E013: Rebecca Page, Rebecca Page Ltd.

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Katy McKinley
I'm Katy McKinley and you are listening to I can make that conversation said created. I have been existing in a world of art, sewing and other various forms of creativity my entire life. Along my craft journey, I've collected quite the group of talented characters that I get to call my friends. Instead of keeping their wisdom and all to myself, I'm using this podcast to bring them to you Behind every piece of art is a human being who went through a range of successes and failures in making and in life.

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Katy McKinley
And I'm here to share their stories.

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Katy McKinley
Welcome back to you. I can make that Conversations with Creatives. Today's guest is honestly such an inspiration to me. She's proving that women deserve a place in the world of business and that you don't have to be cutthroat to be successful. Rebecca The age is the owner and designer behind a global direct to consumer start up aptly named Rebecca Page.

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Katy McKinley
Through her website, she offers a range of things from creative inspiration to fabric to online tutorials. So along Summit and of course beautifully drafted the beginner friendly sewing patterns. Rebecca is such a positive person to have in your feed. Her energy is boundless and her love and appreciation for everything and everyone she comes into contact with is so endearing.

00;01;45;23 - 00;02;00;20
Katy McKinley
She's a designer, a businesswoman, a wife, a mother, and the owner of one of the best accents you'll probably hear on this podcast. I'm so excited to talk with her and learn more about her. So let's get to it. Welcome to you. I can make that.

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Rebecca Page
Rebecca Oh, thank you. Katy. I was like, almost ready to cry. And then you cracked a joke about my ex, and now I'm just in a bin.

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Katy McKinley
Giggles Well, you're not my first international guest, but you're my first with such a brilliant accent. So if they can put you on, let's get started with the easy stuff. What's your origin story? How did you get started sewing? What made you want to become a designer?

00;02;25;25 - 00;02;52;19
Rebecca Page
Yeah, so I started sewing when I was a kid. I, I don't know what made me want to stop, but I decided about seven or eight that I was going to make my own wedding dress. And my mum was like, Well, why don't we start with something a bit simpler and like, you're not getting married anytime soon. So I can't remember what I started with, but I do straight in the deep end and just out of making complicated stuff.

00;02;52;19 - 00;03;18;26
Rebecca Page
The ovaries and all. And, and my mum had this, I know, like sewing techniques book. And so I just after my first project to where my mum was like, you need to learn the basics. I just started at the beginning of the book and made all of the different things like it was how to insert an invisible zipper, how to sew on a button, you know, all of that stuff.

00;03;18;26 - 00;03;47;12
Rebecca Page
And I just followed every single tutorial and made this big like book of scraps of different things. I'd tried. Yeah. And then what made me want to become a designer? So there's a there's a program here called So I'm a New Zealander, but I live in the UK and there's a program here called the Great British Sewing Bee, and I applied to go on it just after we'd had our second child.

00;03;47;12 - 00;04;10;25
Rebecca Page
She was like, I don't know, three weeks old or something. Then I applied and I became the Stand by contestant. So it meant I had to do all of the challenges along with the people on the TV show. But behind the scenes, just in case anything happened and somebody couldn't like, complete the filming. And luckily for all of them, nothing happened.

00;04;10;25 - 00;04;40;16
Rebecca Page
But for me, I just decided I didn't want to, after maternity leave, go back to doing anything other than something really creative. And I at the end, when I didn't get to go on the TV show, I was like, I'm just going to publish one of these patterns I've made for my daughter. And I put it on. It's a and somebody bought it the same week, and then they posted this picture of the kid wearing their little girl wearing this little dress thing.

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Rebecca Page
And I just I just melted. And I was just I love this. I have to make more. And then I made more and that was that.

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Katy McKinley
It's almost like a drug, isn't it?

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Rebecca Page
Yeah. And seeing the people and, like, it's not just. It's not just like seeing dresses or tops or trousers or jackets or whatever. How I imagined them, it seeing them, how they imagine them and that's, it's so hard to explain. But seeing somebody who has a completely different body shape, a completely different look, a completely different style, making their own is just it is like a drug.

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Rebecca Page
I'm just like, Oh my.

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Speaker 3
God, I love it. I love you, I love you, I love you. And I need to see more.

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Rebecca Page
And I just I stalk our customers. And the nicest way in our Facebook group, just like loving on all of the stuff they do, it's just so fun.

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Katy McKinley
Well, what was the.

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Katy McKinley
I need to know more about the Great British Sewing Bee because I've seen clips of it, but I don't being on part of like a reality TV show, but even in the background just sounds like a fantastic experience. Was it with it life changing?

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Rebecca Page
Yeah, it was. And it was actually quite stressful at times. Like I only ever sewed for my own enjoyment. And I had tried a few times making stuff to sell and I just some people are made for that and other people are not. And I found it so stressful. The concept of me trying to sew something will make something in a way that would be in my mind, good enough for somebody else to use or have.

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Rebecca Page
And so I, I'd never experienced any kind of pressure around my sewing as soon as I'd tried to make stuff for other people and then realized I just found it really stressful. I want to make stuff for my own enjoyment and love and I might gift it, but to sell it, I just made me all kinds of anxious.

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Rebecca Page
And suddenly having this like in the in the program, they have these challenges in their time based and you only get a certain amount of time to sew this vogue pattern or this butterick pattern or this and design as pedant. And, and it was really I mean, this is this is years ago now, but like ten years ago.

