Life and work with Aaron Kerlin-Scott
We continue our conversations this month with Aaron Kerlin-Scott. Aaron is a design and marketing specialist and one of our founding members.
Aaron talks to us about juggling work and family life and finding happiness.
It’s a lovely, positive read. Enjoy!
Tell us about your work
I’m Aaron, a 29-year old father of two. I work with my colleague, Suzie, to run Suki Marketing & we provide accessible web design with content led SEO. We don’t believe in bolting on accessibility - if we’re designing something, it’s going to work for everyone. We don’t just tick the box, we create content worth sharing.
A typical week
I don’t have a second. I have a 9-5 Monday to Friday, and my two kids are two and three. So between the hours of 8am and 7pm, I am a dad & a full time employee. Once the kids get to bed, I’m back at my desk designing brands and websites for some really cool businesses. Then I’ll fall into bed around 1am, and sleep until my kids jump on top of me to get ready for nursery! On the weekends, I spend every second with my family. My wife sacrifices a lot in the evenings (read “gets to watch what she wants on telly without arguments!) so I make sure we get the evenings at the weekend together.
The best part of my week
Easy question. I have two. On Saturday morning, my son is in football so it’s one on one time with my daughter, Miryn. She loves to go to Costa for a “baby-ccino” and a slice of toast. On Sunday afternoon, Ivan & I drop her off at gymnastics then we go round to the shops and take a walk around. It’s not exciting, but I love getting those small windows each week to speak to them and find out what’s going on in their life.
My proudest moment is…
My wife is awesome. She sacrifices a lot of herself for other people, and she has put a lot of her life on hold to raise our two children amongst everything else that we have gone through. This year, she decided to pursue a new career in teaching & she applied for university. I’ve got so much to be grateful for, but what I want most is for her to achieve her goals & since she’s finally feeling like she can, I could not be prouder of her.
Skills I could offer
I can help your business understand if its brand identity is doing what it needs to. Are you attracting the right people? Are you selling the values you believe? There’s a lot that you can change simply by the shapes/colours you use. I also design accessible websites like I mentioned. Often, flashy graphics can look good but put people off buying. We focus on what converts, and what helps people access your information and services in the easiest way. I can help audit your site, to see if you do that.
Skills that would help me
It’s hard to find the motivation to succeed when I have so little time to grow my business. I definitely need someone who can keep me accountable & make sure that I am striving to meet the smaller goals. I did well to get to this point, but I know I am guilty of falling into a comfortable position.
Self-care for me is…
Honestly, I live by one value - focus on the smallest number of things you need to be happy. For a long time, I was desperate for people to accept me. I became a stand-up comedian and published a few books. It was only when I focused on the smallest number, that I found true happiness. My wife, my kids, and my business are the only things that matter. My business only matters, because it helps give more to my wife and kids.
You can be greedy, but you’ll never be happy, because you’ll never achieve everything you want. It’s just too much for one person. Look after yourself by making your aims realistic and you’ll never be unhappy.
Aaron is offering 1 hour to explore ‘What’s your brand identity’. If you are a business owner or thinking of starting up, it will be time well spent. And you can hear more from Aaron by following him on LinkedIn.
