ASK ME ANYTHING: We're Talking About Being a Successful Henna Artist with Hidden Disabilities, Social Media Caption Writing for Henna Artists, and Using Photos of Another Henna Artist's 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:
[02:54] Do you know of any successful henna artists with hidden disabilities? Do you have any tips?
[09:29] How do you deal with the fear of judgment stopping your growth as a henna artist?
[12:45] Another henna artist is using my business name switched around. What should I do?
[16:01] What’s the best henna powder that can be bought online?
[17:07] Do you have any tips for writing genuine social media captions for Facebook and Instagram?
[20:45] How do I reach out to potential henna clients in their DMs?
[25:02] How do you schedule your time when doing work for your henna business? Can you tell me more about block scheduling?
[30:45] Is it ok to use another artist’s henna photos on my henna business’ social media pages when I have their permission?
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: Hello, hello, hello hennapreneurs, welcome! Okay. Let me share this feed over into the Hennapreneur community because y'all already know how I do, I gotta take care of my people. How are you guys doing today? Look, okay. Here we go. Yay! I'm so excited. You guys, like, you just don't even know.
You just don't even know! All right, hello. Hello, everybody! Welcome to our first ask me anything of 2021. I'm super excited about this because it's like yesterday was our first day back at work, right? Yesterday was the first work day of the new year.
Today is actually my official first day back at work. I'll be at the henna boutique today. That's a lie. I worked on the second. That's a lie, Saturday I worked. Saturday was my first day working at the henna boutique, so what am I even saying? Anyway, yesterday officially was the first work day, the first Monday back at work. So I hope that you guys are excited to have welcomed in the new year and all of its glory. Ready to come and serve our clients well and be well-paid in the process, right? I hope so. I hope so, 'cause we're doing big things in 2021.
If it is your first time joining me, hey! What's up, y'all? My name's Chelsea Stevenson. I'm a professional henna artist and business strategist based here in Baltimore, Maryland. And through Hennapreneur, I support henna artists all over the world, to make more money doing what they love. And so I'm excited to get to do this. Twice a month, I come live here on Facebook and answer whatever things you'd like to know. We talk all things henna business or branding, and sometimes you guys have other questions for me, but we're going to see we're gonna see what you got. Today, we have a lot.
If, if you, by the way, welcome to you guys who are joining me live. If you're here live with me, go ahead and say hey in the chat so I know that you're here, 'cause it makes me super happy. I can see the number of viewers, but I can never see who it is until you actually say something.
And if you're catching the replay, just drop a replay in the comments, so I know that you caught that. So I know that you caught the feed, all right. Okay. So we [00:02:00] have tons of questions that came in for ask me anything for today. So I want to go ahead and jump right in. The first one,oh, okay. Let me lie. I look jacking this up already. Look at me. Here we go. Nope. Here it is. I have them like in three different places. Okay! So the first question, ooh, and this one was such a good one. It's such a good one from the jump. Okay. So the first question that I had was and actually, let me pause.
I need to apologize to this hennapreneur because this question came in and I didn't catch it. So I would have answered this in a previous ask me anything, but I didn't notice it. And so now that I'm seeing it, I'm like, it's such a good question and needs to be answered. And also, sorry that it took me so long to answer it, to respond for you.
Hey, Gabby, welcome! Okay, so this hennapreneur says, "hey Chelsea, thank you for taking the time to do this. My question is, have you had, or do you know of any henna artists who have been able to succeed in this business while having a hidden disability? If so, how? I want to be a great henna artist, but due to a recent diagnosis of an autoimmune condition, I don't know if the dream will come true. Any advice would be highly appreciated."
So I love this question. First of all, let me pause and say hey hennapreneur, thank you for sharing what's going on in your life with me. It really means a lot to me that you entrusted me with the details of that. Also I want to let you know that you 100 percent have my support in whatever you choose to do for you, right? This is your life and you get to decide what you want to do with it and how you want to do it and whatnot. And that actually is going to feed a lot into my answer to this question. So do I have any hidden disability that I can personally speak on in terms of a physical condition? No. I do, I've been pretty open and honest about this on other platforms that I do have I do, I suffer from depression and anxiety.
