20 Lessons Learned from the MayeCreate Team – Celebrating Our 20th Anniversary
August 22, 2025
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Today’s pretty special. We’re celebrating MayeCreate’s 20th birthday! And to celebrate, the whole team pitched in – volunteering 20 hours of community service, listing 20 things they’re grateful for, sending 20 thank you cards to clients, and last but not least, sharing the biggest lessons they’ve learned over the past 20 years.
20 Years by the Numbers
Over the past 20 years we’ve had quite the journey:
- 6 MayeCreate babies born
- 9 different office locations
- Built 38-45 websites per year consistently
- Team members with 14, 13, 9, and 5+ years of tenure (and counting)
- Started using WordPress in 2008
- Started our blog in 2009
- Started our podcast in 2020
- Started a 4-day work week in 2023
- Got our first baseball team in 2024
- Survived a solar eclipse, Halloween costume cold calls, and ChatGPT joining the team!
And it’s taught us quite a few things…
Like why getting uncomfortable is your secret weapon for growth, how trusting your team changes everything, and why solid processes aren’t optional.
We learned how to work smarter not harder, embraced being authentic instead of “perfect”, and try to celebrate the journey along the way.
Meet the Team (Then and Now)
Here’s the thing – when MayeCreate started in 2005, most of the people on our team weren’t even part of our story yet. Some weren’t even “on this plane of existence yet,” as Monica puts it. But let’s see where everyone was 20 years ago:
Monica
Founder
25 years old, really angry at her job, dating “this crazy guy named Mike who’s now my husband and who was continually trying to convince me that I was his girlfriend.” She spent a lot of time drunk on the river and really, really hated her job, which is what spurred her to start MayeCreate.
Stacy
MayeCreater since 2011
18 years old, in that summer between high school and college, living her best summer life showing cattle and doing a lot of back roading. “So while Monica was on the river, I was on a random back road in northeast Missouri.”
Tyler
MayeCreater since 2012
15 years old, a sophomore in high school spending all his time “either in the wrestling room, the art room, or the band room. If I wasn’t doing that, I was at Scout camp or playing guitar. Music or art or throwing people around.
Rebecca
MayeCreater since 2015
11 years old and “a literal child” who admits she hasn’t changed much – “I’m the same height. I have the same stuffed animals on my bed, and I have the same bedtime.” She also holds the award for most awkward interview. Monica walked out saying “That was so fabulous and awkward that we are hiring this girl.”
Kaitlyn
MayeCreater since 2024
12 years old, “a really cool middle schooler” who loved online shopping (shout out to Hollister and American Eagle), watching music videos on MTV and VH1, recording them onto VHS, and creating mixed CDs for friends using Limewire and Kazaa.
Brittney
MayeCreater since 2025
Nine years old, loving school and learning everything, super into 4-H – “working with animals, trying all the new projects like sewing and cooking.”
Claire
MayeCreater since 2024
“Freshly one year old, still running around in a diaper, terrorizing my sister and other kids at daycare and probably telling my mom and dad ‘No.'”
Kerra
MayeCreater since 2020
18 years old, graduating high school and transitioning to college in Tennessee, “just living my best life.”
Andrea
MayeCreater since 2024
Junior year of high school, “doing all the high school things – all about my friends and the latest and greatest movies and what I was wearing.”
Now that you know who you’re hearing from, let’s get into the good stuff.
Lesson #1: Get Uncomfortable. That’s Where the Growth Happens.
“There is nothing that is impossible, just things you haven’t learned how to do yet.”
Contributed by Rebecca
This lesson comes from one of our most anxious team members who somehow handles most of our emergencies.
Rebecca’s approach? “I just need to panic first, then I can probably do this.”
The team has learned to give her a heads-up warning when changes are coming, but she’s proven time and again that with the right mindset, we can figure anything out.
“Whatever you like doing, lean into it fully. Don’t half-ass anything when you can full-ass something.”
Contributed by Tyler
Tyler’s philosophy is simple: if you’re going to do something, put everything into it.
“When I started wrestling, I was not good. But if you become a little bit obsessed about things and do it all the time, eventually you’re gonna get good at something.”
