Paula Riley

My background is in Graphic Design and Illustration, so I never in my wildest dreams imagined I'd spend so much time at photo shoots. We're talking countless hours planning and art directing shoots, but I'm grateful for this path for a lot of reasons. It lets me escape the office, work on impactful projects, and collaborate with talented and diverse creatives. So when I got the gig at Fetch Rewards to revamp their in-app photography and set up a custom photo studio, I jumped at the chance to...

When I uploaded my first coloring book to Amazon KDP, I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew one thing: I wanted to share my "silly little doodles" with the world, and maybe, just maybe , make a little extra income while doing it. I’d been creating illustrations for years in sketch book after sketch book, and in recent years, in Procreate. My ideas spanned the gamut from whimsical hand-lettering to Shakespearean sass, celestial daydreams to designing shoes. I credit my friend, Emily, for...

Passive income doesn’t just buy comfort; it buys choice.  The choice to say no to uninspired projects. The choice to create for love, not survival. The choice to take risks, explore weird ideas, and make something purely because it feels right. We all know that relying solely on freelance can be unstable, and going full-time makes you vulnerable to unexpected lay offs. This disrupts stability, creativity, and confidence, so embracing multiple income streams can foster peace of mind and better...