I've been on medication for them for a long time. Actually, in 2019 is when I came off a medication, and then we went right into coronavirus, which is not the greatest of circumstances for those of us who deal with mental health issues. But with that said, for me, in my experience, dealing with just dealing with my own mental health struggles while also managing a business.
What I found to work is really leaning in to what feels good, what feels right, and what's sustainable. And honestly, that is part of why I'm so conscious around building sustainable practices in your business from the beginning.
Now, this is something that, obviously, again, I'm speaking from the context of someone who copes with mental health issues. But if you have a physical ailment also, that might be a challenge, I think it's perhaps even that much more important. And this is not a debate on what is, or is not more important in terms of mental versus physical conditions. However, when you're dealing with the physical ailment and you're also offering a physical service, come on, let's be real. Right?
So in any case, whether you're on one side of the table or the other, or both, I think that it's really important for you as business owners, right? As business owners, to identify what works well in your business, what feels good when you're providing it and also where your boundaries and limitations are.
And I don't mean that from obviously there's the physical component of, okay, I have certain physical boundaries, whatever that might be. For example, if you're someone who, working in the heat causes flare ups, with an auto-immune condition, then probably working festivals is not going to be the best bet, right?
So there are things like that, but really what I'm speaking about is boundaries around what you're actually building. So if you know that, look, it's only reasonable for me to feel comfortable and happy serving people two to three hours a day, then make that a boundary and stick to it. Right?
That means not trying to specialize in full bridal henna because you're going to, it's going to require six hours of work from you. That's not going to be work that honors you. And what it comes down to, for me, and this is why I speak so much about sustainability, is you have to create self honoring boundaries inside of your business that are also going to give you the ability to build a business around the lifestyle that you want to have. Right? You don't want to build a business that you hate and you don't want to build a business that feels heavy to you, or that feels cumbersome, or that feels like it's not taking into account what you are dealing with on a regular basis. Right?
And so you are the master, if you will, of your life and you're the artist and the designer of your life. And so do I think that it's possible for you to succeed? Absolutely. Do I think that it's possible for you to fail if you try to take other people's definition of success and place it on yourself, that's something that you have to like, match?
Absolutely. That can't be an option. That can't be the way that we define things. And you guys, this is something that I really want for everyone to hear, because when you're thinking about running a business, right, the responsibility comes down to you. Right? Let's be really clear.
The responsibility comes down to you. The decision-making comes down to you. You are the boss, you are the CEO of your business. So you need to behave like the CEO of your business. So if so-and-so is saying, for example, "a successful henna artist serves four brides each week," and you have a condition that's not going to allow for you to do that physically, mentally or otherwise, then that person's definition of success needs to not be your definition of success. And that's it. You get to define what that looks like. My suggestion would be, because you mentioned that this is a new diagnosis, my suggestion would be further explore what feels good, further explore what works for you.
And when you find things that work really well, then lean in. And when you find things that you're like I'm not too sure about that, like it's not a resounding hell yes, then just let it go. Don't prioritize that. I would prefer to see you go 100 percent in on what makes sense for you and what feels good to you, then to go all in on something that's eh, iffy or makes you not feel great at the end of the day.
Definitely not something that's not in alignment with, or is not honoring of, your own boundaries. So that's my feedback. Of course, if you want, we can definitely chat about this a little bit more privately, just because the context of this question. If you want to give me some additional detail, I'm happy to answer it. You can email me. Or, if this answer suffices, then great, I'm happy with that as well. But I did want to make sure that I answered this question, because I feel like it's a really good one and it as applicable to any, and everyone, whether you're dealing with mental health issues, physical ailments, or you're just building a business without any additional challenges. These are still life tenents that you you need to be aware of, and you need to be implementing. Okay, yeah. Thank you for submitting that one. Okay!
Let's see, there was another question.
Oh, this one was such a good one. Okay. This one is such a good one. You guys ready? Okay. The question says how do you escape? How do you escape from-- I speak English, y'all. I can read. How do you escape the crippling fear of judgment. Inhibiting your own growth? Asking for a friend. The friend is me.
