“If we can fund ideas from friends who want to see us become successful, imagine if those friends actually got to participate in the revenue stream”
- Bill Clark
Recently I had an amazing author come on my show to share with us some information about his new book Start Up Fever.
Kickstarter and IndieGogo are exploding entreprenurial markets and as more and more people get involved in this way of thinking about small business, our country will be able to slowly give the economic power back to the people. This interview will cover how the theology behind this shift is the most empowering economic sea change of the past 20-30 years!
Check out my interview with Austin Muhs below
OR
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN
The Dr. Pat Show
Dr
Pat: Hey everybody – welcome, welcome, welcome to the Dr Pat Show,
transformation talk radio, transformation.fm, WBLQ, KKNW, CRN and any other
place that you are thinking how am I actually listening to this show? I do not
even know because she did not mention how I am listening. Well so she came
across, my very special guest today, Austin Mews, and here he is. He is talking
about crowd funding but he is calling it in his fabulous book ‘start up fever’
and how crowd funding will rebuild the American dream. We had put out there for
you guys that we had some questions we wanted you to send in and of course, we
have those questions.
Since
we went on this journey and started to look into crowd funding, in the short
period of time we mentioned it to all of you guys, the statistics on crowd
funding have changed now four times. The projections have changed and yet many
people are walking around, dazed and confused about what it is but more
importantly, how to be successful at it. That is why we wanted to do this show
and that is why this is so important because it really is important for you to
find someone that absolutely can talk about something in life to help us fulfil
our dreams but most importantly, so that we can step up and step in to a world
that is about thriving and do it in a way that catches the wave of this
phenomenon called crowd funding. Austin, it is great to have you on the show.
Thank you for joining us here, welcome to the show.
Austin:
Well thank you very much, it is my please to be here.
Dr
Pat: So I want to talk with you a little bit about you for a minute if we
could. There are many, many things that you do in your life but one of the
things that I want to pin point is you really are an entrepreneur and in being
an entrepreneur, ten years ago it was literally an anomaly but in the world
today, after the ten years we have been through, becoming an entrepreneur is something
now that people are eager to learn more about and I want to ask you, what are
some of the challenges? What are some of the obstacles that you had to overcome
so that you could show up here today and not only be the author of this book, a
much needed book, but to also help other people carve out the lives they want?
Austin:
Well with regards to challenges I always believe that our greatest challenges
are going to come internally. Anything that happens to us externally is really
just a representation of our internal process so really it was about conquering
all the different bad habits and or learned kind of failure mechanisms inside
myself so that I was able to come into the outside world and be confident and,
you know, have success and react to it in an appropriate way and in a way that
would be benevolent towards all those around me. This book I think is a result
of that that I wrote because I really wrote it with the aspiring entrepreneur
in mind; someone who might have, you know, have a vague idea of
entrepreneurialism or might be a veteran entrepreneur but is looking more
something even deeper because I think that that was the hardest part about my
quest, was finding the deeper purpose behind it all. Yes, it is nice, I knew I
needed to make money and this and that, pay rent but beyond that I knew there
were also some, you know, grander purpose to the scheme of things as well so I
wrote this book to, you know, try and address both issues.
Dr
Pat: You know, I love this because the thing that really annoyed be quite a bit
is the fact that there are so many people out in the world: entrepreneurs,
business people, you know, self help folks, that clearly are talking to us that
the American Dream is dead, and I love that what you are – I do not believe that
because, you know, I think I am living it – but a lot of people do and you
know, they are asking millions of people in our country to redefine their lives
in different ways. But I love that you are really taking on the idea that we
can rebuild the American Dream and I wanted to talk with you about that
because, you know, it is true about what you said. I mean, what is your
intention? What is each of our intentions in the world? Are we here to do good?
And I wanted to ask you about this idea of rebuilding the American Dream and
how important it is to you in the world.
Austin:
I think it is very, very important and as far as I am concerned, as long as I
am still alive there is an American Dream
Dr
Pat: Me too, I am living the dream!
