From Corporate Life to Glass Art: Nancy Dillingham Mark’s Journey of Creative Transformation

Join Jennifer Pilates as she welcomes Nancy Dillingham Marks, a former corporate professional turned glass artist and entrepreneur. After 35 years in the corporate world, Nancy discovered her passion for fused glass art, transforming her life and inspiring countless others along the way. 

As the founder of Glass Arts Collective in Westlake Village, California, Nancy shares her incredible journey of overcoming imposter syndrome, embracing creativity, and building a thriving community-focused business. 

Tune in to hear Nancy’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, the magic behind fused glass art, and how leaning into intuition can lead to life-changing opportunities. Visit JenniferPilates.com for show notes, links, and more!

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Transcript

Audio Only - All Participants: 0:07

Welcome to Empowered Within, a soul quenching transformational podcast that will set your soul on fire through candid and inspiring conversations. Leading experts, celebrities, healers, and I share our journeys of how we've overcome challenges to living an empowered life from within. I'm your host, Jennifer Pilates. Welcome to another episode of Empowered Within. Hi there and welcome to the show. I am honored to have with us today's guest, Nancy Dillingham Marx. After 35 years in corporate, Nancy learned something very important that changed her life. She is creative and went out and opened a glass art studio. She took a creative leap, discovering her passion for glass art. She founded Glass Art Collectives, a local studio in Westlake Village, California, providing unique. Handmade gifts, sharing her joy and watching others explore glass art brings her immense joy. Welcome to the show, Nancy. Hi, Fred. Thank you so much. I'm so honored to be here. I'm so excited to have you here. Oh my goodness. So, tell me, how is Westlake Village doing? I absolutely adore it. I lived near there for a little while and it was my secret little zen place to go. It still is. It is an amazing community. I just, I lived here years ago when my daughter was born and had to move away for a while and I had to come back. I just had to. Well, it has such special energies. Absolutely. The people and the businesses and the Conejo Valley Chamber, I mean, just. It all is so together. It just works. It just works well. It really does. So take me back, Nancy, to the moment where you decided to take this creative leap of faith. Well, what ended up happening is I really didn't think I even had a creative bone in my body. I am one of those people who said to myself, I'm not an artist, I'm not creative, for way too many years. And I actually had taken the opportunity to, learn about fused glass because of my mom, she was at an assisted living facility and they had a class that was fused glass and I wanted something else to do with. So I took the class and it was kind of one of those, why am I doing this? Oh yeah, I'm doing it for mom. It's okay. And so I took it and I fell in love with it. I am. I took a second class, which ended up being my mom's birthday present for her 85th birthday. Dad and I thought that she would really enjoy that. So we got our little cards so that she could actually send out invitations to her friends at the assisted living facility. And that really put me over the top of, yes, yes, this is absolutely what I want to be doing. And the studio that I was doing it in closed. And timing wise, my husband sold the business. So, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and nothing was really sticking. And, it was like, the universe just all pulled everything together at one time and said, This is what you should be doing. And my husband was the one who actually had suggested it. And I thought, you know what? I haven't been doing it all that long. I shouldn't really be doing this. And he said, you know how to run a small business. He'd been running mine for 18 years already. He goes, get some friends to help you. And I'm like, duh, of course. I'll run the business, I'll have friends help me with the more advanced classes. And Glass Arts Collective was born. That is so amazing. So tell me, when you look back over this transitional leap of faith, what was your biggest challenge? Do you think? My getting over imposter syndrome. Ooh, that's a good one. We know everyone has this. Absolutely. And again, I knew I could run a small business, but if I'm going to be in charge of an artistic environment, who am I going to be doing that? Well, I think part of the universe, and I know it sounds silly, like smacked me across the side of the head. So five weeks after I opened the door, COVID hit. And that could have been like the worst thing in the world, and don't get me wrong, it wasn't a great thing. But I turned it around and said, this is how I'm going to improve my skills. This is how I'm going to take the time to get to that point where I am an artist and I can say it out loud. And that's exactly what I did. Oh my goodness. That is amazing. Okay, so we've talked about the biggest challenge. What do you think was your biggest blessing