[Music] welcome to the craft to Career podcast with Elizabeth Chappell or every week we
dive into how you can turn your craft into a successful career get ready to have the career you’ve always dreamed of
[Music] welcome to episode 92 of the craft a career podcast I am Elizabeth Chapel of
Quilter’s candy the host of the show and this week I am inviting back and super
excited to have Jemima Flint of tied with a ribbon she was on the podcast a
while back we did a coaching session and I actually really love this she reached
out to me and was like can I come back on I want to share how things went and of course I’d love to have people back
on to hear how they implemented the things that we talked about and how that has worked for
them and there were some really I just really loved chatting with Jemima she is
super talented she is going places she has gone places and will continue to and it was just
really great to chat with her I loved how she I mean she is a go-getter and so
I’m excited for you to hear all that’s happened the things that she implemented and how she had to Pivot because one of
them wasn’t working so let’s dive in before that I’m going to share the Apple podcast review
for this week it comes from Susanna underscore makes and Susanna says this
show is what the quilt world needs more of Elizabeth provides great insight into the business of the quilt world too many
in the quilt world avoid these topics however they are vital to the success of the industry professionals and want to
be professionals alike should take a listen that is so sweet thank you Susanna I do
love talking about all the topics and I do really believe that too that the
success of the industry depends on being open and transparent learning what’s
working what’s not working what we can charge what we should do for free all
the things so thank you I really appreciate that if you’re listening and you have not
left a review I would love for you to leave a review I’ve noticed there are also a lot of reviews on Spotify which
that you can just leave a star review but I still really appreciate it so thank you to you listeners for leaving
reviews and now let me jump in and let’s chat with Jemima
all right super excited to have Jemima here we had her on the podcast a while
back I’ll have to look and see when that was but it was the coaching call and we had made some goals and talked about her
business and growth and so this is the follow-up to see how things have gone so
Jemima welcome welcome back I’d love to hear a recap yeah of how things are
going yeah it’s um thanks for having me again Liz it’s been a very busy I think
it’s just over sort of six months since we last chatted and it’s definitely been busy in terms of having those goals and
working towards getting those uh ticked off so yeah really excited yeah awesome
and so we have kind of been in touch since via email through we talked last
and you have some really big things coming up one of which but I want to start with is
email marketing the reason I want to talk about that is because
I’m very pleased with how you move forward with it so I had a suggestion
for you of be a guest on a Blog and so I want you to talk about how that
went but the thing I’m so pleased with is your determination to like I will
figure out something that’s going to work that’s what it takes to succeed things are always pivoting and changing
so let’s dive in and can you share about growing your email list yeah of course well when we last chatted we were
um talking about some of the ways that I could really help to push that needle forward on my email list because I felt
that I’d come to a point where I was really just at a standstill and couldn’t grow it anymore organically and looking
at those ways that we could um ideas and suggestions really to help grow that and one of those that you had
mentioned was your success that you’d had with reaching out to bloggers and
putting forward your your name and your details and what you like to do and how you could actually you know work
collaboratively collaboratively uh with with those so
um so that’s kind of where I started off off the back of your suggestion didn’t
quite go to plan I have to say I am so curious to hear details what happened
and you don’t need to say names or anything but what happened well I kind of you know I put together a bit of an
email put together an idea of who I wanted to approach and who I wanted to
to talk to and as I started chatting and not even chatting sending those emails
and talking to those people I kind of realized that this wasn’t really going
to work out the way that I had thought it would you know look all you know sparkly and glittery it really just the
doors didn’t open in that direction at all how did it look were they like no I’m not accepting that or I’m not
interested it was definitely mostly a case of they had very certain ways that they
approached their blogging now as to what they wanted and things needed to fit in
certain categories and I wasn’t necessarily fitting into their specific categories for what they were doing and
I guess that that’s you know as things move and evolved with time those are things that they’ve put in into process
for their blogs so and can I ask is it topics or is it they I don’t want to
have guests who have a free opt-in on my blog uh definitely there wasn’t the
option to have that ability that necessarily that that connection to
Their audience and definitely they had certain parameters around what they wanted you
to deliver and what that looked like certainly more in terms of what they did
and how we I I could do things that were already theirs or those sorts of things
so promote them nothing about you I guess yeah so I guess more just in me
putting my name to having done something and um and that was the the promotion side
of of them you know allowing me to come and and write for them so and at that
point I kind of realized that that just wasn’t wasn’t what I was looking for and it wasn’t what what I was hoping for so
um yeah how many people did you reach out to out of curiosity I’m curious how what kind of how big of a trend this is
um I probably reached out to three or four uh and by the time I was sort of
getting the same response um I started to have to rethink how I was
going to approach that type of um collaboration so but in saying that
that’s oh it keeps real quick though that is what I am so proud of is that
you pivoted and you’re not like oh well I can’t do it there goes that I’m I’m gonna throw on the towel you are Scrappy
you like okay I need to do something else so I’m so curious to hear what you did yeah well I there were a couple of
options from um for moving forward with that type of blog promotion and those are things that
I’ve got um in the works for things coming out this year so there are so not all doors
to that were closed but um the majority of the ones that I thought would be um you know great leads or even that I
had you know previously sort of had some contact with um those ones sort of didn’t come through so it was yeah about just
realizing that I had to rethink this process of how was I going to continue
to grow this email list without necessarily at this stage because I’d also looked into the Facebook marketing
so without throwing heaps of money at it at this stage
um how could I continue to grow that so and that’s where I guess I’ve always I’ve always just had
this determination in in what I do in that it’s not about waiting for a door necessarily to be opened it’s about
knocking on that door and introducing yourself and you know walking in and um
and trying to make that connection with people so that you know they can see what you do and in doing that I also
then started to look around on Instagram as to what was happening what was you
know that new trend of collaborative email marketing and then I started to
really realize what that new trends sort of seem to be so can you speak to that I
have my suspicions of what it is but what is this new trend that you speak of definitely the the um you the approach
of collaborative designers coming together and working on um
projects and patterns and bundle deals and all those sorts of things so and I
sort of quickly realized that this was something that people were starting to do I’d seen a few here in Australia I’d
send a few sort of overseas and I started asking questions because I didn’t know how to get necessarily into
the doors of those types of events so yeah I certainly started knocking on
