Crowdfunding Music Is About So Much More Than Just Raising Money

By Anne Leighton writing for Michael Brandvold Marketing. (Dedicated to My Therapist)

If you’re crowd funding, you’re doing something both for and about yourself, and there can be a lot of spiritual awakenings along that path to reaching your goal. Obviously goal setting and speaking up for yourself are big parts of the experience, but along the route you get to know both yourself and the people involved with your campaign.

In general, life is about rising up to challenges, and you can choose to accept that fact and do it with an upbeat attitude or be a grump about it. Even when you go for days without hearing from folks, you still have to be your own biggest fan. That makes you feel enthusiastic, which rubs off on other people, who will get attracted to your good vibes.

GOAL SETTING & PLANNING

Recently the Kent, Ohio-based chamber pop band Bethesda and I did our own Kickstarter campaigns, both of which lasted 55 days. Their goal was to crowd fund their new album, THE REUNION.

Mine was to fund a poetry book (and tour), THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION, due out April 2014.

Both of us achieved our goals, which for Bethesda was $5000 (they raised $6800)! I made exactly $3500 on Kickstarter and received private donations, as some of my friends were not online.

My friend Albert Bouchard (drummer of Blue Coupe, a band with members from the vintage Alice Cooper and Blue Oyster Cult years) calls it “a test of your organizational skills for sure.”

As per all the articles on crowd funding, plan great rewards (that you would fulfill over the course of a number of months, not at once so you can focus on each reward), speak up for yourself, ask everyone for support, and make your pledgers involved with your work. Every time you do people relations, you end up listening to other people, and that makes them feel special. Some of my best friends live so much within a budget that they couldn’t even afford a $5. pledge, but I related to what they were saying. They gave in other ways–like posting my Kickstarter page on their Twitter or Facebook, or even sending e-mails out to people. At least once a stranger pledged because of someone’s post.

I think listening to people about their dreams, even if a lot of the chat is about their struggles, helps you–the artist–build empathy. Most art comes from understanding the human condition.

Being your own cheerleader also builds your self-esteem. It’s the opposite of putting both yourself and others down. You learn to sing your praises. Speaking up for yourself is also getting in touch with your feelings and what you want.

When you start receiving pledges, it feels encouraging. Says Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater keyboardist), who is quickly funding a virtual orchestra project at http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/jordanrudess, “These are the people who would buy my album when it comes out anyway. The difference is that they pay before the album comes out AND they get to be my side every step of the way, cheering me on and reminding me every day how fortunate I am to have fans who appreciate my creativity.”

In choosing whom to reach out to, Bethesda and I started out with certain folks we wanted involved. My list was a trip down memory lane, and included many people who were incredibly successful entrepreneurs that gave me substantial pats on the head and kicks on the butt through the years. I wanted them to know I was working on the sum of me–voice, writing, love of being on stage, and my poetry.

Towards the end of 2012/beginning of 2013, I wrote personal notes to those people, including the two entrepreneurs to get caught up with them. I told them about my poetry plans and the Kickstarter campaign, and they wrote back with encouraging notes and a “let’s catch up request for a phone conversation.” This is where humility comes into play, because it’s important to really discover where they’re at in their lives. The things these people will talk about should give you more inspiration on your road to personal and professional growth–that conversation is about “my crowd-inspiring me and each other” campaign—life, art, business…

Interactivity develops strategies, and also makes you feel good. In advance of your campaign, prepare and plan more blog and video updates than you’ll need.

Bethesda reached out to people who had both a personal connection with the band as well as families & extended ones who knew them growing up, but never heard them live. Their fans also produced “why we love Bethesda” videos for the campaign, and the band uploaded them to their updates page. Says Bethesda’s guitarist Eric Ling, “We make it an experience when people come to the show, and they get to know us.”

We planned our rewards to be true to who we are. Bethesda made, “some rewards that are funny. We didn’t expect anyone would fund them, but we got someone who wanted us to write a song about them.” I created a few rewards that would get me to continue writing–one was PDF or printouts of a book I had been procrastinating on finishing a book geared to self-employed marketing people (including artists), GET THE GIGS (COMMON SENSE CAREER CREATING). Respected marketing people pledged for that reward. After I thanked one of those famous marketing people wrote back, “You will make it,” which felt amazing. You just never know who will give you support. It makes you just know you’re doing something right, and offers the inspiration to reach out to folks you may not have thought of.

our ideas should flow and develop beyond the life of a campaign. Offering to write a poem (that involves a phone conversation) was a service that I’ve done for my friends. For the campaign, I gave it a dollar value, and then realized it could be a product and service that I sell in my store!

