Key Takeaways
- Why Christie thought working as a graphic designer was the only way to use her gifts to make money – and how she found a business model that proved her wrong.
- The difference between features and benefits – and why learning to paint is a great skill, but building a powerful, transformative community is a benefit for everyone involved.
- Why the conventional route to success and all of the autopilot thoughts about what’s possible are often wrong – and how Christie opened the door to something entirely new.
- What Christie’s membership site makes possible for her and her family.
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Ready to reclaim your time and attract more monthly paying customers? Our step-by-step guide will show you how to build a membership site that turns your passion into recurring profit. Click here to download!Memorable Quote
- “It’s about more than painting. It’s about being a part of something. It’s a safe space to share art. They’re so encouraging. Sometimes it’s scary to put your art out there, but the group is so welcoming and loving.” – Christie Hawkins
- “I’m a free spirit. I was basically told my entire life that was wrong, and that I need to get my degree, and do this, and do things the right way. ‘The only way to be successful is to do A, B, C, D, and E.’ I lived that lie. I said ‘I don’t think so,’ and it has opened the door to something so much bigger.” – Christie Hawkins
Episode Resources
Transcript
Read The Transcript
Shelli Varela: So many people think that a membership is just about the content you provide but more often, it’s about your members being seen, being heard, and belonging.
Stu McLaren: There is a big trend brewing that’s revolutionizing the way business is being done. Big companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple are jumping on this too but so are thousands of others in all kinds of markets like photography and calligraphy, fitness, finance, meal planning, lesson planning, dog training, and so many more, and they’re doing it by shifting to a recurring revenue model. Hi. My name is Stu McLaren and for more than a decade I’ve been helping tens of thousands of entrepreneurs generate recurring revenue through membership sites. Join our host, Shelli Varela, as she takes you behind-the-scenes to see how these companies are building a thriving tribe that spends with them every single month. Now, let’s get to today’s episode.
[INTERVIEW]
Shelli Varela: Christie Hawkins, welcome to the It’s a TRIBE Thing Podcast. How are you?
Christie Hawkins: Good. How are you?
Shelli Varela: I’m good. I’m super excited, as I always am to talk to new people on the show here, but yours in particular because I come from a background in art and I know that the value of art and doing the art is so much bigger than the art itself. So, would you be so kind to explain to our unbelievable audience what your membership site is and also your backstory? How did you get to be this person that has the membership site?
Christie Hawkins: Sure. So, I am The Social Easel and I have taught local paint nights for about six years. And then about a year and a half ago, I started The Social Easel Online Paint Studio and opened a membership called Christie’s Inner Tribe. This is my little tribe of women that I teach how to paint so I got to that point. I have been artistic my entire life. I come from a family of artists. My grandpa was an artist. My mom was an artist. So, I grew up in a home of creativity and it’s always been a passion of mine. I was an art major in college and then met my husband, and we moved to Dallas, and I kind of had to put my art on hold and work while he was finishing his degree, and then I became a mom. Long story short, I didn’t get to paint for almost 10 years and I realized it was something that is such a part of who I am and painting and being creative is something that gives me peace like if you’re stressed out. It’s like my therapy. So, art for me is therapy and it just allows you to kind of put life on hold and escape for a little bit and just be creative. And so, after having kids, I thought the only way in this day and age that I could make money being an artist was to be a graphic designer because I thought there’s no way anyone’s going to pay me to paint because people don’t pay painters anymore.
And so, with three kids, one under the age of one, I went back to school full-time to finish my graphic design degree and I was about a year out from getting my degree when my paint party business kind of happened by accident. My 10-year-old was doing a birthday party and she wanted me to do a paint party for her. So, my husband built 10 easels, we set the girls up to paint, and I thought that was that and we would be done. And when the moms came, they were like, “This is so cool like can you teach us how to paint?” And I was like, “Well, I don’t know. Maybe.” They’re like, “You need to do this for us like let’s have a girls’ night,” and I was like, “Okay.” So, I told my husband, I’m like, “Well, I’m going to try it with them and if it works, maybe I’ll start doing some paint parties just to make some extra money while I’m in school.” So, I had 10 friends over. They were my guinea pigs and I said, “If I can teach my 10 friends how to paint, I can teach anybody how to paint because none of them are artists.” So, anyways, it worked and I had a ton of fun and they had a ton of fun, and that was the beginning of my paint party business. In under two years, I grew that business to over six figures or to, not over, to six figures and it was awesome.
