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Chelsea: Hello, hello, hello hennapreneurs. We are live. Look, I am trying to get my little life right here. Here we go. Oh! There we go. All right, let me make sure this is on good. Here we go. See, here we go. Already it's telling me I'm having connection issues. Please let me know with a like or a heart that you can hear me well. Um, and uh, and we'll proceed. So, um, I am here today to do our last of January Ask Me Anything! session. If it's your first time joining me for our Ask Me Anything! session, let me explain. Um, I will come live twice each month here on Facebook and I answer any and all questions that you guys have about henna, business, branding, and sometimes other things. Sometimes you guys ask me things about other stuff, so I'm happy to answer this as well.

But, um... Hey! Yeah, okay. Perfect. Good. Good. Good. I'm so glad. I'm glad. And you guys can hear me well, right? I hope. Okay. Um, so if you're new to me and to Hennapreneur — Hi, my name is Chelsea. I'm the founder of Hennapreneur. I'm a professional henna artist. I work here in Baltimore, Maryland. And I'm also a business strategist who helps other henna artists to build their businesses, build their brands and um, and do what they love with henna and, uh, to benefit their bank account because that's what we're here for, right? We're not, you know. Whatever. But so, um, let's jump right in. Oh, you guys before, because I know I'm going to forget. Also, do not judge me by my manicure today. I literally just came back from the jungle. Side note, in Costa Rica, just literally, before I got on the plane, I had a manicure done and within all of 48 hours after getting off of the plane, um, my manicure was absolutely destroyed.

So I have to remove my nail polish. So you guys know I talk with my hands. If you see my crazy looking fingernails, disregard them. Do not judge me for them. I just got back from the jungle. Okay. So I want to let you let you guys know, uh, before we get into the questions today, I want to let you guys know today is day one of the massive Accelerate Your Business giveaway. So if you haven't heard about the giveaway, that's because you're not on the mailing list. If you're on the Hennapreneur mailing list, you would have gotten an email saying, "Hey guys, there's a massive giveaway and you want to join." and you guys had 48 hours extra before everyone else to get in and get your entries in and start to get the ball rolling. So I want to take a second to tell you guys about to giveaway really quickly.

I am giving away— look, okay, I always have a reason to celebrate. You guys know that. Um, but, I'm celebrating right now because just last month we had our first round of hennapreneurs go through and successfully complete the Accelerator program. Which if you don't know what that is, it's a 100-day program. It's really rigorous. It's a basically like an MBA for henna professionals. So if you're wanting to learn how to build a henna business, that's what that program does. Anyways, so I just had a group of students who just came through the program. They successfully completed it. I'm celebrating that by doing a massive giveaway. So I asked those members of the Hennapreneur community here on Facebook, "What's on your wishlist?" Like, "What things would you love for your business that maybe you don't have the budget for or you haven't been able to invest in, but like, this is on your business wishlist."

And I collected a massive list from you guys and believe it or not, just about everything that you guys asked for on those— within that thread, and it was a long thread, is included in the giveaway. So I kid you not, there is about $4,000 worth of henna products, resources, things, inside of the giveaway if you want to join the giveaway. The giveaway went live today, publicly. So I'll be putting a link for the giveaway in the comments. What's really special about the giveaway is, like, I know normally it's like, "Oh, I don't want anyone else to join because if someone else registers for the giveaway, then I have, like, less chance to win." No y'all, because I set things up because I want you guys to win, right? So the more you actually share the giveaway, when you, when you register for the giveaway, right?

You're going to enter in, enter into the giveaway and you're going to get a link. Like, it will give you a list of boxes of things that you can do. You can check to share the giveaway on Facebook via messenger or via email. And when you do that, it auto generates a link for you that you can send to people. And that link, it's like a secret URL. That secret link gives you credit for anyone else who registers for the giveaway too. So if you share the link to the giveaway with, like, I don't know, let's say you share it with five other, hadn't henna friends, you get three extra entries for every one of those people. So you would have 15 extra entries for every person that they are— for every person that registers through your link. So the more you share, the more your chances are of winning and the giveaway too.

So I'll put the link, be sure to register and be sure to share it as well so that you can get extra entries because I'm telling you, this giveaway is lit. All right, let's get into the questions because that's what we're here for. Um, there were a couple of questions that came in through the community while I was out of town, so I wanted to be sure to answer those. And then I also have a couple that came in earlier today, so we're going to get into those as well. So, the first question that came, it was a question about working larger events, right? Um, this hennapreneur asks, "As salaamu alaikum ladies, so I am going to do an event and it's going to be about 200 people there. Any tips you all have for me?"

Um, "Do you have or do you have any tips for me to share? I've done several times big events, but I moved to another location. This is my first time here. So I'm both nervous and excited. Wish me luck and thank you all." Um, absolutely. I wanted to take the time to answer this question because I feel like it's a really good one, especially as we're starting to go into the higher volume season, right? So as we're in, um, this like, pre-festival season, we're going to start to see an uptick of events, uh, public events, private events, and likewise. Um, and for that reason I wanted to be sure to answer this question on today's session as well. Uh, because I think that it's really important for us to start thinking about how we can set ourselves up for success in those sorts of scenarios,

right? So, um, the very first thing that I wanted to recommend to this hennapreneur and I understand that her event was actually yesterday. Um, but I'm still going to answer for both, for her benefit and for the benefit of others who are here. Um, is that when you're going to work a large event, right? When you're going to work a large event, especially if you're going to work an event like this, she said there's going to be around 200 people in attendance. And unfortunately I don't have clarity whether or not this is 200 people in a public event that's like a festival or 200 people in an event that's like a private party or booking. Um, but I'm going to kind of address them on both sides so that hopefully, um, you can gather, like, a little bit of knowledge on both.

