From Craftsy to YouTube: How Christa Watson Built a Thriving Teaching Business

Lyric Kinard (00:21.036) Welcome to Creatives on Camera, the podcast for artists, makers and educators who are building bold, sustainable teaching businesses online using the power of video, one imperfect step at a time. I'm your host, Lirik Kinard, and I'm here to help you grow your impact, showing up with confidence and sharing what you love in ways that truly connect. So what if the key to showing up confidently on camera was just the start? even if it's awkward, imperfect, or completely outside your comfort zone. Today's guest, Krista Watson, did exactly that. She's a nationally recognized quilt teacher, fabric and pattern designer, author, and domestic machine quilting expert. And like so many of us, she didn't start out feeling camera ready. But through trial, honesty, and a whole lot of heart, she built a thriving creative business. one that blends in-person teaching, YouTube content, and a deep commitment to showing up as her full authentic self. If you've ever hesitated to share your face, your voice, or your message on video, Krista's story will meet you right where you are. Let's dive in. – Lyric Kinard (00:02.301) Hello friends, I am so glad you're with us and I am really excited to introduce you to somebody that I have known about and watched for a long time. If you are in the quilt world, she's got a name, she's up there. So every time I'm able to bring somebody in to share with you who I think is like a total rock star, it gets me really excited. Today, we are with Krista Watson. Thank you so much for being here with us. Christa (00:35.414) you're welcome. I will give you your kickback later for all those nice words you said. Anyway, I'm just as... Yeah, I'm a big fan of yours too. So thanks for having me. Lyric Kinard (00:39.123) Yeah, you can pay me under the table. Lyric Kinard (00:45.277) fangirling back and forth. love it. Krista, you are a quilter, so you make things and you're a teacher. You love to share the joy of what you create with other people so they can have that joy too. And your business model is both teaching in person, but most of where I see you is you have a fantastic YouTube presence. So could you Just give us a little backstory. Where and how, why did you come into the quilting world and why did you create a business about it? Christa (01:25.646) Okay, well this is, let's see, we'll try to keep this brief, but I always tell everybody it takes 20 years to become an overnight success. Maybe 25, I can't remember. I started quilting back in like 1994, 1995 as a newly married, young, poor college student studying business and I fell into quilting and immediately after I made my first quilt, I was like, I want this to be my job. I want this to be my job. And so I was young at the time and in my local quilt guild and they would bring people in who would teach, you know, from all over the country. And I was like, oh my goodness, this is somebody's job. So as my quilting skills improved, I took the classes at my local guild. And then soon after I got into teaching locally myself. I had a couple of kids, they were really young. So I couldn't really travel. And at the time, back in the 90s, early 2000s, You know, the internet wasn't really a big thing in quilting yet. You know, I got all of my source news about quilting from magazines and, you know, the Quilting Guild of which I was always the youngest member until really only about 10 or so years ago. was, but I basically grew up in my guild. They were always very supportive of me. And that's kind of where I got my first big break. I started teaching them quilt members. I started teaching locally. And it just resonated with me being in a group of mostly ladies, a few men every now and then, mostly ladies, and just teaching them what I knew. And then as it evolved, I really specialized in domestic machine quilting. And that's where my love is. And then one thing after another, again, over a long 20 year period of, you know, growing up and kids growing up, I started taking my show on the road. And then I really didn't get into doing anything on video until honestly, until I filmed my first craftsy class. which was way back in 2016. And that really kind of taught me, I was a little hesitant, I was a little afraid, but I was like, okay, they're the experts. And that kind of taught me how to do it. And as a side note, I did everything backwards. I became a pattern designer, and then I took a class on how to design patterns. I became a fabric designer, and then I took a class. I did videos for Craftsy, and then I figured out, okay, how do I do this? I kind of... Christa (03:35.766) jump in and go wherever I can and then I back up later and say, wait a minute, what am I doing? How do I do this? How can I make it better? So that's my life story in, you know, short amount of time. Lyric Kinard (03:44.916) Now I love you even harder because we're twins, basically. I have almost the exact same story of not going into craftsy, but teaching online and learning by always jumping in way in the deep end, who cares what the splash is, maybe I'll surface and then you learn as you go and figure out how to refine it and do it better. Christa (03:47.374) Yep. Christa (03:55.853) Mm-hmm. Christa (04:07.118) Absolutely. Lyric Kinard (04:10.735) I was approached by Craftsy way back in the beginning, but chose not to work with