Episode #15: Kickstarter Success In The Time of Coronavirus with Marjorie Spitalnik
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What if you launched your Kickstarter, and just a few days later the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic? Well, that's exactly what happened to my guest today Marjorie Spitalnik. Marjorie walks us through her Kickstarter experience as she learned to pivot in the most uncertain of times. Our guest today learned everything she knows about running a successful Kickstarter during her campaign and she is certain that if she could do it, you can too.
In today's episode, you learn the equivalent of going door to door in the modern age, and how to resonate with the right people to increase the visibility of your Kickstarter. We talk about partnerships, cross-promoting, and more. Trust me, you don't want to launch your Kickstarter campaign without first listening to this episode.
Ok toy people, let's do this! Pop your earbuds in and take a listen.
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This episode is brought to you by thetoycoach.com
Little Rebels Online: www.wearelittlerebels.com
Little Rebels IG & FB: @wearelittlerebels
Contact Little Rebels: hello@wearelittlerebels.com
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Azhelle (00:00): You are listening to making it in the toy industry. Episode number 15Intro/Outro + Jingle (00:06): Welcome to making it in the toy industry podcast for inventors, entrepreneurs like you and now your host Azhelle Wade. Azhelle (00:17): Hey there, toy people, Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by the toy coach.com this is our second episode all about Kickstarter. As I said last week, I've gotten a lot of messages asking how you can run your own Kickstarter. What are the things you should do, what are the things you shouldn't do? So today we are going to talk about the importance of pivoting and getting scrappy during your Kickstarter campaigns. Now you might think that launching a Kickstarter just before the coronavirus pandemic hit the U S might signal the end of any hope at a successful campaign. My guest today launched her Kickstarter campaign for her plush doll line on March 8th and was almost immediately faced with an unprecedented challenge. What's great about today's episode is that we talk about how to get scrappy online from home and make real connections with real people that have the ability and compassion to help you increase your online visibility. Okay, toy people. So I know you're excited and ready to learn. Azhelle (01:43):So let's dive into the interview today. We are joined by women inventor and entrepreneur Marjorie Spitalnik. Marjorie is a mom and toy inventor with almost 15 years of experience in advertising and communications. Marjorie also holds a master's degree in entrepreneurship for youth and adolescents and she's an alumni of Columbia's Latin American entrepreneurship program. Marjorie's ventures into the world of toys have been inspired by her daughter and she is consistently seeking out new ways to empower women and children across the globe. Now, Marjorie doesn't know this well, she didn't before we started this interview, but she was one of the first people to interact with a toy coach online. I remember seeing her name pop up in a comment when the podcast was first started back in January and I was so excited that this podcast was resonating with the intended audience. From there. Marjorie and I stayed connected through women and toys and I watched in awe as she launched her Kickstarter for little rebels and persevered through one of the toughest market shifts in recent history, Marjorie surpassed her $8,400 goal and raise $10,996 so I wanted to have her come on the show and talk to you all about Kickstarter. Azhelle (03:07): I want to talk about what works, what doesn't work and more specifically how she pivoted once the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the middle of her campaign. Welcome to the show Marjorie. Marjorie (03:21): Hi. Thank you very much for having me. I'm so glad to have you here. Yeah, I'm actually laughing because it's funny that uh, I was listening to the intro and you'll say like what he should do, what he shouldn't do. And honestly I think I did everything wrong. No, how is that possible? I have no clue how I did it. No, I'm kidding. I do have a few tips on how you don't kick started, but I only wish somebody told me them before starting the campaign and not during the same thing. Azhelle (03:59): Oh, okay. So you got tips during the campaign. Marjorie (04:02):
Yeah. I learned alot after I launched it already and I was like, dude, are you kidding me? Like good.-- Azhelle (04:12): Pivot, though is like so big right now because of what happened, COBIT 19. And the fact that you could pivot in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign and just learning the basics of Kickstarter and have a successful campaign is amazing. Marjorie (04:25): It was like a roller coaster of emotion. Azhelle (04:30): I felt it too. I kept seeing your campaign and I was like, Oh my God. I was like, she has six days left. I don't know. Marjorie (04:39): And it was like, it's an impossible because I was like six days away and I was gonna make it and then the limit and you surpassed it. Yeah, I know. It was crazy. Like the last hour, I remember that I was, I think it was something like $500 away from the goal. Screenshot it. My mom and I was like mom I'm only $500 away. Like please, please put those five. hundred dollars. Called me and we started talking and let's say we like our call last for around 40 minutes, something like that. And in the middle of our call I started getting all this pledges that were falling, like the notifications legends that were falling on my phone and I truly found it with my mom like [inaudible]. Azhelle (05:45): Wow. Okay. All right. Let's back up. Let's back up. Cause you have a, you have a, you have a very like, colorful history. You're not just in toys. So how, tell us about your history and advertising and marketing because I feel like Azhelle (05:58): that might've had something to do with part of your success.