Um, like what it means for both scenarios, okay? So in the event that this was a public event of 200 people, let's, I'm talking about this like in the context of a festival or fair sort of scenario, this would be something that I would consider like a street fair, right? Um, for an event like this, especially if you're new to the area, my primary recommendation would be to make sure that you show up with plenty of marketing collateral, marketing material that's going to allow you to connect with people even if they don't buy from you that day. I feel like a lot of times as henna artists, we have our aftercare cards or we have, like, our business cards readily available for those people who sit down and actually get henna. But when you are looking to build your business, you have to be thinking long game.

And many times when we put ourselves in this scenario or when we're, we're in the scenario where we're working, um, like where we're working with our clients right there we are typically we're thinking very short term. We're thinking, like, "How can I just make the money right now? Like, I've paid X-amount of money to be here in this booth today. I need to make money today." and we forget about thinking long game. If you're going to be successful in making sure that your business grows, you have to think long-term., okay? So, being sure to connect with those people with marketing collateral. And if you don't have, listen, I understand too, you might be early in the startup phase, you don't have a ton of money to spend on business cards to just give out or like flyers and things like this.

I understand. Totally get it. Do you know, on Instagram, right? You can go on Instagram and you have the Instagram, um, oh gosh, what are they actually called? Uh, it's like a, oh gosh. Now the word doesn't to come to my mouth. Um, it's um, gosh, what is that thing called? You guys know what I'm talking about. On Instagram there's a, um, it's like an icon that you can get and I'll have to go... I'll go into my Instagram. Tell you what I'll do, because the word is not coming to me and either way it will probably be easier for me to actually show you. So what I'll do is I will do a screen recording and show you how to access this thing. But it's a— Yes! The scan code. It's the scan code. Um, but you'll, you can take that scan code, print it out, print it on just like a piece of paper.

You can create something in Canva or you can create something just very easily, right? Create something, print it out, put it in a frame, put it on your table, and allow people to follow you right there,from, you know, at that event. So even if you don't have— Name tag! Look, Joy, you're the best. You're my people. So, um, if you have that name tag available, then it's very easy for you to, um, to then just allow people to scan it right there with their phone to be able to connect with you. Another way is that if you could, even better, if you have the opportunity to gather information from them. So if you have something, like, you might be hosting a giveaway, this could be something that you can do. You can, like, you know, "I'm giving away one private session." One 30-minute session, for example.

Right? And if you want to enter, just leave your name and your email address or your name and your phone number or whatever. And it gives you the opportunity to collect that information from those people who might be interested in, well obviously if they're signing up for something like this, that means they would be interested in what you're offering, right? And then you have a way that you can follow up with them later. I strongly recommend building your email list, especially if you're going to be in that area locally because then you can continue to connect with those people outside of social media and stay on the top of their mind. Because ultimately that's what you want to do, right? If you're wanting to build your business long term, you need to stay top of mind. Even if they're not looking to book henna today or even they're not looking to buy henna from you today, still, when they're looking for someone later on, they'll be like, "Ah. There's somebody I know. I can recommend them to so-and-so.

Or this is someone who I would hire for my own business." So this would be my first thing. First and foremost, right? If you're going to be working in any sort of event setting, make sure that you are thinking long term as well and not just being there at the event. My next thing would be, um, when you're setting up, make your setup, one, of course you wanna make yourself— your set up very, like, beautiful and attractive and all of those things, but also, because I know that she said that she's new to that area, you want to make sure that your space is set up in such a way that speaks to consistent branding, right? You don't want to look like, um, uh, what's it called? Like a... I don't want to say like a yard sale.

That's what I'm going to say. But you don't want to look like a yard sale. Like, you really want to be cautious about making sure, because it's a first impression, making sure that your space is set up in such a way that feels professional, and it feels well-branded and easily recognizable for you and for your business. So this would be my other recommendation for you. Um, even if you're, like, just collecting like little things that like look nice together and whatnot, but to make sure that your space is functional for you and also is going to be something that represents you in a way that makes you feel really good. Um, in terms of, like, your, what's it called? Um, like your actual working with the clients while you're there. This is where it gets a little bit different between the festival setting and the private events setting.

Depending on where you are, this, it looks different. If this is a festival or fair sort of situation, then you're going to have, um, in that case you're going to have, what's it called? Books. Your festival books where you'll want to work with your clients, you'll let them select designs. With a group of, or a crowd of 200 people I do not expect that you would be super busy that day, um, to be honest. So in that case, you, um, keeping in mind, like, if you're working in a public arena you're only looking at really less than 10%. Somewhere between two to 5% of people are going to stop by your booth and actually be interested in buying henna from you that day. So with 200 people, that really, I mean you're looking at, if you're lucky, if you're lucky, 10 people get henna that day.