Austin:
I think people just realise that the dream we had been sold of corporate
America and the white picket fence and the this and the that, it was good to a
point but we also need more than that – we need more than the security and the
comfortable lifestyle. I do not think we, as humanity, anymore are comfortable
with that security and I think people can tell by the state of relationships
and divorces and this and that in our country, that that kind of paradigm is,
you know, crumbling at the seams so we might need something more sustainable in
terms of, you know, emotional disposition to go along with the material
security as well.
Dr
Pat: Well, you know, I have mentioned the term crowd funding several times on
the show and you know, over the past bunch of weeks and you know, many people
are really dazed and confused about the topic and we have as a team, by the
way, we have set out on a mission. We started our mission about eight months
ago to really figure out, you know, what is crowd funding, how does it work,
how can we be successful? And what we discovered along the way is that there
are many forms of crowd funding but one of the most important things we
discovered is while billions of dollars have been made, and this is, I would
love you to comment on this, only a handful of people that actually venture out
to do crowd funding meet their objective. Is that a true fact?
Austin:
This is a true fact and this really points out the fact that crow funding is
just like starting a small business. So when you get these small business
statistics I would imagine that they line up pretty closely with the crowd
funding statistics because a lot of people go into it with a very overly
optimistic attitude and that is fine, that is not a big deal but the early days
of kind of going viral without a whole lot of effort have kind of come and
passed, you know. Maybe in the first days of crowd funding that was possible
but now it really just represents a great, great platform and a way to
streamline all of your small business efforts at a way lower cost than any
other traditional business would have been able to do in the past, especially
something like a bridge and ‘…’ or a, you know, even an online store where you
would require some sort of storage space perhaps.
So
this really represents a low, low risk opportunity to try and launch a dream
and this way, if your dream does not go the first time, you can try, try again
without the massive overhead that you would have had to, you know, take a hit
on previously. I think the statistics of second chance campaigns are pretty
high actually, comparatively. So I think that is a good thing is, you know, it
shows if you to it there is a lot of potential.
Dr
Pat: And you know what I love about this, is I love what you said about ok
look, you know, we need to approach it as a start up, you know, business so to
speak, and do not give up before the miracle happens. You know, right, that is
what we are talking about. We are going to take a short break. When we come
back we are going to talk about why this is a must read – you know, what is it
about what Austin has put together that talks to us about unlimited potentials.
We are going to take a short break, when we come back, we are going to talk
with him about what is it that he has learned that works and what should we
stay away from. Stay tuned we will be right back.
[break]
I know
I am feeling good today, I know I am feeling good today. Hey everybody –
welcome, welcome to the show. For those of you out there that have some
questions that you want to find out more about what is it crowd funding thing,
1800 9302819 – Mr ‘…’ will write down your question and then we will pop the
question up on air and Austin will give us some help. Austin before we do that,
why don’t you go ahead and give out your website and let folks know how they
can get a copy of the book before we jump into the conversation here.
Austin:
My website, for those who are interested, is www.crowdfundforlife [f-o-r life).com and they can
find the book on Amazon if they just type in start up fever or start up fever:
how crowd funding will rebuild the American Dream, either of those and they
should be able to find both the e-book and the paperback.
Dr
Pat: I love it. I want to talk with you about a couple of things and lets start
off with a conversation about who, you know, who are the candidates for crows
funding? You know there have been some articles that have come out and said
this is for young people and you know I am just not really sure that this is
just for a select group of people. What have you discovered on your way to
discovering crowd funding?
Austin:
No –
Dr
Pat: And maybe we should tell people what it is.
Austin:
Crowd funding at the base level, that is a good point, crowd funding at the
base level is just raising funds through a bunch of smaller donations generally
speaking. So instead in the past where you would have an angle investor or a
bank loan, you are instead now reaching out to the community at large via kick
starter or, you know, some of the mainstream sites more notably to ask for
donations and/or equity funding for your venture, whatever that may be, you
know, to fund your dream so to speak. So that is what crowd funding is, and
yes.
Dr
Pat: Well you know, and then, so here is the comment: you know there are some
folks that, and I am really thrilled to be part of an organisation, for those
of you out there you have heard me talk about a better world crowd funding, but
I have really been, you know, having to educate myself along the way as to what
works, what does not work, how to have ‘…’ start for things. But you know, we
are living in a world now where there are folks like you that can help us along
the way. Could you enlighten us as to crowd funding – who is it for and is
there a who is it not for audience?
