Teach your Craft Workshop | Day #2 📆 Wednesday, September 9

Hello, everyone! How are you? Oh, my goodness! Welcome to Teach Your Craft, day number 2. Welcome back! We are So excited to dive into our content today. As you join, please tell me where you are joining from. Please tell me where you are joining from, and how did your homework go? So yesterday you were instructed to map your class. My button isn't done. You are instructed to map out your class and choose the broad category that you are going to be teaching. So you don't have to have the class figured out yet, even the specifics of it, but the broad category is what we left with yesterday, and then your homework was to map it. So tell me how that's going. I am just getting our chat pulled up. Hello, Hollis says homework went well. It's so good to see you here, Hollis. It's so fun to see some familiar names here. That makes me so happy. Says hello from Alabama. Pat, it's so nice to see you. Katie gonna say bookmarking. Okay, I love it. Ella, hi from the UK. Welcome. Good afternoon. Janet is here from Salt Lake City.

Hello.

So tell me, what is the broad category that you landed on, that you decided on yesterday. Um, Doug, hello from beautiful Franklin.

Hi.

Libby says the work was okay. All right, today is going to get even more clear. I've got the map. All right, so the map I'm hoping is messy. The map should feel like a big old brain dump. It should feel like you had time to just map your process. So when I do this, I have to step away from all technology, bring you down a little bit. I have to step away from all technology and get really, really kind of out of my routine and clear with a paper, piece of paper and a pencil or a pen and just write, write, write, write, write. So again, I do so with no judgment. There's nothing about the process that requires alignment or sorting or sequencing. It is just everything you can into the document of your process. That is how we map. And so if you missed yesterday, you can do this quickly. You can start to map your process, come back and fill it in as we go. But the more you can get on paper, the better. Ashley, hi, welcome. So Margaret says sewing. The homework went well as I'm already teaching online, but it's messy right now. Okay, got it. Says creative confidence from Vermont. Love that. Susie says painting basics from the bottom up, right? Okay, perfect. Adding— and says adding patinas to copper and concentrating on flame painting. Oh my goodness! Sign me up for that class. That sounds so amazing. Okay, so we've got a lot to do today, and today is very much a workshop day. So I hope that you're here with your worksheets. If not, you can find those over on the hub. And also something to write with and write on. So even if you don't have your worksheets, make sure you have something to write on and write with, because we are going to actually map your class out today. So give me just a second to pull up my deck for the day. I did install my font. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, so officially, welcome back. Welcome back to Teach Your Craft. I am so incredibly honored to be hosting you this week, to be learning about you, to be learning about what you love. What an incredible community that we have gathered for this week. Do make sure that you're over on the Hub. So I think some, some of you might have watched on YouTube yesterday, which is technically fine, but you're missing out on some of the features that we have on the Hub, specifically the check-in. So right beneath this lesson, you're invited to check in. When you check in collectively, we grow in the amount of giveaways that we're giving away. I'll show you those in just a minute, but I want to remind you while you're here to go ahead and check in. Today is a big day. You are going to take the craft that you decided on yesterday and turn it into a class that someone can take. So again, make sure you've got something to write on and write in. As a recap, you are here to turn what you know into an online class, or in other words, teach your craft. Yesterday I asked you to take the value of your knowledge really seriously. People want to learn learn things that you have spent time— many of you have spent many, many years figuring out. And, um, a lesson I think is so incredible, a recorded lesson, because it can help someone else, another student from anywhere in the world at any time of the day. That is incredible. It's an incredible way to support students, and it's an incredible way to support your own life. And this is why it is so important that you are here. We also like to say it this way: your craft can pay you twice— once for what you make and again for what you know. So a course gives your knowledge a way to reach farther and earn beyond the hours that you can personally give, which is a relief and a new thought, like a relief when you're used to trading time for money for everything that you make. Okay, so yesterday we found your direction. So we, as a recap, found this overlap. We did a little bit of a Venn diagram, right? So it's where your passion, your greatest passion, and your greatest skill overlaps with also market demand. So you chose your craft, you looked for evidence that people in your category do indeed want help with that, and you began mapping what you know. Today is the filter. We're going to choose a result from within that map, and we're going to build the path that gets your students somewhere that you decide that they're going. All right. Today we find the class inside your map. Okay, so did anyone do yesterday's research and immediately begin to think, what is the point? It's all been done before. There's tons of stuff online. Did anyone Feel that as they were doing their research yesterday. If so, I I told you. I told you that imposter syndrome was going to show up. It is hard work to be able to protect your eyes and your confidence and your heart and your mission as you go looking for stuff around the internet. Arpi says yes. Rachel says yep. Vasula says yes. Daniela says yes. Kelly says yes. Okay, so why would I have you do that? Why would I have you go look at all the things that are already in existence? Um, because I know that it does this to us. I know that it makes imposter syndrome just show up and whisper all kinds of things in our ears. But it is helpful to know because, like I said yesterday, the number one reason that creatives create courses that are not successful is that they created a course that there was no demand for. And so it's incredibly important to be able to build your stack of evidence that you are teaching something inside a sector of people who want it.

You belong.

I just— I want you to feel this to your very core. You belong here. You bring your own perspective. You bring the judgment that you have earned through practice. You bring your own lived experience. You bring your own examples. You bring your own way of explaining things. And that is what we need you to put into a class. We are not copying anyone else. And because of that, your right-fit students are going to find you, and they are depending on you. They're counting on you to follow through with this. So I want you to now That you've, that you've found your evidence, that you've confirmed that there's demand. I want your eyes back on your own paper and focused on the one person that you can help, focused on the people that need you to create this course. They need a teacher who can take them to this result. Okay. Okay, so, but Bonnie, someone can already learn this for free online. Please remember that I spent 20 months, okay, nearly 2 years piecing together tutorials from every corner of the internet. I wanted to design florals, and I was learning from tutorials about tessellating lizards. Okay, I was learning, but I was also doing all of the work of finding the pieces and figuring out how they all fit together. So much so that when a course did become available in my industry, I paid for it immediately, and I just recently had to look this up. When I say immediately, I mean the morning of. I mean the day that this course became available, nearly 2 years into my process. I bought it right away because I understand the value of someone bringing the process together and showing me the way. Okay, I have to go turn off my overhead lights, so I'm going to go to the next slide because it's one that you need to write down. Okay, so start jotting this down. I'll be right back. Okay, my eyes can relax now. There are 7 things that we know people will pay for. Okay, these are, uh, important to remember. People just like me and you, these are the things that we pay for, and you likely know it because you pay for them as well. I certainly do. People pay for clarity. They pay for understanding exactly what matters. People pay for guidance. They want to know what comes next without having to figure it out on their own. People pay for speed, so results more quickly. So even if they can figure it out and, and on their own, right, it's going to potentially take much longer. So people will pay for speed. Getting the results more quickly. People will pay for context. So how is this uniquely applied to them so that they don't have to work so hard to figure it out or apply it to their particular situation? People will pay for feedback. So the ability to get feedback from a teacher or a mentor helping them get it right. People will pay for community. So people to learn alongside with and connect with and do the journey together with. And then people will pay for a trusted mentor, someone who has been there, done that, and knows the way. This is you, okay? This is why all the free information on the internet can exist, and still we need you to teach your course, because people pay for you to be the filter, okay? We're going to talk more about the filter here in a minute. I want you to look at what you started yesterday. What did you see in your craft yesterday that potentially you hadn't really thought of before? I would love for you to open your map and share your biggest takeaway from yesterday, especially if it relates to what you found inside your process that maybe you weren't expecting to find. Maybe you weren't expecting to find. While you do that, I'm going to read some directly from you all. Nikita said, for the first time, rating my list was actually easy. I think I surprised myself. My biggest takeaway was finding the connection between what I know and what is being asked of me. Lisa says, I drilled down on 3 things that I've taught: beginning line dance, intro to watercolors, and public speaking. The one with the biggest audience and the biggest need was public speaking, and those answers were not what I expected, right? It's interesting. Kelly says, because of today's activity, I discovered a niche that I hadn't even thought of teaching before. That is the magic of walking through what we looked at yesterday. The course I landed on is piano for adult beginners who are just starting out or who are returning to the piano after some time away. I am lasering in on my goal to get people playing things that sound like music from day number 1, right? Rachel, you're— you, you've already done most of today's work, it sounds like. Like, this is a really clear result for a very specific person who's starting, which is really, really fun. Realizing what I could teach, I have enough ideas to teach a class with. Amen. Avril says, for the first time ever, I'm actually starting to think that I can do this. And Suzanne said, I felt emotional when you said that there are students out there who want to learn from me, that I'm valuable as a teacher, and that my unique style would provide the pathway to success. So empowering to hear. OK, so let me read some from the chat. Kirsten says, so many steps to do, and I feel confident with them. OK, I love that. Jen says, the niche can be so small and detailed. Absolutely. That's really one of the big ahas that I want to have today. Sandy said, I was shocked by what I wanted to teach. It was my process that I've been living, not a particular media. Okay, interesting. Um, Beth said, I don't feel like I'm choosing good words for the Answer the Public search.

I don't know.

Okay, so if you're looking for— before you go to, uh, what Beth is talking about is Answer the Public is a website that I shared yesterday that will allow you to do 3 free searches a day, and it will tell you what people are Googling about the topic So if you weren't feeling confident in what you're searching for, go back to the categories. So the, the top 3 categories should be definitive enough to where, like, it should be a category, a name of a category. And then when, when it's a clear category, it should return good results for you inside, inside that. Okay, Ona said, creating my map helped me feel more confident, like maybe I do know what I'm doing. Okay, so let's dive into what we're doing today. Yesterday we found it. We found the craft that you're going to teach through a scoring method. If you missed it, the replay is available for you, and I would suggest diving back in. Today we are going to outline it. Tomorrow we are going to find your people, and on Friday we're going to talk about how to bring it to life. Specifically Thursday, tomorrow, we are going to talk about how to start gathering people that are the right fit for your course. And on Friday, I'm going to show you the most simple, most affordable, incredible-looking tech setup for you so that you can actually feel equipped to bring what you outlined today to life by Friday. Okay, I told you yesterday that this workshop is in celebration of us opening our brand new course. It's called Artisan Educator. So tomorrow afternoon, at the end of our time together, we're going to open enrollment for the founding class of Artisan Educator. It is a complete program that I've built for the very first time to help you take what you begin here through an entire signature course and education business path. I'm going to share more about it with you tomorrow, but I am so excited. To be clear, you can absolutely use what we do here in this workshop together, with or without— it doesn't matter if you decide to join us in Art as an Educator or not. This workshop is built to stand on its own, so you will be able to use everything through our 4 days together regardless of that decision. Okay, my job this week is to help you find something worth teaching and help you bring it to life. Now the giveaway stack. Together we can unlock up to $15,000 in prizes. So every 5,000— I know that sounds like a lot— live check-ins unlock another $1,500 prize bundle. So we've already hit the first prize unlock. So to put this into perspective, if half of you show up for only half of the days, we will reach the full mark, which I felt like was so incredibly fair. We're gonna announce all of the winners on Friday. This is what we are giving away. So take a screenshot of this. We are giving away the Creator Starter Kit. This is the setup that I'm going to show you on Friday. We're giving away Apple gift cards. We're giving away course curriculum, course curriculum reviews with no other than myself. And we're also giving away business grants. And so this is a collective effort. You've got to come and you've got to check in to count your seat. So this is what it looks like. It's on the hub. And all you have to do is put in the email that you registered for the workshop with and click check in. That checks you in, and also that's what enters you to win the giveaway. Okay, so all you have to do to enter to win the giveaway is check in.