Marjorie (06:01): So wow, that goes way behind. Yeah. Yes. My degrees originally were on advertising and communications and PR and I used to work in advertising agency, then I became a chef and I used to work as a bartender, my TV show where we used to cook a line. So yeah. Wow. I used to cook on national TV. Um, and then I decided to open my advertising agency. So I work with a few big brands locally and then I remember one night it was round 1:00 AM I was working on some fridge ads or something and I was on a call with the owner of the, of the fridge, Brent. And he was like, uh, I need to go on the air by tomorrow, like let's say 9:00 AM. And he was around 1:00 AM already. And I was like, there's no way that can happen. Marjorie (07:09): Like you cannot just put something like that and expect that to happen. So I argued with him for around 40 minutes and then I was like, you know what? I don't want to do this anymore. Like I'm not a surgeon operating on a kid with an open heart surgeon. See like what happens if I do not advertise that fridge today? No one's going to die when it hits me. And I was like, I was doing anything meaningful for my wife and I was around, let's say seven years ago. So at the same time, my daughter, everything was started to like fallen into places because I don't know the universe work that way. So my daughter was around six by the time, five, six and she came to me with a drawing and she asked me if I could transform it to her into something livable or touchable. Marjorie (08:08): Mmm. Of course. The first reflex that I had was let's go digital. So I talked to my designer and I was like, how can we do this? Can we do an avatar or something? And then I was like, no, wait. And again going digital, no, that's not what I want. I need for her to interact with like for real. Right. So I said, okay, let's do just a push type. Yeah, of course. I never, ever, ever had anything in my life really. I suck at it. Like I cannot do, even today doing this part in the past seven years, I cannot sleep. Yeah. So I talked to a girl that she was the same stress and I was like, Hey, I have this great idea. Are you up for the challenge? Can we try it out? And she did it like in around the day. Marjorie (08:58):And while she was with the plushy, I was calling my designer and creating a logo and registering because that's one of the good things that we do have here back home is that those kinds of things actually work pretty fast. Right. I had the brand. Wow. I had the Facebook page, John and I had the first picture and I just posted to share what I was doing as a hobby with my daughter. It went viral really. And uh, people started to call on me and to ask me for their own and they fell in love and they started doing me a lot of interviews and well that's how you will go, which in Spanish means I would draw you started. That was my previous in Denver and I guess that's what I became an inventor without knowing that I was actually becoming an inventor. So that's something that actually I just found out that I wasn't inventor I think like not found out, but I just realized and I got like, Oh yeah, I'm an inventor after toy fair in last October cause I had an inventor batch on it. Marjorie (10:10): Yeah. And you were like, okay, I guess this is who I am. Exactly. Yeah. I thought about it like that. So, and that's how I got kind of into this entrepreneurship thingy. And then a couple of years after that, um, after I participated on an Obama program, as I was telling you before, [inaudible] so I spent a month and a half being training the U S by amazing experts in different kinds of things. And I got some meet with amazing other entrepreneurs that were doing like really cool things around the word and helping them get food and shelter. And I was like, just, I'm just being toys. Oh, here. So I came back and I realized that, um, I wanted to do more and I, I need it something more and big into to make a bigger impact in the world. So I decided to start working with women under stress situations, either victims of domestic violence, single moms like myself, um, whatever, like you name it. Marjorie (11:17): And I started working with them and training them and giving them, um, that's source of work. So then from Teddybujo, I want to know how you moved into little rebels because I realize that my passion, my real passion, and they took me only 35 years to realize it. Okay. Am only 35 years, only 35 years. So this is a message for all the kids around there. Dude. Relax, chill like five years to find my passion and grateful that I did. But it is to help women and um, kids. Yeah. Specifically girls. Yes. But kids in general. So that's how little rebels sort of, so I had to come in up into my head, but I didn't knew it was going to be little rivals back then. So, um, I was studying with my daughter. You see my daughter is the reason I have everything here. Marjorie (12:20): I owe her so much. Like if gonna become millionaire, like