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Rebecca Page
And but it was really time based and I found it so stressful, but also like quite a adrenalin rush and quite exciting. And then there were other challenges where you had to take a premade garment like a big baggy shirt and turn it into something else or like a pair of pajamas and turn to wedding dress with like the craziest things.

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Rebecca Page
And so I got my friends to post me garments because you don't find out what the government is until like literally the challenges starting. And it's like, take this and make it into that. So I would I got my friends to each pick something out of their wardrobe that they would otherwise just have donated or, you know, taken somewhere to recycle, to post me them.

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Rebecca Page
And I would open the package. And from the moment I opened the package, I then like, practiced them, making it into something random and half an hour. Really weird, really fun, really challenging, because I, I don't I don't know. I know a lot about sewing stuff, but also I didn't think my skills and actual physical selling were that strong at that point.

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Katy McKinley
Well, I bought shows like what's it called, an NBC make Make it with Amy Waller. And I just think.

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Rebecca Page
How.

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Katy McKinley
Stressful it would be to be a part of that because you can be creative and you get an inspiration and you do the thing, but then to like be forced to be created, especially with the time constraint or I feel like I would just have an emotional breakdown. I'm not sure I would never go on one of those shows.

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Katy McKinley
I could just you because it would just it would take me out.

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Rebecca Page
Yeah, yeah.

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Katy McKinley
Yeah. Give me that.

00;08;47;10 - 00;09;08;09
Rebecca Page
I'd like to say I still throw a spine. I you know what it took done the like to be really loud, but I think it was the right call to have me on as the stand by contestant Sewing under pressure was not my forte. I love being on camera and talking like I could have done that. I put you as the host, but you get consistent again.

00;09;09;09 - 00;09;26;05
Katy McKinley
I'm sure you would have done. I'm sure you did better than you are admitting to. Well, since the New Year has turned over, I've seen you share a lot of these, like manifesting your life posts. What inspired you to make these changes and share them with your followers?

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Rebecca Page
Well, I think our social media has changed quite a lot since I started the company. When I first started it, it was just me and I was sharing, you know, my kids birthdays and what I was cooking and all of that. And between sewing. And then as the company got bigger, we we hired a marketing specialist and she felt pretty strongly that we needed to make our social much more corporate feeling.

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Rebecca Page
It needed to be more professional and more polished. And in some areas I think that's the right decision. But for us, it just didn't quite click. And I noticed people just weren't commenting as much and it felt very salesy and it just didn't really feel like me. And so we decided no more of that. We're not going to do that anymore, and we're just going to go back to sharing whatever's on my mind, like whatever's important to me right this minute.

00;10;23;05 - 00;10;50;27
Rebecca Page
And I feel really strongly about people taking whatever is in their life and looking at how they can creatively just be more happy and enjoy their life more. And when I think about sewing and crafting and making it is that for me it is. How do you take a piece of fabric and make it into something that brings you joy or bring someone else joy?

00;10;51;06 - 00;11;19;02
Rebecca Page
And so I just decided I was going to start sharing anything in my life I'm doing where it is, taking something and bringing more joy or having more excitement out of it. And my kids don't want to be on social media as much as they used to. They're getting a bit older and I'm I fully respect that. So if they don't want to be on it, you know, going to be on it and then I don't know the rest of my life.

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Rebecca Page
Isn't that interesting? You know, I'm I make I make dinner. We ate it. I do the dishes. We don't have a dishwasher by hand, you know, like there's just not that much other interesting stuff I do. So I'm just trying to, you know, whatever I think I'm doing, I'm just going to share a bit more of whatever I think is not horribly boring.

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Rebecca Page
I fully people.

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Rebecca Page
Resonate. I just I want to inspire people to make more stuff, to live their lives more joyfully, more purposefully, whatever that means for that person. It's different for everyone. And that's what that's what makes us all, you know, so unique And so wonderful.

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Katy McKinley
Well, I think it's really authentic the way that you've been doing it, too. So it's you've you've won me over with me.

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Rebecca Page
Yay! But.

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Katy McKinley
But now you are is selected as one of the 100 female entrepreneurs to watch back in 2021. And that's a huge accolade. Did you did being recognized for something as incredible as that opened any more doors for you? What was that? I guess what did that award bring to you besides, you know, being able to tell people you have this video?

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Rebecca Page
That's a great question. It was really exciting to win and I felt really honored to be selected for that. I don't know that it necessarily opened any more doors, certainly gave me a lot more confidence in trying new things and some of the new stuff that we've tried in the business just flat out didn't work. And then other stuff has opened whole new, wonderful spaces to the business.

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Rebecca Page
So and I think if I if I think back to how I was before then, I think I didn't necessarily have the confidence to just try stuff and things are going to flop and things are going to do well. But if you don't try, you don't know what those things are. So I it definitely gave me more confidence to try stuff.

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Rebecca Page
I don't know if that it opened doors necessarily, though, but I don't know that I, I look at things like that, but I try really hard not to look at what other people are doing in the industry, particularly in the sewing and crafting world. And while I got a whole lot of crushes on different designers and makers where I'm just like, I love.

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Rebecca Page
This person, I love that.

