We think the world needs more artists, more creatives and more folks unwilling to spend their days as a cog in a giant corporate machine. We don’t necessarily dislike cogs or machines but we think the world clearly needs more artists and creatives and so we wanted to try to figure out how more artists can make it work financially since this is one of the major obstacles blocking so many artists and creatives from pursuing their art full time. So, we asked folks who have been able to make a full time living through their creative work, how they did it.

Omari Williams

A little over a year ago I was able to string together some projects that were more or less creatively satisfying and one project that was extremely lucrative and long-standing. It all began around April or May of 2022 when I had just finished performing on a podcast that specializes in bringing new plays to an audio medium, Premiere the Play Podcast. I had worked with the company in the past and was excited to work with them again. Read more>>

Jada Hobson

I’ve been able to earn a full – time living from my creative work with my company The INDI Group LLC by focusing on my backend business structure and maintaining the same branding aesthetic and mission that I started with once the business model was created. Read more>>

Magda Johnson

I always thought when both my kids are off to school full-time I’d go back to teaching full-time… well that quickly changed. Since I started painting, I’ve been lucky enough to have much of my work resonate with many people. Because of this, I’ve had the freedom and flexibility to have conversations about which career I’d like to pursue. Read more>>

Brian McGuire

I have always been on the path of creativity and making it my living since i was a young child. I had a weird childhood and a strange up bringing and i have always believed it is part of why I can make a living with creativity. I first started making money from tv commercials, as an actor. then i was able to make a living as a DJ for about a decade, then I started writing and directing movies, and that was paying the bills. Read more>>

Syupreme Richardson

Being the first is the hardest yes I was the first independent manager breaking away from the industry standard but it took a lot of time and dedication to began the benefit of it all. Long hours and long nights can pay off with consistence and finding the right people to work with. Supreme Entrainment was born in the late 80’s early 90’s coming to change the game for independent artists and the way their music is distributed and the business part that most over look. Read more>>

Bettina Lobo

I am able to earn a full time living from my work as a performer and that is one of the best feelings in the world. The fact that there are so many people striving for the same dream as mine and I am one of the lucky ones who can do this 24/7, it makes me feel very blessed. Read more>>

Jordan Cann

Most people think the average actor is broke! That is true for those who don’t understand the business aspect of show BUSINESS! It’s been a journey for me starting out as a hip hop dancer for various major artist to now running a profitable film production company, being a working actor, leading a car rental business and all these things combined have created me residual income. Read more>>

Phillip Callahan

So my journey of becoming full-time started off when I was working at Cashland at the time. And I get a random message from this guy that I call my brother now ShaVazz The Weirdo. He messaged me about wanting to shoot a music video and he felt like I had that look he was wanting. Read more>>

Gemma Rose

I never dreamt of becoming a jewelry designer. After modelling for seven years, I went back to school to become a school teacher. After teaching for two years, I took a yoga teacher’s training course on summer break in Los Angeles and was selling necklaces that I made off my neck. Read more>>

Ell

I’ve been very, very lucky in the past few years, and since last year I’ve been able to support myself solely on acting work. I’ve been working as an actor in Los Angeles for several years, but I only started voice acting a couple of years ago. As I said, I was very lucky, and I sort of fell into it. Read more>>

Cambria Lara

Earning a living as a full time artist is exciting. It definitely has its ups and downs. Not every client or day is guaranteed to make a profit but I love that every day is unique and allows me to create something special. Being a creative has always been a part of my life goal ever since I could hold a crayon. Read more>>

Patryk Rydzewski

I’ve been earning a full-time living with my videography and photography for nearly two years now. I slowly began doing freelance work during my freshman year of college. At that time, I wasn’t making any substantial money; instead, I was doing it solely for pure enjoyment. Read more>>

Rose Emanuel

I was asked to come onboard with Tiktok last February, for their new live streaming platform which had just launch. They were signing certain creative talent they scouted via other apps. At that point I was hustling on 5 different live streaming apps and they found me! While doing this we had the pandemic going and I lost all my acting jobs. Read more>>

Kristen Karasek

When I went to college I had no intention of pursuing any performing arts. I majored in political science with a minor in psychology. I was the political science department assistant, worked part time as a legal clerk and was planning on taking the LSAT and going to law school. Read more>>

Anna Beurskens

The long and short of it is yes – I’ve been able to make a full time living from my creative work. But the ways I’ve been creative to make that living have shifted a few times over my career – and I expect they will continue to shift. Read more>>

Nic Saavedra

Last year, I took the jump of working as a freelance audio engineer and producer full-time. I began with working as an assistant to the house engineer of a regional performing arts center while getting my recording studio set-up. I had moved back to my home state of New Jersey after moving from Seattle to Paris for a couple of months. Read more>>

Dan Abrams

I am very fortunate to be able to say I make a full-time living from my creative work. When I first started this was a hobby, then it turned into a side business, and then when I was laid off from my job it serendipitously turned into a full time job. I began by using my design skills to create artwork for other companies and private clients to sell their own products and over the last 4 years I have transitioned to now almost exclusively designing and selling my own products. Read more>>

Jonathan Mills

I have been involved in creative production since the early 2000’s as a musician and audio engineer. I focused solely on audio for 11 years until I shot my first music video in 2011. After combining sound, lights, and visual story telling… I was officially hooked. After that experience I began buying camera gear and seeking out avenues to expand my craft and become a professional filmmaker. Read more>>

Quantal Langford

The journey has been an interesting one, it started with one on one freelance work. Over the years it has transitioned to annual and recurring project work from clients that I’ve developed relationships with, building out an apparel lifestyle brand, a video show and podcast, business partnerships, speaking engagements, and developing merchandise and collab designs for retail and licensing. This allows me to earn a full-time living from creative work. Read more>>

Noah V.

It has been an ongoing hurdle in the creative industry overall, where writers are and have not been appropriately compensated–hence this writer’s strike we currently find our writing community in. That being said, it has been extremely difficult to obtain a a consistent full-time living from this gig. With the music industry ever-changing and streaming being a big deal in the royalty department, I find peace in knowing and believing that God’s timing is everything and what is for me is for me! Read more>>

Jacob Stewart

I was lucky enough to secure a contract with a roofing company straight out of college that I have worked with for the past 5 years. After building a good relationship and increasing my workload with this company, I was able to quit my full-time job and have been a freelancer for a little over three years now. At this point, I am working on securing more business contracts on the videographer side, while exploring opportunities within the film industry as well. Read more>>

Ben Wolf

Success doesn’t happen overnight. Or in my case, “success” didn’t happen for the first eleven years of my career. Read more>>

Zachary Kibbee

I’ve been lucky in music over the past decade. I’ve been able to tour around the world, branch out as a producer and even dabble with making guitar pedals, along with other music related ventures. That’s largely due to the fact that I’ve had several of my songs used in commercials and movies – including writing songs for a couple Scooby Doo movies, and in so many TV shows that I can’t even tell you over the last 10 years. Read more>>

Jeff Ross

I actually don’t, believe it or not! My full time job is in finance. That allows me to be able to pick and choose the creative outlets I want to pursue. When it comes to my creative work, I only choose the jobs or gigs that seem interesting or fun to me – and sometimes they can be few and far between. Read more>>

Florian Kohler

Not an easy thing to do and always a work in process. It is really hard to get going but then at some point you realize after lots of sweat and tears this is finally the main one. I do believe it is always good to diversify as much as possible to not rely on it fully in case something were to happen. This could be as simple as an algorithm change and all of a sudden your revenues on social medias are divided by 10. Always be prepared! Read more>>