Like that's not, um, that's not the greatest pool of people to deal with in a festival setting, generally. But if that were the case, then I would definitely want to make sure that you had your books out and that you had books that are going to, um, allow you to work as quickly as possible, but also to provide the most coverage. Depending on how much time you would be there then you could select perhaps items that are going to maybe allow for there to be a little bit more profitability just given the audience size. Um, but this is something for you to consider definitely, moving forward. Now, if you're working with an event that's like a private event where the guests are not paying, like you were hired to come in and work and you're just offering the designs complimentary to those guests, then it's a little bit different.

In that case I wouldn't typically bring designs with me. Instead, I would just free hand. Um, or if you're not comfortable freehanding, then maybe have one page or two pages of designs that are very simple for people to select from. No more than like five or six options for them to select from so that you can keep the line moving because that situation would be much, much different. Um, so yeah. Those were a couple little things I wanted to touch on. Uh, Joy, I see you asked, "What are data protection laws like for you guys there in the US? I know in the UK you need to be really careful about collecting, managing, and using consumer data like emails." You're 100% right. When you're dealing with— so, I actually adhere to— even though in the US we don't have— GDPR doesn't exist in the US in the same ways,

um, but I actually adhere to GDPR because I have, um, I have the impression that we're headed in that direction in the US even if we're not currently applying all the same things that the UK applies right now. So the long and the short of it is, if they're saying "Yes, I'm willing to provide my email address to you." In UK it might be, it may be a little bit different in person, but I imagine that it— no, honestly, in thinking about it, in thinking about it, it must be about the same because you would have to gather their information and then send them a confirmation. They would have to then confirm in their email. Click, you know, like you could send them an email and then they would have to click to confirm that yes, they want to be on that list.

So even though they're giving you the email at that place, then you would send out the email saying, "Hey, we met at this event. I'd love to continue to connect with you," whatever. Um, "Here's the whatever, whatever." If you're giving them something, maybe you're giving them a coupon code for, like, their next session or whatever, and then they can click that link there to confirm. Here in the US that's not a thing. Here in the US people can still, like, just collect email addresses from the people at their events and then add them into their email collection systems. Um, but GDPR, I know it's rough in the UK over there. It is. Yeah, it's rough. Yeah, it's rough. Um, and it's kind of the bane of my existence as well to be honest. Um, okay. Someone else said, "Last night I did henna for a party and my mind went blank and I couldn't come up with any designs.

It was so weird. I didn't bring designs because I prefer to freestyle when I'm hired for large parties because I move faster. But, man, I basically ended up giving everyone the same design. Has this ever happened to anyone else?" This definitely, definitely happens. It happens to the best of us. And sometimes it sneaks up on you and there's nothing that you can do. I will tell you that when I first started, okay, so now when I work at henna parties, right? When I work at events, as I just mentioned, I typically don't bring designs for people to select from. I will create a design freestyle for every guest and every guest has something different. But I remember when I started, when I started, that was not the case. And so what I would do is I had, I used to bring and actually I have, like, I used to bring this little book.

Now this book is full of other things, so I'm not even going to show you, but I used to bring a book like this and, actually, these are some of my older designs, so this is really funny. Um, but it had, like, just some pictures on the front and then in the inside I had literally like, uh, six pages, rght? So the six pages were just hand drawn designs, right? Very simple. Oop! I'll show you. Like, very simple hand drawn designs. Nothing special. And what I would do is, I would have just a couple in different styles, right? And then with those different styles that would tell me what sort of, like, what sort of layout people liked, if there were elements that they liked. So I had one that was like, one was like, very geometric, Moroccan style. Moroccanesque. At that time I was not proficient in Moroccan at all, but I thought it was very Moroccan and it, you know, it tried.

So I'd have one like that. And I would have one where it was floral. I'd have one that was more arched style. And I had one that was more jewelry style and I'm missing one because I think I just told you five. Um, but, uh... one with paisleys was the other. And, um... but the takeaway being I had one with each different style. Right. And so these were the styles that I was comfortable with. And so I would ask people, um, once I kind of got, like, if I got in my head and it was hard for me to come up with something on the fly, then I would ask them if they could show me the layout that they liked or if they could show me the elements that they liked from each of these, um, pieces inside of this book. And it was very simple.

Again, nothing, like, it was nothing special. These were hand drawn designs that people could then choose from. And it would just give me something to kind of like jump-start my creativity again. There was something and someone inside of the Hennapreneur community actually posted an example of hers. So if you're not inside of the community, you probably should join because this is what I'm talking about. We have the best community ever. Um, but I did something similar as well when I was new. It was essentially a key, where I had on the side of this page a bunch of different elements drawn in different ways. So, like, there was like five, six different types of flowers and, you know, six different types of paisleys and different types of flourishes and different types of leaves. And they were all just on this paper, kind of like an answer key, if you will.

And I had that in the back of my book and that one was not facing the front. So, like, I would keep everything in, um, what are they called? You guys! I cannot remember English today at all, right? Um, inside of the page protectors, right? So I would have this thing in the back, on the back side of the page protector in the back of the book so it was like only I would see it if I flipped to the back. Um, and in there I would keep little just, um, you know, this design elements key, if you will. And having that inside of my book was so helpful for me at times because I would want to create something different but it's like sometimes you just literally forget, "What do I even know?" Right? "What do I even know?" Or "What might look good with this?"

