Why Substack Works for Artists Who Teach Online and Value Community

Lyric Kinard (00:01.4) Hello, Kelly, it is so good to have you here. Kelly Feltault (00:05.592) Thank you for inviting me. I'm so happy to be here. Lyric Kinard (00:09.304) Kelly, tell us about your art form. What is it that you do and how and why did you get into it? Kelly Feltault (00:17.412) So multiple art forms actually, I will say, so I am an artist and a certified therapeutic arts facilitator. I have a bachelor of fine arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. you know that I've always been creative since I was a little kid and went to art school, loved it, and continue to make art and Lyric Kinard (00:37.859) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (00:47.138) be creative while I went off and had a very different career as a social scientist. I guess, you know, continued to make some things, but I found quilting probably. I know. Now I remember my sister got pregnant, right? And so, you know, baby quilts are that gateway drug in the quilting. Lyric Kinard (01:13.31) Mm-hmm, they are, that they are. Kelly Feltault (01:16.452) So I made a baby quilt and then I was asked to curate an exhibit with three different quilting communities in North Carolina and the first community I went to said, well, if you're not a quilter, you can't do this exhibit. So you better sit down and learn. And so all three of these communities taught me how to quilt, but they were all very different kinds of quilters. One was a very traditional kind of quilting. Lyric Kinard (01:36.142) Okay. Kelly Feltault (01:46.372) The other community was African American and it was definitely more along the modern quilting lines. And the other community was actually a Native American quilting community and they just had a very different aesthetic. so I learned something from all of those communities and I started quilting and was doing modern quilting. Did not know there was such a thing at the time. And then continued that and became a modern quilter. But then about five or six years ago, I was working on a project with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Department of Defense called Creative Forces. And it was a combination of clinical art therapy for veterans and the veterans wanted to continue making art when they finished their clinical treatment. so arts organizations around the country were brought in as pilot organizations to lead community-based therapeutic arts programs for veterans and their families. And the other hat that I wear as a social scientist is that I evaluate and assess programs for their effectiveness. And I was brought in to work with the community organizations. to help them assess the effectiveness of the arts and health programs that they do. And I was just so blown away by one, the art that was being done and the programs that were being delivered, but the impacts that this was having on people's health and wellbeing. And working with all of these artists and the art therapists rekindled my love of collage and printmaking, is what I had done as an art student many, many decades ago. And so I started that back up and very quickly suddenly had, you know, the quilting room and then this other little room where I was doing collage and printmaking and painting and the messy stuff that I didn't want on the fabric. So I really have two creative. Lyric Kinard (03:42.574) Hmm. Lyric Kinard (04:02.71) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (04:06.948) paths and they are starting to come together because the aesthetic with collage and printmaking works so well with modern quilting and the slow stitching and kawandi work that I do as well. So they are starting to come together in one sort of mixed media creative practice at this point and yeah, that's how I got into it. I don't think there's ever one path, right? It's the multiple crooked path to creativity, and crooked path to well-being as well. Lyric Kinard (04:40.791) Alright. Right? and that is the name of your business now. I wish we could just talk for four hours about the art form and about all the things you do. I'm already sucked in going, yep, yep, yes, yes, all the things. But let's move into how and why you have started an online business with this. Kelly Feltault (04:50.316) It is. Kelly Feltault (05:02.82) All the things. Kelly Feltault (05:13.86) Yes. Right. So working on that project with the National Endowment for Art for the Arts, I continued to do arts and health work after that and was so amazed at not just what it was doing for other people, but what it did for me. I have two chronic illnesses that are very rare and Lyric Kinard (05:15.18) which is Crooked Bath Studios, right? Kelly Feltault (05:40.804) Chronic illness has a way of robbing you of your identity and making you really create a new one. It is very isolating. These illnesses are very isolating. And there's a lot of grief, a grief around the life you had planned that is not going to happen now. And you need some way to figure out what your new normal is and your own new path to well-being. And art helped me do that, whether it was the quilting or the collage or the printmaking or the jelly printing, which I love. It really helped me work through a lot of those emotions and that process and come to a point where I have acceptance, know, radical acceptance and found my way forward with these two illnesses. I really, you know, in talking with other people, in doing the research and evaluating all of these arts and health programs, I just know how important it is for everybody's health. But when you have a chronic illness, you know, art just helps you regulate that nervous