This journey is for creative people who want the financial freedom to create what they want, when they want, and how they want – and get paid handsomely for their efforts.

Ask an artist, a musician, an actor, or a graphic designer, and each and every one will tell you the same thing: To have the money to create, you have to be creative with your money. If you’re lucky enough to have found the perfect career for you, one that lets you showcase your talents and keeps your creative juices flowing, congratulations! However, Peter de Kuster knows the dirty reality most of you are all too familiar with: Even when your creative juices are really flowing, that doesn’t necessarily mean that money is pouring in at the same pace. In “The Heroine’s Journey in Money”, Peter offers a myriad of valuable advice for doing just that, including:

• How to know which of your creative talents are the most marketable and can earn you the most money
• How to take the “free” out of freelance and charge what you’re worth
• Why you should avoid the pitfalls of accumulating too much debt in
a lean time—and should always remember the importance of saving in a boom time
• Remembering that you can succeed in your endeavors without selling your creative soul
• How to find the funds to finance your dreams

Full of eye-opening facts, instructive anecdotes, and real-life examples, “The Heroine’s Journey in Money” is your guide to getting a financial life—so you can maintain your creative one.

When it comes to creative people and their money I think I have a good idea of what we are after. We want some sense of financial security and total creative freedom. We want to be able to concentrate on our art (and lives) without constantly having to worry about money. We want to make money without having to compromise our artistic integrity or take on projects and jobs we loathe. We want to be able to concentrate on our artistic endeavors full-time and maybe even work for ourselves if we want to. In our personal lives we would like the financial freedom to travelor take time off. We would also like freedom from our debt and other financial burdens. Want to know something?It is all possible.

There are plenty of creative people who have achieved this kind of financial freedom,so we know it can be done. This guide will show you how to do it. Everything you need to know about how to survive and thrive as a creative person is here. You are about to get an education about how money works so that you can gain power over it, get a handle on it, and make it work for you. You will learn how to earn more money so you can attain financial and creative freedom and how to handle it once you get it.

This guide contains real-world, streetwise financial stories from people who have made it, lost it, and made it back again. It is a hands-on, how-to guide. Reading and applying what you learn will produce lasting change in you and how you manage your money no matter how desperate your situation or how delinquent you have been in dealing with your finances. there is no need to punish yourself for your previous problems with money. We will be working on your financial future, and this guide will serve as a coach, counselor, consultant, and, above all, a supportive companion offering sound advice and encouragement concerning all areas of your finances. So relax and enjoy the ride as we transform our finances from chaos and crisis to control and calm. We wil get rid of your debt and despair and replace them with your dreams and desires. Really!

To achieve this we’ll take an appropriately unconventional approach to all aspects of money management. No matter how many left-brained (conventional and boring) books you have have read about finance, this guide is different. Where these books attempt to use a one-size-fits-all approach, we will take a fresh look at a subject that many artists (of all kinds) struggle with. That’s why we will take existing financial advice and mold it to fit the unorthodox lifestyle and challenges of creative people. We will delve into the basics of financial management, but then quickly veer off into new territory that is unique to creative people and their special circumstances and challenges. Instead of trying to cram a square peg into a round hole, we will take a decidedly different approach that matches up with, and makes use of your strengths. In fact, we will work with rather than against, your right-brain tendencies. This guide shows you how to put your financial life in order in a way that you can both understand and embrace. It solves the mystery of making (and keeping) money with a very creative approach that feels natural and comfortable.

MONEY MYTHS AND THE CREATIVE HEROINE

MONEY MYTHS AND THE CREATIVE PERSON

Myth: Once I hit it big, I am set for life.

REALITY: The creative life is a series of ups and downs. It pays to save for the down times.

Myth: Financial management is boring

REALITY: True enough. But when we are talking about your money, doesn’t it suddenly become more titillating? Thought so. Plus, dealing with the business side of the arts gives you a productive break from creating.

Myth: If I had more money, I could do what I want.

