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.

Sophia Annello

I have been an independent artist in the DFW scene for about 7 years now. I’m a pop/country singer-songwriter that has been playing gigs nation wide and pursuing music for a long while now, and recently graduated from Berklee College of Music in May of 2022. While always loving the creative side of the industry, I’ve always had a knack for helping other independent artists in booking, social media, and release planning when it comes to their own work. Read more>>

Chanell Huecker.

After working a 9-to-5 for awhile, I realized it was time to take my 15+ years of experience in content creation, direction, photography, producing, videography, and visual storytelling to live by my own lights and listen to the part of me that is always looking for the story. Read more>>

Tyler Oaks

This is the biggest question, I feel like, when wanting to approach the idea of having a job in a creative field. I have had the privilege of being able to work full time in film since my senior year in college. When I first garnered interest in film during my junior year of high-school, I felt really overwhelmed. My first decision was to reach out to local colleges and production companies here in Nashville and ask them as many questions i could and gather as much info on how to start. Read more>>

Whitney Miller.

It was a recent decision to make the leap from full-time employee to full-time artist, and while it’s been a significant adjustment I’ve enjoyed every second. All my life I wanted to work at an animation studio, it was my dream growing up, however, the reality of my experience was not what I expected to say the least. I was employed at an animation studio in the downtown St. Louis area for about a year before the burnout and negative atmosphere pushed me to transfer completely to freelance. Read more>>

Teshia Smith

I have been earning a full-time living from graphic design and creative work since 2017. It definitely did not start that way; it took a couple of years and a safety cushion to be able to feel comfortable enough to quit a regular gig and jump full-time into my business. Read more>>

Cole Wills

[Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work?] Earning a full-time living from your creative work is the most challenging obstacle you will face as a creative artist, and this is especially true for Musicians. Growing up, I was told to be a “Professional Musician,” you had to be making a living wage on music alone, so that is the definition I have always worked toward, but I haven’t made a very comfortable living solely off music alone for an extended time. Read more>>

Megan Massay

I have certainly been able to earn a full time living with my creative work, and the journey continues. I see myself of being self taught and very diverse in the services and work that i offer humanity. In the beginning it was very challenging because my confidence was on trial, I did not know how the end result would be, however i trusted myself to take the risk to start. I believe if i had a team, mentor the process could’ve been faster and perhaps less growing pains. Read more>>

Nate Davis

I have been fortunate enough to make a living off of music, but it was a long road and it took an open mind. When I first started, I really only thought about one path: write original music and perform that music at clubs for an audience. However, there are so many different ways now that you can make money with songwriting and performing, that I really feel like the secret to success is to have multiple different avenues that can create a revenue stream. Read more>>

Chris Pellitteri

I opened my martial arts school in 1995 at the age of 25. Through great support and hard work, I have been teaching continuously for over 25 years. When I started, I was working 3 full time jobs – 7 days a week to make sure the karate school would have a future. I worked in a martial arts supply store evening day and in the evening I taught classes. On the weekends, I taught music lessons (trombone and guitar). Read more>>

Michael Fernandez.

After I received my bachelors degree in photojournalism and served in the military, I started working at a small newspaper for about four years, then I got a photojournalist job at a bigger newspaper and stayed there about 17 years covering local and national news, professional sports and everything in between. I found that a bachelors degree in journalism is a must have if you want to work in newspapers as any kind of journalist. At the time of my career, it was very competitive in trying to get a job, Read more>>

Rachel Rosenkoetter

I’ve been making art my entire life but only generating a full-time living from my creative practice since 2020. Around that time I was working full-time in the Design department at a quirky sock company, and struggling to run my small business on the side. I loved my coworkers but felt really trapped working a 9 to 5 and putting most of my energy towards projects that I didn’t feel much creative ownership over. Read more>>

Pharao Tyeric

Warning , becoming a creative is not for the weak! In all honesty, it requires a great deal of sacrifice and commitment to earn a full time living from creative works. I have not quite made that transition to financial freedom as an artist. That’s the main mission, being able to have all of my bills paid from the earnings of my creative works! Read more>>

Tony Scientific

Yes I am able to earn a full time living, I have children that I have raised with my career. I was able to travel the world with this career, and move to a whole different country. Read more>>

Anna Belle.

