This is my 10th year on Patreon!
I started in 2016 with a dream to be like Amanda Palmer and make my entire living there so that I could independently produce and focus on my writing.
That has been hard.
A colleague of mine from the cell, and my very first patron, raved about Amanda’s book, “The Art of Asking”, so I found the money to get the audio book and listened to it during every free moment, furiously taking notes on my phone and dreaming about the hundreds of patrons I would soon have on patreon. My children were really little back then, and I was younger, so had a bit more energy and desperately needed to change my situation.
I launched my patreon in July of 2016 with a simple thank you post. I dove deeper in August of 2016 with a little post about getting ready for #48hoursinharlem with two small kids surrounding me.
By the end of September, I had rewards and an intro video. That intro video hasn’t changed in 10 years…. that WILL adjust this year!
I had a spike in 2020, when people were home a feeling guilty around racism. No joke.
But in recent years, for a variety of reasons, mainly financial, people had less money to support independent creators.
After 10 years, I’ve learned a lot of lessons, and am planning on making my first big reward and level adjustment in the coming weeks.
The question you might be asking is “what are you creating?”
If you’re taken a look at my patreon over the years, or even recently, you’ve seen videos and links to substack writing or podcasts I produce or stories about my family. You’ve seen a variety of things that all give a behind the scenes look at what my life has been like as a creator. You even had a back seat to a year of pivotal change for me: 2018, when my divorce was finalized and when I was hired at The Public.
But what does this all mean?
Most recently I’ve been refocusing and rebuilding.
My ecosystem begins with 55AP (Think Oprah’s HARPO or Issa Rae’s HOORAE)
- Jones & Co. is my marketing consultant arm ( I built out the webpage more this weekend)
- “Producing with Garlia” is the podcast I’ll be building out, but it’s also more than that…
- Producing with Garlia” is where everything lives: my writing, my essays on producing and parenting, strategy for theatre makers and arts administrators, and soon, in-depth conversations with the people shaping this field.
- It’s a newsletter (Substack), a podcast, and a community (Patreon) built around one idea: everything is performance — how we produce, how we parent, how we write, and how we build structures that let us actually sustain. You can find the podcast on Patreon and on your favorite podcast platform.
- Producing with Garlia” is where everything lives: my writing, my essays on producing and parenting, strategy for theatre makers and arts administrators, and soon, in-depth conversations with the people shaping this field.
So after 10 years… I FINALLY figured it out!
But that’s what Patreon is for. Patreon isn’t for perfection, but for growth and transformation, and the people that have been here since DAY 1…. The patrons that have stuck with me from the get go… from frequent to infrequent posting and unfulfilled rewards because life and solo parenting. The ones that said, “don’t give me anything.”, we just want to support. We see potential, we believe in you.
Patreon is for that belief. That interest and desire for me to give back a little more. Not a magnet or note card, but an ecosystem of creation built upon an infrastructure of care that accompanies 14 years of being a parent and artist in a world that values war over peace (quite literally if you’re keeping up with this weekend’s news).
In the coming week(s), I will be streamlining my patreon levels as well, so now is the time to enter at $1/$3 as those levels will shift to seasonal, but once you have it, you’re grandfathered in! 🙂
My new levels will be re-named to reflect my hometown of Detroit.
- BELLE ISLE
- WOODWARD AVENUE
- ARDEN PARK
- UNIVERSITY DISTRICT
- BOSTON-EDISON
- PALMER PARK
More details to come via my patreon and right here on my blog.
So welcome to what I’m rebuilding.
Would you consider becoming a paid patron at $1 a month?
That’s it. A dollar.
It’s not about the amount, but what it signals.
When you move from free to paid, you’re telling me the work matters enough to invest in, even just a little. And right now, as I’m rebuilding and going deeper on fewer things, that means everything.
New month starts Sunday (tomorrow).
If there’s ever a moment to make it official, it’s now.
Thank you for being here!
My session is at 4pm, followed by the keynote – Dominique Morisseau at 5pm