some doors and asking questions from from my insta friends and my cool
teammates as to you know how how did you get on these lists you know where where
do you sort of find these leads and because I just had an idea so have you participated in one and I will say I had
major fomo because I saw a group of people doing one of those and I wasn’t and then I heard how
successful it was in growing their list at the end I’m like ah dang it and I was like you know what I’m gonna start my
own I’m gonna get in my own group and put this together so it will be coming out later this year keep an eye and the
topic is very different from what’s been out there but um how did you then move forward with that yeah so once I
started investigating a bit further and working out sort of how this was sort of a way that people were putting together
um you know ideas and projects and getting them out to people I started to to message some people and find my way
through to people who were organizing those events and essentially putting up
my hand really to say I’d love to love to be involved and you know this is what
I do um and you know if there’s if there’s room you know if there’s spots then
definitely I was keen and did you get a spot are you going to be in one or have you been in one yeah so I um actually
did two just the other side of um last year or just before sort of
Christmas so yeah I was actually involved in two two different events
um yeah which was you know there’s certainly a lot to learn from from being part of
these event style collaborations and definitely I’ve learned a lot about my
email list and and especially how to grow that and how to things that I just didn’t even consider beforehand as to
you know what that needs to to look like so tell us I even I am like oh what what
have you learned I must know I think mostly well first of all I think I learned that um everyone’s email
provider works very differently and I was sort of running into a few
roadblocks with my particular email provider as to you know being able to
upload lists and that sort of thing so um and definitely in terms of
speaking to the quality of the list I’ve definitely learned how
um it’s just not enough it’s not a numbers game in terms of your of your
list and who you’re sending those emails to so what what do you mean by that
um because everyone’s um very happy to sort of you know they love all the the things that go with it
but then you’ve also got this um in terms of your email list you’ve
actually got to work out how you’re going to convert those followers into your own audience so you’ve got people
who haven’t necessarily come across you before don’t know what you do and then you’re going to be emailing them telling
them all about yourself and what you do and what you offer but they don’t necessarily know about you or have come
across you before in that way so it’s really about learning how to convert that email list into followers who who
do love what you do and who you know are Keen to to be on your list and especially to open those emails because
it doesn’t matter how many emails are landing in inboxes if they’re not
getting opened then you’re paying to have them on your list who’s your email provider I’ve been uh with MailChimp
okay and are you happy with it it sounds like there’s been a bit of a hiccup uploading people or lists
um I yeah we have had um or yeah there has been a hiccup only in terms of
um their their uh their rules and the way that they like you to to do that um that
they have very clear um guidelines on on what they they do and and I just wasn’t I hadn’t done an
event like this before either so they were things that I wasn’t really sort of and you know I should have known or
should have done some um investigating you know a bit earlier in
terms of you know how how I was going to then do that so
um I just go ahead sorry okay no I just yeah kind of assumed it was as easy as
um as it looked really have you looked at flow desk I’ve looked at a couple of other email
providers and definitely in terms of going forward that’s something that I’ve got to have
um have a good look at because MailChimp for me originally in the beginning was
such a great option because we could have quite a big list without having to
pay for it and initially back when I started my list that was great and then years down the track as you develop all
these links and everything is linked back to that one you know all those
landing pages and everything like that everything starts to become a little bit more complicated than just switching
over and changing over one button but definitely come to that point where
um moving forward I’m in the mindset where I’m ready to to look at you know making those changes
you know what I think I actually might do a little training on Florida’s because I anyhow
I used to have MailChimp and it really sucks to be penalized for growing your list we’re like oh now I have to pay
more you want to feel excited about growing your list
um anyhow there’s a lot to that but that’s a topic for another day yeah and that’s the thing you know if you’re
paying you know substantial amounts because you want those emails to be delivered
but you can’t they’re also then saying well you can’t you know where are these emails from and how did you get them
um and then stopping you from sending out emails then it’s really you know it’s not going to work in in your favor
yeah you’re just paying for something that you’re not getting interesting I didn’t know they had that because I also
use kajabi where I’ve grown I import my email list on both and kajabi the hiccup
with that is you can only upload like 50 people at a time or something so when you have a list of thousands of people
it really sucks to like okay copy and paste these 50 and then this and this whereas in flow desk you can just upload
Unlimited but each one has their pros and cons but flow desk it’s capped you only pay so
much a month for life and it’s under 100 bucks a month no matter how big but anyhow that’s the topic for another day
like I said but definitely in terms of you know it’s such a great way to reach
a new audience so it’s you know definitely in terms of growing new leads
and trying to build that audience going forward as I said I you know it has been
successful in terms of you know I’ve been able to to Triple my list okay yeah let’s talk numbers so you
tripled your list by being a part of these groups where you’re offering something in exchange for email that’s
right and how okay I also want to speak about because I always hear from people
like oh my gosh I had people unsubscribe every time I send an email I’m like yes
you will so can you speak to that um well that’s also where I run into
some trouble because when you have um in mountain when you have a large number of people unsubscribe you get
flagged so these are the types of things that I hadn’t because I hadn’t done this type of thing before I hadn’t come
across any of this before so that was um just that the the things that I’ve
I’ve really learned in terms of you know being able to to grow that list but also what you can and can’t do within that
because it as I said it wasn’t something that I’d come across or done before
so what kind of do you does MailChimp tell you percentage-wise what your unsubscribe is per email uh it gives you
the numbers of um unsubscribes per email and okay and
then what it does is it um there are percentages based on your
particular industry that it will say if it’s higher than this or if it’s more
than this um that’s above industry standards so you must be sending spam or you must be
sending two accounts who haven’t signed up or that type of thing to have that number of subscribes so it’s been
learning things like you know having a double opt-in for those particular you know people coming into into the list so
look I’ve you know I’ve learned so much in in yeah in not only you know working
with with the events and um being able to to do that side of things but also in
terms of how to make those those work for me and um and as I said before just
that that total you know you want your emails to be open so when you’re sending
them you want people to be reading what you’re sending you want it to be informative you want it to be relevant
because having that large number on your list doesn’t mean anything when you just
continually have that unsubscribe rate yeah well and things that help that really kind of hurt to do but help your
email list go in and if there’s anyone who’s bouncing or not opening your emails delete them off your list because