it's all thanks to her. It's all because I want to know how she inspired little rebels. How did that start when you were studying together? And I started to realize that on her textbooks, she didn't have any female role models, uh, on the books. And I was like, you're not studying about female at all. And she was, no, wow, this is a guy, this is a guy, this is a guy. This other one is that guy, you know, he did this, he did this. And I was like, do you know everything she did or she did. So I started talking about a Mueller and Mary Curie and all these amazing trailblazers that we had that actually shaped the world that we live in right now. And she has no idea. And I was like, okay. Marjorie (13:12): Thinking. And I was like, how do we expect to have women shaping a word today? Like, and actually, Mmm. Feeling like they can do anything if we are not teaching them about those women that already didn't have anything to look up to. Azhelle (13:29): Like no point of reference. Yeah. Marjorie (13:32): And I was like, no way, this cannot be possible. So I started Googling and then I found out a lot of books that I love them and I have them all of fours that are like goodness stories for girls. Or the one from Diana cap about the, the uh, interviews that she did different entrepreneurs and then, I dunno, you name it. I have them all. Wow. And uh, both my daughter and I will learn a lot by playing and we are big Lego fans. Azhelle (14:07): Oh really?Marjorie (14:08): Oh yeah. We did play a lot and we have a lot of Lego sets and, and we're huge fans. Marjorie (14:13): So for, for us it was very important to have the play factor in the teaching about these women and also the social factor. So that's how Little Rebel was born, not intentionally, but I was looking for way to teach her about this women in a fun way. And I was like, okay, so I come from the plushy industry, maybe a plush will be like the perfect way to do it. So I talked to a friend of mine that he's very talented and I was like, okay, so I have this crazy idea and this was the second time that I did back him first one with 30. He again like, are we going to do this all over again? And I was like, yes, I needed to try to understand my mind right now and translate these amazing women into adorable goals. Azhelle (15:06): Yes. Marjorie (15:08): And he did it. He nailed it. I don't know how. Okay. Azhelle (15:10): They're so cute. So I have a few questions that I know my listeners are going to be, uh, wondering because you have little rebels and in little rebels right now you have Malala, right? Yeah. You have Amelia Earhart and your last one is Mary Curie. Okay. Mary Jackson. Right. So let's, let's start with the top question. When you were starting, yeah. Licensing, when you're starting and choosing these girls, what did you do to do, to get the rights to do these plushes? Marjorie (15:41): So, um, with Amelia, and I'm going to start by that one because I know this is going to be, uh, at some point, uh, I need, and you should hear there's like a gray line. Okay. So for some of these women, if they were, if they'd been that for more than, I don't know. Uh, I think it depends on the States, but 15 years, yeah, we're a hundred years. Their image is public domain. Right, right. Oh, that's why a big, uh, Marie Curie for example. And that's why I picked Amelia in the first place. But I later then during my Kickstarter campaign find out that Amelia apparently have someone that represents her because she's not yet there. Azhelle (16:35): Ah-- Marjorie (16:35): we are in a gray area there and I need to talk with them. I'm not quite sure honestly what's going to happen, like full disclaimer, Malala on the other hand. And that's my plan to get the license for each one of them. Since this is like a social mission driven company. Yes. I'm not after the money here, I'm after and I tried to be as transparent as possible. Like when you send me all the questions and the discussion points that we're going to talk about, I was like, one of them was, uh, did you work with a your company? And I was like, yes, me, uh, do you do? That's me. Like, yeah. Yeah. So, um, what I did is I called them, a lot of founders told my story and I told what I was planning to do and I was like, okay, so I need this to make a greater impact in the words. So for each one of the dolls that I sell from Malala, our percentage of overall revenues are going to go to Malala foam because I want to keep being able to do what she's doing. Azhelle (17:44): Yes. And what did they say? Marjorie (17:45): Yes. Yeah. And then the same thing happened for every other women that we're still negotiating. Yeah. So what I do with licensing is I try to mix some old women that don't require that much. Yeah. How, so? Like negotiation and percentage on licensing fees and things like that. And actually, I, um, initially I had Frida Kahlo as one of her dolls as well. Oh. That would have been so great. And I had to remove it because we were negotiating the licensing and everything wasn't good to go. And then I met with them at the Dallas toy fair and the owner of the foundation changed her mind. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, apparently they're having, well that's not a thing because you have the foundation on one hand, no the rights and represent this people and their family. That's sometimes right. Yes. Frida Kahlo case was one of those foundation versus family. Right. So it was like, you know what, let's leave Frieda out for awhile. She's amazing. But she's not like the only one over there. Yeah. Look forward to other amazing women and eventually Frieda will come when it's her time to come. Well I think also now with a successful Kickstarter, you're going to have a lot more um, strength behind your argument for why you want them to be a part of this. Now it's become something that it's really becoming a revolution, you know? Right. Marjorie (19:25): That's awesome. Okay. So I did want to also ask you, so like you said, you stayed in the plush category when you had this idea. So what did you learn from Teddybujo that you applied to the development of little rebels? Pretty much everything. Everything specific to plush development, like plush toys are a totally different category. They're always so surprised at how expensive it is to make plush even overseas. Yeah. So did you run into that too? Yeah. Yes, yes, definitely. Yes. Uh, the smaller it is, the more expensive it is and everyone always thinks it should be the opposite. I know. I don't know why it's like I'm struggling with that right now, but like my margins are not. Um, yeah, because again, I didn't enter this business to make money, but you want to be self sustaining. I would love to be able to live only from this business than not. Marjorie (20:26): But yes, it's hard. Like, um, I feel things that I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a person that I'm guided by my heart and by my intuition and that's not me far sometimes, but that also, uh, had me like bumping my head against the wall. A lot of them. So, and I think this is the case because when I first started looking for factories of girls, right, of course, the first thing I did was looking to China. And then, right. I have to say I was very lucky because I almost immediately, and that with a supplier that in like three or four interactions got the perfect idea of what I was looking for. Right. So I sent the drawings to them and then the callers that I wanted to use and then the kind of texture that I was looking for and the things that worried me the most were the expressions on the face because it seems like something really silly.Marjorie (21:33): But if you change, let's say the blue pill a little bit, if you move it, yeah, no, yeah, it'll change the whole thing. Change the entire expression. And then I never thought about before other things like, uh, I just saw that a plush was a plush, but apparently a plush needs to be, I'm able not to catch on fire if a kid how to blow up. Right. Cause they can know with a blush on. I had no clue about that, you know? I don't know. My daughter was always well behaved, but I know that's not something that just crossed my mind. Like I know like the fabric that you're using. So those are all kinds of things that you need to consider when designing the products. And I never had that challenge before. So then the kind of, I don't know. Yeah, well the fabric, I've got to say that's one of the most important one than the feeling. Then making sure that they have no needles on it. That uh, I don't know, they're not gonna rip apart at the very first fight. Broader. A sister will have, you know, the type of stitch you use to close them, what they're stuffed with the sill label and all the information on that. It's a lot. Well the label is something that I still working on it. Marjorie (22:59): So it's kind of brand new word and uh, I'm grateful that I'm a member of women in toys, honestly, that opened a lot of doors and uh, being able to go to the Dallas toy fair last year, I learned so much on that fair, but so much. That's great. And uh, yeah, it came back with amazing feedback because when I first went there, little rebels was only an idea. We had like the very first samples and I pH too. Giants like roll and we can pull toys and jazz and it was just an idea and it was just an idea and there were, I love the idea. No, come back when it got some traction. Pretty much. Yeah. I, when I say that I learned a lot from it. I actually learned a lot from all this word. So I think he, it was crazy. I'm still learning like on a daily basis. Azhelle (24:01): All right, let's get into Kickstarter a little bit. Yeah. Tell us all about your Kickstarter launching process. Like maybe start with how you prepared for it and then how as you launched, did you gain followers? Did you have a mailing list? Did you reach out to them? How did you let people know what was coming?
