I feel like any creative person who is interested in any nerdy topics will eventually consider attending a Convention to try and sell their work. That was my primary reasoning for signing up for Steamposium. It would be my first con to actually sell at. Things didn’t quite work out the way I thought, but there was still a lot that I learned from this experience.
My long term plan of having my small business be my sole or primary form of income required a test. And what better test than a con. Surrounded by people which a passion for the stuff I was selling, I would either make it or burn out. Turns out I didn’t quite get my trial by fire that I was looking for. Steamposium was canceled to due low attendance. Before signing up I never even thought about that happening. That wasn’t the only lesson I learned. The two biggest things I learned were the number of barriers in the way of this dream I have, and that dream is still possible despite those barriers.
There was a lot of problems that came up that I hadn’t thought about, hadn’t planned for. I’m working full time, approaching forty hours each week. My job has me on my feet all day, walking several miles per day. My commute every day was an hour and a half. This combined to put a massive dent in the amount of time and energy I had to work on my pieces. I would come home from work too tired and too late to get anything done. On my weekends I needed time to recover to face the coming week. Plus health problems meant I couldn’t work for too long in one session or my back would be killing me for the following work week. It felt like all these things stacked up with every other problem large and small to make it harder and harder to finished the piece I wanted to sell.
In the face of all these obstacles I was still able to get some good work done. I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked but the things I got done looked good. My friends were interested in them. Even without the best tools in the world I finished several pieces that had the con not been canceled I would have been happy to present and try to sell. That was an honestly stunning revelation. All the problems I face were ones that in long term were solvable. And if I was able to create these interesting pieces with all this piled against me how much more can I do if I work and solve or minimize those problems? My workcation has become a staycation. My schedule has opened wide up. What can I make this week? With no deadline and no pressure? What can I make this year, in the few stolen moments I can get?
Keep Making Friends!