to, to work and also converse with your client. You know, share—. You have a couple of minutes. Book that in. You know, uh, plan for that in your scheduling, um, to have a couple of minutes to actually chat with them before you start working, before you start rendering those services so that you can get an idea of their personality and then create something that's very unique and just for them, okay? So, there you have it. Those are my three steps for how I, you know, freestyle my pieces for my clients.

Uh, just to recap, that first piece is, I take inventory of my client's needs and their wants, right? The second piece is, I ideate a rough draft of what I'm going to create in my mind's eye keeping in mind, um, you know, the coverage, the intricacy, the body topography, and the time that my client has purchased to spend with me.

Um, and then also that final piece is allowing my brain to kind of tune out and allowing energy to do its thing, allowing myself to be inspired by my client and her presence and her energy and her, um, her unique experience in life, um, to build a piece that's meant just for her, um, that's meant to capture her essence and make her feel incredible.

So, I hope that you guys enjoyed these three tips. I am interested to know if you have a process for freestyling your pieces. If so, if you've got any helpful hacks that you'd like to share with the other Hennapreneurs, I welcome you to let us know. Let us know in the Hennapreneur Community. You can find us online at Hennapreneur.com.

See you next time!

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