Ask Me Anything: We're Talking About Where to Buy Henna, Being a Henna Artist During COVID, What to Do If Another Henna Artist Copies You, and Practicing Henna Designs
Ask Me Anything!
You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers!
In today’s Ask Me Anything!, we’re tackling the following questions submitted from hennapreneurs like you:
[03:58] Where Can I Buy Henna?
[04:39] How Can I Remain Present in My Henna Business While Unable to Work due to COVID and How Do I Cope With Another Henna Artist Imitating Me?
[13:47] How Can I Practice Doing Henna Designs More Efficiently?
Got a question about how to become a henna artist?
Ask me anything about starting, growing, and maintaining your henna business!
By the way, you’re totally invited to join me and other high-aspiring henna artists inside of the private Hennapreneur Community on Facebook! There we connect about henna, about business, and about all things related to crushing it as a henna professional.
+ Read the transcript here
Chelsea: All right. Hello, hello, hello, hennapreneurs! Welcome! We are live for our first Ask Me Anything! session for the month of August so I'm super excited to welcome you guys here with me today. Give me just a second - I am pulling up our feed here so that we can get it shared over into the Hennapreneur community as always. As always. Y'all already know. Oh goodness! Um, quick thing also, for those of you who celebrated Eid this past weekend - Eid Mubarak! I hope that you guys had a great time. We just got home from a little bit of a weekend away, which was really nice. And there we go! Okay. So we are back and we are doing the things so today we have just a handful of questions. Actually, this week is busy, um, it's busy over here at Hennapreneur. We have- today
we have our Ask Me Anything! session, on Friday we're doing our live design critique. So if you, well, you'll have to keep an eye out because tomorrow actually, if you're not already a member of the Hennapreneur community here on Facebook, make sure that you join the group. I'll drop a link for you down in the comments, actually right now, because why the heck not, right? Um, if you haven't joined already, you definitely should. On Friday, tomorrow, the post will open so that you guys can submit your designs for critique. And then on Friday, we will be doing our live design critique, but that's held inside of the Facebook group. So if you're not a member of the Facebook group, make sure that you joined because you don't want to miss that out. You don't want to miss that. You don't want to miss that one, okay? I promise.
Promise. Um, otherwise let's see... Um, today, obviously we have our Ask Me Anything! and then we're just starting off with the month. So I don't know about you guys but like, this month already is full of really good energy. I like- I feel it. I don't know about y'all like, are you feeling supercharged? I feel supercharged with like, just really good energy right now. Um, and so I'm looking forward to the month of August and I'm hoping that you guys are excited as well with things that are coming in your own businesses. So if you're new here, if you're new to Hennapreneur - Hey, my name's Chelsea Stevenson. I am a professional artist and business strategist based here in Baltimore, Maryland and I'm also the founder of Hennapreneur. So, um, henna artists all over the world, hire me to either work with them one-on-one or they take my courses online, where I teach all about how to start, grow, and scale a henna business.
Um, and you guys are just going to have to excuse what's happening right here today because you know what? My face is breaking the heck out. I don't know about y'all, but like mask life? That mask is the worst. So everywhere my mask is - Look at that. What is even happening? If y'all have like, the ins on a good face cream, that's going to help me deal with this like, mask situation, I need it. And I will be indebted to you forever. Okay. Side note - hey guys, we recently had here, um - just on the page - there was a little game where I asked you guys to describe our profession in like, the worst way possible, to describe our profession horribly. And the best answer, um, would receive a gift from me. So I did select a winner. The winner is going- shout out to Kaitlin, Kaitlin Wells.
