TL;DR
Thank you all for helping me hit my donation goal for the 24 Hours of Booty charity event within just 24 hours of my announcement last week - I’m honored and excited to keep fundraising for cancer patients!
If you have Japan tips, send them over. I’ll be there for the month of June 🇯🇵
I already started my Duolingo practice!
I’m formally launching a new business… more details on Mitten Ventures below.
CURRENTLY
Documenting my journey
I’ve gotten back into disc golf the last few weeks in NC, and I’m excited for a tournament in Asheville this weekend!
Man, I’ve missed disc golf. NC has some of the best courses in the world, and I’ve actually gotten two aces in the last two weeks - one was worth $100 at a league event!
For those wondering, I’ve played over 8,000 holes of disc golf and have six hole-in-ones. They’re rare.
If you want to follow along this weekend, here’s a link to the leaderboard on Saturday. There’s over 25 players registered in our division - the top amateur division.
Here’s the $100 ace at Kentwood in Raleigh
And my priceless ace with my dad at Apex Nature Park
FINANCES
Money and Investing Updates
$1,893. The amount I saved (in cash) by using credit card points for my flight to Tokyo. Used 120k out of my 500k credit card points. Pretty solid deal.
+25%. The returns over the last year on my stock portfolio. Really shows you the power of holding (and buying the dip) equities through wars and all sorts of crazy stuff.
BUSINESS PULSE
You all are some of the first to learn about a new formal offering I have - AI implementation and consulting!
I’ve already taken on two paid projects through Mitten Ventures before my Japan trip. If you know someone who needs 1×1 AI implementation, an agentic build, consulting, or a workshop for their business, I have room for one more project before the trip.
We are launching a couple new ads clients we’re excited about.
We also attended the Google Marketing Live event yesterday - with some interesting announcements about Google and YouTube ads - check out an interesting screenshot below:
They also mentioned that PMAX and AI-Max are unlocking billions of net new searches. Google’s scale is absolutely mind-blowing. We’ll see if they’re right about the above AI comment.
WHAT I’M CONSUMING
Music
Don Toliver: Tonight I’m going to Don Toliver’s concert in Charlotte, NC. His last one was my fav of 2024, so it’s safe to say I’m excited for this one.
Noah Kahan: I’m seeing Noah for the 3rd time - this time in Raleigh in July - and I’ve been spamming his new album. So good.
Podcasts
I interviewed at Vanguard in 2019, but ultimately didn’t intern with them. They taught me a lot about their company history in the interview process, which I thought was interesting at the time.
This podcast blew my mind multiple times and I didn’t realize how much value has been created in the global economy for individuals and their families by index funds and Vanguard. By eliminating fees in investing, there’s a credible argument that Jack Bogle is the greatest philanthropist in the world. Quite interesting.
DESK OF THE WEEK
📍 Cary, NC
GOATed WFH setup. Some would say I snuck into this apartment’s pool - some would say they left the gate unlocked…
WHAT’S NEXT?
I’ve officially booked flights to Japan for June! Thanks to everyone who’s sent travel tips and itineraries already to help me.
My travel planning starts now….
Stay tuned for disc golf and backpacking updates over the next couple weeks.
I’m still planning to hit Europe for the summer - let me know if you’ll be over there too and want to join our villa.
Adventure is out there!
✌️ Matthew
SUPPORT
From time to time, I may enlist the help of sponsors to help me afford to continue writing this newsletter. And it’s pretty cool to get paid to share my story!
You can check them out below, and find other (totally free) ways to support me via affiliate links here. Cheers!
The below tool, Wispr Flow, is one that I use daily. Check it out, and thank you Wispr for the support of my newsletter.
Stop typing what you could say in 10 seconds.
Wispr Flow turns your voice into clean, professional text inside any app. Emails, Slack, client updates — speak once, send without editing. 4x faster than typing.
Not financial advice. Just a guy sharing his journey. Thanks for being here!
Affiliate link disclaimer:
Some of the links on this website and in the Build in Motion newsletter are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase or sign up for a service, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products, tools, and services that I personally use or genuinely believe would be useful to you. Any commission earned helps support the newsletter and keeps this content free. You should assume that any link to a product or service on this site or in any email from Build in Motion may be an affiliate link unless stated otherwise.