Or, you know, "How can I make this a little bit different?" And by having that key right there, I could just kind of flip to the back, "Ah! Okay. I'm going to try this in my next design and mix things up that way." So this was one of the ways that I would kind of help myself when I first got started. So if that's you and you're like, "Listen, I'm just getting started and I'm wanting to have a little bit more of like-" uh, I don't want to say a crutch but, have more of a resource. Like, "Have more of a resource for myself in the event that I just kind of go blank and I need help to create designs." This is what I used to do and it was really helpful for me. And if you want to see an example, again, one of the hennapreneurs inside of the community posted an example of hers and I thought it was excellent and it reminded me of those early days for me as well.

I thought it was great. Um, so... Yeah. Okay. Next question. Someone asks, "I have never worked with jagua and know nothing about it other than where it comes from. Can you give me a starting place or recommend resources of how to work with it, where might be a good place to order it from? I'm on a mission along with some other henna artist friends to be able to produce a darker prenatal belly stain." Um, someone else commented as well saying, "I second this, please." "Also, how do you mix hengua? Can I do a mix using the powdered jagua instead of the jagua juice?" Many things. So, okay, this is a long one. Let's go all the way in, right? All right, so if you're, one, let's pause right here because anytime I talk about jagua, I try not to talk about jagua here, honestly.

So I'm being put on the spot. The reason for that is because there is still so much misinformation out there about black henna that I'm still doing so much educating about, that I've been very cautious to not talk about jagua very much here in Hennapreneur, but I need you guys to know that that's why, okay? So before we dive in, let me take a second to talk about ja so thyagat we can make sure that everyone's on the same page right here. Okay? So if you're not familiar with jagua, jagua is a fruit. It's actually from the berry family. It's a fruit. It's like, you know, fist size. It's like this. And when you cut it, the juice from the inside of the fruit stains a blue-black color. Now this fruit is called Genipa americana.

You can find it in the Caribbean. You can find it in South America and Central America. Basically it grows like a weed. And this fruit has been used by the natives, by the indigenous peoples of many of these areas for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It's like, it's like the America's version of henna to do body art. And not only has it been used for body art, it's also used as a repellent actually for insects as well. So the thing about jagua is, jagua does leave a blue-black stain and many times people, when they're looking for a black color, we think about black henna and we as hennapreneurs know that black henna is not safe and it cannot be used on skin. So I need to stop and pause here and say, hello, hennapreneurs who are new to the community.

If you're unaware, black henna is not a thing, okay? Henna is never black. Henna only stains like a reddish maroon color to brown color. So that's something for you to be aware of. If you're using black henna, I need you to stop now. This is not a thing. I have a training for you that can teach you all about why that's not a thing. I will put the link for you in the comments. With that said, if you're wanting to produce a stain that is of a blue-black color, you can do that using a natural product called jagua. Now, jagua is typically used in one of three ways. You can create designs with jagua using jagua gel, using jagua juice or using jagua powder. The difference between the three is that the juice is just plain. It's just been extracted from the plant.

The gel is the juice that's mixed with xanthan gum and essential oil. And then the jagua powder is the juice that's been dry, um, like cold... Uh, what's it called? Uh, dry. It's dried, but that's not the word I'm looking for. Whatever. It's been dried and then you can rehydrate it and then mix it into your paste. Jagua can be used on its own or it can be used as a mix with hengua, which is what Karima asked for, how to mix hengua. So henguais a mix, half and half, or sometimes 25% or 75% or sometimes whatever other percentages, you can mix the henna and the jagua, however you like to create a different color stains. If you're working with jagua alone, it will provide a blue-black stain. Typically it leans towards the blue side.

And if you want a more black color than when you introduce henna it will produce more of a black color. But if you allow the henna time for it to dye release, then that color goes from black to more of a brown, like a deep chocolate brown, then to a maroon, um, like a burgundy color. And so basically as- the more time that henna has for the dye to release, the less black that stain is going to look from the jagua. Does that make sense? Are, are we following? Can I get, like, a like? Give me a like and let me know that we're following because I like, I wanna, like I want to answer but at the same time I'm really, I'm nervous to answer these questions here. With that said... Okay, we're following. Okay, good. So with, um, as far as, like, where to start out, I'll tell you guys where I get my jagua from.

I actually buy my jagua from one of the hennapreneurs inside of our community, Risa. She owns henna Trinidad. I am happy, very happy to give you her contact information and to connect you with her. I love her jagua juice. It is the freshest juice that you will find on the market. I know that for a fact and I like, I love, I love everything about it. So that's where I get my jagua juice from. When I work with, when I work with jagua, I use the juice. I don't, I-I have the gel. I bought the gel. I've used the gel if I've had to. I'm not crazy about jagua gel. It works very- it works differently. It doesn't feel the same in your hand as a henna artist. But when you mix the juice of jagua with henna powder, then you can have basically, um, the powder is what's providing the consistency and the juice is what's providing the stain.

So the long- like the short way to put this together would be to mix your jag- your henna powder. You would get your henna powder ready. How much, how much jagua, hengua you're wanting to make, right? You would take your powder. I normally do this by the 100 grams. Sometimes I do more because I will purchase my jagua juice in bulk, right? Um, and so you'll take your henna powder and you're going to add your essential oil. I recommend just doing lavender essential oil because jagua is significantly more expensive than henna is. And so if you're going to mix the henna- hengua, if you're gonna mix jagua paste or you're going to mix hengua, then it's better for you to just make it so that it's straight ready to use on any client to include those people who are pregnant or nursing or, you know, otherwise.

