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.

Sean Cameron

When I was 18, my local TV station, Meridian, had this bizarre little 5:30am slot called Screencast for amateur films. I borrowed gear from my college, roped my cousin into acting, and made a 2-minute spaghetti western about a man haunted by a traffic cone. I did the voiceover in my best Clint Eastwood. I posted the VHS for submission and a few months later, I got a £50 contract for 12 airings. Read More>>

Yoni Zilberman

I always wanted to be a photographer. At 14, I started reaching out to party organizers in Tel Aviv, asking if I could shoot their teen events, even though I had no experience. After a few rejections, one said yes. I shot the event for free, just happy to be behind the camera. At the second event, the producer handed me an envelope. He was impressed with my work, and just like that, I earned my first payment as a creative. Read More>>

Leoanrd Nongthombam

The first dollar I earned was from mixing and mastering for this artist called “KAJI”, he was a friend of a friend who was super into music and experimenting, he hit me up asking to mix and master this freestyle boom bam type sound, and I was so exited to do it because at the time I had just got out of a production house called HeartsAtWork which me and my friend co created and he was moving to Australia and this was 2018 and online/remote wasn’t really a thing. So the entire 2018 Read More>>

Naima Valencia Guillaume

The first dollar I earned from my creative work is a memory that still makes me smile. It was back in 2016. I was still in school at the time, and one of my classmates, who had always admired my drawings, approached me with a very special request. He wanted to give a personalized gift to a friend, something meaningful, something handmade and he immediately thought of me. Read More>>