WELCOME TO SEASON 4 OF BUSINESS OF CRAFT
Welcome to Business of Craft, a show designed to help entrepreneurs with fabric or fiber businesses become more successful. Our guests share best practices and teach effective marketing skills, that help crafty business owners learn to grow and scale. Let’s start crafting a better business together!
My guest today is Lyric Kinard, founder of the Academy for Virtual Teaching. Lyric is a fiber artist, quilter and author of the book, Art + Quilt: design principles and creativity exercises. In 2011, she won the award for International Association of Professional Quilters Teacher of the Year. She has written extensively for Quilting Arts Magazine, appeared on Quilting Arts TV, and The Quilt Show.
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#1 You have so many skills as a fiber arts and quilting teacher so it makes total sense that your current venture took you into virtual teaching which is what we’re going to talk about today. Can you start with a little bio on how you arrived at this juncture in your career?
#2 Let’s just explain what the Academy for Virtual Teaching is, what’s the goal of your business?
#3 On your site, you say “Taking your in-person workshops into the virtual world can help you grow your income without adding to your workload, and leave you more time for actually making the things you love!” Can you speak more to the income piece of this specifically, what kind of supplemental income do most teachers earn?
#4 How do you determine what content you will produce and how will you differentiate your content from others in the marketplace?
#5 Let’s talk about the barriers to entry. I’m sure there are so many listeners today thinking, “I could probably teach a virtual class except that…” What are the excuses you hear most often?
#6 Share with me the ways you ensure both teachers and students feel a sense of belonging at the Academy?
#7 Where do you think new teachers underestimate the undertaking?
#8 Can they use your platform if they’re not in the masterclass? Or are those tied together?
#9 What do participants get for the subscription?
#10 What is the advantage of paying for a third party platform versus trying to figure it out manually on your own?
#11 Virtual teaching really exploded during the pandemic and it will continue to evolve. What do you see on the horizon as far as the future?
#12 I want our listeners to know you’ve got many virtual classes available on technique and design on your profile website Lyrickinard.com. Which ones are the most popular?
Key Takeaways:
- There are so many benefits to virtual classes – and they won’t all disappear even when the pandemic is a memory. Think global audiences, accessibility issues, natural events/weather issues, hybrid organization (live or virtual)
- Don’t start with the Iceberg, start with the ice cube.
- Find a supportive community (like Academy for Virtual Teaching ) where you can work through the steps one at a time and build your business as you can.
GOLDEN TIP: When you start building your own classes, get an external hard drive, organize and keep all your original materials in folders/tagged in case you ever need to move stuff later!
