This Week on Blamo! 2.20.25

William McNicol of William Frederick

William McNicol of William Frederick - Image Courtesy of William Frederick

Yes, we’re now on Substack too! :)

I used to spend a lot of time writing intros. If you listen to the early episodes of Blamo!, you’ll hear me try to create some type of NPR intro that often fell flat. It’s okay. I’m not beating myself up – it was nearly 9 years ago. I’ve evolved. Thanks to everyone’s feedback and encouragement, I now sit and talk to the wall and, oftentimes, process: The weather sucks, or I have too many pants, or the world is on fire.

Sometimes, I’ll share things that I find truly important, no matter how big or small they may be. I keep trying to figure out what “important” is to me now. Is it time with myself? Time with my kids? Time away from my phone? All of the above?

I often struggle with some sort of formula for success. What do I need to be happy, and how do I continue doing that? I want the answer, not the journey to find it. It was only recently (last week) that I received the earth-shattering epiphany that perhaps it will look different each day, and maybe I need to be more okay with the journey. Perhaps I don’t need to panic-exercise at the gym every day, or maybe I don’t need to drown myself in history books because I’m too afraid of the future. Perhaps I don’t need to find the quickest solution to every problem to avoid the pain of solving it.

I’m starting to believe that the “optimization” of everything is depriving me of the joy of discovery. I don’t want to be ignorant or obnoxious - just okay with the unknown.

I pulled a lot of this from my recent discussion with William McNicol of William Frederick this week. We talk a lot about philosophy and how people experience brands. But as you’ll hear, according to him, He doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing. It’s refreshing to hear something like this from a designer. I truly feel that when we remind ourselves we’re like everyone else, we can empathize and understand others better. We don’t need to forsake our most sacred values, just be okay with knowing that others have different ones.

Listen Here