How to Think, Play and Work more Creatively with Wendy Conklin

Do you want to live a more CREATIVE life?  On this episode, I talk with Chair Whimsy founder Wendy Conklin.  She is a designer, an artisan, an educator and an entreprenista.   

A visionary thought leader, Wendy is leading a MOVEMENT to live more creatively.  Her brand includes custom chairs, online courses, business retreats and more. Wendy's new book is entitled  Life Whimsy: How to Think, Play and Work more Creatively.   

WENDY'S BIO
Many people dream about making their passion project their career but few are able to turn their dreams into reality. Enter Wendy Conklin, who transformed her hobby into a powerhouse brand, Chair Whimsy, inspiring clients the world over to bring a sense of whimsy and joy into their living spaces.

Wendy was an educational consultant, busy writing books and helping teachers implement the latest in teaching techniques. While she enjoyed her job, she felt there was something missing from her career. She’d always had a creative streak but wasn’t sure how to incorporate it into a lucrative business. In 2012, she took an upholstery course and was hooked.  It wasn’t long before friends began asking Wendy to help them “zhuzh” up their homes. Realizing she was onto something, she opened an Etsy store, offering custom refurbishing of antiques and flea-market finds.

Before long, Wendy found herself juggling her full-time job and the Etsy store, to the point something had to give. She realized that her misery as an employee was greater than the fear of becoming an entrepreneur. Springing into action, she took out a loan, asked for a six month leave of absence from work and set out to make her hobby a viable business. Within two days, she knew she could never return to her job and with the determination to make this new venture a success, she dug in.

Traction came quickly but in order to really make her new business soar, she knew she needed some outside advice and began working with a business coach. Contrary to popular belief that offering more options is the key to success, she niched down to a single focus - chairs. Wendy always had an artistic bend and by deciding to play by her own rules of fun, joy and lots of color, her Chair Whimsy brand caught flight, capturing the imaginations of clients around the world. In addition to her custom refurbished chairs, she expanded her line to include a collection of her unique designs made by artisans in Italy as well as fabric selection services.

In 2020, Wendy introduced her first course, DIY Upholstery, to teach others the joy of creating their own works of art. The response prompted her to create five more courses: Styling with the Chair Stylist, Sourcing Swoon-Worthy Fabrics, Fabric Mixology, Just the Bottoms, and The Business of Chairs. Dovetailing with the pandemic, the courses struck a nerve with thousands of women looking to learn a new skill while brightening up their homes. In under 18 months, sales for the courses hit over $500k.

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Transcript

Judy Oskam: 0:00

Welcome to Stories of Change and Creativity. I'm Judy Oskam, a professor of mass communication at Texas State University. My students and faculty colleagues are some of the most creative people I know, and so are my friends. On this episode, I talk with Wendy Conklin, chair stylist, award-winning author, speaker, entrepreneur. She's the founder of Chair Whimsy, a movement that includes custom chairs, online courses, business retreats, and much more. Well, Wendy has written a new book for anyone who wants to live a more creative life. It's called Life Whimsy: How to Think, Play, and Work More Creatively. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Wendy Conklin: 0:50

Well, it's something that I actually have been thinking about for a while. Um, the year before, I had been talking with my business coach, and she had recommended, you know, you probably should write a book. And so, you know, I looked at it, I uh consulted with a guy who's in my mastermind who does ghostwriting and all kinds of book coaching uh services. And I I didn't need him as a ghostwriter, um, but I I would have I did want to hire him as a book coach to help me to navigate through this, especially because I was thinking about self-publishing. And, you know, then I found out how much everything was gonna cost. And so then I was like, I put the stops on it. I was like, well, I don't know about this. I'm not, and and I also knew that I needed time to commit to writing it because if I'm gonna be paying people to help me, I have to set aside the time, it has to be a priority. And I just felt like I had too much going on. So it sat for a year, and then I revisited it with my book, with my uh business coach, and I thought, okay, let me see what she says now. Of course, she said the same thing, you know, and she said, I think it can help you get to the next level in your business, and this is this would be a good thing for your brand to do this. And so I went ahead and hired the book coach, and he was great because right off the bat, he was like, write the book that you want to write. Because I was like, I could cover this, I could cover that, you know, what how do I do this? You know, because there's so many, when you have so many ideas, it's just hard to whittle down and be organized and make it make sense. But he was like, you know, write the book that you want to write, not what you think, you know, a publisher would want if you end up going with a publisher or whatever, you know, and so that really helped me to because then I just had to dig inside and think about what is this? And so last May, the first week of May, I started writing and I got up every morning at 5 a.m., wrote till about 7:30 in the morning, Monday through Friday, if I was in town. If I was out of town, all bets were off. I didn't work, you know. I I let myself off the hook because it's it's hard to get in that zone of thinking and writing. But um, and I my goal was to finish it in three months. I finished in three and a half, so I felt good about it. And it was, it was all that really hard part was over. Then it was the editing, the photos, the you know, layout and all that, working with my designer on all of that. So I just hired really good people, you know, and it was worth it.

