🌸 Studio Scribbles – Tiny Wins Are Still Wins 🌸

Episode Description:

Welcome back to Watercolor Wizardry Journey with Zarah McIntosh! In today’s honest and uplifting check-in, Zarah dives into the behind-the-scenes of building the brand-new Watercolor Wizardry Academy. Now in beta launch, this episode documents what it’s really like to start an online art community from the ground up—tech hiccups, growth mindset, and all.

Zarah shares her real experiences as a hyper-realistic watercolor artist and creative entrepreneur navigating new platforms like Kajabi, building out a supportive virtual campus, and balancing business dreams with personal growth. Whether you’re an artist working to build confidence, looking for watercolor painting courses, or interested in nurturing a heart-centered online business, this episode offers practical encouragement and gentle wisdom.

Inside you’ll hear about:

• How to stay motivated through messy creative journeys

• The power of showing up (even if results aren’t Instagram-worthy yet!)

• The Watercolor Wizardry Academy’s unique “quick start guide,” live workshops, and community hangouts

• Why it’s OK to start small and celebrate progress—however it looks

• Zarah’s weekly Creator Community sessions and how you can join the beta launch

This episode is perfect for watercolor enthusiasts, creative business builders, artists embracing the learning process, and anyone craving authenticity over perfection. Don’t miss Zarah’s invitation to sign up for watercolor workshops, get on her daily progress email list, and become a founding member of an encouraging space where art and authenticity meet.

Keywords: Watercolor Wizardry Academy, online art community, hyper-realistic watercolor, watercolor techniques, creative entrepreneurship, Zarah McIntosh, Kajabi, art workshops, watercolor tutorials, growth mindset, artist confidence, creative journey, beta launch, business from the heart

Subscribe, listen, and stay inspired—your creative journey starts here!

Zarah [00:00:01]:
Hey, everybody, it's Zara with watercolor wizardry. And we're actually currently building the academy right now. So we're in a beta launch. Just to let you know, it is open. Come on over. So let's see. Yeah, we're building from the ground up. It's.

Zarah [00:00:18]:
It's fairly bare right now. So, you know, there's a quick start guide in there in the. The course part of the academy. So you basically get a course, the community. And there's a third part I'm forgetting, but there's three basic. Oh, the campus. There's a virtual campus where we do live workshops. So, yeah, it's in the building phase.

Zarah [00:00:43]:
And I go back and forth between building the back end and the front end. Not front end, but the actual lessons. So I've been busy. I haven't done a podcast in a little bit, but all is well. Everything's going. I'm learning new things on the platform that I'm using currently, which is Kajabi. You know how it is. You start one thing and then it becomes one of those nesting dolls that just, you know, you look at this beautiful doll, beautiful idea, and you go for it, and then it.

Zarah [00:01:15]:
You open and then it just goes into. It just blossoms into multiple things you need to do and think about. Like the. The most recent one was being able to give the products on the website as gifts to other people. So there were a lot of technical things that needed to happen for everything to come together. So I had to rewire. Not rewire, but, like, build that side of it, the gift side of it. So I was busy the last couple weeks learning different things with the platform.

Zarah [00:01:52]:
They've added a bunch of stuff on Kajabi that I've started to implement and kind of prepare for. So, yeah, so I've been busy with the back end. So I've been kind of not in hiding, but, like, haven't been in public with the daily nurture emails. So, yeah, and so this is my first day back after a couple weeks. Let's see. So this week, yeah, it's been a little messy life, tech, hiccups, curveballs, just everything. But I still was showing up, doing the page, and that counts. And that's the same for everyone else with anything that you're doing, showing up and even just thinking about it, you know, working it out in your head, that's all action.

Zarah [00:02:40]:
So don't feel bad if you're not coming away with, like an end result that you can show off to someone. There's a long process before the end result happens. Same with painting. There's a long, like, in between stage that is the. I call the ugly stage, then that's part of everything and anything that you're building. Yeah, so there's a. It's a. It's a marathon for a lot of things that I do.

Zarah [00:03:11]:
So, yeah, you just enjoy the journey as much as you can. So if you've been hard on yourself this week for not doing enough, what is something your past self would say to you or that your past self would be proud of for being where you are now? And that's something good to think about? And even your future self, like, would your future self be proud of yourself for just even, you know, focusing on it or trying? So those are big deals. So even if you didn't do much, like, didn't sketch or paint or, you know, whatever it is that you want to improve or get better at or accomplish, it's still forward motion. If you're thinking about it or, you know, obviously take action, action is needed. So, yeah, let's see. What's a good question for the day? What's something small you did this week that your past self would be proud of? That's a good question. And whatever it is, say it out loud, write it down, or celebrate it in some way and just keep going. So that's a good thing.

Zarah [00:04:29]:
Let's see our plans. This weekend, I'll be inside the community with the Creator Community hangout on Saturdays. That's a. Just a casual kind of Q A session if you want to ask any questions. And Creator Community is a free community for everybody or anybody that's gotten anything, any products or anything from either Watercolor Wizardry or Business wizardry or Creator Podcast and probably many other ventures in the future that I do. Because I'm thinking about oils, I'm thinking about soft pastels. Just different mediums, but different branches of the. Of the whole umbrella.

Zarah [00:05:11]:
Okay. So sign up for the upcoming workshops and you'll get my almost daily ramblings like this and encouragement. You get weekly encouragement for focused on watercolor if you sign up for a watercolor workshop. So, yeah, that's how that works. I'm aiming for daily, but, you know, life happens. Like today we're gonna go fishing. Yay. And yeah, I'm just keeping it as stress free as possible, trusting the process and trusting that everything will work out.

Zarah [00:05:44]:
So, yeah, there you go. All right, I will talk to you guys later, most likely tomorrow. Okay, bye.