Lessons

Lesson Info

Skype Call: Kara Jacinta, CBO of ClearShot

I thought it's great to have did perspectives on people have had successful kick starters and I talked before about the team together each achieves more you never know where it comes from so makes about maybe eight months ago ten months ago a young lady told me about kickstarter I'd never heard it before she told me about the kickstarter project and she and her boyfriend had designed a product that was very cool so I supported it and like wow this is cool so the other day I get an email from a guy who's supported by project he says he and his girlfriend I love my project and that I support their product so he wrote a letter to all his four hundred twenty five supporters about my project so when you support project you never know as we come back to you it might be a year later two years later six months later a week later but things do come back that I believe so I have another young lady on the line who has a project that's very cool she funded it through kick stars I want to get her o...

pinion and her advice to share with you guys so who do we have on the line there? Hello are you doing here good? How are you? I'm doing very, very good can you introduce yourself to the audience all creative live but, you know, my name is carrie just sent him a tail, and I am the co founder of clear shots. Clear shot is a tool that mike carnie invented. Basically, cell phones have replaced cameras, and then I think about eight thousand photos a month on my iphone, so I found that needed a solution from taking the arm shot. So clear shot is designed basically to be your personal, the harbor at the size of a credit card. And have it work so it's, just just science credit card. You snap it together like so, so it's kind of origami. So mike is an engineer, and then I just pulled apart, like so, so when you snap together clips, take your phone there, you got bingo. So we need a kick starter to get this off the ground. And if it wasn't for our backers, we would not have been able tio loom or mold into production. We, uh, when you have been able to really test this idea out on the market and we love our backers, and you had four hundred twenty five backers, yes, and we raised five k over a goal to raise twenty five thousand on dh every every day was an adventure, so to me, back about take me back through the process of of your campaign? What was it like from the very beginning to the end? Did you ever feel like you wouldn't hit the mark? Were you scared at any point? Well, we were scared at a lot of points on dh we did you know, we had we broke our campaign into three different sections. We knew that if we were going to be successful, we needed to build a pre kickstarter kind of campaign, a kickstarter campaign and then the post, you know, the fulfillment part of the campaign. Eso at the beginning that we, uh we started putting out press releases, we created our tears, we tried to get really clear on what we wanted to offer. You know, kickstarter has some rules. Technically, you're not supposed to provide anything in your rewards that you didn't create so it's very important that in your tears you create things that people are going to want, but they actually are the parts that you made a second. We found that we did a lot of research. We found that most successful tears were between twenty five and sixty five dollars on dwi also knew that we needed to be aware of shipping costs we tried to to put that into the description as well make that easier for people a cz we went down to the countdown for our launch, we built video we knew that if our media was going to be shared on facebook without us having to do a lot of spamming that we needed to create a lot of allies, so we actually I got on board with one of the b boy artists from america's best dance crew japanese at a local restaurant. Actually, we did some shooting in there, and they share in our video. We also took some video at some town, so we really knew that it was a numbers game, and if we wanted to get our video in the eyes of a lot of people that we made it allies, so our first goal was to really build networks and builder connection and and do that before kickstarter campaign, because you want to do it before you have this pressure of, like thirty days to go, you want to make those really valuable connections so that at the end, if you are not anywhere near your goal, you can really retail to them, and you don't have to rely on your friends and family because what mike and I found our friends and family made up about one percent of our backers I can, I can attest to that same thing, my friends and family has been about one percent as well, so for us it was about finding out who is our target audience. And what kind of publications are they reading? We've reached out to iconography cements and they did a lot of sharing for us fancy was also a really big help sent a lot of backers are way as well as pinterest so really make sure that your all of your social media is set up um really try to utilize guerrilla style marketing, you know really see if you can send out some pr releases to your local tv stations we were on we actually got on to denver news and they called us up and we flew out there so the idea is to share share share but do not relying on friends and family good, good, good to hear great to hear now pinterest how do use pinterest for your social media with kickstarter? How did that work? Well, so we had a pinterest account, but what we found is that a lot of our backers just started pettiness. So what we realized is that if you communicate to your current backers what you need for them in order to share your video, share your project, they will do it. Your backers are your favorite are your biggest fans they want to your campaign to succeed and your campaign will succeed a lot faster if they are pinning your projects if they're putting you on stumble upon if they're adding you to fancy we had backers just really in high support of us reaching our goal and so really at the end they really rallied together and we couldn't have done it without them it's amazing how how much of the community you can build just through pixar fantastic all this information is so powerful and thank you so much for sharing all of this even all the fish you've just shared things that I will go back tonight and work on very very hard you're giving us all this great information so tell me about the last ten days of your campaign right before it was funded would you do in that