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Our Culture Code

Our culture code is our commitment to each other and our clients. It creates consistency across our entire team, attracts like-minded talent, and declares to the world who we are.

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Figuring Out Who We Are

Presumably, you're meeting us for the first time. Or perhaps you already know about us and are just checking in. Either way, thanks for visiting. We're Morey Creative Studios, formerly Morey Publishing.

Our journey began in 2002 as a small alternative weekly publication based on Long Island. We've been through quite a lot since those days. Good times and bad, ups and downs, to the dark side and back. Along the way, we've learned some valuable lessons, including how important it is to evolve.

The most recent leg of our journey began in 2014, when we made the decision to pursue digital marketing and creative services full time. We had been dabbling in the arena for a bit, and gradually, a few things became evident: One, there was a void on the Island in the digital marketing space; two, the skills we had acquired throughout the previous decades uniquely positioned us to fill that void; and three, the work was exactly what we wanted to be doing.

In 2015, as we transitioned from a publishing company to a web design shop, we discovered a marketing automation platform called HubSpot. To put it simply, we fell in love. We went all in on 'Inbound Marketing,' a term it actually coined, and throughout the past six years we've evolved into the extraordinary inbound marketing, sales enablement, CRM, accessibility, and podcast production agency we are today.

Fewer than five years since becoming a HubSpot partner, we achieved Diamond Status, a tier representing our success delivering inbound services. This milestone puts us in pretty prestigious company.

The honor of Diamond Status truly belongs to the people of Morey Creative Studios. They are an exceptional collection of hungry, thoughtful, empathetic, accountable, and balanced marketers. But our success presents us a new challenge: scalability. If the quality of our work is directly related to the quality of our people, how do we grow and ensure the same standards of excellence? That question is what sparked this Culture Code—lovingly prepared by every member of our team as a way to introduce the things we value, and what makes us tick as an organization.

As we're fond of saying: Our work is a process, not an event. This Culture Code represents where we stand today, and, just like us, will evolve along with us.
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We Are All Vectors

At INBOUND 2017, HubSpot founders Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan delivered a keynote that has echoed throughout the business community ever since. The theme of the presentation was the challenge of taking your business from start-up mode to scale-up mode. (Well, that and how A.I. is taking over the world.) Dharmesh shared a charming story of crossing paths with Elon Musk, and his (vague) advice on getting your company to the next level:

"To get your company from point A to point B, every person on the team is a vector and your progress is determined by the sum of all vectors."

At first this may not make much sense—even Dharmesh scratched his head for a moment. But what this means is simple in nature: If you have two employees, both with an impact of five, but they are moving the company in opposite directions, they collectively have an impact of zero.

Broken down further: Two equally strong employees are actually weak if they aren't working toward the same goals. 

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Thus, to get where you want to go as a company, you need to identify the destination, and get everyone working in that same direction.

Our Culture Code Is Intended to Keep Us All Moving in the Right Direction

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First and foremost, we make our clients look good.

Incredible web design and collateral is our minimum promise. Before we can do anything, we start with aesthetics.

When we begin with a client, our design team goes to work re-crafting their digital presence. This is not typically the key selling point of our services, but it is something we take pride in. By 'over-delivering' here at the beginning of the engagement, we set the relationship off on the right foot.

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Content is our true differentiator.

With deep roots in journalism, we take pride in the quality of our content. We aren't just 'bloggers.' We are seasoned content developers, strategists and award-winning editors with decades of collective experience.

Does it seem like everyone is blogging these days? The secret is out: You need to be blogging. But writing without purpose is simply shouting at the rain. To rank better online, you need content that deserves to rank. Great content, like great journalism, considers the reader first. It should be well-researched, thoughtful and unique. It should grab their attention, provide context and analysis, and answer specific questions. It should leave them satisfied. 

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Results matter more than the number of hours we work.

We understand what we are trying to achieve and measure our success against that.

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'Good' is not a measure of performance. 100 Leads and 20 Customers is.

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We aim to grow.

Grow Our Clients' Businesses & Grow as People

What we do: Fill the gaps for SMEs between $5 million and $100 million in revenue with marketing and sales alignment services.

Why we do it: to provide a steady, stable and happy environment, where our team members can earn money, grow, and achieve their life goals.

Illustrarion of a group of people, a brain and a success flag with the text that says, "Smart people plus problem solving skills equals sustainable growth."

