A different perspective
My name is Jeff, I've been a website owner for 15+ years. The first serious website I owned was for our business Minimoc that my wife and I started in 2013. This is an image of us at one of our early farmers markets selling baby shoes.
Before the ten year period that we built that brand into a multi seven figure business with tens of thousands of families who enjoyed our shoes, I worked at a major telco installing phones and internet, and way before that in high school I delivered newspapers.
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Information
I've somehow always been involved with delivering information. I remember pushing my newspaper cart around the neighbourhood, my hands filthy from ink in the pouring rain, and thinking to myself about the future when people would receive the information through a connected device. I was heavily influenced by the technologies in Star Trek even back then 🖖.
In 2005 my first job at the Telco required training in Vancouver. On the Skytrain I observed everyone reading the Metro, a newspaper given out during the morning rush. Then on another round of training in 2009 something was different about the Skytrain commute, everyone had phones, they were reading whatever they wanted and it was up to date in real time.
The internet has truly reshaped humanity in the past 10 years alone, our devices with fast connections are commonplace and integrated deeply into our lives. Being able to communicate effectively over this medium has become essential to business operations.
Connection
If there is one thing, I've learned over the course of my working career, whenever a newspaper is snapped open, the eeaarch of a dial up modem heard, or having the power of the internet anywhere, its always people... humans at either end of the connection.
Their dogs would grab the newspaper through the slot as I'd push it through the front door, sometimes adding injury to my ink stained hands.
They would have emotional stories about being able to connect with loved ones when they finally had access to fast internet.
And they would stop by our markets to share the story of their new family while picking up shoes they had spent hours deciding on as they looked at our website the night prior.
If there's no example more powerful than the importance of a good website, have someone show up who knows more about your products than you do, correcting you on the names of the baby shoes when they can identify the colours better than you can and YOU'RE THE ONE WHO BUILT THE WEBSITE...
Despite the incredible power we've built with the internet and the ease of moving information around, we often get caught up in the minutiae of design, message placement, and the concepts behind acronyms like SEO, CTR, and CTA. We forget that, ultimately, it's just people like us on the other end of a connection. So instead of continuing to be lost in the technicalities, let's build something that uses the true purpose of the internet to create meaningful connections and truly valuable interactions.
This community and courses I have created are about helping website owners create the messaging and processes that meet the needs of the humans at both ends of the connection.
If there is a website in your life get started for free and discover how website ownership can be more enriching for you and your audience.
