How to Become a Full-Time Creative Entrepreneur in 2026 (Even If You’re Scared, Broke, and Inexperienced)

I thought if I went all in on my dreams of becoming a creative entrepreneur, an artist, a content creator, that I would end up as a starving artist, that it would never take off, that it wouldn't be sustainable income-wise, and that it just wasn't within reach for someone like me, someone who looks like me, someone from my background. Here's what actually was possible for me when I decided to go all in for a whole year. I kind of ate that. We are living through a politically, spiritually, and collectively unstable time. If 2025 showed me anything, it showed me that even a 9 to 5 can't guarantee stability. Entrepreneurship is no longer a risky dream. It's a way to reclaim your time, to rewrite your circumstances. And to take control of your income, especially as first-generation queer, BIPOC, women, neurodivergent entrepreneurs and creatives, we are told that entrepreneurship is risky, it's unrealistic, and the problem with those of us walking this non-traditional journey is that entrepreneurship is heavily misunderstood, so this video is going to debunk the myth of the starving artist, and by the end of this video, you are going to understand how entrepreneurship is accessible for you. Why it is realistic, why it can be sustainable and safe if you know that you don't want to spend your life working and recovering from work, which is how I felt. The nine to five just felt inhumane to me, especially as a neurodivergent, like it just wasn't going to work. It made me feel burnout. My mental health was in the gutter. So Know that that is not your only option and this video is going to map everything out for you. The internal and external work that you need to do is going to make it accessible, it's going to make it clear, and you will leave feeling inspired and motivated and have more clarity and direction of what is actually available and possible for you. This is Luz. Oh She cleanses the space, okay. So in the last about a year, I decided to go all in on my YouTube channel. I decided to go all in on my Etsy shop in January. I made it this far to having a monetized channel, to being able to solo travel twice this year and make money while I was abroad, to building a fully remote. creative business to building passive income with digital products. I had no idea it was going to turn into all this. I just knew I wanted to start a YouTube channel and I wanted to start an Etsy shop and I followed that. Guidance with imperfect action and experimentation, not knowing what I was doing, little to no money, no resources, and I still managed to create a strong and scalable foundation. And so this video is going to help you maybe even shorten that gap, maybe even have your foundation built in three to six months. And then from there, it's just growth. It just depends on how intentional you are with your embodiment and your implementation and what you do with this information. But just know that it is possible for you. A year is not a long time. This video will be split into two parts. One part, creative healing, which is basically all the internal work that's necessary. It's basically the identity work. You could have the perfect plan, the perfect strategy, but the identity that you implemented from... is going to be the source or the sabotage of your success right so it's extremely important your mind your habits your beliefs how you react to things how you spend your day your thoughts are the actual foundation of your success you create your success your money your opportunities through those things through yourself your success is not going to come from anything outside of you so make sure you watch until the end of the video because in the second half I will be sharing the creative healing the identity work parts of entrepreneurship because as an entrepreneur especially as a people of color as women a lot of limiting beliefs a lot of external resistance external opinions okay real obstacles are going to come up the most powerful ones are internal okay and you're going to have to navigate them and I'm going to give you the tools some of the tools to do so. So that you can navigate them without freezing, without stopping. And then the second part will be creative strategy, where I basically will give you a simple three-step business foundation that anyone can build with any job that you have. You can build it and avoid burnout. You can start doing this today. Okay. And? You don't need money to start this. You don't need money to build this. And it's a foundation that's scalable and buildable and will only grow and provide you more income as you grow. And as you refine your marketing and learn what works for the algorithm and what doesn't and what works for you and what doesn't. Okay. So let's start with that. The first step is build a community or grow an audience somewhere. And I would pick one platform. A lot of people advise to, you need to get as many eyes on yourself as possible, post as much as you can on as many platforms as possible. I think that leads to burnout. I think that makes you operate from desperate energy and I think that scatters your energy and reduces your impact. So I recommend focusing on one platform. This is very much more sustainable to do, especially if you're already working full time, you already have, you know, responsibilities and demands and just post consistently at least once a week. Pick your platform. I recommend YouTube because in my opinion it's the most lucrative. It leads to passive income once you reach monetization and you don't have to battle with five second attention spans. You have more like 30 seconds here and It's much more community-based, and you can, since it's long-form content, you can share more of yourself. But you don't have to do YouTube. I have worked with clients, and we have built them a strategy on TikTok. Even without thousands of followers, they were