Freda Lombard was a hobby painter for several years before she realised she had a knack for teaching art. Within three months of starting painting in earnest in 2011, she was hosting regular ‘paint nights’ in restaurants and coffee shops near her home in Langley, BC. In 2016, she opened her own art studio.
Realising that she would have to pivot to digital learning when Covid struck in order to continue reaching an audience, she turned to Vancouver tech company, Thinkific to build an online course.
Freda initially worked to create an online community on Facebook, interacting with students there during live classes a few times a week. She soon transitioned to signing up the first 200 paying customers on her course. Since then, she has used digital engagement techniques to grow her following from 1,000 to an eye-popping 15,000 members in just a year and now has nearly 40,000 followers in her membership group.
Her philosophy about teaching art is that it should be fun art, not necessarily fine art, and so she avoids talking too much about art techniques and is conscious not to use intimidating art terminology. In her classes, she leads people through the whole process of creating a painting from beginning to end, an approach which has proved so popular she has been known to sign up hundreds of new followers to her membership group in a single night.
Using just an iPhone, iPad, tripod and ring light to record her courses on Thinkific, she now sees earnings topping $160,000 on the platform from subscriptions, to individual courses, to course bundles.
Freda has built a thriving art-based digital business with no art degree or business training . “People asked me, where did you study business and fine arts? But the truth is, I have no fine arts or business degree, and I have no idea what I’m doing. But when I focus on how painting positively affects people, I realize it’s all going to be okay”, says Lombard.
Through online membership programs, digital polling of students on product price points, asking for instant feedback and being consistently connected to her community mean the success of her digital art school has far surpassed what it could in-person. According to Lombard, she only had fleeting moments of doubt when it came to implementing the technology itself – the most intimidating thing was simply putting herself out there and ignoring her self doubt. In doing so, in just a short time, she has managed to turn her local art school into a global, six figure, digital enterprise.
So proud of you my friend!!!