On getting off the ground

I have a new year's tradition of doing a class in something terrifying that I'm no good at. Last year it was stand-up comedy. This year it's vertical dance class. In harnesses bouncing off walls sideways and upside down. Well done it looks something like this:

The reality as an out-of-shape beginner is something of a different story.

I'm like an aspirational chicken trying to blend in with a group of swans.

When I get the rest of my 15 classmates are warming up. One is doing handstands and splits in all directions seemingly effortlessly. I can sometimes sort of stay upright if I'm against a wall. And splits don't happen, right side up or upside down.

The class is mixed level, which is actually quite nice. We started with warm-ups and safety talks. The most important thing really is not to fall on your head and die. In order to make sure of this your harness gets triple checked by you, your climbing buddy and an instructor before you leave the ground.

There are four of us newbies, and we started out by working on ropes in the middle of the room. Once I'm up I'm pretty happy. I may look like a sack of potatoes, but I enjoy playing, flipping upside down and spinning. There's a wonderful freedom to being in the air, knowing your triple checked harness has you safe. The least dignified part of the whole ordeal is getting up there. We have an 'ascender' which grips the rope above us, and lets us pull ourselves up a bit at a time. At least, it lets people with coordination and upper body strength do that. I think my biggest mark of improvement is going to be whether I can manage it myself in 8 weeks, instead of having an instructor helping hoist.

I read an article the other day on how excessive praise can be bad for children. Or more specifically certain types of praise. Studies have shown that when children are praised for talent ("you did great, you must be good at this!") rather than effort ("you did great, you must have worked hard!") they tend to develop a fear of failure... and in their attempt not to be seen as anything less than perfect they'll hold back, and try only things they know they can safely accomplish.

I catch myself doing this sometimes, both personally and professionally. If I'm worried about not performing well I'll lurk on the sidelines watching. "I could do that any time I want... I just don't feel like it at the moment."

Part of my new year's ritual is to do with reminding myself I don't have to be the best. The stakes are, in many ways, lower, because I'm not working at something I'm ever likely to be a professional in. I'm just there to see how far I can get (though I'd by lying if I said I didn't wish I could just naturally be amazing at it. Life isn't fair sometimes.)

I don't expect to be asked to join the dance company any time soon. At best I'll become more fit, learn a lot and make it up the rope by myself. At worst it's at least a good exercise in humility.

I like this message even if I'm not exactly sure what I'm hoping to become a master of.

My two cents on a successful Crowdfunding Campaign

I work in the arts... which means I'm around lots of people looking for money a lot of the time. 

After years of supporting or being involved in Kickstarter campaigns and seeing countless more posted on FB and in e-mails (some of which did well, and some of which flopped miserably) I finally launched one of my own. I learned a lot in the process, and it ended up being quite successful and raising nearly 500% of the initial goal (you can still check it out here)

Since then I have been approached a few times about advice for other campaigns. So here are some of the things I think are most important. 

Rule 1: You already know your backers!!!

This is the most important thing which a lot of people fail to realize.  

Crowdfunding platforms are not magical money making machines to which eager investors flock to poor money into your idea. Most of it will come from people who already know your work... friends and family, previous audience members, your mailing lists and facebook fans.

My project got 77 backers and with two exceptions I had already had some form of contact with all of them before the kickstarter had launched. The first on board were family and friends who have followed my work (willingly or by force) for a long time, and I know will always be behind me (and would probably back the campaign even if it was a bit shit.) Others were former tour guests who had enjoyed the tour and who I had kept in touch with either over social media or through my mailing list. A select few people I'd never met but corresponded with quite a lot on either e-mail or twitter where we had bonded over shared interests.

So before you start your campaign it's important to think who your backers will be, how much they're likely to donate, and whether that will be enough to reach your goal. If you don't already have a network of fans outside that 'will donate anyway' circle of friends and family then Crowdfunding may not be the best way forward (you'll spend a lot of time creating it, and pay around 10% comission fees, when a direct ask might give a better return for less work.) 

The upside to this is that since you know who your backers are, you can plan to make the most of your opportunity to talk to them. You've got a target market.

Rule 2: Prepare the way...

Some people think the campaign begins the day you hit the launch button. But if you wait until then to tell people about it you've missed your prime opportunity to raise money. 

You need to start well in advance, talking up the project, letting people know what you're doing. You don't have to smack them over the head with the fact that you're raising money, but get them excited about it, so when it comes they want to be on board from the beginning. 

