Two Big Questions for the Two Year Anniversary (Patreon)

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Hi Everyone!

We’ve been doing this for two years now and it’s been so fun. What a blast! Thank you so much for being here.

However, I’m always looking to improve around here and I’d love your help. I’ve got two important questions for you and I’d love as much feedback as you’re willing to give, either in the comments below or on the community forum. I want to make this Patreon an amazing place to learn and I can't do it without you.

This first question has to do with the pacing and quality of my lessons:

Would you prefer that I continue to pursue my current path of Consistent Quantity, or should I switch over to the path of Consistent Quality.  Let me get into details:

Consistent Quantity Option: This option is basically to just keep doing what we’ve been doing: releasing a video pretty much every Monday, rain or shine. Wether I’ve got a full blown series with PDFs, Jam tracks, or a one-off, less refined video, you get one video to think about every week along with the weekly livestreams and community challenges.

Consistent Quality Option: This option would increase the quality of my lessons and decrease the pace. If my current priority is to make one video a week, this option would change that priority to “Only produce high quality lessons” Basically, this shift in focus would mean I would not put out a lesson every week, but the lessons I put out would ALL look like this:

1. Lessons would be shorter, focused lectures about one specific thing. While I think it’s useful to understand the broader context of a given concept, sometimes it can feel rambly or overwhelming to include those discussions. I’ll save them for the community forum or the livestreams.
2. Lessons would always include a PDF. I’ve personally noticed that lessons tend to come out more succinct and refined when I make the the PDF first! The fast weekly pace doesn’t always allow for that, but if you like this QUALITY option, I’ll prioritize making the PDF first, then filming a lesson around it so things are EXTRA clear.
3. Lessons would include a specific “how to practice” section with either a creative exercise or a play-along track. While it is important to just understand a concept sometimes, it’s ALWAYS beneficial to have an exercise where you’re actively participating in USING that knowledge rather than just knowing it.
4. Lessons in a series would be created together and released together. I find that when I’m trying to put out one lesson a week, it gets difficult to maintain continuity in a series, but when I can create the whole series of PDFs and then film all the lessons, things end up being better. I can’t do that very well with the QUANTITY model, but if I prioritize quality, I should have better success w

We would still have the weekly livestream and community challenge, which means there would always be something to learn and something to work on every week, it just might not be the Monday lesson specifically. Also, you’re welcome to ask about anything in the weekly Q&A, and I love getting into the details about anything you want!

Overall, I’m leaning toward making the change to “Consistent Quality” but I thought I would check in with my paying customers about such a big change.

So, what do you think? Would you prefer that I move to the “Constant Quality” model or stick with the “Constant Quantity” option? let me know in the comments or on the community forum.

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Question 2 is more about the user interface and navigation:

What elements of my Patreon make it difficult to navigate? What changes could I make to the link structure, posting style, lesson archive, etc to make it as easy as possible to navigate my Patreon?

Let me be the first to say that Patreon is not really designed for the kind of thing I’m doing here. This is why I created the Lesson Archive on my website and Scott’s Recommended Lesson Plan. Those two resources at least make it possible to navigate the content on here.

The good news is that Patreon is planning to do a big overhaul this year, which should allow me to make the kinds of changes necessary to REALLY overhaul and improve the user experience here. I'd love to hear your frustrations so that I have a VERY clear picture of what I can fix now and what I can fix in the future, when I have more tools at my disposal.

I look forward to hearing all of your frustrations and annoyances about the user interface, but if you also have a frustration about the way I post lessons, the info I include (or should include) in a post - the certain way a particular kind of PDF does or doesn’t work - I’m happy to hear all of it. I want this place to be an amazing experience.

Post your comments down below or hop into the community forum.   And please know, I am SO SO grateful for your support. I am so happy you've chosen me as your teacher, even if it's just for a short time.