132 – Arts and Carafes with Tanya Ruffin of Create Studios
With a BFA in Fine Arts and MA in Art History, Tanya ended up with a career in Higher Education in the IT department!
Desperate for some art in her life, about 6 years ago she opened teaching and event facility called Create Studios. She describes it as an Arts and Carafes space because people can bring a carafe of wine to class, if they so desire.
Her goal is to educate people in a way that, despite their background and experience, they can do what they set their mind to.
The classes she teaches (on whatever topic – computers or arts) are designed to educate without intimidation.
The Create Studios Story
What sparked the initial idea. [3:26]
Tanya’s first studio space. [5:28]
Balancing your creative sideline passion with a full time job. [8:11]
The value of being on the path of The Art Hop. [26:10]
Class scheduling. A description of Tanya’s creative day. [27:24]
Candle Flickering Moments
Why Tanya had to move studios and what she learned. [17:26]
The Thousand Year Flood and it’s affect on business. [20:46]
Business Building Insights
Next steps after signing a lease. [7:24]
The Groupon experience. [9:50], [29:15]
You are responsible for the mood you create in your classroom or event. [13:23]
A negative creative experience. [14:53]
The value of investing in yourself. [22:07]
How to turn things around through reframing your message. [24:50]
Emails role for getting repeat students. [28:23]
Tanya’s advice to those considering their own business. [34:33]
Valuable Resource
AFCI – Association for Craft Industry [32:02]
Productivity/Lifestyle Tool
Event Bright – Promote your event and sell tickets. [29:56]
Contact Links
If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcript
Gift biz on wrapped episode 132.
Speaker:There's this a law going on?
Speaker:I'm getting invested in me.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to the gift of biz unwrapped.
Speaker:And now it's time to light it up.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:It's Sue and thank you for joining me on the gift
Speaker:biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:If you're a gifter Baker,
Speaker:crafter or maker,
Speaker:and you own a brick and mortar shop sell a mine
Speaker:or are just getting started here is where you'll find insights
Speaker:and advice to develop and grow your business.
Speaker:And if you want even more gift biz motivation,
Speaker:I'd like to invite you to join our private Facebook group
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Speaker:Pursuing your dreams should be fun,
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Speaker:just the over to gift biz,
Speaker:breeze.com. I look forward to seeing you over there,
Speaker:but for now,
Speaker:let's get onto the show today.
Speaker:I have the pleasure of introducing you to Tanya rough-in with
Speaker:a BFA in fine arts and an M a in history.
Speaker:Tanya ended up with a career in higher education in the
Speaker:it department,
Speaker:desperate for some part,
Speaker:about six years ago,
Speaker:she opened a teaching and event facility called create studios.
Speaker:She describes it as an arts and crafts space because people
Speaker:can bring up craft of wine to class.
Speaker:If they so desire.
Speaker:Her goal is to educate people in a way that despite
Speaker:their background and experience,
Speaker:they can do what they set their mind to the classes
Speaker:she teaches and whatever topic be it.
Speaker:Computers for arts are designed to educate without intimidation.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:Tanya, this sounds like a place I want to be welcome
Speaker:to the show.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:I like to start off by having people learn about you
Speaker:in a little bit of a different way before we get
Speaker:into everything about create studios.
Speaker:And that is by having you describe yourself through a motivational
Speaker:candle. So if you were to share with us a color
Speaker:that resonates with you and a sane that would together create
Speaker:your unique motivational candle,
Speaker:what would your quote and your color be?
Speaker:Well, I think my color of my handle would be purple
Speaker:and that has nothing to do with where I work or
Speaker:where I went to college.
Speaker:I'm a very symmetrical person and I've always loved purple.
Speaker:And it just kind of dawned on me thinking about this
Speaker:candle. That purple is the perfect combination of warm and cool
Speaker:colors. You know,
Speaker:you've got your warm red and your cool blue and it
Speaker:makes purple.
Speaker:So maybe that's why I like it so much.
Speaker:And my quote would be if there's a will,
Speaker:there's a way.
Speaker:And I need that for myself to keep reminding myself if
Speaker:a will.
Speaker:There's a way It kind of goes back to your history
Speaker:too, about being more in the tech,
Speaker:Nicole I'll call it it department type thing,
Speaker:but still wanting to do something with your art.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:So let's go,
Speaker:Let's talk about how you got this idea.
Speaker:It's not too long ago,
Speaker:six years ago enough to be fully established,
Speaker:but take us back to that time.
Speaker:How did you decide that this was what you were going
Speaker:to do?
Speaker:Share with us a little bit of that stuff.
Speaker:I work at the university and at universities,
Speaker:they have courses you can take called leisure courses that they're
Speaker:not for credit.
Speaker:They're just for fun.
Speaker:They range the gamut on topics.
Speaker:And so I'd started teaching one or two of those a
Speaker:year just to kind of keep my feet in,
Speaker:in the art world.
Speaker:And I really enjoyed it and I wanted to start doing
Speaker:it more often and I didn't really want to work for
Speaker:someone else.
Speaker:I wanted to be able to do it when I had
Speaker:time to do it,
Speaker:not stick it on my calendar that I had to report
Speaker:to a job.
Speaker:I guess that's part of the wanting to be a free
Speaker:spirit kind of thing.
Speaker:So I'd always had it in the back of my mind
Speaker:that I wanted to do something like this in Louisiana,
Speaker:the paint and sip thing is huge.
Speaker:I don't know if it's as big as it is everywhere
Speaker:else as it is here,
Speaker:but it's huge.
