The Curation by Nour Hassan

Nour Monday Monologue [MM]: No Is A Power Move, Not A Mood!

• Nour Hassan • Season 12 • Episode 146

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In this episode Nour takes you behind the veil of the glamorous life of a content creator, from weekly invites to VIP events, to opportunities that are diverse and varied, so does one choose what to show up for? Nour dives deep into the art of saying "no" as a strategy for alignment, credibility, and brand longevity. We share why selective choices build trust, how to decline without guilt, and a real example of Nour walking away from a nostalgic invite to protect the vision.

• saying no to create space for aligned work
• how declines shape brand edges and perception
• audience trust versus short-term cash and clout
• simple scripts to say no without burning bridges
• self-trust and the power of selective presence
• a personal example of turning down a past partner
• scarcity, credibility, and showing up with meaning

Make sure to follow @TheCurationPodcast on Instagram, @NourHassan, and @PilatesbyNour to stay tuned on all of the content that is available, as well as The Curation Podcast on all podcasting platforms and @the.curation on TikTok. 

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to The Curation, a show for the culturally curious. This is your host, Noor Hassan. Each week, I'll guide you through a curated edit of the finest in art, fashion, design, culture, luxury, wellness, tech, and more. This is your go-to space for discovering trailblazing ideas, untold stories, and meaningful conversations with innovators and creators who are shaping our world. There's no gatekeeping here, so sit back, tune in, and let's discover only the best together. Welcome back to the Curation Podcast. So, this episode today is something that I've been thinking about for quite some time now. And I thought I would share it with you guys because it is a really, really important one, Linneus Eliza, to build their career. And not just that, it's also important in life with friends, with family in general. Fahseit. And no, it's a perfect time for this episode. This episode's title is The Art of Saying No. And the idea of this episode is, and no, there's a couple of points that I want to share with you guys that I learned recently about the importance of saying no and how this actually propels your career forward. If you don't know what opportunities to accept, ill haget ille monken you can pass on them, then that's really going to mess up your career. It's really gonna affect your career. But basically, I'm gonna have my laptop here and I'm gonna read through a few little points that I created for you guys. So the first thing is that saying no actually creates space for alignment. I think it's a little exercises, but business building, business management, will kalem da kolo of kar kitir kibira regarding how to uh create a five-year plan for your business, how to build a strategy for your brand, how to do all of those things. Let's say an opportunity comes up, and it's gonna get you a lot of money. Okay, you're gonna make a lot of cash from this opportunity, but it is gonna mess up your brand's image. So what? What's a bit of quick cash and it'll help reinvest for business with repercussions? That does not make sense with you or your brand. Your audience gets very confused. They're like, Noor, I trust you, I listen to you, I watch you for a reason. You're collaborating with a brand that is not of the caliber that I thought this curatorial platform is. But you lose so much by saying yes to things, even if it's for clout or networking or cash or whatever, you lose community, guys. Where community is the core, it's the foundation of your brand. So that's my first point, Jenny. Saying it actually kind of opens up space for the things that are aligned to find you. Where I know it sounds a bit woo-woo, but Sana, I really believe in this, guys. Like if you understand what you want, and if you really, really have an idea of what the vision for your brand is, certain people, certain things, certain opportunities will find you. Best if you say yes to the things that have nothing to do with your vision, it will deflect those opportunities that you want to come near you, away from you. That the art of saying no is something that I learned at 31 years old, guys. It took me good ashar Sineen Shock, and I'm not gonna be able to do it. If it's a why not, it's a no. And that's a really important point. So my second point is your brand, it's built on the opportunities that you accept, but also on opportunities that you decline. A brand is built exclusively on the opportunities that you accept. Whenever an opportunity comes to you, say yes, be a yes woman, a yes man, whatever. It took a very long time to learn, and you decline also define you. Yani, it's not just in a saying no brings alignment. The things that you decline define your brand. No, noor does not work with XYZ brands, she does not associate with XYZ people, she