http://www.expertacademypro.com/

Expert Academy Pro, Birmingham (2025)

29/08/2025

Do you know what I’ve been noticing lately? ..There’s this funny line between just dabbling at something… and actually committing to it.

I’ve seen it in the craft world for years... people full of excitement, buy their first tools, start a project… and the first time the leather cuts wrong or the stitches don’t sit straight, they disappear. I’ve done it myself plenty of times too.

And then there are the ones who stay. Same doubts, same mistakes, same mess… but they keep turning up. Bit by bit, it takes shape.

And truthfully, I’ve seen the same thing happen when people think about turning their skills into something more. A business, a class, maybe even teaching online.
Lots of people play around with the idea… make a start… then stop when it doesn’t feel easy.

But then there are the few who say, “Alright, I’m in. I’ll figure it out.”
And those are the ones who build something that lasts.

It makes me wonder... in your own journey, where’s the point you’ve felt yourself shift from dabbling… to really committing? as we've been talking about in previous posts.... I'm curious to see how many people still see that entrepreneurial possibility with this whole industry...

– Alex

P.S. Ever caught yourself thinking “Would anyone really want to learn this from me?” or “yeah, but it’s just my hobby” … that’s exactly what I talk about inside this little workshop, for anyone curious to get a real, honest insight.... https://www.expertacademypro.com/expert-academy-pro-how-to-get-started-building-an-online-course

26/08/2025

Following on from the question I asked last week about whether the true creative entrepreneur still exists… there’s another thought I’ve been sitting with.

Recently we’ve all seen the big launches in the media — record-breaking book sales, millions poured into ads, and promises of huge results. And let me be clear — I respect anyone who has the drive to put their work out boldly like that. I admire the confidence, the directness, and the effort it takes to make that kind of splash.

But my concern is never about any one person.... It’s about the industry as a whole. Because more and more, the loudest voices seem to be marketers and salespeople promising “six figures in six weeks” or selling a one-size-fits-all formula. And that just doesn’t translate well into the creative and heart-centered world.

I’ve watched too many people... makers, artists, coaches, educators.. getting pulled in by those promises and then feel like they failed when the formula didn’t work. But the truth is… there is no single point solution. There is no universal formula. And trying to apply a sales-driven, hype-based model to creative work often does more harm than good.

The students I’ve seen succeed weren’t copying someone else’s system. They were adapting, finding their own rhythm, and committing to the long haul. That’s the part we don’t hear enough about.

So I’m curious... Do you think the “six-figure formula” culture has a place in creative industries at all?
Or does it do more damage by giving people a false sense of belief about what this journey really takes?
And what would it look like if we started talking more about the real path, one that respects individuality, creativity, and patience?

– Alex

P.S. Ever caught yourself thinking “but who’d actually want to learn this from me?” or maybe “yeah, but it’s just my hobby” … that’s exactly what I talk about inside this little workshop for anyone curious to get an honest insight... https://www.expertacademypro.com/expert-academy-pro-how-to-get-started-building-an-online-course

21/08/2025

So today … I have a question for you “Do you think the true craft entrepreneur still exists, or are we watching it fade away?”

I actually put this same question out to my Costume & Leathercraft community over on my Black Raven Armoury page earlier this week... and it sparked a huge conversation..

But I wanted to bring it here too today, because it feels just as relevant for this space...🤔

Let’s be honest... scroll Etsy, walk a fairground, or even look around the online coaching/teaching world and you’ll see it… cheap mass-made stuff everywhere, prices driven down to the bone, people haggling over every cent, and cookie-cutter “formulas” being pushed like they’re the only way forward.

When in reality, we all know... when you’re just starting out, more often than not.. it can feel impossible for real makers, artists, coaches, or educators to survive in all that noise!!

And yet… I’ve seen something else in my own school... watching students…. leatherworkers, jewelers, potters, seamstresses, woodturners, and a ton more … take their craft and build something real… Businesses… little Communities etc…

And then outside of craft, I’ve seen people people like me, take their knowledge, their lived experience, and use it to create businesses and even little communities that are making a difference...

So it leaves me wondering… are those people the rare exception? Or is there still a quiet generation of creative entrepreneurs out there, across craft, art, and teaching...fighting through and proving it can be done?

I’d love to hear your take.

