For more information, please visit our website.

Recently I was intrigued to learn that author/speaker Dan Heath had launched a podcast with an interesting and distinctly curiosity-driven theme. In What It&#;s Like To Be&#;, Heath interviews people about their work: a criminal defense attorney, a forensic accountant, a TV meteorologist, etc. But he has a particular angle: Often, even when we know what people do for a living, we don&#;t know how they actually go about doing it. And those details are what made him curious.

Heath has described the project as an exercise in &#;slow curiosity&#; &#; interviews about the specific nuts and bolts of a range of jobs, without chasing some specific payoff. &#;Curiosity can be a means to an end,&#; he wrote. &#;But couldn&#;t it also be &#; the end? A reward in itself?&#;

Of course my answer would be: Yes! And to me what Heath is up to here is committing an &#;act of curiosity:&#; Having noticed something that made him wonder, he set out to actively satisfy that wonder. The resulting podcast is sort of like a Song Exploder for work, deconstructing one profession at a time.

In the spirit of active curiosity, I asked Heath if he could share a prompt or challenge to TAoN readers inspired by the podcast, and what he&#;s learned so far. He graciously offered the excellent idea below, suggesting what he called &#;craft questions.&#; Here&#;s Heath:

In the show, I really enjoy asking questions about methods and tools and approaches. I asked a stadium beer vendor about his favorite tools, and he waxed nostalgic about a can opener he used in the old days that let him pour beer quickly and without foam. A hair stylist told me about his $ scissors from Japan and the way they balance perfectly in his hands. It's fun to understand the craft involved in people's jobs.

So my challenge would be: Ask someone a craft question. Show interest in the way they do their work. Not "How's your job going?" or "What's going on at work?" More like: (barista) "How do you get those cool swirly hearts on the latte foam?" or (nurse) "When you can tell someone's afraid to have their blood drawn, what do you do?" I think you'll be surprised by how much those craft questions can energize your conversation.

This is terrific, on two levels. Not only are &#;craft questions&#; a great way to learn surprising details, but (as Heath suggests) they reflect actual engagement that the person you&#;re asking will appreciate.

Ask a craft question &#; listen to the answer, and ask more.

My sincere thanks to Dan Heath! Check out What It&#;s Like To Be &#; here or (as they say) wherever you find your podcasts. And check out Dan&#;s books here.

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Your Top 10 Burning Questions About Starting an Arts & Crafts Club

Starting a new venture can be daunting, especially when you're passionate about creating something meaningful but don&#;t have all the answers. 

The fear of the unknown can be overwhelming. We've been there. We were once where you are now, wondering if we had what it takes to turn our dream of running a successful club into reality.

When we first considered starting our own arts & crafts club, we were filled with excitement but hesitated because we had so many questions and no one to turn to for answers. We really were diving into the unknown! 

Neither of us had formal qualifications in teaching or art. Would we even be allowed to teach classes? Would parents trust us to teach their kids when we had zero experience? How would we attract customers? What if no one showed up? Tons of questions swirled in our minds, creating a fog of uncertainty.

Our story is not unique. Many of our members started just like we did, with a passion for creativity but no clear roadmap. They felt the same apprehension and faced the same doubts. 

We learned the hard way, navigating through trial and error, figuring out what worked and what didn&#;t. 

Now, we're here to share everything that we&#;ve learned so you don&#;t have to go through the same struggles. You can skip ahead to the good part&#;seeing your dream become a thriving reality.

Today, we want to tackle those burning questions together. Whether you&#;re wondering about qualifications, equipment, marketing strategies, how to teach online, in person, or sell kits, we&#;re here today to reveal all.

Here are the top 10 most frequently asked questions we get about starting an arts & crafts club:

 1. Do I need any prior experience or qualifications? 

We've seen time and time again that formal qualifications are NOT necessary. 

Many of our members do not have backgrounds in art or education and they own thriving, successful businesses. 

Depending on where you are in the world, it's possible that you may need some sort of childcare license to work with kids (depending on the age of the kids, the number of kids, and the duration of the classes), but you certainly don&#;t need a degree or any formal training.

The easiest way to find out what's required is to reach out to your nearest Small Business Development Center (SBDC) or Administration Office and let them walk you through what you need to do to make your business legal and legitimate.

