Instead of trying to get a new job, I’ve decided to leap off the steady platform of employment and try to land belly first on top of the crowd. My first kickstarter went live this week and thus my life of crowd surfing for fun and profit has begun.
Just like real crowd surfing, the experience has been exhilarating and scary.
It started by releasing an embarrassingly intimate video of me opening up on camera about my campaign. Oh boy, if you haven’t seen the video, go check it out. It’s easily the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever put on the internet. But that’s what I needed. The whole point of this thing was to recreate the circumstances of my face to face encounters with people at live events. So I needed to be present in the most human way possible. Which boiled down to me breaking down part of the way through the recording process to do the whole video in one final exuberant take.
“you're a nerd but your illustration is awesome and this kickstarter idea is awesome. you're awesome hope u keep doing more artwork like this” - facebook commenter
I didn’t anticipate it but I discovered that the only thing scarier than asking strangers for help is asking your friends for help. When your new main source of income hangs on your friends hitting the ‘share’ button on FB, it’s easy to get bent out of shape. I’m going to do everything in my power to not ruminate on it, but I also know that some of my friends are more valuable than others when it comes to promoting content via social media. Man alive, that’s a brand new kind of hell. The idea of trying to be friends with someone and also actively ordering them in terms of their financial value is truly horrifying. I think that after this first kickstarter ends, I’m going to do my best to forget who helped and who didn’t and never ask again.
Thankfully, friends, strangers and old acquaintances have all reached out to help. It makes me feel connected in ways that rarely manifest in normal day to day life. Except, this might be my normal day to day life from now on.
I’ve got loose plans for 2 more campaigns next year and they are both VERY different. I can’t express how excited I am to see which ones are successes and where it all leads me.
See you next Saturday morning for another blog post!
-Pete