that will open your no that will up your open rate but I’m gonna share some numbers here tell me if this sounds
similar-ish to okay so I sent an email to about 40 000 people
about 20 000 opened it so it was a 47.5 open rate
there were 261 people who unsubscribed six bounces so that means I need to
clean those emails out and then eight people who marked it as spam and I know I can go in and look and see
how those people are and I don’t because I’m like curses you know but does that sound about similar to
what you have going on yeah so in my open rate I’m sitting at about 60 on my
open rate um that’s phenomenal so
um which I’m really happy with and I’ve been um working with a VA as well
um last year because I I needed help in
being able to work on my MailChimp and I knew that that was one area that I needed to grow so that was really kind
of I decided rather than putting my money into Facebook marketing like we
had chatted about I actually decided to put my money into a VA who’s helped me really grow that back end of that and
who can really give me you know the the actual great information sometimes in
converting that email and helping those and looking at all those numbers and making sure we’re looking at what’s
going out and doing that so that’s where I instead of investing in Facebook ads I
decided to invest in someone to come aboard to to help me with that
so tell me everything we have got to dive deep into this I’m very intrigued first of all how did what how did you
find the VA um I had actually been working with a um
a VA last year and then that was kind of just I would send the everything that I
had was sending out in the newsletter I would send it to her and she would um just upload that so that was
basically just her role and at that point when I decided I needed someone to to look into being a VA who actually
sort of offered some sort of marketing background or some sort of um
had that experience and knowledge in making that list grow I was chatting to
a friend of mine and we were chatting about you know what I was trying to do
and how I was frustrated with you know trying to do all these things but hadn’t sort of really gotten anywhere yet and
at that point they then sort of suggested that they were looking at
doing that area within you know their business on sort of a more bigger scale than what
they had been doing and I’ve been working with her so and um yeah it’s
it’s definitely been beneficial you know she’s great in terms of you know letting
me know where things are improving and um you know on the numbers and what we
can do to sort of help push things or what you know what we can do and all those sorts of things so so does she
look at like the open rate or this unsubscribe was really high here let’s look at what’s going on or what like
what does she do she’s really um intrigued and and really is into all
the the marketing best practices and really sort of has done a lot of homework and background work on you know
what works within the craft industry and she’s done her homework in terms of you
know knowing sort of the industry she also um yeah you know has a background
in this industry as well so when I sort of talk about quilts and that type of thing it’s so nice to have someone who
understands and and who can change out words because she knows that that’s a better word to sell something or that’s
a better word to describe what we’re trying to do so that’s also been really helpful because her background knowledge
in the industry has um yeah really helped that so okay and then I am curious to talk about Facebook ads
because so okay let me explain how this all ties in so I just opened up the crafter
career club and I did some video of where I shared with the members in the
club how much I’ve earned every year revenue and profit since I started my business and I want to say it was 2021 that um my
Revenue doubled but my profit dipped from the year before
and that was the first year that I hired a CPA and so I was like what happened that
year like as I’m looking back what in the world that was the year that I hired and paid for Facebook ads and paid way
too much I was not getting a return on that now fast forward to 2022
I still did Facebook ads my profit and revenue jumped immensely
but the way I did the Facebook ads was very different I spent way less on it it was way more strategic
so I feel like I need to speak on that at some point but how did you decide to
not do the Facebook ads and I will say the company that I recommended they’re great for short-term
launches they’re not good at the marketing you have to approach them with only hire them for a couple months and
you need to have the marketing plan a store they are not the brains they just execute what you want and that was my
mistake yeah I think that’s exactly where I landed in the end in in that it was new for me it was new for my
business and someone really at the end of the day didn’t
have the knowledge to help me for what to put together it was you know we can
we can do the ad or we can do this and honestly the cost um was you know and I
it was it was out of my budget um because at the time I didn’t have
enough to put back into the business to be able to you know or at the time you know that’s not where I wanted to put my
money and that’s when I decided that there had to be another way to make what
I had work which I will give a shout out and I’m like this is so not me I she’s
so great I’m just gonna share her but then there’s this bit of like but I hope there’s still enough for me so that’s
not how I show up that’s not Elizabeth there’s enough for all of us Michelle Fernandez
she offers a course on how to run Facebook ads that’s phenomenal you buy it once you have access for life because
the last course I bought you only had access for a year and I hate that because I’m like I need to come back forever and ever you know
and then she’s who I used in 2022 and she helped me I then hired her for four
weeks right before my launch and during my launch and she helped me with strategy she helped me do the things for
a much cheaper cost and that’s when but I also had a launch strategy
but um that that growth was out of this world so I do recommend Michelle Fernandez if anything if nothing else
her course that she offers um where it’s a one-time payment of it’s
it’s affordable for what you get so so there’s that but yeah I think you made a smart move there it was definitely you
know it’s it’s on my radar and but it’s just one of those things at the end of the day um with the other things that I was
working on at the end of last year and what I’ve got going into this year I literally had to pick and choose what I
was going to put my energy into what was I going to put my money behind and back those and
um I just realized that at the end of the day that it just wasn’t enough room there wasn’t enough of me to go around
essentially to be able to do even more things that at that stage I couldn’t say
were going to bring in a return so well and Facebook ads are not a good strategy
until certain things are in store or you have the right thing to put your money behind and again that’s a topic for
another day but you’re I am very impressed with your business savvy of being able to filter out I shouldn’t do
this let’s focus on this that is a huge skill set that
I feel like has really served you well but I would love to touch on other things that you’ve done since the last
time we talked and what’s coming up and happened yeah well it’s certainly um yeah it’s been so busy since uh since
we last chatted because basically off the back of um us chatting last year I also
um really took away from our chat and I sat down and one of the biggest takeaways from you and I talking last
time was on your statement about owning my own credibility and that just
kept playing over and over in my mind for what did I want the rest of you know
the year to look like what was I going to work on what did I need to do in my business to move things forward and out
of what we had talked about you definitely suggested the online courses and that was something at that stage I
hadn’t entered into I was thinking about um and but at that stage wasn’t on my
radar and then basically after chatting with you and just that sentence of owning your own credibility I knew
straight away then what I was going to to do in terms of getting an online
course and it just lit that fire under me to be able to go right I you know I’m
a teacher that’s just it’s it’s who I am it’s what I do and how to how to I just
