Thinking Creator

I had a great time at Killer Tribes in March, and came away with the realization that my vision of being a “public intellectual” is not foolish, but in order to work online, it also has to be more personal.

People have told me (and it was probably an Inc. article) that being an entrepreneur requires guts of steel, because you’re either soaring high with news of what you’re achieving or racing towards sudden death.   Today was the latter.  Friday was definitely the former.

So Soundcrawl is working to book real, honest-to-goodness new music acts this fall, and not only is it requiring me to act like a grown-up it’s also incredibly more expensive than anything I’ve done so far.  Friday was the day the groups all called back interested! (hurray! we’re gonna be a real festival!) Today was the day they wrote to ask me how much money I’ve raised yet.  (stomach tightens.. lump forms).

Today, I also wrote a pitch letter that I thought was terrible, but it was really just in my head.  I wish I had just “eaten that frog” last week because – it worked! I now have one financial backer for this project.  TIP: always write a hack version and send it to the donors you have the best relationships with.  They will be the most forgiving; and they are likely to say yes anyway.   That’s who’s said yes so far, but that’s important to have a win under your belt before your pitch the riskier prospects.

Tomorrow’s task: send the better-than-before pitch letter to REAL institutions in town. YIKES!