Building something new: TheCrowdfundCoach

This seems as good a way to go about it as any

As you might have picked up from my occasional blog entry, I'm big on downloading my thoughts, voicing my plans, and then slowly edging towards them.

Last year I wanted to see Europe, publish my book, and lose 20 kgs. This year I've set new goals and am progressing towards them at a slow and deliberate pace. In a bid to achieve these goals I've been reading, chatting and researching ways in which I can get there.

A few things I've learned over the past couple of months as I've been in info-gathering-mode:

• There's a lot of information out there
• It's a lot to take in and it is hard to filter out the stuff you don't need
• The fastest way to learn is to do

So I've been doing where I can. I attended the Sydney LeanStartupMachine weekend a few weeks ago on a hunch and a desire to explore an idea I was thrashing out. That weekend I pitched my idea unsuccessfully, worked with a guy that successfully pitched his, and the proceeded to try and execute that idea within the weekend and failed pretty good.

In the end the idea didn't matter, nor did mine, but it was a pretty good taster for what I need to do and continue doing: fail, learn, repeat.

So with that newfound appreciation of failing, I decided to go ahead and build the idea I unsuccessfully pitched at the event: TheCrowdfundCoach.com.

Why?
Last year working on and releasing my memoir was a huge lesson in what you can and can't do in launching an idea. It also had me super-excited about what doors were opened via a platform that excited me like crowdfunding. I wanted to combine the two - by launching another idea and playing in a space that I'm interested in.

What's are you offering?
Currently I'm offering consultancy hours on how to successfully run a crowdfunding campaign.

What's in it for me?
Ever had an idea that required money? I'm helping you get there with what I learned, an appraisal of your idea, and some honest tips on how you can improve that idea.

What's in it for you?
I'm looking to learn as much as I can about what it takes to build something, make it work, and get people to pay for it. In building TheCrowdfundCoach, I expect to learn how to do it, in amongst a lot of failures, mistakes and inefficiencies that can only be picked up by doing it.

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So I "soft-launched" a couple of weeks ago. This was hacking together a site via Weebly, crowdsourcing some basic design of a logo and writing some words. There's a shit-tonne of stuff I have to do to get this going and I have a shit-tonne of ideas about how I can grow my customer-base from a big fat zero.

But we've all got to start somewhere. And the important thing is I'm doing it.