“You can make money doing this?!”

A couple years ago, a YouTuber and artist known as Ten Hundred reached his $10k Kickstarter funding goal in 3 minutes.

That’s 180 seconds, y’all. It took longer than that to write this intro.

Brandon Smithwrick, Kickstarter’s then-director of content and creative, told me more about this campaign, which ultimately raised over $2 million.

The project? A deck of playing cards featuring his artwork.

Smithwrick shared some of Ten Hundred’s secrets (and some other hard-won wisdom) so you can turn your own (metaphorical) deck of cards into (literal, 🤞🏽) millions.

Meet the Master

Brandon Smithwrick

Claim to fame: Brandon was selected by Forbes for its “30 Under 30” list in 2024

Lesson 1: Build your audience — before you need to monetize.

“I started making content three years ago, part-time, before I even saw myself as a creator,” Smithwrick says.

The day we spoke, Smithwrick had just announced that he was leaving Kickstarter to run his new media company. Three years is what it took to build an audience that could support his full-time efforts.

In fact, Smithwrick hadn’t even considered at first that this could be a money-making venture. “I was just sharing my perspective, sharing my thoughts on LinkedIn.” Soon enough, the brands came knocking — a $300 deal here, a $900 deal there.

“Wait,” he thought, “you can make money doing this?”

Smithwrick describes those early deals as “validation and proof points,” but emphasizes: “It took me three years of building that foundation to say, you know what, it’s time for me to leave my full-time job.”

Lesson learned? “People don’t do enough to build hype,” Smithwrick says. “This is something that I’m trying to get a lot of people to understand. Before you begin to monetize your audience — sell to them, promote something — just start building an audience. You never know when you might need that in your back pocket.”

(Secret #1 from Ten Hundred’s successful Kickstarter: Seriously, don’t underestimate this step — Ten Hundred currently has 826k YouTube subscribers, and he collaborated with literally thousands of his fans while designing the deck.)

Lesson 2: Don’t be afraid to go hyper-niche.

At Kickstarter, Smithwrick says, “we discovered that the general content didn’t really perform as well as the hyper-niche content.”

For instance, “games” or “comic books” aren’t nearly specific enough to reach an enthusiastic, engaged audience. “Within gaming, there‘s tabletop games, there’s role-playing games, there’s video games.”

In other words, your audience isn’t just “comic books” — maybe it’s gekiga manga or graphic novels about poodles. Getting this specific may “feel like you’re leaving out people who could be your clientele,“ but speaking to a particular niche feels more like a direct conversation, and it “only shapes your brand for the better.”

Smithwrick tells me of a conversation he had with somebody who runs an influencer agency, but only for upcycling and recycling creators. (Remember that commercial where Martha Stewart retiled her pool with old credit cards? That’s what I’m imagining here.) That’s the kind of specificity that wins.

Plus, “it really gets your client or your customer very clear on how you’re going to serve their needs.”

(Secret #2 from Ten Hundred’s successful Kickstarter: His audience wasn’t art lovers or even euchre enthusiasts. It was the custom playing card–collecting community. Say that 10 times fast.)

Lesson 3: Never skip leg day.

Smithwrick speaks an uncomfortable truth: “I can’t just have a good product to sell. I also have to have a knack at being a creator, at creating a good hook.” He wrinkles his nose, and I can hear the frustration in his voice.

“If you’re not good at social media, for a large majority, truthfully, it means your product won’t be seen by the masses.”

So what’s the solution for overwhelmed marketers?

First, recognize that “founders need to be the microphone for those brand wins.” Smithwrick acknowledges the inherent challenge: “when you’re a founder, you’re running the company.” But can you “take 30 minutes and say, look at all the wins my team sent me in this email — how can I turn this into content?”

It’s a muscle, Smithwrick tells me. And you know what they say: Never skip leg day.

“Train that muscle. Because you don‘t have to run an ad to get leads. Your organic channels can be a lead generation flywheel — you just have to let people know about the amazing work you’re doing.”

To make that more manageable, Smithwrick says he “schedules everything — it’s impossible to be posting on this cadence and not schedule out.”

Aside from that consistency, he’s also trying to “provide as much value as possible to my community.” No “promotion, promotion, promotion,” no “buy, buy, buy” — just value, consistently delivered. Three years of building this up part-time proved the model, and now, he’s betting his career on it.

(Secret #3 from Ten Hundred’s successful Kickstarter: As a muralist, Ten Hundred could have gone a more conventional monetization route, like soliciting commissions. Instead, he connected with his community to provide something of value to them. P.S. You can read about Ten Hundred in this case study.)

Lingering Questions

This Week’s Question

What’s a marketing strategy or trend that you think is widely overlooked but has high potential for impact right now? —Lindsey Gamble, Creator economy consultant; Creator of the Lindsey Gamble newsletter

This Week’s Answer

Smithwrick: One strategy I think is often overlooked is using social media to drive exclusive offers directly within the community you’ve already built. For example, teasing a promotion through Instagram Close Friends can give you a sense of traction before launch.

Tools like ManyChat also make it easy to create DM-only offers that feel special, such as “DM me ‘KEYWORD’ and we’ll send you our bundle pack before the public sale.” I’ve even seen brands experiment with Instagram broadcast channels, dropping discount codes for whoever acts first, turning promotions into a game of speed and scarcity. These approaches not only reward your most engaged followers but also create urgency and exclusivity, all without needing a traditional LP.

Next Week’s Lingering Question

Smithwrick asks: What’s a creative hot take that will make a marketer second-guess how they work with creatives?