Meet Megan Hobby Kauffman

After completing my master’s degree in children's book illustration, I spent several years creating books and working hard to make something that big publishers would want, only to be refused again and again. Many of my friends were having the same experience even though we were creating beautiful art and wonderful stories.

Eventually the gatekeeping wore me down and I decided to start my own business so I could earn money with my art. I really wanted to pivot into creating patterns. I had been making linocuts for some of my children’s book illustrations, so that became my starting point. Lino carving is an easy way to understand how patterns work and how to repeat them by hand. After experimenting and beginning to understand repeats, I started bringing some of my illustrations into Photoshop to create digital patterns. I liked some of what I was making, but I struggled with color control and found it difficult to tweak things the way I wanted.

That is when Immersion appeared as an ad on my Instagram feed. I was skeptical at first, but I attended the free pattern creation class and my guard came down quickly. Bonnie did not spend the entire class selling Immersion. She truly offered value throughout the week, even though it was a free class. She was not pushy and I loved being virtually surrounded by others who were learning as well. After giving it some thought, I realized that Immersion would help me grow so much faster than trying to figure it all out on my own, so I signed up. I am so glad I did.

My story is not an overnight success, but after Immersion I felt so much better about my work. It became more polished and professional, and I became much more confident in my ability to make anything I want to create. That kind of freedom is huge. My favorite part of Immersion is that I now have the skills to bring any product I imagine into reality.

I have opened my online storefront, Mayhen Press, and have started stocking it with products that genuinely excite me. With three kids and a second business, things move slowly, but I am moving forward with my dreams and am excited to grow my storefront and eventually expand into licensing.