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.

Manda Smarr Beers

After 13 years of doing photography on the side, I decided to go full-time for myself. Even though I graduated with my undergraduate degree in photography in 2010, I never let it become anything other than a side-hustle. Looking back, I’m not sure why I didn’t let myself go fully into it, but I think deep down, I wasn’t completely sure it was all I wanted to do. It was also terrifying to think of having to rely solely on my creative work for income. So I stayed working in corporate jobs as a safety net. Read more>>

D Rachelle

I’ve been a successful entrepreneur for the past 11 years. I have been able to support myself using my creative work by monetizing my strengths. Beauty Services. Not limiting myself to just one sector but making sure I am a well rounded artist. My journey started when I was a young girl watching my Granny press and curl in her den. Smelling biscuits and pressing oil every summer morning was normal. I didn’t really realize the strong female entrepreneurial type women in my lineage until more recently. Read more>>

Jessica Erickson

I never intended to earn a full time living from this work but I am happy to say that I have been able to. Starting out, I was just making a few pieces to show to my friends and wear myself but I eventually had some interest in the earrings I was making. I am a stay at home mom and my child was only a year old at the time – I didn’t have much time to work and when I did, I was sitting at her toddler play-doh table with her and making my earrings right alongside her. Read more>>

Carmine Prophets

I started making music when I was 13/14 In Dallas, TX where I was born, at first I was doing it for fun and I had a group of friends in high school who were really talented but I had never seen a dollar from music until I was 20 when I had sold my first 3 beats. At the time, I had already been making beats for about 5-6 years, I was making music pretty much everyday but I knew that I had a-lot of work to do. I moved to Nashville from Dallas in 2016 and didn’t know any rappers or producers but I was being referred to more as a producer not a musician to the East Nashville band scene, Read more>>

Shuai Xu

My current works focus largely on the invisible world, and much of my inspiration comes from my dreams. I am interested in humanity’s relationship to the cosmos, particularly as it plays out here on Earth, in the relationship between individuals and nature. Through my art, I hope to explore my interior world more deeply while expanding outward, while engaging society and beyond. I am drawn to the concept and meaning of dreams because every one of us is familiar with them. Read more>>

Jeremy Fowler

I feel like making a living from my creative endeavors is something that I’ll never stop pursuing. I’m currently in a position where I feel like I almost have too much work, which makes me feel super grateful. However, seeking gigs and fostering those relationships are things I’m always actively maintaining. I’ve found in this line of business, you generally get out what you put in – work begets work, gigs get you more gigs, and the main thing: follow up, follow up, follow up. Being persistent and being annoying is a very fine line that I tread daily. Read more>>

Antrell McLean

I have made it to the point where I am fully self-sufficient and taking care of my family through the efforts of my creative skillset and services. upon completing film school this journey took me about 5 years to accomplish, so I cannot say it was easy since day one. The major key in getting to this point was learning the importance of networking and building strong relationships. The first thing I had to do was identify what exactly I wanted to accomplish in my field, then to determine what niche to focus on and sharpen my skillset. Read more>>

Trap DeVille

I have known I would become a professional artist since I was a child but bringing that into fruition has been a long and treacherous journey. No part of the process was easy but the work was always evident if that makes sense, like I’ve been able to figure out the steps I needed to take however difficult it was I always found myself back in the flow state proving I was on the right track. There’s so many obstacles to avoid while building a career in music from the finances it often takes to produce a high level quality of work to avoiding toxic relationships, haters and negativity. Read more>>

Soni Lopez-Chavez

Sadly I lost my job in 2020 during the pandemic. This sudden loss forced me to make some major changes. After many years of putting myself on the backburner I made the decision to finally launch my art career. I was always curious about digital illustration so I taught myself how to do it. After a few weeks I realized I loved it and I felt like this was my calling. I started to share my illustrations on social media. People started to ask if my art was for sale. Then I had a few of my illustrations go viral. Read more>>

Mackenzie Frank

I have been very fortunate to be able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. Obviously we all start from somewhere and I started with free shoot after free shoot. I did this for a few months mainly to get comfortable with my couples and models and to slowly start to get my name out there. This was while I was still working at Target full-time. I became more confident with my shooting and finally had some good content to share (thank you, Instagram and word of mouth for catalyzing all of this). Read more>>