This carried through when he started playing guitar at 15 – “I wasn’t sleeping. I just was constantly doing the thing.”
The lesson? If you put more time into things, you get good at them.
“Don’t listen to ‘them,’ whoever they are. Listen to your gut.”
Contributed by Monica
When Monica started MayeCreate in 2005, the business world had very different rules.
“You weren’t allowed to wear a nose ring to an interview, let alone have a tattoo that showed. All the men stood up on stage and said ‘You need to grow your business fast, work more hours, don’t sleep.'”
Her response? “That sounds horrible.” She tried following “their” advice for a few years until she had kids, then realized it really didn’t work for her.
The lesson learned: you can do it your own way, and your own way is perfectly fine if your gut says it’s fine. If your tummy hurts just a little bit you’re probably on the right track!
“Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”
Contributed by Andrea
This Dr. Seuss wisdom became a life lesson about finding your people and staying true to yourself.
“Once you find who you are and who your people are, you really can flourish and grow. It’s hard getting to that point because you spend a lot of time worrying about what others think, but it’s really amazing when you get to a place where you’re like, ‘Yeah, I love me for who I am, and others do too.'”
These lessons are all about learning to trust yourself and dive in, even when it’s hard or awkward. That’s where the magic happens. And speaking of magic, that brings us to lesson number two. Because here’s what we’ve learned after 20 years of building things together…
Lesson #2: Trust the Team. You Don’t Have to Do It Alone.
“I trust my team” (written 10 times every week)
The hard-learned lesson by Monica
This lesson has a backstory. In 2008, Monica was transitioning from designer/salesperson to manager and enrolled in a management class that she attended for years. Before she was allowed to join group activities, she had to write down “I trust my team” 10 times. At the time, it felt a lot like busy work. Now? She gets it. The trainer was trying to teach her that to run a successful business, you don’t have to do it alone – and in fact, you probably shouldn’t.
“You don’t have to know how to do everything. Lean on your team and trust them in their areas of expertise.”
Contributed by Kaitlyn
As a chronic “doer of everything myself,” this was a hard-fought lesson for Kaitlyn.
“Even if you know how, you still don’t have to be the one to do it.”
Being on a team of competent, smart, trustworthy people taught her this lesson in reality, and now she’s taking it into her personal life too.
“Everyone’s like arms and legs, but we can’t function without all being together.”
Contributed by Kerra
Coming from an education background where “you’ve got a building full of teachers” all doing essentially the same job, Kerra was amazed by how MayeCreate operates.
“There’s a designer, there’s an account service person, there’s someone running security, and I wouldn’t know how to do any of these people’s jobs.” But somehow, “everyone’s got their own appendages, but we’re all connected somehow, and able to function as one team, one body moving together.”
“The greatest team can accomplish all things!”
Contributed by Brittney
The newest team member quickly picked up on the collaborative spirit: “We’re working in sync together, not against each other, and that makes everything go a million miles further than what it could if we were working against each other.”
“A good team will take you farther than you will ever dream, both in work and in life.”
Contributed by Rebecca
As chronically independent people who “get things done by ourselves in our home life,” the team discovered something powerful about collaboration. Rebecca notes the difference between MayeCreate and other companies: “I listen to other people from other companies talk about their coworkers, and they leave their coworkers at the door of the office. But MayeCreate is family, period.”
At MayeCreate, it’s not about doing it all—it’s about doing it together. But here’s the thing about working together effectively, none of this teamwork magic happens by accident. It requires something that might sound boring but is absolutely essential…
Lesson #3: Preparation and Process Matter
“Proper preparation prevents poor performance.”
Contributed by Claire
The five P’s, as taught by Claire’s dad when she was “really irresponsible, unorganized, always forgetting my cleats to practice or my viola to viola lessons.”
The lesson stuck: “When you’re properly prepared, you’re more likely to succeed. You avoid mistakes, stress, and overall subpar results.”
“Anything can be accomplished with a well-documented plan and consistent team communication.”
