During our 2019 Reach Summit, we introduced three Teachable members with very different paths to success by asking them to write a letter to future independent entrepreneurs. Meet Chelsea Stevenson of Hennapreneur below:

As a henna professional and business strategist and consultant, I had spent years juggling the challenges of hosting in-person classes and workshops. It was a recurring nightmare. Different event, same problems:

💭 Is Wednesday really the only date open for a workshop that week?

💭 Is the class scheduled too early in the morning? Too late in the afternoon?

💭 How does the venue stack up? Will there be enough comfortable seating?

💭 Coffee or tea? Cookies or scones? Break for lunch or cater in? What about food allergies?

And after all of the event promotion and investment, came the big one:

💭 Did we close enough registrations to make all of that effort worthwhile?

I’d done it all, friends—from hosting small, intimate coffee chats where I mentored beginner henna artists on how to improve their design techniques to co-founding one of the largest henna conferences on the east coast where I’d teach rooms jam-packed with henna professionals about how to curate their brands and build sustainability into their businesses.

And while I loved the experience of advising others, truth be told: I was exhausted. 😩

I was exhausted by the travel.

I was exhausted by the abundance of moving pieces to manage.

I was exhausted by the uncertainties of live attendance.

And not only that.

I was also exhausted by the inevitable feedback that I’d receive from artists around the world who wanted so badly to access the knowledge that I was sharing, but who couldn’t attend these live events due to circumstances that colored their lives and businesses.

I knew that in order to best serve my community (and to avoid burning myself out in the process), I needed to find a better way to provide instruction. It was in my search for relief from this exhaustion that I found Teachable.

✋🏽Let’s pause for a second because it’s here, friend, that I’ve got to be honest:

Initially, my excitement about teaching online was largely informed by the thrills of eliminating so many of those tiny yet weighty details that hosting brought alongside.

As it turns out, Wednesday afternoons worked great for recording that next module, I definitely prefer gluten in my cookies, and I loved that the venue could just as easily be my garage-turned-recording studio, available at the unbeatable price of Free.

There wasn’t a single objection in sight, and let me tell you: It. Was. Magical!

It wasn’t until after the launch of my first course (and then my second, and then my third…) that I truly came to learn just how pivotal the introduction of online instruction was for my business—and, while also certainly applicable, I don’t mean this in the context of revenue.

✨ I’m talking about impact.

Leveraging a tool like Teachable has made it possible for me to reach those henna artists who live hundreds, thousands—hundreds of thousands!—of miles from me, and to offer them the resources and education that they need to succeed in their businesses.

Every single day, I’m grateful to wake up to a new email, comment, or message wherein a member of my growing online community shares how because of the impact of my work through Hennapreneur, they’ve gained the insight, knowledge, or confidence they’d lacked before to chase their dreams as creative business owners.

They’re putting food on the table for their families, they’re signing college tuition checks, and for once, against the starving artist culture that plagues our industry, they’re daring to believe that the sky is the limit. Through Hennapreneur they’re learning the technical skills and the business strategies to make their once illusive dreams a reality, and the impact is resounding.

Like dominoes, each of their individual successes triggers a cumulative effect, impacting their own lives, the lives of their families, the lives of their clients, their communities, and our collective industry.

And witnessing this level of growth and empowerment of students found literally all around the world? It is without a doubt the most humbling and extraordinary experience a mentor or educator could have. 🙌🏽

Perhaps today you’re in that place where I was, simply looking for a solution to how to better serve your community with more accessible education. Perhaps you also like gluten in your cookies and wouldn’t miss for a second the hustle, bustle, and overhead of live event planning and consulting.

Or, if you’re able to peek a bit beyond the weeds, perhaps you realize that you, too, could expand your impact, to the benefit of more lives than you’d ever imagined with this small shift in instructional delivery.

In either case, I hope that you’ll give it a go.

There are people out there wishing, hoping, and waiting for the knowledge that you have to share. Don’t leave them hanging! With a platform like Teachable at your fingertips, the reach of your impact is all up to you.

Chelsea Stevenson

https://vault.hennapreneur.com/

@Hennapreneur