them. I was working with a different kind of company, but they were like one of the big first video craft education resources. I would love to hear how that went for you back at the beginning. Christa (04:19.35) Nice. Christa (04:32.526) Oh, absolutely. So so I kind of glossed over a bunch of stuff. But as I decided to make this my job and really, I didn't kind of start being out in public public with quilting until about 10 years ago, 2015, even though I'd started whatever 1995. So however many years ago that is. And I very I was very, you know. specific and strategic and I was like, okay, I want to write books and I want to design fabric and I want to do all the things that I had seen these other people before me do because I figured, that's what you do. And so I just kind of looked to them as my model. So in one of those things, I wrote a couple of books on machine quilting. I became an industry ambassador for many companies, one of which was Bernina Sewing Machine. And I always tell everybody, even though I use that machine, if you use a different one, we're still friends, that's all good. And so because of my associations, with these other companies, people recommend people. And so somewhere along the line, someone recommended my name from one of these companies that I had a good association with to Craftsy. So Craftsy reached out to me and they said, yes, we love what you're doing. We would love to do a class with you. And I said, I would love to, but it kind of scared me. And just because I know I can be a little bit gregarious in person, but I didn't know how that would come across on camera. But they were great. I worked with this gal named Linda and she was amazing and she just walked me through and it helped me for the first time understand how much preparation goes in before you film. so, you know, skipping ahead, going through all that, now I understand, okay, you can do your own filming if you're prepared. And so what Craftsy taught me is you create a shot list, you create an outline, you plan, you spend more time planning than you actually do shooting. And so you don't just go in there and say, OK, turn on the camera and go. You very much know, OK, we're going to do this segment and this segment and this segment. How many outfit changes do you want? What stuff? And now they are kind of more the high end, know, highly produced, at least back in the day then. But again, having a system and having a something I could follow really helped me and kind of grounded me so that I didn't get scared and I didn't know what I didn't know. Does that make sense? Lyric Kinard (06:31.186) Night. Lyric Kinard (06:45.509) Absolutely. And it is so helpful to have somebody hold your hand through the first time that you work in a process. And working in a film studio is a whole different experience. They take care of you. It's their job to make you look good. And they are wonderful. Christa (06:50.21) Yes. Christa (06:55.435) yeah. Christa (07:00.94) Yeah, they did my hair and they did my makeup and they had two camera guys and they had a producer and an editor and stuff. And even though what I was doing, was like, there's no way I can produce this myself. Again, the idea of, but I can write a script myself and I can create a shot list and cameras are coming a long way. so anyway, doing classes for them helped me get over the fear of being on camera. And so I'm really glad I had that experience. And then I really lucked out. So, and I don't mind sharing business-wise. So we did a first class on machine quilting and that went really, really well. And we followed that up with basically a signature class that they wanted to do where, although my specialty is machine quilting, they wanted me to create that definitive class on here's how you make a quilt. And so because they tapped me to have their signature class, which was like six hours of video, which took like three or four days to film and like if somebody wants to learn a go do a quilt. I filmed that one in 2017 and it's still going strong and it's still one of their top sellers and I still get residuals off of it. So looking back, that was the best choice I ever made because I have made a lot of money on that one class. And then I did a third class. So I did class number one, which did good. Class number two, which went viral. And then class number three, which went good. So we had good viral good. And then that second class, that signature class again, going strong helped me out and Overall was a good experience. So I would do it again. Lyric Kinard (08:30.435) Excellent. At some point, I want to do an episode on the history of Craftsy and platforms like Udemy and Skillshare where they upload that. So we'll save some of that conversation. You said it was really profitable for you at the beginning. What was, I don't need precise numbers, but what was their payment structure? Christa (08:49.218) Yes. Lyric Kinard (08:57.245) How do they pay their teachers? I know how they did it then, and how do they do it now? Christa (08:57.304) So. Christa (09:03.02) Yeah, so they changed it and there was a switch over and there was a buyout and that kind of made a whole lot of teachers frustrated at the time, which I totally understand. So basically it was a business model that you got a percentage of the class. So number one, it was a higher price point class. So the percentage, you know, the net was higher because it was a