said let’s hear you guys can’t see us but I’m like cheering her how to own that as an online course because there’s
a lot of things you know there are a lot of things that you can teach and do and all that but it always just kept coming
back to me and my um just that need of always and loving
most in this quilting world is getting to share and getting to teach and getting to show others and one of my
biggest elements of that is definitely with beginner Quilters and that you know
as a high school home economics teacher you know I’ve taught beginner you know sewists and you know kids you know
cooking and hospitality and tourism and all those things and just that beginner element and teaching just really made me
realize that getting an online course for beginners was absolutely going to be my goal for for last year and uh yeah
we’re there things to say on this so first of all remind me to ask you about the craftsy
thing so that’s one of the things um second of all I love that you’re leaning into the
thing that you love and I’ve seen other people who are like well I see that people are growing because they’re
offering these courses so I should offer this course even though that’s not what they love to do
so everyone find what you love even if someone else is doing that thing or even
especially if someone’s not and do what you love and what you’re good at and if
especially if you’re like this is too easy no one is even gonna need this it’s so obvious
it’s not to everyone what comes easy to you isn’t easy for everyone and then
okay to The Crafty thing you have some very cool experience with this I
remember years ago you’re flown to Denver and you recorded are this classy or blue whatever it’s gone through I
don’t even know if it’s around anymore Golden Pig media yeah okay yeah so you have done this like you’ve been hired
and you’ve made video tutorials how was that I’m so intrigued what that was like that experience was just absolutely
not only the scariest thing I’ve probably ever done um but just absolutely
um so exciting and so um it just I absolutely just was
thrilled to be able to go and do that that was off the back of my first book weekend quilting and getting to show
that and just learning production crew and filming and you know I was getting
hair and makeup done every every day and I saw that and was like I want that I
want to be like a on behind the camera or something and just learning how to
um you know talk and you know pausing when you do make mistakes and learning how to get across what you need to do
but it was just it was an amazing experience to to be able to get out there and do that and I think I just
didn’t it’s funny because even though I’ve done that before when it came to sort of putting together everything and
I know I do reels and all that you know I do all that sort of stuff already on Instagram putting it in into what is
going to be in my own course is just a completely different element you know
because you’ve got to build a back end of a website well you know and sales pages and checkout pages and drip flow
emails and automations and so learning all of that but um definitely in terms
of I’m you know hoping to that experience that I’ve had and I love it
you know like I just you know getting to do that sort of filming I think because
um being a teacher it’s just getting up and talking in front of an audience has never bothered me you know I do get
nervous absolutely and I get so excited by being able to share what I do and
Inspire others to you know become involved in our Indus you know in in craft and making things for themselves
and making their first quilt and definitely in terms you know I’m gonna do more you know I can’t I can’t wait to
yeah to be able to do some more and it’s interesting I’m very much if I’m gonna
record videos and stuff I want to own that for myself like I want to own the rights to it and earn all of the income
from that but Never Say Never because I know there’s some great exposure and some benefits
that come from going on someone else’s platform there’s always pros and cons is that video that you did is it still
available and has it in the past or now does it help grow your audience and have
people get aware of who you are no um back in 2018 uh was when we when we
filmed it and it went out to an audience it was done for like a set launch and that was great and it also then was as I
said before it was helping promote um weekend quilting which was my first book which I then also took to Market so
that was um I think that’s almost where we probably first met up as well so I think
so yeah yeah and um being able to do that I think it was the experience at that time too back in
if you think back to then the platforms that we know exist now didn’t you know people weren’t doing you know online you
know filming and you know reels you know all that type of video content didn’t exist you know and certainly in terms of
you know whilst I was you know on Instagram back then it was certainly very different too yeah to how yeah to
how it’s promoted and and what you need to do to be able to you know get in front of your audience now so experience
I would have to say absolutely experience and also at the time it was it was a big deal it was I was like my
gosh that’s amazing so it’s not still available no one can go and and it wasn’t only a limited time
that it was yeah and a couple of times it has sort of gone I’ve had information to say that it was back up honestly I’d
have to actually go and have another look because sometimes it gets taken down sometimes it comes back up do you
get royalties if it comes back up do you get paid or do they own that yeah yeah that’s still the thing
so when does your course come out and what are you teaching and who’s your platform I’m very curious so I’ve gone
with New Zealand which um is one that um there were quite a number of um of other Aussies here
um using that platform so essentially I could see what they were doing um I’ve probably asked them way too many
questions um they’ve been you know
um my friends who have been here and others have been you know so great with that who already have that platform but
coming out on February 3rd is new quilt on the Block which is my I like it which
is my step-by-step online beginners quilt course and what will you be covering in the course so this is very
much for someone who hasn’t made a Quilters yet they’ve been Keen they’re Keen to start in the new year also those
people who have been trying to piece together all that that free content and try and sort of get you know watch this
bit of video for this and um or also you know just those people who are so Keen they’ve seen all those
beautiful Pinterest photos but the results that they’re getting just aren’t anything like
um like what they’re wanting so um online for people so that my audience
can be reached worldwide because I do have um yeah a lot of people through
Instagram and that who come from Canada and from the US and over in Europe so
that was also a big thing in terms of really being able to take what I do and
that and owning that beginner element and knowing that that’s really where I sit in terms of the gold that I can
bring to to a course and taking people right from the get-go knowing what tools
to get what you know what equipment what does their sewing machine need to to look like in terms of if they’ve only
been sewing on it how do they you know actually quilt on it which you know
having a sewing machine for you know dress making is very different to having a sewing machine um you know work for you in terms of
quilting so taking them right through making their first quilts with all the
very much looking at all the the things along the way that sometimes are forgotten or sometimes aren’t
necessarily told to you like how and which way the Press seems and why we
press them in particular directions or particular pinning techniques that actually will help make a difference
with how your end product actually looks so I’ve really sort of tried to spend I
did a lot of research and with my background experience in teaching a lot of beginners I kind of knew where those
big holes were in people learning for themselves and really those were my
major sort of I wrote those down first so the areas that I knew beginner Quilters really struggled with that’s
where I started and that’s where the pattern came from as well it wasn’t just a case of I’ve designed a quilts and
here’s a course the actual course was structured from the beginning and the actual design was structured to actually
