outsourceeasilycom Blog

Debbie Friis-Pettitt's Method of Teaching 5,000 Learners How To Paint

Apr 6, 2024

Debbie Friis-Pettitt has created a wildly successful online course business in a rare area: watercolor with a limited palette painting.

Based out of Prescott, Arizona, Friis-Pettitt started her career as a commercial graphic designer. Alongside she was a pencil artist and created artwork. After having been featured in several exhibitions, she decided to try a new medium: watercolor.

But there was a problem though: she was intimidated with the colors. It was true that she struggled throughout about six months. "I owned a palette comprising thirty or more colors and I wondered how I could know what colors to choose," explains Friis-Pettitt. "I did not know the properties of colors that's why, each time I attempted at painting my own the result was a muddy mess ."

In the end, she found an artist online who taught color theory. "I started painting with limited palette, using only three shades. This helped me learn how to make harmony, values, and mix my own colors," she says.

Since then, she says her art took off. "My niche of painting with the palette I had was exploding, and I began receiving increasingly many clients telling me they put a lot of their colors aside, too" continues Friis-Pettitt.

Then, she began to gain significant popularity with her paintings with limited palettes and regularly won awards at art shows. Many people began to ask to teach workshops on limited palette watercolor painting. They were interested and she began to teach live workshops in the summer of the year 2018. Right before covid hit her, she shifted towards online-based teaching using . "The small palette altered watercolor for a number of people, including myself," she says. "From then, I went to the next level and got rid of my opaque color palette and started introducing the transparent staining color, and the majority of artists advise students not to ."

Since launching her online business--Watercolors That Glow!--Friis-Pettitt has taught over 5,000 learners---continually pushing the edges of what she's "supposed" to do, and instead finding her own way via her unique niche instead. This is how she made it work in an unlikely industry:

Skip ahead:

She signed up for

To be able to get more people to attend She knew that she wanted to teach online. "People enjoy online classes," she says. "In fact, I've almost stopped doing in-person workshops entirely because it's expensive for people to travel ."

Another artist introduced her to . "I realized, 'I'm able to come up with a solution. This can be done,'" she explains.

and Teachable and Teachable were her top two platforms for e-learning, however she settled on Teachable because she felt it was more simple to navigate. "It was quite easy to design courses for ," she explains. "There were some learning curves and a few hiccups, but overall I am awed by the way structures ."

" keeps getting ever better and better" she continues. "There's nothing I can do that will ever switch to another one. They respond to all my queries right away. ."

She created a library of courses

With an online structure set in her place, she was able to start creating content for the course.

She began with filming tutorials and eventually compiled an archive of videos that people could purchase a at-a-cost style.

With a library of 60 tutorials, there is a subscription option that allows users to pay a monthly or annual cost for access to the whole library. "In my beginnings, I did not feel sufficient to offer a subscription service," she says. "It was only after I had gotten close to 50 courses that I started offering the subscription option ."

After launching her membership just only a couple of months ago there are now 200 members. The plan is to add new courses to ensure that subscribers and learners on a la carte alike will always have new content.

Although Friis-Pettitt is happy by the subscriber participation, her aim isn't to keep her members for as long as possible. "I wish people could learn, and learn quickly--and then move on to create their own work," she says.

While all of her course content is pre-recorded in order to let students learn from any location, anytime her live-streamed teaching is offered in livestream classes, which she offers once every six weeks.

She invested in the right equipment

When she first began filming her videos, she filmed them using her iPhone. She knew that to create an enterprise that would last, she needed to find the right equipment. But adjusting to new technology is a daunting task for any person, and she states that it took two years to reach the point where she could dial the right settings for her recording and filming configuration.

Since those iPhone video recording times, she's invested in technologies that make the recording and editing effortless. She uses a camera called a Packshot that is great for filming up close. She then uses an editing application called Camtasia and it allows users to quickly switch between different scenes. "I made sure that I spent a lot of money for equipment, but the investment is worth it. Now, I have my final set-up," she says.

She shows this setup, that consists of a frame where her camera is mounted from the top, and pointing down towards the paper in which she paints. "This lets me film as I paint with an remote control that lets me zoom in. And then, I can use my Camtasia software to edit the film," she says.

"Now, I can film an intermediate tutorial within a few days. The bar that I in front of me was essential to achieving the film quality that I have now," continues Friis-Pettitt.

She kept her prices affordable

As with many other creators, she had difficulty the issue of pricing her course.

Although many advise her to increase the price, she's remained firm on pricing her services at an affordable level; her strategy is to draw the largest amount of people possible.

Her livestream courses are for $65 USD, the a la carte classes include $35 USD per course, and her membership is priced at $14 USD when bought per month or $144 if purchased every year. Plus, she also offers bundles which contain a handful of tutorials that are grouped together. These bundles range in price between $48-$84 USD.

To collect payment to collect payment, she makes use of Payments.

"I have a greater number of visitors to my website due to my affordable courses. It's my opinion that keeping my prices lower made me more competitive.
Pricing is really about keeping your prices reasonable so that people are willing to give them a try," continues Friis-Pettitt.

She not only keeps the cost of her courses low, she offers as high a value this price as she could. "I do not skimp; I give everybody the opportunity to read a small book, and I discuss more information than most artists," she says. "That's what keeps people coming to me again and again. ."

