Cole Gentles of Röckët Stähr

TRAININGS COMPLETED:
None of the above

How long have you been an IndiePro member?
I was a member back in 2020 to about early 2021, and then I became a member again I believe around Oct of 2023.

Please give us a brief overview of your activity and progress since joining IndiePro?
I rejoined because I wanted the more hands-on approach IndieFounder gives. I didn't check off any of the previous "What trainings have you completed" because I don't see that I've completed any of them (I honestly think I did technically, but when I look at my dashboard area none of them said "completed" so I felt uncomfortable saying I did). I'd more so skip from section-to-section on each one I found relevant or interesting, and thus I felt working with IndieFounder would make things more focused and structured for me. And it did exactly that!

Since starting my training with Jesse in February, and launching my sales funnel for my animated rock opera feature film in mid-March, I've sold over 2100 DVDs and BluRays, 345 2-CD soundtracks (the first upsell), and 146 of my newest CD, (which is the second upsell). I launched a presale campaign for the double-vinyl soundtrack, which was a heavy lift as it includes a 16 page booklet that has a mini-autobio, a "making of the movie" section, the lyrics, and a minute-by-minute cultural reference guide, a poster, two hand drawing prints of two of the main characters, and two stickers.

The presale ends tomorrow (12/6) and I've sold 183 so far. My movie played in a theater in Texas, I performed in L.A. (my first live performance in 17 years!), I did a radio (real radio) interview, someone's going to shoot a documentary about me this winter, I receive fan art for the characters in my movie, and the list goes on. Every single one of these things is due to people discovering me via my ads for my sales funnel.

I've also gained about 5000 Instagram followers (all organically), and a few thousand FB followers, hundreds of youtube followers. While my Spotify listeners isn't robust as others, that's also grown significantly relative to what it was at the start of the year (which was nearly nothing... now I'm at about 1600 monthly listeners),


Lastly, please tell us why you think you should be a finalist for the Breakout Indie Award:
I'm 51. I did my very first club show with my first real band in August of 1991. I've been making music a long time, and while I've had a couple of close brushes with big success in the past, I've struggled mightily to build a fanbase. But this year, I've finally started doing exactly that. While of course I'd like even *better* growth (who wouldn't?) the growth I've had since I started doing this early in the year has, objectively, been relatively huge. The idea that a virtually unkown artist can get over 2000 people to buy his odd movie they've never heard of before on a media format most people consider dead is kinda mind-blowing. Add to that close to 200 people plunked down $55 for a double-vinyl soundtrack they won't even receive for months, the offers I've had (someone wants to fly me out to Ohio for a screening and Q&A of my film next year, and someone else wants to shoot a documentary about me over the winter) have been pretty wild. People send me fan art and pics of themselves receiving my merch or even watching my film. People hold watch parties for it, or watch it with their parents or kids! I've had a ton of requests to be on podcasts. None of this was going on before this year. It feels like a decently strong case for "Breakout".