An interesting lesson learned: I had several friends with experience look at my kickstarter before I launched to get feedback. I asked them to point out the strengths and weaknesses and anything that would lose or confuse them as a potential investor. Was it clear? Was it interesting? Did it look realistic? Quite a lot changed thanks to their feedback. Revise and revise again. A cool and unplanned consequence was all of them pledged very early on. The point here is not to trick your friends into pledging, but to point out that when people feel they have investment in something they are more likely to support it financially.

Sometimes it even helps to rally people who you know are going to donate to be there for the first few hours. Campaigns that have a strong kick-off will gather momentum, because others want to be part of something successful. A campaign that reaches 50% of it's goal in the first day is going to be a lot more exciting than one that's still hovering at 40% 15 days in. 

in order to build momentum...

Rule 3: Dream big, start small. 

It's counterintuitive but in crowdfunding modesty is rewarded. 

You should really have three budgets in mind:

• First, there's your ideal budget... how much you need to comfortably achieve your vision, pay everyone involved as the professionals they are, any travel and material expenses and cover kickstarter costs. 
• Then create a scaled back version. What's the bare minimum you could still make your project happen with? How many expenses could you cover personally if you had to? What are others in the project willing to pitch in or give you mates rates on. If you could realise only part of the project how would you do it (and remember: achieving that part could help for future pitches to make it bigger. 
• Third, there's the daydream... If you could go above and beyond your project to a new phase what would that be? 

The smallest number becomes your target- that's the point at which your campain has achieved its goal and you will get money (don't forget to account for kickstarter fees!) The middle number (the amount of money you're actually hoping for) is your first stretch goal, and the last is an additional stretch goal. You can add more stretch goals in between. Be specific where you can with what cool thing will be added at each step. 

There are 2 very good reasons for aiming low: 

1. Many crowdfunding sites are all-or-nothing platforms. With the amount of work you're investing into getting the thing up there in the first place you really don't want to walk away empty handed.
   
2. People like to be part of something successful. When you hit your first goal people aren't going to look at it and think "they've got all the money they need, so I'll fund someone else." They'll think "gosh, a lot of people like this... I want a piece of it too!" Again, reaching your goal (even if it's not the real goal) early looks good. 

Here's a snapshot of my campaign (£500 at which level I would have put in a significant amount of personal funds. £1,200 was the actual goal.) 

Rule 4: Reach far and wide

Don't depend on your crowdfunding page to do all the work for you. You need to not only share links, but embed widgets in everything you've got (your website, facebook, blog...)

As you can see from this graph only 10% of my backers actually found the project by going straight to the kickstarter. The rest "pledged via external referrers" which means all the places I stuck those links and widgets where I knew they'd be looking anyway. 

You also have to be prepared to harass people gently for the duration. Ideally you want to still have your friends at the end of it, so do it nicely and keep it creative and entertaining. But don't feel bad about it... if it's a good project they'll want to know about it!

Rule 5: Make rewards desirable and fun

You've got to be brutally honest about your own star power.

No matter how amazing you are crowdfunding is a business transaction. Ideally all your rewards will be a direct result of whatever you're doing anyway (e.g. I was making an audio tour, so my main thing was downloads... essentially advance sales.) but don't be afraid to get creative within that (e.g. the artist doing my cover art designed bespoke prints, available digitally, as prints or framed prints for different levels.) 

Your best hope of attracting that elusive pool of people you don't know is to have things that are so cool and compelling that they would want to buy anyway. 

Signed items are nice, but be realistic about the value of them... it's great if you're a celebrity who gets asked to sign things a lot, but if not then the main people to whom that signature will have meaning are your family (who as stated will probably pledge no matter what... and hopefully already have lots of birthday cards and letters signed by you anyway and don't have to buy your signature!) If you're charging £50 for your signature you have to be able to justify it. 

Likewise shout-outs on social media. It's a noisy space. 

On the back of this:

Include lots of levels!

Don't jump straight form £10 to £50 donations. My average donation was around £39.5 and most people donated £15-30. Leave options for all price ranges (and think about what kind of thing might encourage people to up a pledge from £15 to £20)

A Note on Budgeting:

When you're initially budgeting your campaign you've got to remember two important things: Kickstarter (or other platform) fees and the cost of reward delivery (production and postage.) You can see from the breakdown here that this ended up being about 1/3 of my final expenses. A lot of my rewards were delivered electronically which helped massively (it meant I was posting things to about 25 people instead of 77.)

