How to Start: NANGing
Seeing the longterm results..!
Hi!! It’s been a while! Turns out consulting for multiple brands makes for very little time to consult for your own personal brand. Add to that, I’ve had a bunch of work travel, fun life stuff, and small children - so I can’t entirely blame “consulting” on my lack of Substacking… but it has been a busy couple of months!
I was somewhere REALLY cool a few weeks ago - like a “pinch me” place - and I looked down at my wrist and reminded myself of how I got there.
After STIK landed a deal with USOPP for the Beijing Olympics, I made a custom bracelet with my friends at M.Flynn to commemorate the moment.
NANG stands for “No Asky, No Getty” - a phrase I have said a LOT over the years and something that my dad taught me when I was starting my first sales job. The reason I wanted to commemorate the Olympics deal with this NANG bracelet was because it was the PERFECT example of how I just asked for the sale. I asked and asked and asked and asked - knowing full well that the answer might be no. I wasn’t annoying about it, but I was persistent and if I hadn’t asked - it never would have happened in a million years.
I find that a lot of people never do something because they are afraid of getting a no. I have trained my mind to be more afraid of the unknown or of the regret of never trying. The fact is: the answer is no if you never ask.
I hesitated from writing a Substack about NANG because I feel like I need to come up with something more original to write about. If I’ve ever been interviewed about my business style, I always quote NANG. Or if I’m on a panel, it’s always my go-to “one piece of advice.” But I’m writing about it today - not as a green salesperson who realizes that picking up the phone and making a sales call, is better than worrying about picking up the phone to make a sales call - but as a woman who has been practicing what she preaches for almost 15 years now. Eek that makes me feel old!!
Because over the past couple of months I have landed myself in places that happened not by luck but by years and years of putting myself out there. Years of pushing myself way beyond my comfort zone. Years of reaching out to people to ask for help. Years of getting a lot of rejection. Years of being disappointed that big ideas of mine didn’t come into fruition. And yes, years of a mix of big, huge, exciting wins and a small, incremental wins. All of that combined has lead me to where I am right now - in a place that makes me feel insanely lucky.
I came across a post by Mike Posner the other day that really stuck with me (okay, I know random). While his post was about a snake bite situation… there was a quote in his caption that made me think of the end of STIK:
Beginnings always hide themselves in ends. Keep Going.
I love this. I feel like it’s a perfect way to think about my situation of the end of Sh*t That I Knit and this next chapter for me. Even through the “end” - I kept moving, kept pushing, kept NANGing and I think/hope it’s starting to pay off. And maybe I’ll borrow this phrase for my next panel (if I’m invited to a next panel!!) to mix it up!
I also think that there’s the other side of NANG - which is the inevitable “no.” One could view a no as an end… but if you view the end as as beginning - it’s freeing! Am I getting too heady?!
But seriously - sometimes you need to get a no. For starters, it’ll get you to stop daydreaming ridiculous things like “What if Chrissy Tiegen wore my hat in Aspen?!” and get you to reroute your goals to something that will actually happen. Think of things where “no” can seem like an end but actually be a beginning:
Not getting the job you want ————> getting the job you have!
Getting dumped or rejected —————> finding the RIGHT person!
Chrissy Tiegen doesn’t wear your hat ———> Sarah Jessica Parker does!!
Getting told no by ShopBop for like the 15th time ————> Move on from it!
All of those situations could just be left in the wishing zone, the what-ifs, the daydream. But instead, you take action on them and know the answer! If it’s no… maybe it’s a yes later! Maybe that job evolves and the recruiter comes back to you in two years, or that loser you were dating really is a loser and now you’re married to the best person ever, or you figure out a way to get to SJP instead of Chrissy Tiegen and then get to meet her at her play years later, or ShopBop was never going to be the right fit for you anyway and Nordstrom was amazing! The fact is, the second the no comes - a new beginning can start.
Alright - I think this is officially too long - but I do hope to inspire other people to use this way of thinking in many areas of their life. It’s amazing what ACTION does and I love going for it. NANG ON!
XO!
Christina
PS. If you want to read another Substack about the meaning of jewelry - check out my very dear friend, Jessica Alptert’s, Substack: Chainmail.