showcase and to build those foundational skills for for quarters
I wrote the pattern first and then made a chorus but you wrote the course and made a pattern with the beginner in mind
which I have to say from your first book I learned something from you that has stuck with me and I
still think of you every time I do it you talked about when you sew a piece together that you should press the iron
on those stitches before you press the seams it seals it and I I learned that
from you and I really picture your face every time I do that or if I don’t do it I’m like oh sorry Jemima I love it and
that’s you know honestly um you know I was just recently on a
teaching trip in New Zealand and I had a student who was who was struggling in
the class and I was and I actually sat down to her machine and I was just trying to I’d seen what she was doing
and I was like this you know she wasn’t happy with how it was coming together and she just couldn’t work out why it
wasn’t coming together and I literally sat down and we looked at what was going on and she didn’t have a quarter inch
foot and no one had ever told her she said she’d been doing lessons for ages she’d
been doing them in a patchwork um in a quilting store but no one had ever actually looked at her foot that
she was sewing with and that’s exactly why her pieces weren’t coming together it wasn’t that she wasn’t great at
sewing and this is where people fall in that hole it’s not you know they lose that momentum because yeah it’s not
necessarily them sometimes it’s those other elements that you know all your equipment or your tools that you think
are the right thing but you don’t necessarily know you know the foot that your machine comes with isn’t actually
you know great for quilting yeah well and you I mean I call it a Battleground but kind of you’ve been on the
Battleground you’ve been with those people who are frustrated and not getting results and I can see some great
reels here where you’re like scrolling through and you see this amazing thing on Pinterest and then you pull up yours
and it’s like wonky and terrible I just there’s some fun marketing you can do here I recently
um a couple of weeks ago when I in because I’m getting busy promoting new quilt on the block with the doors
opening soon I actually have my first quilt and I’ve taken some of the promo photos have
been taken with that first quilt and whilst there are so many holes that I could pick in that first quilt the story
isn’t actually about what’s necessarily wrong with it it’s just that that was that was what I knew at the time and you
know that was but most importantly that was the beginning of of I didn’t
understand when I made that first quilt that I would be here now and that that is where it would take me and how many
people I would wrap up in quilts and how many gifts I would give and how many
things I just didn’t realize how that one piece of fabric would actually
change the course of of you know the course of my life I mean that actually gives me goosebumps
that’s really beautiful I love that like people you just never know where this will bring you that’s right and just you
know that I love it that feeling that beginners can have and that success and being so proud of taking their first
quilt and gifting it to someone and absolutely wrapping up those people who are most important to them and just
feeling like they’ve actually achieved something that they’re proud of and wanting to do more that’s our biggest
thing in quilting and in terms of you know a lot of what I teach it’s you know you’re going to have if you’ve got
people who are having success in um what they’re doing then that Spurs
them on to want to do more it makes them want to pick up their next quilt pattern you know where if if they’ve spent more
time unpicking or if they’ve spent more time you know worried about every little scene coming together then you know we
want people quilting and you know sometimes you know it’s those things that I’ve really tried to sort of look
at in the course and really try to to make people sort of accomplished something that I know that
they can do and it’s interesting because I grew up with my mom sewing and quilting
and I had some pretty rough experiences the sewing machine wasn’t great the thread would get all terrible and and
then I took a sewing class in high school I wish I had saved what I made it was so bad but I just kind of wrote off
sewing and quilting because it was a very frustrating experience and so if we can
open the gates and help make it a positive experience because I wanted to I mean I I signed up for that sewing
course there were other options but I was like how cool would it be to make this or that and I hated it so and now
here I am it’s my profession so if we can help people experience the good because
clearly they’re interested they’re coming because they want to learn Let’s help that be a positive thing so that
there’s more you know that’s it and uh you know at the end of the day you want people to
be excited to make their quilt you know already be having that you know what am
I going to be making next and you know have them already with those wheels turning for them to be inspired by you
know the fabric that they see or you know having seen something that maybe they thought wasn’t achievable yet
they’re now ready to tackle because that’s a big thing in terms of you know making sure that people
um absolutely can feel inspired but not necessarily intimidated when they’re starting your quilting
because it is intimidating even for me now I’d love to make some garments and I’m like I don’t know about that it’s a
very intimidating threshold so for someone to hold your hand to any new thing because there’s and I would watch
there was a craftsy show that I purchased that came with the pattern and the person who was running the show or
whatever they would just sew and open and their seams matched up I’m like that’s not that’s not happening over
here how did you like slow it down help me so I just think that’s so cool I’ve
really tried to to structure the course so that that the elements aren’t massive
and overwhelming as well because if you’re going to be spending what little precious time a lot of us have on a you
know on a hobby and and in learning how to quilt when we’ve got such busy lives and you know kids happening and all the
other things and you know family commitments and work commitments that time has to be productive and it has to
be you know useful and it has to be something that they’re really excited and inspired to do so so I’ve tried to
really make the video content and the workbook content really about doing
rather than spending hours and hours watching and having them spent all that time
watching rather than getting making so I’ve really been very intentional with how the the units are structured to be
able to have people you know getting that beautiful end result and also one that they’re just so proud of at the end
and you have a workbook I just heard you mention that so that’s awesome yeah so each of the units um not only are their
videos there are also um details that go together for for that with the workbook so everything’s laid
out everything not only is there the visual element but there’s the written element because we all have different ways that we learn
you really are a great teacher I love it how did you record did you record on
your phone what was your setup like so that was probably initially my biggest hurdle as to how was I actually going to
make this course and how was I going to do the video obviously I’d done a lot of work with you know reels and video
content and that um so I actually invested in a course
last year um Patchwork which I know you know about oh yeah
um and essentially sort of got myself set up with um I’ve got a lighting kit and it was kind of like each Fortnight I
was building on this whole video element because I knew that that’s where that where the most important elements
of the course had to be so in getting some and investigating some really good phone holders so I’ve got some some
great phone gear to be able to record shots from my phone and essentially I’ve
done it off on my iPhone awesome I love to hear that because often people are so
intimidated and they think I need to hire a professional videographer or whatever and I’m like uh-uh please don’t but I am curious would you be able to
share links to the things that you’ve bought to record with yeah yeah because I
