I was getting ready for a trade show (national conference for company-’some’ details later) and I was looking for ways to get people’s attention. I am not the traditional salesperson. I do NOT like cold calls or walking up to someone and pitching my products to them. It is not in my nature. But on the other hand, I REALLY need to tell people about theCRICKETtoy® at this conference. If I can create a unique enough moment/experience at my table/booth, then the people come to me. It is very natural for me to talk about theCRICKETtoy® when people walk up and say “What on earth is this?” That’s where the fun begins. Awkward pauses, crickets chirping, chirp. chirp. All of that is simple and fun. Face it, I’m an ‘almost’ 40-year old man with an awesomely supportive wife that has invented a fun, silly gadget. It’s absolutely fun!

     I have been reading Buzzmarketing by Mark Hughes (link below) and I started trying to think of creative ways to get people’s attention and have them come to my booth. Then it hit me! What if Calvin (theCRICKETtoy® mascot) handed out chocolate covered crickets at the table? I bet that would get people’s attention. Chirp. Chirp.

     I started googling chocolate covered crickets and discovered they were fairly expensive ($1.50-2.25 each w/shipping). There would be 250 or so folks walking by the booth and I just didn’t know how many to buy. So…genius inventor/entrepreneur here thought, “I bet I could make them myself.” Chirp. Chirp. again

     After then googling how to make them, I decided to go to the Pet Store and buy a bunch of crickets and make them myself. I told my girls Karis(7) and Dakota(4) about the idea and they thought I was crazy. That confirmed I was right. I jokingly asked if they wanted to go with me, and thus begin the unplanned moment with my girls.

     We go to the Pet Store and buy 30 crickets to try out the process. I didn’t but 200 at first, just in case this wasn’t a completely genius plan. Chirp. Chirp. yet again.

     Here’s the recipe:

     Wash crickets. I used a colander with plastic wrap over top.

     Put crickets in ziplock back and put in freezer. Karis did this. She loved it. She did say goodbye to them. She was smiling the entire time.

     Take crickets out of freezer (at least 15 minutes in there) and then wash them off again. Dakota turned the water on and washed them off. NO, they did not wake up for those wondering about cyrogenic freezing.

     Put them on a new cookie sheet you just bought because your wife says “OK, you can do this, but you are NOT using my good cookie sheet!”

     After preheating oven to 250 degrees, cook them until crunchy. It ended up taking me 34 minutes to have them really crunchy.

     Open oven. Try not to throw-up. You are probably not ready for the smell of cooked crickets.

     Melt baker’s chocolate/almond bark etc and dip crickets in chocolate.

     Let them dry on wax paper.

     I’ve included photos throughout the process for you to see some smiles and the girls being a part of this. I really did NOT think they’d want to do this. Mommy came downstairs (she was upstairs avoiding the smell of cooked crickets) and said “What is all this laughing?”. All three of us couldn’t stop giggling. It was so much fun. They created an assembly line where Dakota took them off the newly purchased, cooled, cricket sheet (not mom’s cookie sheet) and dropped them in the chocolate. I covered them/dunked them. Karis used 2 coffee stirrers as chopsticks and took them out and put them on the wax paper.

     The chocolate has dried and I look over and Dakota has picked up one of the crickets and pinched off a piece and puts it in her mouth. I tell her to wait as I grab for the camera and try and get her picture taking the 2nd little pinched bite. She, without ANY prompting from me, then takes a huge bite. I’m in awe. She says to big sister, “It’s not bad. It’s just kind of crunchy.” She then puts the rest of it in her mouth. I had NO plans of making them eat crickets. Not at all. I couldn’t believe the first person to eat one was my daughter. At that point, I realize “Crud..Now I HAVE to eat one.” I do. Karis takes the photos and they both giggle at Daddy eating a cricket and then making a face as he reaches for a glass of water.

     Crickets are eaten around the world and serve as a higher source of protein/lower fat than red meat.

     I’m not saying we’re adding them to Tuesday Taco Night. Not going to happen. I’m just sayin’.

     What started as a fun idea to attract attention to our booth (which it did-details coming), became a moment with my girls that none of us will forget. I can’t describe how loud the giggling was throughout the entire process. I had to ’shoosh’ them a couple times so they wouldn’t wake up baby brother upstairs. If the promotional idea didn’t work, I had decided it was absolutely worth it as my daughters and I had a moment that we will talk about for the rest of their lives. Seeing Daddy try out an idea. Chase his dreams. Have a crazy scheme. Clean, freeze, cook and cover crickets and laugh out loud with my daughters. Absolutely priceless!

