Rejected. Turned down. Declined. Dismissed. All of these words might make you cringe, but what if there was something positive about being rejected?
“Live In The D” host Tati Amare and guest host Lauren Crocker were joined in studio by friends of the show to weigh in on the art of rejection. The conversation included author and motivational speaker Mimi Brown, Orlando Bailey who is the executive director of Outlier Media, and Vanessa Cohen, the co-founder of the Cohen brand and the creator of Motor City Date Night. The conversation was inspired by an article from Vox where the author talked about how she intentionally set out to be rejected to build resilience and to reduce the fear surrounding rejection.
“You learn more when you’re rejected than when you always get a yes,” Orlando said. He also said you can become desensitized to rejection so you aren’t fearing it.
The group also talked about not doing something because of fear of rejection. Vanessa shared that she wants to be an actress but said she’s scared to go to an audition and not get a call back. Tati said she’s not done something because she didn’t want to waste her time because she knew it was going to be a rejection.
The group’s conversation ended with talking about respectful ways to give a rejection.
“I like to say no is a complete sentence, and so you don’t have to give the extra information behind it if you choose not to,” Mimi said.
Orlando shared that in a professional setting, he thinks no with feedback is appropriate.
Vanessa explained that when she says no in a job setting she tries to do so in a way that is still encouraging for the future.
Watch the video above to see the entire conversation.
