Tell Me Your Story – And Make It Good

Last week, the young women at {r}evolution apparel did something.

They proved that they have an amazing story.

Watching their computer screens, transfixed, as a sort of movie-magic-that-you-only-read-in-novels scenario unfolded before their very eyes, they saw their start-up venture dreams became a reality.

In less than 5 hours their Kickstarter campaign for the sustainable fashion line they had been working on for over 2 years nearly doubled to $30K, well above the $20K threshold necessary to secure their funding. They accomplished all this barely fifteen days into their thirty-day campaign.

Very kindly they noted that they believed part of the traffic coming to their website and campaign was from an article I had written about them on my blog on Forbes, which had been picked up by Yahoo! News. (I personally think it was being featured as one of the five campaigns to check out in Kickstarter’s weekly newsletter, but that’s just my opinion!)

Regardless, people were convinced, as evidenced by the seven emails I received in my inbox within an hour of their post.

Today I am sitting on twenty-four messages and requests from various creative entrepreneurs.

Now, I am obviously a huge proponent of asking for what you want, otherwise you are already getting a “no”.

Yet, as I read through the cookie-cutter cut-and-pasted I’m-a-big-motherfuckin’-deal releases, I was struck by how little I cared for most of the projects.

Which is unfortunate and sad. These are peoples’ passions and dreams.

I don’t want to be some mean tyrannical hope crusher.

But these messages I was receiving, they did not instill in me a sense of excitement and desire to get involved with their campaigns.

I was not hooked in to their story.

When I applied to the Tropical MBA, aside from thinking it was absolutely positively the most ridiculously stupid thing I had ever done in my life, I also didn’t believe I had a chance in the deepest darkest caverns of hell at getting it. I was working with Dan on a project a month or so later, and I asked him about it. His response was simple:

What set you apart was…that you were genuinely interested in what we were doing. Many applicants applied for purely selfish reasons. Giving a shit counts.

As a contributor at Forbes, I get between 10-20 inquiry requests weekly. I’m at the low end of the spectrum (regular staff writers receive triple or more). For Ophelia’s Webb, I have roughly 50-100 various project announcements, product launches and affiliate offers any given Sunday.

It is easy to throw a press release out at 500 outlets like spaghetti at a wall to see which ones stick.

You might get a backlink or a mention in a few and you might even pique the attention of a writer or journalist somewhere that has a secret passion. Or you might spend a lot of time writing and creating and working, only to scream your story into the void and hear nothing but echoes.

Here are the things that {r}evolution apparel did that, in my mind, set them apart as a creative venture that I was willing to put my brand behind:

1. They put a face and personality behind their brand
   
2. They engaged from the very beginning with their community and supporters
3. They have a unique concept for a venture that fulfills a necessary and under-served niche in the world
4. They took the time to understand me, my writing style, and my brand
5. They convinced me how my blog (about young professionals (especially women) who break through the confines of convention and limitation) would be a perfect fit with their values and mission

I am deeply invested in the {r}evolution apparel story, because they vested me in it.

If you don’t understand what that sentence means, then you are not writing a tale for the ages.

Tell me your story. Absolutely. I love hearing about other people’s passions.

But you better make it a good one.

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