00:02I have been coming to Seagrass for about six months now. My wife came home one day
00:07after coming to Seagrass and she says to me, this is gonna be a problem. The way
00:12that I feel when I'm here it's like a breath of fresh air. She comes home and
00:15she's lit up. I think it's a sense of community here. I get to see a version of
00:19my wife that I fell in love with. You already feel like you're part of the
00:21family from the first day that you walk in. She wants to be here all the time. I
00:26will probably be back tonight or tomorrow.
00:34Welcome to Florida's Space Coast. Cape Canaveral is just up the road. People
00:38here build rockets for a living and the last art museum closed years ago and so
00:42you might think this is a bad place for a pottery studio. But sometimes the
00:48hardest-looking markets are just massive opportunities in waiting.
01:02This is really relaxing. I know, right? Can I ask you a question? You want to do the scene from
01:10Ghost?
01:11No.
01:17Thank you for this.
01:19Everyone always asks for this on date night.
01:21Really?
01:22But usually the guy wants to be Patrick Swayze.
01:25Why?
01:27That's Christina. She's a former school teacher who used to shape curriculum and
01:31now teaches people how to shape lumps of clay.
01:34Alright Christina, tell me about your pottery qualifications.
01:38Okay, so I went to school for art education and then I taught art. And then I also was the
01:42art
01:42supervisor for our school district. I saw in classroom after classroom how the arts
01:47transformed minds. You know, it was a space where everyone got to be themselves. There was no
01:51right answer and there was so much problem solving. And I thought we need to
01:54bring this experience to the community. One of the things I love most is curriculum design and creating
01:59things that are accessible to people. It's very similar to a community setting where you have
02:04people coming in and making something that feels intimidating comfortable. Because you don't just
02:08need art when you're eight. You need art when you're 28 and 38 and 80.
02:13Clay has always been like part of me and I always loved clay. We were making a lot of pottery
02:19at home.
02:19There was a beautiful building in India Atlantic and I said if that place comes up for rent, I'm
02:25going to rent it. And the next day I drew by and there was a for rent sign. And we're
02:28still there today.
02:29Do you think that if you had spent more time thinking about it that you wouldn't have done it?
02:33Absolutely. Yeah, I think sometimes being impulsive is just what you need to put yourself over the edge.
02:37Did you feel confident that a pottery studio could work here?
02:41A town without arts is not the same as a town that doesn't want any. We're really a science dominated
02:46county.
02:47There isn't a lot of cultural opportunity so I was hoping to build that void and I was hoping that
02:51the need was there.
02:52Did you do anything to test it?
02:54No.
02:56I think if more people just did what they love, the world would be a better place.
03:00I think as a spirit of an entrepreneur too is, you know, you'll do whatever it takes to chase that
03:04dream down.
03:07The business began in a little beach cottage and now it has four lines of revenue, starting with the pots
03:13she still makes.
03:15We started doing retail, a small scale handmade pottery. We've since expanded to wholesale.
03:21That you make yourself.
03:22Correct. And then we also do classes, workshops and retreats. And then when those end, we also offer a community
03:27studio membership.
03:28So it's kind of like a gym membership but for pottery.
03:30Exactly. And then our final stream of revenue is ceramics materials and supplies.
03:38So we've really built like a creative ecosystem here so we can really watch our customers, see where they're going,
03:43see where they've been and kind of meet their needs where they are.
03:45That's important for small business owners to hear because you don't need to know where the business is going to
03:50go.
03:50You just need to watch your customer closely enough to see what they need and then you follow.
03:55That's exactly right.
03:59The pots bring in the margin and the classes and membership bring in the people.
04:06You know, I'm looking around and noticing something really unique. Nobody is on their phones.
04:10It's the most beautiful part of all of this. It like allows you to kind of disconnect from the world
04:15around you because you're so focused on what you're doing.
04:17So the business started by you making and selling pottery. Why start teaching classes too?
04:23I think it's really important to share what you know. You know, and I think that clay is such a
04:26community that that's what brings people in.
04:29How strategic was this? Did you think first we'll do classes, then we'll do membership?
04:33No, I thought I was going to start small. We started with just single day workshops because at the time
04:38I was still working full time and I wanted to make something easy and accessible.
04:42Have you figured anything out about how to move people from classes to members?
04:45Not really, but I think it requires a certain level of internal confidence. Creating an environment where your people feel
04:50safe to fail is probably like my biggest goal.
04:52So it's not just a pottery studio. It is a decompression chamber.
04:57Clay is community.
05:01Everyone thinks that growth solves your business problems.
05:06But beware, growth also creates problems.
05:11Oof, it is hot in here.
05:13Yeah, we've been running kilns all night.
05:14Yeah, okay, so what's going on with these?
05:16Yep, so these ran last night. We were running a glaze load. This is our skut kiln. And basically, you
05:21know, they run for about 14 hours, 8 to 14 hours.
05:24How hot does it get?
05:24It gets about 2300 degrees.
05:26Oh, that's very hot.
05:27Yeah, it does. And then it cools and then, you know, you get some beautiful pottery, but it's a process
05:30and that's the beautiful part.
05:32Tell me about some of the hardest decisions you've had to make.
05:35When we were working in the Atlantic, the studio there was much smaller.
05:38We started getting more production orders and we were running classes.
05:41So it was either, you know, cut down the production work to run classes or cancel the classes to run
05:45production work.
05:46So we had a choice. We could either stay there, go smaller.
05:49Or shrink down.
05:49Or we can go bigger. And we decided to go bigger.
05:51Which means bigger stress, bigger costs.
05:54Yeah.
05:55Why did you do that?
05:56When you phrase it like that, it does make me question why I did it.
05:58But I think that also it's like greater joy.
06:01I think like a pottery empire is ultimately where I'm headed.
06:05And you know what? If you already learned that you can take the heat, then you know you can keep
06:09going.
06:17You know, so many people want to build a business based on their passion and then sit around forever waiting
06:23for the perfect time.
06:24Christina acted before she could tell herself no.
06:28Because entrepreneurship isn't about being prepared.
06:32It is about figuring it out.
06:34You take a lump of clay and then you mold it until you've built something that everyone else wants.
06:39Get back in balance.
06:40Oh boy.ч
