The world needs artists and creatives. Unfortunately, being needed doesn’t often easily translate into financial stability. The struggle is real for so many incredibly talented artists and creatives and so we think it’s important to hear from creatives who have made it work – there is so much to learn from the folks we’ve featured below.

Giulia Millanta

I am a full time musician Obviously it didn’t happen overnight. I started performing and teaching music in 2008 in Florence Italy, and then moved to Austin, Tx in 2012, so I kinda had to start over. Major steps: definitely recording albums, putting them out, getting reviews and radio plays, playing festivals, touring…all of that combined together. Read more>>

Markcuise Mack

Getting to the point where I could earn a full time living off my craft has been a beautiful journey. I say beautiful because I embrace the good and bad. I was working a full time job and booking comedy shows when I could and creating content for my social media on my off days. Read more>>

Karamvir Bhatti

I just recently quit my full-time job to pursue being a full-time creative! Leaving your safety net and having faith in yourself & the universe is not easy at all. It requires a lot of commitment and discipline to make it happen. I had to sacrifice what I spent my money and energy on. Read more>>

Y$N

I have been making a full-time living from my creative work for just a few months now and it is honestly quite liberating. For years I have been balancing my creative work with a practical day job, oftentimes more than one, to ensure that the bills would be paid. Doing that made it a bit more difficult because I would have to structure my gigs and other ventures around my work schedule which wasn’t always very flexible. Read more>>

Rob Volpe

It is so important for people to know they can make a living in the arts. I’ve been a student of music since a young age. Piano has always been my primary instrument. I went to college for Marketing and after graduation I moved to Florida and began networking in the entertainment industry. I started with a job at Disney which got me on a microphone in front of guests daily. Read more>>

Erich Sayers

Growing up in rural Kansas I never really imagine creative work was useful or a career path. I hardly even did anything artistic in my 20’s but in my late 20’s I found myself lost, depressed with no idea of direction. Out of sheer boredom I started drawing again. Among my drawings one was of a very old smiling buddhist monk a photo I saw in Outside magazine. It was good enough that I just thought to myself this has value and just maybe I can do something with my talents. Read more>>

Gülden Kind

Yes! I actually started following a guy named @herotheproducer and he has a company called beat ALIENZ. Beat ALIENZ tells artist how to copyright music and how to monetize your songs being on social media. I feel once I got all my paperwork together and learning licensing like a label, changed the game forever for me. Read more>>

Mikey Berlfein

I’m fortunate enough to have made it to a point where I’m solely living off of my creative work. It still feels surreal even after doing it for a few years. But if you can get over the fear of the inconsistency, (especially if you’re used to a 9-5) you will be able to own your time, and hopefully your peace. Read more>>

Victor Ribas

Well, the shortest answer to your question is yes. I’ve made a living from my creative work and I enjoy a career within the music and entertainment industry. However, it was not always this way. Like so many others out there, I struggled for many many years to find creative work and was unable to support myself financially for much of my late teens and early twenties. Read more>>

Kira Annalise Willie Heath Neal

Willie was already about 15 years into his music career when we met. I had sung a little with my brother but nothing serious. When I saw him on stage it changed the whole trajectory of my life. He continued to tour with his full band for years after we started dating, all the while giving me tips and advice on how to write and put together a band of my own. Read more>>

Jakob Wandel

I’ve been working and living as a freelance photographer and director for about 4 years now and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. After separating from service with the United States Navy, I pursued a career in music but that soon shifted when I picked up a camera. After graduating Belmont University in Nashville, I jumped right into a freelance career. Read more>>

Sylvester Abakah

Earning a full-time living from my creative work has been a process. When I first began my design career, I thought that having a ridiculous amount of clients and being swamped with work was the goal. But I quickly realized that my goal was to actually live, and not “live to work”. Read more>>

Corinne Smith

Ballroom dancing has been a part of my life since I was 8 years old and after getting involved in competitive dancing as a teenager I knew it was what I wanted to do. After graduating from college my goal was to start teaching dance and find a professional partner. I found myself briefly working for a studio in Chicago area while looking for a professional dance partner. Six months later I was moving across the country to Atlanta, GA to start dancing with my first professional dance partner and teaching at the studio he worked out of. Read more>>

Elliot Passantino

Despite dedicating my life to filmmaking,songwriting,performing and comic book creating,it wasn’t until my 30s that I started having successes.Even then,because of my traumatic upbringing,I didn’t know how to appreciate success or allow it to validate my goals or all my talents. Read more>>

Marty Whitchurch

Earning a living as a self-employed graphic designer didn’t come overnight. At 16 I was working developing concepts and doing cover art for basically pennies, just trying to get my work and name out there. About two years into it, and working a full time job on the side, I started to have serious thoughts that I could be successful doing what I loved as my sole source of income. Read more>>

Courtney Villasenor

My passion has always been hair. Once I figured out that I wanted to pursue being a hair stylist, that was it. I started working full time behind the chair about a year after graduating from cosmetology school. I started at chain salon with hourly pay because they offered training and as fresh stylist that felt like a great option for me at the time. Read more>>

Dominique Lunn

While serving in the US Navy I started cutting hair in my apartment on base. When my clientele started growing and having my shipmates stopping by to get haircuts before going out on the town was when I really started taking my craft serious. I enrolled in a apprenticeship program and from there it was history.Read more>>

Kari Serrao

I have been earning a full-time living from my creative endeavors on and off since graduating from art college in the early ’90s. I say “on and off” because at times my art has led to other ventures. Initially, upon graduating, I worked in high-end retail in the home decor industry, the owner of the store was an interior designer and asked me to do some decorative painting in her home; it was photographed by a design magazine, which led to me beginning a career as a decorative painter. Read more>>

Kerri Cipriani-Nisley

Wow, this is such a great question and really taps into the major life changes we have made recently. My husband and I used to work professionally in Skydiving. He was a Skydiving Instructor and I helped run the behind the scenes aspect of the business and also photographed Skydiving engagements. This might have sounded like a dream job, but we were working excessively long hours, he would go days without seeing our two little girls, and we had very little quality time together. We quickly realized this was not sustainable. Read more>>

Brandon Pippin

Initially with music you’ll come to learn the money isn’t much. I’ve been pulling almost a quarter million streams every month and I’m just clearing 5 figures and no where near 6 figures. Starting out music wise is rough, but once you get your craft down pact and continue to try and learn and grow it’s only up from there. Read more>>

Victoria Blade

I am stoked to say that I pay ALL of my bills from creative work. I mean wow! I am super proud of that. As a mid-western kid, I knew ZERO working artists growing up. TV and movies felt like an alien world in my little Michigan town. Still, I had a gut feeling that it was going to work. I had a strange confidence in my future as an artist even though I had zero evidence that it was possible. Read more>>

Kem Gray Jr.

I have been fortunate enough to have never clock in at a 9 to 5 because of my talents. Being multitalented has been one of the greatest gifts God could have ever given. I’ve been a full time musician since birth, honestly. I was exposed to music at an early age by my father, Kem Sr. I watched him play drums at our home church as a child. So compound that, along with learning from other musicians from around the city helped me understand that it is indeed possible to make money doing things that I love. Read more>>

David Brown

We started Fallen Heroes Tattoo // Art by asking the question, “What’s your story?” and now, for the first time, we’re being asked to tell ours. Neither of us are writers, hell, we spent most of our high school careers sneaking out of class to see each other, but here goes… Read more>>