She Woke Up to a 521% Sales Increase — And She Hadn't Run a Single Ad

Imagine waking up, checking your sales dashboard, and realizing you're up 521% compared to this time last year. It would feel like Christmas morning, right?

That's exactly what happened to Wendy Mitchell.

Wendy is a botanical artist and Inner Circle member. She has a gorgeous studio in Salida, Colorado called the Wildflower Studio, and she went from waiting for art festivals to pay her bills to building real, consistent online sales, all in just four months.

Sound too good to be true?

I had her on the podcast to walk us through everything she did, and I want to share it with you here because whether you're an artist, a creative, or any kind of product-based business owner, Wendy's story has something in it for you.

Wendy's Journey: From Therapy to Full-Time Art

Wendy started making art as a child (her first medium was her mother's lipstick on every single one of her velvet dining room chairs). She took some formal classes in high school and a few more along the way, but she didn't start creating art seriously until she was 39. She'd just left a business she'd been very successful in, and art became therapy for her. A year after she picked up a paintbrush again, she was selling her work and teaching others how to paint.

Her partner (now husband) Kurt believed in her enough to say: do this full-time. Make something of your art. So she bought a tent, started applying to shows, and a year later opened her Shopify store. Then last November, she opened the Wildflower Studio, a space where she can make a mess, teach other people, and sell her art. 

The Studio That Changed Everything

The Wildflower Studio isn't a solo space, it's part of a small creative community. There's a ceramic studio nearby, a coffee shop on one side, a couple selling vintage clothing and doing clothing repairs, and another artist in the mix. Wendy sets her own hours, and when she's not there, she simply closes a gate (so she doesn't have to be there all the time).

And from that studio, she teaches in-person classes — which turned out to be the biggest driver of her 521% increase. A full 60% of that growth came directly from classes.

“Because I'm in that little studio group, I gained a whole new group of people who didn't know me. At our grand opening in November, over a hundred people showed up. We were all floored.”

Here's what I love about that: she doesn't have to order or hold product to fulfill a class. She brings supplies, she shows up, she teaches. It's incredibly profitable. And she loves every minute of it.

"I love teaching other people that they can be creative too," she told me. "I had one lady who said, 'I can't even draw stick figures.' And I said, 'Good, because we're not drawing stick figures.' She walked away with a really fun painting."

The Narrowing Down That Made All the Difference

Wendy offers a lot across her business — original art, prints, home decor, windbreakers, and tea towels. But when she ran her Shopify reports and looked at what was actually selling, the tea towels were miles ahead of everything else.

"It's really easy to get lost in the fray of, 'I could put my art on this, and this, and this,'" she said. "But pairing it down and focusing on a few key products is really the way to go."

Her top seller outside of her original art is a flour sack tea towel. Super absorbent, gorgeous, and a fun pop of color for your kitchen. It took her a while to find the right product, but once she found this one, she ran with it.

It's a good reminder: your Shopify data will tell you the truth if you let it.

From One Email a Month to Real Results

When Wendy first joined the Inner Circle, she was sending one email a month. Newsletter style. One.

She got onto the E-commerce Roadmap inside the Inner Circle and just started going through the lessons. She started sending more emails last fall, got results through January, and now she's sending one email a week.

Was she nervous? Yes. She worried about losing followers. But she also came to understand something important: if someone unsubscribes, they're just not her customer. And that's okay. People will unsubscribe, but as soon as you put something in front of them that they actually like again, they'll come back. You'll see that profile again. It's really not a tragedy.

The Launch That Showed Her What's Possible

Wendy's most recent collection launch is such a clear example of the difference between doing it with intention and just putting something beautiful on your website and hoping.

She created a new collection around her first anniversary. The year before, she had done a tulips collection inspired by her wedding flowers. Her friend, who brought the tulips that were at the wedding, later brought Wendy some tulips as an anniversary gift. That inspired a whole new collection. She called it "Retour aux Tulipes" — anniversary of tulips in French. Every piece has a French name.

Then she built the launch:

• She sent behind-the-scenes emails leading up to the drop, sharing snippets of the story and inviting people to get on a waitlist.
• She ran a 10-day Instagram lead-up.
• Her email subscribers (she calls them her "insiders") got access first and received free shipping through the end of April.
• She was taking photos as she created each piece, so the content built naturally as the work did.
• She launched the email, and the next day the collection opened to everyone.

All of the pieces were originals, not prints. When someone gets a piece, it's theirs and nobody else's. Built-in scarcity that's completely genuine.

She created enough awareness that when the collection dropped, people knew why they should show up. They knew it was one of a kind. They knew there were only ten pieces. That's what the difference looks like between a successful launch and putting something on your website and hearing crickets.

The Marketing Mindset That Sets Wendy Apart

A lot of artists and creatives didn't set out to be marketers. That's not Wendy.

