How to Start Teaching Online Without a Big Audience (Quilter Case Study)

Transcript lynn christiansen Lyric Kinard (00:02.094) Hello, my creative friends. You are going to love this today. We are here with Lynn Cricchenson. She is a member of the Academy for Virtual Teaching and it has been so much fun to watch what she does with her online teaching business. We're gonna talk about that today because there are so many different ways that a business can be organized. it's. benefits you to hear about them all. So Lynn, why don't you introduce yourself and first tell us how you got into your art form. What is it that you do? Lynn Christiansen (00:38.271) So hi, I'm Lynn Christensen with Emerald Falls Quilts. I'm waving at the camera for a podcast. And I am a quilt pattern designer and teacher and the founder of the Wanderlust Quilt Society, which is the main part of my online business. And I don't have just one little niche of art. Lyric Kinard (00:43.15) You Lynn Christiansen (01:05.939) because it's really hard to just pick one. But my patterns are mostly about the places that I have traveled. And that is kind of how the Wanderlust Quilt Society got formed, was I created this pattern that was really big and had lots of different blocks. And when I was trying to write it for just a pattern, it was going to basically be a book. And yeah, and I wasn't ready to write a book at the time. Lyric Kinard (01:31.022) That's a lot. Lynn Christiansen (01:35.597) So I had to figure out how I was gonna deliver this product. I was formerly an elementary school librarian and a teacher for almost 30 years. And like my librarian hat and teacher hat came on and it was like, okay, instead of just doing like a block of the month, I can do like a little trip and a virtual tour with each block. Lyric Kinard (01:48.449) My hero. Lynn Christiansen (02:04.401) and that's how the Wanderlust Quilt Society formed. So that is the basis in most of my online teaching, but I also teach collage. quilting and then I also do a little bit of wool applique when people ask. It was kind of how I started as a quilt teacher, my local quilt shop. I worked there part time because school teacher and they ordered all this wool and then didn't know what to do with it. And they knew that I had worked with wool applique and they were like, hey, will you teach wool applique classes? And so that's how I kind of got started teaching quilting kind of. on the side of my regular. Yeah. And that's how I started writing patterns. Actually, my first patterns were wool applique patterns. Yeah. So that's mostly what I do. I do collage applique quilts just based on places, mostly traditionally pieced. Lyric Kinard (02:45.217) A little side hustle going on. Lyric Kinard (03:04.998) And where and when and why did you choose quilting as your form of visual expression? Lynn Christiansen (03:14.523) So I started out as a child sewing clothes, like many of us do. And that is what my grandmother and my mother taught me was sewing clothes. And I would make doll clothes and Barbie clothes and help them make my clothes. And I did cross stitch and I think my mom taught me crochet a little bit, needle point. I did all the things as a kid. Lyric Kinard (03:21.643) Yes. Lyric Kinard (03:40.94) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (03:41.939) And I didn't learn to quilt until I was an adult. And I started reading the book series Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini. Sorry, I probably mangled her last name, sorry. And the librarian in me cringes when I mangle authors. And we'll figure it out. I know how to spell it. I just don't really know how to say it. Like most readers, right? We know how to spell, but we don't always know how to say them. And... Lyric Kinard (03:58.287) We'll figure it out. We'll put it in the show notes. Alright. Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (04:10.889) It was all about this quilter who started this like camp for quilters and I just became fascinated. I was like, I want to learn how to quilt. And my great grandmother had quilted, but it was one of the skills she did not pass down to me. She did teach me painting and colors and all that kind of stuff. She is the one that taught me needlepoint, but I had a coworker. Lyric Kinard (04:20.046) Have Lyric Kinard (04:27.544) fun. Lynn Christiansen (04:34.175) who was a quilter and I was like, I wanna learn how to quilt. And she was like, I'll teach you. So she would make copies in the copy room after school, as all teachers do, forever making copies. And I would sit there with my sewing machine and she taught me about what a rotary cutter and what a, know, mat, like all these terms that I didn't know as a person who grew up garments, basically. And from that point on, I was hooked. Lyric Kinard (04:46.382) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (04:56.302) Right. Lynn Christiansen (05:02.131) I wanted to make all the quilts, all of them. Lyric Kinard (05:02.264) Mm-hmm. This happens, this happens in the quilt world. I have not quite seen it in other parts, in other mediums, but quilters, we wanna do all the things and you get hooked. You get hooked. It is such a lovely art form. So you're a school teacher and I don't know any school teachers without a side hustle, right? And you start working in the quilt shop. And you first start teaching there. When did you think, I want to be my own quilt teacher? Lynn Christiansen (05:44.775) So the pandemic happened and I was still teaching in the public schools. I was teaching at an elementary school and I learned two things while teaching pandemic teaching with elementary school students. I learned that I really liked working from home. Now I did not like being a librarian from home. That was awful because you really don't have a library. And I also learned that videos weren't scary. Lyric Kinard (05:47.438) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (06:03.246) Hmm. Lynn Christiansen (06:15.315) because I had to constantly make videos of me reading books that then the kids could watch, you for their library time. I had to make videos teaching