You Are Your Own Worst Client.
I shouldn’t be writing a blog post.
No, instead of writing a blog post, I should be doing one of the myriad of things that actually checks something off my ever-growing, all-consuming list of tasks to complete for my business.
Things I should be working on:
- Figuring out how to talk about my work in a way that is “easily digestible for potential clients.”
- Finishing my rebrand which has been eking along at a snail’s pace, pieced together with a handful of free minutes here and there.
- Updating my business website that, up to this point, has resulted in my slapping the same three chunks of content (FPO) through an unending string of possible components and layouts over several weeks.
- Folding the mountainous load of laundry awaiting me in my basement with a million tiny shirts, pants, and socks to fold neatly.
(Note: folding a 6-year-old’s clothes is impossible.)
I’ve found myself in this golden moment when all client work is out the door, invoices have been sent, and I’m awash in time to spare. And yet the very last thing I want to do is continue this proverbial throwing of spaghetti against the wall while knowing full well that no solution will emerge today.
Or tomorrow.
Or maybe ever.
Until one day, fed up with all of this and simply wanting to be done, I will begrudgingly push whatever final-v452 is remotely palatable and hope for the best.
That is, until I’m filled with the urge to redesign again. Which will undoubtedly happen.
So when an old coworker and I were chatting away about the many facets of genius to be found in the masterful TV sitcom Frasier, made famous in the nineties and early aughts, and the conversation swayed towards what I should be doing, we found ourselves agreeing on all points.
Yes, designing for yourself is hard.
Yes, you are your own worst client.
Yes…. I can’t think of a third thing, but you get it.
And then that very same old coworker suggested I write a blog about it.
So here I am with Reason #43 of why I simply can’t work on that redesign right now.
Some background:
I started my own design business about three months ago, finding in myself an entrepreneurial spirit. With mere days to choose a name, I landed on….wait for it…Jamie Aponas Design…which is sure to convince potential clients of my unyielding and never-ending well of creativity.
Because, when it came down to it, who was I?
Chat GPT was certainly no help in answering that age-old question. Never one to back down from a challenge, however, I belly-flopped face-first into my next existential crisis: The branding of JAD.
Does that acronym work? I’m testing it out.
“Come on down to JAD where we’re desperately trying to make our brand seem like a brand and not just my name with Design tacked on the end of it.”
I’m also hopping drastically between using the royal “we” and simply saying “I” because, let’s face it, there’s just one captain on this party barge.
But I digress.
Business is going well. I love working with my clients. I love waking up and facing a day filled with things that I chose to do with the AMAZING people I chose to do them with. I like connecting with people. I like sipping Earl Grey in a cafe and running into people I know and saying, “Oh me? I work for myself now.” I love the work that I do and I love knowing that I get to do it every day. I like working from home and having the freedom to take a few minutes to pair teeny tiny socks together and inevitably find out that we’ve somehow lost three.
So why, oh why, is it that we are our very worst client?
…
I should run. It’s getting late and I should really be working on my website.
