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.

Ashley Jackson

I’m thrilled to share my journey as The Boot Babe, where creativity meets commerce. # Earning a Full-Time Living Yes, I’ve been fortunate enough to earn a full-time living from my creative work. As The Boot Babe, my business combines my passion for boots, fashion, and storytelling with a keen focus on sales and customer connection. #TheJourney My journey began with a simple idea: sharing my knowledge and love for boots with others. I started creating content around boot styling, fit, and care, and slowly built an audience on social media. Read more>>

Sarah Hollis

My journey to making my living fully from my creative career has been years in the making. After I graduated from conservatory, I think I (naively) believed I would be one of those people who made it BIG very quickly. But, in the back of my head I heard a teacher of mine at USC say that “overnight stars” were, in actuality, usually 10 years in the making. I remember really not wanting to believe that. However, my career would end up being full of peaks and valleys for the next 10 years. Although I had an incredible 10 episode arc on “24” (due to the a scheduling mistake and the incredible efforts of Cherry Jones and one of our producers, Brad Turner); I wouldn’t appear on screens for years. It was almost like going through a metamorphosis of my identity, both as an artist and as a person. Read more>>

Chelsie Cahoon

I am now at the point in my career where I can say that I do work full-time doing what I love! It took a lot of awful jobs to get to this point but I never gave up on myself or my dreams. I am both a model and content creator so I make my income from both of these worlds. I knew I wanted to model at the young age of 10 after being approached by an agency but it was not trustworthy. With content creation I didn’t really know much about it until five years ago and then I became one! It has been a full-circle moment for me with it all and I truly am so blessed. The best part is that it’s only up from here and I cannot wait to see what 2025 holds for myself and my career! Read more>>

Kevin Moraczewski

I was fortunate enough to earn a living as a photographer/creative director for 4+ years . Long story short – I was a wedding photographer who, after a while, wanted to try something completely different for a living. So I went into real estate. This was a great way to let me focus on personal projects while earning a living doing something other than photography. The brokerage I worked for required the agents to be responsible for their own advertising, including photography. This worked perfect for me, as I had a leg up on my competition. My competing agents at my brokerage were aware of my advertising style and noted the success I was having. This lead to agents offering to commission me to photograph their listings in addition to my own. Fast forward a couple years later, the management commissioned me to create the portraits of the agents/staff, and encouraged me to continue to photograph the other agent’s listings as much as possible.  Read more>>

Scott Nickerson

In the early days I would take on any job that was art related . Anything from medical drawings , book illustrations to portraits of pets and people. For myself , I quickly gravitated towards portraits of people. They paid the most and they held my interest more than other jobs since they were so challenging. During this time I would also drop in on a local drawing class to keep up my skills with working from a live models . It was not long before I was approached by the instructor to take over the teaching duties due to her retiring. I had never thought about becoming an instructor at all but I said I’d give it a shot. To my surprise I found it rewarding and a great source of additional income. My mentor once told me , “you have to wear a lot of hats “. And this was a new hat for me.. I’ve been teaching drawing and painting now for over 20 years and see over 60 students a week. It really does keep an artist more well rounded. Read more>>

Hely Bracho

Yes, I’ve been fortunate to earn a full-time living from my creative work, but it wasn’t like that from day one. My journey started with a passion for storytelling and creativity, but turning that passion into a sustainable career took dedication, adaptability, and persistence. Initially, I began as an artist, learning the ropes while balancing multiple roles to gain hands-on experience. One of my pivotal moments was transitioning into a producer and later establishing my own audio and film studios. These ventures not only allowed me to refine my craft but also taught me the business side of creativity—how to manage budgets, lead teams, and deliver quality content for clients. Read more>>

Arma Benoit

I do and I don’t earn a living from my creative work. I have figured out how to make really good money helping other people tell their stories. And while I do get paid for performing, it’s not enough to pay my mortgage and bills. With standup, I have found that producing shows is not a bad way to make money, if you have the stomach for risk. With film, it is my absolute goal to make a living telling MY stories, and I look forward to making that happen this year (finally!) Read more>>