We grow through autonomy.

If we cannot trust our people and our processes, then growth will always be restricted by micro-managers. By hiring smart problem solvers, we trust they will learn, grow, and share.

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We are troubleshooters.

Sites go down. Emails bounce. Platforms get hacked. Systems get 'buggy.' When bad things happen to good websites, we're on the case. The things you learn while troubleshooting will make you more equipped and efficient in the future.

The real secret is to allot time in everyone's schedule for ongoing training—yet one more reason we're lucky to be partners with HubSpot. Its online academy boasts an enormous library of training videos and resources, and the developer community is always quick to lend a hand. 

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*We are not afraid to ask for help. Problems that go unresolved result in more problems.

We learn from the past and prepare for the future. 🔮

By establishing systems and processes, we become an engine of success.

Lessons learned along the way are documented, shared, and incorporated into best practices. We ask ourselves: "How could this information help others in the future and make our everyday processes work better?"

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We have values.

Below Are Our Five Core Values & Master Value

VALUE ONE

1. We are hungry.

Hungry to learn and willing to teach.

We love what we do, and truly want to be the best. Because of this, we are always looking for ways to improve. As we grow and evolve, we share our knowledge, making the team stronger and inspiring even more curiosity and hunger.

We are driven, curious and passionate people.

VALUE TWO

2. We are thoughtful.

More than just kindhearted, we are meticulous, thorough, and holistic in our approach.

We don’t just run through a list of assignments. We consider everything we do, and ask ourselves: "How might this impact other elements of the process? What is the experience, from start to finish? Could this be simpler? Will others be able to step in and understand the logic?"

We are proactive, considerate, thorough, holistic thinkers.
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VALUE THREE

3. We are empathetic.

Beyond understanding other perspectives, empathy is considering and acting with those perspectives in mind.

Empathy for our clients. Fully understanding why our clients pay us. They look to us for assistance with things they have difficulty achieving on their own. Empathy for our users. It's kind of like what Google is looking for: User Experience First. The reader's time is more important than our own. Empathy for each other. Considering our co-workers' time helps us all move faster. 

VALUE FOUR

4. We are accountable.

We take on the responsibility of our clients' successes. And we take it personally.

We do not mind making mistakes. We do mind repeating them. Each mistake carries a lesson, and learning is what makes us great.  We do not expect perfection. We do expect accountability.

We are reliable, responsible and steadfast.

VALUE FIVE

5. We are balanced.

Well-rounded individuals make a team unstoppable.

We make time to enjoy the little things so we are better prepared to address the big things. Time for work, time for family, time for education, and time for ourselves. Happy and healthy because... Happy Employees = Happier Clients.

We are well-rounded, unwavering and calm under pressure.

MOREY MASTER VALUE

We give a sh!t.

Whoa. Sorry to be so blunt, but it's so true.

Almost all our values are derived from the undeniable fact that we really, really care. That's what makes this our Master Value. 

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We are transparent.

Transparent with our clients.

All client work is tracked in a project management platform. This provides full transparency into what we are working on, and keeps both sides accountable.

Transparent with our employees.

It is better to keep our team members fully informed and involved, and never feeling left in the dark. Nothing good grows in the dark.

Transparency also means helping our employees see their futures with us.

New hires are compensated based on relevant experience and skills. Growth is outlined within a clear salary track, accounting for annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), tier promotion bumps, certification bonuses, and (soon) client satisfaction bonuses.

 

We do not sell services to companies who don’t need them.

To be a “right-fit” client, a company must have the following:

  • The Need
  • The Budget
  • The Time
  • The Understanding

Without these factors, failure is inevitable.

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We learn from the past and prepare for the future. 🔮

By establishing systems and processes, we become an engine of success.

Lessons learned along the way are documented, shared, and incorporated into best practices. We ask ourselves: "How could this information help others in the future and make our everyday processes work better?"

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We love what we do.

You spend half your life working on your career—so make it something you enjoy. Love what you do, or do something else.

We are blessed to be in an industry as exciting, challenging and rewarding as Marketing, SEO, and Sales Alignment. Our industry is ever-evolving and wildly fulfilling. A willingness to admit what we do not know and a hunger to improve is what makes us the best.

Never stop learning. Never stop evolving. Never stop growing.

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Original illustrations by Freepik of www.flaticon.com