people, you know, this is how you log in. Here's your little button that you click. So I was constantly, constantly, constantly making videos when I had no idea what I was doing and I learned it wasn't scary. I didn't love having to listen back to my voice over and over, but I got used to it. Lyric Kinard (06:36.427) Right? Lyric Kinard (06:43.342) That's what we do. Lynn Christiansen (06:44.733) I got used to seeing my face because with all the zoom calls like you were constantly on camera, constantly looking at your own face, constantly going, what is that? Like, you know, all you're looking at our little heads and our noses and wondering what's going on. So it was the pandemic teaching. They made me realize I kind of liked. Having my own schedule, because even though we had to work and be there for meetings and all those kinds of things. Lyric Kinard (06:54.167) Right. Lynn Christiansen (07:12.809) You still had like your home. So for your lunch break, you could go and eat a real lunch, which most school teachers don't. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (07:21.176) Teachers don't do that. So this is so key. I want everybody listening to hear this, that Lynn didn't know all the things. You weren't comfortable on video. You didn't know all the tech and how to make video, but because you had to do it over and over and over and over and over again. You figured it out. The only way to get better at a thing is doing the thing. Lynn Christiansen (07:56.5) Yeah, like, and doing it a lot. Like, it becomes second nature. Like, now it's nothing for me to press record and start talking. Because, you know, and then I can listen to my voice, it's fine. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (08:06.966) Right. And it can be as easy as that. So a little side trip here, you're set up now. mean, COVID, we were all trying to figure out all different kinds of things, know, webcams and microphones if we needed them or not and all the tech. Right. So now you are a professional online teacher. Has your tech expanded dramatically? Lynn Christiansen (08:28.501) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (08:36.909) Yes, very much so. So beforehand, I, so I did a lot of overhead shots because I would do a lot of the story times flatly so the kids could see the pictures of the book. Like they didn't need to see my face while I was reading. They needed to see the book. But I think I just kind of had like, I don't know, stacks of something like holding my camera up or maybe I just kept holding the book up like this. Lyric Kinard (08:37.87) tell us about it. Lyric Kinard (08:53.571) Right. Lyric Kinard (09:01.806) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (09:05.752) You Lynn Christiansen (09:06.429) I did not have anything that really did a good overhead shot. Lyric Kinard (09:10.51) the piece of equipment that held your phone. Are you still using your phone? There you go. Yeah. Lynn Christiansen (09:12.999) Right, it held my phone. I still use my phone, love my phone. It is my number one source of all my videos. And I have a canvas lamp thing that holds it and has the little light now so I get good lighting. The lighting was awful in all of them because I was in my dining room because that's where my workspace was. I started out in my craft room as my workspace but then it felt just too much work. Lyric Kinard (09:26.25) Okay. Right. Lyric Kinard (09:40.91) invasive, probably. Right? Lynn Christiansen (09:42.194) in my craft space. So my dining room was my workspace. I didn't have any sort of front light, so I would have to kind of like turn just right for the windows. I could only really do videos at certain times of the day. Lyric Kinard (09:48.558) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (09:57.027) because you were using natural light. So the canvas is a desktop phone holder. It's got a weighted base and a spring arm and a ring light with a phone holder that you just pop your phone in, right? So it's still not Hollywood movie studio equipment. Lynn Christiansen (10:02.581) you Lynn Christiansen (10:10.249) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (10:16.146) No, no. I mean, it's literally I just stick my phone in and click the little light button. Lyric Kinard (10:21.292) Right. And having that light when you are doing overhead recordings, even if the light in your room is really good, when you have a phone over the thing you're working on and your light is from the ceiling, it casts a shadow on what you're doing. So having something to light underneath the piece of equipment you're using is excellent infill light, right? Lynn Christiansen (10:45.287) Yeah, I think I used to also hold like I would put the books up on like a chair so they were this way and then like film or do but because I didn't have the overhead and I was always getting the shadows. We used. Lyric Kinard (10:50.477) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (10:57.132) Right. Lynn Christiansen (11:00.799) We used a certain software at the time. I think we used like Screencast or one of those that was like allowed teachers to use for free during the pandemic. Cause they were like, let's help teachers out. Right. And I did a lot of re-recording because I didn't have any editing skills. Lyric Kinard (11:09.998) I'm very desperate. Lynn Christiansen (11:19.153) So if I messed up or flubbed, I would have to stop and I'd have to like start again from the beginning. And if I messed up, have to stop and start again from the beginning. Now I know how to edit my videos. So I'm able to mess up and then I, you know, I just pause like lyric taught me and then I wait and then I restart and then I'm able to just chop that little. know, mess up out of there. So editing has gotten a lot nicer, a lot less pressure, so that if you do mess up, you don't feel so much like, now I gotta start for that first sentence again. Lyric Kinard (11:55.492) But you're still not with editing doing all kinds of fancy editing. It's just editing out the mistakes, probably sometimes overlays, maybe an end in the beginning thumbnail. Lynn Christiansen (12:03.476) No. Lynn