It is exhausting trying to wear someone else’s skin.
I catch myself doing it constantly. I look at your portfolio, your confident LinkedIn posts, your perfect case studies, and I instinctively try to mimic them. I adjust my tone to sound like yours. I tweak my design style to look like yours.
I am trying to be a "professional designer," so I copy what professional designers do.
But the more I do it, the more I feel like a fraud.
There is a term for this: the "Sea of Sameness." It’s where we all drown because we are too afraid to be different. If I look like you, and talk like you, why would a client hire me?
And I don't want to be the cheap version of you.
Maybe it islack of self-definition?
Commodities are replaceable. If I am just a pair of hands using Figma, I am competing with every other pair of hands on the planet.
To escape this, I need to offer something unique. I need to offer value.
But here is the honest truth:
I am still figuring out what my value is.
I am just a designer trying to do good work. So, where does the value come from?
Maybe it's in the books?
I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on to solve this.
I’m digging into Chris Do and The Futur.
They talk about how clients don't buy design; they buy a future version of themselves. They buy the result, not the effort.
I’m reading Blair Enns’ The Win Without Pitching Manifesto.
He talks about the power of saying "no" and behaving like an expert practitioner rather than an eager order-taker.
I’m looking at Jonathan Stark.
He is screaming at me that hourly billing is nuts because it punishes efficiency.
These ideas are radical to me. They scare me.
They suggest that my value isn't in how good my gradients are. My value is in something els--something I haven't fully articulated yet.
What is left?
I’m starting to audit myself, looking for the things that come naturally to me but might be hard for others.
Maybe my value is relationships. Maybe I’m the guy who makes the client feel safe when the project gets chaotic. That peace of mind is worth money.
Maybe my value is speed. In a world of flakes and delays, maybe just being the person who delivers fast is a superpower.
Maybe it’s business sense. Maybe I stop just taking orders and start asking, "How will this design actually make you money?"
I don't know the answer yet. But I know that trying to copy your answers isn't working for me anymore.
No generic option
I am trying to stop looking outward for validation and start looking inward for value.
I want to communicate my true value in my copy, on my calls, and in my work. I want to stop being a generic option.
It’s scary to drop the act. It feels safer to blend in. But blending in is a slow death for a creative career.
So, I’m done pretending to be you. I’m going to do the messy work of figuring out who I am.
Are you still copying the giants, or have you found your own voice?
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