One Hard-Working Couple, With a Goal, On an Organic Mission

Like many crowdfunding project creators, Emily Cronk and Rob Schoch struggle to gain backers and pledges for their Kickstarter. Apparently, all of the short, memorable names were taken, so they opted to go with a project titled One Hard-Working Couple, With a Goal, On an Organic Mission.

If you had asked me, before I sat down to write this article about their project, what the name of their Kickstarter was, I would have flubbed it. I would have drawn a blank. I would have botched the answer.

If that is the case, then why am I now trying to put words to digital parchment, in order to talk about this crowdfunding undertaking that I can't even seem to remember the name of?

Well, let me tell you why. Pull yourself up a chair, or a seat somewhere, and I will tell you a little story. It's a story about a man and a woman, the story of a couple of who fell in love, and who decided to move across the country to pursue a handful of dreams. This is also a story about Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the noted Poet Laureat of Great Britain and Ireland.

Say what?!

Look, if you want to get the story straight from the proverbial horse's mouth, then you would be best served to head on over to Rob and Emily's Kickstarter project page, and read both it and the various updates posted there.

If you were to ask them about the Lord Tennyson connection, the odds are pretty good, I'd wager, that you would draw blank stares from the both of them. But, you see, that's just it - this blog posting is their story, as I tell it, and not their story as they tell it - for only they can tell their story as they know it.

There were two lines from a Tennyson poem that came to mind, as I sat and browsed Emily and Rob's project page.  They are lines often quoted and long remembered by many. Those lines, those words frozen forever in time, are these.

'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

What an ignominious fate it must be, indeed, for a project so down to Earth and interesting to find itself relegated to being mused upon by the likes of a blog that hardly anybody at all ever reads. I ask you, my friend, is it better to have Kickstarted and lost, than to have never Kickstarted at all?

Is it better to be talked about by a no-name blog in some far-flung, obscure corner of the Internet, than to have never been talked about at all?

Fortunately, this tale of project creators two has a happier ending than that.

Why do I say that?

Well, because as fate would have it, they were fortunate enough to have gotten some coverage of their crowdfunding project on Kickstarter by a newspaper that is local to them.

Thus, already, their project has achieved a degree of success in getting the word out, that so many other small scale crowdfunding projects can only dream about.

On their project page, Emily and Rob state, "We would love any support you can give us in helping bring our dreams to reality, taking better care of the earth, spreading the good word for organics, and sharing in our fruitful harvests."

So, it is support that they seek, and while I am in no position to fund their Kickstarter single-handedly, I am in a position to try and say a few words about their project, in a bid to share word of their project with whatever few Internet passers-by happen along this blogpath.

Though you certainly couldn't tell it by looking at them, all crowdfunding projects have a story to tell - and stories are for sharing. Unlike a story that you might encounter in a book, this is a story that you can play a role in shaping the outcome of. This is more than just a story about a man and a woman who moved from California to Tennessee. This is a story with more human depth to it. It is not a story of a generic man and woman. No, this is the story of Schoch and Cronk.

Did I mention that they have a compost pile?

Well, they do. Will the wonders never cease? I can even show you a picture of it. Honest to God, I can!

Now, it may not look like much to you, but to me, it looks wonderful, just absolutely wonderful! And why does it look wonderful, this run-of-the-mill compost pile? It's a compost pile, for crying out loud! What's the matter with me?

Well, you see, I don't have a compost pile. At the moment, I don't even have a garden. Heck, who am I trying to fool? I seriously doubt that I will ever be so lucky as to own an orchard. So, when I encountered Rob and Emily and this little compost pile of theirs, I took a liking to them.

More importantly, I didn't just take a liking to them. What I took was an interest - in them and in their story.

The thing about stories is that how you tell one is everything. You either draw people in or you lose them, and all because of how you tell the story.

And where, of course.

Yes, the where of how you tell the story matters, also, which is why Emily and Rob need more than just some obscure persona located on some Internet back road to take an interest in them and this quaint and lovely little project of theirs. It may look like compost to some, but I dare say that what I smell in the air over this Kickstarter project of theirs is a slice of fresh baked Americana.

If you pay close attention to the rewards section of their Kickstarter project page, you will learn that they haven't even named this thing that is to be this farm of theirs. Maybe that's because they're more focused at the moment on making their dream a reality, than they are at naming their dream. Do you name your dreams? See what I mean?

For a young couple trying to bring a farm into existence, I must reflect that they went hogwild, today, posting no less than four updates to their project page on this one day, alone. There are worst things in life than in being branded hogwild with enthusiasm. Wouldn't you agree?

Did I mention that they have a new chicken coop up and running, already?

Each individual accomplishment, like this, is its own piece of the puzzle, it's own part in the play, as this story yearns to be told, that others might hear about it and take notice of it and, God willing, take part in it.

So, while Rob and Emily busy themselves with the finer points of raising chickens, there's no reason for you to be chicken about joining in and lending a proverbial hand to help them get this project accomplished.

But they didn't just stop there, at the chickens. Within this dream are many dreams. One of those dream-within-a-dream things is a desire to rear ducks.

Don't think me a quack!
I kid you not, this crowdfunding project is about more than just a few chickens and a chicken coop. It's about more than just a compost pile. It's about more than just a farm, for that matter. It's about dreams, and in the realm of farmdom, there also exists the concept of good neighbors.

