Now that spring is starting to show its smiling face I am getting really excited to start getting my garden planted. I have wonderful dreams (like real sleeping dreams) that it is planting day and I can feel the warm dirt in my toes. I really love my garden. This will only be the 4th year that we have had it and I marvel at how far I have come in my understanding of gardening and the ease I feel with it. Keep in mind I don’t really feel at ease with it – just moreso than when I started.
Why am I (a website designer whose audience is interested in getting website stuff) writing an article about my garden? Because every day I meet people who want to get started with a website or already have one get completely overwhelmed with it and feel a lack of confidence that makes them freeze and not want to take action. Because that is EXACTLY how I felt prior to getting a garden.
Going back to the winter of 2013 I found myself doing research on building a garden. I had 2 years of CSA (crop sharing association) subscriptions and I was ready to take it to the next step. I scoured all the how tos and got excited about the idea of a organic garden – but quickly got overwhelmed because the actual process of building the garden looked completely out of my ability range. I found myself deciding to go back to doing a CSA and feeling extremely disheartened and sad. I wanted to go out to my backyard and pick a tomato for my sandwich! I wanted to grow jalapenos by the bucket load and make jalapeno jelly! I wanted to have cucumbers and zucchini coming out of my ears and giving them away because I had too many! I wanted to be that person!
Then something really cool happened. I happened across a company (A Backyard Farm) that not only came and built the organic garden. They made sure it was going to be in a place that actually got enough sun (this was certainly a step that I would not have known to take). They also brought the soil mixture and planted the garden. AND they held my hand that first summer by teaching me HOW to garden (oh and have done the same thing for the last couple of years). There were planting fails, hail damage, insect attacks, deer picnics, and other calamities that befell my garden – but all the while they were there letting me know that this was part of the process and it wasn’t MY failure or INABILITY to garden. Honestly if it hadn’t been for them I would have given up. I would have probably gone to purchase soil and shut down when I was told I would also need perlite and fertilizer. I would have felt that gardening wasn’t for me and would have missed out on an amazing journey (not to mention the loss of the jalapeno jelly).
What does this have to do with your website and marketing your business? Many of the business owners that I run into share with me that they are feeling very similar in starting or maintaining their own website. They feel overwhelmed to start out with getting a website because they don’t know what the first step to take is. When they forget to blog, nurture their list, build their list, etc etc – they feel like a big FAILURE. They sometimes think they have to go it alone. They sometimes don’t even know what to ask. In my gardening experience, I called upon people to help me build it and take the right foundational steps to get started. They then held my hand as I was learning and understanding more. They were patient with me and they didn’t allow me to berate myself when things went wrong. They reminded me that all these little things that come up are normal and how to course correct and fix. And that is what has kept me going with my garden.
I hope this story helps you as you navigate and understand your ONLINE garden.
