A short bonus episode showcasing a few stand out moments from this weeks guest interview with Mitch Monson 

Daring Forever. Podcast with Radim Malinic

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Radim Malinic-2: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome to this bonus episode of the Daring Creativity Podcast. This. As you might now know, This is where I revisit the interview published earlier in the week, provided me with the opportunity to zoom in on a few standout moments for extra value and meaning. I take time to digest the goodness my guests share with me every week.

And this week, was really special because I was chatting to Mitch Monson, who has had an incredible career. with fantastic achievements, working with some extraordinary clients. So if you heard the conversation, you had me spending pretty much the first third of the conversation talking about his work for Prince, had to ask as many questions as I could, because if you have a guest who designed the Love Symbol logo for one of 

 the biggest pop stars this planets has ever had, spend some time on it. What was beautiful about this conversation that we mainly focused on, the few [00:01:00] topics that seems to revolve around continuously in our industry, rules risk reward, you know, regrets and this conversation was great for finding some of the standout moments, which I would like to highlight now.

one being about breaking rules,

being self-taught or just not having so much formal education, it also means you're asking a lot more questions. and I'm always that person,I'm not the person gonna ask for directions to get somewhere or to get a recommendation.

Mitch Monson: Something like, there's just, there's no embarrassment in that, I guess. or fear of I'm gonna be an idiot is like. I always wanna be that person in the room. And I think even now when I think of the people that I work with is I'm not the smartest person in the room and that's exactly where I wanna be.

Radim Malinic-2: Mitch mentioned through the conversation that one of his. Heroes is David Carson and David Carson famously says, don't snap the grid, don't follow the grid In fact, what is great, and I love the fact that, Mitch, [00:02:00] as I mentioned in our conversation, is a fellow self-taught graphic designer.

And I think there's that beautiful, call it naivety, I'll call it eternal curious idiocy. if you don't have the preconceived notions about proper design principles, you approach problems with fresh eyes.

Therefore, it's more of a beginner's mind, many breakthrough innovations come from outsiders who don't know something is impossible. When you think about a wave of AI and generative AI spewing out all sorts of ideas and things, it's gonna remix in. Things that is learned or picked up 

it kind of cross pollinates the ideas and sometimes it doesn't follow the grids and none of it doesn't follow the rules. So in Mitch's conversation, you can't be afraid of breaking rules because you don't know they exist. And I love that he said that, not knowing rules is a superpower because.

You can see this as a bit of a bull in a [00:03:00] China shop situation, but using carefully, as Mitch articulated in our conversation, he wants to be, let's put it kindly, the dumbest person in the room because when you, the wisest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.

You wanna be in a place where you can learn. find your own space. Find your own rules,

 there will always be conversation about traditional learning, new ways of learning, self-learning, self-explanatory work. But what matters in the end, it's how it makes people feel. Because I remember when I started doing my own little experiment and producing my own designs and business cards and stuff, and they were catching attention and 

And someone said, Hey, you're not following the grid. And I'm like, well, you see, I haven't followed the grid, but we are now talking about what I did. Because if I followed the grid, maybe that wouldn't be as interesting.

The second quote was something really magical 

And I think there's this really beautiful article I read, almost 25 years ago that literally changed [00:04:00] my life in Fast Company. And it was about this interviewer that he had done like a thousand interviews with, senior citizens who'd retired and had really successful careers.

Mitch Monson:  And I look back at that article all the time, I give it to so many people on a regular basis because what it said is the biggest regrets were just leaving that music inside of you, and not, taking the risks in, creativity and in relationships and not looking back regularly and not reflecting, at d different times of your life.

So you can kind of assess where things are and where you want go. And I think that helped me so much at that time, and it made me take a lot more risks. They're just like, I don't wanna be that person. And what's really funny is, in that article, it says, I don't wanna be at 60 years old regretting that, and.

Like I said, I just,I've reached that point and I I just don't feel like I have a lot of regrets, and I think that's a great place to be.

Radim Malinic-2: I love when people use poetic words about situations. Don't leave that [00:05:00] music inside you. It was just a music to my mind really. It's poetry, isn't it? I love it. It just fits perfectly. The theme of Daring Creativity. Mitch was referencing quote from The Fast Company article from 20 years ago, and that article captures the human fear of unrealized potential.