Austin:
Oh yes, no most definitely – I forgot to mention, any age can most definitely
do this, any age, it is applicable for. I mean I would say that a lot of your
promotional efforts will be done via social media and online so I guess anyone
who, you know, uses some form of technology will probably have a better reach
per se than people who are not using technology, which I guess if you get high
enough in the demographic, maybe you know, some people are not using technology
as much. But still, it is for anybody because anybody can still reach out the
traditional route and get publicity via PR, via magazines, radio, television so
you can always go that route as well. You do not have to just market yourself
on social media. That is probably a big mistake a lot of people make is
thinking this is the only route to do it.
So
that being said, how to start like a 101 – you want to plan 8-12 weeks before
you start a campaign to build your warm audience. You want that warm audience
or that warm kind of group of people who have an interest in your idea. If you
cannot do that, if you cannot do the 8 weeks you are really kind of asking for
trouble because when you hit the ground, you definitely want to hit the ground
running because the biggest statistic that I learnt when I started crowd
funding was the fact that almost, you know, generally 40-50% of successful
campaigns, money is raised in the first 3 days. So if you know that when you
click go on your campaign, if you know you are not going to raise 40% in that
first 3 days because you do not have any commitments, you probably should not
pull the trigger. You should wait, you should keep building your warm audience,
you should keep building your following and realise that Rome was not built in
a day. There is no real life rush to this, you know, you may be in difficult
financial circumstances, this or that, but honestly it is better to wait and be
100% sure that you are going to have good momentum in the beginning and I think
that is the biggest key. If you are doubting yourself, ask an expert – you
should take some time and call someone like myself preferably and we can give
you insights as to why we do not think you are ready to start your campaign. I
think this could have helped me immensely in my beginning phases and I think it
would help a lot of people out there. So, warm audience is my first big tip I
think.
Dr
Pat: You know and part of this too is some people say you have to know where to
put your project and I wanted to have you talk about that for a little bit.
Someone had commented to me not too long ago that you know there are like over
500 crowd funding websites out there, I picked the wrong one. I thought to
myself wow how is that even possible? Is that possible Austin?
Austin:
It is and it is not, here is the deal is if you have a good warm audience, it
is not really going to matter a whole heck of a lot which site you are on. Now
if you choose kick starter, you are choosing kick starter because you think
that you are going to get some external traffic. Basically you are going to get
a kind of snowball effect or if you get some donations then other people will
just organically look at your page. But as more and more people enter into kick
starter and their numbers double and double, I mean there are only so many
people they can put on their homepage or on the top pages so the bar is kind of
getting higher and higher on a mainstream site like that to get that free
exposure. So a lot of these newer campaigns, if you have a good warm audience
you can go ahead and use a smaller site, it is not going to hurt you, and you
do have extended visibility. But you just definitely need to weigh those
options out.
Generally
people only use ‘…’ go-go if their campaigns do not get accepted for some
reason by kick starter or do not fall within their parameters because ‘…’ go-go
I do not think has great referral traffic. Go Fund Me is obviously used for the
kind of volunteer or the charitable type causes so that is definitely a good
option for that but again there is equity funding out there, there is all kinds
of different options so it really depends what you are doing.
Dr
Pat: So, you know, part of this is really looking at where we are and how
government has changed right? And looking at, you know, a new way to do
business. You know, lets talk about how this has already changed the way we do
business and what do you think the impact is going to be a decade from now?
Austin:
You know businesses are really moving slowly to adapt to this. There have been
a few corporations that have chosen kick starter I believe to launch some
smaller products of theirs, which is good and bad. But really it is going to
make small businesses way way more competitive because they are not going to
have the overhead that these big box stores and that these large kind of giants
have so it is kind of an asymmetrical warfare on big business and again, this
is good and bad. But as big businesses fail, there is just more market share
other people and you know, more potential for kind of small business profits to
be had.
