Earning that first dollar is incredibly special and a moment many never forget. We asked some very talented creatives from the community to tell us the story of the first dollar they earned from their creative works.

Roey Qiu

The first time I earned revenue from my creative work was through a commission from Julian. He discovered my work at my graduate show, where he collected my name card and later explored my portfolio on my website. Julian reached out shortly after, sharing how much he loved my work and how it deeply resonated with him. He commissioned a series of my work, which was incredibly exciting. Read more>>

Kevin Castillo

The first time I ever earned a dollar from doing a Photoshoot was with my friend Neidy, she saw that I was starting to take pictures and ask if I can take pictures of her at a park and how much would I charge. I was barely starting so my price REALLY low I told her $50 for the hour. I know it’s a little bit but most definitely it felt nice getting paid to do something you love Read more>>

Ibec Francis

The first time I earned money as a photographer was during my freshman year of college. I wanted to start college with a small photography business, and since I already had a good collection of photos on my photography page @_.i.capture_, I felt qualified to do so. A few days after being featured on my college’s small business shoutout page, I received a message from someone at the college who was starting a clothing brand and needed photos of their clothes. I was excited, and naturally, I asked all the right questions: “What are the options? How would you like the photos to be taken? Do you need models, or will the clothes be photographed alone?” We settled on a day and I got to work. Read more>>

Aleksandra Marshaniia

The first time I ‘earned’ money as a creative wasn’t actually money—it was a case of beer! I was in my early 20s, performing with a band at a local rock festival. They arranged this super cool rock bus to get us to the venue, and instead of cash, our payment was beer. We literally got showered with it, and for a young adult chasing the dream, it felt like such an adventure. Read more>>

Paul Matte

The first dollar I ever made as a creative was all the way back in Scotland in 2022. I had just crossed over from working crew positions on film sets and I was now stepping into the realm of acting. A friend of mine, Valor Grey, knew I was getting started and referred me to a heavy metal band who were shooting a music video in Cumbernauld. Read more>>

I absolutely love sharing this story, and frankly, I don’t do it enough! My first creative dollar was earned so unexpectedly. It was my senior year of high school and my art teacher (shout-out to Mr. Wallace) challenged us to create a painting of an everyday object. At the time, my chosen medium was pencil or charcoal, and I was completely terrified of using paint. It was permanent; I couldn’t make a single mistake, at least that’s what I used to think. Read more>>

Isabel Grijalva

My creative journey lately has been mostly focused in content creation posting videos on Instagram. However that’s not where my journey as a content creator began. People who have been recently following along on my content creation journey probably didn’t know I originally started out selling pet portraits. In 2020 I got my puppy Maggie a mini goldendoodle I made her a instagram account one day I came across people who made pet portraits and thats where it all began, I was inspired to give digital art a go creating pet portraits so I dug out my old tablet and practiced drawing eventually as I got more confident in my drawing abilities I made a instagram account @Izzygrijalvadesigns where I began to post my artwork. I posted constantly making friends with other artists and growing my audience along the way. Read more>>