Five years ago, I started Vibe Creative with the belief that strong teams boost businesses and a passion to cultivate strong team culture within the workplace. They say culture starts at the top and, from day one, I've tried my best to be the kind of leader who shows up with empathy and leads by example.
Looking back at the past five years, these are moments—big ones and small ones—that make me really proud to be the founder of Vibe.
In 5 years, Vibe has had 3 iterations of mission/vision/values statements. We even changed our name from Vibe Creative Marketing to Vibe Creative. While it may seem frivolous or unnecessary, I'm proud to have invested the time and resources to create a guidepost for the team, made by the team. Each iteration of our company's purpose has felt true to our tribe and our work at that point in time, and has helped us operate, make decisions that resonate with our goals, and move forward together.
In our second set of core values, openness was one of the five. We believed that when we feel safe to be our whole (and best!) selves, we give our all to everything we do. This is still an important part of Vibe's culture, though we've updated this value to authenticity—because being true to ourselves and transparent in our actions builds genuine connections and trust.
Evidence of this value in particular is something I'm really proud of because it showed me that I was creating a culture that was true to its word, and it felt like one of the more difficult values to embody. I was building an environment where people trusted each other enough to be themselves in their wackiest, rawest, most open forms, and where everyone welcomed that openness from each other.
One of the silliest things to ever come out of Vibe was when someone suggested we all wear unicorn horns to the quarterly meeting where we planned our monthly group outings, and we all just went with it. It became a truly ridiculous meeting. The person leading the meeting was dubbed the Council Corn. That person had to wear a cape and wield a magic wand to conduct the meeting. You would never see such a sight in the corporate landscape.
And that's what was so magical about it to me. That I had created a place so open and so trusting that someone thought, "hey, you know, I think it would be funny to suggest wearing a unicorn horn, and I don't think I'd be chastised if I did that."
And then everyone bought in so much that it wasn't even strange. It was just a ritual we all did together, and when it was time for the meeting, everyone grabbed their horn and put it on like it was normal.
Yeah, in a corporate business this would be really weird. But to me it was a milestone of achieving trust and openness in the workplace; we really are just being who we are at home, at work.
Once upon a time, two of our K-pop loving team members really wanted tickets to a Seventeen concert, and the ticket pre-sales opened at 10am. So we all gathered around the conference room table and attempted to beat the Ticketmaster queue together. Do I know who Seventeen is? No. Did we get the tickets? Yes.
This, from the outside, may similarly seem like a waste of everyone's time. First of all, don't worry, we were all working while we were waiting in the queue. Second of all, it speaks to the culture of openness and togetherness that we have here. We feel comfortable being our true selves at work, and we support each other in doing so.
My team has always been my priority. Two things I've implemented really drove that home.
I still get a lot of reactions when I talk about the 4-day work week. Everyone thinks it's crazy! Even though global studies have shown great success with 4-day workweeks, resulting in positive outcomes for employee well-being like increased job satisfaction, improved work-life balance, less stress, better mental and physical health, and more happiness.
These benefits translate to tangible workplace improvements: increased productivity, work quality, and customer service. By emphasizing work processes and encouraging collaboration (traits already ingrained in Vibe's culture) 4-day workweeks become powerful drivers of improved efficiencies and workflows.
Happier and healthier teams also mean fewer absences and sick days, while increasing team engagement, creativity, and problem-solving skills. When people have more time for themselves, they can return to work refreshed, motivated, and ready to contribute their absolute best. We're confident that allowing our team more time to take care of themselves, spend time with their families, and enjoy life improves our creativity, partnerships, and our work product.
Since implementing the 4-day work week in 2024, our productivity has remained the same, if not better. We feel happier at work and have fewer days that drag on and on. We come to work refreshed on Mondays, ready to do our best for our partners. It's truly been a win.
I was really proud to implement two-month paid parental leave in 2023. And even more proud to have our first Vibe Tribe baby whose mommy got to be our inaugural paid parent in 2025. Parents should face less stress over the ability to be home with their newborns in their first few months, and providing this flexibility helps our team prioritize their families when it matters most.
Being around for 5 years is proof of concept in itself that what we're doing is worthwhile. But I'm also proud of these other achievements that show tangible results, that we add value to local businesses.
Since 2020, I'm proud that Vibe has worked with 50 small businesses and nonprofits, the majority of them local to Hawai'i, on various projects helping them share their work with the digital world.
My team doesn't do their work to win awards, but they're still pretty fun to win. I'm proud of all the awards the team has won because they highlight the strengths and work they do each day, and prove that what they're doing is high quality and impactful.
When I first started Vibe, I quickly realized my vision had nothing to do with marketing and everything to do with building a team. Since 2020, and especially in our fifth year of business, my belief has shifted with a deeper understanding that, significantly, strong teams boost communities.
What once was just me is now a team of genuine, talented digital marketers connected through shared values—and a team like that is truly unstoppable.
The world has changed a lot since 2020, but what's remained constant is the vibrant and supportive community that makes Vibe what it is.
Mahalo to Team Vibe—whether you were there on day 1, day 1,825, or any of the days in between, your impact has changed Vibe for the better, and we are the company we are today because of you.
Mahalo to our partners—your belief in our partnership is so meaningful and drives us to do our best work every day. Thank you for your trust in us to share your work with the world.
Mahalo to our community—we strive to be the best team so we can make our community stronger.
Onward and upward with gratitude,