I started earning money from music when I was 16. I signed up as a work-for-hire vocalist on Fiverr, singing clients’ entire songs for about $15. I had a microphone worth $40 and no other programs besides Audacity, but I got lucky that enough people believed in me and my petite voice to have a steady stream of orders. After several years of getting more work and raising my rates, I was able to save a fair amount for college and use my resume of 900+ vocal and production orders to take on more serious work. Read more>>

Cris Hodges

I moved to Los Angeles as a professional session singer after I posted 1 single LA Craigslist ad promoting my services as a singer. After so many years of watching live music venues being torn down to build condos in downtown Dallas, Tx, the writing was on the wall: To make this a career, I have to move to LA. I didn’t know a single person there but I had the feeling this was where I needed to land. Read more>>

Avacyn Olivier

I’m so incredibly grateful to be working my dream job and able to support my family. The passion for my work and art, drives me to be better in every aspect of my life. It’s increased my confidence, my attitude, and I no longer feel lost in the world. For a long time, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. My advice is try new things, and when it feels right, give it everything. Read more>>

Alexandra Madison Bouffard

From the moment my dad let me get my hands on his over-the-shoulder camcorder in the 90s, I’ve been interested in filmmaking. I dreamt about having a career in the creative field and was determined to make it happen. After graduating college, I was living in Raleigh, North Carolina (not really known for it’s booming film scene); I continued to serve tables at a restaurant while I practiced my filming/editing skills and applied for every job involving videography I could find! Read more>>

Adam/Jerome Bell-Bastien.

After a long journey both as individuals and as a duo, we are extremely grateful to say that we make our full-time living from music. As individuals, our stories are very different from one another. Jerome began his career in music at the age of 16 as an opening act for the MTV TRL Tour which launched him into a lifelong career as a singer. Read more>>

Nicholas Grant

Fortunately, I have been blessed to be able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. I was able to get an early start on my graphic design career while I was in college, and luckily it has served me ever since. My graphic design career started with me just playing around with photoshop on my laptop trying to come up with covers and website graphics for my music. A few of my friends really liked the work that I was creating for my music and they started to inquire about me creating some designs for them to which I obliged. Read more>>

Ivan Maraña

Yes, I earn a full living from my current work. The journey as most artists haven´t been the easiest, specially since I wasn’t raised on an artistic family. My parents always wanted the regular 9 to 5 job for me, probably because of what we always here, that we are not able to make a living doing pretty much any artistic thing. Read more>>

Travis Stillwell

It was 2007 when I started making a living as a creative, left my last job, and started my own business, Flux Mechanics. I had already been doing creative work as a music producer and graphic designer. I had finally reached a point where I had enough clients and traction to leave working for others and venture out independently. I was about 25 years old at the time. I was living in San Diego, CA. Read more>>

Dave Scheiber

I have, and that’s been very rewarding. The concern that your own business may not fly is always a big part of the initial decision. In my case, that decision came later down the road, after some 30 years as a journalist and another 10 in the non-profit communications realm. I come from a creative family – writers, musicians, illustrators, animators and graphic artists, editors and video producers, and it’s often been tempting to come up with a creative business that would incorporate those fields. Read more>>

Joanna Stone

During my career I have had many paths which enabled me to earn a full time living from my creative work. Currently I am the founder and creator of a barre fitness method and instructor training that has allowed me to earn a steady income in between dance and acting projects. Barre Vida is a fitness method with a foundation in many dance concepts so I have been able to teach and do body conditioning as part of my income which keeps me injury free and ready for any physical movement I find in my performance and rehearsal schedule. Read more>>

Sam Interrante

Sometimes I feel like my story is a lot of the result of being in the right place at the right time. My journey began in 2013. I had just earned my fine arts degree from Millersville University, which was the same point at which I realized I should have probably minored in business. Oops haha. By that time and reflecting on having spent literally 18 of my then 23 years of life in some sort of school, I wanted to kinda just get on with things, I guess see how I would fare out in the world. Read more>>

Ronald Dye

Right now I work full time for the Jared Dalton Agency as the Video Production Specialist. I’ve always had an interest in all aspects of film and the arts. I started off doing music. We didn’t have a lot of money to do videos so I started off my journey by producing our own videos. From there I started producing a TV series called the Mid Week Massacre that aired on the CATV Network in Nashville, TN. Read more>>

Lauren Gumport.

You could say that I was “classically” trained in public relations. I started my career at one of the biggest global PR firms in the states, at Ketchum’s office in New York City. Read more>>

Tina Corbett.

I started out going to Fort Lauderdale Art Institute as an 18-year-old just out of high school. I only spent 3 months there before life happened and I quit. I got married, had a family and went to work for the US Postal Service. Again, life happened and 5 years later I got divorced. Within the institution of the USPS, I discovered the position of Postal Illustrator and the person holding that job was retiring. I was able to get assigned as a temporary Artist for that position and solidified it by going back to school. Read more>>