Hey everyone!
I want to tell you about the day that changed everything for Hidden Lane Paper.
But first, some context on how much was actually riding on that one day.
I had spent months — years, really — getting to that point. The planner itself was fully built out. Preproduction samples were approved. The design was done.
The only piece missing was the money to place the bulk order.
Production and shipping take months. If I wanted to launch this year with enough time to actually fulfill orders, I needed the funds in hand by early April.
That was the whole equation. One shot to nail it, or fail miserably.
There was a very real chance this project would have died on the vine — the same way plenty of my other business ideas have over the years. (More on those another time.)
I poured everything into that campaign.
There is something strange and almost freeing about reaching a point of real desperation. It pushed me to do things I never imagined I was capable of.
(More on that — I actually wrote an entire post on how anxiety and fear can be some of the best tools for getting a big goal done. That's coming soon.)
So when the Kickstarter finally went live in March, I had no idea what to expect.
I had a month of content planned. Teasers, updates, reminders, spaced out carefully over thirty days, because that's how these campaigns are supposed to go.
Instead, it all happened in a single day.
(More than one caring friend gently pointed out that a month's worth of update emails had just landed in their inbox within a single 24 hours. Fair. It was a lot of emails.)
I spent that entire day texting my husband at work. Not casual updates — sports-score energy. 20%. 50%. 57%. 70%. 76%. 89%.
Each text felt like it might be the last update of the day. It never was.
By the next morning, we were at 99%. I could barely sit still.
And then one specific friend pledged, and we crossed the line. Fully funded. In under 24 hours.
By the time it was all said and done, we'd blown past the goal by more than $1,000.
You'd think I would have felt nothing but relief and happiness. And I did — I really did.
But there was also a quieter thought underneath all of it: oh man... now I actually have to do this.
Prepping for the Kickstarter had felt like climbing a mountain. Getting funded felt like reaching the top.
Except when I looked over, I realized I'd only just peaked a smaller mountain — right next to an even bigger one. And I was standing at the bottom of that one now, looking up.
Here is what I know for sure: I did not expect that day to go that way.
I had braced myself for a slow climb. For weeks of hoping. For the kind of quiet, uncertain waiting that comes with putting something you built with your own hands out into the world and asking people to believe in it.
Instead, it moved fast. But it happened because family and friends and my community showed up for me — and so did people I'd never met. All of them decided a seasonal planner built around six real life areas — not just a calendar — was worth believing in before it even existed.
Every one of those backers has their planner now. Shipped, delivered, sitting on real desks in real homes.
And now the site is open to everyone.
If that first day taught me anything, it's this: I built Hidden Lane Paper because I needed something that helped me plan my whole life, not just my to-do list. It turns out I wasn't the only one.
If you haven't gotten yours yet, you can shop the Seasonal Lifestyle Planner here.
Dream. Design. Do.
Noreen