KickStart Your Week : Kati Eberhart
Time for another Radio WOW! USA episode of “KickStart Your Week” with your hosts Tomas Lydahl and Don The Idea Guy Snyder! This week’s guests are Kati and Tonya Eberhart.
Since history was just made at the Oscars where a crowd-funded project from Kickstarter.com won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short, Tomas and I thought this would be a great week to feature another crowd-funded success story as our interview on KickStart Your Week. Since you may now be plotting and planning your own project after witnessing such a high-profile creative victory for crowd-sourcing, you may find the tips shared by our guests this week very valuable.
Kati is a 17 year old high school student in Columbus, Ohio. She turned her passion for Asian culture into an entrepreneurial opportunity using the crowd-funding site Kickstarter.com.
This high school senior and her mother Tonya, the managing partner of Remerge Media (a marketing services group located in Ohio), created and executed this successfully funded Kickstarter project and traveled to Japan this past summer for the experience of a lifetime. Kati is now finishing work on a book based on her experience titled “Kati’s Journey… One Teen’s Journey to Japan.”
Kati’s Tips:
- Know the audience you’re trying to reach—both for the content of your project video and to connect with them via social media prior to your project launch.
- Create a blog exclusively for your project, and start posting well in advance of your launch date. This will give your donors a place to go to learn more.
- Make sure to carefully consider your timeline for project funding. Make it short enough to create urgency, but not so short that you can’t hit the deadline.
Tonya’s Tips:
- Your promotional video should explain very clearly the purpose of your project—and the benefits to your donors should they choose to back your project.
- Start with 5-10 supporters or other reputable business owners to serve as project ‘ambassadors’. Ask them for help to promote your project via their own business and personal social media connections.
- Use social media not just to connect—but to thank all your donors personally. Each time you post, it makes them look good—and gives you another opportunity to promote your project.
Connect with Kati:
www.KatisJourney.com