Speaker:You can't spit without hitting one of these places,
Speaker:Paint and sip,
Speaker:just to make sure that everyone is understanding is the type
Speaker:of a location where you can come in and everyone does
Speaker:their own painting and you have wine and all of that.
Speaker:You'd like you kind of come together as one Party.
Speaker:Yes. And everybody paints the same thing.
Speaker:So there's one teacher instructing everyone step-by-step to paint this painting.
Speaker:And it's big here.
Speaker:As a matter of fact,
Speaker:the biggest franchise is located like 50 miles down the road
Speaker:from me.
Speaker:So this is kind of like this common thing here.
Speaker:And so I thought,
Speaker:well, what if I did something on that same,
Speaker:same vein,
Speaker:but people only have somewhat wall space,
Speaker:but they've got risks to put bracelets on.
Speaker:They've got fingers to put rings on.
Speaker:They've got cabinets to put wine glasses in.
Speaker:So what if I did something where they made crafts and
Speaker:could bring dinner and cocktails or whatever they wanted.
Speaker:And so that's how I started thinking about this.
Speaker:And then just,
Speaker:that's one of those things.
Speaker:I call myself a creative procrastinator because I keep pretending I'm
Speaker:really planning something out,
Speaker:but I'm really just procrastinating.
Speaker:And it's like,
Speaker:no, I need to organize my thoughts a little better.
Speaker:And then finally,
Speaker:when a friend of ours that had a rental managed home
Speaker:strip mall said,
Speaker:I have a space available.
Speaker:You want to look at it?
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:Oh gosh,
Speaker:it's getting real it's.
Speaker:So I went and looked at it and I ended up
Speaker:signing the lease right then.
Speaker:So it kind of like went from thinking about it for
Speaker:years, years to boom,
Speaker:all of a sudden happening.
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:I am so glad you talked about this because I think
Speaker:a lot of people who are listening right now have been
Speaker:in that same spot,
Speaker:they've been thinking and thinking,
Speaker:and they kind of know what it is and you needed
Speaker:that trigger of a space to be open.
Speaker:But once you saw it,
Speaker:you took action immediately Did.
Speaker:And it was a perfect location.
Speaker:It wasn't necessarily the best spot,
Speaker:but it was the perfect location.
Speaker:It was right at the foot of the university in my
Speaker:head. I'm like,
Speaker:I'm going to have a sign out there and everybody's going
Speaker:to see my sign,
Speaker:but I didn't have a storefront because I was technically an
Speaker:office space in the strip mall.
Speaker:So it wasn't a great space,
Speaker:but it was a great place to get started.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:It sounds like though,
Speaker:then just to bring up all the different elements that then
Speaker:you were paying retail rent for more of a commercial office
Speaker:type space.
Speaker:So you're probably paying more.
Speaker:I was actually paying less.
Speaker:I was actually paying office space because I didn't have a
Speaker:bar on the building.
Speaker:It was like a hallway that you went into the office
Speaker:space, one bathroom at the end of the hall,
Speaker:it was fairly inexpensive in a good spot.
Speaker:It had some issues with it,
Speaker:which I'll probably mention later,
Speaker:but it did have some issues,
Speaker:but it was a great place to start.
Speaker:And once I signed that lease,
Speaker:I had to get the other things in line,
Speaker:which weren't as hard to do as I thought it was
Speaker:going to be.
Speaker:Let's talk about that.
Speaker:I'm making myself a note over here.
Speaker:Cause I don't want us to forget to talk about the
Speaker:space. Cause it sounds like those are gonna be some good
Speaker:learnings, but let's stick with this idea in terms of how
Speaker:did you develop it?
Speaker:What types of things specifically did you have to do to
Speaker:get started now that you had a space?
Speaker:So you have your idea.
Speaker:You've got this base.
Speaker:How do you start?
Speaker:But you have to get an occupational license in my state.
Speaker:They're called different things in different places.
Speaker:But basically you had to go down and fill out some
Speaker:paperwork and pay a fee to have a quote unquote license,
Speaker:which I guess is just permission to run a business.
Speaker:And if you don't have a physical space,
Speaker:you don't need that.
Speaker:If you're doing something online,
Speaker:you don't necessarily need a occupational license.
Speaker:But so I had to get that,
Speaker:which was basically a tax I have to pay every year,
Speaker:fill that out.
Speaker:And that was pretty much it getting my tax ID number
Speaker:and I was ready to roll.
Speaker:And then you have to pay your taxes,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:every month,
Speaker:not quarterly every month.
Speaker:And I'm still not good with getting my ducks in a
Speaker:row to do that month playing.
Speaker:I always pay a late fee because I'm always late paying
Speaker:it. And it's never that much money.
Speaker:It's just,
Speaker:I'm one of those people.
Speaker:I still have a full-time job and this is my part-time
Speaker:business that I would like to make it full time.
Speaker:But it's not something that I'm going to leave my job
Speaker:for right now because I have retirement.
Speaker:So I'm just kind of being,
Speaker:part-time doing my business until I hit retirement age and then
Speaker:I could do it full time.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:A lot of people too,
Speaker:just like you,
Speaker:you're staying for a specific financial reason because of retirement.
Speaker:Some people might stay because they need to,
Speaker:they need that income.
Speaker:They just can't stop while they're growing another business.
Speaker:And all of that is fine.
Speaker:The nice thing about being an entrepreneur and starting a business
Speaker:for yourself is you get to make the rules.
Speaker:Yeah. And a lot of artists that I talked to they're
Speaker:in their full-time job for the insurance.
Speaker:And so it's one of those things.
Speaker:You just decide what you want to do.
