We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Geraldine Wilkins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Geraldine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally happened when I switched from a business to a visual arts university and became an apprentice to famed Harlem photographer, Austin Hansen.
The decision was an unpopular decision with a family of administrators, doctors, law enforcement and educational professionals. The arts wasn’t considered a “safe” career path.
The catalyst was a university newspaper ad for a photographer position. Responding to the ad and becoming a photographer for the paper was the first step in the new career path.
These first steps led to internships at New York Newsday and the Los Angles Times. A 20-year career as a photojournalist included 11 years as a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times and 13-years as a photographer and photo editor for an international magazine.
Thinking big and beyond a traditional career path paved the way to pursue a passion for designing and making quilts. Living Water Quilter, a quilt pattern design, coaching and teaching business was launched in 2015.
Geraldine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
You probably guessed that quilting does not run in the family. I used quilting as a bridge to connect with women in a new community. After, relocating to Virginia to work with an international publication, quilting became the gateway to building relationships.
Quilters are learners that love to explore new techniques. As I grew in knowledge and skill women in local groups, in which I was a member, asked me teach. Soon, I was teaching at groups throughout Virginia and neighboring US states.
The rest they say is history. As I continued to develop quilting and sewing skills new teaching opportunities developed on a national level. Living Water Quilter specializes in helping quilters learn two quilt finishing techniques. By this time, I was sharing tutorials on the Living Water Quilter blog, YouTube and social media channels.
These years were also filled with international travel. On these trips I met amazing and wonderful women from so many cultures. I soon learned that the sewing skills I was learning and teaching, if shared, could be a catalyst for change for some of the women.
This is major reason Living Water Quilter became a business in 2015. Within in two years, it became a full-time endeavor that included trips overseas as a volunteer, to teach women living in Israel to sew and start a craft business.
Teaching can be a legacy of positive influence for not only today but for the tomorrows of the future. I remember when Jessica, a wife and a mother had her first interview as an artisan. I had the honor to sit with her and watch her share why she and her baskets would be an asset to the largest outdoor artist market in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Jessica and I spent countless hours during my trips to Israel and over the internet when I was in the US exploring different sewing techniques. She quickly gravitated to making baskets. We focused on basket making for two years before she had her first interview with the artist market panel.
Her first appearance at the artist market was Jan 2020. Her knew basket business had its share of ups and downs during the pandemic, but she persevered. She has become an amazing basket designer.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
The 2020 pandemic “shelter-in-place” order and other large group limitations temporarily shut down the business.
I wasn’t prepared. The business website was information-based, not commerce-based.
For the next 18 months, I focused on creating an e-commerce site.
There were multiple skills I had to quickly learn and execute. It was necessary to transform lecture and workshop content into digital content usable for on-demand courses, webinars and a live streaming show, a quilting membership and more.
This was just the beginning.
Anyone familiar with e-commerce knows there are many components beyond the products and digital content necessary to build revenue and acheive a profitable eCommerce site.
Professional skill development in the areas of technology, on camera presence, on-demand course creation, live-streaming production, digital marketing and others skills were on an accelerated learning and execution track.
It was a rude awakening. It was challenging. Sometimes felt like giving up. It felt like I was starting my quilting business from scratch.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Building an audience on social media is all fun and games until it’s time to switch to digital marketing for a business. ‘
Either way, build an audience with engaging, light-hearted and educational content. Digital marketing strategy will bring an audience member on a customer journey. Using this formula I have collectively built an audience of on multiple social media platforms.
A small percentage of the audience will become our core community. From the thousands in an audience, we want to connect with the “real” followers, the core community.
I started to isolate a core community when I began a weekly live-streaming show on YouTube and Facebook. The weekly show began to develop into a community of people who began to not just connect with me, the brand, but also with one another.
The community began to create its own identity, connected to and centered around the brand. It also began to build a relationship of like, know and trust between me and the community.
Within six months of a weekly live show, I started a paying membership on the newly launched e-commerce site. Several community members were ready to join the year long membership.
After 21 months of educational content, engagement with games, and community member spotlights, “real” long-term connections have been made.
Live connections with a business avatar is a gold mine of information to help drive content, product develop and more. Our core community helps to pinpoint content they will consume and engage with and products they will purchase.
For example, a new on-demand course was created based on a 10-part live show series. The series was developed based on a need expressed by my core community.
Did you notice that it has taken months of consistently showing up for me, my business and for the my audience? Social media is not a quick fix to gain new and repeat customers or clients. It should be part of an overall strategic plan to reach the community we serve.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://courses.livingwaterquilter.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livingwaterquilter/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LivingWaterQuilterLLC
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldine-wilkins-aaa23b76/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LivingWaterQuilter
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/livingwaterquilter/ https://www.amazon.com/shop/livingwaterquilter
Image Credits
Photo by Geraldine A. Wilkins