Fun.

Okay, the next thing that we had some questions about, so I want to make sure that you understand, is your tuition bank. So day number one is closing in about. 4 hours. Okay, so you still have time to bank your tuition from yesterday. Day number 2 is open for today, so all you have to do to start banking your tuition is watch the lesson, and at the end I'll give you a studio word. You put the studio word into your bank and it immediately banks your tuition. This is to use if you decide to join us in Artisan Educator. Why are we doing this? My friends, we are doing this because I so believe in the work that we're doing here this week in this workshop together, and I want to honor the work that you're doing and help you invest in your next step if it's something that you want to do. So you can bank up to $400. If you bank all 3, we add an additional $100 for a total of $400 total off that you can bank if you want. So this is what that looks like. You're going to put in your workshop email. And you're going to find your bank. So this is going to accumulate as the week goes on. So make sure you bank for yesterday and make sure you bank for today. All right. Okay, pull out yesterday's homework. It was to map your craft. So I'm hoping that you have a big old list of your process mapped out. The goal was to have at least 15 to 20 of the major steps inside your craft marked— I'm sorry, mapped. 15 to 20 of the major steps in your craft mapped out. Okay, they don't even have to be in sequence or sequential order, they just need to be on paper. So the next thing that I want you to do is just kind of start to notice some things. What I would love to invite you to do is mark up your map. So I want you to star anything that people often ask about. So maybe in your research, or maybe in what you collected on your own. Maybe you looked at your own emails or your own chat or your own DMs. What are people asking about often? Put a star next to that. The next thing I want you to do is put a heart next to anything that just lights you up, anything that you think would be so incredibly fun to teach. That's what I would love for you to do. you to put a heart next to, and then an exclamation point for where beginners really get stuck. So anything on your map that represents something that people just seem to get stuck with over and over and over again, I want you to put an exclamation point. Okay? Yes.

All right.

The first thing that we're going to do is begin to harvest the wins that we want to teach for your first class. So your first class is a complete win from inside your larger craft. So I want you to look at everything on the page, and this is kind of where the overwhelm can arrive usually. So you think, how in the world am I going to teach all of this? How am I gonna make sense of all of this? So here is the one decision that changes all of it. I want you to choose a single win. You can also think about this as like an end result, like the thing that they They are going to be able to do because they took your class. I want you to choose one complete win for your student from inside that process. Now I'm going to pull you through thinking through this, but I want you to start thinking about it. So that map, it likely holds years of experience, and it also— this is what I really want you to see today— that map likely holds dozens of possible classes. It likely holds dozens of possible classes. So today I want you— we're going to choose One from your map. Remember what we said yesterday? Saying yes to one is not saying no to all of the others. It's just saying not yet. All right, it's just saying not yet. So this is typically what comes up, right? Is one part of my process enough? It absolutely is. So I want you to think about how you can help someone solve the problem that keeps them from moving forward. And I have a really fun example and person to introduce you to to show you how this works. Laurie Ann Gonzalez, one of my favorite examples. She is a fine artist. She's a fine artist who sells original artwork and prints. So Laurie Ann, she noticed that other artists struggled with one particular part, okay? She struggled— they struggled to know how to take an original piece of art and turn it into an art print. So from this, she built a course called Art to Print around that single result, and that became successful course alongside her art business. So she found one part of her process that other people needed help with and then, and then built the course around that. So I have 2 minutes. Me and Laurianne are good friends, and I asked her if she would just talk us through her thinking, talk us through how she landed on that part of her process. So I have a 2-minute clip for you to watch from Laurianne so that this really gets your gears turning Hello there, I am Laurie Ann and I am a fine artist.

I paint acrylic landscapes and I've made pretty much my entire career selling art prints from my original paintings. I wanted to figure out what could I teach, like what is something that could be really helpful. And as soon as I learned how to make art prints and like make the best art prints, my my fellow art friends noticed and they were like, how the heck are you doing this? Tell us how you're doing this. And so that was how I decided what to teach, and I created a course called Art to Print, and I taught artists how to create the highest quality art prints from their original paintings. Art to Print was such an amazing course, and it did a lot for me. It not only was an amazing financial piece in my career. Like, it was an excellent revenue stream, but I really got to help so many artists make money. Like, I taught them a tool that they could turn around and immediately go make money from their own artwork, and that just felt really, really good. And I hate the saying that— like, the starving artist saying— I hate that because I've never been a starving artist. I've always, like, worked really hard and figured out how to sell work. And making— figuring out how to make art prints was one of the ways that I did that. And then Art2Print itself was just a really amazing way for me to help other artists. It's super fulfilling, and I am so unbelievably proud of my students. And it just tickles me to see them making art prints and like making a living as an artist. Like, that is unbelievably fulfilling. So I guess my biggest advice is just follow your gut and try everything and see what sticks, and don't be afraid to change your mind.

Okay, that's so fun because I see many of you are familiar with this. You've maybe taken her course. I saw one of you were like, that's what I need, right? So here's what I want— here's what I want you to really think about. Okay, so Laurianne What would she have— what would you have figured she would teach online? You look at what she does and you figure that she would teach fine art. You would figure that she would teach how to paint, right? But instead of teaching her entire craft, she looked at her process.

Okay.

She mapped the entire process and she figured out the one part that everybody's always struggling with.

With.

Okay, how do I take a picture of my fine art and turn it into an art print? So that requires either photographing it or scanning it, working it in Photoshop, and printing it. It comes with all these tools and resources for printing, uh, for printing places, right? Like, it's a very specific problem that other fine artists have That she was able to solve because she knew. So, right? This is the biggest unlock for you today. So do you remember yesterday that we talked about the Venn diagram? So where your skills, your passion, and market demand overlap. Do you want to know how to absolutely ignite the center purple circle? Do you want to know how to absolutely ignite the center purple circle? The center purple circle. This is how you do it. This is how you make your idea stronger. You also find the thing that very much solves a problem that your audience has, that your student has. Okay, so find the specific problem that your class will solve. Listen for things like, I keep trying this, or I can't get this right, or I want to do this but I don't know where to start, right? So look for the specific place that people really get stuck, they really have a problem, and think about that. Think about your class from that perspective. So now when you go back and look at your process map, you've got one more thing to fill in.

In.

All right, I want you to fill in a little fire emoji for anything that solves a significant problem that your student faces that you figured out, hey, you can help them with that. You know, someone is constantly having this problem again and again and again in your field, and that's second nature to you now. That is a really powerful course idea. Okay.

Okay.

