Building my website lead to an identity crisis, which resulted in this Substack. You’re welcome.

Project 30: #1 - Build a website

I was ‘gifted’ a website one year ago. A friend of my parents is a website developer and he walked me through the process of buying a domain name and Wordpress site. He did the initial setup, all I needed to do was add the copy. As an aspiring writer, I thought this would be a piece of cake. What could be so challenging about writing about my skills, experience and services, while cultivating a voice, tone and aesthetic that reflected my personality and professionalism?

I started with the utmost confidence and then suddenly realised…I had no official qualifications or experience, no idea what services I wanted/was qualified to offer, and had very little proof of my skills. I was utterly deflated.

Changing tactics, I instead focused on the visual elements. Maybe I could hide my inexperience under a beautiful colour palette or artful layout. If I chose the right aesthetic to attract readers and potential clients, I might be able to ‘fake it till I make it’.

I researched the psychology of colour, watched countless videos about the do’s and don’ts of website design, and stalked all the websites of fellow writers in my field.

But the question remained…should I subscribe to what everyone is doing, mimic the professionals and assimilate into the fold? Or try to standout from the crowd, gain attention by being different and inject big personally (not necessarily my own) to appear confident in my offering?

That brought up another set of questions. Should I be selling my personably or my skills? Are people going to read my writing because of my personal brand or my ability to construct amazing content and copy? What do I want my personal brand to look like? Do I even have the skills necessary to be a writer? And down the rabbit-hole I went.

After months of going round and round, I abandoned the project. The website never got built, and instead I endulged in a quarter-life identity crisis.

Who was I? What did I have to offer the world? Did I really have any skills? Should I even try becoming a writer? What would people think of me? What DO people think of me? What do I think of myself?

That’s when I came up with the idea of Project 30. I would spend the next three years (six months of thinking and 30 months of doing) reconnecting and redefining myself through the achievement and reflection of 30 goals.

And guess what?! One of those goals would be to build a fricken website!

One thing I knew for certain was that I’d always wanted to be a writer, have an online business, and be free to work remotely while raising a family. So whether or not I had the skills, the personally or the confidence, I desperately needed to somehow create an online presence that I could learn and grow on. Somewhere for me to practice writing, promote myself, and participate in community building (aka hunting down readers).

I knew I would have to act fast to circumvent the choice fatigue and analysis paralysis that had previously snuffed my efforts. Seeing as I had a Substack laying dormant, I set myself the challenge of editing my old page (The Ginger Journal) and relaunching it as Gutsy (my website for the indefinite future). I relied on a ‘rip off the Band-Aid’/high-speed approach (minimum thought, maximum action), and comforted myself with the knowledge that I could go back and edit later. The goal was to get this thing done in a few days; not weeks, months or years. And low and behold—I did it!

Here’s a break down of the skeletal tasks I set myself to get the job done.

• Change publication name from The Ginger Journal to Gutsy

• Create and change logo

• Connect my personal domain

• Edit about page

• Write and pin welcome post

• Email current subscribers about the change

If you click on the links above, I’m not sure what stage you’ll see. Maybe the first ‘I’ve just got to write something/anything’ version, or the polished/been edited 50 million times version. It’s a lucky dip.

While I was on a roll, I spontaneously launched this new Substack Can we not evolve? as my personal passion project. You’re welcome! It will document and unpack my journey through Project 30, plus extra musings that spill from my brain.

If you’d like to find out what the other 29 goals are, you’re welcome to tag along.

And if you want to read about health related topics, head over to my website/Substack Gutsy.

Thanks for you’re support,

Chloe Acland