Hey Friends
Hope everyone is doing well. First official Glue’s Letter written through Substack and honestly, I'm diggin it so far.
So What happened
Basically, Twitter is going to shit and decided to cut corners wherever they can, and unfortunately, with that Revue, my beloved newsletter platform is getting killed. I was pretty devastated realizing all my archive of newsletters was going to get wiped but luckily the cool people at revue had an API so I could port over to Substack. So good for me to have an archive of entries and good for y’all because you can still read all the past issues!
It’s funny how this happened right after I made a video about how cool newsletters are (they are still dope) just ironic timing. It got me thinking and going back to a thing I talk about often on how it’s so important to own your audience. I am grateful to have been building this newsletter for about a year or so and had all your guys emails ready to go. It took literally 15 seconds to transfer all the emails from Revue to Substack.
If your Twitter account got shut down you couldn’t just transfer all your followers to Instagram. If your twitch account got hacked you aren’t able to forward all the subscribers to YouTube. This is why it’s so nice to have a direct connection with you all and not have to completely rely on what billionaires think I should be sharing with you all.
Obviously, I still use these social media sites to share with a larger reach and I def have a bittersweet relationship with them all, however, this whole reasoning behind owning your audience is why I made that video about newsletters and this newsletter in the first place.
So if you dig this newsletter, share it with a friend:)
Field Notes > Notes App
A while back I made a video about Digital Minimalism and how important it is to be mindful of our tech use. Unfortunately, I have strayed from the path and for the past 6 months (up until a few weeks ago) I was using my phone way too much. To fix that I hopped back on the trusty Field Notes.
I highly recommend everyone carry around some kind of personal notebook. It doesn’t have to be field notes, moleskin, or anything name brand either, just something to jot down ideas.
There is something nice about writing down your thoughts in an analog form without the risk of getting sucked into a TikTok loop or twitter doomscroll.
I used to use notebooks like this all the time but for the past year have been using my iPhone notes app. I thought it would be the same but it really isn’t. Don’t get me wrong the ease of use and editing features the iPhone has is great for organizing defined notes/thoughts and breaking down projects etc into categories, but sometimes my thoughts can’t fit into little buckets.
Sometimes it’s nice to be able to write down the simplest or most complex ideas, quotes, or whatever without the fear of it not having a “bucket” to be allocated to. Since I started using the pocket notebook again I feel a lot more curious, introspective and if I’m being honest probably more productive overall
.
So give it a try and don’t put any pressure only yourself. Fill it with nonsense ideas, shitty drawings, and unorganized grocery lists.
Holiday Gifts
I recently made a little IG reel/Twitter/TikTok post showing some holiday gifts for designers. It ain’t super complex or anything but if you wanna copy any of them here is a link to the google doc!
Not everyone liked my simple gift ideas either, some guy even called me a “Fucking Dork” on a quote tweet lol but at least some of y’all seemed to get some use out of it, and hopefully, the holidays treat everyone well
If you feel like buying your boy a Christmas present you can subscribe to Patreon lol, Just dropped a new video on there this week!
Stuff to Check Out!
Tweet of the week below
Closing Thoughts
As My content reaches a wider audience online, I am seeing more hateful comments and I have decided… I am not going to change a thing:)
Much Love, Glue.
Weekly Wrap Up
Best Alternative to Social Media for Designers
Thanks for reading. This newsletter is a reader-supported publication. The best way to support is to share this newsletter with a friend and/or subscribe to my Patreon!
Hey Jesse, loving the new format. Hope you and your family have a great Christmas. From one fucking dork to another! 😂😜
Cheers, Matt.