About this project
CA$ 15,255
121
OVERVIEW
- Bully Busters & Beyond is an educational children's picture book geared towards kids aged 6-12, as well as for their parents and teachers.
- It is due to be published as a print book by Morgan James Kids Publishing in September 2014.
- It is NOW AVAILABLE for pre-order with exclusive rewards (see right hand side) for all Kickstarter backers (that would be you) from May 1 to June 1 (we must reach our goal of $15,000 or we will not receive any funding).
- It is written from the perspective of Master Phil, a father, god-father, uncle, and 7th Degree Black Belt martial arts master who has taught 1,000's of K-6 children in schools and at his martial arts academy for the past 30 years.
- I bow to your awesomeness, Bully Busters believers, for helping make a difference in the world, starting with your family, your community, and our society.
BULLY BUSTERS SUCCESS STORY
"My 6 year old daughter was being bullied by some third-grade kids. She was feeling quite down as she didn't know how to defend herself without getting in trouble (fighting back). After talking to Master Phil, she reviewed the Bully Busters techniques she had learned such as how to stand up to the bullies in an effective, peaceful, and assertive way. She quickly realized that all she needed was confidence in what she knew and belief in herself to stop the bullies. For me, it was priceless to see how with a simple move and with the proper stance, her face lit up with confidence and her fear just disappeared. The technique that she learned from Master Phil allowed her to regain assertiveness in her behaviour without the need to "fight back" the bullies. When I asked her the next morning if she was still being bullied, she answered: "Not anymore, I told them to leave me alone, and they did". The skills she is learning will be with her for the rest of her life, and that is one of the best gifts I can give her!" Ingrid Trevethan
WHY BULLY BUSTERS?
Have you ever had one of these challenges?
- Your child was or is being bullied?
- You fear your children being harmed, abused, or attacked physically, mentally, psychologically, emotionally, and even virtually?
- You wish there were more practical resources to teach your children the life skills to deal with bullying now and with adversity for the rest of their lives in a positive, engaging, and even entertaining way?
Let's not wait for the next bullying headline news and instead be proactive and together, let's launch Bully Busters & Beyond!
You see, when I was in grade 7, I was a victim of racial and psychological bullying.
When I was in grade 8, I became the bully.
Fast forward decades later as a martial arts instructor, my wife Amelia and I co-created the Bully Busters program to educate K-6 children on how to develop their assertiveness skills, verbal and non-verbal de-escalation skills to deal with bullying peacefully and confidently.
It is children's tender hearts that have inspired us to launch this Kickstarter campaign and transform our Bully Busters local initiative into a global initative.
A DIFFERENT VIEW OF BULLYING
Let's view bullying from different perspectives:
1) To teach our children the skills to be able to deal with bullying now and with adversity for the rest of their lives.
2) To develop our children to not become bullies in the first place so that together, we can "bust the cycle of bullying."
1) To take responsibility for our important roles as adults and parents and develop compassionate, meaningful, and loving connections with our children.
BULLY BUSTERS AND BEYOND!
So I'm excited about launching and publishing this educational children's picture book in September 2014.
Here are some sample pages from the book.
WHAT PROGRESS HAVE WE MADE?
- The book has been written, the illustrations have been drawn, and we are in final editing mode.
- We have entered into a Publication Agreement with Morgan James Kids Publishing (who usually accept only 5%-10% of manuscripts!).
- We have established relationships with members of the media, bloggers, and thought leaders to spread the word when the time comes to launch the book.
- We are fully dedicating ourselves in mind, body, and spirit to this project.
- Our promise to you is to keep you updated during our Kickstarter Campaign as well as the few months before the actual book launch in September so we can keep the momentum going even after the campaign.
HOW WILL THE FUNDS BE USED?
We've already spent $10,000's out of our own pockets over the past year or so working on, researching, and learning everything we can to make our Bully Busters local iniative into a global initative so we bring our message out in a big way.
We've also raised $10,000's for charitable causes in our community.
But now, we need your financial support for the final stretch. With your awesome support, our goal of $15,000 will be used to:
- Print of 1,500 copies of the book
- Edit and proofread final manuscript to submit to our publisher
- Illustrator, editor, graphic design, book cover designer, and video production fees
- Legal and consultant fees
- Printing of Kickstarter campaign promotional materials
- Time and labour to work on this project and book launch over the next few months (I retired from my corporate training job while my wife retired from her nutrition and fitness consultant job so we can both focus our efforts on this project)
- Attend National Publicity Summit in New York City in October 2014 to promote the book to major media (print, radio, television)
- Research, design, development, creation, production, and shipping costs of associated Bully Busters resources (videos, audios, podcast, expert interviews, online resources, Family Action Guide, poster, school banner, etc.)
- Travel and accommodation costs related to book tour, media tour, and ongoing promotion and publicity of the book across North America, including National Bullying Prevention month in the USA in October and National Bullying Awareness week in Canada in November
- Cover Kickstarter 5% fees + Kickstarter 5% payment processing fees
WHAT IS OUR TRACK RECORD?
Together with family, friends, and Taekwon-Do students, we have raised $10,000's for our local children's hospital (we even have a room named after our martial arts academy), mental health hospital (in support of teens at risk of suicide), and community resource centre (in support of their anti-bullying program and womens' shelters).
A woman at a recent international leadership conference said in regards to Bully Busters, that "this is galaxy-shifting work."
We hope that with our proven track record that we will earn your moral and financial support of Bully Busters & Beyond!
For this, we bow to your awesomeness, thank you!
WHAT IF WE RAISE MORE THAN EXPECTED?
Well, that would be just awesome.
The more you pledge, the more we will be able to spread the message of Bully Busters & Beyond! and look to future exciting projects.
- A Bully Busters & Beyond! web site (although we've started on this)
- Creation of a Bully Busters Show - Victim to Victor podcast
- Continued marketing and promotion of the Bully Busters book and programs online, and live around the world (I was once taught that writing a book is 5% of the work and marketing the book is 95% of the book, so this is just the beginning).
Rewards!
Here is a visual representation of the rewards you can receive (more info in the right-hand column).
Please share the message about BULLY BUSTERS & BEYOND!
Whether or not you can contribute financially to our Kickstarter campaign, we'd love it if you would kindly help share our message to your network of family and friends:
Email and/or share link to the project on social media:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bullybusters/bully-busters-and-beyond
Friend me on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/phil.nguyen.5473
Follow me on Twitter: @masterphil_bbx
WE BOW TO YOUR AWESOMENESS AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Risks and challenges
What we'll need to be mindful of during this project:
> Production, administrative, and shipping delays.
> The commitment of our own time, energy, and money while raising our two ninjas
> Although we are black belts in martial arts, we are white belts in crowdfunding. I'm super excited to see the response Bully Busters & Beyond will receive on this Kickstarter Campaign (our first one)!
What we'll need to be mindful of after this project is successfully funded:
> the resources to deal with the demand for the Bully Busters & Beyond book and program
> the fulfillment of rewards in a timely fashion
> the demands of more time, energy, and money to support this noble cause
Questions about this project? Check out the FAQ
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Funding period
- (30 days)