Is a Kickstarter project in the cards for you in 2016? If so, this session will give you 7 principles to guide your effective use of the Kickstarter platform, and help you set both outcome and performance based goals that make success inevitable.

This session is sponsored by KrakenPrint.

Need a reliable printer for your next comic book or graphic novel print run? Then you need to unleash the Kraken. Head to ComixLaunch.com/kraken for 5% off your entire first order.

Session Table Setting

First Session in a brand new year of episodes. Committing to 52 more weekly episodes of ComixLaunch.
If this is the first time you’re listening, welcome. You’re joining an engaged, passionate, committed audience of creators serious about learning what works to move their careers forward… and come here specifically to learn about the mindset, strategies, and tactics.

Please dive into our archive:

Mindset — How having the right mindset toward Kickstarter determines success, Emotional rollercoaster,
Strategies — Social triggers at play, Retailer outreach, SWOT analysis
Tactics — Pros and cons of early bird rewards, promoting Kickstarters at conventions, how to create a great project image

For this first episode, we’re going to pull back a bit. This is a mindset and framing episode, which is how I like to start the new year. The idea of Transformation is an idea I’m kind of obsessed with.
At it’s heart, every great podcast, book, course, or training is a vehicle of transformation.
You’re going to spend the next 20-30 minutes with me…and for that to be time well spent and not time well wasted, a transformation needs to take place…

When I look back at my many years of formal (K-12, undergraduate, and graduate school) and informal (books, podcast, seminars, training programs) education, what separates the exceptional from the mediocre is that I was a different person at the end of the great courses than I was going in.
This podcast is meant to be informative, and educational, and hopefully a little entertaining now and again… but it’s true value is in the little transformations it can make in you, the ComixLaunch listener.
I hope to make this show something that equips you with the confidence, and knowledge, and skills, and resources to take action and build your creative careers.

So, stick with us this year. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Sticher, get on our email list at ComixLaunch.com, and if we do our job right, you can be confident that you’ll be a different, hopefully better creator by listening to this show.
Transformation… it’s powerful, and can be applied to everything… including your comics.
When you’re working on your stories, make sure you can answer the question, “How will a reader be different after reading your book?”
Will you make them laugh or cry? Will you make them angry? Will you make them think?

Today’s Topic

Share the ComixLaunch vision and Mission
Share our 7 guiding principles
Share our goals for 2016

ComixLaunch Mission and Vision
ComixLaunch was founded with a clear vision, mission, and set of guiding principles that drive how we approach the Kickstarter platform and building a career in comics.
The ComixLaunch Mission
To help comic book creators harness the power of the Kickstarter platform to fund their projects and advance their careers.
Guiding Principles
Our mission and guiding principles are interwoven throughout the podcast.
It is our hope that listeners will come to adopt these core beliefs and guiding principles as your own, and that they will positively impact your creative endeavors.

7 Guiding Principles

1) Each of us is 100% in control of our own success or failure. We are responsible, accountable, and the buck stops with us.
Make solutions, not excuses.
There are millions of things outside of our control…
But Our worlds are shaped by the things we focus on…
Things are going to happen…
Fufillment delayed more than two weeks at Customs. Full Cthulhu plush body cavity search? Checking beanie bums for meth?
I’m not responsible for that… but I’m entirely responsible for how I communicate the delay to my audience. How I choose to make it right.
2) Success on Kickstarter is not defined by hitting a funding goal or producing a product, but rather by satisfying every backer to the best of our ability and advancing our careers to the next level.
50%, 9%, XX% fulfilled but left them financially, emotionally, or physically drained… more burden than blessing.
3) Whether Kickstarter is a finite or renewable resource is not set in stone… it depends on how we use the platform.
Session 2
4) Hitting a Kickstarter goal is far less important than the person we become in the pursuit of that goal.
Journey, not the destination.
Two types of goal setters.
1) Set a lofty goal, and then focus on how far away that goal is from their current reality.
2) Set a lofty goal, then focus on how far they’ve come from where they started, and the very next exciting step along the path to that goal.
Guess what… if the very next step in your career path, whatever it is, isn’t something that excites you… that thrills you to your very core, that’s a problem.
JJ Abrams, pinnacle of his career… just relaunched star wars, GOAT franchise, biggest thing ever…
Next logical step in his career.
The thrill is not emotionally any bigger than any of the other projects he worked on… and the fact that he took on each project with passion and excitement, lead to him getting there.
5) As creators, we need to believe it in order to see it. That makes us special, and the world needs people like us.
We’re weird people. Most people are passive consumers of the world and what it has to offer.
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Year end review, looked over my planner and journal that I use to keep myself organized, and there (include in show notes) was a rough branstorming bubble outline of a Kickstarter for Comic Books and Graphic Novels podcast. Didn’t exist… so I built it.
And less than a year later, we’ve got a show with 25 episodes, thousands of downloads, and a course with students soon to launch.
A big reason why Kickstarter is successful is because people want us to succeed… and backers want to be a part of creating something, because most people lack the courage and conviction and resilience to create something new.
But ComixLaunch listeners, we aren’t most people.
6) When we must choose between doing what’s right and doing what’s easy, we’ll choose what’s right every time.
There will come a time in your career or your Kickstarter campaigning where doing the right thing is going to be painful, costly, or uncomfortable.
But in the long run, being known as a stand-up creator who does things the right way is going to pay off.
It’s easier to stay in bed until 8 or 9 or 10 am… but its very rare that the easy path is the path to greatness.
7) We are all stewards of the Kickstarter platform. We will not take it for granted, and we’ll leave it better than we found it.
And this last one is really important… we are incredibly lucky to be living in the time we are. Hell, I’m sitting here in my office talking into a microphone… and being listened to around the world, by hundreds or thousands… on your way to work, at the gym, in the car, at the drawing table… now and in the future.
I’m working with comic book creators all over the world, some of whom I’ve never met in person.
There’s never been more great free resources out there online, and some tremendous paid resources as well.
Every few months, a new tool comes out that makes my life, business, world a little bit easier or more manageable.
And we have Kickstarter, a platform that’s helped the everyman creator, guys like you and me, raise millions of dollars to bring thousands of comic projects to life.

