Rebecca Bryan: Turning Quilting Into a 7-Figure Business

Meet Rebecca Bryan, the quilter and creator behind Bryan House Quilts. Rebecca is also the founder of Make Modern Triangles Quilt Club, which teaches quilters how to make (and finish!) beautiful modern triangle quilts. Here’s a snapshot of Rebecca’s success:

• Earned over 7 figures in revenue 
• Built a membership of over 2,500 people 
• Grew email list to over 70K subscribers 

Below, Rebecca shares how she turned her passion for quilting into a thriving online community and 7-figure business. 

How did your journey into building a business begin? 

Growing up, I was always a creative person. I started making quilts at a super young age — I think I got my first sewing machine when I was six. Even throughout college and later working a career in public health, I was always doing something creative. 

I have four kids, but after I had three kids, I decided to stay home to be there with them. But all that time I was still creating and I was still really passionate about making quilts and teaching people how to make quilts. I really wanted to get into the profession of teaching and designing quilts. I mean, I was so obsessed. It was all I would think about even when I was playing on the floor with my kids. Even when I had my real job, I was still designing quilts in my head when I was supposed to be working.

One day, I had this dream where one of the people I follow — this is back in the days of blogger and WordPress — wrote a book about rainbow quilts. And I woke up and I was super grumpy and I was like, “why did they get to write this book? I want to write a book.” And I realized that was a dream but it was also a message: You can write a book about quilts. So that's what I did. I wrote a book about rainbow quilts, and that's really when I started my business 10 years ago.

How did you go from writing a book to building an audience and turning that audience into a business?

When I wrote the book, I didn't have an audience. Part of the reason to write the book was to build an audience, build authority, and build out my catalog of what I can teach and the types of quilts I can help people make. And then from there I went and I did everything. 

In the quilting industry, there are so many different avenues you can take. There's teaching, there's writing a book, writing patterns, designing fabrics, or collaborating with brands. And I did all those things. What I came to realize, or I was forced to realize, was that I was doing too much. I ended up almost burning out. What helped me was simplifying my business down to just one thing. 

I love creating all sorts of quilts, but I would get tripped up by trying to teach everyone all those different quilt styles. But what helped me as a creative is just to focus on the one type of quilt, so now I teach modern triangle quilts. 

How did you transition into selling courses and teaching people?

When I published my book, what is common for quilt teachers to do is travel to different quilt guilds around the country and teach people how to make the quilts from your book.

And when I went to the quilt guilds, I would hear again and again, “oh my gosh, those are beautiful, but I could never make those quilts.” And it broke my heart because I, as a quilt teacher, want you to know that you can make this beautiful quilt if you want to. That's when I first started thinking about offering more in-depth courses on how to make these quilts step by step. My desire to help people make the quilts they wanted to make is what drove me online to create these courses.

Another reason I went from teaching in person to teaching online was, I've got four kids and it's a lot of time to take out once a month or however many times to teach in person. I wanted to reach more people in a way that was more time effective for me. My husband's company also wanted to move him from our hometown of St. Louis to the Hague in the Netherlands, so I took my audience online so I could continue building that relationship with my quilters and still teach them in a way that can cross time zones.

‍As you were building your online courses, how did Kajabi come into the picture?

When I first heard about Kajabi, I had spent about seven years trying all these different platforms like LeadPages, MailChimp, WordPress, Blogger, Shopify, and Big Cartel. I've used a lot of programs, and the idea of simplifying my business and my processes to one platform was so appealing — it felt like a weight off my shoulders.

I’ve now tried nearly all of Kajabi’s products, but my core product is the membership. We currently have our community on Facebook, and I see us bringing that community onto Kajabi with all the new and cool features that Kajabi communities is developing. I also use Kajabi for my email list and we have 70,000 subscribers.  

What are your thoughts on building an audience on social media vs. your own platform?

It’s always made me really nervous putting my focus and my resources only on social channels like Facebook and Instagram. I prefer to put my business on Kajabi or somewhere where I can control what I'm publishing and who sees my content. 

Using social channels is a fabulous way to build up your audience and reach people who love the same things that you love to create. But if you're thinking about building a business based on what you love to create, then a platform like Kajabi is a for sure win.

How has using Kajabi impacted your business?

Once I simplified my business with Kajabi, I was able to double my revenue in three years. Going into our fifth year of membership, the Make Modern Triangles Quilt Club serves around 2,500 quilters and has achieved 7 figures in revenue. 

Kajabi is the place where I can send my quilters and they can get what they need, whether it's the video or the pattern or the connection with the community so they can get what they need and then they can get to their favorite part, which for us quilters is, of course, the sewing.

Want to turn your passion into a business like Rebecca? See how Kajabi’s all-in-one platform for creators can help.