Desperately Seeking Wild Hearts
Opening the Kimono on the grant program I am running at Blackbird
Over at Blackbird, I've been looking for Wild Hearts. Shining examples of creativity and what happens when a person taps into their passions, harnesses their creativity and makes something of it.
Our future leaders are not just sitting in a university lecture hall or doing an internship at an investment bank. The next generation is also breaking down complex issues through rap on TikTok, or peering through a camera lens, or sitting at a piano composing, leaning over a workbench, painting, writing, programming. Their passions are as diverse as they are dynamic, and they will be the ones to solve the greatest challenges we face tomorrow.
So a few months ago, we opened up applications for our first-ever grant program. The framework was simple - provide grants of $1,000 for passion projects based in Aus/NZ. We funded 27 people, and I've built a program to help them deliver their passion projects. You can read more about the recipients and the program over here.
Today I wanted to walk through the program and share what I'm building, in case it's of use to anyone out there considering a similar project.
Blackbird Protostars
We framed the grants as "microgrants" to attract people at the right stage of their journey. We've since decided to drop the "micro" part because, well, these projects are anything but micro.
In addition to the funding, participants are put through a three-month program. The goals of the program are:
Complete our passion projects and build an audience.
Bring accountability, structure and operational skills to our work
Raise our ambitions.
There are three stages to the program.
Stage 1: Protostars set goals, design a Build in Public strategy, and get to know each other. This part is all about setting the tone, establishing a framework, and building trust.
Stage 2: we are focusing on inspiration and ambition raising. Each week, we interview an inspirational creative who has successfully made a career of their passions.
Stage 3: we prepare for our demo day. I'm building this program as we go - full disclosure, I don't yet know what the demo day will look like!
Principles
Building in Public
A core principle of the program is Building in Public. Building in Public is precisely what it sounds like. It means building a company, a product, or anything and sharing the journey with your community. With Building in Public, creators share their entrepreneurial journey publicly via their favourite channels. This includes learnings, struggles, and anecdotes to build authenticity and trust with their audience. Learn more about Building in Public here.
Accountability
If you're in this cohort, you're 100% in. We check in every week. We set goals, report back on goals and are responsible for supporting our fellow Protostars by holding them accountable to their goals.
Let your freak flag fly
If you're truly passionate about it, then it has beauty. We honour all sorts of disciplines and projects. If you’re in the cohort it’s because you are unique and there is magic in you. We are proud of our uniqueness and we celebrate it in each other, and in ourselves.
Software Stack
I'm running everything from Notion. We've paid for a subscription, but our grant recipients join as Guests, meaning we don't have to pay for them.
Here is what the Homebase looks like with an index and a directory of the Passion Projects.
This is what a Passion Project page looks like:
We have a directory for our grant recipients:
A schedule with a list of the content we are running, resources and homework. Our protostars refer to this every week to check out what content they need to read up on and what homework needs to be completed.
And my favourite section - our Shared Notebook: most weeks participants have light homework - they publish it here, as well as any learnings or links to social posts they have made. The intention is that this will be a group learning resource and a source of content and reflection down the track.
We communicate in Geneva - it's like Discord or Slack but more friendly. I chose it because it's more fun, and I wasn't sure if students would be all across Slack. It turns out they are! But I had already committed to Geneva! Geneva is great, but it's a very young product, and things like integrations and apps aren't a feature yet.
Learnings so far
The biggest lesson so far: everyone is on different time schedules, and I've learned to accept that my protostars will jump in when they can. Some weeks they will participate. Other weeks life gets in the way. This might be my day job, but it isn't theirs!
Consequently, I see inconsistent engagement, and for a community builder, this is stressful! I'm trying new things every week to keep my Protostars engaged, and I see results, but it's taking time, as with all new communities.
My next experiment will be setting up office hours so the group can spend time 1:1 with me. And I'm looking into a piece of software that will let me set up random coffee dates amongst Protostars who opt-in.
More to come
Another unique feature of this program - I am a part of it. The grants and the program are my passion project, and I am Building in Public alongside my protostars.
I'll be tweeting more and occasionally sharing articles through the Blackbird Foundations blog, or my personal one. Follow along if you're interested!
You're a wild heart among wild hearts Joel. You're a legend!