I loved this question, and I was like okay, I'm going to bring this out to the full community, because I feel like this is such a good example of first of all, you not being alone, because a show of hands, give me a heart if this has ever been a thing for you? Where you're like, ooh, I don't know, that judgment piece is a lot. And I don't know that I'm ready to do the things, because it causes us to kind of hold back. So for me to answer this question, for me, I like to remind myself, first of all, first and foremost, I like to remind myself that judgment from others says more about them than it does about me. Right?
People have thoughts and they have opinions and all of those thoughts and opinions say more about them than they do about me. People's thoughts and opinions are informed by their experiences, by their worldviews, by things that have happened to them, by whatever traumas they might be carrying with them, by whatever baggage they might be carrying with them. Right? And that is okay. That's not me. Right? It's not. Their stories aren't mine, and their judgment isn't mine. And it's not my responsibility, nor is it my priority, to focus on whatever judgment someone might cast my way. Period.
For me, I like to remind myself I am responsible. I am responsible for judging myself and metering myself against my own value systems. And so long as I remain in a space of integrity, and so long as I remain in alignment with self, then I'm good to go. But I'm not going to allow someone else's judgment of me to inhibit me from taking actions that I need to take in order to be successful. Yeah, I don't know that I can say just personally, right?
Like, being real, I have that sort of personality type that I can't say that I've had an experience where I've had what was described as crippling fear of judgment. Certainly, there have been instances where someone's judgment or fear of judgment has been present. But I don't know that I would go as far to say it was crippling for me with my personality type, but I can tell you that's how I get through it.
And that's how I make the choices that I do, to do what I do, and to do so unapologetically. It's remembering that their judgment is about them, it's not about me and I don't have to hold that. And I don't have to be responsible for it and I don't have to coddle it and I don't even have to pay it any mind.
I just have to do what's right, and what's in alignment for me and my own values, so that when I go to bed at the end of the night, I know that I've lived as the best version of me. And that's that's the best that I can do every single day. So thank you for that question. I felt it was a really good one. Okay.
There was a ton that came in on our posts inside of the community as well. So let's jump into these. This Hennapreneur says, my business name is relatively new, about a year and a half to two years ago. No other business had the name when I began. I now see another artist who has switched my business name around and is starting to use this. Suggestions on correcting it? Should I do anything or just let it be? And then she went on to share her business name and the name of this other artist who is also using her business name.
Yeah! So, I have a lot of thoughts on this. The first is, hennapreneur, is once you're sure about the name that you want to have for your business, I strongly encourage you to make sure that you get it registered.
And if you're concerned at all about any infringement, then it's probably a good time for you to look at trademarking that name as well. For this name, and it's quite a unique name, so it's kind of interesting to me. With that said, if you don't have those things in place, the best thing that you could do is reach out to this person and let them know that your name is already in business. It's already operating and that you wish for them to cease to use that name. If you don't have any backing, if you have no paperwork behind you, the best that you can do is ask nicely and hope that they say okay. If you don't, then you can't. And so if they choose not to then It's going to be up to you what route you want to go.
In this case, I would suggest looking first. You would want to see where's this other business located? Are they located nearby you? Are they located in the same country as you? Like all of these things are also important because even when you're dealing with trademarks, can get a little bit like this once you get into international law.
Absolutely, and that's why I mentioned location.
Christine, it does matter if they're in a different area, but only once you start to talk about international spaces. If you've got all of your paperwork in order inside of the U S or inside of one continuous country, like then it's a different conversation. Then at that point, you may have more recourse.
This is probably a really good time for me to say, hey y'all, I'm not an attorney and this is not me giving legal advice. I feel like I should probably put that disclaimer out there. However, as someone who has the paperwork to back their businesses, to include Hennapreneur, this is something that you should be aware of.
So in this case, I don't believe that the paperwork is in order around this brand. So best case scenario, you have a conversation with this other artist. If, and you may decide that's not even worth your time. Especially like you're again in the U S and that person is in I don't know, Malaysia, not a conversation really that perhaps you even care about.But maybe you do. And if you do, then you would want to have that conversation with them early on. Especially if you're seeing that they're just popping up. You might let them know, hey, by the way this name is already in use and request that they cease to use it. But again, in terms of like footing or what you can do, it's going to depend on what you've done to secure business on the backend. So there's that.