Adam Stone

I have been doing this for the past 4 years and each year gets better. The first year I barely broke even and now I am able to live off of my earnings. Some big milestones were getting my second gig, performing for an audience of 500, and this November performing in New York City in a theater off broadway. Half of my years doing this have been during a global pandemic. I wish I had gotten out in front of the virtual shows earlier. Read more>>

Matthew Enos

In my earlier days of my career I was just doing this for fun and extra money. One day it came to me that maybe I should think bigger. I started to realize the more exposure I had the more opportunities came my way. I shifted my mind set and wanted to do this work full time. I started out with just a few agents in surrounding major cities closer to me. Read more>>

Zach Johnson-Medland

I started my business really slowly, until it eventually made enough sense to just go out on my own. I started freelancing in college with some small projects on the side while I was in school. When I graduated I continued freelancing on the side while I worked at a design agency in Scranton, PA. I always liked the freedom, and way freelancing allowed me to flex different creative muscles than my day job. Read more>>

Madison Kingery

Being an artist and running your own business is certainly a challenge from the start. I am able to earn a full-time living from my creative work but this has not always been the case. When I started out, this was very much a part time job to fulfill a creative outlet for me. I made jewelry in my spare time and sold it locally at markets and pop-up events, all while working a full time job… well actually several jobs as I was in graduate school at the time, working for the university I attended and also waiting tables so I had a very full plate. Read more>>

TJ Solzsmon

I have been self employed now for five years. The last year has focused almost exclusively on my art and photography, while the entirety of that time has been spent with creative endeavors. The biggest milestone was dropping everything to pursue it. Taking the risk. It’s grown exponentially larger in a shorter time than I had ever fathomed. Within a couple months I moved my concentration from my personal chef to almost a full time focus on my art. Read more>>

Lani Love

Lani Was only 6months old when she crawled her way into stardom . She started off on stage doing pageants and quickly evolved into fashion, music, modeling & dance ! By the age of 6 Lani released over 7 songs ! She started documenting her creativity on her social media platforms. Before you know it her YouTube amassed over 1 million subscribers and over 800 MILLION VIEWS ! She became a business owner at 5yrs old and has been financially blessed from her social media platforms . Read more>>

Amie Root

I have been able to earn a “full-time” living from my creative work, but I feel compelled to say that the majority of the time we equate “success” as a professional artist to being able to solely work in the arts. This is a toxic lie. When I was finally working enough professionally as a performer, fight director, stage combat teacher, to be “full-time”, I quit my restaurant job. The day I quit, I felt like I had acheived something great, because this mentality had been ground into the very zeitgiest of being a professional artist. Read more>>

Maggie Reina

Viola Hill Studio started as a side-hustle alongside of my full-time job as a UX Designer for a software company. I had always loved design— ever since I took my first graphic design class in high school— but after 4 years of being in the corporate world, I just wasn’t feeling fulfilled. I decided to start an Instagram for Viola Hill Studio as a “creative outlet.” Everything I was dreaming up and designing, I wanted to house in one spot. Read more>>

Cameron Moore

So I’ve definitely been able to put myself in better positions due to my creative career. I recently got brought into a studio to try and help with day to day bookings but with that I’ve been able to make money while also flexing my creativity muscles with clients new and old as well as pushing some of my biggest collaborators videos and media to a different level. It definitely wasn’t like that it’s very new and I’ve been working as a creative since in was in high school. I feel like a big difference would’ve been just me taking that risk to go to a more unconventional job like a studio Read more>>

Chelle Fazal

Many years ago, prior to social media, I attempted to make a full time career from selling my artwork and teaching art classes. It just wasn’t the best timing. My skill and my style really weren’t well established yet, so I had no real cohesive voice. Fast forward to about 7 or 8 years ago, and I was back into painting. Initially, I painted because I had to paint. Many creatives will understand what I mean when I say that. I had worked at the same place for 13 years and had just stepped down from my position. Read more>>

Jordan Smith

It took some time, but being able to make a living with my photography business has been well worth the wait. I started taking images when I was 15, then went to college and got my degree in photography. After that I moved to Nashville, TN and started working retail and eventually became a creative director for a small marketing firm. It really wasn’t until the pandemic hit in 2020 that I realized that not even a “steady” job was all that guaranteed and began to question why I had put off my dream of becoming a full-time photographer for so long. Read more>>

