I Make a Living

Trigger Warning: this episode discusses postpartum depression and briefly mentions suicidal thoughts. When Erin Bagwell decided to turn to Kickstarter to get her movie off the ground, she didn’t expect to raise over $100K in 30 days, but that’s exactly what happened. Erin’s movie, Dream, Girl, is about the real-life experiences of ten New York City-based female entrepreneurs, and it turns out audiences were hungry for this type of story. Erin watched as women who were longtime experts in their field would have to prove themselves to boardrooms full of men in order to secure funding. “Wanting to be seen as an expert, wanting to be taken seriously, that’s still a big one,” she says. She needed to tell their stories.So she pitched it on Kickstarter, and supporters were here for it. Erin credits her “really fabulous video” as the prompt that got people on board. “I spent a lot of money and I had a gorgeous video because I wanted people to look at it as a trailer. A glimpse of what the film would look like.” Erin