So I
think America generally speaking is healthier with more small businesses alive
and well because there are just less centralised control and so we have more of
a free market and we can, you know, probably make better buying decisions and
get better products. But again, that is a big debate but there is a lot of
different changes and the fact that banking will not exclusively control the
small business market or venture capital will not exclusively control the small
business market, that is just going to create untold opportunities for people
all across the ‘…’ economic spectrum. I think that is one of the most exciting
things, is like where poor people in the past, you know, could not get ahead
because they did not have family help or they did not have access to loans,
they can now go straight to the people and if they put in the hard work they
can be very successful.
Dr
Pat: You know I think that this is you know, this is something, crowd funding
is something that we are super super excited about and super excited about it
for a lot of reasons. One of the things that I wanted to ask you about is the
motivational aspect of this. I have had a couple of folks that I have known,
step off into the world of crowd funding and kind of like us, I mean we decided
to take the time to figure out that we did not even know what we did not know.
So our journey began with yes lets put one foot in this new way to do crowd
funding and then lets take a look at the second foot to get educated and
informed.
I
wanted to have you talk about this when we come back – how you have outlined in
this book are ways to achieve their personal goals, to achieve the steps, the
things that they want to achieve through crowd funding and that is what I think
you have done in this book. You know, you are helping people fill in the gap
that we discovered after we started to do crowd funding, which was, you know
what Austin, we do not even know what we do not know, ok we do not even know
what we do not know. But now that is why we have got you here.
We are
going to take a short break everyone, when we come back we are going to talk
about some steps that you could take and we are going to talk about, yes, are
you going to take the blue pill or are you going to take the red pill? Which
one is it going to be? Stay tuned, we will be right back. We are going to make
sure you have Austin’s website and for those of you out there 1800 9302819,
give us a shout, we will be right back with the show.
[break]
Welcome
back everyone, welcome back to the show. Austin before we kind of dive in here
with some details please let folks know how they can find out more about you. I
know that you also offer services to people to help them to get their crowd
funding initiative started and much more but please let folks know, if you
could, the best way to get hold of you.
Austin:
Yes, the best way is via my email, which is startupfever9@gmail.com. I also wanted to let your
listeners know that I will answer any two questions they have via email about
crowd funding so if you do not get your question answered, please feel free to
shoot me that and I will help you out the best I can. And I also offer
consulting services obviously for crowd funding but also for kind of vocational
guidance as well, if people are looking in that arena and you can look more
about that at my website, at www.crowdfundingforlife [f-o-r life].com.
Dr
Pat: And what I want to say to everybody out there, and lets talk about this
before we kind of jump to the question I thought we were going to get to, but
you know, it is really a red pill or blue pill question. Here is what I have
discovered on the way to learning about crowd funding Austin, and I would
really love for you to talk about this. We are part of a crowd funding process
that, there is nothing like it on the planet because it takes the best of
multi-level marketing and the best of crowd funding and you know, this approach
is about asking people if they have a dream and desire and then help them move
through the process, which is truly about a pay it forward initiative. And of
course it is more, you know, there is a little bit more to it. But here is the
question really, along the way as I started to talk to people about their
dream, folks do not realise that they actually have a dream. So it is kind of
like, and I think this is your mission, to really help people be educated, it
is kind of like well wait a minute, that crowd funding thing that is for Dr
Pat, that is for Austin, the entrepreneur guy right? But that is not for me – I
am never going to be able to pay my student loans off. Can you really, can you
just educate us about, ok is there any project too big, too small? What have
you discovered?
Austin:
No there really is unlimited potential here as far as starting small and then
ramping your way up because what crowd funding does is it develops trust and
that is what you want to establish in your campaign as well. But it develops
trust between you and the community of people who support your dream, so even
if your project starts small, if you say hey you know I do not have two dimes
to rub together, it does not matter. What matters is that fact that you are
coming out with a genuine statement of intention to the public and you are
sharing your ideals and you work ethic and your kind of greater contribution to
the world and people, no matter what happens, have to respect that. You know,
they may say here and there but they have to respect the fact that someone came
forward with an honest intention to try and put their best put forward and help
some people out and build something new.
I
think that once you start building that trust and that respect, you can only do
bigger and bigger things. I think in the future that people will, instead of
going to college they might jump straight into crowd funding and crowd fund
their own kind of career because it is a viable option for people because you
are just slowly building a bigger and bigger audience, especially with kind of
‘…’ platform and a lot of the newer ways to make a living out there.