Oh, okay! Someone asked, "hat's the best henna powder that we can buy online?"
Uh, henna powder from Alex's Cone Shop, of course!
So, if you guys don't know, Alex's Cone Shop is, actually, it's my son. This is, this would be my son. He's the smallest hennapreneur ever, he just turned 11! But last year,actually it would have been December of 2019, he just turned 10. He secured his business license, which I was so proud of him for. He got his business license and he has a business where he sells henna powder. Obviously, he gets help from mom and dad to make sure that it's sourced appropriately and all the things. I use the same powder that Alex sells in his shop. So I can tell you if you love my henna stains, if you love my henna powder, my henna quality, all of that, like you will love the powder from from Alex's Cone Shop.
So, there's my plug, not just for amazing powder, but also for my little. He's doing such a good job.
Okay let's see, what's next?
Hi, I'd love some tips on making captions. Ooh! I'd love some tips on making captions on Instagram and Facebook. I'm struggling to write captions that are genuine while promoting my business. Thanks.
This is such a good question!
All right, you guys ready? Because now you see I just got hype. I don't know if y'all saw, but I just got real hype right now! Okay! So let's take it a step back. 'Cause y'all know what I'm going to talk about, right? Y'all see it coming. Some of y'all might see. We gonna talk about is your ideal client.
So listen, if you want to show up authentically on social media, perfect! Because we don't want to be that person on Instagram and Facebook who's just like, saying the things like here, book me, I'm amazing. Book me, look at my work. Book me, I'm great. Book me! No, because no one cares, and guess what? No, one's going to book you. But! If you want to have genuine connection with your audience, then you're going to have to show up and be vulnerable with them and you're going to have to be real and authentic. Right? So of course, in promoting your business, you're going to do so by way of building relationship.
Now, how are you building relationship? First thing, who are you building the relationship with, right? You need to know who your ideal client is, who it is that you're trying to engage in business with who are you marketing to? Who do you serve? And here you can be very broad at first, and then you're going to refine this person until you've got it down to one person who you can see in your mind's eye every single time you sit down to write a caption. Or you go to go live, or you send out an email. You're thinking, I just want to write this piece of content or create this piece of content for this one person, because this person's going to receive it and know it is for them. So, you are going to, first and foremost, identify who that person is, where are they from? What do they look like? What is their life like? What are their value systems? Where do they work? What do they do for fun? Where do they show up, like, in life? What is their identity, their sense of self? Right? What motivates them, and how is it that getting henna, with you, is going to help them be the best version of them? Okay. Once you have made this very clear to yourself who it is that you're building this relationship with, then you are going to lean into your own brand's values, and you're going to create content like that to connect the dots. Right? You're going to show how your own brand's values, how the things that you do, benefit them. That is how you're creating your captions for social. That is how you're creating your content for Instagram and Facebook, okay? Of course, there's always going to be a call to action. You're going to ask that person to engage with you, or you're going to ask that person to book an appointment with you, or you're going to ask that person to share with a friend, whatever that is, that's fine.
But that ask is after you've built relationship. You don't just ask people for something if you haven't given them something first, right? We're not rude. We're not rude. So that is going to be my suggestion. Know who your ideal client is, know how what you do serves them, create your content to connect those two dots, and then create your call to action that's going to invite them to do whatever it is that you're wanting to do inside of that post. Okay? Does that make sense, you guys? If so, give me a heart. Put something in the comments, give me an emoji, 'cause y'all know I love emojis. Give me the cheers emoji! I feel like the cheers emoji is about to be Hennapreneur's new emoji.
Like you don't even know I've been putting little cheers emojis on everything lately! I'm just, I'm feeling celebratory. I don't know about y'all. Okay, okay!
So this hennapreneur said when you reach out to connect with potential clients in their DMS, what does that look like? Ooh, ooh, this is a juicy one!
Okay, so it's no secret. I've talked a lot about the importance of you connecting with your audience. When you connect with your audience, ideally you are going to at some point come to a communication with them, a conversation with them, especially when you're early on. The reason I suggest this is because when you do that, it allows you to further hone, further refine your message, right? And your marketing! So, going back to how do you build content? It's going to be a lot easier for you to speak that person's language and communicate with them effectively in your copy when you actually have had conversations with them in person. Right?
