🙋‍♂️ Life Updates

Morning!

[1] I went laser tagging with a visiting creative team the other week. Way too competitive for my own good. Still lost. 3 times.

[2] I've been locked in on my health lately. Got a DEXA scan. Got my metabolic rate tested. Chasing 164lbs… which would be the lowest I've ever been in my life. Wild. Check back with me in May.

[3] Took a solo day trip to Charlottesville last week. Vegan food. Lululemon. Trader Joe's. Three bookstores. I can't walk past a bookstore… it's a problem. Or a museum for that matter.

Oh, and it’s my birthday today! 🎉

🎨 The Creative Mix

Every Tuesday for the next 12 weeks, I'm sending you 3 design resources.

Some of these I use every week. Some are for specific projects. I've spent years collecting them. Now you get the master cheat sheet in 3 months.

Week 1 - Design Inspiration. Places to find work worth saving.

[01] Visuelle ^{Curated by David Bennett}

This site has one rule: "if it's great, it goes in."

No algorithm. No trending page. Just one person with taste (One thing AI can’t replace) deciding what makes the cut. I found this site a few years ago and I still check it weekly.

[02] Cosmos

Search by hex code (Ex. #0000ff). Type in any color and it pulls design inspo in that exact shade. Absurd…

No ads. No clutter. No algorithm fighting you. Just clean, curated work. That hex code search alone is worth the bookmark.

[03] My Pinterest

I have 2,600+ pins. Organized for you. Boards for type, color, layout, lockups, apparel, athletics, branding… etc.

Pro tip #1: The Chrome extension lets you pin from any website in one click. I pin straight from Instagram accounts. Give it a year and you've got thousands of references without even thinking about it.

Pro tip #2: tap "Find ideas for this board." It does the digging for you. 😉

🚀 Leadership Lab

Your team needs two things from you. Stability and challenge. Too much stability? They get bored. Too much challenge? They burn out.

4 questions to find the gap:

1. Clarity. Can they tell you what's expected of them this week? Not just the big picture. This week. If they can't… that's not on them.

2. Protection. Your job is to shape the chaos before it hits their task list. They need to know that you have their back. A stable environment to do deep work.

3. Permission. Do they take risks because they feel expected to? Or do they play it safe because you do? Do they have space to experiment?

4. Faith. Do you hover? Micromanaging is just a nice way of saying "I don't trust you." They want to know that you believe they are capable.

1 person on your team that isn’t thriving (maybe it’s you). Which of these 4 is the gap?

Pick 1. Adjust it for them or get clarity for yourself.

Go crush it this week - you’ve got this!
🐯🎉 Matthew