# From Artist to Entrepreneur: Webinar Outline **Working title options:** "You're Not Bad at Business. You're Just Untested." or "Test Tile Thinking: How Artists Build Studios That Actually Pay." I built this for 60 minutes, weighted toward current studio owners, with a few spots to speak to people who haven't opened yet. ## 1. The Hook (0–5 min) - Ask the audience to type in the chat whether they've ever said, "I'm just not a business person." Let the answers roll in.- Land the reframe: every one of them has had a pot collapse on the wheel and sat right back down. That's the exact skill business requires.- Promise: by the end, they'll have a way of thinking about their studio that feels like making art, not doing homework. ## 2. Your Story (5–12 min) - Keep it tight: educator, then a Mathnasium franchise you sold because you weren't prepared for the marketing and bookkeeping side, then sales, then Mud Hut.- The payoff: you built Mud Hut to nearly $900K in under three years while working full time.- Key line: "I wasn't born a business person either. I learned it the same way you learned glaze." ## 3. The Real Problem (12–15 min) - Name the pain current owners feel: busy but not profitable, underpriced classes, doing every job themselves, guessing at what to offer next, and dreading slow months.- Reframe it: this isn't a talent problem. It's a thinking problem, and thinking can be trained.- For aspiring owners: the same patterns start before you open, so this is your chance to avoid them. ## 4. Believe It: The Collapsed Pot (15–22 min) - Setbacks are the norm in clay and in business. Artists already know how to fail, recover, and try again.- Shift the language from "I'm not good at business" to "I haven't practiced business yet."- **Exercise:** Write down the business belief you repeat most often. Then rewrite it as a skill you haven't practiced yet. ## 5. Own It: Learn Your Numbers Like Glaze Chemistry (22–30 min) - Artists will research glaze chemistry for hours but avoid a spreadsheet. Same curiosity, different subject.- Teach the three numbers every studio owner should know: what each class costs you to run, your monthly break-even, and which offers actually make money.- Add a real Mud Hut example here, such as a pricing change or offer shift that moved your numbers.- **Exercise:** Calculate your monthly break-even before the session ends, or estimate it if you haven't opened yet. ## 6. Launch & Lead: Test Tile Thinking (30–40 min) - This is your version of observe, decide, act. You never glaze a whole kiln load with an untested recipe. You make a test tile.- Give it your own four steps: Fire it. Look at it. Adjust it. Fire again.- Apply it to business: test one date night, one pop-up, or one membership tier before building a full program.- Failing wisely means keeping the test small and deciding what success looks like before you start.- Collaboration fits here. Find a wingman who thinks differently than you do, and an accountability partner who expects you to show up.- **Exercise:** Choose one test tile to run in the next 30 days. ## 7. Design Wealth: Nothing Gets Wasted (40–48 min) - In a studio, trimmings get reclaimed and rewedged into new clay. Your business assets work the same way.- Repurpose what you already have: seconds become a sale, a demo becomes content, a skill becomes a workshop, and quiet studio hours become private events.- Generosity builds reputation. A handmade mug gifted to a neighboring business owner can turn into a referral partner.- **Exercise:** List three things you already own that aren't earning money yet. ## 8. Recap (48–50 min) - One line per phase: believe you can learn it, own your numbers, test before you build, and reclaim everything. ## 9. The Offer (50–55 min) - Bridge from the framework to the gap: "You've seen how it works. Doing it alone is where most owners stall. That's the wingman piece."- Present pottery studio consulting: what's included, who it's for, and the result they can expect.- CTA: book a consulting call, with a webinar-only bonus or limited spots to create urgency. ## 10. Q&A (55–60 min) - Seed it with one question you hear often in case the chat is quiet, such as "How do I raise prices without losing students?" Send me the consulting offer details (format, price, and what's included) so I can tighten the pitch section, and let me know if you want this dropped into a Google Doc in your Drive. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