over this leap? Oh, the people I've met. The people I had already met from the previous studio, there weren't a lot that I'd had time, chance to really meet. But the ones I had were just beautiful people. None of them knew how to run a business. And so they all thought this is absolutely the best thing for you to do, and they became kind of my board of directors. They were helping me with the ideas and, and I was, I bounce ideas off them. They give me suggestions. We all talk about it. So that was an incredible blessing at the very beginning. And how wonderful to have that sense of community right away and to have that support right away. I'd love for everyone to hear how possible it is when you lean into your intuition and your faith, the universe truly does have your back and supports you. Exactly. I mean, that was pretty dramatic. I really guess I needed a major slap across the head to, get that, but you know what? I started off with all of the, oh, woe is me kind of thing. You know, I just took on this lease. I just took on all this inventory. And then it was like, no. Get out of your own ego and your own mindset and do what you're supposed to be doing. And I have never looked back. I have never been sorry in any way, shape or form. This was absolutely the thing I was meant to do. I commend you because it's so hard to take that leap. It's so hard to not see the next stare and goodness, you came across and came above and beyond so much. That is so amazing. So tell us exactly what is fused glass art? Oh, one of my favorite subjects. So fused glass, everyone knows blown glass, especially from the Netflix TV show. It's an awesome show. But that's hot glass and it's at about 2000 degrees in front of that blowhole. Then there's stained glass, which a lot of people know about because of windows and usually some older artists have done a lot of stained glass. Fused glass isn't that old. So, it's only maybe in the last 50 plus years, and it is made at room temperature, and we have the doors open if the weather's great, we have music going, we're laughing a lot. There isn't that kind of, oh my god, you have to know what the thing, next thing you're going to do is, you can't stop, you have to, and so we really have a lot of fun with it, and you take a piece of base glass, and you're going to break and pile pieces together. So you can do it as an abstract piece or a very defined piece. You can do it with basic colors. You can do it with, there's an enormous amount of options. I use the Bullseye Glass Company. They're out of Portland, Oregon, so it's U. S. made. And, They have some unbelievable mixes of colors as well. They call it streaky and they just blend beautifully together. So you have all of these options and the glass has its own energy. It's unbelievable how you can kind of walk in and go, Oh, what am I going to do today? I want to do something. What am I going to do? And the glass just sort of calls to you. Unbelievable. Oh, it just seems to say, let me give you a suggestion and it just happens. Then we take it to a kiln and we heat it up usually between 14 and 1500 degrees. But I program those kilns to start after the electric rates go down. So it's running at night. No one's here. It's just doing its thing. I call it the, Kiln Genies or Elves this time of year. And they do beautiful magic in there. They soften the edges of the glass. Some of the glass actually comes out brighter and stronger colors because of the heat. It fuses the glass together at those temperatures. So then when we open the kiln, it's like Christmas morning. It's just all these beautiful pieces of art. All just looking at you going, Look at me! Check me out! I'm beautiful! And that's how we look at it. I mean, we gather around the kilns. It is an event. It sounds like an event. Oh my gosh, you're taking me back to the days that I used to do ceramics with my grandmother. Oh, but fused glass sounds just so amazing and it makes me think of when you collect the sea glass. Yes. Is it kind of the same? Can you do that with sea glass or does it have to be a specific glass to infuse? It has to be specific glass that can fuse together. So, sea glass can probably, fuse to sea glass, but the truth is that all glass has its own co efficiency of expansion, COE, and so it expands and contracts in heat differently. So what they use in fused glass and what they use in blown glass are two very different glass. Window glass is different. Wine bottles can be fused, but you can't always fuse two different wine bottles together because even those aren't designed to fuse. To be able to be fused together so they don't use the same COE numbers. So, we use all Bullseye Glass Company, and not to keep plugging them, but I so admire this organization. They guarantee that all of the different types of glass that they're making that's for fusing, all will work together. And as an owner and an artist. That's so important to me. Yeah, that's incredibly important. So I have to tell you, I'm amazed as I sit here and I listen to you speak about different kinds of glass and what will fuse and what won't. Remind me how long you've been in business. I've been in business just about five years. January will be