How a ballet producer started a successful candle side hustle 🩰🕯
"And if you want to do it best - do it yourself. So we turned into ballet producers, we revamped it, and rethought it."
Gulya Hartwick is a producer and co-founder of the Russian Ballet Theatre. We met a couple of weeks ago, and I was impressed by her unlimited passion and love for her job (even though she refuses to call it a job!). From ballet stages to candlemaking, passion drives all of her endeavors and makes her so successful at what she does.
In 2015, Gulya Hartwick and Sasha Gorskaya co-founded the Russian Ballet Theatre with the mission of making Russian ballet more accessible to people. In 2020, like so many other workers, Gulya and Sasha’s activity suddenly stopped. This led them to start a completely new and cool business - more on that later in this newsletter.
A Founder’s story
My partner Sasha and I have been working as promoters all over the world for many years, not only in ballet but in Russian Rock as well - and it is a very interesting combination. But something clicked with ballet, we started feeling that we were on a mission here. Audience members would come to us after the show, thanking us, and we realized that what we did brought inspiration and joy to people, therefore we had to do it as best as we could. We had to present the best quality we could.
And if you want to do it best - do it yourself. So we turned into ballet producers, we revamped it, and rethought it. We got super lucky with the team - our set designers, choreographers, ballet mistress, the cast - all are amazing and we wouldn't be able to do this without them. They’re so passionate!
Together we brought revamped Russian ballet to stages around the world.
In order to achieve that, we had to do two things. First, make sure that any stage would work - small or big. There are so many small towns in the US that just haven’t been lucky enough to have great productions, and ballet can be super inspirational. It was very important to us to make the sets work for any stage.
The other thing we wanted to accomplish was to change people’s conception of ballet. No more “Oh my God, it’s so boring. Do you really want to go? I don't want to sit for two hours and then just snore there.” We wanted to change that, so we started working with younger choreographers. Well, it doesn't really matter how old they are, if they’re young at heart (laugh).
We made sure Russian ballet isn’t boring anymore. We worked on revisions, adaptations, lights, costumes, and even sounds. We toured 50 cities in the United States and it was a great success. We loved it. The audience loved it, the press loved it. Everyone loved it!
On creating magic
The Russian Ballet Theatre is our passion, our pride. It’s everything. I wouldn't call it work. I wouldn't call it a job. I know some people are able to divide work and personal life. I'm not able to do that. I just live and breathe with it. For me, it works as a great recipe. If you feel passionate about it, if you talk for hours about it with people that you meet at a party who initially just wanted to say hi, you will be successful one way or another, sooner or later.
On livestreaming & online events
We, producers, are joking right now about how our jobs have changed: if your kids would ask you about your occupation, you’d say “well, I'm the person who reschedules!” We're scheduling and rescheduling like crazy. Especially at the beginning of pandemic, it was absurd.
I think this pandemic really shows us how much we need culture, how much we need events, how much we need life and energy. Sasha and I recently spoke with a friend of ours who's an artist. He performs with big crowds and he was just telling us how he was trying to do online events and concerts. He said we can't compare it to live events, neither artists nor audience really feel it because the energy isn’t there.
I don't think livestreaming can be a replacement, we don't believe in that. We were considering it at the beginning, but then we realized that we don't want to go that route because the energy and feeling you get at live events are so important to us, especially in ballet. We create a form of magic that can’t be reproduced on a screen.
On reading & starting Noble Objects
[In 2020, Gulya and Sasha started creating and selling gorgeous candles inspired by their love for reading and antic book covers. Here’s the story of their successful side hustle.]
We love the aesthetics, the look, and the message behind antic books. Many books were written 100, 200 years ago, though we still read them and they might inspire you or even life-changing.
Reading became so important to us during the past few years. Before that, it just wasn't a priority and I'm not ashamed to say it. People around me and my friends are all such avid readers, but I was not, I was just doing my thing. And then a few years ago, Sasha and I decided to start developing the habit of reading, and we started reading classics. We loved it so much. I think that everyone should read more.
The candles that we’re making right now, they're supposed to be a reminder of how literacy is important and how every book brings something new to our lives, to our worlds, and teaches good things.
On navigating e-commerce
We make the candles ourselves, here in Venice, California.
It was our first shot in the e-commerce space, we just wanted to try and explore.
We chose some strong book covers that we liked and then opened up the store on Shopify. That's it, there was no pre-launch, no nothing. We didn’t know anything at all. Then, we started experimenting with Facebook ads and got our first customer, and then the second customer. And now we have so many orders that we can’t do anything else, we are super grateful and it's a great problem to have!
Her best piece of advice
Just do it. Don't wait. You will never have the perfect product before launch, but you can always fix it, and your customers will help you. They’ll point you in the right direction. They will reach out and suggest something, or they'll say, “oh, I hate this. I hate that.” It will help you realize that this is something that you're doing wrong, and you will redo it.
Also, don't assume anything because you don't know anything (laugh). Just start selling, and see what happens!
“My biggest failures happened when I was afraid to make a step forward. We all could achieve so much more if that wouldn't be for that fear. And I should have believed in people more.”
Her special book
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
Check out Noble Objects, the candles are gorgeous and make the perfect gift. Here’s my favorite:
I attended Cinderella in Butte Montana last night with my daughter and granddaughter. We came back to Helena in a terrific snow storm and icy roads. Through it all, we were greatly blessed by your performance. Thank you for entertaining us in our small community. Safe travels to Missoula tonight.