ep. 030 • Why Collecting “No’s” is Your Way to More Money

Chelsea: What if I were to tell you that seeking rejection is actually a powerful tool for generating more revenue in your business? Didn't see that one coming? Stick with me, hennapreneurs! Today, I'm sharing why collecting no's is your way to making more money.

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 popping 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! Welcome to this episode of the Hennapreneur podcast. I'm super excited because today I want to talk to you about something that oftentimes holds us from making the money that we're wanting to make – and that is fear of rejection. So, listen, today, I want you to hear me out because I'm going to say some things that might throw you for a loop.

You may go, "Really? Did she really say that?" And I want to say right now, "Yes. I'm really saying what I'm saying." Okay? So just stick with me, all right. You'll make it. You'll love it. I promise.

Okay. So, one of the things that's oftentimes I hear from the artists as I'm consulting with them or when I receive messages or emails, is that... it's that they want to get out there. They really want to market their business and they want to, they want to make money with their art, right? They want to bring in more clients and I'll ask like, "Okay, what are you doing to show up? What are you doing to actually secure those bookings. And oftentimes they'll be like, "Well, I mean, I post on social media."

And don't get me wrong, posting on social media is great, but it's also very passive. You can't just post on social media and expect that that's going to be all it takes to bring clients to your business. And that's especially the case if you're just starting out and you don't already have consistent income coming from regular clients, right?

So, how do you get started? How do you start making those sales? How do you start to generate a larger following of people who are actually going to book your services?

Well, you're going to have to lean into something that we really dislike –  rejection.

So this is the thing, rejection is always happening anyway. And there are two types of rejection that we need to be aware of for the context of this conversation, okay? The first is visible rejection. Now that's obvious, right? That's when you ask someone if they would like to book an appointment with you and they straight up tell you no, right?

That's when you're out, perhaps, working at a public event or a festival and someone walks up to your booth, looks at your stuff and, then walks away, right? Like, that is rejection that's visible. That's the rejection that you can perceive. That's rejection that doesn't feel so great, but we know that it's happening, right?

Then there's the other type of rejection. This is silent rejection. Silent rejection is that rejection that you never actually come to perceive. That's when someone visits your website and decides that they don't like you and they click away. That's when someone comes across your social media account, scrolls and says "Mmm, not the artist for me." and doesn't, you know, doesn't continue onto booking. Whatever that experience is, right? That is that person who sees you and decides, 'nah, not for me' and chooses not to buy.

This is the thing, the visible rejection is the one that, you know, it hurts because it gets you in your feelings because you saw it, you felt it, you heard it, you knew that it happened, but silent rejection happens so much more, okay?

So, so that we can kind of lean in here, cause we're going to flush this out a little bit. You need to understand something called a conversion rate, right? We need to talk about that. Conversion is when you take someone from seeing your product or service to actually purchasing that product or service, okay?

So you need to understand that while most people who see your henna services,  and perhaps they even take interest, they may even be someone who likes henna, right? Even still, most people who see your henna services are going to reject you.

A solid conversion for most sales is around 2%. So, what does that mean? That means that, at best, 2% of people who actually come across your photos on social, on Insta, on Facebook, or who come across your website via Google or wherever, only about 2% of them are going to buy.

Where we get a little bit lucky is that for niche services, like niche industries, conversion rates can raise, right? And so, conversion rates for very niche markets like ours, those conversion rates can range anywhere from  7 to even as high as like 10%. And those are like, those are solid numbers. Don't get me wrong, when I say  2% conversion rate, that's not, like, someone who's really sucking out what they do. No. 2% is solid, right? And that tends to be across most industries.

So for us, in a niche industry where we have the opportunity to be able to close, um, reasonably expect to close, somewhere between 7 to 10%, um, of people who, you know, who visit our, our websites or come across us otherwise, like, that's really, that's really amazing, but what does that actually mean? Because those numbers are super small, right? So that still means that out of every hundred people who see your business only about 10 of them will actually book you and that–friends, please understand–that assumes that everything was perfect. That assumes that you were placed in front of, or, or you place your business in front of people who are the right type of person for your services. So you, you know who your ideal client is, you are, you know, in those spaces where that person interacts, and that person came across your content, and everything was right, and the stars aligned and boom, they were one of that, you know, seven to 10 people out of a hundred to say yes. That's a lot, right?

The reason I need you to be warm and familiar with these numbers is because I need us to get out of the mindset that rejection means that you're failing, because it doesn't, all right? And in fact, with this in mind, your job as a hennapreneur more than ever is to show up, okay? If 2%, meaning if two of every hundred people will say yes to your henna, then how many people do you need to get in front of to book the appointments that you want or need to reach your income goals? Do that math, right?