REALITY: You can do what you want now. It is about your choices. You could choose to cut back on your overhead and spend more time on your art right now.

Myth: When it comes to money, better safe than sorry.

REALITY: You shouldn’t risk it all, but you must take a risk- on yourself. That is the best investment of all.

Myth: Everything in my life will be better when I have money.

REALITY: Having some money is better than no money at all, but as the saying goes, ‘Wherever you go, there you are.’ If you’re not happy now, you won’t be because you have more money.

Myth: My goal should be to do whatever I have to so I’ll have enough money to retire early

REALITY: If you love what you do, why retire? Your goal should be to find a better way to earn your money, something you enjoy doing so much you won’t ever want to quit

Myth: You have to be famous to make a fortune

REALITY: Fame doesn’t pay the bills, and it’s fleeting. There are many more enjoyable, creative and respectable jobs behind the scenes than there are glamorous jobs. Doing good work (that you enjoy) is more important.

Myth: If I make money at my art, I will lose my creative edge

REALITY: Not having enough money to live on makes you desperate, angry, and can get in the way of your creativity

Myth: Highly educated people get rich

REALITY: Ha! It takes common sense – street smarts as well as book smarts – to make and manage money. Anyone can learn how.

Myth: If I made more money, I would save more.

REALITY: The more you make, the more you spend. You can save at any income.

Myth: I don’t have to plan for my future. I plan to die young.

REALITY: The average life span is increasing every decade. It really is better to plan a little now and avoid suffering later.

Myth: There isn’t enough money to support all the arts.

REALITY: You only have to worry about money for your art.

Myth: Artists have to work as waiters or cabbies just to get by.

REALITY: You may have to take a ‘day job’ but it does not have to be drudgery. The best day job is in the field you are trying to break into. That way, you can gain experience, make contacts, and take on something you enjoy.

Myth: The only real artists are starving artists.

REALITY: Some art forms simply do not pay well, no matter how many dues you pay. But making money at your art does not mean you are a sellout. It means you are smart enough to find a market for what you love to do.

Myth: Because I work for someone else, I am an employee.

REALITY: We are all freelancers. When you work for someone else, he is your client. He may be your only client, but you still are a freelancer. Besides, the most likely way to get great wealth is from working for yourself.

Myth: Show me the money

REALITY: Give me the money. You must demand to be paid and feel as if you deserve it.

Myth: I am an artist, so conventional financial management doesn’t apply to me.

REALITY: There are some sound (and simple) things that you can do to get ahead

Myth: Do what you love, and the money will follow

REALITY: You must market yourself and your creations, and there needs to be a market to market to

Myth: I’m in such bad financial shape. I’ll never get out of it.

REALITY: You are resourceful and resilient. You can bounce back

Myth: Those people pitching get-rich-quick schemes sound sincere

REALITY: Uh, no. They usually are not money experts. They are scam artists.

Myth: I need to hit home runs with every project and score big.

REALITY: Little things add up

Myth: Money comes from a salary. I have to work for it.

REALITY: Welcome to the ‘royalty’ family. Royalties rule!

Myth: Hot stock tips are how people pick stocks

REALITY: Bad idea. Do your due diligence. Then spread the wealth and the risk among several stocks or in a mutual fund.

Myth: I don’t have to worry about the future, because something or someone will come along and save me or bail me out.

REALITY: What if they don’t? You should be self-sufficient and solvent on your own.

THE CREATIVE LIFE

Most books about money management should include the disclaimer ‘this book may cause drowsiness and severe boredom’

For some strange reason, left-brainers who write about the financial world tend to complicate things by using stupid formulas, silly terminology, and some really riduculous ideas about what to do with your money. Why? My guess is, to make themselves feel important and useful (and to make us feel like idiots and incapable of dealing with this stuff on your own). You are NOT stupid, and you CAN do this without the help of a money chaperone. Just because you don’t understand their lame lingo doesn’t mean you don’t know anything about money. Some of your best assets as a creative, right-brain person can be used to your advantage when it comes to making and managing money. When it comes to finances, thinking outside the box can actually be a good thing (within reason), and I believe the creative person has a lot of advantages over others in this area. All we lack is the knowledge about how money works so we can make educated decisions about what to do with your money. This guide helps to demystify moeny so you can manage it yourself.

