Road to Kickstarter #14: The Coil Debacle

Greetings Heroes,

Welcome back, brave adventurers, to another thrilling chapter of the Road to Kickstarter! Prepare yourselves, for we're going to be a little all over the place this week, but that's just because we've been busy and have a lot of exciting updates to share with you all. Join us for a deep dive into Coils vs. Perfect Bindings with Nick, get a behind the scenes peak into some of our marketing prep with Kyle, and last but not least enjoy some Community & Social updates from John & Renae! 🪄✨

Nick & Ryan, Product

After some long conversations, product testing, and maybe a few tears we’ve made a choice about the binding for the initial launch of The Hero’s Planner. There are lots of pros and cons to a perfect bound planner and a coil bound planner. The top of the list would be:

We had an honest moment where we realized if this planner isn’t a joy to use, heroes simply will not use it. So, we made the decision to offer two binding options for the Kickstarter campaign.

We’ve additionally opted to shrink down the size from A4 (8x11”) to something closer to B5 (7.5 x 10”). It’s possible in the future we will offer bigger or smaller sizes, but for this initial Kickstarter our main quest is to find out if heroes like this new concept for a planner. It’s also looking like the coil bound option will have tabs, while the perfect bound option will not.

We know we can't get everything right on the first edition, so we are doing what we believe will make The Hero’s Planner the most accessible for the most heroes upon launch.

Kyle, Operations

One thing we pride ourselves on, here at The Hero’s Journal, is that when we do something again, we try to do it better than the last time. This week, we filmed the “Nick & Kyle” portion of the Kickstarter video, which historically speaking, has not been our most shining moments. This time, however, we had the distinct pleasure of working with Wes, Erik, and Randy. When I say they leveled up not just the experience, but also the outcome, it is absolutely me underplaying it because they were rockstars.

From setting up a beautiful set, to perfect lighting, and providing a teleprompter for Nick and I to read our lines off of, they made this process not only faster, but way easier and enjoyable.

As for the video, we also tried a new tone for us. In the past, our Kickstarter videos have been really product heavy and more of a serious vibe. For this video, when we were chatting with Wes about the script, we wanted it to be lighter and embrace the fun and maybe a little bit of the chaos that The Hero’s Planner is. So landed on this 70s anchorman/Wes Anderson aesthetic and tone for the video. We had a ton of fun with this, even tossed a couple jokes in there.

We will be releasing some clips and stills from the shoot in the coming weeks, but in the meantime here are a couple of Behind the Scenes shots:

John, Community

While the rest of the team remains focused on coils & marketing prep, I've been having a blast in The Hero's Guild testing the monthly planner spreads with our now 260+ Guildmates. I'm always amazed when I check the Guild Hall at the start of a new week, and get to catch up on all the amazing feedback & creativity the community has to offer. Everything from colored pages, to screenshots of digitally filled out planner pages, and even custom layouts.

For the month of May, we're testing out "Apes of the Hidden Temple", or "Maypes", if you will. ;) 

Consider signing up for a 1-month free trial in The Hero's Guild to check things out for yourself, and/or simply marvel over this beautiful coloring page that was submitted by Guildmate Danielle:

 "Apes of the Hidden Temple (Colored By Danielle)"

Renae, Social

With a little more than a month to go until the Kickstarter goes live, we’re going to need your help soon! Kickstarter campaigns are a great way to launch a new product, but they can also be pretty nerve wracking. Our team might think that our planner is the coolest thing since sliced bread, but backers are ultimately the ones who decide if the campaign is going to succeed or not.

Here’s where you can come into the story and give it a happy ending; share the planner.

Share it with your friends, family, mail carrier, barista, local hobbits, or anyone else you know who enjoys art, story telling, multiversal adventures, or simply needs help managing the chaos of life.

P.S. Make sure you’re watching our social media accounts. I’ll be posting lots of behind the scenes and exclusive content like this shot of Nick and Kyle from the Kickstarter video, teaser coming soon ;)

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