Turning the Patreon Boat Around

Patreon is pretty popular among folks I know. Artists, psychics, creators — everybody has a Patreon page, hoping to get people to send them money once a month to help support them. Several of them have tier upon tier, promising more and more goodies the more money you’re willing to commit to them every thirty days or so.

It looked good to me. So I did the same thing last year. Levels from $2 all the way up to $100 a month, promising ever more readings, classes, and on and on.

Just like all the other psychics on Patreon, frankly.

But no matter what I did or how I tweaked the page, it didn’t bring me dozens of new supporters. People weren’t enticed by the readings and gifties.

What it did do, I noticed, was bring me people who were interested in meeting with me to discuss and learn. About ten people, give or take, have committed their time once a month to ZOOM with me and their fellow “Nestmates” (I am, after all, nicknamed Ma Feathers).

Everything I can come up with, they want to learn.

And friendships have coalesced among the participants.

One member who just found out her child is on the Autistic Spectrum was immediately supported by another member whose child is almost grown, and thus has dealt with those challenges for years.

One member had their spouse unexpectedly deployed right after the Ukraine-Russia war started. We were all there with comfort, support, reassurance.

There was learning — but there was also Tribe.

Not in the alt-right, white-supremacy, Christofascist sense of “we are the only ones who know Truth and all the rest of you deserve to be subjugated or destroyed.”

Instead, it was the sense of “we are all walking this road together, toward compassion and soul growth and healing the world — and therefore you can call on me for what you need, because we are a Family of Choice.”

After eighteen months, I am seeing that this was really what I wanted to create all along. What I was meant to create.

So the page got changed. Completely. All the expensive offerings got scrapped; instead, it became a teaching page, and a place where those who are serious about wanting to improve themselves, their hearts and the world can come to learn the tools.

Do I feel like I failed with the first version? Not at all. It brought me closer to my own truths.

Will it grow, as I hope? Who knows.

But no matter what, it is one more reminder that as an Elder-not-a-Boomer, the teaching mantle, rather than the gypsy scarves or mystical outfits, is my favorite garb from here on out.

And there’s no harm in deciding to row your boat to a new destination.

(If you want to go explore what I’m talking about, feel free to go to https://bit.ly/3KVuhfj and take a look around.)