How to deal with rejection

100 No Thank Yous

“Reject Me - I need it for my wall chart!”

It’s a game. I quite like rejections now. All the yes’s more than make up for the no-thank-yous.

-Me, a few months into my first ever 100 No Thankyous experiment

Back in 2019 I wrote this post on Instagram:

I’ve only managed to collect 23 “no thank yous” since January. Inspired by @thetiffanyhan’s 100 rejection letters, I’ve set out applying for new things, pitching and generally putting myself and my work out there more than before.

Some of the no thank yous actually turned into not-yets’s and people came back to me weeks later to say yes please.

Moral of the story. Put your work out there even if it feels icky. 👌🏻

Here’s the image I posted too. Please disregard my painting of an argument with a silly man.

At the bottom of the photo, you can see ‘100 No thankyous’, where I recorded every single nope, ‘thanks but no thanks’ and not-yet.

It was the best experiment I ever did for my illustration business and my thick-skinned-ness.

Here are some of the things that happened in 2019 while I was on my rejection rampage. Seeking out rejection wherever I could find it.

• I was selected by Transport for Edinburgh to paint a sculpture of Oor Wullie and it raised over £5000 for charity. Wahooo!

• Then Nespresso commissioned me to paint hundreds (HUNDREDS) of travel mugs an event that I later worked at in that there London. My tiny studio was full to the ceiling of these bloody mugs. Never again. But also…hooray! Great job. Hah.

• I self-published a book of my India sketchbook work from my trip to India.

• Painted an Elmer elephant sculpture.

• And last but not least, I sold my ancient Ford Fusion car and bought a Fiat 500 after haggling the price down (they didn’t say no! I was brave enough to haggle!)

I’m really looking forward to talking to my pal Liz Mosley on her Building Your Brand podcast later on this year to discuss how her own rejections mission is going.