five years. And I started in fused glass. About a year and a half to two years before that. This is amazing. My goodness gracious. Let me ask you this, for the entrepreneur out there who's listening and going, you know, I've got this great idea, but I don't know, you know, what you've accomplished in relatively a short period of time, what would be your number one piece of advice that you would give to someone considering taking their own entrepreneurial leap of faith? I think a business plan is crucial. I think really putting together what your expectations are, what it takes to get there, and honestly, you're not necessarily going to get it right the first time. Or even the second time you're going to have to be willing to pivot. And that's one of the things that I've done multiple times already, and it's all been good. But what I started off with wasn't bad. So it's gotta be kind of, you have to kind of plan this out. You can't just decide I'm going to do this and think it's all just going to fall into place. It's not like the movie field of dreams where build it and they will come. You really have to put more work into it than that. Marketing is huge. It is probably my weakest point in all of this is marketing. And so I've been taking a lot of classes. And I take some classes and I catch on and other classes I don't. And I don't stop. I don't go, Oh my God, I'm too old to do this or whatever I want to say. I just say that wasn't the right instructor for me. And I go take another class. And I build on it. I just keep building on it. And, we've been recognized by the city as business of the quarter last year, the chamber of commerce. We were recognized by the L. A. County as well as being, you know, a good small business in the areas. So I'm being recognized in such beautiful ways. And my original time when I was recognized in my head was I'm a hidden gem. They found me. Isn't that the truth? So you say that marketing is something that is a little bit more challenging for you. What do you feel up to date has been your best point of reference for someone to find you? My website has been great, but it really is word of mouth. And satisfied customers. I mean, the truth is what they say is that one person who's happy is going to tell multiple people. Somebody who's not happy is going to tell a whole lot of people. So having a lot of happy people, they might not tell as many, but I have to tell you enough happy people, that message gets out there and we do birthday parties and the kids will have a great time and then someone else couldn't come. Where someone has an older brother or sister and they want to come. So it sort of continues that multiplying based on experience. Being fused glass, people don't know what it is. People are afraid of glass because you're used to dropping something at home, breaking it, not on purpose. And it's so delicate. Like, everybody get away from the, you know, the area. Make sure you have shoes on. And you're so scared that somebody's going to get cut. And with our classes, we're really, I mean, we teach techniques, but the number one is safety. And when I have kids, I make them repeat it back. But the funniest thing for me is kids are safer than adults. I love that. Kids understand glass can be dangerous, and they stay focused on what they were taught. Adults have a tendency of getting a little more distracted. How is that for a polite way of saying they weren't paying attention? They weren't paying attention. They're in their head. I think something that's so special about what you're speaking of with the clientele that you have coming in is the multi generational aspect of it and how special it is that started between you and your mom and you've brought that Maybe it wasn't your plan, but the universe's plan to bring in that sense of bringing everyone together, not only the community, but the generations. Absolutely. And I love it when families come in together. A lot of times a grandparent will bring a grandchild. Sometimes it's the parents with their kids. Sometimes it's all three generations. And I have a blast with them. I have a blast with everyone. Honestly, I love what I'm doing. I'm passionate about sharing it. And I just love having fun. And everybody feels it. So a lot of times when people come in, they're hesitant. They're a little reserved. And it doesn't take long for them to understand. How beautiful this is. Oh my goodness. And how could, I mean, you just come in, you're so bubbly, you're so bright, I'm like, I just want to get on a plane and come right now and infused glass with you. So when you look back, and we're not looking back over a long period of time, but we're looking back over such a transitional, such a transformational and empowering period of time for you. If there was any one thing that you could change. Is there? Yeah. I mean, my ability to learn marketing faster, actually, you know, it's kind of funny because I've had so many jobs in so many different careers in so many different titles and those things were important to me at the time. That isn't important to me anymore. What's important to me is that I'm bringing joy to other people. And so it's an interesting dynamic for me to have