Speaker:I know I could be so much farther along if I
Speaker:worked every day at the studio,
Speaker:but I don't right now.
Speaker:And I like to know that my bills are being paid
Speaker:at the end of the month.
Speaker:I don't have to worry about anything like that.
Speaker:So it is nice having my creative space that I can
Speaker:escape to.
Speaker:And it's not necessarily my full-time job.
Speaker:You still kind of get the warm and fuzzies when you
Speaker:walk in,
Speaker:because it's not a job so much,
Speaker:even though it is,
Speaker:it's like a big playground for you in a way.
Speaker:Exactly. You got all the structure down now,
Speaker:how do you start building out your classes?
Speaker:Let's go to that place.
Speaker:One thing I did,
Speaker:which I know a lot of people don't like doing this,
Speaker:but it really worked for me is the first thing I
Speaker:did. And I knew I was going to do this before
Speaker:I ever started my business because I kind of researched it.
Speaker:And I knew I wanted to run a Groupon ad and
Speaker:I know that's Oh,
Speaker:Oh the har.
Speaker:But what I did is I picked the cheapest possible class
Speaker:I could do that.
Speaker:Didn't cost me hardly any money.
Speaker:And I picked that topic and I ran a Groupon ad
Speaker:for it now with Groupons half the given price.
Speaker:So say you charge $35.
Speaker:They're going to offer it at 17.
Speaker:And then you're going to make half of that.
Speaker:So you're going to make eight 50 or $9 off of
Speaker:it. So people think,
Speaker:Oh, $9 a person.
Speaker:I couldn't do anything like that.
Speaker:Well, you're making $9 a person off the people that use
Speaker:the Groupon.
Speaker:How many group homes have you bought and never ended up
Speaker:using? Oh,
Speaker:that's a good point.
Speaker:So a portion of them actually you get revenue for no
Speaker:reason. Yes.
Speaker:And you get paid when they buy it.
Speaker:Right. Okay.
Speaker:So, and then were you using that to get visibility into
Speaker:create studios?
Speaker:That was a way to attract your first people?
Speaker:That was my first day.
Speaker:As soon as I signed that lease,
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:I'm doing this grunt in this group on it.
Speaker:And I'm thinking of it in the terms of it's advertising
Speaker:number one.
Speaker:And I had a website as well.
Speaker:So a lot of people will click on the link in
Speaker:the Groupon to learn more about this business and they'll go
Speaker:to your website.
Speaker:So I was getting people that were calling me for private
Speaker:events and birthday parties from Groupon that didn't even buy the
Speaker:group home.
Speaker:They just saw me on Groupon.
Speaker:So I was using that as my launching into the city
Speaker:because everybody in your town signs up and gets the Groupon
Speaker:emails. So that was a really good way to reach out
Speaker:to the community and not have to buy an ad in
Speaker:the paper or in a local magazine or something.
Speaker:And it worked really well for me.
Speaker:Let me ask you this.
Speaker:Before we get off of Groupon,
Speaker:are you still using them today?
Speaker:I do still use them.
Speaker:It doesn't work as good for me now because I'm doing
Speaker:the same exact class six years later and it's kind of
Speaker:tricky to work with them so it can get tricky because
Speaker:they do some things that I don't really like,
Speaker:like they'll automatically roll your offer over.
Speaker:So you have to be really attention to it.
Speaker:Like right now they're running mine,
Speaker:Groupon ad and they're running two separate Groupon ads because one
Speaker:was supposed to cancel and the other one was supposed to
Speaker:be live and they're running both of them with two different
Speaker:graphics. So it's kind of confusing.
Speaker:Yeah. So you have to be on top of it.
Speaker:If you do Groupon,
Speaker:That's a good point,
Speaker:but it helped you a lot in terms of getting exposure,
Speaker:getting people to know you.
Speaker:And most importantly,
Speaker:starting to fill those classes because now even if the space
Speaker:is a good deal,
Speaker:you still have now overhead.
Speaker:Yes, you have overhead.
Speaker:And it actually works so well that I got really lazy
Speaker:at it because it was kind of automatically people bought the
Speaker:group pod.
Speaker:They automatically went and registered for the class.
Speaker:Everything was like auto deposited.
Speaker:My payment was on a paying.
Speaker:So I had the luxury of getting pretty lazy at it,
Speaker:which ended up not being a luxury,
Speaker:but it did work really well.
Speaker:And especially if you're doing something that is of interest to
Speaker:the average person,
Speaker:it's not like,
Speaker:Oh, come and pay your grandma.
Speaker:It was more something very generic that everybody would probably be
Speaker:interested in.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So I talk a lot these days about,
Speaker:especially if you have a brick and mortar shop events in
Speaker:your store are so important.
Speaker:So that kind of equates to events that you're hosting.
Speaker:It's a little different cause you're teaching different types of classes,
Speaker:but what do you see?
Speaker:How do you make sure that once people actually arrive that
Speaker:the experience is really good.
Speaker:So they're going to want to come back again.
Speaker:I feel like when I'm teaching my classes,
Speaker:I almost have like a different personality comes in and I
Speaker:feel more of an entertainer at the time that you're on
Speaker:stage. Right.
Speaker:It sounds kind of silly,
Speaker:but it's kind of like my most bubbling personality comes out
Speaker:and buy places,
Speaker:painted very bright colors and it's very happy place people walk
Speaker:in and they're like,
Speaker:wow, I just love this place.
Speaker:It's so bright and cheerful.
Speaker:So that automatically kind of puts people relaxed and they're ready
Speaker:to have fun.
Speaker:I do say that people can bring wine and cocktails.