system, which we need. It helps you with all of those emotional processing. So you know, the grief and the loneliness. And now there's research out there showing that art and creative practice is the best way to build social connections, which is the cure for for loneliness. So I just knew that this was a great way and that other people needed experience and to be able to do this. But I also know this community with chronic illness. It's impossible for us to get to Lyric Kinard (07:19.288) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (07:36.886) in-person events. And when we get there, at least with my two illnesses, something there may trigger me, whether it's a smell or something else happening. And so I tried doing in-person stuff and it was just really hard. I might have a flare-up and then I can't go, but I've already paid for this class. And like I said, I get there and somebody's got some perfume on that now I'm having a reaction to. Lyric Kinard (07:46.776) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (08:05.572) So I just knew it needed to be online. And during the pandemic, seeing so many things go online and, you know, working with creative forces when they took everything online, what we kept hearing from the arts organizations was there's a whole new population that is coming to our programs because they are housebound and they can't get out to in person. Lyric Kinard (08:30.124) because they couldn't get out. You know, it's so. Kelly Feltault (08:32.235) So there's a whole population out there that needs the online learning, but the online learning also is often not designed for them. And so that was something that I was really keen on too. You know, I'd done a bunch of online classes and it was like the 10 day challenge. There's a class every day and it's like, no, we can't do that. Exactly. Right. So spoon. Let's talk about that. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (08:36.364) It is. Lyric Kinard (08:52.834) You might not have enough spoons for that, right? And the spoon thing, let's, yeah. Let's talk about spoons. Having only in the past like 10 years or so, I have Ehlers-Danlos. So it's a condition where my tendons just shred all the time and there's a billion things that don't work. So. So I've traveled and hauled 150 pounds of luggage all over the world, right? And I can't get 30 pounds up into the overhead bin anymore, right? And so, and it's again, with many chronic illnesses, I don't know why spoons are the analogy. You would have a certain number of spoons and you wake up one day and it's like, I only have one. And I have to be very careful how I use that one because... Kelly Feltault (09:39.276) can tell you why. Yes. Lyric Kinard (09:47.094) I can't do the rest of it. Kelly Feltault (09:48.876) Right. So the spoon analogy came from I cannot remember the woman's name, but she was trying to explain to a friend about this limited energy that we have with chronic illness. And she picked they were in a restaurant. She picked up a bunch of spoons and she said, this is all the energy you have for the entire day. How many spoons does it take you to take a shower? And the friend was like, you know, maybe quarter of a spoon. Lyric Kinard (09:57.955) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (10:16.876) And she was like, for me, it's a whole spoon. Take that away. How much energy does it take you to make breakfast and get to work? that might be a spoon. OK, for me, it's two spoons. OK. Right. So she did this and it helps her friend understand the difference between the fatigue of chronic illness and everybody else is being tired. Right. I mean, yes, we all get tired. Lyric Kinard (10:31.299) Mm-hmm, right. Lyric Kinard (10:44.239) Yeah. Kelly Feltault (10:46.34) But when you have a chronic illness, the extreme fatigue, and that is the medical term, is unbelievable. And as you said, when you run out of spoons, you're done. And that doesn't matter if it's 1 o'clock in the afternoon or 7 a.m. You're done. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (11:02.799) Right. Right, so having something where you don't have to use up all your spoons to pack up your work or go somewhere, whether you're the student or the instructor, having this online technology, I still think is something of a miraculous, it's a miracle, right, that we can speak to each other, that we can reach students, that we can share this creativity all over the world in real time or... Kelly Feltault (11:26.252) It is. Kelly Feltault (11:36.152) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (11:36.996) You know, through recorded videos, I often feel like I'm living in Star Trek and my nerds coming out and it's phenomenal. I'm still waiting for transporter technology. That would be the pinnacle. But you know, it's amazing what we do have. So tell us how, what is your online business right now? And how did you choose, you've got all these other things going. How did you? Kelly Feltault (11:39.278) Yeah. Kelly Feltault (11:43.128) Yes. That would be great. Yes. Lyric Kinard (12:05.357) choose to go into being an entrepreneur like this. Kelly Feltault (12:11.63) So I'm a serial entrepreneur. is the fourth, fifth business that I have started. And the other ones have been successful. So why wouldn't this one be successful? Of course. So yeah, I decided to do this because, well, I had decided to do it a long time ago. A friend of mine who came and stayed with me when I first got sick because I couldn't do anything. And so she came and was my caregiver. Lyric Kinard (12:13.807) You Lyric Kinard (12:18.457) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (12:24.674) Of course. Kelly Feltault (12:41.484) And about a year after she said, Kelly, you spend a lot of energy researching and figuring that stuff out and that artwork for you. You need to share that with people. And that sat and percolated for a while. And then about maybe two years ago, I thought, okay, this will be my retirement gig. Right. But then last year happened and I had to close the consulting business that I have. Lyric Kinard (13:02.575) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (13:11.684) where I was evaluating all these arts and health programs and I thought okay this is the time now that we're gonna start Crooked Path Studios and we're just gonna go all in there is a need the needs gonna be intense now in these current conditions and I think you know this is when I want to start this so it I spent last year getting infrastructure and systems and all that kind of stuff set up, getting comfortable on camera by taking your class and talking with my 20 something year old nieces who are both on YouTube and have thousands of followers. And yeah, I just thought this is the time. I'm ready and let's just see if we can get this started. Lyric Kinard (14:10.489) So what is your business? What service does it provide? What do you teach? Kelly Feltault (14:14.966) Sure. So it's Crooked Path Studios and I provide community and therapeutic arts creative practices for women with rare chronic illnesses and their caregivers because caregivers are also often forgotten. And I remember the caregiver that I had. So so yeah. And I'm doing tutorials. I'm doing community. I'm doing workshops. Lyric Kinard (14:31.417) Yeah. Right. Kelly Feltault (14:43.556) We're getting ready to start a workshop. The first one will be in this spring. And they are completely designed for spoonies to really help us regulate our nervous systems, to help us, you know, meet each other and come together to help us also just gain some skills in art, right? Because it's fun. And, you know, that that kind of thing is It's something you can do on your own whenever you need it, right? So giving people some tools that they can use when they need them as well as the community. And you know, when you think about the idea and come up with the business plan, you know, then after that, you have to kind of think about, well, how are we going to actually do this? What systems are we going to use? How do we set this up? So Lyric Kinard (15:17.465) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (15:37.967) Right? Right, we know what we want to teach. We know how to do our things. We know who we want to reach. And then there's everything with a how. Kelly Feltault (15:44.163) Yeah. Kelly Feltault (15:50.348) The how right? The technical how. So so yeah, I would say the business plan was actually the easy part. You know, I I know the community. So I have mast cell activation syndrome and sarcoidosis and dysentery. And I know that community. I know that Ehlers-Danlos syndrome community and long covid, which is now encapsulating all of these illnesses. Lyric Kinard (15:53.049) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (16:19.884) And so that part of creating the business plan and I know the creative work that helped me. That part was easy and then it was setting things up. So I did go back to school last year and got my certification in therapeutic arts facilitation through the Canadian Institute for Art Therapy. And you know I'm not a licensed art therapist so I don't. diagnose or treat anything, but I am certified to work with communities and groups to help people manage emotions and process emotions to regulate your nervous system, reduce stress and build those social connections. And you know, then it was about, what technology, what tech stack are we going to have for doing this? Lyric Kinard (17:02.832) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (17:16.388) And and doing it in the context of we're starting out, we have a very limited budget. And we need to stick to that. And, you know, what are we going to do? What do we need that's going to give us the most bang for our buck? Right. Where do we want to spend our budget strategically? So so that was the latter part of 2025. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (17:24.048) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (17:35.173) Right? Lyric Kinard (17:40.236) And what did you end up with? Where are you now with your structure, with your system? What does that look like? Kelly Feltault (17:43.617) Yeah. Kelly Feltault (17:48.062) So right now it looks like filming is my phone. went and upgraded my phone, right? Because they went on sale. Upgraded the phone, but I also got an Insta360 GO 3S. So very small, tiny little action camera, which I can use for vlogging, but I also have it set up on an overhang arm over my Lyric Kinard (18:07.738) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (18:17.634) table where I do my collage and my printmaking so that I can film that. And I can also use it in the quilting studio because it is also a giant magnet so it sticks to a sewing machine really well. It is a lovely magnet! Lyric Kinard (18:21.52) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (18:29.696) Wow, wait a minute. Wait a minute. have, I have this camera and I have not ever thought about sticking it to my sewing machine. Kelly Feltault (18:39.532) You have not used the magnet? the magnet. I stick it to everything inside the fridge, you know, so for those, you day in the life shots, you open the fridge and there I am. Right. So, yeah, it's amazing. So I love that camera. I am not the one using it to like paraglide over whatever. But yes, exactly. It is waterproof. Lyric Kinard (18:53.11) the magic is rich. I always wondered, yes. Lyric Kinard (19:02.872) right? I got mine for scuba diving because you can like scuba diving is like it's not actually a sport you go and you float you know right Kelly Feltault (19:12.802) And you float right, but it's waterproof. And so yeah, it's a great little camera. I highly recommend it. And it I bought the creator package so it came with a bunch of attachments and I can do anything with it. I stick it to the mirror to film me doing you know little shots about you know your toothpaste and other personal care products and how they might actually trigger you. Those kinds of things. Lyric Kinard (19:38.202) Hmm. because you're in the health and wellness areas. Kelly Feltault (19:43.914) in the health and wellness area, the arts and health, arts and wellness, and those areas. But so that's the cameras. I have decided to start the community on Substack. Yeah, I decided to do that because again, budget. But it's also a long form. Lyric Kinard (19:48.24) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (19:51.93) Cool. Lyric Kinard (20:02.288) All right, this is interesting. Lyric Kinard (20:12.442) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (20:12.908) social media space. you can start your substack for free. It doesn't cost you anything. They make money when you make money. And so I started my substack as a free community in October and got things set up, learned how to do, you know, manage and work in there, practiced my videos, you know, with your help made the first couple of videos. Lyric Kinard (20:21.466) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (20:42.372) figured out my systems, you know, I used your templates, but adjusted them for some things. Figured out what my cadence was going to be and tested it and got everything set up in Substack. yeah, today I have last check was 40 something members. I just turned on the paid subscriptions. I had an arbitrary number. Like once I hit 30, I will turn on paid subscriptions. Lyric Kinard (21:02.18) Excellent. Kelly Feltault (21:11.732) So I did that. And I'm still figuring things out. You know, it's still kind of messy in there, but it's working. I'm getting more comfortable with it. It is a lovely warm platform and it is full of artists. If you think Substack is just a newsletter platform, you are gravely mistaken. You can do video. You can do only audio. You can do podcasts. Lyric Kinard (21:27.536) Mmm. Kelly Feltault (21:38.22) You can do a newsletter, but your newsletter can be embedded with video, voiceovers, images, anything you can think of. And it is just so darn easy to go in there and create your post and send it off, right? And there's a community in there. There's a community in there looking for other artists, a community looking for the therapeutic arts that I do. There is a chronic illness community in there. And it just gives my place, my space some place to be right now while I still kind of figure out where we're going and how, you know, how do we want this to move forward? Lyric Kinard (22:17.199) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (22:25.2) So I don't have, I have very limited experience with Substack. There are so many platforms and all the things that I wish I had 12 clones so I could go really dig in. like the one or two things I follow in Substack are, they are like a newsletter and then they have live chats on Fridays. So it's a platform. Kelly Feltault (22:29.796) There are, Kelly Feltault (22:48.558) Yep. Right. Right. Lyric Kinard (22:54.766) You can join for free. You set up your space. And like you said, you can have long form content, newsletters, videos. Do they host the videos there? You upload them there? Okay. What about, are there like contained courses or is it just more like a feed of like, tell me more, explain this to me. Kelly Feltault (22:56.598) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kelly Feltault (23:08.398) Yes, you upload them there. Kelly Feltault (23:17.316) Good question. Yeah. So, I mean, it's not you can put some courses up there if they're video based, right, and have the documents and whatever other materials you want to go with them. You would just need to create a separate page for that. You can also say that that's only available to your paid subscribers and they would be the only ones who could access it. Or you can say it's. Lyric Kinard (23:28.356) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (23:35.408) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (23:41.167) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (23:48.002) you know, if you want it, you have to pay access and it's connected to Stripe. So, you know, I think just about everything these days is connected to Stripe. You can have the chat be exclusive only to paid members. You can make it available to everyone. You can put a paywall on it so that it's only available for this kind of stuff. Lyric Kinard (23:57.746) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (24:14.69) There are notes now. So you have your posts that go to your members and then there's a note feature that goes to everybody on Substack. So, you know, there's just multiple ways to communicate and build a community in there that I have found easy to navigate. Lyric Kinard (24:18.779) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (24:31.941) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (24:38.986) I currently right now don't have an actual website. I'm just using Substack as my website because that's what it is. Yeah, it builds you a basic website where all of your posts and notes and videos and whatever else are going to live. And it's