“Redeeming your time isn’t just about doing more—it’s about being intentional with each moment so you can serve well, live present, and pursue what matters most.”
— Jordan Raynor, Redeeming Your Time
As we step into a new year, we are once again taking a moment to reflect on the last one. We’ve learned to value this time of pause and reflection before rushing ahead into a new season of busyness.
The close of 2025 didn’t come quietly. Instead, it came with full calendars, project and personal milestones, and the kind of refining that doesn’t always feel like positive progress in the moment. Looking back, the year was full of steady work, learning opportunities, expanded relationships, and a few lessons we didn’t necessarily ask for but are grateful to carry forward. It wasn’t a year of flashy headlines or easy answers, but it was one marked by opportunities for growth, even in the uncomfortable.
Reflections on 2025: A Year of Synergy
Each year, we choose a word for our business—not as a trend or a tagline, but as a compass. It gives us language for what we’re paying attention to, what we’re prioritizing, and how we hope to show up for our clients, our team, and our community.
In 2025, that word was Synergy.
At the time, it felt a bit bolder than the words we typically choose. But as the year unfolded, it proved to be exactly right. Synergy invited us to look beyond individual efforts and instead focus on what could happen when the right people, ideas, and opportunities came together with intention and trust.
Throughout the year, we saw collaboration deepen in tangible ways. Within our team, roles became more clearly defined, responsibilities more shared, and communication more open. With our clients, projects increasingly felt like true partnerships—marked by mutual respect, shared vision, and a sense that we were building something together rather than simply delivering a service.
While service has always been core to who we are, 2025 helped us see more clearly that service and collaboration are not separate pursuits. When people who are aligned work together toward a shared purpose, the impact is greater, and the work itself becomes more sustainable.
As we reflect on 2025, we’re grateful for the ways synergy shaped our year—strengthening partnerships, refining our internal systems, and reminding us that we are better together. Synergy created momentum, but momentum needs care. Growth requires discernment. Collaboration flourishes best when it is stewarded well. That realization is what carried us forward into 2026.
New Website Designs, Book Releases & More
We once again spent the year serving a variety of brand and website clients, navigating a full schedule, project waitlist, and unexpected collaborations as efficiently as possible. We completed 15 brand and website designs, 8 manuscripts and new releases, 11 strategies and coaching packages, and 12 short-term projects. We also cared for and hosted a total of 120 websites for the year.
Because 2025 was so full, we revisited our project list and portfolio in this separate blog post this time. You can read more details from our project review here.
We also continued our support of longterm clients through ongoing site care and hosting, and shorter term offerings such as social media and marketing support last year. Every project, every person matters, and we are so grateful to be a part of so many achieving their goals! At the heart of everything we do is our dedication to listening, understanding, and meeting the needs of those we work with. Service, after all, is about creating impact through sincere and intentional care.
Team News & Updates
Our in-house team experienced very few changes in 2025, which was a pleasant and well-timed surprise. Hallie and Christa joined us, switching from associates to team members for the year. We continued our partnerships with amazing associates like Mara, Erin, and Karen. And we added intern editor Milena to our publishing team.
The synergy within our team and community this past year allowed us to experience internal growth, not in size but in connection. This growth in our team resulted in continued evolution in how we serve our clients and each other.
Community & Events
Perhaps most visibly, synergy showed up in the continued ripple effects of Refined Conference 2024. Connections formed in that space didn’t end when the event concluded; they grew, multiplied, and bore fruit in ways we could never have orchestrated on our own. Watching relationships strengthen, collaborations emerge, and creative work flourish reminded us that God often works through community—not just individual effort.
As you read this post, we are finalizing all planning details for Refined Conference 2026, and we can’t think of a better way to kick off the new year than this two-day event with our community.
Our Vision for 2026: Steward Well
At Market Refined Media & Publishing, our work has always been shaped by intention rather than urgency. We don’t just build brands, craft books, or strategize platforms for quick wins or short-term success. We build lasting success and relationships. And as we step into 2026, that conviction feels clearer than ever. Our theme for the year ahead is simple and grounding:
Steward Well.
