I recently attended the NALA conference where I spoke about marketing and got to meet speakers and attendees in person, which is a rare treat for me given I run an online business. As the weekend unfolded, I struggled with the topic of worthiness and how it relates to running a business. As attendees and speakers alike came up to me to share how I’ve impacted them or about how much they appreciated what I’ve chosen to do in this industry, it was validation for me that what I am so passionate about is connecting with people.

What really got me fired up and rubbed the wrong way was the awards night. Solely because, from my perspective, I actually think awards in our industry, given the lack of regulations and variances in standards across the world, may be doing more harm than good. They’re not like a competition where you get feedback and areas to improve your skill-set. It’s all subjective.

Knowing Where Your Self-Worth Comes From

Speaking from my personal experience, I do not run my business for bragging rights.

I don’t place any weight on, or change how I run my business based on how many followers I could get, how much influence I have, how many awards or how much recognition I could gain from someone else’s opinion of what I do. But, I can’t help think about the 1000s of lash artists I’ve interacted with over the years and the one common thread I run into when coaching lash artists – their struggle with feelings of worth.

How winning or losing an award with no set standard could change the trajectory of their experience with this industry.

How someone being nominated or not nominated would impact their already fragile views of themselves.

I’ve run into lash artist after lash artist who has been made to feel they’re not good enough in life. To have that personal obstacle validated in such a public way could be detrimental to someone’s drive and motivation as an entrepreneur. How they feel about their ability to reach great success and how they’re able to support their families through entrepreneurship.

Hence, why it’s important to talk about self-worth and its relation to being a business owner and how self-worth is tied to your life as an entrepreneur.

I talk to and coach lash artists from all over the world, and a common misconception that arises is that your lash artistry, your lash skillset, determines your success as a business owner. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. If that were true, then there would be no bad lash artists out there because they would be broke and would’ve given up.

But the truth is, there are lash artists, both good and bad, that have successful businesses, AS WELL AS lash artists, both good and bad, who are struggling every day to keep their doors open and a roof over their head.

Let me be clear when I say your skillset as a lash artist has very little to nothing to do with how successful your lash business is or how successful it will be.

Your feelings of self-worth, your self-talk, your view of yourself as a lash artist and a business owner will impact your business more so than your ability to isolate, dip and place.

Self-Worth and Your Business Are Intertwined

Your feelings of your self-worth and your business are extremely intertwined.

• If you are forced to close down your business, it’s not like a job where you can blame it on a dozen different factors and that it may or may not be tied to your feelings of self-worth
• if your business fails… there’s no one else to blame it on but you.

So to use my recent conference experience as an example, this may or may not have been the case for those who were nominated but didn’t win.

Are they now struggling with feeling like they’re not good enough or that they have to change how they run a business because of someone else’s perception?

How many times does that happen to lash artists in the course of running their business?

I see it happen in so many different ways when the cracks in a lashpreneur’s feelings of self-worth show up in how they run their businesses.

• It shows up when they charge a fill price when it’s obvious it should be a full set.

• It shows up when they don’t charge someone for a no call/no show.

• It comes when they give refunds when a client makes a stink about something.

• When they do advanced techniques like capping, stacking, texturizing adding in volume fans but only charge the client for their basic classic service.

The biggest situation I see from lash artists, where the cracks in their feelings of self-worth shows, is through their handling of pricing conversations.

Like when they don’t charge their worth and THEY GIVE AWAY THEIR TIME FOR FREE!

Like when they extend a client’s appointment when a client shows up late, doesn’t have any lashes left so they do a full set in a condensed amount of time, or when a client says they’re too expensive so they hand out discounts like Oprah hands out cars.

Where Does Your Value Come From?

We’re going to go deep here for a second, so come along with me on this journey. I want to take a second and define what self-worth is. My view of self-worth is that which you value in yourself.

Do you value yourself as a good mom or wife or girlfriend or daughter or sister?

Do you value yourself as a good lash artist?

Is being the best at lashes something you place importance on? Why? Why do you place value on artistry?

Why are your feelings of worthiness based on being better than someone else?

How about your feelings of worth as a business owner?

Do you have a clearly defined vision of success in your business?

Why did you start a lash business in the first place?

Do you make decisions in your business based on being better than someone else? Or, do you make decisions based on why you got into running a business in the first place?

What is your definition of success and are you reaching milestones that seemed hard or impossible at one point in your life?

Your worth as a human being on this planet is not dictated by anyone else except for yourself.

Without getting too woo-woo on you, I want you to dig deep… If someone else (whether it’s a client, a spouse, a parent, a friend, your competition, your idols or mentors, whoever) thinks of you or how you run your business as not good enough, how does that change what you do? Does it change what you do?

When you have a clear connection with the purpose of why you are doing what you do, you will know the answer right away.

Evaluating Your Self-Worth

If I asked that question and you said, “Yes, I would change how I run my business or what I do,” then let me be the first person to warn you that you will forever be working long days. You will forever feel exhausted and overworked, feel like there’s never enough time, feel overwhelmed and participate in self-sabotaging behavior that will limit the success you’re capable of reaching.

If you said, “I wouldn’t change a damn thing about what I do in my business!” then you have truly adopted and owned the mindset of an Entrepreneur.  And, I’m not talking about those of you who use the “I don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks” as a defense mechanism for the hurt someone else has caused you in your life…. I’m talking about those who know exactly why they got into business for themselves and who know the purpose their business plays in the overall vision for their life.

• Where a client showing up 30 minutes late means they are no longer a client of yours.
• Where you understand that there are client’s who are not worth the money they pay because they don’t respect you or the business you run.
• Where you have no problem saying, “My price is not up for negotiation.”.
• Where you have healthy business boundaries and understand that your time has the same amount of VALUE as your clients’ time.
• Where winning or losing an award doesn’t change how you run your business or how you impact the lives of your clients.

So now it’s time to decide for yourself – will you run your business for YOU or will you let others determine your self-worth?  Grab the worksheet below that will help you to work through evaluating your self-worth and join me on Facebook to continue the conversation.