benx 001: Somewhere to Grow

📋 In this issue

• Reframing your mind
• Letting go of the “old way”
• How to turn a mockup or image into a website
• Survivor recap
• YouTube Channel of the Week

At some point, you've just got to let go of perfection. This is a funny thing for me to say because up to this point, everything I've done in my life has been, well, rather mediocre. Not abhorrent, not ignoble, just pedestrian.

A few weeks ago, I had an epiphany. I was talking with a colleague about her coaching business.

She was describing her rebrand, how she was simplifying things. How she was dreaming anew. I don't know specifically what it was she said, or if it was my own playbook, trying to follow somebody else's playbook in building my own business, but whatever the case, it was at that point that I decided whatever was going on inside my head just wasn't working.

My current thinking wasn't serving me. It wasn't serving me in a way that made me feel good.

As a kid, I could tell I wouldn't fit into any mold except for the dreamy ones I'd created in my head. I used to spend hours playing outside by myself, putting myself in the NBA Finals on my 8-foot plastic backboard bolted to the roof of our doublewide. The front yard was the football and baseball stadium. The backyard was the basketball arena and archery field.

I used to put myself in these ridiculous scenarios. We had a basketball hoop and a 12x12 concrete patio that served as the Boston Garden, except "The Garden" was fictitiously in downtown Lewiston, Idaho, since I'd never been to Boston. I imagined the kind of town I thought Boston was, which was downtown Lewiston.

The patio also served as center court at Wimbledon, where I was Boris Becker smashing serves against the faded green siding. I don't remember if my mom said anything. I'm sure she did, but I don't remember. The patio just so happened to line up with the small kitchen window above the sink, and I still don't know how I never broke a window.

Or, I'd dream up football stadiums in the heart of the mountains, the planes passing overhead were the crowd roars. But then I'd keep thinking: "Well, what about the birds? Would they still be OK if a college football stadium was in the middle of the mountains?"

And then I would somehow justify it and pretend that all the wildlife would be just fine because the noise, garbage, and everything would be self-contained.

I'd run around in my 1970s 49er helmet or old Steelers uniform my mom found at the thrift store, pretending to dive for the winning touchdown over and over and over and over and come into the house with bruises all over my body as if I might as well have played the actual game. I felt satisfied.

Somewhere along the way, I completely lost the plot. Over the years (and years…and years, and years, and years), waves of reality slowly eroded my imagination, my whimsy, and the place where I felt the most alive, like a giant driftwood log.

Having slogged through many different jobs and careers over the years, something finally broke. I can't believe I managed to stay with one job for so long. It sucked the ever-living-loving life out of me.

So here I am, starting again. But this time, it's different. I can feel it.

I've tried starting a blog several times. For one reason or another, I couldn't get past one post.

You see, I have imposter syndrome.

I finally gave up about a month ago. It wasn't just one thing. It started with a conversation I had with one of my colleagues. She said she's trying to ramp up her business and offer a more premium brand and service and wanted to simplify everything.

It was a random weekday. I was sitting at my workstation, thinking, "This just isn't working for me."

I was spending 80% of my time in a negative state. The other 20%, I was just being nice. But 100% of the time, I was completely wrapped up in myself, like how the root ball of a plant gets wrapped around itself after sitting in a pot for too long.

I started questioning: "Why am I still in this pot?"

So, I decided to jump out and find somewhere else to grow.

I won't get too spiritual, religious, or philosophical, but I decided to completely change the way I start my days and approach life in a more trusting and positive way.

That's all I need to say for now. I'm giving you a little bit of background as to why I'm here.

I also don't fit neatly into any boxes, which is surprising considering how long I stayed in that pot.

Frankly, I don't know exactly where I'm going, but I pray that I will find a place. I just have to get out.

Things I am into right now:

• I love all things websites, but I don't believe everybody needs one.

• I'm really into automation and content creation.

• For some reason, I'm the go-to guide for everything technical, and it's not because I'm smart. It's because I have the patience for it.

I also love sports, but not as much as I used to (life is just too rich and too busy).

I'm only a Seattle sports fan, having grown up in the Pacific Northwest. From a sports fan perspective, I don't know if that's cruel or poetic. I'll make it poetic.

I also love the reality show Survivor. If I ever make it on the show, I will place sixth.

Those are the main things, but I'm interested in a whole other buffet of delights on the table.

So, with all of that out of the way, here we go:

Turning a Design Into a Website

I recently helped a friend convert a one-page sales offer from a ChatGPT PNG file to a Word document so he could edit it.

I followed up with him a week later and asked if he'd started sending it out.

"No," he said. I'm waiting to get my website. My friend made me a Figma file, and I just have to figure out how to turn it into a website."

For this column, Figma is a tool for designing websites and apps. Designers usually hand these off to developers so they know what the website or app should look like.

You can achieve this in many ways, and I'll get to that in a second.

First off, I'm not sure about shipping. I will say that for most businesses in general, many types of businesses existed before the Internet. Shipping existed before the Internet. UPS came to our house all the time.

