Welcome To The Block

Welcome to the Block Report

A place where I focus on various topics, issues, and life in general. Thanks for taking the time to check it out. Hopefully, you can take something away from this—whether it’s motivation, career advice, or just the outlandish stories that double as jokes from my life.

So why start a blog now, when the average attention span is about 30 seconds?

Easy—it’s to help someone else. That’s always been my M.O., and that probably won’t ever change.

Starting From Scratch

For the very first blog post, let’s start at the beginning of this website project—something that’s been months in the making.

I’ve always wanted to create a website for myself, but the truth is, the last five years have really shaped my life's work of advocating for communities. That realization came during a tough point in 2020—but that’s a blog post for another day.

A few months ago, I started thinking about everything I’ve done professionally and as a community advocate. I made a list of every street repaved, every crosswalk improved, every school zone updated. Even the smaller things: streetlight repairs, new “Stop” signs, “Kids at Play” signs, and other projects.

Once I had the content together, I reached out to friends with marketing and web design experience to bounce ideas off them.

Shoutout to Seb

My boy Seb is the master architect of the site, thanks to his background in web design. We went back and forth on the layout, but he gets all the credit—because I told him what I envisioned, and he cooked it up. He even took some creative risks that really helped tie the whole site together.

When we finally launched the site, it was a surreal moment. It all started with some rough ideas on a notepad. There are a lot of small details you don’t consider when building a site—like font choices, color blocks, number of tabs, and how the site should flow. But once you get through those details, you can take a step back and really imagine all the possibilities.

Key Takeaways

1. Have a Vision 

When you’re building a site, you need to know its purpose—what it’s for and what you hope to accomplish. Whether it’s a professional landing page or a place to showcase your services, clarity matters.

2. Have the Right Team  

I was lucky to have friends with marketing and web design skills. We debated everything—from the name to the number of tabs. Having the right people around you is key when bringing a project to life. Bonus: my friends also love cracking jokes whenever possible.

3. Don’t Aim for Perfection 

I planned to launch this site back in February for Black History Month. It was ready, but I kept tweaking little things, and that pushed the launch back a month and a half. Sometimes, you have to be okay with where an idea is and let it grow over time. Everything goes through revisions—and honestly, the site might look totally different six months from now. You can’t build if you’re stuck at phase one.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for this week. Until next time—  

Keep your head up, keep moving forward and apply pressure.