Judy Oskam: 3:28

Well, but but you've been a book author before, you're a published author, you're an educator, you it's called Life Whimsy. And I love that you have in the foreword for my dad who told me I could be anything I wanted to be. I still believe you. Yeah, I think it started there, didn't it?

Wendy Conklin: 3:51

It did. I mean, my dad was my biggest cheerleader. Um, you know, he's been gone for 18 years now. Um, but it's just it's like it was just yesterday, you know, and it's it's it's a big hole that's missing. But I have the memories, you know, and I have the foundation that he laid for me. And he just has had such an impact on my life, my brother's life. You know, this is um he's just he's really just a really good dad. You know, I feel very lucky.

Judy Oskam: 4:25

But he and you mentioned him in here, and you have a picture of him in here, and the the whole book is about how to think, play, and work more creatively. Now, when I look at the table of contents, and I, you know, I'm always thinking, what can I use in my classes and what kind of can I can I steal? Talk about the format of the book.

Wendy Conklin: 4:47

Yeah, so um, because I wanted the book to be about creativity, creativity is something that's always been important to me. So when I was a teacher in the classroom, I was always trying to come up with super creative ideas for my students to learn. And then I became an educational consultant. And so my students became the teachers. And in the in the curriculum that I was writing, whether it be lesson plans, readers for students, or professional development books for teachers, I wanted it to have a creative approach. I wanted it to be something fresh and new so that teachers could take the strategies that I was showing them and implement them in their classroom to kind of breathe some a breath of fresh air, you know, to their students so their students could be more creative. Um, so creativity's always been important to me. And when I started breaking down the book that I wanted to write, which was about creativity, I thought, okay, what does this mean? Well, this means, first of all, it all begins with how you think, you know, being able to come up with really good ideas. Uh, we've all been around people who just come out with idea after idea after idea, and we're all jealous, right? We're all we're all wishing we could be that person. And so to be able to have be a kind of person that comes up with great ideas, you need some methods, like you need ways to brainstorm, you need ways to um get your brain in that flow, in the state of flow, so that the good ideas can come. You know, so it all begins with the thinking. So that's why the first section of the book is, you know, how to think more creatively. And then the next section is about playing, how to play more creatively. And what does play even mean for adults? Because I think by the time we're in third grade, it's kind of been beat out of us, you know, stop having fun. Let's just be serious, hurry up and do good in your school, you know, no more fun anymore. And as adults, you know, we get weighed down with all the work and the burden of providing and having to get the job done. And we, you know, some of us are workaholics, and so we just work all the time and we don't know what it means to play anymore. And play is really the secret ingredient to creativity as adults. I mean, it's about being a kid again. What is it, what does that even feel like? And and so it's it's a mentality that you you have to think about, and then it's actually actions that you take. So whether you're putting yourself in trying new things, you know, I I have a section in there on, you know, um, don't be afraid of failure, being a be afraid of not trying. You know, what do you, you know, when you when you're dying, we've all heard people say this. Are you gonna regret, you know, the things you did or the things you didn't do? And it's more likely the things you didn't try and you didn't do, taking those little risks, and you know, and a lot of that has to do with playing, having the playful attitude so that when you do fail, you know, we have these flops, you know, the flop era that we all go through. I've been through many of them and I talk about them in the book, but having a sense of humor about the flops that you have, because it's not the end of the world and it's all learning, right? And some of it comes just from playing around and goofing off and um, you know, I'm figuring out what is play for me because we're all different. Like what might be play for me would be like work for you, and vice versa, you know. So we're not all gonna like the same kind of thing. So that's why you have to really be in touch with yourself and try things to see if you if it's fun for you, you know. So I think it's important as adults that we play because that gets all the creative juices flowing. You become a kid again, you become uh more in that zone of exploring and being open to new ideas, and that has a lot to do with creativity. And then the final section of the book is how to work more creatively. And a lot of this I tell my story, a lot of it's very memoir, you know. So there's there's a lot of self-help strategies for learning. I I talk about a lot of the ways I play and all that, but then the last section where I talk about working, you know, having a side hustle. What how do you how do you even do a side hustle? How do you take your side hustle to a full-time gig if you want to do that? So I share all the strategies that worked for me. Um, I also share all the tips as an entrepreneista, a business person of what has worked for me and what to avoid. If I can help someone avoid all the mistakes and get to where they want to get to faster, that's gonna make me really happy that my book was able to help them. And so I also talk about what if you don't have a creative job, but you have a more mainstream job? How can you bring creativity into your job? And so I give strategies for doing that. And really, creativity is the key to happiness. You know, when you are more creative in your work, your work can become a happy place to be. And so many of us are been miserable in our jobs. I've I've been in jobs where I was miserable, you know, we all have. And being able to bring some creative strategies into that to make make it more bearable, to make it enjoyable, even. Um, so I really deal with a lot of that in that last section on working more creatively.

