The Thousand Solutions Blog

The Way Cassandra Smith Became a Multi-Millionaire from a career in teaching Crafts on the internet

Apr 27, 2024

Cassandra Smith, the visionary behind Blanks Galore Academy, has taught students how to master multiple crafts and launching successful businesses. She does so through in-person as well as online classes. "When I found  that, my life took completely change from where I was," shares Smith.

The journey started with sublimation, a technique where designs are transferred to various objects like clothing, tumblers, and mugs. Beginning in 2017, with a an idea to design customized hoodies for her kids' basketball team, she stumbled into the world of crafting without any prior experience.

But, she was forced to learn this technique by herself. When she asked sublimation business owners to instruct her, they saw her as their competition--and refused to assist. "I promised myself that when I had learned the technique, I would teach others as well," she says. "Gatekeeping is not something I'd undertake."

She learned by herself and began to make custom sublimation-based orders for people on the side of the full-time position. When demand soared and she made her first $2,000 in just one week, she decided to quit the 9-5 job she had been working. "When I made the decision to quit I had no idea that my business would begin to slow down--and it slowed until it slowed down to the point of a complete stop," Smith laments.

As she faced tough economic times However, she was determined to make her crafting company a success. Her first venture was selling "blanks," which means blank t-shirts, tumblers, mugs, as well as other products to crafters along with custom-designed orders. When the pandemic hit her, she got a plethora of orders for her blank and custom-designed masks.

"I experienced a transition from being kicked out and earning nothing and months later earning $86,000,"in one month, she talks about. "I'd never had that amount of money before ."

With her blank sales booming and her blank sales booming, she set up a Facebook group for aspiring crafters. It now has over 106,000 people. In the group, she joined the group live to show people how to create sublimation on the blanks she sold. The number of people who showed in for live classes and, soon they began asking for online courses. She signed up with and started her first paid class, which was followed by other programmes to determine what stayed. In the year she was in, she earned only $1 million from online course revenue. By 2021 she had earned $2 million and, since then, the company has continued to "hitting millions on " after developing her now famous membership program.

This is how Smith began his journey from having zero making or creating online courses experience to becoming a multi-millionaire:

Skip ahead:

She experimented with different types of online software

Smith wasn't the one to create her top-selling membership program right off the bat. She actually created twenty online membership programs before she found what really stuck.

Before joining the club, she would create a new program every when her customers requested her to instruct an aspect of the subject. But she was ready for a change; instead of creating courses every often She wanted to create the perfect membership that ensured participants were taught everything they required to be aware of.

In 2023, she launched the Crafters Mastermind 2.0 program. The Crafters Mastermind 2.0 now has 1,200 members. "When I first launched the program immediately, I had 1000 members join,"" she explains. "For the entire year we kept an average of 1000 people on the site, who were paying their monthly membership fee and learning about new craft techniques. ."

On top of her membership she sells branded sublimation paper and ink, blanks and has an in-person class located in Atlanta, Georgia where she teaches hands-on classes every weekend. "We receive students from around the world fly down here in order to take the classes we offer," says Smith.

She provided consistent worth

In her membership it is a mixture of pre-recorded and live content. Additionally, she hosts a Facebook group for private groups. there is a place where she will go live each week to share the course material. "Some students don't gain knowledge just through logging into Facebook and watching the videos on YouTube," Smith explains. "They would like to take live classes and have the opportunity to pose questions. This keeps them interested. ."

In the members area, she's continually offering new classes. Since the industry of crafting is continuously shifting, adding more educative content to the dashboard keeps people interested. "As long as you give people value, they'll stay within your club," she says.

When she started the program, her goal was to earn at minimum $300,000.00 per month. To do so, she charges $159 USD per month. "Now I do not really care to try to get many more individuals into the program. The goal of my program is to sure I'm giving all the value that possible to those who are currently enrolled. I'd like them to feel that, because they've enrolled in my program, they've become prosperous in their business ."

The concept of offering the customer value instead of selling has been pivotal to her work.

"Give value, and you will be sold," she reiterates.

She relied on the strength of community

The creation of community was the biggest key to her accomplishments. "If I hadn't established that Facebook group, I'd have never met my friends," shares Smith.

She says now that her community is so strong that they would buy almost all of the programs she's designed. "Once the people realize that you give value, they're willing to support the organization in every ."

"My community has transformed my life dramatically," she continues. "I wouldn't be here without them ."

She designed strategic Instagram reels that promote her training courses.