Once you have the money...

You thought that last bit was work... but it's just beginning. Now you have to make that amazing vision a reality. Don't forget to keep the backers updated!

Good luck!

Credit where credit is due: lot of the things I got right I learned from two other great friends, who say a lot of the things I've said here (with arguably a lot more eloquence) plus more, so do have a read One Weird Trick for a Successful Kickstarter Project  by the Double Clicks (especially if you're in the music biz) and Please Stop Crowdfunding by the awesome Sean Brian (the fact that in spite of everything he backed my project was truly one of the proudest moments!)

Closing Night

It is my last night in the room that has been mine for three years. It's emptier than it has ever been... even the day I moved in, when it was still full of books and possessions from the previous resident.

People have been asking me all day how I feel about going tomorrow. 

The answer is I don't really feel much. It still doesn't seem real. 

An excessive amount of baggage is coming back with me.

Even though my bags are packed, closets and drawers emptied and boarding pass printed I don't believe it... and probably won't until I'm actually on the way... until I land, spend days then weeks then months in California, forget the familiarity of riding across the river on the bus, Tuesday night Morris Dancing, and last minute theatre tickets. 

I hate endings. I always have. When I was little I used to throw tantrums when it was time to leave friends houses. I'd hide behind the sofa, throw myself on the floor, beg for just ten minutes more. But they always got me in the end. No play date lasts forever. 

As I've gotten older things have changed. Not the hatred of endings... that's still solidly there. But I can't hide from them anymore... there's no one to come drag me out from under the bed and cary me kicking and screaming to the car. So I have to do it myself. It might be slightly more dignified, but I do sometimes hate being a grown up. 

I wonder if the shutting the ending out is part of that coping mechanism. If I don't realize I'm going until I'm gone then it's not so painful... and once I'm in the new place I'll adjust quickly enough.

There's plenty to be excited about in the new place. I have the feeling 2015 is going to be a very different and good year... but then again aren't they all?

To all my California friends, I can't wait to see you! And to London friends, not goodbye but à bientôt!

T'estimo Caga-Barcelona!

I am in love with Barcelona. For many reasons, actually, but the biggest is that this country seems obsessed with poo. At least when it comes to Christmas traditions.

Tió

In my friend's apartment there is a log with a happy face on it and some stubby little legs. She explaned to me that this is a Caga Tió (Literally "A Shitting Log.") Starting on December 8 (The Feast of Immaculate Conception) children put out food for him which the parents must secretly take a way bit by bit... because the Tió is eating. On Christmas the children hit the Tió with a stick and order it to defecate while singing special songs. Then they have to go to another part of the house and pray for gifts... while they are doing this the parents put presents under the Tió's blanket. They do this over and over again with increasingly smaller presents until the Tió has nothing left. She said "traditionally it used to be nuts and fruit, but these days it's more likely to be xboxes.

We went to the Christmas market where Caga Tiós of all sizes were on sale, from massive ones the size of a small puppy to teeny tiny ones an inch or two long. 

Caganer

The other popular poop related tradition is the Caganer (The Shitter), a figurine in the nativity scene. Traditionally dressed as a Catalonian peasant, but can take all sorts of forms. The market stalls included pop figures, politicians, footballers, and a variety of characters from Yoda to Shakespeare.

We spent a long time looking and giggling over them. I bought myself a small traditional one, but am tempted to go back and get more.

The origins of the figure are disputed, but he seems to date back to the baroque period at least. It could just be for the humorous element or to take the piss (especially with the newer political figures), but there is quite a lot of scholarly writing around the symbolism of fertility. Ethnographer Joan Amades says: 

"[Caganers were] customary figure in pessebres [nativity scenes] in the 19th century, because people believed that this deposit [symbolically] fertilized the ground of the pessebre, which became fertile and ensured the pessebre for the following year, and with it, the health of body and peace of mind required to make the pessebre, with the joy and happiness brought by Christmas near the hearth. Placing this figurine in the pessebre brought good luck and joy and not doing so brought adversity."

Even the City's official Nativity display had one. He traditionally hides round the back, so it's not as though he takes front and center, or upstages anyone, but you still know he's there.

Apparently there was a row in 2005 because the city chose not to include a Caganer in their display... reportedly due to the city's new bylaws which made public urination and defecation illegal (though the city later denied this.) The Caganer was restored the following year.

