Girl Seeks to Change the World with ‘Golden Buzzer’
You can download an audio podcast here or subscribe via iTunes.
Emma Maenhout, a 16-year-old girl originally from Belgium, and who goes by “Emma Moonwood” because no one in America can say her last name correctly, has an idea: a golden buzzer.
Her idea is that there should be a universal “like” button on the internet that we can hit that will signal our strong approval for a thing we observe there. She calls her button the golden buzzer and envisions that brands will adopt it in order to collect instant karma from loyal fans to drive more sales. In turn, Emma plans to charge the brands for the likes and to use a portion of those proceeds to help people doing things like curing cancer.
Emma explains the challenge she sees. “The problem is that we – the teens of this generation – see so much negativity on the internet and in the news all the time, that it feels like we are becoming immune for it. And I’m scared of growing up in that kind of generation.”
So, she’s created a plan to do something about it. In her own words, “That’s why I want to give the world a wake-up call. But in a positive way. By showing them every Thanksgiving a personal wallet of money that they have earned simply by being positive on the internet. Real money that they can claim. But only if they first agree to share a percentage with a world-changing team that they believe in. So that the next Thanksgiving they won’t only see the wallet again, but also the progress that their world-changing team has made… thanks to them.”
She’s created a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise money to build her minimum viable product. “Right now, I’m raising the money needed to create a prototype of my solution. Because my ‘positivity wallet’ will be connected to what that I call ‘the LIKE-button of the future,’ which will be a special emoji in the shape of a Golden Buzzer, like the golden buzzer you see in talent-shows–but only to use if ‘something is oh so good’ that you simply cannot wait to tell your friends about it.”
Emma Maenhout
Emma envisions the business model driving real impact. “For example: imagine that you just bought a book that is amazing. Thanks to my Golden Buzzer-Emoji you will be able to send your positive feelings to your friends. And if they buy the book, too, thanks to your positivity, you will get a commission on the sales, but under one condition. You will have to share a percentage with your favorite world-changing team. Like a charity, foundation or social entrepreneur.”
“In my wildest dreams I see millions of young people gathering behind world-changers like Elon Musk or Steven Hawking to find new solutions in deep space to help our planet. While millions of others are helping so many other world-changers down on Earth,” she adds.
Emma thinks of her crowdfunding campaign as a lemonade stand; she’s selling access to some of the world’s influencers and celebrities. She says, “No, I’m not selling lemonade or golden buzzers… but ‘golden time’ with the great people, idols, stars of our planet. In other words: you can buy the opportunity to send a 2-minute video message for 25 dollars to one of the idols that are helping me. With the guarantee to get a personal answer back if… you manage to make them smile. And all money raised from those ‘positive moments’ will be used to fund my prototype.”
Emma is continuing to recruit more famous people to help with her campaign, she says. “I already have the first Belgian stars and some Americans. And to make sure that more and more idols join my ‘lemonade stand’, I have installed a first special buzzer on the internet. Allowing all famous, special people who love my idea to hit that buzzer on www.clickthebuzzer.com and… automatically one hour of their time will appear in my crowd funding.”
Emma has a grand vision for her golden buzzer business. “I like to be a social entrepreneur that thinks as sky-high as world-changing heroes like Elon Musk, James & Suzy Cameron, Mark & Priscilla Zuckerberg, Bill & Melinda Gates… That’s why I hope that the first experiment with my golden buzzer-emojis will BUZZ so loud (and will already have so much people, companies and ‘idols’ involved)… that it will wake up some of the giants of the world to help me to bring my prototype to the next level, and to scale this as fast as possible worldwide.”
“I want to help to create a next generation that feels valuable both on the internet and in the world. So that everybody truly becomes part of world-changing teams. Just like that one janitor that was sweeping the floors at NASA and that told President Kennedy ‘My job?… I’m helping to put a man on the moon,'” she concludes.
On Thursday, May 12, 2016 at 3:00 Eastern, Emma will join me here for a live discussion about her golden buzzer and her crowdfunding campaign. Tune in here then to watch the interview live. Post questions in the comments below or tweet questions before the interview to @devindthorpe.
Emma’s bio:
My name is Emma.
I’m 16 years old.
I was born & raised in Flanders (Belgium) & have been living in Los Angeles for 3,5 years.
And this is my story http://www.clickthebuzzer.com
It’s as simple as that.
And I’m gonna prove it via a global experiment.
Just need 500 inspiring idols & a few great brands to help me with it!
Stay tuned in the next days and weeks.
Remember to “join the cavalry” by subscribing to our content here.
The post Girl Seeks to Change the World with ‘Golden Buzzer’ appeared first on GoodCrowd.info.