We recently connected with Marina Gee and have shared our conversation below.

Marina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

Two of the qualities I’ve had to become very familiar with in my journey of growing a business are trust and patience. Truly the only thing you ever have full control over is yourself. Too much attachment to how things are “supposed” to turn out will only ever leave you in frustration.

The very first person I ever hired, let’s call her Alyson, turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. Having never even conducted an interview before, I relied heavily on listening as intently as possible. I tried to get insight into how this person worked, thought, and reacted simply through these 30 minute conversations.

The addition of Alyson marked the true scaling of my business. It was the moment I went from a freelancer providing services, to a business owner growing an organization that would do more than I ever could alone. And slowly Alyson became an absolutely pivotal component in our day-to-day routines. Those early days are hard, and I learned how to offload responsibilities simply through having no choice but to trust someone else to take some of the load.

Well that was all great… until she left.

After about a year of working together, she got a offer from another company that she couldn’t refuse. And while I was extremely happy for her, I was instantly overwhelmed with how I was going to make the business continue to run without her. For a month, I conducted interview after interview, searching for a replacement. There were days I spent 12 hours on Zoom calls and it was the first moment I seriously considered quitting. I even started looking through job boards to see what options were out there if this didn’t work out.

But it did. Better than I could have planned it to.

Upon Alyson’s departure, I had finally hired another team member — let’s call her Jasmine. A promising, intelligent marketer who had the most important quality I needed at the time: resourcefulness. Through bringing her on, I had to scramble to get onboarding processes in place and she took on every challenge with an open mind and a willingness to make things work.

After 8 months of working with Jasmine, the business had nearly doubled in size. We had hired 3 additional new people and significantly grown our client base and monthly revenue. And that’s when I got a call from Alyson…

Unfortunately Alyson’s new venture hadn’t turned out exactly as she had hoped. A toxic work environment left her feeling like the new company was no longer for her. She said she really appreciated the work environment I had created, the quality I upheld our services to, and the clients that we got to work with each day. She wanted to know if she could come back.

Within a month, I told her we had a position available for her. My business truly would not be where it is today if it were not for Jasmine and Alyson. They care about the company as if it were their own and each bring a unique set of skills to our work. The funny thing is, I really could never have brought Jasmine on while Alyson was still here. It took her leaving and then coming back in order for us to end up in the exact perfect place to grow.

To this day, the thing I value the most about my business is its people. I make it my number one priority to make sure their bandwidths are respected, their voices are heard, and their contributions acknowledged. I have the best team any business owner could hope for, and that is no accident. Those early days showed me that the most important asset my business will ever have is the people that make it what it is.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Back in 2020, I was working as a freelance social media manager for a few local clients in the San Francisco Bay Area. Then, cue the pandemic… I lost every single one of my contracts. With new motivation and a suddenly empty schedule, I worked day and night rebuilding my client base, constructing my website, and hiring my first part time assistant. By September of 2020, I officially registered MG Media Creative as a business.

The last two years have truly been a whirlwind… Our team has grown to 7 amazing members, we’ve served over 50 clients globally, and we’ve expanded to over 15 services spanning digital marketing and video production.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Involve people. Instead of telling someone what work they need to get done, involve them in that conversation. Figure out workflow and set deadlines together. People are way more willing to put their heart into work when they feel they had agency in the process of taking it on. When it comes to the direction of the business, ask your team what THEY would like to see out of the company. What work do they want to do be doing more of? What would excite them? What do they want to learn more about? Managing a team is about delegating work, setting deadlines, and holding people accountable. LEADING a team is about getting everyone involved towards a common goal. And the only way to do that is to bring them into those conversations.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

It’s always been interesting to me how much being “communicative” has been cited as a reason why people chose to go with my business above others. I always prioritize quick communication (even if that means a “I will get back to you later” email), frequent updates, and honesty about problems. Even when I was brand new and still learning, clients valued the transparent and frequent conversations above having the most knowledge or the best skills. Now we have tons of case studies and client success stories to show our value to people. But to this day, when I get recommended to a new client, people will always cite how Marina and her team are so easy to communicate with.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mgmediacreative.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heymarinagee/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geemarina/

Image Credits
First and third image: Evan Schramm (Aberration Studio)