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. 

Montae Harris

Man, my first paid gig was a podcast we did with Evo! We had the whole podcast setup in a private room and it was so dope. We had food, drinks, the whole deal. Honestly, it changed my whole perspective on this podcast thing and made me realize what it could really become. Read More>>

Capt’n Scum

Haha, I remember the first gig I ever played quite well. It was at the 60th birthday of a friend’s dad and I wasn’t ready at all, completely unprepared for playing live music and a big lack of skill. So there I was standing, all alone, surrounded by moderately amused and mildly confused strangers my parents age. Read More>>

KMakesBeats

So, as a music producer, we usually have two types of ways we sell beats to artists online. We offer a lease which is simply the artist gets the rights to use the beat they purchase, but they do not own the beat. A lease is usually anywhere between $20-50 per beat. Read More>>

Ayiana Viviana

My first dollar earned as a painter came in November 2022, just two months after I began painting. Someone saw a piece I posted on Instagram, asked how much it cost, and when I told them the price, they sent the money right away. It was such a simple exchange, but for me it felt like a lightbulb moment. Read More>>

Niyah Imani Jean-Pierre

My first dollar earned as a creative came from booking PBS Kids Talk About in August 2022 when I was 10 years old. What’s really cool is that it was also my first audition and my first booking. I got to be on the show with my dad, and we played ourselves. Read More>>

Casandra Tanenbaum

I was hired, at the age of 15, to serve as a teaching assistant for a digital imaging teaching lab at a nonprofit photography institute- I had no special training whatsoever, but driven by curiosity I leapt into studying the most recent version of Adobe Photoshop (version 2.5). Read More>>