 2. How long does it take to become successful? 

 

It depends on what you want out of your club and what success looks like to YOU. Do you want to run your club as a hobby, passion project, or full-time? Is your dream to grow your business and employ a team so that you can reach more students?

The opportunities are endless for creatives like us!!

We managed to scale from 1 location to 61 within 2 years. You can read our story here.

Our members commonly find success within a few months by consistently applying the strategies and techniques we provide.

Just imagine what you can achieve if you start today!

 3. How do I find and attract customers? 

One of the biggest challenges we see with new club owners is when they pour hours into getting everything ready to launch their club, and then when they finally launch they have no one to launch to! This is exactly what happened to us in the beginning too.

Having no signups when you&#;re just starting out is disheartening, to say the least, and it can really be a major roadblock for a lot of people (if they don&#;t know the right way to market themselves). 

That&#;s why we&#;ve dedicated an entire module inside our CCC Academy to implementing the right marketing strategies, and we&#;ve even gone one step further to help automate the process of building your customer base with a done-for-you lead magnet, so that our members don&#;t have to make the same mistakes we did. If you want to get your hands on our automatic lead generator, it comes free with our all-in-one website solution for creative businesses - WebHub. We&#;re currently running a WebHub promo at 80% off. You can click here to check it out.

Now back to marketing:

Since we started our club we&#;ve learned two super important things about marketing:

1. You can&#;t wait until you are 100% ready to launch before you start thinking about your marketing. 

This is something you have to start with from day 1. Attracting and engaging your ideal customers so that you have an audience to launch to once you&#;re ready is sooo important. You have to build relationships before the big launch. Otherwise, you&#;ll have no one to invite once you&#;re up and running.

Think about your marketing as an opportunity to build the &#;know, like, and trust&#; factor with potential clients over time. It's about developing a relationship, keeping in touch, and letting them learn more and more about who you are and what you do, so that when they are ready to purchase you are the one they&#;ll turn to.

 2. You need to change your mindset about what it takes to sell your product or service.

You are providing something valuable and you should be proud to sell it! Even if sales aren&#;t really your thing, there&#;s no need to shy away or feel awkward when you&#;re pitching your classes or kits to a potential customer.

Starting out, we had hesitations and limiting beliefs about selling because we were scared it would come across as "slimy" or that we&#;d bother people by pestering them too much. 

But we learned over time that marketing isn't about tricking people or convincing them to buy your stuff. It&#;s about serving people and helping them to elevate their lives by offering them something valuable; teaching their kids essential skills and helping them to boost their creativity (value = priceless!). 

When you become deeply connected to the transformation you are creating in your students' lives and the ripple effect of that transformation, what you&#;re offering takes on a whole new meaning. Keep that in mind with your messaging and in everything you do.

OK, messaging and mindset - check. Now let&#;s look practically at the different ways you can market yourself: 

The most popular methods include marketing, reaching out to schools, collaborating with local businesses, and leveraging word-of-mouth referrals.

XIANGTAI are exported all over the world and different industries with quality first. Our belief is to provide our customers with more and better high value-added products. Let's create a better future together.

You can check out this blog we wrote where we shared 8 proven marketing strategies that you can use to spread the word about your club.

Tip: Resist the urge to tackle every strategy at once. Instead, focus on one or two main marketing strategies at a time. Doing so enables you to put your full effort into each one and achieve better results.

 4. What equipment and supplies do I need? 

When thinking about starting a new business, the first thing most people think is that it&#;s going to cost a lot of money to set it up.

Think of an expensive franchise, a bakery, or a school that requires a lot of startup money to get going, with rental expenses, furniture or equipment, staff, and other overheads&#; Phew, that's scary!!

That's what makes starting an arts & crafts club so unique. You don&#;t need a large amount of money to get started.

To start with, you only need a few basic art supplies like paint, brushes, paper, scissors and glue. These supplies go a long way so you won&#;t be needing to refill your stock for a while. 

You can visit our Amazon Store to see which supplies we recommend for your classes. We&#;ve done the research and tested the products to see which ones are the best quality for the best price.

You&#;ll also need a stash of recycled materials to craft with. Crafting with recycled materials is the #1 way you can save money with your crafting club, plus it teaches kids (and adults ;)) valuable lessons about saving our planet and being creative with what&#;s at hand!