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Rebecca Page
Person, and I just so excited seeing what they're making and doing. I'm also trying. I also make a conscious decision not to watch the trends and you know, like there's a lot of different t shirt designs. For example, if you're going to talk about like garment design and almost every designer has their version of that type of t shirt or this type of t shirt.

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Rebecca Page
And if you start to watch what all of the others are bringing out, a lot of us are making very similar things because we're going by the trends of whatever is fashionable at that point. And and that's great. You want to have this massive selection from all of these designers and different fits and different styles so that as a customer you can pick the designer whose instructions you love or the designer who's fit you just it just works for you.

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Rebecca Page
You have to adjust it because they they design for your body. Body it's body type. And that's just it's so awesome to have all of that out there. But I think if I, if I sit and I watch what others are doing and I watch like kind of the results and all of that, it can just get like really in your head and for me it just messes with me.

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Rebecca Page
And so I try not to watch what others are doing and try not to watch what results I'm getting. And quite Max and and what things are coming in and all of that. I just try and live like, how can I best serve our customers? What brings me the most joy? What brings our team the most joy? What are our customers loving?

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Rebecca Page
What do I want to wear? Thanks to Mum, but that often impacts what what we design.

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Katy McKinley
I was just thinking you're. You're a bit more of a planner, aren't you? You actually plan out your designs pretty far in advance?

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Rebecca Page
We do. We have anywhere between six and eight months worth of patterns planned of any one time. It does change. We are. I love making systems. Look, I really love systems. And so our whole pattern making process, the testing, the checking, the the so that like it's all really well systemized. So it means that if we decide to make a change, we can do that quite easily.

00;16;03;22 - 00;16;30;10
Rebecca Page
We just kind of take it up the process and put something different in. But yeah, we do, we do plan it out and at the moment I'm trying to plan my wardrobe for this year, like my personal wardrobe and realizing, Wow, actually our pattern catalog has quite a lot of holes in it. Like there's things I would love to make that we don't have a pattern for and in that situation, I'll happily by someone else's patterns, put another designer and use theirs.

00;16;30;28 - 00;16;45;05
Rebecca Page
But also sometimes I want my take on it, you know, what's my take on that? So that's so that definitely impacts as well what we're going to design where I'm thinking we don't have that.

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Katy McKinley
Will you launch Rebecca Page Ltd back in 2018, is that correct?

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Rebecca Page
Yeah, I was doing it as a hobby business for three or I don't know, years before that. And but it was April 2018 where it was like, Let's make this a proper company, let's do it.

00;17;10;13 - 00;17;30;25
Katy McKinley
Well, since then you've obviously grown and expanded from its original state of your what you just said, a hobby company. And you've got, what, like 30 employees spread out across the world. Can you talk about the strength of your team and how you actually are able to manage such a global group of people that you work with on a daily basis?

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Rebecca Page
Yeah, that has been a real journey called Where Do I Start with that? So we were remote from before the pandemic, which and then they just weren't that great systems that I was aware of. I now know there was loads of softwares that were really wonderful, but because not a lot of companies were completely remote, it just was quite difficult to find what systems, who we can use to manage everything.

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Rebecca Page
So we've had to figure it out as we go. And then once the pandemic happened, actually we've been able to streamline a lot of what we do because we've discovered much better processes for doing things as other people are, you know, grappling with the same problems that we've had. But I have all the F not exclusively. We have advertised a few times externally to the industry, but we have almost exclusively only hired people from within our customer base.

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Rebecca Page
And that has been a massive benefit in that they know what we do. They on the whole have a really good idea of the type of company we want to be. We have hired a few people outside and I have to say the some of them we just in then didn't it didn't quite match and they didn't quite get what we were trying to achieve.

00;18;58;28 - 00;19;17;01
Rebecca Page
I don't know that I'm really answering your question. I'm just kind of talking again. Oh, we have team members from all over the world, the Philippines, the States, UK, Mexico. Oh my goodness, I'm blanking. Singapore.

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Rebecca Page
Brazil.

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Rebecca Page
Like just New Zealand, Australia. Yeah, just so, so many countries. And the thing is, is when I look at where our customers come from, we're only about, I think 40% us and our customer base and then the rest is, is a chunk from the UK and there's a chunk from like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and then it's literally the rest of the world.

00;19;47;04 - 00;20;30;23
Rebecca Page
And when you look at the, the rest of the customer base, it's like India, Singapore, Gambia, like all over the place. And that I think it's really benefited us having our team spread so globally because they're able to help with like how we communicate in our marketing to attract customers from all different countries. Because I, you know, I think like a New Zealander who lives in the UK, I, I, I have a weird mix of American and UK English I, I think from my New Zealand heritage.

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Rebecca Page
And yet all of my reference points are the UK. And then I mix like different the metric versus imperial system. It's yeah, it's a mess. If we just left it. To me we need people from different countries to help we be balanced and all of that.

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Katy McKinley
With so many different time zones, have you ever had everyone on one call at once? Do you get together like, Oh no.

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Rebecca Page
No, we hard.

00;21;01;28 - 00;21;20;04
Rebecca Page
We have this thread in our slack about going to holiday somewhere, some somewhere exotic and we want to like if we reach this target one day with, you know, we'd go and had this holiday with everyone. But then because they're also spread out, my idea of what is exotic.

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Rebecca Page
Is completely different from someone over the other side of the world.