Um, all right, there are 3 types of courses that we're going to cover. 3 types of courses that we're going to cover. Make sure that you're taking notes. The first one is a skill-based course. So a skill-based course means I can do this now, a skill that they can use again and again. Okay, a project-based course is, hey, look, I made this. So the student ends with a finished project. And then a signature course is a much larger transformation. We usually consider that as an identity change. So I became this. It is a larger transformation built of multiple skills and pro— skills and projects that are linked together and build on each other. All right. Now, you do not need to teach your whole craft to create an incredibly valuable class. That is what I wanted Laurianne's example to show you. One skill, like how to turn your art into a print—that's a skill-based course, right? So one skill or a finished project can create a breakthrough for your student. It can also create a bank. It can also create a breakthrough for your bank account. Okay, let's start with the skill-based course. So a skill-based course means I can do this. Examples of this are. I can now play this song. I can now mix this watercolor palette. I can now bind this quilt. Okay, you getting it? Skill-based means that I can do this now. I once could not do it, and now I can. Another way to put this is a capability that they can use again and again and again. A capability that they can use again and again and again. The next is a project-based course. So a project-based course leaves someone saying, hey, I made this. All right, so hey, I sewed this tote bag. Hey, I painted this floral bouquet. Hey, I built a raised herb bed, right? So a project-based course very much has something to show for it. It is a finished thing that they can point to. I made this. This. Now, a signature course is I became this. So I am now a ceramicist, I am now a watercolor artist, I am now a basket weaver, right? Um, it is a larger identity transformation built from many skills and many projects that are linked together. So today we are not going to outline a signature course. So signature courses are big, big, big But what we are going to do is choose a skill-based or a project-based course to outline. The goal today is to outline a course that is 12 lessons or less, 12 lessons or less. So the takeaway for you is that if you want to build a signature course, understanding how we build skills and projects, um, it— that's simply what a signature course is made up of. Of. So understanding how we build a skill and a project means that once you learn that method, you can build anything that you want. You can absolutely go on to build the signature course as well. Okay, so let me give you some of— like, we're actually gonna— today we're gonna share so many examples. Okay, so I think examples are a really nice way to, uh, just kind of let it sink in. So these are some examples of my own. Okay, so I have a I have, I have some of all of these. So a skill-based class that I have is called Confidently Color with the Recolor Artwork Tool. This is for Adobe Illustrator. So someone leaves that class saying, hey, I can now recolor my artwork in Illustrator. Another example that I have is a class on watercolor for pattern design. So someone can come take that class, and they can leave saying, now I can vectorize my watercolor paintings in Illustrator. Alright. So a project-based class is, I made this. So something like Start Simple in Gift Wrap Design is a class that I have, and it says, hey, I can make my own gift wrap. Look at this. I also have a project class that is how to design your own tea towel. So someone can look and say, look at this, I made my own tea towel. So it's a repeat pattern that they made and put on a tea towel. Now I also have 2 signature courses. So Surface Design Immersion, which I shared a bit with you about yesterday, means that someone can come into that course experience and they leave with an identity transformation. I am a surface pattern designer. Same with Artisan Educator, which I'm going to share with you about tomorrow. Someone can come into that experience and they leave with an identity transformation. I am an Artisan Educator. I am an online educator, right? So let's look at a bunch of other examples. Let's— I wish that I could just like test this with you, like quiz you, but we're just going to go through it together. So the course is called Natural Light Photography. It's skill-based. The student result is, now I can take great photos using window light, right? So this is a perfect course for someone who may not want to be a full-time photographer, right? Maybe they are a full-time ceramicist. They just want to be able to take great photos of their products for Etsy. So they're not looking for an identity transformation. They're just looking to be able to DIY their own photographs. Got it? So it's a skill-based class. They're leaving with a brand new skill, not a brand new identity, a brand new skill. Yoga sun salutations. This is a skill-based course. Now I can move through a sun salutation on my own every morning. Okay, what about this one? Choreograph your first dance. So this would be a project-based class. Hey, I made a 30-second dance routine all on my own. I choreographed the whole Maybe they're not now a choreographer. That's our last example. So a course called The Confident Choreographer, which is a signature course, would leave someone with an identity change. I am now a choreographer, right? So let's go back up. Build your wellness plan. This would be project-based. I made a weekly wellness plan. That's a project. So these examples that I chose are a little obscure because I wanted to make sure that even if you don't, um, even if you don't make a physical product, that you were still able to let this concept sink in. Um, yoga teacher training, right? So many, many years ago, I did yoga teacher training, certified with Yoga Alliance. Oh my goodness, I was 20 years old, and I left that experience. It was like a 6-month training as a yoga teacher, right? So that's an identity change. I became a yoga All right. Today, is it starting to sink in? The other thing that I want to— the other thing that I want to encourage you is don't get hung up on this too much. There are some examples where, you know, I think they could go either skill or project. So if you're looking at yours and you're like, I don't know, I could see how this could be skill, I could see how this could be project, it's okay. It's not— it's not going to define how we move forward. I just wanted to allow you to think about the options of your course from a couple of different perspectives. So what we're going to cover today is called the Craft to Class method. So it goes like this. We're going to first map the craft. That's what you did yesterday. And then we are going to harvest the win, which is what we've been talking about. Before we end today, you are also going to name the student result, set the finish line, mine the know-how, and backwards build the lessons. So you already have the map. We are going to dive into finding the class. If you have been trying to organize a lifetime of knowledge into a course, of course it felt enormous, my friends. And if you started by comparing cameras or choosing a platform to host your course on, you were making decisions before you knew what or who you needed to teach. So the missing decision is likely the student when. So once that's clear, you can then start to make decisions about the how. can easily identify the knowledge that they need in order to get that win. That's what the Craft to Class method is going to give you. So step 1, we already did, which was map the craft. So you came with that today. Step number 2 is to harvest the win. The win. Where does your knowledge meet someone else's need? So another way to think about harvesting the win is identifying the end result that someone is going to leave your course from. You have to get really clear. On this because it is going to serve as a filter for the rest of all of the building, right? So you've got to get really clear on what someone is going to be able to do after they leave your course. So here's my example from my whole craft that I mapped out, right? I can do artwork, color, repeat patterns, entire collections, portfolios, art licensing, but I need to get it down to one teachable win for this exercise. So what I'm going to choose is is how to create a 10-color palette that works together in Adobe Illustrator and use it in your artwork. Okay, so this is gonna be a skill-based class that I'm gonna walk you through as my example today, and I'm just gonna call it Illustrator Color Palettes That Work. Okay, Illustrator Color Palettes That Work. I'm not gonna get too creative. I'm just gonna be descriptive. Now, your first class that we're gonna work on today, it needs to be specific. It needs to be useful, and it needs to be complete. I want you to use those 3 words as your filter: specific enough that someone knows what they're learning, useful enough that they want the result because it solves a specific problem that they have, and complete enough that you actually know when they got the win. They should be able to kind of check a box like, yes, now I can make a color palette. So let me show you some more examples, and I want you to notice. How each of them give you a really clear class. Okay, so the first example that I'm going to take is painting. The problem is someone wants to buy my painting and I have no idea what to charge for it. Well, when you look at your map, you can see that, well, you paint, you finish, you price it, and then you sell it. So maybe you decide to teach a skill-based class called Price Your Original Artwork, right? This is a huge problem that people have. Price your original artwork. So a working title could be Price Your Paintings. It's skill-based, which means I can do this. So the artist has finished the painting. They even have someone interested in buying it, but pricing is what has stopped them. If you have a price— sorry, if you have a process for pricing your work, you can teach that one part. So your class helps another artist Get through the decision that's holding up their sale. Alright. Let's go to this example. This one is for quilting. So here's the problem. My quilt top is finished all except for the binding. It's where I get stuck every time. So maybe you know people who can piece the top all day long, right? But it's when they get to the binding that they stall. Well, you, you do this all the time. You cut, you piece your top, you quilt it, and then you bind it. Bind it. So maybe you teach a skill-based course called Bind the Quilt You've Already Made. The working title, we're just going descriptive, Finish Your Quilt Binding, right? So the project, this is project-based. Sorry, I said it was skill, but it's project. But this is a great example of actually one that could go either, right? So the skill is learning how to bind, but in order to finish the project, it requires a That's normal for that to happen. So a project-based is, hey, I made this, I finished my quilt. So look at how far this person has already come. The entire quilt is done, but it's waiting for that very next last finishing step. So your student brings their unfinished quilt and you walk them through the binding only, right? So you don't teach all the other things. They come to you with a finished quilt that needs binding and they leave with a quilt quilt that is completed. That final step on your process map becomes the entire focus of the course. Okay. Alright. Another example. I see that Sue Ellen says, I need that class unfinished quilt in the closet, right? It's a common problem. Let's talk about pottery or ceramics. The problem maybe is I can make a beautiful mug, but the handle keeps cracking at the Well, you do this all the time. You build the mug, you attach the handle, you dry it, you glaze it, you fire it. So maybe you teach how to attach a mug handle securely. The working title could be Mug Handles That Hold. So this would be skill-based. I can do this now. They can already make the mug, so attaching the handle is where their process keeps breaking down, and you know what to watch for and how to make the attachment work. Work. So you slow that part down and teach it from, from A to Z, right? Something that you do almost automatically inside your craft can be the very thing that someone else needs. That was the case for Laurianne, right? Something that she did automatically was the thing that was keeping other artists stuck. Let's use creative writing. So the problem is, listen, I've got a great story, but I lose people before I get to the good part. Well, maybe you do this as your craft. You know how to choose the story, you know how to write the opening, you know how to develop it and how to end it. So maybe you decide to teach how to rewrite one opening so the story gets moving immediately. The working title: Fix Your Story's Opening, right? It's just descriptive, it's project-based. Look at this, I made it. Okay, let's go to knitting. So the problem could I dropped a stitch and I unraveled hours of my work. We do this all the time. You cast on, you knit, this happens to you, but you fix the mistake and then you keep knitting. So the skill that you could teach is how to repair a dropped stitch without starting over. And then your working title could be something like, I rescue a dropped stitch, right? A skill-based, hey, I can now repair from this mistake. So I want you to start thinking about your own. I want you to start thinking about your own. Look at your own process. Jot this down if you can't fill it in while we're live today. I want you to be able to fill it in tonight. Look at your process. What is the one part that feels like the best portion to teach first? Then circle that step people most often ask you about. That's the part that I want you to pay attention to so they can already Fill in the blank, but they get stuck when fill in the blank. My class will teach them how to fill in the blank. Okay, remember, skill-based means I can do this. Project-based means I made this. And you can fill in your working title. So we're not getting creative yet, we're just being descriptive.

Got it.

