Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Degeis and Laura Lanzi.
Kristen and Laura, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We met through our husbands, who were childhood friends. Through time we became closer than they were, we even have children close in age. We have six children between the two of us; 3 each, all ages 4 and under. We love our children but having them so close in age, to be honest, we needed a reprieve. One day we looked at each other and said: “what can we do to get out of the house?”
Laura had designed custom built, rustic and distressed wooden décor for several years and had many inquiries about teaching classes. Kristen has a background in internet marketing and an eye for numbers. Together, we were the perfect combination!
We came up with an idea, rustic wood sign painting classes… sort of like the canvas painting events but with wood and custom disposable stencils. We decided to rent a room at a local restaurant in November of 2016. We invited our closest friends and family for our “launch party.” We sold out at 25 guests. We prepped for two weeks, trialing different approaches and sampling different boards.
The night of the launch we learned A LOT, and we were so thankful for the support and patience of everyone who came. From there it slowly snowballed. We began by having to rent a room at local restaurants, to restaurants approaching us for business. Our goal was to have one public workshop a month, rotating at different venues around the North Shore. Within six months we had grown enough interest we were struggling to meet demand.
Spring of 2017 we started actively hiring and training instructors. We wanted to connect with other women who were also looking to get out of the house, make some money but also have fun while doing it! After several weeks of training and team meetings, we had five instructors, comprised of other moms, teachers, professionals, and we were up and ready for our busy season in Fall of 2017!
By this time, we had established rapport with several area restaurants and were able to accommodate multiple public workshops a month, while meeting the demand for private workshops. We have been so fortunate to have hired some fantastic instructors, who truly reflect our business model and do an amazing job connecting with our clientele and make each experience a fun relaxing and stress-free experience.
Customers have made personal requests for instructors, and have reached out to not only compliment them but actively seek out their workshops. Currently, we have five instructors and two assistants for the North Shore MA area, and have recently launched our first South Shore MA instructor just last month!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
We are the first company of our kind to start on the North Shore offering public and private workshops painting rustic wooden signs. Being the first, it took a lot of trial and error to perfect our process. We have learned a lot in our almost two years. We have refined the process and tightened our technique for customer ease, making our workshops a truly stress-free FUN experience!
We value having every customer leave with a piece they are proud of, either as a gift or something to personally display. We were approached by a local town in 2017 about a grant for a storefront. We were open to the idea, but after several weeks of deliberation it didn’t truly reflect our business model, and we decided to pass on the grant that was offered to us.
Our biggest challenge is continuing to be original and one step ahead of the competition. Our designs are 100% designed in-house by Laura, and our designs are not for purchase anywhere. We strive in continuing to come out with new designs, along with expanding our wood media options so our customers can keep coming back to create new things with us!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Wicked Rustic Workshops story. Tell us more about the business.
Wicked Rustic Workshops is known for our public and private rustic wood painting workshops. We originally just started with offering wooden signs. We now offer wooden trays, lazy susans, farmhouse clocks, growth charts, door hangers, and have some exciting new wood media being released for the holiday season! We are known for our quality and constantly coming out with new ideas.
Our attention to detail is what sets us apart from others in our industry. We are so passionate about our company and what we offer. We take pride in every single design that is created and work closely with our hosts to create the vision they have for their design. Our private workshops are truly a unique and intimate event we have created, and it’s another big factor that sets us apart from others.
One of our highly trained instructors will bring everything that is needed for a wood painting workshop right to a host’s home for them to have a fun night in with their family & friends! We have made our private workshops an easy, streamlined process for the host to set up. As a host, they will select a date, and choose up to 3 designs to offer their guests. We then build a custom link just for their event for their guests to register through.
We handle all payments, registrations, and reach out to anyone if we have any questions at all! When registration closes for the host’s workshop, we email them over their final guest list, so they know how many are attending. As a thank you for hosting with us, the host will receive their sign for FREE (with eight guests attending including them), or they receive their sign at a discounted rate if the party is a smaller size.
We have all the information on hosting with us on our website here: https://www.wickedrusticworkshops.com/private-workshops.
We pride ourselves in treating every single private workshop like it’s the only one. We want each of our hosts and their guests to have the best experience possible when attending one of our workshops. Each private workshop is unique and fun in its own way, and we truly enjoy every single one!
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We feel very fortunate for what Wicked Rustic Workshops has become. We have poured our hearts and souls into our company over the last almost two years, and every decision we have made has been decided with the best interest for Wicked Rustic Workshops. If we had to pick one thing we are most fortunate about, it would be our husbands.
None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for them. They stepped up to the plate in a big way when we first started this idea. After they worked a full 8+ hour day, they would come home and take over the household and children duties to make it possible for our many late nights of workshops and business meetings.
They made it possible for us to grow this idea into a company, and for that, we are VERY lucky! We are beyond thankful for our family, friends, and instructors for the outpouring of support we have received. Without any of them, we would not be where we are today.
Pricing:
- $25 – $60
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wickedrusticworkshops.com
- Email: wickedrusticworkshops@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wickedrusticworkshops
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WickedRusticWorkshops
Image Credit:
Hannah Lee Photography
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