It reframes the risk of what might go wrong to what will I regret not attempting. And as you know with the theme of Daring Creativity podcast, it's not about jumping out of planes. It's about doing a thing that you otherwise regret, never starting. So with Mitch's quote, the music inside you represents the authentic self-expression beyond external success metrics.

It just doesn't matter. because how many reasons can you find for not starting something? How many 

Fears and issues can you find about a project that you really wanna do, but maybe it's not the right time or maybe it's not the right conditions, or we don't have money. But most people intuitively know [00:06:00] what they're capable of. 

 to be making decisions from the deathbed is rarely taken about Risks, is about risks avoided because it links creativity to relationships, both require vulnerability and authentic expression.When facing a creative opportunity, ask yourself, will I regret not trying this more than I'll regret potential failure.

The next standout moment is about risk.

So here's Mitch's quote.

the way I've always approached things and I think both in my work and just in, like when you were talking, I know you're a surfer, so for myself, being a backcountry snowboarder and doing heli boarding things like that, people would just feel like, that's like a, why would you wanna take that risk?

 But I think just like in my work, like that's when I feel most alive. Like when I have that opportunity to do something that's, a little more outta the ordinary or also has that risk component. It, that's when you do feel, most alive, the [00:07:00] most excited about what you're doing. The most people that you admire doing something you wish you were doing will always admit they're very risk adverse. And Mitch's conversation, he admitted that he loves risk, but what seems risky is actually hardly spur of the moment situation because when he goes, let's say backcountry snowboarding, or hell boarding.

It's already like they are ready, they're tuned in, they're prepared in the right performance state. It's not just a sort of idea of standing on a hill with your maids when you're nine with your BMX bike going. I think I should give it a try 'cause that is a risk. That's basically spur of the moment working on the adrenaline and bit of a stupidity thinking.

I'll give it a go. 

the idea of risk in a professional application. It goes beyond the experience level. 

So his snowboarding analogy is [00:08:00] perfect. Extreme athletes don't feel extreme because they're prepared, trained, and operating with that expanded comfort zone. Something that applies to creative risks. when you think about a professional application of risk taking on clients beyond your experience level.

It's more about growth rather than risk. you'll be risky in putting loads of money in a business venture that doesn't have, heads or tails. Whereas if you take on something that you can understand the shape of, it's more about understanding how you can grow and learn from the situation.

The topic of risk will never go away, and we can be prodded in from every direction, and I think it's the way how we internalize the way what we see as risky and what we don't. Because the theme of risk and the way how we perceive risk really depends on how we see our space in the world.

The final quote from Mitch was about investing in [00:09:00] yourself.

I had this thing come up the other day where, a younger professional had asked me about Hey, I, I really want to, I really wanna do this thing, but the thing is, it's kind of expensive.

Mitch Monson: My company won't do it for me. And it, and I just heard those words and I just said, just stop a second. what's the purpose of this? What is the purpose thing? And why do you wanna go? And they told me very passionately what that was. and the only thing I said, don't you wanna invest in yourself?

isn't that the most important thing? and I really didn't have to have much more of a conversation. They're just like, yeah, I just need to do this. I'm gonna pay for it. I'm gonna take that time off. I'm gonna go and I'm just gonna make it happen. And that was a younger me, like that was, I didn't wait for permission.

Radim Malinic-2: this is another topic. Permission. Permission, granted, just keeps coming back. Risks, rules, permissions. It's incredible because let's be honest, like what we've created in the last many decades is incredible.

The tools we have, the opportunities we have, the connections, the [00:10:00] communities, all of this. Yet it can also feel that. We are still stuck in certain way and maybe is it because we have so much more all of available to us that we are still waiting for someone else to green light our development?

Because again, I love in Mitch's conversation, Ned, he didn't wait for permission and it's something I can relate to because there is nothing more beautiful in the world when.

You decide to follow something, follow the idea that it just simply doesn't go away and you explore it a bit by bit.

 the investment mindset is when you invest in yourself. You investing in your capabilities because the people that, society celebrates, the adherence, the Taylor Swifts or John Mayers, they just didn't wake up and pick up the instruments and stood on the [00:11:00] stage being already, I mean, it's a compounding grove because their skills, experiences, compound over time.

 it's the making of the person and. The best bit about, let's say people like Taylor Swift, people always say that there's nobody else who wants it more than her. And this is the question, how much do you wanna invest in yourself? Because it is the most important thing.

If you haven't checked out my conversation with Mitch. Please do. It's absolutely genius. and I will see you on the next one.

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