Are you ever amazed at how time has a way of moving so slow and so fast simultaneously?

We’re feeling that way now as we celebrate five glorious years of Mountain Laurel Digital. And what a truly beautiful journey it has been to arrive at this place. Five years of growing together, building relationships, and as our lovely, native mountain laurel has taught us, five years of persevering. We’re humbled, grateful, and filled with pride as we think about where we started and where we are today, with one constant in particular keeping us rooted through all the ups and downs — our team.

Our story started from a desire to do business differently. We didn’t want to be like every other digital marketing agency out there. We wanted to break the stigma by being intentional, forging connections, and above all, remembering that we’re all human and in this together. That premise is something we share as a team, etched in our hearts — a driving value that each of us holds dear and something that we know will guide us forward into a bright future.

Over these past five years, our team has only gotten sweeter with the addition of each new member. We all have different skill sets, creative energies and personalities, but it’s our shared respect for one another and caring approach that has created our team dynamic — our special bond rooted in compassion and friendship.

Together, we want to make the world a better place starting with our work and how we treat others. It’s from that foundation that we’ve grown as individuals and as a team, and it’s from that foundation that we’re able to provide the most intentional, caring approach we can offer to all of our clients.

So as we celebrate this birthday and reflect on the past five years, we’re asking ourselves a key question: How do we, as a team, apply these past five years of meaningful experiences to create for the future?

Compassion First

Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

The past five years have taught us that being caring and being intentional about other’s needs creates a working relationship that not only builds trust, but lets us create in an environment that supports our best work.

We’ve found that when compassion is at the forefront, everything that follows is better.

Looking Out for Each Other’s Best Interest

The past two years have taught us that success and growth as a team begins with putting each other first — consciously looking out for each other and having one another’s best interest at heart. Being intentional with communication, understanding each other’s needs, and proactively checking in on each other, made the difficulties of working through COVID-19 much sweeter than they could have been.

Our belief is that you can’t pour from an empty cup at work, (contrary to what a lot of employers may think) but when it’s full, you can pour so much! With our team intentionally working to keep one another’s cups full, it makes it possible for all of us to be there for our clients, because we’re there for each other first.

Create with Passion

Passion is defined as an intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction, and while this definition can be applied broadly to many aspects of life, our passion stems from one distinct value — making the world a better place. We care about our responsibility to build a bright future and that means working with like minded individuals who feel the same and act on it. It’s this passion that makes up the foundation that fuels our ability to create, even from the smallest idea.

Over the past five years, our passion has pushed us to ask ourselves, “how can we do better?” “how can we be better?”, and we know it will continue to drive us forward — now and in the many years to come.

The Importance of Strong Work Relationships

When you work with friends, it never really feels like work. Our tight-knit team has learned the value of having honest, trusting, and open communication with each other, because it creates space for us to share common goals where we are all equally invested in achieving those goals. That working relationship directly translates into our relationships with our clients. As our team grows and our clients grow, it creates a sense of unity and understanding that’s not easily achieved in other work environments. The positive and supportive work environment we’ve created and value allows us to be creative and influential.

Connect with Humility

With any kind of work, it can be easy to become jaded and lose sight of what matters. Learning to be present in the beauty of what’s real has profoundly impacted us for the better.

As our team has grown, it’s been amazing to watch each person individually connect with their work and with our clients. We’ve seen a deeper connection grow in what drives our team to create, giving us purpose and space to do our very best. It's a rare thing and has been beautiful to witness.

Our team’s focus on tapping into imagination, dreaming, believing, and loving what we do has gotten us through some challenging years that have come with understandable insecurities and fears that every team goes through, especially during times of growth. This connection to what we do grounds us and creates a sense of unity that is rare in today’s world.

Over the past five years, our experiences have shown us the value of working with people who strive to bring good into the world with genuine humility ingrained into their approach. It hasn’t been easy to understand how we curate what we have now, but the simplicity of caring for one another with openness and honesty has changed the trajectory of what we can create together for the future.

The Value of Curiosity

Staying true to our values underlies everything we do. The emotions we feel, the decisions we make, and how we perceive situations, both good and bad, boils down to what we value. The past five years have taught us to be intentional about our values, with compassion and curiosity at the forefront. They allow us to maintain an open mind and to always be considerate of our effect on individuals and the planet.

As the old adage goes, the person who believes they know everything ultimately learns nothing. Curiosity propels our team to continue to grow in each of our respective fields — to seek out ways to better support one another. Most discoveries are the result of insatiable curiosity, and our future depends on this sense of wonder to keep our curiosity alive.

Continuing to Evolve

In life, change is constant, no matter how small or large those changes may be. We as humans can’t grow and blossom unless we’re nurtured and in a safe space for what that process entails — sometimes it comes down to just being human, sometimes it’s battling big learning curves. But if we reside in a space that welcomes empowerment, where we’re being built up day by day, the process becomes communal. We get to watch one another as teammates, and MLD as a whole, step into growth and the forward motions of progress. It’s what keeps us going and will help us move through our journey of continual evolution with kindness, strength, and empowerment.

For our team, this milestone is a special one, with experiences and lessons we'll cherish as our journey continues to unfold, offering a basis for growth, support, and empowerment as we create for the future.

5 Years: A Milestone We Will Cherish