Jacob was on a Patreon panel! (Patreon)

Patreon Assembly | Panel of New York Creators

For Patreon Assembly, we headed to cities around the country to talk to creators where they live. Since New York City has long been synonymous with art and creativity, we hosted a creator panel there to learn about community, running a creative business, and creativity. The panel, which was hosted by Laura Benson, a Creator Success Lead at Patreon, featured the following creators: Haley Rosenblum, Patreon Manager & Creative Project Producer for Amanda Palmer (https://www.patreon.com/amandapalmer) Patrick Hinds, Podcaster, Producer of True Crime Obsessed (https://www.patreon.com/TrueCrimeObsessed) Jacob Shao, Comedian, Producer and Co-host of Pretty Much It: (https://www.patreon.com/prettymuchit) Austin Walker, Game Journalist, Critic, Co-creator and host of Friends at the Table: (https://www.patreon.com/friends_table) Here are some of the key takeaways from that panel: Patrick Hinds on what independence means to him (5:50): For Patrick, independence means being able to avoid working jobs that he didn't love. “Learning that [my co-producer Gillian and I] could work hard and make this piece of creativity together and that could be a job that supported both of our families has been this really incredible journey.” Haley Rosenblum on creative independence (7:05): For Rosenblum, creative independence means leaning into her community. “We’re able to literally do whatever inspiration strikes, whatever our community wants. “Sometimes, we’ll make mistakes, but that’s part of the process, and so the independence — it literally means everything.” Jacob Shao on the importance of creative control (9:54): “It’s been really cool for us to not have any sort of middle-man or red tape within our business. If we wanna try something new, we do it and that day, it’s in effect.” Austin Walker on putting out the kind of content he loves (9:23): Walker has been able to quit his job to work on Friends at the Table full-time. “[Independence] isn’t just about someone saying, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ It’s about all of those little unwritten or the invisible curricula of what good art looks like. And being able to say, ‘Actually, we have a different idea of what good art looks like and we’re gonna make that.’” Patrick Hinds on authenticity (12:10): To Patrick and his team, transparency, authenticity and having an “honest dialogue with [their] listeners” are of the utmost importance. “We learned that if we could just unabashedly be who we were, then we could succeed and part of that became wanting to make this our job. And that meant telling our audience we wanted to make this our job and unabashedly asking people to join our Patreon… because we want to make more of what you like.” Haley Rosenblum on letting fans pay you (14:11) Quoting Amanda Palmer’s TED Talk, Rosenblum says: “It’s not about how you make people pay for music, it’s how you let them.” When it comes to promoting your Patreon page, she says: “You’re not begging for money, you’re letting people help you create your work and they’re happy for it. It’s a two-way street.” (15:32) Jacob Shao on getting paid for your art (15:48) Shao says, “At the end of the day, we can’t sleep outside. ‘Cause if it was up to just me and my co-host, the creative guys, we’d just be out in the street telling jokes all day and that’s it.” He adds, “We all have to eat, and you can price things accordingly and that’s okay.” (16:01) Austin Walker on the value of art (17:41): Austin encourages creators to not shy away from high-priced tiers. “Give your patrons the opportunity to back you at levels and support you at tiers that you yourself wouldn’t feel comfortable spending in a month. We have a $100 tier that has a handful of people that support us every month.” Patrick Hinds on balancing openness with personal boundaries (18:50) Patrick shares that this has been an ongoing struggle for him and his team and they’re still figuring it out. “It is a challenge because as our listenership has grown, we do live shows, we do national tours… and we want to meet everybody, and it’s hard to figure out how to give back the personal connection that the patrons and the listeners really want as the community grows. So it's an ongoing learning experience for us that we’re not perfect at, but we try really hard.” Hayley Rosenblum on the importance of setting expectations with fans (21:00): Rosenblum advises creators to set expectations with fans, and the earlier the better. “I think we tend to want to give everyone everything all the time, but if you be like, ‘We’re gonna send you something in the mail a few times a year,’ that’s much more manageable then saying ‘every single month’ because we don’t know if we could do every single month.” For more creator stories: https://blog.patreon.com/ To learn more about membership: https://www.patreon.com/