I'm Not Good At Raising Money (for myself)

Image Source: https://mises.org/mises-daily/understanding-price-money

I have never been good at raising money. Ever. If I ever reach the point that I need to raise money to live...I will probably die. I honestly don't know why. I'm pretty decent at raising money for other people. I did a charity funraiser last year for the Stack Up organization, and I ended up raising $305. I'm super proud of that. I tried doing a few things to get some extra cash for myself. I think the most I raised in any of those was like $35.

I'm also much better at promoting the content of other people than I am at promoting my own content. I guess it comes across as being more genuine when I'm talking about the content of other people than when I'm trying to talk about my own content. I guess.

I've been really working on trying to improve at promoting myself on Threads. One thing I've learned about Threads in particular is that you have to reply a lot more than you post yourself. Usually when I'm being active on Threads I make 10 replies to ever 1 post I make. I don't know what the secret sauce is, or how that works, but it seems like the more I reply...the more attention my posts get as well.

I'm honestly hoping I can figure this all out though. I'm now 5 months out from losing my job. I'm not necessarily in the desperate for money category yet, but I'm getting pretty darn close. I'm planning on doing a 12 hour stream this Saturday to try to bring in some cash. I'm really hoping that it does well, and I know I'm supposed to have a positive attitude about this sort of stuff, but I...genuinely...don't really have any inclination that it's going to do any better than anything I've ever done before.

That's part of the reason I'm writing this I guess. I've got all week to try to figure this out. I'm kind of hoping that you might have some suggestions for me. I'm willing to try things. I'm already going way out of my comfort zone and my wheel house with this one.

So this is what I'm doing. I had a viewer suggest that I do a donation goal to shave my mustache. That lead to a suggestion for a donation goal to shave my beard. Which also lead...as I'm sure you're guessing...for a donation goal to shave my head.

My hair is the longest it's ever been. That said...It really wouldn't hurt to shave my head. I've shaved my head plenty of times before. The hair should grow back out. The beard would be a little more difficult, but overall it shouldn't hurt too much. The mustache though. Man. I just grew this bad boy back out. I had it dyed, and I shaved it to give me a better chance of getting a job. Not that it's helped. I can't really get any interviews anyway. I've had like 3 interviews...period...in the 5 months

This is how it's going to happen:

• $100 donated overall = shave beard

• $200 donated overall = shave mustache

• $300 donated overall = shave head

I know I JUST SAID, out of all of them, that my mustache means the most to me. Hell. It is basically my brand. My mustache is in ALL OF my branding. I don't know. I still might flip those two. Somehow it just feels like shaving my head would be a bigger change. Even though I just said that it wouldn't be. Let me know what you think in the comments. None of those 3 options should affect my job search in any way.

This is where I suck though. Any time I've tried to set any form of goal like this before...they've never worked. Not only have they never worked...I don't think I've ever even got close. I did a resetathon for Ori and the Blind Forest stream where if we reached a target donation goal at any point in the stream that I would completely restart the game. I don't think I had a single donation the entire 12 hour stream. Not a single one.

I don't like begging for money dude. I really don't. I feel like I'm being a 100% total asshole saying any of this. This is new to me. I've never been in this position before. I've never been in a situation where I have to wonder how I'm going to be able to feed my family. It's scary.

I get it too. It's shit everywhere. This is the worst job market I've ever experienced in my life. It's not just a bad job market for me. It's a bad job market for EVERYONE. If you have a job and you were thinking about leaving it...I'll be honest. I wouldn't. If you've already got something else lined up then sure. Otherwise, oh boy howdy...it's shit out here.

So this is what's going to happen. Saturday, March 8th, I'm doing a stream on Twitch (twitch.tv/joebrewing) where I play Elden Ring for 12 hours. If we hit the above goals then I'm going to set up a separate stream where I do those things. I'm not going to do it DURING the 12 hour stream. I don't have things set up in my room to be able to shave any amount of hair without it just absolutely getting all over the place.

Again...if you've read to this point then you're an absolute legend. Please leave a comment giving suggestions on how to bring more attention to this money raising attempt. If you would be willing to come hang out in the stream this Saturday that would be really appreciated. Even if you don't have money to donate...just hanging out in chat will help me get higher up in the Elden Ring category.

Tell your viewer and streamer friends. Tell all of them. Every. Single. One.

Please

Love all of you.