You've designed patterns. Maybe you've even sold a few. But somewhere between that first design and now, you started wondering: Am I doing this right? Is my pattern actually good, or am I just getting lucky? And if I'm going to do this seriously—if I'm going to take my business seriously—what does that actually look like? Today, I'm talking with Whitney Steen, a knit pattern tech editor and graphic designer who works inside the Self-Publishing Incubator. Whitney spent years i

Saremy wrote a 480-page book in secret. What helped her cross the finish line—and what you need if you're ready to publish yours.

Hey Tori! Answering Your Digital Marketing Questions for Creative Entrepreneurs Podcast I have dyslexia. I struggled to read and write for years. I still struggle with spelling—if you see a typo in my work, you'll know it came from me, not an AI (haha). For the longest time, I was convinced that I would never be able to write a book. That was for real writers. For people who loved writing from the start. Not for someone like me. And then one day, sitting at my desk trying to

You launched a quilt pattern, you sent the emails, and you showed up on social media. Your audience responded! And then you're standing there, pattern out in the world, wondering: what happens next? That's where Rhonda Canning of Primetime Quilt Co was after she launched her pattern, Twilight.

Your email list. Your Instagram followers. Your Facebook group. The same people, every time. So you start wondering: How do I reach new people without spending a ton on ads? And is it really worth the time to try?

Forty-five minutes later, you've reorganized your Canva folders, watched three reels about hooks, opened a blank email draft and closed it, and posted absolutely nothing. Or maybe this is you: you panic and post three things that have nothing to do with each other. A finished quilt photo on Monday, something funny on Wednesday, a new pattern on Saturday. No thread connecting them. Just three separate first impressions. I'd love to show you how I would plan your marketing for

Tired of scrambling? Learn the proven 4-step promotion calendar I use with DMMC members to organize launches, set your content strategy, and build in rest.

You finished it. The pattern is written, the PDF is uploaded, the photos are edited, and your sales page looks gorgeous. Tuesday morning you posted a picture, typed “It's available now — link in bio,” and then you refreshed that page about forty times. And it was quiet. Not nothing — a couple of sales from the same handful of people who always buy from you. But quiet.

You have four classes on email marketing. A Pinterest course you never finished. A Reels workshop from last spring — you watched two of the eight videos. Last week you signed up for another one, and this time you’re really excited about it. You’ve been in business five years. Seven, maybe. Your email list has 41 people on it, and you haven’t sent them anything in months. And the thought that keeps circling is: I just need to learn a little more before I start. What’s wr

Krista didn't set out to become a quilter. In the summer of 2021, she and her husband marked their cotton anniversary and she wanted to make napkins from their wedding colors. She couldn't find anyone to make them for her, so she did what a lot of people do: she Googled where to buy a sewing machine.

People keep asking you the same question. “Do you teach? Do you have a class? Do you work with guilds?” And every time, you smile and say something like “someday.” Because you know the answer should be yes — you know your craft, you’ve solved a real problem, people clearly want to learn from you. But between “I should teach this” and standing in front of a classroom, there’s a gap. And you’ve been standing at the edge of it for a while.

Your workshop exists. You have an objective, you mapped the content, you priced it with confidence. Maybe you worked through my book, Workshops Unleashed, to get here. The class is a package — a gift, ready to go. And now you're staring at it thinking: okay… how does anyone actually find out about this?

Hey Tori! Answering Your Digital Marketing Questions for Creative Entrepreneurs Podcast “Someday I’ll teach a class.” If you’ve thought it — maybe said it out loud to a quilting friend, maybe typed it into your notes app and never opened it again — this one is for you. Because here’s the thing about someday: it’s not a date on the calendar. It’s not a goal. It’s a way of putting off something you want to do, something you already have everything you need to start. Something i

You have been listening to this series - maybe from the very beginning, maybe you jumped in partway through - and every episode has given you a piece of the puzzle. How to define marketing, where your customers are coming from, what makes a landing page convert, how to grow beyond social media, and how to write captions that actually connect. But pieces are just pieces until you see the whole picture.

You know you need to send a newsletter. You’ve heard it a hundred times. So you sit down on a Tuesday night after dinner, open up your email platform, and stare at it. The blank template. The blinking cursor. You have no idea what to say. So you close the tab, tell yourself you’ll do it tomorrow, and tomorrow turns into next week, and next week turns into next month. And now it’s been two months since your subscribers heard from you.

As business owners, we go, go, go. Constantly moving. Constantly keeping up. But when was the last time you actually sat down and looked at where your time goes every week? Not guessed. Not estimated. Actually looked.

You have an amazing workshop. You’ve taught it a time or two, or maybe you’ve outlined it and you know it’s going to be exactly what quilters need. And you’ve heard that one of the quickest ways to make money as a quilting teacher or pattern designer is to teach at a quilt guild. There are hundreds of guilds across the country booking speakers and workshop teachers every single year. That is a big market.

You picked the right photo. You spent twenty minutes writing the caption. You told a story, shared a tip, ended with a call to action. You hit post. An hour later - barely any engagement. Maybe a few likes from the same three people. And now you’re wondering: am I wasting my time? Should I even bother with captions? Is the scroll so fast now that none of this matters?

if you have a page that gets visitors but no sign-ups, stay right here. Because today we’re talking about what actually makes a landing page work. And I promise you, it’s not about fancy design or tricking people or knowing how to code. It is about what you say, in what order, and what you put at the very top.

Hey Tori! Answering Your Digital Marketing Questions for Creative Entrepreneurs Podcast You have been marketing your business for years. You’re posting, emailing your list once a month, maybe even have a website with actual traffic. But your sales are low. And when someone asks you where your customers are actually coming from, you realize you have no idea. Is it Instagram? Pinterest? That one blog post from two years ago that somehow still shows up on Google? If you do not k