Alex

P.S. Ever caught yourself thinking “Would anyone really want to learn this from me?” or “yeah, but it’s just my hobby” … that’s exactly what I talk about inside this little workshop, for anyone curious to get a real, honest insight 🤔 https://www.expertacademypro.com/expert-academy-pro-how-to-get-started-building-an-online-course

15/08/2025

You ever look back at the very first thing you made… and kind of cringe? 20+ years on , I have.... Plenty of times 😬...

I still remember the first piece I ever tried to sell.
At the time I thought it was amazing.
Then I put it on a table next to other people’s work and realised…
Yeah, maybe not 🤦‍♂️

But here’s the thing... if I’d waited until I could make a perfect one, I’d still be waiting now.
That first attempt wasn’t the goal.
It was the start.
The piece that taught me what to do differently next time.

And every “next time” after that got better.
But rather than it being because I waited for some magic moment where I felt ready…
It was because I kept going.

The first one it's rarely a masterpiece !!.. Mine, just a very dodgy dismantling of an old sheepskin coat... I've never imagined 20 years later stepping through the doors of major film Studios...

No.... Your first one is just your opening move...

Alex

13/08/2025

You ever get that thing in your head where one day you’re saying “yeah, I’m doing it” and the next you’re thinking “nah, not yet”?

I’ve done that so many times.
Sat there in the workshop, tools out, thinking I’m ready… and then I just… stop.
Could be a new workshop idea, could be a commission I wasn’t sure I could handle, could be a project I’d been sketching for weeks but never actually started.

Here’s the thing I’ve learned... the longer you sit in that space, the heavier it starts to feel.
And it’s not because you can’t do it.
It’s because you care about getting it right.
But there’s no perfect moment that suddenly appears.
The clarity comes when you start — even if it’s a tiny step.

So if you’re in that place now, maybe today’s the day you just do the first little bit 🤷‍♂️

Maybe it's the Italian heritage, but it always makes me remember that "Rome wasn't built in a day"

Alex

P.S. If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking “but who’d actually want to learn this from me?” … that’s exactly what I talk about inside this little workshop: 👉 https://www.expertacademypro.com/expert-academy-pro-how-to-get-started-building-an-online-course

11/08/2025

“When your craft starts taking over your weekends” So… this is what happened....One week we’re still eating dinner at the kitchen table.

The next week… can’t even see the thing.
Tools, bits of leather, scraps all over it.
Couple of half-finished bits I kept saying I’d get back to.

It started with, you know, just an hour here.
Then a Sunday afternoon.
Then a bit after work.
Then more.

And I’ve seen the same thing with people I know.
Candles all over the spare room.

A mate with a camera who can’t walk ten feet without stopping for a photo.

Another friend into herbal stuff, her windowsill looks like a chemist’s shop 🤦‍♂️

is it just me?... or do you get to that point and you have to decide… is this just my little thing I do… or am I gonna see how far I can actually take it? keep wondering if it's just the entrepreneur and me that had to do it...
.. but was wondering, has it happened to anybody else here?

Alex

P.S. If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking “but who’d actually want to learn this from me?” … that’s exactly what I talk about inside this little workshop:
👉 https://www.expertacademypro.com/expert-academy-pro-how-to-get-started-building-an-online-course

09/08/2025

I’ve been asked so many times… “How do you grow an audience?” In today’s influencer-swamped online space… “How do you get started when nobody’s watching unless you’re dangling from a tightrope in a thong?🤦‍♂️” (and seriously, I'm confident nobody would like me to do that 😂)

No..... When I started sharing my craft (costume creation & leathercraft), I had no clue. My first videos were filmed in my tiny kitchen, washing machine, microwave, and sink in the background. That’s where the academy was born.

Maybe it worked because everything was so real. No fancy anything, just the craft. I was painfully shy (still am), but I’ve always loved that moment when someone gets it.

Back then, I was one creative in a sea of millions. Nobody knew me. Nobody was watching. But in the groups I joined, I noticed something, when someone shared what they were working on, it opened a door. Questions followed. Answers became conversations.

That’s how it started for me. No strategy. Just being part of it. Sharing. Helping. Being useful. One person asked, I answered. Then another. And more showed up.

Now there are over 260,000 in my creative community, but the truth is.... you don’t need 10,000 followers. You don’t even need 100. You just need one person who’s stuck.