Collecting recycled materials can be a team effort. A great idea is to involve your community and get everyone to contribute. People love showing up to our classes with big bags of materials that they&#;ve collected.

For teaching online, you can start out with a and natural lighting. Then, if you want to upgrade your setup once your classes are up and running, you can view our recommended equipment list for online teaching inside our Amazon Store.

 5. What type of venue should I use for my classes? 

From converted garages and church halls to libraries and yoga studios - anything is possible!

Many of our members teach classes from schools. Other options include: 

• Community centers 

• Libraries 

• Restaurants 

• Coffee shops

• Clubhouses

• Parks

• Churches

• Or even your own home if space allows 

Any location that has enough parking space, a restroom, tables and chairs will work - it doesn&#;t need to be fancy! For more ideas (and the pros and cons of each), check out this blog we wrote with 7 perfect venue ideas. We even included some images of existing clubs for inspiration.

 6. How much should I charge for my classes or kits? 

 

To price your classes or kits you need to consider your costs, the value you provide, and what your target audience is willing to pay. 

For classes: You can read our blog, 4 Tips to Price Your Arts & Crafts Classes With Confidence, and grab our FREE Pricing Calculator to help you figure out the perfect price.

For kits: You can read our blog, How to Price Arts & Crafts Kits to Make a Profit, and grab our Pricing Calculator to help you determine the perfect price.

You can save on costs for both classes and kits by purchasing from our Amazon Store. You'll see that we have taken the time to preselect the best value-for-money products to save you tons of time comparing costs and quality.

 7. Can I teach online, in person, AND sell kits? 

This is totally possible, and many of our members have multiple offerings at their clubs HOWEVER we recommend that you start with ONE offering and expand from there. 

When we first started out we tried to do EVERYTHING and please everyone&#; We ran kids classes and adult workshops and arty birthday parties and sold kits&#; you name it, we did it. 

But we very quickly realized that this only made us feel overwhelmed. Even worse, it made us achieve less, as we did not have a clear focus. 

The moment we got crystal clear about our offering our sales skyrocketed! 

So, pick one avenue to start with, whichever you&#;re most excited about, and grow from there.

 8. What do I put inside my kits? Can I see some examples? 

One of our CCC members, Lauren, made a super fun how-to video that explains how she puts her kits together and what she includes.

Aside from the supplies needed to create the craft or artwork, you should add:

• Printed instructions

  (use one of our done-for-you kit lesson plans)

• A handwritten note to make it personal

• Something fun, like a little gift or surprise - stickers, a toy, or a mascot collectible badge

Click here to purchase our super adorable mascot collectibles family - perfect for adding to kits or handing out in class to keep kids coming back for more (they&#;ll love to collect them all!)

 9. Can I have a club for adults? 

Of course! The fundamentals for starting and growing a club are the same for any age group, so the trainings inside our CCC Academy cater to clubs of all ages (kids, teens, and adults). 

While many arts & crafts clubs cater to children, there is also a demand for adult-focused classes, paint &#;n sip events, and workshops. We even have an Adult Workshops Success Bundle that outlines a proven recipe for successful adult workshops and events. 

Use this guide to pick the perfect lesson, plan your timeline, and equip yourself with our top tips for success. PLUS get 30+ tried-and-tested ice breakers and games to add good vibes to your event. 

 10. How do I START? What comes first? 

The best way to start is to join our Get Started Workshop - it&#;s a 1-hour power workshop designed to get rid of the brain fog and help you clarify your ideas for your club. 

In this workshop, we&#;ll: 

• Guide you through the 6 stages of starting and growing a creative club

• Do a fun sticky note challenge to help you brainstorm ideas for your club

• Give you done-for-you lesson plans that you can use for your first classes and/or kits

• PLUS we&#;ll have a Q&A session at the end of the workshop where we answer any questions you have about what it takes to run a successful club.

Ready to sign up? Click here to head over to our signup page: https://www.creativecraftingclub.com/gs-live-workshop-signup

PS: Do you have a question not listed above? Join us at the Get Started Workshop, and we&#;ll be happy to answer!

For more information, please visit Xiangtai Sculpture Crafts.