Lee Domaszowec

When a team member underperforms, the default move is to tighten the grip. More check-ins, more reporting, smaller tasks with shorter deadlines, reduce the scope until you can supervise every piece. That advice keeps getting recommended because it feels like management, it looks responsible, and it's defensible to a board or a funder if things go sideways. And for a certain kind of person, it backfires completely.

Vibe coded sites or pages aren’t built like a website a developer, a security reviewer, or an accessibility auditor would sign their name to. They’re not backed by a platform like Wordpress, Squarspace, or Wix and the protections they provide as standard or add-ons. You know who does deserve trust? Your donors. Your customers. Your staff or volunteers. Your volunteers, fosters, adopters. They trusted you with their credit card numbers, with their home addresses, with their personal information.

I made a mistake… for nine years, and it ended up really hurting our business. I didn’t ask for testimonials, ratings, or reviews. At all. For many years, 100% of our business was referral or repeat business and we were very busy, so I just didn’t prioritize it. We were doing the work, getting results, and I thought that would always be enough.