Wheel Talk

Ryan & Becca dive into a very new topic for the time: Chat GPT. We explain what it is, examples of how we could consider using it as small business owners who sell pottery, and what moral & ethical questions should be considered as it gets more mainstream. Let us know your thoughts about this new technology as it becomes more relevant these days. Resources https://www.brickyardnetwork.org/...

Ryan & Becca answer a listener questions related to all you studio techs out there. Aletha, one of our long time listeners and interview guests ( episode #147 ), has a question related to deciding when to make teachable moments when confronting glazing issues from students when you're in charge of loading & unloading the kilns as the studio tech. We cover it from a range of scenarios...

Ryan and Becca are excited to have Tim Kowalczyk from Tims Ceramics on to cover a range of topics and answer a couple listener questions. We chat about selling through galleries, testing new processes, being "academic" with how you talk about your work, taking yourself a little less seriously, artist statements, & applying to shows. We hope you enjoy the discussion and big thanks to...

Ryan shares a scary situation that happened to him recently before Ryan & Becca answer a few listener questions. On today's episode, the questions relate to trading with other artists, a sticky situation for a pottery teacher, and working with other artists on collaborations. Thanks for listening and enjoy! Listener Questions On this episode: - How do you approach other artists about trad...

Ryan and Becca are happy to have Hope Limyansky-Smith on the podcast to talk about a range of topics including: teaching in a high school setting, managing social media as an educator, production of her own work, analyzing Meta Verified, and plenty of laughs along the way. We thank Hope for her time and we anticipate you will enjoy the conversation as well. ----- Find more about Hope's busine...

Ryan & Becca compare the pros & cons of offering "free" shipping for your online shop. Becca prefers offering free shipping and Ryan prefers adding shipping charges at the end, making for an interesting debate. Let us know your thoughts and how you approach this question. Listener Questions On this episode: - When setting up your booth, is an outside L or inside L better for brin...

Ryan & Becca are trying out a shoot the sh!t episode just for fun. We cover family, paying taxes, online orders, plumbing issues, alternative firing methods, and fidget stones. Enjoy and let us know whether we should keep doing these or not. Support the show on Patreon for as little as $3 per month: https://patreon.com/Wheeltalkpodcast Becca’s Patreon: https://patreon.com/superpotlady Follow u...

Ryan & Becca discuss a question that came in related to finding a consistent style, but having interest in experimenting with new designs. We cover the potential drawbacks & positives to introducing new designs, how to avoid surprising your customers, and the timeline you could consider as you experiment. We've both changed up our styles over time, some more drastic than others, but i...

Ryan & Becca answer a couple listener questions before getting into an in-depth discussion about pricing small items like Becca's fidget stones. Her fidget stones are a bit different because they require many hours of rock tumbling to smooth them, but doesn't require more effort for her necessarily. They also get into other factors that help you determine your price on an item and ho...

Ryan & Becca are joined by Erica, Ryan's studio assistant, to chat all about their experiences during NCECA 2023 in Cincinnati, OH. Thanks for all the great companies & folks we met and reconnected with during the entire week! It was such a great experience and we can't wait for next year! Catch us at Clay Con West 2024 in St. George, Utah in January as well. ----- Find more abou...

Ryan & Becca are joined by Lindsey & Donte, co-hosts of The Mud Peddlers Podcast, to discuss the topic of "Learning Through Collaboration" live at the NCECA 2023 clay conference hosted in Cincinnati, OH. We hope you enjoy the discussion as the four of us have varied perspectives on what collaboration means to us as makers, small business owners, friends, and individuals. Thanks t...

Ryan & Becca answer a couple listener questions specific to pricing your work depending on the medium you’re selling in & confidence in yourself. Topics include pricing to sell to a local restaurant or pricing at local shows. Your prices don’t have to be set in stone, so be open to changing them when you think it’s needed. Listener Questions On this episode: - Do you think the majority of...

