Has it been a year already?
Well technically it’s been a year and 3 months… It’s been busy and I’m late to posting this ;).
I recently celebrated my one year work-aversary here at Mossio. I wanted to take a minute and reflect back on what brought me here, what the team has accomplished this past year, and where we are going next as a company.
It hardly feels like it’s been a year since I took a leap of faith to join Corey Haggard and Jerett Patterson here. Changing jobs always comes with a bit of uncertainty and risk, but it was a little bigger for my wife and I when we agreed to come to Mossio (let’s be real, it’s a family decision, not an individual one). Our first child, Thea, was just 2 weeks old when I signed the offer letter. Mossio was just celebrating it’s 1 year anniversary as a business, and I didn’t know what the future would exactly hold for them. I was so excited about the opportunity to work with such talented folks, owners who are in the trenches with you doing the work alongside you, and most importantly I wanted to shift my focus more solely into products and less web (one and done) work.
Ultimately, I have my wife to thank for deciding to take this job. It was more important than ever to provide for my family, and I felt selfish for wanting to risk the job security we had for a new opportunity. Mossio was still a young company, who knew where they would be in another year or if I would still have a job… I was more likely to have turned down the opportunity, until she asked me, “If we (my wife and daughter) weren’t in the picture, what would I have done?”. I immediately replied, “I would have signed the paperwork and given my notice to my previous employer yesterday.” She saw how I was lit up with excitement and knew we would regret not taking this opportunity to do the work I’m most passionate about.
Beyond the risk of simply making a move, there were certainly huge upsides to joining Mossio. One of my favorite things here is that we all work on projects. Most owners & Creative Directors stop working on projects and switch gears solely to a “supervisor” role. They point at screens and give directions, finding themselves growing in their “career”, but getting farther and farther away from the work they love. I get a nice blend here of helping oversee the team, projects, sales, all while being fulfilled creatively with my own work. Prior to Mossio, I went home every night and took away small chunks of valuable family time on the weekends to do actual design work, because I was no longer creatively fulfilled at work. Here I don’t feel like I am at risk of becoming the “dinosaur” in my industry, falling further out of touch of what is current, let alone trying to stay forward thinking. Especially with Mossio taking Friday’s to focus on education and self improvement, I feel like I am growing at a faster pace than ever. I’ve spent my Friday’s exploring new design styles, pair designing with team members to learn how they work and think (and adapt my own learnings from them as well as know how to best utilize them on client projects), touched up on my coding skills on CodeSchool.com, made some darn cool case studies just for the hell of it (which has landed new work, woot!), gotten semi-familiar with Adobe After Effects for subtle UI animations, and a few crash course lessons with my team member David on the strengths and capabilities of Principle. Also, since every member of the team is so highly talented and experienced, each with their own strengths, as much as I may mentor them on occasion, I feel that they mentor me half the time. It’s incredible.
Here’s a few of the items I’ve gotten to further my own education on:
One of the other biggest draws when coming to Mossio was being able to work remote. I grew up with parents who worked from home and it was amazing to have them around for big life events as well as the simple pleasures of having lunch together everyday or a short trip to the park. Getting to be around my newborn (and now toddler) daughter everyday has been a dream come true. With a second on the way in a few months, I’m more grateful than ever for the ability to be so close to my family.
I didn’t need to make a decision between work or family, and have been blessed to have had the best of both worlds. Since my daughter kicked me out of my office (I mean her room), recently I’ve started working at a local WeWork coworking facility a few days a week, which has been great to get me out of the house a little, but still have the flexibility to spend time working from home. I’ll admit, I fell in love with the new office way more than I expected to and I can’t thank Corey & Jerett enough for putting me up here.
It’s been amazing to work for a folks who put the team first. I remember them telling me Mossio was about “people over profits” and they’ve held true to that. Not once has our team had a “fire drill” requiring a late night all hands work session, require we sacrifice our “Friday Betterment”, or work a weekend because of poor project management, planning, or over promising to clients. The ship has been sailing on smooth seas, and it’s not just because we have a talented team who knows what they are doing (but hey, that helps!), but because of great leadership and processes that help us operate as efficiently and transparently to our clients. We truly stick to a 40 hour work week, and ALWAYS ALWAYS, put our team members and their family members first. It’s truly remarkable and while it shouldn’t be such a surprise or revelation in how we work, in today’s day and age of corporate “work people to the bone and discard them” it seems like such a big deal and a utopian operation. I’m grateful and honored to be a part of it and work alongside these amazing people.
Reflecting back on this year, I feel like I’ve personally grown and the Mossio team has grown in so many ways. We’ve become better designers, thinkers, leaders, friends, and family members. We’ve enjoyed laughs and good eats bonding together at our team retreat and attending Creative South.
In my first year, I’ve gotten to work with 14 amazing clients & partners building products and websites for things that have a real impact in the world. Some I can’t talk about at all, but I WISH I COULD! If you knew what they did and how they are impacting the world, it would blow you away! I got so emotional about one of the projects I wrote the client a massive email thanking them for the positive impact they have in the world and how truly honored I was to be a small part of it.
The quality of work we have produced (and client testimonials) has resulted in a steady stream of amazing new clients, continue to work with existing long term clients, and allow us to grow and expand the team.
Our team has grown not just in size, but talent, capabilities, specialties and it’s resulted in great work, a new website, and even the launching of our own product that will be finding it’s way into the design community soon. Each team member brings something unique to the table and we are constantly learning and sharing to improve each other. The respect and admiration these folks hold for every member of the team is the primary driving force for Mossio’s success. I’m so excited to see what this team produces over the next year for our clients as well as our own internal product launches.
Corey and Jerett, thank you for everything that you do and continue to do for this family. Thanks for bringing me on board and allowing me the honor to work alongside you both and the talented likes of David, Phillip, Elliot, Mike, Matt & Josh. I am so excited for this next year and watching this team continue to grow and make things that matter.
Check out some of the work we’ve produced this past year as well as some of the fun we’ve had as a team:
