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.

Peter Temes

Yes and no. I worked to be a writer in my 20s and had some success, making some money, but not enough to feed my family – not even close. I did, though, make a very modest living as a teacher of writing for a good number of years. And, beyond thinking of writing as my art, I certainly felt that teaching was my art. Read more>>

Dean Grissom

Becoming an artist is much easier than becoming an artist who is able to earn a living by creating. My journey was rather unusual because of the type of art I create. As a young child, I was exposed to Native American culture because of where and when I was born. My home was Arizona and that state has the largest single tribe in the nation. The Navajo people live in Arizona and their culture, their history, their art and even their troubles have always been a part of my life. Read more>>

Mandy Fisher

Making a full-time living in voiceover, in any sort of creative field, requires you to marry two parts of your brain: the creative side and the logical side. This can be quite difficult as an artist since we are taught to be free of constraints, give ourselves the freedom to ‘play’, and focus on “building our craft”. But the business side, the side that is not always the “fun” side, is just as important. Read more>>

Bryan Randa

I have been able to earn a full time living from my work for 10 years or so now . I started working 3 days a week with regular jobs , carpentry and landscaping and then 4 days a week learning / assisting glass blowing at a studio in Sandwich MA . Day one I was a sponge absorbing knowledge on glass blowing and running a business.hustled day to day to grow and develope skills . Major milestones have been having my first solo show at the sandwich glass museum and building my own studio I would say along with joining certain galleries and businesses to push me to develop and sell new work. Read more>>

Frederick Keeve

I was supporting a family as a teacher and high school counselor. This was my day job. But my mission in life, and my “sacred path,” was that of an artist and a creative–primarily through working in film. When I started as an actor in my 30s, although I loved acting and actors, I found that it was so competitive that I had to find a way to distinguish myself from all the other white, male actors in my age range. Also, the roles that I would go out for or be cast in were not leading roles, which I wanted, and they were sometimes not a good fit for particular “essence” qualities as a human being and as an actor. Read more>>

Michael Musser

Going from a side hobby to a full-time job supporting a family of four has taken time and sacrifice. Designing wedding invitations started as something I did for friends while working full-time in a marketing department. At the time, I was living in Los Angeles. Although we loved being there, it wasn’t financially sustainable long-term. Read more>>

Shori Sims

I earn a living as a full-time art teacher, which has its pros and cons. I really enjoy working with kids and helping them to build their appreciation of art and their creativity, but often the job is as much about managing the students as children and helping them to build their capacity as learners and emotional human beings. That’s also a con: I don’t work on my own artwork as a teacher during school hours because especially when teaching middle schoolers (my age group) they can be destructive. I don’t want to lose a piece of work I spent days on to someone’s poor impulse control, even if it’s understandable from a developmental stand[point. Luckily though, I get a decent amount of time off and a whole two to three months PTO thanks to the summer break. Read more>>

Rosger Toledo

Unfortunately, not yet—but that’s the goal. While I haven’t been able to earn a full-time living exclusively from acting and filmmaking so far, I’ve built a life that allows me to stay close to my creative work. Over the past four years, I’ve worked as a personal trainer, substitute teacher, and driver for share-drive companies. These roles have given me the flexibility to keep training, auditioning, working on sets, and building my portfolio—both in front of and behind the camera. I see all of this as part of the journey, and I’m committed to making that creative career fully sustainable. Read more>>

Pinkie Ranckey

Building a full-time career as a photographer has been a gradual, sometimes challenging, but ultimately rewarding journey. It wasn’t an overnight success. Like many creative careers, it required time, dedication, and a lot of trial and error. Looking back, I can identify several key moments and milestones that helped me transform my passion into a sustainable career. Read more>>

Daniel Meigs

Earning a living with photography has been a long and winding road. The biggest challenge is finding clients to hire you, and that’s hard when you are introverted and don’t love talking to strangers. I think what I lacked in social energy was balanced by how stubborn and determined I can be. After years of assisting other photographers and meeting people in the area, I started to get work. Read more>>

Kerry Morton

Embarking on a full-time career as a professional wrestler at 24 is both exhilarating and demanding. For me, Kerry Morton, son of WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Morton, this journey has been deeply personal and rooted in a rich wrestling heritage.

