Start Where You Are: Teaching, Imperfection, and Self-Publishing with Tori McElwain

Lyric Kinard (00:03.182) Hello friends, it is so good to be with you again. And I am so happy to welcome Tori McElwain. She is an amazing person, a coach, quilter, a teacher. And Tori, why don't you just introduce yourselves? Tell us what you're doing now, how you got there, whatever you want to say to our people. Tori (00:24.205) Sure, so I'm Tori McElwain from, let's see, heytori.tech. I'm just recently changing my name. Formerly, I was the quilt patch by Tori. And I am a quilter, I'm an author, I am a digital marketing strategist. I help people take their idea, put it into a container, and then market it. So I help quilters with their courses. And recently or currently or very, very soon, we're gonna be launching a new program called the Self Publishing Incubator. So people can do. I did which was to self-publish a book. Lyric Kinard (00:58.154) It's so exciting. love and I have to tell everybody that you are now one of the coaches in the virtual teaching masterclass at the Academy for Virtual Teaching. And it is so fantastic. The knowledge and richness of experience that you bring to help our people there who are building online businesses is beautiful. And the way it fits is so perfect. So you help people with what goes inside of all that thing. and building the container. And then at the Academy, we help them where to put the container and how to do the video and all the tech around the ideas inside of it. So it's, it's like, it's like this perfect match. I love it. It's fantastic. Tell us a little bit. You've done a lot of things in your business. I would like to hear the evolution of what you've done. I like to let people know that Tori (01:42.411) It is. Lyric Kinard (01:57.048) this is real, you've you're amazing. You've got these amazing products, but you didn't start out right there. Tell us a little bit of the journey. Tori (02:08.117) It's quite a journey. I've done a lot, as you mentioned. So I started, I have a formal degree in teaching. I got my master's degree in curriculum and instruction. I was a teacher in the public space, in the public education for three years, and I'm military spouse. So I got that credential and... the credential and my master's degree at the same time in Texas. And then when we moved, I, were only at the next duty station for about seven months. So I had to figure out something to do with my time. I just had my first kid, which he was occupying a good amount, but he was a really good sleeper. I was really lucky. I got, I was really lucky with the first one. The second one, not so much of a good sleeper, but that's okay. But I got bored quickly and I realized that I needed to help support my family financially. Lyric Kinard (02:47.115) Wow, that is lucky. Tori (03:01.417) Well, I guess I didn't need to, I really wanted to because we had with him in the army, it was just enough to cover expenses. If we had anything unexpected come up, we were struggling. Like if the garage door broke, it was, or we had to replace a tire. It was like, my gosh, what are we going to do? So I looked at my skills. I took an inventory of my skills and my hobbies and what I could do. And one thing I could do is make cupcakes or quilt and make quilts. So I tried both at the same time and I could make really good tasting cupcakes but they looked horrible. Mostly not good at frosting, my gosh. So I went with quilting and I started making baby blankets and memory quilts and then I taught myself quilting because at the time YouTube had just become like the place to go to learn a few things. Like it wasn't YouTube University like we call it now. It was... It was very much just like the budding YouTube where the videos were still really kind of hard to watch and like learn from. Yeah, really all you had was like Missouri Star Quilt Company at that point who was putting out a few videos and doing some good things there. So I taught myself how to up those skills in quilting. So I taught myself applique, FPP, foundation paper piecing, and free motion quilting so that I could finish those quilts. And it was really fun. I just launched it on Facebook group. Lyric Kinard (04:00.919) Pretty hinting miss too. Lyric Kinard (04:06.413) Mm-hmm. Tori (04:25.475) and I just had word of mouth and I was busy all the time making these blankets but I wasn't making like any money. I did a few fairs, did a few what are they called? Like art in the parks? Is that what they're called? And it was really fun. I had a lot of fun but I did burn out. I wasn't making money. It wasn't what I really needed to do. And I started teaching online English originally and so I got the equipment for it. And then I am not good at three o'clock in the morning to teach English across the world. So I had run across this ad was talking about building a quilting business and how to scale it and make it sustainable. And I went through a business course and then I shifted gears to pattern design, which I was already making patterns for my own quilts that I was creating for my customers. So I did pattern design and then I started teaching workshops because people were asking me, how do you make these? Can you show me how to do it? And I always feel like I'm pulled back to teaching. Well, then I started teaching. So I started teaching in person and online, and this was right when 2020 hit. Everything got pushed online. So I'd just gotten into the online space, just planned out my very first online workshop. And there, you might laugh, but the first camera I used was a, like a fishbowl camera. And it was awful. Like, I don't know. Lyric Kinard (05:47.017) It doesn't even matter, right? You start with what you have. Tori (05:50.519) Yeah, you started with what you have, exactly. it looked like they could see and they learned and they loved the workshop itself, but I'm watching it back going, my gosh, you can't like you see the entire room first of all. So it's hard to kind of focus on me and the content. And it was just it was really fun to kind of funny to look back and like learn. I was on the hard way, it seems like. So. Lyric Kinard (06:11.789) We were just talking about that, yes. You you learn really well the hard way though. When you do something wrong, you understand why it's the wrong way and why something else is the right way, right? Tori (06:26.741) It sucks when you're the middle of it and you're like, why isn't this working? Lyric Kinard (06:29.853) so much. But it's okay. You know, it's the lesson you needed to learn in order to get to the next place that is successful. Tori (06:41.746) And the next place we were, we were in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. And so I didn't have a big city like I did when we were North Carolina or South Carolina. I can't remember which Carolina. Lyric Kinard (06:52.045) You've been there around and around and around Tori (06:53.453) Like I a kid's baby, but like, yeah, I've been around there somewhere. But it was still like our first year having a baby. like the memories are real foggy. That's okay. So we, I shifted to digital marketing when I had my second child and I hit burnout trying to power through a very difficult pregnancy. So pattern designing and teaching quilting, just, I drained myself of all creativity in that area. Like I just recently started quilting for pleasure again because it took almost three years to get out of that creative burnout. But I shifted to digital marketing and course design because like I said, I always pulled back to teaching and I was getting people asking me, how are you teaching online? How did you set it up? How did you get started? How did you get into the quilt shop and teach in the quilt shop? How did you get into guilds and teach in the guilds? So that's when I started moving towards course design and I created a course about it. But I couldn't logic because I just had a baby. So now I have two. Lyric Kinard (07:53.942) Right. So this is so I want to I want to go back just a little bit. It's having an idea, trying to fit it into what's already going on in your life, which is a lot. Moving around military spouse, not comfortable financially. You know, so many of us have been there. And if you haven't, it's it's hard to understand how stressful that is. And the babies. have I have five kids and Tori (08:22.211) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (08:23.329) they're spread out and it was, and every kid's different, just like you said, some are easy to do other things with some take every ounce of energy you have to keep them alive and to nurture them. And it doesn't leave a lot left over. And so that burnout can come so much faster and it can hit so much harder and you know, Sometimes I don't think we understand that caretaking for a lot of people, it's really fulfilling, but also it takes everything you have and often doesn't leave anything leftover of yourself. For so many years, I felt like an empty thing. Brain is oatmeal. All I am is this machine that takes care of people. So having something, a business or something that you can fit in around that to keep yourself connected to your skills, to your brain, to something that isn't just keeping this this little liquid machine is what I call them, right? Babies are all liquid, all over the place. But keeping that for yourself out there and trying to fit it in is important, but that burnout you talk about is so real. Like after baby number three, instead of struggling and pushing, I finally decide I can't do this anymore. And baby year and first year of the next two, I just call this a badicle because just taking the stress off and saying, okay, I'm not even gonna try to do anything else. You know, just I am just telling people and commiserating with you that it is such a huge accomplishment to do anything at all outside of the caretaking and pushing through it and doing what you've done. Just it's a journey and it takes so much perseverance and I've gone on too long. So back to you, Tori. Just I love you. This is so important. I'm so proud of you for what you've accomplished. Tori (10:42.637) Even though I love party people. Tori (10:48.045) Thank you, Eric. You put that so beautifully. I've shared that story several times and that really, it helps to hear that back to me. Thank you. But where were we? We were talking about kids. Second kid. Lyric Kinard (11:01.065) We were talking about second kids and the creative burnout. It's also interesting to hear the going from you have a skill, you have a thing that you love to do, so you spend your hours doing and making that thing and having that thing be the income earner, making the quilts and selling the quilts. That's trading hours for dollars and that's so much of an investment. People don't understand how much quilts actually cost just for the materials and the time involved. So the profitability is almost impossible to make unless you're willing, unless you're able to find an audience that pays what they're actually worth, which is a lot more than people will pay at an art fair. Tori (11:40.109) Thank Tori (11:44.893) It is possible, but like you said, it's really difficult to build that audience, build that clientele and make the money that you need to make it sustainable. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (11:51.992) Right. So going into the digital space, tell us about this beautiful, the course that you created and what your lovely giving service oriented teacher's heart, because that's what teachers do, what it drew you to. Tori (12:11.678) I loved it. I got some really great feedback on this course. It was called, it was a math-ful and here's a lesson on naming your stuff. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it was the creative, oh, I can't remember it now, was creative course, design course. it was, it was awful. But it, it drove, it drove me. It was the catalyst for the book. So I took everything that I wanted to share and Lyric Kinard (12:27.373) It was a lot of words. Tori (12:40.117) everything that I wasn't utilizing at my job. Cause right after my second kid, moved again and this time to Detroit where the income, we need a lot more income. So I had to get a full-time job. So I was a tech trainer. I trained for a tech company and my skills were being utilized. They were kind of put to the side. It was very much cookie cutter, copy based, lot of coffee based. and the chorus lit me up and I wanted to share more about it. and I didn't have the bandwidth to teach a 10 week course again or an eight. I tried to narrow it down to six and it didn't sell well. had nobody join actually. Like the third time I launched it, nobody joined. Because I tried to squish it down into six weeks, which is what I could probably do. But it was just, how do I take this knowledge and get it out there to where people can use it at any point? And lyric, I am so nervous on pre-recording video. Lyric Kinard (13:36.142) Why is that? Let's dig into it because so many teachers say this, that we are perfectly fine talking in front of 20 people in a room or a thousand people in an auditorium. And then the soon as they're gone and the camera turns on, what do you think for you is the biggest difference there? Why does that, why do those nerves pop up? Tori (13:36.739) Like I feel like we don't know. Tori (14:04.715) I think because I'm not talking, I don't have the energy exchange. I don't have the excitement. I can't read somebody's face. I can only read my own face. And then I start reading too much into my face. And then I'm like, this person isn't listening to me. I think it's kind of off the of my head. Lyric Kinard (14:18.925) We're our harshest critics. Yeah, we are our harshest critics every time when we're talking to a room full of people. I think that's a huge thing. We don't see our face. So when you have the monitor turned towards you so you can see you or when you watch it afterwards, we are so hard on ourselves. So it takes skill. It takes imagination. It takes a different thing. to be able to bring that energy and that, you know, the skills and the knowledge and the energy you have to an empty room with a camera. Tori (14:56.575) Exactly. And the other part, you mentioned empty room with a camera. I am now working in a basement. There is, this is an older house, much older house than I've ever lived in and it is loud. Lyric Kinard (15:08.513) Hmm. Tori (15:09.205) And that was another thing that kind of hung me up because I'm like, I don't know how to record this course on my off time when my kids are home. I mean, two little kids, they run around right above me. They make a lot of noise and the space was weirdly lit. Like even now, like I'm still, it's, it's, it's okay. Like this lighting's okay. But it took me a while to get there. And that was another thing that hung me up. So I put it all in a book and that's what I did. Like I took my blogs, I took my course and I put it in a book because I'm like, this is something that they can. Lyric Kinard (15:17.943) Mm-hmm. Tori (15:36.823) pick up anytime they're ready and I wanted it to be that resource that they could go back to just like a course. They could pick that up, go back to the course, watch the module or two that they needed to keep moving forward and yeah that's where the book came from. So that's what I'm doing. Lyric Kinard (15:50.229) So tell us the name of the book and give us an outline of what the book is about. Tori (15:55.149) So book is called Workshops Unleashed, How to Design Engaging and Successful Workshops for Quilters and Crafters. It's right over here. I always mess up the sub. Lyric Kinard (16:02.221) It's beautiful. We will, by the way, we will have links in the show notes. Of course we will because it is a fabulous book. Tori (16:10.719) It's pretty lyrics. So I worked really hard on the user experience, which is why I'm like, it's pretty. But it outlines, it focuses on designing your course. So step by step, how do you take an idea, create an engaging description to entice people to join, and then how do you build the curriculum? And then it goes into how to launch it and then how to continuously market, including how to build out a guild lecture so that you can go in person. Lyric Kinard (16:12.446) It is. Tori (16:39.907) and showcase your workshop. So you have both a workshop and a guild presentation so that you can market to a guild for both of those and get paid right away or launch your course right away, whether it's in person or online, like with the Academy for Virtual Teaching. Lyric Kinard (16:56.237) All right, and it's, I had the great pleasure of previewing it as you were working on it. And it is so clear and so step-by-step and so easy to understand. And it's really true that if you want to be the best teacher, if you want to bring the best result for your students, for your audience, then, It's an experience. It's the design of how you walk them through their experience of