She actually started in sales back in 2004, with a direct sales skincare business online where she was very successful. And her philosophy on sales has stayed with her: 

“For me, sales has never been about convincing someone of something — it's just about conversation. It's about finding out what someone wants and seeing if I have something for them.”

She still has a part-time job that she keeps partly because it keeps her connected to the community outside her studio. A lot of her class students are people she's met there. She talks about her art, she hands them a bookmark, she invites them to come see her.

That bookmark, by the way, is a whole strategy in itself. It has her QR code on the back and her website. It's beautiful — full-bleed botanicals, the same gorgeous imagery you see in her towels and on her site. People aren't going to throw that away. And if they don't read books, she told me, they can put it on their refrigerator.

She gets people on her list at in-person shows by giving them a bookmark when they sign up. Simple. Personal. Effective.

Growing Her Community the Old-Fashioned Way

Beyond email, Wendy has grown her local community in the most genuine way possible: by showing up.

Her studio grand opening in November brought over a hundred people through the door. She's been featured in the local paper and will be in a magazine soon. She's on local newsletters. And word of mouth has done a lot of the heavy lifting.

"We're in a wonderful small town that's very supportive of artists," she said. "I've met a lot of people that way."

She also runs something called a Creative Study Hall at her studio. It's free to attend. People bring whatever they're working on. And it gives Wendy an excuse to work on her own art in a room full of people who are encouraging each other. She usually holds about two a month.

There is just so much opportunity in that space.

If You're Wondering If The Inner Circle’s Worth It…

If you're a creative, or any kind of store owner,  wondering whether the Inner Circle is worth it, here's what Wendy would tell you:

"The lessons are all there for you. The investment I've made is so minimal for what I'm getting. I basically have a marketing team and a technical team in my back pocket. And if you don't feel comfortable doing the work yourself, you have coaches who can help you."

She also said she was talking to someone just the day before we recorded and found herself saying: "You really need to meet these people and get into the Inner Circle. It's a map that's been laid out for you. You don't have to guess what to do next."

That's the hardest part. Just…not knowing what to do next. And that's exactly what the Inner Circle solves.

"I used to just wait for art festivals because that's where the bulk of my money came from — and I don't want it to be that way forever. That's why I love this roadmap. It's teaching me how to be successful online so I can take my business anywhere."

On Slow Growth and Running Your Own Race

I asked Wendy to speak to something I see all the time: the feeling that your progress is too slow, or not big enough, or not measuring up to what everyone else seems to be doing online.

Her answer was really good.

"What is too slow? Everybody's so different. We get so bogged down looking at everyone else that we lose sight of what's right in front of us. If building your email list is the thing, focus on that. If creating a product you want to sell is the thing, focus on that. Don't feel like you have to be where everyone else is."

She's had her Shopify site for three years. She's seen steady growth, but not all of it has been online. Now that she's focused on online, is she making thousands and thousands of dollars like some people are? Not yet. But she's doing more than she was. And that's the measure.

"Are you better than you were yesterday? Better than last month? Better than last year? Instead of asking, 'Am I better than everybody else?' — I'm not running their race. I'm running my own."

The first time you do anything is usually your worst result. What you see online is skewed — people talk about massive wins and big numbers, and if you have anything less, it's easy to feel like a loser. But you're building. And every step forward compounds.

What Wendy Is Most Excited About

I asked Wendy the question I ask everyone: if you woke up a year from today and only one thing had changed in your business, what would it be?

She was very clear.

More online sales. She wants the majority of her sales to come from online, not from waiting for art festivals. She's also excited about expanding her flour sack tea towel line and learning how to do that in an exciting and new way. And she loves the shows she has coming up this year — two in Texas this month, one in Lubbock and one in Dallas at the Arboretum.

"I love talking to people and sharing why I create what I create," she said. "Every day is a new day. I've never seen this day before, and I can't wait to see what happens."

She has momentum. And that momentum is going to carry her somewhere really good. And if Wendy's story has you thinking about what's possible for your own business — I'd love to talk to you about the Inner Circle. Because you shouldn't have to guess. You just need a map.

RELATED LI NKS:

See Wendy’s store here: https://www.wendymitchellart.com/

Or on Instagram: Instagram.com/WendyMitchellArt
Or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wendymitchellart

Join the Inner Circle waitlist here:  https://www.thesocialsalesgirls.com/inner-circle-membership

This Artist narrowed her focus, and quadrupled her sales https://www.thesocialsalesgirls.com/blog/this-artist-narrowed-her-focus-and-quadrupled-her-sales-episode-317

How Sarah Built a Full-Time Income Selling Her Art Online (Without Ads) https://www.thesocialsalesgirls.com/blog/how-sarah-built-a-full-time-income-selling-her-art-online-without-ads-episode-313