How we came up with EpicStep…

This whole thing started with a phone call.  The three of us were talking about that horrible BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.  Days had turned into weeks and then months at this point and the oil was still leaking.  It had just come out that Tony Hayward was spotted at a yacht race while animals were washing ashore!  People’s livelihoods were literally being ruined and that douchebag was partying his ass off on a yacht.  Bullshit!  So the conversation got heated, we were all pretty angry.  Someone mentioned that there was a campaign to raise money for people to blow vuvuzelas (those horns from the World Cup), in front of BP’s office.  I happened to be driving, I looked up at a billboard and BOOM, it popped into my head.  A billboard saying “Screw BP.”  Then we all thought, wouldn’t it be cool to actually put up a billboard right in front of their headquarters.

So we started thinking, why should billboards and the advertising power rest with big corporations?  Eat here.  Buy this.  Join this Gym.  Individual people have to do crazy things to get their messages out there.  Like go on hunger strikes, risk imprisonment or stage protests.  It’s ridiculous.  Yeah sure, there’s freedom of speech, but there’s no real way to actually be heard, to make an impact.  To create change.

So, the three of us set out to see if there was anything we could do to give more power to individual people.  Our idea instantly became a reality when we discovered a wonderful thing called crowd-funding.  With crowd-funding, a bunch of people with like interests come together and pledge a few bucks each to make something amazing happen.  It opens the door to countless possibilities and makes it possible for ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Crowd-funding works because it’s built into social networking.  You’re a new band and you want to raise money for an album.  You tell your friends on Facebook and Twitter, everyone throws you a couple bucks and suddenly you’ve got an album.  It’s amazing.

So we took crowd-funding and combined it with outdoor advertising.  Voila, Epic Step!  Now anyone can start a billboard campaign.  All you need is $5 and an idea.  And with enough support, anyone can have a billboard.

So the next time you look at a billboard for Coca Cola, think of what your billboard would say.  Then start a campaign and let’s be heard together.