@runicar is a stemian looking for undervalued minnows. Sounds like something I need recently.

Do not get me wrong. There is grtitude for each cent earned here but I can not hide that sometimes demotivation takes over when hours of creative energy are wasted if the post get overlooked. Thanks to different curators and other minor-focused users, I get the enthusiasm to continue. It is clear that more time is spent to interact with other users, bigger payout chances are higher. For now I can not find time for that, but regardless of the often-low payouts I still get inspired for different ideas to share.

The Undervalued Minnows Contest suggests to write a post about our Steemit journey and introduce ourselves. So this will be something like a #introduceyourself post, which makes me excited, as it reminds me of first day in class.

---

My name is Gabby (Gabriela), I am 28 years old from Bulgaria. An artistic soul really. Graduated "New Bulgarian University" with graphic design, but after I realized how uninspiring and evil the advertisement industry can be, it was no longer my intention to have is as a profession.

While in university, I started to work in the IT sector - more specifically the web hosting business. Worked for MochaHost (Worldwide), Hostway(US) and TsoHost(UK) for a total of about 5 years. The following are the positions I practiced during these years: Customer service (email, chat & phone calls), Customer Relations/Retention, Technical support, Sales and at the end I became Quality Assurance.

It was a great experience to evolve and learn but in the meantime the artist in me suffered. At the end I was getting very well paid, but the office environment was like a cage to my free soul. Quit my job, had some savings and decided to follow my heart.

Asked myself what would I do if money was not a factor. The answer was to have a positive impact via my art. That is why I created my website gabchik.com. To show inspirations from sacred geometry, folklore and nature powers. The idea is to draw inspirations by these concepts, to make an article about their meaning, followed by a video (as people are often lazy to read).

To make a living out of it, I decided to start selling the art via different means such as prints and accessories. To really have some positive impact I also added a charity role in the game. 10% of the limited products profit goes as a donation to people in need. I did it in the past and happiness is making people happy. In fact, I was able to sell all 10 bags with this image and at the end did fulfill the promise to donate 10% for charity.

I also have a website for my tattoo work tattoo.gabchik.com. This is my design and ink.

There is an urge in me to learn different crafts. Love to imagine that some day I will live off the grid and those things may come in handy. Learned how to do silkscreen printing, so I can print on fabric for the creation of accessories, such as bags and hair bands. Learned to do henna tattoos, to sew, to do macrame and felt wool. It is not only the Bulgarian folklore that inspires me. I am a big fan of the east-cultures understandings and they have a deep impact on my life. No surprise there, the Hindu culture interests me a lot. I have never been to the country, but thanks to Stella-Sachi I have felt the spirit. She is a Bulgarian who is deeply familiar with the Hindu culture and makes workshops with lectures on the subject. Here I am in South Park in Sofia and feeling like in India.

Enough introduction.

---

My steemit journey

---

Two years ago my brother @rossenpavlov started to talk about the platform with enthusiasm and I joined. Did not post much for a long time until about 7 months ago when he sent me steem worth of $100. The currency price went up from $0.60 to $2.00 and he wanted to show me the potential of the platform. I just had to give it a push.

So I did. Started to post more often and created a series of posts called "Bulgaria Is Beautiful" (BIB for short) to show the variety of the gorgeous Bulgarian nature.

It was not long after when I was noticed by a minnow-support oriented users. The #8 post. Wake Up! Festival was noticed by @howtostartablog and was included in the OCD Daily: Issue #8.

That did have a great impact on my post payout ($35), which covered my ticket for the festival! It was an exciting time that made me realize what amazing potential the platform holds.

I continued blogging but my posts continued to have a payout less than $2 regardless of how much effort I put in them. Most of the time at least $1/post is from my brother's upvote. For a long time that did not bother me, as what I love about the platform the most is the motivation to make the best content possible. It is a great self-improvement tool.

So 3 months passed. A time in which I posted regularly but got very low payouts. There are small exceptions like the BIB #15 My EPIC Walk To Vihren Peak (2,914 meters) post as it was appreciated with a payout of $25.

The highest payout I ever got is for the BIB #16. A Walk In My Neighborhood post. I got about $75 for it. It is ironical, as usually the posts are from trips far away and this was just in my neighborhood.

So the steem life was sweet for a while, as the effort put payed back. But then in a period of time, I got less than $1 and the passion to write started to fade away.

Until @nikflossus, a member of the Whaleshares Curator Team chose the BIB #18. Vazov's Path To Skaklya Waterfall for a live discussion at the Curation Lounge on the Whaleshares server. I can not describe the excitement! The event is held 12pm London Time, which is 2am in Bulgaria. I knew that my profile was going to get attention and used the extra time to write the next post BIB #19. The Magic Of The Rodopha Mountain.

As I expected it was appreciated more than the one discussed in the live event. It is one of the most beautiful places I have been to. This is a good example how to seize the moment using time difference :D

Thanks to @nikflossus I learned about whaleshares and attended the
OL:101 @Akrid's Live Whaleshares TUTORIAL. Turned out that at the end I knew how to distribute whaleshares, which means that I can host contests.

It was time to challenge people to do something that will be interesting. It was not long before I came up with the FOLK IT! Steemit Challenge Contest. I love music that connects me to the roots of different cultures. At that time in my life I started to sing Bulgarian traditional songs. They help me relax.

I wanted to find out what the different-culture folklore lyrics mean, so that was one of the conditions of the challenge. The outcome of the contest was an interest to more than 100 people, but the participant were only 4. The reward pool was 350 Whaleshares, but I guess it is a real challenge to sing in front of a camera. I do not want to sound cheesy, but the experience of understanding variety of folklore song enriched me more than money could. One of those moments when the potential of the platform manifested again.

A month later @nikflossus chose LIMITED EDITION Prints - Horo Is Unity for another edition of the live curation discussions.

To my surprise another member of the curation team @freedomexists chose 7 Day B/W Challenge. Day 2 for the same discussion. Of course stayed up for the event. There is a huge amount of people posting. Knowing that my posts stood up was something that made me feel really appreciated. That doubled the excitement.

And it seems that there is cycle repeating itself. I get noticed, get more higher payout one or twice, then for some time the writing does not "pay off". I get a bit demotivated and soon some minnow-support oriented user shows up to give a hand when I need it. Ups and downs as they say.

Right now that happened again! As I was writing this post @nikflossus did it again! He chose my last post for the next curator discussion! Highly appreciated as always. That post is actually a good example how things look in my account most of the time. It took 3-4 hours to create and I gave it my best. 11 votes and <$3 payout. I mean that is super duper! Better than nothing, right?

I still have a lot ideas that will turn into posts and they will be written regardless of the payout.

Another thing that Steemit brought into my life is the crypto world. I was able to invest in some currencies without giving an actual penny from my pocket. All needed was dedication and time to write.

---

@runicar requires the "Undervalued Minnow Contest" participants to include a link to their best post. I would say all of those which I mentioned until now, but that would not be fair. So I decided to give the best undervalued post - Green Woman Mandala Becoming Alive. Process Inside. Original Artwork

When I woke up this morning I had other plans and they failed. Had no idea that I will spend the whole day writing this post. It was fun doing a retrospective of the whole Steemit experience.