Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
#342: Monika Blichar (Creative Entrepreneur) (pt. 2 of 2)
Today we released part one of our interview with Monika Blichar. She's a creative entrepreneur based in North Vancouver, Canada. Currently, she creates paintings, fashion, books and toys; and her colorful works are rooted in surrealism and pop art.
A serial entrepreneur, Monika founded Art World Expo in 2010 and launched the Art World Podcast in 2022. She is also the owner of Monika’s Art Boutique & Studio in North Vancouver, where she leads a team of educators and creators who service over 200 students monthly via art programs and specialty workshops for kids, adults and seniors.
Tune in to be motivated by Monika's positive energy and collaborative approach to entrepreneurship! https://www.monikablichar.com/, https://theartworldexpo.com/ and
Welcome to the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast. Making art work. We highlight how entrepreneurs align their artistry, passion and vision to create and pursue opportunities to capture value in the arts. The views expressed by guests on the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the podcast or its hosts. The appearance of a guest on the podcast, the venture they represent or reference to any product or service does not imply an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast or its hosts. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute business advice. Here are your hosts Andy Heise and Nick Petrella.
Andy Heise:Hi Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast listeners.
Andy Heise:My name is Andy Heise
Nick Petrella:and I'm Nick Petrella, we're joined today by Monika Blichar, a creative entrepreneur based in North Vancouver, canada. Currently, she creates paintings, fashion books and toys, and her colorful works are rooted in surrealism and pop art. A serial entrepreneur, monika founded Art World Expo in 2010 and launched the Art World Podcast in 2022. She is also the owner of Monika's Art Boutique and Studio in North Vancouver, where she leads a team of educators and creators who service over 200 students monthly via art programs and specialty workshops for kids, adults and seniors. Be sure to visit her websites in the show notes to learn more about Monika, her podcast, studio and gallery. Thanks for being here, monika.
Monika Blichar:My pleasure. I'm so excited to talk to you guys.
Nick Petrella:As a gallerist, you're a stakeholder in their success. So I'm wondering in terms of marketing and sales, how do you help the artists that you represent?
Monika Blichar:and sales. How do you help the, the artists in your uh that you represent? Yeah, so well, we well, when they come in, there's there's sort of protocol for the artists, so we have, you know, their contract, their inventory. We photograph everything. We put it out on social media. If they are up for it, we'll do an interview with them.
Monika Blichar:Um, I encourage them to come to all of our events, our openings, anything that's happening, so that they can meet people. I'm very, you know, it's it's all about relationships with people too. So I figure, you know, if people know you locally, then you can kind of you're in your pond, people know you, you're sort of famous around your town and then from there you can build up on your internet presence and all of that, Right, but I think like starting locally, where you know people and people know you and your work, is the best way to start, and so we try to really focus on, you know, building events that are local so that people locally can, you know, meet the artists and then they're comfortable and then they got that confidence and then they can go out and do different things online too, Right, it's so much harder to sell things online because people don't know you too, right.
Nick Petrella:It's so much harder to sell things online because people don't know you. Yeah, so when you're setting prices with the artists, do they lead that conversation?
Monika Blichar:Do you lead that? How does that look? They lead it, although, because of the commission, they have the choice. Do they want to raise their prices a little bit to offset that commission that we take, or do they want to keep the same price across the board, so that if they're in 10 different venues, for example, 10 different retailers, everything is consistent? And that's what I always tell them is should be consistent from where place to place, right? But they, you know, obviously you're not going to get paid for every single hour that you spend on something, right, you have to be market competitive too. So we do have those discussions when we bring in artwork as well. Because sometimes the idea of like, okay, well, I spent 100 hours on this, so I want this much money, but sometimes you can't, right, or it's just not feasible, or it'll just sit there, and for me I don't want things sitting either. We want to move there.
Andy Heise:And for me, I I don't want things sitting either.
Monika Blichar:We want to move, and obviously we have bills to pay too Right. So my my focus is to price things competitively and make sure that people are actually purchasing and that they can purchase it Right.
Andy Heise:Yeah Well, and speaking of competition, you know the art world, the art market is, is highly competitive in terms of, you know, selling work or whatever, performing or whatever. Whatever the art market is is highly competitive in terms of, you know, um, selling work or whatever performing or whatever. Whatever the art uh is, how do you, how do you think about competition, while also trying to foster and build that community and support, support the artists.
Monika Blichar:Yeah, I don't, um, I don't, uh, I don't think that we're in a like a competition per se. I much rather like collaborate with people and work with people. So like I know that you have to be like the best in your industry and all of that, and there's a lot of like talk about that of being number one, and you know these big corporations too, like Apple's number one and you know whatever else. They're all competing, but I always think that it's best to work together with people and make sure that everybody wins. No-transcript.