Christiansen (12:12.851) Yeah, mean, not even really overlays. That's very rare. I mean, it really is. Here are my hands teaching you the thing. I only really, and I think sometimes my cat walking across or me messing up is just, I'm human. So a lot of times I leave some of that in there and I'll just go, you're silly. Lyric Kinard (12:16.321) Mm-hmm. All right. Lyric Kinard (12:22.701) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (12:35.385) I've heard from so many people that when their cat shows up in their video or their dog goes crazy or something wild happens around them, the kids start running around in video that when they leave those in, when they're on public spaces like YouTube, that those things get the most views. I mean, they see you're real and they see that it's relatable, right? And people just love pets. Lynn Christiansen (12:44.085) Thank Lynn Christiansen (13:02.526) Right? Lyric Kinard (13:04.716) I mean, I don't sometimes I think maybe I should borrow somebody's pet and just, you know, have an obligatory cat butt video at least once. Lynn Christiansen (13:09.429) You're borrowing money. Lynn Christiansen (13:16.935) She and sit like she sleeps all I have two cats and you only ever see Dolly because Reba does her own little thing But every time I am recording no matter where she is sleeping She has to come in and walk across so if it's overhead you'll see her backside You might sometimes see her paw or her tail I've closed her out of the room for today, so she wouldn't come in and be noisy, but she's really unhappy with me Lyric Kinard (13:22.828) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (13:42.21) Okay. Lynn Christiansen (13:44.394) But yeah, so now I don't even worry. Like I worried lot more about being perfect when I was doing the videos for the elementary children who didn't care than I worry now. And I think even in the process of making those videos for the kids, I got less worried about being perfect because it just became, have to get this done and I'm going to mess up if I'm sitting in front of them. It's okay if they see Ms. Christiansen. Lyric Kinard (13:53.209) who don't care. Lyric Kinard (14:10.424) right. Lynn Christiansen (14:14.547) do something goofy or silly in the middle of this little list. Lyric Kinard (14:17.517) more really honestly, I firmly believe that right now, especially with AI, that is so important to be just flawed. Be yourself. I I tell my editor, don't edit out when I stumble over my words or something ridiculous comes out. That's just who I am. Right. When you said you dramatically upgraded your tech, I was expecting like an SLR camera and three different mounts and switchers and everything. And no, you just have something really nice to hold your phone and lighting. Lynn Christiansen (14:50.557) No. Lynn Christiansen (14:54.325) And I know how to, and I used a script to edit my videos now. I mean, to me, felt dramatic because it felt very much. Lyric Kinard (15:03.179) It's an upgrade from what you started with, right? Lynn Christiansen (15:05.361) Yeah, I mean it is, but no, I'm not like studio quality anything. Lyric Kinard (15:12.183) And it's fine. It's absolutely fine. mean, every time we're on a Zoom call together, Lynn, your lighting and your backdrop and everything is clear and beautiful. And that's really all people need and want. So let's go to the structure of what your business looks like right now. It is so much fun. The themes that you have and the way you work it. So describe that so people can get an idea of a different way that an online teaching business can be organized. Lynn Christiansen (15:49.366) Sure. So I teach both in person and online. And so I do offer guilds my lectures for both. So I have like a little simple little website that just explains all my classes. All of those can be done either online or in person. And now I have, and then I created the Wanderlust Quilt Society, which is Lyric Kinard (15:56.953) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (16:19.509) It's not really membership, it's a block of the month program. You sign up once, join the program, and you're in. And you just stay throughout the whole part time of the program. Lyric Kinard (16:32.697) So is it time delimited? Is it like a one year process or thing? Okay. Lynn Christiansen (16:37.255) Yes, yes. So right now we are doing the Irish Adventure. This is our third adventure, no our fourth adventure. And so the Irish Adventure started in January. Each month they get two blocks because we're making a little row sampler quilt and we visit a place. So like right now we are visiting Dublin and so in it it's basically set up like a course. Lyric Kinard (16:41.571) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (17:04.883) So they see the blocks and then they see like, here's some fun information about Dublin. And we're making the Guinness block this month. And then I include like, here's some Guinness recipes. Here's a Google Earth of the area around the Guinness storefront in Dublin. Here's, and I give them links to just some fun things kind of related to whatever we're doing that month. So that runs through, usually this one is, this one's seven months. They usually run about seven months. Lyric Kinard (17:25.272) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (17:34.03) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (17:34.76) Then I do a little short, what I call a weekend getaway, kind of over the holiday season. Because it's an easier block, because my quilts tend to be a little more complicated with the piecing. So last year I did the weekend getaway to Cozumel, and it was just three weeks, I think. Maybe more than that. Six weeks. It was just three little stops. Instead of modules, we call them stops. Lyric Kinard (17:49.391) Hmm? Lyric Kinard (17:54.383) Hmm? Lyric Kinard (18:02.083) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (18:02.717) So it's stop number one, stop number two. This year I'm thinking of doing some sort of holiday around the world event and collaborating with some other designers. Lyric Kinard (18:13.035) Is this included in