Speaker 1: The website that helps you quit your day job with
Speaker 1: the support of your fans. Mrich Demiro. This is rich
Speaker 1: on Tech. Patreon is a platform for creator. Set up
Speaker 1: a page, tell folks what you do, and watch the
Speaker 1: monthly pledges come in. Fans could give you a buck,
Speaker 1: two bucks or more, so you can concentrate on making
Speaker 1: your content, whether it's a podcast, YouTube, video series, or whatever. Recently,
Speaker 1: the company held its annual Patrecon in downtown Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: where I met up with Jack Conti, founder of the site.
Speaker 1: So how to come up with it? Well, he's a
Speaker 1: frustrated creator himself.
Speaker 2: I'm a creator. I've been a creator for the last
Speaker 2: ten years, and I got sick of opening up my
Speaker 2: app and seeing, you know, three million views and two
Speaker 2: hundred bucks of ad revenue. And I thought, gosh, if
Speaker 2: my fans were to just pay me, you know, a
Speaker 2: dollar a month, that would that would make all the
Speaker 2: difference in the world. And sure enough, fans were more
Speaker 2: than happy to do that. And actually, the average pledge
Speaker 2: per Patron to a given creator is more like seven bucks,
Speaker 2: so it turned out to be like a really great
Speaker 2: source of income. Within two weeks of launching the platform,
Speaker 2: I was making over five thousand dollars a month as
Speaker 2: just a person, just a YouTuber, like making YouTube videos
Speaker 2: and putting them online and reaching people.
Speaker 1: The website works as sort of a liaison between creators
Speaker 1: and their fans. Supporters are called patrons. Creators can rely
Speaker 1: on the monthly check they get. All pages show you
Speaker 1: how many supporters a given creator has, but a creator
Speaker 1: can optionally reveal just how much they're getting in monthly support.
Speaker 1: Patrons can also get members only perks. They can be
Speaker 1: super creative or typical stuff like an ad free version
Speaker 1: of the podcast, bonus videos, or signed copies of books.
Speaker 2: Creators have felt undervalued for so long that we as
Speaker 2: society have actually undervalued them as well, and paying somebody
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars for millions of views is such a
Speaker 2: misrepresentation of what they're actually worth to the world. So
Speaker 2: to me, it's not weird to see creative people making
Speaker 2: a living, doing a great job, building up business, hiring teams,
Speaker 2: and being valued because I felt like creators have been
Speaker 2: that valuable for a long time. The web just wasn't
Speaker 2: set up to properly compensate them for their work. So
Speaker 2: to see that actually happening and to have Patreon be
Speaker 2: a part of that is like definitely the most rewarding
Speaker 2: thing I've ever done in my life. And yeah, it's
Speaker 2: just a sheer joy to send people, you know, their
Speaker 2: their paycheck every month. That's really awesome.
Speaker 1: Glenn Henry is San Diego based. He makes videos for
Speaker 1: his YouTube channel called Belief in Fatherhood.
Speaker 3: I make videos about how great it is to be
Speaker 3: a father and how challenging it is as well. I've
Speaker 3: been doing it for about three years, and I've really
Speaker 3: noticed that I didn't want to be a father until
Speaker 3: I saw proof of what a father could be. And
Speaker 3: once I saw that proof, I wanted to be proof
Speaker 3: of other people. So that's why I kind of started
Speaker 3: the challenge.
Speaker 1: When I asked him how he describes what a creator is,
Speaker 1: I loved his answer.
Speaker 3: A creator is someone who you know, has an idea
Speaker 3: and is brave enough to stick to the idea. Uh,
Speaker 3: and that person then makes something that is around to
Speaker 3: benefit other people. So that can be a song, that
Speaker 3: can be a poem, that can be a drawing, a
Speaker 3: piece of art. It's this whole trusting relationship between your
Speaker 3: brain and your ability. Creators play with this relationship all
Speaker 3: the time is to bring to the ability, and then
Speaker 3: you give it from your ability to your first person
Speaker 3: that you trust, that trusting eyes, and then you give
Speaker 3: it to your audience and then it goes to virality.
Speaker 1: Henry has about five hundred supporters on his Patreon page.
Speaker 3: For the past two years, Patreon has been with us
Speaker 3: paying my mortgage, also gives my family and ie health insurance.