So I encourage you to connect with people in the DMs whenever possible, because it's going to give you the opportunity to hear from them directly. You can hear their concerns, you can hear the things that they're excited about, you can hear, just in their own voice, what it is that they're looking for when they're booking their henna artist, right?
So what that looks like for me is, first of all, I don't jump in anybody's DMS. I invite them to come to mine, okay? I invite them to come to mine.
So I don't know about y'all. Have you ever been like on social then somebody just hits you up and it's like," also here's a link." Do you know how fast my block button works? Like I'm like, get out of my space, nobody invited you here! That's me.
So I don't do that to other people. I don't just jump into anyone's DM, I wait for them to DM me. Another, a couple different ways that you can invite people, you can make that your call to action in your social posts. So you're making this content and then you invite them to, hey, if you have any questions or if there's anything I can answer, if there's anything that you'd like feedback on whatever, send me a DM. You can invite them in that way.
Alternatively, this is a little sneaky, you ready? This is a little sneaky. When you go on Instagram stories and you have the opportunity, there's a bunch of different stickers that you can use? You can have them ask a question, you can have them vote like using the little slider bar. You can have them, whatever. You can ask a question and let them answer. All of those, send them to your DMs. So then, at that point, now you have the opportunity to respond, right? And so it's not you, like, showing up in their space like, "hey, by the way, I do henna. Here's my link, you want to book me?" Nah, fam!
We don't do that out here! Not in these streets, but we might be a little sly! We might invite them to engage and once they're invited and once they made the decision to engage with you, then you can then start to have conversation with them. So that's what I suggest.
Now, what does that look like after they've engaged? Well, it's going to depend on the context of the conversation, right? Freaking read the room, hennapreneurs, okay? Don't just come at somebody like, oh, and by the way, here's the link. Please don't be that person. And I know you'd be tempted to be that person because people have done this to me. Don't do this, right? Don't do this.
What you want to do instead, nurture the conversation. So find out, hey, did they respond? For example? You put the little slider, they vote on the slider, or you put the question for them to to answer whatever about a design that you've posted in your stories. Did you like this one answer? Yes or no? Did you like this one? Whatever, like whatever. And they respond, then you can then start to have genuine conversation with them. So what did you like about it? Have you ever tried henna before? Have you ever seen a piece like this before? Did you know that this is X design type, right? This is a Moroccan style piece. This is a whatever. Had you ever seen henna on feet before?
Get in there and ask questions. You can open conversation. Once you've started to have that back and forth, they inevitably, if they are interested, will have questions for you. And when they give you those questions, then you get to answer, and at that point, then you get to make invitation, but don't be in people's space. Like you in their DMs, that's a great way to get blocked. We don't want to be blocked, we want to be blessed. O
kay, so, thank you for that one. That was a really good one. Okay.
This hennapreneur said, "Can you please explain how you schedule your time with your business, again for the 50,000 time? I'm sure I remember you saying something about working in blocks and that you have certain to do tasks for each block. Can you give me example of those blocks? I'm cracking down on my productivity."
Abso-freaking-lutely! So look, hey with the cheers emoji, that's what I'm talking about, fam! Look, if it makes sense and you love it, give me a cheers emoji. 'Cause we on it. Okay. Yeah, absolutely.
So what I like to do, I've mentioned block scheduling. So I love block scheduling. So you guys know I'm a homeschooler, I got three kids. I'm trying to manage a house, I'm trying to manage a whole man. I'm supporting students here at Hennapreneur and I've got the henna boutique.
Like life is crazy, right? Life is hectic, but it's not just me. Y'all have your own obligations. You have your own duties at home. There's a lot for you to have up in the air at any given time. For me, I don't like rigid schedules. If I try to give myself a rigid schedule, it ain't going to work. Because of the nature of my life, things are always moving, changing, flexing, right? So instead, I like to have structure, but I also want it to be flexible and to allow for me to make adjustments if I need to, right? And so what I do is block scheduling. So what does that look like? I would show you my phone, but y'all are on my phone, so here we are.
