Is there ever a “right” time to start a creative career? Our goal has always been help people pursuing their passion. Helping those people often means helping them think through important decisions such as when to start, when to take the leap. Below, you’ll find our conversations with successful creatives reflecting back on when they had to decide whether to start or wait.
Ashley Veronsky
I definitely wish I would’ve started taking content creation seriously sooner. I believe a huge peak of this had been during the pandemic when everybody was inside on their phones all day. I had a decent platform of about 8000 followers. I always loved posting photos and videos and had a few brands reach out to me to promote their products. However, I didn’t surround my content with beauty and lifestyle. It wasn’t until this Year started, I decided to take content creation seriously! Since then, I’ve been honored to work with Prada beauty, Kiehls, Belif, Liquid Iv, IT Cosmetics, Liquid IV and other amazing brands. It’s been such an amazing experience using my platform of 11.7 K followers to come up with creative ways to collaborate and promote these beauty and wellness products. Read more>>
Sxarlett Xo
As a person i’ve always had a magnetic passion for Art in all of its forms – but music always stuck out the most. Growing up I was a really shy kid , I never put myself in situations where I’d stand out or have any sort of spot light. Back then I kind of just tried my best to blend in. It wasnt until my last year of highschool that I really started putting myself out there. I slowly started posting singing videos on my snapchat , at the time I was really into the piano so i’d post videos of myself messing around with different melodies and sounds. At school i’d go and show my closest friends things i’d recorded on some audio app on my phone and everyone would always have the same reaction “ omg I didnt know you could sing like this , why dont you post it on your actual page!” Read more>>
Maxwell Bredenkoetter
I absolutely wish I’d started my career sooner. When I entered the culinary field, I was an accounting student at University of Minnesota. I was miserable with my choice finding it hard to do my work as I just wasn’t enjoying it. I’d always seen whatever I did professionally as a way to find my hobby of cooking and hadn’t ever taken the idea of doing it professionally. However, right before the pandemic hit, I was forced to step away from school for a few weeks when I became seriously ill with an infection in my leg. Once the pandemic hit and all classes went online, it would have been impossible for me to catch up so I withdrew from school for the semester. In my depression from this, my drinking increased heavily while my self worth dropped drastically. In my free time, all I did was cook and, after some soul searching, I finally made the decision to cook professionally and found something I truly enjoyed. Read more>>
Mads Motush
I started my small business about a year ago after I had left a job that wasn’t serving me nor was I passionate about. I wish I had started sooner! I had no idea how to go about starting out something of my own but the key is all about networking. Ask other artists in your area what works for them and what doesn’t. A lot of people see each other as competition but we’re also each other’s best allies as well. I love the artist community in the East Valley because they’re so accepting and willing to help out. The biggest barrier to me not starting earlier in addition to not knowing how is the time aspect. It’s a ton of prep work to get ready for an event. I think a lot of people don’t necessarily realize how much time can go into the art toys I make- designing the product, the detail work, sourcing materials, things like that. It’s a labor of love and it warms my heart when people compliment my work. My passion for connecting with people and bringing ideas to life keeps me at it as my second job. Read more>>
Ian C. Hess
I’ve always drawn. Earliest drawings of mine are scrap booked by my mom starting around 2 years old. Drawing always helped me focus my thoughts. In grade school I’d get called out by the teacher for having my head down & laughing: “Ian! Are you paying attention?!” I’d tell them exactly what they were just teaching back to them without pause. “Oh… well make sure you’re taking notes!” I drew monsters, creatures, & battles all the time inspired by Spawn, Dragon Ball Z, Digimon, Pokemon, Gundam… you name it. Read more>>
Mariah Mochon
I wish that I would have been mentally prepared earlier in life and thus able to take the plunge earlier. I began in September of 2022, with a simple idea to make self care boxes. I was in a dark place mentally and I absolutely sucked at self care. I was struggling mentally with severe depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide. I was preparing to start nursing school and it felt like I had done nothing in my life. I would have loved to start Mental Health In A Box sooner, but looking back I needed those life experiences to make my business its true authentic self. So, do I wish I could’ve started sooner? Yes. Do I regret starting when I did? Not at all. I think everything happens for a reason and Mental Health In A Box came to the world when it needed to. Read more>>
Oshae Willis
I began my journey in 2018, but I often wish I had started back in 2013. After graduating high school in 2013, I enrolled at Western State Colorado University to study biology. Although attending college was the right choice for my parents, I always felt a deep passion for becoming a hairstylist or making a significant impact in the world. I moved to Colorado to be with my ex-husband, and it was during this time that we welcomed our beautiful daughter. As our relationship evolved, my responsibilities as a wife grew, which shifted my focus away from my passion. While I am incredibly grateful for my daughter, I can’t help but wonder where my career might have led me if I had pursued my dreams. Read more>>
Reese Jones
It was year 2015 when it all started with a facebook message from a high school friend who was looking for “models” for a photoshoot. I exuberantly accepted the offer to reconnect with an old friend and have some fun while doing it. Fast forward to posting my favorite photo from the shoot to all of my socials, and BOOM I had received so much love, motivation and support to actually take modeling seriously. I truly didn’t know what that meant back then, but the year following I took another chance on myself and volunteered to be apart of a photoshoot that was specifically casting darker complexion Black women. I was selected as one of the few models, I met some gorgeous, kind and talented women while there. These experiences have been the foundation and alignment toward all of the opportunities I have had thus far. Read more>>
Kaye Money
