A Year in Review

Whoa 2024, I can sum you up in one word…reinvention.

It feels like just yesterday that my personal life was suddenly turned upside down, and what I thought was going to be a romantic bucket list trip for two to Morocco in January as a reward for making it through another busy holiday season, ended up being a solo trip for me, myself, and I. I traveled to a different continent grief stricken with anxiety through the roof and then came back to face my new normal – transitioning from a 14-year-long “we” to a “me”. It hit me so hard that I ended up taking a very significant step back from the business to gather myself mentally, physically, emotionally…all the ways. At that time, this kind of step back from work was unheard of for me. I believed in toughing it out, burying myself at work, and hoping time would automatically heal all wounds. But what I learned the hard way is that some experiences are so life altering and so disorienting that they require you to actually reinvent yourself in order to move past it. This was one of those experiences.

During my so-called leave of absence, I delegated to my team far more than ever before. They blew me away with their willingness to help out and rise to the occasion far beyond what they already do, which has always been a lot. It gave them opportunities to take on more of a leadership role, try different things, and explore different parts of the business. I’m also hoping it showed them that even though I’m the leader, that I am also human and therefore have weak moments. I hope that from this they’ve come to see that there is space here at M&G for everyone to have vulnerable moments and rely on the team when things don’t go according to plan. There is nothing more rewarding to me as a CEO than witnessing the women on our team help one another, push past their comfort zones, take risks, accept bigger and bigger challenges, and prove to themselves that they have what it takes. It was eye opening to me as the CEO to step away so significantly and see the business still continue to grow. It showed me that there are things I should’ve delegated a long time ago to allow myself to focus more deeply in the areas I’m most interested in. A team reinvented.

Coming off of the 2023 year where we introduced very few new e-commerce gift designs, 2024 was the polar opposite. Countless days and weeks were spent in the photoshoot room with our photographer Melissa resulting in the largest new collection of ready-to-ship gift boxes we’ve launched in years. It brought me back to my founder/creator roots and ended up being nothing short of therapeutic, as I brought brand new visions to life one by one by one. Because we had already introduced our budget-friendly gift box collection Marigold Mailers the year prior, I felt safe to introduce new gift designs at higher price points than ever before. This was a risk, but the experiment paid off. You guys loved the new collection from day one and validated our theory that M&G clients ultimately want wow factor gifts and are willing to pay higher price points to gift our highest quality curations. At the same time, you do have occasions requiring gifts at lower price points, allowing Marigold Mailers to serve as your go-to for those occasions too. And in the matter of one year, our Ready-to-Ship Collection was reinvented.

We were honored to expand our client list (and earn repeat projects with past clients) with notable brands such as Mont Blanc, ESPN, Molson Coors, Detroit Lions, Mayo Clinic, Toyota, PWC, Nestle, Universal Studios, Amazon, LinkedIn, Workday, Sirius XM, Netflix, Hilton, Omni Hotels, and more. Our gifts appeared at events such as the Super Bowl, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am, March Madness, a few Nascar races, and more. A portfolio reinvented.

We celebrated M&G team member milestones such as a Bali themed bridal shower for Clair and a baby sprinkle for Jordan, put on our special glasses and watched the solar eclipse together, and welcomed Paulette to the team as our Studio Concierge! (If you’ve reached out to M&G within the last year, it’s very likely she was your very first point of contact!) We held several pop-up shops, offering our corporate clients a hands-on build-your-own-gifts experience for their corporate event attendees, and even displayed at a few notable trade shows. We hosted our very first field trip for 9–11-year-old girls interested in business ownership – the BEST day ever! And last but not least, Marigold & Grey turned TEN! We’ve certainly come a long way since starting out in one room in my basement a decade ago.

And now for the most significant happening of 2024. After a year and a half of negotiations,  we finally inked our partnership agreement with the $18 billion company Aramark. The agreement involves us becoming the gifting arm of their company, for their internal departments and their enterprise level clients. While it has required an extensive amount of our time, energy, and financial resources to figure out all the necessary workflows and advancements needed on our part to be able to support a partnership of this magnitude, we did it! We look forward to its impact on revenue, the size of our team, and the scope and volume of work we’re able to execute now and into the future. Katie and I traveled to their Philadelphia headquarters in the fall to plan for the official roll out which will take place in January. So, be on the lookout for a press release coming soon! The future of M&G reinvented? 

This year has shown that a reinvention of Jamie as the business owner, in turn, reinvented parts of the team and the business as well. When you own a business, the lines are often blurred between what’s personal and what’s professional because of the impact each has on the other. And while drastic change is the scariest form of change, it can turn out to be the very thing you needed all along. I started 2024 heartbroken, lost, and dreading the future but am ending the year hopeful for what’s to come, with a business and business owner more durable than ever before. A lot really can change in a year. 

Wishing you happiest and healthiest of new years from all of us here at Team M&G! Thank you for gifting with us, referring us, and cheering us on – we couldn’t do it without you.