Matt Busch

The opportunity to be able to do what I love and get paid for it is incredible. I’m just so grateful. I knew when I was first starting out how important it would be to stick to my guns and not settle. For me, I knew that I’d rather be poor doing what I love, than to be wealthy and not being passionate about my job. Read more>>

Porscha Letcher

I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to earn a full-time living doing something I absolutely love to do. One day I finally decided to stop working dead end jobs and just put all my time into djing. Working 8+hrs shifts barely bringing home any money and also being a full time mother just wasn’t the life that I wanted for myself. The saying, “Do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” just really stuck with me. Read more>>

Reginald “DJ NTEG” McNichols

Yes, I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work! The journey has been interesting, full of many ups and many downs that’s shaped me. I graduated valedictorian in 2015 from the Ex-treme Institute By Nelly with my degree in recording engineering, production with management! Along that journey it allowed me to make great connections, industry friends, as well as positioned me to put the skills I’d learned in school into practice. I could’ve sped up the process had I decided to pursue my dreams and aspirations sooner. But I believe in divine timing, so the timing was perfect! Read more>>

Eric Ahlgrim

I really got into photographing live music and bands while I was a graphic designer in the music industry. The bands I worked with for graphic work would invite me to shows and I asked if I could bring my camera, so they got me a photo pass and the rest was history. I was hooked. I started building a portfolio shooting as much has I could but it was very difficult at first. A lot of bands “didn’t have it in the budget” but would still like me to shoot. So I was selective on what I would shoot for free, knowing that I was building a portfolio to showcase my work and find actual paying gigs. Read more>>

Ramon Faria

Yes. I living from my creative work more than 15 years. I started work in small business, like t-shirt factories, carpete factories, etc… but always doing the art part from the process (like logos, layouts, shirt print, etc). I always tried to work in my field. In 2007, I was doing my bachelors in Fine Arts, I started a job on a huge TV channel in Brazil, the biggest in Latin America and second in the world in revenue. Read more>>

Monique Cordier

I have been lucky enough to have a consistent and reliable income for two years now! It was not always this way, and took a lot of trial and error. I started my travel blogging journey at the end of 2017 / beginning of 2018. I spent almost an entire year “being a sponge” and trying to learn everything I could about the industry to really set up the path to reach my goals. I read just about every free guide online, paid for many courses on photography, Google SEO, Pinterest Marketing, and website development. Read more>>

DENI

It took me 14 years to finally be able to perform music full time. There were so many steps I took along the way, so if this ends up being too long for the article, I give full permission to edit it down! From 2012-2014, I was in musical classes such as chorus and marching band, which taught me to use my ear and blend with the voices and instruments around me. It really helped me with reading sheet music. Read more>>

Tara Ball

I’ve been a writer alongside my relationship coaching practice for many years. I’ve always enjoyed writing and made some money on the side blogging about relationship advice as well as writing for dating websites. It wasn’t until I tackled having multiple sources of income that I started making more money from content creation than I was from coaching. I also felt like I was reaching more people and providing more impactful information than I’m able to do just meeting one-on-one with clients. Read more>>

Jose Sanchez

Being a freelancer means you get to be your own boss. There’s some allure to that in as much as people desire the level of freedom a freelancer enjoys to set their own schedule and pursue the projects they want but the reality is rarely ever that glamourous. The truth is, freelancing is hard work. When you’re not actively working on a project you’re searching for the next job. Sometimes you find yourself with more than work you wanted and other times you worry if you’ll get a paying client next week. Read more>>

Alyssa Trahan

Yes! It wasn’t always that way, though. When I first moved to Nashville, TN, I had just graduated college and needed to figure out how to make money to pay my bills. I started out making most of my income playing shows, mostly in Nashville and on trips back to my hometown in western NY, and studio work as a demo singer. That made a big dent but didn’t fully cover the bills. So I had to take on some side jobs here and there to make ends meet. Read more>>