actually get asked all the time on Instagram because I’ve been sharing because I share a lot of that content people are like where did I get that
particular you know thing from and the only obviously difference um for me is I’m in Australia so I
generally will buy off amazon.com for in Australia um for a particular gear that I can’t
get locally or anything else um but yeah definitely happy to you know sometimes you just need the name of what
the item is to be able to then go and search and and that sort of thing so you know there are some things that I’ve had
that have worked I sent back an item um because it just it actually didn’t
hold the weight of my phone which one was that out of curiosity uh it was an overhead
um it’s almost like a an L-shaped um phone holder that was looked really
sturdy but unfortunately my phone is is quite big so it actually just didn’t hold the weight of the phone so we had
to come up with some other elements um for that so but in saying that as well I did have
um I’ve got some awesome help in terms of helping with the filming because there were just areas that I actually
couldn’t film myself where I couldn’t get um you know the use of tripe like I’ve got
the tripods and the lights and that it actually didn’t necessarily capture what I needed very specifically so I had some
amazing help from um yeah from from Eloise and she helped
me you know with the filming in terms of you know there were things that I knew that I did and then there were other elements that we we
um I put together all the ideas and the run sheet for what we needed to film when we were together and then she was
she was great with that and definitely in terms of helping um you know with editing and that so sometimes there are just things that uh
outside your skill set and that’s as I know you know very well that’s where you get those people and again that was it
was just an area that I knew investing my money into was hopefully going to be
a you know see a return yeah so who is Eloise you mentioned the name I’m like wait who is this yeah Eloise is uh she’s
oh absolute magician she has helped me with a lot of the content that I do here in the studio and
um my two my two teenage girls generally will give me about two seconds before they’re like come you know like are we
done um so I realized very quickly that I needed to get someone else to come and help me with some of the video content
so Eloise has come in to help me with that and then she’s really great at being able to edit things really quickly
and um yeah just her eye for content and knowing
um what I you know what I do because I’ve been working with her for a little while now you know she doesn’t know anything about quilting but she now has
um definitely sort of a bit more knowledge and and that but um yeah it’s one of those cases as with you know
getting help in your VA and just those deciding in your business who are the people who are going to help you know it
doesn’t sometimes have to be things like Facebook ads it actually might be you know another area and
thinking outside the square of you know like not putting your money into something else because there is going to be
something else that will actually help move that needle so is she your virtual assistant Eloise uh no she is a content
creator really and she just you just met her by living by you she was actually
um when reels first came out she was actually doing coaching for reels so I met her from going and learning
um she was teaching some workshops and I went along and she was like for me I had
said I was not doing reels when you know for about the first six months and I didn’t want to didn’t want to know about
them so I actually had to learn we all were like that yeah so it’s gonna go It’s gotta go so I signed up to her
course in her Workshop um to actually learn how to upload a real how to put music to it and all that
sort of thing so and um yeah we’ve been working together sort of since then because I realized also at that point
that she was a great great member to have um you know helping me out you know what
else is like my dream to have some young college student who’s
very in with Trends and Technology who happens to live next door to me so she
can come over every day and record content post it for me and then make a
schedule for the month you have this coming up let’s promote that’s my dream I’m just gonna throw it out in the universe so that maybe I’ll have some
kind of Eloise in my life yeah and I look definitely the people
um you know behind me this year you know and especially last year um you know Xanthi and and Eloise
they’re the people who are helping to make things happen for me in terms of
you know when I don’t know things they’re the people who are you know who are experts in their areas and and
that’s the difference in knowing sometimes there are things that I can do and that there are things that they can do in half the amount of time
um and and that was that you know in terms of filming that was where I knew my biggest roadblock was and that’s when
I went I can I can do it and I’ve certainly done you know I did plenty of it for the course and that sort of thing but there
were other areas and I’m like it’s going to take me way too long and too many takes and the sun’s gonna go down and I’m
gonna have enough light and all that sort of thing where if I get someone in in to help
um I can actually make it better I also have to touch on the fact that I love I mean you just mentioned it in
passing but she taught a chorus in your area you are a student you’re learning
like even you reaching out can I have a coaching call you know I mean you are
Adam you’re a teacher but you’re a learner and the ones who really succeed
are forever students you know learning learning trying new things and I really
admire that so well done thank you it’s definitely this has been the biggest you
know the last six months in building this course uh absolutely has been the scariest biggest
step I’ve taken in my business since I can remember it’s almost like those first day classroom Jitters
um you know you don’t sleep the night before because you’re so excited to meet that new class and it’s it’s exactly how
I felt also in my business whilst it’s been absolutely challenging and there have been tears I will not lie and there
have been there have been days where I’m like I actually can’t I can’t work this
out like this just doesn’t how can I not put this together and then now I’m looking at
having doors ready to open and I’m I’m actually just it’s it’s really nice to
look back at the moment and go wow like I can’t actually believe like I’ve yeah I feel like I’ve I’m I’m getting there
I’m just so excited for you so I’m curious will doors be open all the time do you have open and close launch so for
this uh launch obviously it’s my first one and also the first time I’ve offered um this type of course on this type of
platform so I’ve chosen a doors open and doors closed approach it’s definitely a
course that I want to offer again later in the year um so that’s
potentially sort of where I’m headed with it but I wanted to go through that experience of learning how to do all
those car open emails and actually learning how to do that side of it as well so that’s and that’s where a lot of
the other challenges have have come up and a lot of the other learnings in actually how to to launch a product and
and do that so yeah so doors doors are open for five days only for this and
what will be my founding founding student round which I’m really excited about because I’ve actually had some
testers who I’ve worked with over the last six months so they’ve been through the course they’ve been with me since
the beginning and I’ve been using their feedback and working with them
um you know one of whom had never quilted ever perfect so you know
actually seeing you know her first quilts and that it’s just it’s amazing
you know like the the messages that you get you know from from people when they’re making things that’s that’s what
lights me up you know just that success and that you know this is the quilt that I’ve made that’s that’s the you know
that’s what we do it for I love it which I’m gonna throw this out this is like my secret weapon
if I haven’t mentioned it already the book launched by Jeff Walker he has a new version that just came out
read it obviously not for this lunch it’s a bit close but you’re gonna launch later this year
I’m gonna say I love them or not in that way but um he
