Why I Scrapped Everything and Started Over

In this inspiring episode, Zarah returns after a creative hiatus to share her personal journey of growth, transformation, and realignment as an artist and online educator. Discover why she made the bold decision to scrap her previous project and fully commit to her original vision: the Watercolor Wizardry Academy. Zarah opens up about her passion for teaching hyper-realistic watercolor techniques, fostering confidence and creativity in aspiring artists, and her belief in learning watercolor from the ground up. She discusses the importance of building a supportive community, her choice of Kajabi as a user-friendly platform for launching online art programs, and upcoming opportunities for beta testers.

If you’re an artist, creative entrepreneur, or someone seeking authentic motivation while building a business aligned with your true self, this episode offers valuable insights, behind-the-scenes updates, and encouragement to pursue your vision. Zarah also shares her commitment to providing regular updates, workshops, practical tools, and a transparent look into her progress—helping others stay encouraged and motivated on their own creative journeys.

Keywords: Watercolor Wizardry Academy, hyper-realistic watercolor, online art education, creative entrepreneurship, artist growth, Kajabi platform, beta testing, art business, teaching watercolor, creative process, self-expression, art community, progress tracking, artist transformation, Zarah podcast.

Podcast Episode Transcript

Zarah [00:00:01]:
Hey, everybody. Long time no talk. I wanted to talk today about why I changed direction and scrapped everything. I did take a long break and I'm back refreshed and with a new focus and with new determination to truly develop the original vision that I had to begin with. And I wanna tell you why I scrapped the old plan and started over. And I just wasn't getting the energy from it that I thought I would. I mean, it looked great. I thought it was a beautiful program, but I completely scrapped it because I was not getting the energy from it that I thought I would.

Zarah [00:00:50]:
And when I started doing the projects, it just wasn't the direction I wanted to go. And so, I took a break and I thought about it. And I'm back and I've decided to just focus on my original vision, which is Watercolor Wizardry Academy. So that's what I actually first started building, and then I got sidetracked with the, color templates that I would I had a program going on with that. And, yeah, I just don't wanna do that. I wanna focus on hyper realistic. Yeah, I was painting, I think, the second or third or fourth. It could have been the fifth.

Zarah [00:01:38]:
It could have been the fifth project, and it just wasn't feeling right. I wasn't feeling aligned. I wasn't feeling good about it. I mean, it was fine, but it just wasn't the vision. It wasn't the direction I wanted to go. It was fun, but it just wasn't what I wanted to do. So, yeah, it just wasn't the way I wanted to teach watercolor. The way I want to teach watercolor is through hyper realistic style because in that style, you have to be very careful and you have to be very observant and aware of all the little things, which is great for learning.

Zarah [00:02:21]:
Because once you have a handle on how watercolor works and being expected to be, you know, be accurate and all that, you become very confident in watercolor, and you get to a point where you're confident in creating anything you want, which is what I want for everybody. That's the whole goal. So here's what I really wanna build. I wanna build Watercolor Wizardry Academy. We are starting with hyper realistic watercolor. I am teaching the foundations of watercolor in the program. Yeah. And right now, I removed everything that was not part of that, and so it looks it's pretty bare.

Zarah [00:03:07]:
So there's nothing in there pretty much right now, but I'm opening it up for beta testers. Yeah. So I'm excited about that. I've been working on the website, you know, wiring things together, which is super fun. I have Kajabi and I love it. It's not robust, but it's perfect for people who are new to all the online stuff and emailing and there's a lot. There's a lot of things to it and you have to work with the platform you have. So you have to learn whatever however they do things.

Zarah [00:03:44]:
Yeah. So it's a pain in the butt, but it's fun. I love it. Kajabi is super easy. I highly recommend it. For anybody who wants to start an online thing, I would recommend Kajabi. It is you have everything in one place and it's easy to see how things work because there's a lot to it. So if you're still here, you're part of this from the ground up because I scrapped everything, and we're starting over.

Zarah [00:04:13]:
We're just gonna focus on Watercolor Wizardry Academy. And we're just gonna focus on painting with the intention of understanding watercolor and how it behaves. Like, seriously, we're learning this for real, gaining the confidence and understanding watercolor so you can create what you are imagining, which is way harder than people I don't know. People assume that some people have, like, a natural ability to take their imagination and draw it. That it takes years of work to do that. So yeah. But I wanna shortcut it as much as possible. Yeah.

Zarah [00:04:59]:
So the academy is designed to for you to be able to create on your own, to fly on your own because that was my that was my pet peeve when I was learning was, you know, I got very good at following tutorials And then when it came to me trying to create something on my own, I did not even know how to start. Like, I didn't even know step one. And I got not happy about that. So that's why I created Watercolor Wizardry because the whole goal is for you to feel confident in creating your own stuff. And, yeah. I don't know. I don't know if you've ever been in that position, but that's the goal of the academy is to understand watercolor. It's fully the whole scope of it.

Zarah [00:05:49]:
Eventually, I want to venture into all the different styles that watercolor can do, bring in different teachers. I'm so excited. And then help people that are members if they wanna teach. All that. Like, I have a big vision about it. And yeah. Yeah. I'm just like I don't know why I'm holding back about it, but I'm very it it's so weird.

Zarah [00:06:17]:
It excites me and scares me at the same time. It's so crazy. So okay. So let's move on. My goal is to complete two workshops a month and create helpful tools like journals and progress trackers. Just, you know, anything that can help and excite and and we're still gonna do fun things too. I mean, sometimes I need a break from hyper also. So I go back and forth.

Zarah [00:06:46]:
So we're gonna have different things in there. Yeah. My other goal is to update you guys through email daily. That part scares me, but I am committed to doing it because I think it'll help me. My mentor, which is, Evelyn Weise, she highly highly recommends it. She pushes everybody to do daily emails. And so I'm gonna do that and I'm gonna share my story because that's actually what I wanna do also. It's kinda like a document.

Zarah [00:07:16]:
Documentation of the progress. So I'm excited about the whole thing and scared at the same time. So yeah. So I'll be dropping more emails for sure and workshops of course. And yeah, so keep in touch. I know I will and yeah, I will talk to you guys later. Okay, bye.