Don't just be a Profitable Creative - Be a WEALTHY Creative in 2026

I didn't quit my high-paying software engineering job at Apple to make LESS money in my photography business. I quit because I saw that building my own creative business meant there would be no salary ceiling. I'd be in control of how much I make—not some VP deciding my worth based on years of experience.

You deserve to be a WEALTHY creative.

In this episode, I'm breaking down:

• Why I REALLY quit my corporate job (hint: it wasn't to "follow my passion" and accept less money)
• The difference between being profitable and being wealthy—and why it matters
• Why there's no salary ceiling when you run your own business
• The biggest mistake I see creatives making on the road to becoming a profitable & wealthy creative
• What it actually takes to go from employee to full-time creative earning more than your 9-5

If you've ever felt like you should "just be happy" with your creative business, or if people keep asking about your "little business" like it's cute hobby... this episode is for you.

Ready to take the first step? I'm teaching a free live class: 7 Steps to Make a Full-Time Income from Your Creative Business. Register at https://go.emilykim.co/7

Thanks for listening!

Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilykim.co

Join the free, private Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theprofitablecreatives

Website: https://emilykim.co
Photo & video services: https://emilykimphotography.com/

Transcript

0:40

I want you to not only be a profitable creative, but a wealthy creative. I want you to fund your retirement with your creative business. I want you to break through your salary ceiling with your creative business. I want you to break through all of these limits because when you work for somebody else, an employer, a nine to five job. No matter how much money you are making, even if you are getting paid a high salary, You are still at the mercy of your employer when it comes to your total compensation. Okay. Hi, profitable creatives. Where have I been? Why has it been almost a year since I last published? First of all, I was trying to do the most, um, let me tell you, keep in a weekly podcast publishing schedule. I was like, no, I can definitely do it. No, everybody's right. It was just another thing. I was just, I was not ready to commit to a weekly schedule, so I'm not gonna promise you a publishing schedule on when I'm gonna drop episodes. This podcast is in the long term plan. I am just not gonna put pressure on myself to release episodes. But this, I just, I felt that you needed to have this episode. I think somewhere along the road, we as a collective have blurred the lines of what it means to be a profitable creative. When I say profitable creative, what I really mean is a wealthy creative. If you've listened to past episodes, you know that I used to be a software engineer at Apple in Silicon Valley. I got paid a lot of money. I quit this high paying job to run my photography business. And I wanna get clear on my intention of why I did this. It was not, oh, I'm gonna quit my soul sucking nine to five cubicle job so that I can do what I love and I'm not gonna make as much money, but I'm gonna be happy. No, no, no, no. Listen, first of all, I am happy. Second of all, no, no, no, no. I quit my job, my high paying software engineering job in Silicon Valley because I do not want to be. Limited by my salary ceiling of whatever, the VP of budget, whatever, decides that I can get paid based on how many years of experience that I have. No, I quit because I saw that if I build my own business, my own photography business, there is no salary ceiling. I am in control of how much money that I make versus having a manager who has to go up to their manager, who has to go up to their manager to argue of how much money and how much shareholder value I am bringing. When you run your own business, you are in control of your salary. You are in control of how much money that you make. So I just wanna be clear, I did not quit to make less money and settle and be happy for that. I quit because I want more. I wanted more. And I want that for you too. If you also happen to be on the Tech to photographer pipeline or Tech to Creative pipeline, I don't want you to think that, oh, I'm never gonna make as much money as I made in tech. No, no, no, no. Anybody who's listening, you're not limited. This is the best place that you could be because when you are building your own business, you are learning how to sell yourself. You are learning how to market yourself. You are learning how to handle visibility and be seen by other people who don't believe that being a wealthy creative is possible. These are all very difficult things to do, but when you do them, there is no ceiling. There is no salary ceiling for you. You should not settle for less because everyone else around you is saying, ohoh, how's your little business going? Oh, you can't make that much money. As a creative, you absolutely. Can. And if you have listened to past episodes of this podcast a while back, I have an episode of My Journey to my best year yet in my photography business. And then we had a little bit of a break. Okay. I moved across the country. I had to find myself a little bit. I've been doing a lot of internal mindset work because I'm not gonna lie, this move from West coast to East Coast, it really rattled me. It really shook me up. It really, I messed with my confidence and when I moved here I was like really doubting myself of can I actually do this? So that's part of the reason why you haven't seen me in a while, is because I was like spiraling for a hot minute. Well, I've been doing a lot of mindset work and your girl's back. Okay. As much as I wish I could have been publishing episodes throughout that and really documenting my thought process. I'm actually kind of glad that I didn't, because had I published episodes, I think you would've through osmosis caught my lack of confidence and I don't want that for you. I am back. We're back on track. I started my photography business because I saw long term this is going to exceed my total compensation beyond my wildest dreams. Okay. I could have taken the linear path, I could have stayed at Apple. I would know exactly how much money I would be making. I know exactly where all of my money would be, and right now I don't have that certainty. The only thing that I know right now is I have 110% trust in myself to do what I have set out to do. The tricky part with running your own business is it's not linear. I would've been promoted once, maybe twice by now. Had I stayed at Apple, I, like I said, know exactly what I, how much money I'd be making. I'd be managing a team of probably six to 10 people. I'd be in meetings all day, and I don't know what the future holds right now for me and my creative business. All I know is that I am building the skills, I am doing the mindset work. I'm doing the internal development that I need to be doing to build a business that exceeds what I could have ever expected in my corporate job. As creatives, we really need to stick together, especially if you wanna be a wealthy creative, because creative business owners, we are under so much pressure and so much external noise because we have been conditioned to believe that it is not possible to be wealthy and creative. So much noise. So just, just so many people telling us that it's not possible, and it's not that they're doing it with malicious intent, it's because they're trying to keep you safe. Your brain is trying to keep you safe when it tells you things like, oh, like maybe I should just be happy with what I have. Because not a lot of people get to be a creative business owner. No, no, no, no, no. You can want more. It's okay. This is the work that I have been doing, uh, this last year. I am just, I'm really excited because, I am teaching my last free training of the year, and it's something that I've never done before. It's called the Seven Steps to Make a Full-Time Income from Your Creative Business, because this is really step one in the process. Not only do I wanna make a full-time income with my creative business, which I have and I do already. But I know a lot of people are working towards that. That's why this is the class that I'm teaching. But making a full-time income from your creative business is step one on the journey of becoming a truly wealthy creative, and making more than you could ever imagine doing the traditional route. Oftentimes I see creatives and in myself in the last couple of years trying to solve for step 100 problems when you need to solve for step one problem. So let me give you some examples. I started this podcast too early. I was trying to launch all of these different things and do all of the things I'm, I'm trying to do the most because I'm like, this is gonna be the one thing, the one strategy that's gonna launch me into a million dollar business. No. Okay. I was not listening to my own advice. Focus on one thing, which I know is really hard, especially as a creative, because we like lots of different things, but less is better when you are trying to scale a business. Why is less better? Because when you focus on one thing, you get better at one thing. You become the expert at one thing, and you learn the levers that you have to pull to make more money from this one thing. For example, for me in particular, my one thing in business is photography. If I need to book five photography clients next week, I know exactly what levers I need to pull to do that. The reason why I have so much confidence in this is because it is my one thing, for years. The only thing I did was sell and book brand photography clients. And that's why I can say, oh, do I need more cash this month? Let me go book a photography client. Like, it's easy for me. And it can be easy for you too to book whatever client you're looking for, whether it's photography, videography, makeup, coaching, design, va, whatever you're doing. It can be this easy for you too. You just have to stop trying to do everything all at once. Focus on booking and selling. The one thing, your one creative service. I call it your full-time offer, and the rest will come because now that I have the confidence to book and sell as many photography packages as I need to, now I can move on to scale this thing and to grow this thing, but I wouldn't be able to do that had I not developed the skills to make a full-time income from my one service, so this is what I am teaching in this free class. I'm really excited about it because like I said, I've never taught something like this before. The day I decided to start taking my creative business seriously, I went from being a full-time employee in my tech job to going full-time and having my highest revenue and profit year yet in my business in just 18 months. I am gonna get into the nitty gritty of my own creative business journey, and I'm gonna break down step by step. After I decided to start taking my creative business seriously, what exactly did I do to go from five to 10 to 50 to a hundred thousand to$246,000 in annual revenue? This is what I'm going over in this free training. So I would love to see you there. the link to register is in the show notes. It is a live class. There will be a limited time replay available. Or you can go to go.emilykim.co/7 The digit 7, don't spell it out. Seven. It's go.emilykim.co/7. I will see you there. And again, I'm not committing to a regular publishing schedule, but the podcast is around We're we're around here. All right. I'll see you there.