Two kinds of goals —

Outcome Based Goals
The result
Specific, measurable outcomes
Not 100% in your control
Performance based goals
The actions
behavioral and activity based
100% in your control
ComixLaunch Outcome Based Goals 2016. By December 31, 2016…
20K Downloads
1K Subscribers on our Mailing List
35 Students
20 Successful Projects Launched — Most important one
Performance Based Goals
Record and release 52 episodes of ComixLaunch
Bring on at least 20 new guests.
Create at least 4 great offers to incentivize email list sign-ups
Run The ComixLaunch Course at least 3 times in 2016.

Sponsor Mid-Roll

In a moment, I’m going to give you today’s ComixLauncher, but first, we need to thank our sponsor.
Last year, ComixTribe spent nearly $85,000 on printing.
While we rely on a number of printers to get our books to market, one printer I can strongly recommend is KrakenPrint…
Our friends Jacob Way and Sam Amborn at Kraken Print offer:
Competitive pricing.
Great customer service, especially for your first offset print run.
Monthly storage if you do not want to store hundreds or thousands of books at home.
Distribution options, including breaking down orders and shipping direct to Diamond or comic stores at their specially negotiated discounted rates on shipping.
And NOW they even offer Kickstarter fulfillment! Kraken will pick, pack, and ship out orders for your backers.
If you want to unleash the Kraken, go to comixlaunch.com/kraken , mention the ComixLaunch podcast, and they’re going to knock 5% off your first print run…and they’re going to hook us up with a 5% credit.
It’s a classic win/win/win/win – You get a great price on printing, your backers get a beautiful offset printed book, you help the podcast out, and Kraken gets your business.
That’s comixlaunch.com/kraken / C-o-m-i-xlaunch.com/kraken for 5% off your entire first print run.

ComixLauncher

It’s time for today’s ComixLauncher.
A ComixLauncher is a short, actionable activity you can and should do right now, or immediately after listening to the show. They’re all activities I’ve done myself, and will get you one step closer to a successful ComixLaunch. They’ll transform this Podcast from a passive, lean back activity centered around Tyler James, into an active, lean-forward activity centered around YOU.

ComixLauncher – 025
Write down your number one Outcome based goal for 2016

Make sure it’s specific, measurable, attainable but ambitious, and time-bound.
Now, right down 1-3 performance based goals… activities you will commit to doing that are 100% within your power, that will make achieving your Outcome based goal inevitable.
Sharing goals with others makes them more real, and more likely to be achieved, so if you’d like to share your with me, I’d love to hear it. [email protected] subject ComixLauncher 025

Wrap Up

This session has framed what ComixLaunch is all about in 2016.
I shared the 7 principles that guide how we see the Kickstarter platform, and our mission and vision.
And we talked goal setting… and I shared my personal goals both outcome and performance based for this show, the course, and for all of you guys out there.
If you’re listening, thanks for helping me get one listener closer to my goals for this show, and I hope ComixLaunch is returning the favor, by getting you one step closer to your next successful Kickstarter project.

Quote – Napolean Hill

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”

I for one, can’t wait to see all the great things ComixLaunch listeners achieve in 2016.
Thank you so much for listening, and for letting me walk with you, as you taken another step forward toward your next successful ComixLaunch.

Closing Call to Action

Please subscribe!

Outro

You’ve been listening ComixLaunch with Tyler James. Visit ComixLaunch.com, C-O-M-I-X Launch.com, for this episode’s show notes and additional resources to help you crowdfund your comic book & graphic novel projects on Kickstarter… and Beyond!