Episode 242: Dealing With Rejection In Your Design Business

As business owners, we’re constantly putting ourselves out there. That means we could be met with both acceptance and rejection. This can be uncomfortable, but we can reframe our relationship with rejection in a way that we don’t fear as much. In today’s episode, I’m sharing how you can deal with rejection and grow from it! If today’s episode resonates with you and you want to show support for the show, here’s an easy way to do so: Buy Me A Coffee! Dealing With Rejection In Your Design Business Getting Rejected by a Client Getting rejected by a client because they don’t like what we’ve created can hurt. We often correlate it with our own acceptance and believe they’re rejecting us, the person. We want to be accepted—it’s an integral component of survival in history. When they’re rejecting your work, you have to learn that it isn’t you that they’re rejecting. Don’t take it personally. You have the control to shape your thoughts around how you’re accepting rejection of your work. Rather than letting it hurt and tell you you’re not enough, you can look at it as unexpected and respond without making it about you. Radical Acceptance Let me introduce you to a concept called radical acceptance. You did your best—they responded how they wanted to. You can’t control that. You can take responsibility for you, but not in how people respond to you. The goal isn’t to make people happy 100% of the time. Your goal is to do work that you’re proud of; most of the time the feedback will be positive. Rejection from a Lead It’s pretty common for service providers to get rejected from leads. They’re not saying no to you—they’re saying no to the offer, the price, or the solution, as it doesn’t work for them. Stop Tying Your Self-Worth into Your Business It is so damaging to tie your self-worth into your business—how successful you are, how much money you make, how happy your clients are. As humans, you weren’t put on earth to be working all the time. You were put here to be a human. Your worth is your’s and no one can take it away from you. Who you are as a human and who you are as a business owner are two different things. Accepting Rejection This is your encouragement to remember, you’ve gotten yourself this far in your business with good decisions and problem solving. If you’re getting pushback from a client, you can decide how you want to move forward with it through growth. Any rejection experience is an opportunity to learn and grow. That doesn’t mean it won’t hurt, but it can teach you something. You deserve to feel your feelings, yet you can make every experience a win. Here’s a mantra that I’ve found myself constantly repeating: It’s going to be this or something better. I’m choosing to learn or grow, otherwise my something better is on its way. Come Join The Brand Strategy School If you are wanting to explore some of these surprise and delight concepts more within a community and the safety of a group of like-minded designers who are walking a similar journey and who get what it’s like to be a designer, then I invite you to learn more about joining the Brand Strategy School!