u/ClippyWouldntDoThat

Hey, I'm 28yo in the US SW reaching out to y'all folks to get some more life experience advice (vs hard numbers) from people who might have had to do this before.

I'm hoping to hear more generalized opinions not bound to one specific trade so not to limit what folks might have to say.

I don't have older peers or family to ask instead and thought I'd give a subreddit a crack.

I have a skilled trade I've done just as a hobby for most of my life and at this point, I've gotten pretty good at it. The same things that kept me out of the market have flipped and instead are creating a huge demand for my skillset. I'm dealing with a sudden unexpected spike in demand for my hobby that has staying power as a side gig.

I'm flat footed because it's not what I have done for work my whole life, and could seriously rearrange my lifestyle. It's a market pivot nobody in this market really saw coming until it got here. I've always prioritized into steady, guaranteed forms of income over this, and making room for something like that in my life is new to me, even as a side gig.

Whereas I'm familiar with more seasoned folks who have been able to jump careers when something else they know how to do is a better job path, especially with one recession after another. I grew up in a construction contractor family that did a little bit of everything so I've seen that happen up close and with family friends.

I've never navigated this kind of pivot before so I thought I might benefit from voices of experience, hear some stories, get some insight.

I'm one of those people that has drawn the entirety of my life since I was very small. I got into realism early. After a few years of that, I backed out because I realized I was chasing accuracy more than I was enjoying the process, and gave myself a break to explore other things. I've since then been a painter, an illustrator, a comic artist, and learned a love for ink wash & negative space. My skills in realism have only continued to improve over time but not as much as they could have; ... because, once I became comfortable with the idea of maybe taking artwork seriously, the algorithmic social media boom happened, and I never felt like I was in a place where I could compete with the algorithm.

Algorithms on mainline social media reward constant posting, burnt-out mangaka levels of output, and following trends; I learned early to really value my connection with my work and allow it to evolve on the canvas, so I've remained a hobbyist my entire life.

I'm now in a place where I feel like my work can really sell for something because I have a really diverse profile that can do a lot of things, and those skills transfer over to my market niche. And... it started to take off about a week ago. I have a bunch of people asking for commissions right now. I don't even have accounts on most platforms so I've been building them the past week to meet a sudden demand.

Of course, I'm good at metering my workflow now and I can absolutely crack these out. Volume is not a problem. I've tapped into the right markets and my niche likes what I can do.

It's just that... this has been on the back burner my entire life. There was always something better I could be doing with my time. ...The awkward part is that I don't really have finalized photos of my work either, because I was never "in the game." It's all stuff I did for the sake of doing it for a few hours. My sketch level is enough to sell. People are being very generous and letting me do some portraits at low cost to develop more specific portfolios. I'm 28 now so this has been 25yrs of climbing to do what I can now, and this will push me to really deliver past the, "I'm just doodling for myself and loved ones," thing.

Everyone around me, myself included, is really happy this is happening, but I'm also feeling a level of paralysis as I go through all the steps to set up payment options and business profiles & whatever.

I think it's the right time. My market niche is really tired of free options and generative AI, so I'm picking up traction fast.

Logically, I know to just keep getting through it, but emotionally, it's a lot to process... ... because, again, there was always something else I could be doing that would be more productive or make more money. That's a long trail of maybe not excuses, but walking myself through emotionally, that that now's maybe not the right time.

It is the right time now though, and I'm caught a little off guard.

I think maybe I just need to hear from more experienced people than myself and my immediate family and friends on how I might process this. Thanks.