Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Madison Nilsson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Madison, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?
The first client our studio received was the moment we opened up our pottery classes available for purchase. Back story on working up to this point – I (Madi) had a marketing booth at a local art market in November of 2022. I was marketing a business that hasn’t opened yet and still had 3 more months of build out to go. At this Art Market my main goal was to talk with our community, get to know others, and get the word out that my studio was opening March 2023! I talked to so many people that day and one person that stuck out to me was this woman names Katie. She was so excited to hear that there was a local woman owned pottery studio opening up in the heart of Salt Lake City, Utah. She could not contain her excitement for wanting to take pottery classes with us once we open up in March. Fast forward 2 months – It is January 29th and we announce to our (small) social media following that we will release pottery classes for registration on January 31st at 11:59pm. I’m not exactly sure why I chose a midnight release, but to me that evening of January 31st 2023 felt like I was staying up that night to see my favorite movie, but instead of seeing my favorite movie I am about to watch my first ever business sale happen! So sure enough it was January 31st, 2023 and exactly on 11:59pm Katie registered for a pottery class. Then another person registered for a pottery class and then another. person registered for a pottery class The registrations for pottery classes kept coming and soon enough we were almost completely sold out for our first month of business. In all honesty, the moments leading up to the release I had some fear and doubt that no one would sign up for our pottery classes. I guess that is the thing with small businesses – It’s a major risk, but if you have belief in yourself and the value you are giving to your community – you won’t fail. Also, family and friends supporting you along the way is key. Shout out to my husband Chad for always supporting me through all my crazy business ideas.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Hi everyone! My name is Madi Hopkins and I am the owner and operator of Salt Lake Pottery Studio. We are located in the heart of Salt Lake City, Utah at 9th and 9th. For those of you who have not met me yet, here is a quick back story on how I ended up opening up Salt Lake Pottery Studio.
From a young age my mom introduced me to all sorts of different art mediums. Everything from watercolor, acrylic, scrapbooking, and everything in between. Except for wheel thrown pottery. My mom finally introduced me to wheel thrown pottery when I was a teenager. From the moment I sat at the wheel with my mom I knew I was hooked. I loved the challenge that pottery brings, but also the tangible and functional outcome that comes with pottery.
After learning how to wheel throw from my mom I started to go to a local community pottery studio to create. I went there for years and years. After awhile I had considered building a home pottery studio for myself and then in the summer of 2022 an opportunity to open my very own pottery studio popped up. I took the opportunity and ran with it. Now two years later, here I am running a community pottery studio. We have about 100 students each month and 80 pottery studio members. We are growing and growing! So much so that we are opening a second location in the Avenues. The open date is still TBD, but we have a beautiful space at 480 E Sixth Ave SLC, Utah 84103 that we are currently building out!
As for what we offer here at Salt Lake Pottery Studio, we offer a wide variety of experiences. We have a one time pottery wheel throwing date night (2 hour) class every Saturday from 6pm-8pm. This event is so much fun. Especially if you just want to try your hands at the pottery wheel for your first time without a long class commitment. We also have a 4 week introduction to pottery wheel throwing class. This course will teach you the beginning steps to throwing pottery on the wheel. If you have already worked with clay before, we have a few other classes that might be a good fit for you! We have a returning beginner course for those that want to expand on the fundamentals of wheel throwing and we just released our continuing learning course. This continuing learning course allows students to ask how to make whatever item their heart desires. These classes are smaller classes so that we can tailor the experience to your needs/wants. Last but not least, we are an event space! We host family events, corporate events, birthday parties, bachelorette parties, and more. Our private pottery parties are such a hit and these times book out months in advance. So make sure to plan ahead! :)
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
Before opening Salt Lake pottery Studio I had worked at different Art Markets selling my pottery. I didn’t have an end goal with pottery like owning my own business. I just wanted to keep doing what I loved doing. Which was pottery! It wasn’t until I combined my career with my passion to create what Salt Lake Pottery Studio is now. I would say there wasn’t a huge key milestone to opening my business as there were so many small milestones to accomplishing opening my doors. I think a few milestones I could name off the top of my head are finding a space, building out the website, and building the space to exactly how I wanted. Of course there were many other milestones in between, but those are the top three that I can think of!
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Building our social media is one thing that has always felt natural to me. I have a marketing background, and I chose marketing as my corporate career as I loved doing it. It is a creative career and still to this day love creating marketing plans and materials. Now, with building our social media – my main way of building social media is giving more than I expect to receive. In the beginning we gave out a love of free classes and in return hoped that we would grow by grass root marketing. I am a firm believer in word of mouth is the best marketing. Which is why we gave out so many free classes when first opening. This marketing strategy naturally and organically grew this business into what we are today. If you are looking to grow your social media, my recommendation is give out free products and services in the beginning and simply ask your guests to leave a review. This goes a long way!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.saltlakepotterystudio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saltlakepotterystudio/
Image Credits
Instagram for photographer: @racheleatoughphotography