30/05/2025
🌱 People sometimes ask, “Hey Emily, how did you get into web design and marketing?” I’m a former social worker and got interested in websites and marketing about 15 years ago while working for a nonprofit. My job was managing the organization’s website, doing email marketing and helping produce their print publications. It was fun, creative work – I found that I loved collaborating with other creatives to make beautiful designs, enjoyed the satisfaction of creating well-crafted copy, and liked the challenge of thinking through what would create the best experience for our website users.
Through working with that nonprofit, I started to see web design and marketing as a way to make positive change in the world (like I’d been doing in social work) by using my web and marketing expertise to help organizations and businesses connect with people who needed to hear their message or receive their services. Fast forward 15 years, and I’m running a successful web design business here in Portland, Oregon. Life is definitely full of twists and turns!
✨ 3 bits of advice:
1) You can define your own version of success in your work and business, regardless of the messages other people and society may be telling you.
2) Believe in yourself and embrace your learning edge – the web world is changing all the time and we can either spend our time convinced we don’t know enough and terrified of our blind spots, or we can stay nimble and enjoy the learning edge. The ever changing nature of the web world is part of what makes this work interesting imo.
3) Focus on the types of work that you enjoy doing and seek out clients and projects that let you do that.
