Cat Grooming, Course Rebuilding, and Creative Clarity

Episode Description:

Welcome to another behind-the-scenes check-in with Zarah, founder of Watercolor Wizardry and passionate advocate for building an online art business from the heart. In this candid episode, Zarah shares her daily progress building the Watercolor Wizardry Academy—a new and evolving community dedicated to hyper-realistic watercolor techniques and the transformative journey of becoming a confident artist.

Zarah updates listeners on her recent adventures, including a charming story about her Persian cats’ grooming day and the challenges of living in Idaho, while tying everything back to her mission to offer accessible art education. Learn what it means to build an art membership from the ground up (beta testing and all!), why she prioritizes authenticity and personal growth, and how her email and community updates keep members inspired and connected.

Whether you’re an aspiring watercolorist, an artist seeking community, or someone interested in how to grow an artistic business with intention, Zarah’s journey is sure to resonate. Discover the importance of alignment in launching creative online courses, hear about the practicalities of using course platforms like Kajabi, and find motivation through stories of perseverance, learning, and honest sharing.

Plus, get insider info on early beta access to the Watercolor Wizardry Academy, upcoming workshops, and how you can follow along with daily updates and vibrant watercolor content. Don’t forget to visit WatercolorWizardry.com to join the community and get connected on Instagram!

Keywords: watercolor wizardry, Zarah McIntosh, hyper-realistic watercolor, online art academy, watercolor workshop, artist growth journey, creative business, beta test art membership, building online courses, Kajabi course platform, authentic storytelling, personal development for artists, watercolor techniques, supportive artist community, daily artist check-in, behind-the-scenes art business, Idaho artist life, Persian cat stories, Watercolor Wizardry Academy, art progress updates, faith Mariah bundle, watercolor art community.

Tune in and join Zarah on her open-hearted journey blending art, business, and personal transformation.

[00:00:00]
Zarah:
Hey everybody. Just wanted to check in with you for today again if you're new to me. I'm Zara and I'm with Watercolor Wizardry where we are building the academy for watercolor, starting with Hyper Realistic Style. I am working on a workshop and I have a membership going on and it's a, it's open for beta which is. It's. We're at ground zero. So beta means you're coming in where it's coming kind of messy and you know, we're testing things and building things and yeah, it would be awesome if you could join us. It would be great.

[00:00:38]
You can find it@watercolor wizardry.com. yeah, that's enough of introduction. Anyway, so I want to update you guys on what we did yesterday. Yesterday was cat grooming day and I don't have the confidence on bathing my cats. I have two Persians from Castlegate. Persians. One of them is Melania. She's a silver shaded Persian.

[00:01:07]
She's actually a daughter of a national champion and I'm very happy to have her. I love her very much. My other one is Sugar and she is a brown tabby, also from Champion Lines. She's actually Melania's aunt, even though Sugar is a little bit younger. Yeah. So anyway, I'll share pictures of them, my favorite grooming pictures of them on the email, maybe on the show notes too so you can see them. But yeah, so that was a long day because. So in Seattle there's plenty of, you know, groomers pretty much that I could.

[00:01:46]
And I went to a groomer that was pretty close to where I lived, but moving to Idaho, you know, it's a very. It's not as populated. So my groomer is about an hour and a half away in Bonner's Ferry. And she's awesome. Her. Her grooming is catnip get getaway. Yeah. And so I share that on my Facebook page.

[00:02:12]
I should share it on the. I don't know if I shared it on the Watercolor Wizardry page, but I'll. I'll share it over there too. So you can see she's great. I love her. And yeah, we've been going to her for a year, maybe more. I forget we go every three months and. Yeah, so it's a whole trip.

[00:02:32]
We head out there. It takes an hour and a half to drive over and we drive through the snow too in the winter and. But we make a day of it. We go to the Badgers Restaurant and Bottoms Ferry every time and we have breakfast there and then yeah. And then the cats get groomed. Oh, my God. In the morning, it's kind of funny because Sugar will try to hide. So we have to plan for.

[00:03:01]
Because she. They're. They know. They know when something's different, when something's going on. So, yeah, we've gotten smarter to it. We closed certain doors so that she. She can't hide in, especially my studio. There's a lot of nooks and crannies that she could hide in.

[00:03:18]
But, yeah, everything went well. Everything. Yeah. So they're great. They are. They feel so soft and they smell so good, and I love them. And I snuggle with them. And Melania especially, she's an escape artist.

[00:03:32]
She knows how to get out of her carrier. I don't know how. I even made sure that everything was locked down. And I don't know, she manages to get out. And so she rides with me in the car outside of the carrier. And it's so cute because she'll just snuggle, you know, when I put her down on my chest. So adorable. So that's what we did yesterday.

[00:03:55]
Oh, and I wanted to say that I'm planning on being in the Watercolor Wizardry Academy, the community in there. While I'm building the workshops. I have to set up my camera and remember how to do it, because it's been a bit. So. But, yeah, I'm excited about showing up in the. The member. The community. And I'll be there while I'm working on the workshop.

[00:04:22]
So I have a deadline to submit everything by the 16th, but I want to, you know, obviously meet that deadline much earlier, because for Faith Mariah's bundle, I think it. You get listed however soon you submit, I think. But either. In either case, my only goal is to at least make it in the bundle because I'm just kind of remembering how to do everything again. And, yeah, I'm giving myself plenty of grace. And. Yeah, so I'm excited about that, and I'm excited about sharing the process of building the workshop. And I still have to make decisions on how to package it.

[00:05:06]
Yeah. So there's a lot of decision making going on because there's so many different ways I could do it. So, yeah, I just wanted to do an update. Those are two updates. Let's see. Any takeaways? I don't know. Just be consistent. All right, I'm just talking now.

[00:05:25]
Okay, I will let you go. A lot of silliness. Okay, bye.