Offering a service or craft does not need to include spending money to manufacture inventory. It can be labor that is based on energy you have from within, not a manufacturer. Time is the only investment you need.

Eric notes a combination of passion and professional service is key for our jobs, “People responded to us ’cause we were on a mission, not a joyride.”

LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE

Speaking up for yourself is how you get the word out about the campaign. It truly is one-on-one outreach, although notes to your various mailing or e-lists will also help bring in surprise donors. Real world phone calls and bringing up your crowd funding page in day-to-day conversations help drive home what you’re doing. I sent a press release to some of my media lists, and three posts over the span of the campaign on some of the Facebook groups I belong to over the course of the campaign. Daily I updated my Twitter and Facebook. The last two weeks of the campaign, I bought a $7. Promote-a-post ad on my Facebook page on Fridays when some friends got their paychecks.

Even my therapist knew about the campaign. And boy, did she offer support and ideas with all the questions she’d ask me!

The updates varied with unique phrases, sometimes calling out a pledger or two by name. I think Albert Bouchard and singer-songwriter Dean Friedman received the most call outs of “thanks,” just because their music has been an influence all these years, and their encouragement felt like an honor to me!

I spent a half hour to 90 minutes, five days a week performing one-on-one outreach on the campaign. I call it performing, because you should be in an up-mood, not feel like you’re in front of hostile people—they’re your friends! They understand your dreams.

One day each week, I spent as much time as needed just processing the pledges that came in. I wrote thank you notes, called people or sent them instant messages. For me, it opened the flow of what some people call “karma.” There were three separate times when the donations seemed to stop, so instead of dwelling on nothing coming in, I sent thank you notes. Within an hour or two of working on those thank you notes, a pledge or two came in from new people.

GRATITUDE

It’s important to thank people. You have no idea what it means to the “thankee,” and I think it puts the “thanker” in a better emotional frame of mind. When you’re happier than usual, people want to be around you.

When you’re thankful, you spend time thinking about that person you’re thankful to. It’s good to know somebody cares, and it’s equally good to care back. Says Eric, “A crowd funding campaign is not just about you, but about a bunch of people who are personally involved with helping. It’s an emotional investment that made me feel they were part of the Bethesda team.”

It’s a great practice to accept encouragement. Who loves ya, baby?

Eric says that once Bethesda’s campaign, “kicked off, it was such a cool experience. Sometimes I was moved to tears, because they pledged more than they could afford. It was one of the most inspiring couple of weeks of our career. It gave us so much confidence.”

“LOTS OF NERVES”

Oh yeah, there is that one crowd funding negative emotion that creeps in there. For some folks it’s as consuming as being horny, ’cause that devil sits on one of your shoulders, and tries to shame the hardest-working campaigner into thinking, “What if I don’t make it? I’m gonna be so embarrassed or such a failure.” Meanwhile the angel–on the other shoulder–is encouraging to either take a break or stay consistent with the plan, and just know that you will make it.

Eric went on record when he explained the phases of checking his Kickstarter page so many times a day, “When is the funding coming in? Where is everybody?” His bandmate/wife/leadsinger Shanna Delaney redirected him on what was important outside of crowd funding angst, “At the end of the day, we’re still in a working band.” Shanna knew the difference between something that is a real tragedy and just an unfulfilled (as of yet) goal.

I use the phrase, “just knowing” in a parallel way that a preacher proclaims, “Believe!” as in believe in yourself and–if you have one–that higher power. If I’m doing the work, steadily, and most of the time enjoying the experience, then I should have a great time doing this project. In a crowd funding case, you are talking with friends about something you love doing and truly believe is your calling.

Most of the time, I just knew I would make it. Out of the gate, friends, who I didn’t think would get involved, pledged to it. True, not all the folks on my wish list pledged, but some did. The odds are better than the day-to-day marketing one does to the media or industry for an indie artist. You’re reaching out to the people who believe in you.

“Keep your goal simple if you’re doing a campaign on a site where it’s–as Eric states, “all or nothing model.” Know you can stick to an outreach program to people who care about you and to your mass contacts. Do one-on-one outreach to colleagues, who you made smile at least once in your life.

Many of them see you in admiring ways.

Me too. I admire people who help themselves by coming up with good ideas and spending the time to work on them. I like people who are dedicated to letting their goals shine. It makes me happy to talk with people I know, love, respect and admire. It’s passion, and truly a great step to getting what you want to help support your craft.

Do something for yourself, and ask those friends for some help, and give them something you made for them.