She won. So we'll have to keep an eye out because she's got a little gift headed her way. Um, and so when she gets it, we're going to have to like, we'll have to stalk her so that you guys can actually see what it is. Also, a side note to the side note, uh, I don't know if you guys heard from Kaitlin, but she definitely made an update inside of the Facebook community and it's official - she is renting her own office space, which is a huge to do so everybody makes sure that you give a shout out to Kaitlin for reaching a new goal in her henna business. And so I'm so excited to see how her, uh, how her business flourishes and continues to grow as she continues to put this work in. So, uh, so... Sylvia, I see your question about ordering henna. Absolutely,
If you want to grab henna, there is henna paste available online, um, or henna powder, if you know how to mix it yourself. Um, I'll put the links for you there inside of the comments as well. So, uh, today we only had a handful of questions, um, partially because your girl forgot to ask, but we had a handful questions that were already submitted inside of the Hennapreneur community. So I figure we'll go ahead and jump into those. And then if you guys have any questions here live, we can address them while we're here, because why not? That's what we do, right? So the first question I love ,and I I'm like let's, uh, let's dive in. This hennapreneur says, "Hey, everyone, I hope you're doing well. I have a little bit of a rant. I'm afraid I've been- I haven't been working due to COVID as I've been advised by my doctor not to.
This has really set me back. Before the Corona, I was picking up many clients and building my henna business, but I can't now. Initially it was hard but I was coping, and I had days where I was down and now I've started to pick myself back up and it's been brought to my attention that there's another henna artist in my area that's been copying me. I took on Chelsea's advice and successfully built my niche, which is Moroccan-style henna which is rare in my city. Has anyone else been through this? Any tips on how to cope? Sorry to rant but as you guys are all henna artists, I thought you'd be able to resonate." I loved this question and there was great feedback that was provided inside of the community but I wanted to bring this question out to the larger community as well, because this, there are so many little pieces to this that I think are a great, um, spot for us to do some learning and to kind of dig in.
I think that there's lots of little golden nuggets here. So the first thing is, uh, of course, the fact that this artist is not working right now due to COVID. So she's wanting to know how she can continue to remain present in her business. I have been saying to you guys from the get-go like, listen, we all know that Corona is going to be shutting things down, so what are you going to do to still maintain relevance? And what was the first thing that I said? "Y'all, stay present on social media. Stay present on social media. Stay present with your audience. Stay in front of them. Continue to produce content." And so that's the first thing. So if you find yourself in a similar position where you're like, "I need to start," like, "I still want to connect with my audience.
I still want to make sure that I'm relevant in my area. I still want people to be thinking of me when they're thinking of henna," the best way for you to do that is to continue to show up consistently in your social media content. Now, the next thing that she pointed out was, and this is where I really want us to dig in, okay, where she said,: hey, listen, I've got this other competitor who now I'm coming back to, you know? I'm trying to open back up, if you will, and get back visible with my community, and I find that there's this other competitor who's doing what I'm doing. What should I do? Y'all, we're going to have a little bit of a heart-to-heart, okay? Now I told this hennapreneur inside of the community, "Listen, the best thing that you can do is keep your eyes on your own paper. "
The best thing that you can do is mind your own business, essentially, right? Keep your eyes on your own paper, both in this way, and in this way, right? So I want you guys to be thinking, because this is something that happens very often in the artist community, in life in general, right? There are going to be people who are going to see what you're doing. They're going to love what you're doing. And then they're going to try to imitate what you're doing. The thing about imitation is, the person who is always doing the imitating can never, listen, can never redo what you're doing. The person who is imitating can never outperform you because they're constantly on your heels, right? So the best thing, and this is one of the things that I always, always- like, when we- when I talk about this with my students,
I talk about this with consulting clients and such, I try to remind you that if you have someone who's imitating you, by definition, they're always behind you. The best thing that you can do is continue to look forward. The best thing that you can do is continue to be the best version of you and to continue to offer the best value that you can to your customers, to your audience, to your fans, right? If you don't do that, if you're not showing up in that capacity, and if you're looking back, you're giving them lots of space to jump ahead. Why do that? Why do that to yourself? Why stress yourself at all? There's only- Listen, henna is henna is henna. If someone wants to get henna, they can get henna from you. They can get henna from your competitor.