changed. So much of my mindset, I'm going to, you know, I'm not creative, I'm not, I mean, I can't believe I've told myself that for so long, all the things I probably missed out on. And it was based on, I tried something, I didn't like it. Or maybe I just didn't have the right teacher. Maybe I should look like my marketing, been to another teacher, tried someone else, tried a different style. But instead I blocked it very quickly because somewhere early on I said I couldn't do it anyway. So, you know, of course I just proved it to myself. And so I have become so open to so much and I have a great go for it attitude. Is this going to work? I don't know. I'm just going to go for it. If it didn't work. Oh, well. I tried. I'm learning something new. It's great. I think it's so amazing the way that you're speaking and it's so refreshing of you just one, leaning into faith to going, Hey, if it works great, if it doesn't, I'll just keep pivoting. And. Truly being aware with your mind's eye. Yes, you had experience in small business, which is incredibly helpful for what you're doing Not looking at that lightly at all What's amazing is that there are people that spend millions of thousands of dollars Over a lifetime to try to acquire what you have done for yourself in five to seven years And I really want you to see that and feel how amazing you are and the light that you bring and the joy and how you're helping so many people, I think, in so many different ways. It truly is just remarkable. Oh, thank you. I look back and, you know, you kind of, run through your history at various times. And I actually was creative. I was very much an ops person. and the way I address things for helping to solve problems and to troubleshoot things that I could see coming all very creative ways of doing it. But to me, the word creative didn't mean that it meant something else, just like art doesn't really have a clear definition in the dictionary. So, everyone kind of has their own interpretations of things. So what I try to do with my classes, for example, is I try to make them technique classes. So instead of it being, you know, you have, here's an apple, make an apple out of glass. I'm teaching the techniques and your imagination gets to make what you want on the piece of glass. And that seems to have really helped a lot of people when they, at first they get a little nervous. It's like, well, I don't know what I want to do. I don't have any ideas. And I said, there's inspiration all over my studio. And I have samples, I said, feel free to copy something if that makes you comfortable to get started. I consider that a compliment. This is not a place where anyone is worried about you liking something that we've done and wanting to do something like it. We embrace that. And they look at me like I'm insane because you go to so many places, no photographs, no photographs. And we're like, no, please. Our stuff is all one of a kind. It's handmade with love and no one here is doing mass production. So it's, it's really an environment that encourages and supports. I've got 12 artists in residence right now. So these people are all in a membership program and they can put things in the gift shop as well. Because that was one of my pivot points. I realized that these people are making this beautiful art on a fairly regular basis, and they don't have a place to sell it. And, yeah, it's great, my stuff's in the gift shop, but oh my gosh, how much more can I offer to the universe if I offered their art as well? I mean, wow, everybody wins. So that was a pivot point. And then kind of, you know, moving along, I'm looking at people and I'm kind of looking at the amount of stuff they're getting. And in our gift shop, we have a small gift shop here at the studio, and then we're online as well now. But when you look, you don't really know whose stuff is whose. So, if you really like one particular artist, it's hard to find that artist, again, easily. So we redid the website, so you can find it by artist. Every description has the artist's name, so if you're just scrolling through, or you're looking at it by bowls, or by trays, because most of our glasses foods say it. So you can use it for Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Year's or Easter or whatever you want. And then I realized, Hmm, so I've taken one of my tables here and basically made it an art exhibit. So once a month, a different artist gets to have an actual exhibit for the entire month where they pick their favorite pieces and they share them the whole month. And we advertise that we're doing this. And then I added an artist reception. Because that's what an art gallery would do. And so people can come and actually meet the artist, hear the stories, the journey, what their backgrounds are. And the majority of these artists. All started here with the introduction to Fuse Glass Class. Oh, that just makes my heart so full. Oh my goodness, Nancy, that's incredible. There are layers. You just didn't open an art studio. You have such layers of community and entrepreneurship and creativeness that's going on there. It's truly amazing. Congratulations. Yeah, that's I'm so blessed by it. I am so blessed by these people. They