Dr
Pat: I really love this idea because you know, let me just talk about two parts
of this, red pill, blue pill, whatever the pill is – for those of you that are
not familiar with the reference, one of my all time favourite flicks is the Matrix.
There are two movies that I absolutely adore that you have included in here.
Many people do not even know the Bladerunner but actually I understand they are
actually going to redo it. But here is the thing I love about this, one of the
things that we are talking about is on one end of the spectrum, young people –
I do not even know what the label is for the generation anymore. On the other
end of the spectrum, and one of our new channels, is ageless radio, for people
on the other end of the spectrum. Don’t we want to include the 50 shades of
crowd funding here if we could, all of them?
Austin:
No, I would more than love to and I have personally helped one of my older
family friends who, heck he is in his 70s now, and literally I was able to, not
single handedly of course – he put out a tonne, tonne of effort – but I was
able to help him go from literally working a retail job because he had fallen
upon hard times. He used to be an executive and you know, then there is age
discrimination and this and that, and now he has got his own successful wine
engraving business. He goes around and engraves wine bottles and he does
really, you know, he is doing really well for himself so I am all for that and
I think it is sad that we do not include the older community because they are
just as entrepreneurial minded, if not more, and they definitely, you know,
have proven themselves, so.
Dr
Pat: Yes and not only that, it really is, as you point out in the book several
times, is that, you know, imagine a team of people coming together that
represent multiple generations of not only what they know, but about their
values and their desires. I mean there is something so incredible that happens
to creativity when we discover that we can use our imagination. You talk about
a number of different things in the book, I mean you have stories, ‘…’ hero,
you talk about purpose based economics but the one thing I walked away with
throughout the book is this: is that you can. It is you can do it Austin, that
you so beautifully have woven into the book – you can. You know not like oh
maybe this is for a few people. What is your vision and your mission so to
speak to help people be successful at this? What do you want to bring to the
table here?
Austin:
I would like people to have it a bit easier than I had it when I was starting
out with my businesses because no one ever really presented any of these
options for me – obviously they were not really in existence at the time. I
think if we teach young people that hey, you know, you are not always going to
like the work you are going to do if you are doing it with someone else and you
are not even always going to like the work that you do if you choose it
yourself but if you put in the hard work there is a dream out there with your
name on it and you are entitled to it. You are alive, you know, you are making
things happen for yourself so I want to help young and old to follow their
vision and realise that it is never too late to kind of make your mark on the
world. You know, it is the best way I can put it.
Dr
Pat: Awesome! For those of you out there, we want to make sure that if you have
questions you can give us a shout: 1800 9302819. Make sure you get hold of Mr
‘…’ and give us your questions. What are the mistakes? Lets just jump to a
question about the mistakes you have seen people make. I hate the term mistakes
but I want to cut right to the chase here if we could. You know, what are the
potholes people step in? What have you seen?
Austin:
Again, it is launching too early, launching over optimistically. Here is the
thing, if you want to raise over $10000, you really need to take this thing
seriously. You need to really go home and put your thinking cap on and write
yourself a business plan and have a plan A, B, C and D for your marketing
efforts. If you do not go home and do that then, you are, you know, praying on
a dream and wishing on a dream and it is just, you are going to need
assistance. You are going to need you know, a good video, you are going to need
solid ad copy and you are just going to need to have all the basics covered and
then probably you are going to need to reach out to other people with a larger
influence than you do and establish a good rapour and a lot of people also try
to do that too fast and too furious. It is like asking a good looking person on
a date within the first 5 seconds of meeting them, you are not going to have a
good result so people try and do that with crowd funding – hey, do you want to
go out with me? Do you want to go out with me? The community does not respond
to that, you have to build relationships, meaningful relationships and convince
people in a genuine way that hey, this is a project that will help you and me and
everyone else that gets involved.
Dr
Pat: One of the things too is lets talk about the way crowd funding works
logistically. Many of the crowd funding sites you go to have various levels of
donation, right, various levels of contributions. Many of the websites say if
you donate at this level you get this, if you donate at this level you get
this. Is there like a magic formula for how to figure that out Austin?
