#5 When you make your living as a creative
It's a rollercoaster but I wouldn't want it any other way
My entire career I’ve earned a living by creating.
First, it was photojournalism, traveling the world for a newspaper and telling stories through pictures. Then, I embraced video so people could tell their own stories. Ultimately, I shifted into higher ed marketing and communications (for stability to raise three children).
Currently, I hold two jobs — I’m the founder and CEO of a visual communications agency, and I work for a think tank translating complex ideas into stories everyone can understand.
But this isn’t about me — I just wanted you to know where I’m coming from.
This is about all of us who live at the intersection of multiple identities — artist, worker, observer, producer, meaning maker and more.
It’s a tricky thing, earning an income with your creativity. Lines blur between where you end and the work begins. And critique often feels personal. If the output is adored, then you’re brilliant, innovative, visionary. But if the output falls flat, well, let’s just say it’s a lifetime journey learning how not to take it personally.
But it’s also magical to create something new, isn’t it? To wake up every day and dare to understand something or someone and then express it through words you piece together, visuals you create, stories you tell, and more.
It’s also really hard though, right? To keep an endless faucet of creativity flowing, to reliably show up even on the days you’re uninspired, and to vulnerably put your ideas out there.
I often tell people, “I connect humans through visual stories.” That’s ultimately what I do. It’s as simple as that. But it’s not easy.
To be a creative is to constantly grasp, bend, shape-shift and interpret. But to be paid for your work is to run a daily gauntlet of deadlines, invoices, opinions and critique.
It’s really hard. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
After all, I create because I can’t not create.