Speaker:The majority of people don't I brought might have one person
Speaker:in the class that bronze one.
Speaker:Oh, if I was there,
Speaker:I would be,
Speaker:I would be for sure.
Speaker:So at the beginning of the classes,
Speaker:I'm just introduced myself and I have like a couple of
Speaker:little patent jokes that go with each class that I'm teaching
Speaker:and get everybody kind of giggle and fill out people,
Speaker:see what kind of sense of humor they have or everything.
Speaker:And so the way my thing works is the majority of
Speaker:my classes,
Speaker:like the first 30 minutes or so is the education.
Speaker:And then it's pretty much work at your own pace and
Speaker:I'll let everybody personalize their projects.
Speaker:Every one of my classes,
Speaker:they can personalize it.
Speaker:So it's not like everybody's doing the same thing as everybody
Speaker:else. And so I think that when people kind of get
Speaker:into the zone of they're making it they're,
Speaker:so they're going to end up making it as a gift.
Speaker:People really enjoy that.
Speaker:I don't hover over everybody else.
Speaker:I pull my chair aside.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:I'm gonna sit here.
Speaker:If you need something,
Speaker:just holler I'll come help you because nothing's worse being in
Speaker:a class.
Speaker:Cause I hadn't happened to me at a paint and sip
Speaker:where the lady came by and took the paintbrush out of
Speaker:my hand and started painting on my painting.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:I will never do that to anybody ever.
Speaker:So I just let people go if it doesn't look that
Speaker:great and they're okay with it.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:I'll let them ask me for help.
Speaker:I make sure I'm there.
Speaker:They look like they're having trouble blog,
Speaker:go approach them,
Speaker:but I'm not going to say,
Speaker:Hey, do you want me to touch that?
Speaker:And so everybody seems to have a really fun time.
Speaker:I have music going.
Speaker:I have a big screen TV on the wall and I
Speaker:have a slide show going over other projects from other classes
Speaker:and I have music playing.
Speaker:So it's,
Speaker:it's more of like a little party atmosphere,
Speaker:not real loud,
Speaker:but to make it a little cheerful.
Speaker:Yeah. No,
Speaker:that sounds good.
Speaker:Because then also people see what other classes there are available
Speaker:too. It's different projects.
Speaker:Exactly. But that's kind of a subtle sell that you didn't
Speaker:even play.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:And I have a lot of little freebie things.
Speaker:I have little buttons that we had made and the little
Speaker:plastic bracelets let's say create on them for people to pick
Speaker:up. Oh,
Speaker:that's awesome.
Speaker:No, I love what you're talking about here and get biz
Speaker:listeners think of this.
Speaker:If you are somebody who has a brick and mortar shop
Speaker:for events.
Speaker:Exactly what Tanya's talking about here is in terms of the
Speaker:environment that it should be colorful,
Speaker:cheerful, welcoming.
Speaker:She puts music on.
Speaker:Then in her case,
Speaker:she gives direction and then lets them just be in their
Speaker:creative zone.
Speaker:So for you guys,
Speaker:it might be welcome people when they come in,
Speaker:but let them just look around.
Speaker:They want to think about,
Speaker:well, does this top something like,
Speaker:what pants would I have to go with it?
Speaker:Or what would I wear with these earrings?
Speaker:Let them get in their own creative zone.
Speaker:You have you ever been in a retail shop where people
Speaker:hover over you and it's like,
Speaker:leave me alone.
Speaker:Right? Like being at a used car lot seriously.
Speaker:And the third thing you talked about is you do freebies
Speaker:or some prizes,
Speaker:but what kind of a gift or what,
Speaker:something that is unexpected that they might see in the shop.
Speaker:Maybe it's a piece of candy at the counter checkout or
Speaker:something. If you're in a situation where you're able to do
Speaker:that, maybe you have a promotion going on,
Speaker:anything like that.
Speaker:So the three things are environment,
Speaker:some type of instruction or welcome,
Speaker:and then let them get into a zone.
Speaker:And then any type of a little surprise,
Speaker:whether it's a freebie or something special that they're getting,
Speaker:these are things that draw people in.
Speaker:And the whole thing that brick and mortar has to be
Speaker:these days.
Speaker:So they don't just purchase on Amazon.
Speaker:Let's face it.
Speaker:Let's go on and talk about something that was challenging as
Speaker:you were putting this business together.
Speaker:Well, I ended up wanting to move spaces.
Speaker:I love my location,
Speaker:but I didn't really love the space.
Speaker:It was actually on the second floor.
Speaker:So people that came to my class would have to go
Speaker:up the stairs.
Speaker:There was an elevator,
Speaker:but it was a lot farther of a walk to the
Speaker:elevator that it's like,
Speaker:if you're in a wheelchair,
Speaker:use the elevator.
Speaker:If you just lazy,
Speaker:you got to come upstairs.
Speaker:Cause you'll walk much farther kind of thing.
Speaker:And I ended up not using the space unless I had
Speaker:a class going on.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I didn't use it as my basis,
Speaker:which is what I wanted all along was this debate.
Speaker:So I saw a space near my house and I live
Speaker:in the arts district.
Speaker:So there's this stretch in the arts district that they have
Speaker:a festival with shuttles down the street,
Speaker:this art hop that goes on twice a year.
Speaker:And actually there's four of them,
Speaker:but the big ones are twice a year.
Speaker:So I'd always wanted to move into this area and be
Speaker:able to showcase more of my own art as well as
Speaker:teach. So I saw this space that came up available and
Speaker:I went and looked at it and then shortly thereafter my
Speaker:mom had a stroke and then the next month died.