I read the book years ago because I want to say Bonnie Christine or someone recommended it and I was and I I didn’t
finish it because it just felt a bit fluffy I was like I need action items this is like I don’t need to hear any
more stories about success of how this worked I need to know what to do but then I hired a mentor last year and she
was like read that book do everything it says step by step and
um my launch quadrupled like it just it was crazy so I would read that book and
implement it and I feel like I’m sharing my secret weapon with the world but everyone deserves to know about it so
no I’m definitely definitely excited to see you know this obviously a lot of people who are already in my audience
you know they’ve already made that that their first quilt or they’re you know there are a couple of quilts down the
road so this has also been growing that newer side of of my audience which I think I already have really catered to
beforehand because most of my patterns I always um I’m very much
um love writing to that beginner quilter because a lot of my patterns aren’t necessarily
rocket science but what I have in that teaching element is in in the words in
those instructions and you know helping people to to work through you know a pattern maybe that they haven’t felt
confident doing definitely getting them sort of started on their on their adventures in quilting and um having
them love it and enjoy them so yeah I’m really excited to see how this how this goes I’m obviously
extremely nervous um as well um but also just more excited that you
know I’ve had you know reaching you know new people and the response already is starting to to be really really positive
so a whole new element to to what I ask for so yeah
very cool well and even I don’t know on my 10th quilt there’s
always things that you it’s it’s just like a sport or anything else I mean my husband’s like
it’s all about the fundamentals fundamentals you know his favorite teams are the ones who focus on the fundamentals same with quilting you go
back to the fundamentals even now I was with a friend making a binding and she’s like I can see you
struggling with that a bit let me show you this and she showed me a tip you never stop learning it always goes back
to the fundamentals so no matter how experienced you are there’s always something you can learn about the
fundamentals so I’ve definitely um you know new quilt on the Block is
definitely designed um you know for beginners for that for that person looking to make their first quilt but I
have had messages already in DMS you know like I’ve already made a couple of quilts but I don’t feel like I had the the right teachings in terms you know or
I’ve pieced it all together from YouTube you know do you think that this course would still be suitable and I’ve answered absolutely because focusing on
learning those skills focusing on learning the actual correct equipment that you need not just you know
these are all the tools and and you know you need needles and and whatever else actually going through and describing
what they are and what they do and why they’re different to other areas of sewing um so that’s definitely something that
I’ve come across as as I’ve begun to to promote the course that yeah people are sort of keen to to learn that element
and those skills and techniques um maybe who haven’t been shown you know pinning you know pinning and how to pin
as opposed to just you know slapping it together and you know hoping for the
best so oh yeah now I’m like what is the correct way to pin maybe I need to take this course
but you okay there’s more that’s coming up this year so and um we just have a couple minutes left but let’s hear what
else is happening it’s been a lot happening well biggie yeah definitely um I’ve got coming out in March is my
third book so I’m very very excited to uh to get this third book out uh it’s
been a little bit of a it’s taken a little bit of time to get out there but I’m definitely hoping that
um it’s going to be well received it’s quite a um it’s not a different book to
what I’ve written beforehand but it’s definitely got a little bit of a plot twist in that this is
um not just a cool thing book it’s actually also a crochet book so if anyone’s been following me on Instagram
they kind of possibly already know that I love crochet
um I’ve always done it um that’s actually I’ve done it since I was a child and I I think I learned to
crochet long before I you know learned to quilt so it’s funny how it’s come completely full circle in that that was
actually the first craft that I learned and now I’ve been able to put together crochet and quilt in one book that’s so
cool I actually I did not know that when I saw the title of the book I was like huh crochet so I didn’t know that
and I actually side note I love the way you word things it’s very Australian slash British you said a little bit of a
plot Twisters I love that I might have to use that phrase sometime and he also
mentioned fortnite in America we do not use that term I know now because I lived in England it means two weeks it means
two weeks yep but it’s not a common phrase and so my kids play the game fortnite when you said fortnite I’m like
are you playing the game fortnite [Laughter] so I love the little cultural things but
yeah and when I’ve you know when I’ve been in the US previously there are definitely things that you learn and
people will look at you and you’re like oh they don’t know what I’ve just said or they don’t know what I mean and uh
yeah definitely sort of uh that that bridge um and you know in terms of writing as well you know those are things that you
know I have to actually write all my I I misspell according to you know color you
know everything yeah yeah so you know color and all those sorts of words I actually write
um you know as American English rather than um you know my Australian English and oh for shame I feel like you should
be able to keep your culture in there but um so but um yeah no really you know
it’s definitely a book about taking those two crafts you can be a beginner
in either craft each of the patterns um and this is where that that plot twist
comes in every pattern is identical so each pattern has you can either make it
as a crochet blanket or a crochet project or you can actually make the identical item as a quilt that is so
cool so did you have this idea or did the publisher approach you with that no so
what happened was um late or would have been 2021 I
started it was actually sort of a bit of an experiment where I took my what is my Aurora quilt pattern and I was like
because it’s half Square triangles and I know you love half Square triangles um I took I kept looking at that pattern
and I’m I was into crochet quite heavily at the time and I’m like I really think I could make this
quilt pattern into a crochet blanket and it kind of just took legs from there
because I had not actually been doing crochet in terms of tied with a ribbon I hadn’t been it wasn’t
something I was doing professionally it was just my break time at night time and relaxing from spending all day quilting
so it was never intended as something I thought would come you know in terms of
eventually being a book or anything like that but um essentially yeah I’ve been working on turning those quilt pattern
designs into crochet blankets and whilst that’s definitely sort of not a new idea obviously there’s plenty of that sort of
thing around um um I actually originally the the idea
for the book came up and I said I actually don’t want to write that but I’d love to write this idea and that’s
actually the idea that we’ve gone through with with the actual book so
um because originally the book was going to be more focused on crochet and I sort of
said look you know that’s most of my audience are here for the quilting that’s that’s what I’ve built my
audience off that’s what I love to teach and um but what I have learned is that I really do love you know both those
elements and one of them you know is is where I started you know as a child and
then being able to now sort of you know teach that I really sort of never thought I would teach that and
um but definitely yeah so so cool to crochet it came about and I was really at the time I was at like this is what I
want to do for the book and I was also this is what I want to do but I was happy if not to write it as well so it
was kind of a a deal breaker really because it was either I was going to do that or I wasn’t actually
that was what lit me up to write another book um rather than you know I wasn’t in the