So I would put the website in the "Nice to have" category. Not necessary for this business. A phone or email address will do nicely.

Now, it wouldn't hurt to also have some social proof, like a LinkedIn profile or a Facebook page, to show people you're a real person, but if you can help someone solve a problem, word will get around.

So, my first piece of advice is to skip the website and start sending out the PDF with your contact information. You should get some business going now.

As for the Figma-to-website question, I was speaking to a colleague last week because we're both in the Adobe world. Both of us questioned why people use Figma. You never get all the asset files, details, and elements. It's essentially a design file with some layout rules.

Yet here we are.

OK, so I have designed a couple of websites in Figma but used them as templates to reconstruct the entire website in WordPress.

"No WordPress," he said.

No problem. A couple of tools I've used are Webflow and TelePortHQ (links below).

If you have little to no website development experience and must use Figma import, I found TeleportHQ the easiest of the two.

The import process from Figma is straightforward. Once I got the layout imported into TeleportHQ, there was a ton of work left to do to make it look good on all devices (desktop monitor, phone, tablet, etc.).

(shamelessly pasting in ChatGPT output here to speed things along)

For those who want to import from Figma and endure the DIY process (and it can be very tedious, even for someone who loves to build websites), then I suggest these:

1. Framer
   🛠️ No-code, design-friendly

   • Import your Figma file directly into Framer with their plugin

   • 🔗 framer.com
     

2. Webflow
   🧩 Visual builder with more structure

   • Use the Figma to Webflow plugin to copy/paste layers

   • 🔗 webflow.com
     

3. TeleportHQ

   ⚙️ Low-code option with component export

   • Import designs from Figma and generate HTML/CSS/React code

   • 🔗 teleporthq.io

Now that I think about it, I wouldn't suggest Webflow or TeleportHQ if you've never worked with website builders. I hear wonderful things about Framer.

If you're not absolutely tied down to your design, I would next try AI.

Here are three to try:

1. Dorik

A simple drag-and-drop site builder with built-in AI tools to generate copy, structure, and sections. Great for solo builders who want more control than Durable but less complexity than Webflow.

🔗 dorik.com

2. Durable

Probably the easiest tool of all, Durable creates a full small business website from a couple of questions. It's great if you just need something live now.

🔗 durable.co

I just played around with Durable, and it's super easy to spin up a website. Then, you can take your images, colors, and other design elements and put them into your AI-built template.

You could also go the more conventional route with something like Wix or Squarespace.

Both platforms offer pre-built templates that are easy enough to work with. If you have your own design, you can usually pull elements and match the style pretty closely.

It's still up for debate whether Wix or Squarespace are easier to work in than something like Durable. I would say it's a user preference.

That said, before starting any website project, I'd get really clear on a few things:

• What do I actually want this site to do?

• How do I plan to manage it going forward?

• What are the ongoing costs — not just to build it, but to keep it running?

• Will I need other tools or features alongside it (like booking, email, or payments)?

• And how much time do I realistically have to maintain it?

If you're considering a project like this and have questions, just ask me. I'd be happy to send you a short list of questions to help you think it through.

Survivor Recap

I'm lucky if I get to Survivor the same week the original episode aired. I hardly ever watch it on Wednesday night, but we basically had to schedule watching it last night.

All I can say is: all of that drama, just to vote out Mary?

I don't want to be too critical of the production because I think they have crafted something extremely special. However, this last episode was inching toward trying too hard, and I appreciate it.

It's always fun at the end, after the votes, to go back and think about the camera time each player got. And I guess this one was fairly accurate—trying to make it look like there was a little heat on Joe—but in the end, it was only Mary.

It's also very telling. When you look at the votes, you can tell if someone is highly annoying, doesn't vibe well with the rest of the group, or has some particular character trait that makes players feel like a threat or obstinate. I don't get a lot of insight into how players feel about other players.

We get the strategy talks and interviews—testimonials, whatever they're called when they're talking—one person is talking into the camera. Confessionals.

At least from the edit, it's unfortunate that Mary just dove to the bottom of the barrel—sabotaging the coconut, telling Joe to his face that she was going to write his name down.

This was an interesting contrast to Shauhin's confessional, where he talked about his name getting written down and how he handled it.

With all that said, I'm rarely satisfied with the winner. And for as amazing of a casting job as they did this season, it's disappointing that these final episodes potentially seem so predictable.

It is incredible that a core four alliance has made it to the final seven. There have been other core alliances in previous seasons, but I don't recall any in recent seasons.

I'm just hoping that one of them—maybe Kyle because of his allegiance to Kamila, or maybe Shauhin—will wake up and realize he will not win against Joe in the final three.

At least someone—hopefully—maybe—can pull off a blindside out of respect for Joe's gameplay. But I won't hold my breath.

YouTube Channel of the Week

Jomboy Media

This guy does recaps and lip-read breakdowns of sports clips, and they’re hilarious. The funniest one I saw this week I’m sharing here. The master’s division (80+ years old) 100-meter dash at the Penn Relays. They’re all funny though.