When someone recognizes the exact problem that they have been trying to solve, they have a clear reason to want your class. So you know how to get them through the part that keeps stopping them. Something that I have loved is how many of you have said, oh my goodness, I need that class, as I was, as I was reading through them. Now, you wouldn't have said that if my quilt binding course was just about how, how to make a quilt, right? You would be like, well, I wonder if they cover binding. But because I said bind your finished quilt top, you're like, oh, that's the class I need. The chat lit up. So that's the power of this exercise, is to get really clear about the problem that it solves. All right, step number 3 is to name the student. So you've got to choose who you're helping in order to figure out where your class begins. So for the skill or the project, I want you to choose A, I have never done this. I'm a brand new beginner. Show me how to start. Option B, your student has tried some. They've got some experience. They just need help getting it right. Or C, I can already do this. I know all the steps. I just need your help in improving it. Okay, knowing where your student is when they start your class is going to help you understand where to begin. Begin your lessons. Here's my example. Remember, my class is called Illustrator Color Palettes That Work. My student is B. I've tried this, help me get it right. So they already create artwork in Illustrator, but they struggle with changing the colors over and over and over without liking the combination. So what they want is a way to choose colors that work together. Now, this is really helpful for me when I go to write my course because I don't have to teach them Adobe Illustrator. They are coming in with existing knowledge. I just need to pick up where they're struggling. Your student's starting point tells you where to begin, and then your student's win, or the end result, is going to tell you where to stop. All right, so in my example, right, they're going to open the program, draw and select artwork, choose colors that work together, apply this and save the color palette. Palette, turn it into a repeating pattern, sell it on a print-on-demand site. Uh-oh. Oh no, I went off track. Did you feel it? Were you like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you don't have to make a repeating pattern and sell it on print-on-demand, right? I went off track. So look at the right-hand column. I don't need to teach how to open the program, and I also don't need to teach how to draw and select artwork. They already know that because they're B, they already have existing knowledge. So what I get to teach is how to choose colors that work together and how to apply, adjust, and save the color palette. That's where I stop because that is the promised result of my course. So I don't need to teach them how to create a repeat pattern, and I don't need to teach them how to sell it on print on demand. That's a different You feel that? Shelley says, I just had an aha moment. So this is really part of the backward build. You've got to start with where they begin and where they end, and then all of a sudden the lessons that get them from where they are to where they're going become really clear. All right, look at where we're at. We can check off name the student. We're going to move into step number 4, which is set the finish line. So you've got to turn I can't do this into, well, now I can do this. So before, in my example, was like, I keep changing the colors because nothing looks right. But after, hey, I can change a color palette that looks great and use it in my artwork. Your class has to teach everything that changes in between those 2 sentences. Okay, so let's look at our examples. Choose how your result begins. So if it's a skill-based class, you can say, by the end of my class, my student can can fill in the blank. So this is often going to use a word like choose something, use something, mix something, arrange, photograph, play, repair. It's like an active word. If it's a project-based class, you're going to say, by the end, my student has made a fill in the blank. So I want you to name the action or the finished thing. Again, getting really clear about the end result is going to be the filter that you've got to use in order My finish line in my example is by the end, my student can create and save a custom 10-color palette in Illustrator and use it to recolor a piece of their artwork, right? So they leave with a saved color palette, artwork that uses that palette, and a process that they can use again. All right, it's your turn. Let's look at our examples. My quilt is finished except for the binding. That's where I get stuck. So bind a quilt so it's finished and ready to use. That's the promise. The next one is pottery or ceramics. I can make a beautiful mug, but the handle keeps cracking. Okay, so now they can attach a mug handle securely. And then now I want you to do it for your class. Okay, my student gets stuck when— so by the end of my class they can fill in the blank. Okay, I'm gonna give you a about 60 seconds to fill this in, and I want you to put your answers in the chat. While you do that, I'm gonna run and go get a charger for my laptop. I shall be right back while you fill this in. How's it going? Did you get Did it? Alright, I'll read some of your chats when my laptop comes back on. There's someone that I want to introduce you to. I want you to meet Bale Ansari. You're actually gonna meet her at the end of today's lesson as well. Bale is from Just One More Project, and so she was selling digital files for laser makers. So laser makers are like laser cutting machines, like the Silhouette or the Cricut or the Glowforge. Actually, not the Cricut, but the Glowforge. So she recognized a problem that she had solved over and over again, which was how to get a design into a file that the laser could actually use. So that became the focus of her teaching in Project Academy. Look at how clear this is. A person with a laser machine, a design that they want to make, and a process that they need to learn. That is why I think naming your student and the result gives you so much knowledge Because of specificity that you need to serve your student with. Bale, I love her story. I almost don't want to ruin it. You're going to meet her in just a second. But, um, Bale used to make $26,000 as a social worker a year, and today she's built an online education business around her craft that makes more than $300,000 a year. Next, I want you to meet Amy. Amy, Amy Small from Knit Collage. Amy designs beautiful handspun yarn. So her customers first needed ideas for what to make with the yarn. So she created patterns, but then they needed help with the techniques. That's why she began to teach. So she told me that people were quick to buy the yarn and quick to start the project, but they were also quick to give up when they got stuck. So adding teaching helped more of them finish. That is the job of the class. And so for Amy, education became a part of the business that she had already built. So the craft came first. So let's find the decisions your students need you to explain on how they can finish. Today, Knit Collage is a 7-figure creative business. Amy shared with me that her business was $200,000 in debt in 2017, and Within just three years of that moment, her business hit her first seven-figure year. Isn't that incredible? Okay, so now we can check off set the finish line. The next thing, step number five, is to mine the know-how. So mine the know-how means like we're going digging for it. We're gonna mine it out. Let's make the decisions inside your process. Visible. You know your student, you know the finish line. Now we need the knowledge that will get them there. So these are some of my notes. Okay, so I'm collecting the steps and the choices inside of them. So pull colors from inspiration images, sort them light to dark. This is for my color class, right? Check the grayscale, choose neutrals and 1 or 2 accent colors, and then trim all of those colors down to the best 10, and then troubleshoot them. So apply them to artwork, see if they work, and then save that color palette so that you can use it next time you come into Adobe Illustrator on a new piece of artwork, right? So I took my big craft that I mapped down to one specific part, and now we have to do like a mini map of that one specific part. Okay, so we're gonna do a mini map. It is— you can also think about it like an x-ray. So x-ray that one specific part of your craft. So These are the questions that I want you to ask: what I do, what I notice, what that tells me, what I change, and how I check. So in my example, what I do is I check the color palette by putting it in grayscale. What I notice is that when I do that, some of them almost turn the same exact color of gray, which means what that tells me is that there's not enough contrast. So what I change is that I lighten or darken one of the colors, and then this is how I check. I apply it to the artwork. Can I now distinguish the shapes back and forth? So I want to encourage you— you got to get quiet for this one— to take a mini map, an x-ray of the particular process that you've now kind of narrowed it all down to. Something that we hear a lot is like, I do it without thinking, right? So if you do it without thinking, this is one of the unique, I think, issues or troubleshooting points of the artisan, because so much of it has been done for so long that it becomes intuitive. So there are 2 ways to find the steps that you've stopped noticing. Number one is to get really quiet and remember yourself as a beginner. What did someone have to explain to you What steps can you remember learning? How did you feel when you learned them? Where did you get stuck? The other way is to record yourself doing the process. You could do a screen recording, you could prop up your phone camera and do a video recording, but I want you to watch yourself do the craft. And then really, from that point of view, what are you doing? What are you checking? What choices are you making? What are you correcting? Because when you watch yourself back, you can often see parts of the process that have become intuitive to you. So I want you to write down what makes you do these small adjustments. So we're going to mine the know-how. What does the student need from you to reach their result? I would like to give you— I'm going to give you maybe not the full 3 minutes, but at least 1 minute to do this. I want you to get quiet and do a mini map, an x-ray of your process. Okay, we'll meet back here in just Just a minute.

Okay.

Tell me what you're finding in the chat. Now, this is expected. This is actually part of your homework tonight, because it's expected that you really need to kind of get quiet and have what I call a super thinking session. A super thinking session is when you invite yourself to kind of step away from technology and sit down with nothing but paper and pencil. and think. Um, that sounds silly, but thinking doesn't happen in the deep way that we need it to by accident, or very— or, or even on a daily basis. So when you invite yourself to really step away and begin to focus on mapping, that is where your aha moments will come. So if you're struggling with this at all, you feel like maybe you've fallen behind, or you can't keep up, or you didn't have anything come up for you, the next step for you is to take this and get quiet somewhere with it. Set a timer for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and just begin to map. I promise you it will come. I promise you it will come. Okay, so the craft-to-class method. Now we have mined the know-how, it's time to backwards build the lesson. So this is the last step, and it's where you begin, um, to map out the actual course, the actual lessons inside it. So begin where you're student needs to finish, right? So we've already decided that. Here's how the outline comes together. What does your student need to be able to do immediately before the end result? So this is how I map out curriculum. So I decide the finish point, and then I start to map out, okay, what do they need to do right before that? What do they need to do right before that? So watch mine work. The finish for me is that they get to save a 10-color palette, use, and use it in their own artwork in Illustrator. So before saving it, they've got to test it and adjust the palette and the artwork. Before testing it, they have to recolor their artwork. Before recoloring their artwork, they've got to refine the palette down to 10 colors. Before they refine it, they have to choose neutrals and accents. They've got to check the light and the dark for contrast before choosing it. Well, they've got to pull in their inspiration images. Then you'll stop when you have reached what they already know. So remember, we chose A, B, or C. They're coming in as a complete beginner, they need to learn everything. B, they've got some experience, they just need help, um, uh, figuring it out. Or C, they already know what they're doing, they just need help improving it, right? So I chose B, so I'm gonna stop right before, right at that starting point. Now you'll turn it around. So when you think about curriculum in a backwards build, it actually will pop off the lessons for you in the correct order. So now you'll flip it. Illustrator color palettes that work. So we're gonna start with how to find your color inspiration. Then we're gonna pull colors from your images. We're going to check the contrast, then we'll choose neutrals and accents, then we'll refine it, recolor it, check it, and save it. Those are my 8 lessons. Every lesson moves them towards the same result. It begins with where they started, and it ends with the promise that I made from the course. Now here's the most important thing that you can do. You've got to protect your class. After you do this process, I want you to read every single row and ask, does this student need this to reach the finish line? Does it fit where they are right now? This is where your experience can really serve your student. You can make the choices they don't yet need to have, that they don't need to necessarily have the weight of making themselves. You can help them focus on what matters and what they truly need in order to move So a really strong class will respect the student's time, get them to where they came to go as quickly as possible. So the filter that I use for this is give them everything that they need and also nothing that they don't need. When someone recognizes that the exact problem that they've been trying to solve has a clear class that solves that problem, you know how to get them through that part that keeps stopping them. them, they will come to you. So remember this chart. This is how you decide what goes in your course and what does not go in your course. What do they already know? You don't put it in your course. Teach everything that you promised that gets them to the final result, and then anything that doesn't serve them for the final result, not for this class. It's not a no forever, but it is a not for this class. Your students win tells you where to stop. So when I look at this with my own example, right, I'm gonna keep inspiration, contrast, adding the neutrals, refining, and saving. But things that this class does not need are like how to draw motifs and how to build repeating patterns, how to design collections, how to make a portfolio, how to pitch to fabric companies, right? It's just one part, one skill of the process. Now, we talked about this a little bit yesterday in the Q&A and in the morning video this morning. Did you watch the morning video this morning? When people have been piecing together free tutorials, they want someone to come and say, hey, I've got you. Let me show you the way. Look at the things I could have been tempted to add here. But I decided to remove them as a filter for my student. That is in service to them. So students really need you to be the filter for them. That is what they have come to do. Now, I'm going to come back to you for just a minute because we are just about to wrap up our session. Just about to wrap up our session. Let me check in with you. Okay, good, good. It's clicking. All right, good. All right, let me come, let me come back and get you, I think, something, something that will help. I think when you think about your craft, you're going to want to first identify the skill or— oh my goodness— the skill or the project inside your craft. So one thing that can make this feel difficult is the point of decision. And so if you're having a hard time deciding, you've got to go back to that point in time and truly just decide what it is is what part of your process you want to first teach. Is it a skill? Is it a project? Then you'll work through these steps in order to map it out. It's really expected that you likely couldn't do it in real time with me today, which is what you are going to do in order to come back tomorrow. Remember, it is 8 to 12 lessons, so that is all 8 to 12 lessons that you are teaching in order to get the single skill or project-based Okay, let me jump back in. Oh, I want you to meet Alex. Alex Kincaid is an incredible teacher. She teaches watercolor. She did teach watercolor in person, packing her supplies into a little red wagon and taking them from workshop to workshop. When those classes stopped during the pandemic, she began teaching teaching online with her iPhone on a simple mount. She told me that those in-person classes, they helped her know where students struggled and what needed to be explained. So if you've been wondering how your hands-on teaching translates, this is really where it begins. It's the moments when you stop being beside someone and help them through the method that you'll start to pull your lessons from. So give those moments a lesson in your outline. We're going to work through some of the camera stuff, just like Alex here on Friday. Today, Alex teaches tens of thousands of women the art of watercolor. Elizabeth has a successful stationery business, but growing— she reached the same ceiling that I did. Growing meant taking on more clients and more work. So when she created her course called Dream to Design, she filmed it on her computer's webcam at a desk in her living room. She shared that that first launch of that course generated $60,000. She went on to build a larger signature course, but she gave herself permission to begin simply, and she was clear about the standard: help the students succeed, listen to their feedback, and keep improving it over time. So I want you to think about building a class that someone can follow, giving it a clear result to bring it to life. Today, Elizabeth just shared with me that her online education business has generated nearly $2 million in just The last 3 years. Okay, so when this feels hard, when you feel like this is the part— this is the part that feels difficult, is deciding what part of your process you're going to teach first. But it is worth it, and you can do it. Okay, we are here for you. Come share with us in the community. We can help you. How many lessons? All you need is enough lessons to deliver the result. Our goal is 8 to 12 lessons for this workshop course. Okay, 8 to 12 lessons is the goal. 12 is the maximum that I want you to think through for this workshop build. Now, this is the Craft to Class method. You might want to take a screenshot of this because if you're working on it after, you'll be able to work at these in order. So you'll map the craft, you'll decide the when, you're going to give a name to where the student is beginning, then you're going to decide where they end, and in the middle there is where you mine the know-how, and then you'll put your lessons in order. So tonight you're going to outline it. You're going to outline a class that you can teach, a path that someone else can follow. This first class, it can become the beginning of something so much bigger. Okay, so I want to start with this size course, this size class, because it can be a new way for you to serve your students, a new way for you to serve your audience, a new revenue stream for your business and knowledge that you can keep passing on. So here's your homework. I want you to finish your outline. Remember, 8 to 12 lessons, and then put the lessons in order of sequence. You'll complete these results and check for relevancy. So keep everything that's essential to them getting the win and remove anything that doesn't get them there. Remove any of the extras. I think the number one thing that happens, right, is like our, our intuition to like give everything that we know because we think that's in service of the student, but in reality it's not. So give them everything they need and nothing that they don't need. Tomorrow we are going to find the people. All right, so come tomorrow even if you don't have your class completely outlined. We'll pick up tomorrow regardless of where your outline is with how you begin to attract people. We're going to talk about marketing and my philosophy around marketing. We're going to talk about marketing with integrity and with heart and in service of our student. Even if you're feeling like zero follower Zoe or Zach from yesterday, like I could take— I could make this course, but I'm not sure if anybody will follow up. This is who tomorrow is for. So bring what you have. Even if you're just now joining us, come and we will learn how to start gathering your people. That is coming tomorrow. So yesterday was find it, today was outline it, which is your homework for tonight. Tomorrow we will learn how to find the people, and Friday I'll show you how to bring it to life. Now, are you ready for our studio word? Our studio word for today— this is how you bank today's tuition— is confidence. Once you outline this course, you are going to feel so confident. Remember that confidence is not something that we have, it's something that We earn confidence means that I promised myself I was going to do something and I am doing it. Tuesday's work— this, what is today? Wednesday. Wednesday's work, day number 2's work is expected to be the hardest part. Okay, so everything else from here feels easier. Today is the hardest work, is to decide what you're teaching and get it outlined. But when you do that, confidence will come, my friends. You will feel it. You will feel momentum and wind under your wings. So promise yourself you're going to do this and then do it so that you can experience the confidence. You will feel, I found it, I'm putting it on paper. Tomorrow I'm going to begin finding the people. Okay, so I would love to hear from you over the next about, I don't know, 5 or 10 minutes. What are you taking away from today's lesson? And what questions do you have? So we're coming back for optional Q&A. I've got a video for you to watch while you have a minute to ask your questions. So submit questions in the form. Do not put them in the chat. Put them in the Q&A form that my team is sharing with you. That's where we're pulling questions for the Q&A portion, and we will be back to answer questions all together in just a few minutes. I'll see you back here in just a minute. How much did you make as a social worker?