So I use lavender essential oil only inside of my hengua paste. So you'll prepare your henna, you'll use the same amount of essential oil that you would if you are preparing regular henna and instead of using water or tea or lemon juice or whatever liquid you would use to prepare your henna, you would use jagua juice instead, okay? When you use a 100% jagua juice as your liquid, then you're going to mix it down to the consistency that you want right then, right away. And at that point you would then give it 30 minutes to sit and then immediately cone it and freeze it. And that's it. At that point it's done. It's not giving time for the ja- for the henna, rather, to release, start to dye release just enough for it to kind of give it that uptick in black color, but not enough for the henna to dye release so much that it becomes more chocolate brown. Literally like this color or even that brick or burgundy color.

Um, if you want it to have more of a brown color, you could allow it to stay a little bit longer, maybe leave it out for two hours, three hours. And the longer you leave it out, the more the henna dye releases, the more brown and then more red that that hengua mix is going to become. Does that make sense? Are we following? Give me a like, give me a heart, let me know. Um, and as far as, because this question is specific to looking for darker prenatal stains, I will say that this is definitely the way to go if you're wanting to do that. Prenatal stains in general are hard. They're hard. Typically when I'm working with my own clients, if I know that they're wanting to have their henna done for photos, I recommend seeing them the day of their photo shoot and I do their design literally like an hour or two hours before they go to their shoot.

Um, and that has worked best for me because I know that it's going to show up better in their photos. So normally I'll ask, like, "Which would you prefer?" Or "Do you prefer to have or do you prefer the design to really stand out or do you want a more muted sort of a stain for your photos?" And if they say, like, they want- if the henna is the center of their photo shoot, then I do their session the day of their photos. If it's not, if they want the stain- let's say that they're doing like a milk bath shoot or something like that, then I will do their stain then the two days before so that they have the time for their stain to darken. Stains on the belly can be so finicky though because the skin is so thin and it's already stretched so tight over, you know, over baby that it can really, it can be very hard for you to guarantee.

So if you're wanting to go, if you're wanting to produce a darker prenatal stain consistently, then definitely playing with hengua could be fun. I'm not crazy about jagua on bellies if I'm going to be really honest. There are a couple of reasons for that. One, I-I think that jagua tends to look more tattoo-like, um, and I don't think that that's the look that most of my clients, at least, are going for. Um, and so I prefer hengua and I'll give it a little bit more time to die release so that it does have more of that brownish color then the black color that it would have if you just cone it, like, right there immediately. And with hengua it will stain darker on the belly even though it's that thinner skin. So that's something for you also to consider.

The other thing that I'll mention is that you should definitely be sure to touch base, uh, to touch base with your clients about any allergies because jagua is from that berry family if they have any sort of allergy to berries. Um, and even some people are cautious and ask if they have allergies to, like, tropical fruits, like bananas. Banana is from the berry- It's a berry. Or even if they have sensitivities to citrus and to pineapple. Though some people who produce jagua will say that this is not related at all. There are quite a lot of people who are within our profession who ask those questions as well. Um, just because those who have sensitivities, perhaps, to berries, to citrus, and likewise, and to tropical fruits, may experience discomfort or irritation with jagua. Another thing for you to mention to your clients if you're going to use jagua with them is that jagua is, there is an enzyme inside of the fruit juice that activates with heat.

And so if you're applying jagua, even if you're applying hengua, you have to be really cautious for them not to put, like, hot water if they're going to shower later and what not. They cannot use hot water on that area. I recommend for at least 48 hours. I tell my clients to avoid hot water for 48 hours. What happens is, with that heat, it can activate those enzymes. Once those enzymes start moving, it can cause irritation in the skin and the irritation can go so far as to mimic chemical burns. So, on prenatal clients where they already have thinner skin that's stretched over their belly and they may have some additional sensitivities just with the influx and changes of hormones and such. This is something for you to consider and be sure to have a discussion with your clients about.

So there's, I feel like that was a whole lot of information about jagua. This is definitely more than I've ever talked about jagua here publicly on Hennapreneur. If you guys have questions about them, about what I'm saying, please do put it in the comments because I would prefer to make sure that they are answered here than for there to be, like, misinformation or misunderstanding. I don't want, like, that would be the absolute worst thing, especially if you're working with jagua on someone who is expecting. We want to be very cautious about that, okay? So someone else said. We're going to move on, okay? Someone else said, "I wanted to start my henna business, but I don't have a location to do it. I have my little one that is not in school yet and is with me all the time.

At the beginning of your henna career, where did you do the henna session and how did you accommodate your schedule around while being a mom?" This is a really good question. I get this, I get asked this question a lot, but many times I get asked the question about today and not so much about back then, so I'm happy to answer it for you. When I first got started, I had my son only. My son was about 15 months. I feel like I get that wrong every time. He was about 15 months, somewhere around there when I started working with henna. And, um, so obviously at that point in time he was not, um, he was obviously not in school and I was not employed when I started working with henna so he was always with me. I definitely understand the challenge of having that little one with you and having to do the work.