Ryan and Becca welcome back Andrew from That's So Andrew to talk in depth about his stationary business, which is very focused on wholesale. We get into building a catalog, setting your terms, selling at big trade shows, benefits of selling on Faire, efficiencies in packing large orders, and tons more. Thanks to Andrew for joining us once again since his last chat with us back in 2020. Episod...

Ryan & Becca answer a couple listener questions today about specific business situations you may find yourself in at some point. One involves pricing your work based on your local market vs pricing higher based on what your time is worth now. The other involves a sticky situation where you may have doubts about a potential partnership with a local business who wants to carry your products. Lis...

Ryan and Becca are joined by Brooke Thivierge from BAT’s Ceramics & fellow podcast host of the Batty Bitches Podcast. They discuss how she started dabbling in Instagram Subscriptions recently, how she decided on which platform to host this exclusive content, and more about her work and business, plus lots of laughs along the way. Check out her amazing painting skills using underglazes and supp...

Ryan is joined by Ben Clark today inside of Queen City Clay, one of the largest community studios in the United States. Ben is the President and co-owner of Queen City Clay and covers a range of topics to help you get a glimpse into managing staff, programs to offer, retail needs, the importance of education, NCECA 2023 in Cincinnati, and much more. If you're looking for a place to build and...

Ryan & Becca are joined today by Jamie Boyack, a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) from Aloha Friday CPA. She answers so many of our tax questions ranging from the differences between sole proprietor/single person LLC/S corp,  how to effectively keep track of expenses/income, collecting & remitting sales taxes, how to handle cash, common reasons small businesses struggle, what are co...

Ryan & Becca have a great chat today with Jodie Rozycki from Mudslinging Pottery. We chat about teaching in a community studio, her making process, how she handles online restocks, commission orders, balancing family time with teenagers, and answer some random "listener" questions. Thanks to Jodie for joining us today to chat. Where you can find us for NCECA 2023 ----- Find more abou...

Ryan & Becca talk about kilns today after getting a listener question recently. They go into how and where they learned to fire their kilns initially, from manual kiln sitter kilns to ones with electronic controllers. There are lots of places to find resources today with the depth of knowledge on YouTube, Facebook forums, online publications, and plenty of other places. We hope you enjoy the c...

Becca runs this episode solo to chat about adjusting to van life since the beginning of the year. She covers how she got the van, process to make it livable, adjusting the business to the new set-up, and future plans. It’s a little different one today, but we hope you enjoy it. Listener Questions Send us questions so we can answer anything you've been thinking about on a future episode. Send...

Ryan and Becca recap their experience at Clay Con West before getting into the topic of the day. The focus of today's episode is figuring out how we can expand outside of our comfort zone to grow our work and business. Selling at Clay Con West recently sparked this conversation and thought experiment that we hope you enjoy. We also touch on how these different lines of work can appeal to diff...

Becca and Ryan recently presented at Clay Con West, an annual clay conference hosted in St. George, Utah, to share some tips and tricks about selling at art shows. They share what has worked & not worked as well for them over the years and answer lots of questions from the audience in here as well. We'd love to see you at NCECA coming up this March in Cincinnati, OH or a future Clay Con W...

Ryan and Becca are looking ahead to Clay Con West before answering a variety of listener questions. The primary topic of the day related to working through having self doubt as a beginner potter. We all go through this at some point over the years, and still to this day even after we have a "successful" business. We touch on art shows a bit as well and what makes for a good sales day at...

Ryan is joined by Will Donovan from Donovan Pottery to talk about adjusting to a large increase in customer demand for his work in a short period of time. We also cover how he manages a small production team, working within a niche customer base, and how his full time role at Clay King influences his approach to running his business. We hope you get some great insights from today's episode. -...

Ryan and Becca recap their holidays and a workshop idea Ryan is working on before getting to the topic of the day. Today includes a recap of business goals for 2022, which ones were accomplished, which ones weren't, and what they are looking forward to in 2023. Thanks for your support this year and 2023 should be a very exciting year. Resources - Interested in Ryan's Bookkeeping Workshop...