headspace to um come up with anything that sort of someone was putting on me because I knew
that I had when you write a book you have to be passionate about it from go to end like it just turns out this is
true it’s it’s so true a big part of your life for so long and just you know and content and the element and if
you’re not loving writing that then you’re spending a lot of time probably wishing you hadn’t signed up in the
first place sure isn’t that true with anything in life any kind of business or anything you have to really love it yeah
and I’ve learned that along the way you know you know with it being my third book I knew what I wanted it to look
like and okay just at that point where you know if I have plenty of other things to go
on with in yeah if that wasn’t the opportunity that was that was the right one for me so
um but yes so so I’m thankful now that we’re nearly at that stage where we’re about to launch
it’s going to go out into the world and yeah looking forward to sharing that very cool I also really love that you
were like well there’s plenty of books that are out there like that already this brings up the point that we are
oversaturated in what we’re looking at so a lot of people would be like oh there’s already beginning quilt courses
or or whatever it is that your passion is we feel like that Market’s
oversaturated but here you mentioned to me there’s so many books with the Quilted and crochet
I’ve never heard of it at all there will always be more people who haven’t seen
what you want to offer than there are people who have seen it there’s always going to be an audience for what you
want to give so I just that’s a big thing to think about yeah I mean the
publisher definitely when not brought that because originally as I said the concept was for just it being crochet
when I added in the element of the quilt part of it they initially were like oh
this you know how we’re going to put that together in one book and whilst there’s plenty of it on the internet I don’t know that there had been a lot of
it specifically within the pages of a book and so this whole sort of original concept was like oh I don’t know if this
is going to fly you know this you know this is really hard to sell you know to do which audience do we sell it do we
sell it to the crochet side do we sell it to you know quilting stores you know and honestly I had an email back within
24 hours of the board having gone we absolutely have you know loved this idea and that
cross mix of the two was was really welcomed so um yeah I think at the time it was
definitely a different idea to put it in the pages of a book yeah I’ll be curious I would love to hear from you down the
road how that’s going and who it’s selling more to the crochet the quilting I’m very curious about that yeah and
definitely also you know that whole element again leaning into you know my
my love for teaching and all the projects are beginner projects you know I didn’t want to sort of put out there
anything that was going to put off you know that beginner element and putting off anyone who didn’t know how to do one
or the other because you can literally pick up the book and you could just make the quilt projects out of it or you could just make the crochet projects out
of it but also feel confident enough to tackle both well okay I’ve got to wrap it up I have another meeting coming up
but is there anything before we go that you want to share or touch on
uh well I’m really looking forward to newquent On the Block uh with those opening on February 3rd so I’m really
excited and um I’ve definitely uh looking forward to people coming along
checking out the details for that if they have listened and thought that they’ve they’ve loved that and I’m
definitely sort of watching along as um on Instagram I love sort of checking out and chatting to people on Instagram
I spent probably way too much time over there um you know but I love connecting with
people and people making you know my patterns and and very much yeah looking forward to to those things as well as um
yeah I’ve got a lot of traveling on the books this year so yeah I’m very much
looking forward to I’ve got um so far I’ve got four Interstate workshops and trunk show and principal
speaking events that I’m headed over to so I’m so excited for 2023 are you
coming to Quilt Market in the fall by chance uh is that for Houston probably
not because I’m already at another yeah speaking um speaking engagement so
um but yeah look you know I’m really hoping to get back to the to the US I’m hoping next year so 2024
um quillcon is absolutely on my bucket list it’s also yeah a big goal of mine
to uh to get over to cook corn yes I shall be there in 2024. wait yeah okay
not 2023 but 2024 so all right well we’ll we’ll have to chat together and make sure that we’re sorted yeah so okay
I’m gonna put in the show notes be quilterscandy.com forward slash 92
there what should I share what will be there will it be people can’t sign up yet but is there a wait list there’s
absolutely a white list so um and once you pop your name on that wait list you’ll also get my Quilters terms um and
cheat uh maths cheat sheet as well so you get yourself a little PDF sheet um a
couple of pages of that and that absolutely will help you with all your quilting terms and your quilting mats
and that will lead you into knowing when doors open um and seeing the course through that so
I’ll send you yeah those details definitely would love to have that and um if people are following Along on
Instagram then they’ll see not only the information for that but also coming up for my book quilt to crochet it and yeah
there’s definitely and of course you can always go to my website and sign up there for my newsletter as well so
you’ll always be in in the loop on all the titles yes well I kind of want to opt in to get that math okay this is one
other thing before we go why is there an S at the end of math maths
because in Australia we say maths just that’s just and England does it too the first time I heard it I’m like why are
they making that plural yeah it’s just maths is a subject here it’s always just
uh always been met yeah so when you hear people say math are you like I know
they’re American yeah okay so weird these little things I’m like
what how what happened there anyhow well it was so fun catching up this went
longer than I would have loved to keep going you’re just so fun to chat with I love chatting business and you’re just
very pleasant so thank you thanks Liz you’ve you’ve been such a great you know inspiration to me and you and I have
been friends for a long time now in in um you know knowing what we both get up to and and that’s always been so great
and uh yeah really supportive of what I do so I really appreciate that you
you’ve always got time for me and um definitely looking forward to to seeing you know what what comes up this year
yeah and let me know if you read that launch book too I’d love to chat about it with you definitely gonna get that one all right well good luck with the
lodge thank you again for being here thanks Liz foreign
thank you so much for being on the podcast as always it was a pleasure to chat with you and I just I hope the
listeners could tell how much I loved just diving deep and chatting business
and hearing what’s coming up for your business it’s such exciting things I’m
really I mean not that it’s like my jurisdiction to be proud but I’m really proud of all that you’ve done it’s been
so awesome to see so thank you for being on the podcast and if you don’t already
go and follow Jemima tied with a ribbon and keep an eye out for her course she
is definitely one talented quilter and I mean you heard even me I’m like um
I think I could learn quite a bit from this so go check that out and again thank you so much for being here Jemima
next week I have a unique guest on the show and it’s Unique in the fact of how
we met each other so we you’ll hear how we met she approached me at a book
signing and I was like oh you have this shop you should be on the podcast and
she is she in fact it was a lovely time chatting with her I cannot wait to introduce you to Laura of global fiber
shop she just brings a really unique perspective for those of you listeners who are thinking of opening an online
fabric shop and she’s been very successful I cannot wait to introduce you to Laura next week of global fiber
shop until then have a wonderful week and we will see you back here next Friday on the craft a career podcast
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