Seasonal Depression Meets Financial Reality
(Originally posted February 16, 2023)
So, as I've been very open about, 2023 has not been a great year to start for me financially. I aim to be honest about this because it has drastically hindered my plans for the year for depressivehacks and my personal life. I aim to improve this as the year progresses and hope that sharing some of the stories can help inspire others.
I was able to complete my first drop as a Publisher on Nifty Gateway, which was a fantastic experience. I learned a lot and was so flattered that so many people would spend even $1 for a photo I took. It was eye-opening. I also learned a lot about drop mechanics and how much more difficult it is for creators in the space to make money than I'd initially anticipated. Having never done a drop of my own before and only purchased drops of others as an investor, this experience really opened my eyes. My drop was an Open Edition and I let it run for quite a while compared to a normal drop length. At the end of the day, it was quite difficult to successfully get the word out. I ended up netting about a $7 profit on the drop as a whole, which wasn't really amazing compensation for the time but as my trial run, I was just happy to not have lost money on the process.
This experience will help me as I prepare to speak with real-life artists in my area and discuss web3 with them. These are creatives that have no experience with the space and only have heard the best of the best, as we all know, from the media. It will be difficult to onboard them and bring success to them as new talent. It will be time-consuming. At this current time, I have so much going on that I can't predict when my next drop will be. I may try to drop more of my own photography if I find that there is demand. I would love to do drops for artists in my area, but the recruiting process will be long and time-consuming. I don't know if this is going to go as quickly as I'd imagined, but I am excited to begin and see what happens.
I am in the process of interviewing for a new day job. Through the start of this year, it has come to my attention that everything I do outside of my day job is sporadic income at best. When things are popping, this is not an issue. However, over the last couple of months, things have been slow as the economy has cooled. This has left me with significantly less free cash flow than ideal, causing me to evaluate what I can do. A higher-paying day job that still allows me the time to work on my side work would be an easy answer. I am hopeful that the position I currently am in the hiring process for will pan out, but understand that there are no guarantees and I may have to go back to the drawing board.
I am eager to get going on Yondar Reselling and look forward to working with the team to help broaden the scope of opportunities and resources available to help to close sales. I think that the opportunity to help facilitate the use of such a great program is a great opportunity.
I have yet to rely on any investments for income. I have a set amount that gets invested every year through dividend reinvestment into the stock portfolio and I aim to increase the dollar amount of dividends going into the portfolio this year once cash flow improves. I also am looking to branch out my investment focus this year and continue to learn about new and exciting opportunities. As the seasons change, my side work will pick up and hopefully, things will improve.
In the meantime, I have taken a small amount of space from being online and have been trying to focus on my daily life a little more intently. It is not easy. I have been getting over a cold the last week and my winter seasonal depression has been rearing its ugly head after being significantly more dormant for a good portion of December and January. As I slowly accept that my output and energy levels each day are dwindling, I am faced with the continuous shortcomings of my own expectations. In due time, things will continue to improve and I will start to feel better again. I thank you all for your patience and continued support. DHR&D is a project and vision of love and passion. I will continue to be here in whatever capacity I can.