Mid-life Crisis

Remember the days when contributions were flooding your inbox like offers to enlarge your penis? Ah, yes. The good ole days. Of last week...We were prepared for things to slow down. But it doesn't make this mid-life crisis any easier to swallow. Here's a look at our growth chart:

We were expecting things to level off in the middle of the campaign. The initial excitement motivates people to act, as does the final deadline. There's simply no urgency mid-campaign, which is why shorter duration Kickstarters are more successful. But, I gotta be honest, I wasn't expecting it to level off this much. I'm not panicking. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous.

So what do we do? How do we stoke the fires? In short, there is nothing you can do but stick to the game plan. And here's ours.

As noted in previous posts, our brilliant Marketing Director/Associate Producer, Gracie Bingham had an idea for a Valentine's Day promo (the "VD Reward"). Boise backers at $35 or more can have cupcakes hand-delivered to the person of their choice on Valentine's Day. A deadline (ie first 20 Boise backers to respond by Feb 13) returns a sense of urgency to the campaign. Will it work? Who knows. But, at the very least, it gives us an excuse to talk about the film. And to say "VD Reward" to each other repeatedly. Both totally worth it.

We were fortunate enough to score a little buzz this week: Filmmaker Magazine featured us on their curated Kickstarter page. And Boise Public Radio ran a great piece about the film. We posted these on Facebook and Twitter, and both were shared and liked a lot. Low/no conversion rate on Kickstarter, but great marketing for the film, which, as we discussed, is a secondary and integral purpose of a Kickstarter.

We will also be releasing an interview with director Zach Voss this week. It's hard to get people to click "PLAY" on Facebook. And we don't have an established YouTube channel (see previous post about building your audience before Kickstarter, as I kick myself in the head repeatedly). So this video is unlikely to get much traction. But people who know Zach may give it a look. And, as we noted, your friends and family are the most likely backers anyway.

I will be contacting my inner circle again this week. I really need these people to keep the campaign moving forward. But a hard sell won't be very effective when the bills aren't due yet. There's a fine line between reminding people and being annoying. So I will save some of these contacts for the last week. 

Bottom line, mid-life is a tough time. I'm not a particularly patient person (I'm writing this entry at 3am on a Wednesday), so it's hard to sit back and ride out the lull. But I don't have much choice at this point. It's Zen or bust for this guy. Deep breaths. Stay the course. Thousand points of light. Stay the course...Anyone? Dana Carvey? SNL? George Bush Sr? Damn. The Mothers Milk Kickstarter clearly isn't the only thing suffering a mid-life crisis...