Creatives on Camera: Artists and Crafters Using Video to Teach, Sell and Inspire Online
Creatives on Camera explores how artists, makers, and creative educators turn what they know into workshops, courses, and income.
Host Lyric Montgomery Kinard shares real conversations about teaching online, finding students, pricing, simple tech, and building a business that works in the real world. If you want to teach your craft but feel stuck on where to start—or how to make it sustainable—this podcast shows you what’s actually involved.
Creatives on Camera: Artists and Crafters Using Video to Teach, Sell and Inspire Online
"If I Build It, They Will Come" and What Happened When It Didn't
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Every creative hits the moment when they realize that putting their work out there isn't the same as being found.
Chase Harpole is a knitwear designer, data scientist, and PhD in political science who came to knitting almost by accident and turned it into a creative business rooted in radical inclusivity. In episode 62, Chase and I talk honestly about what it takes to build a creative teaching business — including the moment he realized "if I build it, they will come" wasn't working, how a top-down camera transformed his in-person classes, and the very real tension of showing up authentically online when visibility doesn't feel equally safe for everyone.
If you've been wondering whether your creative perspective is distinct enough to build something around, Chase's story will give you a lot to think about.
In this episode:
- Chase shares how knitting emerged from frustration with abstract academic work — and immediately became a creative obsession
- Why passion alone doesn't fill a class roster, and what Chase is doing differently now
- How a top-down camera changed everything in his beginner knitting classes
The data science approach Chase uses to design inclusive sizing across body types - Why showing up on social media can feel like "a deal with the devil" — especially for creators from marginalized communities
- Chase's dream of building infotainment around knitting that appeals to people who don't even knit
- Why hiring people for what you can't do is the move that frees you to do the work only you can do
Find Chase Harpole:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chaseharpole/
Ravelry: [https://www.ravelry.com/designers/chase-harpole-2
Latest pattern, Paladin Tank: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/paladin-tank
Links mentioned in this episode:
Ravelry — knitting pattern database: https://www.ravelry.com
Handcrafts and Hobbies Convention: https://hh-americas.com/
This Old House (PBS): https://www.thisoldhouse.com
Gardener's World (BBC): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mw1h
American Society for Testing Materials (sizing standards): https://www.astm.org
If you're wondering whether your creative perspective is ready to become a teaching business, start with the right questions:
12 Questions Before You Build Your Course:
https://www.academyforvirtualteaching.com/f/12-questions-before-you-build-your-course
Join the Academy for Virtual Teaching's Free Community: https://www.academyforvirtualteaching.com
Instagram: http://Instagram.com/theAcademyforVirtualTeaching
Facebook: http://facebook.com/theAcademyforVirtualTeaching
Never stop creating,
Lyric
Learn more about The Academy for Virtual Teaching here.
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