ep. 040 • If You Want to Grow, You Have to Make Space

Chelsea: Recently, as I was tending to my orchids I had a little bit of an inspired realization about the commonalities between caring for a simple houseplant and actually growing in your life and business.

And so in today's episode, I'm sharing all about what it takes to grow, to create space and to allow ourselves a wider container for our own sustained growth and our own ability to move into the next iteration of our lives and businesses with success, and with ease, and in a way that feels right really respectful of our needs at the current time.

So if you're here for that, and if you love hearing about my life behind the scenes, you're really going to enjoy this episode. 

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 back to another episode of the Hennapreneur podcast. Today, I want to talk to you about my orchid, okay?

So I started buying orchids years ago as a treat for myself and this was before I really started working on my money mindset stuff. And so my very first orchids were actually purchased, like, half dead. Like, shriveling up on the 50% off rack at Lowe's or wherever. You know, at the hardware store. At the grocery store, even, I would find them. And they'd be like, you know, just looking crazy. Definitely in need of a lot of tender, loving care. But one of the things that I liked to do was, you know, I would, you know, find these orchids and then I would nurse them back to health. And I learned that I had just enough of a green thumb– and I don't have much of one, please understand. I love to garden.

If you've been around the Hennapreneur Community for a longer time, you might know that, you know, I had this full garden in my backyard and all those things, but like, gardening outdoors versus having plants indoors is not the same. And I tend to be a little bit different when it comes to houseplants, okay? As much as I love them, I'm not that great with them in general. But I learned that I did have just enough of a green thumb and just enough forgetfulness about me that I actually make a really great orchid mom, okay? So, like, I neglect them just enough for them to thrive.

So I started buying these orchids as a treat for myself. And I started just with, like, one or two and I would nurse them back to health and then I would see them bloom and they'd bring me so much joy and then the flowers would die off and then you have to take care of the stems and whatnot, and then a new shoot will come and it will begin to bloom again and all of that. And, truly, it's been something that's really fun and special for me because orchids are one of those things that many people actually kill – which I find so ironic – but oftentimes people will mention how finicky orchids are and how if you get it wrong, they die very quickly and it's just– they can be a little bit temperamental.

So my orchids, you know, as I realized, 'wow! Like, I'm okay. I'm a good orchid mom,' I started to collect more, and more, and more of them. And so now I have orchids all over my home. I've got many of them in my home office and I have them at the henna boutique as well. And I love them. They bring me a lot of joy.

Typically, my orchids, they will, you know, they do really well and they bloom like two to three times per year, which means that they're healthy and they're happy. But what's interesting about orchids is that they'll only grow as far as you allow them, right?

I have orchids all over. I think right now I probably have at home 10 different potted orchids and then the ones at the boutique as well. In total, I've probably got 12 to 13 orchid plants around and I've got them of all varieties.

So I've got, you know, orchids in tiny, like, two-inch diameter pots, and then I've got ones that are in large, like, 10-inch pots, and regardless of how well they're doing, they will only grow to fill the container, right?

And so if I want my orchids to grow and to expand, then I have to move them from the pot that they're in into a larger pot. And why is any of this relevant to you? Why should you care about my orchids?

Well, I was tending to my orchids the other day and this thought came to me about how similar the care of my orchids is to the care of one's business, okay?

Our businesses are very much the same. We will only grow as far as we allow ourselves to grow per the containers that we create for our lives and businesses. So, you know, if you want to grow, you have to make space similar to my orchids. They'll only grow as far as I allow them. They'll only grow as far as the container allows them. And so even if they're doing really well, and even if they're thriving in that container, they're never going to surpass the limits of that pot, right?

And our businesses exist in the exact same way. If you operate in your business in a way that only makes space for what you have right now, then it's unlikely that you're going to see much growth beyond that. And it doesn't matter if you're doing exceptionally well right now, or if you're not, right? You can be doing a very mediocre, if you will, job inside of your business, or you could be doing a phenomenal job inside of your business and regardless of where you are, if the container you've created for your business only allows for so much growth and so much expansion, you won't surpass that, right?

