Member Article

Warning: Kickstarter is Dangerous

5 Side Effects Not Listed on the Packaging

It’s 2am and I am wide awake. I’m not sweating. I’m not woozy, at all, which is strange because I drank nearly an entire bottle of red wine celebrating my birthday yesterday. More about the wine later. I grab my phone and start looking at all the channels, then email. I am not nervous or upset, just wide awake and very aware that my Kickstarter campaign ends in 9 days and I still have £9,500 left to go towards a £11,500 target. I replay the tape in my head, “many campaigns get over 50% of their funding in the last 48 hours“. But, what is it that I’m not doing to get friends, colleagues, and others to take action?

This is my life now. One big worry. But, this is not a side effect, it is a symptom of the side effects.

Funny thing is, my Kickstarter project, a book I wrote and I am now trying to publish, won’t even provide me any income. I’m not worrying about paying the mortgage based on the success of my Kickstarter —although the process may be having a negative impact on my ability to generate revenue in my start-up; a company creating and curating content for smart people building companies that matter. My Kickstarter is really a test to see if a tribe exists, who want to learn more from and with us around the ideas in my book.

What a test it has been! Many in my tribe don’t know what Kickstarter is and think I am asking them for donations. Others think it’s a request for investment. Some don’t understand why I am not just self publishing. And still others simply don’t get what I am talking about. And all of this is happening BEFORE they even think about going to the Kickstarter page to review the project. It’s a wonder how I have attracted 70+ backers to date.

Oh yeah, I have read all the posts: “5 ways to make your Kickstarter a success”, “3 things to avoid in creating your Kickstarter”, and “10 Success tips from those who have raised big bundles of cash on Kickstarter”. Notice how they are all simple lists to be imbibed like some sort of medication that makes you better instantly. But, what those posts don’t tell you about is the impact the Kickstarter process will have on you. To be sure, I think I have felt a million things since starting my Kickstarter over a month ago, but feelings aside, here are the 5 side effects I have experienced from the process— yours may vary slightly: [still 9 days to go, so there may be more, and I will update this article if there are!]

1. Time Travel. You will at once be transported to the next day and the next day and the next day, while experiencing the most incredible slowness to every experience. It’s almost as if you are violating the space/time continuum. Your brain becomes a Tardis and you will feel jet lagged often. → Remedy: create a to-do list each day and stick to it. Helpful to use an egg timer for tasks on the list, or else you start to wander over to your comms channels or more deep research into “how to be a successful Kickstarter” — these are unhelpful uses of time and exacerbate your time travel issue.

2. Bewilderment. You go into the process feeling like a person on a mission. You created something. You want to share it with the world. And then you question everything about your work and its purpose, its worthiness. This is quite an unsettling side effect with a dark side. This bewilderment fogs up your mind and simple tasks become elusive. The dark side is it’s potential to cause you get depressed. I have not experienced this, but I think I have seen the Depression Dalek standing in the hallway a few times. That email you were meant to send chasing some freelance work? It takes 3 days instead of 3 mins to send. That confidence you felt upon crafting the perfect Kickstarter? Evaporated like dew in Death Valley. You will start thinking of lots of ideas to save yourself from the lizard brain now ruling your thoughts, but these ideas will distract you from the real task of embracing a healthy self belief. → Remedy: Embrace the fog for it’s learning, but quiet the lizard brain with a healthful routine. I run and do high intensity interval training. You might do yoga or skateboard. Sweat is paradoxically the icy cold wind you need to quiet the lizard brain.

3. Vulnerability. That feeling that I think you might get if you decided to run down main street naked. Yep, that feeling. There is something both liberating and scary as hell about setting a deadline (publicly), putting your art out to the public to judge, and then living with the possibility you may fail, again, publicly. I’m guessing this is just a little taste of what politicians, celebrities, and artists in the spotlight must feel on a daily basis. Your vulnerability or rather the feeling of vulnerability can cripple your thought processes. The big “V” turns on your adrenaline as if you are in flight or fight mode, but the result of too much adrenaline from stress is a burning sensation in your muscles — they are actually deteriorating! You will feel very alone in crowds and down right isolated in your lab/workshop/office. → Remedy: I think this side affect is best handled by embracing it as a super power. Yes, you heard me right — a superpower. A good friend of mine, Emma, reminded me of the power of vulnerability. It is only when we really allow ourselves to be seen and feel vulnerable, that we discover what we are actually capable of doing and become one with our tribe. That sure sounds like a superpower to me!

4. Sleep Deprivation, Anxiety, Mood Swings. I lump all these together because they are all of the same genre and together make you feel as if you are going insane. Not much to say here, other than these side effects, if addressed by drinking copious amounts of alcohol, frequently, can worsen. → Remedy: Suggest using same remedy for bewilderment: healthful routine (helpful if it makes you sweat).

5. Enlightenment. The biggest and most impactful side effect is, luckily, positive. If you listen and open up to the people who care about you during your Kickstarter, you will learn a great many things about your yourself, your art and importantly your tribe. You will learn so many things. Not so much about what works — you likely already know these things going into the campaign if you have done some deep research (page 2 of Google, anyone?!). Rather, you will learn about how much you really believe in some of your principles. This is because you will be tempted often to break your principles under the delusion that breaking them will make your project a success and holding onto them is what is crippling you project. Don’ t do it and gain enlightment, break them and begin a descent into the vortex of hell. You will learn about your art, because you will really have to view it from your tribe’s standpoint. It may be that you are too far out in front of the tribe, speaking in some kind of gibberish only understood by a few and those few are unable to spread your message because they barely understand it. This makes you think long and hard about your art and how it is perceived. Not so you change your art, but how you get folks to engage with it. And finally, by thinking about the perception of your art by your tribe, you will begin the process of understanding. This comes, as pointed out again by my good friend Emma, not by telling them more about the art, but asking them more about your art. → Remedy: to avoid descent into the vortex of hell, stick to your principles and listen to your friends.

These are the 5 side effects I have experienced to date. I’m glad I am doing a Kickstarter —still optimistic it will reach it’s target, but happy that I am learning along the way. If you are considering a Kickstarter, I hope you are able to learn from, rather than fail from the side effects. As Seth Godin says nearly every day, we need you to make a ruckus! So go on and put your art out there.

Oh yeah — and if you want to help me succeed in reaching my Kickstarter monetary target (which would be a really good thing), just search Kickstarter for me.

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This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Todd Hannula .