When Your Website Leaves You Sore the Next Morning

Hiring a web designer feels a lot like finally getting a personal trainer

Running a business is already a full-time job. Add in trying to DIY your website, post consistently on social media, keep your brand looking polished, and figure out SEO—you’re not just wearing multiple hats, you’re spinning them like a circus act. Burnout creeps in quietly, and suddenly that website you once loved? It’s collecting dust or just... sitting in maintenance mode.

Let’s talk about that—and how the gym helped me understand how some business owners see their websites.

My “DIY Queen” Era

I’ve always been a DIY girl. In high school, I started my fitness journey with what felt safe and familiar: the treadmill. Think of it as customizing my AIM profile or LiveJournal—fun, colorful, and low risk. Just like dropping in some HTML glitter codes. ✨ You get your toes wet with creating something beautiful online.

Then I fell in love with running long distance, training both inside the gym and outside in the real world—no trainer, no plan, just new shoes (because the old ones were killing me). That half marathon I signed up for? I finished it with barely any structured training because, hey, I had endurance. I was young, fit-ish, and figured that was enough. I was in pain for days afterwards.

It's kind of like spinning up a site on Wix or GoDaddy and calling it a day. It’s active; it’s something… but it’s not always sustainable.

When “Winging It” Only Takes You So Far

Every once in a while, I’d dabble in CrossFit trials, borrow machine workouts from friends (who also weren’t trainers), or try a free training session. But the truth? I never stayed consistent. I’d lose motivation, get bored, or get injured. My weight fluctuated. My form was all over the place. I was skipping meals, surviving on Coke and cookies, or having yogurt for lunch and bingeing after work.

I had no real plan—just a mix of effort, intuition, and vibes.

The same goes for websites. Just because you can DIY doesn’t mean it’s working as well as it could. I’ve met business owners who proudly built their own site—and I love that energy! But over time, without maintenance or a clear strategy, things break down. And sometimes you don’t even realize it’s happening until the pain kicks in.

The Grit Was There—But So Was the Overwhelm

Eventually, life (and babies) happened. I had bursts of motivation every few years, but they faded with pregnancy, stress, or toddler mom life. The same way your website sits idle when business gets busy, and you say, “I’ll get back to it when I have time… or budget.”

That was me with fitness. Until this year, when I finally said, Enough.

Armed with YouTube, my Notion workout database, and a planner I built myself, I really thought I cracked the code. I was working out again. I was obsessed with the gym. I was tracking macros. I was making progress.

And honestly? That’s what tools like Canva, Showit, and Squarespace offer small business owners—powerful platforms that make it easy to build beautiful websites without code. But even the most intuitive systems require time, strategy, and structure.

Then I Hit a Wall

The weight room became a turning point. I realized I didn’t know what to do next. I had questions like

• Why does the order of exercises matter?
• Am I doing this with proper form?
• Is this even safe for my postpartum recovery?

And that’s when I finally invested in a personal trainer.

Yes, I was capable of doing it on my own—and I had! But now I had someone who understood muscle groups, pain prevention, warm-ups, recovery, and the bigger picture. She took one look at what I’d been doing and tweaked it just enough to make a huge difference in how I felt, how I moved, and how I grew.

Websites Work the Same Way

Hiring a web designer is like hiring that trainer. You're not just paying for someone to build a homepage—you're gaining a partner who:

• Understands your business goals and long-term vision
• Keeps your site up-to-date and aligned with current best practices.
• Suggests changes based on your offers, seasons, and strategies.
• Optimizes the behind-the-scenes (image size, site speed, SEO, accessibility)
• Saves you hours of trying to figure things out on your own

Imagine if you could call someone who already knows your brand, and they could suggest an update to your site that aligns with your next launch or marketing push. That’s what it means to have someone on your team—not just a one-time designer.

For the Grit-First Business Owners

Now, if you’re in the thick of building things yourself—I see you. I was you. And I still cheer for you. That checklist of tasks? It’s no joke. But if you’ve got the time, the energy, and the passion, you can do it. I’m not scared to lose business by saying that.

Because I know this: Just like I trust my trainer to give me my workouts—no second-guessing—my clients trust me to build websites that are built right the first time.

I might hate leg day, but I know the results are worth it. I might not enjoy tagging every blog post correctly, but I know it boosts visibility. I use MyFitnessPal to track food because I’d rather not do the math myself—same reason my clients prefer someone else to track their website metrics.

The Final Rep

This season, I’m choosing ease where I can. I’m investing in things that help me stay consistent, show up for my business, and still be present at home.

Yes, I still wear a lot of hats—but I’ve also made strategic choices to hand off the ones that drain me the most.

That looks like

• Using paid tools and platforms that actually streamline my work
• Subscribing to systems for contracts, payments, and client management instead of piecing it together on Google
• Buying plugins that save me hours instead of searching for free workarounds
• Running my business on Slack and Notion so everything’s organized.
• And yes—investing in business coaches, programs, and templates that helped me stop second-guessing every move

One of those investments this year was The Brief Collective’s Design Biz Academy, and it was truly transformative. I’ll be sharing more about that experience (and what changed for me) in my next post.

I used to stay up like an owl during design school, trying to figure everything out through trial and error. Now? I wake up early for gym sessions and get bedtime snuggles with my kids—without sacrificing sleep or sanity.

Free resources are great—I’ll always cheer for scrappy solutions—but time is the one thing you don’t get back.
And when you’re building something real, you start valuing ease just as much as effort.