I'll tell you that even, even with my, um, even, honestly, even through my second and third children, this is, this still rings true because I homeschool. So each time I had a baby, I would have a new baby who obviously was not going to daycare. I didn't, I never sent my kids to daycare. Um, they were home with me. And so I definitely understand the challenge of wanting to balance work and home, work and kids, and how that can be hard. When I first got started, I used to schedule my appointments in the evening, typically. I would put them around after, after my son would go to bed. So I would put him down at 7 o'clock and then I would work in the evening either just before that, like, if I was lucky, I would let him go with my mom. She lived just a few blocks away from me.

And I would let him go over there for a few hours. So I would work in, like, the earlier evening hours and then, uh, after he would go to bed. So if I had anything, like, large, any larger appointments then I would try to put them before, and if I had shorter appointments, then I would try to put them after his bedtime. I understand that's not going to be comfortable for everybody. I'm going to be totally honest with you though. When I had my daughter, um, which is my, my second daughter, things were much different. At that point I was living in Texas. I still had, I had my daughter, I had my son, my son was four years old. He was old enough I could send him with grandma or I could, you know, book things kind of maybe around my husband's work schedule so that he could keep my son.

But my baby was breastfed and this was something that was nonnegotiable for me. When I opened my business, I said, "I'm going to do this." Because I did, uh, I decided to go full time when I was pregnant with my daughter. Um, and so I said, "I'm choosing to open this business and I'm going to build this business around the life that I want." So included in that was I was pregnant and I knew that I was going to nurse my daughter and this was not something that I was going to allow. It was a nonnegotiable for me. I was going to continue to nurse her. And it didn't matter if I was going to be at a festival. It didn't matter if I was going to be at an event. It didn't matter if I was going to be at a bridal appointment.

And so, literally, I have photos of me with my baby on my back or with my baby on my front in a carrier. And I would bring my little one with me to my appointments. And, um, during that time when, when, when she was very young, um, like when she was very little, um, I would just have that conversation with my clients right then and I actually leaned, even, uh, my business is branding at that time was very different from the way that my business is branded today. Um, and it was branded around motherhood and it was branded around the experience of being a parent. And so the way that I positioned my business was, I am a mother first and you are a mother first, too. And it makes me happy to connect with you as a woman and as a mother. And in connecting with you as a mother first, I understand that you need self care and that it's probably not possible for you to come and see me without your child.

And I understand that firsthand because I have this four year old and I have a newborn. And as much as I'd love to service you, they're also my first priority. And so, literally, I would allow my, like, this was something that I would have a conversation with my clients about, if you have children, I don't want you to worry. If you have a baby, toddler, whatever, you can come to my home. I had, like, toys, you know, a bin of toys that was there, like, for the kids of those ages and whatnot. Now, if it was older children, this was different. But for younger chil- like, for young, young, I'll call them young moms, moms with young kids, I had things ready for them so that when they came to get their henna that they could feel comfortable. The kids are playing. Her kids are there, my kids are there, the kids are enjoying themselves.

She's enjoying herself. I am enjoying myself. I still get to work and I still get to get paid and she's, and she's still getting the service that she was looking for without having to find the sitter, chase down a family member, you know, worry is her kid okay, you know, 10 miles down the road while she is feeling like, you know, like she's being, I dunno, like she's being excessive because you know how we are as moms. It's hard for us to treat ourselves and not feel bad about it. So this was something that I would do and the way that was how, that was literally how I positioned my business. Now, I don't know, Alicia, I see, um, I don't know how old your child is. That wasn't included in your comment. I just see that it's a little one and not yet in school.

So I don't know if that's preschool or if that's baby baby. I also don't know what your service type is. Like, I don't know what your specialty is. I don't know what it is that you do the most, um, the most frequently in your henna business. I see that you said you're wanting to start though. So this is something that maybe gives you a little bit of opportunity to play. He's three. Okay, perfect. Even better. So then he's, he's old enough that, you know, he can kind of keep himself busy. So depending on, um, the way that you choose to position your business and this comes down to branding and it comes down to your business, your brand positioning, okay? The way that you're going to, to set this up is, one, you're creating-

Remember, you're creating a business that you want. You have to create the business that you want. The last thing that I ever want anyone to do is to create a business that they hate, right? Don't- you don't have to build your business like a 9-5 like we see it done everywhere else. You don't have to. You're the boss. You get to choose. So like for me, I knew, I was going to, I was going to breastfeed if I was, if I was at the festival or if I was at the bridal appointment, it did not matter. That was nonnegotiable for me. Um, or if I was, you know, wanting to see those, those clients just for their everyday mom treatment, then they could come to my home and I was, I was willing to do that. Now you may or may not be open to that. If you're not open to letting people come into your home,

especially like if it's, if it's just youa nd your son, I would understand that too. So if that's not you, then maybe find somewhere else. You know where is like a really great place if you have kids that age? You could totally do like a Chick-fil-A. Honestly, like a Chick- I don't even know. Like, I don't know where you are. I'm assuming you're in the US. If you're in the US and there's a Chick-fil-A, great. If you're in the US and there's some other place that has, like, a play area for kids or something like this, that's perfect. That way the kids can play. You guys sit right next to the glass, watch the kids play. You guys drink coffee. You do the henna right there. Like, you don't have to, especially as you're just starting, please, please, please don't get caught up in everything has to be perfect.