It’s a simple truth that the more you learn (about money) the more you earn. I will show you a simple, straightforward, and creative approach to money management. You don’t have to deal with the details, but you at least need to know a litlle something about how finances work so you can make informed decisions. Many creative people are clueless about financial matters. Yet money is an integral part of the creative life whether you are aware of that fact or not. Having it can create a feeling of abundance, confidence, joy, validation, security, satisfaction, and freedom. The goal of this guide is for you to experience freedom. Freedom from financial ruin. Freedom from debt. Freedom from stress. Freedom from horrible work. To free your mind from money hassles so that you can do what you do best – create. To go from being financially independent through a brand – new (healthy) mind-set about money, along with proven techniques blended with some unorthodox ideas about how to earn, spend, invest, and save your hard-earned money without the worry or guilt that can sometimes accompany doing things that don’t feel natural or are out of alignment with your beliefs.

This guide is designed to make you make money with your creativity. And why not? You deserve it. If not you, then who should be reaping the benefits of your ideas, talents and hard work? Someone is going to be paid big bucks, and in my opinion it should be you. Then we will tackle how to manage all that money they lavish on you without letting it slip through your fingers.

Maybe you aren’t aware of the importance of money in your life as an artist. That’s a problem right there. No matter how hard you try, I will never be convinced that money isn’t a major concern in your life. What’s wrong with profiting from your art just like any other business?

The answer is to take a businesslike approach to running the business side of your artistic endeavors. If you don’t, for whatever reason – lack of interest, lack of knowledge, or just plain neglect – the dream dies. How can we be creative with unpaid bills, little or not savings, debt, and a myriad of other potential pitfalls hanging over our heads? The answer is: We can’t. Living a creative life is a unique challenge that is made more difficult because we must balance our need for money with sacrificing our artistic integrity. It is done with dignity all the time, and you can do it, too.

To me, making money at my art is insurance against having to live a boring, normal, uncreative (and thus unfulfilled) life. Somewhere along the line, artists pick up the attitude that being disinterested in money is noble. It is NOT easy to make money at art – it’s almost impossible when you aren’t even trying. I learned a little about the energy that surrounds money and how to harness it, I found it to be fun (yes, fun) to try to improve my financial situation. Then, once my finances were under control, I was able to focus and improve other areas of my life. This is what I want for you, too.

We need to counteract some of the negative things we’re always hearing about how hard it is to make money in the creative arts. I keep profiles of people who either ‘didn’t get the memo’ or made it anyway by saying, ‘the hell with it, this is what I want to do – money or no money,’ and made it. This guide is packed with positive stories of other creative people who have persevered and profited!

You don’t even need a lot of money to benefit from this guide. When we have nothing (and know very little about how to have more), it seems impossible to imagine ourselves with wealth and financial health. But don’t write off your chances because you have no formal education in this area, aren’t good with math, lack the ability to focus, and have done some dumb things in the past. Most of all, don’t accept the labels others may have put on you (flake, dreamer, starving artist). No matter how much or how little you make now, we can help you make more, or , at least, better manage what you have. No matter where you are, you can either get out of it or improve upon the situation.

We will look at small, simple steps you can take right away that will make an immediate impact on your finances. Managing money can be an enjoyable (doable) experience, and anyone can do it. People with wealth are not always the sharpest tools in the shed. Financial advisers are not gurus – they are people who have a nick for figures so they can decipher all that money-related mumbo jumbo – but most don’t have what you have: innovative, creative, right-brained thinking. So if you take it one step at a time, it’s not complicated and you can get your mind around it without much effort. Above all, it isn’t as boring as it sound. Think of this as you would approach a blank canvas. You can dream up what you want to see and then start applying the processes in this articles, along with your own ideas and insights, to create a masterpiece that you can be proud of. I promise.

