How do you talk to your family about your creative career? 🤔

Community Coffee Conversations
#1

Hey, I’m Erica! I edit and write stories about creators on Patreon’s blog.

I’d love your input for a story I’m currently planning.

'Tis the season for lots of family time! :grimacing: :wink::astonished::heart_eyes:

We’ve found that feelings around explaining one’s creative career to family and friends run the gamut and would love your thoughts:

  • How are you going to talk to your family about your creative career?
  • Do you get excited to talk about it with them or do you dread it?

Full disclosure: we would like to use some of the answers we receive from this discussion for a blog post, so please let us know if you’d be willing to be mentioned in the post, or if you’d be willing to talk directly with one of our writers! :slightly_smiling_face:

Thanks!

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#2

Hi Erica! You’re welcome to use anything I say in a blog, and feel free to reach out if you want me to expand on anything, although I doubt anything I say is going to be that interesting!

Personally, my family has always been really supportive of my creative work. They often help me with photo or video shoots, and my mom often helps me pack and mail rewards (that kind of manual work goes much faster with two sets of hands!) I enjoy talking with my family about my creative work and often seek feedback or advice from them, particularly since my mom also works as an independent contractor (as a medical transcriptionist) so she has valuable insight into the functional workings of things like self employment taxes.

I realize I’m extremely lucky to have family that doesn’t just accept the weird path I’ve taken, but embraces it. I think it’s imperative to have somebody (whether or not they’re related to you) who will have your back like that: Believe in you, offer a helping hand when they can, and listen to you wordvomit about your fears and plans and successes.

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#3

Love your insight and would love to use your feedback, just sent you a direct message. Thanks so much!

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#4

Bumping this in case any others wanted to contribute :slight_smile:

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#5

Kudos to @mindy for the bump!

I just recently got back from visiting my family (hooray for cheap in-between holidays airfare!), and it was an interesting experience. I honestly always feel a bit weird talking about what I do, specifically because it’s so personal. I draw encouraging mental health art, and so I often open up about anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. I was happy to find that not only has my family been accepting of what I do, they’ve actually actively been in support of it. I arrived to see my family members had recently bought copies of my book and asked me to sign them, so they could give them to friends! It was wonderful.

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#6

I’ve tried talking to my family about my creative career, but it just never seemed like a subject they were interested in or understood. As soon as I start trying to explain how I develop websites and steganography techniques that look like art, they try to change the subject. This isn’t to paint them out as bad people; they seem happy for me.

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#7

@PrimeLeap and @thelatestkate thank you for your responses! I sent you both messages to learn more about your experience and give you more information on our article.

Thanks again!

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#8

Thanks for all the helpful feedback and contributions to this article!

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