And that's all that any Kickstarter project really is, in a way. Rob and Emily need a hand. They're hoping that others will want to become their online neighbors, and to lend a hand, and to chip in and help to make this dream that is bigger than Emily and Rob, combined, into a reality - not just for them - but hopefully, for you, as well.

The thing about starting out new, starting out from scratch, is that you've got to start somewhere. To grow an orchard, that takes a little more time to yield results than, say, getting chickens to lay eggs. Some components of our dreams are long term manifestations. The full totality of the dream is not laid bare in the mere twinkling of an eye.

Rather, to dream - and to follow one's dreams - is a lifelong pursuit. The full culmination of forging dreams into reality often extends even beyond whole lifetimes. The pursuit and fulfillment of dreams often becomes a generational pursuit, extending across generations of the same family, encompassing more than just family to include friends and neighbors, alike, as well.

An old barn and a shed can easily lead the eye astray. They can lure our focus into the what was, rather than into the what could be.

Old barns and old sheds carry memories that may never be unearthed. The Earth has a way of retaining some of its secrets, leaving us to wonder - and while we wonder, we often find ourselves strolling down memory lane.

The thing about memories is that they cost nothing to share. These days, people share all sorts of things on various different social media. Social media is nothing new, however. People have been sharing bits and pieces and glimpses of their lives with one another since the dawn of mankind.

This Kickstarter project, this one about a hard working couple with a goal - an organic mission, is a chance for you to not just read about someone else's dream, but to join in and become a part of that dream.

Which part?

The part that made the difference, all the difference in the world.

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. It has nothing to do with the house, though. Rather, home is an entirely different kind of structure. Filling a house with furniture and furnishings are not what make it into a home. Making a house into a home requires hearts and hopes and lots and lots of memories.

Building a farm is tantamount to taking the concept of home, and expanding upon it. Life on a farm isn't always easy. It's certainly not always financially rewarding. But, when it becomes a central pillar of a young couple's dream, its true value cannot be fully nor properly calculated in terms of dollars and cents.

Won't you join in, and become part of the memories that this small farm tucked away in the hills of Tennessee is destined to grow?

I'll see you there!

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Crowd Funding Tip # 10 - Fighting the clock

How time flies! It does, but it doesn't. People often say that. They frequently believe it. Their own experience over the course of their respective lives confirms it. Yet, the clock always ticks and tocks at the same methodical pace.

The same holds true for crowdfunding campaigns. At the beginning of a campaign, there seems to be plenty of time, but as each day passes by, project creators begin to realize that time is of the essence. There's never enough time to get it all done. The clock eventually reaches the end of the funding cycle, and all of a sudden, the end is upon you, for real.

As I stroll through the Kickstarter website, I can't help but to notice how project creators have a dreadful tendency to fail to grasp just how crucial that time management is to a crowdfunding campaign. Invariably, a lot of time gets lost in the learning curves that populate the vast majority of crowdfunding undertakings. Time is money, as the saying goes, and how one manages (or fails to manage) the time allocated for their crowdfunding project can make a decisive difference between ending the campaign either fully funded or not funded, at all.

The grim reaper hangs around each Kickstarter project, biding its time until the hour of reckoning is at hand. Each tick of the clock is an opportunity wasted - unless you're not wasting it!

You may not think that a day or two, here and there, make much of a difference in the outcome of a Kickstarter project, but if you think that, then you could never be more wrong.

At the very beginning, when your project is brand spanking new, the temptation to put things off until tomorrow can be very strong, indeed. All the more reason, then, to double down and press your project's nose to the grindstone. That new smell won't last forever, and neither will the Kickstarter website's focus of attention on your budding project.

It won't be long, until your project makes its way to the dustbin of yesterday's news, and cast into the proverbial dead zone that awaits all projects that prove too weak or too unprepared or too neglected to resist the fate of the ordinary. The dead zone is a common staple of Kickstarter life for most crowdfunding projects. Get used to it!

Or better yet, prepare for it. Plan for it. Count on it.

At times, I interact with project creators on Kickstarter.  Sometimes, I send them a message out of the blue. I might give them a little unsolicited advice, or I may simply share an observation or three. There are so many Kickstarters running at any given moment in time, that it would simply be impractical and unfeasible to try and keep track of them all.

So, I don't even try. Then again, not every Kickstarter project interests me. Some never manage to capture my eye, while I am browsing. If I don't click on them, then there is no way that I will become a backer for those projects.

Waiting until your Kickstarter is in the dead zone, before you take an active and earnest interest in it, can prove to be a death knell for many projects. Why wait until your project's head has already sank beneath the quicksand, before your project's fate begins to take on a palpable sense of urgency? You do both yourself and your crowdfunding project an enormous disservice, that way.

If you stop and think about it, it is nothing short of truly amazing that so many people can tell time with such an unerring degree of accuracy, even as they seemingly have no solid grasp on how time-demanding that an undertaking of a crowdfunding nature can be.

Once you hit the launch button on your Kickstarter project, the race is on! For many, the race actually began well before that button gets pushed. It's called preparation, and unsurprisingly, it's still a relevant consideration in this day and age.

As project creator, the destiny of your project lies in the palm of your hand. You know, the one that wears a watch on its wrist, or the one that holds a Smart phone that is capable of telling you what time it is.

When you lose track of time, you lose track of your project. Don't let that happen!

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