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.

Mixie

I have a one hundred dollar bill double-sided taped, and wedged between lots of art, stuck up on my wall. This one hundred dollar bill was from one of my first visual shoots, and was completely valueless. A prop piece of paper that looks cool from afar, deceiving up close, and meaningful to only me. Read more>>

Samuel Armando Gunawan

So, back when I was a teenager, I was blessed enough to have a really wonderful teacher, which often asked me for help to do some work like creating musical arrangement and performing. That’s how I basically started being able to “earn” as a musician. But for a more professional level, one of my song was licensed by a pretty reputable game company, PeroPero for their rhythm game. I got the chance since I joined their competition where they are looking for composers and producers who are trying to get into the rhythm game sphere. This opportunity basically gave me a pretty good boost on my presence as music producer, which helped to gain some reputation for upcoming gigs. Read more>>

Emma Erion-brewer

I spent the better part of 2017 creating my company Emma Sage Fine Art and painting my first set of paintings in my Party Animals series. It was just me, my now husband and my immediate family who saw them, so I had no idea what others would think. Then in preparation for my first art show that September I got my paintings photographed and made into prints, magnets and greeting cards. Going into that art show I had no idea what to expect or how my art would be received by strangers – to my shock my booth was busy the whole day and I sold a massive amount of inventory. It was a mixture of relief that all my hard work was paying off, and deep pride that complete strangers were resonating with what I created. So many people were coming up to me and saying things like “this animal reminds me of my Uncle” or “this one makes me smile”. It was such a good feeling to finally be out of my creative bubble and realize that what I created was actually impacting people the way I hoped it would. Read more>>

Kim Bennett

Technically, I got my first paying gig when I was eight years old. It was a TV Christmas special for a local station in Cleveland Ohio. I had one line (which I remember to this day). It was quite a memorable experience because due to a heavy snow storm, I was driven downtown to the studio by taxi, all by myself and then stayed overnight in a hotel, sharing a room with the other little girl in the film. Of course there was trustworthy adult supervision but no one I actually knew, although my parents did. Read more>>

Adana Tillman

My first artwork sold came very unexpectedly. I began back into my art journey was mainly therapeutic. I was in banking and needed to get back into a creative outlet. I started posting on Instagram before it became the giant that it is now. After posting one of my pieces, I received a DM asking if the piece was for sale. That became my first sale as an artist. My first collector was a friend of friend of friend. It gave me the confidence to put my work out there even more. From there, I did a booth at local church that was set up in the parking lot I had my works displayed on the table along with warm donuts to entice potential buyers! These two events happened within a few months of each other and the warm reception received over the works was unbelievable. The crowd that consumed the table was overwhelming and exhilarating. Read more>>

Max Zaleski

When I was breaking into wrestling, roughly 2012, it was more or less as a fan. There wasn’t a lot going on in Washington State (where I live) to get involved. I went to college to become an interpreter for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing and, given my love of professional wrestling, I noticed that DVDs and streams of wrestling content didn’t have subtitles / captions. So, I started a petition called “Wrestling with Subtitles” and eventually got the WWE and TNA / Impact Wrestling to put captions on their physical releases. By the time 2016 rolled around, streams also had live captions. This was a huge achievement and afforded me a lot of contacts and knowledge of social media in the burgeoning days social media marketing (2012-2014). Read more>>

Dan Gheno

I made my first dollar—actually $10 as an artist at age 16 when I was asked to do a weekly sports cartoon for the Santa Barbara News-Press, lampooning the competitions between the many local High School football teams. It lasted for only around 10 or so weeks, the extent of that year’s football season, but it was a very formative experience, teaching me a lot about the importance of meeting a hard deadline. I still remember the admonition of one of the reporters there, Walker A. Tompkins, who advocated for me getting the job. “There’s no I’m sick, or can I just finish the cartoon for the next day’s paper,” he said. Read more>>

Jojo Nessim

As a kid, I was always drawn to arts and crafts. My mom introduced us to so many creative projects growing up, and having a grandma who was an artist made it feel like making things was just a natural part of life. My dad would take my sister and me to Michaels, and we’d spend hours wandering the aisles, deciding on our next project. Some of my favorites were duct tape wallets, loom trivets and potholders, sewing pillowcases, and beading jewelry. Our lemonade stands would always end up doubling as little art shops—we loved selling our creations, and every sale gave me such a rush of excitement and motivation to keep making more. Read more>>

Sage Wolf

After some time of paying for beats and studio time me and A’yo TD together decided to start investing into our own home studio so we could record at any time. I had already started making music videos at this point but had only gotten a few small $300 or less gigs so we came up with the idea to create a bundle deal where an artist could get a beat studio time and a music video together for $1000. As soon as I posted the idea on my Instagram story I immediately had lots of interest and one Colorado artist Qsuicide that same day sent the full thousand dollar deposit before we had even bought any studio equipment so that basically sealed the deal and the rest became history. He also did the very first ever “In The Box” Freestyle Read more>>

 

 

 

 

Fiona Jeppson

It is so exciting to earn your first dollar as a creative because it allows you to feel that this path is possible. I will break this answer down into two areas, my first dollar earned from family/friends and my first from a stranger because I do think there is a difference. When I first opened my art business, Wildridge Moon, I was so nervous. Nervous about sharing my art with others, nervous of what people might think and it took a lot of courage for me to take that first step. When I launched the business, I was so touched by the outpouring of encouragement from my family and friends. Not everyone has that level of support and so I know how lucky I am there. Now, the question was, would those kind words and encouragement actually turn into purchases? Within 24 hours, I had multiple orders from family and friends for some of my art prints. This completely warmed my heart and helped to give me the confidence that my art was something that people would want. I was deeply grateful for the support and just the thought that my art would be hanging in others homes moved me so much. Read more>>