Judy Oskam: 10:19

Well, and you really do put yourself out there. You're pretty vulnerable with all of this, Wendy. And how what was it like to really? Not only do you have a lot of great photos in here and great, great examples, but you've you've really put yourself out there and said, This is me, this is how I've done it. To me, that takes a lot of bravery and courage to do that.

Speaker: 10:42

It goes back to writing the book I wanted to write. Like if I'm gonna do this, I want it to be meaningful for somebody else. And and what I find more often than not is when you can open up and be yourself and and really share from your heart, chances are there are other people who it's gonna connect with, and they will feel that connection. It's not gonna connect with everybody, but it's you know, it will help some people. And so I and everyone knows you know when it's a fake, right? You you know when you know when something's authentic, you can tell and feel. And I mean, you know, yeah, doing a book, uh, you get all those, everyone gets those feelings of what if nobody buys it, you know. I hope people like it, you know, but but then you have to just turn it around and say, Well, I just hope that it helps someone. And if it helps someone, then it's worth it.

Judy Oskam: 11:37

Exactly. Well, and some of the things that you have at the end of every chapter are really a place where like you've got a permission slip. I give myself permission too, where I can fill in the blank and I can then sign it. And I think that's really such a small little thing, but every chapter has some really great takeaways.

Wendy Conklin: 12:01

Yeah, and it's it's often those small things like that that can help you start moving in a different direction, the direction you want to move in. You know, it's the little things that can really start changing your life, I think, and how you want to live more creatively.

Judy Oskam: 12:18

Well, and and talk about some of the um some of the projects that you've talked of that you're showcasing in here. Because it's it's not just your house and your chairs, you have a lot of different things in here.

Wendy Conklin: 12:30

Yeah, so that's all in the section on how to play more creatively. And so in those chapters, I show how I play, I show how your surroundings matter to set yourself in a playful attitude. And your surroundings should be what you love. Like, so I show my home, and my home is my palette basically of where I experiment with color and patterns and fabrics. And so I also talk about how I play with fabrics, uh, just out in my shop when I'm doing chairs. Um, I even have a really quick tutorial on how to do a chair because people ask me.

Judy Oskam: 13:08

I saw that in there, yeah.

Wendy Conklin: 13:10

But that's that's how I play. And I'm lucky that my job it does incorporate a lot of play into it. Not everything, mind you, but there is a lot in my job and in my work that does involve play. Um, and it's play for me. And so I share all the ways I play in hopes that it may trigger some things for you, how you can play more, you know, in life.

Judy Oskam: 13:36

Well, and it's things like, you know, you even have some drink recipes in here, which is kind of nice, right?

