013 Conferencing

Today I’m flying to Texas for Squares Conference. Excited because it is full of workshops on stuff that I’ve taught myself (CSS, PHP, WordPress) and stuff I tried but haven’t taken advantage of (Sass, Version control).

Lately I have been trying to go to more conferences. As a web designer, there is no better cure for the impostor syndrome than to hear your developer/design heroes tell you that we all figure it out as we go. All of us. No exceptions.

A big part of running a business means learning about pricing, and scheduling, and planing, and–one of the most overused words of today–hustling. It gets frustrating. I’m a designer. I love designing. I’m not trying to retire at 40 and have a yacht. I’m trying to do this for as long as I can and with the same passion for a pro bono project than for a 100K one.

This past Friday I finally got to see a talk by James White at Generate Conference. The way he talked about his process was amazing. The kind of amazing that stays with you for a while. Same with listening to Draplin, to Jeffrey Zeldman, to Sarah Drasner, to Chris Coyier, to Sarah Parmenter, to Rachel Andrew, to Jen Simmons, the list goes on… people I admire. When they speak, they share their passion for what they do and are not just telling you what your ROI should be.

Last, If you go to a conference and happen to see me, feel free to say hi, I’ll be in the introverts section.