You don’t have to do everything yourself
If you’re suffering from do-everything-myself syndrome, this is for you. Sit down, drink your coffee, and have a read. ☕
It’s January 2022 and we all still can’t believe it – I know. I, for one, can’t believe it’s 2022 and I still haven’t started that newsletter I’ve been talking about (to myself, just to be clear) for a while. Actually, I just have, but it still took me a birthday, a Christmas, and countless series on Netflix to “find the time for it”. But this first newsletter isn’t about this – after all, here we are! 🎉
What’s happening and I want to talk about, because, you’ll see, it leads to quite the insight, is this: the Copy & Coffee website is under construction... again! That’s the second time in less than a year, the first time being when it was originally being built. By yours truly. Which probably explains everything. Here it goes…
When I first bought Copy & Coffee with the intention of building a nice little copywriting business, I thought, “okay, I’m going to build it myself – it can’t be that hard, can it?” I mean, I had never built a website before, except for blogs and Tumblrs that are super intuitive and mostly drag-and-drop. But, hey, a little confidence can’t hurt, can it?
And, sure, I built it. It really wasn’t that hard, I was right. But did I love it? Did I look at it and think, “wow, check me out, I made this thing”? Nah. It was very basic, first of all. I’d look at it for minutes in a row, thinking, “okay… can do.” I mean, it was functional, and it “could do”. But I never wanted anyone to go on it, ever. Because I didn’t want them to look at it and think, “okay… can do.”
So, after a few months of zero traffic, I decided it’s time to throw it in the bin – more or less. Luckily, my boyfriend (who can actually build a website) decided to make it better. It’s very much under construction at the moment, so it’s too early to get too excited. But this time I don’t have to do it, which is the first “yay!”. The second one is knowing that someone who has done this before and has done it well is on it.
The same thing goes for social media. In 6 months-ish I made only 20 something posts. This, considering that I have a Pages document full of content, is quite sad. Then again, every time I want to post I remember that I need a visual to go with it… so I go make a coffee or walk my dog, and before you know it it’s nighttime! Maybe tomorrow!
Look, I’m a millennial with access to the internet and a Canva Pro account. Of course I can throw together a cute background, two illustrations (that I paid for) and fifteen words in three different-but-somehow-matching fonts on it. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be good. The skills are there, I promise. It’s the visual creativity that’s lacking, hard.
I recently decided to get over myself and let someone else do it – finally! I mean, I trusted a designer with my logo after a week of failed attempts, surely I can hand over some post templates too. (Even though there’s a part of me screaming at the screen, “BUT I CAN DO IT TOO!” Sure I can. But the truth is, I don’t do it very well. And I don’t enjoy doing it.)
You don’t have to do everything yourself. You’re not good at everything. No one is. I know I’m not. And that’s perfectly ok, even if it stings. You may have the basic skills, like me when it comes to design of any kind. (Except for interior design. I still honestly believe I could potentially be very good at that. But that’s probably because I never tried it.)
But you risk doing a job that makes you cringe at the thought of others seeing it – or, at the very least, makes you cringe at the thought of doing it. So why bother? There are people whose job is doing exactly that, who make a living out of it, and who love it to bits. Let them do it! Think about it: if we were good at everything, we’d have no need for each other.
If you need some copy for your website, but hate the thought of letting another human read your work, come to me! I’ll write it for you, and everyone will be happier for it. If you need any visual work done… definitely don’t come to me, but go to literally anyone else. Ideally, they should have the word “designer” in their job title, but hey. Anyone but me, okay?
The fact that you decide to hand over the work to another professional does not mean that you can’t do it. We all can write a few sentences or pair an image and a quote together. But if you want it to be good and you – be honest – really don’t want to spend your Saturday afternoon doing it, hire a freelancer. They’ll enjoy the work, and you’ll enjoy your <insert whatever you’d rather be doing instead>.
Anca x
P.S. This post is here to help me get started. It only ever landed in my very own inbox, but I’m hoping that the next ones will make their way into yours, too. You can always see past issues right here, even if you don’t subscribe to my newsletter – but, if you do, thank you & see you very soon!