Well, it only took until July this time for me to post again. And I'll be completely honest with this lot. I'm totally procrastinating on other projects to be here right now. But at least I am procrastinating with purpose.
Is it really procrastinating if I am doing other projects in the meanwhile?
I feel like that's a topic for another post. Perhaps a post on Patreon? What? Did you not know? I finally took the dive and dared to ask patrons to pay me for my nonsense. Let's see how that goes.
So far what I have learned about Patreon is that it will be another Social Media mouth to feed. It may also be the thing that gets me to get hopping on more videos and virtual classes. And, it might even help pay the bills. Basically it's just one more Czep hustle with the hopes that I and my skills are worth a damn to anyone.
It has led me to really start asking what the value of my skill sets are. I have oodles of people constantly telling me that I am a great dancer, instructor, writer, etc. But when I really look at how many of them are willing to support any of that the list gets a whole lot shorter.
Here's a little story: (With names omitted)
I have a student who is pretty consistent about coming to the classes that are donation or trade. This student offers the bare minimum of time and energy to classes and learning choreography. They talk a big game about helping and giving back, but on most occasions they are absent for the heavy lifting. This is fine. There's always a couple of students who don't understand the value of the education they are receiving or how fortunate they are to have an instructor willing to take trades of food or other trinkets to pay for the time and energy offered.
Nope. That's all the price of building a community.
The issue arises when the same students who are eager to take without balancing the cosmic checkbook suddenly start asking to be paid themselves. Umm... do we need to renegotiate our terms here, because seems to me there is a pretty heavy tilt to this scale.
Sometimes I feel like posting the prices of everything I do if I were a hard ass about things. Because yeah, that hour of dance instruction, that's $20-$40 depending who you ask. The tarot readings, $45 a pop easy. How about the promotion and advertising my coattails are offering?
This got way more ranty than I planned, but hey, I'm allowed one every now and again.
I guess the whole point though is; if you love your friends, pay them what they are worth. If you are just around for free access that's not a friendship. And if you are using people, at least don't turn around and say they can't turn the table on you.
All the love to those who do offer me payment in cookies, eggs, project help, rides, trinkets, coffee, lunches, hand-me-downs, and at the very least the sharing and promoting of what I do. You are the reason I keep going and feel like it is worth it to trade for services instead of being a hardline with the cash only and paid in advance. To you I apologize for the ones who take advantage, because in the end they are hurting both you and me.
If you do decide that you want to offer a little something, here's the link to that Patreon thing:
Czep Needs to Eat