what you're teaching that has to be at the center of what you do. mean, often, you we work so hard on our skills and the beautiful things we create and we know what we're doing and we get good enough at it that we feel confident in teaching it, right? But it's not about us. It's still not about us, right? So your book is beautiful about that creating the user experience, user design. I hate acronyms because I can never remember, but like if you're doing web design, is it UIX, the user interface experience, something like that? But it's so important and that's part of what your book does so well. Tori (18:09.475) Yeah, anyway. Tori (18:15.459) Thank you, I appreciate that. I worked on a section which was really fun, which was meet your students. So we go through the types of students you may run into in a workshop and how to kind of approach them to keep the workshop moving. like, and I made like funny acronym names for them. Like I think one is talkative Tina, probably open it there. Lyric Kinard (18:34.677) Yeah, let's go through a couple of these. Let's talk about them. Tori (18:37.175) That's one of the most favorite, so I had ARC readers give me like video feedback, so I did an interview with each one of them. And that was a favorite section. Be your students. Lyric Kinard (18:49.325) So tell us about Meet Your Students, tell us about a couple of them. Tori (18:51.351) Okay. So I called Talkative Tina, the collaborator, Talkative Tina. Talkative Tina is the extrovert in the room. The student can't help but answer all the questions, share their opinions, and engage with those around them. So Talkative Tina needs dedicated time to talk. They are attending a workshop for the community. So let them know when it's appropriate to talk, but keep an eye out for side quests. We've got one mission in this workshop, and you don't want a side quest to derail the project. So Talkative Tina is also an excellent leader. If you're planning to break into pairs or small groups, partner Talkative Tina with a tenacious Tisha, which you'll see later on in this chapter. Watch their project blossom. And then one approach you can take is appreciate their enthusiasm for teamwork and cooperative learning. A strategy to keep them moving is facilitate group projects and collaborative exercises to harness their collaborative spirit. Lyric Kinard (19:47.362) Right? It's, and it's a long time in person teacher as well. You know, we all there, when teachers get together behind the scenes, people, we have so much fun talking and we love our people. love what we do, but it's also there's, there's universals. Every one of us have had somebody in our class who almost tries to take over the class. Right? Tori (20:14.166) Exactly. Lyric Kinard (20:14.773) So it's a skill learning how to channel instead of fighting against it. What you're talking about is channeling them into an ally, channeling them into somebody who can add something to your class instead of take over the whole thing. Tori (20:31.229) Exactly and then they have a great experience the people around them have a great experience and you can actually get your project done because we have like like in quilting workshops we typically have like two hours maybe three hours if you're lucky you have a whole day yeah sometimes you have six but you'll have a limited time and you have a cutoff point so if you have people who are trying to take over your class use them so you can help bring them into the experience and help move the class forward Lyric Kinard (20:43.021) Sometimes six. Lyric Kinard (20:56.331) Right, what's another student that you talk about in there and how to accommodate them? I love all the different ideas for accommodating different learning styles and different personality types. Tori (21:12.259) Thank you. This is one of those like three o'clock in the morning ideas where I'm like, my gosh, I need to create this right now. Yeah. I think in this case, definitely. so this next one is when I think we encounter a lot in quilting, which is the perfectionist perfect Paula. I'm perfectionist. And I started with a quote from Elizabeth Gilbert where it says perfection, perfectionism is just a, just, well, let me try that again. So I started with a quote with Elizabeth Gilbert. Lyric Kinard (21:16.863) Sometimes they're the best. Lyric Kinard (21:28.269) Mm-hmm. Tori (21:40.353) which is perfectionism is just fear and fancy shoes. Perfect Pala has reservations about their skill unless it's perfect. They are in your workshop to learn how to do their craft to perfection. So many perfect Palas will place emphasis on the right way to do something when there may be several ways to accomplish the step or finish a process. There's a whole science devoted to developing or to helping perfectionism. But some quick and easy deployable advice is to create a welcoming environment where they can feel safe to demonstrate their imperfections as they learn. So one approach is to understand their desire for flawlessness and attention to detail. Strategy is to encourage risk taking and accept and of imperfection as part of the creative process and action is to emphasize the beauty of uniqueness. and personal expression fostering a supportive environment where mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities and also do not force them to share. Lyric Kinard (22:44.941) Very good, very good. I love this. I'm like, giving myself a pat on my back. I open every workshop with the same kind of idea of we're here to make bad art. We're here to make all the mistakes so that there's no way to get it wrong, so that we learn so much faster. You know, I give my students permission