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.

Meshaal Malik

Great question. I am big believer of whatever happens, happens for a reason but it took me some time to get to that. I wish I started my creative career way sooner. Backtracking to 2016, I knew from the jump I wanted to be a portrait photographer for a high end magazine. I fell in love with photographing people, the idea of being up close to them, and getting to know them on a personal level. After I graduated my associates, I needed a job, I needed to pay bills. I had this pressure where I needed a full time job like everyone else. It never went through my mind to start a full time career as a photographer. I guess I was a bit lost. So I did what everyone else was doing, I got a job at a special need school. It was a great part of my life but unfortunately it made me take a “break” from being a photographer for a bit. Then eventually I got married, I moved to a new state, and started my bachelors. And then it clicked in 2019 “YUP I’m doing this again”! I started fresh! Grasped all my knowledge and sort of started being a full time artist. It really made me think “why I ever stopped”, “why did I let my insecurities win”. I could have been a full time successful photographer now. Read more>>

Vicky Li

I started making content after pandemic or during pandemic time. At first I didn’t plan to be a content creator, I was just watching too much TikTok and started making videos because I was bored at home. And suddenly Instagram introduced the new feature Reels and I just posted same video in both TikTok and Reels, and then one of my reels hits millions of views. But I didn’t have any plans or strategies on how to build my account, what content should I focus, etc. if i could go back, i definitely would have a plan for it, and it would be a totally different story now. Read more>>

Brittney Anderson

There are days when I wish I would have taken a leap of faith a bit sooner to start my journey as a plus size model, influencer & digital creator. As introvert I was shy & stuck in my comfort zone. I was afraid of being judged by others especially those on social media. I’ve been modeling going on 3 years soon and I’ve realized that everything is happening for me at the right time. This timing is all in God’s plan. Now I am more confident than ever & I feel that I wouldn’t change a thing about my journey and starting at a later time. I’ve grown so much within a short amount of time as a creative and it’s only getting better. Read more>>

Liz Derr

The very first time I got on stage to perform stand up comedy was at the ripe age of nineteen in New Jersey. I showed up to a bar that I couldn’t drive at and I got up and tried my absolute best after writing for four weeks straight. I continued doing stand-up at this same bar every week for about six months. I started going to a few more, but not many. This was while I was going to college full time for Business and Information Systems and working full time at a tech start up. The farthest thing you could get from stage performing. I ended up getting a huge opportunity, It was a show catered to sororities and fraternities. The Stress Factory had booked some guy from a popular bro-y podcast and Pete Davidson as the headliner before he was known as The Pete Davidson he is today. Mind you, this was well over a decade ago. I performed on the show and I quit that night. I would occasionally show back up and try my hand at it but I told myself that I was never going to make it ‘big’ and that I already peaked. So I quit. I stopped performing entirely by the age of 22. I had graduated and job hopped by this time and kept job hopping for a bit. Read more>>

Melanie Bailey

I wished I’d pursued my dreams with my full potential more. It’s not a matter of when I got started really. I’ve been reciting poetry, dancing in talent shows, singing in choirs and performing my own shows surrounded around me my entire life! Only thing is, it spread throughout the years whereas consistency would have been more rewarding. Anytime I did expose myself I received the type of feedback that makes careers. I’ve never had a full opportunity however due do the lack of consistency. I’d wish I’d just stayed on my mark .. Read more>>

Robert “bahby” Garcia

If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change when I started my creative career. In many ways, it feels like everything unfolded exactly as it was meant to. I was raised in a house full of music—my dad had a record deal with Capitol Records in 1973, and I was surrounded by the sounds of the industry from a young age. I started drumming at the age of three, so music has always been a part of who I am, even before I fully understood its significance. However, my journey took a bit of a detour. I spent my high school and college years as a baseball player, earning a scholarship, where I learned the values of discipline, teamwork, and perseverance—skills that have translated directly into my creative career. After college, I earned a degree in psychology and a minor in leadership studies, which deepened my understanding of people and communication. Those experiences helped me become a more empathetic producer and engineer, able to truly listen to and guide the artists I work with today. Read more>>

Zan V. Johns

I firmly believe that we are exactly where we’re supposed to be at any given time. I do not wish I had started my writing career sooner, and at this point, I would not wish to start it later. My creative career began in 2020 when I published my first book, Poetic Forecast, a #1 Amazon bestseller in six categories. It is a collection of select poems written over forty-five years. I retired from an administrative career at the University of Colorado in 2007. I had settled into retirement and was simply enjoying life and family when the Covid pandemic started. As with many creatives, my objective was to shine light during the onset of uncertainty, fear and darkness. I didn’t know at the time that it was the beginning of a compelling chapter in my life. Read more>>

