Hello friends! Patreon’s co-founder and CEO @Jack_Conte, wants to spend more time making videos that will help creators, with creators. His band @PomplamooseMusic recently hit a million subscribers on Youtube and he wanted to share a few lessons he learned along the 12 years it took him to grow from 0 to 1M.
We asked 12 Patreon creators from the community to join Jack for a workshop where he gave advice, tips, and tricks to help creators improve their chances of reaching a million subscribers.
Lesson number one is: Do what you can’t help doing.
Such a pleasure to be a part of this! Jack drills the point home in fairly obvious ways, but is infectious and passionate which likely plays into his drive to create content. We talked a lot about how creators who are just getting started and have limited budgets may not have access to everything Jack does, but the key points are the same: try things, be prolific, put things out and move on! It was (and is always) a pleasure to connect with other creators as well, which we had a great opportunity to do in this workshop. Thanks for having us!
This was my first workshop ever and I found it very inspiring! I’ve been trying tons of different things over the years, so many of his experiences were very relatable. Not giving up is the key in the end (ง •̀_•́)ง
Very happy to have been part of this workshop. There was so much to listen about in such short time though, so I’m hoping for more opportunities in the future and more opportunities to discuss scenarios.
It was great to be a part of the workshop! I have kept most of my videos targeted to Patrons and workshops (mostly listing them as Unlisted). I have always struggled with the tension of quantity and quality as well. I don’t have a lot of time (or resources) to make higher quality videos; thus, opted to not make them public. This workshop helped me to have more trust, not see things as needing to be “finished” but always “in-process”, and to accept a unique and imperfect journey around publishing. I’m grateful for Jack’s enthusiasm and for all the extra permission to be more authentic, open, and vulnerable with how I present and offer invitations through YouTube and virtually… Blessings to all the other creators who shared in the workshop as well!
UGH!! I’M SO HAPPY TO HEAR YOU SAY THAT!! Seriously this comment made my day. So happy you found utility in the workshop and that it encouraged you to not worry about getting things perfect before publishing. That’s one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned.
Great to be a part of this! Had a lot of fun meeting everyone and hearing everyone’s different experiences. Inspired us to start to take building the channel a bit more seriously and start to look at what more we can be doing!
I was definitely inspired by a lot of the things you had to say! A couple of my greatest takeaways are publish things even if they’re not perfect and the funnel theory. Thank you so much for your time, energy and inspiration, Jack!
Pomplamoose hit a million subscribers and it’s been a wild 12 years to get there. For the first like two and a half years, their growth was strong. Then there was a six year period of flatness - they hit their plateau and stayed still for six years.
This video is focused on talking about those six years and what that feels like and the lessons along the way, because that’s a that’s a real thing. That’s most of being a creator; most of the time is spent in Flatland trying to figure out what to do and trying to rally and trying to try to adapt.
The first lesson is: do what you can’t help doing. If you do something that you have to do, you’ll get through that six year period of flatlining. There’s no other way to get through that. If you’re doing something that’s like kind of okay, but your heart’s not really in it. You’ll quit. You’ll give up. The only way to get through that period is if you’re fully devoted and you just keep taking swings. And after every swing, you learn a little bit more and a little bit more.
Pomplamoose released over 150 videos in that six year flatline. A hundred and fifty videos. The amount of energy that went into each one of those creative projects, it was was unbelievable, and it was so disappointing when we would like upload it and nothing happened. I can’t imagine any other way than of getting through that unless you’re doing it because you can’t help it.
I actually discuss the same thing when I give talks about living a creative life and growing a brand. I talk about “peak years” and “plateau years” and how you need the plateaus to reach the next peak.
It seems so simple, but one of the biggest things I got out of this was work to publish. I cannot wait for that video bit to come out because I can’t tell you how many times since the workshop ended I’ve gone back to my team at A Stage Reborn and the reassurance that provides saying hey, we’re all perfectionists because we’re madly in love with our creativity and we all want to be perfect… but if we work to publish, we can get more out there and if we don’t like the quality we just try harder next time!
I think that mindset is going to be a central turnaround for our team members that get hung up over delays on deadlines because they just want things to be absolutely perfect and spend too much time on the details only they see, versus just getting content out there.
On a personal level, I’ve taken to just reminding myself that simple concept every day. “Hey Steve, what are you doing? Work to publish – don’t nit pick, just do it.” It’s such a hard habit to form but monumentally has changed my perceived workload.
Creators know this sort of thing is important – just getting their work out there – but it’s great hearing it from someone who’s got the results to tell you that mindset is not crazy.
Jack had so much to say trying to run on a timer, I wish there was more scheduled time so I could have gotten my questions in but it was very much worth being in. Maybe the next one! As both the executive director of an arts charity and a self-starting creative for my own works, these kind of talks are invaluable to be a part of. Thank you, Patreon!
Peace, Jack. ; ) I’m so glad! I am beyond grateful for your, and all of the Patreon team, for the ongoing inspiration to be more and more authentic, open, and all-that-we-are agents of creative freedom. Such gifts!
When should I start a second Youtube channel, is a question I get asked a lot. At the moment, I have 5 different Youtube channels for different types of content and here are my tips on when you should start a second channel.
Perfectionism isn’t perfect when you’re a creator. I have had to work hard to stop being a perfectionist. By making things raw and not perfect I have been able to publish content which resonates with people. Don’t let being a perfectionist get in the way. Your audience value authenticity much more.
Jack had so much to say trying to run on a timer, I wish there was more scheduled time so I could have gotten my questions in but it was very much worth being in. Maybe the next one! As both the executive director of an arts charity and a self-starting creative for my own works, these kind of talks are invaluable to be a part of. Thank you, Patreon!
