ep. 012 • Wanna Stand Out? Stop Being A Jack of All Trades

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Chelsea Stevenson: Welcome to the Hennapreneur podcast. The exclusive podcast of its kind, dedicated to giving you an honest look at the reality of making a living as a henna professional. I'm your host, Chelsea Stevenson, professional henna artist and business strategist. I teach budding henna artists and seasoned henna pros alike how to build vibrant, profitable businesses doing what they love. I went from being the girl who could barely piece together a fluid design to being owner of the most celebrated henna boutique in my city. And with years of experience growing my own business and helping others to do the same, I'm here to spill all the tea on what it takes to be a bonafide hennapreneur. Our show starts in just under 60 seconds, but first, here's a quick shout out to my sponsors.

This episode is sponsored by the Hennapreneur eMagazine! Whether you're just getting started, you're ready to go pro, you've got a solid business, or you're ready to scale, Hennapreneur has a free downloadable e-magazine that's ready just for you with insights on how you can better build your business in that phase of the game. Each volume features articles specifically for that particular part of the henna journey. So head on over to hennapreneur.com and download your free copy today!

All right, let's get to the show! Hey, hey hennapreneurs! Today I want to talk to you guys about something that has really, really, really been weighing on me and I'm telling you, it is weighing on me because it keeps coming up. I've been asked so many times within the past, like, three weeks, "Chelsea, I need to know what I can do to stand out from everyone else in my market," "Chelsea, I need to know how I can stand out from my competitors," "Chelsea, I need to know how I can stand out from the local other henna ar—" Like, I get it, you guys want to know the tea. You want to know what you can do to get out of the mold of henna artists. You want to break out from everyone else who's also slinging henna in your area and you want to be the most, um, the most memorable of all. And you want to be booking all of those clients. And you know what? I'm here for it. But you know what? One of the things that I'm seeing and I'm seeing it very often, is that when I get this question, this question comes from the type of artist who's also trying to be and do all of the things. And so today, hennapreneurs, I am talking to you about the importance of not being a one-stop shop. Okay? All right? We are not a one-stop shop. We are not a gas station. We're not gas station henna, baby. We are designer henna, okay?

So let's talk about this a little bit. So, many times what I hear from henna artists is, you know, "I do—I want to stand out in my market. I want to set myself apart and I want people to know that when they want henna done, they're going to come to me for whatever reason." And I think that that's great. Honestly, I think that it's super ambitious. I think that it's very, very achievable also for you to create a market for yourself wherein your audience, um, looks to book with you and only you because they feel like you are the only option that makes sense. And that may sound really foreign and it may sound like, "Huh, what are the odds?" You may be living in an area that you feel like is super saturated with henna artists and let me tell you what, you're not the only one. That is a common experience. I live in that area. Every henna artist who I know lives in an area where there are many other henna artists as well. Competition isn't what keeps you from being profitable. I mean, it's just not. Competition is not what keeps you from being successful in your business. If you're not successful in your business it's because something is wrong inside of your business.

So when I hear this, many times, um, what I—when I start to dig, when I start to probe, when I start to ask questions about that artist's business and their experience and what they're doing, what I hear sounds a lot like this: "So what type of services do you offer?" "Well, I do prenatal henna. I do private appointments. I do a bridal. Sometimes I'll work at festivals. I do craft fairs when I find them. Um, I will travel. I'll do corporate events. Um, and you know, like, during the summer I'll be at the farmer's market. Um, and also, also, uh, I sell henna cones sometimes. And I also sell henna candles that I make. Um, and I also, you know, sometimes I'll, I'll, um, like, do, like, corporate events and things. Um, but not always, because, you know, I also—I really like to do things, like, I don't know, like, maybe henna crowns or, um..." and then the list just keeps going on, and on, and on of all of the services that they offer. And so, what I asked was, "What do you do? What do you do? Like, what are you known for?" And you're giving me 16 things that you do. Does that sound familiar? Does that sound familiar in your business at all? Like, are you that artist who is doing all the things? Because if so, we really need to have a chat. Today's episode is for you.

