Pounding chest and pulsating blood. It’s swarming each vein and every inch of my terrified body. I’m anxious and afraid and at the mercy of too many. It is, of course, launch day. Not for a book or a course or an exciting new product, rather the Beyond Parallel Kickstarter Campaign. This is what was burning within me when I pressed Launch, indeed it’s followed me ever since.
Crowdfunding is a transparent process. Failure and success and who and what’s involved is available for everyone to see. Most times in life we can sing about success and remain silent about the rest. We can fudge the numbers and manipulate the situation, and let’s be honest, I’m sure we’ve all exaggerated a story to friends or family or strangers in bars.
It massages our ego and makes us feel worthy of the conversation, but I urge you to be Brave! I encourage you to share your True Story!
Be Brave Today
I aren’t a rolling success story with tales of million dollar deals and dinner with the queen. I’m just a man who loves to write, uncover stories, and meet new people. I come across great folk each day – some local and down the street, others online and a thousand miles away. I often ask about their story, but I don’t care about the rolling success so much as the real deal.
The brutal and honest and gaping wide truth.
I’ve made plenty of mistakes and am surrounded by people doing the same. This is why I’m writing The Successful Mistake. I’m discovering who I am and coming across people who are confused too, and this is why I’ve dedicated my life to Storytelling. The Story that I’m leading today, RIGHT NOW, is rather scary and my instinct is to hide the bad and remain as reserved as possible.
I can’t do this, though. I won’t do this!
Your Story Needs Honesty
There are numerous reasons why I like platforms such as Kickstarter. One of the best is the transparency of it all. We may hear about the resounding success stories in Mashable, but the platform is full of failure: targets missed by a few pounds and those that fall epicly short.
I read a great Post from the great man, Leo Babatau the other day about Failure. I read it late at night and went to bed excited and buzzing. He sees failure, I see failure, we all see failure, but so much is hidden away and kept secret. Kickstarter doesn’t allow this, and as you visit my campaign NOW you will see I have a long way to go – indeed you may read this after the campaign is over, and guess what, it may have failed!
Does that make me a failure? Hell no!
It means I failed, sure, but it doesn’t make me a bad man or a stupid man or a man unworthy of success. It simply makes me a man.
Be Brave! Share Your Story
I love storytelling for many reasons but I love the honesty above most. Even when a tale is fictional it’s filled with real raw emotion. I know this because I’ve written a novel, nearly finished my second, and I can assure you 100% that my heart and soul is in each sentence. You feel the words like you feel your blood pulsating through your nervous and anxious chest.
Storytelling is receiving great exposure at present because people desire connections. They don’t want passive messages thrown at them, they desire a great deal more. They want YOU to reach out and give them a reason to give a shit.
Your story does this, but only if you’re brave and share the real one: the good, the bad, the ugly…
Some people have said I’m brave for doing the Kickstarter Campaign. I don’t feel brave because I’m bloody terrified most days. However, I’m proud of being part of a transparent process that shows the everything. If I fail I’ll fail with my head held high, and if I succeed I’ll do so with dozens of amazing folk making it happen.
This isn’t about Kickstarter though, because I want to be this open, this raw, this fragile every single day: through this Blog, through Facebook, via Speaking, Face-to-Face, and every other way I can. If Sharing Your Story makes me Brave, then yes, I’m a big burly brave man. The thing is you’re Brave too, because I’m certainly nothing special.
I’m waiting, your customers are waiting, the people all around you are waiting, and although you’ll nibble on your fingernails, you’ll feel great in the long term.
Turndog – @turndog_million