pretty easy to get connected to other people there, which I think is Lyric Kinard (24:46.063) Simple. Kelly Feltault (25:08.664) You know, if you build your website, say on, you know, a traditional website builder, it's not connected to a community already, right? You got to go build that. So Substack allows you to plug into a community to have them see you and find you. There's also email sequencing you can do. So if you want to just email your folks, you can just do that with a quick email. Lyric Kinard (25:17.467) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (25:27.973) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (25:37.615) Are you talking about email automations? nice. Kelly Feltault (25:39.908) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, when people when someone subscribes to my space to Crooked Path Studios, they get an automatic welcome email. And then after that, they get another, you know, here's the latest. tutorial or here's what's happening in the chat come join us you know whatever it is and then I also send them a personal little message because I just think that's important that they hear you know directly from me in a little message and so it has been wonderful and there are a couple of people on substack who are really good at teaching you how to use Substack and how to set it up. you know, and they're also on YouTube as well as on Substack. So, you know, if you're looking for how to set anything up on Substack, I highly recommend Sparkle on Substack. Yep. Lyric Kinard (26:42.075) We'll put it in the show notes. I just actually logged into Substact and looked you up. For those who haven't been there, it can be kind of like a Facebook feed, but then there's so much more there. Right? All of these things. Kelly Feltault (26:47.512) Yeah. Kelly Feltault (26:55.31) Yeah, it's way more than Facebook. Yeah. The other thing that I like is that the algorithm is different in substack. Instagram is, you know, you're up, you're down, and then nobody sees you again. Right. Your stuff lives for less than 24 hours. And so it's really, you know, Instagram is a grind. And I just didn't want to do that. I actually got off of Instagram. Lyric Kinard (27:00.346) and Lyric Kinard (27:03.856) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (27:09.659) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (27:24.162) Last year, I just couldn't deal with it anymore. It was too difficult and too, I don't know, overwhelming. But this is slower. It is more about the engagement and connection, which I think is really important. And... You know, Facebook might only show you like three people that you know these days and then a bunch of ads. That is not the case in Substack. You are going to see if you have subscribed to other people's stacks, you're going to see them and they're going to appear. So and it'll show you new things as well. So I have just found it to be a very warm, welcoming. Lyric Kinard (27:53.745) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (28:06.033) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (28:16.204) inviting space to be in and a great place to get started. Lyric Kinard (28:20.945) Nice, I'm have to turn this off, because I'm fascinating watching the video at the top of your feed. Can't get this record. Kelly Feltault (28:23.78) Yeah, I know, Yes, you can pin something at the top of your page so that when people come, that is the first thing they see. I think I have pinned my welcome video. And then one of the more popular videos is like pinned right after that. yeah. You can set that up anyway. have some preset themes you can select. You can have a magazine style. You can have a newspaper style. I think there's one other style. I like the magazine style because it's very visual. I'm a visual person. Lyric Kinard (29:00.859) Right. So your business is going to rely, it's a community instead of separate courses that people pay for. Kelly Feltault (29:07.852) It's a community. It's a community with some free courses, free tutorials, and then there'll be some this year we're going to start having workshops, which will be a series. So it might be like a four to six. Lyric Kinard (29:14.993) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (29:23.025) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (29:26.222) you know, episode series. don't want to say weeks because I'm not sure what that cadence is going to look like. I've got to design that for my folks. But, know, that would come with community and live events as well as the pre-recorded tutorials and Lyric Kinard (29:34.193) whatever it takes, right? Lyric Kinard (29:45.883) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (29:50.297) Are the live events via something like Zoom? Is there interaction? Kelly Feltault (29:55.17) Yes, you can do zoom through Substack and you can set up the sign up page there on Substack as well. And just have because it's connected to Stripe, you can have people pay you through Stripe for. for the workshops and I might do that the first couple and see how it goes. Ultimately, I would like to have that part of the community move over to Heartbeat, which is an online course community platform similar to Kajabi or yeah. Lyric Kinard (30:28.433) Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. And we'll link all of these resources in the show notes and in the video description here. There are so many different ways that people can deliver their content to people. And I love that you have found kind of the perfect container for the kind of thing that you want. Kelly Feltault (30:40.259) Yeah. Lyric Kinard (31:00.241) Like if you just wanted to do on-demand courses