the container of the block of the month thing that they buy or is it extra? Okay. Lynn Christiansen (18:22.877) It's extra. So each event is separate. So I have some students that have done all of the wanderlust events with me. We've done the Rhine River, we did Cozumel, we're doing Ireland, and we did Yellowstone. So those are our adventures we've all done so far. And I've had some people do all of the adventures with me. My founding members, they started with me in the Rhine River and they've been with me all the time. And they sign up. each time. I have some people that only join me for one. Like I had some people that only joined me for Yellowstone because they only they wanted to make the Yellowstone one. Right, they've been there, they wanted to share the experiences with others, make the quilt, have it as little souvenir. Lyric Kinard (19:00.29) a yellow sun coat. Lyric Kinard (19:08.685) and then you do a mini course over the holidays. Okay, so it's structured kind of like a course, because you have output on a drip schedule, right? Twice a month and there's written content, there's the pattern. I absolutely adore the whole theme where you're visiting places. The travel theme is such... Lynn Christiansen (19:11.998) Yeah. Lynn Christiansen (19:20.648) huh. Lyric Kinard (19:37.143) a clever and wonderful way to center the experience, right? You have a thing that it's an experience that you're providing. And I love travel like so much. So actually I would love to see all their travel stuff more than I would actually make the quilt. I'm terrible. I don't want to make quilt blocks. I can make them, but they don't bring me joy. So I don't, want somebody else to make them for me. Lynn Christiansen (20:04.531) I have some members that only make one or two. I call it the low stress choose your own adventure block of the month program because when you go on a trip and you travel, there's different types of travelers. You have the travelers that like to kind of hang out. Lyric Kinard (20:07.364) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (20:15.345) nice. Lynn Christiansen (20:25.053) read their books, just enjoy the ambiance, right? Sit in the cafe. You have the travelers that have to go do all the hiking and all the sightseeing and see all the things. You have the travelers that are like doing the skydiving and the rock climbing and the water rafting. Lyric Kinard (20:29.04) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (20:40.541) So there are different kinds of travelers. So there's different kinds of quilters for block of the month programs. So we have the very low stress block of the month program. If you're just there just to enjoy it and you were like, I'm only going to make the leprechaun. I'm like, great. Here's some options on how to make it into a cute little mini quilt. Lyric Kinard (20:58.64) Right. Now, can people join at any time if it's a seven month container, a seven month time delimited program, can they join at any time? Lynn Christiansen (21:10.139) No, they have to join at the beginning. But starting this year, now that I have several little adventures, I'm going to do what's called the self-guided adventures. So right now we have like monthly Zoom calls. We call them pit stops. We also have a book club. We have a book club where we read books based on the area because the librarian and me can never stop being a librarian. Lyric Kinard (21:12.804) All right. Lyric Kinard (21:22.212) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (21:28.496) I Lyric Kinard (21:35.312) Of course. Lynn Christiansen (21:36.982) And so we have all of these extra little things, but I'm going to take our adventures and turn them into self-guided tours where it's still the blocks. It's still, there's video content that walks you through every step of the blocks. There's the video tutorials, because like I said, some of the blocks can be a little tricky and complicated. So there's a video tutorial for every block. It'll have all the cute little extras. It just won't have any of the live zooms or, you know, the pit stops. Lyric Kinard (21:53.584) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (22:04.912) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (22:06.249) and I'm gonna call those self-guided tours. And so then people can choose to go like on the Yellowstone self-guided tour. They can make the quilt or only one block from the quilt. I'm not judging anybody. And they can buy it anytime. Lyric Kinard (22:17.23) and they can buy it at any time. now, so you create this adventure, probably you're recreating it as you go, right? Lynn Christiansen (22:30.581) Yeah, it's bit off the head, but yeah, it often is, okay, the fifth, like the everything releases the 15th. All right, stop number four is opening on the 15th. Are all the blocks ready for stop number four? Are all the videos ready? Yeah. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (22:45.806) I better get everything ready. This is, you've got the concept, you've got the plan and you open it for registration, but the course isn't, the whole adventure is not entirely built yet. You do it as you go with it. It's a live experience where you do it together. And now you have all that content. You've got what, four or five different adventures and you have all the content. And what a fabulous evergreen product now that you can, people can buy it anytime they want. And it doesn't rely on you adding any more hours to it. Lynn Christiansen (23:26.825) Yeah, I'm kind of excited about it. I'm excited about people getting to do it and see it. Because when I started the Rhine River, I was still pretty small. I'm still small, but I was really small. I'm so grateful to my little founding members because we honestly built Wanderlust kind of together. And I even told them, here's what I've got. Lyric Kinard (23:40.09) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (23:52.362) This is the block, the quilt I planned to make. Even the quilt changed a little bit as we went based on feedback. So I was like, you're my founding members. You get to tell me what's working, what's not working. And