You see, this isn't uncommon at all. In fact, I think it's more uncommon to find that artist who says, "This is the thing that I do and I don't do things outside of that." Um, and that's always been very interesting to me, but the fact of the matter is that, you know, many of us, many of us do share in that reality that, you know, we want to diversify our service offerings and we want to be the one who can do all of the things. And that's great. Oh, and when I say, "That's great," I mean, it's great that you want to have the skill set to support all of those services. It's great that you would challenge yourself to master all of those things. Like, that's all great. But, when you represent yourself as being a jack of all trades, you've really become known as being memorable in none. You definitely don't set yourself apart as being an expert in any of those trades. I mean, just think about it, right? Like, what's one of your favorite brands? What's one of your favorite brands that you love to shop with them? What do they sell? What do they sell?

So, like for me, everybody knows I'm obsessed with Kate Spade. I love Kate Spade. Um, I like—I, when I want to treat myself, I take myself to Kate Spade. I go on their website or I go into the store and I love the experience of going and buying a new Kate Spade bag. If you—if you're unfamiliar, let me give you kind of a breakdown. Kate Spade is best known as being a high-end designer brand. They sell purses and they sell wallets and they sell handbags. Um, and that's what they're most well known for. Also, Kate Spade is known for its jewelry—sure, they sell jewelry—but in general, when people think about Kate Spade they're thinking handbags, right? And that's not by chance. Like, Kate Spade—the brand Kate Spade has been largely marketed as being a, again, high-end designer handbags, purses, and wallets vendor. That's what they market themselves as. That's what they offer. That's—that is where they position themselves in the market. Now, what you might not know, unless you're really a Kate Spade fan like myself, what you might not know is that Kate Spade also sells lots of other things. Kate Spade sells everything from clothing to home goods. In fact, I, um, picked myself up a Kate Spade lamp for the henna boutique and I am obsessed. Um, it has everything from servingware: forks, knives, plates to even shower curtains can be purchased from Kate Spade. But odds are you didn't know that. And most people, unless you're a Kate Spade fanatic, you probably didn't know that either. When you think of Kate Spade, the first thing that comes to mind isn't shower curtains, and it isn't bracelets and it isn't plates or cups, and you're probably not thinking about lamps. When you hear the word Kate Spade, when you think of Kate Spade, the first thing that you think of is handbags. And that's by design.

So, let's bring that, like—let's take that same concept, right, and let's apply it to the henna world, okay? I want to invite you to take a second just to think about a couple of your favorite henna artists. Those henna artists who you follow them on Instagram and you love seeing their work and maybe they're the one who inspired you to open your business or, you know, they're aspirational in some way, whatever. And when you think about those henna artists who are the most inspirational to you and those henna artists who, um, you know, who—just your faves, right, and you think about their work, odds are you're thinking of a specific style, a specific type of work.

So it may be that, like, you've fallen in love with a particular henna artist because you love the way that she does prenatal henna. It's so symmetrical. It's so balanced. The lines are so clean. Every time she creates a mandala everything is perfect in it. How does she get her paste so crisp to look that way? It's beautiful. Ah, and just in that description henna artists probably came to your mind or maybe you're thinking of that henna artist who, um, every time they do that bridal work, their bridal fills are so teeny, tiny, small. They're so fine. How do they manage to get those bridal fills so fine? And the design, it just looks fabulous. It's stunning. Everything is so dense and rich and, and, and just traditionally South Asian and it's phenomenal. Or maybe you're thinking about that artist who has those Instagram shots that are super colorful and bright and it's just perfect. Their feed is perfect. Everything about it is perfect. The way that they take their pictures is perfect. Every picture looks like it belongs on a magazine cover. You know.