higher price point. And then you got even a higher if you interacted with the students. So if they emailed you, whatever. And so that was fine. And so, yeah, it was just a straight percentage on top of that separately. I tried the whole affiliate thing and that was kind of nice because then if I sold a class, I could get an affiliate on my class in addition to the royalty. That kind of all changed later. But yeah, just a basic royalty. It's probably the royalty I got there was the highest. I mean, I shouldn't say this, but it was a higher percentage wise than any other royalty of any other products that I've ever done. So yeah. And so even though they kind of had their ups and downs, I think just the nature of me lucking out and getting the class just made it. Lyric Kinard (09:50.983) Right. Christa (10:01.132) just numbers game. mean, just outrageously large amounts of people took the class. so, so it might be a little skewed because of that. Maybe if I hadn't done that one, it would just be kind of more like normal royalties that everybody was getting. But I think just being in the right place, right time, filming the right class, you know, part of me, even though they have changed now, and again, without getting the numbers, I'm not getting as much now. But again, I filmed it back in 2017. I'm still making a good amount of royalties in perpetuity. It's passive income, exactly. So. Lyric Kinard (10:26.356) It's just kind of passive income because it's evergreen. It's still going. Christa (10:33.548) Yeah, I will be sad when and if they eventually take it down because it's still profitable even at a lower royalty rate right now. Lyric Kinard (10:40.339) That's fantastic. At the beginning, Craftsy did so well for so many people. It was wonderful. At this point, I encourage people to really look at contracts first and who owns content and all that jazz. Christa (10:51.692) Well, yes, and and even though I knew that they owned it and I was fine with that, I will say they have asked me recently with the new owners to do another class. And I did turn them down because obviously the royalty structure is different. Now they just pay a flat fee, no, I'm not interested in a flat fee because of having the experience. So if they changed it again and went back to a royalty structure, I would consider it. But for something like that where they do. Lyric Kinard (11:10.44) Hmm. Christa (11:19.838) own your content, a flat fee is just not going to cut it for me. Lyric Kinard (11:23.109) Right. There's advantages and disadvantages to every business model if you've got online classes. Let's switch to what came after that. It was a fantastic foundation for being able to create your own video content now. Now, you teach live. You have tried teaching via Zoom. You have on-demand classes that are bringing you residual income on Craftsy. Those are filmed, gone. You interact with students if you want to or not, depending on what your contract said. Where did you make the decision to go where you are now? We talked a little bit about when we talked in person about knowing yourself, knowing what works for you and what doesn't work for you with teaching classes. So let's go there a little bit and describe your journey there. Christa (12:27.182) Oh sure, I started teaching after, like I said, I had taught locally for a long time, loved it, just loved the live interaction. And then after my first book came out in 2015, I started getting requests to teach nationally, which was amazing. And so of course, just as a side note, teaching locally and getting started is at your local quilt shop. is a completely different rate than being a national instructor who has books and things. Much, much higher income when you're traveling to teach. And I knew that. And so as I've been doing that since 2015, or for 10 years, I have raised my prices, just as a little side note. So anyway, so yeah, I went out and I started traveling and I figured out how to take my local home class where maybe you're teaching eight or 10 students and you know, you don't have to travel and so you can bring three suitcases worth of quilts and all of that. and lots of step outs and I had to figure out how to translate that to things that would fit in a suitcase and being able to teach 25 people or 50 people or a big lecture hall of people. So I had to figure out how to translate all that. And then I had to figure out what is gonna work in a three hour class in a six hour class. So just for anybody who does any of this or wants to get into teaching in general, that could be a whole nother conversation. When you're local, normally you might. have a multi-week class at a local quilt shop. we're gonna do step one this week and step two next week. And you can stretch it over time. When you're on the road, you've got one or two days. And so you've got to figure out, okay, how do I take a five week class and turn that into a two day class or whatnot? So again, figuring all that out. And again, what I honed in on was the domestic mission quilting, figuring out how to hit the highlights. I'm not sure where we're going with this conversation, because I get up. But teaching, yeah, where are we? So teaching nationally, which I loved. Oh, I know what I was going to say. So I did that 2015, right about 2019 after I'd been doing it for five years. I was like, this is amazing. My kids are older. You know, they're becoming empty nesters. I