We were lucky to catch up with Ben Lee recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ben, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

So, when was the first time I wanted to pursue an artistic path professionally? I always like to joke, “As soon as I could pick up a pencil.”, but really, it was more in my mid-teens. Comic books have been a part of my life since I was a kid, capturing my imagination with the art and stories. But thinking about if I could create comics for a living? Definitely in my teens. Researched how to submit to publishers, even looked into how to self-publish, and what that would take.

Definitely wasn’t ready to be competitive in comics then, and my self-publishing took the form of mini comics from the xerox machine at my mom’s office.

But creating stories, the art, and learning about layouts “‘zine” style fashion with a xerox machine, was so much fun & left such an indelible mark on my soul as something I wanted to pursue professionally.

Ben, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When someone asks me to tell them about myself, my “go-to” response is usually: I’m a big geek with a big heart, who likes good food, good people, and good times.

Usually that pretty much sums it up. But when it comes to jumping into this business and industry, it’s been something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid. So, it was definitely a no-brainer when I felt confident in doing so.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I’ve worked in marketing and advertising for a number of years. But at a certain point found myself not being fulfilled by the work I was doing, and suddenly remembered a quote from a speaker from the San Diego Comic-Con, “You don’t need anyone’s permission to make comics.”

I remember that statement resonating with me at the time and remembering ambivalence I was feeling about my career at the time, I chose to make a change.

If anything, being single, no dependents, if I was going to chase the childhood dream, that moment was the time.

But how does this all demonstrate my resilience in my journey? Well, to begin with, no matter how much research I did before making the switch, it definitely wasn’t enough. So there definitely was a lot of learning as I went. But your education never stops. So kept learning, and learning.

And of course, there was the pandemic, and it definitely made a devastating blow to my journey.

But of course, it by no means was going to stop me. But it did force me to step back and reevaluate the structure of things. In doing so, stepped back into marketing and advertising to rebuild my life after the struggles from the height of the pandemic. But never stopped developing and pursuing my journey in the arts.

Currently reevaluating the strategy of it all. I think analysts like to call this current form a, “side hustle”. I mean, after the height of the pandemic, definitely taking it slow. Taking the lessons learned from the initial go and let that lead me moving forward. All I know is I haven’t stopped creating. It’s something I have to do because I feel like my life would be empty without it.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

The major resource I wish I knew of when I began would definitely be KCSourceLink. To anyone unfamiliar with this organization, they work to build the entrepreneur community in Kansas City. They do this by connecting entrepreneurs with resources, coaches, funding, education and more.

Some may find it to be a disconnect associating business with a creative journey, but they are very much connected. It may not be romantic by any means, but creating a life by, well, creating, and have that be sustainable? There’s definitely a business aspect to it. From an operational perspective considering taxes, sale cycles, proof of income, forming a business entity, to name a few. To having marketing considerations like figuring out who your audience is, best way to reach your audience, is that audience going to be interested in the work you create… the list goes on, and honestly I don’t think a lot of artists consider.

As much research as one can do, it’s never enough. And that’s something I learned the hard way. Had I known of an organization like KCSourceLink from the jump, I think would’ve helped me avoid quite a few pitfalls, because lord knows I made quite a few mistakes.

In the end, no one knows it all, and your education never stops.

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