does not attend XYZ types of events. They stop reaching out to you, and the opportunities you actually want start coming to you. International opportunities, more money, more respect, more credibility. There is a level of credibility and scarcity in the fact that you cater to something specific. You're not always everywhere, all at once, saying yes to everything. There's nothing worse than being the person where I know if I invite her, she'll show up. That's not the person you want to be in our industry, girls. My third point is how to say no without being guilty or burning bridges. Um, anapsaroha, I'm a Libra. I've spoken about this before. I'm a manifesting generator. If you don't know your human design, please check it out. It's an incredible um sort of thing to dive into, and I'm very big on astrology. But what I do want to say here is that at first I did use to burn bridges because I felt like, hello, Siani, what does it matter? But I learned after a while that there's a time and place for burning bridges. I am not the type of person that doesn't believe in that. I don't think that your opportunity is connected to humans, it's connected to God. That's how I think. So burning a bridge with a person for me is not something that I hold to too much of a high like fear point or whatever that people think of. But you should never feel guilty for saying no, and there's always a nice way to do it. It does not mean you're burning a bridge. You can say thank you, you can explain a little bit, although there is no need for an explanation. Be very, very clear and don't be afraid of burning bridges. Don't be afraid of feeling guilty. You can say no in a very clear way and you can move on from it very fast. And trust me, the next opportunity will be there right around the corner. And that is kind of the whole point, isn't it? I think my favorite point that I thought of is that saying no to things that do not align with you is a form of self-trust. It's a form of an of kind of like backing yourself, investing in yourself, believing in yourself, saying that, yeah, I don't do that because I know that I'm worth this. So I'm gonna wait for this, and I'm not gonna associate or engage with or even entertain the idea of being involved in anything that is less than this. And that, my friends, is how you build brands that actually have lasting power, that are not fads, that are not trends, and that are not based on floaty engagement. You know what I mean? I think the last thing that I want to say is that yeah, I know that it's difficult to say no to things. And the art of saying no, it affords you so much, guys. Alignment, opportunities that you can accept without feeling guilty or burning bridges, it's just kind of a form of betting on yourself. And I'll give you a simple example that happened recently. Like I was invited to an event, and it was for a brand that I had worked with so extensively years ago, when I at the beginning of my career, okay. And this brand, I love this brand, it's a it's an amazing brand. But I worked with this brand in my early 20s, and it was just such a nice relationship. I swear it was one of my best relationships. Um, you know, we'd do campaigns together, they paid very well, giftings, everything. And then we parted ways like a couple of years later, because I was an ambassador, and that was that. Now, kind of five, six years later in my early 30s, they're back again to represent in Egypt and they just did an event. And I was invited, and then I thought to myself, you know what? That is kind of a chapter in the past for me. Like it was such a beautiful phase, but this brand does not align with 31-year-old Noor and or the vision or the curation that I'm trying to put together. So essentially, um, I decided not to go to the event. And I would have never done that in the past, and it just felt so aligned. And I seriously think that this is the key to building slow and steady brand longevity that ultimately wins the race because it's become kind of a rat race at this point on social media, and if you want to stand out, you just can't be everywhere, and that is kind of the golden nugget of this episode, and it's actually one of the 48 laws of power by Robert Green is that you need to disappear for a little bit sometimes. Make people realize that you're not there, you're not always gonna be there, you don't say yes to everything. Your presence is special, it's valuable, it's important, it has weight so that when, for example, Noor Hassan shows up to an event, that's a big deal. Or who or who whatever, Yanni, whatever your name is. That's kind of the point because at this point, access is so available to everyone, nothing is really gate kept. Let's be real with ourselves. And I'll see you guys on my next episode. Thank you for listening. Make sure to follow at the curation podcast on Instagram, at Nour Hassan, and at Pilates by Nour to stay tuned on all of the content that is available, as well as the curation podcast on all podcasting platforms and the curation on TikTok.