Hi @HumanJHawkins,
It would be great if you explained what software you are using and what command you ran. The text field automatically filled in questions about these topics, but you didn't complete them.
If you're using Certbot, it does default to requiring root access. There are ways of using it that won't require root. If you want to get certificates without root access, you might be better off using one of the other clients
For example, a lot of people have had excellent experiences with