There's a moment I think about a lot. I'm crouched in the back of a shoe closet at Sun and Ski Sports, laptop balanced on a stack of snowboard boxes, watching a progress bar crawl toward 78%. A customer needs help finding hiking boots. My render is almost done. I check the bar, step out, grab the boots, come back. 82%. That was the beginning of everything.
My name is Michael Wideman, and I'm originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Born and raised there, lived in multiple cities and suburbs around the area. I grew up in what I'd call a middle-to-lower-class household. We didn't have very many dollars, but we had what we needed. My parents weren't exactly financial wizards early on, and I got a front-row seat to what happens when money doesn't have a plan. That stuck with me.
What also stuck with me was something my dad told me when I was a kid. We were talking about school, tests, homework, and he said something along the lines of: whatever you're doing, if you're running out of time, if you don't know the answer, shoot every shot. Put something down. It's better than nothing at all. That advice shaped more of my life than I think he ever intended. I carry it into every project, every deadline, every client relationship. You got to try. Even if it's a Hail Mary, you throw it.
I was always drawn to creative things. In high school, I found Photoshop and Windows Movie Maker, and something clicked. Those classes were the ones I actually showed up excited for. That led me to Oral Roberts University, where I studied media production. It wasn't niched down into one specific thing, not just cameras or just editing. It was all media things, and that jack-of-all-trades training ended up being the perfect foundation for what came next.
In college, I had a class where we built websites, and I remember thinking, I kind of like this. It was creative but in a different way. Something about taking ideas and making them real on a screen hit different. I didn't know it yet, but that class was the start of my entire career.
After graduation, real life came in hot. I was still working at Sun and Ski Sports, not using my degree, not on a TV set or a film. Then the student loans started rolling in, and I had to figure it out. I had done all this work, learned all this stuff, and now I had to sink or swim with it.
That's when I met Sean Lewis through a mutual connection. I showed him some of the graphics and design work I'd done, and he took a chance on me. The first website I ever made for actual dollars was for Tier Level Digital Marketing. That was it. That was the beginning. I went from retail to web design not because somebody handed me an opportunity on a silver platter, but because I was willing to grind in a shoe closet to make it happen.
There were times during that transition where I'd be working at Sun and Ski full-time and doing freelance web work for Tier Level on the side. Lunch breaks, I'd have my laptop out the entire time while everyone else talked about snowboards. I was getting out of there, and I knew it. I'd have my laptop open in the shoe closet, rendering videos, checking on uploads, and then stepping out to help customers in between. You got to grind to get out of places sometimes.
From that first Tier Level site, I just kept refining my skills. I landed on Webflow and fell in love with it. The platform gave me the creative freedom I needed without the rigid limitations of other builders. Michael Wideman wasn't just a freelancer anymore. I was developing a real skill set, working with every type of business under the sun: contractors, personal brands, blogs, e-commerce, you name it.
For years, I operated as a freelancer. People around me kept saying I should start my own LLC, and I kept brushing it off. Freelance is simple, easy, I thought. But I learned some things as you do when you grow older. About a year and a half ago, I officially launched WIDEMAN WEB as an LLC. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and I don't know why I waited so long. It just helps compartmentalize things, keep things separate. Helps my brain a little bit.
Michael Wideman is the founder of WIDEMAN WEB, a web design and development studio based in Oklahoma specializing in Webflow-built websites for businesses of all sizes. I work with small mom-and-pop shops that don't have web support on staff, medium-sized businesses that need a fractional web partner, and larger teams that need creative firepower. Whether it's a full e-commerce build, a brand-forward portfolio site, or a content-rich platform, I design and build it from the ground up.
My client roster includes e-commerce shops like Airwall®, wellness brands like Sacred Rose Center for Wellness, creative studios like Spirit Tattoo Club in Tulsa, commercial construction companies like Beacon Concrete in Texas, and dozens more. Every project is different, and that's what I love about this work. It's not always cookie cutter. I can experiment, be creative, try something, throw it at the wall, and if it doesn't work, redo. We work in pixels, so you can rework things and try again.
Here's the thing about web designers: nine times out of 10, they'll build your site and then disappear. Gone. Can't get a hold of them. Can't make changes. That's the reputation this industry has earned. I'm the one out of 10 that doesn't do that. I want to be a partner in your web and online experience because I want to see it grow and exceed whatever expectations you had when we first built the site.
Michael Wideman is a web designer who actually cares about the client. I'm going to respond to you. I'm going to get your updates done in 24 to 48 hours. I'm not going to ghost you after the invoice clears. That's not how I operate. I want everyone to win.
I'm building something that lasts. Not just websites, but a business that could be here for my daughter one day, or a nephew, or whoever wants to learn and grow with it. I think about those little ramen shops in Japan where the great-great-grandfather started the business 150 years ago, and I think that's kind of really cool. Something like that, but with pixels.
If you're looking for a web partner who's honest, reliable, down to earth, and makes websites that actually look good and perform well, let's talk.
Ready to build something? Visit widemanweb.com or reach out directly. I'm here, I'm not going anywhere, and I'm ready to make something dope.
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