Woop! Woop! I have been dancing around the house this evening to this song:

I left this afternoon to do some errands and just 4 hours later came back to see that we’d not only smashed through the 40% mark, that I’d been watching creep up slowly all morning, and go right up to 44% – that’s almost 10% in one day. Hurray!! That is the progress we need 😉

This means that we’re now just 6% away from 50% and then it’s a big push to rise up and hit (and hopefully exceed!) the £10k target.

I couldn’t have done it without you wonderful people getting behind me and this project and helping me spread the word in emails, social media posts, in person and however else we can do it.

It’s been quite an emotional rollercoaster so far and I know it’s far from over yet. 11 days left and I say BRING IT ON! I have faith that with your help and the help of all the wonderful people out there and my continued determination we can make this a reality.

If you’ve pledged and you’ve not seen the link to the LadiesThatPlan Facebook group yet then do pop over to the Kickstarter page and click the ‘updates’ tab and you’ll find an update just for you (backers) which has the link and more details for you – come on over and join in the conversation 😉

It’s been great to see more of the London event tickets being pledged – I am SUPER excited about that event. The details are all coming together for it and it’s going to be EPIC! You can find out a little more here: http://ladiesthatplan.com/london/ and there’s more information being posted as I get definite confirmations.

Not only will we have the awesome speakers and workshop trainers on the day, I’ll also be joined by a fab team of expert business folk who will be on hand to help you throughout the day and especially during the workshops.

Tickets are currently only available on Kickstarter and you get a FREE notebook with your booking : )

I feel like I have not stopped shouting about this notebook, literally all day every day for 2 weeks and yet every day I keep speaking to people (including people who I know follow me on Facebook and interact with my posts) who have no idea what I’m talking about and haven’t seen me mention the notebook yet!

I had a plan you see… I figured that I have already sold just under 1,000 Ultimate Diary Planners over the last 2 years (114 of the 2015 ones and 850 of the 2016) and if just HALF of those people bought a notebook I would hit target instantly. Heck, if just a quarter of my Facebook friends bought 1 copy I’d have smashed it.

But it’s never quite that simple is it.

You’ve got to get in front of them for starters – not be blocked by spam filters or missed off news feeds and then you’ve got to light people up – make them see and feel your vision. They’ve got to WANT it and want it NOW, not later. They’ve got to trust that you’ll deliver.

Plus, the things you don’t consider, like:

  • What on earth is this Kickstarter thing?
  • What the heck is a pledge?
  • How do I pledge?
  • Why can’t I order it from you?
  • Why can’t I just pay you cash?
  • ….and a load of other questions you feel silly for not really thinking about before you started

As much as there are some great benefits to Kickstarter, there have also been challenges too as so many of my awesome peeps have never heard of it! (I’m still working on getting in front of all the KS super backers!).

I have learned SOOOOO much – I’m going to break it all down into my key learnings after this is all over, so if you’re thinking of doing something similar you can have a bit of a heads-up from me from my experiences.

Here’s a taster of some stuff I’ve been doing over the last 2 weeks to promote this:

  • Blog posts
  • Posting regularly on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (on pages and in groups)
  • Daily Facebook live videos
  • Other awesome people mailing out to their lists for me
  • Videos on YouTube channel (the new ladiesthatplan one!)
  • Paid advertising on Facebook and Twitter
  • Kickstarter updates
  • Emailing weekly everyone on my email mailing list
  • Messaging all my Amazon Ultimate Diary Planner buyers individually
  • In person networking events locally
  • Hooking up with fellow Kickstarter peeps to see about cross promotions
  • and quite a lot more – especially thanking people and admin tasks

Coming up over the next 11 days:

  • Doing some podcasts and other goodies on other peoples websites
  • More stuff on LinkedIn to promote the book bundles (great gifts for staff/teams/clients) and London event tickets
  • More targeted adverts/posts to promote the bundles and London event tickets on FB and Twitter
  • Regular posts to go out on Google+ and Instagram
  • Pinterest boards all set up and populated with images and web links (incl relevant hashtags)
  • Posting out promotional cards to people who can display them in shops (Is this you? Can I post you a few… pretty please?) 🙂
  •  More Facebook live videos (maybe some Twitter ones too)
  • Some podcasts
  • And anything else I can think of…

If you can see something glaringly obvious that I’ve missed or anything you can think of that I’ve not tried yet to get this OUT THERE, or indeed anything you’d be willing to do to help spread the word, please tell me: support@brandkitchen.co.uk

I am VERY happy to accept all offers of support and help and will be happy to do what I can to return the favour.

I am so so so so sure that we can make this happen – just need to keep on ploughing forwards and before we know it there will be oodles of fabulous envelopes arriving on doormats all around the world!

I know I keep thanking you but I really do mean it – I can’t thank you enough. Without your support I wouldn’t have got this far and I am SUPER excited to see it all happen in the next 2 weeks.

Thank you again and speak soon!

Much love,
Sophie x

p.s. the Ultimate Diary Planner pre-orders went live yesterday and you can get yours, along with a FREE A2 wall planner at www.ultimatediaryplanner.com

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