CAUTION! LONG TEXT INCOMING!

(TL;DR further down)

So, here I am, writing another post. I’ve thought about a lot of things this April, and also I realized quite a few things, so bear with me.

Having worked in proper sales for 9 months - for a cell phone carrier nonetheless - taught me some stuff.

If your boss is a dick, scrutinizing every word you say, verbally offending the whole staff when sales weren’t 100% the day before, still moaning about sales when they hit 100%, pressuring everyone to get at least 150% a day, having no people skills whatsoever and not selling anything themselves (and if they did, there was an 80% chance, the customer came back and complained...) or otherwise being any kind of role model, GET. THE FUCK. OUT. OF. THERE!

If not for a damn cool co-worker, I probably would have quit after 3 months already…

So I told everyone and their dog, that I can’t keep up with that shit anymore, it got to the boss, we had the creepiest friendly talk in all of those 9 months and they laid me off. The temp agency I was hired through laid me off as well shortly after, but there was a 4 weeks notice, so I enjoyed about 4 weeks of freedom.

Don’t get me wrong, the work itself can be quite nice, goes by quickly and the money was great. But I’d rather keep my sanity and earn a couple of 100 bucks less than being loaded and going insane...

While working at the store, I literally did nothing after coming home. Just sitting their, watching youtube and netflix, one thing after another. I made like 2 or 3 drawings in over 6 months? Shit...

Without the mental stress I went back to drawing quickly as you might have recently seen, although I only published a handful of drawings.

So, doing a retrospect of April in my mind, inspired by a couple of “rules for success” articles and videos I’ve read and watched, and a private furry con in a friend's garden with a total of about 20 people, I attended this weekend, a few things came to my mind.

I have lots of flaws I need to work around.

I’m a master of procrastination. I’m unorganized and all over the place.

I’m socially awkward, even being with nice and understanding peeps like this weekend.

So if I ever really want to achieve my goal of being a self-employed artist, I need to do it properly, I need to understand it as work. I did draw and practice almost the whole month, but there’s not much to show for it and I can’t think of a day where I didn’t get distracted by shit. It’s easy when you’re sitting home alone and you’re not accountable, just enjoying life a bit too much.

But if you don’t take what you do seriously, nobody will take YOU seriously!

So after the party, yesterday morning at around 5 AM, I started drafting countermeasures. A plan to follow, making schedules, pondering about doing more NSFW art etc.

One main point that I neglected going into hermit mode, is my audience. You guys! And for that I’m sincerely sorry. Having worked in sales and usually babbling and ranting A LOT (if there’s someone to listen, also this post is exhibit A), I have an amazing talent to NOT communicate with you guys. And I want to change that ASAP. I want to talk to you more, be more open about myself and my work (as an artist), and listening to your opinions, ideas, suggestions! You matter the most, because without you, there’s really no point to it.

So a thousand times, thank you! Thanks for bearing with me, thanks for not abandoning me, thanks for leaving comments and especially thanks to those, who welcomed me back after a long absence! I got a super warm and fuzzy feeling from that :)

Essentially I’m going to build a proper work schedule, including streaming into it,  and a rework of my Patreon. I also thought about offering merch via society6 or a similar site.

My tangible goal is to use the free time I have being unemployed, to build a steady monthly net income of at least 500€ in the shortest time possible, but not exceeding one year (cause then the unemployment benefits get halved and the jobcenter will “fuck [you] in the ass! RAW, with 30 dicks!” - quote by Arin Hanson aka Egoraptor of Game Grumps fame).

TL;DR

I’ve gotten myself laid off by my workplace and want to dedicate 100% of my time being unemployed to reaching self-employment. I want to take it seriously and schedule my work time, including streaming into it, a rework of my Patreon and potentially merch. I want to engage more with you, my audience and reach a monthly net income of at least 500€ within a max time of a year.

Double that though and my dream won’t be a dream anymore. :)

Luckily you can live okay with 1000 bucks / month in my little city in Germany.

So yeah, wish me… determination and endurance I guess. :)

So what about you peeps? Do you have any experience with self-employment or a same / similar situation? Any tips, tricks, or life-hacks and, of course, encouragement are appreciated!

Thanks for reading this slew of words!

Yours sincerely

draneas