How to Build an Online Art Course One Step at a Time with Marcela Strasdas

Lyric Kinard (00:41.784) Hello friends, welcome to Creatives on Camera. Today we have with us Marcela Strasdas and she is a painter, a teacher online, a beautiful soul and I can't wait for you to meet her as we talk about her online teaching business and her whole journey. Marcel, I am so grateful that you are here with us today. Why don't you introduce yourself and us a little bit about how you became an artist and then why you decided to teach. Marcela Strasdas (01:17.91) Thank you so much Lyric for having me here, for inviting me. It is truly an honor to be here with you and your guests. My name is Marcella Strastas and I am originally from Argentina. I live in Canada now and I became a painter about 24 years ago. But I originally went to university to be an ESL teacher and translator and later on moved to Canada and I always knew that I was going to be painting or creating one day because I kind of wanted to try that but I started sooner than I expected. I thought that I was going to do it like when I retired kind of thing. Lyric Kinard (02:10.019) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (02:10.806) But then as the kids were born and I wanted to have some time to myself, the opportunity came that I started painting and I just haven't stopped. started to, it all started as a way for me to have time for myself. And then it just went from there and it grew. And here I am today, 24 years later and I am. teaching now and going into that aspect, I just painted for a long time. I wanted to get my skills built and I believe that I wanted to just get myself to the point where I consider myself at a certain level. And then I was always sharing. with people and people were always getting excited and people would come back and say, I talked with you and I went home and I painted, I started painting. And it seems that the teaching part of me and the nurturing part is very innate. And I had the teaching background from when I was teaching ESL. So then I have just gone into the online teaching mainly just probably about three years ago. Lyric Kinard (03:22.819) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (03:31.616) two years ago. Lyric Kinard (03:32.963) All right. So this journey sounds so familiar, right? I started my art form right after I had babies and same, I just needed some sanity, something that I could do that stayed done. And that was mine that I could see in the real world. Because, you know, moms, little kids, everything else we do gets destroyed as soon as we do it. Right. And you don't see tangible results from raising kids for years and years. Marcela Strasdas (04:04.724) Yeah, and it was also the mental space that I needed at the time, you know, to just be myself because I, when the kids were born, I became a stay at home mom. My husband and I decided that I would stay at home and raise the kids. So then I kind of disappeared, you know, as a person. I, this was just going back or starting actually to bring out the creative. Lyric Kinard (04:07.914) Exactly. Marcela Strasdas (04:33.974) that I had not really nurtured before. So yeah, definitely it was that mental space that was so good for my soul. was the only time I joined a club, a painting club, and it was the only time that we got a babysitter. And we would get a babysitter every Monday afternoon and I would go to that club and just paint and forget about the world. Not that it was a bad thing and I needed to be forgetting any bad things. It was just my time. Lyric Kinard (05:03.886) Great. Right, this is exactly my story too. And that's one of the reasons why we want to share this. We see the joy and the peace and the accomplishment that comes from being able to create, be able to do something tangible with your hands, to bring something beautiful that other people can see is beautiful, right? And... Marcela Strasdas (05:10.601) you Marcela Strasdas (05:25.632) Yes. Marcela Strasdas (05:33.61) Yes. Lyric Kinard (05:35.139) I'm sure all of the mothers out there can relate to the feeling of you give up everything else for keeping these tiny things alive, right? And it's good, it's good. But my art form literally saved my sanity. I had a lot of trouble and it was... It was a beautiful finding myself and finding the soul and then turning around and being able to teach it helps share that with others. So how did you start? Where did you first start teaching? How did in-person classes first start? Marcela Strasdas (06:10.624) Yes. Marcela Strasdas (06:21.728) So I was doing some demos. I started to get invited by local groups to do demos and painting demonstrations and they worked out. Everybody was excited. Everybody was happy. I knew that I wanted to do something. So, and I knew that I wanted to do something online because I didn't want to be tied down to being. taken with teaching every Wednesday afternoon, for example, right? I wanted to have a little bit of the freedom to do it from anywhere I wanted, as well as not having to be physically in one place. Being from Argentina, I spend some time in Argentina every year with my mom and my family. So the fact that I can do it from there is just such a bonus. Lyric Kinard (06:53.624) Right. Marcela Strasdas (07:19.222) And