that lived on their own, this SUBSTAC would not be maybe the primary place to do that because it sounds like SUBSTAC is more about community and that's what your business centers, right? Kelly Feltault (31:17.332) It is. It's about the conversation. Yeah. Yes, exactly. It is about the conversation and the relationships. It is not a purely transactional space. Right. So I think that's really important. You know, if you're doing on demand stuff and you don't want to have a community, this may not be the space. You could certainly do it there, but that's not the culture of substacks. So yeah, you know, there are other places to do that, right? Teachable probably would be better. Lyric Kinard (31:47.185) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (31:53.203) Tons of places, tons of places. All of the online course things are fantastic for on demand. But Substack sounds like it started centering around community. Mindy Networks is like that too. It started purely as community and then added in courses and all of them do so many things in so many different ways. Kelly Feltault (31:59.096) Yeah, exactly. Kelly Feltault (32:10.188) Yeah. Yes. Kelly Feltault (32:20.236) so many things and you do have to figure out what each one does and does well and what you know based on your community and your audience and your people you know how is it that you want to interact with them right where are your values sitting and so because my Part of my values are I want to help us create the social connections, right? I'm trying to help us deal with this loneliness issue of chronic illness. So on demand where you never hear from me or anybody else who's taken the class, that is not the point. Lyric Kinard (32:46.854) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (32:56.964) or just not, almost, I have to back up, all of the on-demand courses have an option where you can connect with the teacher, but it's not in real time and it's not in a feed. It's usually you make a comment and the teacher gets a notification. And for my on-demand classes, I tell them upfront, up to a week before I get back to you because I don't live on my computer. Kelly Feltault (33:09.388) It's not, yeah. Yeah. Kelly Feltault (33:17.954) Right. Yeah. Kelly Feltault (33:24.106) Exactly. Lyric Kinard (33:25.362) Contrary, well, sometimes I do. But I don't want to. Yeah, so there's, I love, I'm going to have to add Substack to my spreadsheet that we use in the professional business development program comparing all the platforms. Kelly Feltault (33:41.538) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (33:48.642) Yeah, and it's changed a little over the last two years apparently. And they are starting to... I guess make a couple changes to the algorithm where it might be a little easier for folks to find things. But it's still not Instagram. And if you're really trying to find that kind of community, I will also say the other thing it does is that you own your mailing list, which is not the case for other social platforms. Lyric Kinard (34:23.698) Nice. No, no. Facebook and Instagram, they started out fantastic, but if you're not paying anything, if you're not bringing in income through subscribers, through something like that, then you are the product. So on Facebook and Instagram, Kelly Feltault (34:31.116) You don't. Kelly Feltault (34:49.986) Yeah. Lyric Kinard (34:52.924) They own things and you are the, it's your time and your eyes that is making the money. You really don't own anything there, so it's always a risk to build everything there. Kelly Feltault (35:02.583) Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And the other thing I will say is that Substack has an automatic link to YouTube. So when you upload anything to your Substack, if it has a video, it's going to ask you, do you want to put this on your YouTube channel too? So instantly it goes there and then you can of course pull people from YouTube into your Substack and have the links on YouTube and have them come into Substack. So, you know, Lyric Kinard (35:16.562) Mmm. Lyric Kinard (35:21.851) fantastic. Kelly Feltault (35:37.41) does connect to things you do own your mailing list which for me was a key a key part right I wanted to be able to do that and I wanted to be able to do that without like I've set up a Wix website for another business and that was way too much tech tech for me right I just I had somebody else set it up and now manage it so I wanted something that I could manage that was easy for me to do that Lyric Kinard (35:43.186) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (36:06.268) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (36:07.106) wasn't going to overwhelm me. Lyric Kinard (36:09.05) And let's talk for a moment about mailing lists because often we, coming not from an entrepreneur trained business background, we often don't understand that our mailing list is our greatest asset. Those are the people who have chosen you instead of randomly come across you. They've invited you into their world. Kelly Feltault (36:12.974) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (36:31.246) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (36:37.414) They like something about you, right? So owning that mailing list and using it and using it effectively is kind of vital for everything we do. So building it. Often, you know, as teachers, we want to spend all of our time creating. We want to spend all of our time teaching. But if we don't spend the time that we need to reach our audience. Kelly Feltault (36:39.609) Right. Lyric Kinard (37:06.608) Really, marketing is such a kind of word, right? We don't want to deal with it. But really what