have more time to travel. And right about, let's see, December 2019, I was like, I'm going to do this more. I'm going to double my teaching. I'm going to travel more. And then boom, COVID happened. And it was like the opposite of that. Christa (14:37.686) So like everybody did, I tried the online thing, you know, and honestly, it wasn't for me because I feed off of the energy of other people. Now, it's wonderful to have a Zoom and you can see everybody's little faces and stuff, but it was different in feel. And honestly, as part of my business model, because I write books, I design patterns, I design fabrics. When I travel and teach, a lot of my income is actually bringing a suitcase full of product. to sell to my students. For me, I haven't figured out how to translate that to online selling, even though I have an online shop. And so when I did do the Zooms, although the experience was great and the students were great and I could do it from the comfort of my home, I didn't get the face-to-face interaction and I didn't get as many product sales. So after I tried it and realized it's a whole different animal, it's also a whole different animal having to get off the couch and go get ready and teach a class. versus, okay, I'm out of my house, I'm in a hotel, my focus is live. And so just, there's a lot of differences. And so for me, I decided it wasn't for me. And I wanted to, once everything's opened up, then I went back to my, yes, let's go teach in person and let's teach everywhere in person. So that's kind of that in a nutshell. Lyric Kinard (15:51.526) It's good. It's so good to be aligned with the things that you know work for you in your business. You know that live Zooms just don't do it for you. And you know that that transition at home is difficult for you and you know what your business needs. So I love that you've made a choice that works for you. Christa (15:57.635) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (16:19.207) You know, I love teaching live via Zoom. I also love traveling and being in the room and meeting. It's actually the travel part. I love seeing new places. Like, who knew you could get paid to go different parts of the world and play with quilters, right? Best job ever that we have. It's awesome. how did knowing that, how did, how, why, why? Why do you spend all this time making videos for a YouTube channel? How is that part of your business model? How does it serve both your audience and your business? Christa (16:58.232) Well, so after the success of Craftsy and then after knowing that I love teaching live, I know there's a portion of people that will never be able to come see me in person and I wanted to be able to serve them. And so really it came as, I probably, well let me say, I'm kind of all over the place. I don't monetize it as much as I should. You're gonna kill me here. Lyric Kinard (17:20.486) No. Christa (17:20.958) haven't figured out how to set up YouTube monetization, even though I have like a decent size and growing audience. So that's on the list. A lot of the tech things I could do sponsored. could do all that. But really, I don't look at my YouTube videos as a moneymaker directly. I look at them as number one. I have this thing inside me, which I'm sure a lot of people do. I have to get it out and I have to share it with people. I mean, whether I'm paid or not, I have to do it. It's just I'm called to do it. And so I have to do it. So for me, I think, okay, I've got to share my machine quilting with other people. Putting it on YouTube and letting it be free, kind of the freemium model, allows me to feel like it doesn't have to be perfect. I know you can still get paid for it without it having to be perfect, but it does a couple things for me. Number one, gives me an outlet to share something. Number two, it gives me outlet to experiment and try something. I wanna try this new design in my live classes. What if I make a video and I throw it up on YouTube, how's it gonna do? What can I get out of it? What kind of feedback? So it's almost like a practice lab, if you will. And the other thing too, even though it's not my main focus, it does bring in traffic. People see me on YouTube and then they say, will you come to my guild? People see me on YouTube and they say, hey, will you do a Zoom meeting for my guild? And I'll say, I don't do that, but go check out Global Quilt Connection, go check out all these other places where there are teachers that do that. And so, you know, it's cool that people can teach online because some teachers now do that exclusively. Some people don't. And so I think people in general, quilters in general, are much more comfortable with doing things online because of that. But again, getting back to your original question, why do I do the YouTube? I do it because I can. I do it because I want to. Recently, I've been doing a project with my adult college kids to give them summer money, you know, as they work with me and help me film and edit projects and things like that. But yeah, just, I'm quilting anyway. This is kind of funny. I'm quilting anyway. I'm spending all this time in the machine. I might as well put a camera on it and capture it and share it. Otherwise I feel like it's lost. I'm spending the time doing it. Why not share it? And again, back to this idea that it doesn't have to be professional and polished. All of my videos are shot on my phone. I mean, I don't have any