then going back to your question, I did first a live component of I said, OK, this is what I want to teach. And I am primarily an oils painter now. So I said, OK, I want to teach a course on how to get started with oils, because to me, when I switched over to oils from other media. I was so confused and it was super frustrating to learn the materials, to see and understand how the process goes and how everything behave. So I said, I am going to create the kind of course that I wish I had had back then because I was asking many different fantastic artists and I was always getting different opinions. no, you start like this, you start like that. So that is what I did. I set out to create. the course that I wish I had had when I was starting with oils. I did first an in-person version and it was very small. And I just had people here in my backyard and we did a four weeks course in which that allowed me to test the content, right? And to test that that was. Lyric Kinard (08:25.807) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (08:42.412) Marcela Strasdas (08:45.705) that I was on the right track. Lyric Kinard (08:47.289) Right, that is so important. If you haven't taught before, even though you've built this amazing skill, if you haven't taught before, it's a different skill than doing the thing, you know, and you were trained. I've taught and spent a long time really learning how best to... Marcela Strasdas (09:02.368) Yeah. Yes. Lyric Kinard (09:12.463) teach how to convey information, how to organize curriculum, how to do all that. But testing it out with real people in real time so you can get feedback because they'll come up with things that you hadn't thought of. Right. It's really, really important to it's, you know, beta test and get feedback from a small group of students. That's very, very good. Marcela Strasdas (09:20.832) Yeah. Yes. Marcela Strasdas (09:26.794) you hadn't thought of, right? Lyric Kinard (09:44.793) Did you teach in person for a while before you decided to move online or were those pretty close together? You decided to teach and then almost immediately. Marcela Strasdas (09:53.759) I knew that I wanted to take that course online. So that was just my tester, right? Something that I didn't mention is that for many, many, many years, I was involved in organizing classes and workshops with one in my own business and then another time for a local, it's called the Federation of Canadian Artists. Lyric Kinard (09:59.671) excellent. Lyric Kinard (10:12.429) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (10:22.511) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (10:22.914) And for my local chapter, I was in charge of hiring and organizing the whole workshop. So throughout my art career, I have attended hundreds of courses and workshops and classes. yeah, that's I never went to art school, right? And that's the way I made my own art school, I always say, because I handpicked who I wanted to learn from. And Lyric Kinard (10:37.155) Hmm, which is the best way to learn. Marcela Strasdas (10:52.714) I was exposed to many different ways of teaching, to many, many different exercises and many different approaches, many different media. And so even though I hadn't had all the experience of teaching in person, I was equipped already with a lot of experience in. attending those classes and doing it from an organizer point of view too, right? Lyric Kinard (11:18.393) Right, and I've done the same thing. I come from the quilting world and before I started teaching, I volunteered as program chair. So finding and hiring and organizing the whole thing from the outside, but then I knew I wanted to teach before I started teaching. So I attended courses and I would... I would just be sitting there with a notebook, not even doing the project everybody else is doing because I want to see how they teach. And it's interesting because you learn a lot about how you don't want to teach from some teachers, right? And you also see things that really, really work well. mean, and I took courses, workshops with all kinds of really, really well-known people in my Marcela Strasdas (11:53.726) Yes, you see what works and what doesn't work, right? And you see the response. Lyric Kinard (12:10.125) medium. And, and it was it was exactly that, you know, some of them taught me so much and you can learn so much from, again, the things that you know you don't want to do as well as the things that work really well, classroom management, how to organize your billing, how to present your whatever it is you're doing technology, you know, just Marcela Strasdas (12:11.744) same here. Lyric Kinard (12:40.161) All of those things, there's so much to learn. Marcela Strasdas (12:43.646) Everything, everything from like how not to start a class, you know. I remember this one course, it was a very small group of people and the instructor, probably she was just very shy and self-conscious herself, but she started just chit chatting with a couple of people at the front. And then she just started teaching, like no introductions. Lyric Kinard (12:47.951) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (13:09.718) know like, hey, let's have a round and see who we are, nothing. And it felt very disconnected. So yeah. Lyric Kinard (13:18.701) Yeah, there