Hi! Emily here! A few months after this episode was recorded, tax season came around and I had to file my taxes for the first time as a person who had made real money from her creative business. I was so freaked out about doing something wrong that I big-brain-smartly waited until the literal day before the filing deadline to even start. Dan, being the dad-type that he is, saw my obvious panic and invited me to come sit at his venue while I filled out the tax paperwork. He promised that he would do his best to help me out if I got stuck or confused. So Dan and I hung out all afternoon on that overcast Monday, and he went about his normal weekday tasks in the music hall while I sat in the corner and did my honest best not to commit any tax related crimes. We spent about four hours that day in a focused silence sparsely interrupted by my calling out to ask him whether or not something counted as a write off. No matter what he was in the middle of, he always paused it to come help.

When I listen back to this episode now, it's super apparent to me that Dan was coming at this conversation with the same desire to help -- both me, in that moment, and you listening now. He and I both want to live in a world where people can be creative and make a living while doing it. This episode is our way of trying to make that world a little more possible. We sat down at the mics and he told me everything he could think of about how to be my own creative business in hopes that I might be able to benefit from his hard-won wisdom.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for tuning in and chatting with us on Instagram and generally being very nice to us. It's been the most fun thing giving this podcast over to you guys after months of it just floating in the timeless ethereal space that exists between my and Dan's microphones.

And on the topic of business, here's the things I like to remind you:

We're getting scarily close to hitting our first 1k followers on instagram @unexpectedmentorpod !! I think once we hit that number I'll make a little t-shirt to celebrate. I think I'll make it look really bad, like a child drew it, because I know Dan is gonna look at it and say "No one is going to buy this" and then I'll have the chance to prove him wrong.

Also if you'd like to help make my taxes next year really scary consider supporting us on The Unexpected Mentor Patreon.

Also also, Dan and I are hosting a LIVE PODCAST EVENT in like 3 weeks but I'll tell you about that later I'm tired of typing.

Other links:

• The Unexpected Mentor official website
• The Art Boutiki official website
• Me on Instagram: @indie.sweetheart.emily
• The Art Boutiki's Instagram: @artboutiki

Bye I love you happy Thursday. Next week is Dan's favorite episode ever you definitely are going to want to hear it.

Hi from Dan Vado... Listening to this episode the night before its release, what stands out to me is that I was surprised by how much Emily had remembered from the previous weeks of work. It gave me the feeling that there was something here worth listening to. You'll hear Emily recite parts of what I call my "origin story" and even now I can hear how much she seemed to care about the lessons of my journey. I remember that this got me feeling for maybe the first time that there was something to this podcasting thing.

Tracing my path from comic book store to comic book publisher to finally music venue owner, mistakes are covered, successes are highlighted, and advice is offered to people who are probably not listening.

(Hi from Emily... It's me. I'm people. I most definitely wasn't listening hard enough at the time. Luckily, I made up for it relistening to the conversation multiple times over.)

Episode five of The Unexpected Mentor -- Lessons from SLG Publishing.

BTW -- we have an instagram: @unexpectedmentorpod where we've as of late been talking about some of SLG's greatest hits.

Also check out The Unexpected Mentor Patreon. As we speak I'm designing a cool patron-exclusive t-shirt, and a few other surprises are coming into view on the horizon.

Other links:

• The Unexpected Mentor official website
• The Art Boutiki official website
• Me on Instagram: @indie.sweetheart.emily
• The Art Boutiki's Instagram: @artboutiki

Bye I love you happy Thursday see you next week for some SERIOUS BUSINESS talk.

Em here! I called Dan this morning to tell him how nervous I was about this episode because we attempt to tackle so much in this short 30 minutes. We move from the idea of having a creative process to applying that process toward writing about identity to the use of identity as a pathway to creative genuineness... and all of the ways that telling a "genuine story" has shown up as a guiding light through Dan's career with SLG. Dan has a personal credo on the value of making art that one NEEDS to make as opposed to making stuff you want to make or think you should make, and that serves as a major undertone for a lot of these early episodes.

One big piece of SLG History you'll hear us referencing is Jhonen Vasquez's Johnny the Homocidal Maniac, which attracted a fair bit of attention when Dan was publishing it in the 90s. (Or so I've been told -- I was a baby at the time so my knowledge of alternative comics was somewhat limited.) I'll add that to the links below if you want to check it out.

BTW -- we have an instagram: @unexpectedmentorpod where I post little video clips of our favorite episodes bits.

Also check out The Unexpected Mentor Patreon. We're putting together a little list of nice things we can do for patrons, so if there's something you want to see or have (t-shirts, full uncut episodes, live recordings, etc) let us know on Insta.

Other links:

• The Unexpected Mentor official website
• The Art Boutiki official website
• Me on Instagram: @indie.sweetheart.emily
• The Art Boutiki's Instagram: @artboutiki
• Mentioned in this episode: Johnny the Homocidal Maniac

Okay thanks see you again soon :)