11 Lessons I Learnt As A Webflow Freelancer In 2022

1) Money Is Not The Only Metric For Success

I used to only set goals that were financial. For some reason, this made me think I needed to work A LOT (often on things that weren’t useful but that’s another story). Ironically, this singular goal setting also decided my goals for other areas of my life - I was going to neglect relationships, ignore fitness and my mental health and put my agenda in front of my partner’s. I think I knew that money is not the only metric to measure for success and working all the time is not healthy for you or others around you, but my actions didn’t match my thoughts and words. This year, I learnt to set goals that allow you to live a balanced life.

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2) Work With People Who Are Better Than You

Working with people that are better than me has hugely increased my career trajectory. I learnt from incredible people this year like Dexter Washington, Matt Evans, Marcelo Russo and without the lessons they taught me, I would never have had the confidence to do what I’m doing now. I learnt hard skills and soft skills from people far further along their Webflow journey than I am which was invaluable.

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3) What Did I Make This Week?

With the world of Webflow, it’s such a fast moving space to be in which makes it exciting but also gives you the chance to constantly push, create and evolve. I have found it’s useful to ask myself at the end of the week ‘What Did I Make This Week?’ If I haven’t made anything that forces me to exlpore/learn something new, then I know what to focus on this coming week.

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4) The Unsexy Webflow Stuff Is My New Sexy

I’ve screwed up projects this year by not focussing enough on the unsexy stuff. What does this mean? Unsexy stuff that I now consider sexy af is documenting project processes, no bs and transparent communication, an in depth Q and A after the build, reviewing project processes after finishing client jobs to see areas of improvement and having a clear hand off process.

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5) Building A Digital Presence Is Game Changing

I listened to Jay Clouse’s podcast ‘Creative Elements,’ where Dickie Bush spoke about the power of writing a weekly newsletter. Dickie’s mentor Khe Hy said to him ,“Write a newsletter for 52 weeks in a row, and watch it change your life.” It did for Dickie so I thought I would give it a go. My plan was to write 100 newsletters and stop if it wasn’t for me. It’s pretty wild how this has changed my life only 20 newsletters in. Whether it’s creating content like a newsletter, or simply being more active in online communities, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

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6) Habits Are More Important Than Goals

I used to set ambitious goals without having a clearly documented process to actually reach the goal. As a result, I never reached them. Now, I write the goal but work out the daily/weekly habits I need to have the discipline to get there. This may sound obvious but obvious things are often overlooked in importance I find!

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7) Say Thanks More Than You Think You Should

There’s this beautiful quote from Harry Beckwith that I think summarises this point well

Few things feel more gratifying than gratitude

Say thanks more but especially to people that help you. I have found this will improve the quality of your life generally too.

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8) Curation vs Creation

I am no Webflow expert. I haven’t run a succesful agency. I’m not an award winning freelancer. So why do I think anyone will care about what I have to say? This was what I thought when I was deciding about starting a podcast and newsletter aimed specifically for new Webflowers.

However, I have learnt 2 important lessons about this:Firstly, curating content is just as powerful as creating original content/sharing personal insights. There is an avalanche of incredible content out there already so curating that content is just as powerful and helpful as making your own.

Secondly, your personal experience is unique. No, your personal experience may not include running a webflow studio for 10 years, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable to someone out there in a similar position to you. If you are a year in to your webflow journey, you are a year more than someone starting today. You can help these people develop and grow!

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9) Show Your Warts

I was recently contacted about a full time Webflow dev job at a studio which I didn’t want, but was intrigued what the founders had to say. They explained the job role to me, a little bit about their studio and asked whether I was interested. I wasn’t so I tried to put them off. I said ‘I can’t code - I’m a designer that uses Webflow rather than a dev that uses webflow. If you’re looking for a really solid dev, I’m not your man guys.’ They founders looked at each other, took a pause and then looked back at me and one of them said ‘Jack, really appreciate the honesty. We value transparent communication and honesty more more than depth of skillset. We can train you up if you’re willing to learn.’ It appeared that I had convinced them to hire me by telling them I wasn’t the right hire. If this experience taught me anything, it really illustrated how showing your weaknesses shows your strength. By telling people what you can’t do, they really trust you when you say you can do something.

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10) Extreme Ownership

This year, projects have gone wrong, clients failed to pay for whatever reason, jobs that were certain to happen didn’t etc etc. Freelancing can sometimes feel like getting punched by a ghost - you can’t see the next punch coming until it happens. In these circumstances, it’s easy to blame others or just believe life is against you. However, I have found it far more productive and effective to work out what part I played in the situations I found myself in. I have found we have more control on aspects of life than we realise. In the words of the terrifying Jocko Wilkinson says, "When a team takes ownership of their problems, the problems get solved."

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11) Give More Than You Take

I heard this interesting concept from Jay Clouse’s podcast (again) where he talks about providing value in every interaction you have with someone. If you bring an energy where you are genuinely trying to help that individual get to wherever they want to get to, you will not only help that individual tremendously and create a deeper connection with them, but you will also have more fulfilling and enjoyable interactions. I have truly seen the power of that this year.