was a lack of community building there. Marcela Strasdas (13:21.512) That's right. So then there's all of those things that you go, OK, no, I don't want to do that. Right. OK, I want to be that kind of teacher. Right. So you do learn a lot just from I learned a lot through all of those years. Lyric Kinard (13:36.431) And then moving that to online is a whole additional set of skills, not just the technology, but it's a completely different kind of communication through a screen than when you're there and you can see the entire body language and, you know, it's how did you learn that? Marcela Strasdas (13:42.198) Yes. Marcela Strasdas (13:53.738) Yes, yes. So I just jumped in. I jumped in. well, the pandemic actually was very instrumental in this, right? Because we all got very comfortable with Zoom. During the pandemic, at certain points, I was hosting, let's just paint together. Lyric Kinard (13:59.568) Trial by fire. Marcela Strasdas (14:21.978) little afternoons. Yeah, where I was not teaching, I was not teaching yet officially at the time, but then I was facilitating this, right. So the pandemic was actually very, yeah, instrumental in getting us to move to the online world, right. And then I also got Lyric Kinard (14:22.231) Mm-hmm. Open work sessions. Marcela Strasdas (14:49.334) I started working with a Canadian company, are called Mastreus, and they are a company that has mentors and has people that want to work and learn from these mentors. And they also have a facilitator. So I was a facilitator. So then you have the mentor and then you have the group and then there's the in-between person that is this navigator. And I was a navigator for a master's for a couple of years. And again, that gave me a lot of the tools to the zoom tools, you know, and this is the way we can do it online. And that was very good. They invited me later on to be a mentor myself. And again, that was another step, you know, for me to grow into. And it was. a lot of fun and I just started, right? Going back to the digital, I purchased a course by our mutual mentor, James Wedmore. And I knew that I wanted to have a digital component and I followed a lot of his teachings and mentoring, right? for, especially for all the marketing part and how to put a course together. I had it all on sticky notes. created, I said after I had the four weeks in-person class, I said, okay, let's put it together now as an online curriculum. So I started putting everything in sticky notes. knew that I was, so then these were gonna be the different modules, right? Which were the four different weeks that I had done on in-person. Lyric Kinard (16:21.272) Hahaha Lyric Kinard (16:28.624) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (16:34.884) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (16:42.552) Right? Marcela Strasdas (16:43.826) Then I added an introduction and then I added a finishing. So then I already had, I ended up with seven modules in the first course that I created and each topic and each sticky note then for me became, this is going to be a video. This is going to be a video. And that, that is how I started creating the whole content. And then as I was doing, it's like, okay, then move it over here to the other side. And that worked really well for. Lyric Kinard (17:10.679) Right. Us visual people and those walls of sticky notes and mine are color coded and you can move them around and they're great. Yeah, well that just helps me with my ADD to be able to see it visually mapping at a glance. But you know, I love people who can do everything on a spreadsheet or a document and I need it big and visual out on the wall. Marcela Strasdas (17:19.018) I don't remember if I colored them. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Marcela Strasdas (17:39.358) I get lost quite easily inside spreadsheets sometimes, although I have quite a few of them around too. The whole how to do it part was very overwhelming at first. To think of the enormity of, okay, I have to record these things. I don't even know how to. It's like, well, you just start trying, right? And the first ones don't work. Lyric Kinard (17:43.962) Mm-hmm. Yeah, me too. Lyric Kinard (18:07.066) Hmm Marcela Strasdas (18:09.046) The first video I think I made like 55 million takes and then it got easier and easier and easier. And I am, I'm not an expert by any means, but now I can just jump on the video and talk. And I have told my students that we're not here to have it perfectly created video. Lyric Kinard (18:13.552) Of course. Marcela Strasdas (18:35.336) we're just hanging out in the studio here, we're painting together and that's the approach that I want to give. And I just start talking and if I make mistakes, well, I have learned to be kind to myself and it's like, it's okay. Yeah, I get to the editing part of a video now and I noticed that, my hair was like that for the whole time. And it's like in an olden time, I would have probably Lyric Kinard (18:57.68) Ha! Marcela Strasdas (19:01.686) re-recorded the whole thing, you know, because it has to be perfect and now I have let go of that and it has been quite liberating actually. Lyric Kinard (19:12.618) It is because your students are not there to look at your hair. And we need to realize that too, right? Marcela