#238 - Tegan Phillips: The Cartoonist Who Learned to Run a Business

Tegan Phillips is a South African cartoonist, adventure writer, and creator known for her women's cycling comedy — and for riding 11,000 kilometers across Africa with her family. But her real story isn't the big adventures. It's the quieter, less glamorous choice to stay put and build something sustainable when running away would have looked braver.We talk about growing up in Cape Town and what inequality teaches a kid early, the boxes families and social media put us in, the eating disorders and comparison that shaped her teenage years, what it took to learn how to be honest in a friendship, and the gap between her chaotic online persona and the methodical business owner behind it. She opens up about the book she's been dragging her feet on for five years, and shares the most practical advice we've had on the show: if you want to make a living from your art, you have to learn how business actually works.This is a conversation about the difference between following your heart and running from discomfort — and how hard it is to tell them apart without time alone to figure out which voice is which.Tegan’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/teganphillipscomics/Ways to Support the Show👇🏼Nothing Novel: https://nothingnovel.life Socks: https://stupidquestions.show/pages/sq-merch Newsletter: ⁠https://stupidquestions.show/pages/newsletter-signup