Wendy Conklin: 13:42

Right. So that's another way I play is um, so my husband, you know, we did a thing in 2020 called Cocktails with the Conklins.

Judy Oskam: 13:50

During the pandemic.

Wendy Conklin: 13:51

Yep, and we're gonna revise a couple episodes here coming up. But um, so every Friday by five o'clock, we posted a cocktails with the Conklins video, and it's where he's teaching me how to make a drink. And um, and so we have some of his original recipes in the book, but for me, it was just it's a way to play. It's fun. I don't even have to drink the drinks to enjoy it. It's it's something that's really fun that we can do together. And it was fun for a lot of our followers who really enjoyed uh getting all the recipes or just watching us, you know, watching me spill everything and you know, make all my goof ups. It was kind of fun.

Judy Oskam: 14:31

Well, and and I think too, it's it it is the little things, and and and in in in the book, you you have a seven-day play everyday challenge. And I think that's kind of pointing out some things that we can do. If I'm not a designer like you and don't have the eye, but there are a lot of things that I can do to incorporate play, you know, I think that's important.

Wendy Conklin: 14:52

Absolutely. I mean, and this seven-day play everyday challenge is for people who don't have enough play in their life, and you know what? That's probably about 95%. I mean, you know, so some of the some of the tips were, you know, try try a new restaurant or a new food, not something that grosses you out, but something you're just curious about that you haven't tried. You know, just just by going to a different restaurant rather than the same old, same old one. It's like my husband and I would look at each other, well, we're going to La Margarita again. I guess so. You know, we go the same one all the time. But when you decide that you're going to change directions, you're going to do something unexpected, different, it brings more excitement, it brings more joy, it brings more creativity into the mix. And, you know, it just so those little seven-day play everyday tips are ways to get you into the mode of playing more. And it is so important, especially if you want to be really good in your job, which is something that I do. I want to be better and better as a designer. I want to do a better job in my courses that I offer. It's important to challenge yourself, get out of the routine, and do creative things that will make you more creative in your work. It all spills over because when you're a creative person, it spills over into your work, into your, you know, your family time, into your friend time, you know, all the things that you do, it can help.

Judy Oskam: 16:23

Well, and one thing that you say in here is that you don't need an MBA in play. You don't need an MBA to do some of this or an advanced degree. Some of it is the little techniques that you are sharing and the little tips, and then your examples of saying you're throwing it all out there and saying this is what I did. Yeah.

Wendy Conklin: 16:43

Yes, and it was a journey. It was, I mean, some of it was painful. It was sure, and it was emotional to write this part um about my journey. It was really emotional to record it. We were we did we have the audible book.

Judy Oskam: 16:58

We did the audiobook too, right?

Wendy Conklin: 16:59

Yeah, so it's coming. Um, but it's been done. And like when I was recording it in the studio, like I got to a point where I just had to stop because I thought I was gonna start crying. You know, I was like, okay, I need a second, you know, to gather myself together because when it's personal like that, it's you know, it's been over the past 10 years that this whole journey into doing chairs full-time has happened and it's still very raw and real. It's the vivid memories, the fear of failure, the the fear of everything was very real for me. And um, it's it's been um a process, you know, and and like I said, if I can help someone else to learn from uh don't do what I did, don't, you know, I mean, raise your prices at the beginning. You know, I could have gotten to where I'm at much quicker had I just done that simple thing, had the courage to charge what I was worth. You know, but it's but it's hard for artisans and anyone really in business to do that because you know, we always doubt ourselves. We think, oh, who would pay this for me? And you know, but it you know, it just you have to put that aside. You have to say, listen, I need to make a living. This is my job. You know, it's like no one's gonna go ask a lawyer or an accountant to take less money for their work, you know, you're just like them. This is what you're doing.

Judy Oskam: 18:23

Or a doctor, if you're at the doctor, you're not gonna say, can I a little bit less?

Wendy Conklin: 18:28

I know. Would you charge me 50% less for services today? I mean, we'd all like to do that. Yeah, we would love to do that.

Judy Oskam: 18:36

Well, I think that's well, and and some of your journey, you know, you you now do uh you do workshops, you do talk about some of the things that have that came along as the result of trying to help people find their best uh cur best life, really.