It won't be perfect. You're going to grow and your business is going to grow. But what is going to help is as you start to accumulate clients and accumulate trust with your market, then people will say, "Oh, okay. Like, this is, this is cool.This works." Um, so if you can find a place like that that has some sort of setup, if you're not comfortable with bringing someone into your home, that would be something that I would recommend. And I used to do this too. We used to have a grocery store that had like a little play area inside of, like, um, what is it called? Uh, it's not like a, you know, they had, like, a dining area also. Like a sit down whatever for their, whatever, for their takeaway. Um, but they also had like a little TV area with a play session, uh, play section and whatnot and tables and chairs.

And every so often I would go there and I would meet clients there if I didn't, if it was someone who I was like, maybe it's their first time meeting me or I didn't feel comfortable inviting them to my home for whatever reason, then I would do that. And my son could play. You know, play with little toys there, watch TV. We could sit at the table, drink coffee, have an experience still. It's still a good experience. Please don't allow, don't allow the location and don't allow those other details to stop you from moving forward in your business. Ultimately, people are paying the experience that they're having with you. And so, uh, as you connect with your clients, you're going to find that they, they will find the value there. So long as you are human with them, right? Be human.

I hope that that answers your question. Shauna, I see Shauna, like, giving all the hearts and all the likes. I'm glad that this is resonating. Alicia, I hope that this also makes sense for you. That, I'll tell you that was, that was what worked for me in the beginning. Um, and even like I said, even up, um, through my second and third pregnancy much later. My, I mean my youngest is only three. So even up until recently, that's who was, was what I did. I would allow people to either come to my home or not but, like, you get to choose. That's the bottom line. And then there was a second question. Uh, "Also I live in a small town and I have researched the market for other henna artists in the area, but there's none here or close by.

How do I introduce myself in a market where there are no henna artists?" This is my story. I don't know what the heck is going on. This is literally how I started. So I'll tell you, when I started working with henna, I was living in this tiny town. 36,000 people. And let me tell you the truth, it was actually two towns. Between the two towns was 36,000 people. It was split down the middle by a train track. And people were very specific about whether they were from this side of the train track or that side of the train track. And, like, the high school, my senior class was bigger than the whole high school population in this town. Like, it's a tiny freaking town. And they had no idea about henna. Like, no idea about henna. They'd never seen henna. They didn't know what henna was.

When I would walk around with henna sometimes they would look at it like they were interested. Sometimes they would look at it like they were really freaked out. Um, but I'll tell you what, that was the best start to my business, ever. Like I, if I, I wouldn't have had it any any differently. And so I, I want to encourage you and let you know that you're in a very unique place and you're in a very special place also, because if you can educate your market about henna and pique their interest about henna, you immediately walk into a monopoly, which is great. So, um, for you, what I'll tell you, when I first got started, what I did was very simple. I don't know if you know my, my story. I'll tell you, like, the short of it was, I was a social worker.

I got let go. I was a single mom. The cashier at the register at my local grocery store saw that I had henna on. I was very stressed. I used to put henna on, of course, you know, for stress relief and whatnot. She saw that I had henna on. She asked me what it was. Said that was very beautiful. Asked me if I would do it for her and then said, "I will pay you for it if you'll do it for me." And I said, "Absolutely, I'll do it for you. Uh, when can we meet?" Right. And, um, that's how I started. And I didn't, I'd never done henna for another person. I'd only done henna for myself. I definitely was not a professional. I definitely was not even very good. Um, but what I ended up doing was, I- it was just, again, it was just me and my son.

I knew that this was a way that I could put food on the table because I-I was literally down to like my last $32. Like, that was it. Um, and so what I did was I put together this event, um, it was called Henna in the Park and it was, um, I want to say, like, three hours. Maybe three hours. I think it was like one to four. Three hours in our local public park. Um, which, side note, we mentioned location. If you can't find a good location, like, even a public parking, a little play area, whatever, you know, you guys sit, do henna there, it's perfect. Um, but it was at this public park. Um, and so we, um, what I did- I still can't believe I- so I went to the dollar store and I got, like, a tablecloth. I got a tabletop.

I got a big bowl. I put together, like, a fruit salad. I put together a container of lemonade and I took to social media and I said, "Listen. Hey everybody in Scottsbluff, Nebraska! Look, I'm a henna artist. I'm going to be doing henna in the park on this day from this time to this time for free. You don't have to do anything but show up. You will get your henna for free so long as you share pictures. You let me take pictures of what I'm doing." Because I had, I'd never done henna on anyone else. So I had no portfolio. There's nothing I could show except for the henna that I'd done for myself. And I didn't feel like that was very legitimate so this is what I, this is the direction that I went. Um, I said you could get henna for free so long as you allow me to take photos.

I took the photos. Um, and then I, um, I had them share them on their social media. They had to share, they had to share a picture of the work on their social media and take a card to share with their friends. Um, so I had printed some business cards. Um, if you don't have business cards, that's okay. You don't have to, you can still, like, social media is so much more prevalent now than it was back then. Um, so social media probably is even better. Um, but that's what I did. And, literally, that day I-I from the, from the time I sat down to the time I was supposed to end, I ended up going over. But people came. People came. They wanted to try henna. They didn't know what to think about it. It was free, why not? There was nothing to do.