Strasdas (19:20.66) Yeah, and I prefer to spend my time not creating that perfect video, but painting and growing myself and staying excited and engaged in my own practice because that is something else that I want. I want to keep my own painting practice, is so, it feeds my soul. So I want to, and I also teach from my own experiences, right? I teach them what has worked for me and if all of a sudden I'm not painting anymore I feel that I cannot be sharing that with my students anymore. Lyric Kinard (19:55.761) Right, good. So the first course that you started working on was entirely pre-recorded. Is it an on-demand course that now lives on a platform somewhere and that people can sign up for anytime? Marcela Strasdas (20:09.184) Yes. Yes, yes, I created that first course. It is self-standing and I do have a Facebook group for it. But other than that, it doesn't need any more work on my part, right? Touching base with the students. I do like to have a first initial visit with my students. So I invite them to book a one-on-one with me. And I actually have had people sign up for the course because they say how? Nobody else offers that one-on-one personal touch and that's I signed up. So yeah, people can just... Lyric Kinard (20:47.715) Onboarding, yeah. Lyric Kinard (20:52.62) And you're charging enough that it's worth giving up that time with people that come in. Marcela Strasdas (21:01.634) I guess so. I think so. No, no. Well, well, I don't, fortunately and unfortunately, I haven't had millions of students. Like I wanted to chat about overnight success. No, nothing has been an overnight success for me. it, to me, it has been all about proving. Lyric Kinard (21:03.76) It's not feeling terrible yet. If it feels okay, then it's enough, Marcela Strasdas (21:31.176) my idea, proving that what I have has value, and then learning how to put it out, right? So at the moment, I have been building my machine, I have been building my all the mechanisms that I need to have in place to be able to sell these on a consistent basis. I have had more than 100 people, you know, purchase the course, so I am. Lyric Kinard (21:59.729) That's fantastic. Yeah, that's proof of offer. I mean, there is something there that people want. So when you talk about the machine for our audience, that is the marketing mechanism. That is the system that helps you get your offer, what you're teaching out in front of the people who need it. And, you know, that's sometimes the hardest part of what we're doing is Marcela Strasdas (22:00.052) Very happy and pleased. Yes. Marcela Strasdas (22:27.85) It is. Lyric Kinard (22:28.954) finding our people and bringing them in because there's so many parts of that that have to work in order for them to say, yes, you're my person, right? Marcela Strasdas (22:40.778) That's right. Yes. Yes. Yes. So one thing is to create the course and have a proof that it's working. Another very different thing is to actually sell the course because just like with artwork, like the fact that we Lyric Kinard (22:45.936) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (23:00.662) paint beautiful paintings and have a website doesn't mean that people flock to your website to buy the paintings, right? And it's exactly the same thing with the courses I have found. Lyric Kinard (23:17.52) Where do most right now those those people that have purchased your course, where do think they found you? Marcela Strasdas (23:24.576) So nowadays I am running a webinar. I'm running an automated webinar, which is a master class where I show people my process and I do a painting in front of them. And yeah, I just show them the whole process. So this is through ads, mainly that people are coming to my master class. Lyric Kinard (23:50.435) Okay, so it's paid ads to a free video that shows your process and then free class, right? But it's a pre-recorded video that is the class, right? And then within that class, and because they have to give you their contact information in order to access the class, then the messaging pulls them in to your paid. Marcela Strasdas (23:53.398) Yes. A big class. Yeah. Marcela Strasdas (24:02.304) Yes. Yes. Lyric Kinard (24:19.899) course, right? Marcela Strasdas (24:21.802) Correct. At the end of the master class, I offer the course. And of course, I have a special offer for them inside there because they have watched the master class. And then I follow up with a series of emails. And that's how it's working at the moment. So I did that and Then after I knew that I wanted to have a membership afterwards. So I had the course and it was okay. It's running, it's working, people are happy, it's all well. So then I wanted to give the people that do the course and finish the course the follow up, you know. system so that they can keep on deepening their skills and keep having the support and just keep growing as artists and the community exactly. So I already knew that I wanted to do a membership too. So I decided to start a membership and in this membership we have a monthly class. Lyric Kinard (25:24.889) and the community. Marcela Strasdas (25:39.926) or a monthly focus, a monthly learning. So sometimes it's one video, sometimes it's a series of videos, sometimes it's live or recorded if I am traveling because again, having that