able to create real progress and build income. So there is a pathway for you, no matter what, where you're starting. We will find it. That's what I'm here for. But that is my recommendation, what I did. Grow a community, because the foundation... ...of success is people, is connection, there will always be... an abundance of people. There will always be a market for connection for people who want to learn, people who want to connect, right? That is the root of the success. And so as you're building your audience, even if you don't know what you're going to sell yet, what you're going to make yet, where your income is going to be yet, you will already have a community of aligned and warmed leads and clients and collaborations and community to begin sharing those offers with. So I think that's really important. And while you're building that, you might even be able to make some passive Post consistently. Not perfectly. Here's where a lot of creators and aspiring content creators fail. Do not overcomplicate it. If you don't have time that week for a 30 minute sit down, mic out, you know, setup done, set done, lighting, you know, video. Film a simple one minute video on your drive from your house to work. Fold it into something you already do every day. Film a chitchat video while you're cooking a meal. Film something while you're doing your hair. You have no excuse. I don't want to hear no excuses. If you don't know what to post, pull out your phone. Film a video saying hey this is my first video. I don't know what to post. I don't know where I'm going. I'm confused but I know I have an inner calling that led me here and I'm following it and go from there. You don't need all the answers. You need permission to start where you are as you are. That's it. That's it. It's that simple. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. That is going to be the most magnetic. Not the perfect setup, the perfect lighting, the perfect camera. Showing up as you are, where you are, authentically is going to be magnetic. People are going to relate. Relatability is a huge pull. Honesty is a huge pull. Okay? So that's that. Consistency and authenticity. That's all you need. Nothing else. Step number two, create a digital product of sorts for passive income. This could be many things. It could be a one-page template. It could be a checklist. It could be an e-book. It could be a course. It's up to you. I chose to make an e-book. That's my core foundation digital offer in my e-book. actually funded me while I was in Bali. It's a $22 ebook. Like I had a video sharing about spiritual art, what I, what inspired the book. It got a few thousand views and you know, I set up to get one to two sales a day on a $22 ebook and that stacks up quickly, quickly to over a hundred dollars or whatever. And That goes a long way in Bali, okay? So I would create a digital product to create some sort of passive income for yourself. It could be anything. You can monetize any skill that you have, okay? Mine is like pretty niche. I'm teaching people how to use artwork to heal and to manifest and as a spiritual tool, right? That's pretty niche. And that's something you want to lean into. You have a gift inside of you. And whatever it is, ask yourself these questions. What have you overcome? What can you talk about? For hours and never get tired of what have you accomplished? What have you completed? And usually the answer is within the overlap of those three questions, right? For me, it was what have I overcome? I overcame many circumstantial challenges. I overcame depression and SI and all types of challenges and still managed to return to my most authentic self, to return to happiness, return to joy, to actually feel okay every single day. And Get to a state where I can pursue my dreams despite all the external noise. So that's what I overcame and I feel like a lot of people relate. That is something I can teach. I'm like what is something that I'm good at? You know what is something I'm good at? I went to art school. I have a degree a BFA in studio art. I love doing artwork. I made her. Um, and so I was like, I can teach, I can share about teaching art what it does for me. And so that is where the overlap was for me. Ask yourself those questions, create some type of digital product. Third, create some type of customized high value offer. For example, for a long time, I was trying to make sustainable income off of my ebook and YouTube monetization. Sales are unpredictable. YouTube monetization is also unpredictable and you only get paid once a month and my ebook is only $22. So I would need to sell 20, 30, 40 ebooks to really make a sustainable amount, if that, every month. And that's where things start getting challenging when you have to post and push and you don't have to do that. So I created an offer. That is high value. It's in the $100 to $400 range, right? And that way, I only need two to six yeses a month to be well within the four figures, you know, on top of the income I'm already making. And that's when things start to make sense. And when you don't have just one stream of income, when you have this like ecosystem, living, breathing ecosystem of different options, it's okay when one has a slow month, right? And it's very attainable to get you know three to six yeses a month on an offer if you're sharing it consistently if your messaging is strong and clear and you know your strategy and your identity is on point it's not hard and so i created a fully remote you know coaching and mentorship offer where i teach people how to do the three things above how to build their base you know i it's a brainstorming session because creative problem solving And spotting, you know, pathways that many people won't see spotting the gifts they have that you likely don't see because you're used to it. I help them piece everything together into a plan into their income streams. And by the end of the meeting, they know what to do, where to post, how to