behind, permission to be imperfect, and I give them the reasoning behind it, which is, you know, that. fear of making a mistake. As soon as you want to make something good, there's a way to make something bad, right? But as soon as you let go of that and just set out right away to do it bad the first time, then we learn together and we learn in time with the expert in the room with you, the reasoning behind why this did this. why this went this way, how it could be changed. I think you learn so much more when you're able to encourage your students to freely play like that and encourage them to, and you have to push those poly perfectionists, right? You have to really push them out of their comfort zone. And it is fear-based, it is fear-based. Tori (24:04.097) And it is a skill that you can learn. So if you're hearing this and you're like, I don't know how to do that. You can start simply as Lyric said and introduce the class as this is a safe space where we are going to make mistakes. And I think that's a hallmark of a great teacher lyric that you start with that expectation that this is experiment. This is a place that's safe to try new things and it's okay if it doesn't go the way you want it to go. And I just wanted to revisit that that's a skill that you can learn. It's something that comes. I think with experience, and you can even look back in your own experience and think of teachers that have made you feel safe to make those mistakes and how did they make you feel safe and then you can kind of emulate what they did for your own students. Lyric Kinard (24:46.893) And you can learn so much quicker by putting yourself in community with people who already know this. The academy courses, your courses, that's one of the things that we do purposefully together is everybody has such good skills, whether you're a beginner or not, whether you think you don't know anything or not. And when you work together to share those and to build each other. You learn so much. You learn so much faster by putting yourself with people who know all their stuff, even though you feel completely inadequate, right? There's nowhere to go but up. You rise to the level of the people you surround yourself. Tori (25:30.541) Yes, that's very powerful. Lyric Kinard (25:33.504) It is, right? And the opposite is true too. So my friends, if you are surrounding yourself with people who are sucking out your energy and who aren't believing in you, I can't tell you what to do other than find a supportive community as well. Find at least one person who will build you up. It makes all the difference in the world, right? Tori (26:00.309) It does. I think that just to add to that. when you're looking at experts, because I know many of our listeners are new to business and they look for mentors and especially at first we don't have a lot of funds. So we're looking for free mentors. So we're looking at the more well-known people in course design. It could be Amy Porterfield. It could be, Stu, what's his name? Stu McLaren, who does the membership stuff, take into account who they are and how they built their business. So one thing I look for is women because I am a woman. and I look for women's advice who have made a successful business because of the role that they've taken in our society. And I think it's powerful to look for successful women rather than looking at successful men because men play, better for worse, a different role in our society than women for the most part. and looking for women in your community, in your creative space that have made this business a success for them is really, really important and it can be very powerful. Lyric Kinard (27:12.479) And you find somebody who understands where you are as well. I've been with coaches who give out really, really fantastic advice, but they might be talking to a single mother who might lose her house if she doesn't make money. And they're telling her just believe in manifest all this stuff. I'm like, dude, you have never been in this situation. This is not what this person needs. Right. We need. We need people who empathize and understand the specifics of the differences in experience. We work so hard to have empathy, but for instance, I will never know what it's truly like to experience racism in America because I'm not a black person. And I have to work hard to open myself to understand what that's like and listen and truly value and believe the experiences of somebody whose life has been, I haven't ever experienced anything like that. It's hard for me to imagine, right? But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. the same, know, with whatever you're looking for, look for community of, like you said. women of people who understand, look for people who are open to that empathy and, you humility, I think has a lot to do with it, don't you? There's so many people who put, we were circling back around to what we just talked about. It's not about the teacher, it's about the student, right? We have to as teachers and when you're finding somebody to learn from, find somebody who will put not themselves at the center of the story. Tori (28:56.471) Yes. Tori (29:09.175) beautifully put. Lyric Kinard (29:13.303) Thank you, Tori. You are coming up on, you've got the book released. You self-published it. You went through, I wrote a book years ago. I didn't, it came so much earlier in, I always have these goals, these long-term, big pie in the sky and wanna do this someday. And that was one of them that like got dropped on me decades earlier than I thought it would happen. And it was like birthing a baby. It was months and months and months of really, really hard work