Lessons

Lesson Info

Using Crowdfunding

Let's move on to lesson number eight crowdfunding so this is does everyone here know what crowd funding is? Yes so we've got very knowledgeable cost so crowd funding is relatively relatively new way to fund your project there are a bunch of different companies can do this this is a image that I took from my my friends sally o'grady she is producing a documentary about a father daughter dance in a prison all the all the dads are in prison and it's about the impact that that has on their relationship great piece right? Well, you gotta have money to make it though, and so they're true documentarians they're just making it as they can and so they started a kick starter fun kick started the company we'll talk about that in the second and they all they needed was they needed to raise I think, um I think twenty thousand dollars and it looks like one hundred sixty four backers twenty thousand thirteen dollars so they can now go to the next thing. And so what they did is they asked there's a gr...

eat book by amanda palmer that's I think it's the art of asking I may have misquoted that post is that what it's called? Yes she's awesome she's in the span the dresden dolls and she's really cool, but the basis of it is that if you ask like you're probably going to get answers and that's not that's a weird sort of vulnerability but we're kind of in the zeitgeist right now we're back into the community I mean look at look at companies like uber what somebody that I don't know just going to pick me up in their car before we would have thought that was crazy talk but now we're becoming more of this like it's almost like a barter system it's not we're paying for it but but we're sharing skills you know we're sharing skills so crowd funding is kind of the same way because you can go to the people in your life either actually in your life or your audience and say I want to do this I know you want this what if you help me pay for it and then you don't have to go search anywhere else? I'll create it for you and you'll have some form of a stake in it all right? So let's talk about how what it is and how it is I kind of talked about what it is already it just a minute just a method of raising capital for a project or a cause and you just create what's called a campaign um it's just a campaign page and I believe that I included these platforms in your bonus materials but the major platforms are kickstarter what she just saw before funda lee india go go and patron I'm not gonna go super end up with him because that is an entirely it's an entire other course and one that we created life actually has readily available for it. Do you wantto good teams that lower here? Yes. We have a great class on crowdfunding and it's, chris hawkers launch a successful crowdfunding campaign. That's chris hawker h a w k e r you concert for it on the you can search for it in our catalog. You may also have ah, lower third there. Tell you where it's at just go to that page and by the chris hawkers launch a successful crowdfunding campaign. It's pretty new and it's got great information about this very topic. And I actually met him yesterday. And he said that he was teaching the six hour course and he was still on ly like touching but he's also he's an he's an inventor. So he's really talk. He has a very specific about these don't. But I have to say that I that this is sort of a new this is opened up world in that create a world opened up doors in the creative world, especially because some companies aren't doing as well these days because there's so much free content. So you have to find you you only have the same you want to ask the same companies for money over and over again the same powers you this you go to your community this is your village, right? So in the dating world there is ah a gentleman named steven me and he is wild and zany and crazy and with smart he is very much like his whole thing is that he's going to age like a rock star and he does it he wears that leopard suit in the big feather boa like no other man who ever has but he's a smart, smart businessman he owns a yarn store and he also has done some spinoff lines. He is all over the place teaching and selling and he recently decided that he wanted to do his own reality show because he is a huge personality and he works with another big personality. His name is steven west he's a big designer right now in the knitting world and he's also equally awesomely eccentric and they thought that it would be really great toe have a reality show but it's a hard pitch when there's no craft shows in general so they decided to raise money the self look at this number ninety thousand dollars ninety thousand five hundred eighty five dollars but that sit in for a second pledge and they're there they only needed eighty six thousand they got a bonus for great in there because they have worked hard to create their base, they've created their audience. Now if you didn't already have an audience, you're probably not going to get that kind of money, but if you've created the audience already, think about it. People are used to right now, they're used to paying for things if you you want an app on your phone? Yeah, dollar on, you know I'll do that. You want a, you know, a subscription? Tio who? Lou? Yeah, whatever it seven ninety nine month. I'll go ahead and do that because you're getting exactly