Early Beginnings and Initial Challenges

Growing up immersed in the wrestling world, I was inspired by my father’s passion and dedication. Training under the guidance of my father and other seasoned professionals at the School of Morton, I developed a strong foundation in wrestling techniques and ring psychology. Read more>>

Dan Louisell

I had no plan for what I wanted to do with my life beyond playing in dive bars with my band. Then I got married and my wife’s job moved us away. Since she had a “real” job, she said I could take time and figure out what I wanted to do, which was a blessing and a curse. I made stuff, recorded music, wrote a children’s book, etc, but I really felt like I was coasting and becoming a deadbeat. One night we went to a dueling piano bar with some friends, and I had the thought that this might be a fun gig. I didn’t really know how to play piano, but it was more about being funny and having a personality on stage. I spent a couple weeks teaching myself piano and went back in to audition. Within two months I was getting booked every night. Read more>>

Carter Lybrand

I’ve been fortunate to make a living doing what I most enjoy. My time with the military has made it easier with the benefits it provides, but it took a lot of hard work and struggle to get things off the ground. I think the best teacher for me has just been experience and learning things as I go. My goals from when I first started aren’t the same as I’ve just learned so much about the business and what success really looks like. From my viewpoint…… paying the bills is what makes me successful, and all the other things that come with my career such as awards or streams are just icing on the cake. Read more>>

Daniel Pfalzgraf

For the past handful of years, I have been a gallery owner, earning a living from my creative work, as well as helping others earn a living from our work together. I recently turned 50 years old, so on some level, I wish that I could have sped up the process to get me to where I am sooner. But in some way, I don’t know if that would have been possible, at least not without me knowing everything I needed to know to be comfortably solid in my place here and now, not wondering, “what if I had done this instead.” Read more>>

Ranita Haanen

As a kid I always dreamed of being an artist and small business owner but as I grew up I didn’t know where to start or if this dream was even possible for me. After getting my bachelors in Arts, I bounced around from desk job to desk job trying to find a career while spending all the free time I had in my garage creating art. That’s when the COVID shutdown hit. I was laid off my day job and had nothing but time. So I used this time to create more art and posted it online. Much to my surprise people started buying up everything I made, and I couldn’t keep up with the orders! As things opened back up I decided to take a gamble on myself. Read more>>

Camryn Jarvis

Yes, I’ve been able to earn a full-time income from my creative work as a wedding cake artist. It’s something I’m really proud of because it’s been years in the making. I started out making celebratory cakes—small birthdays and events—for friends and family. It wasn’t until the pandemic that I stepped into wedding cakes. At the time, couples were having much smaller celebrations, and that made me feel comfortable taking on tiered cakes for the first time. From there, my business really took off. I eventually transitioned to doing weddings exclusively, and over the last few years, I’ve been able to earn a full-time income that helped my husband and me buy our first home. Read more>>

Nazrin Farook

I began my career selling home interior fabric designs, which I used to physically make using appliqué and embroidery techniques. When one of these sold to Pottery Barn Kids in the US, I felt I wanted to focus on designing for kids’ products. I also realized that producing physical samples took too long and was not sustainable. So, I taught myself Adobe software and focused on a more juvenile style that would appeal to kids’ products. Read more>>

Jason Lee Willis

Anyone can be a full-time author if they’re willing to be poor. Being able to make a living as a full-time author is incredibly rare. Many aspiring writers (myself included) view their novel ideas in a similar fashion as buying a lottery ticket. You choose the numbers, scratch away at the card, and then sigh when it doesn’t hit. I self-published several books that failed to magically transform me from a mild-mannered English teacher to a famous author. Read more>>

Daria Novo

Yes, I’ve been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work—but it definitely wasn’t like that from day one. It’s been a long and winding journey filled with passion, strategy, and a lot of persistence.

