As I prepare to say goodbye to 2024 and a year of celebrating 20 years in business, I can’t help but look back with pride. It was a year of Instagram giveaways (on the 20th of each month, natch), a monthly event series that highlighted our agency’s categories (hospitality, cpg, & lifestyle), fundraisers that raised over $30K for The Wonderfund, Challenge Unlimited at Ironstone Farm, and Villa Mexico Cafe (still struggling from the lack of office workers downtown), and a blowout anniversary party at Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks that gathered clients, friends, and countless former marlo employees, many of whom have remained friends since their time together at whatever point they were a part of the marlo-verse over the last 20 years. Fast forward to earlier this month, when I sat down with most of the current team for our annual end-of-year meetings to have the chance to connect one-on-one, hear honest feedback, constructive criticism, and reset for the new year. I’m proud to share that the answer to the first question asked of everyone: “are you happy at marlo?” was a resounding yes. And while the clients and the work certainly play a big part of that, the refrain I heard over and over was “I love my co-workers.”

When I reflect on the 20 years I’ve spent building this business, this is the very reason I’ve continued. While there have been many highs and just as many lows, it’s the people that keep me coming back for more year after year. And no 20th year could end without a public thank you to one of them, Karen Wong, who came in 10 years ago as the VP for our CPG practice and one day asked to be the COO. I thought she was nuts for wanting that role (TBH, I kinda still do ;), but without her by my side I honestly don’t know that we would still be here today. And one more person I must mention who I KNOW with certainty we would not be here without is Michael P Moriarty, the winner of my “Goldilocks” story of how I selected an accountant 20 years ago.

So, while 2024 was about outward celebration, 2025 is going to be about inward celebration – rejoicing in the friends that have been made, connecting different generations of marlo-ites, and encouraging more of the same. While I don’t know what the next 20 years will hold, if there is any legacy worth trying to maintain I know it’s this one. And as I judge my own leadership skills over the past 20 years – some great, some still a work in progress – I have to give myself credit for clearly doing something right to have been able to attract and retain some of the industry’s best. Cheers to chapter 21 and beyond!