We were lucky to catch up with Sophia Dashing recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sophia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

My first ever performance was in my home-town, Atlanta, GA in Piedmont Park. I performed at Atlanta Pride and it was my first big check I ever got as an artist. The idea of me performing at Pride started as purely a manifestation and a dream, so to be able to take the stage, do what I love and also make revenue was incredible. It showed me that anything is truly possible with drive and determination.

Sophia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve loved performing, singing and dancing since I was super young. It was something that developed and came to me very naturally. As I started to get older, I explored a couple of different alleys that had to do with the arts like Fashion Design. I moved to Paris at 18 years old to fully focus on design & marketing with the arts and COVID-19 sent me back to Atlanta. I started to fall back into music, performing and dancing and healing my inner child. The universe was tugging me to fully focus on that and I’m so grateful and happy to be in a place today of living out my dreams of since I was a little girl.

Being an independent artist, I’ve had to learn an extreme level of discipline, routine and drive. I do all of my own press, bookings and promotional work. On top of writing my own music and being the artist. It’s definitely a lot to manage at times, but I love what I do. I’ve found that anything can come to fruition with consistency and proper planning. Waking up with a routine that caters to your dreams and goals matter! Sticking to it and sacrificing what you need to, to make your dreams come true is something I’ve 100% learned since starting my journey as an independent artist.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect to what I do is connecting with others. Seeing how much music is a universal language, and the things I go through and write about are shared experiences that others turn to music to heal through, and having people thank me for creating a certain song for any specific reason. It’s the best feeling knowing that you can help someone through anything with art and music. Whether that be healing through heartbreak, dancing the pain away or channeling happiness. I’m so grateful for the connective aspect of what I do. I love all of the people I’ve been able to meet thus far on my journey.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think non-creatives can sometimes judge artists due to it being unconventional in parts of society, but what’s not completely understood is how much business-savvy it takes to find success as an independent artist. You have to understand marketing, business, social media promotion etc. There’s a whole business side to music that’s extremely complex. Independent artists juggle the creative and the business to back the creative and push it to new audiences. It’s not easy at all. But if you want it, you do what you need to do to expand as an artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sophiadashing.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophiadashing/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/sophiadashing/with_replies
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@sophiadashingvevo8171

Image Credits
Photographer: Inari Briana