Marjorie (24:19): Okay, so truth be told like the ugly truth. If I didn't prepare, that's no job. So, and, and I'm, I'm shameful to say that, but that's the reality. Like I just knew that I had showcasing I wish I was, I wish I was like, I'm embarrassed to say this. This is, I mean it's amazing cause you made it, I read all about it, about all the folks that spent months like the media and said yes, I'm like coming soon. And all those kinds of, well I learned from those kinds of actions once I was already on the Kickstarter, I had no clue that that's something that it started doing month before you launch. Wow. I did that. I wait before I launch and talk. And in that case what I did is like I put up the page of the Kickstarter campaign and I filmed the videos with the years on the videos of my Kickstarter campaign are the daughters of a very friend of mine. And then who shot the video? It's another friend of mine. So it's like homemade and we shot it at night because that was the only time that yours could actually be on the video. It was crazy. So I'd love like very homemade, passionately made. But then was it like I had uh, no budget to advertise whatsoever. I think I spent in total $200 on Facebook ads and that was everything I had like for real. Azhelle (26:06): So in, so let's talk a little bit about your Facebook ads, cause I haven't gotten into it yet on this podcast, but I will. Um, who did you target and how did you decide who to target? Marjorie (26:16): So I target moms mostly. Yeah. Also that's, but like my focus is I had yeah, little money were on moms that were, that had kids around ages four to nine that lived in a few States in the U S that call right now, which were done, but New York, Chicago, Detroit and a few more. Okay. Mmm. And do you, um, and it was $200 you spent throughout the entire month that you were through your Kickstarter. And did you advertise the video that you made? I did a field trials with the pictures of them. Actually, I did advertise the entire amount. I just advertised the last few days. Why don't we start with the seven till two hours come down. That's when I started advertising today. Wow. Oh my God, you're an adventure seeker. I see. I have no clue what I was doing. That's my heart. Marjorie (27:22): So I over posted about the campaign every year. I know I saw it, but it was like a very small mailing list compared to people. Like they usually said to me like, Hey, I have, I don't know, 10,000 emails. I had 200 okay, yeah I hear you. Then all my WhatsApp contacts, all my LinkedIn contact at some point I thought like LinkedIn is going to block me because the requests I said kickstarted a link on it. But that was actually one of the, one of the sources, Facebook and LinkedIn, but not Facebook ads. Just yeah. The posts on Facebook and LinkedIn were the two sources that made the most people to make him being. That's great. Then I saw those things are about super backers and so, so did you have, did you have any experience, have you ever heard of super backers? I did. Marjorie (28:22): Of course, yeah. Seem to look in pain again. Oh my gosh. But, uh, and I just realized that because they started to following the project, but none of them actually put money into the project, which was interesting. Exactly. And then I just got the notifications that they were backing and backing and backing a lot of projects and, and let's say big backed around three to four projects a day. That's a lot. Yeah. Was a lot following me. Why are they backing me? And I thought maybe they were waiting to see if the campaign actually, um, kickstarted, but at some point, because I launched this on March eight for obvious reasons, it was women's day and I was like, this is perfect. Marjorie (29:12): And then two days after, I think, yeah, 10 or, or March 11, Mmm. The COVID was declared as a pandemic. So, and, and you could see like, it hit me back growing, growing, growing, growing, growing, and then it stopped completely. And I had maybe one backer a day, maybe 2 backers a day, something like that. And, um, I actually didn't try to connect with the Super Backers. Honestly I Um, I had no idea that they existed up until I started Kickstarter. And then when I didn't realize they existed, I wasn't quite sure how to reach them out. A couple of influencers on Instagram and stuff and they actually shared on their stories the link to my Kickstarter.Azhelle (30:08): Wow. So how did you send them product? How did you contact them? Marjorie (30:12): I didn't have products. I just have samples. I don't have any. Azhelle (30:18): So what did, so what did you do? Azhelle (30:21): I text them and I tell them my story and the truth. Like I'm a single mom. I live in Latin America. This is impossible for me to do. I need your help. Can you please help? Azhelle (30:31): Wow. Oh my God, that's so wonderful. And would they, they responded and what would they say? Marjorie (30:37): They will share the campaign. I'd love to, I love what you're doing. And then today's after boom, I was. Azhelle (30:43): And how, how did you find those people who do, how did you decide who to share your campaign with? Marjorie (30:48): So on instagram. I didn't look out