Often we don’t have to reinvent the wheel to learn something new – we can just ask experts in the field who can draw on their experience to enlighten us. Below, we’ve shared insights insiders from various industries have shared with us.

Fernanda Ramos-Francia Y.

Growing up, Sundays meant double features at the movies with my family. It was a ritual that sparked my imagination and also nurtured a deep sense of curiosity. Around the same time, I became obsessed with The Devil Wears Prada, convinced I was destined to be the next Andy Sachs or Carrie Bradshaw. I imagined myself in New York, writing for a living and having article-worthy adventures with my friends. Read More>> 

Rio & Tane Walker

Creativity has always come naturally to me. I (Rio) was that kid who always had a video camera in hand—documenting family trips, milestones, and anything that felt meaningful. Storytelling through video was something I gravitated toward long before I realized it could become a career.

My mom, who was a wedding photographer, played a huge role in encouraging me to take my love for video seriously. She pushed me to explore it further in high school, and I’m so glad she did. That early foundation not only shaped my skills but also my passion for capturing people’s most meaningful moments. Read More>> 

Evan Engisch

My ‘career’ path went from musician to spacecraft engineer, back to musician, but has always been driven by an innate desire to create something bigger than myself.

I have actual baby photos of me playing drums and piano in diapers, so creating music was always there. My father ran a recording studio from an A-frame attached to my childhood home, so I grew surrounded by musicians. I adopted a determination to carve a place for myself in that world. Read More>>

Alexa Fanchette Brown

I pursued an artistic career because it’s one of the highest forms of self expression. It’s a career that is constantly challenging you and forcing you to grow, evolve, and go deeper. In my field of acting it allows me to explore and study myself and humanity as a whole. Read More>> 

Anthony Jakobs

I remember being in elementary school, watching a Lana Del Rey interview where she said to pick your role models wisely and to find people who inspire you, and learn what they did to get to where they are and do the same.

Growing up, I found school to be difficult and often struggled to remain interested. I didn’t have any passion for the subjects I was learning about; I could only ever think about the films I watched and the records I listened to. Adolescence is a difficult time; you’re learning so much about yourself and the world. It’s all so overwhelming. I wanted to make work that connected with people the way all my favorite artists did. Read More>>

Amin Amirkhani

I chose to pursue music because it’s the most honest way I can express the emotions I feel and observe in the world around me. Music allows me to connect deeply with others and myself. It has a healing effect, both personally and for those who listen, especially when i explore different sounds and sets with my instrument. The idea that my work could inspire or comfort someone, or simply make them feel understood, is what motivates me to stay engaged in the artistic field. For me, it’s not just about creating,it’s about communicating and making a lasting emotional impact. Read More>> 

Madi White

It’s funny you ask that. For the first few years after college, I worked in HR for an LA-based coffee company where I did everything from hiring to payroll. Not super glamorous, but it was what I thought I was supposed to be doing. You go to school, get the degree, work the job, buy the house (if you’re lucky) and then you know the rest! It was only after a couple years into the job that the unsettling feeling took root in my stomach. I began wondering, “is this all there is?” I thought surely, there must be something else out there. Another way of doing things, of living life, that wasn’t this. Read More>> 

Bailey Geyer

I have always been a creative person, and creativity has been a driving force behind everything I do. I wanted to be happy in life and do something that is fulfilling, so I turned my passions into a living. Read More>> 

Marion Parajes

I pursued a creative career because I love taking on a variety of different projects. I describe myself as a multidisciplinary visual artist as my personal work includes drawings, animation, printmaking, and ceramics, while my professional work consists of illustrations, murals and zines mainly for advocacy based nonprofits or grassroots orgs. Through the different projects I’ve worked on I also step into roles as an educator, teaching on concepts such as climate change, sustainability, urban design, and creating activist art. Read More>> 

Israel McCloud

I chose to pursue an art career because of my fascination with the possibility of taking something from my imagination and bringing it to life. To think that an idea once existing only in my mind can now be made tangible—as if pulled from the ether—is magic to me. I also attribute my natural inclination toward art to a family lineage of artists that stretches far back. Watching my father, uncle, aunt, and cousins all make a living by stretching the imagination of the collective consciousness not only showed me that it’s possible, but also that it’s my responsibility to contribute my own unique perspective on life to the world. Read More>> 

Leslie Fram

Did I pursue a creative career? If I did, it wasn’t a conscious decision.

Growing up in a cosmopolitan capital like NYC—it seems inevitable that I would be drawn (pun intended), to the creative spirit and beauty in all its guises. Starting very young, dancing with the New York City Ballet, I marveled how ballet incorporated dance, drama, set design, music, to produce an ineffable magic. A lifetime immersed in art was inescapable. I was hooked. Read More>>

Nick Choi

I’ve always believed my brain is wired more creatively, and that became especially clear right out of college. I was thrown into the deep end of corporate America, working 50 to 60 hours a week, and quickly realized I was trying to be someone I wasn’t. Yes, I earned a degree in business, but I didn’t leave college excited to crunch numbers and stare at spreadsheets all day. Read More>> 

Phantom Dog

I was definitely born to be creative and passionate person but being a musician/producer was something i didn’t necessarily plan for. From a young age i was always musically inclined. I started writing songs in kindergarten, I learned saxophone at 10, and taught myself guitar when i was 13. When my grandmother gave me her Ibanez guitar that changed everything for me. I suddenly had the goal to start a band and spent years trying to find “my people”. 4 years flew by and i had no luck finding bandmates. Until one day i met a person who completely changed my life. I went to their home and they offered me a hit from their bong. I exhaled and instantly started dancing.  Read More>> 

Mariana R. Serra

I think, in a way, I didn’t really choose it. It chose me. Growing up in Brazil, I was always telling stories. I was scribbling in notebooks during class, staging plays and elaborate make-believe games with my brother in our living room, obsessing over films and books like they were secret maps to some bigger truth. At first, I thought it was just something that made me feel alive, a hobby. And honestly? I treated it like one for a long time. Read More>> 

Beth Sleven

Wow! Nothing like a big existential question to start off an interview with. : )
In all honesty though, for me the answer is, I simply never considered doing anything else. (Actually for a hot second I thought about being an archaeologist, but then I realized that was just because I wanted to be Indiana Jones).
Getting into animation never felt like a decision I made. From the moment I started watching animated films as a kid, I never wanted to do anything else. I became driven to learn everything I could about traditional animation, how it was done, how the stories were told, and what it took to tell them. Read More>> 

Linda Sanchez

My passion for photography stems from my love of connection. I’ve always been fascinated by the way people light up when they feel seen, heard, and comfortable.

What better way to combine my love of laughter, storytelling, and people than through photography?
With 29 years of comedic experience (yes, you read that right—keeping you smiling is my specialty!) and an ever-growing love for capturing life’s most authentic and joy-filled moments, I launched my business in January 2022. Read More>> 

Helen Hayden

I actually didn’t set out to pursue a career in the arts. I thought I’d go into medicine or health care, because I really felt this need to be of service, and that was sort of the most literal expression of that calling. But I grew up immersed in music, choir, dance, theatre, and eventually I realized – through the help of “wise men” along my way, that truly the best way to serve others is to follow that which calls you, and to use the gifts and talents that you were given. Acting and writing from a very young age seemed to be sort of native to me.  Read More>>

Theodore Taylor

Entertaining was basically all I knew how to do. I started out as a theater major, but everything changed when a friend took me to a comedy club in Houston at 18—I got hooked right away. A couple of years later, people actually started paying me to perform. That’s when it clicked: if I could make a living making people laugh, I was going to give it everything I had. Read More>>