I started out with a classical background, studying choir conducting at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. While studying, I worked part-time as a professional choir singer. After about two years—when I was 20—I was given the opportunity to write a few choir arrangements for the ensemble. That’s how my journey began. Read more>>

Zach Gracia

I have, and every time I say that out loud, it still feels a little surreal. But let me be clear—it wasn’t some overnight success story. I didn’t wake up one day with a stylus in hand and a job offer from Disney. This journey has been anything but linear, and definitely not without a few detours, plot twists, and late-night existential crises. Read more>>

Harold “Fyütch” Simmons

It took me 20 years to make a full-time living from music. My journey began 2003 in Nashville, TN writing poetry and R&B songs for my middle school crushes, and freestyling in rap cyphers with my friends. My late-aunt Marie gave me a Yamaha keyboard that could record 4 tracks. That was my introduction to producing music. My friend Rob Reed had a Mac computer with Logic, and we used to record songs to his beats or Phillip Cole’s beats. We were all 13 or 14 years old by this time, heavily influenced by Ludacris, Kanye, 50 Cent, and Pharrell. I used to print song lyrics out at the library, and study how to write verses. I was a church kid, so I had to write clean music, but I’m thankful I learned how to get my point across without cursing. Read more>>

Joey Ariemma

I have had to learn how to be malleable and go with the flow to develop a full-time living as an artist. This is a chosen vocation ripe with uncertainty and trial and error.

Along this path you will meet many people with dreams. One way to incrementaly build a living in this business is being of service to these people and their dreams. As an example: I learned music production and songwriting to have control over my career but often find myself offering my services to other great artists, both signed and independent, to help build theirs. Read more>>

Michelle Carter

I’ve been fortunate enough to make a full-time living from my creative work, and while the journey as a creative is a constant roller coaster…full of highs and lows…it’s also incredibly rewarding. It definitely hasn’t been a straight line to earning a full-time income from day one. I’ve been in bands, worked as a solo artist, and for the past decade, I’ve focused on film composition and sound design. Now, I’m back to my roots as an artist with my band, 6 Minute Escape. Read more>>

Vicky White

I have never been able to support myself with my art but it doesn’t stop me from making it. While selling my art is a boost to my ego and pride it is not the main reason for creating. The process of making art keeps me sane and challenges me to think and solve problems. It gives me peace from the inside out. Read more>>

Cory Richards

It’s hard to define what a full-time living means…because if you’re okay with paying your bills and eating black beans and eggs for every meal, then I almost made that happen from the beginning. Almost. If you’re talking about saving money on top of that, that took years. The pathway to making money is like any entrepreneurial journey: it’s full of ups and downs, and there will be major hiccups along the way. I often offer that to people who want to pursue creative passions as full-time work…that this is just like a startup. Treat it that way, and you’ll be more equipped to handle what comes. You can’t speed up a process. That isn’t how time works. Read more>>

AV Pires

Yes, I’ve been able to make a full-time living from my creative work — though it’s definitely been a journey with both high peaks and some challenging dips.

I left corporate America to pursue legal content creation on YouTube full-time, and it’s become my passion. I now run a channel dedicated to breaking down high-profile court cases, translating complex legal proceedings into compelling, accessible content for everyday viewers. It’s a lot of work — but it’s also a lot of fun. Read more>>

Marcedes Carroll

Yes, I am currently making a full-time living from my creative work! However, these last few years are the most successful I have found after seriously pursuing singing, songwriting & performing for 8 years.

Growing up in Montana, I began playing guitar & learning songs when I was 16, then tried to write my own when I was 19. I slowly started playing out at local businesses in my college town (Moscow, Idaho) & my hometown (Belgrade/Bozeman, Montana) with a garage band. We would personally knock on business doors to ask if we could play music for their establishment. Read more>>

Taj François

Have I been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work? Absolutely—but let’s be clear: my journey to “full-time creative” looked less like a red carpet and felt more like a biking down a cobblestone road.