They can get henna down the street. They can get henna from those shops that you probably don't even recognize exist. Okay? If they really just- if it just came down to henna that they could go online and they could purchase their own cones and they can do their henna themselves and they wouldn't have to ever worry about paying you. Why are people coming to you? It's not just that you've niched down. It's not just that you're a specialist at what you do. Those things are super important. More important, however, is the YOU factor. They're coming to you because they resonate with you. They want to spend time with you. They enjoy you for you. So you have to show up as the best version of yourself with the most authenticity and serve your clients in the highest capacity that you're able and ignore the imitators.
There is always going to be someone behind you saying, "I love what you're doing and I want to do it too." Please believe that I know this. Please believe, okay? So you cannot pay that any mind. Now there's something to be said- There is something to be said about knowing what's going on, on the horizon of, in the landscape of what you're doing. So I say this, not to say, "Oh, you should pay super close attention to what your competitors are doing." No, that's not what I believe at all. It is important for you to know what they're up to. As a savvy business person, you should be aware of what's going on in the market, right? You should be aware of what moves are kind of taking place, because that gives you also insight to what people take interest in, right? Those potential clients of yours.
What does interest them? Is there something that maybe someone else is doing that you could learn from? Or is there a gap in your own service suite? Is there gap in your own business strategy that's leaving space for someone to swoop in. If that's the case, then that's the time for you to make assessments within your own business, but that's not for you to spend the greater majority of your time worrying about what so-and-so is doing. It's only for your own knowledge. That's all it is. It's so that you can make better informed decisions inside of your hennabusiness and inside of your operations and inside of your marketing strategy. That's what that's for, okay? But in terms of really paying any mind to what others are doing, let it go. So someone's copying you, let it go. Let it go.
Now of course, now there's a caveat here, okay. There's something also to be said, there's something important about, um, the respect around intellectual property, right? There's something to be said about having good professional boundaries. So it will be different if this person was copying you. And I mean really copying you, meaning down to the words and the images that you're using, that is a different area. Like, at that point, then you need to get a little bit more heavy handed, perhaps. That's a different conversation. But if it's just down to coming down to like a, what we'll call "friendly" imitation,
just let it go. Okay? Just let it go.
Keep your eyes on your own paper. Both on this paper and also on your own paper and your own strategy, okay? And, um, beyond that, I did want to point out just because
I love this. I love... I love this question. I- like I said, there's so many little gems here. Beyond that, the other piece that I wanted to point out was, I love that this hennapreneur said, "Hey, I did take the time to listen to your advice, Chelsea and I have niched down." Beautiful. You need to- guys, if you want to stand out in your market, if you want to be the go-to for anything, you need to have a very specific niche. You need to be very clear. It needs to be very clear in your marketing and your positioning and all of these things that you are the best option for that particular service, right? For that particular thing. So whether it's like this hennapreneur, Moroccan style henna, or if it's that you're specializing in prenatal henna, maybe that's- and even with any each of these, you know, there will be categories.
So perhaps you're specialized in prenatal henna with Moroccan design or prenatal henna with mandala style design or prenatal henna with South Asian- whatever, you understand. There's lots of different ways that you can specialize. And when you specialize and when you niche down, you make yourself, you position yourself as the go-to person for that thing. So I love that this hennapreneur did take the time to do that. Um, but I just want to, to kind of highlight here for you that niching down, while super important, and curating that experience for your audience and for your potential clients is super important, the next thing that you also need to do is also, um, make sure that all of those things are in alignment with the direction that you want your business to go. So, uh, even for now, right, with this artist, who's not currently taking clients in COVID, but she knows the direction that she wants her business to go,
right? She knows that: "I want to take clients eventually. What's that going to look like?" She'll have to decide. And I want you guys to be thinking, where d- in which direction do you want your business to be going after COVID. Um, because then you can start building content and continuing to position your brand and strategize your marketing around those themes so that when you do reopen people are quick to come in and say, "Excellent!" So not only have they identified you as the go-to person, for that thing that they're looking for, but also they have a really clear expectation of what they're going to get once they arrive.
