Day 3: Take A Breath

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Today was a really gorgeous day here on the island. Well, I should say, here in North Sydney and Sydney, because the island is pretty big and I was only in one little part of it.

But, yeah, it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and even though there is still a couple of feet of snow on the ground, it felt like spring.

I had a fairly busy day; though not as busy as the last two have been! It's only Wednesday and it feels like an entire week has already happened since Sunday night when I launched my crowdfunding campaign. 

I woke at 6:30, which is usual for a weekday. Adam is out the door by 7, and we spend that half hour wiping sleep from our eyes, drinking coffee, eating breakfast, and making his lunch. He leaves at 7 and drives to the job site (he's an electrician and works here in North Sydney), and then I do a few things and get ready for work and leave the house anywhere between 7:30 and 8. This morning I wrote up two estimates for potential clients, and had a mini dance party.

Then I went to work. I work at a place called the Horizon Achievement Centre, in Sydney. It's an organization that provides vocational training to adults with intellectual disabilities. I've been working there since August of last year. I do a variety of things there: design, copywriting, teaching drawing, and working on a database re-design. It keeps me busy!

When I got home from work today I thought about going for a walk, but decided instead to do the dishes. There is something really therapeutic for me about that. (Well, sometimes. Other times it's a pain in the arse.) Today it was therapeutic. Now that the campaign is launched and has gotten to 44%, my head is a-whirl with ideas for what to do next to get to the total goal, but I also feel like I'm not sure where to begin, and like things have piled up a bit over the last few days. So taking time to clean out my space is good to help me focus.

What do you do to help yourself focus, or get clarity on a big project?

Now we're off to a wake, and likely our dinner will be take-out. But at least my sink will be clean!

xoxo Leah

Day 2: The Accidental Fundraiser

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Well! I'm starting to catch my breath a little on this whole crowdfunding thing.

By the end of day 2, the rate of growth has slowed down and we're holding steady at 40%. The first day and a half were about getting the word out, posting on social media a fair bit, and watching the numbers climb like crazy (and getting offline and going for a walk when I felt overwhelmed by it all). Now it's about 'OK...how am I going to spend the next 28 days to ensure I reach my goal?'

I will admit that I didn't think very far in advance about this campaign; I didn't really have time! I first posted the link about the program "It's Business Time" on Friday, March 29th at 6:30 pm, saying "It is kind of killing me that I can't afford this program right now, because I want to take it SO bad."

Tiffany Han herself (life coach extraordinaire who I've talked about before on here) then wrote, "Quick, someone sponsor Leah!"

And from there, comments started coming in from people saying they would indeed support a crowdfunding campaign if I did one. In my head, I went back and forth between thinking, "Oh my gosh, I could actually do this!" to "No way, this is CRAZY, people are going to think I'm nuts!"

I did some research. I signed up for IndieGogo and started drafting a campaign. (And I have to say, props to their web designers because it is a really easy process to follow!)

This whole past weekend I was getting messages from people, private ones, saying "I would support you!" and telling me what perks they would like. I had a phone call from a friend who works in fundraising.

Again, I kept going back and forth between moments of exhilaration and moments of panic. "What if this is nuts?" "What if this actually worked?"

Sunday night, (pretty much just yesterday!) I hit "Launch" on the campaign.

Here we are, Tuesday night, $2,890 in, 40% raised. That means there is another 60% -- $4310 -- to go. And 28 more days.

Now it's time to really get to work! (For me, that is.) I've got stories to tell, videos to make, fun surprises to dream up and make happen: in short, a campaign to run. Accidental or not, I'm here in it now, and it's an amazing ride.

The campaign is here -- do take a peek!

xo Leah

Indiegogo Campaign: Day 1

Holy crap, you guys?!?!!? I have about five minutes to write this blog post, in between client emails, and going to the grocery store and then to yoga.

But I've decided to post on my blog every day for the next 30 days, to give you a behind-the-scenes look at running an IndieGogo campaign to raise $7200. That I decided to do on basically a whim.

(Which is how I do a lot of things, including how I met my partner and how I decided to do graphic design. One of these days I'll write a post about how following my whims doesn't in fact make me a flake. Because it's about what you do after the whim that matters.)

Anyway! Here we are. Almost 24 hours into the IndieGogo campaign to raise $7200, and the total raised, as of hitting "publish" on this post, is $1435. That's 20%! Y'all... I am BLOWN AWAY. I'm sorry... but I resort to ALL CAPS when I am REALLY EXCITED.

Interestingly, for a crowd-funding campaign, this is typical and it's what you want. In an article on Inc.com, Breanna DiGiammarino, cause director at Indiegogo, says "We often encourage campaign owners to raise about a third of their campaign goal in the first 24/48 hours after going live."

I'm making notes (well, in my head at least) for what I would do differently the next time I do crowd-funding for anyone, because to be honest, I decided to do this on Saturday and it was launched Sunday night. I didn't ask people to contribute off the start, like some resources suggest, so that the total would go up fast, and I have gone into this with as much of an attitude of "openness and gratitude" as I can muster. "We will see what the universe provides," that sort of thing.

But I am learning a TON. That's one benefit of throwing yourself into something and learning as you go! And I will be sharing all of that learning here on the blog over the next thirty days.

Stay tuned! And check out the campaign if you haven't already.

xoxo Leah