The non-poo-related highlight of the day was a visit to the Museu de la Xocolata... but even there there were white and dark chocolate Caganers to be had. There may not be a lot of public toilets, but Barcelona is otherwise a city after my own heart!

Attitudes On Immigration

One thing that a lot of people have said to me (and indeed I've been guilty of saying it myself) is that it's unfair that while someone from the EU can come over and claim benefits and while people like me who start businesses and pay taxes are sent home.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that this in itself is a destructive attitude. It panders to the media bias that the majority of immigrants are benefits seeking scroungers, and perpetuates the negativity around it. It places me in the 'exception rather than the rule' category. Though I appreciate people's empathy the truth is I am no more or less worthy than most other immigrants.

The thing that actually prompted me to write this post (which has been in the works for awhile) was an article in the Guardian Blog: Does Britain Really Want to be the Country Nobody Would Migrate To? She says more or less what I feel. If the country is going down hill it needs to look internally and not blame immigrants. One statement rang particularly true for me:

"The only thing maintaining the flow of migrants is that nobody reads the Daily Mail until they arrive, and only then do they realise how coarse and brutal our politics have become, how pessimistic."

The truth, though I don't always like to admit it, is that I might have fought harder if the overall attitude here were better. I don't mind not having access to benefits. I don't mind the fact that as long as I live in London I'll probably be in shared rented accommodation while my peers back home are starting to buy houses and cars. I don't even mind that it isn't easy to get a visa... I'd do the paperwork and pay the fees. Those are sacrifices I was willing to make to live the London dream: 24/7 access to culture, all of Europe on the doorstep, the stunning English Country side less than an hour's train journey away, the occasional brush with celebrity and fame. But when on top of all the struggles the national attitude towards immigration is so negative it makes me want to throw it all back in their face and say "fine. I don't want to live in your stupid country anyway." Which of course I don't mean... because I do.

I had an interesting experience coming back into the UK recently after my visa had run out. When you are Tier 1 they don't put your visa in your passport like they do for students. Instead you are issued with an ID card called a Biometric Residence Permit.

The woman thumbing through my passport at boarder control noted that my last student visa had run out in 2012.

"Yes, I know. I've been here on a Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur Visa. Do you need to see my biometric residence permit?"  

"Yes." 

I gave it to her. A quick glance and she told me curtly:

"This is expired you shouldn't have it anymore."  

"Yes, I know it's expired. That's why I left the country." 

"Well, you need to send it back to the UKBA" 

First I'd heard of that. Plus, she asked to see it! What would she have said to me if I didn't have it? After being grilled on the length of my stay, why I was coming back in, my financial situation, my plans for employment back in the US, and showing her my ticket for my return flight home I was let through.

Welcome to Britain. Now go back to where you came from.


What can you do? 

A lot of kind and lovely people have asked me over the past months whether there's anything they can do. Here are two:

1) Think before you speak... be aware of your accidental prejudices. Keep a critical eye on articles about benefits scroungers and the things that come out of your own mouth (even if they're intended to be well meaning and comforting to a friend.) It takes a fair bit of bravery for anyone to immigrate and start a new life... doubly so if English is a second language.

2) Do write letters! Let politicians know that these pervasive attitudes are not okay... celebrate the positive aspects of immigration. I don't expect you to single handedly fix the country, but writing a letter will take 5 minutes and a stamp, and at best it will potentially benefit thousands of others like me (not to mention thousands of others like you who won't lose friends to deportation.)


For a bit of light reading I also recommend Schrodinger's Immigrant who exists simultaneously in a state of stealing jobs and claiming benefits. 

World Toilet Day & Leaving

I've been thinking about this day a lot for almost a year. For quite a lot of reasons.

Firstly, HAPPY WORLD TOILET DAY!!!

The day when a small fraction of the world does some silly things and some serious things while another (hopefully slightly larger) fraction look on and say "World Toilet Day? What's that?" Hopefully a few of them come out a bit the wiser, and we've made another minuscule dent in the sanitation crisis.

If you want to know more about what all is going on I recommend the UN's dedicated World Toilet Day page.

If you've been reading this blog regularly (or semi-regularly, since my posts are hardly like clockwork) you'll know this is a big day for me as well.

I'm writing this blog post from a few miles in the air somewhere between England and Norway. The deed is done. In about half an hour my passport will be stamped and I'll no longer be a 'Graduate Entrepreneur' but a plain old tourist enjoying the sites of London and trying to pack my life back into two suitcases.

