"The Next Chapter for OCA"

It's time for enormous changes and shakeups.

For the past 14 years, I have worked as a full-time as a janitor and a teacher while building Outstanding Creator Awards during my nights, weekends, breaks, and nearly every free moment I could find.

Outstanding Creator Awards was created to recognize authors, artists, filmmakers, musicians, performers, entrepreneurs, educators, and other creators whose work deserves to be seen. What began as an ambitious idea has grown into a respected creative contest, review platform, and community that has helped independent creators gain recognition, credibility, publicity, and encouragement.

Now, my family and Outstanding Creator Awards are both entering a new chapter.

My wife and I are expecting our first baby in August. At the same time, I am preparing to leave the janitorial position I have held for over a decade so that I can finally devote myself to Outstanding Creator Awards and my newborn baby full-time.

This is an exciting step, but it is also a major financial transition. I have spent years building OCA while working another physically demanding job because I believed in its mission. Reaching the next level will require more time, stronger infrastructure, better marketing, improved technology, and the ability to focus on the creators we serve without constantly dividing my energy between two full-time responsibilities.

OCA has done all it can to keep costs down, even as operational expenses have increased with inflation and other forces this decade. It operates at very little to no profit relative to the tireless work we put in. When you think about it and break everything down: an author may pay $85 to enter, but reading a full-length novel can take over 13 hours. Then there's writing, compiling, and editing the review, which is an hours-long process. Then there are the graphics. Then there's the promoting to multiple social media platforms. Then there's deliberation and tabulating the results at the end of a contest. Then there's manually crafting every single digital certificate with every single victory. Then there's preparing and shipping every single prize. That's hours of work for an entry fee that is actually slightly lower than the industry average. And that's not even counting the newsletter service, web hosting, taxes, fees, etc.

What we've done at OCA isn't for money, it's out of love and passion.

Funds raised will help support the next stage of Outstanding Creator Awards, including website and technology expenses, marketing and outreach, contest operations, office space, review and administrative work, awards and recognition programs, business expenses, and financial stability during the transition to full-time leadership.

They will also help free me up to be a present and attentive father to my newborn daughter. Furthermore, they will help free up my wife and OCA co-founder, Diana, to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor--which she's very close to becoming!

This fundraiser is not only about leaving one job. It is about creating a sustainable future for a mission we have worked tirelessly to build. It is about giving independent creators a place where their work is taken seriously. It is also about building a better future for my growing family and showing my child that meaningful work is worth pursuing with courage, discipline, and heart.

Every contribution, no matter the amount, will help move Outstanding Creator Awards into its next chapter. Sharing this fundraiser is also an enormous form of support.

Thank you for believing in independent creators, in Outstanding Creator Awards, and in the future we are working to build!