on Facebook. I did look out on Instagram for influencers. Right. What I did was I was after hashtags like rebel or raising rebel, kids are empowering and stuff like that. And then I started to look out for accounts that had a certain amount of followers. Like I'm one of a lot of engagement more than, yeah. Right, right. So that's what everyone always says. Micro-influencers Azhelle (31:21):and when you did that and they shared it, did you notice an immediate uptake on your Kickstarter? Marjorie (31:25): Not immediately. No. No, no, no, no. And actually, and I have to be very brutal and all this, I not sure I got anything from them really. Why do you say that? Because when you go to the sources of where did your backers came from? Like maybe I got visits but not mine. Azhelle (31:49): Right? Marjorie (31:51): Which means that I should be spending my money on those that generate conversion, right. Views. So, um, when you go to the reports and you, you start, because on that case, Kickstarter is super clear and it's awesome because they say like, you got, I don't know, 50% of views from this place and conversion rate from this other place. So you can see actually, right. What's the best place to advertise your campaign? The only two platforms that kept popping up were LinkedIn and Facebook. Azhelle (32:26): Interesting. That's so interesting. So did you ever, did you do any LinkedIn ads? Marjorie (32:32): No. Azhelle (32:32): I know I asked you, did you work with a PR company? That was one of the questions that I told you I might ask. Um, but I already know you didn't, you did this all by yourself and you didn't have a plan. You just kind of, you kind of winged it. Marjorie (32:40):Yeah. What happened that was amazing and that's something that I really enjoyed on the campaign is that I got to meet with amazing women that were doing projects very similar to mine or they had a similar mission and in their kickstarted on their end. So we started doing cross promotions. So we started out to each other on our updates and referring our backers to their campaign and vice versa. And specifically with, um, one of them that I, that I owe her. Like I owe a lot of women a lot because without them I wasn't going to be able to do anything. Right. Especially Leslie from Botley. She helped me a lot, like with her game, she gave me shout out on her updates, but also she was one of the best backers we had because she offer her backers that for each batter that bought that or backed us, she was going to donate adult too girly need. Azhelle (34:02): So wow. Marjorie (34:03): Only she got people to go to making pain and by a goal, but she also bought adult herself the pledge. And how did you make that relationship with her? How did you form that relationship? Honestly, we start talking to each others on our campaigns on Kickstarter. I was like, I love what you're doing. And she was like, I love what you're doing. And I was like, Hey, let's do something together. Oh yeah. And well she's, she's, she's amazing. She was up to raise a $1,000 she ended up with over 180l? Azhelle (34:45): 180 K yes. What? Marjorie (34:48): Yeah, it was crazy. Like watching her campaign go up was one of the wireless thing I had-- Azhelle (34:56): Give me her link and we'll leave it in the show notes to talk to her. Oh, sure. Marjorie (35:02):Yeah, I agree. She, she's a master at Kickstarter, not like me. Like I can tell, you what you don't have to do on your Kickstarter Azhelle (35:10): No no but it's great. It's great because you were successful and now you're telling people that even if you don't know what you're doing, it is possible. Marjorie (35:19): It is possible. It is much, much better. Like I'm not, I'm never going to say don't go for it because you already have the notes. That's something that it's like my, my mojo in life. Like go for the, no, it's always there. You can only get yeses. Azhelle (35:38): Now tell me something, there are a couple of things that I know about Kickstarter and I'm wondering if you are running into these issues, um, did you appropriately calculate what it's going to cost to ship all of your products to whoever bought, bought them? Marjorie (35:51): No. After, but I hopefully, yes. Azhelle (35:52): Yeah. And just how could you give us an idea, just a range of how much you invested into your campaign. If I don't know if Kickstarter requires any fees while you have a campaign, but you know, your video making and maybe even the sample doll making, how much did it cost for you just to get this Kickstarter up? Marjorie (36:12): So I'm going to feel very bad telling you this because I know there are people out there that spend a lot. That's not the case at all. So I got a friend that shot the videos, everything was done by myself. So I website, I did all the advertising and everything. So $200 from the ads, I think it sort of feeds around five or 8% of the campaign. So what you're seeing is actually, um, the final, I think the final price because I was asking for 10K and so they took already the percentage off. Oh, okay. Then, um, I think that's pretty much it. It's awful. But yeah. Well, the samples then each sample is around a hundred dollars and I had two