I was getting to create again and I was getting to share the love of art with other people, which brought me a lot of joy too and just to see people who maybe thought they didn’t have any artistic talent realize that they do and that they could paint something that they were proud of was awesome. So, it was great and like I said, I’ve been doing it for six years, but about a year-and-a-half ago or probably closer to two years ago, I started getting burnt out on it because I was gone from my family so much. Unfortunately, the job that I had meant leaving them at night because it was a night business. I do paint parties at night at restaurants and so that meant I missed the games and practices and tucking them into bed and it just became too much. I was just praying for another way that God could use my art and my ability to bless other people and to help my family. I kind of stumbled upon, actually, Jennifer Allwood online and she started talking about building a business online and it never occurred to me that that was even possible with what I did. I thought the only way I could make money doing what I did was to physically go into a location and teach people how to paint. Then I found Stu McLaren, who leads TRIBE and started following him and the whole idea of membership site just opened up to me.
So, I launched a year-and-a-half ago and I had no outside audience outside of Springfield, Missouri. So, only the people who painted with me knew me and I did a beta launch and just threw it out to them and said, “Here’s my idea. I want to teach you guys online, be my guinea pigs just like my friends were and let’s see if this works.” And I had about 65 women join immediately. So, yeah, I had no idea what to expect at all. So, we just had this little community and I would bounce ideas off them and I would test different things out to see what they liked best and what were their favorite things and what would they want me to change. And so, they were my beginning, and I teach painting online now and I tell them they get even a better experience than my people who paint live with me locally because they’re getting an aerial view. I have my camera set up directly over my canvas so they can see everything step by step, very details that people can’t see when you’re at a paint night. So, that was about a year-and-a-half ago is when I launched my membership and now, we are just about 200 members strong right now and we are relaunching in 35 days to accept new members. I started out with again, only local people who knew me and now I have women all across the United States and Canada. And it’s just amazing to see how God has taken this and turned it into something that I never thought possible and to be able to touch so many lives that are in the same town as me. It’s been an exciting ride.
Shelli Varela: Well, I love it. Let’s unpack this because I always just love the human spirit and here you are this person that has this skill, this gift, but the means by which you felt was the only way to roll it out and have a business was compromising the one thing that you love the most, which is your family. And I so love what you said earlier, you were talking about getting your degree in graphic design and what you said was, “I thought it was the only way.” And I wonder how many of us out there also have a preconceived notion or the world has given us a memo about what a business has to look like. And so often we don’t usually question that. But does it actually have to look that way? Is that actually the only way? So, I love that before you had it all figured out just, “Okay. I’m just going to ask and we’re just going to bootstrap it and we’re going to get the ocean,” and the beauty thing about that that some people forget that are starting out in their membership site journey is part of the most fun and the most impact you can make is co-creating that with your people.
Christie Hawkins: Absolutely. For me, that was priceless and those women that started with me, my founding members, they are still with me today and they have helped build my membership into what it is today. Their feedback and their input on what we do and how we do it, yeah, we are so close like we’re close online and we started just this last month motivational Zoom calls where we all get on Zoom and we talk to each other and get to know each other all across the United States and pray for each other at the end and we have local meetups, and I did my first Christmas party last year. It’s so much more than painting. My membership is called a Tribe and it really is. We call ourselves Tribe sisters and they have this bond with these other women who are like-minded just like them, who love the same things they love, and they’ve become like family. It’s so much more than painting and it’s about feeling a part of something and they’ve given each other a safe space to share their art inside of our Facebook group.
We have our own private community and they’re so encouraging of each other and someone will post a painting or maybe even just a process. Everyone’s so encouraging, like, “Oh my gosh, that looks so good,” and then people don’t feel, you know, as an artist, or as someone who creates something, sometimes it’s scary to put your art out there because you don’t know what people are going to think of it but in this group, they’ve made it so welcoming and loving that people feel very safe sharing it, whether they think they did a good job or not.