The identity crisis will pass. I'm still me. I will still do quirky things. This past month of largely working on recording the Audio Guide for Loo Tours has confirmed that. If you haven't already seen it, the place to visit is lootours.com/AudioTour. When I get back to the UK I'll be talking with potential future guides, building partnerships, and finding more ways to embed what I've done in London. Growth, not giving up. All the rage and frustration at the immigration laws and randomess of the system are still there, but I'm coming to terms with them. They fuel new projects rather than holding me back (I hope)

The captain just announced landing. The seat belt sign is on. And I need to sign off.

Here's to new adventures and an even bigger World Toilet Day next year!

Rachel x

I am a Toilet Permission Object: the who and why of the Loo Lady

Defining who I am and what I do has been very much on my mind lately as I face potentially major changes both in location and career. I always feel like “reflections on my own practice” is a terribly pretentious phrase used by out of touch academics but I suppose that’s what this is.

These particular reflections are based on a great conversation with a new friend.

“You’re a toilet permission object!”

I have been called many things in my time, but that was a new one. The revelation came over coffee and chat in a new friend’s office. The connotations could get interesting there, but I actually like the label so much I wrote it on my arm so as not to forget it before writing this blog post (Now hoping I'll be able to get it off before my Morris Dance gig tonight!) 

I spent the last couple days at the Watershed in Bristol participating in the Making The City Playable conference … a chance for artists, city planners officers, and various others to get together and talk about how play can be facilitated or allowed to happen in cities (and what exactly that means!)

I went to the conference very much with my Loo Lady hat on. Having spent so long in toilets and seen them from many angles I have become increasingly interested in how I can put the peculiar set of knowledge and toolkit I am developing to good use. There are many serious angles to toilets, and I want to see how the soft approach of humour, storytelling and fun might help advance these agendas rather than allow people to write them off (which is admittedly a risk to that approach if the balance isn’t right.)

In many ways I am fortunate to have entered the toilet field as a clean slate. I just  put out an open search for toilets, and therefore sit at the centre of a fascinating web… local toilet politics, city planning, global development, water, architecture, disease… if it somehow comes back to the human process of relieving oneself and how we deal with that then I leave no depths un plumbed.

I have found that putting out this open invitation of “toilets!” leads to a number of different conversations. It is something that every human being identifies with on some level, and everyone has a story whether they know it or not. Usually as soon as they know that I’m open to hearing these stories they want to tell them. This extends to complete strangers who have stumbled across my website or seen an interview and take the initiative to write to me.  They range from best/worst toilets  to people’s toilet sins… places they urinated where they shouldn’t or times they left a toilet somewhere blocked up. I often wonder if they feel somehow absolved by having shared those stories.

I was reflecting on this when my new title was coined.

“You’re a toilet permission object!”

A “permission object” is something that enables people to do something out of ordinary behavioral norms. A superhero cape gives you permission to go running down the street singing the batman theme tune. A cute cuddly toy gives you permission to interact in ways you wouldn't normally. 

This guy is a much cuter permission object than I will ever be!
His creators are http://slingshoteffect.co.uk/

The beauty of it is that there is an equal exchange of permission going on. I may be the perceived permission object, but I become that because that is what they have given me permission to be.

It is a character or a persona that has evolved organically. When I first started doing toilet tours the interest was very casual. Friends started sending me things about toilets… not because I ever asked them to, but because they wanted to share. Every morning I would wake up to find my facebook wall flooded with new articles and stories, “have you seen…?”s and “Did you know…?”s. Even the name The Loo Lady was given to me by someone else. All I have done is to say “yes” as these things happen.

It is very important to me that I do not shove toilets in people’s faces (either literally or metaphorically.) I try not to evangelize, and have made it a rule to let other people take the initial lead on any toilet conversation. I only tell them what I do if they ask, and I only elaborate when they show interest (which is usually.) If they show interest in a topic will accept their offers and expand on them, but it’s always down to someone else to engage.

The Loo Lady is, in many ways, inextricably linked with me. I share her unbridled enthusiasm for toilets, but she’s not the only person I can be (I sometimes have to remind people of this… more than one person has started an invitation “it’s not about toilets, but…”) I am curious whether she, or what she stands for at least, might exist independently of me. What is it that allows “toilet permission” to be granted? Do I spawn a new toilet permission object each time a tour guest goes away to share toilet stories with their friends?

More food for thought on the PhD front (academicism is a slippery slope… I really ought to look into registering myself for a 12-step recovery programme!)