FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #159 Inside Wine And Design Fredericksburg With Michelle Flynn
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A paint and sip night sounds like pure fun until you remember the two biggest fears most of us carry: “I can’t paint” and “I’m going to mess it up.” We talk with Michelle Flynn from Wine and Design Fredericksburg about why those fears are exactly what her studio is built for, and how a guided class can take you from blank canvas to something you actually want to hang up.
Michelle breaks down what guests can expect the moment they walk in, from arriving early to park downtown to getting settled with two included beverages (alcohol is optional) and your own snacks. We also get into everything beyond painting, including resin projects like charcuterie boards, chunky blankets, and the growing menu of creative experiences coming to Fredericksburg. If you’re planning a celebration, we cover kids events through Art Buzz Kids, birthday parties, private party options, and the “bring five” format that lets smaller groups choose the project while still opening the room to the public.
Then the conversation takes a sharp turn into real world small business ownership: a debilitating Facebook hack that led to fraudulent charges, tanked visibility, and consumed dozens of hours to fix. Michelle shares specific tips on what to watch for, how to escalate support, and why taking care of yourself outside the business matters as much as any marketing plan. If you love local Fredericksburg businesses, subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a creative night out, and leave a review so more neighbors can find the show.
Michelle Flynn
Wine and Design Fredericksburg
fredericksburg@wineanddesign.com
+1 540-809-0899
Welcome To FXBG Neighbors
SpeakerThis is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
What Wine And Design Is
Speaker 1Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today. We've got Michelle Flynn joining us, and she is with Wine and Design Fredericksburg. Michelle, welcome to the podcast. Hey, thank you so much. I'm so excited. Whoa, I just kicked my camera. I'm excited for this interview, and I'm excited to learn all about you and Wine and Design Fredericksburg. So let's start there. Share with us what is Wine and Design?
Speaker 2Yeah, so Wine and Design started out as a paint and sip. Um, like our studio is 12 years old, and I think the franchise is going on 15. Um, and we are just uh an art studio that brings people together and celebrates all of their memories and uh milestones, birth apes, all kinds of good stuff like that, and date nights, you know, just something to do that's fun and different.
What A First Visit Feels Like
Speaker 1I love it. I love it. Well, I have been to your studio a few times. It is so much fun. So walk me through. So if someone who's never been there and they sign up for a class, what can they expect when they come in? Yeah, so I've got a team of five artists.
Speaker 2Um, so you'll be happily greeted at the door. Um, and you just find your seat, we get you a drink, and then you want to definitely arrive downtown like 15 to 30 minutes before your painting or project time starts, uh, so that you can park. Their parking garage is pretty close by. And um it takes a couple minutes to get in. And then at the time that's on the calendar, we start our project. So we do all kinds of different things. And um, I always tell everybody that art is like a roller coaster, emotional roller coaster. Um, it's gonna start out fun and exciting, and then you're gonna be like, I hate it. And then we'll get you through that point. And I promise you'll go home with something that you love and you have a good time doing it. I love it.
Speaker 1That is so true. That has happened to me every time.
unknownYeah.
Michelle’s Path To Ownership
Speaker 1It happened to me in your life. And then it turns out beautiful in the end. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So I want to learn more about you. Tell me about your background. How did you get into this?
Speaker 2Yeah, so I was in the restaurant industry for a really long time, like 20 plus years. And then I um went back to school, got my degree in business, worked for um a construction company for five years as an assistant project manager, was kind of burnt out on that. It wasn't exactly, you know, what I wanted to do. And um my friends actually went to the Richmond location and did paint your pet. And I thought it was so awesome. And um, and I didn't go because I just had to re-home my dog and I was too sad. So that's why I didn't go the first time. And then like a year later, um, another family friend who lives kind of far away, but um, she opened the one in Charlottesville. And we, I was like, wow, we have really similar skill set. And I just thought it would be really fun to bring to Fredericksburg. So here we are 12 years later.
Myths, Kids Events, And Parties
Speaker 1Here we are. 12. I love it. I love it so much. It's such a fun time. And if uh those listening haven't tried it yet, please try it. And let's clear up for anyone. Are you finding that there are any myths or misconceptions about your business?
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely. So the name, Wine and Design, people think that they have to drink. You don't have to drink any alcohol, obviously. You can have something else. Um, yeah, and we are so our tickets include two um two beverages, alcohol or non-alcoholic. And you can also bring in any snacks and food that you would like to the studio.
Speaker 1Nice, nice. And you don't have to be uh an artist, also.
Speaker 2No, not at all. And honestly, we also welcome, so 14 and up are welcome at our like what we would consider an adult event, um, as long as they have um someone with them. And um, and then we also have like a full kids division as well. It's called Art Buzz Kids. We do lots of birthday parties um and fun kids events, usually during their breaks and things like that.