That’s how the ripple begins.

All it takes is that first share. That first icebreaker. And suddenly… the tide starts to move.

Alex Agricola

07/08/2025

Seriously—I’ve lost count how many times I’ve heard, “I want to share what I do, but I just don’t feel confident yet.”

Yeah, I get it.

Even as a kid, dreaming of the stage, I used to feel sick before stepping out.... And 20 years later? Still there, first time I hit record, I questioned everything.

Nothing I filmed was scripted. Not one lesson.
It was all live. Warts and all.
Including slicing my finger mid health-and-safety talk—standard.

Rain hammering on the roof, planes overhead… filmed the whole thing in a conservatory.
Not exactly production value.
But I did it anyway.

And what I’ve realised is, people were never looking for perfect.
They just wanted real... At least that's what my creative community have always wanted..

Confidence didn’t arrive like some big moment.
It built slowly. Every time I showed up, warts and all..

So if you’re waiting to feel ready…
That’s probably a sign you care.

Now it's just a matter of starting...
Showing up messy. Being human.

Better to look like a rabbit in the headlights… than never show up at all 🤷‍♂️

Alex

04/08/2025

It took me longer than I’d like to admit to realise I’d been waiting... Fast forward almost a decade and boy... Could never have dreamed, in a lifetime of Sundays this kid who left school with no formal exams... could reach the dizzy heights of a best seller on Amazon...

Waiting to feel ready... Waiting to feel like I had the right tools. Waiting until somebody said I had the right qualifications.... Waiting for someone to tell me I was allowed to share what I knew....

But looking back… nobody ever gave me permission.... In fact, they all said I'd starve !!😂
And nothing about my setup screamed “you’re ready.”
I started at the corner of a kitchen table, with a couple of tools, some scraps of leather, and an old camera I barely knew how to use.

It was messy. Improvised. Unpolished, but it worked... because I worked.

And you know the sad part.... I’ve come to realise the entire online space has convinced people they need more before they begin.

More followers. A perfect brand. A full course outline. A 6-month plan.... the perfect offer !!

And all that waiting? .... All that procrastination.... up..That’s where most people get stuck.
Rarely because they lack talent. But because they’ve been told the starting point is somewhere far off... after you’ve already ‘made it.’

Well... That’s a lie.

And for what it's worth... what I’ve learned, over 30 years of building things from scratch... is that real progress always starts from wherever you are right now.

INSTEAD of ... from some imaginary “ready” version of yourself.. because most of us already have enough to get started... The truth is… even now, you probably already have...

If only I'd stopped feeding the fear sooner... and started listening to my own intuition... ☺️

Alex

01/08/2025

You know, it took me a while to get my head around this….. It’s something I’ve always done naturally...I get really passionate about stuff I enjoy, whether it’s a hobby, something I’m building, or just things I care about....

And over the years, I’d just find myself sharing what I’d learned along the way. Never really thought about it. I wasn’t doing it “professionally.” It was just chatting. Helping someone out.
And it only really started to click when someone said to me,
“You should share this.”

At first, I guess like most people, I thought...why would anyone want to learn from me?

But then the penny dropped...
I thought about how many times I’d asked someone else for advice.

How much I appreciated hearing someone’s experience, even when it was just casual conversation.

And that was it.... honestly my moment of realising I’d been doing the same... just quietly, without even registering it.

I’d be at events, grabbing a bite to eat, someone would come over and ask something, and I’d just give them what I could. No second thoughts. No script. Just me, sharing what I knew.

And the truth I've learned is.... that is teaching 🤷‍♂️
That is guidance.
That is genuine value...

Just because there wasn’t a course title attached… or a camera pointed at your face… doesn’t mean it didn’t matter.

So I’d ask you... didn’t that count? Just because it didn't have a price tag? Hell.... You're gonna find me sharing an entire lifetime in business and creativity on this page... in my posts..

How many times have you changed someone’s thinking, without realising it?

How many moments have you shared something off the cuff that helped someone else skip a mistake… or see something differently?

You might not even know it happened.
But trust me....they do...And that’s the point I wanted to share today.

Helping people never needs to be a big thing...To be part of an offer.
It just needs to be honest.