special camera. It's just my phone. And setting up a little, you know, like a little, you know, what is that called? Lyric Kinard (19:47.067) An overhead holder. Christa (19:48.041) Yes, thank you. A camera, projector, figuring all that out and just turning it on while I quilt. It's not that difficult of a thing to do. And for me, what I've realized is getting more into the weeds. It's easy if I don't show myself on camera while I'm quilting. I'm just showing the machine. I'm showing the quilting. I film all of that. And then later, if I want to turn it into a video, I can film like an intro and an outro of me talking. And that kind of setup works really well for me because it's very low stress. It's very low pressure and it's easy. It's not hard. So yeah, I do it because I can. That's the answer. Lyric Kinard (20:20.079) I absolutely love it. know, teachers, if you are a teacher, you know you can't help it, right? We have to, we have to, we have that heart. We have to share the thing we love so much with other people. And I especially love that you said, I just film what I'm already doing anyway with my phone. That is so enough. That is absolutely enough. All of us have almost everything we need to just Christa (20:26.316) Yeah, yeah. Christa (20:43.757) Yeah, it is. Lyric Kinard (20:49.533) do it already. And you get better at filming by filming the thing, right? So why not try? And I love that you're just showing up, right? You're showing up on YouTube to create this community of people who can benefit from the lovely things that you share. How do you feel about Christa (21:03.713) Exactly. Lyric Kinard (21:19.387) actually showing your face on camera. How has that evolved over time? Christa (21:22.21) That, that's hard. That was hard and I'm gonna get a little personal just because we're quilters and we do. So before I got into quilting as my full-time job professionally, I was really into fitness. Someone's gonna look at me and again, no judgment. They're not gonna say, you used to run marathons, used to do triathlons. I was really, really fit. That was my hobby. mean, quilting was my hobby, but fitness was my hobby. Then I had this excuse of now I'm traveling, now I'm teaching. I can eat out, whatever I want. I can have ice cream for breakfast. I want and over the years I have gotten unhealthy. I mean I hate to say it but it's I've gained a lot of weight and so ironically now that I'm like you know more well known people are seeing me and I mean I hate to say I don't like I don't love the way I look okay I'm just I don't love looking unhealthy. Recently, I have gotten on the train, I'm getting healthy, I'm losing weight, whatever. And so for a long time, knowing this about myself and knowing what I used to look like and feel like when I was running marathons and that kind of thing, and I was kind of behind the scenes and no one knew who I was, and going from that to now being, like I said, having ice cream for breakfast type of thing, that was very, very uncomfortable for me. But a friend of mine who does a lot, she said something that opened my eyes. She's like, you're just capturing a moment in time. And if you are going on a health journey or anything, which I'm saying, I'm letting you know, but it's not something I'm sharing publicly. So, but I'm letting people know if they see me like six months from now, no, I'm not sick. No, I'm just, I'm just eating healthy and I'm losing weight and I'm, back to running and that kind of thing again. But, but no, because of that, I didn't like the way I looked. I didn't like the way I felt. didn't. Lyric Kinard (22:57.757) Yeah. Christa (23:04.79) I didn't like that. And so just listening to my friend and she said, well, if you're on this health journey and you're going to look and feel better in six months, you can see, you can see the change and don't be afraid of that basically is what she said. And basically she's like, get over it, don't worry about it. And so I just have her little voice in my head when I'm like, my gosh, you know, this camera angle doesn't look bad or, I didn't put on makeup today or whatever. And I just have to listen to her and get outside of myself to get over that fear. And so I'm like, you guys, Whatever, just do it. again, I kind of want to have these videos for posterity because I have goals. In a year or two, when I'm kind of back to where I feel healthy and happy with the way that I look and feel, it'll be nice to go back and say, look at this journey that I've been through. And this was me at the time. No matter what, even though that's kind of my insecurity, which I'm sharing on camera for all to hear and see. I'm proud of myself for showing up anyway and doing it and not being the one standing in my own way. So it is what it is. Lyric Kinard (24:08.623) And I love you for that too. And isn't it helpful to have somebody else's voice in our head who is pushing us in a positive direction because every single time our harshest critic is ourself. So having somebody else, in fact, Krista, you and I will do this right now. Friends, if you're listening or watching, we give you permission. Christa (24:23.33) Yes, we are. Lyric Kinard (24:35.063) and we give you the encouragement to just show up right now as you are because you are enough. You are enough. You're wonderful, you're amazing. And besides, your people need you, friends. If you don't show up, they have to go somewhere else and