Inspiration: Make 100____!

I’m already thinking about my plans for the new year, which is actually a new DECADE! I want to hit the ground running in 2020 and will do a post on some of my goals in the next few weeks, but I wanted to share something cool with you: Kickstarter’s “Make 100” campaign. I’m not participating in it (still working on my own Kickstarter fulfillment!) but if you want to get your feet wet with Kickstarter for the first time, Make 100 is a great way to finally give yourself the push you need!

Make 100 happens every January and you can make 100 anything - 100 copies of zines, 100 bracelets, 100 cupcakes, anything! It’s very advantageous if you coordinate a project you’ve wanted to do with one of Kickstarter’s special promos like this because you’ll probably get a bit of extra attention from being a part of the larger campaign. Kickstarter promotes Make 100, people search for it, and your project may end up in a featured newsletter (happened to me twice for “Small Press Big Ideas.”)

I’m telling you this now so you still have time to plan if you want to launch anytime in January. You could even launch at the end and have almost 2 months to plan. I know that people have various thoughts and feelings about Kickstarter (my launch happened mid-kerfuffle), but you can’t deny that it is the best platform to launch a project in a HUGE way. There were people who just found me “out of nowhere” just from Kickstarter!

Business Tip

Start planning for the new decade now instead of the first week of January and then give up the second week of January. By brainstorming now I feel like I have more time and space to determine what goals matter to me.

Less than 24 Hours Left to Kickstarter!

Greetings! As of this posting, we’re less than 24 hours left to my AER HEAD Kickstarter and almost at $3,000! Super happy that so many people have come together to make all this happen :) Still stretching towards the next stretch goal though, to hire a flatter! But really anything on top of my initial goal is icing on the cake. Last chance for you to be part of the action and get your name printed in the thank you page of the book (back at any level), get original pages from the AER HEAD comic (it’s hand drawn!), and more. Check it out before 5pm Thursday Oct 10 (that’s tomorrow!)

Business Tip

You can’t promote too much when you’re advertising something like crowdfunding, an event, a special sale, etc. We artists struggle with self-promotion a lot, but I’ve found the more you do it, the easier it gets. Sometimes I wonder if I’m being too annoying posting all over facebook or in my IG stories, but the thing is, this is what these platforms ARE DESIGNED FOR!

Also reaching out to people with personal messages has gotten more people to actually donate to the Kickstarter. We do need to be mindful of the way we message though! A friend/colleague in the comics world today was just saying how people just send him links to their crowdfunding with no message. Pretty rude and it doesn’t really work. I see messaging people as a way to reach out and reconnect with someone you may not have seen in awhile and also let them know you’re still creating great artwork (or whatever it is that you do).

Cheers!

Last 48 Hours of Kickstarter! Reached 1st Stretch Goal!

It’s crunch time: the last 48 hours of my AER HEAD Kickstarter campaign, and just we reached the first stretch goal at $2802 as of this posting! Now I have the funds to hire a professional letterer, which will make the book much snazzier and save time! But I’m not stopping there - help me reach an even stretchier stretch goal of $3600 to hire a flatter! Heck, I’ve flatted for others in the past, but this is the next step in helping me get AER HEAD out into the world more efficiently. If you’ve already backed, MANY THANKS YOU’RE AWESOME!! If you haven’t checked out the Kickstarter yet, please do so now before it ends this Thursday October 10th at 5pm!

Business Tip

You never know what you can achieve until you try! A little over a month ago, I didn’t feel fully ready to launch a Kickstarter, but I did all the research I could in the available time. Having deadlines is a super motivator! If you’re considering launching a Kickstarter, find out when they have special campaigns, like January’s “Make 100,” and set it as a goal. Sometimes comic cons are great deadlines too. Or holidays, or other events. But Kickstarter really kicked my ass into gear!

Saying NO so you can say YES

This Labor Day weekend you probably said YES to a few summer activities, which means you probably had to turn down others. Even relaxing and doing nothing but watching Netflix is prioritizing rest and saying no to other things. It’s just like that with work too. As a freelancer, we need work, but saying yes to too many projects by default means that oftentimes we don’t have the time to do personal projects that matter to us.

I’ve had a lot of practice saying NO to projects over the years mainly because I’ve grown to recognize the red flags about questionable projects. Does this person actually have a budget for the project’s worth? Is the person good about communication? Do I get a weird vibe from them? There are even some times where I didn’t feel comfortable working on the subject matter of a project, if it’s against my beliefs or morals. This is especially hard to do when all the other flags are green. As an artist, I do get some pretty weird stuff thrown in my direction! But we all need to make a living, so I’m not saying to turn down projects left and right, but it’s good to have some guidelines and boundaries for yourself so you don’t get overwhelmed and end up working on something you don’t feel right about working on.

Recently I said no to a project and I realized that if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have been able to plan my Kickstarter to it’s fullest. It’s crucial to plan your campaign out thoroughly and it takes a lot of time. There are so many moving parts it’s mind boggling! Everything from building your page to explain your project, to writing press releases (EEK! something I’ve never done before) to planning a social media campaign and OH YEAH you still have to keep creating the actual art!

I said YES to my own comic project, AER HEAD! For the next month I’ll be going full speed ahead on trying to promote AER HEAD #1 on Kickstarter. Please keep an eye out for my Kickstarter LAUNCH this upcoming Wednesday, September 4th at NOON Eastern Time. Search Kickstarter for “Mindy Indy” or “AER HEAD”. I’d love for you to join me in this endeavor of making the printing of the comics actually happen! We need more surfer heroes in the world like Aer :) Many thanks!

Learn Anything from Podcasts

I totally geek out about podcasts and have learned so much about productivity, social media marketing, science, well-being, and more over the years from them. My favorite used to be Beyond the To Do List but my NEW favorite is the ComixLaunch podcast by Tyler James, and I was actually featured in a clip of this episode! Anyone can ask a question over voicemail and it’s a cool way to engage listeners of the show. I had a question about the lowest Kickstarter tier and took Tyler’s advice. My lowest tier is now set at $5 instead of $1 or $2. Tyler has all the winning qualities that the productivity “gurus” have, but he applies them to the comics realm, which I’ve never seen anyone do before. Even if you’re not looking to launch a Kickstarter now, he and his guests also give great real insight into the comics industry, as in this episode.

My Kickstarter for AER HEAD #1 is scheduled to launch on Wednesday September 4th (mark your calendars!), but I still have a lot of research and planning to do, so I’ve been listening to the ComixLaunch podcast nonstop to learn everything I can about Kickstarter tips while doing inking work, other comic work, doing dishes, cooking, etc. I’m a big fan of saving time this way and write Kickstarter tips on post-it notes if I hear a good tip to look into or action item.

Business Tip

What area of life would you like to learn more about? Seriously there’s a podcast for EVERYTHING, you just need to dig around a little for it. I discovered the ComixLaunch podcast from ANOTHER podcast (Funding the Dream) which mainly focuses on gaming projects on Kickstarter. And you don’t even need to have an iPhone to listen to the podcasts - for years I just listened on various websites (when I had crappy Android phones). It’s great to learn new things and always keep growing as an artist and as a person, so find the podcasts that can help you reach the next level of your life!