Today we’d like to introduce you to Brissa del Mar.
Brissa, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Before going to college (I have a Bachelor degree in Media Communications), I started already working in marketing and advertising agencies in Mexico in customer engagement and photography. During and after school, I continued this path. From working in advertising agencies to marketing campaigns for cultural events to producing a TV program.
I came to Chicago after my mom passed away. I worked in a photo studio for three years doing graphic design. When I realized that I could do this by myself, I quit and moved to the West Suburbs. I have been working by myself since 2005 (freelancing and working with clients from Chicago, New York, and in the western suburbs -I’ve been happily divorced for four years). At that time, I remember I was taking any project for $20/hr. It was a new way to generate my income and maintain the freedom of choosing how I spent my time. I used Craigslist to get gigs, and that led me to clients that I’ve now worked with for several years, like Check, Please! for their festival Farm to Table.
From there, several referrals came for web design and fashion photography for models and magazines like Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine.
Even though photography is my dance, I stopped shooting for a couple of years, because I started making more money with graphic/web design work. I was doing everything remotely. It was great! No need to travel, no expenses. I didn’t meet my clients face to face, everything was through email, phone calls. The downside, working from home, is that it can be isolating.
By 2009 I slowly started getting back to my photography passion and started shooting again along with the graphic design work. I started to travel more to Chicago for photo shoots and to meet potential clients.
By that time, I realized that I preferred quality over quantity. I let go of a couple clients even though the money was right, it just wasn’t worth my time and emotional state. Then, quality clients started coming in by themselves.
I have always been fascinated by Human Connection, and how this is necessary to create much better relationships with others.
Since 2013, marketing and the design industry started changing. I was taking different workshops, seminars (online) to stay current. Then, in 2014, I started leadership training in Social Emotional Intelligence, that it has been a great asset in my personal growth, as human, as a woman, and as an entrepreneur. I started going back and forth from the suburbs to Chicago to the training, meetings, photo shoots and such. It was 3 hours of commute of my day, three times per week.
Finally, I moved to Chicago in the Fall of 2016. YAY! It has been incredibly amazing, the different shifts I have been through and how I continue being curious about life itself. It has allowed me to see more possibilities and opportunities in my surroundings.
I always have had a great rapport with people, and connecting with people, but in the last three years, I have been more intentional in choosing the people I want to build personal, collaborative or business relationships with. I am shooting more photography work and I have created a website only for it: breezeartphotography.com
I’ve been getting more involved in the community, volunteer in causes that are connected with my core values, like the Human Rights Campaign, by co-leading Marketing and Communications for their Annual Fundraiser in November 2017. And because of that, today I am the Communications Chair for the HRC Chicago Steering Committee.
I believe that what has brought me to today in my personal and professional career has been my open heart, my vision and my way of seeing life and humans as they are.
Nobody says it has been easy. There have been many roller coasters, and they will continue. What I have learned is to embrace them and get the best out of it and to keep creating and become the best human being I can be every day. It is practice. My purpose is to bring people together, and that is what I do through my gifts.
It is about relationships.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being your boss, it is not easy. It is a lot of self-discipline, accountability and organization. It has been smooth in the way that everything has worked out well with the rollercoasters I mentioned before. The challenges now are staying on the top of the continuous changes in the marketing and tech industries. There is always something new, and yes, sometimes it can be exhausting. With a lot of competition, I’m continually finding new ways to reach out to new clients or new projects. There’s always a risk that I invest a lot of time, and get no results. That is the part of the learning and growing. Today, I’m putting my photography work more out there and producing a video conversation series with and for women loving women (titled Women2Women).
Breeze Art Creatives – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
At Breeze Art Creatives, we are connectors, supporting small business or entrepreneurs to build a long-term relationship with their customers through their online presence.
I specialize in taking my client’s vision into reality in the language they understand, that allows them to feel secure and in control of their vision. It can be from a website, a marketing design materials, and photography.
My primary mission is to bring people’s stories to life through their core values. I am known for being personal. I see people openly by creating rapport with them, Every client is different, and I meet them where they are to build a space of trust, and safety.
My most valuable assets are my core values and how I integrate work and play. I am a human connector. I love connecting people with another fantastic people through little touches with my visual and photography work that tell stories that capture the bliss of the moment. It is about relationships and building that foundation.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
WOW! Tough question. I haven’t thought this until now. There are a couple. I would say when I produced a TV program after college with some friends. It was a huge risk to take, and we did well.
In May of 2017 I was invited to exhibit my artwork (“Writer’s Moments with Rose”) for the first time at NextdoorChicago.
A couple months later, I stepped in front of the camera for my first official photoshoot for a feature called “Women We Love”. It was the first time in my whole career as a photographer that the roles were reversed and I loved it.
In that same year, I got involved with the Human Rights Campaign. All these moments mark a transition of my personal growth. I believe that as we continue evolving as humans, we evolve in all of the areas of our lives – personal, business, community, mind, soul and health.
What I care the most about is that I have brought value to business, communities, and people. It is not a big or small moment. It is the quality of full engagement that I live by.
Pricing:
- Branded Photo & Video Production – starts $2,500. Single Photoshoots $ 450hr. Special Events $250 hr
- Website Branding starts $1,500. Special for Startups $300 (limited time)
Contact Info:
- Website: breezeartcreatives.com
breezeartphotography.com - Phone: 7732405141
- Email: connect@breezeartcreatives.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breezeartcreatives/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BreezeArtCreatives/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/breezeartc
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