Andy Heise:Sure, that's great. I'm thinking, you know, for for, for art classes or something you know there's, there's, I don't know, maybe there's not a lot of options. Um, I'm surprised, I don't know, that I guess I haven't really looked around for art classes for kids, but I'm, you know there, there are options, there's, you know, of course, one of them being like YouTube or um, so, even in that sort of of a landscape, well, and even if it's not art, it could be sports or something like that. You know, there's only so much time and and yeah so is that.
Andy Heise:How do you think about positioning in in that circumstance?
Monika Blichar:well, we just try to do our best to provide, like, the best service, you know, and the easiest thing for the parents, for example.
Monika Blichar:So one of the things I keep hearing is like, oh well, your camps are so great because you guys open early and you stay open late, and so other you know, I know other people aren't doing that and that keeps us competitive in terms of, like, being full summer after summer, because we have those options for those working parents.
Monika Blichar:So I'm trying to always, like you know, think of those kinds of things. How is it easiest for for my clients, options for those working parents? So I'm trying to always, like you know, think of those kinds of things. How is it easiest for my clients, for those people who want those services and who need those services because they have to go to work, right, yeah, but there's, you know, we've partnered. Like this year we're partnering up with a basketball school. So we're doing like a cross promotion where they're offering basketball and movement sports for part of the day and then we'll do the art for the other part of the day. So we're in two totally different, but we're coming together to make it easier for parents but also make it easier for both of us to succeed too.
Nick Petrella:You know, that's a really good point. Also make it easier for both of us to succeed too. That's great. That's a really good point. I've arranged dozens of events, sessions, camps and stuff for percussion, and parents are very thankful when you work around their work schedule. But, you'd be surprised at how many don't do that.
Monika Blichar:And it really is such a simple thing in terms of like, even if you're doing it yourself, it's just an extra hour. Ok, no problem. It's nine weeks of summer, no big deal. But also, you know, if you're not teaching it yourself, it's only a couple. You know it's not. It's not even a hundred dollars extra a day to have the staff open early and close late. Really it's not expensive, right, but you will get so much more volume when you do it that way.
Andy Heise:Yeah, that's great.
Monika Blichar:Yeah, yeah, and I think that's the that's the whole thing is like just making it about the client, right? Not about just the artist too, right? So and the creative entrepreneurial? I think lots of people want to have a business and do it their way, but at the same time, you're offering a service for the market, so it's not always about you at that point, right.
Nick Petrella:Yep, not in a vacuum.
Monika Blichar:Exactly.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, I read that you launched the first art vending machine in British Columbia. Is that still going on and if so, how's it going?
Monika Blichar:So well, we it's not happening at the moment. We had it um uh, during the pandemic. We launched it at the worst time ever because, um there was no travel not a lot of foot traffic yeah.
Monika Blichar:There was no travel for like so long, so we had it going for about two years. Um, we had it at the BC ferries, which is the large I don't know if you guys know about it, but it's a big ship that takes cars and passengers back and forth from Vancouver to Vancouver Island. So we had it there. It was amazing venue for it, but it just didn't do as well as we thought because of the, obviously, the no travel ban, and then we moved it to a mall, but again, it was just bad timing, so I took that off, I shelved that and we'll probably bring it back, but we'll see. For now it's not, but it was so cool, it was so super fun. We had little miniature art in there and jewelry and all kinds of things and and it was just such a great way to have this passive income, like literally, cause you didn't have to stand there and sell it or put it into a store, have anybody, it was just self containing and credit cards tap and the thing would pop out. It was so cool.
Nick Petrella:Right, yeah, and maybe at one of the expos test it there.
Monika Blichar:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was thinking, probably maybe like to redo it again. We just got a third location, um, but this time it's a coffee shop. Coffee shop, art cafe.
Nick Petrella:Oh yeah.
Monika Blichar:Yeah, so maybe there we'll see.
Nick Petrella:That might do better.
Andy Heise:Yeah.
Monika Blichar:Yeah.
Andy Heise:I've seen, I think in Kansas city we we at least we used to we have at the airport sort of a Kansas city local, local made vending machine sort of thing.
Monika Blichar:Yeah, yeah, I've seen them. There's like one in this, I think, seattle, it's called Artomat. There's like a few, a few people doing them in the States. They're pretty neat. It's just a neat way to kind of, you know, get this out there and it's not expensive to purchase a machine and then have it there, you know, because you don't have to staff it. It's just such an interesting you know you can just keep plugging it back in. As long as you have like a great relationship with the mall actually that we were in, let us have it there as a freebie, so they didn't charge us the rent, so that was really nice.
