You know the saying about the cobbler’s children having no shoes? Hi, it’s me, I’m the cobbler.
I help small businesses put their best foot forward with strategy, websites, branding, and content, all the things that help the outside of a business reflect the good work happening inside it. My own business, on the other hand, has been very patient with me.
BRYMA Designs’ marketing has lived on the “I’ll get to it” list for years. It was waiting on the next website launch to wrap up, the busy Q4 season to slow down, and the day I finally had the perfect photos, the perfect words, and an uninterrupted stretch of time, along with a different personality that enjoys marketing herself. I love helping other people tell their stories, but telling my own can still make me want to find literally anything else to do.
Lately, though, something unexpected has happened… I’m actually having fun with it!
Apparently, I just needed a different crew
Some of the new photos around here were taken by my daughter and son, which means I got to work on my business, spend time with my kids, and help them build some marketable skills. Marketable. Get it? I’ll let them decide whether the dad (mom?) joke makes the final cut.
Being directed by your own children is a full Freaky Friday moment, by the way. Suddenly I was the one being told where to stand and what to do with my hands. I have new appreciation for all the times the roles were reversed, and I promise I’ll be much more patient the next time they serve as models for me. Bringing them into the process has been one of my favorite parts, though, because they got to contribute to something real and I got to see my business, and myself, through their eyes.
My youngest makes an appearance in some of the photos too, which feels appropriate considering how often my work and family life share the same frame. BRYMA is a family-owned business in southwest Minnesota, after all, and “it’s a family affair” is a pretty accurate description of things around here (great song, btw).
A little less polished-to-death, a little more me
There are branding photos, there are kids in the frame, and there’s vinyl, because music is life and the person behind BRYMA Designs is, in fact, a person with favorite records, favorite humans, and a business that deserves some attention of its own.
I want the way I present BRYMA to reflect both the quality of my work and the person you’ll actually be working with, rather than some perfectly curated alternate version of me who never has an interruption and always knows what to do with her hands in photos. It’s still me, just with updated photos.
The thing I put off for ages was a weekend project
That’s the part that’s almost annoying. I had let this become such a big thing in my head, something that needed more time, more planning, and more everything before I could start. In reality, it was a weekend project. Not an entire business transformation, just a meaningful step forward that I could have taken much sooner.
A useful reminder from me, to me: done is better than perfect.
I don’t need to stop caring about the details. That’s not happening, and frankly, you don’t want your designer to adopt that philosophy. But caring about the details and waiting forever are not the same thing.
Consider this the turning point
I spend a lot of time helping other small businesses show people what makes them worth choosing, and it’s time to give BRYMA Designs that same care. I want to make it a priority, let it be fun, and share the work, the personality, and the people behind it without turning every update into a monumental production.
If you’ve been putting your own business last, I get it, truly. Maybe your next step doesn’t need to be a complete overhaul either. Maybe it’s a few new photos or one updated page, something finished instead of something endlessly planned. And if you’d like a hand with it, I’d love to hear from you.
As for me, the cobbler finally has some cute shoes.
I intend to wear them.
