What to Do After You Launch: A Live Coaching Conversation with Rhonda Canning
Hey Tori! Answering Your Digital Marketing Questions for Creative Entrepreneurs Podcast
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 quilt pattern, Twilight. And it's a question most creative entrepreneurs face at some point — especially if you're coming back after a break.
Rhonda's story is one of resilience. After stepping away from her quilt pattern design business for three years — during a time when her family needed her most — she decided this year that it was time to create again. With support from fellow designers, mentors, and eventually working with me in the DMMC on her launch strategy, Rhonda got Twilight out into the world. She even submitted to Magazine features, which have started coming through. Her social media gained traction. But she knew the real opportunity wasn't just in one launch. It was in building an audience she could reach again and again.
In this episode — our first live-coached guest conversation on Hey Tori — I walk you the listener and Rhonda through exactly what to do after launch to help grow an audience for the next one. We talk about which metric matters, and then I coach her through seven concrete strategies for growing an email list through collaboration, community, and smart reuse of the work you're already doing.
What you'll learn in this episode:
How to look at your launch metrics and decide which one to improve next
Why collaborations — not solo effort — are the fastest way to grow your email list
Seven specific strategies: summits, bundles, Facebook groups, guest appearances, directories, lead magnet sharing, and magazine submissions
How to reuse every asset you create — from magazine quilts to social media wins — to keep building momentum
Resources and People mentioned:
Relaunching Video by Tori (YouTube): https://youtu.be/fgvUTs-b4fw?si=Kv7VpwdN9AlyikGq
Elizabeth Chappell: https://quilterscandy.com/courses (running for the last time in 2026)
Angela Walters: https://quiltingismytherapy.com/angela-walters/
Self Publishing Incubator: https://selfpublishingincubator.com/ with Tori McElwain, Whitney Steen, and Kaitlyn Fritsch
Directories:
+ Craft Industry Alliance: https://craftindustryalliance.org/
+ Global Quilt Connection: https://www.globalquiltconnection.com/
+ Academy of Virtual Teaching: https://www.academyforvirtualteaching.com/
+ Heartland Quilt Network: https://heartlandquiltnetwork.com/
Connect with Rhonda:
What Happens After You Launch?
The launch sequence is exhilarating. You have a plan. You know what emails to send, when to post, how to build momentum toward the moment people can actually buy or sign up. Everything has a timeline. Everything has a purpose.
And then the launch ends. And you realize: that timeline was the structure holding everything together.
Inside the DMMC, after every launch, we sit down and look at the metrics. Not just "did it work?" but "which metric tells us what to improve next?" Rhonda's launch went well — she got positive feedback from designers she respected, she had activity across channels, and she had a baseline to build from. But when we looked at the numbers together, she identified the metric that mattered most for her right now: audience growth. Specifically, growing the email list that lets her reach people directly, without relying on any platform to show her posts.
That decision — choosing one metric to focus on — changed everything we talked about next.
Building Your List Through Collaboration
The fastest way to grow your email list is to stop building alone.
Summits are pulling in huge numbers right now in the quilting community — and in knitting, crafting, and other industries too. A summit is a collaboration event where multiple teachers or designers share their expertise with a larger combined audience. You're trading your time and your knowledge for access to someone else's email list, and vice versa. When done right, everyone's list grows.
But summits aren't the only collaboration game in town. You can also create smaller bundles with one or two other designers. The idea is simple: you each have a lead magnet or a resource. You agree to share each other's resource in your next newsletter. Your audience gets exposed to them. Their audience gets exposed to you. Both of you grow.
Facebook groups — especially niche groups where your ideal customer already hangs out — are still one of the most underrated places to share your work. Rhonda posted a lead magnet in the Quilt Pattern Designer Facebook group, and she said it felt risky. It felt like imposter syndrome was screaming at her. But she did it anyway, and she got real interaction. Real quilters who want to know what she's creating. She's going back this week.