If you are trying to decide on the most appropriate cost, she suggests that artists establish their credibility. When it comes to artist, she advises that they must be recognized within their respective communities. "It's essential that you've been to art shows and have several awards under your belt, because then people will believe that they are able to trust what you're talking about," she advises.

"You also have to have an area of expertise," she continues. "There might be thousands of watercolorists all educating similar subjects, which means you have to be different ."

The courses she sold were advertised via word-of mouth

While her courses attract people from all ages, she says that most are over 60.

Her la carte and livestream courses attract more serious artists looking to be better at painting and perhaps even market their work, whereas her membership is more popular for those who are hobbyists. Her target audience is almost entirely females.

Her courses are advertised generally through word of mouth marketing--and she believes that this can be done by anyone with a great product or service, who is friendly and is teaching an alternative course. "For instance, students will post about my courses in other Facebook groups when people inquire about classes on subjects that have a narrow range of courses," she explains.

The thing that makes her content apart--and helps her to promote her courses through word of mouth-- is that she shows each of her errors.

"They can see every aspect," she says. "They see me have to begin again. They observe how I deal with the most serious errors. They listen to my thought process. There aren't many watercolor artists that do that which is why, because of this, I'm able to retain students and they go out to spread the message on many other websites. ."

In addition to word-of-mouth her main source of traffic is the free tutorials she offers. The tutorials are free so that people can see what she offers and how she imparts her knowledge, and acts as a funnel into her paid courses. She then promotes her courses.

her courses are available on her Facebook page (which includes nearly 9,000 people), Instagram page, her Instagram page, and Pinterest. "Pinterest is a great resource for the type of instructional videos I teach. I get a lot of students from Pinterest," she shares.

Not only is her Facebook group a place to talk the latest tutorials she's created, it's also a place to connect with her community. She says that she's got certain rules to join, and this is a specific group for her website and painting with the use of a small palette. People learn from each other within this group before moving to her website to purchase her courses. "Even although I'm not fond of Facebook it's the place where people seem to be the most relaxed," she says.

For Friis-Pettitt marketing is the toughest part of running her business. "I must up my game," she laughs. "Surprisingly I haven't done much marketing, this is a bit odd considering that I'm pretty successful with my website. My marketing plan is totally in the opposite direction of ."

She maintains her personal communication

Friis-Pettitt's one-woman show. With no staff, she relies on keeping her systems streamlined, automated, and as easy as is possible.

She incorporates Zapier as well as Flow Desk into her site for a smooth operation. "There's very little much involved in the work I'm doing," she explains. "It's mostly creating videos and ensuring I'm active on social media." ."

"I want to find somebody to work with who could be of assistance, but I haven't located that person as of yet," continues Friis-Pettitt.

If she was to employ a team in the future, she wouldn't want to go away from the intimate relationship which she's currently able to provide her students. "I answer all my own emails, respond to people on social media, and help people in our Facebook community. I respond immediately to everyone in the community," she shares

"One thing that people love about me is that I'm very personable and I take the time to engage with people. I'm not a bot, and I don't have an assistant who handles those things," she adds.

She focused the niche of a kind

In response to a question about what the greatest achievement was as an online creator, she discussed the importance of finding an area of interest. "I've created a niche that lets I'm distinct from the thousands of other artists who use watercolor," she says. "People aren't familiar with them, and you need to think about why they would watch you against the 300 other people who they've just discovered on the internet. ."

"You must find things that draw people in," she continues. "For myself, the palette that is limited has been enormous. You have to create something unique. If you fail to do this, you'll be stuck with everybody else ."

Additionally, she claims the decision to choose is a major shift in the way she approaches teaching. "There's no problem with Skillshare and Udemy However, these platforms control the courses, not the creators of content. What I would say the only thing I was able to do right was get on with right away to decide what I wanted to teach," shares Friis-Pettitt.

She stayed consistent, even in the midst of a difficult time.

According to Friis-Pettitt's research, many new online course creators make the assumption that running an online business will be simple.

"It isn't an easy task; it is one of the most difficult things I've ever done throughout my life. I'm just glad I found an online platform that can aid me in organizing and structuring my classes as I needed," she reveals.

The reason she was able to keep her going through the hard times was her love for teaching and art. "Sometimes I'm forced to put myself in bed and let my tears flow," she continues. "Then I get up and dust myself off and tell myself that I've made it this far, and I'm able to keep going ."

"It isn't something that happens overnight, it took me 2 years to reach this point," says Friis-Pettitt. "But you have to continue. If you believe you have a good product and a great method of teaching, then it's going to occur. However, it won't occur immediately. It takes the time ."

Looking ahead at 2024 trends for online creators, Friis-Pettitt thinks that many creators are going to fall to the wayside; now more than ever before the ability to identify a area of expertise is vital. "The marketplace is already crowded," she says. "Unless you're thinking beyond the norm and stand out, it's unlikely to be noticed. ."

She has a few goals to achieve in the coming year. One is to grow her subscriber base; she's planning on creating a bunch more tutorials in the next few months, and advertising it throughout the new year, hoping to double her subscribers. "One of the reasons why I've not promoted the membership much is because I'm not convinced that I have enough tutorials on there. I'm hoping by the end of the year, I'll have enough content to make it a real ."

Additionally, she plans to design a three-month masterclass through , where she will provide an intimate group experience for creating a work. At the end of the class, the students will possess a thorough understanding of the use of watercolors, and how to paint using a limited palette. "I'm looking forward to having two masterclass courses next year,"" she says with enthusiasm.