Contributed by Kaitlyn
The team focuses heavily on efficiency, but the real magic happens at the beginning of the process. “Taking those few minutes to look ahead and document the plan, think through potential obstacles – it saves so much time and confusion, and our team is so much more often able to succeed more quickly because we started with a really good, effective plan.”
“Don’t polish a turd. Save As.”
Contributed by Monica
This gem came from Monica’s early design career when an art director gave her some tough love.
A design was not coming out right so she asked, “What can I do to make this better?”
To which her art director replied, “You can’t save it. You’re polishing a turd, just start over.”
Monica learned to fail fast and fail forward – sometimes the best plan is to start fresh rather than trying to fix something fundamentally broken.
“Spreadsheets are awesome.”
Contributed by Stacy
When Stacy started at MayeCreate, her predecessor “was incredibly intelligent and could remember all the things and keep track of it all in her head.” But Stacy “had exactly zero experience with web design or business” coming from teaching.
“So I learned very quickly that spreadsheets are awesome, and I learned how to write all kinds of formulas so that I could keep track of all of the things and know who had been billed and who hadn’t been billed, and how our business goals needed to align.”
And many of those spreadsheets have evolved and are still used to this day!
When things go sideways, it’s usually because a plan didn’t exist—or it didn’t get followed. But even with the best plans, you still need to be smart about how you execute them.Which leads us to something we’ve all had to learn, usually the hard way…
Lesson #4: Work Smarter, Not Harder
This philosophy swung into play first when we bought out our former business partners and started over with $0 in the bank in 2016 (spoiler alert: we made payroll that first month), then ratcheted up to full force in 2023 when we transitioned to a 4-day work week.
“Work smarter—not harder. If it’s driving you crazy—there’s another way!”
The MayeCreate motto, lived by Kerra, Andrea and the MayeCreate Team
Kerra learned this lesson quickly: “It was such a novel idea that it shouldn’t take me two hours to do something. When I’d mention it to Stacy, she’d say, ‘No, no, no, it should not take you two hours. There’s gotta be a better way.’ And there was always this amazing solution – an extension, a shortcut, something.”
The team culture embraces this mindset completely. Andrea, also from an education background loves “how everybody has that mindset of ‘there is a better way.’ It’s always easy to reach out and say, ‘Hey, how would you do this?’ Everybody’s this wonderful idea factory for creative solutions.”
Fun fact: Half the time Tyler doesn’t even use a mouse – he keyboards everything with shortcuts. Monica would watch him “use like five tools in Illustrator” and ask “What’d you just do? You didn’t touch a toolbar!” His response: “I don’t know. I like shortcuts.”
“Not everything is deserving of your time, energy, or attention.”
Contributed by Kaitlyn
“Not everything is deserving of your time, energy, or attention. And one human can only do so much. Be selective with saying ‘yes’ and put yourself first! You don’t have to know how to do everything. Lean on your team and trust them in their areas of expertise the way they trust you in yours.”
Over 20 years, MayeCreate has learned to be selective about what they pursue. It’s okay to say no and evaluate if an idea is going to take 100 hours of work for basically no payoff. We evaluate something and determine if it’s actually going to have the impact we want before we proceed.
The funny thing about working smarter is that it gives you permission to stop pretending you’re someone you’re not. When you’re not scrambling to do everything yourself, you can actually show up as yourself. Which leads us to a lesson that revolutionized how we show up…
Lesson #5: Be Honest, Be You
The evolution of MayeCreate’s dress code tells this story perfectly. It started with Monica saying, “I will wear my nose ring, and if you don’t like it, you can just not hire me.”
Then purple hair. Then one day they looked at each other and said, “Why are we all dressing up for work? This is stupid. We’re wearing T-shirts.”
Tyler’s contribution to this transition: “When I first started, it was like ‘You need a button-down shirt.’ I bought two button-down shirts, didn’t really wear them, and just progressively started wearing T-shirts. No one said anything, and eventually it just became a thing.”
“Don’t try to be someone you aren’t. The sooner you accept yourself, the happier you’ll be.”
Contributed by Stacy
Stacy spent years thinking she “was supposed to be this sweet, loving, soft-spoken person” because that’s what society taught women should be.
