IMPORTANT UPDATES TO TIERS/REWARDS

Hi everyone,

PLEASE READ FOR IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT CHANGES TO YOUR REWARDS AND REFUND REQUESTS!

A couple of weeks ago I paused Livestreams to figure out a more sustainable path forward for me on Patreon. I appreciate your patience as I figured this out, and thanks to those who filled out the survey. I appreciate your feedback and I value your opinions and ideas.

I will make an update video soon explaining this in more detail, but below I'll first list the bullet points of the changes and write some explanation below that.

The new plan is to make Patreon entirely supporting the mission and the business. This is what Patreon was designed for, and is the biggest reason that you all said you joined. Perks will be released more naturally without enforced timelines, and these will vary and increase over time. 

• The $5 tier will stay the same (although I'll change the name to "Naked! Mission Support" and encourage folks to pledge any amount. $5 is just the minimum for the Patreon platform. You will also retain access to the Limited Library of curated content that you had before.

• The $80 tier will stay the same - you'll still have access to 5+ years of instructional content on demand.

• Both tiers will have access to the 30% discount on our merch store.

• I will be canceling the $20 and $60 Livestream tiers, and I will refund your most recent charge if it obviously reflects loss of content. Each account's refund will be different depending on when you pledged and what you accessed in this interim period. Other than that, if you would like a refund, you'll have to let us know as we may not issue anything automatically. I certainly understand the desire for a refund with the changes, so don't hesitate to ask. I'll be messaging everyone anyway (above the $5 tier) to take care of your account individually.

• I have various ideas for perks, but it's important to me that they not feel like something I owe, so there won't be any guarantees or timelines. In order to make my work sustainable as I'll explain later, Patreon perks will need to be related to work that I'm already creating, such as behind the scenes pictures and short videos I normally take in the studio, early releases of free content, first chance at class signups, and early releases of written content with the chance to submit your feedback. I may even pop into a surprise livestream to brainstorm some new educational ideas and mission plans to ask for your opinion.

THE WHY
I started our Patreon page 7 years ago in response to the growing demand for online classes from students around the world. I set it up to be more transactional; yes, everyone wants to support the mission, but I created new material for patrons in exchange for financial help. This worked for a long time, but I started to notice a decline in my enthusiasm right before my mental health sabbatical in 2022. I tried again when I returned to work and added a new teacher to take over Livestreams, but we aren't able to offer that anymore, and it's been painfully difficult to secure someone new. When I started teaching the Livestreams again I started recognizing early signs of burnout again, so I've decided to act sooner rather than later to prevent a crisis and keep the mission going.

I'm proud of what I created here, but I've changed a lot since we started and my priorities have shifted. As I mentioned when I returned back to work, I am overflowing with ideas about videos and blogs and educational content I want to create to make our mission even more widely accessible (see: Soma Locus). I have learned so much about body-acceptance, movement, and yoga philosophy over these 8 years that I can barely contain it all! I want to organize all these ideas into content people can access for free, and I'll create other paid virtual products to help fund it all. For example, I know a lot of you will be bummed about the lack of virtual live classes. I'd like to set aside time to curate, organize, and film new ones to package and sell in a way that won't put extra pressure on my schedule. I have very different and specific ideas of what I want people to take away from class, so I've been wanting to make stuff like that for awhile now. As I've matured, I'm much less interested in anatomical "correctness" and physical advancement and more passionate about integrative yoga philosophy learned via movement (particularly, without clothes).

I am immensely grateful to the support of the Patreon (we literally wouldn't be here without it). Creating content here has shifted from joyful expression to shame-inducing pressure, and its transactional nature makes the goal about delivering what is owed. (In theory, one doesn't take on the absolute train wreck that is small business ownership to do work other people want them to do - I could do that somewhere else with a salary and benefits!) Our current system isn't what's going to further the mission; in fact, it's been distracting me from it. The mission is what matters (any Buffy fans?) and I am finally able to be honest about what I want to do, and what I need, in order to expand the business.

Thanks for reading all this. I will be messaging you all individually over the coming days. Again, thank you for your patience and grace, and whether or not you decide to stay, I'm still really glad to have you as part of our little community.

Willow