I think about this all the time. I wish I would’ve started making music in high school so I could’ve made fans out of all my peers. Not only that but I would be much more advanced at my craft by now! When I started making music I was in college and I played around with music before then but never actually recorded a song. I started at a good time because I made a lot of connections in college, but you can never have enough fans! Read more>>
Maya Sherin Khalil
I started my creative journey when I was 13 years old. I fell in love with drawing and started taking it seriously at that age. Because of that, it transformed into a passion I knew I wanted to continue and go through in my professional career. So, at 15 years old, I told my parents about this idea I had; to sell guitars with hand drawn musicians on them in the Middle East. Luckily, my whole family loved the idea and helped me with it by investing in it and starting out with five guitars and some accessories I could also customize for smaller orders. We then opened an online shop for a limited time where we sold off these designs and guitar pick necklaces. Read more>>
Bryan Holland
I realize that none of us has a crystal ball to see something an alternate past or future that might have been, however, I do wonder how things would be different if I had started my current art career earlier. Art is always something that I was interested in, drawing was something that I enjoyed from about as far back as I can recall. By the time I was in high school, it was one of my refuges during the day, a class that I truly enjoyed going to. But the art classes that I took did not have much by way of art history or exposure to modern artists, so it was something that I really didn’t understand. By the time I graduated from high school, I decided to purse a degree in graphic design, primarily to avoid the “starving artist” stereotype. Read more>>
Rayna Moore
I had no idea that my travel would lead to becoming a creator. My positions in promotional marketing and theatre (assistance electrician for Disney Live’s Three Classic Fairytales) allowed me to travel throughout four continents, but at the time, I didn’t realize how that experience would impact my future. I always loved performing and creating and during my time on the road, I interviewed others in the company to create a web series called Hotel Home (still available on YouTube). This was all about the experience of and tips for how to travel full time. Read more>>
Kieran Flitton
This is a question that I’ve found myself thinking about a lot in the last few years. It’s probably one the most universally human questions there is, I think. Because ultimately, it’s us trying to order the chaos of decisions that is life, right? Retroactively trying to map the best path. Wondering if inaction cost us good years or if eagerness saw us rush into things we weren’t ready to deal with. Read more>>
John Haiduk
If I could go back, I wouldn’t change the timing of my creative career. In 2017, at 22, I started taking art seriously during my final years at Manhattan College (now Manhattan University) while studying Mechanical Engineering. At that time, I finally had the space—both in my schedule and in my life—to explore something new. Art became my focus. I began experimenting, sharing my work on Instagram, and developing the brand that would become SKRIBBLES. Read more>>
Jennifer Arellano
I definitely wish I would’ve taken content creating serious when I first opened my Tiktok Account. I initially opened my account back in 2020, but never uploaded anything on the platform. It was more for entertainment purposes. Fast forward to 2022, I had my firstborn, became a stay at home mom and watched over our Rottweiler. One day I decided to pick up my phone and share the amazing relationship my daughter and her furry best friend had. The video instantly wet viral! I went from a few hundred followers to gaining 20k in a matter of 1-2 days. I thought to myself, “this was very easy.” I kept posting every now and then, but it wasn’t until 2023 that I fully committed. Throughout those 2 years, I used content creating to help me come out of my post partum depression. So even though I wish I could’ve started sooner, I believe everything happened for a reason. Read more>>
Giara Major
There was a moment in my life where people would ask me simple questions on social media on how I did things I was posting (Ex: what makeup are you using? How did you get your hair to turn out like this? Where did you purchase this form?). I also had a lot of my friends telling me how I should look into being an influencer/content creator. To be honest, the people around me saw something in me before I did. I started making videos of my everyday life in 2022 just for fun; but it wasn’t until 2023 when I started taking social media a little more serious. At this very moment, I’m having so much fun creating content and connecting with others. I sometimes wish I would have took social media a little more seriously earlier in life but to be honest, my timing was perfect. One reason is because I wasn’t as confident as I am now to put myself out there back in 2022. The one advice I can give people who’s looking into creating content for social media is TO JUST START. The more you wait, the more you waste time. Your content may not be the best starting off but the more you continue to do it, the better you’ll get and it will soon be natural. Read more>>
Ian C. Hess
I’ve always drawn. Earliest drawings of mine are scrap booked by my mom starting around 2 years old. Drawing always helped me focus my thoughts. In grade school I’d get called out by the teacher for having my head down & laughing: “Ian! Are you paying attention?!” I’d tell them exactly what they were just teaching back to them without pause. “Oh… well make sure you’re taking notes!” I drew monsters, creatures, & battles all the time inspired by Spawn, Dragon Ball Z, Digimon, Pokemon, Gundam… you name it. Fast forward to middle school & I’m trying out my 1st Art Class. There’s a hand drawing competition & I give it my all. To my own dismay, my piece gets 2nd place & I remember thinking the 1st place drawing was worse in every way. It made me think the Arts were bunk but always continued to draw along the side of my school tests. Read more>>
Jake Obermiller
Personally, I don’t think any one path is the “correct” path for all artists. I believe every artist has to find their spark in their own way and in whatever time suits them as a person! I think we, as a society, often look at older artists as being past the prime of their creative abilities; but, in my experience, i’ve found that creativity is ageless. It doesn’t have a stiff back to hold you from achieving what you strive toward. Sure, being a 4 year old in violin lessons will give you an upper hand when it comes to proficiency, but I find that art (music especially) is about much more than “coloring inside the lines.” I think we should allow ourselves to be a medium of whatever artistic expression comes to us, at our own pace. Burning yourself out at a young age, or even just an age before you have developed your own personal interests, could prove to be a much more negative outcome than positive! Read more>>