The thing about being in a small town is there's often nothing to do. So when you introduce something new, people get really excited about it, right? So I, um, create this experience. People come out. They start to try henna. And literally that week I paid my rent, um, because there were so many people. I got so many messages and emails from people saying, "Hey, I saw so-and-so's henna." Um, "So-and-so told me that you do henna." Whatever. And next thing I knew I was, I was getting booked regularly. So that's what worked for me. Um, is it the perfect story? No. Could I have done something differently or better? Probably, but I just needed to get started now and taking action was a way to do that. Um, and so, for you, and I'll tell you after I did that, um, I started to get bookings coming in, but then also I would look for like small things that were going on.

So anytime I would see that there was like a ladies night, um, if there were events at the, like, the small community center and what not, then I would sign up for those things also to start to show up in the space and let people know that I was there. Um, so as you're introducing yourself into your market where there is no henna artist, I'll tell you the biggest challenge is, what is henna? So you're going to have to educate them because if they're not educated about it, two things will happen. One, they'll go, this is really weird and foreign and it feels strange to me, so I'm not going to engage. Or they're going to really like it and they might take so much interest that they start to get the crazy idea to go to Amazon to buy henna instead of paying you.

And so, when you start to educate your market from the beginning about the importance of natural henna and so forth, then not only do you set yourself up as the expert, but you're also telling them, "Listen, if you really want to have a quality and safe henna experience, you can do that with me versus trying to create it for yourself." Right? And so when another henna artist comes up, because they will, as soon as soon as they see you being successful, they will. Um, at that point, you already have that traction underneath you and you'll already kind of be set apart as being the expert in the market and the go-to person. So, um, a lot of public education and a lot of just, again, showing up. Always have henna on. Please, always have henna on. Um, and uh, whenever possible show up in those public spaces.

Um, okay. So that is it for today. You guys this, I-I feel like I'm so long winded today. I'm sorry for that. Like, I've, I've got- I'm telling you, I'm so, I'm coming down off of the Caribbean high. It's been such a great time being in, uh, being in Costa Rica, but I can tell you what, I had such little internet connection and it was killing me because I just wanted to talk to you guys. It's insane. Um, okay. I, before I wrap up, I want to make sure that I touch base again about the giveaway in case you missed it in the beginning. Uh, today there is a giveaway that just went live. It just went public. I'm so excited about this. If you're not familiar, there is a program, right? There's is a program called the Accelerator. It's a 100-day program.

I take henna artists through 100 days. We learn how to build your business. Everything from business foundations through marketing, branding, setting yourself up with your back office operations, the whole nine, right? It's a crazy, intensive program. And I am celebrating because I just had the fall, the fall round, the founders round,h tey just successfully completed the program. Shout out to Shauna because I see you're here. Um, and so if you, uh, because I'm celebrating, because I'm celebrating their graduation and their success and just, I'm just really excited about them and about the program, we have a new giveaway. It's a massive giveaway. Recently in the Hennapreneur community I asked everyone to compile a list of their, like, their business wishlist. Like what things they would wish for for their henna business that maybe they haven't been able to invest in yet or want to invest in or like, you know. And just about everything that the community put on that list is included in the giveaway.

So the giveaway has about $4,000 worth of henna products, resources, programs that you can register, you can enter in to win. Um, it's only going, there's going to be one winner. Um, the giveaway ends on the 11th, February 11th, yeah, at midnight. And then on the 12th, I'll go live here. Um, I'll go live here on Facebook to announce who the winner is. The great news about this is the more you share the giveaway, the more entries you get. So what's going to happen is if you go, I'm going to put the link in the comments. Register so that you're entered, right? And when you enter, it's going to give you, like, it's going to give you a list of things that you can do. Like you can like Hennapreneur on Facebook or follow on Instagram, but there are three that I want you to pay attention to.

One of them is "Share on Facebook". One of them says "Share via Messenger" and one of them says "Share via Email". When you click on any of those three your entry is going to create a secret URL for you. So when you share, when you send that link out, when you post it on Facebook, when you send it in messenger to someone, a henna friend, or when you send an email to someone, if that person also interests the giveaway, you get three additional entries to the giveaway as well. I'll tell you, as of today, because those people who are on the entrepreneur mailing list, they got extra, they got early access. Um, and right now I'm going to tell you right now, right now there are 995 entries already. So you, like, you want to get in on this. You want to get i the giveaway like these hennapreneurs want to get it on the giveaway.

I'm telling you, they had 48 hours. There's already almost a thousand entries. If you want to get in on the giveaway, be sure to follow the link, get in and share the crap out of the link because the more you share with your henna friends and the more people sign up using your link, the more entries you'll get as well, okay? Um, with that, I'm gonna wrap up here. If you guys have any questions about what I shared today about jagua, about getting started, about the works, you're welcome, you can leave them in the comments. Otherwise, I will be scheduling our Ask me Anything! sessions for February sometime this afternoon, probably. So I'll add them into our events page. Be sure to RSVP so you don't miss them. Um, and yeah, that's it. I'm super looking forward to this giveaway though. Like, I'm, I'm so hype. I love giving- I love giveaway prizes. Okay, I'll see you guys later. Bye.