Author: ezsmith397

I work with a $1B corporate client every week to design, build & maintain a network of WordPress websites for their marketing needs.

Know one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the 4 years serving this team? The importance of being fast and flexible.

We often have to roll out a new landing page, a new feature on a homepage (with a site getting 100k+ hits), update a lead form, or sometimes even spin up a whole new mini-site QUICKLY.

While some bigger projects are planned over longer terms, that’s not always the case… And a LOT of what we do together is rapid-fire wins to get stuff done.

I love working like this personally, and it’s why my company and myself have been a great fit for these types of clients.

We do NOT spend weeks and weeks wireframing and mocking up a basic landing page.

We build it. We iterate. We update as needed, and we keep it moving.

Planning is important and strategy matters… Results and WINS matter more.

That’s the whole point of planning & strategic efforts anyway.

I’m 34 today. I’ve been a web designer and some form of entrepreneur or self-employed hustler since I was a teenager. I’ve had plenty of highs, and plenty of lows (some of the lowest even this week to be damn honest), and all sorts of stuff on the ride in between.

Here are some things I’ve learned throughout my life so far, in no particular ranking but just things that matter to me or have impacted my way of thinking in life, business, & relationships.

1. Speak up – introvert or extrovert, you gotta let people know what you think.

2. Don’t be afraid to sell yourself. No one is gonna hire you, employ you, or send you a big fat check if you don’t step out and sell yourself.

3. Constantly invest in your craft – it pays dividends.

4. Freelancing is easy, but it’s also incredibly hard.

5. Building dope stuff with people you like is the greatest feeling in the world.

6. Getting big checks is awesome and will fire you up – but over time just getting money itself for something you don’t enjoy will drain you as well.

7. Whatever your goal is, do whatever you can to start working towards it today.

8. Time is going to fly by – I know plenty will say I’m young, but I’ve been at this business/entrepreneur stuff for 15 years and that’s wild and hard to believe most days.

9. Because time is going to fly by, try to slow down and enjoy the fleeting moments when things are good, they never seem to last as long as the bad moments for some reason.

10. When you have a great friend or partner, invest in the relationship consistently – once it’s gone and as life moves on, it’s harder to rebuild or create new relationships.

11. There’s nothing wrong with making money – get over the toxic idea that it’s somehow immoral to be able to provide comfortably for yourself, your family, and the people you care about.

12. Work hard as hell, but also don’t buy into this new social media wave of hype that someone is always gonna outwork you by getting up at 4am, and cold plunging.

13. Sometimes shit sucks, it just is what it is.

14. Sometimes things are awesome, but you’re too busy worrying about 99 other things to enjoy the good stuff.

15. Build up your personal brand, your network, your reputation – whatever you wanna call it. But just make sure people know what the hell you do.

16. Get the hell out of your house, apartment, or office and enjoy time with great people.

17. Build dope stuff, and enjoy the ride – it’s a wild one.

I don’t have it all figured out by any means – and I never will. But I’m grateful for the journey thus far, and excited to continue for decades to come.

You’ll hear plenty of advice about the speed of getting started, speed to market, being an early adopter, and sorts of other thread-worthy advice about how you need to react quickly, move swiftly, and not wait around.

I believed all of this stuff for years, and tried to live by it in my businesses and personal life.

If I had a new idea for a business or service?

I’d pounce on the domain name, design up a logo, be working on a new website or landing page, and ready to HIT THE GROUND RUNNING ASAP.

In my personal life, if I was ready to lose weight and get stronger?

I’d dive into a new insane workout routine or diet plan.. Disregarding any concept of IF I could actually keep that pace and commitment up for the long-haul.

For far too damn long — well over a decade, I was all about GETTING IT DONE, moving fast, and going from an idea to full-out sprinting as fast as possible.

But now, at 33, I look around at my life and realize I didn’t really gain that much longterm from these frantic sprints.

I mean sure, I learned a lot about what NOT to do…

But I’m also nowhere near the distance traveled that I would have expected.

Of course that’s beause I didn’t maintain a good, consistent pace…

Instead, I sprinted, without proper strategy… And got gassed out.

And then again, and then again, and then again.

These days, I care a lot less about how FAST I can get something started… And a lot more about how LONG I can commit to doing something.

It’s still weird for me to FULLY accept this more “slow burn” approach, but I know deep down in my heart it’s the only real path forward to hit my goals.

So what’s that mean for my business and life stuff now?

It means I’m not rushing to land a new client at 397digital, it means I’m not doing crazy diets and workout plans for my health goals, it means I’m not launching landing pages in afternoons anymore for every pivot of an idea I have.

Instead I’m staying more calm, consistent, and focused on incremental growth… Small steps, towards big goals.