Monica Duymich

I have been able to pursue my dreams of being a full time artist for the past 5 years or so. Being able to do what I love every day and provide for my two children has been the most amazing experience. I will be the first to admit it isn’t always fun and/or easy, but I am determined to be able to live my dream of a creative life and be an example to my kids that your dreams can come true if you are will to work hard and adapt. It took me years of fighting my fears and doubts to finally be ready to put it all on the line and give myself a chance. Thankfully for me, I have continued to grow and learn and adapt with all of that and make a career out of what I love. What I have noticed in the past few years is that you can never become complacent or stop challenging yourself. Everyday I reassess my goals and business (Ikaros Art) to keep moving forward. I also have found how important it is to continue to create for me, because even though I am an artist, it is easy to loose the creative flow and fall into the “this is a job” trap. I will continue to work on passion projects and learn new artist skills to keep the excitement of my creativity alive and thriving. I never want to take my artist life for granted or lose the creative inspiration and passion! Read more>>

Kiara Maharaj

I have been earning a full-time living as a creative for the past 2 years now. It has been a super turbulent and challenging journey to get here, and sometimes it is still challenging. Old obstacles resurface, and my own triggers are often tested. But I wouldn’t change a thing: I am rather grateful for these “problems”. I’d rather deal with these problems than have a 9-5 employee job. Here’s why. I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science. While I was adequately skilled at programming, I didn’t really enjoy it and I couldn’t see myself sitting for hours, using my skills to create software for a company only to make the CEO wealthy. University was a little miserable for this reason: I didn’t have the time to draw and paint and write as much as I needed to and wanted to. It made me miserable to think of my sketchbook withering away in a corner. And on top of that my degree felt like a ticking time bomb. I felt as if I would be thrown into the corporate 9-5 employee desk job as soon as I graduated. And, like Newt Scamandar (from Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them), it was my worst fear. So I felt pressured and desperate to look for another option as soon as possible, and in hindsight I have realized that my desperation was my superpower. It motivated me like nothing else could.  Read more>>

Richard Mangicaro

This is a continual challenge for us creative artists….especially in these times. In the years prior to digital downloading, creative artists were able to make a living selling our music, along with touring, live work and selling our merchandise. Before the age of streaming, if you liked someone’s music, you would go to their websites or a record store and buy their music. This was normal. Now, entire generations who don’t even know what that’s like. When streaming music entered the business, it basically enabled the very, very few at the top of certain corporations to make billions off of us creative artists, while paying us literally less than pennies on the dollar for each stream. While I completely understand the ease and convenience of streaming music, it has taken away a big part of our revenue stream. Like everything, the positive side to it is that our music is distributed on many platforms digitally. But it falls on us to self-promote our own music and this is much more difficult, for lesser known artists. We all have learned to wear MANY hats – we write, create, record, perform, engineer, produce and finally promote our own music. While our skills have increased by necessity, many of us most also hold down other work, along with being creative artists to make ends meet and to be able to afford to create our own music. Read more>>

Mary Tan

When I started my pet public relations agency, Whisker Media, it was primarily a side hustle. I was working at an animal shelter doing all their strategic communications work. I had begun Whisker Media prior to working at the shelter, but during the pandemic more and more pet companies were reaching out asking me to help them with their PR campaigns. Soon, I was juggling two full time jobs. I always wanted Whisker Media to be my full time occupation, but having never been self-employed before, I found it challenging to take the leap. I am a very calculated risk taker. I told myself I needed to have a full time salary saved before I quit my very stable animal shelter position. I successfully put in $70,000 in my savings, but still didn’t quit. Read more>>

Fernando Reyes

Earning a living off creative work is challenging on a daily basis. We don’t rely on a steady paycheck at the end of the month, so the income you receive varies every month depending on how busy a month you had with projects. While this can be though on months with low work load, it is incredibly freeing being able to be your own boss and plan your life without having to ask anyone for time off. In my case, earning a living solely off my creative work was done in small steps. I started working for a renowned studio early in my career, so I had an hourly pay from them. Later on, I found a established engineer as my mentor and I worked under him for several years, learning the craft and the business, and slowly building off my clientele and my business while still working for him and earning a steady pay. Eventually, I ventured off on my own and went fully freelance. Read more>>

Nya Christian

Joining Step Afrika! in August 2023 marked the remarkable “official” beginning of my professional dance career, highlighting the incredible journey that has led me here. I began dancing at the age of three and trained in various styles, including Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, West African, Zulu, Modern, Hip Hop, and Musical Theater. Read more>>