Welcome to Founder’s Field Notes. Think of this weekly email as a collection of insights, stories, and strategies straight from the field (according to me, Molly Knuth). Each week, I’ll provide real-world and real-life lessons on marketing, business, and the journey of being an ambitious woman finding her own path.

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“Phew! So glad I was done learning forever when I got my diploma.” – 2025 Molly says about 2009 college graduate Molly, her voice dripping with sarcasm

Founder’s Field Notes: Issue 003

Date: Friday, February 28, 2025
Location: my office
Weather: sunny and “spring of deception” is here in the Midwest as we’re flirting with a sixty degree day…but it is windy AF.

Disclaimer: this one is long. buckle up.

Observations 

“Building a website isn’t even that hard. I can make you one for $500.” – Molly Knuth of 2017

I often think to myself, “man, I’ve got this figured out.” – when I’m like, six months in to something new. 

Whether it was mothering a new baby, creating social media content for small businesses, building websites, creating training videos to help other business owners with their marketing, speaking up about being an ambitious woman in leadership, volunteering for leadership roles in my community, or whenever I would have excitement and momentum around figuring out routines and patterns for something new, I felt SO confident.

AND THEN, something challenging would present itself: the baby starts to crawl, the algorithm changes, the website needs maintenance not just aesthetics, etc.

Inevitably, the further I go in any new journey, the more I realize just how much I don’t know and I feel more and more unsure about myself and what was once “certain.”

…and guess what I’ve found out? It’s not just me experiencing this phenomenon.

The longer we’ve been in our careers, the more years we’ve been parents, the deeper we get into our expertise, the more we see gaps in our knowledge. 

But instead of this being a reason for frustration, I’m starting to see it as an invitation.

For instance…

I started Molly Knuth Media, my social media marketing business in the spring of 2017. I had figured out how to use Facebook to help raise money for our community’s daycare capital campaign fundraising efforts, sourcing secondhand books for English/language arts classroom, and garnering interest in my dad and cousin’s manufacturing business.

This wasn’t that hard for me. 

I used my writing skills from my English teaching degree to craft captions in different voices.

I used my experience in classroom teaching to break up

an overwhelm of information into consumable, understandable increments.

I used my interest in taking photos and videos of my kids with my iPhone to inform creating content people loved to see on behalf of businesses.

Pretty soon other business owners approached me to market their businesses on Facebook. “Absolutely I can,” I said.

Not long after, I began getting interest for other marketing services that I was pretty sure I could complete too.

And when I saw what competitors were charging…like $2000 for a website build out, when there were now platforms like WordPress and Wix where you could do it yourself? I was like “Omg. I can totally do that…and cheaper.” 

Guess what? I did. And my clients were happy. I was happy. Everyone was happy.

AND THEN…

I have summitted Mt. Stupid, and I have slid into the valley of despair more than once.

Field Notes & Findings:

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

The Dunning-Kruger Effect explains how those with the least experience often overestimate their abilities, while those with real expertise tend to doubt themselves. 

Basically, when we start something new, we don’t know what we don’t know, so we feel confident. But as we gain knowledge, we see the complexities and start questioning everything.

A Few Eye-Opening Stats:

• In their namesake study, the lowest-performing participants thought they scored much higher than they did, while the highest scorers underestimated their performance (Kruger & Dunning, 1999).
• 80% of people believe they are above-average drivers (Svenson, 1981). Math says… that’s impossible.
• Students who scored the worst on exams overestimated their scores by 22%, while top performers slightly underestimated theirs (McIntosh et al., 2017).

Why This Matters for Founders:

• If the further you go in your business, the more you feel unsure about your qualifications, it just might just mean you actually know your stuff.
• True growth happens when we stay curious and open to learning.
• The best way forward? Keep asking questions, surround yourself with smart people, and trust that progress beats perfection.

Reflection:

After a few years in the business, I began seeing how much more complex marketing was than I gave it credit for in the early days.

Even by following my exact steps and frameworks, the results I was getting couldn’t be guaranteed by every person or business owner out there.

In my done-for-you services like building websites, I also began to see why my competitors were charging more for these contracts.

Yes, building a website at the beginning was “simple.”

But what about when links broke? What about when a contact form wasn’t forwarding emails correctly? What about when the plugin on WordPress had an update you didn’t catch?

So I raised my prices a little and thought “that’ll solve everything.” (can you see the foreshadowing here???)

Just a couple years ago, I had a specific website project that taught me a thing or two about the “yes!” approach I took to website projects.

For this particular site, it was an ambitious and exciting plan, and I was confident that my team and I would be a great fit for the business owner.

I enthusiastically sent a proposal for the new site with a timeline and scope of investment to the business owner. It was accepted, and my team dug into the work.

As the project went on, I quickly began to realize a few things:

1. My contract was not specific enough. If I said I would create a 5-page website, technically we were still working within that scope. But each page kept getting longer and longer and longer with more and more content additions and revisions. The contract terms weren’t technically broken even though I was investing more time and resources into the project. I told myself to stop getting nitpicky, and I kept going.
2. I am best at strategically planning sites and how to arrange and organize the information. I am not good at the beautiful branding or the technical build out. That’s ok. Thankfully, I had some really great support people who I could tag in to lift those aspects of the project.
3. This was going to take longer than I thought. I am an action-taker in my business. I weigh the options, make a decision, and move. Not everyone works like I do. Revisions, edits, and life began to take a toll on the project timeline, and tasks began to stack up and run behind. A domino effect took place and began to impact other projects I had committed to within Molly Knuth Media, which lead to me being stressed, my budget getting stretched, and truthfully, a mess.
4. Communication is essential. When I just “sucked it up” and kept my head down to complete the work in the early stages, I was getting resentful and the creativity of the project suffered. I had to set and address boundaries and ask for more compensation than the original proposed cost. It was so uncomfortable, but this was key in getting the site to the finish line.
5. I do not like offering website buildouts as a service. Even if I can do something, that doesn’t mean that I should. Offering projects like this for small business clients was best left to freelancers or agencies that thrive and get energy from projects like this. I could tag in on strategic support, maybe, but I would no longer be the service provider for site builds and maintenance.

While this project wasn’t a failure for me, it wasn’t necessarily a success either. I learned a lot about my capabilities and myself along the way, and how much I still had yet to know as my journey in being an ambitious business woman continued.

2017 Molly was super optimistic, wearing rose-colored glasses, and overly confident in what she was successfully able to accomplish.

2025 Molly is more realistic (if still a little overly ambitious sometimes!) about where her time, energy, and resources are best spent. And she is gladly willing to connect people with other freelancers and companies who can do things better than her.

APPLICATION:

Here’s what I’m learning about lifelong learning:

• The more we stay curious, the more adaptable we become.
• Perfection isn’t the goal: growth is.
• Asking for help or admitting we don’t know something isn’t a weakness: it’s a strategy.
• The best leaders, creators, and entrepreneurs are always evolving.
• Learning keeps us from becoming stagnant and resistant to change.

Here’s how I’m putting this into practice:

• Reading, listening, and seeking out perspectives that challenge me…and I’ll admit, I do not always love this. In fact, I hate being wrong. But it serves no one if I silo myself into my own biases and ways of thinking. 
• Taking action, even when I don’t feel 100% ready, and allowing myself to trust the process even when I don’t get immediate results.
• Surrounding myself with people who push me to grow.
• Giving myself permission to pivot when needed….oof have I done A LOT of this in recent years. 

Question for You to Consider:
What’s something you’re learning right now?