and just, oh, and then, and then it's beautiful when it comes out. And then it's still a lot of hard work after it comes out, right? So mine was published originally by a publisher and you went straight to self publishing. I want to hear a little bit about that experience because of your teacher's heart, you've built Tori (29:54.179) Thank you. Lyric Kinard (30:11.501) around this experience another course, another way that you're sharing what you've learned in your experience so that other people can do it too. And I'm so curious about that. Tori (30:24.587) Yes. So that's you're talking about the self publishing incubator. So we I say we because I've I've OK, so let me let me take a step back. So with the book self publishing, I decided self publishing after agonizing it, agonizing over it for like a year. I was going back and forth. Do I take my manuscript, my ideas to a publisher? Do I self publish and do it myself? Now, when I first had this idea, I published a few notebooks on Amazon. So they're just graph. Lyric Kinard (30:28.064) I am. Tori (30:53.985) graph notebooks and with a really simple design I did on EQ8 plus Canva. Just so I could see what it was like to get a book through Amazon KDP and figure out what that self-publishing could look like. it's called Kindle Direct Publishing. So it's their print on demand service. So you can enter in your digital Lyric Kinard (31:06.583) tell people what Amazon KDP is. Lyric Kinard (31:18.101) upload your files in your book and everything and then people can order it on Amazon but you don't have to carry any inventory at all. Tori (31:19.339) Yes, you're fine. Tori (31:25.367) which is wonderful for military spouse because the military helps you move, but if you have a business that only helps up to a certain weight limit, so they're not going to help you move your books. Lyric Kinard (31:34.925) Oof. Tori (31:36.123) and my sewing machines and like so we would have to pay extra for all my business stuff. So that was a really big part of what I was looking at was a print on demand service. And so I experimented with KDP while I was getting ready to hire a content editor. So originally I sat down and I was going to write a guide. I was just going to write a lead magnet. And I got this advice from a webinar and I don't remember which webinar to be honest with you. I was watching a ton around that time and they said that great lead magnet is laying out the first steps a person needs for whatever your offer is going to be. So I was like, this is great. I can do the first few steps of creating a course. Well, that turned into 40 pages. I sat down for, I think it was almost four hours and it just poured out of me. Like I just been waiting for me to sit down and decide to write. And I'm not an exceptionally good writer. have dyslexia. Lyric Kinard (32:17.293) That's not a lead magnet. Tori (32:31.059) It took me forever to learn how to read and write. And so I wouldn't call myself a great writer. And I think that's important to note here is that you don't have to be a great writer to create a book. You can create a beautiful book, write how you know. then what we what I'm doing is launching the self-publishing incubator to bring in a content editor for you and a tech editor for you and me as the marketing expert and self-published author to help you build out this book and create it in your voice. your direction so that you can get your ideas out there without having to rely on a traditional publisher. And the reason I chose self-publishing was because I wanted things like that chapter on students in my book and I was worried that they would change the content. I was worried that they would not keep the content in there that I was getting questions about that people loved from the course that I put into the book. And I also wanted to make sure I could self-market. my digital marketing coaching program and help them not only develop this course but to launch it in a way that I knew worked and I didn't want somebody to come behind me and say you have to take this out, you can't write that, you can't put that in there or try to change it. And there are some publishing companies that probably won't do that so much but I was nervous about that. I didn't want to sign a contract and sign away my IP and all the things that I knew they needed. Lyric Kinard (33:49.441) They do. Lyric Kinard (33:53.578) intellectual property. And it does happen. And there are fantastic publishers. There's there, it's an apple is an orange is things, but there are real, real things when you write a book and hand it to a publisher, they own your content, and they can do with it what they will. And it used to be a fantastic the publishing industry has changed so much in three decades, right? it used to be, you go with publisher because they do all the marketing, they take all the risk, they can make it look amazing. And now they still expect the authors to do all the marketing, not all of it. They they'll send it out in a magazine or to their audience, but you still have to market it and you don't own it. And there are things like non compete. Tori (34:42.605) you still have to market it. Lyric Kinard (34:48.173) clauses. While I did not own my copyright, I couldn't publish other side projects that I had because I had to request permission from the publisher and they said, no, it'll compete with the book. And I'm like, it's mine. But it's really not when you publish with somebody else. That isn't to say never, ever go with a publisher. There's amazing publishers, really good things can happen. But go in really understanding and really talk to other authors about what was in