samples per sample for $400, let's say a thousand dollars you did it. Azhelle (37:08): Wow. That's amazing. You did a Kickstarter campaign for a thousand dollars. Around, we're estimating, we don't know, but in you got backers to pledge $10,000 over $10,000. Yeah. That's amazing. And it was all, I think it sounds like it was just having a genuine connection with the people that you were trying to serve. Marjorie (37:32): Yes, totally. I think that's the key here because kickstarted is an amazing platform and you have a lot of amazing products. That's like, let's be honest, while I was running my cleanest, started investigating other people doing something similar to mine, there's a lot of people doing women empowerment, but only a few of them caught my attention. And then they have in common is that they talk from their heart. Yeah. So stories that involve, Mmm. Family for me. What's a thing? Very important because, well, my son, my daughter was the inspiration to start all of this. So at the time I saw campaign where it was maybe a mother working with her son or her daughter on a project together, that was more meaningful to me, that someone to hide themselves. So those kinds of things when you approach people. Plus, I always approach it from, um, the most side I can get because I'm just doing this because it's my passion and I actually want to live this word a little bit better than when I came to it for the generations to come. Marjorie (38:48): So I'm gonna do my best in the rest of the years that I have left in earth to make that happen. If I succeed, I'll be grateful. If not, at least I tried. That's exactly how I speak to people from as, as honest as I can get. And I think the people actually I can tell that you're being honest for real and you connect with it. For sure. For sure. That helped me a lot. I think the honesty part and also, um, there's a lot of female connection on Facebook communities and always been there supporting all this female founders. And so I love to see how we support each other in times of this like this by sharing, by backing, by whatever. They all been there for me. That's great. Grateful. Azhelle (39:39):And I, my, my last question for you was how you made your last 1K cause I saw you were about a thousand dollars away in your last 24 hours. But now I know from talking that you did start your Facebook ads at the very end. Do you think that had something to do with how you were able to make that last big push? Marjorie (39:56): I think so. Yeah. And I probably, if I had more money and I was able to, let's say spend tons of money on ads, I will have ended up raising a lot more money than I did. Yeah. The product is great. The mission behind it, it's great. The feature of augmented reality, it's um, a big plus to what we're doing and I think people love it. The only thing is that I didn't have enough money to, to market properly and to show it to people. So-- Azhelle (40:32): right. I know when I watched her video, I didn't really see what the dolls will come with, but maybe you can tell everybody right now. Yeah. Marjorie (40:41): The dollar will come with, um, like a little label I'm on the arm that you can scan a QR code and then from your code you will download our app and our app will allow you to do two things. On one hand you can scan the doll directly, open the scan and just scan the doll and that will take you to a video that you'll see our Little Rebels, um, sharing their stories, kind of, uh, think about a Netflix kids TV show, sharing some history in a fun way, right? Sharing her role and story about how, she got shot and why she fought for education. And those are like 60 seconds capsules. No, now they're the story and the highlights. Then you have also the feature of the augmented reality that you can play with, did the digital version of the dolls. So you can take a picture with them, you can ask them questions. Then later on you're going to be able to buy them clothes and change them, I don't know, and play around with those kinds of things. While in the near future we are exploring more ways to make like an educational game which can connect to, let's say if you're at kindergarten, once you put your age on the app, um, then the questions that Amelia will ask you are according to the year that you are studying at school. Azhelle (42:19): Yeah. So there'll be challenging depending on your age grade, Marjorie (42:23): exactly. Things that you're seeing. So it's a very educational toy. Um, technology is going to be our major differentiator for sure because we are looking for empowering. That's right. I won't. So, um, yeah, I'm still thinking like any say five years from now, well, five years from now, I hope we can have some machine learning involved, play around a little bit with that. Although I do understand that it's kind of a border issue because we are dealing with kids. Azhelle (43:00): Yeah. There's a like a lot of new rules, especially with YouTube and kids and advertising and their data, but, Marjorie (43:07): And that's ok like, I understand it. I'm a parent and fortunately there was a lot of bad people around the word, but I will try to do my best to get our kids educated in the funniest