are so supportive. There'll be times where I'm in the middle of a class or I have to go to the restroom and somebody walks in, they will jump up and say, Hi, welcome, and they'll start answering the questions as if they're a staff employee. And they'll say, Nancy, be right back. But they just, they just want to help me as much as I want to help them. And I couldn't have imagined that. I mean, I worked at a lot of major corporations, names, ABC, IBM, Toshiba, Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures. So I've been at a lot of major corporations and never saw any kind of community environment that even came close to something like this with the employees. And so I learned a lot from those places and I treasure all the experiences I've had and they've all benefited me in some way or another with here as well. So incredible. I am just so tickled pink excited for you, Nancy. I really like, I can't wait the next time I'm out in the area. I definitely want to come in and meet you, infuse glass with you. I mean I just want an I would love that. Yeah, it'll be so exciting. So Nancy, we're getting to this time in the show where I ask this one question. Are you ready? Okay. What is one thing that no one knows about Nancy? There are very few people who know that I directed television when I was 14 because we had a local cable network in our junior high and I was directing six cameras at one point for the town meetings. And people would come up to me and assume that I was much older than I was. And I ended up taking that into teaching my senior year in high school. Television production to the science department. So there's a small group of people who know that. Not a lot of people. Ye who thinks she's not creative was directing six cameras at one time. Oh my goodness. Nancy! Ha ha ha! But again, to me that wasn't That isn't a word to me that was creative. That was a logical an organizational thing. I needed to make sure that the person speaking is seen. I want to make sure that, and of course it is creative, but back then I never thought of it that way because creative to me had a different meaning. I get that. I totally get that. I love that. You're bringing light. To that literally as you are through your glass and through your beautiful energetic presence. So amazing. Will you share with our audience where they can best connect with you and learn more about your studio? Yes, it's glass arts with an s collective. com. And that's where my gift shop is, as well as the registration for classes. Yes, all the classes are here on site in Westlake Village. But there are wonderful glass, fused glass studios around the world. And I have not met a single fused glass artist that wasn't phenomenal, especially instructors. But everything we, you need for us is right there. But then we also on Instagram, GlassArtsCollective. com, at Facebook, GlassArtsCollective. com, YouTube, GlassArtsCollective. com, and then for LinkedIn, it's Nancy Marks. So again, the woman that's having a little bit of trouble with marketing is everywhere. I'm so excited for you, Nancy. Oh my goodness. Thank you. As we close out the show today, is there one last piece of inspiration that you'd like to leave with us? I would say really get out of your own way. And by that, it's what your thoughts are and your thoughts direct what you're thinking. But that doesn't mean your thoughts are right and sort of step back and question things. And I don't mean rudely, I don't mean, you know, if your boss tells you to do something, question everything. In your own head, question what you're thinking and why do you think that? Because I was in my own way for so long and I really hope other people learn that much younger. I would have been a lot happier had I learned that at a young age. I think that's an incredible piece of advice and, sometimes it's divine timing, right? When we learn something. So when we learn it, we learn it and we've just got to use, you know, when we know better, do better. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. There's no, there's no shame in, you know, Learning later, but it would have been nice to have learned sooner. Absolutely. Well, as always, all of Nancy's contact information and links will be over in the show notes at jenniferpilates. com. So you can head over there, click on, do a little shopping and perusing on her online store. And then hopefully if you're in the area, you can pop in for a class and get to meet Nancy in person and fuse and make some incredible. infused glass with her. Nancy, thank you so much for being here. I just love your energy. I love all that you're doing. You make me want to go find a glass studio around me now. I'm so excited for you and excited to meet you one day in your studio. Well, Jennifer, thank you so much. even nicer in person, which is the closest I've gotten to you. I love listening to your podcast. I hope everyone is subscribe and like her podcasts. Thank you so much, Nancy. Well, as always, again, all of Nancy's information will be over in the show notes at jenniferplottis. com. And as we say until next time, may you live an empowered life from within.

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