Hey friend,
A quick thought before some updates down below.
The joy of starting any new venture or learning a new skill can quickly turn into fear. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of being an imposter.
For me, this came suddenly after my wife Ren and I went solo and started selling websites to clients. Initially, I jumped into this website building world and thought I was pretty good at it. But I quickly realized how much I didn’t know. Especially when clients started having more specific and unique requests - “Can I make the logo different on this page?”, “Can we have a portal for our clients to access their project information?”, “Can we make the text a different color only in this one spot?”
It really started to give me impostor syndrome. How could I really call myself a developer or website designer if I constantly told people “no, we can’t do that” or “no Squarespace doesn’t allow that”. These seemed like reasonable enough requests for them to ask, and I just wasn’t good enough to accomplish them.
And I know this is not just me. That feeling of “not good enough” is so pervasive in our culture, and in life in general. It shows up not only in skills-building, but in relationships too. I guess it’s part of what it means to be human.
On thing that’s helped me move past this feeling when it comes to my work is reframing what it means to be an “expert” - or a non-imposter.
First, being an expert is relative. You don’t need to be the utmost authority in web design to be considered an expert by your client. The smartest person you know might be smart standing next to you, but isn’t so smart standing next to Albert Einstein. Likewise, you might not feel like an expert when you’re immersed in your field, but you’re probably an expert compared to your client.
Second, being an expert means having the curiosity to figure things out. This is especially true in the web design community where design trends, automation platforms, and website builders, like Squarespace, are changing rapidly. Remember, for most people, this amount of change is hard to keep up with, and most people shouldn’t be expected to. In my opinion, a web design expert, in part, maintains a curiosity around online things and internet stuff so their client doesn’t have to.
Lastly, a little bit of impostor syndrome can be healthy. If you’re constantly feeling a little “less than” in your field, it probably means you’ve surrounded yourself with people who know more than you. That’s not a bad place to be! It means you’re curious and want to do better and learn more. And the occasional feeling of not quite knowing what you’re doing can push you to get your skillset to the next level. The problem is less that you don’t feel adequate, and more that you’re not balancing that feeling by reflecting back on how far you’ve come, and re-affirming what you do know and are already good at.
Here’s a silly little visual:
That’s all from over here. Christy and I spoke about Impostor Syndrome recently on Somewhat Useful, and its been on my mind.
Keep Building,
Will
Showcase: SPS Website
Just launched a new website, SPS Product Engineering. This was a really fun website to build, with a lot of custom components, starting with this fun animated dot that follows you around and lights up the home page.
Shoutout: Squarespace eCommerce SEO Secrets
SEOSpace is a new SEO plugin for Squarespace. I’ve used it and found it really helpful in focusing my energy with SEO Marketing.
Henry, the founder of SEO Space, recently advised me on a code snippet that allows you to create unique category pages in your store that’s in the Code Catalogue. He then created this awesome Youtube video with a bunch of helpful tips for e-commerce websites in Squarespace. Check it out.
A Somewhat Useful Podcast
Christy Price and I are sharing what we've learned in building and growing our businesses in this new podcast.
We realize there is NO one right way of doing things in business. Every person and every business is different, and we're sharing what has worked for us and hope you find it at least... Somewhat Useful.
Our newest episode, The Right Tool For The Job, dives into the why we use Squarespace, what marketing platforms we use, and how to talk to clients about these choices.
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