way possible. Once the covert is over, it's important for them. So have a toy that they can actually engage with and feel that they are not alone facing their comeback after the lockdown and that they have someone with them all the time and that they can look out to that person somehow. That's why the rebels are designed like Mmm. We use the, the these women pictures when we start drawing them, we'll look for them when they were kids, not grownups, because we want kids to relate with them. So yeah, Azhelle (44:03):that's pretty much it. That's awesome. Before we wrap up, I want to just give you a chance to tell everyone if you're working on anything new now that you might want to share with anybody listening. Marjorie (44:16): I am, uh, I'm still figuring out how to bring this towards. So Netflix, Nickelodeon and, anyone in this area is interested and they are listening. Just feel free to reach out. Azhelle (44:32): Oh, to turn this into a show? Marjorie (44:35): Yeah. We are working on turning our illustrations into shows. Oh, that'd be so cute. So kids can actually have an entire platform that goes from flourish to video to app to everything. And then the other things that we are already working on the next women, so Sarah Blakely, if you're listening, please contact me. Azhelle (45:00): I love her. But if she was listening I would be my dream come true. Marjorie (45:05): She is my model on, on this kind of things. We actually have her draw. I love to have her as well. A Little Rebel, but let's see. Oh that would be amazing. The YouTube channel and then the TV show, wherever this ended up being, it's going to take us a lot of more time because each illustration, it takes hours and hours of work because they're handmade. We're not doing them digitally. We're actually illustrating them. So it's kind of a Disney process. It takes forever. Azhelle (45:37): that's awesome. Thank you so much. It's been awesome talking to you and I, I mean I've just, you've given a lot of information. It's really great to hear that someone with you know, no to no experience in Kickstarter can have a successful project and not having a full fledged marketing team behind you. PR team behind you didn't stop you from reaching your goal and I think that's really something everyone needs to hear right now. Marjorie (46:03): I agree. I would not have had that because it's extremely stressful Azhelle (46:08): for sure. Right. It would've been great to have a plan, plan and money to start with this, but-- Marjorie (46:16): like don't let that stop you. Especially now like if you have an idea and you truly believe on it, as long as it's speak from your heart and you did a things as honest as you can, I'm positive that you can do this. You just have to reach out to people that believe in you. That is fantastic. Azhelle (46:36): Thank you so much for coming on the show. I cannot believe I'm one of your first fans and I'm actually, yes. I'm so glad. I'm so glad to meet you. I see your posts all the time. It's great to talk to you. Marjorie (46:52): Same here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's been a true pleasure and if anyone needs help on a followup on Kickstarter or anything, just look out for my LinkedIn. We will share with you the links after. Um, just reach me out. I'm more than available to help. Azhelle (47:10): Oh, that's awesome. Thank you so much, Marjorie. I hope you have a great day. Stay safe. Marjorie (47:14): You too. Take care.Azhelle (47:16): I hope you enjoyed listening in on this interview with Marjorie Spitalnik., one big takeaway I want you to pull from this episode is the power of building online. Azhelle (47:30): You may at times find yourself reading stories of success from decades ago and wondering how you can essentially go door to door to pitch your idea. Well, I'm going to challenge you to start rewiring your brain to think of message notifications as a few knocks at a door. If you're leading with your heart and pitching a product that you're passionate about, you are going to able to find people that resonate with your story just by sliding into DMS and being honest about your mission will help you find likeminded people and turn them into believers of your product. That is how you can get your big break, increase your Kickstarter campaign visibility and that path is also how you're going to prove the sale-ability of your idea to the big toy giants out there. Now make sure when you start your Kickstarter campaigns that you do your research and that you make all of your decisions on who to contact, how much to charge and what to give as your rewards with purpose and passion. All right, toy people. Before you go, make sure you leave a review on iTunes. That's going to help other toy lovers like yourself find this podcast and I want to say thank you to all of my listeners. It really means a lot to me that you joined me here each and every week. Well until next week I'll see you later. Toy people. Intro/Outro + Jingle (48:56): Thanks for listening to making it in the toy industry podcast with Azhelle Wade and over to the toy coach.com for more information, tips and advice.
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