flexibility was so big for me. And then we have also a monthly community call where we answer questions, we do painting reviews, just... talk about anything that is happening in our art world and that's the community part that is so so so important. Lyric Kinard (26:13.883) Tell me how these are presented to people. Actually, the question I'm asking is what platforms are you using in order to deliver the course and the membership? Marcela Strasdas (26:26.304) So. Marcela Strasdas (26:30.878) Yeah, at the moment I'm using Kajabi, which is a very substantial platform. And that's what I'm using at the moment for both the master class for the Get Started with Oil course and for the membership. And I also use Facebook groups. I have two Facebook groups for each of the two things. Lyric Kinard (26:33.425) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (26:52.785) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (26:55.44) And I know that there are people that don't like Facebook and are not on Facebook. And I could start offering my community somewhere else. But being in other platforms hasn't worked for me when I am in groups, right? I just don't go to those because it's so much easier for me to stay in Facebook. So that's what I have decided to do. And so far it hasn't been a huge deterrent. Lyric Kinard (27:24.113) Good, good. And then when you have your lives, you're just on Zoom together. Marcela Strasdas (27:30.038) Zoom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just zoom. Simple. And it's just zoom meetings. You know, I haven't done and I haven't bought any of the extra zoom things. Even when I was running live webinars, running the live master class, I would run them through zoom and just through zoom meeting. You have the capability of turning that into a focus mode so that then the viewers are only seeing your Lyric Kinard (27:34.043) Super easy. Lyric Kinard (27:38.001) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (27:59.7) seeing you and what you're presenting instead of seeing all the screens. So I, it's got its drawbacks to do it like that because you don't have a lot of data and information that you may need later on. But it was the easy way for me to get started. Right. And that is so important for me. Like I said before, it was overwhelming to think of everything that needs to happen for me to create the course from. creating the videos, deciding what to teach, editing the videos, putting them on a platform, communicating, emails. It was when I saw everything like that, it was just a bit too much. And it took me a few years actually to get started. Once I got going though, I was tackling everything as, okay, what is the easiest? simplest way for me to put this out there. I can make it better later. And also, I'm not going to think about everything that I have to learn right now, because if I think of that, I get overwhelmed and I don't do anything. So for me, it was like, okay, right today, I am going to create the curriculum. And it was okay, that step is done. Okay, next time I'm going to start videoing. Okay, you need to learn about videoing. And at that point in time, I would start researching about that. I was not researching or thinking of editing then, because again, I would not have done it. Do you know what I'm saying? Lyric Kinard (29:29.937) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (29:40.366) Absolutely. You knew where you wanted to go, right? So you knew the finished, this is what I want to, I have a really good idea of what I want to offer. And then you looked back and just looked at the very first step in that direction. You don't have to do everything, right? You you climb a mountain one by lifting your foot and putting it in front of the other one. Marcela Strasdas (29:44.405) Yes. Marcela Strasdas (29:58.59) And I did one. Marcela Strasdas (30:06.238) Yes, yes, it's- Lyric Kinard (30:07.134) And that's a very small part of the distance, but that is what gets you there. Marcela Strasdas (30:13.718) Well, and it's just taking action. And that's what I teach my students to write is like, if I think about having the perfect painting, well, I'm not even going to pick up the brush. Right. But if I start, okay, today I will paint like this and it will suck the next time it will paint like that and it won't be that good. And then the next time, and it's all about building those skills. In this case, I approached it the same way. It's all about taking that constant action. Lyric Kinard (30:19.185) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (30:42.59) you know, like all the time and not quitting and breaking it down into very small parts so that it seems doable to my brain. Lyric Kinard (30:53.777) Right. that's, that's exactly everything you've said today is just like, yeah, yeah, ditto. That's exactly what when I'm working with other teachers in the academy, there is so much to learn to offer online classes, but all it really takes is learning one thing at a time. and one small thing time and keeping it simple. So tell us what your tech setup is right now when you are, when you're filming, what do you use? Marcela Strasdas (31:21.354) Yes. Marcela Strasdas (31:26.77) So I'm using my phone. I'm using my iPhone. I'm using my iPhone and my iPad. I bought several of the brackets. The arms had something to hold the phone. So I think I have three or four of those, right? So I will have one on me. I will have another one pointing down to the palate and I will have another one pointing up. Lyric Kinard (31:28.913) Yes! Lyric Kinard (31:39.117) Mm-hmm. Something to hold the phone. Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (31:54.257) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (31:56.096) because I don't paint laying flat. I paint with the painting on the easel. So then I need to have something pointing over there. And yeah, just an iPhone and my iPad. Those are the two things. And I do have a beautiful camera, but I'm... Well, and I'm finding that the quality that I'm getting from this is just good enough for me at the moment. And it has been good enough for like... Lyric Kinard (31:59.336) Right. Lyric Kinard (32:11.25) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (32:16.112) It's too complicated. Marcela Strasdas (32:25.418) hundreds of students. Lyric Kinard (32:27.634) That's absolutely true. Unless you're already well familiar with high-end equipment, I mean, your iPhone or any smartphone that is relatively recent, can video in 4K. But honestly, that's too much to be able to upload to most course platforms, right? Marcela Strasdas (32:46.912) Yes. Marcela Strasdas (32:51.22) Yes, yes, actually you have to be making them smaller. So yeah, it's just the I bought him as I was telling you earlier, I bought a microphone, but I haven't been able to connect it successfully. So I am not even using a microphone and nobody has nobody has come back to me saying I can't hear you. Something that I had to get over. Lyric Kinard (33:07.046) You haven't needed it yet, right? Nobody's complained, right? Marcela Strasdas (33:16.95) though when I started recording and editing the videos was my own accent. I was an ESL teacher. Spanish is my first language. I have lived in North America in Canada for 32 years now and I didn't know I was an ESL teacher, translator. I did not know that I had an accent and then I heard my videos. And I went to my family and I told them, you didn't tell me that my accent was so strong. Lyric Kinard (33:47.218) And they're like, why would we? Doesn't matter. Marcela Strasdas (33:47.386) And at first, at first it was really hard to hear myself and it was just another hurdle, you know, to, and now it has become like, okay, whatever. Yes, I have an accent. Lyric Kinard (34:05.18) So how did you get away from that worry about having an accent? How did you move past that? Marcela Strasdas (34:14.462) I guess I just had to hear myself enough that it got, I just did it. I just did it. It bothered me, you know, in the same way that the first time that we put our art on social media, we are like sweating and so stressed and our heart is going faster because it's like, what if they don't like it? And all of that, that happens. Lyric Kinard (34:20.144) You just do the thing. You just keep practicing. Lyric Kinard (34:38.738) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (34:42.152) And then after you do it enough times, it gets normalized, right? It loses that power. And I guess that by editing all the videos, because I edited them myself, because I didn't know what I wanted my final product to look like. I didn't know what it was going to look like. So I it was important for me to edit it myself. I couldn't tell an editor, video editor what I needed. And I'm still struggling with that a little bit. Well, not a little bit, a lot, because I edit all the videos now. But for the membership, because I want them to be natural. And if the brush falls to the ground, so be it. I pick it up. And if I trip over my words, well, that's me. And yeah. Lyric Kinard (35:36.019) Mm hmm. Exactly. They don't need polish and perfection because again, they're not here for us. We've made the connection with them, but they're here to learn something that will make them happy. And it's not us, right? It's the thing we're teaching them. So as long as we can show that and, you know, be they Marcela Strasdas (35:41.674) perfection. Marcela Strasdas (35:55.55) And I hope... Lyric Kinard (36:06.011) People like real better than they like polish. Marcela Strasdas (36:08.904) Exactly. And I hope that all that that is doing is just getting people to connect, right? And go, okay, if she can do it, then so can I, because, yeah, nobody wants to copy perfect. Lyric Kinard (36:19.097) Exactly. Lyric Kinard (36:24.364) No, it's unattainable. It's unachievable. Being real, think, actually gives you a better connection with your students. As long as, and I'm always a fan of releasing immediately the minimum viable product, just get it out there as fast as you can, because you can always improve and you will always improve. But as long as people can see and learn what you're teaching from what you're doing, Marcela Strasdas (36:26.42) Yeah. Marcela Strasdas (36:39.135) Yes. Yes. Lyric Kinard (36:53.39) on screen, that's it. That's good enough. Marcela Strasdas (36:56.276) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You were asking me about my tech. Part of the tech is lights. I bought some lights so that I could control the light a little bit better. Just the brackets, zoom, my laptop. I