So, um, we'll leave it with that. We'll leave with that. I feel like that's- There's so many little nuggets in there. Like, I loved this question so much I said that I had to bring this out and chat about it with you guys here as well. Okay. And the next question, someone asked, "Hi, everyone. I'm a newbie and I'm wondering if anyone has tips on how to practice designs or do drills to get better. I just feel like there's no structure when I practice. And most of the time, I'm not really sure where to begin. I usually find a picture of a design that I like and practice on an acrylic hand, but it just doesn't feel like that's really helping me. I don't know. Are there any step-by-step guided materials that people recommend or just any kind of tips in general will be greatly, greatly appreciated.
Thank you." So this is a really great question and I wanted to bring this one out to the forefront as well because lots and lots of henna artists fall into this trap - both seasoned artists and beginner artists, to be honest - where you start to practice your craft and you feel like you're not being efficient in that practice. Like, as you're building, as you're working through your design practice, you're like, "I could- I feel like I could be doing more. I'm lacking the structure," just as this artist said. And so, inside of the community, she received a couple of direction- directives, recommendations to join the Design Lab. If you guys haven't heard of the Design Lab, it's one of my programs. It's actually a year's worth of content through which you go through 12 different design styles, design techniques, so that you can learn. So that you can build your repertoire. So that you can build your proficiency.
And, um, in building out that proficiency, you're also beginning to define your signature style, right? But the whole premise of the Design Lab was to give you a means to be able to practice efficiently. Um, and so, uh, what I would like to recommend for this artist, if the- you know, if the Design Lab is not something that's possible for you right now, joining the Design Lab, it's not- if that's not something that's on your radar at this time - though I would definitely recommend it in the future - I would say, take, um, take a moment to assess where you want to go with your with your designing practice. So for me, when I practice, I try to practice around one particular theme. So maybe I want to work on, I don't know, let's say I want to work on lotuses today, right?
So I'll work o- First, I'll break down my muscle memory. Like, I'll- I- every practice session with me is the same. I sit down first, I start off with drills to warm my hands up and I'm engaging my muscles in different ways. Then after that, I focus on the motifs or the design techniques that I want to practice, um, or that I'm- I feel like I could do a little bit better at, or that I want to further develop., right? And so, um, there I'll allow myself to get creative and whatnot. Now that's more structured practice. That's, I have a goal, I want to improve with X technique. If you're the type of artist who that sounds, like, horrible to you, and you prefer to just kind of go out and, you know, go at the flow, then I would recommend picking, you know, two, three, maybe four tops, different elements that you do enjoy, and then practicing them in different varieties and different variations.
The more you allow yourself the creative agency to jump in and to try the, uh, to try to push your limits. Honestly, that's what it is. You want to push your limits beyond what you see and try something new. Flip it on its side. Turn it over. Shade it this way. Um, you know, if you're doing it upside down, listen, this is, I know that this sounds, maybe you're like, "Really, Chelsea? Do it upside down?" I promise you doing designs upside down will build your muscle memory, will build your skills, and you don't even know. Because you know what? It's not until you sit down across the table from that client who says, "Yeah, but I want it facing me," and then you had no idea.
That is where it will get you. So even just those little, those little tweaks to push yourself a little bit beyond, a little bit beyond, a little bit further in you're designing, that will help you to also build out a practice that makes sense. Now, um, typically for me, and this is also, this is the premise on which I built the Design Lab, is that I believe that if you're going to practice a thing, you should practice it until you're proficient and then move on to the next, because otherwise what's the point? What's the point if you're practicing one thing, you know, for three days, and then you don't retain it? It doesn't make sense, right? It doesn't make sense. You want to have a really so- like, straw- I'm mixing strong and solid in my mouth, at the same time. You want to have a very strong and solid knowledge and understanding and muscle memory regarding those those skills that you're learning.