Speaker:I'm sorry to hear that.
Speaker:Thanks. So that was just kind of like,
Speaker:so for two months I just didn't do anything at the
Speaker:studio. And then the next month a girlfriend and I,
Speaker:for our 50th birthday,
Speaker:we gave ourselves a trip to Italy.
Speaker:So then the next month it's like,
Speaker:I have to go,
Speaker:I'm going to Italy.
Speaker:And so it was just a weird time.
Speaker:So for like three months,
Speaker:I wasn't doing squat with the studio.
Speaker:Really. It was just kind of on autopilot.
Speaker:It was paying its own bills,
Speaker:automatically debit or whatever you call it,
Speaker:auto draft or whatever.
Speaker:But you were paying out with nothing coming in for those
Speaker:three months.
Speaker:Exactly. And I want to say that I only invested $3,000
Speaker:in starting my business for the Groupon to make it autopilot
Speaker:was pretty good.
Speaker:I was still my head above water doing good,
Speaker:but my head wasn't in it anymore.
Speaker:And so we got back from Italy after being inspired by
Speaker:being in Sienna and Florence and everything.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:okay, I've got to get back to my roots and to
Speaker:art and everything.
Speaker:And so I was like,
Speaker:if that space is available,
Speaker:I'm going to get it.
Speaker:Well, it wasn't.
Speaker:So I was like,
Speaker:okay, well I guess that's an omen.
Speaker:I'm not supposed to take it.
Speaker:And this was the Space in that art district you were
Speaker:talking about.
Speaker:Yes, this is a space in the arts district.
Speaker:And so it wasn't available.
Speaker:And so I was like,
Speaker:okay, well,
Speaker:what am I going to do?
Speaker:It's kind of the pooper kid off the pot kind of
Speaker:stage right now.
Speaker:And even though I was doing okay over there,
Speaker:there were other things I wanted to do that being on
Speaker:the second floor.
Speaker:It wasn't that easy to haul stuff up.
Speaker:And so I was kind of like getting turned off from
Speaker:that space and I'd been there for years.
Speaker:So anyway then just all of a sudden the sign goes
Speaker:back up in the yard at this place.
Speaker:So I called him up and I was like,
Speaker:I want it.
Speaker:And I'd already looked at it.
Speaker:And so I signed on and that's where I am now.
Speaker:And it's a house.
Speaker:So it's this little Oddish.
Speaker:So there's so much more space.
Speaker:The teaching space isn't as big as the other place because
Speaker:the other one was just a box,
Speaker:but I have closets,
Speaker:I have a bathroom,
Speaker:I have a kitchen.
Speaker:So there's so much more to be a party space and
Speaker:event space.
Speaker:So I really loved moving into the space.
Speaker:And then it also cost more a month than I really
Speaker:realized because being in a standalone building,
Speaker:I wasn't thinking about the lawn.
Speaker:I wasn't thinking about having to pay water and sewage and
Speaker:garbage pickup.
Speaker:So it ended up being a lot more expensive.
Speaker:And then we had what has been called the flood of
Speaker:the century.
Speaker:Actually now it's called the thousand year flood out of the
Speaker:blue. It flooded here and we have never flooded down here
Speaker:in these places.
Speaker:Like my mom's house flooded that we were still like going
Speaker:through at my house.
Speaker:Didn't I,
Speaker:my area didn't.
Speaker:But I mean,
Speaker:everybody out of 10 people,
Speaker:four or five of them flooded,
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:And when in time was this,
Speaker:This was a year and a half ago.
Speaker:Okay. Well not quite a year and a half ago last
Speaker:August. And it flooded and it was thousands of homes flooded.
Speaker:Like my mom's house got just four inches in it.
Speaker:The back of the neighborhood,
Speaker:which has the streets would flood,
Speaker:but that's about it to the roof.
Speaker:The houses flooded.
Speaker:Oh my word.
Speaker:It was crazy.
Speaker:So well I didn't flood.
Speaker:My customers flooded people.
Speaker:Didn't have money to go take an art class when they
Speaker:have to figure out how they going to put flooring down
Speaker:and FEMA was great,
Speaker:but the average person got like $1,700.
Speaker:Oh, that's not really paying for your floor.
Speaker:So there's people that still aren't finished.
Speaker:We're still not even finished at my mom's house.
Speaker:We only had four inches because we got a bunch of
Speaker:bad contractors coming to town.
Speaker:So I wasn't having hardly any customers.
Speaker:And now my rent is higher.
Speaker:So I was like,
Speaker:what did I do to myself?
Speaker:I should've just stayed where I was,
Speaker:but I decided that while there's this lull going on,
Speaker:I'm going to invest in me.
Speaker:So I signed up to do a mentoring group,
Speaker:Sue B's group,
Speaker:the high,
Speaker:if sign up to do that,
Speaker:I took B school and I just started educating myself so
Speaker:that when people were starting to be coming out again,
Speaker:I was going to be ready to promote and reach out
Speaker:and figure out new ways to reach my clientele.
Speaker:Okay. So Tanya,
Speaker:just for clarification,
Speaker:you decided to invest in yourself with these extra courses and
Speaker:groups, et cetera,
Speaker:to perfect and learn more to upgrade your level of marketing.
Speaker:Yes. I've just figured as long as there's a lull in
Speaker:business. So I've got a little bit more free time.
Speaker:Now I'm going to take all these classes and do all
Speaker:these things that I've had written down that I wanted to
Speaker:do, but I'd always find some excuse to not do them.
Speaker:Okay. Okay.
Speaker:So here comes a huge question.
Speaker:You ready?