Georgia O’Keeffe Takes Control

By the 1920s, Georgia O’Keeffe was gaining fame for her striking modernist paintings. However, she quickly saw how easily female artists—and artists in general—could be exploited by male-dominated gallery systems, erratic critics, and middle-men who captured most of the financial upside.

When her husband, legendary photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz, managed her early career, O’Keeffe eventually recognized the danger of relying entirely on someone else to dictate her financial and professional worth. When Stieglitz passed away, leaving behind a complex web of art inventories and estates, O’Keeffe didn’t step back from the business side; she stepped up.

Instead of passively accepting whatever prices the art market offered, O’Keeffe became the chief financial officer of her own legacy:

• Controlling Supply and Demand: O’Keeffe strategically managed the distribution of her work. She partnered with dedicated agents (like Doris Bry) to carefully pace how many paintings entered the market, ensuring her prices stayed high and her work was never cheapened or over-saturated.
• Buying Back Her Own Art: When her paintings appeared on the secondary auction market at prices she felt did not reflect their true value, O’Keeffe actively bought them back. She didn’t do this as a short-term marketing gimmick; she did it because she viewed her creations as tangible assets that she refused to let be undervalued.
• Protecting Long-Term Ownership: Rather than selling off her core collection for quick cash when she achieved major success, she carefully curated major museum donations and retained tight legal control over her copyright and estate, ensuring that she (and later her foundation) reaped the long-term value of her life’s work.

Talent Plus Financial Discipline

The “starving artist” myth dictates that true creatives should suffer for their art and leave the business side to “vultures.” Georgia O’Keeffe shattered that myth decades apart.

O’Keeffe watched other artists lose their financial independence because they ignored contracts and market mechanics. Both decided that creative freedom requires financial security.

By treating their art as a business, learning the mechanics of contracts, and refusing to let others control the value they created, they turned their visions into enduring empires.

What area of your own creative or professional life are you looking to bring more financial structure and ownership to?

It’ll Work If You Work It

The heroine’s journey in money will change your life. I know that is quite a claim, but I assure you that it isn’t false advertising and there is no bait-and switch. This is the real deal. Most books you have read on this subject were probably okay. Maybe you read them and said, ‘that is nice’and went back to your old ways. I promise this journey will be different – better. No matter where you are – swimming in money or drowning in debt – you will learn a lot about what it takes to achieve financial and creative freedom. You will how to protect what you have. Why is that necessary?

