Oh good grief! Another post on Hive about Hive… spare us!

Sorry guys and gals, but I’m in the mood for a bit of a “get my thoughts on virtual paper” kinda freewrite; or as I refer to them, my “blaaagh.” And yep, much of it centers around my current commitment and approach to Hive. So I don’t blame you if you want to skip my self referential B.S. for today, I’ll see you on the other side with some more art & comics content (though I did sneak a bit in at the end here)! But if you like to ruminate on the little enclave on the internet that we call Hive, perhaps I’ll see you in the comments section!

I HATE Going Backwards…

Just like it has been doing to the vast majority of folks, 2020 has been giving me a good shit kicking. For me it’s more mental, but that also spills over into the physical realm of course. I’ve been fortunate to keep working through Covid-19, but my work has been a massive source of burnout and fatigue and I’ve voluntarily taken bits of time off here and there to cope. As such I’ve cashed out a bit of Hive and it’s been a real help in supplementing my income… but I grind my teeth at the loss of that sweet, sweet Hive Power!

Fortunately, looking back at my 2020 Hive “goal post” a few months back, I was delighted (more like relieved) to see that I’m still ahead of where I was back then by several thousand Hive. I’m holding the line at just above 30,000 HP and hope to not be forced to cash out below that. At the origination of Hive (can you believe it’s only been just over 100 days!?!) I was around 27,000 HP and climbing. My goal now is to keep climbing… in a hopefully more sustainable fashion.

Managing My Hive “Bankroll”

image source

I used to play quite a bit of online poker. A big aspect of poker is known as “bankroll management.” Basically, it’s the concept of playing within your means and managing the money you have set aside for poker in a way that you don’t go broke! One aspect of this is deciding how much to actually “cash out” and use in your real life… away from the poker table.

One way of doing this was to evaluate your gains at a regular interval, such as monthly, and cash out half of that amount while the other fifty percent continues to grow the bankroll toward playing higher stake games. There’s a motivational aspect to this. Even though you may be advancing your bankroll more slowly by removing some from the game, the psychological factor of utilizing your earnings in the real world can drive you on to much greater and more sustainable success at the tables. Hive absolutely has the same psychological aspect at play. I think the most successful people are those who are onboarded and educated enough that they actually cash out some Hive at least once and use it… for a camera, a trip, an iPad, a book, or just a cup of coffee. It makes it real.

I’m bringing this strategy into my Hive world. I’ve long been powering up 100% on my Hive posts. But then I viscerally hated hitting that “power down” button. I hate going backwards. So it’s 50/50 payouts for me from here on out, and a power down recalculated every 13 weeks to reap about half of my curation rewards in liquid form as well. Now that doesn’t mean that I have to cash out or spend that Hive immediately, but it’ll build me a liquid pool that I’m allowing myself to spend, guilt free.

My goal is still to hit 50,000 Hive Power and beyond. But more than that my goal is to try to never hit the power down button again. The larger goal of 2020 is to begin building revenue streams of which Hive will be a part, that will enable me to pursue projects I choose and eliminate sources of burnout as best as I can.

Will I be more motivated and post more? We’ll see! It’s an experiment. Will I produce more content and treat it like it’s a side-gig if I’m actually taking disbursements instead of leaving all my Hive as “magical internet money?” That’s the hope.

I still have so much that I’ve wanted to cover in my writing! The “comic convention catchup” that I’ve just started, troves of art books and resources to review and share, glimpses at my own work in progress and getting everyone back in the loop on where I’m at with “I Thought It Would Be Zombies…”; and just plain random blaaaghing! There’s no shortage of material and ideas.

(... just an ogre snacking on a leg, recent progress on "ITIWBZ" and fitting 2020 metaphor!)

I can imagine Hive as one of the tentpoles of support built this year that helps me move away from the work and life that I’m unhappy in, and it’s time to start making that a reality. It’s time to go on the counterattack against 2020…