Speaker:Yes. Are you sure?
Speaker:You're ready?
Speaker:Hold on.
Speaker:Let me like my purple candle.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Okay. So you have a space that is,
Speaker:I'm just going to say draining money right now.
Speaker:And then the courses that you took,
Speaker:those are not cheap courses.
Speaker:And I think this is fabulous that you did it.
Speaker:And I want to ask you the question,
Speaker:because I think a lot of our listeners might struggle with
Speaker:this is you're draining money,
Speaker:but you're still going to throw some money out to invest
Speaker:in yourself.
Speaker:Talk through the mental logic of that.
Speaker:The mental logic of that was that it was still going
Speaker:to get worse.
Speaker:If I didn't take the classes or anything,
Speaker:I'm still not making money at the studio Because you couldn't
Speaker:affect the fact that there was the flood and that people
Speaker:had to restabilize.
Speaker:Right? I couldn't go to everybody's house and then think they're
Speaker:going to buy something from me.
Speaker:So the floods still happened.
Speaker:People are still struggling from that.
Speaker:I can't change that.
Speaker:And I'm still not making money from the people not taking
Speaker:classes. But if I invest a little bit more,
Speaker:more money in myself,
Speaker:I could figure out maybe something else I can do with
Speaker:my studio.
Speaker:I may find another way to reach the people.
Speaker:I may find a whole nother group of people to reach
Speaker:while these people that are by local people are still rebuilding.
Speaker:So that was my logic behind it.
Speaker:It may have been flawed.
Speaker:I talked to my husband about it and I'm like,
Speaker:in the next couple of months,
Speaker:it's not going to get any better at the studio,
Speaker:but I may learn something that I can do in the
Speaker:meantime, or offer a different service or something.
Speaker:Right. And so how did it all pan out?
Speaker:So What ended up happening is people started needing a break
Speaker:from their house.
Speaker:People wanted to do something and not think about that.
Speaker:They lost everything.
Speaker:So I started slowly getting people that were coming to the
Speaker:studio and I started putting Facebook ads and things like that
Speaker:that were more like escape for a night.
Speaker:Yeah. So you actually took a really difficult situation,
Speaker:analyzed what people could use and then used it to your
Speaker:advantage for your business.
Speaker:Yes. I put up a big sign in the front and
Speaker:said stress free zone.
Speaker:I ended up making a quick little video of myself talking
Speaker:about, I didn't lose everything.
Speaker:I lost a lot of stuff at my mom's house.
Speaker:And how coming to the studio has helped me get my
Speaker:mind off of it because you get focused on your art.
Speaker:You're not thinking of anything else you're in the zone when
Speaker:you're in the zone,
Speaker:you're not in your flooded house kind of thing.
Speaker:Right. And it seemed to slowly start.
Speaker:The tide started turning a little bit and I implemented some
Speaker:of the other things I'll learn in the classes.
Speaker:Things started slowly turned into where it's been really good.
Speaker:Now I've been through three of the big art hops.
Speaker:Now my husband plays music.
Speaker:So his band plays in the front.
Speaker:We're actually a block off of the main strip.
Speaker:And it's like a two mile road.
Speaker:They have shuttles going on up and down.
Speaker:So we had a band and play in the front with
Speaker:lights all outside and have artists intense down the driveway with
Speaker:lights all in there,
Speaker:bringing people in networking with the merchant group in my area.
Speaker:And so it's really turned.
Speaker:And so it was kind of crazy.
Speaker:I ended up going there when I was going through a
Speaker:bad time,
Speaker:I changed houses kind of spaces to become like,
Speaker:I need a fresh start and then boom,
Speaker:something else happens.
Speaker:So it was crazy.
Speaker:Yeah. But you didn't throw in the towel,
Speaker:you found some way to adapt.
Speaker:It sounds like you portioned these into two things.
Speaker:Number one,
Speaker:you weren't going to be able to do anything about the
Speaker:flood. So how can you ride out that low sales time
Speaker:if you will,
Speaker:but then secondly,
Speaker:how can you make that time then productive and keep yourself
Speaker:still energized and excited about the business and learning more so
Speaker:you can take it to a new level.
Speaker:So I think you handled that beautifully and then you found
Speaker:a way to make the whole thing turned around for you.
Speaker:So that is really cool.
Speaker:That's a great story.
Speaker:And so now things are going well,
Speaker:you've got people coming in,
Speaker:you're running classes.
Speaker:Are you pretty much maxed out because it's still only a
Speaker:portion of your time since you're still working.
Speaker:Are you pretty much maxed out in terms of the offerings
Speaker:Starting in September through Christmas,
Speaker:amp up my classes right now,
Speaker:I have stuff scheduled every weekend and I actually started adding
Speaker:some Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Speaker:So I'm pretty maxed out on times offer,
Speaker:not every class do I get my minimum requirement for,
Speaker:but most of my weekend classes I do.
Speaker:And so that's really great.
Speaker:Right? And I actually go to my space since it's walking
Speaker:distance from my house,
Speaker:somewhere in Louisiana,
Speaker:you don't walk anywhere,
Speaker:but it's walking distance from my house.
Speaker:And so I go up there a lot just to make
Speaker:art and work on stuff,
Speaker:which is something I never would have done in this other
Speaker:space. And that's something that you were saying you were seeking
Speaker:when you were looking for a place somewhere where you could
Speaker:go and it could just be private space.
Speaker:Yes. So talking about your customers,
Speaker:the people who come and participate in the classes,
Speaker:is there something that you do to communicate with them,
Speaker:to try and bring them back in so that they don't
Speaker:forget about the wonderful experience they had and they resigned for
Speaker:a different class?