their contracts. There were some, that's whole nother episode talking about, boy, my experience with my publisher was both fantastic and then, man, once your publisher gets sold and sold and sold and the contracts, anyway, back to your self-publishing incubator. I'm like, Tori (35:26.689) And that's what I did. Lyric Kinard (35:47.424) immediately I want to jump in and do something with you. Because it sounds like not a done-for-you service, but it's something that's done with you, with the experience that you've had. Tell me a little bit more about the actual experience. So you poured out what you had in your heart, in your mind, and even with dyslexia, right? You can people, there are so many really, really good tools talking to text or using AI and having conversations with it and then having it write down your conversation that can save you from a lot of the pain of things like having to write with dyslexia. Tori (36:34.753) And it's funny that you mention that because I wrote my book right before AI came out. Like right before when it came out, was like, are you kidding me? I could have used this. Lyric Kinard (36:44.301) It's a really good grammar and spelling checker too. I attest to that because yeah, right? Tori (36:49.153) Yes, Grammarly has been amazing. But yeah, so as soon as I wrote all that out and that there had been a little idea in the back of my mind that one day maybe I'd publish a book. But when that idea started, it was maybe like quilt patterns because at the time I was a quilt pattern designer and a teacher. And then when I had these 40 pages sitting in front of me and I still had more from the course that I wanted to include that I could include, I was like, this could be the book. This could be the book. And it was like, it was like a lifeline. So Lyric, it was a really tough year for me. That was the year I wasn't sleeping. My daughter mentioned myself, I was a good sleeper, but my daughter was not. And I was sleep to five constantly. I was working a job that felt very soul draining. And this book was like my lifeline. It was the thing that I could still do, that I could still use my skill and for myself while taking care of my family. And I did have to take a break in the middle of it. My content editor was somebody that... Lyric Kinard (37:26.294) Hmm. Tori (37:49.429) was a military spouse, so is a military spouse. And she's the one I'm pulling into the self-publishing incubator because I loved the way she worked with me. She just helped me. She didn't tell me what I needed to change. She told me this is doing good. This is what industry experts say on this thing or this like formatting thing. And she helped me answer questions like what goes in a copyright page? And she's like, you know, I haven't actually written a copyright page. So let's go figure it out together. And so I wanted to bring that same experience into the incubator where you have support, you have experts to lean on, but this is your book. You are writing it and we are there to help answer your questions, to help with industry standard, to help you flush out content or help you figure out what can be excluded, but what needs to be included and focus it on your ideal customer and keep your book moving forward so you're not. floundering for four years with this manuscript on the back end where you just have like one little question that you just can't get answered and it just sits there. We want to take you from idea to published book in 18 months. That's what we want to do. Lyric Kinard (38:53.363) Excellent, Tori, us where you see yourself and your business going. I love hearing the reality and the struggle behind all of this because sometimes people see this beautiful, amazing thing like the self-publishing incubator that you're presenting and it's lovely and so amazing and people don't remember to think about the years and the struggle that build up to this. So it's not overnight, but things do come together at some point. Tell us what you see going forward for yourself. What are your hopes? What are your dreams? Tori (39:48.767) I would love to spend most of my day coaching. I love one-on-one coaching. is every time I'm done. am energized. I literally get up and pace and I talk to my husband about all the things that we just went over and like I'm so excited and it's been the only thing that has energized me in a long time. other than like playing with my kids. or like every once in while I'll do something creative that is just wonderful. But coaching has been just, it's, I feel like it's been. Lyric Kinard (40:21.441) What about it? What do you think about it? Energizes you so much because I'm interested to hear what comes out of your brain because I'm like, you could be speaking my words right now. Tori (40:30.819) Okay, I'm just sick off top my head here but like coaching to me I get to help people and I get to help them make the connections that they don't see and that is somebody I needed so I get to be that person I never had I get to be I get to be that person I never had where I I have I did my Clifton strengths and one of my strengths is strategy And I'm really good at figuring out how to get somebody from A to B when they want to get to B, but they just don't know how to do it. Well, let me, let me show you then that we can discuss it. We can go through what steps sound good. Where do you want to go? How do you want to communicate to get it to where you are loving this idea? You are loving this plan. And then Lyric, the best part is I get to sit back and they do all the work and I get to cheer them on and help them every step of the way. when they start implementing the plan that we've