So what this looks like for me is literally every day on my calendar, I have different blocks. So it might be homeschool or it might be household, or it might be Hennapreneur, or it might be Cardamom and Clove Henna, right? Whatever those things are.
Or it might be personal. I have a personal block for myself as well. So I'll schedule myself, these blocks throughout the course of the day. And then what I keep for myself inside of Asana, because I love Asana, that's my task management tool. I keep a running list of things that I need to get done, okay? Now those things are going to apply to one of these categories. So if it's like finish the grocery list, that's household. If it's flip the laundry, that's household. If it's review the kids' English work, that's homeschooling. Whatever, what is it? Plan out my social media content, that would go into my business. Whatever it is for you, right?
Go through, create your tasks because you're working through the day and something's going to come up. I need to take care of that. And you just, and I'll jot it down on my to-do list.
So then what happens is, every day I get up, and I look at my tasks. What are the most important? Do I have any that are date specific? If it's date specific, then obviously it becomes more of a priority, than something that I can handle at any time. But what I'll then do is look and say, okay, today between 10 and 11 or 10 and 12, I have time to do household things. So what's on my list for the household? That's what I'm gonna take care of. And I'll just tackle as much of that as possible.
They say that tasks have a way of filling up the container that you give them the time container that you give them.
So if you're like, oh, I'm going to fold this laundry and you give yourself no time limit on that, that basket of laundry is going to take you all freaking day because you're doing the laundry, and you're peeking at the TV and you're answering a question for somebody over here and what's that? My phone just went off, so I got to respond to this text. And next thing you're 45 minutes into a basket of laundry that could have taken you 10 minutes to handle.
You know what I'm saying? I know it's not just me, so y'all stop fronting. I don't see no likes, I don't see no hearts and stop fronting because I know it's not just me.
So I'm just saying, so for me, what I like to do is work in Pomodoros.
So when I'm like really in it, especially on days that my list is like super deep, I got a bunch of stuff that I need to handle, I'll run Pomodoros. You can set them up on whatever intervals you like. I like 10 or 15 minute Pomodoros. Unless I'm doing something more extensive, then I'll do 25 minutes. So it'd be like 10 minutes or 15 minutes or 25 minutes. And then a five minute break.
So I literally have an app, it's called Focus Keeper. Pomodoros, pomodoros. You know what, here, let me put it in the comments. Pomodoro Method. Oh gosh. So when you use the Pomodoro Method, I use the app Focus Keeper for this, and it's literally a timer and I'll start it, it'll start the timer for however long, and then once the time's up, bing, and they'll give you your rest time, your break time in between. So in between, then I try to figure it out, what else am I going to do? I can be looking at my list or I can be handling whatever other random thing comes up.
So for me, that 45 minute basket of laundry, if I put myself with a container of 10 minutes, best believe when I'm looking at that timer, I'm like, oh, I only got four more minutes. I gotta get this done. And then I move on. So I like to create containers of time. If I don't have a container of time, the task will expand well beyond what it needs to.
So I like to just kind of be more and more cognizant of that. So I use those two together. Block scheduling and Pomodoros, especially when I'm very pressed for time, I'll use Pomodoros. If I have a little bit more time available to me, I'm a little more flexible then I drop the Pomodoros and just focus with my block scheduling, because some weeks are a little bit more hectic than others and that's just life.
So I hope that helps. If it helps, give me a cheers emoji because that's what I desire! Okay, where did my questions go? Let's see, okay.
This hennapreneur asked, "Is it wrong to use another henna artist's picture on your social media, even if you have their full permission from that artist and state in the caption that it's not your work? The reasoning would be to give my audience a view of something that they can get or other options that they could have, but something that I don't yet have in my own content box. Of course it would be something that's not outside of my skillset."
So this question, then, was followed by...
Look at all of these cheers emojis! I'm so happy! I'm so thrilled! Okay, so this question was then followed by extensive conversation inside of the Hennapreneur community. Here's a plug! If you're not already a member of the Hennapreneur community, you need to be in there because we be like, at it. Talk about support, talk about community, like y'all want to be hanging out with us, I'm just saying. This resulted in some extensive conversation around what's ethical and what's not, using images from other henna artists, using images of yourself with henna on from another artist or using images that have someone else's work, whatever, alongside of yours.