it is is we want to connect with people. We want to find the people who we can serve. And you have to reach out to do that. Kelly Feltault (37:13.155) Right. Kelly Feltault (37:25.604) Right, right. And then I will add I'm an introvert. So this is a little more challenging for me, right? I'm like, should I reach out to them? Are they going to be annoyed? But I'm also right now because I'm just starting out. There's this I don't know, like two voices in my head like You need to find new people to come in, right? You need to grow that mailing list. And then the other voice is, we need to go engage with the folks who already here, right? And we need to, we need to do both. And so sometimes you get so caught up in the build, build, build, scale, scale, scale. You forget now we need to be working with the folks who are already here and learning from them and, engaging them. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (37:46.79) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (37:53.424) You can do both. Lyric Kinard (38:06.034) Well, this is. Alright, this is one of the beautiful things about Substack connecting with YouTube because both of them, YouTube especially, is a giant search engine. It's a phenomenal place to find new people. So much so that at the Academy, I've brought in, in a previous episode, if you haven't heard Beth Ann Williams, she is phenomenal. She is putting together a YouTube for audience building courses inside the Academy. Kelly Feltault (38:18.892) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (38:38.399) excellent. Lyric Kinard (38:38.802) And it's going to be amazing because that is one of the best ways, but you have to use it effectively to call your people in. You reach out and you find the people who need you, you serve them, and in return it brings them in. It's reciprocal. So you're doing both at once. You're engaging with your community that you have already, providing them with this instruction in the videos. Kelly Feltault (38:47.939) Right. Kelly Feltault (38:55.94) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (39:07.1) those YouTube videos can go out and find all kinds of people to build. And I think I want to, as your coach inside the video making crash course, for just a minute, kind of brush off those voices on your shoulder because the people who need you aren't going to be annoyed at it. Kelly Feltault (39:21.988) Sure. Kelly Feltault (39:29.166) huh. Lyric Kinard (39:36.788) When your friend came and sacrificed so much to be a caregiver for you, you weren't annoyed that they did that, right? What we provide lifts people, what you provide heals people, provides connections soul to soul. I mean, it's... Kelly Feltault (40:00.974) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (40:02.395) It's one of the vital things for living that we need and you have found a way to do it for people who are isolated, who feel limited. I know just in tiny little ways, I know things I've had to give up that have broken my heart, because they were such an important part of my identity that I can't do anymore, right? And. Kelly Feltault (40:21.764) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (40:25.72) Yep. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (40:30.641) And to find something that feels that gaping hole and to find people who understand you and then do it through art, do it through creating is... Kelly Feltault (40:34.456) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (40:40.963) Yeah. Kelly Feltault (40:45.326) Well, and to have the art help you figure out who this person is going to be going forward, right? Who am I now? And that's about getting in touch with some stuff inside of us, right? You know, I would say. You know, part of my new identity, there's still some parts of my old identity that are here. I am fiercely stubborn and. Lyric Kinard (40:59.571) Alright. Lyric Kinard (41:11.955) That's a good thing for an entrepreneur. Kelly Feltault (41:15.306) Exactly. And it just comes out in different ways now, And it's about figuring out who that person is going forward, but letting them come out. And that can be really hard. There's no words for it. And that's why art is the best way to do it because We do it through color and through shape and through a completely different part of our brain than that frontal cortex that is about the thinking and the logic and the naming. We do it through emotions and our somatic body experiences and those kinds of things. yeah. That is what art is great at, whether it's quilting or, you know, expressive painting or intuitive painting or the bilateral drawing workshop that I did a couple of weeks ago, which. Yeah, I swear everybody should be doing bilateral drawing. I'm trying to do it like twice a day. so both hands, one piece of paper, you can do it sitting down, but It's a three step process. need three pieces of paper and two crayons. Those work great. And yeah, it's the first one is going to get you tuned into your rhythm. The second one is going to help you move through into a new rhythm. And the third one is really about how you're going to resource that going forward. So yeah, it's a great way to check in by using both hands. We're actually using both sides of Lyric Kinard (42:32.327) Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (42:57.126) our brain and having them start to talk to each other. you know we always hear you know drawing on this side of the brain and that side of the brain and this brings them both together and it's just a great way to help regulate that that vagus nerve and regulate our nervous system and make us feel a little more safe in our bodies in our our space. So