I'd argue, I'd argue that instead of collecting yeses, you might shift your perspective, shift your mindset a little bit and start collecting no's. Why? Because that means that you're out there. You're inviting people to book with you. You're learning what works best when you do receive the yes, right?

If you're out there in the market and you're saying, "Hey guys, look at what I do," and you're sharing photos and you're creating engaging content and you're, you know, talking with people. You're in their DMs. You're sharing about what you do. You're having conversations, right? You're making connection. When you do that, is it possible that they could say no? Absolutely. But you know what? At least it was a visible no. You can count it, put it on your list, because for every visible no, there are so many silent no's that you didn't even perceive, that you didn't even realize happened, right? So the more no's, the more visible rejections you experience, the more it can be said that you are putting yourself out there and making, making it known to the market, to your audience that you are available.

And the truth is, if you're looking for those hundred, you know, those hundred people and you're expecting that two of them, you know, two of them purchase, or if we're really lucky and everything is perfect, somewhere between seven to 10 of them go on to make that booking, then, you know what? All of those other people, all of those, those remaining 90 to 93 people, or in the case of a 2% conversion, those additional 98 people, you know what they were? They were a lesson. They were a lesson. They were practice. They were practice for you to hone your messaging. What is it that my ideal client wants to hear me say? What are the questions that they have about henna? What are the things that are motivating them to book henna in the first place? What are they looking for in a henna artist? What sort of arrangements can I make to really add value to their experience? What is it that's motivating them to even look at these designs at all? What is it that sets me apart and how can I communicate that to them in a way that's clear and concise and exciting for them and that makes them feel like, 'oh my gosh, I can't wait to work with this person.' Right? That's your job.

And so let me just, again, putting this into perspective for you, if you need to, to reach a hundred people and if everything is going perfectly, right, you book 10, okay? That's 10 sales that you didn't have before. And that's 90 other opportunities that you had to hone your message, to hone your marketing, and to perfect your skill showing up and showing the world how you are amazing.

It's okay if they say no. That's all right. That's their prerogative. Your job is to be empowered inside of your business. Your job is to keep going.  Your job is to continue to show up.

The bottom line, friends, is that the more no's you encounter, the more money you're also going to make. We have to get away from the fear of rejection. And instead, we need to harness it as a tool that helps us to better understand what resonates with our clients so we can do more of that. And along the way, what you're going to find is you're going to make more money, right? You're going to, because not only you will you be perfecting the way that you're addressing your audience, you're also, inevitably, going to come across those people who are going to be so thrilled that you invited them to book with you. And they are not going to be able to wait to whip out their credit card to make that appointment, okay?

So, I have a question for you: with this all in mind, how many no's will you commit to collecting this week? Can we like, can we get on board with that? How many no's are you willing to commit to collecting this week? I'd love to know. Come pop over into the Hennapreneur Community and share that with me.

If you're not already a member of the community, you can join us over at Hennapreneur.com/community. I want to know how many no's are you willing to collect this week, because you know what?  I'd love to see your business grow on the strength of your willingness to let go of whatever negative baggage you have tied to this idea of rejection. And instead if we could push forward towards your goals with a new mindset, one of abundance and one of excitement and one of, 'oh my gosh, I can learn from this' and 'oh my gosh, I can make more cash along the way, too'. So, I'll see you guys inside of the community. Talk to you later!

I've got a serious question for you:  are you ready to stop playing small with your art and to take your business to the next level?

 Are you tired of feeling like you're doing it all to grow your business, but you just aren't seeing the results and the success that you're looking for?

Perhaps you've got clients here and there, but you know inside that your potential expands far beyond what your business is generating today. You may know that you're a solid artist, but you can't seem to crack the code on the business side of things, and you may find yourself wondering, "What gives?!"

If any of this sounds like you: Listen up! Because I've got some really great news for you.

I've got a free, on-demand masterclass called 5-Figure Foundations where I'll teach you my framework for how to build a profitable henna business. During the masterclass you'll learn how to position your henna business for success -- even if you don't have any background in practical business management. You're going to learn the critical steps you need to take in order to get your budding business started off right or to correct the broken one that's burning you out.  You're going to learn why you need systems, not feelings, to make more money and to expand your business. We're going to get real clear, real fast about how you're likely getting in your own way right now, and how you can remove the frustrations that are holding you back.

I'm also going to share my tried and true framework for establishing a profitable, sustainable business, and I'm going to tell you all about how my students are continuing to grow their businesses and celebrating some pretty big wins in the process, even through those everyday challenges that you might expect, like juggling work and home life, and even those massive challenges that you might've never seen coming, like navigating a pandemic while being a business owner.

At the end of the masterclass, you'll no longer be in the dark. You'll know exactly what to do and what to avoid, to build a solid foundation for your own profitable henna business. To register for the masterclass and to watch it instantly on demand, visit Hennapreneur.com/foundations.