"Prioritizing employee happiness is the key to thriving in the face of the Great Resignation"
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview with Casey Nifong, the Founder of Mountain Laurel Digital (MLD), a purpose-driven digital marketing and creative agency. In this interview, Casey shares insights into MLD’s unique approach and their commitment to prioritizing employee happiness in the face of the ongoing trend known as the Great Resignation.
As a leading agency collaborating with purpose-driven brands, MLD offers a comprehensive range of services including SEO, content creation, website design, and brand strategy. However, what truly sets MLD apart is their empathetic and value-aligned approach, fostering personal and meaningful relationships with their clients.
Casey highlights MLD’s remarkable achievement of 55% year-over-year growth while maintaining sustainable working practices and a strong team culture. With a focus on freedom, respect, and flexibility, MLD empowers their employees, particularly women, by offering remote work options and flexible schedules.
Join us as Casey Nifong provides valuable insights into employee happiness, MLD’s strategies for adapting to the evolving work landscape, and their vision for a successful and purpose-driven future in the digital marketing industry.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Casey Nifong: I’m the Founder of Mountain Laurel Digital (MLD), a digital marketing and creative agency collaborating with purpose-driven brands to build a better tomorrow. Our supports brands’ growth in the digital space with SEO, content, website design and development, brand strategy, paid media, and more.
Our team culture and service model offers an empathetic, full-service digital marketing and branding agency experience. One where we intentionally listen to the brand’s purpose and vision, creating a personal and value aligned relationship.
We help people fall in love with what, how and why you do what you do through our digital marketing and branding partnerships.
In the past year, what is the greatest business achievement you’d like to celebrate with your team? Please share the details of that success.
Casey Nifong: We have experienced a growth of 55% YoY while also exuding sustainable working practices – like flexible work schedules, being a fully remote team, promotions, new hires and a focus on our team spending as much time as they can with family and friends while also loving their career path.
As advocates for change, we only work with brands that align with our values and it’s great to see how the market is responding.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, are an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Casey Nifong: By offering freedom, Respect, Being Seen, New Opportunities and Flexibility. We’ve found that one of the best ways to prioritize the happiness of women in the workplace is by offering remote work options and the flexibility to create their own schedules.
Unlike most fast-paced marketing agencies, we empower our team by testing 4-day work weeks and implementing extremely flexible policies, allowing them the freedom and bandwidth to excel and generate innovative and creative solutions in the competitive marketing landscape.
We are proactive to see where we can grow career opportunities and we’ve also hired a new HR partner to measure and design wellness policies to curate a creative and supportive work environment that goes far beyond health insurance.
Our team is committed to taking care of each other, invested in the future of our world, and they show up day after day as difference-makers.
Here is a two-fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Casey Nifong: Yvon Chouinard’s Let My People Go Surfing. This book represents fundamental values I’ve utilized as I built my business. It trumps the belief that the grind is the only way to build a successful business and affirms my belief to build a business for good.
I love the sentiment of Yvon Chouinard being a reluctant businessman” because it’s a humbling experience to run an agency.
I’m always coming back to takeaways from this book around staying grounded, seeking happiness, and taking pride in your ability to impact others around you – through creating opportunities for adventure and curiosity. Which is a different lens around growth than many larger corporations I’ve encountered and I love it.
This all resonates with me because I never ever thought I’d have the ability to own a business – I have always been a free spirit looking for fun and joy in life and I just didn’t think those worlds would work together harmoniously but this book taught me it could and helps me continue to believe in this notion of business and profit can be sustainable and happy.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Casey Nifong: My obstacles are centered around balance, I have 2 babies (1 year and 4 years) and I love being with them as much as possible, but of course growing a business means I have to find creative ways to do the work needed to grow our team and capabilities while also being the mom and wife I want to be – so finding time to rest and be everything I want to be as a leader is my biggest challenge.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Casey Nifong: This is a topic that’s come up a lot in my conversations with founders: “Invisible Work” its the thinking, the behind the scenes work that is underestimated, it requires a lot of brain power but you’re typically in it alone so it can feel invisible and lonely, so I believe the state of constantly being on (plus adding value) is the more underestimated part.
What does “success” in 2023 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Casey Nifong: Continuing to create new opportunities for people I care about and love being around. Building a world I believe in.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Casey Nifong for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Casey Nifong or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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