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Rebecca Page
And then there's like these really lovely, kind, tacky but hated debates about this place would be.

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Rebecca Page
With this.

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Rebecca Page
Bracelet. And then and then we've just never actually set the intention of where we're going to go. But we will one day will pick somewhere.

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Katy McKinley
If only I could get on that invite list that.

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Rebecca Page
We belong to. Have you, Katy, though.

00;21;48;29 - 00;22;21;16
Katy McKinley
Being of being invited to things a couple of times, I've actually been invited to be an instructor for one of you are actually a few of your summits that you host. So they are. I feel like you can explain a lot better than I can. So I'm going to give you the mic for that right. But you started offering and hosting summits, your community and probably well outside of your community where you have instructor instructors that have specialties for, let's say, knitting or sewing or crochet or crafting.

00;22;21;16 - 00;22;36;18
Katy McKinley
And it's it's massive and it's awesome. And I greatly enjoy doing it. So let's, let's talk about it. How did you, how do you get that idea to get it off the ground and what exactly is it?

00;22;36;18 - 00;23;08;16
Rebecca Page
So I had the idea for the summit on an airplane from the UK to New Zealand where I went. It was, Oh, I can't even remember. It was like a year before the pandemic. So it was like I just was able to get on the plane and on that very long 26 and a half hour plane ride, I, I had the idea and I basically was on airplane mode on my laptop and I wrote everything that needed to happen.

00;23;08;16 - 00;23;26;24
Rebecca Page
And then when I got to I think it was a Hong Kong my stopover, I then sent it to one of my team and I was like, Can you make this into a web page? And just like email this person and this person and see whether that be interested. And by the time I landed in New Zealand, we had designed this going, Yes, yes, yes, I was.

00;23;26;27 - 00;23;59;25
Rebecca Page
It was just the craziest thing. I was then like asleep for the next so many hours. By the time I got to New Zealand, the first one was like already starting to be organized. The I the what the summit is is a five day long. The usually five days long event and four every 24 hours. During that five days we have a different set of classes that align with the customers to watch and so that way, no matter where you are in the world, you can watch some free classes that day.

00;23;59;25 - 00;24;25;18
Rebecca Page
And then when you go back on the next day in your time zone, there's different classes and there's usually between 30 or 40 classes over the five days. So at each classes, while some of them are quite short, quick ones like ten, 15 minutes, but usually they're between half an hour and an hour long and there'll be a topic over the five days like sewing or crochet or knitting or general crafting.

00;24;25;28 - 00;24;51;05
Rebecca Page
We did a kids craft one once. Piper crafts embroidery and the the first one we did was sewing. And what we quickly found as people who so often, not always, but often have other crafts they like doing as well, or and, or they're interested in learning other crafts. So we try and have it mixed of beginner through to advanced.

00;24;51;05 - 00;25;17;08
Rebecca Page
So it's kind of got something for everyone. And we try and use external designers and teachers and bloggers and just generally people in the industry as much as we can rather than our own team so that it's featuring different people and you getting exposed to lots of different styles of doing things. We try really hard to get a mix of people from different countries.

00;25;17;16 - 00;25;38;13
Rebecca Page
So sometimes when you come, all the teachers may not speak great English and there'll be subtitles. And I saw that most of the teachers do speak English though, but there are definitely some with subtitles, and we try and get a different range of styles and abilities. There's like we have a checklist of everything we're looking for when we're looking for summit teachers.

00;25;38;26 - 00;26;03;14
Rebecca Page
And if I could wave a magic wand, it would just be the most diverse set of classes we could shoot mental. You get into one group of people because it's about being exposed, used to different things and learning new stuff. And that might be, you know, someone who just hands those verses, someone that just uses a surge or an oval locker.

00;26;04;02 - 00;26;14;14
Rebecca Page
I desperately want to get a cup of stitched class into one of them. Once I have one, I can use that. I know there are YouTube videos like I'm you know.

00;26;15;11 - 00;26;19;14
Katy McKinley
How many people usually log in and attend these, do you think on average?

00;26;20;05 - 00;26;54;27
Rebecca Page
Oh, it really it really is quite varied. The smallest one we've ever done was about 8000 participants, I think, and the biggest one we've done was 70 or 80,000 people maybe. Yeah, yeah. It really does vary depending on the topic. The average is like 40 or 50,000 people and they are from literally all over the world. I cannot describe how global the the group of participants ends up being.

00;26;55;18 - 00;27;27;29
Rebecca Page
We do have a VIP pass that the participants can purchase if they want to, so they can watch the classes any time they want rather than just during the life week. And we we always have some people signed up for that and the teachers are paid per class, they teach, and then they also get a commission on their on on the passes they sell for it so it can be a great thing if you're someone who is a blocker or wanting to get into that to become a do as a teacher and then as a participant.

00;27;27;29 - 00;27;43;25
Rebecca Page
It's if you want to see loads of different stuff so far, yeah, you have to be like ready to make a hallway for stop. You only get you stash out, get your sewing machine ready, take notes, the whole thing.

00;27;44;17 - 00;28;01;03
Katy McKinley
And it's not just you doing it by yourself either. Watching these videos, you've also created like a community on Facebook where people go and share what they've made or have questions about the specific class. Yeah, yeah. So it's a whole encompassing event.

