Team TTT&T

3 Cheers for the Positive Power of Narrative

3 Cheers for the Positive Power of Narrative

We couldn’t have planned it better if we’d tried.

It all started back on April Fools’ Day. That’s when we initiated our 21-day campaign to engage the TTT&T community in the build-up to the unveiling, on 21 April, of Buried Alive: the Secret Michelangelo Took to His Grave. We appealed to all of you then to snap a selfie while holding the name of your #HistoryHero on a piece of paper and lots of you did!

Well, three unanticipated things happened off the back of that initiative that touched the hearts of my team members and me, and got our collective creative imagination flowing…

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Time Travel to the Ice Age at the La Brea Tar Pits

Time Travel to the Ice Age at the La Brea Tar Pits

And I don't mean by watching reruns of the Flintstones.

In my last post, I mentioned that my work for Time Traveler Tours & Tales is only one of my jobs. I also work in collections at the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. The site is famous for being one of the only museums in the country that has a live paleontological excavation on site. And here's the thing:

I love paleontology...

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Meet Melissa Dusette, Our Museum Liaison & Community Manager

Meet Melissa Dusette, Our Museum Liaison & Community Manager

We all know the thrill of being involved in a worthwhile project. Even better if it’s groundbreaking. Better still if you’ve got a foot in the door from the beginning. 

I’m talking about my role with Time Traveler Tours and the part I’ve played in the development of our coming Story Tour to Florence: 

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF GIANTS:
MICHELANGELO, THE MEDICI & DAVID

It’s now on its way to the app stores (!) and Sarah is on her way to a much-needed vacation. So we thought it a fine time to share the serendipity that brought me to the team, first as Museum Liaison and now Community Manager.

It began with a chance meeting between two strangers on a train... 

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The Power of Community

The Power of Community

One week ago today, on the last morning of our 38-day Kickstarter campaign that involved four live events and uncountable networking meet ups, taking me first to Florence, then from London to Nashville to New York to Rhode Island, back to New York, then to London, then Paris, and back to London again, I awoke at 4:30am GMT with a start.

It had become commonplace for me to sprint for 16-18 hours a day between dog walks and 4-5 hour nightly naps. Some nights I didn’t really sleep at all, merely rested, while going over the to do list again and again in my head. I was running on sheer adrenaline by this point – that and the fumes of way too much caffeine ingested for way too many days that coursed through my veins and caused my nervous system to fritz out at even the slightest provocation. I was exhausted, but exhilarated and unwilling, unable to stop, because one thing was clear: The crowd was behind me. YOU were behind me. I now had a responsibility, not just to myself, but also to the TTT&T Team, who had all worked so hard and given me so much, as well as to a community of supporters that was expanding daily with every new campaign backer, twitter follower, and Facebook friend.

On the penultimate night of the campaign, I stopped work early – at about 8:30pm. I couldn’t hold my head up any longer, couldn’t will my fingers to type another word. As I closed my computer, we had only $750 left to raise. I felt certain we would make that goal by midnight GMT the next day. I fell to sleep quickly and slept soundly...

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Kickstarter Case Study: To Crowd-source or Not to Crowd-source?

Kickstarter Case Study: To Crowd-source or Not to Crowd-source?

FOR THOSE OF YOU NEW TO CROWD-SOURCED FUNDING, read on for answers to all the questions that fueled our decision-making process over at TTT&T headquarters, such as...

Q: What is crowd-sourced funding?

Q: What is Kickstarter?

Q: Why attempt a crowd-sourced funding campaign?

Q: How do you run a successful crowd-sourced funding campaign?

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