Speaker 3: My wife has quit her jobs. We now have three kids,
Speaker 3: and it just allows me to be a full time creator.
Speaker 3: You know, when you're someone who has ideas as a kid,
Speaker 3: people want to tell you to push your ideas away
Speaker 3: and focus on the real world. Right Patreon allows me
Speaker 3: to tell those ideas to come back because they're in
Speaker 3: a safe space. And not only are they in a
Speaker 3: safe space, but they have the opportunity to actually make
Speaker 3: us money. And so my dreams are safe when I
Speaker 3: have Patreon.
Speaker 1: Katie Mooreton is a licensed therapist who makes videos about
Speaker 1: mental health on our YouTube channel.
Speaker 4: I love YouTube and I have a great relationship with them,
Speaker 4: but a lot of my content just because of the title,
Speaker 4: is not monetizable, and like, for instance, suicide and prevention
Speaker 4: for it, because it has that word suicide, it will
Speaker 4: never be monetizable exactly, even though it's helpful content. It's
Speaker 4: just like black and white with them when I really
Speaker 4: live in the gray. And so Patreon allows me to
Speaker 4: still be able to create what content I believe is
Speaker 4: important and necessary and not worry about the monetization.
Speaker 1: When you think about it, Patreon is kind of like
Speaker 1: a GoFundMe, but for your dreams. The best creators have
Speaker 1: always had sort of an odd relationship with money.
Speaker 4: A lot of us worried that we're, like, you know,
Speaker 4: asking for money, but you're really just giving people an
Speaker 4: opportunity to support you. And I wouldn't have been able
Speaker 4: to continue without it. So just don't hesitate, because I
Speaker 4: actually do have a book coming out and it wouldn't
Speaker 4: have been available. I don't believe I could have kept
Speaker 4: doing what I was doing long enough to make the
Speaker 4: book a reality without my patrons, So you know, don't
Speaker 4: hesitate and don't wait. Well, my book is called Are
Speaker 4: You Okay? And it's a guide to caring for your
Speaker 4: mental health. It's available for free order now and it
Speaker 4: comes out December eleventh. Think of it as like mental
Speaker 4: health one oh one.
Speaker 1: Patreon has over one hundred thousand creators on the platform.
Speaker 1: Founder Jack Conti told me they'll pay out over three
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars this year, and yes, Patreon gets a
Speaker 1: cut of this. But the idea that you can quit
Speaker 1: your job, follow your dreams, and let your true fans
Speaker 1: support you is pretty amazing. But as they say, don't
Speaker 1: quit your day job just yet.
Speaker 2: My general advice is be good at making great things,
Speaker 2: like get good at making great stuff. If you have
Speaker 2: a video business, or if you you know, have a podcast,
Speaker 2: or if you have a webcomic, hone your craft, get
Speaker 2: really good at it. Build an audience, see what people
Speaker 2: like and what they don't, and stay true to yourself
Speaker 2: along the way. Make sure you're making something that you're
Speaker 2: proud of and excited about. And as you do that, yeah,
Speaker 2: it is now possible. Like it's not a dream anymore,
Speaker 2: it is actually logistically possible to make a living as
Speaker 2: a as a creative person. I think five years ago,
Speaker 2: ten years ago, there was no notion of the small
Speaker 2: business creative media company. That just wasn't a thing. And
Speaker 2: now there are so many tens of thousands, hundreds of
Speaker 2: thousands of small business media companies that are thriving creators
Speaker 2: and teams and organizations that are making a living putting
Speaker 2: stuff online, so it is possible. It's a real thing,
Speaker 2: and it's real right now.
Speaker 1: There you have it. Whether you want to create or
Speaker 1: support someone who creates, Patreon can help you do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to the podcast. I checked
Speaker 1: my page. I joined Patreon back in twenty fourteen, but
Speaker 1: I've yet to open up direct to supporters. You know,
Speaker 1: I do have that full time job thing and I
Speaker 1: kind of love it, so who knows, Maybe one day
Speaker 1: I'll go direct to the fans. You can find links
Speaker 1: to more information on Patreon on my website, rich on
Speaker 1: tech dot tv, or you can check the show notes.
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Tdimiro. I'll talk to you real soon.