time period to really get past the point well something that we really used two different methods a we found an ally in kickstarter that had already been successful that was that had the same target audience as we did and we partnered with them and they gave us actually it's called the ku coach key chain and it allows you to take a photo without you know with just a little remote teaching s so we were able to offer that part of our reward and that boosted our members incredibly as well as we found the corporate backer which I'm really encouraged kick starters to do find corporate backers people who are looking for swag bags party idea are you know, party gifts on those air the type of numbers that will get you over the top ball quarters really under found a lot of talk about corporate sponsors for a second and how they can help. How did they help you from a corporate level? Well, we've our campaign was before the christmas holiday, so we knew that a lot of corporations were going to be giving their employees gifts, and we just started reaching out. I have a few friends, my cut, a few friends really weak, we tried tio way just reached out, you know, I have a business mentor, and I said, murray, do you know of anyone? And he gave us a suggestions, and then we really reached out instead of, you know, I've I've watched a lot of campaigns kickstart campaigns at the end, and I've seen their facebook posts and they've eric, some very desperate instead of being desperate, we decided we have to think outside of the box, there is no wrong answer there is on ly what can we do next and how can we expose this more? You know, if you have a great idea and a great product, people will want it, you know, the tears that you create are really going to drive people to white, pull out their credit card, but it really comes down to are you passionate about your idea, and can you get people excited about building something? With you because that's really what it is our backers are excited that they have that they brought this product to market that it's not just that they get something in return they're going to be able to say from care on total forever I helps build clear shot amazing absolutely amazing thank you so much I want to give the audience online a time to ask questions as well thank you so much absolutely it looks like we actually won in our audience erica for it I don't do very well with abstract so I don't know if you can do this but could you be more clear about what it was that you asked a corporation to do or give us ideas of what kind of things you could ask corporation to do in a kickstarter well depending on what your project is you know imagine example for matthews book um I would approach a corporation and either say a would you like to sponsor giving you know fifty books tio the city of seattle's school education system I would think outside the box it's really hard to come up with something if I don't know what your project is or your idea let's say if it was just a print I end the holidays were coming up I would talk to them about gift ideas I would find out who's doing swag bags in the area but you're basically care asking people to purchase the product yes, you are that she keeps asking people to purchase the product that you're asking someone who could give you more than just twenty five bell or someone who could give you you know, to kay who's looking for a gift. Anyway, you think about promotional ideas uh, promotional products corporations every day are purchasing if you can frame your product correctly, they would probably be willing to help you out. Fantastic that's a great thing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's. Go online for questions. Go online. First of all, shut out to you care. There are some folks in the chat room who are quite astute and asking if they have seen you before. Yes, sarah was a model full of matthew a swell as you wanna and has been here on karn of live with other workhouse modeling for other workshops is well, so great because of my family have you on great to have you on let's see? So there's been several people asking about kickstarter and I don't know if either of you have this thiss answer, but taxing is the income that you get from kickstarter is that taxable? And yes, go ahead thank you. You are taxed over twenty thousand and you need to fill out a ten, ninety nine k there you go and back back to the other question if kickstarter finds that you have backed your home project, so if they find your credit card as one of the your backers, they will blacklist your project and he will not get any of your funding. So if you're saying earlier yeah, if you're in a pinch, ask your family members don't pull out your own credit card. Thank you for that is we had a question earlier, thank you for that. And another question in from the internet from our spree, who asks, is there a specific department within a corporation that we should be reaching out to? Is there's some? Is there a department inside who even how do we even know where to start within a company to say, help me out? I went to the marketing director, so I would look for marketing or promotional anyone who's in also probably a bit brand manager would be able to help you out, and I wouldn't I wouldn't if you get one. No, I wouldn't take that, as you know, your everyone's going to say no, mike and I came up again, it's a lot of nos, but we were one hundred percent the chairman to reach our goal, there was just no other option, and when you are that determined, you will find ways you will think outside of the box and it's amazing how you know, the random people that we would meet on dh then they would share our kickstarter campaign and then, you know, we would get fifty more backers, so it's it's really a matter of just pushing and pushing and passion fantastic anything is sharing is so great. Thank you for that last bit especially thank you. Thank you. Other questions online before you let her go. Well, I think way are closing in on the end of our program today, but so, cara thank you, sir. So much for all the information. I just want to make sure everybody knows where to find you and your product because there's a lot of excitement about a clear shot. It's pretty cool. You can find this clear shot us dot com and you can find me a carriage is center dot com fantastic. Well, thank you so much. I love you guys. I love you. One more question for you before you go, can you explain to the audience in your own words? For those who don't know what kickstarter is, how