Speaker 1I love that.
Speaker 2And definitely first Friday.
Speaker 1First, yes, first Friday, such a good time downtown. I feel like that is such a great kids' birthday party idea.
Speaker 2It's a lot of fun, they really do. It's I did I did a huge kids' birthday party, um, 36 people, I think it was a couple of weeks ago. And um the parents loved the fact that like once we got the room kind of dropped in, you know, that they were all so engaged for an at more than an hour painting. Um no screens, you know, it's it's no screen time, which is awesome. And and once they really get into it, they do and they do such a good job. And I love to see them get creative and add their own things to their paintings. You know, it's a lot of fun. We always encourage everyone, not only children, but everyone to, you know, really make their painting their own. Like what's on the wall is an idea. Um, and that goes for other projects as well. You know, we're doing a lot of other things now that we always want you to put your own creative spin on it. You don't have to do what the sample looks like, you know what I mean?
Resin, Blankets, And Take Home Kits
Speaker 1Yeah. So tell me about that. What are some of the other things that you offer beyond the the painting?
Speaker 2Yeah, so we do we're doing a lot of resin projects now. This is a resin um resin for charcuterie board. Um, and this one's just kind of like ocean style, which is super popular. Um, we do chunky blankets, we're getting ready to bring hat burning, we're getting ready to bring glass blowing, get ready for some new projects at Wine and Design this summer, definitely.
Speaker 1So much fun. Yeah, you also have the ability to take it home. Uh, my mother came to visit from out of town and she wasn't well enough to, you know, walk downtown and get there physically, but she really wanted to do the chunky blanket, and so we came and picked it up and did it at home. So I just love that you have that option as well.
Speaker 2Yeah, so we have a lot of on-demand that's available. So the chunky blanket that you did, you came and got your yarn, and um there was a video that you could stop and start, play at any time you wanted to. Um, we have several on-demand paintings like that, and then we can also send you home with like instructions for just about any of our projects and and pack them up. Um, the chunky blanket virtually and and like painting projects are available on our website that you can just purchase. But if you wanted to do something else at home that's one of our projects, just have to email us or call us, and we can make anything a take-home kit.
The Facebook Hack Nightmare
Speaker 1I love that. I love your flexibility. Yeah. So tell me, has there been a hardship or a challenge that you have had to overcome? And and now that you've been through it, you are feel like you're better off for it.
Speaker 2Yeah. So we're actually, you know, going through one right now. And hopefully hopefully we're finally in recovery mode. I'll tell you, you know, surviving COVID, I thought, you know, the pivots that every business owner had to make during COVID. I thought, that was my one good go. You know what I mean? And I did it. And um, and we survived. And um, yeah. And then thanks right before Thanksgiving last year, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we experienced a debilitating Facebook hack um that completely took um my ads manager page down. They charged like $7,000 on my credit card. Oh my god. It took like, I can't tell you countless hours to recover that money because I had to prove what ads were mine and what were not. Um it was definitely very difficult. And I just literally, so Thanksgiving to like a week ago, I just got everything finalized with that, and everything is back and running again, but nobody's been seeing our content for a long time. So it's really hurt our sales. Um, and you know, a small business like this runs on such tight margins. So we are just trying to get through it, and I know that we will. Um, we've got a great community that always supports us. So um that's that's the main one. I hope I can do some kind of little like talk about what to do when you've been Facebook hacked in that manner because it's it has been an experience, definitely.
Speaker 1Yeah. I mean, yeah. Well, do share. Is there is there something that you could have done like in hindsight to prevent it? Well, no.
