PTENES

Online courses · education and ancestry

Agbelas

Bringing onlinewhat Gio teaches in the circle.

Agbelas is an artistic and cultural movement that spreads the agbê, also known as shekere, founded in 2019 in Brasília by conductor Gio Paglia. Education, art and ancestry from a Black, matriarchal perspective, across four fronts: school, studio, orchestra and digital content.

I am Gio's partner and I run the brand's digital products. All of the filmmaking is mine: the images, editing and color grading of the lessons, the sales video and the testimonials. So is the website, front end and back end, from the sales pages to the admin dashboard, with lead capture, email marketing and the integrations with Zouti, which handles payment, and Astron Members, where students watch the lessons.

There are two courses today. Confecção Criativa de Agbê teaches you to make your own instrument, from the gourd to the beaded net. Fundamentos do Agbê: Ritmos e Toques teaches you to play, sing and dance, and launched in September 2026 with a live class, a week-long open cart and emails sent from a system of our own, with a campaign calendar and scheduled sends.

Filmmaking, front end and back end by me.

Visit agbelas.com.br

How the project is built

From the circle to the screen

  1. The Agbelas homepage, with a line about channeling the ancestral legacy of the shekere over a video

    A movement before a course

    The homepage presents Agbelas as a cultural movement, with video, before selling anything. The brand's identity, in cream, purple and the rainbow, runs through the whole site.

  2. The section “The agbê is a portal”, with a mosaic of photos of gourds and agbês

    The instrument at the center

    The agbê is a gourd wrapped in a net of beads. The site tells that story with its own photography before talking about lessons.

  3. The Confecção Criativa course page, with hands weaving the beaded net of an agbê

    Course 1: from gourd to net

    Confecção Criativa de Agbê teaches you to make your own instrument, lesson by lesson. The camera stays close to the hands, so every step of the making can be followed.

  4. The Fundamentos do Agbê course page, inviting people to learn the agbê and get ready for carnival, over a video in the woods

    Course 2: learning to play

    Fundamentos do Agbê teaches ijexá, maracatu, samba and funk, with modules released like seasons. The launch had a sign-up page, a live class and a week-long open cart.

  5. The Agbelas method section on a purple background: dance, sing and play

    Dance, sing, play

    Gio's method says that before playing, we dance and sing. The page turns that into three verbs, for people who have never held an instrument.

  6. Three video testimonials from students, filmed by the lake

    Those who took it

    The students' testimonials were filmed by the lake in Brasília and play right on the site, without sending anyone to YouTube in the middle of the sales page.

  7. The Agbelas homepage on a phone

    Designed for the phone

    The sales pages get traffic from ads, so they were designed for the phone first. They load light: the video only downloads when someone taps play, and the images use a modern format.

  8. The leads dashboard, with total sign-ups, how many are new and a table of who received, opened and clicked

    Lead capture

    Every sign-up from the landing page goes into the dashboard, matched against the old list, with its traffic source and what the person did with the emails: received, opened, clicked.

  9. The contact list with each person's source, tag filters and international phone numbers

    One audience

    Forms, imports from old lists and buyers from checkout become a single contact list, with source tags and phone numbers from any country.

  10. The email campaign list, with automated sequences and sent, scheduled and draft emails

    The launch calendar

    The list of email marketing campaigns is the launch calendar: automated sequences, scheduled sends that go out on their own, drafts and what has already been sent.

  11. A campaign's audience selection, with excluded groups and the scheduled send

    Who gets each email

    Each campaign builds its audience by adding and removing groups, for example the whole list minus those who already bought, and is armed to go out on its own.

  12. An Agbelas email as it arrives in the inbox, with photo, text and button

    The email that arrives

    The email is assembled by the system itself, with no third-party tool: photo, text, button and unsubscribe. Addresses that bounce are removed from the list automatically.

  13. The cart switch in the dashboard, in sales mode, with price, installments and payment link

    Opening and closing sales

    The cart opens and closes with one button in the dashboard, with price, installments and payment link. The whole site switches in under a second, with no redeploy in the middle of the live class.

Development path

From the first course to the launch

  1. 2024

    First online course, Confecção Criativa de Agbê.

  2. May 2026

    Start of the new website, built from scratch.

  3. Jun 2026

    First version of the institutional site, from the brand brief.

  4. Jul 2026

    Interest form with its own database.

  5. Aug 2026

    Sign-up page for Course 2, new homepage, live class page and sales page.

  6. Aug 2026

    In-house email marketing tool in the dashboard: automated sequences, import of old lists, group audiences, open and click tracking.

  7. Aug 2026

    Campaigns become the launch calendar, and the cart switch becomes a button in the dashboard.

  8. Sep 2026

    Zouti integration: an approved payment tags the buyer and sends the welcome email on its own. Lesson access lives on Astron Members.

  9. Sep 2026

    Launch of Course 2, with a live class and a week-long open cart.

  10. Sep 2026

    Enrollment closed with a waiting list, and the course goes on sale all year round.

Project details

My role
Partner, filmmaker, launch strategist
Founder and conductor
Gio Paglia
Filmmaking
Directing, images, editing and color grading
Website
Front end and back end, dashboard, leads and email marketing
Integrations
Zouti (payment) and Astron Members (lesson area)
Courses
Confecção Criativa de Agbê and Fundamentos do Agbê: Ritmos e Toques
Technology
Next.js, TypeScript and PostgreSQL
Live at
agbelas.com.br

The dashboard screens were captured on a local copy of the website, with fictional data.