A restored faith in humanity

I pressed the launch button and waited... Nothing happened. But then again it was 2am in Sydney. It’s a feeling you have to get used to as a Kickstarter-er.

Then suddenly the support starts coming through to your campaign… in peaks and troughs.

Kicktrac.com, a Kickstarter performance tracker that helps you forecast your trajectory will tell you that you are going to overshoot your target by 20% one day, then -20% the next.

It’s nail-biting stuff...

If you are new to this ongoing series of articles about planning and running a Kickstarter then have a look at the bottom of this post for an update about our live Kickstarter campaign for a little more background.

Anyway, as I was saying, it's nail-biting stuff... Kickstarter’s a bit like a launching a new business… I’m naive because I have not set up my own business… yet, but 30 days of watching your dream flirt with success and failure feels close enough. It's enough to make me start every day at 2 or 3am, to put everything I’ve got into it.

But just as you are descending into despair, along comes another Saint. 

So far I've discovered three different types of Kickstarter Saints

Friends from Yesteryear - friends and work mates you have not spoken to in person +8 years come out of the woodwork and drop $60 or more into your Kickstarter without a moments hesitation. Amazing.

Brothers-from-another-Mother - people you don’t know that see one of your Facebook ads or a LinkedIn article like this one… or whatever… and pledge. Complete strangers! Legends.

The Unexpected Hero - Connections you reach out* to, just in case, and they surprise you so much you experience the most wonderful feeling.  

My faith in humanity is restored more and more daily as our campaign progresses, as completely unexpected acts of selfless kindness completely floor me.

To date I have had pledges of over $100 from people I barely know. Others go the extra five miles to help support and share. We have had several wonderful souls offer to write All-Staff emails to their global company networks because they believe in us. Yesterday, an entire article appeared in my inbox, written by a very well known advertising industry commentator, that was written for the sole purpose of supporting our book. LEGENDS EXIST and are walking amongst us; look out for them!

What happens, I think, is that people see and feel a bit of themselves in every Kickstarter campaign with which they make a personal connection. It’s the thought of “When I do this, I want people to be this supportive.”

Here are some learnings / take aways for today’s update.

Firstly, make it clear what Kickstarter is and why it is safe to give them your credit card details - The fact is, not many have ever heard about Kickstarter and are wary of sharing their credit card details. This is particularly true for many of the grandparents that really want our book but don’t trust online payments. Shame Paypal is not on Kickstarter.

The line “Kickstarter is safe, it is the largest, global crowdfunding site in the world that has so far raised $2.7 billion dollars across 114K successful projects. The credit card page on KS is encrypted and 100s of times safer than approaching an ATM with card in hand” can be helpful.

Secondly, make it clear that nobody pays anything unless you are a success - “Can I buy a book from you?”, “I’ll buy one from you in a month’s time when we see each other.” Sadly no. Not possible. If you don’t get enough backers, there is no book.

Thirdly, spend 80% of your time emailing people personally - Yes, I have sent over 15,000 emails/messages/comments to about 5,000 people across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and direct.

Don't panic, you can do it too. The Mail Merge tool I've used for Gmail has been very helpful but still definitely has it's limits. It lets you automate the sending out of multiple emails without you having to do them one by one. That said, if you use it, spend a lot of time in the {{Personal Message}} column, writing something meaningful and personal to everyone you email to ensure you are not being generic and annoying. Forgive me if I have been ;) you'd do the same. It's physically impossible to do otherwise if it's just you and your partner steering the ship.

Finally, be open and prepared to learn from your community - When we started out we had a simple vision. To create a story that helped deepen children's relationship with healthy food from an earlier age.

Why? Well, partly because our daughter Olivia was and still is a picky eater but also because during my partner Laura's first pregnancy she had frustratingly been diagnosed with the increasingly common condition - gestational diabetes.

Frustrating because her test results came back as just over the diagnosable threshold.

For those not aware of what this is, it basically means that during pregnancy a mother can develop high blood sugar levels leading to the in utero baby being more susceptible to gaining weight... not good. But manageable.

With a proper diet it is easily controlled. Look, we are certainly not health freaks... let's establish this first and foremost. Laura and are both very slim and healthy. We are a healthy family who tries to follow a lifestyle of moderation, balancing the bad with the good. This is the misconception with GD... people assume it happens due to poor diet and being overweight, but in Laura's case this could not be further from the truth. 

BUT the problem is it's really hard to find food that is not loaded with crap. Especially when faced with a diet regime driven by a condition like GD. For example, we are programmed to believe that a low fat yogurt is a good choice, but the reality is that removing fat means replacing it with sugar.

So our book is the result of our determination to do something about the issues surrounding processed foods that are forced into our lives. We did not expect the community to be as vocal as they have been about this shared societal issue. We have had loads of support from frustrated parents who just want to feed their children healthy food more easily and cheaply... and this is helping us spread our story further.

Learning... try to tap into something real that you and your audience care about and get the conversation rolling.

So in summary, not only are we more confident about the main themes underlying Eggbert Egg Fulfils his Destiny but happier that it's a story that just might help make a difference...

However small that difference may be.

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You can find out more on our Kickstarter page at this link

Also, in the spirit of giving and sharing we have created this special page to make it super easy for ANYONE who wants to help. With one second of your time and one or two clicks, you can do your part by sharing our story with others.

Click on this link to help share our story.

Your support will help Eggbert Fulfil his Destiny.

*I don’t usually use the term ‘reach out’ but it seems appropriate when raising funds.