Smith's clientele is composed of crafters who are beginners. They're mostly African American women between the between the ages of 35-44 located within Illinois, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and New York. A lot people are single mothers and are trying to find an activity they can enjoy at home, while looking after their children. Some are just searching for something new to do.

In order to reach out to her followers She rely heavily on her main Facebook page, where is where she posts ads. Additionally, she uses YouTube, TikTok, email marketing, as well as Instagram. It's her favourite platform to show in. In this blog, she posts reels that demonstrate the different art forms she creates.

If you are also looking to make use of Instagram reels to market themselves There are some suggestions to help you make reels only 7 to 7 seconds in length using the latest audio that has under 5,000 views. It is also suggested that they use trending hooks to get people to stop in their tracks and listen.

The other tip she gives is to be steady. "It can be discouraging at first," she says. "Even even if you follow my earlier advice, you're not going to see progress in a matter of hours. It's possible that you won't even notice it for a week or even a month ."

"Stay studying and developing. The way that worked in 2020 isn't working now. Social media is constantly changing and requires you to come out with new ways to remain relevant. ."

Her approach was personalised to her email newsletter

Aside from bringing people to her course through social media, she provides a lead magnet to help get people into her membership program.

The free offering is an ebook on sublimation, which basically gives users a supply of materials and informs them the best places to purchase materials, the best way to charge for custom items, convert their printers, and what kinds of products you could produce using sublimation. The ebook is not just a way in providing value to her readers, it also helps get an increase in the number of people she has on her email list.

Over the past couple of years, she's altered how she manages her list of email addresses. Although she had previously used it to communicate her products, her email engagement slowed down and she was forced to look for a different approach. Today, she utilizes it in a more personal manner, sharing her story and her personal life as a business owner, in as well as revealing what she has to offer in the Blanks Galore Academy. "I like to show my daily life through email so that people can feel like they are part of the group," she shares.

She chose over other elearning platforms

When Smith was researching LMS when she first began her research, she was considering the possibility of using platforms such as Kajabi and Teachable. She was, however, of the view that Teachable was easier to use. "I was able to set up my course within minutes," she says.

Plus, one of the reasons she is most pleased with Payments is that it has integrated payment providers and she claims that managing the backend became much simpler after she made the switch to Payments. "I enjoy it because it's simple," she shares. "I am also awed by the fact that cash is deposited instantly into my bank accounts ."

"All I need to do is invite people on and do all the rest," she continues. "This platform overall has helped me make my life easier ."

To run her business, she integrates Shopify, Afterpay, Active Campaign as well as Clickfunnels, which integrates with Zapier. "I wish I found a lot earlier," shares Smith.

She enlisted a team

At first, it was just Smith managing her company, but Smith quickly got overwhelmed. She eventually hired an admin team of six to manage the online course side of her enterprise. The team's job is to remain engaged on Facebook groups and answer customer email. Additionally, she has the warehouse staff to handle the shipping process, orders and packing.

The hiring of a team has enabled her to envision larger. With the money she's making through online classes Her goal is to use it for inventory, warehouse, and hiring, and eventually franchise her in-person academy across other states in the goal of teaching as many as possible how to make customizations. "If we can have more academies scattered across the country, there will be more individuals who can visit and be taught the specifics of what we do," she states.

She believed unflinchingly of herself

Before her venture, Smith didn't have an experience in design or art. She learned everything by herself, adjusting, pivoting, and growing as she went along.

"You don't need to be great to start but you should start to be great," explains Smith. "A often when we get started, we want that it be perfect before launching or marketing it. It is best to start small by adjusting the idea in the process. It's how I came to twenty programs until I discovered the only membership that actually worked. ."

But starting anything requires self-belief--something that Smith never ran out of, even when times were hard. "I had a plan which no one else believed in except myself," she says. "People might ask, what's the reason you create t-shirts? There's no one purchasing T-shirts. However, I took it and went with it ."

"It is apparent that the more that I share what I do and am learning that I am sharing, the more people are coming across me and purchasing what I'm selling," she adds.

Smith's path from a crafter to multi-millionaire educator highlights the significance of perseverance in community-building and adaptability. Through experimentation with online programs and constantly delivering value to her community and her students, she turned her company into a thriving empire. Her story can serve as a source of inspiration for hopeful entrepreneurs within the online course industry and demonstrates the possibility of growth with the right attitude and the right tools.

If you're awed by Smith's experience and are looking to launch your own online-based course, you have nothing to gain. Sign up for for free.