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For my whole life, I blamed my lack of 'success' on one piece of career advice I could never follow: pick one thing, get really good at it, and do that thing until you die or retire, whichever comes first.
I started out in journalism school, switched to business school, managed restaurants on the side, taught dance, learned marketing, learned how to code, learned about internet money...all while being dead sure that something was indeed wrong with me 🙃
Turns out, the tools just hadn't caught up yet to my incorrigible curiosities 🙂
kellykim.substack.com
maybe you were just early
For my whole life, I had blamed my lack of ephemeral ‘success’ on my inability to follow this one antiquated piece of career advice I’d heard since forever: pick one thing, get really good at it, and do that thing until you die or retire, whichever comes first.
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
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“Every founder who hires me says the same thing:
👉 ‘Make it look good.’
And every time, I ask them one question back:
👉 ‘What do you want your visitor to do in the first 3 seconds?’
Silence.
And that silence?
That’s exactly why most landing pages fail.
Because design isn’t decoration.
It’s direction.
If your page doesn’t instantly tell users:
✔ Where they are
✔ What you offer
✔ What to do next
You’ve already lost them.
Good UI makes things look nice.
Great UX makes people take action.
Next time you design (or hire a designer), don’t start with:
❌ “Make it pretty”
Start with:
✅ “What’s the one action that matters most?”
That’s where real design begins.
💬 Curious—what do YOU think users should feel or do in the first 3 seconds?
#UIUX #UXDesign #LandingPage #ProductDesign #ConversionDesign #Figma #DesignThinking #UserExperience #DigitalMarketing #StartupTips
365 days of building a freelance business.
I thought it was about finding clients and building cool websites. It’s not.
It’s about building infrastructure.
Here is what I learned in my first year:
1. Silence is for engineering, not panic.
No clients? That’s your maintenance window. I used quiet months to refine my process, my docs, and my stack. Real growth happens when no one is watching.
2. Improvisation is expensive.
Every project used to feel like a new world. That’s a fast track to burnout. Now, everything is a system from onboarding to final delivery. A solid process is what lets you sleep at night.
3. The experience is the product.
You can build with Webflow, GSAP, and Three.js and still fail. If the client feels lost during the journey, you’ve failed. My job isn’t just to deliver a link. It’s to lead.
The truth?
It’s still hard. There are days of doubt. But I choose this. I choose to improve not just what I build, but how I operate.
To my fellow creators:
Are you putting out fires, or are you building your infrastructure?
"Silence is for engineering, not panic" this reframe alone is worth saving. I used to treat quiet months as failure. Turns out they were my best R&D time. 🔧 🚀
Most of the work I share early in a project is meant to feel a little uncomfortable.
Not bad, just bold. Pushed further than the brief asked, into territory the client didn’t quite realise they were ready for.
I never go too safe early on. It’s easier to pull things back than it is to start from something that feels soulless.
Here’s a glimpse of some early concepts from the Energy Central project. Some bold, some more editorial, all exploratory.
A lot of this won’t make it into the final brand, but that’s the point. It’s not wasted work – it’s what leads to a stronger result. The kind you wouldn’t arrive at if you played it safe from the start.
This is how a team learns what they’re actually ready to stand behind. The directions you reject are often the ones that lead you to the one you commit to.
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