If you want to grow, you do have to make space and making space for growth in your business means treating and behaving in your business as if it were already operating in the next level. So that can look very different for you depending on where you are inside of your journey and what your personal circumstances are and so forth, but, you know, some examples like perhaps that could mean finding a babysitter for a couple of hours each week to give you space to work on the things that you know that you need to do for your business. Perhaps that looks like bringing in a new software to help you better automate your booking processes. Maybe that looks like hiring a bookkeeping team to help you manage your business's finances or investing in a program like Hennapreneur PRO to get the guidance you need to build a five- or six-figure henna business, right?

Whatever that looks like for you, making space for growth means treating your business like the business you want; not like the business you have right now.

And this is oftentimes challenging for people because we tend to limit ourselves to what we think we can do right now. And we often set goals for ourselves pending some other things, right? So we'll say, "I will do X when I hit Y," right?

So I'll do this thing for my business, or I'll do this thing for myself as a milestone or as a reward, even, for hitting a milestone. And yet, we don't create the space to hit that milestone to begin with because we're not operating from a place that would allow us to do so.

So this is something I often will hear from hennapreneurs in coaching and in consulting:

 "Well, I want to do X, Y, or Z. I have this goal, but I'll do it when I am seeing, you know, X-number of clients per week."

Or "I'll do that once I'm making X-dollar amount per month."

Or "I'll do that once I–", and then we have some sort of, like, contingency there, but the thing is, we'll only get a certain amount of results from our actions and so if you continue to do the same thing, you can't expect to yield a different outcome, right?

So if the work that you're doing inside of your business is only taking you from step A to step C and you've got all these steps remaining for you to hit whatever your larger goal is, well, if you continue to do the same things, you're never going to surpass that C, right?

So how do you get to D, E, F, G, and so forth? You have to change something. You have to do something differently. You have to open up and give yourself, allow yourself, space to grow. And that feels counterintuitive, and it may look counterintuitive, and it may look very risky, and when you're in it, it definitely feels very risky and it definitely feels like there's a lot of uncertainty and insecurity around, you know, will you see return and all of these things. And those are legitimate feelings to feel, but those feelings can't guide our actions because if we allow for them to do so, we'll never move beyond our container.

If you want to grow in your business, if you want to make space for your business to thrive and to flourish and to expand into its next level, you have to treat the business that you have right now as if it were the business that you were wanting to build down the line, okay?

And I get it, transitions can be hard. One of the challenges with repotting an orchid is that the transition is delicate. It is a delicate time, and it's just like many transitions that we experience, you know, as humans. You have to be careful when you're repotting an orchid. You have to be careful with the roots and you have to move it with caution and you have to handle it with gentleness and with nurturing. And you have to be very in tune with that plant and giving it what it needs.

And as business owners, we have to be careful while transitioning also, right? We have to apply extra care, not only to your business but also to yourself in the process, because anytime you're transitioning, anytime you're expanding, anytime you're growing, you're stepping into something that's new and uncomfortable and you're stepping into something that is unknown. And that's where you really do have to lean into self-care and you really do have to be super mindful and intentional.

And so this is not me saying to take actions that don't make sense. This is not me saying leave all caution to the wind and just be out here, winging it. No. You do certainly want to move with care and with nurturing and with intention inside of your business. But you can't do that in such a way that causes you to contract, right?

We want to be expansive and we want to move into these larger spaces that we want for ourselves and for these businesses that we're creating. And so, you know, as a business owner, you know, once you've settled into your quote/unquote "new home", right? Once you settled into that new space, once you've grown into that little bit of the next level that's taking you from step C to step D, that one little piece, then you settle in and then you actively make space for the next thing. So this is something that you never stop doing.