they need you. Christa (24:42.723) Yes. Christa (24:48.003) They do. Christa (24:52.878) And the nice thing is, and again, it's all our own little demons coming out, part of what I love, whether I am doing online or in person, I am a sensitive soul. And I always tell somebody, when somebody loves my quilting or my quilt pattern, or it's a student in class, and they come up and they say, I'm so glad I took your class, I need that feedback. And that makes me feel so much better. than anybody saying, your hair looks nice or your outfit looks nice or you look, you know, whatever. Complimenting my quilting, complimenting my teaching, that's like loving my pets or my kids. You know what I mean? That is just the best, yes. Lyric Kinard (25:30.927) It means so much. Do you get, how do you deal with comments on YouTube? Do you get a lot of interaction? Do you turn on the comments? Do you get great comments and how do you deal with the ones that aren't so great? Christa (25:41.656) Yes. Christa (25:45.869) So I get 99 % good comments, 99.9 % good comments on YouTube, Instagram, blog, wherever I show up. And for me, for me, because I'm a sensitive soul, the one time I get a bad comment, I just delete it, I don't respond to it, I don't react to it. And so I teach my audience how to treat me, because if they see one negative comment, that's gonna breed more negative comments, and they're gonna learn, this is okay for us to say mean things to our teacher. Lyric Kinard (25:54.503) Mm-hmm. Christa (26:15.116) But if the person shows up and there's no negative comments and they're gonna be the first one to sully the water, even though I deleted three mores, that's just for me. That's for my own sanity. Any negative comment anywhere, DMs, whatever, I don't engage, I don't respond, and I just delete. And that makes me happy. And that helps me to show up authentically as myself. And that's just me. Lyric Kinard (26:23.347) You Lyric Kinard (26:38.663) I love what you said, you teach people how to treat you because we as teachers can do that in a classroom. We can do that online. We can do that wherever we are. Whatever we accept is kind of what we encourage, right? So showing up with kindness and love and then not accepting anything else, I think builds such a beautiful environment for learning. Christa (26:54.03) Exactly. Christa (27:05.848) Thank you. Lyric Kinard (27:07.411) Let's talk about your YouTube project. You have a year long thing going on right now. Why don't you describe that to me? is it? What is its purpose? And then let's get into kind of the tech weeds after that. Christa (27:28.288) sure. Sure. So right now in, you know, in 2025, I have a year of machine quilting happening. And this serves several purposes because I love to, you know, kill two birds with one stone. Even though I don't advocate cruelty to animals in any way. That's a terrible, you anyway. So back in 2020, during the height of pandemic, I had released my fourth book. I've written five books. My fourth book called 99 Machine Quilting Designs. And it did well despite the pandemic. And then sadly, the publisher went out business. I wrote four books with Martin Gal. They went out of business. My current book is with CNT. Thank goodness they're going strong. And so I had always, since that book came out in 2020, I had wanted to do a series because the book is 99 different designs. About a third of them are walking foot designs and about two-thirds of them are free motion designs because I teach both. And so, and they're just little practice samples and I actually use it, excuse me, as a textbook for a lot of my machine quilting classes. So I had thought, what if I did a video of every single design, 99 different videos, 99 different things to just like five to 10 minute videos showing people how to actually stitch that design. Because it's different to have the book in front of you where there's diagrams and images and, you know, information versus it coming to life in a video. And so when the publisher went out of business, I actually purchased the rights back to that book. So I own all the content. And I said, you know what, let's go ahead and do what I'd wanted to do five years ago and do this video. So that was the first purpose. I wanted to make this video based on the book. The second purpose, as I kind of alluded to, I have three kids, two of them, one just finished college. The second one is still in college. The third one graduated already. And so the two kids that go to art school, they both go to art school. So they have like Christa (29:13.614) A little bit of video background, artistic. One of them, my son, just graduated with his degree in animation, which is fantastic. So they needed summer jobs. So while they were home with us last summer, I said, okay, why don't you guys help me with this video series? So my daughter, who is a wonderful writer, she helped me do the shot list that I mentioned before and write some outline scripts. And then my son... filmed and edited everything and did the animation title sequence and the music. So if you ever go back and watch them, there's a music that goes to the title sequence. wrote, he composed and wrote and performed that himself. Yes, he actually made it. And so, so it was to give my kids employment. And my daughter decided, well, we're not going to do 99 videos. We're actually doing a total of 60. So it's a little bit more than a year. And so