it is. Lyric Kinard (43:22.323) It sounds like so much fun. This whole chat today has me going, oh, I haven't touched some of the art stuff that now I'm dying to do for a bit. Because it is, it's so healing and it's a beautiful thing to bring into the world and to bring it comes into your soul, goes through. Kelly Feltault (43:37.858) Yeah, yeah. Kelly Feltault (43:46.177) It is. Lyric Kinard (43:51.411) who you are and comes out into the world and makes it a better place. Kelly Feltault (43:52.558) Mm-hmm. And everybody can do it. know, you know, I hear a lot of folks will say, well, I can't do that. I'm not an artist. Well, those are your art scars talking. And, you know, actually have a tutorial coming up about how we're going to tame those so that you can participate. Because right now it's about low lowering the barriers to participation and making sure that everybody feels like, yeah, I can do that because we are all artists. Right. It's just. Lyric Kinard (44:11.283) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (44:20.742) Everybody can. Kelly Feltault (44:24.662) Somebody told you you weren't and you believed them. let's yeah. Lyric Kinard (44:24.68) we are. And then you gave up. I mean, we don't do that to kids who are learning to read. You know, we say, hey, look, this is how you draw the letter A, and this is what it sounds like. And there are years of instruction and kindness. Lyric Kinard (45:48.158) Kelly, I could talk to you for hours and hours. This is lovely and fascinating. And you know, you're, you're a soul I feel I could connect with as well. And I know that people listening are going to feel the same way. But I, I do promise my people that. Kelly Feltault (46:07.267) Yeah. Lyric Kinard (46:14.705) We'll keep it into time. So let me ask you really quickly, just for fun before we end, what is the last thing that you made? Kelly Feltault (46:14.756) Time, yeah, we got it. Kelly Feltault (46:30.262) Well, yeah, all right. So I usually have three things going at one time. I didn't used to do that, but now I do. So I am working on some collage stuff right now. So I made some more collage papers because, you make a lot of medium value papers and you have a ton of those and you forget about the light and the darks. So. Lyric Kinard (46:40.116) I've always been that way. Lyric Kinard (46:44.883) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (46:57.531) I do the same thing when I'm dying textiles. You just keep adding color and it's like, I have no eye value, anything. Kelly Feltault (46:59.99) Yeah, exactly. It's like, I forgot. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, so I did some different collage papermaking techniques and I'm starting to finish those collages and I bound a quilt of my giant sarcoidosis quilt that took forever to finish and quilt and now bind. It is done. is my here's how I got to learn to love the color purple because that purple is the color for sarcoidosis and mast cell activation syndrome. The color I like the least. But sorry, but doing those two projects. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (47:32.4) Yay! Lyric Kinard (47:45.075) you Okay, we can't be friends anymore because purple's my color. No, all the colors are all needed together. I mean, they have to. Kelly Feltault (47:55.192) They're all needed together and that is what I learned, right? It was like, okay, I like this value of purple and this shade and this and this and it looks better when it's with this color. And so yeah, you you learn, right? And that was the challenge was like, I hate this color. Let's use it and see what I learned. So so I finally finished binding that. So yeah, and now I'm trying to figure out what to do with it if I want to. Lyric Kinard (48:01.331) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (48:13.086) I love that for you. Kelly Feltault (48:19.03) use it as a fundraiser for the Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research or something else. Lyric Kinard (48:26.696) Yeah, if you have that posted somewhere, send us a link so we can put it. Okay, get details, get something because people are gonna wanna see this and we'll put it on the blog. Okay, excellent. Kelly, where can people find you? Kelly Feltault (48:29.528) I don't have it posted. It's so big. can't get a good picture of it. Kelly Feltault (48:37.538) I'll send you some details. do have details of it. Yeah. Kelly Feltault (48:44.418) So they can find me on Substack at Crooked Path Studios. And that's where I'm at right now. I am trying to plan out launching the YouTube channel. So I'm definitely interested in the class. And right now I'm also reaching out to some health systems here in Virginia to offer. Lyric Kinard (48:55.494) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Kelly Feltault (49:08.438) lessons and groups to patients. So we might be doing some in-person stuff locally, but we'll see what happens. But yeah, we're just getting started. So I'm over on Substack. Come join me. Lyric Kinard (49:15.216) Excellent. Alright. Lyric Kinard (49:21.432) I've already got it bookmarked. I'm going to pull it back up as soon as we're talking. Kelly, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to share your journey with our peers, with other entrepreneurs, with other creatives who want to build online businesses. There is a vast world of possibilities out there for us. Kelly Feltault (49:24.334) Cool. Kelly Feltault (49:30.168) Thank you. my pleasure. Kelly Feltault (49:39.927) Yeah. Kelly Feltault (49:45.73) There is, there is, and you just, you don't realize it until you start. Yep. Thank you. Lyric Kinard (49:50.484) All right, well, thank you so much.