$26,000 a year. Would you tell us how much your business in online education did in the I think we did a little over 300,000.

Hi everyone, I'm here with Bale Ansari from Just One More Project. Bale, welcome. I'm so excited to talk to you today.

Thank you.

Bale, you serve an incredible audience. Laser cutters, is that what you call them?

Laser makers. We like to call it— call us laser makers.

Please introduce yourself and give us a little bit more context as to your world and what you teach online. Yes, yes.

Well, my name is Bael Ansari. I am the owner behind Just One More Project, and I teach beginner laser makers how to design their own laser-ready files using Adobe Illustrator. It's kind of similar to you, but like in a very Distant laser cutting world. But we— I do that through selling a digital course and through our membership project members. I teach men and women who have recently bought a laser cutting machine to like make gifts or to, you know, sell physical products.

Okay, so do you have anything within reach that you've made?

Of course I do.

Yeah, because I'm just I'm imagining people who might never have heard of a laser machine.

Okay, so this right here, if you can see, this was cut with wood and felt, and these are all things that can be cut with a laser. But knowing how to create a design that is actually laser ready is easy once you know what you're doing. And so I learned as I was doing these things that they— there was like a process that I needed to follow to actually make my laser understand what these shapes meant and what this— and in the right format so it didn't confuse me.

And so that's what I teach everyone. So take me back to how did you get started with laser machines? How long did you do this? And then I want you to tell me about like the moment that you decided to start teaching online. How did that happen?

Okay, so I am a social worker. I went to school to be a social worker. Clearly I'm doing just that. I decided to take a step back when I had kids because that— those hours were a little crazy. And I obviously, I'm creative and I really couldn't not do anything, so I decided to sell handmade bows with felt. And it was a physical product business. And then I had another kid and I was like, wow, I cannot keep up with this. This is, you know, hot glue, all stuff was everywhere. It was not possible. So then I kind of dove into the digital world, had no idea what I was doing, and just sort of taught Illustrator to myself and then made an investment to purchase a laser. I think that was the most money I had ever spent at the time. I think it was like $7,000, and I was horrified, and it was just like a big thing that I did. But I'm so glad I did because it's completely changed my life. But anyway, I made this big investment and I decided I was going to start selling digital files for laser cutting machines. So that's what I started doing. I started selling just fun cute things like this, but just in a way that's set up for a laser so that people could download them and purchase them and make it on their laser themselves. Then I started getting a lot of questions on Etsy where I was selling, like, how did you do that? I, I don't want to buy the file, I just I just kind of want to know how you did it so your laser would read it. And I kept getting more questions like that, and I slowly realized that it wasn't like an artistic skill that I was doing. It was more of like a system that I was really like following each time. So I would tell people like, this is how you do this, make sure you set it up like this if you want your laser to cut it. And I realized that that was something that a lot of people wanted to know, and that was kind of the journey that kind of kept going after that.

What was your first online offer?

So the very first thing I did other than selling digital files, the very first online offer was we had put together our digital course called Project Academy, and I was shocked at how many people were really interested in actually just learning the process of it.

So let's get into that. What happened? What happened when you started teaching online?

So what surprised me is that I really was shocked at how many people were genuinely scared of learning a new skill, and they just wanted someone to just sort of not even just teach them the skill, but just like reassure them that guess what, it's not as hard as you think it is. Because sometimes people overcomplicate things and they, you know, see I have to learn Adobe Illustrator as like this huge thing, but actually it's broken up into so many little steps that once you learn it in a systematic way. It doesn't have to be that hard. And so I think I get the constant, like, I'm not a creative person, I can't do this, I don't know how to do this. And once I, like, kind of walk them through, like, actually, here's all the tools and now you're creative. Like, you, you are. And so when I did that initial launch, I feel like it was like $20,000 to $30,000, like, right away as the first offer. And I was like, wow, okay, that was pretty cool. And then it just started growing from there.

Okay, so that's incredible. I mean, yeah, okay, that's amazing.

Granted, I did not know what I was doing. Let's remember that. I had no, like, structure of anyone telling me how to do a digital course. I just sort of winged it.

So when was that? How long ago?

Um, 2023, I think.

Okay, and so talk to me about What has happened since 2023?

Well, so much stuff. So after launching Project Academy, we decided to open up a membership community called Project Members. And so basically the folks that were taking Project Academy wanted another way to continue learning and continue kind of interacting. And so we created this community called Project Members. And so then somehow in the middle of everything, we decided to launch an online event for people who wanted to learn how to use lasers, and that's called the Laser Craft Fest. And so we kind of went from selling individual digital files to the course to the membership to the gigantic event. And so a lot has happened since then. Tell me, I think what I Not that I would go shopping, but I'm just saying, like, I would go for a hike or I would just go out with friends for lunch. You can totally do that, which I absolutely love.

Yeah.

And I think that when I had started this whole thing, I didn't actually realize the amount of freedom that I I would have being a mom. I didn't imagine the amount of freedom I would have just in general of like, there's just so much flexibility. Like I could drop everything I want and everything and go have lunch with my kid at school.

So people are listening, they're probably feeling insanely inspired and also maybe like, how would I even? So what advice would you give to someone who is standing where you were? Maybe they're a stay-at-home mom, maybe they're starting to sell on Etsy, they have this idea, they're not sure what to do or how to do it, what advice would you give them?

I would say pay attention to the thing that you constantly are noticing that you are figuring out over and over and over again. Whatever that thing is, and for me it was making a file that was ready for a laser to read, I was constantly trying to figure out how that was. Whatever thing is, that's the thing you're probably meant to teach. I feel like I didn't like just sort of wake up and know that. Like, I knew that that was the constant problem that I was trying to solve every time I was trying to make something. It was like, okay, cool, I made this amazing flowery thing and I have no idea how my laser is going to read that. And so the more and more I knew that that was the problem for me, that's typically what others just like you are trying to figure out too. And so all Honestly, you find that pattern, you name it, and then you go with it and sell it.