00;28;01;18 - 00;28;21;29
Rebecca Page
Yeah. And it's it's bigger than us now. Like, I don't really think of the summit as our thing. It's kind of I think of them as the community thing. Like it's the community makes these and the, the people and the groups and this sharing and we made this, we made that. And it's just yeah, it's, it's become a thing.

00;28;22;12 - 00;28;22;20
Rebecca Page
And.

00;28;22;20 - 00;28;25;23
Rebecca Page
It's fun. I love it. It's like got a life of its own Now.

00;28;26;11 - 00;28;30;04
Katy McKinley
Do you sit in on and participate some on some of the classes?

00;28;30;16 - 00;28;48;02
Rebecca Page
I do, yeah. I just sit quietly there. I don't, I, I, I don't know. As soon as I start sharing on the Facebook group, it becomes about me. And it's not about me. And I just. So all we have WhatsApp and Slack amongst our team as well sending them. Is it just.

00;28;48;02 - 00;28;48;16
Rebecca Page
Look what I.

00;28;48;16 - 00;28;51;10
Rebecca Page
Did. Well I completely failed at the start.

00;28;52;13 - 00;28;54;28
Rebecca Page
But I am not good at such and such.

00;28;56;17 - 00;28;58;21
Rebecca Page
Yeah. So we we share all of that and that's fun.

00;28;59;23 - 00;29;22;08
Katy McKinley
But the obvious benefit of being a customer of any businesses in the 21st century is that we live in this social media world. We are just like someone who puts out a product and people purchase from us anymore where there's an entire customer facing element to it too. Yeah, and with that we hold a lot of roles that might not have existed pre social media.

00;29;23;18 - 00;29;33;08
Katy McKinley
If you think about all of the positions that you hold within Rebekah Page, do you have a favorite part of your job?

00;29;33;08 - 00;29;37;05
Rebecca Page
That is such a good question.

00;29;37;05 - 00;29;37;22
Katy McKinley
All of it.

00;29;38;04 - 00;30;24;01
Rebecca Page
Oh yeah, all of it. I love and I hate social media. I love how I can share the stuff that I'm doing and that's important to me and my creativeness on social media. And then I also hate how brutal it can be. And, you know, we've had criticism on different things in the past on social media. And it's just so heartbreaking when I know how hard the team has worked behind the scenes on something and we've fallen short or, you know, we've done something and there's been a mistake in it, or the intention of what we were trying to do didn't get across and or people that I could design of something.

00;30;24;01 - 00;30;47;10
Rebecca Page
We've done. And everyone can have opinions. And for sure, whenever we make mistakes. I'm a really big believer and you've got to walk the walk and so, you know, I'm not going to shout about what we're doing to to change something. But if we have a mistake, I'm going to go fix it. And if we've we've made a mistake somewhere, we're going to go try and rectify that.

00;30;48;10 - 00;31;12;26
Rebecca Page
And it's so heartbreaking when when when you get criticism online. And I find that really difficult because I'm I can be a really anxious person. And when when I get criticism leveled at what feels like me personally, it's not necessarily me personally. It's, you know, we made a mistake in that pattern or we did this, we did that.

00;31;13;05 - 00;31;44;07
Rebecca Page
It's not me personally that the the criticizing, but that is just like it's gut wrenching. I cry I get I then don't want to post on social and I just go into a hole and I can get really anxious and down about that stuff. But on the flip side of it, social media is just so beautiful. You get to meet all of these people and see how they've made something their own and what brings them joy in their lives.

00;31;44;07 - 00;31;50;12
Rebecca Page
And like seeing you on social, like I just put such a stock of your social, I love.

00;31;50;12 - 00;31;54;19
Rebecca Page
You and I'm just like, I feel like I look good and everybody needs a Lilly.

00;31;55;21 - 00;32;16;01
Rebecca Page
So and it's just so gorgeous. Yeah, yeah. And I think as well on social, a lot of the the patent designers get pitted against each other. I just can't explain how much. It's just not like that. Like, you know, JD brings out an iPad in Patent Papyrus 3D and I'm just.

00;32;16;01 - 00;32;17;02
Speaker 3
Like, Oh my God, I love.

00;32;17;02 - 00;32;22;12
Rebecca Page
It. And like, you know, I'm messaging Stephanie, who works for me, who's also patent listed for JD, going.

00;32;22;20 - 00;32;24;22
Rebecca Page
Have you tried this one? And some love life.

00;32;24;29 - 00;32;27;05
Rebecca Page
And, and then somebody else brings that one.

00;32;27;05 - 00;32;28;14
Rebecca Page
I'm like, Oh my God, I love this.

00;32;28;14 - 00;32;54;24
Rebecca Page
And, and it's, you know, we buy each other's patterns like it it we all use each other's patterns, almost all of us. And we chat and some of us are on WhatsApp together, not all of us, but a number of us, you know, really support each other. And it's it's a lovely community within the design. This as well, because most of them are not here to take over the world.

00;32;54;24 - 00;32;59;01
Rebecca Page
You know, we're here to spread some joy on the stuff we're doing.

00;32;59;01 - 00;33;07;18
Katy McKinley
Oh, absolutely. I think of it like we have a partner of our town that has a couple of breweries in it now.

00;33;07;23 - 00;33;09;20
Rebecca Page
And some.

