"If You Build It, They Will Come" Is a Lie
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Alain Picard spent years saying no to teaching. He believed, genuinely believed, that those who can't do, teach. It took a recession, a pregnant wife, no commissions, and his German wife looking him in the eye and saying "you're burying your gifts in the ground" to change his mind.
That one conversation set off a chain of small yeses that eventually led to a membership community called Cultivate, three instructional art books, a YouTube channel, about 25,000 people on his email list, and a business built entirely around helping pastel artists transform.
Dominik sat down with Alain to pull apart how all of it actually happened. They talked about why "if you build it, they will come" is a lie for artists, how free YouTube content around simple questions like "what pastels should I buy" became his most powerful list-building tool, and how he structures Cultivate so that students enter through a signature course and stay for the community.
There was also a really good thread about what Alain calls the tyranny of the urgent, the idea that if you only ever respond to the small fires, you never build anything that matters. He's lived that tension for thirty years, and the way he describes it is worth your time.
If you're a course creator who feels like your identity is tangled up in your results, or you're stuck at a revenue plateau and not sure what to try next, this one is for you.
Check out Alain's work:
🌐 https://www.picardstudio.com/
📸 / alainpicard
▶️ https://www.youtube.com/channel/@UCWy...
0:00 Intro
1:40 From Seventh Grade Deer To Pastels
5:31 Resisting Teaching Until The Recession
11:28 Why Build It They Will Come Fails
14:37 Email List Growth With Lead Magnets
19:42 Cultivate Membership And Signature Courses
23:00 Books And Video As The Funnel
27:34 Measuring Success Through Student Wins
30:50 Beating The Tyranny Of The Urgent
35:04 Identity Shift Into Entrepreneurship
39:19 Start Small Online Without Trends
43:01 Flat Growth Fixes Through Feedback
49:56 Where To Find Alan And Join
51:51 Subscribe And Closing Thoughts