Monika Blichar:So if you can, build those kinds of things where it benefits the establishment but also yourself too.
Nick Petrella:Totally, you got the right fishing rod. You just got to get the right fishing pole.
Monika Blichar:And that's where talking to people is really important and being able, like have confidence, to pitch your ideas to people too, right?
Nick Petrella:Yep.
Andy Heise:Yeah, so you launched a licensee program in 2022 to expand the education program that you've, that you?
Nick Petrella:built.
Andy Heise:That's. That's a big accomplishment. And what? How did you know it?
Monika Blichar:was time to, to make that shift and and and start to scale that business. Well, once you have the curriculum, as you guys know, your to your educators as well. You can give that curriculum to someone else to teach Right. And with our afterschool program especially, that is something that people need.
Monika Blichar:And I thought, well, I can't keep opening up more locations and having more students and hiring more people, that's just so. That's just such a huge responsibility and I will burn myself out if I do that. So I figure, well, how is the next best way to do that? And we started selling our e-books, our curriculum. We sell our curriculum to daycares and to other schools, other education providers. They can use it Again because we document everything as we go along. So all of our projects are step by step. We have all the curriculum, everything done. And then we also sell like to the general public so people can buy the ebooks and stuff.
Monika Blichar:And then I thought, well, how else can we help more people with these programs and then also help teachers? I stay kind of in the education world in terms of like, being connected to other teachers around the world and seeing how they're doing things. So I thought that would be the next logical step, and putting it out there actually led me to go down the franchise route. So we're going to go down the franchise route. We're just in progress right now with the lawyers doing all of that so that they people can open up their own. Um, there's a fine line between licensing and franchising and you have to really stay on that, otherwise you could get in trouble. So I think for us we're gonna the best way is to go do the franchising and that way they're really, you know, having their own territory, having their own. There's no competition if there's two people who purchase the, you know, the curriculum and license. They're not. They're not competing against each other. It just keeps it more fair.
Monika Blichar:So yeah yeah, in my mind I was like we just got to help. There's millions of kids out there that really need these programs after school, you know.
Andy Heise:And you've got a proven model, like you said, and you know there's other people out there that want to do what you're doing, and so yeah, yeah, and in terms of like being an, artist, yeah, and being an artist too, right Like you.
Monika Blichar:When you own this, the, the, the studio, and you have the regular students coming in, this really helps for your studio space that you can use on the evenings or in the daytime when the students aren't here, then it works for you, too, to have that kind of business instead of going to some office job and then renting a space at nighttime to do, right Like you're, and then you're around the industry all day, right, yeah.
Nick Petrella:And being a teacher yourself, you have sympathy and the other teachers are going to recognize that and so you can really speak to them on a deeper level.
Monika Blichar:Yeah, and I think, too, like teachers are so underpaid, you know, and, yeah, I remember, like my first teaching job and my first, my first paycheck, I was like, oh my God, I made more money as a waitress. Like what is happening, like, like this is not what I signed up for, you know. So I had to do something and I recognize that that's the case with a lot of teachers. There's amazing teachers out there and they're, you know, bogged down by that financial, you know, lack. So that is, yeah, definitely one of the reasons why I want to franchise is to help other teachers get out of that cycle so that they can contribute to their community more right?
Nick Petrella:Sure, and speaking of students, so you have 200 a month currently and it may fluctuate, but can you describe your business model for that aspect of the business, in case there are other artists listening who may want to do the same?
Monika Blichar:Yeah, so I started with, you know, just doing adult classes and then doing painting parties and then we slowly evolved into the afterschool. With the after like, the, all of the classes have been great. We've been able to do lots and lots of students, varieties of ages. We do toddlers all the way to like. I think our oldest student was 102. So we would go into different senior homes. So we are also mobile, so the teachers will go out to different places. But the key really with having those monthly students is getting them to sign up for something so that they're in for a year, which is really beneficial for the business but also for job security and making sure that you know what you really beneficial for the business but also for you know job security and making sure that you know what you're doing for the whole year, and that has been our.
Monika Blichar:The after school program with the summer camps both of those have just been excellent ways for us to sustain all this and grow all of this. So, if anybody's listening, that is one of the biggest pieces is to get those people on a, you know, not just host one class, but like, why don't you do a 13 week thing so that you have, or you know, a September to June so that you know you have these people and give them the option they can pay for the full year, they can pay in advance for a little discount, they can pay monthly. Set it up for yourself so that it works for you. Yeah.