     I am NOT advocating making chocolate covered crickets with your children, but if that’s what it takes to make a moment with them, it is a NO-BRAINER!

     Chirp. Chirp.

THIS created a moment with my girls that last forever!

Because you never know when you'll need a giant cricket mascot costume

     When you’re a small company (it’s me and a part-time assistant right now), you look for cost effective marketing solutions. You look for ways to get your brand out there in unique and different ways. Long term, I feel like one of the strongest brand identifiers and marketing pieces I could have/use would be a huge cricket mascot.

     Enter, Calvin.

     The problem that arose was the cost of hiring a company to make a mascot was huge ($3,500-6,000 typical prices). I just couldn’t do that. After watching countless videos about making mascots and reading tons of blog entries, I decided that I could make it myself and I ‘thought’ it would turn out pretty cool.

     Major side note here:I’m a fairly clueless, naive man. Let’s just say that the first time I saw ‘how to make a furry costume’, I thought “Oh cool! I should get plenty of information from them”.

     Chirp. Chirp.

     Uhm…yeah…I got plenty of information from them. I had NO CLUE!

     Worth double chirp. Chirp. Chirp.

     I have interesting serendipitous moments happen to me throughout my life. Always have. I asked a friend to give me a side view drawing of my mascot concept. 30 minutes later I get this drawing back in an email:

     I end up at an upholstery shop in Franklin and we make the foad head. I show it to my friend who drew the sketches and he says “Yeah, I want to make the costume.” “Done” was my response. Thurs/Frid/Sat/Sunday and we now have a giant Calvin mascot costume that turned out very cool. The eyes are AMAZING! This ‘friend’ of mine who did all of this completely for free, is the director at Veggie Tales (Big Idea). Yeah..that’s why this looks so good. He’s a professional animator. I can post more photos of the process later, but I just had to show off Calvin. My friend did an unbelievable job and I now have a mascot that can be used for years to come.

     In case you need him, Calvin is available for:driver’s tests, break-ups, divorce meetings with lawyers, restraining order deliveries, getting served (papers), Vasectomy follow-up appointments, colonoscopies, college exam days etc…

     To say that I’m doing what I love is an understatement! Look for some fun videos with Calvin coming soon!

     I can so happily say I do NOT have a trophy wife! That description doesn’t begin to come close to describing the amazing gift God gave me in my wife. Today as we celebrate her birthday, I’d like to share a little bit about her.

     Don’t get me wrong about the ‘not being a trophy wife’ thing. She’s a total hottie. She’s beautiful. When she sings on stage, she is absolutely radiant. Such joy. Stunning. Hottie. Yep. I don’t know how it’s possible that she just had a baby 13 weeks ago. Total hottie.

     We met on a mission trip with our church to Ukraine. We were both in the group (she sang, I played trumpet). We kind of new each other before the trip, but during the trip was when we really started talking. We tell everyone we fell in love on a boat on the Black Sea. The first thing I remember saying about her was “Wow, she is going to be an awesome mom!”. You know what? I’m a genius! She is the most amazing mother I could ever imagine. I could not hope for a better mother for my 2 sweet girls and my cool stud of a boy. Perfect!

     There is no question she is my other half. She’s certainly the guy in the relationship if I’m the girl. I’m the mushy, sappy one. She’s the one that says “Can we just watch a movie and not talk?” She is a perfect balance to my life. There is no way I would make it without her around. Not a chance.

     If you are an entrepreneur, the most IMPORTANT THING is to have a supportive wife! I can’t stress that enough! There will be all kinds of up and down times when you’re creating projects, ideas and companies. Your wife HAS TO BE behind you or you will go nuts.

     Think about this scenario:

     ”Honey. I’ve got this idea for a toy. It’s a little cricket that chirps anytime there’s an awkward situation. I think I can make this work and we will end up selling millions of them. Now, we may end up putting the house on the line to do it, but I really think it will work”

     Camera pans and zooms in on wife.

     Chirp. Chirp.

     ”Yeah…you could use it for times like right now.”

     My wife is so amazing! What kind of woman tells you to go ahead and make the little toy and go for it? Chase your dreams. Take a shot at it.

     The most beautiful, amazing, supportive and phenomenal woman I could ever dream of. Today on her birthday, I celebrate this amazing woman behind this incredibly goofy, and probably predominantly awkward man. Chirp. Chirp.

     No regrets Dana, I love you!

     As the new season of American Idol gets going, it got me to wondering:

     Do you miss Paula?

     As my entire livelihood is now dependent on awkward moments, I just wanted to look back at the ‘classic’ awkward moment of Paula’s.

