After more than a year of planning and building, I made the biggest pivot of my career and launched LSI Workshop in August of 2025.
I had created thoughtful and strategic mentorship programs, beautiful client experience templates, custom branding solutions, and put them all together on a gorgeous website. Everything was deliberate, planned and intentional. I thought through every detail and looked at every angle, from my business strategy, to my branding, to the products and services I offered and the approach I would take with my mentorship clients. I identified what was important to me as a designer and a mentor, and what makes me different than other coaches, mentors or business strategists. I got crystal clear on my message, who it was for and why it mattered.
Then I launched. And then I got slammed in the face by Instagram.
I had done my research on competitors and on running an online business. But what I wasn’t prepared for was the onslaught. I’m not sure why. I should have seen it coming, but suddenly the algorithm started throwing other design coaches and mentors at me faster than I could scroll past them. I got bombarded by 20-year-olds telling me how to “hook” my audience and grow my following by the thousands. I felt lost in a strange forest that I didn’t understand.
I started posting things that didn’t feel aligned because I was looking at what everyone else was doing and trying to figure out how to do it “right”. I got overwhelmed, and then I got paralyzed. I realized that I had lost my voice. The ideas and messaging that I wanted to share had become diluted in a sea of everyone else’s noise.
So I went quiet. I took a breath. Stepped back and recalibrated.
It meant two months of silence on social media in the first six months of my business. I realized that I had launched without a solid marketing strategy, and “posting like hell on Instagram” did not qualify as one. Filling space with content just to be consistent is not building anything. Certainly nothing meaningful.
I wanted everything that I put out to be worth reading. That meant stepping back long enough to hear my own thinking again.
What Happened Next
Once I blocked out the noise, here’s what became clear: when you build something new, it’s easy to subconsciously negotiate your own standards in small, unobtrusive ways until suddenly it all adds up to something overwhelmingly obtrusive. This is what happened to me. And I see it happening to my fellow designers as they try to navigate social media and figure out how to attract better clients.
You smooth your language so it sounds like what’s working for someone else. You second-guess your point of view because someone louder says something different. You start shaping your work around what you think will land, not what’s true. You tell yourself you’re being strategic, but you’re really getting diluted.
That’s not how I want to show up. And that’s definitely not what LSI Workshop is about. LSI Workshop was created to help designers grow their business by finding their own creative voice, by leading proactively, and by creating a brand that speaks to their target audience in a way that resonates with clear solutions and shared values. That’s what LSI Workshop stands for, and that’s what I’ll be bringing forward from now on. Honesty, clarity and solutions. Not clever, trending hooks.
The 2026 Reset
In 2026, I’m tuning out the noise and refocusing on my own standards.
I’m building proactively. Thinking ahead. Publishing with a clear point of view. Choosing discernment over volume. Making better decisions, then documenting them in a way that actually serves you. Creating content that earns a place in your week. Not just posting for the sake of posting.
LSI Workshop is here for designers who want to grow without letting their business turn into a patchwork of borrowed advice and rushed decisions. It’s for designers who want a brand and client experience that hold up over time because they’re built with purpose, not in reaction to whatever is trending.
That’s my lane. I’m staying in it.
What You Can Expect from Here
Starting this week, here’s how you’ll hear from me:
- An email newsletter: one thoughtful note with a clear point of view, plus practical tools to help you grow. I’m aiming for weekly, but I’m prioritizing thoughtful content and my own bandwidth. No more content for the sake of content at the expense of my nervous system.
- Blog posts when a topic deserves more space or more geeking out on strategy.
- A focus on the work that actually strengthens a design business: leadership, client experience, brand clarity, and the structures that protect all three.
Some content will be tactical. Some will be perspective. Some will just be me saying all the things out loud, and some might be about checking in and connecting.
I’m not here to fill your feed. I’m here to raise the standard.
This my reset. Not a relaunch, but a return to what I actually care about, and the standard I’m willing to be held to.
Until next time,
P.S. If you’re not already on the list, you can sign up for the newsletter here (and get a free download while you’re at it!)