Wendy Conklin: 18:52

Yeah, I mean, you know having doing chairs, which I thought was such an odd thing. Like, how can anyone make money doing chairs? But you can. And then that led to people asking, I want to learn how to do this. Can you teach me? And I was like, Well, I can't do in-person classes, I don't have the the equipment, I don't have the space, but I could do an online class, and then that's actually better, you know. When you start making things and you realize, actually, this is better than in-person because you can rewind, rewatch in person, you see it once, and you're like, wait, what did we do? How did I do that? You know, so it so as a teacher and an educator, I started to realize, oh yeah, this is actually better. So that led to classes, and then people started asking business advice. Well, how did you turn that into doing a business for chairs? I want to learn that. So I opened up a business of chairs course that's kind of like a coaching style with a with some course modules to teach people how to learn to flip and sell and make money doing it. And then that has led to partnering with one of my friends. From our former career, that we knew each other as educators at a publishing company to offering retreats for women who own the creative businesses. And so we do a three-day retreat at a lovely place out in Roundtop, Texas, at the Frenchie Hotel. And then we just started hosting, which has led to part two of the retreat. So when you've been to part one, you get invited to part two. And so we just hosted the part two up at Sarah, my partner's um, her properties. She just opened a really super cute boutique hotel in Minton, Louisiana. And so we started hosting them there. And we just did that this past month. So who knows what's the future is going to hold? But it's like one thing leads to the next. And that's how it is in business. When people start asking you for something, you know, oh, okay, that's the next thing I need to create. I need to figure out how to serve people in this way. So it's kind of fun.

Judy Oskam: 20:58

Well, and back to the book then, too. So this is a book. I'm buying this for coffee table books for Christmas for sure. And everybody I know is gonna get this book because it really does help people think, play, and work more creatively, no matter what the job is. So who else is going to benefit from this book? Makers will for sure, artisans will for sure.

Wendy Conklin: 21:22

Yeah, I think any kind of business owner, regardless if it's creative or not, this is definitely something, but this is about life whimsy. It is about having a more whimsical life. You know, my brand is chair whimsy. And so when I went back and forth on the title for this for a long time, and what I really came down to is this is about how we live as humans, men, women, old, young, mothers, you know, single people. You know, it doesn't matter. It is for everybody who wants to be a more creative individual. And that was really the goal. And and I that's why I finally ended up on the title, Life Whimsy, because it is about creating more whimsy in your everyday life, which brings you more joy and happiness. Um, and it's just all around um just a way to live better.

Judy Oskam: 22:23

Yeah, yeah. Well, uh just a just a final a final tip that you would share about a way to um infuse more creativity in our lives. You have a final tip for us?

Wendy Conklin: 22:36

Final tip. Um, well, I would say um begin with your surroundings of where you live and where you work. Because if you create the spaces that bring you joy, your life will be better, your outlook will be better, your work will be better, you will be a better parent, you know, you'll be a better spouse because your surroundings have a lot to do with stimulation and joy. And whenever and I and I I never really thought about this until I had done some chairs for a lady, and um, they're really bright and colorful. That's the way all my chairs are. And she had sent me a card in the mail as a thank you. And she said, Every time I walk in my kitchen, I smile when I see those chairs. And I thought, whoa, are you serious? I mean, like, this is news to me, you know, I didn't know this. And then I started noticing when I would post online pictures of my chairs, people would say, Your chairs just make me smile in the comments. And so this is, you know, you don't know when you're a creator, you don't know what effect it has on other people. It's to me, chairs are like art, you know, I treat them that way. They are the art in the room. But those surroundings and those things that we look at, um, we need to have in our own homes that make us happy, you know, and not worry about what anyone else thinks about our decorating style. It is about you and what you like because you're living there, you know. So I would say give yourself permission to love the things you love. Surround yourself, whether it's in your work space or in your home or both would be ideal. Make sure you surround yourself with the things that really do make you happy.

Judy Oskam: 24:40

Thanks for listening to stories of change and creativity. You can find out more about our guest in the show notes. And you can find out about Wendy's book, Life Whimsy How to Think, Play, and Work More Creatively. I'm Judy Oskam.