post, how to work with the algorithm, they have customized, you know, content titles and pillars and all of that. So that is one of my offers, feel free to join my free community or book with me here. And I also teach people how to do the identity work, the inner work that we are going to talk about next. But that is a more one-on-one offer, right? It's high value and I can price higher for it, right? Now money inner work and pricing and avoiding underpricing is a whole another video. And I'm still in the growth, in the beginning growth phase and healing phase of that. But what I can say is you can't avoid, you know, pricing what you're worth and creating those high value offers because it's, it's the, the foundation, the, the, it's going to create your monthly income. The rest is your, your coffee, your, your subscriptions, you know, your extra. Okay. This is your rent. This is your savings. You know what I'm saying? If that makes sense. So aiming to sell a hundred, a thousand eBooks a month is, it's not sustainable. This is what makes it sustainable and realistic. And yes, there are people who will buy it. Okay. You just have to find them because you don't need a thousand yeses. You need two to three and there's 8 billion people in the world. And you have internet and social media that gives you access to millions of Millions and billions of people. Simple. Girl math. So, put simply, money is neutral. It is not an embodiment or representation of your worth or how people feel about you. It's a piece of paper. It's a number on a screen, okay? It's a mode of exchange. In exchange for money, okay, I am giving people value, insight, information, and an energetic exchange that is going to change their life if they implement it. And when they invest in themselves, when they invest that money, when they got to put a quarter of their paycheck in. They're likely going to take that change, that transformation quite seriously, right? Don't feel bad about pricing what you deserve. Don't feel bad about pricing those offers. Someone will buy it. You are only doing a disservice to yourself and your clients if you underprice. Creative healing. Now into the identity work. This is so important. If I gave you everything I've learned in the last 10 months, foolproof plan, guaranteed that your life would change in six months, you would have multiple income streams. The ability, the skill set to grow an audience, to market, to sell, and the world is your oyster from there. If I gave you that plan, from the identity that you currently have, the beliefs and the habits that you currently have, do you think you would be able to hold it? Be honest with yourself. if i asked myself this question in january the answer would have been no. i would have made excuses. i would have been like that's not possible for me. i would have been stuck in the same habits of escapism and dopamine addiction and i would be stuck in in self-doubt. well someone like me you know i'm black i'm a woman and nobody's gonna watch my channel and blah blah blah all these excuses all this fog from other people's beliefs and projections that aren't even mine. so the the The foundation of what I teach with creative feeling is asking yourself this one question. Who are your beliefs serving? Because if they are not serving you, they're serving a system that sustains itself off of your suffering. Who benefits from you not believing in yourself, staying stuck in the capitalist rat race, staying stuck in the loop of poverty, not chasing your dreams, and not stepping into your power and fully embodying what's possible for you and breaking out of the matrix? Who benefits from that? That's another video though, let me not get sidetracked. But essentially, especially for first generation, for BIPOC, women, entrepreneurs, creatives, unlearn everything you have learned about manifestation, about business. Stop taking advice from finance bros and from people who don't share your experiences, who don't look like you, who don't understand you, who you wouldn't trade places with. Success does not discriminate unless you believe it does. You do not have to meet all these unrealistic conditions to attract success. You are worthy. The version of you that you are right now is worthy of success and capable of creating it. No hustle and grind and strife is not necessary. It's not a requirement for this. No perfection is not a requirement for this. The real like hustle, the biggest struggle, the hardest thing of it all. is allowing yourself. It's not even the arrival at the destination at your goal. The hard part is allowing yourself to have it, allowing yourself to implement the plan and perfectly not knowing what you're doing, allowing yourself to feel and move through fear and doubt and self-sabotage, okay? There was a quote I heard recently. It's not about feeling good. It's about getting good at feeling, okay? You don't have to be happy all the time. You don't have to be positive all the time. Keep your vibration high all the time, okay? You don't have to manifest from a place of spiritual bypassing. You will not have your breakthrough by ignoring, running from the reality, the heaviness of your circumstances. You will have your breakthrough by learning how to co-create with those feelings that come up with that discomfort and from the skills that you've gained from having to navigate challenges. Everything you need is already inside of you right now. I want you to just rest in that. Everything that you need to build the life of your dreams is inside of you already. Right. Now. And this is not just woo-woo. There's actually like so much, I think this should be taught in general and I don't know why we don't all know this, but this is actually backed by neuroscience. And basically it's like you can have so many different layers, colors, experiences that exist, that coexist, exist all at the same time in our reality, right? But you will only experience the things that your mind