Did You Trade P.E. Time for Computer Time? (I Didn’t.)

[This post was originally published on my blog at SwayRise Creative.]

A little story about how I fell into website design …

When I was a kid in school, I NEVER traded PhysEd time for computer time.

Give up the outdoors, the jungle gym (how were those ever considered safe?), and sunshine to sit in the classroom, stare at a black screen (no Windows OS in those days), and type numbered lines into a TRS-80?

No, thank you.

So, it’s kind of weird that now I’m a website designer.

Here’s how it happened…

At thirty-one, I was a law school dropout and a frustrated fiction writer. Even though I’d been trying to write novels for over a year, I just couldn’t seem to finish one.

One day, a woman walked into one of my writer’s groups showing off what was, to be honest, the ugliest website I’d ever seen. My initial reaction was, I could do better than that. When she mentioned she’d paid $400 for it, well … that got my attention.

Maybe there was a way for me to make money that didn’t require the soul-crushing mundanity of law school (no offense to happy lawyers, it just wasn’t for me), or continuing to struggle to write novels.

Fast forward a few months, and I’d taught myself Publisher and Frontpage (I still cringe, but hey, it was 2005), and I had designed and built websites for several authors in my writers’ group and one for our writing chapter.

After that, more people wanted websites and pretty soon, I was making more money from building websites than writing unfinished romance novels, so ... my hobby went from a fun side gig to a real job.

And honestly, I loved it.

Once I started running my business full-time, I grew it into a nice little agency. My client base grew and I began to attract more and more healers, coaches, and wellness practitioners. (They seemed to vibe with my ‘love what you do’ and ‘screw the ‘Shoulds’ when it comes to your marketing strategy’ approach.)

Eventually, I burnt out on WordPress, sold my agency, and went solely into consulting for a few years.

But consulting didn’t give me enough of a creative outlet, and I missed the old days of handing a client a ‘tangible’ thing with a flourish and a Ta-daaa! to wrap up our time together.

In 2022, I rediscovered Squarespace. This was two days after they'd released Fluid Engine (their easy-as-a-dream builder) and I fell in love a second time. Then, I found Paige Brunton, a huge Squarespace web design advocate and business maven, and after consuming some of her content, I hung out a new shingle and started designing websites again.

And I can’t believe how much I love my job.

I’ve got a lot of fun new projects planned, including a website template shop, being a SquareKicker Template Creator, and writing more articles about how to use AI imagery to uplevel your brand and website.

I get to be creative, and strategic, and do it all on a platform that works well for my clients. I still work on my storytelling, but now it’s through great copywriting and branding for my clients.

I would never have mapped it out this way. I couldn’t possibly have planned it. I still try not to trade too much outside time for computer time, but I’m glad this is how my life and career have panned out.

Hi! If we haven’t met before, I’m Diane Whiddon, a passionate website designer and writer (of great taglines, marketing copy, and brilliant journal entries). Feel like your work or website might need a little love? Let’s see what we can do for you.