The thing is, with each of those descriptions, you likely thought of someone. Someone came to mind, someone you've seen on Instagram, someone you've seen on Facebook, maybe someone from your local market, maybe someone from far away, but that person came to mind. All of those artists have managed to set themselves apart with a single skill set. Many of them still offer additional services. I am not here to suggest that you make your living off of a single service. As a henna artist, I think it is important that you have a varied skill set. I do. I think it's important that you take the time to master different design styles and design techniques. I think it's important that you take the time to learn to master the craft of henna in many different varieties, absolutely. But what I'm also saying is, you have to take the time to define yourself as an artist who specializes in a thing, whatever that thing is. So if that's: "I'm going to specialize myself in creating custom bridal pieces," "I want to specialize in creating perfectly balanced prenatal mandala designs," "I'm going to set myself apart by becoming that person who's known for those 15-minute quick in and out appointments that make the clients happy because they can get it on their lunch break," like, whatever that is for you, you have to choose an angle. This is something that's called niching.

Once you've found your niche; once you've found a way that you are going to set yourself apart from everyone else because your focus is on delivering one particular service exceptionally well, then the market begins to acknowledge you in that way. And so as your market comes to acknowledge you as being the expert in that thing, you're going to find that you'll book more of that particular type of booking. You'll see more revenue in your business from that particular type of service and it's not going to stop other people from booking you for other services, but it does keep you front of mind and on the tip of their tongue when someone says, "I'm looking for a henna artist for my wedding," "I'm looking for a henna artist for my maternity photos," or "I'm looking for a henna artists that can take a last minute appointment," then, wow, you're the first person that comes to mind because you've set up your business all around the concept of being excellent, being exceptional, in that one specific thing.

Choose a specialization, market the heck out of it, and watch how the cash rolls in. I cannot—I feel like I could scream this from the mountain tops and for whatever reason there seems to be a lot of pushback on this idea, but I promise you if you take the time to whittle down your audience from "I want to do henna for everyone in every capacity. I want to offer every service and I want to be known as the expert in every service," If we can whittle that down just a little bit more, just a little bit more, just a little bit more over the course of time until you have come to a place where you are known for one specific thing that you do and you do it so freaking well that there is no competition, right? Like, that's the point. When you can position your business in such a way and position yourself in such a way that you are acknowledged as the expert in that space, that's where you gain trust from th—from your market. That's where you gain that clout. That's where you gain it. And if you want to gain those bookings, that's a great place to start.

So, I would love to invite you to a little bit of a conversation inside of the Hennapreneur community about this because I think this is something that sometimes it ruffles feathers, but you know what? If there were one piece of advice that I could give any henna artist starting out or any henna artist who's like, "I need to scale my business and I don't know how." I'd say, man, we gotta niche this thing down. Niche it down, niche it down a little bit more, because the more specific you are, the more specialized you are, the more pinpointed and laser-focused you are about who you serve and how you serve them and how you're going to do it better than everyone else, man, that's where you start to really become recognized and that's where you become that artist where when someone says, "Hey, I'm looking for someone who does such-and-such," you're the first person that come to mind.

So, let's—I want to invite you to come join me inside of the Hennapreneur community. If you have questions about this concept of niching, if you want help in defining how you can niche down, all of those things, I'd love it, love it, love it if you would come and share your thoughts with me and with the community over on Facebook. You can just search "Hennapreneur" or "Hennapreneur Community" on Facebook. The group will come right up. We'd love to have you join in, and yeah, let's get you specialized. Let's find your angle. Let's find your angle. Let's get you going. This is the first step. This is the first step to setting yourself apart in your market and it would be my pleasure to support you in the process. All right, I will talk to you guys next time.

Hey babe! I wanted to give you a quick thank you for tuning into the show today. That was super cool of you to hang with me all the way until the end. Of course, I've got all the links that you might need from this episode inside of the show notes that you can find at hennapreneur.com/podcast.

If you enjoyed the show and want to stay in the loop with Hennapreneur, be sure to subscribe to the podcast too. You'll get all of the new episodes as soon as they come out. I'd be so grateful if you'd take the time to rate or leave a review on Apple Podcasts while you're there. That tells iTunes that, "Hey! Hennapreneur is about something good!" and it helps us to reach more artists who would love the show. All right, that's all for today. I'll be back soon with another episode but for now, let's get back to work, hennapreneurs!