And friends, I really want to call your attention to this because oftentimes we become complacent with our growth and we become complacent with where we are inside of our businesses and we become comfortable with what works, then we will actually stunt our own growth because we won't be willing to expand the space around us to allow for further growth.

And what's interesting about that is while that can be fun for a time–

And please understand, there are certainly seasons inside of your business where being in that space is where you belong and the longer you're in business, the more easy it will be for you to identify these things. You'll become, like, more aligned and just more in tune with the natural ebb and flow of your business  and your own wants and need and requirements, if you will, just as a human being because as hennapreneurs, we are the conduit of our business so we have to be also cautious of our own energetic flow and so forth. So there are certainly times when we should be in our proverbial pot and stay there, right? But we don't want to stay there to a point where we allow our roots to rot.

Ooh, we don't want to stay in the same place too long to a point that our roots begin to rot because they don't have the space to continue to grow. That's where you find people who, you know, they feel resentful towards their business, or they feel like they've lost touch with their business. They start to feel disconnected from their business or they start to feel like they've lost the passion around it.

And what's so interesting about that for me when I see this and when I hear this is that oftentimes it's not about the business itself. It's that as a hennapreneur, as an entrepreneur, you are driven  by growth. It's in our nature to want to excel. It's in our nature to want to try new things, to do new things, to grow, to push the limits. That's what's very interesting, right? What kind of sets us apart from everybody else.

Hennapreneurs, we're very driven. We're very ambitious, right? We're out here trying to secure the bag and that's part of our identity.

And so when you stay in your pot, right, when you keep your business in its pot and you don't allow it space to grow, its roots begin to rot.  We begin to lose that drive because we're no longer receiving the energetic affirmation.  We're no longer receiving that excitement that comes along with building, growing, developing, and moving into our next and better iteration of ourself and the next iteration of our business. So it's not by chance.

So this is me reminding you, if you will, that if you've reached a place inside of your business where things are starting to feel stale, it's likely because your roots are beginning to rot. Your roots have begun to rot and how can we fix that? Well, let's open up the container. Let's open that container just a little. Let's expand it just a little and let's push you towards that next thing.

And if you're not yet in a place where you are feeling that sort of, you know, burnout or you're feeling that sense of resentment towards your business, and you're just super excited to grow even better now is like a wonderful time for you to lean into expansion, right?

You've already got that positive energy there with you. You've already got that that ambition. You've already got that drive and that motivation and the momentum, so now would be a wonderful time for you to assess what's the one next thing that you could do that would open up a little space for you to grow further.

So, I'm looking– as I'm recording this, I'm looking over and I'm looking at my orchid and I'm so hopeful that this message hits home for you. I'm hopeful that you are really hearing what I'm saying, because we oftentimes limit ourselves to what's comfortable and we forget about the fact that beyond that comfort zone exists so much more and all we have to do is be willing to step in.

And so, just like me when I want my orchids to grow a little bit bigger when I want them to be able to, you know, to be able to nurture an additional shoot – I'm looking at one of my plans right now that started out with one shoot of orchids and now has three – if you want to see abundance inside of your business and inside of your life, you also have to make space to grow into that.

And so I want to leave you with the question: What could you commit to doing right now that would make space for you to move into the next iteration of your business? What would that be? What would that look like? What small action could you take to create a little bit of a larger space, a little bit of a larger container, to give yourself the ability to move into the next big thing for you.

I would love to invite you to share what that is with me over in the Hennapreneur Community on Facebook. Y'all know I love hearing back from you, you know, what your takeaways are.

And so, if this makes sense to you, go ahead and pop over and share your experience with me. I'm hopeful that in sharing my little green thumb anecdote here that some connections were made not only about how you're treating your business actively right now, but what it could look like if you allowed yourself a little bit more space to step into what you actually want next.

All right. I'll talk to you all later. Until next time!

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, 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.