Baseline #20 – Celebrating the Wins

Hello again! 👋 Many of you may have seen that I recently had to undergo my third surgery in just a few months, and I wanted to spend just a moment to say thank you for all of your support. Whether through a reply or just a thought sent my way, I sincerely appreciate your encouragement and well-wishes. I’m thrilled to share that my first out-of-state surgery seems to have succeeded, and I’m healing well! I'm very hopeful that I’ll be back to my normal-enough life soon enough, and in the meantime, I’m grateful.

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a newsletter, and I miss writing! So, I’m coming to you from a new platform (hi, Ghost!) with all-new ambitions for what I’d like this newsletter to become, and I hope you’ll come along.

Today marks my first year as an independent designer, and I’ve learned more than I could have ever imagined. I’ve had some big wins that I’m so proud of, but within this time, I’ve also failed and goofed a few (read: many) times. While I love writing about both Figma and design systems and promise to continue doing so often, I’m also excited about a new chapter of this little newsletter where I’ll begin to share more about all of those wins, failures, and learnings that I’ve had and am sure will face.

My sincere hope in sharing more and more here is to show anyone with a dream of owning your own thing or going independent one day that while there will be big bumps and very tall hurdles along the way, it’s all part of the very messy process of what it means to take on something new (that’s what I’m telling myself!)

So with that, let’s get into the post ahead!

Celebrating the wins

When considering whether to make the big transition away from being a full-time product designer, I remember my biggest hesitation was leaving the security of a steady paycheck and position. Of course, in 2024, no job in tech feels as safe as it may have once been, but I had a salary that I felt fortunate for, and I knew with relative certainty that I would have a paycheck coming in every other Friday.

Well, I made the leap, and I can’t begin to tell you just how amazing landing that first client felt. I was doing it, and it felt like I had a future ahead! My first gig as a solo designer. But wait—it wasn’t an indefinite opportunity. I wasn’t full-time, and there would be a time when I would need to begin the search all over again, or I’d be out of an income. At that moment, I realized I had just hopped into the emotional rollercoaster of freelance.

Climbing the mountain

Someone once shared with me that going out on your own can sometimes feel like climbing a mountain, but as you climb, it’s impossible to pause and look out at the view. It’s as if you’re only able to look at what’s ahead, above you, and never able to pause and reflect on the moment or progress you’ve already made. After a year of running Baseline full-time, this deeply resonates.

Although I’m so proud of the progress I’ve made and the genuinely incredible clients and teams I’ve been able to work with, I still find myself struggling to soak in the wins before beginning to worry about what’s next or what’s ahead.

Perhaps this feeling is completely normal, and it’s only my brain working hard to ensure I don’t get into trouble once that contract ends. Maybe it really is a natural part of what comes along with being out on your own. Either way, one thing I’m working to do is to focus more on those wins and celebrate them, to recognize the work that went into them, and to see the success for what it is as much as I can before thinking about what’s next.

Actually, writing and sharing this newsletter is a small form of this! I’m hoping that by taking the time to reflect and write about my experiences (the wins and the failures), I’ll feel that sense of progress and success more and more.

Defining success

One other reflection here is on the meaning of success. When I was first getting started, I saw success as being very black or white, where having money in Baseline’s checking account meant I was successful, and an empty account meant that I was failing. While that income is an essential part of going independent, it only took a few months to realize that it’s far from being the complete definition of success, and there’s so much more that I’d like to define the word by as it relates to this new adventure.

In the past year alone, I’ve learned so much more about myself and what it takes to run a business than I ever had anticipated, and to be honest, I’d say that’s been the best thing about this decision.

There seems to be a new unknown to face each and every day. Sometimes, it's a minor problem to figure out, such as learning how to write a well-prepared statement of work or working agreement. Other times, it’s a much more daunting task, like learning how to file for a business trademark (and after nearly a year of waiting, I just received my first one!)

I still feel that little bit of fear within me with every new challenge that comes my way, but this experience has already taught me that I can handle it and I can figure out how to solve it. Running Baseline, teaching, and collaborating with clients of all shapes and sizes this year has given me a whole new level of confidence and trust in myself that I’ve never had before, and to me, that’s the most meaningful metric of success.