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Welcome to the final Hang Time recap of the decade. Once a month, Patreon CEO Jack Conte and brand manager Taryn Arnold get together to connect with creators and to share some behind-the-scenes updates from the Patreon team.

This month, our hosts were joined by Matt Kaye from Patreon’s Membership Experience team and Jacqueline Chen, the creator and illustrator of the webcomic Chibird.

Feel free to catch Hang Time live each month. But since that isn’t always possible, we write this monthly recap, so you don’t miss out.

Here’s what happened during Hang Time in December…

Celebrating the Ups and Downs

Holidays are all about celebration and reflection. As a creative, it’s great to look back at the year and take stock of the things that really stood out. Jack opened December’s Hang Time by asking creators to think about what went well in 2019, what didn’t work, and what their goals are for 2020.

We had a lot of great answers and can’t share them all, but here are a few highlights (feel free to listen to the whole segment at the 04:57 mark of Hang Time):

“Discord WORKED. I was so hesitant to add another “thing to manage,” but it has ended up being the perfect space for my patrons…”

“What didn’t work is shipping things to patrons this year. It’s untenable for those of us that are smaller creators.”

“Worked – Consistency of putting out videos/musicNot Worked – Doing too muchNext Year – Make more mistakes to learn from”

When Taryn asked Jack to share his biggest learning of 2019, his answer was “letting go.” For those that don’t know, in addition to being the CEO of Patreon, Jack is in a band called Pomplamoose, whose Patreon has over 2,500 patrons. To help manage their creative business, the band is working with a team of contractors. As a creator, Jack said he’s used to having complete control over his projects, but this year, he’s learned to let go a bit.

“Letting them be creative and letting them kind of do their thing has been really awesome and has worked really well,” said Jack.

You can watch Jack’s biggest 2019 highlights at the 9:30 mark of Hang Time.

Getting You Involved: Hang Time Survey and #MadeWithPatrons

Have any thoughts about what might make Hang Time better? Fill out a short survey and help us improve Hang Time in 2020 and beyond. If you want to participate, here’s the link.

Also, to highlight all of the amazing creative projects that are being funded by patrons around the world, we’ve started an exciting new initiative called #MadeWithPatrons.

Here’s how it works: think of something you made recently that you’re proud of, and tell us about it in this form. Make sure to include some details about how your patrons helped make that project possible. While we can’t share all of your submissions, some of your entries will be shared on our social channels — in fact, we already shared the first #MadeWithPatrons entry on Twitter.

To learn more about the survey and #MadeWithPatrons, watch the 11:15-13:30 segment of Hang Time.

Joining the Patreon Community Forum is Now Easier than Ever

At the 13:50 mark, Patreon’s Community Manager, Mindy Day (or as Taryn affectionately refers to her as, Minderson) stopped by to share an update about the Patreon Community forum.

Here’s the scoop: previously we were scaling the forum, so that it’d be ready for our entire creator base. To gain access, creators had to fill out a Google form, which Mindy had to manually approve — it was a whole thing.

But now, joining the community forum is easier than ever — all you have to do is log in with your Patreon credentials, and you’re good to go. If you’re not familiar with the Patreon Community forum, it’s a great way to connect with other creators, to keep up with Patreon updates, and to learn useful tips on running your creative business. Head on over today and join in on the fun.

New Features Alert: Pinned Posts and the My Membership Tab

At the 19:30 mark of Hang Time, Patreon team member Matt Kaye shared two new product features that we’re very excited about.

The first one is something you’ve been requesting for some time — you can now pin a post to your Patreon page. A pinned post allows you to customize your Patreon feed so that your newest patrons know exactly where to start with your posts. Thousands of creators are already using the new feature, so join them by heading over to your Patreon feed and pinning a post today.

For more info on how to pin a post to your Patreon feed, check out this support article.

We’re equally thrilled about the second new feature, the My Membership Tab. This feature came from a question we get from patrons all the time: where is my stuff? We needed to do better at helping patrons find their benefits, which is why we created the My Membership Tab. Now, patrons can find all of the cool things you’re offering for membership in one, easy to find place.

For more information about the My Membership tab, check out the support article, “Find my patron benefits“.

Finally, keep a look out for some upcoming 2020 features, including a post search feature and the ability to customize welcome notes by tier (learn more about these at the 20:25 mark of Hang Time).

Meet Jacqueline Chen of the webcomic, Chibird

Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgaKLaG3ijU&t=3s

Having a bad day? There’s nothing like a Jacqueline Chen drawing to get you feeling like yourself again. If you enjoy sending GIFs and stickers, you’ve probably already sent her penguin hug animation to a friend. Jacqueline is the creator and illustrator of Chibird, a series of motivational comics and animations. In her words, “Life is tough, and I just want to make it a little bit better for everyone.”

On Hang Time, Jack talked to Jacqueline about a variety of topics, from the creative process to membership. Don’t miss her story on how she used Special Offers and physical merch (like enamel pins) to double her patron count. Plus, she chats with Jack about the inspiration for her art, and how she balances Chibird with her full-time job as a software engineer.

If you’re thinking about adding physical merch to your Patreon page, you’re not going to want to miss this one. Watch the full conversation with Jacqueline at the 23:10 mark of Hang Time.

See You Next Time

The next Hang Time will be at 10:00 AM on January 24th. Mark your calendars or sign up for a reminder here. We’ll see you there!