Speaker:Yes. I do email notifications out to people.
Speaker:I don't do it as regular as I should.
Speaker:I usually end up doing it.
Speaker:Like there's a great big class on one weekend and I
Speaker:do it the weekend before,
Speaker:but I'm trying to get more organized.
Speaker:It's very hard for artists to be organized,
Speaker:have all the best intention.
Speaker:I'll get a planner and I'll put stuff up.
Speaker:And then I never opened the planner.
Speaker:It's a daily struggle with me,
Speaker:but yes,
Speaker:I do send emails out.
Speaker:I have an email capture on my website for those people
Speaker:that go to Groupon the ad,
Speaker:decide if they want to buy it.
Speaker:So people will see the Groupon.
Speaker:And then I have an opt-in on my page that gives
Speaker:them a coupon.
Speaker:So sometimes they'll grab that opt in and never buy the
Speaker:Groupon, which is fine with me because I'd rather them take
Speaker:20% off of my code than buying a group on.
Speaker:Anyway, because with Groupon,
Speaker:you don't get those email addresses until you have some way
Speaker:of capturing them.
Speaker:Yeah. Groupon,
Speaker:doesn't send you the,
Speaker:all the email addresses.
Speaker:Oh, interesting point.
Speaker:So someone who is considering group on then should before they
Speaker:even start,
Speaker:because you're missing out on a great opportunity,
Speaker:have some way of attracting those emails.
Speaker:Yes. The registration software,
Speaker:I use captures that email.
Speaker:So once they register for a class,
Speaker:I've got their email address,
Speaker:but they register five people.
Speaker:You get one email address.
Speaker:Right. And then you could try and get their emails when
Speaker:they actually come to the class.
Speaker:Right? Yeah.
Speaker:Would you be willing to share with us what your registration
Speaker:software is since you like it so much?
Speaker:Sure. I use Eventbrite and there's a couple of reasons why
Speaker:I use Eventbrite.
Speaker:I've been told there's better ones out there.
Speaker:Quote, unquote,
Speaker:better ones out there.
Speaker:There's some that do different things than Eventbrite does.
Speaker:But I'm going to tell you if there is a creative
Speaker:that is having classes of any kind,
Speaker:this is why I think Eventbrite's the way to go.
Speaker:I am not a paid spokesman,
Speaker:but they probably should.
Speaker:This is why I think they should,
Speaker:because there are so many groups and organizations that pool events
Speaker:going on in your town,
Speaker:pull that list and post it on their websites.
Speaker:That if I was using something else,
Speaker:I'm not going to get that.
Speaker:There may be another product out there that's cheaper.
Speaker:That has a better calendar because the event bright calendar is
Speaker:not that great,
Speaker:but it's okay.
Speaker:As a creative,
Speaker:you want a big space where you can put a big
Speaker:picture on every date and you have to like click the
Speaker:date and it pops open the big picture.
Speaker:There's some out there that are much better suited for this,
Speaker:but I've had people that come to my class and I'll
Speaker:say, how did you find out about the class?
Speaker:Oh, my neighborhood has a little group calendar that they send
Speaker:out once a month.
Speaker:And it was listed on that.
Speaker:I don't even know what their neighborhood is.
Speaker:And so I was looking for events.
Speaker:And so I just went to event Brighton,
Speaker:Titan art events and it popped up.
Speaker:Oh, fabulous.
Speaker:Yeah. That to me outweighs the,
Speaker:cause you do have to pay a dollar,
Speaker:a ticket that's sold with event rights and you have to
Speaker:pay a percentage of the price as a fee.
Speaker:And then you have to pay the credit card processing fee,
Speaker:which you would have to pay on any of them.
Speaker:There's other ones that don't charge a dollar a ticket,
Speaker:but I feel like,
Speaker:look, it was worth it to me because I add that
Speaker:in as like an advertising cost.
Speaker:Right? No,
Speaker:it sounds like the perfect solution.
Speaker:So I will definitely link up Eventbrite in the show notes
Speaker:for everybody here.
Speaker:So Tanya,
Speaker:okay. We've talked already about that.
Speaker:You've taken a couple of pretty high level courses that have,
Speaker:have an element of one-on-one and some very deep learning.
Speaker:Is there something other than that on a regular basis that
Speaker:you do to stay informed in the creative industry on the
Speaker:creative side?
Speaker:Well, I am a member of the,
Speaker:it used to be called the craft and hobby association.
Speaker:They've recently changed themes to the association for creative industries.
Speaker:And if anybody is a creative,
Speaker:they should be a member of this.
Speaker:It's not very expensive.
Speaker:They have a conference once a year.
Speaker:I go to this conference and it's like,
Speaker:go into Disneyland for me.
Speaker:Well, so am I going to be seeing you in Phoenix?
Speaker:In January?
Speaker:Yes, you will.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Then I will let you know what my booth number is.
Speaker:Tones. I get it.
Speaker:I've already registered.
Speaker:I've stopped by your booth before,
Speaker:but I just didn't.
Speaker:Yeah. Well now we do.
Speaker:Yay. So Yeah,
Speaker:that to me has changed everything.
Speaker:And I'd already heard of it from watching back when HDTV
Speaker:had craft shows.
Speaker:I remember seeing on the Carol Deval show,
Speaker:the review of cha,
Speaker:it was like one day I will be a member of
Speaker:that. And so finally I signed up for it.
Speaker:It's not that hard to qualify,
Speaker:to be a member.
Speaker:So it's even easier now because they have a blogger category.