00;33;09;20 - 00;33;26;25
Katy McKinley
Of the people that owned one of the breweries was very anxious are against having another brewery open next to that because they saw it as taking business away from them. But what I see it as more people who love beer going to that area and trying different craft beer.

00;33;27;16 - 00;33;27;26
Rebecca Page
Yeah.

00;33;27;28 - 00;33;51;29
Katy McKinley
So when you see more pattern designers open up like you're going to find pirates or pirates, but then being part of the community, you're naturally going to find Rebecca Page also. So it's just we all feed off of each other and it should be this beneficial moment. And I think it's hard to see sometimes because you feel competition that it really is like where I am, where Conrad party.

00;33;52;07 - 00;34;22;07
Rebecca Page
Any of it is. And if you look at the different things that different designers do like they are so each designer has something that they are brilliant at. And then other things where they where they don't design as well. And I'm looking to list one out because it's just going to mess with my hip. I'm going to get lectures about it, but I know these things were not so good and we're not focus on those.

00;34;22;12 - 00;34;40;22
Rebecca Page
But there are other designers who are brilliant at those, and when I want one of those patterns, I don't try and design it myself. I'm like, That person's already great, let's just go buy this. And we don't try and put them on our website. We get that pattern designer, do that, and one day I might expand my skill in that area and we might do our take on that.

00;34;41;00 - 00;35;04;15
Rebecca Page
But so now I'm okay with us being great at the stuff we're great at. And then, you know, would you want that type of pattern ordinary so-and-so has? Well, why don't you go check out Piers and, you know, supporting that other person? Yeah, it doesn't have to be competition. I give it it is competition. But at the same time, it doesn't have to be a negative thing.

00;35;05;06 - 00;35;09;16
Katy McKinley
Yeah, friendly competition is a real thing. We should embrace that.

00;35;09;16 - 00;35;16;01
Rebecca Page
Yes. And just supporting other people. Yeah. Other people's dreams. And why can't everyone have their dream.

00;35;16;26 - 00;35;25;26
Katy McKinley
Right? Isn't there anything about something about a candle? You, if you will. I'm going to completely botch it. Maybe I shouldn't try to.

00;35;25;27 - 00;35;27;12
Rebecca Page
Even give it.

00;35;27;12 - 00;35;28;25
Rebecca Page
A shot. You could always cut it.

00;35;29;12 - 00;35;29;25
Rebecca Page
Yeah.

00;35;29;26 - 00;35;35;07
Katy McKinley
It's something about lighting someone else's candle doesn't dim your flame.

00;35;35;26 - 00;35;51;24
Rebecca Page
Yes. There's a marianne Williamson quote that poem. Don't. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to be like that now as well. But like about shining your light and not. Oh.

00;35;52;06 - 00;35;53;16
Rebecca Page
Oh, my goodness, You need.

00;35;53;16 - 00;35;53;24
Rebecca Page
To.

00;35;53;24 - 00;35;55;10
Rebecca Page
Link it up.

00;35;55;10 - 00;35;56;15
Katy McKinley
These poems make out.

00;35;56;15 - 00;35;56;28
Rebecca Page
Saying.

00;35;57;14 - 00;36;02;21
Rebecca Page
That, yes, there's a piece, a number of different people that make really great quotes around that, and.

00;36;02;21 - 00;36;03;15
Katy McKinley
Neither of them were.

00;36;04;15 - 00;36;08;13
Rebecca Page
Not definitely not me, but I can link to one if you'd like me.

00;36;08;13 - 00;36;08;22
Rebecca Page
To.

00;36;09;05 - 00;36;27;07
Katy McKinley
Absolutely. How about we just share it instead of talking about, Well, I am dying to know if you're able to share this with us. You seem to be a never ending source of big news and I need to know, do you have any next big the ends that you want to share with us?

00;36;27;07 - 00;36;52;26
Rebecca Page
I do. I do. So we have been oh, my goodness, It's taken maybe two years, but we have a membership on our website where you you sign up for one monthly fee, there's a free version and a premium version. The free version has a limited number of patents. The premium one has all of our patterns. So there's like four or 500 patterns on that.

00;36;52;26 - 00;37;13;12
Rebecca Page
And in, in when you go into the pattern, you use the pattern on the platform. So it's like if you've ever done an online course and you work through the modules and you take off each module as you do it, it's just like that. You, you download the pattern pieces, print them out just like normal, but the actual instructions are in this online area.

00;37;13;19 - 00;37;45;00
Rebecca Page
And when you click to go to the next one, it takes you into next one. You can zoom in on the pictures and flick through and we can upload video and it's it's interactive and online and it brings take to selling in a way the industry hasn't really had before. And I'm so excited about it. It's like just the ease of sewing and making when you don't have to either print out and waste paper for instructions and you don't have to balance your laptop next to your sewing machine.

00;37;45;00 - 00;38;06;16
Rebecca Page
If you're in a small space, you can just be on your phone and flick through each instruction and zoom in the way you need to and follow the steps and jump ahead and all of those things. And it's I just so excited by it. And we've loaded all our patterns into it. And that has been Z is in the marketing like it is.

00;38;06;25 - 00;38;28;27
Rebecca Page
And the feedback from customers is crazy. Like people are just, whoa, this is instead of having a PDF and I'm trying to scroll in and it's pixelated and then my phone, you know, you know, when your phone goes on standby or whatever, it's coding with the screen goes dark and then the PDF closes and then the like. I'm also advised none of that anymore.