So, um, when you're practicing, I recommend selecting a thing and practicing it for at least 30 days. If you can do it for at least 30 days - and I'm not saying it has to be a long time - give yourself 10-15 minutes, practice every day, 30 days, until you've built that consistency. Then move to something else or then add in something different, but stay within those same things. And I know that that's probably not the most sexy answer. I know, you know, everybody wants results like this, but you cannot train your hands to build the things and you cannot train your mind to put together a design components - when we talk about composition - you cannot train your mind to put together design composition, uh, design components, or elements of design in an order that makes sense just like this, if you don't have, um, if you're not super familiar with them. If you're- if they still feel or seem foreign to you.
So we're trying to build that familiarity, um, and that's what your practice should serve for. So I hope that this kind of answers that question in terms of, uh, step-to-step guided material. If you want guided material, join the Design Lab, for real. If you're not sure that- you're like, "I'm not sure that I love the Design Lab. I'm not sure that I love the way they Chelsea teaches doing henna." Try one of the weekend workshops. There's weekend workshops that you can purchase instead. Purchase the replay. See if you like it. If you like it, join the Design Lab. But I guarantee you, those who have been through the Design Lab rave about the Design Lab for this reason, it's all structured in this way, okay? So, uh, let's see. I want to say that I'd seen another one, but I feel like perhaps I've missed it.
It's okay. We're live now. Does anyone here live have any questions? And while you guys are thinking on that, if so, you can pop them in the comments. While you guys are thinking on that, I'm going to give you guys like a little bit of a "hmm", because this is something that has been on my mind. I have wondered, and you guys will have to tell me if this is something that interests you, then I'll do the thinking about putting it together, okay? I have wondered about including... Doing- Okay, if henna designing were like a gym membership, right? Where you could do a drop-in class, and I mean a drop-in at like a stupid, ridiculous, accessible rate. Where, literally, you show up, we're live, I'm going- I'm doing design work and I teach you step-by-step,
okay, this is the practice. This is how we warm up. This is how we work through the thing. This is how we build a design. And it would be short, probably like an hour. Again, like a gym, right? Imagine you're taking a gym- class at a gym, dropping in for yoga, dropping in for Pilates, whatever, but you're dropping in for a henna workshop. Would this be something that would interest you guys? Because I- this is something that I have offered for- I've offered students. Um, outside of Hennapreneur, I teach this class, uh, with teens and they love it and I love teaching it. And it never really occurred to me that perhaps henna artists would also want to do something like this. Um, but if it's something that's like, "Hmm, that could be fun. Once a week drop in. Do the class. Boom. Practice."
So that there is more structure. That would be something that I would be interested to put together for you guys. Um, but only if the interest is there on your part also. You know. You know. Um, okay. So, I don't see... Cool. So if this sounds like, if this sounds like fun to you guys, like this sounds like it's fun to me. Honestly, I teach a class right now every week and I love it. It's one of my favorite hours of the week. I get to, I get to show up, teach the thing it's, it's, it's fun. It's fun. But also it's building skill and I never, I never, I wasn't sure if this was something that would interest you guys, but if so, it sounds good. Um, okay. I don't see any other question's questions coming up. So what I'm going to do is wrap this feed up then, and I will probably post a poll inside of the community.
So you guys who are outside of the community, if you haven't joined already, be sure that you join so you can vote. And, um, yeah, with all of that said, it's August we're at the beginning of the month. I hope that you guys are having an excellent month thus far. I want you guys to focus on getting your business to the next level. This one, come on, you guys, let's like, dig in deep. If there's something that I can help you with in terms of your business, in terms of branding, in terms of marketing, in terms of strategy, in terms of whatever, leave it for me in the comments. Um, or you can drop the question inside of the Facebook group. I'm happy to answer. Um, and yeah, I'll talk to you guys later. All right, bye!