The Short Answer:
Yes, I’ve earned a living solely through creative work for years now—but day one? Not in the slightest. It took a cocktail of stubbornness, unpaid labor, and a lot of Haitian bred hustle. Read more>>

Jessica Jones

Hey, I’m Jess, a self-taught creative born and bred in Blackpool. My journey started about two years ago when preparing to leave college and head to university to become a social worker. College was a tough time for me, I went through a lot of change. The one thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to help others and make people happy, something I had been passionate about since high school. That’s why I studied Uniformed Protective Services, a hands-on course focused on the police, fire, and ambulance services – ironically, all careers dedicated to supporting people in need. Read more>>

Lelia-Michelle Walker

My journey to earning a full-time living from my creative work has been anything but conventional. I began as a young African American violist and budding ballerina, deeply enamored with the arts. From the moment I first placed my fingers on the strings of a viola and pirouetted across the dance floor, I felt an undeniable connection to creativity; a connection that transcended words. Yet, even in those early days, I recognized that my skin color often became a barrier to inclusion and advancement. In spaces where I should have felt celebrated for my talent, I instead encountered exclusion and skepticism. Read more>>

Romana Lai

Turning my creative work into a full-time career has been anything but an easy journey. It has been filled with challenges, doubts, and countless moments of self-growth. I had to overcome cultural and language barriers, stay attuned to ever-changing industry trends, and master cross-cultural communication. As a first-generation immigrant, there was no safety net—I had no choice but to start from scratch. I needed to refine my makeup artistry while also developing business acumen, communication skills, and leadership abilities to establish myself in this competitive industry. Read more>>

Ashlee Williss

I am fortunate enough to make a full-time living from my creative work, as a DJ & Singer-Songwriter, but it definitely wasn’t an overnight success! My journey started as a pop/country singer at 15. I dedicated everything for 13 years. I had a few small wins – record deal offers, I sang & recorded with some legends in the industry, had songs in TV/Film, but nothing really took off took in a major way. I was given the runaround so much I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I decided to release an album on my own in 2013. The 1st single was called, “You Only Want Me When You’re Wasted” and the day of my release party, my boyfriend tragically died….So needless to say, my entire world came crashing down. I had to take time away from music. During my year of self discovery, I fell in love with DJ’ing! It literally brought my spirit back to life and everything started to click in a way I hadn’t expected. Read more>>

Jude Merkel

I moved to LA at the end of 2021 and it took me 2.5 years to find full-time work in a creative field. I was really struggling to balance jobs, finances, and eventually what I really wanted to do in the entertainment industry. I tried everything: method acting at Lee Strasberg, Improv at The Groundlings, Screenwriting at UCLA Extension, and finally stand-up comedy. I feel like that was the start of everything for me. It was at this time that I was also applying for an animation writing program at Nickelodeon when I realized the common overlap, and just how many of my favorite comedians dipped into both. Read more>>

Armone Tyson

It all began in 2015, when I first became intrigued by the art of hydro dipping sneakers. At the time, I didn’t fully understand the niche or where it could take me—I just knew I was eager to be a part of the Custom Sneakers community. My brother, Kendal Dean (aka Heat McGee), was already immersed in the world of customization and gave me one piece of advice that stuck: “Always sell a wearable product.” In other words, if you’re going to create custom sneakers for others, they should be durable enough to be worn—no cracking, chipping, or peeling. Read more>>

Dustin Dean

I’ve been performing as a professional mentalist & magician for 12 years. I started learning magic at a really young age.. 5 or 6… When my mom gave me a magic kit for my birthday and I was obsessed with the feeling of performing ever since. In fact, since then I was in a punk rock band, I went to professional wrestling school, was in choir and theater, and of course, a mentalist. Read more>>

Trudi Roth

Making a living as a professional writer (now ghostwriter) and editor started in my early 40s when I dared to declare, “I am a writer!” Before that, I was the person who hired writers to create copy for products, websites, marketing materials, etc. My mom—a wildly creative entrepreneur in her own right—convinced me that it would be better (ahem, more lucrative) if I studied business and positioned myself more on a management track. So, the first decade or so of my professional life was focused on using my left-brain-driven skills. Read more>>