Ira Glass, A Drunken Money + Launching Two Years Ago

Technology makes me weepy. It is my Kryptonite. Bestie swears that our friend Zach & I are THE unluckiest people she knows when it comes to computer meltdowns. Thus attempting to build my own website {read launching a business while on unemployment & thus unable to hire help} was never going to be a tear-free process.

"Everyone" in the entrepreneur world used Wordpress. And being a visual creative person I couldn't help but have a picture of what I wanted in my head. So I spent days of my life looking for a Wordpress theme by someone who'd read my mind.

When that was getting me nowhere, I put out pleas for help. Everywhere. On Facebook, in emails, on Craigslist, gchat away message: "Does anyone know a graphic or web designer who can help me get a site started?" You would have thought I was looking for the one astronaut who's been to Mars. Though I know there are millions of designers, I just flat out couldn't find one.

And then you know there's those people who say, "Just put it out there, the universe will give you what you need, pray about it". Well, when the universe is not, then you wonder if it's you -- are you doing something wrong, destined to fail, the first person in history the universe has loathed?!

If you just skipped that above paragraphs let me sum it up for you:

Launching was maddeningly insanely crazypants nervousebreakdownbeforeIhadevenbegun hard.

Finally, the heavens parted & I discovered Squarespace. But then I spent a semester learning how to use a camera & Photoshop, & it was another year before I took an intensive on Photoshop for bloggers. The website got a lot of compliments, people asked who'd done my branding {me}, wrote my copy {me}, built it {sorry to sound self-absorbed here but yes, still just me}. Meanwhile I was always surprised, thinking to myself, "But I know it can be so much better ..."

Turns out, that mentality is pretty common according to this truly brilliant quote by Ira Glass:

I'm sharing this post today because I want to encourage you in two ways:

  1. Building/launching a website/blog/brand is freaking hard.
  2. It will never meet your high expectations. You have to launch anyways. And maybe wait two full years to make it better. {Spoiler alert: You're going to learn tomorrow that while the new site is oh so much better, it has not been easier! Stay tuned ...}

Another insight into this process was when my friend Tim introduced me to the concept of "your drunken monkey" over a bottle of red wine in Notting Hill in March. "It's the thing that keeps you up at night, you wake up thinking about," he said. "Hmm. I don't have that. I'm a super heavy sleeper," I replied.

No joke the next two days I realized when I awoke that I'd been having an anxious dream about my booking/hire page. Yegdas. And just last Saturday, I had a restless night of sleep & realized I'd been dreaming about layouts of squares ... my new booking/hire page. Paaaathetic!

But that's what Ira talks about. It weighs on you, this desire to do things better. It haunts you in your sleep, that desire to be brilliant & as good as it gets.

So tomorrow we're launching the first few pages of the new website. And even though I'm blessed to have six incredible bettys helping me on this one, there'll still be room to grow. But we're launching anyways. Because I'm more passionate about making things happen, than I am about things being perfect.

Come back tomorrow to celebrate patience, teamwork, growth, vision, making things happen & creating more providence than perfection. Oh & making the world a little prettier one website at a time. I can't wait to give you the new tour!

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