Chirp. Chirp.

     There are some people who seem to be a walking advertisement for theCRICKETtoy®. Yep…I miss Paula.

     (yes..I’m now mailing a box of crickets to the American Idol office).

     I’m still looking forward to all the ‘chirpworthy’ moments on American Idol, but I’m afraid they will only come from contestants and not the judges now. When will we her crickets chirping? I wonder if any guest judges will step up their ‘awkward game’ for me. Hhmm. Chirp. Chirp.

     How about you? Do you miss Paula?

     In light that today I am having the ‘procedure’ done, (Snip. Snip., Fixed, Demanization-vasectomy, in case this wasn’t clear), I thought it only appropriate to explain how we got pregnant with our ’surprise’ third child (my now 8 week old stud of a son).

It is pretty simple. Here it is:

12 original songs written by Jeff Anderson, sung by Sheila Walsh

     Yes, this is the cover of a Lullaby CD.

     After our second child, we had planned for me to have the ‘procedure’ done the beginning of this year. Many of you may not know much about me, but I am a music producer/songwriter/arranger. Right now, I make my living doing music as theCRICKETtoy® is starting to gain momentum and we are getting into more and more stores (now in Urban Outfitters!).

     A great friend at Thomas Nelson contacted me about writing a series of children’s lullabies for Sheila Walsh (God’s Little Princess creator) to sing. I was thrilled about the idea and said yes! Because of my schedule, I ended up not having time to go have the ‘procedure’ done because I had to..wait for it…true story…write songs for a children’s lullaby project. This is so a true story. (Can’t make this up).

     As I was writing the songs, I was remembering back to some of those late night/early morning moments when our daughters wouldn’t go back to sleep, and it’s 3 in the morning and I’m holding them. I tried to capture those special moments in the songs. They go by quickly. SO quickly. My son is now 8 weeks old today and it has flown by. My goal with the project was to encourage moms and dads during those moments when they are tired and worn out and it’s 3 to not miss the actual moments.

     Some of the songs got me in a mushy mood. Can’t help it. I’m a hopeless romantic. So…THAT’s how we got pregnant with our son, Dawson Dean Anderson. He is such a blessing and I am very grateful for him.

     That being said. 3’s enough. I leave in about 2 hours for the ‘procedure’ unless of course I get hired to write another lullaby record in the next 2 hours. If that happened and I said yes to the gig, I’m pretty sure Dana may do a ‘home vasectomy kit’ with scissors.

     Snip. Snip. Chirp. Chirp.

     I thought I would share a couple of the songs here with you. You can purchase (and please do!) this CD at Barnes & Noble’s website, on Amazon, through many of your local bookstores, and from my company’s website as well www.anderkampmusic.com

     New moms and dads, I hope you enjoy these moments. They will go by in a blink of an eye!

Live This Moment
words/music by Jeff Anderson

Crawling then I blink,
Then you’re walking cross the floor.
Open my eyes again,
And you’re running through the door.
How can it be that your first step,
Takes you walking down the aisle?
So I’ll hold my breath to try and slow it down,
live this moment for awhile.

I don’t wanna let go of this moment,
It’s my calm before the storm.
The world’s at rest and you’re in my arms,
And I don’t wanna let you go.
For our time is just an instant,
That is here and then is past.
So I hold my breath to try and slow it down,
And pray this moment lasts.

So I hold my breath to try and slow it down,
And make this moment last.

     The other one I’ll share is called “Dream Blessing”

     In the Old Testament, there are many blessings that parents prayed/said over their children. This song is a blessing over your children’s dreams every night when they go to bed. It encourages them to go dream their big dreams tonight and let their imagination soar. It’s a concept that I want our children to grasp firmly when they’re young so it permeates every aspect of their life as they grow older. When they leave for college, I pray they “dream their big dreams.” It felt like it should have a celtic feel, so I added Uilleann pipes and a whistle to it. Sort of a “Far and Away” kind of vibe.

Dream Blessing
words/music by Jeff Anderson

Go dream your adventures upon the high sea,
With snowflakes and rainbows above.
Swim strawberry oceans, climb candy cane trees.
But wherever you go, know you’re loved.
Wherever you go, you are loved.

May the journey ahead and the path that you take,
Be filled with wonder and awe.
Let your mind take you places no others have been,
When you reach out and touch the moon.
May the light pointing home shine bright.
Go dream your big dreams tonight.

     I pray blessings on you and your children’s dreams! I’m living mine with my wife, 2 daughters, new son and a whole lot of crickets! May you live yours!

Jeff

Chirp. Chirp.