Bael, thank you so much for sharing with us. I've loved watching your business. I've loved just seeing what you do. You do it so beautifully. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much. Okay, are you ready to dive into some Q&A? Um, thank you so much for your comments. Thank you so much for your questions. We are going to, um, cover some incredible topics. You all are so wise with your questions. I'm excited. Okay, uh, let's start with Shannon. Shannon says, how do you know what you should create as a paid course versus giving away these steps for free. So without going into tomorrow in too much of detail, tomorrow is when we are going to discuss how you start to gather the right people for your course. And so you'll differentiate tomorrow what is worth giving away for free versus what is worth someone paying for. So remember at the beginning of today's lesson that I shared with you 7 different things that people will pay for. I'm going to pull it back up. I'm just going to pull it back up for myself. We'll talk through them really quick. So people will pay for clarity, understanding what matters more quickly. Right? Guidance. So what comes next? What comes next? Someone to just say, do this and now do this, right? Those things together provide someone with speed. And so speed is really the thing that we are all most willing to pay for, is a result more quickly. This very specifically, I think, comes up when someone is able to understand how long something is going to take for them to kind of learn on their own or piecemeal together. And so speed to result when someone understands the value of their time, right, um, is, is very much one of the, the things that we will pay for. Context— so how does this very specifically apply to them? Feedback from someone, community, people to do it with, and a trusted mentor. So that's where I would start differentiating, like, your free content versus your paid content. So what is someone here to pay for? The end result more quickly with more clarity with someone that they trust. And maybe it also comes with doing it alongside other people in community, right? So all of those things are what you want to think about when you're deciding on what your course is going to be, what it is going to include. Now tomorrow we'll kind of look at your process. We're going to look at the place where your student begins and where they end in your course, and we're going to place free content around it in a way that makes a lot of sense. I think tomorrow I'm going to give you, you all, 2 unlocks tomorrow that I have just gotten in, I don't know, maybe the last 18 months or 2 years that have completely changed the way I think about gathering people. And, um, it's going to be an incredible time for you to understand what deserves to be free, what deserves to be paid, and how to start gathering. So that's where we're going tomorrow. Okay, the next question is from Shubi. When do you know that you're ready for this? I have tried to learn how to draw humans myself without going to art school, but there are so many things that I learned and so many things that I still have to learn. Do you think someone would trust Me, uh, when I have a portfolio to show too. So I think that means you do have a portfolio to show, is what I think you're trying to tell me. Um, so listen, I shared this a little bit with you yesterday. There are always going to be people ahead of you. Trying to get all my screens set up so I can see your chat and see your questions. Hold on just a second. Um, there are always going to be people both ahead of you and people behind you, and so you— there's no reason to wait until you feel like there are less people in front of you. Um, I remember feeling this way when I first started to, um, to teach. Just, I had this overwhelming feeling of Like, do I know enough? It was imposter syndrome. It was like the same exact thing that you're feeling. I'm also self-taught, so I didn't go to art school. So I actually felt like that didn't—that was like a mark against me. Like I wasn't validated. I had had no one say you are validated to teach this, and so I had all of these same feelings as well until I. decided that there's always gonna be, be people behind me and ahead of me. But I was certain, and I was confident that I could help someone a few steps behind me. Now, if you were at the very beginning of your craft, if you had told me, you know what, I am still— I just started learning how to draw humans, and I'm struggling with it a bunch. And like, I don't think I could help a beginner. I would say, all right, I think it's time to put that particular class idea down until you have more experience, right? But that's not what you said. You said that you have learned a ton about drawing humans, even though you still have tons to learn. Let me tell you a secret. The best educators are still students, and the best educators never stop being a student. And so you actively learning more and more and more, it's going to make you a better educator. So all you have to do to kind of quiet this is place yourself. Of course there's people ahead of you, but are there people coming in behind you just getting started that you could say, hey, let me show you this, hey, watch this? Um, nobody really needs your portfolio to— for you to earn the ability to help someone and to earn from the knowledge that you have gained and gathered. Sounds like the hard way, all on your own. So I just want to kind of validate that feeling is very normal. And also, you can absolutely help someone. In fact, they're dependent that you are. I had something else I wanted to say. There are so many things I learned, so many things I still want to learn. Do you think someone would trust me? What was that other thing I was going to say? It'll come to me. But I want you to get— oh, I remembered it. Okay. So there was a moment for me early in my education career. Actually, this was even earlier than that when I was really dreaming of becoming a fabric designer. I had this overwhelming feeling, like a moment in time that I'll never forget, that said, if there is someone out there doing what I want to do, they're not doing it. Want to do, why not me? Why can't I? Because I was feeling all of these feelings like, who do I think I am? I mean, when I was starting to learn surface pattern design, I had no idea what I was doing. I had no art degree, I had no art education, I had no foot in the door, I had zero people. I didn't have an online presence, I didn't have social media, I didn't have email, I didn't have a business to speak of. And I let this overwhelming imposter syndrome nearly crush me. And I remember thinking, well, somebody out there is doing this, so why not me? And so for you, like, someone is going to teach this, and so why not you too? Like, there's absolutely room for what you've learned from your perspective, from your lived experience, from your trials and errors and the things that you've learned over time that your future students absolutely need from you. So don't wait for reaching a certain place, right? If you have knowledge that would help someone that's a few steps behind you, then you are called to pass that knowledge on, and I truly believe that. Okay, Legacy says, I am not photogenic. Is my voice and my hands and my screen enough? So this is probably one of the, the biggest kind of pain points for people, and it is for me as well. I showed yesterday this video of me from the very beginning. So there were clips of me teaching from back in 2012 all the way to today. And it's painful, and it's hard for me to watch. You can absolutely teach with your hands. I don't know what your craft is, Legacy. You can tell me in the chat if you, if you're here. But depending on the craft, right? So there are many things that you can teach with your hands. There are many things that you can teach with a screen recording. So when I teach Adobe Illustrator, I'm not on camera. I'm doing a screen recording of my my steps. And so there are many, many ways that you can teach without having to be what we call face to camera. So this is called face to camera or talking head. And so I'm a talking head with my face to the camera. That's only one of many, many, many different what we call teaching formats. So you also have overhead, you also have over-the-shoulder You have screen recording, you have voiceover slides. So you could be walking through the process or walking through a video of the process with only your voice showing it. Now, what I would encourage you to do is— yeah, Grace has a great question. Who told you that you weren't photogenic? Because Legacy, that's probably where we should start, is that, you know, The moment that we just kind of like take a deep breath and realize that we're human, and humans love to connect with humans. And so while it is possible to teach with nothing but your hands showing or voiceover slide, my question to you is like, what would you like in a course? And regardless of what someone's background looked like, or what their house looked like, or what they looked like, wouldn't you love to just be able to put a face To the name. Wouldn't you love to just be able to connect the human that you're learning from? And so I want to give you all the permission to start in a way that feels really approachable. So if you need to start with just your hands, that's okay. We'll, we'll talk about that more on Friday when we cover tech. But there are ways that I'll— I can teach you how to find a location that looks really good. Uh, we'll find a place, even if it's like outside or a blank wall, that looks really good. I'll, I'll show you how to find a light that complements your, your face and, and the way that it hits your face. And then you can also do pre-recorded content. So pre-recorded content means that it's just you, you're likely alone, and you can take, um, you know, you can say the thing over and over and over again until you're happy with it. But even it was like 30 seconds at the beginning of a lesson or at the beginning of a course so that someone just gets to know you and feels like we had a human-to-human connection, my hunch is that that will take the experience and make it go much deeper. It is not a requirement. So that's what I'm here to tell you, is that it's not a requirement. But I do kind of want to encourage you to think about it a different way. What would have to be true for me to feel comfortable connecting human to human. Like, we're just bodies and faces, right? Like, just connecting human to human, uh, for a little bit of time. And so maybe there's a way that we can ease into it just a little bit to where you get comfortable. Okay, so Kelly says, how long can we access the replays of the sessions? So we're using a little bit of different different tech this, this time. I don't know if you've ever been to any of my other workshops. If so, you are noticing that the tech is a little bit new and different for us. Um, but one of the reasons is because the replay is actually available for you to watch immediately. So we always send out a replay email, and we are doing that, but our replays take hours to process. And so the way that we are doing it now is that you can watch the replay right away It's hosted on YouTube. It's also on the hub. So if you're on the hub, you can watch the replay at any time. You don't have to wait for us. And also replays of all of the sessions are gonna be live until— let me just triple check my calendar so I don't tell you wrong— the 17th. So not tomorrow, but the next Thursday. So Thursday, September 17th is how long you've got replays. Replays for. Okay, and so you can also watch them right away. So Lacey says, I missed yesterday, but you can go jump in and watch the replay anytime. Okay, Sue Ellen says, how narrow of a scope should our course be? So we start really wide. So yesterday we started wide with broad categories. And we've talked about starting to pull it in some based on skill, passion, and demand. All right, so we also talked a little bit about your niche. So a niche is a very specific category, right? So we talked about niche a little bit yesterday. So how narrow your scope is, Sue Ellen, is like— the question that I would rather ask is, what is the end result that you want your students to have? To have. Start there and the scope will answer itself. So do you want your student— if you're here, you can tell me in the chat— if you want your student to— okay, I'm going to take gardening for an example because flower gardening was one of my big category topics. So do I want my student to be able to grow, let's say, grow herbs in pots on their porch? Do I want them to be able to grow in the ground? Do I want them to be able to grow in raised beds, or do I want to teach greenhouse growing? Okay, so those are a bunch of different examples. Do I want my student to be able to grow in their backyard in a 1-acre plot? Do I want them to be able to give herbs, sell herbs at their local market to their local stores? Do I want them to be able to monetize that skill and make a business out of, out of their herbs, right? So there's all different levels and different kinds of like, hey, this person just wants to grow herbs in their windowsill for their dinners, to like, this person wants to make a business out of it. So you've got to decide the end student result that you want want your course to give someone, that is going to define the scope for you. In this workshop, uh, we're taking— we're doing— we're, we're biting off a chunk that feels manageable. So from everything that you know, I want you to choose a skill or a project from your map that you can teach, that you can decide to teach. And here's the thing, once you understand how to do that, take a skill or project. Once you understand how to do that, you can build any size course. I should have probably said this earlier. So for the workshop, you're going to do one. But after you learn that process, how to break down a part of your process into a skill or a project— where did I go? Um, I'm coming back. I think my camera just went out. It's a different camera, but it's gonna work. So once you understand how to do that skill or project, you can create any size course that you want. So bigger courses that give bigger end results are nothing more than multiple skills and projects that are linked together. So my, my hope is that you figure out you have this kind of unlock on how we think about breaking down a process and teaching it via either skill or project. And then you can make any size course that you want. Maybe a little bit bigger one is a skill, skill, skill, project, right? So maybe it's a little bit bigger. A signature course could be upwards of 50+ skills and projects that are linked together, right? But understanding how to take one skill or one project and kind of reverse engineer it the lessons