hey artist, let’s talk about money

Have you ever felt like it’s impossible to make money as an artist or creative person unless you’re famous or have a huge following?

Same girl, same.

In fact, I quit trying for a long time because I was up to my eyeballs in debt and making no money from my craft.

I don’t want that for you. So, I’m here to share a few tips on how to work towards finding your financial freedom as an artist.

It all starts with these two things:

Talk it Out

First things first, I feel like so many artists are struggling to make ends meet because that’s what is expected of us. We graduated from our music, theatre, or other arts program under the impression that we were going to be broke forever. Broke but happy and artistically fulfilled.

The reality is that many of us are broke but also very much artistically unfulfilled.

We have to change the conversation.

So, leverage your current artistic community and ask questions. Talk about how you’re making money and how they’re making money. Chances are, other artists might have ideas and ways to make money that you had never considered.

Once the artistic community starts to talk more openly about money, maybe we can start to shift our perspective on the whole thing. Financial analysts don’t graduate college thinking it’s going to be impossible to get a job and they’ll never make money. They graduate with the knowledge that they have the tools that it takes to succeed and then they get a job and do their thing.

You, artist, have the tools necessary to find success. It might take a bit of creativity and flexibility, but you are more than capable of carving out a financial journey for yourself that doesn’t include minimum wage jobs and debt.

If you have a hard time believing that, you might need to totally transform the way that you think about money as a whole. That was the case for me and it’s taken years but I finally feel like I’m in a place where I understand the purpose of money and have been able to flip my financial life upside down because of it.

I believe you can, too.

Ask for Support

This one might sound scary, but here’s the thing: anyone who follows you on social media, is on your email list, or asks your mom for updates every Sunday after church cares about your career and how it’s going for you. Use that.

There are incredible platforms like Patreon that allow artists and other creatives/entrepreneurs to leverage their fan base and community to make money. There are many people who make a living this way. Other’s use this as a nice way to create a financial cushion.

If you don’t ask you’ll never know, so I want to encourage you to start asking for people’s support (whether through Patreon or another brilliant idea that you have). Chances are you will be surprised at who wants to help you out with $1, $5, $20, or $100 a month.

There are so many ways that you can get creative with making money and asking for support from your current fan base or following. You’ll never know unless you try and if you’re afraid to try, then the only one standing in your way is the one waving back at you in the mirror. Don’t let fear hold you back. Like I said, if you don’t ask, you’ll never know.

You can do this. You just have to believe in yourself enough to try.

Let’s change the conversation about artists and money. One dollar at a time.

Love ya!