A Letter For Debbie Millman
My first true love for a content creator
I first stumbled upon Design Matters in 2009. At the time, I didn't know who Debbie Millman was, and I had only listened to a few podcasts regularly. Podcasts were a brand-new medium, and the idea of podcasting or on-demand radio streaming online was not common. I listened to the Bill Simmons BS Report podcast and Adam Carolla's ACE podcast pretty regularly, but they were pure entertainment. Design Matters was the first podcast I started listening to that was truly informative and educational. Actually it’s that perfect and special mix of Information disguised as Entertainment. Debbie's conversationally curious style and the audio format were perfect for consuming and absorbing knowledge from both Debbie and her guests.
When I graduated from the Air Force Academy and started living “Real Life” on my own in downtown St. Louis I had this itch to do things I wasn’t ever really able to do. The combination of the Academy + Basketball (go Falcons!) took all of my time, effort, focus, everything. I all of the sudden had tons of time and freedom to explore and do things I wasn’t able to before. I was always creative growing up and throughout school most of the elective classes I took were art classes. So I started to make stuff.
And when I started to make stuff (mostly mens fashion items like Ties, Bowties, Pocket Square, etc) I became obsessed with Design Thinking. I got a little taste of this concept at USAFA, mostly in engineering classes like Engineering Mechanics and Human Factors Engineering, but once I had to THINK through a design I latched on to this area of study and didn’t let go.
Debbie and her guests on Design Matters were my main fix. I could not get enough of it. To say I became obsessed might not even be strong enough. I listened to every episode diligently, often taking notes in a notebook.
When I heard something that struck me, I'd write it down and try to commit it to memory. I was trying to make up for not studying design formally in school and decreasing my attachment to intense imposter syndrome. This was my secondary education, my master's degree, my Ph.D., whatever you want to call it. I always felt like an imposter—maybe I still do. I have no formal training; I only learned from my friends (thanks Rob and BWaite), my wife Bri, Debbie, Roman Mars, and others from whom I could freely get information, mostly through the internet and podcasts.
This was when I discovered that informal education through the internet was often more powerful than any formal education could be. I really only have Debbie to thank. I remember listening to very early episodes with Paula Scher and Steven Heller, which inspired me to do more and push my limits of what I thought I could do.
I cannot write enough words to convey how prolific Debbie is as a creator - look at her wikipedia page. I wish I had the time to go back through and document every impactful thing I’ve gleaned from her. Or all the people she’s led me to and all the things I’ve learned from them. That would be a full-time job for a month if I did, it’s that high of volume. Her influence tree on my life is definitely larger than any other creator. She’s at the top of the food chain. GO EXPLORE DEBBIE’s WORK IF YOU HAVEN’T YET.
Sometimes I still wish I could go back to my St. Louis apartment, where I had built a little design studio in my walk-in closet: a drafting table, a sewing machine, a cutting mat, a set of Prismacolor markers, sketchbooks, and colored pencils. I never had more fun than I did then. Everything I did was new and exciting; it felt like the world was my oyster.
I would often listen to Design Matters while creating. I'd hear things that would spark inspiration, and I'd pursue them until that inspiration had run its course. My notebooks and sketchbooks became filled with design concepts I learned from Debbie and her guests. I started applying those concepts to the designs and creative projects I was working on, from graphic design work like creating logos and brand marks (99.9% of which never saw the light of day) to sketching fashion designs and creating patterns for clothes or accessories.
Later in life, I lost touch with that creative output and became solely focused on “business”. This remains a huge regret of mine.
That informal Ph.D. in design and creativity slowly bled into everything I did. I didn't think about business, marketing, sales and strategy through the same lens as most of my peers. I thought about it from a design perspective. I saw revenue problems as design problems and went through the design thinking process to figure out how to grow businesses, build marketing plans, create sales strategies, and develop revenue operations. I built processes within businesses that were used and operated by humans to excel.
I still think this is what sets me apart—I view these problems that most businesses encounter through a different lens. I still apply that design thinking, that creative process, to everything I do. It's the only way I know how to work; it's how my brain is naturally inclined and reinforced by how I trained it.
In 2012, I sat down with my notebook at my kitchen table and decided to write Debbie a letter. This was the first letter I had actually written since basic training at the Air Force Academy. I don't know what inspired me to sit down and write that letter, other than a deep sense of gratitude.
My desire at the time was to get out of the Air Force and become a designer of some sort. My ask to Debbie in the letter was that I somehow be able to go to New York City and learn from her. I had no formal ask whatsoever and hadn't really thought it through. I wasn't very good at sales at the time; if I had been, I'd have written a very different letter.
But that letter is the essence of this project. I felt so grateful to Debbie and the content she produced and the people she brought on her podcast that I felt compelled to write a letter. I felt compelled to tell her just how important she had been to me.
I never delivered that letter. I never wrote it out on real stationery, never put it in an envelope, and never mailed it. I even went through the trouble of finding her address—it's still written at the top of my notebook. But I never did it. I never sent it.
So, this is my chance now to do that. This is my new letter to Debbie. My thank you. My appreciation. My pure, unadulterated gratitude for what she chose to do and produce and put out into the world. She has drastically shaped and guided my life, the way my mind works, and my ability to create and do over the last 15 years.
So thank you, Debbie. I love you and your work. I'm so grateful.
With love and deep appreciation,
-Andrew
Thank you so so so much, I am honored and humbled and thrilled. You made my day, my week, my year!
A raw + beautiful tribute to a true creator from another creator.