Hey everyone, I’m currently building a website for a small side project (not e-commerce, more like a landing page for a digital product). I'm wondering: Is branding truly necessary for something small like this? I totally get it for big companies – logos, color palettes, tone of voice, the whole package. But for a solo project or MVP, does it really matter? Or is a clean, functional design enough to get started? Curious to hear your thoughts. At what point do you consider branding essential?

I watched a video of Patrick where he shows a workflow using Google, Instagram and ChatGPT to find leads and organise the data to be able to perform outreach. Got inspired by it and wanted to share a workflow that has helped me get good quality leads. This is not about cold calling (although it is a method I love). This is about creating a workflow that you can scale with. As an agency owner you want to be as efficient as possible and, if something works, just scale it. For the workflow, I used: 1. Apify to scrape Apollo.io and get leads. 2. OpenAI API to craft the personalised pieces of outreach 3. (Optional) Connect it to a cold email platform like Instantly and start sending emails I will leave a screenshot below. However, if you need any q's answered, let me know!

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately:AI is getting scarily good at writing code. You can describe a component or app, and it spits out 80% of what you need. So… what does that mean for learning to code? I’m torn.On one hand, it feels like we’re heading toward a future where prompting might be more valuable than traditional coding. On the other hand, AI still makes mistakes, and without understanding the code, how can you debug or guide it properly? Some open questions I’d love to hear your thoughts on: - Is coding still a core skill to learn from scratch today? - Or is it becoming more like “knowing how to use a calculator”? - How are junior devs supposed to keep up when AI seems to skip the hard parts? - And for senior devs: is your workflow now mostly guiding AI? Curious where the community stands on this. Is it still worth investing in code education from the ground up? (Like really appreciated)

What kind of projects should I include in my beginner portfolio to attract my first client?

:I'm currently running a small web design agency and curious what tools actually power your workflow – from first client contact to final launch. I’m not talking about the shiny Behance portfolio tools, I mean the real, gritty setup that gets stuff done when deadlines are burning and clients are breathing down your neck. Here’s my stack: - Wireframing & UI: Figma (duh – nothing beats it for fast feedback and collaboration) - Mockups & Branding: Adobe Illustrator + Mockup Shots from Artboard Studio - Frontend Dev: Visual Studio Code with TailwindCSS + AldpineJS for smaller sites - Webflow: For fast MVPs or clients who want CMS but hate complexity - Client comms: Notion + Google Meet + Loom for async updates - QA & Deployment: GitHub + Vercel for testing, final hosting on client choice (usually Webflow or custom server) Also experimenting with Framer for some slick landing pages. What’s yours? Don’t gatekeep – share the good, the bad, and the duct tape that holds it all together.