This isn’t an empty spiritual-sounding catchphrase. It’s a posture for how we serve our clients, how we structure our work, how we lead our team, and how we care for the community entrusted to us.
Stewarding the Work Itself
To steward well, we must be real and intentional about capacity. Over the past year, we’ve strengthened our internal team and refined our systems and workflows in positive ways, which improves our capacity and allows us to be clear about who and how we serve. In 2026, we are continuing to be more selective about the projects we take on and the services we promise, not because we are doing less, but because we are committed to doing our work well.
Protecting margin is a key part of this vision. When our team has room to think, collaborate, and grow, the work itself becomes sharper and more impactful. Serving from a place of clarity and presence benefits our clients, our readers, and the health of our team as a whole.
At the heart of our business is creative work—writing, editing, strategy, design, and development that requires both skill and care. We are honoring our belief that creativity itself is a gift, and that good stewardship of that gift benefits the process, the people involved, and the outcome. Creative, collaborative projects are the kind of work that sustains long-term excellence and keeps our team energized and engaged. We believe that when creativity is stewarded well, the work not only improves, but it also becomes more rewarding for everyone involved.
In 2026, our number of projects may look similar to years past. What will change is the depth of attention we’re able to give each one.
We are spending more time:
- Looking at long-term goals with our clients
- Expanding and nurturing existing relationships
- Ensuring that every recommendation, deliverable, and timeline truly stewards our clients’ investments well
These incremental improvements allow us to serve with greater consistency and care, without unnecessary friction or burnout.
Shared Growth, Shared Responsibility
Stewarding well also means investing in people.
As a team, we are committed to growing in our respective crafts—sharpening skills, pursuing training and mentorship where appropriate, and continuing to learn together. Growth at MRM isn’t about keeping pace with current trends or flashy growth at agencies like us. Instead, it’s about becoming more confident, capable, and generous in how we serve our clients, our community, and each other.
We are cultivating a team culture that values encouragement, collaboration, and shared responsibility. We believe the best work happens when people feel supported, genuinely invested in one another’s success, and challenged to rise above the familiar and comfortable in ways that serve personal and professional long-term goals.
Financial Stewardship With Wisdom and Care
Financial stability has always mattered to us, not because we are focused on the bottom line, but because it allows us to continue serving faithfully and responsibly.
As we look toward 2026, our business model is sustainable as it stands, but we are approaching the new year with strategic goals to:
- Value our expertise enough to raise some fees where appropriate
- Make other services more accessible when it serves the project and the client
- Maintain a consistent baseline while continuing to tailor every proposal to fit the unique needs of each engagement
We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all pricing or templated solutions. Stewarding well means meeting clients where they are, understanding the scope and season of their work, and building agreements that are clear, fair, and aligned on both sides.
Knowing Who We Are and Who We Serve
Praying intently over the new year reaffirmed convictions we already feel deeply. God has called us to a very specific model of business and service, bridging gaps across the industry and handling the callings and passions of others with great care.
Part of stewarding well in 2026 means we continue to embrace our identity and who we are in business, growing more confident in who we are as a company and who our people are.
We are not chasing trends or the strategies of others.
We are not trying to be everything to everyone.
We are not measuring success by volume alone.
We are here, steady and deeply invested in the creative, faith-driven, mission-minded community we serve.
Our vision is not about becoming famous or increasing our following. It’s about becoming more rooted, more discerning, and more faithful with what has been entrusted to us.
A Word From Our Team
As we shaped this vision for 2026, we invited our team to reflect on what stewarding well looks like in their own work and growth. Their words reflect the care, creativity, and commitment that shape our work every day.
“Stewarding well means honoring both the author’s voice and the reader’s experience—offering thoughtful, biblically grounded guidance while protecting the margins that allow me to show up fully present for each manuscript and coaching call.”
“Creativity is a gift, and stewarding it well means finding joy in using my skills while continuing to grow, explore, and stay excited about the work we’re doing.”
“Every manuscript carries a piece of an author’s heart, and stewarding well means giving each project the time and attention it deserves—not treating it as just another task to complete.”
We look forward to stewarding this work, this team, and this community well, together.
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