00;38;28;28 - 00;38;48;01
Rebecca Page
It's you're just going through the steps and it saves when you come out of the membership and then you go back in, It knows you're part way through that pattern and if you click on it, it goes straight to where you were up to simply zip code. Sorry, I'm a waxing on. I'm just so excited by this. Anyway, what we're literally about to do.

00;38;48;01 - 00;39;20;05
Rebecca Page
So hopefully by the time this podcast comes out, we are about to start inviting other pattern designers if they want to put their patterns into the membership as well, and not just the big, wonderful people whose names we all know and love, and we'd love to have those on, but also all of the little pattern designers, the ones that people don't necessarily know about, and that designer will get a percentage of the membership fees that come in according to, you know, how many times they patents got used, etc..

00;39;20;15 - 00;39;47;25
Rebecca Page
So from the design this perspective, they get this ongoing revenue for patterns they're already selling and have released everywhere else. Like it's just extra lovely revenue for them and for the customers perspective. Hopefully we will get to the point where there are thousands of patterns in there and you're paying one monthly fee for access to all of these patterns and the designers are getting paid every day on an ongoing basis.

00;39;48;07 - 00;40;02;04
Rebecca Page
And so I'm hoping that we have set it up in a way where it's a win win for everyone and the community, and it just encourages more people to make more people to design the whole with their fingers crossed.

00;40;03;22 - 00;40;09;17
Katy McKinley
You're like the Apple music of my sewing patterns, right? Like your beer. Putting up with people.

00;40;09;17 - 00;40;10;22
Rebecca Page
Actually get paid.

00;40;10;22 - 00;40;15;10
Katy McKinley
You actually get paid for it. Yeah. Well said it. Pennies per play.

00;40;15;23 - 00;40;38;02
Rebecca Page
We will say it. Is it is in its infancy so I can't promise everything that's going to work and that it's going to be all, you know, splashy, wonderful. Yet it is definitely still like we have designer full time who is constantly tweaking and fixing things as we find errors with it. And like, you know, we need to improve this, but customers are finding this bit irritating and we need to change that.

00;40;38;02 - 00;41;07;09
Rebecca Page
It is definitely a work in progress. You're coming into something in the early stages, but the great thing about that is the people who are signing up as members and who hopefully will be signing up as designers, it's like being in the infancy of something where you get to them, have a say on how it grows. So I'd like to think one day it will be like Apple Music, just not yet, and hopefully we can keep the spirit of it as it gets bigger.

00;41;08;00 - 00;41;11;19
Katy McKinley
Well, it sounds like it's almost a cell alarm for each pattern.

00;41;11;19 - 00;41;33;02
Rebecca Page
Yeah. Yeah. Except at your own pace. So you can like with this all along. One of the things I mean, I love solos, but one of the things I find frustrating about it is either it's a blog or it's a video, and and it's hard to skip ahead and then you don't know where you're going to get to with the you've gone past the bit you wanted it.

00;41;33;02 - 00;41;46;18
Rebecca Page
So there's just a bit more visibility. But that said, we are trying to then also the moment we're testing, putting our own sell alongs and the membership so that people can use it a bit like a class system as well, like app course kind of thing.

00;41;47;02 - 00;41;58;24
Katy McKinley
It's hard to believe that this didn't stem from your summit idea too. It seems like you had an idea on a plane, you created a summit course situation and here you are building this Mecca. It's pretty.

00;41;58;24 - 00;42;03;08
Rebecca Page
Cool. I yeah, I have to say, it was a more of a bottle of wine then. It was.

00;42;03;09 - 00;42;04;00
Rebecca Page
Heavier, but.

00;42;05;19 - 00;42;29;26
Rebecca Page
I was sitting outside. It was a nice evening. I had a bottle of wine. Maybe one of my team members were chatting on WhatsApp and then suddenly there was this whole idea. And then it's taken years to develop to be able to afford to have a developer like the cost on making something like that is just crazy and I can see why it hasn't been done before because it was hard making it out.

00;42;30;19 - 00;42;37;22
Rebecca Page
But equally, every other industry has really tech. Why can't we right now?

00;42;37;22 - 00;42;54;23
Katy McKinley
That's brilliant. I'm excited. I've actually been on the I'm trying to take the Paris party dress. I pulled that up the other day, so not yet, but I went and saw it on your new system and it is really it's pretty inventive and took the right people part of it. That's really exciting, though.

00;42;54;23 - 00;43;15;08
Rebecca Page
I think any time anyone says Paris party dress, I get flashbacks to the testing of that. It's it's a top and a skirt and the skirt has got plates and we had such a wonderful, amazing variety of testers. And they were so patient with me because when maths on the plates which just her.

00;43;15;19 - 00;43;15;26
Rebecca Page
Front.

00;43;16;00 - 00;43;27;00
Rebecca Page
Foot and I don't know how many iterations we went through to get it so that it actually came out to precisely the right measurements. But that tested me.

00;43;28;01 - 00;43;30;10
Speaker 3
But I love it.

00;43;30;10 - 00;43;39;21
Rebecca Page
It's one of my most favorite patterns because we put so much effort in and it's a free one. Oh, but holy moly, that was that's is it was soft. The gap.