Austin:
You know, I would look to other campaigns that have been successful. There is
no need to reinvent the wheel. You do need good perks and you need legitimate
perks that pertain to your campaign, you definitely do not want the generic
t-shirt. I mean who wants a t-shirt with someone’s campaign written on it? I
mean I am sure it has worked for a few things but unless you have a very, very
stylish t-shirt, I do not think it is the way to go. You need things that are
meaningful and unique. It has got to be unique and a lot of times it is
experienced based. So you want to offer people some kind of once in a lifetime
or very rare experience that they can get into. I mean when we look at the
weirdest campaign, it has obviously got to be the potato salad guy. Have you
heard of him?
Dr
Pat: No, go ahead, tell everybody. Folks probably have not, tell us about the
potato salad guy. I have another weird one too but you tell your weird one. But
this is definitely weird, the potato salad guy, go ahead.
Austin:
The potato salad guy set out to raise $25, that was high campaign goal and
ended up raising $70000 or right around there to make potato salad and he did
it because it was hilarious, all of his different perks were things like I will
yell out your name while I am making the potato salad if you give me $20. All
these very strange quirky things but people just loved it, it went viral and
there was a lot of humour behind it. He also timed it with the 4th
July which was a google kind of analytics thing where people were searching for
potato salad so the guy, you know, put a lot of thought into it and way
overshot his mark so he did a great campaign.
Dr
Pat: Well, you know, we are going to hear about that great campaign and others.
Many of you are thinking to yourself, well wait a minute, what if I have
something more sophisticated. Well you might want to check out exploding
kittens. Now even though that sounds like a strange thing, trust me it is a
game. But what happens when you need some help with the creativity part of
this? How do you go about getting some help from people and how do you do this
if you really do not know what comes first or what comes last?
We are
going to take a short break. When we come back Austin is not only going to talk
about, you know, here is where we talked about starting, where do you want to
go and how do you set that project goal? What happens if you do not meet it?
That and much more right here on the Dr Pat show. For those of you out there,
as I have said before, if you want to go find out more go to the website
crowdfundingfor[f-o-r]life.com. Check it out – you will find out more about
Austin, you will find out what else he does, especially if you are looking at –
I love this – vocational coaching, yes. You should know where you are going if
you are only going to be there for a little while. Lets take a short break
everyone. We will be right back with the show.
[break]
Wow, I
got you ‘…’. Sorry, we are back, I love you Benny. Hey, I love Austin too, I
cannot wait to see what we do together. And you know why? Because boy, for
those of you out there, I know I have talked to many of you who have stepped
out into the world of crowd funding, and you know, it is interesting Austin.
They have stepped out into the world of crowd funding, put their best foot
forward, did not get the results they wanted, did not meet their goal and you
are going to help us understand what happens when that happens and were so
discouraged that they did not come back for the second time right? I know you
work with people all over the globe to help them. Can you talk with us for a
little bit about ok, if you just do not get it the first time, how do I pick
myself up? How do I do it again? And you have some phenomenal success stories –
I would love for you to talk a little bit there about that.
Austin:
Yes, most definitely. Well as far as you know, when it does not work out, you
definitely do not need to worry, you know, the main thing is do not beat
yourself up. The important part is you got in the ring and, you know, took some
hits – it is not a big deal. You are going to win another fight.
There
is never a, you know, a story that I know where someone who tried and tried
still failed. I think people almost always succeed if they have semi-successful
goal in mind and so the thing is, you have already built a warm audience.
People already know what your project is capable of. You may just need to go
back to the drawing board with your message – why didn’t your message resonate
with the people you are pitching it to, so to speak? Why aren’t people
connecting with your vision and how can you offer them more value in their
personal life to help them? It needs to be less about you and more about them.
I think that is always a great ground rule for all these campaigns because if
people are not going to directly benefit, yes people can be a little selfish so
you kind of want to pander to the ego, pander to the selfishness and that is
not bad, that is just kind of how you have got to do it sometimes. So it is
just a way of doing business and it is being able to connect with your audience
and again, you have got to bait them with a carrot somehow to kind of get them,
because you have got to realise you are going to benefit these people long term
so however you kind of get them into your network in the beginning is good and
that will help them.