Johnny Smith

Well, I’m currently on my second creative career endeavor, which is rap music. My first was acting in the regional theatre scene in Philadelphia, which I did full-time for about ten years. I had always wanted to explore rap music more seriously but never had the outlet and it seemed unlikely I would find one. But in 2017, after moving to NY to further pursue my acting career, I found myself in a broken relationship, unemployed, and facing homelessness. This is when I began spending countless hours walking around Brooklyn writing rhymes and stopping off in dive bars. I never thought anything would come of it really, but subconsciously I must have known something could happen because I basically manifested my outlet by doing this. One day, during my wander-the-city-writing-raps routine, I stopped at a bar to grab a quick drink and ended up meeting my producer. I let him know that I was an emcee, and was able to prove it because I had been preparing myself all along. Read more>>

T.i. Lowe

Sometimes, I think to myself, why did I wait until 38 to pursue my passion for writing? I do believe in timing, so I don’t dwell on this for too long. I also believe, as a country girl from South Carolina, I was born with storytelling in my root system. I just didn’t think I could reach past the tobacco and corn fields to the publishing industry. While my mom battled cancer in 2011, I was by her side and we had many in-depth conversations, one focusing on a loved one in an abusive relationship. I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t leave her abuser. My mom told me I would never understand unless I walked in an abused woman’s shoes. I took that as a challenge to understand and started researching, reading testimonials, watching documentaries on the subject. In the midst of researching, I began writing Lulu’s Cafe, a story focusing on a woman surviving domestic abuse. My mom made me promise to share this story and told her one day I would. After her passing in 2013, I felt I had no choice but to keep that promise. Thus my research into publishing began and before I knew it, those fields surrounding my home were no longer holding me back. In the last 10 years, I’ve published 20 books! Read more>>

Katy Syme

In 2012, my friend entered me into a modeling competition she read about in Cosmo magazine, during my final semester of College. I was 20, and honestly starting to panic about what would come next for me, considering my procrastination on making any post-grad decisions, and the bleak job prospects of 2012. I haven’t ever really taken credit for when my career started because it felt like a insanely lucky break and completely outside of any plans I had considered for my next steps, but I’m grateful to have started in an emotionally demanding industry with a few more years of adulthood under my belt compared to most models. Starting sooner would undeniably have offered me the chance to build my career during the “glory days” of the fashion industry – which I’m sure would have been financially rewarding – but I would have sacrificed some wisdom, and resilience that comes with age, as well as the confidence and experience that allowed me to advocate for myself whenever I was confronted with a precarious situation, and there isn’t a price I could put on that. Read more>>

Carole Rogers

There are moments when I wish I had a formal art eduation. I wonder if it would have pushed me into more experiemental and creative directions. I wonder if it would have connected me to a mentor who would have provided me with direction and insight into becoming an artist. Or enabled me to work with a variety of professors giving me exposure to more sides of my creative self. I took one life drawing class in college at NYU but art wasn’t my major. I studied English Literature with the hope of one day going to law school. As the first person in my family attending college, I felt a sense of responsibility to choose something practical and, hopefully, lucrative. I remember loving the challenges of working from live models in that class, also my amazement at their comfort to pose for us. I learned alot but didn’t have the confidence to pursue an artistic career at the time. Given all that, becoming at artist somewhat later in life has given me a profound sense of appreciation for my ability to be creative in a variety of mediums and produce art. Read more>>

Raèl Ba

I used to believe the younger you can start your career the better. And in my case, that looked like becoming a professional child actor. Since I was 6, I wanted to be on Disney Channel badly, as I’m sure a lot of us did. Although I did not officially start my career in Hollywood until I was 24 years old, which is late to some people, looking back those 18 years in between were the preparation years of my skills as a storyteller but more importantly a business woman that is necessary for a lifelong work commitment in the Arts. And those preparation years were all about failing. I actually enrolled in performing arts school at 10 years old and have developed my character skills and entertainment business understanding every day since. So I’d say, starting a career later gave me the confidence to learn how fail in private, tailor those mistakes and then embrace my unique abilities. Something my alma matter liked to call “failing forward”.  Read more>>

Kristin Ballard

I defiantly would have started sooner. In 2008 I have a creative vision I didn’t act on it, and it sucked to know I had an idea I just didn’t stick to it and didn’t trust myself. I started about 8 years ago it was just a different medium but still very much so in a creative realm. I really started embroidery art and painting during the pandemic. It has been one of my biggest lessons to bet on myself. Also, if I had started younger I couldn’t imagen where I would be. So, I will say Let the world see you. Read more>>