I answered tens of thousands of questions before I ever built a course...Never once asked for anything in return 🤷‍♂️

I just shared what I’d figured out. Because that’s what I’d have wanted someone to do for me.

So before you talk yourself out of sharing something…
Before you tell yourself you’re not ready…
Stop for a second and think....

Who have you already helped, without even realising?
That’s your starting point.

And that’s where you’ll start to see just how much you’ve actually got to offer.

Alex

P.S. If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking “but who’d actually want to learn this from me?” … that’s exactly what I talk about inside this little workshop:
👉 https://www.expertacademypro.com/expert-academy-pro-how-to-get-started-building-an-online-course

30/07/2025

I was thinking about this earlier...That phrase you hear all the time, especially online: “You need to build your brand.”

What does it mean these days?... seriously to anyone other than marketeers ... I started thinking about what it meant to my own creative business....
.. More to the point I started thinking about students of this Academy.. people who've spent years creating, guiding, helping others... whether that’s with their hands, their experience, their story, or voice..

I imagined how strange it must start to feel when someone suddenly tells you to package it all up into a “brand.”😬

And yet the truth for me... I never set out to build one.
Nope... I just answered people’s questions. Helped where I could.
Shared what I’d figured out (usually without thinking of it as teaching)

And over time, I started noticing that people felt something from it. Not because of a logo. Not because of a business name.
But because of how I showed up🤷‍♂️.

That’s what stuck.

I’ve come to see that your “brand,” if you want to call it that, isn’t what it looks like... It’s what people remember when they think of you.

It’s how they feel about your work or your words—especially when they’ve had time to sit with them.

It’s what they start to expect from you, after you’ve shown up enough times for them to get a sense of who you really are.

That part doesn’t get built overnight.
It’s something that grows slowly, while you’re busy doing the thing you care about.

So if you’re in that space where you’re thinking about showing up more visibly, maybe sharing your work, your story, your process
but the word “brand” just feels cold or disconnected from what you actually do…

I get it.
It never made much sense to me either.

But the bit that has always made sense is showing up with care.
And that’s the part people remember... So if it was me, that's what I'd stick with and leave the marketeers to the smoke and mirrors

Alex

29/07/2025

So much noise online lately... “Turn your skills into cash!” “Teach and make a passive fortune!” 🤦‍♂️ It’s all smoke and mirrors. And honestly? It’s exhausting.

I’ve watched the same recycled hype flood every corner of the internet... Marketers selling big dreams, and creative, heart-led people paying the price.

People like us...
Artists. Makers. Teachers. Guides.
The ones who create with their hands, their hearts, or years of lived experience… left out in the cold because no one ever showed you the full picture.

AND ... Full transparency here... the truth is...
I have had real success with my own Creative Academy.
I shared what I knew, and it worked.

My students got what they came for ...real results, without false promises.

But building the Expert Academy came from something else.
From seeing the heartbreak. The gaps.
The quiet coaches, the incredible makers, the soul-driven mentors, trying to build something honest in a space full of noise.

Because I’ve lived those gaps too.
The trial and error. The quiet spells.
Being taught the craft… but not how to share it.
How to reach the people who need it.
And how to build something that actually lasts.

And now? The industry’s still shifting. The noise is still growing.
But maybe.. just maybe the penny’s starting to drop.... And if you read between the lines, I'd say there more than a few of those very same influencers struggling...

Why... Simple really... Because maybe they're finally realising the overwhelm that's been created forcing peak to sell like a marketer, or build a businesses that looks nothing like you...

And that’s why I’m here.... if anybody wants help..
And that's why for me... this space needs to be something different.

No formulas. No fluff. No pressure to pretend.
Just grounded, honest help, for creatives & people who care... who genuinely feel the passion?... the need to teach, lead, or share something real.

No... It will never be perfect & NO....It will never fit everyone.
But it will be honest.

So if you’re figuring things out…starting again… or just trying to make sense of it all..You’re not the only one.

Just rest assured... there is no need to change who you are, and no need to follow their rules.

Sometimes you just need to hear something real. Maybe that’s all this project has ever been about.

A few unspoken truths 🤷‍♂️

Alex

P.S. If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking “but who’d actually want to learn this from me?” … that’s exactly what I talk about inside this little workshop:
👉 https://www.expertacademypro.com/expert-academy-pro-how-to-get-started-building-an-online-course

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