purchased an editing software. And again, it was agonizing to pick what editing software to use. And that is... Lyric Kinard (37:11.218) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (37:20.274) Yeah, there's so many choices. What did you land on? Marcela Strasdas (37:27.222) I landed on something called Fillmore and actually a friend from New Zealand who is also in the fabric world. She was using that and I gave it a try and it's like, okay, here it is. So I am using that one. It's very, very comprehensive. It was not very expensive. It was $99, I think. Lyric Kinard (37:31.675) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (37:57.352) and I am using it and that's what's working at the moment. Lyric Kinard (38:01.202) Right, there is no one right answer for what platform to use, what editing equipment, what camera, what, except for the best camera is the one that is with you so you can do the thing, right? The one that makes it easy for you. So that is a right answer, but there's no specific, only this kind. But keeping it easy and again, just don't waste your time. Marcela Strasdas (38:16.276) Yes, yes, yes. Lyric Kinard (38:31.096) agonizing. If you already use a platform or a program, just use it. Keep using it. It's not, it's rarely worth starting the learning curve again. Right? Just keep using it. Marcela Strasdas (38:38.677) Yes. Marcela Strasdas (38:44.692) Yeah, yeah, totally not worth it. Yeah, totally not worth it. And I'm certain. Lyric Kinard (38:48.656) unless the thing you have doesn't work at all anymore for you. Marcela Strasdas (38:53.012) Yeah, and ask a couple of people that you trust. Maybe ask a couple of people that you like the kind of work that they're putting out and say, okay, what are you using? Is it complicated? Is it expensive? But don't start asking too many people because then you're going to have way too many options. And I think that when I have too many options like that, I get paralyzed and I don't act and taking action is huge for me. Lyric Kinard (38:57.926) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (39:06.759) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (39:22.742) Lots of times all I have to do is just take that first step and I will be agonizing over what software to use and then as soon as I decide, it's like, okay. And then he's like, okay, I can do it. Right. And again, it just go back to, okay, I am doing this step. Lyric Kinard (39:23.09) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (39:36.444) then you can just go. Marcela Strasdas (39:49.246) I will learn this step and then I will learn the next one. I'm not now thinking about the other million of things I have to learn or do before it's ready. The course is ready. I am just concentrating on these today. Lyric Kinard (40:03.283) Absolutely. that's, I love that. That feels like the main point of what we've been talking about with you. Your main thing is just take a step, just do a thing and constantly learn. Don't get overwhelmed with the whole journey ahead of you. You know, just take the first step because that gets you, that gets you there one thing at a time and don't stop, right? Don't stop. Marcela Strasdas (40:09.374) Yes. Marcela Strasdas (40:14.858) Yes. Marcela Strasdas (40:26.942) don't stop and don't stop, right? Because that is actually when it doesn't work. Lyric Kinard (40:34.643) 100 % of entrepreneurs who quit failed their business. Those businesses don't succeed. Marcela Strasdas (40:42.462) Yeah, exactly. That's a pretty staggering and true statistics, right? Yeah. Lyric Kinard (40:49.491) Right. So, you keep going. What keeps you going? What brings you joy in this? What do you hope for? Marcela Strasdas (40:59.99) So there's two things. One of them is my own painting practice, right? When I'm not painting, I get antsy and unhappy. And the minute I grab the brush, put on some music and start painting, it's like, yes, this is the life, right? And then when I see my students, when I see their eyes and excitement, not necessarily for producing good Lyric Kinard (41:06.931) Mm-hmm. Marcela Strasdas (41:28.032) perfect paintings, we have already talked about perfection. But when I see that they are excited about learning, about committing to themselves to, yes, I want to try this and understanding that it's not an overnight thing, unfortunately, painting is not a microwave situation that we start and all of a sudden, it's done and we are, it's such a process. of stacking skills one on top of the other. Lyric Kinard (41:58.962) You have to just keep doing the thing if you want to get better at doing a thing, anything. Marcela Strasdas (42:03.302) Exactly, exactly. So when I see them committed to learning and when I see them going like, I'm doing it, that just gives me so much joy. it just like yesterday, I had the community call with the membership and with the studio circle, that's what it's called. And just seeing them so happy, supporting each other, doing the work. having failures and going like, my gosh, I've only been doing this for two, three months, but I'm already seeing progress because of the consistent action. That is like, okay, I am on purpose and that's the way I want to live, right? I want to share the passion that I have for painting and get everybody else to