Balancing Acts of a Creative

If you ever want to get paid for your creativity you have to learn how to find the balance and value in creating for both yourself and for others.

For those of you who may not know my background, I’ve done creative work with dozens of household name brands and companies since 2020 including Dove, T-Mobile, Dunkin’, Target, Rocket Mortgage, Aerie, Kate Spade, and many more. So I have some experience with creating commercially viable work without sacrificing my creative freedom or authentic voice. And trust me it was something that took time to develop.

With an outlet to create that’s purely for yourself, it’s creative therapy. You learn about who you are and heal your inner child/artist. For me, those passion projects are like a life force - they keep me energized and inspired.

When all my creative juices are just going towards stuff for other people though, I eventually hit a wall. I start feeling burned out and resentful, like I'm just a creative slave. But I know I can't just hide away creating only for myself either. I need that engagement with the outside world to stay sharp. When I indulge too much in the cozy cocoon of only my own imagination, I lose my edge a bit. I start to get a little soft! I thrive most when I've got that balance between pure self-expression and creating for an audience.

The boundaries of client work truly does sharpen our skills. Creativity flourishes best with some constraints in my experience. It's easier to build within a box than create one from scratch. This also gets you more experience with attracting and speaking directly to your audience or customers while authentically being you. You start to find unique ways to bring yourself into everything you do.

Okay, enough of my philosophical ramblings. Here’s how you can become a more balanced creative that still gets to the schmoney:

Nurture Your Inner Artist

Make time for purely passion-driven projects just for you. Don't let the sacred creative play ever fully stop. This is where you discover who you are and what’s in your heart and soul. This is how you know what matters to you because this is what you choose to do just because.

Decide on A Direction

Decide on your why and a general direction of where you want to go. It’s okay for this to change from time to time, but both you and your audience/clients will be more invested if everyone knows where this is going and what you are all about.

Develop Commercial Skills

Take on client work, collaborations, and external projects/gigs that hone your abilities to create content that connects with an audience and gets you paid. This is your marketing, strategy, communication, negotiation, networking, writing, sales skills, etc.

Curate & Monetize Your Self-Expression

Start sharing selective passion projects that feel aligned with your authentic voice. Experiment with monetization through whatever makes sense for your creative medium (brand deals, digital products, merchandise, paid online content, freelance, etc.)

Get Consistent

If you’re not consistent we don’t trust you! Here today gone tomorrow. You need to treat whatever creative project that you want to be commercially viable like it’s a job because it is! You can’t just show up every once in a while and expect us to give a fuck. We don’t!

Embrace Multiple Income Streams

I don’t rely on one source to be my only income source because when your livelihood is dependent on one thing and all your eggs are in one basket you have a lot less freedom. You’ll also naturally be less inclined to make bold moves and take risks creatively.

These are the exact steps I had to take to start getting more brand deals and business opportunities in general that were aligned with me. Don’t compromise on who you are just get another bag elsewhere!

I think finding that balance will be a lifelong journey, but it’s something we can all make happen to reach authentic creative success.

Creatively yours,

Diamond