Pamela Grant

I’ve been working as a creative in the social media field for the past six years. It started years ago when a brand reached out to ask if I could assist them with their Instagram page after seeing the work I was doing on my own page. And ever since then it has been a roller coaster ride. I always worked quietly in the background and would get clients by word of mouth or people asking how I did something and if I could do it for them. Then the pandemic hit. I think that was a moment in time that made a lot of people rethink things. I started seeing the rise of social media managers and content creators and felt like “I’ve BEEN doing this. Maybe I need to get a little louder.” And that’s what I did. Read more>>

India Hammond

Yes, I’ve been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. My mother also was a hairstylist, so doing hair kind of came natural for me. When I went to college, I ran track and would do my teammates hair which eventually turned into a side job/hustle for me. Being as though I had a full track & field scholarship, I had to make sure that I stayed focused and kept up with my school work and track performance in order to keep it. Read more>>

Madison Rhoton

When I started filming for other people I was working full time at a clinic & attending college. 100% making videos was a side hustle, & I was determined to finish school. The more I filmed, and the more i shared these films the more inquiries I received. It got to the point where I was asking a lot of work off to get to more & more events. My full time job took a turn for the worst & I had to start considering what I was going to do next to simply provide for my family. So I set the goal to just make enough money filmmaking to cover the bills or match the paycheck I was getting from my employer. Read more>>

Ray Price

After being honorably discharged from the United States Army in 2012, I moved to Austin, TX to pursue an Audio Production Degree from the Art Institute of Austin. I had been writing, recording and producing music since my teenage years however, I wanted to learn more about the business of being a creative and expand my knowledge of the music industry. Read more>>

Aye Nicole

So I started my journey at the beginning of the pandemic after loosing two jobs in one week. I felt like it was a sign from God, telling me to get up and go! From day one, I had so much excitement and drive to work. I would create graphics, social media designs, logos, websites, and the list goes on. I quickly found out that I was overworking and underpaying myself. At the time, I did not have the confidence to charge what I deserved. Bills started to pile up so I had to make a change. Read more>>

Brittney Davila

I started my business at the end of 2020. I was working in the medical field, and just like everyone else had experienced changes in their jobs, we experienced so much change in the hospital. I was so miserable and I would wake up every day thinking “If I died today was that it? Can I go out of this world knowing I did what I love?”That’s literally when I knew I needed to go full-time. Read more>>

Beth Snider

Yes, I am able to earn a full-time living from being an illustrator. It did not start out this way because I did not have a source of on-going professional clients who would hire me for work. It was more of a hobby that I was paid for but not enough income to sustain me. When I first started out it was word of mouth from relatives and Facebook friends who asked me to do portraits and wall murals. At that time I painted on canvas with acrylic paint and on walls in people’s homes and for local businesses. It was my main focus for about 10 years. Read more>>

Christian Davis

I’m working everyday to make a living doing what I do. There are times when everything is going great and then times when things are slow bit unfortunately that’s the way of the world. Fast food art fizzles out and to me takes time aways from the best part which is creating the best product. The Definitive Work. Being a Full-time Artist isn’t for the weak. If you expect instant success or instant gratification being a creative isn’t for you. Greatness takes time. You have to fall, get up, go thru trials and tribulations in order to get to where you want to be. Read more>>

Catherine Obanda

Yes, I have. It wasn’t easy at first being an independent artist. No matter what anyone out there tells you, no manager can want a piece of the pie if you do not have something to bring to the table. Running a music business requires lots of learning and unlearning. I registered my record label in 2020, so this is my second year in business. Read more>>

Ryan Hannasch

I am finally able to make a living from my creative work, but it wasn’t always like that. As a graphic designer and musician, I have had over 30 jobs that I used as stepping stones to get me to the next point in my creative career. One of the toughest parts was having friends/family critique my entrepreneurial way of life. After graduating college, I was still broke with only a couple of clients, sometimes no clients. Read more>>

Julie Hoff

I currently make a full-time living using my creative talents creating custom gnomes. This surely didn’t happen overnight, it was a lot of trial and error but well worth the time and patience I put into it. I had been in the grocery business for over 20 years and had to retire early due to a back injury. I realized I wouldn’t be able to return to the line of work I did, so I thought about starting my own craft business. I started out repurposing wood spools into furniture, then took up making fleece blankets. Read more>>