Speaker 2The very first thing is that I got an email. So when you run a Facebook ad for business owners, they tell you when your ads are approved. Well, the way that the hacker got into my account is they got into my page and then they took my ads and they created another ad under it. So it had my title, but it had a different image because it was using their content, but they wanted, they want to trick you. So you have to really pay attention to the if I had caught it on that approved ad email, I could have gotten, changed all my passwords and kept them out, but I didn't catch it there. And I was honestly going through a really difficult time um with my uncle who was passing away, and it was it was a crazy time. So I didn't wasn't paying it as close attention as I like normally would have, you know, it's kind of like a perfect storm. And um, and so I finally, you know, that was a Sunday, finally by Wednesday, I'd gotten on the phone with Facebook, which was very difficult to do. Tell them that you are worried about your payment and that you want to give them money, and that's how to get them to talk to you. Good tip. Yes. Um, because that was the only way that I could actually get like a human being on the phone, you know, um, which was super frustrating in itself. And then I will say, so I my business credit card is a Chase credit card, and um, the initial transactions that happened were on that card. And then we thought that we got it fixed, but they wouldn't take the card anymore. It was to protect me, right? They wanted to protect that card and they were like, okay, you have to put a different card on. So I used my Capital One card, my personal card. It it's a card I've had for 20 years. You know what I mean? I have a great relationship with them. Apparently, Facebook banks with Chase, they they use Chase as their bank. And so getting my money back through Chase was super easy. Getting my money back through Capital One took like three and a half months of back and forth and you know, paperwork and just all this stuff. It was really crazy. So a thousand dollars was given back in the like literally a blink of an eye. I didn't have to do anything um except say, hey, this happened, and the Capital One stuff took a really, really long time, and it was emotionally difficult to say the least. Oh my gosh. Um, yeah. I think I started tracking it. Um, and I think all in all, I spent like more than 50 hours like dealing with trying to get six thousand dollars back from Capital One. Ah, what a nightmare. Oh, and the other thing is if you're dealing with Capital One, immediately get it to a next tier, a third tier person because the person that you're talking to, you're trying you're trying to be me. I was trying to just be a kind um customer with Capital One, you know what I mean? And I was trying to go through the avenues that I thought I was supposed to, and um, and those like tier one people just can't help you. You have to immediately kick it up. Because if I had done that, it would have taken a lot of time off of how much time I spent. But it was just that it was a wild thing, and it was something the Capital One really didn't have any protocol for because this is something new that hackers are doing now. Um, and the crazy thing is I saw the exact same hacker do what exactly what they did to me, use the exact same ad on a real estate agent's page like wow two weeks after I saw mine.
Speaker 1Wow.
Speaker 2So they're doing it all the time. That's crazy.
Advice For Future Business Owners
Speaker 1Yep. Thank you for those tips. Yeah. My listeners appreciate it. I appreciate it. And I'm so happy for you that you are through that, that you've got your account back and got your money back, and what an ordeal. It's it's things like that that you don't think about being a business owner. And so my next question is as a you know, someone who has, you know, you've purchased a franchise, um, you're an independent business owner. What advice would you give someone who is thinking about getting into business?
Speaker 2Oh, there are so many things I I love being a business owner. I really do. Um, I think that the biggest thing is that you have to realize that it's your baby. So you're going to be very emotionally attached to like everything that happens. And so I think, you know, delegating where you can, um, and you know, and doing that and and then realizing what you're really good at, um, and really doing things that fill your cup outside of your business because when you have, you know, something really challenging come up, it affects you emotionally so much more than you'll ever expect. Yeah.
Life Outside The Studio
Speaker 1That's really good advice. Thank you for that. Yeah, you're welcome. So, speaking of filling your cup outside of your business, when you're not busy in your business, what are you doing for fun?
Speaker 2Oh man, I am well, I'm a music lover, live music lover. So I'm like try to go to concerts pretty regularly. Um, before I had an 11-year-old, you would have seen me downtown at bars all the time. Um, but now we just love, we love to hang out downtown. We um go to the beach. We live in Fairby Beach, Summer Beach Girl. I like the water a lot. Um, and I like to just have fun, you know, with people. That's why I'm in this business. So that's like what I like to do when I'm on my own too. And I also love yoga. Um, I do a lot of yoga and a lot of walking.
Speaker 1You've got the best of both worlds, living at the beach, and then you work in the city, and so you've got both of those at your fingertips all the time.
Speaker 2Yeah, I actually lived in downtown on Kenmore Ave for like seven years, and that's where I lived when I um when I opened Wine and Design. So I was really close to the studio. Um, and and I grew up in Fairview Beach. So when I was able to buy a house there, I was like, I jumped on it.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2So, but I but I love downtown and that 20-minute door-to-door is very nice. Yes, nice.
How To Book And Connect
Speaker 1Yeah. So if the listeners are interested in learning more, if they want to connect with you, where can they find you?
Speaker 2Oh, we are on um Instagram and Facebook. Um, but the best place to check us out is our website, which is lineanddesign.com/slash Fredericksburg. Um, we have a calendar there. Everything that's coming up is on there. Our contact us form is a good way to get in touch with us if you want to do um a party. Um, it's typically 10 people or more to have a private party, or you can do what I call um a bring five, which is all the perks of the private party. You get to pick the project, the date, and the time on our calendar, and then we open it to the public if you have a smaller group. Or you can have any sized group join an event on our public calendar.
Speaker 1So as long as we have the seats available, we're happy for you to come join us. Amazing. Michelle, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing Wine and Design with us. Bye. Thank you so much. Yeah, it was definitely a pleasure. Thank you.
SpeakerThank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG NeighborsPodcast.com.