The Circle Kit
So we decided to do something kinda scary. We decided to put something out into the world, The Circle Kit, our very first digital product. You may have seen it on social media, and thought oh cool, but for us this was huge. We plan to share the journey we’re on because we believe too many people in this world only show the highlight reel for the likes, but we want to be authentic with you guys in our walk on this "edupreneur" path. Shortly after Plywood Presents. I’d started doing a ton of research on launching a digital product and Kim seemed on board with this little experiment of mine, so we kept at it. It seemed relatively simple, once we laid out the steps. The hardest part would be the execution, and getting over the fear that comes with putting out a piece of work, to be seen. This was a hectic time to start a new project, because we were prepping to work with Milwaukee Excellence Charter School that month, closing a few other deals, taking potential client meetings, attending networking events, working, studying for grad school, mothering, and attending to day to day business tasks. Despite the tension with time we began working on the tool, making it pretty, editing it for typos, finding video, citing sources, yeah you get the point it was a lot.
This doesn’t even take into account the marketing plan we created to move the tool. In hindsight though, all of this was easy compared to the mountain of fear I had to climb to do it. When you put something out there it’s open for criticism and often times the worst critic is living between our own two ears. I had to overcome the fear of the Circle Kit being a flop, because let’s be honest, there’s a million things on this here internet that NOBODY wants to buy.
Fortunately, that wasn’t our experience. We had a pre-sale, which basically means we sold it before it being available for download. This was scary too, like really scary, I mean who buys something they can’t get yet? Well, lots of people actually think of concert tickets, movie tickets, sporting events etc.
In our research of digital pre-sales, we learned all you need is 5 sales during the pre-sale window to validate a product, well let me tell you we got our 5 and are so excited to watch the buzz around the Circle Kit grow.
It’s surreal to me that as we start to navigate the space that is education and entrepreneurship people are starting to recognize us and our work. We have received so much support around this product and we are excited to know that kids from all over will get to talk with adults in really human ways that will bond them.
Please share with your teacher friends and we also want you to know you can get two free circles by clicking this link.
Their great for the classroom, but can also be used anywhere young people are, parents that means you too. Even if you just ask the questions with your kids at home, you may be surprised by what you learn. Ultimately they’re tools to start engaging our young people more, and getting inside their minds to better support them!