Speaker:And so before I even opened my first one,
Speaker:I went to,
Speaker:I had signed the lease,
Speaker:but I hadn't opened yet.
Speaker:So I went completely not knowing anybody,
Speaker:anything to have in like a core group of girls.
Speaker:We have a private group of when we just share information
Speaker:back and forth,
Speaker:it was a game changer for me considering I hadn't started
Speaker:playing the game yet,
Speaker:but I highly recommend it because they have stuff going on
Speaker:all year long,
Speaker:online things.
Speaker:So you don't have to physically go,
Speaker:they have a group online people you can ask questions to
Speaker:and contacts like I'm having a workshop and I need some
Speaker:edge cream.
Speaker:Who's a good contact,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:It's a great resource for me.
Speaker:Well, and it sounds like probably for every single one of
Speaker:our listeners,
Speaker:they're fitting in the category that I described earlier,
Speaker:except for bakers,
Speaker:maybe. But every single one,
Speaker:They have all the Baker stuff too.
Speaker:Now they have the cricket that can cut fondant.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So thinking of somebody who might be listening,
Speaker:Tanya, who is like,
Speaker:all right,
Speaker:this sounds really good.
Speaker:I should really get started on this idea that I have.
Speaker:What would you say to them so that they don't walk
Speaker:away from this podcast and then in about 15 or 20
Speaker:minutes, say no,
Speaker:no, no.
Speaker:That's not a good idea for me.
Speaker:What would you suggest to someone who really has that passion
Speaker:really wants to get started,
Speaker:but just keeps going back and forth about it.
Speaker:Creative procrastinator like myself?
Speaker:Well, what I would say is if it involves anything where
Speaker:you would be teaching anything like having a class or even
Speaker:just, you want to test the waters,
Speaker:I would definitely look and see if you have a school
Speaker:nearby, a university,
Speaker:a community college that does these type of leisure classes and
Speaker:see if that's something that you could hook up with and
Speaker:teach a class or two.
Speaker:I would also,
Speaker:I would look and see if you have an arts council
Speaker:of any sort in your area.
Speaker:If you haven't even started selling your products,
Speaker:you could try people put stuff on Etsy,
Speaker:but I actually believe people should be using their own San
Speaker:Juan website like Shopify or something like that.
Speaker:And from my it perspective,
Speaker:that's what I'm thinking.
Speaker:But just do it because you're going to always come up
Speaker:with excuses are maybe not excuses,
Speaker:but things that you really should take care of beforehand.
Speaker:But you know what,
Speaker:when you find you a spot,
Speaker:when you do that first sign on the line,
Speaker:that just speeds everything up.
Speaker:And then you're just going to be shocked at how easy
Speaker:all the pieces fell together.
Speaker:So really what you're just saying is just take that next
Speaker:step and do it,
Speaker:just do it,
Speaker:dust do it.
Speaker:Absolutely. All right.
Speaker:So Tanya,
Speaker:I'd like to now present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:So this is a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your
Speaker:future. This could be your dream or your goal of almost
Speaker:unreachable Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in front of me
Speaker:and all of the listeners here.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:This is a hard question.
Speaker:And it seems like it would be so easy to admit.
Speaker:I have my foot into so many things.
Speaker:It's like so hard,
Speaker:but I guess in the most general terms,
Speaker:it would be financial security so that I could do the
Speaker:things I want to do.
Speaker:The art projects,
Speaker:the teaching,
Speaker:not having to worry about money coming in.
Speaker:You just get to go and follow your heart instead of
Speaker:having to follow your wallet.
Speaker:And if it happens to take place on a beach somewhere,
Speaker:that would be even better Because you're going to want to
Speaker:use the shells that you pick up and your art or
Speaker:something. Yeah,
Speaker:Yeah. Or the sand.
Speaker:And then you got to rinse off your brushes.
Speaker:Well, there you go.
Speaker:In the saltwater,
Speaker:which could add to the artistic flair.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:And if it's on a beach in Italy Haven Better,
Speaker:there you go.
Speaker:Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker:I would say I'd have unlimited wealth and I could just
Speaker:be a docent at the feed.
Speaker:I'd enjoy that for the rest of my life too.
Speaker:Yup. That sounds good too.
Speaker:By like asking this question,
Speaker:because in a way it's like first what you just said,
Speaker:making people think,
Speaker:what is it?
Speaker:What do I want to do?
Speaker:Because if you don't think of that,
Speaker:how are you ever going to get there?
Speaker:You just just happen upon it and then say,
Speaker:Oh, this is good.
Speaker:Got to think of where you want to go first.
Speaker:But also it's putting it out in the environment because I'm
Speaker:one of those law of attraction type people.
Speaker:So in a way,
Speaker:this is like a subtle gift I'm giving back to you.
Speaker:So if someday you are sitting in Italy on a beach
Speaker:and that's where you live.
Speaker:I want you to thank me for that,
Speaker:Tanya, thank you so much.
Speaker:This has been really interesting.
Speaker:And this is an industry that we haven't really talked about
Speaker:before in terms of working creative spaces.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:I wish for you,
Speaker:of course continued success with your create studios and my wish
Speaker:for you is that that beautiful,
Speaker:hot and cold,
Speaker:the purple candle of yours always burns Sprite,
Speaker:please. Thank you very much.
Speaker:I appreciate the opportunity to be on the show.
Speaker:Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company,
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Speaker:make sure to jump over and subscribe to the show on
Speaker:iTunes. That way you'll automatically get the newest episodes when they
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Speaker:by subscribing rating and reviewing you help to increase the visibility
Speaker:of gift biz on round.
Speaker:It's a great way to pay it forward,