And so there were a couple of different ways I'm going to talk about this because it did bring up so many different things, okay? So first and foremost, I don't have any problem with it, okay? So especially if you, and this is the thing, if you've had the conversation with that artist, especially if you've had the conversation with that artist and they're like, "yeah, that's cool, you're welcome to use it," and you're crediting them, then do that.
It's about expectation, right? It's about being open and transparent and honest with your audience. You're not being fraudulent if you're saying hey, this is my friend's work. I'd love to do a piece like this or something similar. If you'd like to give this a try, book with me.
Like, there's nothing gross about that. That's fine, that's totally ethical, that's cool.
So long as you're setting expectation, right? This is not my work, it's someone else's work. This is whose work it is. Also, I would like to do a piece like this, similar to this, inspired by this whatever, or with similar placement to this, whatever, would you like to do that? If so, book with me. That's totally cool. This then started like a conversation about stock imagery and how this compares to stock imagery.
Let me pause before we even go there. If you have not had a conversation with the artist, you just found a piece and you want to use it, I would strongly encourage you to ask the artist, "can I use this?"
Guys, we're talking about professional courtesy here. Would you be happy if someone just took your work and was like, hey, I want to make this too! You want to book with me?" Like people can view that in a different way, right? Just, let's meter ourselves, police ourselves, meter ourselves. Let's do right by other people. We want to be excellent inside of our community. Let's operate with professional courtesy. So I would suggest asking. If you don't hear back from them, I would suggest leaving it alone.
Personally, I wouldn't use a piece and say I want, hey, I would like to do a piece like this. Even crediting them if I haven't had a conversation with them or I've had the very least, I haven't made the attempts to reach out. I think that's just being kind, right? Being mindful of someone else's feelings, that original artist's feelings. I don't know, maybe that's soft of me, but that's my field. That's my stance because I just imagine how I would feel.
With that said, this then was like into, what about stock imagery? Can you use stock imagery? Stock imagery is fine. So unless you're not claiming that it's your work, right? Stock imagery by nature, someone was paid in order for that image to be licensed out and used by other people, hopefully.
This is also why it's important for you to only use stock imagery that is, has been secured through a paid platform so that you're protected, because let me tell y'all a story. This is just a really quick tangent, but it's a real story, and you don't want this to be you.
So I know someone who got a stock image of Asheville, North Carolina. So Asheville is like very photogenic. It's known for the views from the mountains. You've got the mountains and the city and it's it's beautiful, right? And so she found this stock imagery of Asheville and used it as the cover image for her group, okay? On Facebook. Not even like it was promotional, not even like whatever. But the group, those are free community. She also had a paid product, so she was a business owner, right? And she just used this image and it was related in a way to the fact that she was running a business.
Turns out, even though that image was present on what looks to be a free stock image platform,it was not a free stock image. And so what ended up happening is she received a letter from the photographer, from the photographer's attorney specifically, saying, "Hey, you're using my client's imagery and you do not have permission to do that. And this has not been licensed to you for you to use. And so here is a dollar amount that you now are going to pay us or else."
And without getting into all the details, it was not a dollar amount that you ever want to see in the mail from some random stranger, let alone one who is well within their rights to demand it.
So if you choose to use stock imagery, make sure that you're doing so on a platform that you are paying for, so that if there is an issue with that license, that is not an issue with you, that is an issue with that company You paid for access. Learn, okay? Learn from that. Learn from that little anecdote, All right?
So can you use stock imagery? Absolutely. As long as you're not claiming it as it's not your work and I passing it off as your work, right? That's something different.
And obviously you guys think long-term here. Think brand positioning here. Think brand recognition here. As soon as it's within your means to secure a brand photographer to do a brand shoot, to have images that actually represent your business, your work, your values, your brand, do that! And have good quality images up on your site versus using someone else's.
So I understand sometimes it takes time. It does, it takes time and effort to bring together a model and do the styled shoot and all the things, but make that investment, make it a priority. And especially if you know that this is a service or that there is a service that you kind of want to niche down on. One that you want to provide more of, definitely make that a priority to have that sort of content available to you inside of your toolbox so that you can properly represent yourself and your business on social and on your website and everywhere else you want to show up. Okay?
