Matt’s Mix Tape, Vol. 146

Jun 3, 2022

Hi, I’m Matt Tillotson, and this is Matt’s Mix Tape: ideas on using writing and exercise to remix ourselves in middle life.

This week’s Mix:

Three steps to build your personal brand color palette
“Run The Mile You’re In” review
WeCrashed: new found (not Neumann) founder respect
This week’s Florida photo

Three steps to build your very own color palette

My friend Nate Kadlac runs the best course to learn the highest-leverage principles of design. It’s called Approachable Design, and what I learned there guides me here.

1. Use colors from your own experiences

I’ve been using a shade of teal—along with brown—for the past year in this newsletter, my website, and social media headers.

Now I’m doubling down on the teal.

The color is extracted from the ocean using this photo taken at Pass-a-Grille:

2. Name it and claim it

This is fun one. Once you have a main color, give it a unique name.

Crayola makes up cool color names: Jazzberry Jam, Unmellow Yellow. You can, too.

So my teal is called Gulf Coast.

3. Blend your main color through other colors

To go next-level, blend your main color through the blacks, grays, and whites you use.

Just a hint of the main color, though.

In fact I may have over-indexed the main color (no big deal, I can change it later) but here’s what my palette looks like now:

The white serves as the background of this newsletter.

Nate will teach you to do this and much more over a weekend.

Review: Run The Mile You’re In, by Ryan Hall

Never run alone.

Ryan Hall knew this from his first run in the eighth grade: a 15-mile jaunt he says was prompted by the Holy Spirit.

From that day forward, he’s led an incredible life in running—Olympic athlete, world-record holder in the half-marathon—by chasing the vision God gave him as a teenager.

Hall never ran alone. His faith was always with him. But that doesn’t mean his path was easy, obvious, or without devastating setbacks.

Hall’s book is loaded with insights and inspiration.

You can read my review and the key lessons I took away here.

WeCrashed: newfound (not Neumann) founder respect

AppleTV+ doesn’t have the most shows. But it has some of the best.

WeCrashed stars Anne Hathaway and Jered Leto as Rebecca and Adam Neumann, the power-couple leaders of WeWork.

It’s a story of spectacular hubris and just generally abhorrent decadence and moral failure.

But watching Leto-as-Neumann gave me a deeper respect for founders.

At times, founders must have a level of faith and vision that defy logic and reasonable arguments against success.

It’s a tightrope walk between belief and blunder, declaration and delusion. Neumann obliterated that line. But for founders with actual morals and decency, entrepreneurship must be a lonely and emotionally debilitating walk at times.

Anyway, incredible story and a great watch on AppleTV+.