created, Lyric Kinard (41:14.315) Yes. Tori (41:21.815) and they run into a roadblock, we can get back into it and be like, OK, why is this stopping you? How can we move you forward? Unlike the other day, we I have a client who she really, really wants to get this website up and going. But she also has these projects that she needs to make. And she also wants to launch another pattern. And she has so many things that she wants to do. And she wants to create a new Instagram. It's like, OK, OK, OK. So before we can launch an Instagram, we need a place to send the people from the Instagram. So let's back up. you're already paying for the website platform, so let's get the website going first. And these are the basics you need, and then we can run with whatever you want to run with. And one thing that was stopping her was, how do I write a blog post? Okay, we're gonna write a blog post right now. What do you wanna write a blog post about? And she said, well, this freebie that I'm creating. And I'm like, okay, great, what's the freebie? And I used chat GPT, I outlined exactly what she said. and I put it in there and it wrote the blog post for her and I'm like, look, we're going to copy and we're going to paste this. I want you to set a timer for 10 minutes. And because this is the person I needed, I needed somebody to say, only spend 10 minutes on this. Stop spending hours on one blog post because it's not worth it. Write what you need to write. Put those beautiful pictures in there and get it out into the world, because that's the only way that you can help people is to get it out there. And that's what I needed. So I get to be that person for my clients. And it just it I mean, I just like sitting up and like. Lyric Kinard (42:30.765) Right? Lyric Kinard (42:45.449) If you could, if you all could see both of our smiles right now, we're splitting our faces in half because this is exactly it. It's coaches and teachers. It's, we get as much joy from seeing somebody else get it and do it and succeed as we would from our Tori (42:46.0) I'm Lyric Kinard (43:11.429) own success. know, in fact, it's a little bit more because of exactly what you said with our own success, we have to actually do all the struggle all the way through. And with other with the people that we teach with our students in a course with people in your incubator incubator or the master class at the Academy, we get to have an overall picture and help simplify it for other people help. pull away that struggle and then watch them get it done. And that when they succeed, it is the best feeling, isn't it? Tori (43:51.043) I think it reminds us of when we did it too, because we both have launched a course, we both have launched a book, we both have done the struggle and figured out the marketing and then we can make it easier for them and watch them succeed and it's just, it's wonderful. Lyric Kinard (44:04.969) And isn't it beautiful and amazing to be working with creative people who are doing that? So not only do we teach and bring that ease and that clarity and focus and that joy to the people who we teach, but they're teachers, they're givers. They're also, it's like this beautiful giant ripple effect of putting so much more into the world than we could if it was just us. on our own. Tori (44:36.364) of the Lyric Kinard (44:37.343) It's it's such a beautiful thing. Tori, this has been delightful and fun. And I feel like we could go on and talk all day because your soul is just shining. And also the vulnerability that you've shared has been, I think, so valuable to our listeners, knowing that it's real, right? Tori (44:47.447) Yeah, I think we could. Lyric Kinard (45:06.239) Okay, I like to end with a quick fun question. What is the last thing you made? And it doesn't have to be like a crafty thing with your hands. Tori (45:20.653) What think I made? I made an email series. Lyric Kinard (45:24.589) That's a thing. That's an accomplishment. Tori (45:27.593) I launched, so with the book, I always do a book club. A free book club, you purchase a book, you're in for free, and we go through it together, and it's live and I answer questions. So I created the email sequence for my email list to launch that free book club. That's what I created. Lyric Kinard (45:32.321) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (45:41.099) Because you, my friend, know about marketing and you know how to... We won't go off on that because we'll end up talking for another hour. Maybe we will come back someday and talk just about marketing because if you have a gift and you don't put it out there, you're depriving your people of that joy and that beauty, right? And so knowing how to get it to them and your email sequence is perfect. Tori (45:49.292) Okay. Tori (46:03.267) and that's what rocketing does. Lyric Kinard (46:07.797) And once it's written, my friends, it can be automated so that you're not inventing the wheel and doing the work over and over again, right? Tori (46:16.483) Exactly. So right now my book club is ready to go. All I'm gonna do is show up on Saturday and be like, hello everybody! Lyric Kinard (46:23.209) Yay! Where can people find you, Tori? Tori (46:26.231) I'm currently at the quiltpatchbytori.com. It will be changing fairly soon to heytori.tech. But you can find me on Instagram at heytori.tech. Lyric Kinard (46:36.789) All right, and we will have lots of links in the show notes. Tori's an amazing person. I encourage you all to reach out to her. And my friends, keep making, keep creating, keep sharing the amazing, beautiful things that you do that make the world beautiful enough to live in. Thanks, and we'll see you next time.