we filmed half of them last summer. And over the year, my son has been Lyric Kinard (29:52.119) that's so much fun! Christa (30:09.098) editing them and releasing them. Then this summer, we're just about to summer now, we're going to film the second half of it. And then that's going to get released through the end of the year. So so yeah, it was something I wanted to do. It gave my kids employment and it has gone viral. I was so impressed that even though my book is five years old and it's even out of print, the only thing that's available, it's a PDF is available. People buy it in the very beginning when I promoted it and launched it. I sold so many copies. And now as I put up a new video every Friday, people that are just coming to the series, just finding it now, they will go back and they will buy the PDF version of it. So it's definitely been a moneymaker. It's providing my kids employment. It's given me what I want to do. And the best part of it is now that I have these little like three to five to six minute segments of each design, I can then go and pull those videos and use them when I'm teaching my live classes. So it's just been, it's been a win-win all the way around. Lyric Kinard (30:59.891) Mmm. Right, I love that you've got this content that is leveraged in so many different ways. And I love that you show it in your in-person classes. The tech that we use for filming video is so useful to understand and know for a lot of different things. You learn one thing and you're halfway there for the next thing you need to learn. Christa (31:27.448) And I wanna just throw in one other thing too, because a lot of, I had this thought and a lot of other people did too. They say, okay, well if you're teaching online or you're sharing online and you're sharing your YouTube videos for free, why is somebody gonna take an in-person class? And somebody said it once, they did this analogy of like when you have your favorite rock band, you're gonna buy their, it used to be tapes and records and now it's, they're. streaming or whatever, you're going to buy their music content and you're going to buy their merchandise and you're going to see them when they come live in concert. Even though they're playing the same song that you can listen to on Spotify, you're going to see them in concert. And it's the same way with my quilting. Many of my students found me on YouTube, invited me to their guild. And of course my in-person class is different than what, you know, it's not exactly the same. And so it's just, it's, it's really helped get more teaching gigs. as well as the students who take my classes, I can say, go check out my series. So if they learn it in class, then they can refer to it in my YouTube series. And by the time I'm done with all of them, the information from the book that they have will come alive in the video series. So it's a win-win. Lyric Kinard (32:36.305) Right. It is. And I think video is such a perfect vehicle for that because they feel like they're getting to know you. They're making a connection, not just with the content that you're teaching them, but with you, which is why they want to come to your in-person class. You could advertise the book on its own, you know, whatever, and it might do great. But having those videos that bring it Christa (32:54.882) Exactly. Lyric Kinard (33:05.807) into real life, they can see themselves doing the thing. Christa (33:09.87) Yeah, and the other thing too, so this is book number four. So when I teach, I actually teach out of book number four and five. So book number four is the YouTube series. Book number five is not. Book number five is different. So when they come to me in person and they buy book number five, which is called How Do I Quilt It, or they take an in-person lecture for me, that content is not shared on YouTube, so it's still a little bit more proprietary. Lyric Kinard (33:31.752) Right, it's just a really beautiful and interesting direction and a path that your customers take. They can enter at so many different points, but they have other really interesting places to go. They can enter at YouTube and then go to the book. They can enter through a live class and then go to YouTube. I love the way it's layered and the way that you can make them all work together. businesswoman Krista, you've got it going. It's wonderful. Let's think, I would love to hear where you want to go next. Do you have any big dreams or any desires for your business that you're working towards or you would like to? Christa (34:01.4) Thank you. Christa (34:20.674) You mean, other than conquering the world? I'm kidding. No, I joke. No, I joke about that. Exactly. Lyric Kinard (34:25.319) no, not at all. It's embracing the world. We have to figure out some non-war-like imagery, because two, world domination is also my goal, but it's more like, let's be Atlas and hold the world up, right? Christa (34:43.276) Yeah, exactly. I just want to keep doing what I'm doing. I want to, and going back to the health thing, one of the things I realized too, is that when I am traveling and I'm carrying around, lugging 50 pound suitcases, I want to be able to do that until I'm in my eighties. I was traveling one time and this sweet lady who was my escort, who picked me up, she was like 94 years old and she was this fit little, you know, fit little spit fire. She's like, let me grab your suitcases and then throw them into my back. trunk