Turning Passion into a Career, with Duke Al and Holly

There’s no single route into a creative career. Cardiff Met graduate Duke Al shares his story. A spoken word poet, author and creative practitioner, Duke turned his passion for writing into a freelance career spanning live performances, commissions, workshops, talks and community projects.He shares how writing became an outlet for managing OCD from a young age, why he didn’t share his work publicly until his twenties, and how a volunteering trip to Zambia helped him discover his purpose. Duke also talks about his type 1 diabetes, freelancing, personal branding, social media and the realities of building a creative career on your own terms.In this episode…00:00 Episode Teaser00:36 Meet Duke Al01:05 Poetry Career02:33 Power of the Pen Workshops03:43 Clients and Commissions05:05 Hip Hop to Self-Therapy05:31 Living With OCD08:06 Sharing Poetry Publicly09:38 Quitting for Creativity12:16 Freelance Support Network14:49 Social Media Reality Check16:43 Motivation and Passion17:26 Zambia Turning Point20:40 Poem - What gets you of bed in the morning22:11 Quick Fire Questions24:38 Skill Spotlight27:20 Master’s in Creative Writing30:26 Wrap