Zach Zecha

I think about this question a lot. Did I start my “art career” to late? (I prefer the term practice as career has these strange monitary/capitalistic notions with it) I always had an affinity for art and the creative process. When I was in Junior high one of the many dreams in my small head was to be a visual artist, more specifically a painter. Which I pursued with a passion in high school but I got caught up in hard drugs and heavy alcohol use around the age of 15/16. The need to escape reality through chemical means became more important than anything both mentally and physically. Which pretty much took my dreams away. While remaining ambitious to make money to fuel my addiction stayed the desire to do anything meaningful slipped away. At 22 years old my drug use/life came to a precipice and fortunately rather then dying or continuing to suffer in addiction I had the opportunity to become sober. Which gave me further the opportunity to chase dreams again. After some years if healing I put myself in a community college art program, then on to eran a BFA in painting, from the University of Colorado denver, then a MFA in studio art from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts by the time I was 35. Read more>>

Donovan Mahannah

I first caught the acting bug at age 10 when I auditioned to play Captain Vegetable in my 5th grade play. Although I had always been artistic and creative, I had never acted before. Something awakened in me after that performance—the applause and praise were exhilarating, and I loved brining joy and laughter to people without getting in trouble from my teachers. My principal told my mom he knew this was what I was meant to do for the rest of my life. Despite encouragement from my family, teachers, and friends to keep pursuing acting, I resisted. In middle school, I was caught up in the struggle to fit in and seem ‘cool.’ I wrestled with figuring out who I was—trying to accept and love my creative side while feeling pressured to be an athlete or excel in areas that didn’t truly interest me. Halfway through my sophomore year, I couldn’t fight my destiny any longer. It started when unbeknownst to me, my counselor enrolled me in an elective theatre class. A week later, my mom found out the school was holding auditions for the spring musical – Les Misérables. I was hesitant to audition—not sure if I’d be good enough and worried it wouldn’t be ‘cool.’ My mom and grandma, determined to get me there, bribed me with $20. Read more>>

Cleo Carter

My creative career started during 2020 while we were in the pandemic. I remember finding out about the popular streaming platform Twitch and watching streams all day thinking to myself that I want to do that too. I ended up joining a community of streamers/aspiring streamers on Discord who made me want to chase that dream even stronger. While at the time I didn’t have a streaming setup, I did have a Dell laptop that I also used for my college coursework. I made due with what I had, setup my OBS scenes, made my own overlay on Canva and hit go live. While I couldn’t play any games, which at the time was discouraging for me because my laptop could barely handle streaming and running at the same time. I did connect with the community I came to know through just chatting streams, watching music videos requested from the viewers and reacting to various videos on Youtube. While the streams were fun and I would always feel proud of myself when ending, I soon ended up taking a hiatus due to feeling limited in my content with the resources I had. Read more>>

Cerena

I feel like the world of content creation can make you feel like you’re running out of time. I do wish that I started my creative career sooner and ignored all the doubts that were placed on me and this field. I wanted to wait until I had everything “perfect” like buying the expensive cameras and lighting. I’ve realized now that perfection isn’t what people want to see in content. Authenticity is what people want to see, that’s what I think drew my community to me. I’ve always been passionate about gaming, beauty, and I love to laugh. Once I got my first laptop as a teenager, I eventually found the live streaming platform of Twitch and was hooked instantly. It was so interesting watching people entertain while building a community. At the time, the content creation space felt like it was mostly dominated by people who didn’t look like me and I didn’t have people around me who were interested in gaming and anime so I felt discouraged. Before I took creation seriously, I was working in the STEM (chemistry) field, feeling like it was too late to be starting something so uncertain but I knew I had something to share. Eventually, I got the courage to dive into the world of streaming and Youtube because I knew I would regret if I didn’t try. Read more>>

Nini Rebeck

I do wish that I would have started sooner, although I know it may have been more difficult in many ways. When I was in high school I wanted to move to the west coast after graduation to try and become a model and video vixen. But I was raised in a pretty controlling environment that instilled a lot of shame, so I did what I was encouraged to do: I attended university and only ever applied for jobs that were “real” and “respectable.” The feeling of not truly making my own life choices can sometimes cause a sense of regret and longing for “what could have been.” Would I be that much further along, with beautiful memories, photos and videos to look back on? Would I be even braver in social settings because I would have had more years of practice? Would I feel less imposter syndrome because I’d feel more established and validated? Read more>>

Jake Gomes

I do not, many if the experienced I had before I went live with my own firm were learning opportunities that have allowed me to bypass many of the mistakes my counterparts have made. I knew I wanted to be in business since I was 23, but was fully aware I didn’t have the necessary skills. That’s when I got the opportunity to be a bar manager at my job. I knew I’d promote to General Manager before long and would have the opportunity to learn how to run a business before I began my own. After 6 years, I felt ready.  I got my real estate license and began selling real estate full time, selling over $30M in real estate in 3 years.  Read more>>