With
regards to starting over, I think the second chance campaigns have a lot better
success statistics. I do not know what the exact statistics are but I remember
they are at least double the initial success ratings so you may make some
mistakes the first time, that is natural. You are starting a business; you are
doing something new. One of my favourite quotes is I have I never begun any
adventure for which I was adequately prepared.
Dr
Pat: I know, I have not either – I thought that was just me. You too?
Austin:
Yes.
Dr
Pat: Talk about this, radio show ‘…’. You know, for me 13 years ago thanks to a
forward looking station called kknwam1150, the only by the way on the planet
and pretty much, you know, still on the forefront to have alternative talk and
I bought my first hour of air time because I did not hang up on a wrong number.
Right? But I did not know what I did not know. I did not know. I made more
mistakes, that is why today, you know, my passion and what we are known for is
helping other budding radio hosts not step into the potholes. How do you go
about that? How do you work with others from a consulting point of view to help
them map out their projects? I think you do this, right, as a consultant
correct? Yes I would feel in for a second.
Austin:
Go for it.
Dr
Pat: I want to just tell everybody look, this Austin who is really, Austin Mews
who has joined me here today, crowd funding is not changing the game, it is
already changed. I love this. You know, start up fever is the book and it
prepares you for the coming change in entrepreneurial change in America. If I
had more hours in the day, I tell you what I would be doing. I would be on
every campus of every university for people that are first time students as
well as people that have gone back to school, and I would talk to them about
what Austin has put together.
So I
want to tell you guys out there if you have not got the book, please go ahead
and get it. It is for executives, workers, garages innovators, somebody like me
that sold hot dogs at a young age, that wants to radically widen your
perspective on what is possible. I have been part of non-profit organisations
and I will tell you that fund raising, the old school way, is not just hard
work but it is also disappointing. It is back breaking. But thanks to Austin,
he has come out in the world and has said you know what, it just does not have
to be that way.
Austin
thank you so much for all that you do. We have got a few minutes left. Just
tell people, if you could I know it is a short period of time, how you help
others? And I know you have had several successful campaigns, which is great.
So how do you work with others?
Austin:
I help others to craft exactly a step by step plan, how they are going to
proceed over a 12-16 week period to draft the campaign of their dreams and what
the, you know, actual goal that they need is versus what they think they need.
That is a big part, is determining the actual amount. You know you do not want
to undercut yourself and not have enough money to launch your business so that
is another big thing, another pothole for people. So anyway, I draft a long
term plan and then I work with them on a weekly basis to make sure they are
hitting their goals and then re-adjust the plan and tweak the plan as needed
based on the, you know, real time feedback and obviously getting from them on
the ground. I obviously refer them to a mirror ‘…’ other marketing services and
things like that to take ‘…’ the pressure off. You do not have to do it all
yourself and if you try and do it all yourself in crowd funding, you are
usually going to break your own back so you want to delegate and have a solid
team because people, everyone has a field of expertise and the more you can,
you know, lean on their bank of wisdom and knowledge, the better off you are
going to be. I just recently helped Sheila Gale, another host, to start a
revolutionary ‘…’ network service via crowd funding which had never been done
before so that was a really exciting success that we had together.
Dr
Pat: And I love that. And so we are going to be filling you all in on how
Austin is going to help us launch our dream as well because the time has come.
You know, you all have said that, you know, you want more of this kind of talk
radio and you know, when we have decided to venture a little bit off, you know,
the path we are on, you helped us come back. Austin thank you so much for today
and I would love for you to share your personal message and again, give out
your website. Thank you for all that you do.
Austin:
Well my personal message is for everyone to believe in themselves and to
believe that a vocation is possible and is out there for them. You know, I
always ask people to ask themselves the question what can I bring to the world
that no one person in particular can bring to the world? That is something my
mentor ‘…’ upon me so I think that is important. So it may take a lifetime but
you should be able to figure that one out eventually. Also my website is www.crowdfundfor[f-o-r]life.com.
Dr
Pat: I love it – thank you all for tuning us in, turning us on. You are going
to be hearing more from Austin and I hope you have heard something here today
that will help you pick up yourself and decide am I going to live an epic life?
We, from all of us at transformation talk radio and the transformation network,
hope that you pick a resounded yes. Thank you all for tuning us in. We will see
you next time.
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