be just as excited. Lyric Kinard (42:41.768) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (42:55.153) Right? Yeah, that's kind of everything we do. Marcel, it has been absolutely lovely to spend this time with you. And the encouragement and the wisdom that you've shared is beautiful. So people can hear and see your spirit and the joy that you have in the art form that you do. Marcela Strasdas (43:21.024) Thank you. Lyric Kinard (43:23.237) I like to ask one thing of people before we go, what is, and it can be any off the wall answer, what is the last thing that you made? Marcela Strasdas (43:25.076) Yes. Okay. Marcela Strasdas (43:39.828) The last thing I made is this. This is the last thing I made. went plein air painting and this is what I did. Plein air. Lyric Kinard (43:48.869) she's pulling up a painting. Lyric Kinard (43:58.524) It's a beautiful landscape of a floral garden. It's got a birdbath in the front for all of you who are only listening. It's a beautiful, colorful, lovely painting. Marcela Strasdas (44:11.518) Yes, I go plein air painting with a group of artists and I every Monday or thereabouts and we go to anywhere here in the city, right? And I live in a city that is has absolutely stunning landscapes. I live on an island, Vancouver Island, and it's the city of gardens. So there are gardens everywhere, which are my Lyric Kinard (44:21.107) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (44:33.565) Mmm. Marcela Strasdas (44:37.302) two passions, right? Traveling and landscapes and florals and gardens. So we went to a community garden here and there was just this flower bed that didn't have too many vegetables, but it had some asters and dolphiniums I think it was. Yeah, and it was like, okay, I love the color there. So that's what I try to put down on the canvas. Yep. Yep. Lyric Kinard (44:52.925) Just some beautiful things to paint, right? Lyric Kinard (45:03.473) captured your vision, you captured the part of it that you love. And I love that you're the way that you're teaching now has left you the space in the room to be able to have the time to go out and create and to paint and to be with your community in real time as well. Marcela Strasdas (45:25.974) Correct, because if I want to create a good income from in-person teaching, which is 100 % possible, it takes a lot of time, right? And you have to be there putting the hours in one-on-one with students. And that would take completely away from my own painting practice, which is what gives me a lot of joy. So that's why the... online format and it allows me to reach people in so many parts of the world. Lyric Kinard (46:00.165) It's beautiful, isn't it? It's beautiful. Well, Marcel, where can people find you? Online, what's your website? Marcela Strasdas (46:05.408) people. So my website is marcellastressdes.com and do you want me to spell that? No. Yes. Lyric Kinard (46:14.811) Marcella has one L and we will put the links in the show notes for and in the description of the video for all of you so you can find her. Go look at her workshop, look at how it's structured, look how she offers it, take a look at her membership as well. Marcela Strasdas (46:20.298) Perfect. Marcela Strasdas (46:27.478) you Marcela Strasdas (46:33.546) Yeah, and of course I am on Instagram and Facebook are my main two platforms. I have a tiny, tiny, tiny little presence on YouTube and that's something that I plan to change. But again, cannot do everything at the same time, right? So one at a time. And if anybody has any questions about anything that we chatted about, I'm open to answer any questions and yeah, any way that I can. Lyric Kinard (46:42.419) You Lyric Kinard (46:49.168) one thing at a time. Lyric Kinard (47:00.475) Excellent. We'll put contact information in the notes as well. That's very generous. Yeah, from the website. Good. Well, again, I love you. Thank you for sharing everything with our people. Marcela Strasdas (47:04.646) my website people can find me there. Marcela Strasdas (47:13.0) Love you too, Eric. Thank you so much for having me. It has been a pleasure. Lyric Kinard (47:19.694) pleasure as well. Lyric Kinard (00:01.166) Hello, friend. So if you really liked what we talked about, these are exactly the kinds of things that we can help you with in the Academy for Virtual Teaching. We have a free membership of all kinds of creators who are learning to build online courses at academyforvirtualteaching.com. Sign up for our newsletter, see what's going on, but also... We have a video making crash course. If you want specific recommendations for the kinds of equipment that are specific to what you are teaching, the minimum, the easiest way to film online courses. We also have a 30 day program that is helping you set up all of the system before you build your class. It's testing your offer with live students. It's clarifying your messaging. It's getting your landing page built and bringing people in, paid beta students who will build the course with you, give you feedback as you go so that you never again spend all your time building a thing and then going, no, nobody is signing up. You prove your offer before you do it. Again, check us out, academyforvirtualteaching.com. We would love to have you join our community. Thank you, friends. Keep creating.