then from then, I've kind of used that frame that they helped me build for all the rest of the adventures. Lyric Kinard (23:56.186) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (24:08.942) Right? Can I ask you how small your first wanderlust was? Lynn Christiansen (24:13.343) Yeah, I had 11. Lyric Kinard (24:16.592) Yeah, without a huge following on social media, without a huge newsletter list, it only took those people to be in with you and build this thing. And then you build as you go, right? You build your audience, you build your marketing, you build your following as you teach. So many people out there think... Lynn Christiansen (24:22.719) Mm-mm. Lyric Kinard (24:42.806) It's not going to be worth it for me to make a class because I don't have a huge following, I don't have a newsletter, but you don't have to. Lynn Christiansen (24:52.277) No, I had, I mean, I still only have barely a thousand followers on Instagram. I think I only had like, maybe had like a thousand on my email list at the time. Like I did not have a large email list. I just, but at the people I had, they, yeah, they were like, they had come to me. Most of my email lists would come me from in-person classes or maybe some summits. Like I did the, Lyric Kinard (24:58.352) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (25:05.242) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (25:11.898) liked you. Lyric Kinard (25:17.7) Right? Lynn Christiansen (25:23.453) Had I done the sampler platter then? I can't remember now. But yeah. Lyric Kinard (25:28.782) Yeah. Yeah. So there are different ways to build your list and you build it as you teach. You start doing the thing and everything builds together as you go. You're like the perfect case study for the workshop validation lab that we do where we have people come in and you build your plan. You build some of your marketing messaging. and you invite your beta students in and they pay you. Lynn Christiansen (26:01.907) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (26:03.372) And then you go from there. Then you build with them. I've been doing it this way for years because I'll have an idea in my head for years. And until I finally, I just build a registration page and say, it's open and we're going to start on this day. And I usually get my videos or whatever up literally the night before. But it forces me to do the thing because I'm accountable to my students. And what you were saying about your students, your list is small. It doesn't matter if those few people on your list are dedicated to you. If they love, if they're the super targeted right audience who need exactly what you're offering, then it doesn't matter. big your list is, right? Lynn Christiansen (27:02.727) No, I mean, and it started out more as a membership. It started out as a monthly like paid by the month. And it was going to like change adventures constantly. And once you were in the membership, you could, you know, stay, leave, whatever. that just didn't work for me. It, it felt too much. Well, honestly, it hurt my feelings a little bit when people would leave, but yeah. Lyric Kinard (27:06.544) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (27:10.586) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (27:16.08) and do things. Lyric Kinard (27:20.74) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (27:28.496) There's always churn in memberships, always. Lynn Christiansen (27:32.393) But part of it also was, but they didn't get to finish. And now they don't have any of the stuff to finish. And I didn't care if they didn't finish, but I wanted them to still have all the stuff. And it was a lot sometimes to keep up. Yeah, and it was also. Lyric Kinard (27:35.396) Mm. Lyric Kinard (27:42.002) But they hadn't paid for it. It is a lot of admin unless your business model is entirely membership. But you're actually providing kind of a course and having it paid monthly really is hard. Lynn Christiansen (27:47.509) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (27:57.566) Yeah, yeah that's what I realized. Really this is kind of more like a block of the month. We're just making this one project. We're visiting this one location and I think it made it easier also for the people who join. Like we're here for Yellowstone and we're gonna have this Yellowstone content for as long as we want it. But this is our our journey and then they if they didn't like the next place that I went then they don't have to come. Lyric Kinard (28:03.461) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (28:12.763) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (28:16.433) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (28:22.469) They don't have to come. And they're not quitting in front of you, so it's not hurting your feelings. Lynn Christiansen (28:26.793) Right. can understand that a little bit. Like, I can be like, yeah, like obviously, you know, if Ireland was not your thing, then obviously you're not going to join me for Ireland. But maybe you'll come back when I do something else. Lyric Kinard (28:40.923) Right. I love the way that you tried something and the business model just, it didn't work for you. So you just changed it. People think they have to, when they're starting out with online teaching, they have to know everything and have everything planned out. And this is the way it's going to be. And it is good to plan it out. But sometimes it doesn't work when you're halfway through. The thing is you can change every single piece of this business of what you teach, of how you offer it, of how you structure it, of how you model your business, of how you reach your students at any time. It's flexible. You make it work for what fits your life. Right? Lynn Christiansen (29:12.372) Yeah. Lynn Christiansen (29:21.365) Yeah. Lynn Christiansen (29:26.993) Absolutely. I think that's also the public school teacher in me. You're always, you were always having to adapt. You're always having to change. You could teach one lesson in one class period and then be like, this isn't working for this class period and completely have to change it. So that