Hand Drawn (and Hiked) by McCall

Hi there! Fall is officially HERE, folks. I’m a fall girl through-and-through (always have been — automatic), but if you’re too bummed about the sun rising later and setting earlier to even conjure up a mental image of a sweater, I’ve got quick ideas for you.

A hygge winter is the idea of maximizing joy during the dreary season with a few quick tricks: read a book by the fire or cozied up in bed, hang some fairy lights around the house, make a savory stew that makes your house smell amazing, or baking and decorating cookies. All super small activities that will help you lean into the coziness of the upcoming season, and subsequently, enjoy yourself more.

And, of course, take your vitamin D supplements.

Mini Musings

Last week, I was reading a newsletter I recently subscribed to and the focus of this edition was on mentors: finding them, choosing them, and the different types. The last part piqued my interest since I had no idea there were technically different types of mentors — although once they broke it down, the concept was pretty intuitive.

The idea is you can have informational mentors and relational mentors. An informational mentor is someone with whom your relationship is strictly professional. Think, the kind of mentor you’d be paired up with for a professional development mentor/mentee program. They’re someone who we learn from but are not tied to in an authentic way. Informational mentors are very helpful for career growth. They can even be someone we study — like an author or a podcaster.

CJ Hendry would be an example of an informational mentor for me. I’ve read all of her interviews, studied all of her exhibits, and eat up her social content, but we don’t have any sort of relationship. She doesn’t know I exist, let alone know the details of my life in career. Her mentorship to me is exclusively informational.

On the other hand, a relational mentor is someone with whom you’ve engaged in a direct and mutually acknowledged relationship. While informational mentors are helpful for our careers, relational mentors are critical. I have a few relational mentors from past jobs — people who were higher up than me at my company and we hit it off for whatever reason. The way I met one of my closest mentors was we always passed each other in the hallway at the same time and one day said “we’ve said hi to each other 50+ times. Let’s get coffee and actually chat.” The key difference is relational mentors have relational capital to help you make decisions about your life holistically.

That last phrase, relational capital, is the one that’s been rattling around my brain ever since I read the newsletter.

So often, we seek advice from people with no relational capital in our own lives — or for lack of a better term, no skin in the game. Maybe it’s a need for reassurance from a wide audience, or just seeking approval, but there are so many people I’ve talked to about a major decision whose input in my life was so inconsequential.

My boyfriend always talks about consulting his “Board of Directors” when it comes to big life decisions. His “board” is made up of his three closest friends. They’ve all been extremely successful in their careers and come from completely different backgrounds, each with a unique perspective on life. Most importantly, they’ve all known him for over 10 years, giving them the relational capital to help him make sound decisions.

If I were to ask just anyone about pursuing a new job in a new city, they would probably want to know about the salary and benefits, or if this job were a stop up from my previous role. If I asked someone with relational capital (I promise I’ll stop saying it soon) in my life about pursuing a new job, they’d more likely want to know if I were ready to leave Denver, how my partner would feel about moving or doing long distance, and if I would be happy with the career trajectory that new role would put me on.

Of course, a more objective and strictly informational POV is always helpful, but stop and think about who your circle is — and more importantly, who is not your circle.

Artiste In The Making

When I lived in New York and primarily drew places all over New York, I loved to draw bricks. The repetitive motion of making mini-strokes with different shades of red and brown always turned into an inadvertent meditation and was such an easy (and fun) way to add detail to each piece. All that to say, I think leaves in CO are becoming my new bricks in NY.

I’ve been 95% of the way done with this drawing for two weeks. My final step is drawing their dog on the front porch which I’ve been procrastinating for a solid two weeks. Lucky for me, Parkinson’s Law still exists, and I just booked two commissions to be created immediately — so it’s time to get up and go!

In the meantime, let’s talk Building In Public*. It’s a strategy that I’ve mostly seen applauded on Twitter with a pretty straightforward explanation. The idea of building in public leans into authenticity, encouraging founders and business owners to share their journey — including the struggles along the way. Products constantly grow and evolve, so building in public allows startups to take their audience and community along for the ride.

I’ve never been a huge proponent for building in public, for myself at least. It always felt forced and pressurized. After my month off of the art Instagram, I went back on the other day and responded to a story from a social media strategist whose content I find so helpful for work. She answered right away and said she checked out my profile and would love to order a commission if I was open to it — it was that easy!

I’ve sold a lot of pieces through connecting with friends of friends and openly talking about how much I love drawing, so it’s a wild feeling to realize that process can go one step further and you can build a business on the back of genuine connection with stranger on the internet.

*I promise I haven’t gone full tech/finance bro on y’all.

The Wild, Wild West

This weekend I went on a short hike with four friends, and man, it was so beautiful. We hiked the Silver Dollar Lake & Murray Lake Trail which was a cool 4 miles and ~1k feet of vertical gain.

I had so much fun just casually walking and catching up with friends, and it made me realize afterwards that hiking has turned into such an intense sport for me. There’s nothing wrong with that and I love pushing myself on difficult hikes, but I almost forgot there’s such a chill, fun side to the sport.

Don’t get me wrong — we definitely still pushed ourselves and my Oura stats were well above average for the day. It just got me thinking about the balance of rest and recovery. My goal for the rest of the summer (she ain’t over until fall equinox!) is to push myself to hike more. Not just harder hikes, but more consistently.

It’s like with the beginning of ski season: if my legs are shot from skiing moguls all day, my best bet is to probably go out and ski moguls the next day to push myself even further.

TBD on how much hiking actually gets done in the next few weeks since Mother Nature graced us with the first coat of snow here in Colorado. Fingers crossed!

What I’m Noodling On

📚 It’s been a minute since I’ve buckled down and read a strictly business/career focused book. I’ve been loving Strategy is Your Words by Mark Pollard (the strategy king). The best part is he’s deliberately not selling physical copies on Amazon, so his success with this launch is so easy to root for.

🖥️ This week’s edition of Young Money included an absolute banger about the history of Amazon.

🐝 Not to make this whole thing too meta, but the founder of beehiiv (the platform I use to run this newsletter), Tyler Denk, was interviewed about starting and growing his company and it’s such a healthy dose of motivation

Same time next week?

- McCall 🌻

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