“Well, you’ve heard me on our podcast – I’m not that, and I was never meant to be that.”
Her realization? Don’t try to be someone you aren’t based on what society expects. The sooner you accept who you actually are instead of who you think you should be, the happier you’ll be.
And we think that Stacy being exactly who she is—is exactly who we need her to be too.
“Imposter syndrome is loud, but good design is louder. Trust your gut!”
Contributed by Claire
This lesson came the hard way – Claire stayed until 8 PM one night “building my first pages, and I just kept deleting my work over and over again.”
When Stacy saw her staying so late, she and Monica pulled her aside to find out what was happening – and helped her see that her work was solid and she was being too hard on herself. Because, while Claire may be young, she’s incredibly talented and we’re extremely proud we get to put our company name at the bottom of the work she designs!
“Always own up to your mistakes. It creates trust you can’t earn any other way.”
Contributed by Stacy
The team embraces the fact that “we’re all humans, and we make mistakes, and it’s okay to make mistakes, as long as you own up to your mistake and you fix it.”
Even client-facing mistakes can earn trust – “nine times out of ten, as long as they’re not awful (which we don’t really work with awful people), they’re like, ‘All right, it happens. We’ll fix it.'”
Confidence isn’t pretending you know it all—it’s showing up honestly and learning as you go. And when you can do all of that? Well, that’s when work stops feeling like work. Which brings us to our final lesson, and honestly, it might be the most important one…
Lesson #6: Celebrate the People and the Fun Along the Way
“Work hard and exhibit your favorite qualities of the people you miss the most.”
Contributed by Brittney
Brittney’s philosophy: “When you think about your favorite people that you miss the most – whether it’s somebody who’s passed or maybe somebody whose path just went a different way – work hard to exhibit the reasons that you love them and your favorite qualities about them, while staying true to who you are.”
This lesson hit Monica hard when a Rotary member named Jim passed away. He had mentored her in her twenties, and she kept a post-it note on her monitor that said “I will see people like Jim, listen like Jim, and smile like Jim” because he had been such a kind mentor.
“We make art for a living. Not many people get to say that, so have fun. It’s art.”
Contributed by Tyler
Tyler keeps this perspective when things get stressful: “My wife was a cardiac nurse, and if she messed up, someone could die. If I mess up, worst case scenario is I have to rebuild an entire website. Yeah, that sucks, but I make pretty pictures for a living – it’ll be okay.”
The team made a decision long ago not to take on clients with life-or-death websites because life balance is one of our core aspirations.
“I learn something new every day, and I keep finding new ways to tackle the to-do list. I love that our team comes up with creative solutions. It truly is inspiring.”
Contributed by Andrea
The team is full of former educators who “have a love of learning,” but it goes beyond that. “We literally have a group of people who are always ready to learn new ways of doing things, and everyone has an open mind about learning a new way to do something.”
Which is a good thing because, to be real, we always have a new challenge to tackle in the ever evolving universe of web design. Not to mention it keeps us from dying of job boredom.
At the end of the day, it’s about loving what you do and who you do it with. Over the years, we’ve stopped taking on types of work, discontinued services, and even fired employees and clients.
Why? Because we believe work shouldn’t suck.
We even rewrote our mission to reflect that:
Make awesome stuff for awesome people and find joy in it.
So there you have it – 20 years of lessons learned from the MayeCreate team.
Get uncomfortable, trust your team, plan ahead, work smart, be yourself, and have fun doing it.
These aren’t just business lessons – they’re life lessons. And honestly, they’re still lessons we’re learning every day.
Thanks for celebrating 20 years with us!
Who Manifested This Madness?
This fabulous human, that's who.
Monica Maye Pitts
Monica is the creative force and founder of MayeCreate. She has a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture with an emphasis in Economics, Education and Plant Science from the University of Missouri. Monica possesses a rare combination of design savvy and technological know-how. Her clients know this quite well. Her passion for making friends and helping businesses grow gives her the skills she needs to make sure that each client, or friend, gets the attention and service he or she deserves.