kind of adaptability and flexibility just is, it's just part of who I am now. Like, this isn't working. How can I fix it? Or I'm not really enjoying this because sometimes it's about me. Lyric Kinard (29:30.736) Hmm. always. Lyric Kinard (29:41.317) Night. Lyric Kinard (29:53.669) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (29:54.154) Like, I'm not really enjoying this, doing it this way. I'm not enjoying spending all my time figuring out who's paid when, where, how, because you know, it all hits at different times with memberships. I'm not enjoying feeling like I didn't deliver all the content they deserved. So I'm just going to do it this way. That way, even if they don't even like log in at the beginning, it's still there. It's still there for them at any point in time when they are ready to go to Ireland. Lyric Kinard (30:04.038) Okay. Lyric Kinard (30:09.765) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (30:21.489) Excellent, excellent. Such a good case study, such a good example of how this can work and how it can change and how it can be flexible. You mentioned different ways that you built your list. It was small, maybe you didn't even have one at the time. I do the same thing. When I teach in person, I bring a clipboard with a sign up and I actually put little postcards. Lynn Christiansen (30:37.525) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (30:49.743) I have a clipboard that opens up and has containers. if they sign up, they get to choose a postcard and it has a QR code to my online classes with a 15 % discount code. So there's a little incentive there for them to sign up and I get the emails and names to build my list slowly. I did try a new thing just this last week where I took a picture of that. Lynn Christiansen (30:51.989) Thank you. Lyric Kinard (31:18.135) Usually on the airplane on the way home, I'm inputting into a spreadsheet, right? I took a picture and asked AI to do it for me. I'm not sure it's ready for that yet. I didn't specifically put on the sign up, please print clearly. So it made the spreadsheet in like two seconds, but then it marked almost every single line saying. Lynn Christiansen (31:21.769) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (31:45.328) I can't read this letter, I can't do this. So I had to go back and check every single thing myself someday. That will be easy. But you build your list bit by bit that way. And then let's talk just a moment about summits because online summits are all over the place and it's also an interesting business model on both sides. I'll have to get another person on who runs a summit. But from the teacher side, Lynn Christiansen (32:11.25) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (32:14.289) They're all run a little bit differently, but usually it's a group of teachers. Often we send in a pre-recorded lesson, right? And the people who attend the summit sign up for free. So we're not getting paid. The person who is the summit leader is actually putting in weeks worth of work. It's a lot of work. Lynn Christiansen (32:24.799) Right. Lynn Christiansen (32:39.756) yeah. Lyric Kinard (32:42.895) But then they offer upgrades to keep the recordings and that's how they earn money. The teacher can advertise it. Usually you get an affiliate link. if people sign, if you do advertise it and people sign up through your link, you get a percentage. But the real thing is list building, right? Exposure, which, you know, I'm iffy on so many things about doing it for exposure. But purposefully building your list is more than exposure. Your list is your most valuable asset. So how did you participate in a summit and get those emails? Because they don't just give it to you. People have to agree to give you their email. Lynn Christiansen (33:28.213) Yes, they do. So one thing that I really enjoy about doing a summit is that they're not coming to me just for the free thing because a lot of times lead magnets are just free, patterns are free. They're coming to me through my teaching. So they've seen me teach and they know my teaching style so they're more likely to stick around and stay with me. Lyric Kinard (33:47.941) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (33:55.639) which I like, and then they're more likely to wanna take more classes from me. So I typically, I've done different things. The most current summit I'm doing right now, I'm doing the Quilters Life Summit at the time of this recording, and I did a tutorial on mini quilts, like making small quilts with small pieces and little tricks, and the freebie that I offered, which really was the... you know, give me your email and you get the free pattern. And it was just basically the pattern more written out, a little easier to understand than, you know, just the video. Sometimes I've done like supply list type things, like my favorite tools that I use for like I've done wool applique. I've done like a list of things about just a tip sheet about wool. Lyric Kinard (34:25.115) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (34:43.727) Right. So what happens when you submit your video for a summit is the people who register can choose to look at your thing. And on your tutorial, whatever you've put in, there's a way for them to get something, but they have to come to you and sign up for it and you have to deliver it. Right. So you have to have that system in place. It can be a Google spreadsheet. that automatically gives you, or a form, a Google form and the automatic reply sends them to a Google folder with the handout. So a handout for the class. A tip sheet, like you said. The pattern fallout. When I did my abstract design class, I have a critique cheat sheet that has questions about the elements of art that you ask yourself when you're designing, because I work with artists, right? aspiring artists. So then you get their emails and then you put them in your email list. If you have an email delivery platform already, you can have this whole thing set up. Like most platforms can do this. I use the Sendler online course platform for a lot of my things and you can build a marketing funnel where