We recently connected with Puck Kroonsberg and have shared our conversation below.

Puck, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

Creating a full-time living from my creative work did not happen overnight. It has been a journey the past 2 years with many ups and downs. But something inside of me told me to keep going in times of self-doubt or the doubts from the external world.

I used to follow a conventional path meeting all the standards of society with a good job, a stable income and a permanent contract but found little freedom down this road and felt stuck to confining my ideal world to investing my time and energy into other people’s dreams. After working full-time 40/50 hours a week working irregular shifts from nights, mornings to evenings something had to change. I worked full-time for 5 years and had saved up. Once I did make the decision to take the leap of faith and start as an entrepreneur I worked many side jobs freelancing to sustain making my dream come true. I also ended selling all my belongings and trading my old life for the new unknown.

2 years back I would have only dreamed of where I am now and judging it as impossible. But looking back on discovering what works for me as an entrepreneur I am so happy I pushed through limitations.

Constantly going through uncomfortable & confronting self-examination:
* what am I capable of
* what are my talents
* too what do I have to offer
* am I enjoying it?
* decide rates, prices, worth
* networking networking networking
* opening up on social media
* learning all new skills from scratch
And discovering it. Whilst I was an still am growing my mindset each day.

Puck, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

After I had spend a year long immersing myself into personal growth books, podcasts, meditations, and more. The biggest insight I had gained is that the only limit is our mind, our thoughts and what we perceive to be a reality, a possibility which often downsizes to the standards of society. And so, I took the leap of faith to quit my job 2 years ago and departed to the Caribbean island Bonaire for 3 months.

I knew I wanted to create 1 thing: the Freedom
The freedom to manage my own schedule, to work any where in the world, to not be over-working. Whilst the work I would be doing would have something meaningful to it for others that would inspire them to live their dream. There is so much potential in all of us. But first I had to go out and discover my own.

It started off with a Business Coach as I had no idea to start, she gave me the tools and confidence to start believing in what I wanted to do. On the island I felt so inspired by the island lifestyle and the other creative people here. By the end of the 3 months of living on Bonaire I called my mom crying “I wanna live here, I am so happy”. I ended up giving up my entire life in Holland and registered myself as an entrepreneur:
“Freedom Warrior”
It’s not easy to create the life you desire because you will meet resistance from within or without, I am just here to remind you and even myself that anything is possible.

Ever since I started as an entrepreneur I have been:
– coaching fellow twentiers 1.1 (yes I am 26 now)
– growing my social media
– A motivational speaker (a TEDx Speaker)
– modelling
– personal branding coach (helping fellow entrepreneurs with their social media)
– ambassador for conscious brands, partnering with them
– underwater photographer
– Lifestyle photographer (weddings, brands, family portraits, etc)

And I had many other freelancer jobs whilst I was growing my income streams
– surf instructor
– snorkel tour guide
– waitress at the beach
– international nanny
– receptionist

So if you would ask me what’s the difference between an entrepreneur and a freelancer?
As an entrepreneur you set yourself out to be your own personal brand, there is a story behind it, where you stand for and why people would like to work with you. I never feel like I am ‘selling’ myself as what I share comes from my core and what I believe in: Freedom. Moreover, I am offering services and products in different forms.
The freelancer jobs are for me jobs I got to do on zero to hour agreements with the flexibility of managing my own schedule. Although the flexibility of managing your own schedule counts for an entrepreneur too.

What I personally find most ironic of all the different things that I have done is that I have zero to little education for it all. Everything I have been doing I learned myself by being highly observant, eager to learn and most of all the willingness to fail.

One of the main topics people talk about is “what do you do” and personally I keep hitting the wall of fitting into ‘one category or box’. I don’t like to do one thing, I love to do a lot of things and preferably all at the same time ;)
And so on.

It is only a matter of time before even more people will create their freedom.

And of course, freedom comes with uncertainty, instability in some ways, doubts, stress, but the question I think you can be asking yourself is what do you value more? Free time and flexibility, or stability and set-up structure. Even though I believe you can have both whilst being free too, the biggest difference is: do you dare to create it?

2 years later I am now living on the island after many twists and turns in my journey to really start immigrating on Bonaire. Building a new life and sustaining a full-time living from my creative services.

Next up a Sailboat Retreat for Freedom Seekers on the Caribbean island Bonaire. Are you ready to create your freedom? To live your personal legend? Find me on social media to hop along on this journey together to freedom, independence and inspiration.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I followed a conventional path until I was 23 to the point that I burned out and felt super unhappy at home recovering for 1 year long. I made a promise to myself to come back stronger than ever and to transform myself and as a result my life. And here we are. I feel like I have discovered my authentic self and now live according to that person. It took a lot of time of overcoming internal and external self-doubt as a matter a fact I am still uncovering layers and learning so much each day. Riding the waves of change towards the life I know I am meant to be living. Untamed, wild & free.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that you will see that once you give yourself time and discipline to learn, fail and do it all over again outside of your comfort zone, that is where the magic will begin to happen. The small glimpse of “I got this”.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freedomwarrior__/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/puck-kroonsberg/
• TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6Kk2yxZHuI
• To work with Puck: https://linktr.ee/Puckkroonsberg

Image Credits
Puck Kroonsberg (underwater photo’s) Ishika Photobook (Instagram) > red colored picture