We’ve seen way too many talented creatives quit because they couldn’t make it work financially. No doubt, the financial challenges of pursuing a creative or artistic career are daunting, but we felt there wasn’t enough discussion around how to make it work. So, we connected with artists and creatives who’ve been able to earn a full time living from their creative work and asked them to share their stories with our readers.

Sarah Hall

Earning a living as a full time creative is not something that just happens overnight or in the blink of an eye, and it is not for the faint of heart. The all nighters, weekends, and life moments given up socializing with your friends and family just to be succesful before you even get to the point where you can think about making enough money to be a full time creative is enough to turn anyone away or even make anyone give up before becoming succesful. Read more>>

Caroline Iversen

Before going full-time with Caroline Haines Creative, I worked in retail at my first and only other ‘real job’. After a year or so working on the floor, I started doing some creative work for the back office/e-comm/signage for other store locations. This definitely gave me a good feel for how the business side of things connects with the creative side of things. Read more>>

Saunya Clayborn

I started my journey as a content creator on Youtube. I love recording video content for my audience. I simply be myself and talk about my life as a singer, mom, wife and business owner. Read more>>

Cristian Posso

I have been blessed and been able to make a full time living off all my creative work since the beginning of it all. It took a lot of work, trail & error, and consistency. I started it all when I was 16, i started the brand “falsebranding” and from there I stayed dedicated to it, which ended up opening doors for me to get to where I am today. Read more>>

Glory Visuals

Darren and I (Austin) met at church in the spring of 2017. We quickly became friends and bonded over a shared love for cameras and photography. At the time, I was selling Yellow Pages advertising and absolutely hated it, but was also second-shooting wedding films on the weekend, which I fell in love with. Darren was doing freelance photo, video and design for a couple of startups. Read more>>

Deuce Tyrell

For two years I’ve able to earn a livable wage through streams, royalties, paid shows , sync gigs and doing jobs for local businesses. It’s not easy by any means. It’s stress. You feel overworked at times. But ultimately I’m fulfilled. Read more>>

Bridget Dorr

This summer I took my pottery and photography business full-time. Over the past 10 years, I have worked a variety of ways to grow my small business into a full-time job. I started working full-time as an art teacher for a non-profit, and this is where I found the headspace to work on my pottery since college. I was able to use my work’s facilities to make and fire my work once I clocked out at 5 pm. I slowly worked this way, nights and weekends until I was able to grow my business so that I could afford my own studio space. Read more>>

Claire Rand

I started this creative business 11 years ago making bags and simple accessories. As the years went by and the struggle was definitely real, I pivoted my business in 2019. I realized I was trying to reach everyone and in doing so, I was reaching no one. So I narrowed down my niche and started making reusable accessories. My love for the environment and for sewing merged and Designed by Claire had awesome new look. Read more>>

Tayanna Nelson

I currently work for myself as a boudoir photographer and brand designer. My degree is in photography and I graduated in 2013. I worked a variety of jobs from car salesperson to a tech at Cerner before finally quitting to pursue a full-time career working for myself. I ended up quitting a few weeks after I got married because I finally had health insurance. I am chronically ill so it was like finally finding the missing piece to that puzzle. Read more>>

Daniel Toledo

(Feel free to rewrite anything) Well in my early twenties I decided that I wanted to do something with my life that involved art, so I went to coleman university to get my associates degree in graphic design. At the time I thought it was the right decision since most art jobs around San Diego involved the graphic arts. Read more>>

Laura Yurko

I thankfully have, although I lean more into the idea of “creative” than my work as a professional artist. I believe to have the freedom to make the work that I want to make and be able to pursue a train of thought through divergent bodies of work I need that to exist in a world separate from commodification. Read more>>

Flying Fuzz

Having this band as a full-time job seems like a pipe dream at the moment but it’s one we’re working towards every day. Our end goal isn’t to get too famous or anything we’d just like to be able to live off our music. I feel like that’s really every artists dream. Read more>>

Matthew Collins

I have been fortunate enough to turn a childhood hobby into a full-time career. Growing up I was never a great student, I was either sleeping in class or doodling in my notebook. But, I was always been interested in all things art and design; whether that was watching cartoons/anime, laughing at old movie special effects, listening to music, or even just observing family members draw. It seemed like it was the one thing that could hold my attention. Read more>>