• Many creative heroines have ignored this important area of their lives for far too long and have picked up some bad habits that have hindered our ability to get a handle on our finances. Savings? Ha! Investing? That’s for those pencil-neck, tie-wearing, regular folks. Not me. No way. Let me ask yousomething : where has this kind of storytelling gotten us? By ignoring this important part of our lives, it has atrophied, It’s okay, it can be rehabilitated with some financial therapy, and we can gain that (financial) flexibility again. Call it freedom of movement. If you can stretch your storytelling, you will have the ability to do what you want, when you want, how you want. It takes time and there may be some physical pain as well as some emotional baggage to workthrough, but in the end we are sooooo much better off for having gone through it.
• Maybe we don’t have the same skills that left-brainers do that makes managing money seem like second nature to them. Our makeup is certainly different, and better, and we may never come to like bookkeeping, billing and budgeting, but like any business (and we heroes are in business, like it or not) letting these things go leads to chaos. When it comes to managing money, chaos is bad. So we can work with our strengths, overcome our weaknesses, and become better money managers. It is not only possible, it’s gonna happen.
• It’s hard to watch others make millions, buy new homes, take exotic vacations, and live their dreams while we are barely making Euro 20.000 a year from our art (and that is a good year!). We resign ourselves to the fact that our parents were right – becoming an artist is a hard way to make a living , we are destined to be destitute for the rest of our sorry-lives, only a fortunate few ever make a living form their art and the rest of us have to struggle to support ourselves. We wallow in self-pity, feeling helpless and frustrated. Or we see ourselves asthe exception to the rule, the one that fights through and uses that frustration to get fired up and focus on our finances until we break through and make it You become the chief financial officer of your highly successful corporation called YOU. You start to pay attention to costs. You know that no business (and no individual) can survive forlong without making money and making a profit on that money. So you seek out ways to make more, spend less, and invest the rest. You start your balance sheet shift from red to black. Then you can quit your dreaded day job and pursue your art full time. Once that happens I doubt you’ll want to go back to being bankrupt. You’ll see that anyone with half a brain can become successful with money.
• You aren’t screwed up after all. Yes, you’ll have to work with the story you tell yourself through feelings of fear (fear of making money and being a sellout and fear of what to do with the money you made so you don’t lose it) but I know you can do it. If you don’t you will forever be controlled by a lack of money and your creative career will never really get off the ground. Because rich or poor, there aresome powerful forces thattry to pull you away from making and managing money correctly. That is why these articles show you how to get in touch with your dreams and desires, because they are even more powerful. They can keep you from getting sidetracked and screwing up. I look at this journey not as about money but about having a dream and then figuring out a way to finance it. We need to find comfortable ways to get it so we can have what we want, which isn’t really money per se but, rather what money can buy. Am I right? Don’t you want peace of mind, less stress, some sense of security, less work and more time, and complete creative freedom? To earn your living at something that you would do for free but don’t have to because people want to pay you to do it – and pay you well? A life where you are happy and living in harmony with your entire being. A life you are proud of. A sense of contentment and a permanent grin on your face.
• Having some money and being able to manage it does produce freedom of the mind, spirit and creative soul. Money is also power. It allows you the time you need to create great work AND promote it. The struggle of the starving artist is no way to live. Being desperate and on the brink of financial disaster all the time takes a toll on you, whetheryou believe it or not. I’m not saying you have to be a money-grubber. Just that you decide what level of comfort you want to live at and then find ways to maintain that lifestyle. Everyone’s definition of fame and fortune is different. What price are you willing to pay for what you want? That’s the question. Do you want to make a million euro’s and be miserable because you hate yourself for what you have to do to get it? Or would your prefer to live on less and do what you want? No matter what your aim, your target will be out of range unless you manage your money effectively. When you get a handle on your finances, your dream goes from fuzzy to clear and you realize you can hit it. If it’s to make millions or just be comfortable, you can do it.
• The first step is to acquire a money story. A belief that there is enough money to go around and that some of it is earmarked just for you. That it’s yours for the teaking and that you aren’t stealing it – no guilt. You must believe that opportunities to make money will present themselves. I have notice that people with money don’t worry about having enough money, They believe they are entitled, and somehow it comes to them. It is’really mind over money. Once you harness and focus your talent, energy, and creativity and set your mind to something, it can be done. You don’t need a degree and you already have most of the skills necessary. It’s just a matter of making it more of a priority.

Artemisia Gentileschi: Passion, Patronage, and Power

One of history’s all-time great artists was driven by a fierce dedication to her craft rather than mere commercialism, yet she understood the hard realities of money. Artemisia Gentileschi signed contracts for massive, demanding commissions across Europe, working for notoriously difficult patrons—including kings, princes, and the Medici family.

Her royal patrons were often slow to pay, deeply demanding, and prone to treating artists as servants rather than masters. Yet Artemisia refused to be demeaned or underpaid. Unlike many female artists of the 17th century who relied entirely on male relatives to handle their affairs, Artemisia became a savvy businesswoman. She aggressively negotiated her contracts, demanded fair market rates for her large-scale history paintings, and tracked her finances with meticulous care.