that fit it are how you really unlock the ability to teach any scope that you want. Okay, I'm here to help you get unstuck. I'm here to help you get unstuck. Okay, the next question I have is from Libby. So Libby says, I have a class in mind that requires very specific materials that I can provide. So have you any experience with a class like this? So Libby, yes. So I would— if you're here, Libby, I would love to know what your craft is. There is a story that you're going to be able to hear this week from Diane Hill. So Diane Hill teaches chinoiserie painting. It's a very specific type of painting, and because of that, it's also a very specific type of silk paper and brushes. And so she also sells the paper and the brushes. So it's absolutely an option. We also sell— it's not a requirement, But we also sell this package called the Inspiration Collection Mood Board Kit. So one of the things that my students have to do at the beginning of a pattern design collection is gather inspiration. So inside this box we have all kinds of goodies, from corkboard and pens for their mood board to things like, um, I've, I've disassembled this box. It's not even all in here, um, but it contains fabric swatches. It contains, um, ephemera so that they can tack up and make their own mood board. It create— it comes with, um, a paintbrush and paint and also paint swatches. And so it's like not mandatory, um, but it complements the teaching very well. So you could absolutely do that. You could do it as an add-on or as a requirement. So let's say— let me see if you've— Libby, have you shared with me? So I'm gonna have to just use an example. Libby, I don't know what you teach, but you could teach a class that comes with the materials. This could solve a major problem for your people as well. There are some logistics to figure out in there, which I'm happy to help you as And so you have, you have to think about like ordering the product, kitting it, assembling it, and shipping it. So we use what you call a 3PL for that. That stands for a third-party logistics company. But we didn't always. So I had many, many years where I was shipping things right out of my studio. So we've got lots of knowledge about manufacturing, kitting, shipping, all the logistics. So you could include it with the class, which means that they buy the class and they get the kit automatically. Or you could include it as something that we call an order bump. So an order bump is, hey, you're buying this class. Do you also want the supplies? Check a box and we'll ship them to you. Or you can sell it like one-off. So our Inspiration Mood Board Kit comes with Surface Design Immersion course. So it's included with the course's price. But then we also sell it one-off on its own for, you know, anyone. So you don't have to be a member, a student of that course, if you want to just buy it on its own. So there's lots of ways to do that. There's lots of ways to think about matching physical products with the digital course. I think it can also be overwhelming, so it's okay if you don't want to think about that right now at all. But it also makes me think about so many of us who have physical portions of our course. It makes me think about Amy, who Does custom yarn, beautiful, stunning yarn. And so she's selling the yarn, and she's finding that people are buying the yarn, but they're stopping their project because they're getting stuck. So she started teaching how to finish the project, which also increased the sale of her yarn. Okay. Interesting, right? So many different ways to do it. Okay, great question, Libby. Mary says, can you remind us how we niche our craft when we don't have any followers yet? So yes, Mary, and again, this is kind of where we're headed tomorrow. Your niche and how many followers you have don't really— aren't really actually related. So something that I think is interesting to think about is when we talk about an ideal student, right? So there's a— there is a student who is perfect for the course that you're making. We call that an ideal student avatar. Okay, so ideal student avatar, or ISA for short. When you think about that person, they may be following you if you have an audience, or if you have any followers, they may be following you, but also your current audience may not be your ideal student. So I don't work from that perspective. We don't let who's following us define our niche. We define our niche and then we gather the people. Okay, I'm going to say that again because I think it's a little bit of like a different way to look at it. So whoever is in your audience right now, they may or may not be an ideal student for What it is that you're building, but they don't get to decide your niche. You get to decide your niche. Niche again is right, like the category. So my niche for Surface Design Immersion is surface pattern design. That's the niche. Well, we decide that first, and then we gather people in that niche. So Mary says, can you remind us how we niche down our craft when we don't have any followers? yet. Perfect. You're gonna define the niche, and then tomorrow we're gonna, we're gonna learn how to start gathering the people within that niche. Got it? Okay. I love this question from Vanessa. Vanessa says, I found evidence that people are intimidated by the sourdough making process, keeping and maintaining a starter, and making their own starter. So I'm not sure if this is 3 different courses or if it is something that should be taught in one course. Also, is something like make a loaf of sourdough a single course to teach? So Vanessa, I want to give you permission to not overthink this. Like, yes and yes. Yes to all of the above. So let's take Laurianne Gonzalez as an example. She is a fine artist, so I, I'm going like off script here because I don't know this is accurate, but I'm gonna guess that if she mapped her process right, it would be gather inspiration for her artwork. It would be gather the right tools and paints for her artwork. It would be probably doing like a rough sketch of where she's going, like a thumbnail sketch. Then it's painting. Then it's like drying and curing over time. And then it's this part of the process that's like document the, the painting, make an art print out of it. So that's Photoshop and the right supplier and the right printer and that kind of thing. Then once you have an art print, then you have like a business, right? So you've got to sell the art prints, you've got to price the art prints, you've got to figure out shipping and all of that kind of thing. So she could have taught any number of those steps, right? And she could have also taught a little wider than she did. She could have started with like how to document your art and then also taken it all the way through pricing and selling. I just want to bring home the point that you can absolutely link several skills or projects together in the same course. So you can absolutely teach just how to maintain starter, right? You can absolutely teach how to make your own starter. You can absolutely teach how to make an entire loaf of sourdough bread, right? So how to do all of it is going to be multiple skills and multiple projects linked together. It's probably going to be more of an identity transformation because someone ends that experience with, I am a sourdough baker, right? I am a sourdough baker. Now you could put push that even further, right? And be like, how to open a bakery would be like the next level. So there's many, many different dozens of options. And so your, your goal is to be decisive this week. Your goal is to decide which one you're going to start with. You are allowed to do it in pencil. You're allowed to pivot. You're allowed to do the other ones later. But for this workshop, your only goal is to be decisive about which one you're going to pick and which one you're going to outline, because tomorrow it is going to help you get clear on how to gather your people the more you've pushed this idea. Okay, so Vanessa, just to give you a little bit of a peek of where we're going, if you were to, to teach an entire course on how to make a loaf of sourdough bread, okay, then you've got to go back to your end, where your student starts, A, B, or C. Do they have no They have some experience, but they have a lot of experience. They just need to improve it, right? So if you only teach how to, how to make your own starter, they probably have some experience. But if you teach how to make a loaf of sourdough bread, then you're okay with someone having no experience coming in and leaving with everything that they need to know in order to make an entire loaf of sourdough bread. I would take that course. I don't know how to make bread. To do sourdough, right? I would take that course. Then tomorrow, this is what I want you to start getting your gears turning on. Then tomorrow, we're going to talk about a step before our signature, a step before our course that could attract the right person that we need, that who needs our course. So potentially, what you could do is create something That is like a beginner's guide to starting sourdough starter, right? A beginner's guide to starting sourdough starter. And maybe that's free, right? And so that is going to start gathering your people because for sure these people, they want to learn how to make sourdough bread in full. So I think clarity will also come tomorrow as we decide which portions of our knowledge we're going to give away for free. For free compared to which knowledge portions of our knowledge we are going to charge for, right? Okay, hope that helps. Okay, all right, good, good, good. Let's see, Natalie says, if you have not taught in person before, how do you find out what people are struggling with. And while there is a lot of demand for my skill, there doesn't seem to be a lot of questions out there on places like YouTube. Okay, Natalie, if you're here, tell me what your skill is that has a lot of demand but not a lot of questions. That's really interesting. You do not have to teach in person to figure this out. I don't teach in person. Uh, I really never have taught in person. I've only ever taught online. And so, um, yeah, I'm trying to think if that's accurate. Like, really have only ever taught online. So you do not need to teach in person in order to make this make sense. What I would do for you, Natalie, is I would encourage you to get really quiet, have a super thinking session. So remove yourself from technology, remove yourself from Google, or wherever it is that you're hanging out online, and get really quiet and go back to the version of yourself that was learning this skill. This can be difficult. Because depending on how long ago it was, every year that goes by, you are a year further away from that version of yourself. And while this isn't going to be true for everyone, for many of you, you are, an earlier version of yourself is your ISA. So an earlier version of yourself is a version of your ideal student avatar. Again, that may not be accurate for everyone, but for many of you it will be. And so the more you can get really, really intimate with that version of yourself, the more kind of aha moments you're going to have about What it is that you learned. In what step did you— in what sequence did you learn it? Was that the right sequence? Where did you get really stuck? What was really difficult for you? What was really easy for you? What did you worry about? What did you waste time on? What had you wished someone could have helped you with? What did you learn the hard way? What do you wish you had someone kind of over your shoulder being able to say like, oh nope, not that one, like do this instead. What kept you up at night, right? So if you have not taught online, you have learned this and you can kind of really go back to that version of yourself and think through all of the kind of pain points that you experienced yourself as you were learning it. Let me see if you've answered me, Natalie. Okay, I'm not sure if you're here anymore, but, um, I would also encourage you, if there's a ton of demand for your skill, I would say keep looking for the questions. If there's a ton of demand, there are questions, um, that you can find, that you can, uh, look for. And so go back into your own history and your own kind of circumference. So your email, your messages, your inbox, your DMs, and then also do a little bit more looking online. So things like book reviews on Amazon can be really helpful, um, tutorials on YouTube like we talked about, Answer the Public like we talked about, um, any kind of community. So if you can go join any kind of community on Facebook, um, just to like, just to consume the content. So we're not there to like, um, comment or tell people about the course or anything like that. We're just there to learn what are people struggling with, what questions are they coming with, what are they asking. And so if there's a Facebook group or something like that in your category, go join it and just listen. Just see what questions are coming up for people, what they're looking for help with, uh, what their biggest aha moments are. You know, we haven't talked about this, but every craft has a moment where everyone kind of gasps, right? So I would love to encourage you to think about this in your own, in your own world. So every craft has a moment where someone kind of gasps. For me, in surface pattern design, it's the moment that we, we draw a square and it fills with our pattern for the first time. For someone who does like linocut, it's the moment that they pull it off and they see their print for the first time. So what is the moment that is in your craft that is like the moment that they see it? It's like the moment that we've all been waiting for. That is often a part of a class that can be really beneficial to make sure that you include. So if there's this aha moment, right, like for Laurie, and I'm thinking it's the moment that they see their art print, and it looks just as good as the original, right? It's that moment that your student is looking for. So make sure that your class includes one of those moments like, oh, I did it, right? Like, I can point to this, and now I can do this thing, or I made this thing. That's kind of the gasp moment that you're looking for. Okay, Beth says, how long should each of the lessons be? A few minutes, 30 minutes, anything goes. So, Beth, it really depends on what you're teaching. So naturally, a lesson is going to have natural breakpoints. So anytime a student needs to kind of pause and go do something, that is a really nice place to break the lesson. So I have lessons in my courses that range from 2 or 3 minutes to upwards of 30 minutes. Some of my pattern tutorials are more like 45 minutes based on the work that we really are doing in one Like, you really need to get all of this in order to go do the lesson takeaway. So I would break