what you want. So a couple dollars here, a couple of dollars, they're sure because I'm getting exactly what I want. Same thing you start this one and this campaign for whatever it is has happened to be a reality show. People are paying for exactly what they want instead versus paying for let's, say, a cable and getting one hundred fifty channels they don't give a crap about and you know, one that they dio this is this is buying exactly what you want. So how are they doing this? Well, they are they've created a great trailer, they've also there's incent. She is so if you donate this amount of money, you get this this amount of money you get this and people have become really creative I've seen many people use kickstarter for their fun I saw somebody and I don't know who it is they were they wanted to write a name book about twin peaks and which is kind of a hard sell even though it seems awesome but because it might be a hard time it might be hard to sell the foreign rights to it because maybe it's not as well known overseas or maybe it's too niche or this was before the twin peaks movie was going to be made so maybe it's too old school but they wanted to make it so they decided to just raise the funds so again you can choose what you give back so let's say for five dollars you get a sticker with the steven b logo on it but maybe for five hundred dollars you gotta you get your own peace that he's in it himself and you get a one on one skype session consult consultation or whatever it is that the point is is that there? It's ah ebb and flow they're getting something from it ok, the other one that I wanted to talk about a little bit about his patron this to me changes this this was groundbreaking to me so many magazine and I asked if you could remember the very beginning I when I started, that was the first place that I had a design published, so this would have been twelve, thirteen years ago. They were the first knitting magazines like a magazine, and they have been trucking along for that many years, but people are advertising anymore, like everybody's looking for influencers and putting in, you know, putting urine and hands and doing this and that so they're not advertising the same away, but they still want to be able to produce this magazine and it's, a beloved magazine, it really is. So amy, a singer who is one of the founders of many, she decided to go to her village, go to her base that she's worked so hard for so many years, tio gain, and she said, we want to make this crowd source, we want you to be a part of it, so with patriot, you can make it subscription base so it's not just a one time I'm going to read, I'm going to donate this two hundred dollars, or this five bucks or whatever it is, you could become a patron. I'm a patron, I'm a life, I think it's called life long patron and there's different levels, I donate a certain amount of month and that month every issue so every time there's going to be an issue I don't even remember what it was it's not twenty five bucks but I could have done two dollars whatever I decided I decided I want and I want to support him because without them I wouldn't be standing in front of you today but also we have to help each other it's rising tide right? We're gonna help each other out so they there's different levels and she's got a really brilliant infrastructure and at a certain level she lets you all come into a live chat and talk about what what designs you'd like to see she sends swag for other people she has regular communication it's almost like you're on the board of unity it's really brilliant so because of that you can see that as of the time of this broadcast she has almost three thousand patrons so every magazine is going to be funded by three thousand people and that means every new release this isn't one number every time she's got this amount to actually pay people a living wage which is crazy talk sometimes in the craft industry she did they did that themselves that's power people that's power all right and so amy who I was just talking about this was her biggest this is one of her biggest tip she said the secret to a successful crowdfunding is building that crowd first you have to build the crowd before you ask them for money your this is your audience and then it's people that know whatyou creating like it have liked it for a while and trust that you won't take their support and not deliver as promised that's a big that's big taking their money and they're not using it that's bad juju um s needed to have a strong track record on your part and it builds that credibility and that's the key to asking fans for support so it's very ed and flow okay let's wrap this up with our call to action I would love it if you at home would go ahead and go to kickstarter or any of these any of the companies that I've mentioned and just run a few search terms through there to see let's say that you're an illustrator just put in the term illustrator or coloring books or whatever it is for a project that you might want to do see what comes up and then check out some a few of the campaign see what their trailers are see what their incentives are see how much how successful they've been look through through a few and then watch you know watch that video and get familiar with it maybe you don't have it maybe you don't need this now but keep that keep that in your arsenal for projects that could be later