Nick Petrella:And as a parent we have my wife and I have a bunch of kids. We appreciate that recurring. We just set it up and we don't have to think about it.
Monika Blichar:Exactly, yeah, yeah, and you, just the thing is, you just want to make it easy for everybody, right? Easy for yourself, easy for the customer, whether they're toddlers or senior, like just however you want to work it out. We have some contracts with some like even rental housing complexes who have group activities for their renters, and I'm like, okay, well, we'll do this bi-monthly and come in and you have a community night for the people who rent in your building, right? So it's a great, yeah, as long as you can set it up so that you, you know, do one class and see how it goes, and then, if you can get the contract to do monthly things or bimonthly or weekly or however you want to set it up, it's just this great way to keep it so that you have consistency, you know.
Andy Heise:Yeah, and so, with all of these different, different activities and programs and revenue streams that you have going, as we've been talking about, how do you keep your creative energy up when there's all of these admin, business, administrative things to tend to?
Monika Blichar:Yeah, I do a few things, so I try not to come as much as possible, First of all, just because I also want, like other people, to feel confident in like making decisions and teaching and putting out their personality.
Monika Blichar:So I really try to give the teachers and the staff like their own way. I monitor as much as possible, but I try to do that from a distance so that people aren't always relying on me. So that's one way I protect my energy as well. I do things like, you know, sauna and walking a garden quite a bit, and I travel. I always I try to make sure that every month I go on like some little mini thing where I'm like completely unavailable and then a couple times a year I'll take some bigger vacations and, do you know, just sort of check in from online, but definitely like keeping away from the business and not being in the business is one way that I preserve my own like sanity. Also, like that I still feel inspired and motivated to sit down while I am away or when I am, you know, out of here that I have that time and that I have that like focus and that need where I'm like I want to sit down and do something, you know.
Andy Heise:Yeah, and are you still? Is your, is your creative practice still up and going, or do you find time to paint or do whatever?
Monika Blichar:Yeah, I do. I uh, not as much as I want. Yeah, building a business is is takes a lot of energy, but I also find that a creative outlet for me too. I find you know the marketing and putting together the pieces, and then you know everything is art too, right, like food and events and all of these things is all creative and you create that as a creator, you're putting all these magical things together and you're putting it from your thoughts into reality. So that part of it is also really fun for me too, not just like the visual pieces or the actual production of art, you know, yep.
Andy Heise:That's a great point. Yeah Well, Monika, we've reached the point of the interview where we ask all of our interviewees the same three questions.
Monika Blichar:And the first question is what advice would you give to others wanting to become an arts entrepreneur? Pick what you want to become and focus on that every day. You know, do something every day to get closer to that step. Believing in yourself is a key there, too, right? It's like what you envision is what you can create. So what do you want your life to look like as an artist and as a creative entrepreneur? And focus on that and don't give up right. That's the big thing. Focus on that and don't give up right.
Nick Petrella:That's the big thing. Yeah, what can we do to ensure the arts are more accessible and reaching the widest possible audience?
Monika Blichar:Well, this is such a great platform right here, you know, is talking to people, and you guys are doing a phenomenal job of making these interviews accessible and out there and just, yeah, I listened to a few of them. So things like this are wonderful ways and connecting with people. That's a big thing and just I think we have the tools now. Right, that's to make it easy. You guys are in a whole other country, so you know it's amazing what we can do out there.
Andy Heise:Absolutely, yeah, yeah. Lastly, what's the best artistic or entrepreneurial advice you've been given?
Monika Blichar:Well, I've been given a lot, but I remember at one of my events someone said to me it was probably about five years into the Art World Expo and they were very stressful at the beginning for me and this one particular year I have a few mentors that kind of hang around and check in on me these, you know, older women or men, and one of my mentors came to my event and he said something's changed. And I said well, what's that? And he said well, you're just so much more calm this year. And look at all of the people are much more calm too.
Monika Blichar:And I said he said always, remember, your energy is going to affect everybody, especially when you're in a leadership role. And I thought, oh, that's so true the ups and downs of business, because there are definitely, you know, different times where you're like doing great and then times where you're like how am I going to make this all work? This is so stressful. So keeping that energy and in a state of like, happiness and and focus, even if things are not going that great, is super key.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, that's a. That's a very good observation. And you know, speaking of energy, really like your positive energy and your collaborative approach to entrepreneurship.
Monika Blichar:Thanks for being with us. Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure talking to you both.
Andy Heise:Thanks, monika.
Monika Blichar:Thank you.
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