Mike Saloio

I took the past two months off from writing this newsletter to focus on other things. Heading into Autumn here in NYC, and having just passed my 39th birthday, I feel inclined to start sharing again; on that back-to-school, Autumn in NYC vibe.

This episode's guest and Huddle member, Laura Gao, is a Silicon Valley Product Manager turned artist. She's best known for her short comic "The Wuhan I Know," which she wrote in response to the growing sinophobia due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The comic took off, going viral on social media, and later became the basis for her graphic memoir, Messy Roots, released in March 2022.

Hey all, Somehow I slid into a podcast with the likes of Seth Godin. David has a podcast called Portfolio Careers. I think we were supposed to talk about having varied interests and building a portfolio career. Instead, during episode #276, I went on a tangent about relationships.

We shipped our third episode of Loan Geniuses — a podcast where I interview members from the Huddle community to learn about their lives and careers. If you haven’t listened, it’s like a “Behind the Music” for creatives.

Happy Sunday, Father’s Day, Birthday to Steph, Juneteenth, Long Weekend, Summer Solstice… All of it. There’s much to acknowledge, celebrate and be grateful for this weekend. So let’s have some fun ya? Speaking of which, we shipped our second episode of Lone Geniuses a few weeks back with Emily Grubman—and it’s all about optimizing work for fun.

This episode's guest and Huddle investor, Stephanie Engle, is best known for role as a product designer at Snapchat, and as an angel investor into product driven companies. Before Snapchat, where she works mostly on AR experiences, she worked at Airbnb, she was the first product designer at Cruise automotive, where she designed interfaces for self-driving cars, and she started her career in Silicon Valley at Facebook designing VR experiences.

During the pandemic in 2020, Andrew and I were more than kicking around ideas for companies. We had MVPs and early users for two similar ideas: his, an educational program for early-stage founders to get the resources they needed to get started from “Day One,” and mine, a network where any founder could connect and “Huddle” with HQ talent fast.

Our next guest is Emily Grubman. Emily is the Founder of Title Case, a consulting company that focuses entirely on naming. Before starting her own business, Emily spent nearly six years at Red Antler working on some of the biggest DTC brands in the world. She became the firm’s naming expert, naming companies like Prose, Burrow, and more. What I love about Emily’s career path is her focus on work that’s fun.

I’m excited to introduce Lone Geniuses, an audio show that uncovers the work and lives of the people behind the products and brands you love. It’s an outlet for creatives and builders to tell their stories, and the stories so far have been nothing but remarkable. On the show, we debunk the lone genius myth. Creativity only happens inside a community. This is a show about making things together.

Our first guest is Dan Batten, who's the Creative Director at Hims & Hears. Dan started off as an amateur photographer, and then quickly fell in love with motion graphic design. He spent years working at Gin Lane, a venture studio in New York, that gave birth to brands like Sweetgreen, Hims & Hears, and Harry's. During this episode, we talk about everything from his early life, his career path, and the people that helped him get to where he is today. We also talk about how Dan unlocks space for creativity & how he uses anxiety as a tool to unlock creativity.

This week I’m bringing you another podcast I was lucky enough to be a guest on - Make Things That Matter. I met Andrew Skotsko, the show’s founder and host, after he joined our builder community at Huddle. Our conversation bounces around with one central theme: the higher you go, the higher we all go. We talk about meditation, leadership, and the concept of ubuntu.

Something intrigues me about the person behind the person — the coach. I'm also fascinated by multidisciplinary people with non-linear career paths. Rick Rubin is one of those people. Under the radar for most of his career, his idioms are now plastered all over the Internet. His approach to producing music, entrepreneurship, meditation, and more fascinates me.

The Really Rich Podcast with Nicholas Crown is one of my favorite new listens (scroll down). Thanks to my good friend Harrison, and a bit of serendipity in Miami, I got to join the show a few weeks back. The episode dropped this past week.

This week I learned a new meditation technique. I've used the same TM-based (transcendental meditation) technique every day since 2014. Switching it up has had better results than I expected. If you want to learn how to meditate or find your practice getting stale, you might find this interesting.

This is my first newsletter in February. I learned some cool shit this past month, and I'm excited to share it with you. From now on, I’m going to send just one read, one learning, and one thing to try. I hope this can make each newsletter more intentional, thought-provoking, and useful.

In 2015, my old coworker (and now great friend) Rich texted me on MLK day. I think all he said was, “I’m going to see an MLK movie later at The Film Forum. You should join.” Typically anything Rich invites me to is awesome. Hanging with Rich, in general, is awesome. So I said, “sure, see ya there.”

I relearned this week that serving myself first is the key to serving others. In short, I can’t give energy that I don’t have. I’m likewise unable to receive the opportunities and possibilities of each day if I’m vibrating too low to accept them. Try this on:

Energy first. 2022 taught me that the road to learning could be paved two ways. To use product lingo, there are happy and unhappy paths in life. I spent a lot of time on the unhappy path without knowing it, trying to fix situations, fix myself, and improve things.

Set a goal without a timeline. Instead of, say, needing to save $50K by the end of 2023, set a goal of saving $100K as fast as possible. I’m using money as an easy example, but it can be anything.

A third, fourth, fifth… possibility. Where did we get the idea that there are "always two sides to every story"? It seems to me that there are far more.

I switched up the format this week to provide a synopsis of the episode. A shameless plug perhaps? You bet your ass it is. I learned it’s okay to take a pause and appreciate how far we’ve come.

No right relationship structure. Most theories and therapy for couple-making rely on understanding attachment style — avoidant, anxious, or secure behavior based on stuff that happened when we were little.

Instagram ads sometimes work. I started golfing more in Miami. Visit a golf course once, and you'll get seventy-two thousand golf ads. I caved and downloaded the Imagine Golf app and even paid for it. The result?

Tbh, I haven’t written or read much these past two weeks. So it didn't feel authentic to write the typical newsletter. If anything, I learned to disconnect, enjoy nature, and cut myself some slack.

Companies care less and less about the BLS pay adjustment. They want great people who can get work done from anywhere. This is great for economic growth in smaller cities.

Still day one for psychedelics. The efficacy data on psychedelic treatment for things like alcoholism, depression, anxiety, addiction, and PTSD are eye-popping - think most successful study ever.

Context is decisive. The difference between conservatives and liberals is interpretation — conservatives debate the original understanding of laws, while the liberal lens is forward-thinking.

Keeping things simple is hard but really rewarding. I'm learning that my mind actually makes things more complicated out of fear. Think about it - when things are complex, we have a hot excuse to overanalyze and do nothing.

Everything is more rewarding when playing full out. Holding back just means you won't get the full experience, and the real learnings come from experiencing all of it.

This is Mike’s Newsletter, a newsletter about what I'm reading, learning, and one thing you might find useful each week.