It is a PDF or a video that you deliver. They give you their email. They immediately get the PDF. They're automatically added to your system. You can build a email automation where they sign up and then every couple of days they get just these nurturing, here, let's be friends kind of emails, right? That aren't any more work for you. Right. So what I'm curious what platform you use for your experiences, your trips, your tours. I forgot Wanderlust for your Wanderlust Society. And what does it include? What does your tech stack look like? Lynn Christiansen (36:54.142) Yeah. Lynn Christiansen (37:01.078) So the Wanderlust Quilt Society, all of my online courses use member vault. It felt, because I was used to using Google Classroom when I was a teacher, that's what we used to, because then after the pandemic or during pandemic, we had to not only create the videos, we then had to start creating courses inside like college level things for elementary kids. Lyric Kinard (37:06.395) Alright. Lyric Kinard (37:12.88) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (37:19.345) Right. Lyric Kinard (37:24.21) Google Classroom, yeah. Lynn Christiansen (37:26.75) It was very interesting. So the most exciting part about teaching adults is they can actually read my instructions. Most of the time, I'm like the kindergartener. Right? Yeah. So I use member vault because it looked and felt the most like what I was used to working with. so on my on demand, anytime I do an online Lyric Kinard (37:33.75) Yay! Most of the time you would not believe how much time I spend helping people log. Lynn Christiansen (37:55.091) in part like a live zoom course like the meat of it is there and then the zoom you know is done obviously through zoom but everything is in member vault. Lyric Kinard (38:07.9) So it has a payment system. It has the structure where you can input your material. Lynn Christiansen (38:10.068) It has the payment system. Lynn Christiansen (38:16.47) All right. It has the module structure. It has like where you upload the documents. You can upload videos. Lyric Kinard (38:21.018) Mm-hmm. It's got the login system so only people that have paid for it can get into your, does it have an email delivery system? Okay, what do you use for that? Okay, beautiful. Flowdesk is great. Lynn Christiansen (38:28.445) Yeah. It does not. So I use flow desk. Which is not yeah, it's not one of its compatible email system, so I have to use Zapier. Lyric Kinard (38:42.684) Hmm, which is another technical subscription that ties different things together. It's really useful. does. Lynn Christiansen (38:46.389) No. Yeah, it basically says if somebody signs up for the Irish Adventure, it then pings Flowdesk and puts them into Flowdesk in that little category. So then they get the email. But yeah. Lyric Kinard (38:58.266) with a tag. Okay. And all of these things can be pieced together. I I have at times had my WordPress website and MailChimp for my newsletter, and they were integrated. So people, I could put a MailChimp pop-up on my WordPress site and it would tag them back and forth. So if you're starting new and don't already have something, you know, These are things to consider. Are your different systems integrated or do you want to get an all-in-one? there is, I hate to tell you, people, there is no perfect system. Every single one of them has like a fatal flaw and you just have to get around it and deal with it. And we're all at different places, right? I don't know much about member vault, so that was really interesting to hear about. Lynn Christiansen (39:28.736) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (39:56.422) That's great. Lynn Christiansen (39:56.663) Yeah, they don't have. So I also have Shopify, which runs my website and runs my shop because the world does not have a product section, so you can't sell like your patterns and member. Lyric Kinard (40:02.298) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm Right. Yeah, if you have physical products, there is no online course platform that works well for selling, for keeping track of inventory, for taking shipping and weight into consideration for printing labels for all that stuff. But Shopify is super easy to use and you can link it in. I had that too. Lynn Christiansen (40:18.132) No. Lynn Christiansen (40:28.917) It is. Yeah, yeah, I had no idea what I was doing, but I still figured it out. Yeah, and then I know member vault does have like a blog section, which I don't use because I use my Shopify blog. So if you were just doing courses, it has a lot of the features. I don't know if it has all the features. Everybody does their courses differently. It works for what I do. And I'm pretty comfortable with it, pretty happy with it. Lyric Kinard (40:48.21) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (40:53.788) Right? Excellent. Lyric Kinard (41:00.026) Yeah, you've heard me over and over in the academy say, use what you've got, use what you're comfortable with until it absolutely does not work anymore. And then look at other things, but it is when you are beginning or as you are building your business at any point, it is not worth the break in time that it takes to research and learn something new if you already have something that. Lynn Christiansen (41:10.358) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (41:29.234) pretty much works. Lynn Christiansen (41:31.124) Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to learn. A lot of different software out there. So sometimes when you get to the point where you're finally comfortable, like, and you finally are like, okay, I know how to quickly get in and update my class and add these things or in Shopify, I know how to quickly add my products. It's a good feeling. It takes practice. It takes a lot of love. Lyric Kinard (41:34.822) Mm-hmm, always. Lyric Kinard (41:50.835) It does. And the thing is you don't have to learn all of it. In whichever system you're in, you only have to learn the part that lets you do the next thing. Lynn Christiansen (42:06.06) yeah, like I know that Shopify and member vault because member vault is really good at communication. They're always telling you their updates. They're always like doing little summits to like how to better this, that or the other. And I'm usually just like sticking with what I know for right now. So yeah, like you don't have to do all the things with even the website you're using. Just figure out the little bits that you need. And then eventually you learn a little more and you keep adding a little more. Lyric Kinard (42:19.014) I don't have time. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (42:27.803) Exactly. Lyric Kinard (42:33.266) And there you go, right? And you start small and you just go. You don't know how to make videos, but you make videos anyway. You don't know how to edit. It doesn't matter. Just get them out there. I love this example of just growing organically, just editing and revising your business model. As you go, you try it out, you try it and see. And if it doesn't fit, if it's not comfortable, you tweak it and you change it. That's an amazing way to develop your business. And you've developed just such a fun and wonderful business. Does your business, so you're not teaching anymore, right? I mean, school. Lynn Christiansen (43:28.968) No, so I, right, so I do this now full-time. I'm still pretty small. I have a very supportive husband, so I always have to like do a shout out because he takes care of most of the household stuff while my business is growing. Lyric Kinard (43:35.196) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (43:47.282) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (43:48.651) But he was a real estate, he is a real estate agent. don't know why I said was. He is a real estate agent. And when we first moved to North Carolina, he decided that's what he wanted to do full time. And so it was one of those, okay, give yourself like a deadline. Like how many years do you wanna be able to like help support the family? And until then I'm the one with the income. And so that's what we did. And so it kind of felt like our kids were finished with college. Lyric Kinard (44:08.701) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (44:14.326) And I was ready because I was starting to get more more bookings during the day and during the weeks. And I hated having to always say no because I was having to work. And so we just kind of took the leap and he was like, OK, it's your turn. You take some time to build the business. Let's decide how much time you've got. I keep telling him 10 years. Lyric Kinard (44:19.379) You Lyric Kinard (44:37.939) Ten years to be an overnight success, which is not a lie. You know, but it doesn't mean it's ten bad years. Lynn Christiansen (44:41.57) Right? No. Lynn Christiansen (44:51.084) no, I'm having a blast. Lyric Kinard (44:53.465) important. That is so important. Lynn Christiansen (44:55.54) I'm teaching what I love, I'm helping people be creative. I'm doing, I mean, and I'm still using my library skills in different ways and it's... Lyric Kinard (45:07.047) You're building a business that supports the kind of life that you want to have instead of you being a slave to the business. Right. That's so important. So important. Well, Lynn, this has been an absolutely delightful conversation. I have enjoyed it so much as always. I always love when I see you inside the Academy and our business builder program. You're a graduate. Lynn Christiansen (45:13.643) Yeah. Lyric Kinard (45:36.207) of our signature course and to see the way that you are using what you learn there is gratifying. And the way that you're reaching and bringing joy to so many people brings me joy. So thank you for what you are doing. Lynn Christiansen (45:57.527) Well, thank you for everything you taught me because my, you know, dramatic changes, a lot of them I learned from you. Lyric Kinard (46:06.149) That's what we do there. One question we like to ask before we go, just for fun, and you can answer anything you want, is what is the last thing you made? Lynn Christiansen (46:18.39) Oh, the last thing I made was the... Lyric Kinard (46:21.563) I know the last thing I made last night was I smoked cheese on our grill. It was really good. Lynn Christiansen (46:28.342) Oh dude, it smells delicious. So I didn't really make dinner last night. So, no. I think the last thing I made is I'm working on a wool applique thing. So it's not finished, but that's the last thing I worked on. The last thing I finished was one of the next blocks for my YouTube channel. Every month I have a different block that I give a tutorial for, and this one is called the Phoenix block. It actually had to use templates. Lyric Kinard (46:41.744) Mmm. Lyric Kinard (46:50.323) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (46:53.832) Mm-hmm. Lynn Christiansen (46:58.678) And why seems so. Lyric Kinard (47:01.339) and they're different from your Wanderlust Club blocks. Lynn Christiansen (47:04.064) They're different from my Wanderlust Club Blocks. They're actually inspired from the Encyclopedia of Quilt Blocks. I just picked a whole bunch that I liked. And yeah, it's just a practice piecing skills. So that's the last thing I finished. It's really pretty. I'm very proud of it. You can find me at emeraldfallsquilts.com and that will lead you to the Wanderlust Society. It leads you to my shop, to my blog. Lyric Kinard (47:11.431) fun. Lyric Kinard (47:17.041) And so you have a YouTube channel too. Great. Where can we find you, Lynn? Lynn Christiansen (47:32.838) then my YouTube channel is the same name at Emerald Falls Quilts. I'm there every week. Lyric Kinard (47:37.175) Lovely. Lovely. It has been a pleasure and delight. Thank you so much, Lynn. Lynn Christiansen (47:43.978) Thank you so much for having me. Lyric Kinard (47:46.269) All right, friends, keep creating what you do makes the world beautiful. What you do makes the world better and even better. Come check us out at the Academy. have a free membership. We have all kinds of courses that can help you build your business so that you can get the beauty, the skills, the joy that you have out into the world because the world needs you friends. All right, we'll see you next time.