it works. Kickstarter enables you to take your projects to the next level, where ten years ago you would have a project and you would have to find the right investor or the right venture capital today you're able to crowdfund, which means you know you're able to maybe maybe your highest here is ten dollars and you get ten thousand people to evacuate ten dollars you know it's and enables you to really take your project to the streets I'm so excited about kickstarter and indiegogo and what's allowed people all over the world to create and bring to market I just think it enables more right brain passionate people to really really take their dreams to the next level thank you thank you, thank you and just say you know my matthew I fully fully fully believes that you are going to take your campaign all the way I'm just absolutely believe in what you're doing thank you I hope so. I hope so thank you so much I'm going to push into all the things that that you've shared today in my last ten days to push it and push it and push it and thank you for the time for going to do this till mike thank you as well. I am just really happy that you can share all your knowledge of successfully funding your kickstarter campaign with all of us with all the world thank you very, very much absolutely you guys have done a lot of great information today aa lot and now the words waiting for you to go out there and give it your all share with the world what you have your best what do you have don't hold it back don't sipping like, oh no, I do that next week or next year or maybe no it's not ready yet. The beginning of my career, I was pushed to show my work for the first time to a client, and I felt I wasn't ready yet some show my book to a client that somebody told the client about my work, I felt I'm not really it kind of looking there I'm sitting there he's across it on the desk, looking at my portfolio, going, not saying a word and some like, oh man, oh man! And then he closes the book without even getting to the very end. I'm like I knew it and then he says, when you are next week, I have a job few ten page story I want you to shoot, I'm like, oh my god and that started my career, so don't hold back the world twenty now for your project put it out there let's, take some questions for a second. Yeah, we have one that just came in from the internet from blue bird, who asked, what do you think appealed to your backers about your project that got them so involved in helping you promote? I think that what we have appealed to my backers hopefully is the idea of making a difference in the world beyond our life span thinking about you know I won't be here one hundred years but I hope this project is also helping to empower people one hundred years from now two hundred years from now I think people got that I hope so anyway because that's what's so special about this project that it can impact lives and change people and inspire them way beyond what I could do on my own that's why I think I'm not sure if that's what appeals to people but I love it yeah, thank you this is a question from mary in in bucharest, romania do you know it? Kickstarter can be used outside of the united state absolutely had funders comer backers come absolutely the if you go on kick starting to see people from all over the country all of the world the u k you know all these different people funding projects so just go on and see if your countries involved in kickstarter I know they're good you will like like china where if I can't I'm not really sure yet but find out if they can in your country and join in a lot of marianne go on and marry and going and then another question that came in you were talking about the value of putting out press releases and if we don't have marketing experts out there, what do we include in a press release? What should I press release say it should be a one page document that really tells in a nutshell about your project I've got a good friend who was a producer on a daytime show and I know they're getting press releases all the time so I spoke with her she says matthew that first two sentences needs to be powerful because I want to read the entire thing they very rarely had the time because they also so busy they're going to skim you gotta grab their attention on that first line so make it powerful right away don't keep the juice at the bottom of your press release make sure you open up powerful and pulled him in tow want to read your entire press release great question thanks for that I'm gonna put you on the spot what one of the first two lines of your press release no grass about you know what if you had the chance to inspire a child to be the next president what if you could have prison jimmy carter and zendaya coleman from dance of the star is be a part of your project then I go from there it's not the exact words I'm liking a pair phrasing but opened up with jimmy carter's india and a future american president that's great I read on is not the person he should not be about me because I would say about that take you out of the equation what can you give to the world take you out of your press release it's about what you can give thanks for that question yeah, I was just going to go to try on and see how many new backers you had. I'm scared even look, I'm scared to even look I'm scared to even look well well while you're checking that out we do have one other question coming in from vision photo who has what do you doing outside of this book right now? What else you working on these days? Oh, wow, well, this book has consumed me for sure I'm also working on my long term seventy year project as well wise in china and I'm also trying to get work, but when my project is funded, I'm going to say if I don't take that if out of it when the product is funded, I will stop taking assignments and just work on the project because I love that um I mean, I love I love shooting a celebrity and doing all that stuff we're doing campaign for climb a beauty came a client that's all well and good but this stuff it feeds my soul it makes me a better photographer and I feel alive by doing it so I want to concentrate when doing it that this summer finishing this book yeah and then go into production the book and then go back to work I like it and that's, how you just make stuff happen. Yeah, it is definitely definitely is so, matthew, you have. I don't know if you were at zero for the creative live ones this morning, but, you know, nine of those packages on your picks are fantastic. And I said, thank you.