458 | How Her Watercolor Kits are Helping People Reconnect with Their Creativity with Melissa Hyatt
Today's conversation is about building a business that truly evolves alongside your life and also having the courage to reinvent yourself more than once along the way.
I'm joined by one of my clients, Melissa Hyatt. She is an artist, a surface pattern designer, and an entrepreneur.
Before launching her own product brand, Melissa spent more than 2 decades designing textiles, wallpaper, home decor, and licensed products for major brands in New York. She eventually served as the design director for Waverly Fabrics.
Today, she brings all of that industry experience and knowledge into her own business where she creates stationery, watercolor art, and beautifully created watercolor kits that are helping more people reconnect with their creativity.
In this episode, Melissa shares how her career evolved from the corporate design world to entrepreneurship, why she intentionally built multiple revenue streams in her business, and how one unexpected setback became kind of the catalyst for creating a business that's more resilient and also more fulfilling for her.
We also dive into her wildly successful watercolor kits, the product development process behind them, and how following her curiosity has opened doors that she never really expected.
I really love Melissa's perspective on experimentation, perseverance, and creating products that create a meaningful impact in people's lives. If you've ever wondered whether it's too late to pivot or launch something new or reinvent your business, I think you will find so much encouragement in today's conversation.
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MEET MELISSA
I’m Melissa Hyatt, a watercolor artist, a Mom, a surface pattern designer.
I majored in art in college, and I started a career in Textile Design in NYC. I loved it! I climbed the corporate ladder to Design Director of Waverly Fabrics, my dream job. I chose to leave it all to raise my kids. No regrets. But somewhere along the way, I lost myself, and my creativity was squashed. (My freelance work became digital, and I stopped doing what I loved, painting and drawing.)
It felt like something was missing in my life and marriage, but I didn’t know what. I took a watercolor class at my local library, and a door opened up to a world that had long been forgotten.
In rediscovering my art. I found joy, and the soul searching began. My marriage ended, but through my art, the healing process began. In 2016, determined to make a living from my art and show my kids you can do what you love, I launched my brand.
Teaching became one pillar of my business, as I wanted to give back and help others discover their creativity. My wholesale product line allows me to share my art, which comes from my heart and soul, to inspire everyone to search for their joy deep inside.
CONNECT WITH MELISSA
WEBSITE: https://www.melissahyatt.com | INSTAGRAM: @melissajanehyatt
Connect with Katie Hunt
Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.
Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct
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This week’s podcast episode features one of my Advisory Board clients Melissa Hyatt, who is an artist and surface pattern designer. Melissa shares how her career evolved from the corporate design world to entrepreneurship, why she intentionally built multiple revenue streams in her business, and how one unexpected setback became kind of the catalyst for creating a business that's more resilient and also more fulfilling for her.