It's a new time and a new era — which presents new possibilities and new opportunities.
Today, I'm writing this post from Kelowna, British Columbia. However, I'm just passing through. For those who are new to my posts here, I'm originally from Brooklyn, New York and I've been traveling through Canada for a few months after living in Los Angeles for over a decade and traveling the world extensively for the past few years.
See, a few years ago I was living out of a suitcase, traveling for 2 1/2 years non-stop with 62 flights in just 10 months. That's about a flight and a half a week average. I was able to do this thanks to some high level travel and life hacking and an income I was generating from graphic and web design.
Prior to my packing up everything and heading out on the road (the first time), I was working as a freelance designer in Hollywood, CA. I was previously working in all the TV and Movie Studios in Hollywood and I wasn't completely satisfied with my 10-6 routine — although these were once my dream jobs. After while I went back to working for myself full-time. I even went as far as getting my own office with a few friends in Burbank. After several weeks, I still felt like a slave to the office, this time, I was a slave to my own office. I had interns and I had to let them in the office everyday, so I had somewhere to be, at a certain time. That wasn't freedom. I was still tied down to something. I knew working in someone else's office wasn't for me, but I quickly found out, being tied down to my own office wasn't for me either — which I didn't know I didn't want until I got it. Sometimes life works that way.
I went back to working from home where I was the most comfortable. As time went on, I still knew I wasn't living right. I felt the work I was doing could be done from anywhere and I had to break free of this leash tying me down. It was shortly after that where I came up with the idea of traveling the world with my laptop and figuring it out as I go. However, I needed a better plan than that so I began to brainstorm.
I decided to come up with a rough number in my head that I wanted to make each month so I could be comfortable traveling. Then took that number, divided it by 3 and pitched my Top 3 clients an all you can eat package with a 6 month retainer. They all agreed to the retainer, and now I was guaranteed 3 checks from 3 different clients each month, on the first, for the entire month. I had my financial situation figured out.
Fast forward to 2017 and things have changed a bit. While I still enjoy an income from graphic design, I choose not to work as much as I used to. That retainer kept me behind a computer more than I cared to be while I was traveling. Instead of feeling like a slave to an office, I felt like a slave to my laptop while I was traveling. I kept trying to trim the fat until I was where I wanted to be. Now that I was traveling, I found myself taking more and more photos to document where I was and what I was doing. Little did I know, it would turn into a full blown hobby. I didn't want to be behind a computer anymore, I wanted to be out shooting.
Over the past few years I've been to 27 countries, for the sake of photos and my love for travel. I have a ton of photos on my hard drive that have costed me a pretty penny to get but have never generated me income because that wasn't the purpose of what I was doing. There's a unique story behind every photo I've taken and I've always wanted to tell these stories.
Enter steemit, a platform based on cryptocurrency where I'm able to tell these stories and monetize my content. Amazing! Steemit allows me to stop the bleeding on this expensive hobby, and continue to do what I love while investing it back into being able to do it. The reason I love steemit is because of the community. I feel like I have more in common with people on steemit than other platforms because we have early adoption, technology and cryptocurrencies in common. Not to mention, photography and travel seem to be popular categories.
After years of fine tuning the lifestyle I want to live, I'm the closest I've ever been. I'm still traveling full-time and each day I occupy my time with eating good, drinking good, enjoying beautiful scenery, searching for good vibes, exploring, taking photos, and posting on steemit at local coffee shops. If it's not one of those things, I'm not interested!
Here's my current waterfront view as I write today's blog post:
