Making a living out of something you love doing may sound utopic to some. But whoever coined the phrase “do what you love and the money will follow” may have been on to something.

This is something that we have actually been experiencing first hand here at Kinlake.

I’m going to start with my personal story. One of the things that I always loved doing since I was a small kid was to draw. So, when I was at school, you’d find me drawing in class, on notebooks, class books, my friend’s arms, everywhere. I was so into this that it actually built me a reputation of being the little introverted artsy one. As a result, I had a few fan friends who asked me to draw things in their books, and of course, I did also get bullied by some popular extroverted kids. Tough love! But, I kept drawing. And then at university, I did the same. As I was getting bored in class, kept doodling things for me and for everyone else. Then one day, a teacher saw this and asked me to draw a mural in her house in the same style. I was stoked and confused: WHY ME? So there I was, doing this crazy illustrative mural at my teacher’s home. It took me almost two weeks. I made a video out of it, shared it online and just a few months later I was asked for another one, and got paid for it. Without realising it, this kickstarted my creative career and I found myself making a living out of what I love. I was getting paid to do the creative stuff I was passionate about.

Now that I am associated with David and that we have Kinlake, we apply this same creativity for a variety of projects. I’m not doing murals anymore, as I developed different new skills throughout the years. Unconsciously, this “just do it” principle was applied in my graphic design as well. I’m experimenting with different illustration styles, hand lettering and food styling (yes, a very important part in food photography!). Yet there are so many more things I want to explore and be hired to do.

The other day, we went to this awesome design gathering called “The Open End“, here in Luxembourg. One of the speakers were two guys from Trier who have a mind-blowing illustration studio called FOREAL. Their whole presentation was based around the variety of their projects and the stories around them. Somehow they also proved something more: self initiated projects are truly connected to projects that you later will get hired to do. They showed some really great examples of work that they had first experimented with on a personal basis (just for fun), which actually led to similar-minded paid projects. It proved that everything is connected, and what you do now will affect what you will be doing later.

So what does this teach us?

You might not be happy with your current job and are maybe wondering how to turn your passion into a living.

Maybe you’re on the way to making your own company out of what you love, but are feeling insecure and are wondering if you’ll be able to make a living out of it.

Maybe you’re even self-employed already but find that you’re not actually fulfilled, that your day is not made of tasks you love doing.

Well, you got the power to make your own luck. And this applies to everyone and everything.

The idea around this is very simple and can be adapted for any person and whatever they love doing:

IDENTIFY IT

Ask yourself: what is it that I want to do MORE of, and possibly get paid to do? Which activities make you happy and fulfill you, which don’t? Find activities which have purpose for you and which you would like to expand, experiment and grow through.

DO IT

Now you have identified what you love, you got to actually get your hands on it. Is it up-cycling? Styling people? Making jewellery? Developing recipes? Doing functional fitness exercises? Making art with fruits? Building furniture out of legos? Creating crazy music mashups? Do it. Make time in your day to dedicate yourself to it, little by little. It doesn’t matter what you do the rest of the time, you can do this on the side of your dayjob. Learn new techniques or listen to podcasts about it. Make it your ritual and let it develop, because it will if you insist.

SHARE IT

This is the most important part. You can’t win the lottery if you didn’t buy a ticket, right? Well, exposure works the same way. You cannot end up being hired to do something if no one has seen what you are a capable of. So share what you do. Share your creations, your thoughts of whatever comes out of what you love doing. Display it or talk about it. Share photos of your beloved activity with your friends and acquaintances on social media. Connect with the rest of the world and hashtag it on instagram or twitter if you like. If you’re more ambitious, dedicate a Facebook page to it or a blog. If you’re a creative why not use the power of behance or dribbble? The world is your oyster, the internet is your stage!

KEEP DOING IT AND WAIT FOR THE MAGIC TO HAPPEN

Doing what you love and sharing it with the world will have results. You will see that people will connect with it one way or another. There will be recognition and reactions. However, don’t expect it to become your career overnight. This part may take a while, but the most important is to never stop. There will be opportunities, so grab them, as they will take you there. During this time, you can think of other ideas to keep sharing and doing. Maybe organise a workshop about it? A giveaway? A podcast? Keep experimenting with everything and anything, while connecting with people that like what you do. One day, one of these people is going to hire you for it. Keep your head up!

I’ve already mentioned this simple principle has helped me kickstart my creative career. But it has ALSO been useful to avoid having uninspiring phases where I end up a little unfulfilled by what I do. Or when I feel like I’m not getting the projects or clients I want. I know that if I want to be hired to do more of the fun stuff I love, then I have to keep doing it and showing it and it WILL happen.