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Episode 018 – How to raise over $300,000 on Kickstarter and grow a huge email list, with Cathryn Lavery & Allen Brouwer, creators of The Self Journal

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Cathryn Lavery and Allen Brouwer tell us about crushing a Kickstarter campaign, building a huge e-mail list, and working together to grow a business.

Today’s guests, Cathryn Lavery and Allen Brouwer, are founders of BestSelfCo and creators of The Self Journal, a powerful yet simple daily planner to help you structure your day, enjoy life, and reach your goals more quickly than you thought possible.

The Self Journal uses a 13-week roadmap system that helps you work backwards from your goals. Built in are moments for reflection and self-assessment. The philosophy is to take manageable, bite-sized pieces out of your goal until it is completed.

BestSelfCo launched and completed a Kickstarter campaign for The Self Journal in Summer 2015. The campaign had a $200,000 stretch goal, which they absolutely destroyed with pledges totaling $322,695.

We’re going to learn how these accountability partners became business partners, how BestSelfCo is trying to change the way you schedule, and how important it is to develop a huge mailing list. We’ll also get a step-by-step look at running a successful Kickstarter campaign.

“Take small bite-sized pieces every day, consistently. It’s that small consistent action that will actually help you get to your goal.” –Allen Brouwer (click to tweet)

“As we…grow into a better version of ourselves, we will become more successful.” –Cathryn Lavery (click to tweet)

“Take action every single day and you’ll get somewhere.” –Cathryn Lavery (click to tweet)

In this episode, you’ll learn from Cat and Allen:

  • The importance of accountability partners
  • The value of small wins
  • The benefit of structuring your goals in three-month intervals
  • What it’s like to plan a Kickstarter with one prototype and a defined goal
  • A step-by-step walkthrough of launching and completing a successful Kickstarter
  • Strategies for getting e-mail subscriptions throughout and after your campaign
  • The value of blogging on a platform, such as Medium, to target a new audience and leverage larger news outlets
  • It’s better to promote yourself by providing value for free than promising value and providing nothing

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Resources mentioned in this episode:

Answers to Quickfire Q&A:

  1. If you could chat with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
    1. Cat: Elon Musk, because I’m fascinated and want to go to space.
    2. Allen: Tim Ferriss, because he absorbs so much from all the people that he’s interviewed, and I think he’s pulled out all those good traits from those people.
  2. Name a tool, app, or website that you can’t live without and why.
    1. Cat: I have two for this one. One is aText, an abbreviation binder for Mac. “It saves you so much time, it’s amazing.” The other is Byword, a minimal writing app that doesn’t have any distractions in it.
    2. Allen: Mine would have to be Slack. “It just makes life easy, especially when you’re working with a team.”
  3. Tell us something unique and interesting about you that not many may know.
    1. Cat: I’m ambidextrous.
    2. Allen: I’m dyslexic.
  4. What are the top three skills or characteristics that you look for in people you work with?
    1. Cat: I basically look for anything that I’m not good at or don’t like to do. “So that would generally be… the stuff that Allen does.”
    2. Allen: I need one skill. “Just take action and do it.”
  5. What is something you believe, but few others agree with you?
    1. Cat: I think maybe more people agree now than they used to, but I think that University is more optional. I studied architecture and now I’m doing something completely different.
    2. Allen: “I believe that your mind can control and change everything: if you’re sick, you have the power to get better; the state, where you are now, your mind can change to get you where you want to go … Just flip your mindset and what you’re thinking about, and you’ll no longer be in this state of misery.”

How to contact Cathryn and Allen:

The BestSelfCo store is now live, and you can pick yourself up a Self Journal today. You can also find both Cathryn and Allen on their personal websites.

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Thanks again for listening and now go and grow your business!

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