The future of the Big Feels Club.
World-changing Worriers! Graham here, with a very special announcement.
You can now become a "card-carrying" member of the Big Feels Club
What is that supposed to mean?? *deep breath* Here goes...
Here’s the deal. You’ve got the big feelings. We’ve got the content that makes you think *just maybe* those feelings don’t make you the worst person in the world.
Woop!
We’ve been toiling away at this strange and tender little social experiment for a year now, finding a new way of talking about big, scary feelings.
Finding a way of approaching this stuff that won’t make you feel like a broken human. And if our overflowing inbox is anything to go by, we’re onto something people really want.
But here’s the thing.
It’s been a lot of work.
Thousands of hours of writing and website-building and podcast-making and event-running and Facebook-wrangling. Learning the dark arts of Mailchimp (and begging them for a charity discount). Learning the dark arts of getting Bodie to sit still for a photo.
Truly some of our best work
And we’ve achieved a hell of a lot in a year!
Our fortnightly newsletters have been hitting you right in the feels for 40 issues now
Our No Feeling Is Final podcast debuted at #4 on iTunes, and fancy schmancy places like the Financial Times have said it is “mental health explored like never before”
We’ve run Big Feels meet-ups all over the place, from Coburg to Johannesburg, and on The Internet
You’ve told us our stuff has helped you feel less alone in your brain, and have more honest conversations about hard things. Some of you have even told us our stuff has helped save your lives.
Phew.
Not bad for two people and a dog working from our couch.
And we have loved every minute of it, but…
We can’t keep this up without your help.
This is the bit where we (gulp) “just ask for help”.
But we don’t mean doing that awful ‘how depressed are you???’ questionnaire your GP makes you do to get a mental health plan.
We mean….
ASKING YOU FOR MONEY!!! WOOOOO!!!!!
We need your help to cover our growing costs, and (if we’re lucky) maybe even help pay for us to, you know, live.
(Or at least help keep Bodie availed of the bougie grain-free kibble he makes us buy him).
Wait on, why don’t you just get some of that fat mental health system cash??
We’ve actually got some big fans in high places. Just the other day the CEO of beyondblue (Australia’s biggest mental health org) said she loves our work, and wishes they could do what we do.
Honor even met Meghan Markle and told her she made a podcast about being suicidal (then watched her slow-motion reaction as she tried to find a polite “I’m a royal now” response to that loaded conversational tidbit).
But the truth is, we’re still pretty out there as far as the mental health world is concerned. There may be ways for us to tap into that fat health system cash in the future, but right now most of those ways would crush the very thing that makes this club unique.
So for now, I’m afraid it’s on you guys. Without further ado…
Introducing: the "card-carrying" Big Feels Club membership
If you sign up as a card-carrying member, you’ll pay a monthly fee of your choosing, to keep this feelings boat afloat.
You’ll help cover our costs and hard work in making this thing. (And Honor can even show the receipts to her dad, to help prove that yes she really is doing alright. Stop asking ok??)
But it doesn’t end there!
Here is what *you* get in return:
First up, yes, an actual card!
Seriously, we’ll send you an actual card you can keep in your wallet.
Losing your shit at work? Bring out your Big Feels Club card to remind you of the many fellow cubicle-cryers out there who have one in their wallet too. (They’re even individually numbered. Naw).
You’ll also get:
First dibs on new stuff we make - priority access, discounts (and help us decide what to make next)
And of course all the usual good stuff we’ve been making already. Now with the added bonus of that smug “I helped make this happen” feeling every time it hits your inbox. Priceless.
Other cool stuff we wanna do, once we get big enough
We’ve got heaps of ideas in the works:
Our “Hard Times Planner” (crisis planning that won’t make you feel like a loser)
E-courses about life with big feelings, like “My inbox is a tyre fire, how do I do email?”
The Existential Crisis Line (talk to other people who’ve screwed up their lives even worse than you did! yay!)
We won’t try to do it all at once though. These goodies will come with time, and with more supporters.
Help us keep this feelings boat afloat? (toot toot?)
So if you’ve ever read one of our articles and thought, ‘how are you in my brain???’
If you’ve listened to our podcasts and felt seen, in all your messy big feels glory.
If our stuff helps you feel a little less broken, and more like you belong on earth, then consider throwing us a few dollars.
That’s all. A few dollars to keep the big feels a-flowin’. (And you get a card! Don’t forget the card!!)
Click on this racy button below to go through to our Patreon (the crowd-funding platform we’re using to make this all work).
