Backstage with Patreon

Sam Haveson, is Patreon’s Product Manager in charge of the Community product at Patreon. We cover Patreon’s increasing investment in co-building community features with creators. Some of the features we talk about in the episode aren’t quite ready for more creators to try out just yet. But Patreon will be announcing more about those opportunities in the near future.This is the final episode of Backstage with Patreon!This is the end of my time at Patreon leading the Creator Success team but hopefully not the end of getting to work with creators and telling company stories. You can find me on Twitter @BrianPodcasting, LinkedIn under brikell, and email at brian.keller@gmail.com

Eric Striffler, is the creator of Pretty Much It, and his business partner is AJ Lebenns. Pretty Much It produces audio commentary and videos where Eric discusses movies and TV with his friends. Pretty Much It has been making content since 2010 and on Patreon since 2013. From Indiana Jones to High School Musical, Eric has been watching and telling jokes from his RV and his friends’ couches.We celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Pretty Much It on Patreon, hear how Eric maintains and evolves his high-energy commentary style, and how they continue to embrace new features on Patreon that have helped the business grow.

Jesse Munitz-Allesio is Patreon’s Product Manager for Digital Commerce. Before joining Patreon last year, Jesse spent over 12 years at Facebook and Meta working on product, including data infrastructure, Instagram Reels and notifications, and the sharing and consumption process across all of Meta’s platforms.We talk about Patreon’s new product offering creators the ability to sell digital items to their audience, as part of their membership business or as a standalone store. A lot of creators have been asking for this monetization option, so we’re excited to share more about how creators can grow their earnings and offer more to their fans with digital commerce.To sign up for early access to these features, go to https://comingsoon.patreon.com/

Danny O’Dwyer is the founder of Noclip, which makes video game documentaries available for everyone to watch, funded by a community of members on Patreon. In 2016, Danny pivoted from a career in gaming journalism to making his own documentaries, free from the influence of advertising and sponsored content. Noclip has gone on to build a team and release dozens of documentaries on YouTube, with Patreon members getting additional bonus content and involvement in the production process.Noclip has been one of the creators with early access to new Patreon features allowing them to bring more of their audience into membership without needing to pledge on a paid tier. Danny has been experimenting with what member-only content to share with these free members, and having compelling reasons to upgrade.To sign up for early access to these features, go to https://comingsoon.patreon.com/

We’re wrapping up Backstage with Patreon, and wanted to share the news. We’ll have four more full length episodes in the feed, which will release on a daily schedule to close out the show.I’m ending my time at Patreon leading the Creator Success team but hopefully not the end of getting to work with creators and telling company stories. You can find me on Twitter @BrianPodcasting, LinkedIn under brikell, and email at brian.keller@gmail.com

As a product manager for Patreon, Ashley Tuccero works on tools and features for creators at every stage of their journey on Patreon. She has been at the center of making Patreon’s core features — posting, fan relationship manager, and insight tools — available to new creators without needing to set up paid membership, and for existing creators to bring more of their fans to Patreon.In this episode, Ashley discusses how you can use these creator tools to connect with your community in a deeper way and grow your creative business. To sign up for early access to these features, go to https://comingsoon.patreon.com/

Having pivoted from acting to full-time content creation — across podcasting, streaming, YouTube, writing, and coaching — Ethan Saks, co-host of podcast Lords of Limited, shares how he does it all. Getting paid to do what you’re passionate about sounds great. But how do you achieve that while trying to grow your online community and showing up as a parent?In this episode we chat with Ethan about how he and co-host Ben Werne, navigate the tremendous changes that come with life as a full-time creator.

By offering a free trial, you can invite your audience to try out one of your paid membership levels for free for seven days, before committing. This short, but immersive, experience gives curious fans a real taste of your membership — one that can inspire them to sign up for the long term. In this episode, Norma O’Mahony, a product manager on Patreon’s Growth team, walks through how free trials work, data illustrating how free trials improve creators’ earnings, and tips for getting started. 

Through their YouTube channel and podcast, Foundation Disc Golf became leaders in the flying-disc sport and surrounding industry. The company’s membership business blends retail sales of gear and apparel with audio and video content — all designed to encourage their passionate base of disc golf fans of all levels.Co-founder Hunter Thomas shares how members get to select the topic for an exclusive video that he and his team make each month, plus their approach to hosting live, pop-up events in different cities.We’re on Twitter @PatreonPodcast https://twitter.com/PatreonPodcast. Transcripts are available at patreon.com/backstage. Join the discussion about the episode in the Patreon Creator Community Discord https://discord.gg/patreon.