allows, that your mind was programmed to allow. You will only experience things through the filter of your past, through what you have been told, what you've internalized, your upbringing, right? And now the way that plays into like race politics and critical race theory and all that type of stuff is, somebody please write a book about it because this is going to take me like 10 years to put together and the government might nuke me for it. But, essentially, Yes, there is truth to your limiting beliefs, but you are not a statistic. You are a person. You are a person. And this is why I asked the question, who are your beliefs serving? Because who put those beliefs there? What media, what expectations, what beauty standards, what lack of representation put those beliefs there? That's not the reality that you have to live in. So basically all this inner work is giving yourself permission to pave your own path, manifesting results that transcend the logic of the system. And yes, it's possible. Yes, it's possible. But it's a lot of you have to protect your mind. You have to take your mind and yourself and your mental health and what you're consuming. Extremely serious and that can be hard. There are distractions everywhere. The programming is everywhere. You know this is so deep it can go into so many layers and I can't cover everything in one video but this video is enough to you know give you foundation, give you direction. To start off the year strong on January 3rd, I am hosting a full Zoom workshop that goes into everything in more depth. So it goes into it's basically this video but flushed out in full. So, it is creative healing. We go into the identity work, the specific spiritual, mental, and circumstantial blockages that first generation, BIPOC, queer women, entrepreneurs, creatives, etc. that we face specifically in manifestation and specifically in entrepreneurship, right? So, it unpacks doubt, it unpacks perfectionism, it unpacks things you haven't even thought of yet, things that are affecting you that you don't even know yet, right? It covers that extensively and it provides a skill set. I don't give solutions. I provide you with tools to create a skill set to navigate those problems as they come up because the doubt and the fear and the anxiety is not going anywhere. You just need to strengthen the muscle of being able to feel those things and continue to move forward without making a fear-based decision because each time you level up and you make a decision that is outside of your brain's current capacity, the alarms are going to go off. And you need to learn how to navigate that, not learn how to never feel it. That isn't real. I need you to let go of that expectation right now. So we'll do that. And then we'll work through common misconceptions about entrepreneurship, about all these fake conditions that you think you have to make about being perfect, having the perfect content about, um. Needing tons of followers and I'm going to give examples. I'm going to give success stories and case studies too. So it's really going to break through all those limiting beliefs. Okay, it's going to help you unlearn and rewrite new beliefs that serve you and your goals. Next, we're going to move into creative strategy, and that's when I'm going to break down the actual structure. Right now, I gave you the basic three-step guide, right? But there is a lot to that within marketing, within figuring out how to grow your audience, figuring out how to work the algorithm, figuring out what platform is the best for you, figuring out what even is it that you want to offer. Where do you make the offer? How do you make the offer, okay? How do you market it to people? How do you connect with people? I'm going to break down. All of that in the creative strategy section, okay? That workshop, you can join that workshop. It's a very accessible way into coaching if you want to work with me, but maybe that price point is not yet available to you. You can join this workshop. And if you are ready to jump in to create a personalized plan for you, so we're going to create custom content pillars, okay, custom mindset shifts and action steps and creative practices and skills so that when, you know, doubt and old patterns and fear comes up, you are equipped to navigate it already. Okay, so that is what we do in my one-on-one sessions. As I said, not a solution, but a skill set. And you'll have all that ready. Where most creatives fail is the execution and the embodiment. So I'm helping you get a full plan. I'm giving you all the tools and I'm being like, here's the path. It was here this whole time. I'm helping you reveal the path. I'm giving you all the tools. Here's your knife. Here's your water. Here's your shovel. You're going to need all of this. But it's your job to walk the path and to navigate whatever comes up. And I truly believe in you. I truly believe in you because I've done it, I'm still doing it okay, I have not fully arrived yet, I'm still making progress but I have touched every aspect of my dream life and I'm just putting the pieces together and I know what is possible for you man. Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope this was helpful. I have tons of free resources. I have a five-day challenge to help you ask yourself these questions. Get to the root of what is holding you back. What inner wisdom can you transform into offer? What do you want? What do you want to work towards? I have a five-day challenge to help you uncover those things completely free. I have a business breakthrough guide to understand subconscious resistance and what might be holding you back and why and It's illustrated, includes some magical witchy art too, so it covers mind, body, spirit of everything. So join my free community if you want some free resources and, you know, want to begin right now where you are. I hope this video was helpful. Thank you so much for watching. I had a lovely time talking about it and, yeah. Bye!