Love the place you’re at.
Let’s start with here: what you do with your boobs is your business. This isn’t about hating or judging.
This is about the cultural phenomenon that is boob jobs.
Now, you should know that I live in Miami, where plastic surgery is both a status symbol and a populist dream (down here, you can put your new tatas on layaway).
And you should also know that my people are from the Midwest, home of the original Stiff Upper Lip. Not from botox injections. From a deep seated Protestant work ethic and strong aversion to talking about our feelings.
One of the things that’s baffled me is that there’s this ideal about how breast are supposed to look.
Gravity defying. Cantaloupe. Collectively, nearly bigger than a breadbox.
No matter a woman’s frame. No matter her level of athleticism. No matter her cultural heritage, age, or size.
When I was younger, I occasionally worried about the size of my own rack. A lifelong runner, I have moderate jugs. Ample. But not big enough to get in the way.
Despite the practical upside, I secretly wondered if I was less of a woman, because I didn’t look like the gals on Baywatch.
I mention this because I’m watching a lot of business owners get the website equivalent of a boob job.
They feel ashamed of how their website looks. So they spend a lot of money on branding or a fancy website design, to make them look (ahem) bigger.
I get it. You look at how your business shero’s website looks, and it’s so beautiful and fancy and smart. Your website looks measly and small in comparison.
But I guess the “small is beautiful” activist in me wants to reach out and let you know that where you are is wonderful.
And that no amount of money you throw at branding or web development can replace the richness (and adventure) of coming to know + express who you really are.
And yah, starting out — or starting over (if you’ve gotten clearer on your target market or you find what you really like to do with clients has changed over time) – can be awkward. Like going back to being a teenager, where your arms are too long for your body and you look a little bit like a pony.
But that is a perfect place to be.
And instead of rushing to gloss over the fact that you are growing and evolving, maybe you just allow yourself to sink into it a bit more.
This is where the boob job analogy kind of breaks down, by the way.
But the point is, love the place you’re at.
Even as you aspire to more.
Even as you notice yourself wishing that your stuff looked more like Marie Forleo’s. Or Kris Carr’s. Or heck, even mine.
Give yourself room to be where you are.
And trust that all is coming.
As I like to tell my people, having a flashy website isn’t what’s going to win most of you great clients, anyway. Sales conversations + being a real human who delivers real value will.
So if you find yourself in one of those comparing moments, where you want to look less like you + more like someone else (because, gosh, wouldn’t that be easier?!)… remember, that there’s nothing wrong with you.
You are in the perfect spot.
And that maybe, just maybe, there’s no one way you’re supposed to look. Even online. And perhaps, the only task before you is to love it all… Where you are… where you want to go… and the visceral creative tension between the two.
And as my Swedish Lutheran grandma likes to say, “knockers up!”
Mighty thanks to Sh4rp_i flickr photostream for the cantaloupe.