Six years. That’s close to beating my longest relationship (just kidding). However, Google does say it’s twice as long as people spend working at agencies, and on the highest end of the range. I think that pretty much says it all. End of the blog post, thank you very much.

But truthfully, we know that agency life very often means low retention and low job stability. MLD consistently manages to retain people for years. For me, it all comes down to communication and care. We have a company mission, operational visions, we love to nerd out, but day-to-day, it’s the caring aspect that really connects us. Of course, we care about performance for our clients, but it extends far beyond deliverables and bottom lines. It’s evident in how our team operates, communicates, and addresses challenges, failures, and successes.

I appreciate that what we do is distilled to really doing the work. Minimal red tape. Probably because we’re small, but it’s really easy to get lost in all the processes. My first job out of college was for one of the major FMCG companies, and I could not stand the bureaucracy of it even though I had a really great team too.

I love that we can pivot quickly at MLD. We often operate as a start-up, but with a mindset of a welfare state - people first, there’s nothing worth sacrificing the team’s wellbeing. And what I am particularly proud of is that we’re able to sacrifice growth to maintain our values. None of us wants to work with people who are unkind, and that’s been our guiding principle. We will give our best (and our best is a lot!) to help someone with their business, as long as they’re a kind human who can see beyond their own nose. We don’t like drama. We want to be able to do the actual work, not having to spend time on managing personalities and getting political (which of course is never fully possible, but we’ve done a great job at keeping it minimal and fun!).

The other side to this is life changes. I have a toddler, and the transition to motherhood while working has not been an easy one. I think it would’ve been unmanageable for me mentally if I hadn’t received the support from Casey and the team, and the support I’m still receiving. Everyone at MLD truly understands the work-life balance that so many companies boil down to “just let them clock out on time.” For us, it’s about truly seeing everyone, with their needs and conditioning, and trying to create an environment where they can all thrive, which, for a lot of us at MLD, is flexibility. Working from home is huge and so is being able to adjust the hours to accommodate schedules with kids. No matter how crazy days get, we always get through them and show up for our clients, be it middle of the night or during a 5am wake-up session because half of the previous day was taken up by a fussy toddler. We’ve worked like this for years and have mastered it. We also work half Fridays! Who wouldn’t like some extra time for their own passions or loved ones? Anyone here familiar with the Parkinson’s law that says that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion? The amount of time you allocate for a task is the amount of time it will take to complete, and it really works like this!

All of this is possible because of Casey, her personality, her values, her heart, and how she shows up for her own family and our clients. It’s her deep empathy. It all trickles down to everyone around, to how and who she hires, to how she connects with clients that decide to work with us, to the energy that’s felt and shared and reciprocated. She’s the true reason why we are the team we are, because she sets the tone. I’ve learned so much from watching her over these six years. She’s gracefully navigated difficult client situations, shown compassionate leadership and inspired me with how she’s balanced empathy with expectations towards employees. I’ve watched my team vent together, laugh together, create together, face failure and success under her reign. She’s the living proof that kindness is strength. And while I have definitely developed professionally and gained new skills over these last six years, it’s that type of “soft development” that I am most grateful for. Something that no book or online course will ever teach you, and something I feel that, especially in the face of AI, will set us apart forever as workers, leaders, and professionals.

I feel truly lucky that the last six years of my life have flown by in the presence of these magnificent humans that are part of MLD.

The MLD OG: Karolina Celebrates Six Years