Being a guest on podcasts, blogs, YouTube channels, or using Instagram's collaboration feature with other creators — these all put you in front of new audiences. And they're all easier to say yes to if you kick off your own channel with a series first. A series is just multiple videos or posts about a topic you care about — maybe a color theory series, or a process series, or anything that shows what you have to teach. Once your channel has some momentum, reaching out to collaborate feels less like a cold ask and more like a natural next step.
Directories and Communities: The Low-Hanging Fruit
There are organizations in the craft world — and in your craft specifically — that exist to connect makers with audiences. These are directories and communities where you can list yourself, join discussions, collaborate, and get featured.
The Craft Industry Alliance is one. It's a national organization for all crafts, and they have a directory where you can submit your information and build a profile. They also have a Facebook group where you can share your work, look for collaborations, and stay connected to other makers. They do podcast guest features, Instagram collaborations, and teaching opportunities.
The Global Quilt Connection started during COVID as a way to connect teachers with guilds. It's grown since then, and it's still strong if you're interested in teaching with guilds or reaching quilters who want to learn.
The Academy for Virtual Teaching, run by Lyric Montgomery Kinard, has a directory of classes and a community of teachers. You can list your classes there, connect with other instructors, and find collaboration opportunities.
Rhonda mentioned the Heartland Quilt Network — there's probably a regional organization where you live too. These are real, specific places where your ideal customers are already looking.
Magazine Submissions as Marketing Assets
Rhonda has three quilt patterns being published in major magazines this year, and more next year — including a design that will be featured on a public television show. That's a lot of visibility. But here's what matters: she's not using those magazine features just once.
When you get published in a magazine, you don't just get the joy of seeing your work in print. You get assets — photos from the shoot, your headshot, the full quilt image, maybe even behind-the-scenes moments. And you can reuse all of it.
You can write a blog post about the inspiration behind the quilt and share the magazine images. You can film a reel pulling the magazine from your mailbox. You can flip through the magazine on video and show off your work. You can write an email to your list celebrating the publication and teaching your subscribers something about how you designed it. You can build a series as more magazines come out, showing off your "family of magazine quilts."
Every opportunity you create — and magazine publication is a real opportunity that took real work — should feed multiple channels and build on itself.
Giving Yourself Grace
Rhonda told me something important toward the end of our coaching session. She said that after her husband passed away and she took a break from her business, she spent months feeling like she was failing. She thought she should be ready to jump back in after the summer. But her body and her heart and her mind all said: no, this isn't a fast process.
"Give yourself grace," Rhonda said. "It's not lazy. It's not negligent. You're giving yourself what your body knows it needs. You're giving yourself the grace of time. And if you keep in tune to your inner self, you will know when it's time to jump back out there again."
I'm sharing this because I know so many of you are taking breaks. Life happens with illness, grief, and even burnout. Needing to prioritize your family or your health. And when you come back, all of these strategies — collaborations, directories, summits, reusing your assets — they're still there waiting for you. You don't have to do it perfectly the first time back. You just have to be willing to show up.
Hey Tori Takeaway
Pick one collaboration strategy and try it this week.
It could be posting a lead magnet in a Facebook group. It could be reaching out to one other designer about a bundle. It could be applying to be a guest on a podcast you already listen to. It could be filling out your profile in a directory like the Craft Industry Alliance or Global Quilt Connection.
One action. One conversation. One shared resource. That's how you stop growing alone and start growing with your community.
If this episode hit home — if you launched and realized you needed a real strategy for what comes next — this is exactly what we build inside the Digital Marketing Magic Coaching Program. We start every member's journey by mapping out the metrics that matter most for their business right now, then we build a strategy that fits their life and their timeline. Members get a personalized roadmap, live coaching every month where we can look at your specific situation together, access to custom AI tools built for quilters and creatives, and optional one-on-one coaching with me.
The best first step is a free 30-minute strategy session — no pressure, just clarity on where you are and what your next move should be. Book yours here.
Want me to answer your question? Submit a question here!
About the Author: Tori McElwain is a digital marketing coach for quilting and creative businesses. With 24+ years of quilting experience and a Master's degree in Education, she helps quilters attract more students, sell more patterns, and grow their businesses online — without losing the joy of creating. She's the author of "Workshops Unleashed" and cohost of the Quilting on the Side podcast.
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