We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kent Weakley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kent, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
When I decided to investigate the craft of woodturning, I felt I needed to find someone to learn from. I attended a small workshop that really piqued my curiosity for the art, and it was there that I learned about a group of turners that meet once a week. Sheepishly, and with basically zero knowledge of woodturning, I went and found a great group of people who were welcoming and willing to share skills, ideas, and inspiration. Week after week, I attended without fail and I discovered something amazing. Not having a lathe at home, at the time, there was no way for me to keep turning or practicing during the rest of the week. My time turning was this anticipated, sacred, focused, window each week where I learned, grew my skills, and executed the plans I imagined since the previous meetup. Having that simple practice of once a week helped me to review, plan, rehearse, and make incremental growth each week. And best of all, it prevented burnout and helped me maintain a childlike enthusiasm for woodturning.
As time went by, I noticed others who didn’t show up regularly struggled with similar issues. Like everyone there, I began to share my knowledge with other turnings, and I enjoyed helping others develop their woodturning skills. Little did I realize at the time, that would lead to the business I now run, Turn A Wood Bowl.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’ve been very fortunate to create and be an artist for my whole life. I started, like many, drawing and painting as a kid, and I was encouraged by teachers and my parents. I developed my figure-drawing skills at the Art Institute of Chicago as part of an early college program while I was still in high school. It was at the Art Institute where we had what seemed like an impromptu portfolio review. I thought the review was just going to be with our instructor and the class, but a fleet of national art colleges were the intended reviewers. To my surprise, I was accepted by three schools on the spot. I was a senior in high school and prior to this moment, there had been little talk of college in our house. The Columbus College of Art & Design offered me a scholarship and off to Columbus I went. I had found my crowd. The workload was intense and satisfying. While in college, I incorporated my advertising and design firm, Blue Sky Graphic Communication, in 1990. There, I earned my Bachelor of Fine Art degree. My main loves for creating are design, photography, woodworking, and watercolors. After running my company for over 30 years, my interests have moved more to photography and woodturning. In 2018, I developed a website www.TurnAWoodBowl.com to help other turners understand and learn the subtle skills needed to master the art of turning wood bowls. Creating www.TurnAWoodBowl.com, I realized a perfect blend of my creative skills to be able to communicate the wood bowl turning to others. I am able to use my marketing, graphic design, photography, and woodturning talents all in one place. My passion for woodturning is intense and I love sharing it with others all around the world through my site and videos.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I know that I was able to learning the art of wood bowl turning thanks to informative and enabling turners who generous shared their information with me. I too, share my information freely and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing I’ve helped countless people developed their skills all around the world.
While, I enjoy the fruits of my time learning, I know I’m not special. I learned what I know because I was passionate and persistent. Every success in life for me has relied most on persistence and not skill or luck. If you show up and focus, you can do anything. It is really that simple. It won’t happen overnight, and you WILL get discouraged at times. However, persistence always wins.
Passion and persistence is what I love sharing with others because I know if I can keep others excited and engaged with turning, they too will develop the skills to create.
My goal is to help those who are willing to help themselves get beyond the “skills.” Once the mechanics of any task are learned, memorized, and become second nature, we can truly be creative with that talent. I love seeing people grow their skills, get beyond the “how does this work” stage, and enter the world of an artist and creator.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
My initial goal was to build traffic to my website using organic search results. This was not too hard because so little information about turning wood bowls existed in great detail. Instead of making long-winded articles about the whole process of turning, I focused on specific skills that each needed as much attention as the next, and each became an article. This information was quickly recognized by Google and traffic began to increase. Then, I developed an email marketing campaign comprising an email each week. The focus of these emails is to give valuable information in each email. Nobody likes to get “sales” emails. We can only ask someone to purchase after we’ve given them plenty for free.
Growing and developing an online business is so counter-intuitive for most business people. You must give everything away constantly. Only then do people feel connected and trust you enough to make a purchase. It’s so easy to think, “if I give away info, who will pay for anything?” When you give away information, but more importantly, when you provide value, people want to purchase more from you.
In 2020, I started my YouTube channel, and using my developed website, I was able to drive more traffic and increase my email list as well. I also manage a private Facebook group with several thousand members. Again, persistence is critical. Growing an audience doesn’t happen overnight.
It’s important to know your audience as well. Most of my followers are older, and woodturning is a hobby for them. That being said, most of my viewers are not on Insta and definitely not Tiktok. Put it this way, I’ve received more than a few emails with the entire message typed in the subject line. ;)
Growing your audience takes time. Let it happen and don’t rush the process. Focus on providing value, know your audience, stick with a plan, and be persistent and you will succeed. Enjoy the whole process every day.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Portrait photo credit – Maggie Weakley Remaining images are created by Kent Weakley