Yeah, those are my thoughts. Those are my thoughts. Hopefully they serve you. If you liked it, give me a cheers emoji because it brings me joy! Okay, I think that's it for today. Oop! I hear my children. I do, I think that's it for today. Okay.
So with that, I, ooh! What am I doing? Before I jump off of here, there were a couple of things that I wanted to share with you just about what's going on inside of the Hennapreneur community. What's new with Hennapreneur. If you're on the mailing list, last night before I went to bed, I sent you an email about my big audacious goals for 2021. And so you're privy to all of the amazing things that are happening or will be happening or hopeful to happen. Most of which will be happening.
I'm claiming it, I'm claiming it. We're doing our big audacious goals. We're securing the bag if you know what I'm saying. But there are a couple of things that I wanted to go ahead and share while I'm here live with you guys, too. So first and foremost, if you are someone who has been interested in working with Hennapreneur, there's a big change that I need you to know about moving forward.
So, 2021. You guys know over the past years, Hennapreneur has had a number of different courses that you could take. There's mixology and basic design, there's the design lab, there's the accelerator. You had the option to do consulting and there were packages for consulting. Or you could do just an hour or you could do a half an hour, or you could do half days with me or full days with me, or you can do in-person days with me. You could do three months of coaching, you could do one month of coaching.
There was so many different options that you could work with me. And I'm scrapping all of that, okay? So the reason why people are going to be like, why, what the hell? So the reason why, give me cheers emoji, because this makes me happy, okay?! The reason why is I've come to identify the easiest, the best way for me to see results inside of my students, inside of the programs, is when you are working with me inside the Hennapreneur Pro program, okay? That program includes access to all of those signature courses. That program includes access to me in business coaching and hot seats. You get access to our resident life coach, Sarah, also. Like you get hella support.
This morning, I was having conversations. This afternoon, I have a conversation scheduled with some other experts that I plan to bring into the team to support those students who are working with me inside of Hennapreneur Pro.
Listen, I talked to you guys all day about the importance of you streamlining and niching down, and now you're seeing me do this too, right? You're seeing me do this even inside of Hennapreneur. I want to give my students the best results possible. What excites me is seeing y'all make money, period! And I want you guys to live your best lives, period! And I'm seeing that the results that are had inside of the program and inside of our private community, the Inside Circle, that's where that's happening. So that's where I'm going all in.
So you'll see a little bit of a shift inside of Hennapreneur. Not too much, but enough it might be noticeable. If you've been around for a long time, you might see a little bit of a shift inside of Hennapreneur where we're talking about building that sustainable five figure business. Whether that's low 5-figures and you just want to have a sustainable side hustle, to high five figures like me, where you want to be working full-time with a henna business. That's what I'm here to teach.
I'm not super thrilled about teaching like design workshops. That's not what I want to be known for. That's not my passion, I am passionate about teaching you how to make money with the paisley, not teaching you to make the paisley itself. You know what I'm saying? That's just me being real.
Shonda said, "Are you bringing in nannies?" Listen, if I could give everybody a nanny, I would, believe me, starting with me.
So look, I'm just here to say you guys are going to see a little bit of a shift in Hennapreneur. Not even messaging just, we're getting real specific. I'm getting real specific. This is what I feel that I've been put here to do. This is what I feel is my purpose right now in our industry. And so I'm leading all the heck, all the way in, right? I'm excited about this. I'm really excited about this and I hope that you guys are as excited about it as I am.
There will be opportunity for people to work with me still one-on-one inside of the containers of virtual VIP days. But that will basically be by application only, meaning either invited to do it or you apply and I say, okay, I'm willing to work with you.
Otherwise, it will be, you want to work with me? You want to get this money, secure this bag with your art? Join Hennapreneur PRO, that's where it's happening. So I wanted to share that with you. If you're not already a member of the larger community, the Hennapreneur community, I'm going to pop the link to the group inside of the comments here, because I would love to see you there. That's where we commune otherwise.
And yeah, I'm gonna jump off here because we have really big things happening this year, and so I gotta get back to work. Know what I'm saying?
All right. I love y'all and I'll see you guys later, bye!