The team put together an eNewsletter for the holidays and sent it over for a quick look. It was definitely an “ah hah” moment. First off, the team did this. Which is really nothing new. From its inception, Murray Road has been a team effort. But secondly—the imagery we had, the headlines written and logo featured were all Murray Road’s own. Pretty cool. The third and maybe the most arresting from an impact statement, was the word “decade.”
Wow. 2020 really is something significant. Personally. Professionally. Current Events. The list goes on. But for Murray Road, it’s especially poignant. 2019 was a thrilling, brutal and rewarding year. And as we close the book on our second full year of business, we have a lot to be thankful for, an unbelievable amount of learning lessons and plenty of wins to celebrate.
In the last 12 months, we’ve gained fantastic new clients and brands. We have new capabilities and have delivered excellent results in key new areas. We’ve added three people to the team! These are all great and should be celebrated.
But with equal weight, we look back on the “losses.” As a small, young agency, we checked a few big boxes, that some wouldn’t really be too excited about. And we’re not overly focused on them, but we do carry them with us. We lost clients. We had big opportunities with major clients—and weren’t selected. We made final presentations and spent huge amounts of time to get us to the finish line and came up a bit short. We also fell right out of the gate on a few opportunities. And we’ve let our existing clients down or missed the mark. But after all of this, we analyze what we could have done better, discuss, document and move on.
We’re a proud, humble and hungry team. We firmly believe in celebrating wins and focusing on losses with the same intensity. We won’t apologize or take a backseat to anyone when speaking of our talent, capabilities and track record. Yet we acknowledge there are a lot of people, agencies and companies that do an amazing job in a variety of areas.
As we enter the holiday season, we’re excited for 2020 and beyond. After all, beyond is what it is all about. As a company, a brand, a team and as professionals—we’re not in it for 2019, 2020 or even 2025. We need to be in it for the next three decades and more. This isn’t some fantasy or “life goal”—it’s a must. But we don’t get there without taking each opportunity as it comes—sometime by the day, other times by season and finally by the year. The changes we’ll see, the struggles we’ll face and the wins we’ll celebrate on our journey will be monumental. But we don’t know any other way.
If you’re reading this, know that everything we’ve done to this point as a company has been to better ourselves for you. After all, if we don’t help you—we don’t have a purpose or a future. And the exciting part about our future is we found completely different ways to help people and drive growth in 2019—and that’s a formula we won’t change in 2020, 2025 or 2045 (the good Lord willing).
For those of you who are our partners in 2020—thank you. For those of you who gave us a shot in 2019—thank you. For those of you who will bring us on board in the future—thank you. And finally, for those of you who parted ways with us in 2019—thank you. It’s because of all of you we are here working to get better every day. And we’ll continue to be here to make you better each day forward.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.