Growing in Public: Reflection Piece
When you propagate a plant, there’s this quiet stretch of time where it doesn’t look like much is happening. You clip, water, wait, and hope roots start to form. Eventually, if you’re patient, a new little life takes hold; familiar, but its own.
That’s what this space has felt like for me. SEO But Cute started as a clipping from my dad’s world of SEO, something I wanted to grow in my own way. I didn’t have all the answers, and honestly, I still don’t. But sharing my learning process, experimenting with design, writing posts, and figuring things out as I go has helped me grow faster than staying hidden ever could.
Learning as I go
Growing in public, to me, means introducing and breaking down complicated, often dry topics and making them digestible. The content I’m creating teaches me as I go, and I’m making it colourful and flowery enough to keep myself interested, and sincerely hoping the internet follows along with me.
It’s a raw, terrifying, and exhilarating experience, even if I’m comfy at home in my sweatpants during the whole process. It’s strange, but in the best way possible. Whenever I look back at what I’ve created so far, I’m happily astonished by how much I’ve learned in such a short time.
Keeping a consistent posting schedule has been a challenge, but it’s pushed me to grow faster than I ever expected. And the outpouring of support from friends and family was something I didn’t anticipate, but it’s made me feel more connected than ever.
One lesson I’ve carried from the skincare world into nearly every part of my life comes from James Welsh. He starts every video by saying it’s “all about progression over perfection, because perfection does not exist.” Sure, he wasn’t the first to say it, but he’s the one who really drilled it into my head.
A Child at Heart
Tinkering with the settings on new programs that Dad introduces me to keeps unlocking these core memories. I think back to when my sister and I would play with the colour settings on our old Windows 98 computer, changing everything just because we could. And now, for some reason, I can’t get Dream Weaver by Gary Wright out of my head. Fitting, since that was the program I used to learn HTML in grade nine.
My inner child is being well taken care of through all of this, and I couldn’t be more grateful to have such a nerdy (or, uh, techy) dad cheering me on. Children learn by playing, and maybe as adults, being playful can still teach us more than we realize.
The Lessons
This entire process has taught me to start letting go of my mistakes once I’ve learned from them. I’ve always believed you can’t learn without making them, but I’m still figuring out how to move forward after the lesson has sunk in.
Yes, I can always go back and nitpick small things, like “the spacing on that post wasn’t perfectly even.” Or, I can remember that Canva has a “right-click, space evenly” option for a reason.
It would be a blatant lie to say my perspective on my work and how I learn hasn’t entered a new evolutionary era. Despite the uncertainty I felt at the start, I feel much more self-assured now.
If I could share one piece of advice with someone thinking about starting their own passion project, or even with myself from a few months ago, it would be this: you have nothing to lose. You know you’re stalling. So go start creating drafts and figuring out what works. You never know what you’ll discover.
One Thing at a Time
Growing in public isn’t about showing up perfectly; it’s about showing up anyway. It’s messy, colourful, and quietly beautiful once you start to see progress take shape. Like a clipping taking root, you might not notice growth day to day, but it’s happening underneath all the trial and tinkering.
I’m still learning, still spacing evenly, still figuring things out as I go. But maybe that’s the point, to keep adjusting, keep growing, and keep sharing it all along the way.
A little dirt, a lot of growth, and zero regrets.
Take a look at my first journal entry to see where it all began!
