We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tobin Poppenberg a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tobin, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I got invited to Burning Man — this wild, creative festival of art, music, and radical humanity in the Nevada desert. And as excited as I was… I also felt that familiar thrill of fear.
I knew there’d be so much opportunity for connection, but I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to make it happen.
And out of that fear, the idea for the cards just… arrived.
I thought…What if I made a tool that made real conversation effortless, Irresistible, fun and instantaneous?
So I printed some of my favorite questions on little notecards and brought them with me.
And when I met someone new, I’d say: “Pick two. Answer the one that calls to you. Keep both. Pass one on.” That was it. No complicated rules. Just connection.
And it worked — like, magic-level worked.
Stories poured out of people.
Laughter. Kinship. Depth.
Total strangers felt like old friends.
Every. Time I brought them out.
But the moment I knew this mattered?
Thanksgiving dinner. My wife’s family. Normally small talk, polite silences. This time, with the cards, stories came out no one had ever heard. We laughed. We really saw each other. It was light, natural, easy.
That’s when I realized: This wasn’t a party trick. It was a bridge from surface to soul.
Unlike other conversation decks, these aren’t “ice breakers.” They’re humanity revealers.

Tobin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Tobin, a husband, father and dancer, and I one day I looked up to realized I’d developed a full-body allergy to small talk…the standard kind of chit-chat that left me feeling no closer to my fellow humans than if we’d simply sat there in silence.

Here’s the weird part: I’m actually an extrovert. I friggin’ LOVE people. But I couldn’t stand staying stuck on the surface so for ages I’ve stood on the sidelines rather than even participate in the verbal wall-paper we’ve all been trained to settle for!
I don’t care about the weather.
I want to know what makes you YOU.
I want to know what lights you up.
I want to know what shaped you.
I want to know what you actually care about.
That’s why I created The Real Talk Deck.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When I first had the idea for **The Real Talk Deck**, I knew I was onto something that people needed — a simple, beautiful way to spark meaningful connection in everyday life. What I *didn’t* know was how much work it would take to turn that idea into something real.
When I launched the Kickstarter, I thought of it as a kind of public experiment: could we take this simple idea — a deck of cards for real, human conversation — and prove that enough people wanted it to make it real?
We raised **about $12,000**, enough to fully fund our first print run.
But it wasn’t easy. Kickstarter looks deceptively simple from the outside — post a project, make a video, share it around, watch the pledges roll in. The reality is that it’s nearly a full-time job while it’s running — a campaign in every sense of the word.
Every day, I was writing updates, reaching out to friends and communities, responding to comments, building the story of *why this mattered.* I learned a ton about storytelling, community building, and digital logistics in those few weeks.
And that’s the part most creators miss: Kickstarter isn’t just a funding platform. It’s a **forcing function**. It makes you clarify your message, connect with your audience, and build a tribe that believes in what you’re making.
For me, that tribe of early backers didn’t just fund production — they validated the concept. They were saying: *yes, the world needs more real conversation. We want this.*
That $12K wasn’t just capital. It was *proof of resonance*.
And now, those funds are in motion — the first edition is being printed, and in just a few months, The Real Talk Deck will be in people’s hands, at dinner tables, in classrooms, at retreats — sparking the kinds of moments that inspired me to create it in the first place.
The biggest takeaway?
Launching a creative product isn’t about having everything figured out. It’s about declaring what you’re creating — then figuring it out *in public,* with people who believe in you.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Before the Kickstarter, I actually tried something simpler — a basic presale landing page. I built it myself, poured a ton of time, energy, and heart into it, and shared it with friends and family.

And after all that effort? I only generated a couple thousand dollars. It was disheartening. I remember feeling this heavy sense of discouragement — like maybe this idea that meant so much to me just wasn’t going to get off the ground.

But rather than quit, I zoomed out and asked: What’s the real goal here? It wasn’t just to sell decks — it was to bring this vision to life. To get The Real Talk Deck out into the world where it could actually spark connection.

So I pivoted. Instead of continuing with the quiet presale route, I launched a Kickstarter. That move changed everything. Because people already understand Kickstarter — it’s familiar, it’s social, and it has built-in credibility. It gave me access to a larger audience who didn’t just want to buy a deck; they wanted to be part of bringing it to life.

That shift — from discouragement to determination — is really the heart of my entrepreneurial journey. When things stall, I always come back to my mission and vision: to help people reconnect, to make authentic conversation accessible and fun.

That’s what kept me going. Every time doubt crept in, I reminded myself: this project isn’t about me — it’s about what it can do for people. And that made it impossible to give up.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://realtalkdeck.com/