Donté Hayes

It is a blessing to earn a full-time living from my artwork. This creative journey comes with sacrifice, believing in yourself, and persevering through the hard times and being humble when receiving success. The catalyst to my success was first going back to college later in life. I was encouraged by friends and colleagues at work who saw my creative talents and thought I should apply to art school and not waste my talents working a retail job. Read more>>

Alex Reymundo

My hunger to be the person that makes choices for me has always driven me. Don’t mistake my statement, I’ve worked my ass off for others in my youth, I now work 10 times harder but none of it feels like work because it’s what I choose and on my terms. Coming from a hospitality background, I love putting people and pieces together towards one common goal … a good time. Read more>>

Jessica Ray

I have recently been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. While trying to make it with everything in my soul and physical being in the music industry, I found myself beginning to have to fund my own projects. I had to start thinking as an entrepreneur and not soley like a music artist. So I started on my journey of learning different aspects of what it took to be an independent music entrepreneur , make money and have fun doing it. Read more>>

Christy Seguin

I never dreamed I’d be where I am today when I insisted, at 5 years old, that I wanted to bake & decorate ‘Santa’s Cake’. Every year my mother baked & decorated a Christmas-tree-shaped cake, & we left a piece of it for Santa on our hearth. From the time I picked up a spatula & icing bag, decorating cakes just came naturally. Read more>>

Jeffrey Vernon

Earning a living in the music industry is challenging. It all starts with your network, and your attitude toward what you’re doing. Don’t just make things good, make them as great as you can and have fun doing the projects. I view working in music as a privilege, so loving the people and the work that that I do is important. Read more>>

David Hamilton

Yes, I made a full-time living for many years from my solo performing career. I would say the process developed organically. I began out of grad school by doing a lot of auditions and being hired for some higher profile apprenticeship programs (Merola, Wolf Trap, San Diego Opera, Lake George Opera and Santa Fe Opera). And, I made it a point to do everything I could to make myself a good colleague and valued member of each of those programs. Read more>>

Tyra Grayson

As TGD was slowly getting off the ground, I was a Barback at Top Golf, and a Court Monitor at Urban Air Trampoline Park in Homewood, AL. I quit Top Golf because my business was slowly flourishing and gigs were happening a lot more often on the weekends, which is when they wanted me to work, and I kept requesting weekdays but it was a thing, where they didn’t really need me then, we had a meeting and tried to come to terms and it all really came down to sacrificing my weekends with work, or fully being focused on my business because they saw I had passion for it. I prayed about it and I made the decision to quit. Read more>>

Sophie Cheung

During the beginning of the pandemic, I lost a lot of jobs and sources of income as a photographer. People were pulling their funds from marketing and I was mainly serving small businesses. At first, I was devastated as I loved what I was doing. But after a while, I realized that I needed to change my strategy. I decided to self-taught design, and after a couple of months, I started working as a Head of Design at a startup – I built a team, I worked on rebranding the startup, visual design, art direction… Read more>>

Samantha Kaufman

I’ve been a full-time artist since 2017. It was wobbly financially at first. I decided that making space in my life to do what I wanted to do was more important than holding on to financial stability. It wasn’t a hard decision to make, I don’t like 9-5 jobs and someone else being in charge of my schedule never sat right with me. The energy we put out in the universe is what we get back. It was important to me as I put in hard work to be available when opportunity came. Read more>>

Leah LaRue

I have gained customers in other countries such as Germany, Canada, Puerto Rico. My brand is technically known globally mostly just for selling Shampoo! This side hustle has helped fund my salon business where I now have plenty of cash flow and am not stressed to overfill my books. Read more>>

Dustin Williams

The journey to becoming a full-time musician has definitely been a long one, and truth be told, I still feel very far away from my goals sometimes. If I’ve learned anything from this career, it’s that we must constantly shift gears to balance our needs and desires, and that we are always at the mercy of the random chaos of life. Read more>>

Steven Coleman

Yes I have been able to earn a full-time living by being a makeup artist. Being detoured from corporate america due to a lay-off with a background in science. I used the professional skills and discipline from that experience to make a name for myself, obtain income, and now a business owner. There have definitely been some triumphs and disasters along the way. Read more>>