them. They've got to be as long as they've got to be in order to get them to the next breaking point of the thing that they need to go do. And so that's kind of how I look at breaking up lessons. Okay, Violaine says, what if I want my course to look and feel really professional? Professional, like you can trust me, but have no idea how to do it or where to start even. So, Violaine, this is, yeah, absolutely achievable and possible, and it can also be really simple to do. So we will break this down on Friday. We're going to break down tech simply. So I'm going to give you on Friday the simplest tech version. So I've been recording, every version of recording I've been doing since 2010, 2000, let's say 2012 was probably the first time that I started to do any kind of online video. And so I've done everything that there is. I've tried way too much technology, and I've got different builds that I highly recommend. And Friday is going to give you the simplest one that is also the most affordable, but it doesn't sacrifice quality. Okay, so it doesn't sacrifice the ability for a student to have a great experience, for it to be beautiful, and for it to sound and look really good. So that's where we're headed on Friday. It's actually a little bit related to Susan's question. So Susan says, I've taken, I've taken other course creation courses, but the process has been overwhelming and I've never created or launched a course. Susan, we got to get you. We got to get— your students need you, Susan. Your students need you. Based on day number 1 of the workshop, it seems like my process is different and I may have a chance of success. Can you speak to how your process is different, or should I wait until day number 4? So Susan, don't leave. Do wait till day number 4, but I will tell you how I'm thinking about about the process. So I shared with you all yesterday kind of my journey with teaching. So I've done tons of different kinds of teaching. I've taught, um, I have a membership, I've got a podcast, I have a signature course, I have smaller— what I would consider like smaller classes, like project-based and skill-based classes. I do free classes, um, I do free classes, I do paid classes, I've got classes courses and memberships and podcasts and all kinds of different things. And, um, I'm going to talk about Art as an Educator for just a second because I think that's important. So when I set out to build something like Art as an Educator, I have to be really careful that I teach at every level. So my goal with Art as an Educator is to truly pull back the curtain on everything that we have in my business that has gotten us to where we are today. Now, my business is a big business. I shared yesterday that since 2018, the education business has generated more than $40 million. We have a team of 14 that work all year. That does not count things like contractors and our support team and our communities and things like that. And then we also have a globally Well, I shouldn't say globally, even though you can get it globally. But we have a magazine that is produced and available in Barnes& Noble. Like, it's a big business. And so my goal with something like Art as an Educator is to truly, like, hand over on a silver platter, like, everything that we have done to build this business. So everything from my recording setup to the surveys that we use to the way that we do scholarships, to the way that we train our customer service team, to the way that we do recording and we think about curriculum and we think about marketing and how we do paid traffic, and at literally everything. Like, we're sitting on so much that we have taken more than a decade to learn. And also, at the same time, I have to hold that someone is going to come in and also not want to ever get to that size. So the, the way that we've reconciled this is that I'm teaching Art as an Educator with 3 different build levels. So the 3 different build levels are Simple, Custom, and Studio. So everything from a recording setup to a launch to traffic, you can decide which build you're doing. The Simple build is the simple build, and it's how I got started. So when I was a one-woman show. I didn't have anyone helping me. I didn't have any money to spend on advertising or anything like that. It's the simple build that I started with. The custom build is the simple build plus some extras, right? So plus some features that you're ready for. And then the studio build, because my mission— I have paint on me— because my mission really is to like fully be transparent about every resource that we are holding inside company, then the Studio Build is at the top. Now, everyone gets all 3, but you get permission to follow whichever one you want. So some of the lessons are for everyone, and again, everyone gets all of the lessons, but other lessons are clearly noted like, hey, if you're doing the Simple Build, this is a Studio Build and you don't— you have permission to skip it if you don't want, if it's going to overwhelm you, or if you just want to watch it and know that it's here for you when you're ready for it. Right. Right? Because my mission is to give people everything that they need and also nothing that they don't need. So how do you come in and do something on a lower budget as simply as possible? And but then also, I know that some of you are here ready for the studio build. You are here ready for investing in the recording studio. You're here ready to understand how we run paid traffic. You're here for that level. And so we've worked really hard to give different levels inside Artisan Educator. So that's, I think, when I think about it, is unique to this experience is how we've really broken down the different things that everyone must have in order to give a really quality experience. Like even the simple build is world-class. The simple build is high quality. It is not sacrificing pricing anything that your student will need. It's just not as complex, and that's exactly where I started. So, okay, next is— okay, says, as a mom returning to work, I lack the same confidence in my skill set that I once had, so I have imposter syndrome, and there really isn't a question here, just gratitude for all the things that you're mentioning in this live workshop. But my team highlighted this and said many people are asking about how to overcome imposter syndrome. So let's talk about imposter syndrome. It's not going away. Okay, so imposter syndrome does not come and go. You learn how to manage it. You learn how to see it and put it in its place. And that really just takes a willingness to do so. So the imposter syndrome, I think it shows up in a bunch of different ways, right? Like feeling vulnerable, worried about people judging you, worried about what people will say about you. Like all of that can kind of get summed up into imposter syndrome. And so One way, like, I think by definition imposter syndrome is like comparing yourself to other people. So you want to know the easiest way to overcome imposter syndrome? So stop looking around. So you've got to be able to kind of like step away from what you're doing and witness your own actions. In a place where you can make a judgment call about them. So if you kind of like step outside yourself and look at what you're doing, you'll be able to identify the actions that you're taking that are causing imposter syndrome. So I don't know, maybe it's like scrolling social media, or maybe it came up for you when we did the demand evidence stack, right? So it is going to be there, but you can kind of say that right there is causing you to feel small, insignificant, not worthy of doing this work. And that is the moment that you've got to make the decision to stop doing the act that causes the imposter syndrome. So you can do that. You can overcome it. You can say, hey, I see that. I see that what I just did made me feel a certain way. so I'm going to stop doing it, right? You can also say, hey, imposter syndrome, I see you, and I'm going to do this anyways. So we talked about fear a little bit yesterday. And I think that oftentimes people look at people who you would, you would say are very successful. And you think, huh, they didn't have fear, they were not afraid. And thus they were willing and able to do this, and thus they became successful. But something that I am like privy to knowing is that every wildly successful person that I get to know in my life is terrified. And you just got to know that, okay? So nobody is out here doing stuff not afraid, okay? Like nobody, nobody is out here doing stuff not afraid. They are doing it in spite of the fear. So they're saying, hi, I'm terrified, and also, here we go. Now, one way to do that is to get really clear about why you're doing it. Because when— again, we talked about this some yesterday, so I won't spend too much time here— but when we're feeling like we got to play small, we have to hold back, we're doing that because we're kind of consumed with thinking about ourselves. What will someone think about me? What will someone say about me? What will they think about how I look or how my home looks, or, um, that I didn't know the answer to that question? It's the judgment, it's the vulnerability, right? But that's all very self-centered, and that's okay because we're human and we are self-centered. But the moment that you can kind of put that down and refocus your energy on the person who Needs you, the person who needs you to feel the fear and feel the imposter syndrome and feel the embarrassment and feel the awkwardness and do it anyways. When you focus on them, your confidence will grow and the imposter will quiet itself. So I would encourage you. This is not official homework, but I would encourage you to think about why are you doing this? You know, it can be selfish at first, like hey, I really need to get out of debt, or hey, I really. want a new house, or hey, I really want to send my kids to college and not make them be in debt, or whatever it is. Like, it can be very self-centered, and that why should be big enough for you to get out of bed and do it afraid anyways. Now, once you fulfill your personal why, your why will become bigger. Your why will become more focused on the impact and the legacy that you can make with your work. And when you get really clear about those whys, all of those whys are big enough for you to be willing to do the difficult work anyways. And so that's what I'm asking you to do this week is to take your knowledge seriously, to consider why are you here? Why, why do you want to do this? What personal reasons do you want? Why do you want to do this personally? And then also outside your personal reasons, like who do you Who do you want to touch with your work? What do you want to change in the world? How do you want to impact future generations? And if you can write that down, when it feels hard, like when you feel like, I just can't figure out my outline, right? Or I just don't want to show up on camera or whatever. When it feels hard, you can remind yourself that your reasons for being here and your reasons for doing this are much, much bigger than that. And that That will help you. That will help you. I think we're, we're winding down with questions. Um, how do you deal with critics of a course that you've spent your own blood, sweat, and tears on? Kind of similarly, um, we have to be willing to allow people to say things about us and let it just be that. So when someone says something about me, I'll just get very personal, okay? When someone says something about me or something that I've created, it tells me more about them than it tells me about me, and that's helpful, especially when this, this person— Helen, I don't know if you have a real experience that you're commenting But like, my guess is that they don't really know you. Um, so who I do care about to my core is the people who know me— my family, my friends, my church, my team. I very much care about the people who know me, what they think about me, and what they think about what we produce. Very much care. Someone who does not know me, who is a critic, um, then their criticism tells me more about them than it does about me. So that's interesting. This course is not that person's type of course. That's all. And then you move on with your day, focus on the people who it is right for. Okay, um, someone, someone critiques anything you do, right? Like, oh, that's interesting. This is not the type of thing that that person likes. Okay, move on and focus on the person that it is for. Okay, I'm not saying that that's easy, but it is helpful because it does not define you. It does not change you. It does not change your mission. It does not get to have a say in your ability to show up because people will try to keep you small. And if you let them, you will stay small forever. But if you are willing to show up anyways, do it afraid and say, okay, when When someone is is critical, then you got to get back to what your mission is here, right? I want you to have a fire in your belly. Really do. I want you all to have a fire in your belly for why you're here, why this course deserves to be out in the world, what it's going to do, what good is it going to do, how is it going to impact someone, how is it going to impact someone to be able to make sourdough in their own home? Okay, you may think like, okay, well they can make sourdough. and bread for their family. But you realize it's so much more than that, right? Like, you realize it is the memories with their children and the, the, the warm bread at the dinner table, but it's also like passed on from generation to generation. But it also impacts someone's confidence. So someone who might have never been able to make bread or something homemade who can now feels completely different. Someone who can bake a loaf of sourdough and take it to someone's home as a, as a welcome gift or as a Christmas gift or as a welcome to the neighborhood gift, like, that changes how some— what someone believes about themselves, right? So like, it is really, really worthy work, whatever it is, whatever your craft is. If it brings you joy, it— if it has brought you any measure of joy, it is worth passing on so that someone else can experience that joy. Honestly, how dare you not be willing to pass on? If you have experienced your craft and it has brought you joy, how dare you not be willing, not get out of your own way in order to help someone else experience the same amount of joy that you have gotten from your craft? That is what I truly believe. My friends, A good place to end. I hope that you have the most amazing evening. Tomorrow we're going to learn how to scoop up your people, how to gather them up, even if you have zero followers, and even if you have a lot of followers but maybe the wrong kind, or even if you have a lot of the right kind but you want more. That's where we'll pick up tomorrow.