Without Khadija, I don't know if there would be a Mektoub Henna or any of the trips we took to Morocco. In Khadija we found a kindred spirit, someone so passionate about Moroccan henna that it became her life's work. She was our teacher at our first Mektoub event in Marrakesh. We met her on Instagram and loved her work, hoping that she would teach at our event. Jenpa and I went to Morocco for a research trip before our first event and that is where we first met Khadija. She gave us both huge hugs just standing in the middle of the Fes Medina and it just got better and better after that.

To be in Khadija's orbit is to be enveloped in her passion and generosity but also her wicked sense of humor. It's no wonder that she is a pivotal part of all our Mektoub Henna events. I hope that you get to join us on one of our trips so you can have a real-life experience of Morocco, Moroccan henna, and Khadija herself.  Like so many of our conversations during Mektoub, there is a lot of language switching in this conversation. It felt like so many conversations we had in person, where there is a mix of English, French, Arabic, and Spanish, and strange combinations of all of them. Another little taste of our Mektoub events. Enjoy the interview! 

You can find Khadija on Instagram at @galerie_henna and Mektoub at @mektoubhenna on Instagram, and our website, where you can find out more about our trips and events, is MektoubHenna.com

I came across Fatma's work on Instagram from a comment she left on one of my posts. We got to chatting and I knew I wanted to learn more from her. I know so little about East African henna and thought that others might be as curious as I am to know more. 

Today's guest is Caryl Cunningham (@carylcunningham on Instagram) who is a tattooer but started out as a henna artist. She was one of our guests at the Mektoub Marrakesh Henna Journey in March 2022. I was excited to talk to someone who is a hardcore traveller and learn about her perspective on the event. If you are interested in the Mektoub events please follow us on instagram (@mektoubhenna) or visit us at MektoubHenna.com. If you have suggestions of people you would like us to interview email us at [email protected]. 

If you have ever met Connie, online or in person, you know she has many thoughts and feelings. She joined our Mektoub Marrakesh Henna Journey in March 2022 and we were really happy to have her there because we knew her and liked having some friendly faces at our first ever event. Listen in to hear her perspectives on our Moroccan  event and her transformative experience. 

This is the first in a short series of inteviews with attendees at the recent Mektoub Marrakesh Henna Journey. It features Monique of Alchemy Henna (@alchemyhenna) chatting with attendee CV from Art of the Zodiac (@art_of_the_zodiac) about her experience at the workshop. For more info visit us at MektoubHenna.com 

We talk about our journeys as fans of Moroccan henna, from geeking out over photos of Moroccan henna in the early days of the internet, to deciding to host this Moroccan henna workshop featuring Moroccan henna artists, and a whole lot more. The event will be October 8-15, 2021 in Marrakesh, and registration opens on March 28, 2021. Click here for more information. A few others things we mention in this episode:

Our featured henna artists' IG accounts:

Khadija @galerie_henna

Nadia @marrakechhennaartcafe

Fatima @tamolayt.henna

Mektoub Henna: @MektoubHenna 

Samir is a Moroccan musician and friend of ours. He took us on a wonderful journey through his career as a musician, discovering gnawa music and making it his life. You'll hear his story and also get to listen to some amazing music. We hope you will be as charmed by him as we were. Enjoy!

In this episode Monique and Kenzi chatted with Jen about his several trips to Morocco and learned about his henna encounters in Marrakesh, the city of art and artists. Come join us on this virtual audio tour and fill that void that misses traveling!

Monique, Jen and I have been chatting throughout the pandemic, trying to find ways to keep creative and support each other, but always coming back to the same topics of henna, Morocco, and Moroccan henna. We had talked about getting the podcast back in service but we were stumped about what we could talk about. Finally after months of waiting for the muse to arrive we decided to just invite you sit  in on our chats about Moroccan henna. We will be interviewing various people who grew up in Morocco, went there for summers, or those who have lived or travelled there...with an emphasis on henna. To get our feet wet we are interviewing each other, starting with Monique in this episode. We hope you will enjoy this little trip to Morocco with all its sights, smells, sounds and sighs. Is there someone you'd like us to talk with...share it in the comments!

I’m going to break an old taboo about talking about money with other people; I’m going to break it hard by talking to Sowmya Ranganathan about money AND broadcasting it to anyone who will listen. I personally think this rule is kind of stupid because it keeps people ignorant about money which causes us to make poor decisions about our money. This is especially problematic for small business owners who deal with money more directly than those who work for someone else.

For many reasons, I have wanted to cover this issue in the podcast for a long time. One of the minor reasons is to talk here about my own issues and journey regarding money. Growing up poor-ish and always pinching pennies I learned a lot about money, but I also absorbed some bad money habits, like buying something ONLY based on price…only later realizing that when you skimp on quality you end up spending more in the long run on a replacement or repair. I also always had a hard time spending money on on intangibles whose value I couldn’t quantify, like a weekend away to recharge the batteries and come back stronger.  I know from conversations online that a lot of you have questions and outright fear regarding money.

I also wanted to cover this issue as part of my not-so-secret feminist agenda. Let’s face it, most henna artists are women and we exist in a world where the power and the pursestrings are not always in our command. Most of us grow up without the skills to ask for what we are worth (financially, but also physically, emotionally and intellectually). When I first started doing henna professionally I used to state my prices with a question mark at the end and a look of begging for approval on my face. I have learned to put a period at the end of my sentences, but there are days when I feel guilty for asking for what I am worth. I’m nearly 50 and I recently asked for a raise for the first time in my life! I’m embarrassed to admit this. My boss agreed I deserved a raise, but when it came time there just wasn’t the budget for it. That sucks but it’s beyond the scope of this podcast!

This podcast may not be able to address our issues of low self-worth (I’ll see if I can find a guest who can), but I think that we can get valuable information out there to empower us all to take our finances to a new level. My guest, Sowmya, is a henna artist (JoyofHenna on IG) but also works in accounting at an internet startup in San Francisco. As you may or may not know, I also have an alter-ego as a software trainer. We talk about accounting concepts and tools, but also the soft science of how to set prices.

We are both fans of Square, Sowmya because she is an employee AND a user of Square products, and me because I am a user. We refer to Square a lot because we both use it, but what we say applies to similar products from other companies. We have also talked about doing a google hangout where we demo some of the concepts we talk about in the podcast, showing you how to work with spreadsheets and formulas, and also to give you tours of some of the products we discuss.

I promised that I would list the products we discuss in the episode which I will do soon.  Feel free to mention in the comments any tools that help you with your henna business.

Perhaps you heard that a bunch of us Moroccan henna fans are doing a full weekend workshop in NYC at the end of February. Maybe you are interested but haven't made up your mind yet.  If that is the case, I hope that these conversations with three of the instructors--Nic, Nev and Noam--will help make the decision to sign up even easier!  You can hear in their own words what the three Ns are bringing to the workshop and why they think it's going to be amazing.  Rebecca and I will also be teaching at the workshop but we decided that our voices have been heard too much on this podcast already.  Below you'll find more information about the workshop and what to expect, as well as links to the Facebook event page and to the registration page. See you in February!