We were lucky to catch up with Diana Simpson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Diana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I am a self-taught designer. I didn’t go to school for web design. I took courses and watched YouTube videos to hone in on my craft. The first course taught me how to market myself and the second course taught me how to build a WordPress website (GeekPack). The latest group course taught me to believe in myself as a designer and bring in higher-paying clients. I think that by investing in these courses, I was able to learn quickly and start looking for clients. The biggest obstacle for me was to just start. I kept getting these thoughts of needing to learn everything before I could work with a client. The imposter syndrome was real. I still get these thoughts occasionally but have learned to just go with the uncertainty and do the thing anyway. By adopting this mindset shift, I have been able to grow my business and grow as a person;

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Diana Simpson. I started my business on April 2021. I started my business as a creative outlet and means to support my family financially. Becoming a mom changed everything for me. I didn’t want to go back to my 9-5 while my son spent 40 hours a week at daycare. I knew I wanted something different. I started looking for remote work and I stumbled across the first course I took to start freelancing. I had a lot of imposter syndrome at first but I slowly started putting myself out there and growing my network. I then realized that I love designing graphics and most of all websites. I started focusing on learning more about web design and started connecting with people on Facebook groups. I gain two clients back to back. After that, I just kept going.

One thing that I realized while I was working with new clients was that I was mainly working with e-commerce clients and I loved it! That is when I niched down to serving mainly product-based businesses. The way that I support these businesses is by creating a strategic website that makes it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for and buy. I also help my clients with setting up their products on the website platform as well as email marketing. I work with WordPress and Shopify.

I strongly believe that by creating a website with a strategy in place, I am setting up my clients for success. A lot of times, my clients start their businesses and DIY everything. They get to a place where they want to focus on making more online sales and realize that their website isn’t driving sales. That is where I like to come in and look at the analytics and see what needs to be fixed. I love solving problems for my clients that lead them to more sales. With a background in finance, I can geek out on numbers and data and see how we can make changes to optimize their website.

My latest work includes launching a new website for a boutique that sells pestemals and then gives back to breast cancer patients. This was a fun project and I learned so much! It feels good to know that I helped my client clarify her messaging and gave her a website that is much more simpler and user-friendly. I am all about minimal and simple.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Yes! I wish I knew about the latest course I took way earlier. It would have saved me a lot of headaches and helped me reach my goals faster. This course was like a community + course all in one. I would recommend it to any web designer looking to scale their business. It is called The High-End Web Designer. I truly believe that community is everything when you are first starting out.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I am goal driven and that comes from wanting to see my family succeed. My husband works long hours and is such a supportive partner that I want to give back for all that he does for us. I want to be able to have him home more and be able to provide for our family in greater areas like taking vacations throughout the year. I also want to show my son that you can start a business and make it grow. You don’t have to go to college to start a career. While I am not against going to college, I don’t believe everyone should go to college to start a career. When I was growing up, resources were scarce and I watched my parents struggle so many times. That taught me to be resilient and to work hard for a different future. I truly believe that I can create a future of success for my family.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://simpsonswebdesign.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simpsons_webdesign/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/webstrategyforproductbasedbiz
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-simpson-397131b0/

Image Credits
Trish Hardeman Photography