Stop Collecting Jobs and Start Building your Creative Career

There’s one question that always comes up at parties, barbecues and basically any event that forces you to make small talk.

What do you do for a living?

For some people the answer is pretty straight forward: nurse, teacher, feng shui consultant.
But for many people in film and media, the answer sounds more like a list of special interests than an occupation.

To make my case, I asked 3 recent AFTRS grads. Here were their answers:

Screenwriter, actor and singing teacher.
Director, producer, graphic designer and barista.
Radio presenter, actor, social media manager and video editor.

So having more than one job might not be anything new for people in the creative industries. But how do you build a successful career as a multipassionate, multi-skilled creative?
And more to the point – how do you make enough money so you’re not just collecting random side-hustles like they were Disney Ooshie’s?

The answer is simple. You build a portfolio career. Strategically.
Jules Fedele, a portfolio career coach for women, says to start with an ‘anchor’ income. Something stable that gives you a foundation to build other income streams from.
And this is exactly what award-winning Actor, Director and Auctioneer, James Pratt did. He pursued his acting and real estate career at the same time. He found that unlike acting, real estate auctioneering offered him fast momentum and financial stability. But he says the key is in finding something that supports you without taking from your creativity. To hear the full story head to the AFTRS FM Podcast.