Our 2025 Retrospective: Growth, Grit, & What’s Next

TL;DR: 2025 was a year of significant shifts at our agency. We experienced rapid growth, tighter finances, new systems, and a renewed emphasis on culture and clarity. We refined our capacity planning, invested in business coaching, supported our teammates as they grow their families, tuned up some of our operations, and added a new core value. We’re heading into 2026 focused, grounded, and ready to serve our communities even better.

It’s been a big year for GP Creative. We navigated several internal changes and external pressures, all while walking with our nonprofit communities through seasons of funding challenges, exciting projects, and future planning. We’ve learned a lot that will guide us into 2026, and we wanted to share this transparent peek behind the curtain with you…

Growing Pains (and Gains)

The last several years have brought our fastest growth ever — team size, revenue, and communities served. With that acceleration, we had to adapt quickly. After expanding the team from 2022–24, we implemented new tools to better understand our true workload/capacity in order to distribute work wisely. Revenue landed lower than expected this year, so we tightened our budget and cash management to remain sustainable and resilient.

We also hired a business coach through Buji ActionCOACH (huge shoutout to Annette!) for fresh strategies, accountability, and focus for our leadership.

Growing Families

One of our greatest joys is supporting teammates as they grow their families. As a family-owned small business, we take our role in creating a culture of care seriously — everything from meal trains to babysitting. This year, some teammates became brand-new parents (Jonnie and Allie), others are welcoming child number two (Jack and Taylor), and two teammates tied the knot with their partners (Lauren and Forrest; Josh and Kelsi). It’s an honor to build a workplace that makes room for real life to flourish!

Best Practices & OLAs

We made major operational updates to keep work smooth and predictable. In our work management system, we refined our naming conventions, task structures, and documentation so projects move more smoothly from intake to delivery. We also continued rolling out OLAs (Organization-Level Agreements) inspired by Come Up for Air by Nick Sonnenberg:

• Inbox Zero: Our standard to free ourselves from email chaos and ensure nothing gets lost. 

• Single Source of Truth: Tasks, files, and decisions live in the work system…not scattered across inboxes. Every task has one directly-responsible individual and an accountable deadline.

• Urgency Protocol: If it’s truly urgent, call or text! Then, document in the work management system for visibility.

Expanded Core Values

We’re a purpose-driven company, and we apply our brand heart to literally everything: our hiring process, employee performance reviews, project process, and client satisfaction. This year, we added a new core value:

Stewardship: We responsibly care for the time, resources, and trust of our team and communities, aiming for long-term impact over short-term wins.

We believe this value will guide us to serve better and help our communities reach their full potential.

Looking Ahead…

Thanks for stepping behind the scenes with us. We’re energized for continued improvements in 2026 — improved positioning, sharper systems, and stronger creative work that deepens meaningful relationships so communities can thrive.