00;43;41;23 - 00;43;42;14
Rebecca Page
It is.

00;43;42;14 - 00;43;58;25
Katy McKinley
Sold out time. Rebecca I am a big fan of sending love to as many people as we can on here and I'm wondering if there is anyone in particular right now that you love to follow and draw your creative energy from that can get a little shout out on this podcast?

00;43;59;02 - 00;44;25;25
Rebecca Page
I do. I love that you do this. So I am just starting to get into tech talk and I love it. It's so creative and it's it's really I just find it really fresh and I know there's loads of different people who do different tiktoks and there's an amazing sewing and making community on there. Highly recommend you get into the sewing and making community on there.

00;44;26;03 - 00;44;58;01
Rebecca Page
There's a a person called Kat Makes and I think she's I think she's makes with the seed on the end of it but Kat does forensic sewing she goes for sewing Tik talk and it's where she will look at a celebrity dress and she'll break it down how it's been made. She also does temp Tempur ten more how to say that embroidery, which is just like I my mind is boggled every time she does it so I highly recommend her.

00;44;58;01 - 00;45;35;06
Rebecca Page
And then I have a couple of general non makers that I'm obsessed with at the minute for different reasons. There is a person called Alethea Francis Freeman and that cute Liz Beam is the is her is their user name and the description on Elise's profile is your neighborhood hype girl and and the hashtag pimp and positivity and Alethea gets on and says things like, Hey, you.

00;45;35;06 - 00;45;36;08
Rebecca Page
You're wonderful, you're.

00;45;36;08 - 00;46;00;04
Rebecca Page
Amazing. And I just bench them. I'm just like, I could watch these all day whenever I'm down, lifts me right up. And then I'm obsessed with Stephen Bartlett at the moment. I know that he's been around for ever doing loads of different business stuff, but like learning about different ways of doing stuff, different business thinking, any kind of business stuff.

00;46;00;04 - 00;46;37;04
Rebecca Page
I'm just obsessed with him at the moment. And then the last one is Christine in Cole, who is like crafty make DIY, just so inventive with the stuff like that, the decor and the DIY and recipes. And I'm like, I have this of this me baking every day and, you know, doing Valentine's decor and Halloween decor. And then I go, I just like binge Kirsty's content and and then I realize that I just don't have the time to do any of that.

00;46;37;04 - 00;46;52;10
Rebecca Page
But I really enjoy watching what Kristy does. But those are, those are my shout out. Some of the big creators is small, so if you can support anything different.

00;46;52;27 - 00;46;57;18
Katy McKinley
Oh yeah, for sure. I'm going to get all of those handles from you and so we can link them in your blog post.

00;46;57;24 - 00;47;02;03
Rebecca Page
Great, because I totally butchered how to say any of their names. I'm sorry.

00;47;02;17 - 00;47;06;12
Katy McKinley
I try how I function. Also, I can't pronounce anything.

00;47;06;12 - 00;47;24;06
Rebecca Page
So here I try and then my kids make fun of me because of my accent. Like when they would. They've been. My youngest is learning to read at the moment and she's like, Mummy, that's not how you say it. Like, No, but I am saying it. You're trying to say it. It's just what it sounds like.

00;47;24;25 - 00;47;27;16
Katy McKinley
But well, thank.

00;47;27;16 - 00;47;36;19
Katy McKinley
You so much for joining me today. Rebecca, you're such an inspiration and I'm honored that you were able to make some time for me, be on my little show.

00;47;36;19 - 00;47;44;03
Rebecca Page
I thank you so much. I love I absolutely love UK. I just yeah, I I'm so delighted you asked me. Thank you.

00;47;44;08 - 00;48;02;12
Katy McKinley
And for everyone listening, thank you for joining us for today's episode of I can make that conversations with Creatives. And now Rebecca, please take us out by telling us how to find you online so we can support you, your family, and your entrepreneurial adventures.

00;48;02;23 - 00;48;27;01
Rebecca Page
Oh, I thank you. So my website is Rebecca Dash, Page Dotcom, and if you go on there and you click on the membership or subscription, it will take you to AP makers where you'll be able to sign up for a free membership and give that a try. Or if you want to go through all of the patterns and all of the content, then there's a premium option as well.

00;48;27;21 - 00;49;09;03
Rebecca Page
And on tech talk, Instagram, Facebook search. Rebecca Page I, the Rebecca Jay Page or Rebecca Page official, depending on how quickly I called on and saved my handle. And I would, I would love you guys to if, if anyone would like to try out free membership and give this new way of working trip had a try. I would absolutely love for you to go on and give that a shot and see how you find there and send us your feedback because we are like improving it and changing it and we are literally taking what customers say and going, Oh, that is a fantastic idea.

00;49;09;03 - 00;49;13;08
Rebecca Page
Let's add that feature. All that said, that picture.

00;49;13;08 - 00;49;23;03
Katy McKinley
Well, I will be sure to link all of these socials and websites and everything in your blog post also. Thank you so much for everything.

00;49;23;03 - 00;49;30;21
Rebecca Page
I really love to. Thank you so much.

00;49;30;21 - 00;50;00;13
Katy McKinley
Thank you for tuning into. I can make that conversations with creative transcripts from this episode, along with links and more information about today's guests can be found at WW w dot wild and wonderful dot com. See you next time.