It was a good thing business was thriving, because Artemisia was also a dutiful daughter and a single mother who had to support her household. Her father, the painter Orazio Gentileschi, and her own brothers frequently leaned on her for financial help, gifts, and loans. To keep her family afloat and maintain her independence, she had to navigate a male-dominated art market where clients often tried to discount her work simply because of her gender.

By combining fierce business acumen with supreme artistic vision, Artemisia became a wealthy and remarkably successful independent woman. She lived and worked on her own terms, commanding some of the highest prices of any painter in Italy. Because she had a mind for business and mastered her finances, she gained the ultimate luxury: the freedom to turn down projects that bored her and pursue complex, challenging compositions that interested her.

She kept learning, growing, and expanding as an artist, traveling across Europe to paint for the English court and the elite of Naples. She painted with breathtaking power and precision well into her later years, remaining fiercely devoted to her art until the very end of her life.

Passion never retires.

What the heroine’s journey in money WON’T do for you

Money is like air – it’s not important until you don’t have any. This journey will tell you what to do to make and manage money (spend less than you earn, invest the difference, reinvest the returns) You know what to do, but until you are ready to put these ideas into action, you’ll continue to flounder. Some creative people will be perennially poor because they simply will not let money into their lives, and if it somehow sneaks in, they will find unique ways to get rid of it. If you don’t feel you deserve money in your life, you simply will not have it. The heroine’s journey in money goes out of its way to showyou how to change your story and attitude but making the change is really your job. Start where you are with what you have. You can’t fix finances in one shot, so start small.

You have to make a commitment to be prosperous. This journey points the way and even holds your hand down the path, but you have to follow and put one foot in front of the other. Success is just around the bend if you’ll just stay on the path to prosperity. It’s your responsibility to make money and then protect it. Not dealing with money can be hazardous to your health. Every area of your life suffers. Some people are unwilling or unable to change even if what they have done up to this point with their moneyhas been nothing but bad. They are afraid of change. Stubborn. Proud. Indifferent. Mostly, they are in denial. Managing your money is a habit – a good one. It eventually becomes second nature.

This is not a seminar about economics. We also won’t cover the nitty-gritty details about how to invest This is a journey about how to create wealth, happiness, and above all, freedom. It’s about improving the quality of your life. About being financially secure so youcan free up your time and your mind to pursue things more worthy than fretting about finances.

There are too many different types of artists and just as many paths to prosperity for me to say which one will work best. It’s a personal choice you will have to make based on what your vision is, your tolerance for dealing with the details of the business side of the arts, how marketable your art is, and how hard you are willing towork at it. My role is to show you that, one, it’s possible to make and manage money and, tw, to show you how to do it. There is no magic to making and managing money . There are peple who have less money and more debt but wereable to turn their financial life around, so there are no legitimate excuses you can use to say ‘I can’t do it’. You can. You will. The time to start is now.

In the mid‑1970s, Dolly Parton got the call every songwriter dreams of: Elvis Presley wanted to record “I Will Always Love You.” For most writers, that would have been the moment they stopped worrying about money. Fame, validation, a hit by the King—what more could an artist ask for?

But there was a condition. Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, demanded half of the song’s publishing rights. That was the deal: no signature, no recording, no career‑defining moment. For many creatives, that would have been enough. Sign the paper, take the win, let someone else handle the details.

Parton said no.

She explained that the publishing was the most valuable asset in her company—something she intended to leave to her family, her brothers and sisters, her nieces and nephews. She could not give away half of her future to secure a present‑day triumph. Parker replied that, in that case, they wouldn’t record it. The session never happened.

On paper, it looked like a creative turning down money. In reality, it was a creative choosing a different money story. She wasn’t rejecting prosperity; she was rejecting a story in which her art—and her long‑term security—belonged to someone else.

By holding that line, she kept full ownership of one of the most recorded songs in history. Over decades, those royalties generated far more income than any one‑time Elvis recording ever could have.