[ANNOUNCEMENT]
Stu McLaren: So many people in all kinds of niche markets are leveraging their existing knowledge and influence and they’re transforming it into passive monthly income. This isn’t luck. This is a repeatable formula for producing a growing subscription income and if thousands of others can do it, you can too. To find out what type of membership site would be right for your business, visit GetTRIBEGuide.com. Go to GetTRIBEGuide.com and download it today. You’re awesome.
[INTERVIEW]
Shelli Varela: I love that you said that and I want to drive this home for everybody else who’s listening as well. There is the feature and there is the benefits. So, the feature is, yes, you’re teaching people how to paint and this is true of anybody’s membership site. It’s the same. People will come to you and you just said something that really struck me because people will be vulnerable enough to share the thing that they’ve created that sort of spot where they might be tentative to put it out there. The bravery that it takes to be able to share something that you feel vulnerable about is a brave act. So, not only are you enabling these women to come together but you’re also enabling them to put themselves out there, practice putting themselves out there, practice receiving and receiving feedback.
I know for myself and you can tell me if this is true for you as well, painting or art is so much more than the painting or the art. I know like so many people, especially as life gets so busy, so many people are taking on meditation practices, and I hear this all the time. It’s like, “Oh, I can’t quiet my mind. I need to meditate. I need to stop spinning. I need to stop spinning the plates and get centered.” And many people when they try to start meditation, they’re not able to sit still, they’re not able to have their mind not wander but the benefits you get from meditating are inconceivable. But the beauty thing about painting is it almost allows you to get out of your head, to get into your body, and to kind of find those answers in a way that really does offer a similar kind of peace for your people.
Christie Hawkins: Yeah, I agree 100% and I was actually talking to my therapist about this the other day because we’re talking about all the things spinning and being a busy business owner and mom of three. We were talking about that exact thing and I said, “You know what, I painted two new paintings this week and out of the craziness of my week, those few hours that I did that, like it all just goes away like I’m focused on that.” You’re focused on the brushstrokes and it’s just so calming and relaxing. You can’t think about the other stuff and create at the same time. It forces you to slow down. It forces you to be methodical and, for me, I love paint. I love the texture of paint and just watching things come to life as you’re putting them on canvas. And I know that for a lot of my women, one woman in my group, her story touched me so much. Her name was Debbie and bless her heart, you know, sometimes technology can be difficult, and she couldn’t figure out how to get to the videos and she was struggling. She said, “Can I just call you?” And I was like, “Yeah, I’ll walk you through it.”
And so, I called her, got her where she needed to be, and at the end of the phone call, she said, “I just want to tell you what a blessing you are to me because life has been so hard.” And she goes, “I own a farm and I’m busy every day and I’m working that farm every single day.” She goes, “I’ve lost both my parents in this last year. I’ve lost a sister.” And she goes, “And I work all day and the only thing that pushes me through it is knowing that when I come home and I come inside, I get to paint with you. And I know that I can push all that aside and I have that time.” And she goes, “And I look forward to it every single night.” That’s just one of the stories and I don’t think until probably about a year into my membership did I realize the impact that it was having. It is so much more and now I tell people I’m like, “I’m teaching you how to paint but it’s really not about that because, oh my gosh, it’s so much more than that. The way it’s helping people personally deal with struggle or pain or whatever.”
And then what these women are doing, I mean, my tribe inspires me. They are taking what they are learning and they are giving it to other people. Shali last week took one of the paintings that she learned and went to an Alzheimer’s community center and painted with these older women and she sent the pictures in our group and these people are smiling from ear to ear and they are so happy they painted something and she just gave the gift of art and joy to them. And Gail is using what she learned and she’s doing a fundraiser for her church’s youth group and she’s able through art to bring money to a youth group that otherwise wouldn’t have money to go on the trip that they’re going on. I mean, it’s just like story after story like that and I’m like you guys my heart is so full of joy and I’m so thankful that God opened my eyes to something so much bigger than I could have ever imagined. And this wouldn’t have been possible if I wouldn’t have started a membership.
Shelli Varela: It’s so beautiful. And I want to remind everybody that at one point you said you thought the only way was something else.