and I'm like, no, no, no, let me do that. You're 94 years old. But she was an inspiration to me because I'm like, I want to be Spitfire when I'm 94 years old and I need to be healthy so I can live that long and lug my stuff. But yeah, I just, want to continue doing what I'm doing. I, you know, I love designing fabric. I love releasing patterns. I love teaching quilting. Lyric Kinard (35:09.531) No. Christa (35:26.542) One thing that I am dabbling more into, which I had done in the beginning of my career and that got away from, is I also like entering my quilts into quilt shows. Not necessarily to win a ribbon, but just it's another venue. It's a way to reach people. And I had gotten a little bit away from that. And so I'm getting back into that now. So I've got, you know, like I've got a quilt that was just sewn in Paducah. I've got some stuff that's gonna be hopefully in some of the other large quilt shows. And that's kind of almost been more of a hobby side, not trying to monetize it as much. but giving me a chance, and I'm sure you know this well, to play around with things that don't have to be a pattern, that don't have to be a class. Coming up with concepts and ideas, I still have to have a purpose for them, but if I say, these are my runway quilts, they're on the runway, which means they can be over the top. They can be, you know, an inspiration that might inspire something that is more commercial later, but I don't have to, the quilt that I make to enter in a quilt show does not have to be for a class pattern. fabric, etc. If that makes sense. So just having more time to play with that. Lyric Kinard (36:25.437) Right. Are you filming them as you go? Christa (36:30.708) no. Well, yes, no, yeah. Yes, but not with a plan. Yeah, when I feel like it and holding it back to see like, what do I want to do with this? I might do a trunk show of them at the end. I mean, yes, I'm filming. Lyric Kinard (36:32.851) When you feel like it. Lyric Kinard (36:45.007) It doesn't have to be for a thing, but you build that library that is available if you decide you do want to do a thing, right? Christa (36:47.776) Exactly. Christa (36:52.726) Yeah, filming, I'm not filming the piecing of them because the piecing a lot is very experimental. Like I recently did a quilt where I did inset circles. I'd never done it before. I figured out how to do it. But I filmed the machine quilting part of it because if I ever want to use that for something, then I've got that, so. Lyric Kinard (36:59.143) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (37:09.149) Right. I love that you feel so settled and happy and aligned in where your business is now. And I love the 20 years to be an overnight success thing to see the journey that you've become. Krista, this has been delightful and educational and wonderful. I am so happy that you took the time to come and be so vulnerable and open with our audience. Christa (37:22.987) Exactly. Christa (37:29.326) Thank you. Christa (37:36.417) in time. Lyric Kinard (37:39.117) So let's end with a fun question. It can be any answer that you want. What is the last thing you made? Christa (37:49.007) Okay, the last thing I made did not turn out so well. I'm not much of a cook, but I've been seeing these little things pop up about making like, you know, healthy brownies and healthy, you know, because I do have a sweet tooth. So I made this, I made this healthy peanut butter mousse that looked amazing, did not taste so good. That was basically you cream together like honey and peanut butter and cottage cheese and the Let's just say it looked a lot better than it tasted. But it was fun to try. Didn't blog about it, not going up in a video. And now when I see this stuff come through my feed, I'm like, do they test that? Does that really work? Or is this just for clicks? Lyric Kinard (38:29.551) Is it for real? Well, you never know until you try it, right? And that's with every part of life. If you never try something, you'll never actually know if it could have been amazing or now you know and you don't have to do that experiment again. I love it. People will stay away from that combination. Well, again, thank you so much, Krista. It's been a delight. Christa (38:32.61) That's true, it was fun, didn't work. Christa (38:45.282) Yeah, peanut butter and cottage cheese, and yeah, not a good mix. Christa (38:52.268) Yeah. Christa (38:56.92) Thank you for having me and I can't wait to continue to listen to all your fun interviews, so thanks. – Lyric Kinard (00:01.41) Well, friends, wasn't that fun talking to Krista? I learned so many wonderful things. And I did notice that we got talking so much that we never did get into the weeds about video tech. But she did say earlier that she keeps it simple, a phone and something to hold her camera, and she's good to go. I love also that she talked about having a plan. If you want help with things like that, Academy for Virtual Teaching, we have a video making crash course that includes all kinds of lists. It includes video production checklists. It includes all the things that you might need to help you figure out how to easily and simply and efficiently create your own videos, whether it's for YouTube or online classes. We invite you to check it out. the video making crash course at academyforvirtualteaching.com. And my friends, go create something, go share it, go serve your people. All right, we'll see you next time.