Christie Hawkins: Yeah. And we’re trained, I’m an entrepreneur at heart and nobody else in my family is and my husband is because he owns his own chiropractic office, but our lifestyle in this whole like I’m a free spirit, follow your dream type of girl, I was basically told my entire life that that was wrong. And no, you need to go get your degree. No, you need to go do this. You’re not doing things the right way like the only way you can be successful is to follow A, B, C, D, and E and I lived that lie and I thought I had to do it that way. And then I was like, “No, I don’t think so. I’m going to go this route instead,” and it has opened the doors to something so much bigger.
Shelli Varela: I love that you said that because I also am at a point where I’m challenging all of those old memos, all of those autopilot thoughts about what is possible, what is impossible, what things are supposed to or should look like. And it’s so funny when we realize that a lot of that programming is just automatic and that we can, in fact, write our own memo about what that gets to look like and what we want to create. And I wanted to ask you this last question, you have created that. You’ve created a community. You’ve created a safe space where women, can exercise their boundaries, and be vulnerable and belong and come together. What has the membership site you created meant for you and your family and now being able to spend time with your girls?
Christie Hawkins: So, it’s really been life-changing for me. I was able to replace my income that I’ve made with local paint nights through my membership and that happened about seven or eight months ago. And so, when I used to have to work two to three nights a week, It then became like, well, I can work a night this week if I want to but more than that, towards the end of the school year, my big goal, I have always wanted to be able to take the summer completely off with my girls and just have fun, not worry about like if we’re at the pool, I don’t want to have to worry about going home and shower and get cleaned up and plan for a paint night and do that. I just wanted to have fun with my kids this summer. And I was able to take the entire summer off. And we went to a family vacation in Florida and this year we’re deciding to skip Thanksgiving at home and we’re taking them to Mexico instead.
Just getting to spend, I mean, it is exactly what you said earlier, I was working my business so I could provide for my family, but at the sacrifice of being with my family. Now, because of the membership, I’m able to work while they are in school and I’m able to do so much more in less time and it’s allowing me more time with my family. I can go to all their games. I don’t have to miss them because I’m required to and I can allow us to take these memorable trips together as a family, just the five of us, because of what this has allowed me to do.
Shelli Varela: If you had one piece of advice to give somebody who right now is thinking, “I think there’s something I want to do,” but they think the only way I can do it is _____, which is not a membership site, a traditional role and they’re thinking now after hearing you and your story that, “Maybe a membership site could possibly be for me,” what advice would you give that person?
Christie Hawkins: I would say just go for it. I think if God has put that desire in your heart, that you have to follow that and that’s what I did. I just kind of followed his calling and you don’t have to have it all figured out. I will say that. You don’t have to have it all figured out. You can have an idea and you can throw the idea out there and I kind of have this philosophy. I used to be a really big perfectionist and think I had to have everything planned before I tried anything. And now I’m more of like let’s throw the spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. It’s okay. You can only grow by failing. And so, I say fail forward, like try it. And then what didn’t work that time then tweak it and try it a little different the next time. You’re only going to grow if you’re willing to fail in the process. So, you’ll never know if you don’t try it.
Shelli Varela: I love it. And maybe the sign you’re waiting for is this podcast you’re listening to right now.
Christie Hawkins: Yes.
Shelli Varela: I love it. Thank you so much. Christie, if people are looking for you online, where’s the best place for them to locate you?
Christie Hawkins: The Social Easel and it’s across the board. So, you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube and just type in The Social Easel and you’ll find me.
Shelli Varela: I love it. I appreciate you. And thank you so much for coming.
Christie Hawkins: Thank you so much.
[CLOSING]
Stu: I hope you love that story. It’s amazing, right? That’s what It’s a TRIBE Thing is all about. So many people in all kinds of niche markets are leveraging their existing knowledge and influence and they’re transforming it into passive monthly income. Listen, this isn’t luck. There’s a repeatable formula for producing a growing subscription income and each week we’re going behind the scenes to show you exactly how they did it. Get the latest stories and actionable ideas from each episode at www.ItsaTRIBEThing.com and if you know one other person who could benefit from this, tell them to subscribe. Tell them to go to ItsaTRIBEThing.com.
[END]
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