Making good work is about more than the end product. Our 2023 impact report dives into what we did last year and the impacts of what we made – on our team, our planet, our community, and our clients.
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Or see the text-only version below.

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Rocking hard core values

We defined our core values, revisited our brand strategy, created a verbal identity, and updated our visual identity. We heeded the opinions of our most important minds: our team members. Our core values are:

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We discover innovation in our resilience.

We play with functionality and flexibility.

We catalyze growth through connection.

We contribute to our collective future.

Read more about our core values.

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Embracing the 4-day workweeks

Our full time team maintained a 4-day workweek schedule (8 hour days, Mon-Thurs) in 2023. Our revenue increased 13% overall.

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Expanding our community presence

We purchased 712 North Limestone, a building not in active use since the pandemic (next door to our current office building). Renovations are underway, and we were awarded a Stormwater Feasibility Grant from the City of Lexington to improve water quality and retention for both 712 and 714. 712 will serve as an office expansion once renovated with flexible meeting space for community members.

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Emphasizing professional development

We attended Brand New (virtually) and Creative South (in person). These were (and still are) springboards for inspiration, skill development, and connecting with other creatives.

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Growing our team

We hired five team members in 2023. Four out of five are women/female-identifying. Two team members left our team in 2023.

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Our team

Our lifeline is the creativity that flows from each of our team members. Their passions drive our mission, inspire our clients, and make an impact in their communities. Here’s how we’re investing in our team for the long haul.

Governance

This section evaluates our overall mission, as well as engagement around its social/environmental impact, ethics, and transparency.

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Ethics & transparency [Success!]

Financial transparency for our employees

We started sharing  company financials with the team every quarter, including all net income/expenses, client billing data, and budget priorities (how much we set aside, and where).

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Ethics & transparency [In Progress!]

Financial transparency for our community

We began the work to eventually share cost breakdowns of our hourly rate with clients in proposals by tracking average costs for each employee. Eventually, this will be available in externally-facing materials for a clear understanding of how their investment with us is used.

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Mission & engagement [In Progress!]

Updated brand identity

We solidified core values with the full team’s input and buy-in, showing how we’ve evolved as a company, and started work on detailed guidelines for accessible use.  

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Workers

This section evaluates our contributions to our team’s financial security, health & safety, wellness, career development, and engagement & satisfaction.

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Career development [Success!]

Expanded professional development offerings

Formalized an annual budget ($750) for each employee for professional development of their choice for 2024 (conferences, enrichment materials, etc.)

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Career development [Success!]

Paid skill building time for employees

Every full-time employee was provided one paid hour of skillbuilding each week..

Skill building hours tracked on the clock: 256

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Engagement & satisfaction [Success!]

Maintained a 4-day workweek

Since switching to a four-dy model of working hours in 2022 (32 hours per week), we’ve seen more enthusiasm and less burnout from the team overall.

Why it works

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Engagement & satisfaction [Success!]

Average employee satisfaction score of 4.7

We polled the team quarterly to learn more about their relationship to their work. We asked them to rate each of the following on a scale of 1-5:

• When working from home, I'm able to work uninterrupted
• I'm able to switch off and disconnect from work.
• The perspective I bring to the team is valued, even if it is different from others (including management).
• I'm happy with the way Mediocre's team handles feedback & revisions.
• I find my work meaningful.
• I believe the work Mediocre does aligns with the company's purpose and mission.
• Rate your work-life balance.
• How well do you prioritize and manage your workload?
• I've had meaningful discussions with management about my career development in the past six months.

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Health, wellness & safety [Success!]

Expanded benefits

Offered more benefits to the team, including:

• More Health Insurance plan options, including an HSA plan.
• Quarterly wellness 1:1 check-ins with our Head of Employee Experience (a trained wellness coach).
• 1-hour live training on recognizing and addressing burnout in the workplace (May 2023).

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Our community

This section evaluates our engagement with and impact on the communities in which we operate, hire, and source from. Topics include diversity, equity & inclusion, economic impact, civic engagement, charitable giving, and supply chain management.

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Local Economic Development is our Impact Business Model. This means our company is intentionally designed to create positive outcomes for our community.

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Civic engagement & giving [Success!]

Paid volunteering time for employees

We provided each employee one paid hour per week for volunteering.

Volunteering hours tracked on the clock: 345

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Civic engagement & giving [Success!]

Charitable donations

We actually upped this number to… drumroll please… 199% of our net income, and .9% of our gross profit. (Yes, that’s correct). Here’s the math:

(A) Our net income for 2023 was $3,399.55 (per our 2023 P&L)

(B) Our total donations for 2023 were $6,740.34.

Percentage: (B/A) x 100

Our total gross profit for 2023 was $764,351.53.

Local economic development [Success!]

Provided services for local and independent clients

95% of our clients in 2023 classified as local and independent, sticking to our commitment to serve at least 75% local and independent clients.

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Local economic development [Success!] / [In Progress!]

Purchased from local/independent suppliers

We purchased 61% of our core products from suppliers owned locally or by a member of a minority population. We committed to purchase core products (at least 50% non-labor expenses) from local or independent suppliers.

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NOTE: This is actually a 3% decrease from 2022, and we did not reach our goal of 70%. For 2024, we’re taking an even closer look at our purchasing practices and auditing our existing workflow to achieve a higher percentage of core products being purchased locally/independently.

Our planet

This section evaluates our environmental management practices as well as our impact on the air, climate, water, land, and biodiversity.

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Air & climate [Success!]

Reduced our carbon footprint through bike-friendly initiatives

Our team commuted a total of 212 work-related miles via bicycle. Four team members received company-paid bike tuneups, and collectively we spent $653.87 on bicycle gear/parts (including helmets!). Each team member has access to one paid bike tuneup and $50 for parts each year.

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Environmental management [In Progress!]

Sustainability improvements to our properties

We were awarded a $12,500 Stormwater Quality Projects Incentive Grant by the City of Lexington. In 2024, we’ll conduct a feasibility study to identify, evaluate, and select Best Management Practices capable of reducing the impact of pollutant loading and flooding at 712 & 714 North Limestone Street. We’ll create conceptual designs for potential rainwater retention systems, removal of impervious parking areas, and additional tree canopy to benefit the immediate areas of True Alley and North Limestone and the downstream Cane Run Watershed and to improve water quality and quantity.

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Environmental management [Success!]

Planted a pollinator garden

We planted a pollinator garden on our 714 premises, using 50% reimbursement funds from a Fayette County Conservation District Backyard Conservation Grant. Extra bonus: the garden supplies and plants were purchased locally at Pemberton’s Greenhouse.

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Land & life [In Progress!]

Reduced waste

• Garbage bags of landfill “wet” trash produced: 31
• Garbage bags of landfill “dry” trash produced: 11
• Unbagged bins of recycling produced: 22
• Bags of litter cleaned up on/around our premises: 10
• We also separate out compost and e-waste and take those to designated collection points.
• These numbers are overall higher than 2022, but we also grew and shared our office with Seedleaf.

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Our clients

This section evaluates our stewardship of our customers through the quality of its products and services, ethical marketing, data privacy and security, and feedback channels.

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Customer stewardship [Success!]

Average client satisfactionscore of 4.83

We polled our clients to learn about how they felt after working with us. Along with open-ended responses, we asked them to rate each of the following on a scale of 1-5:

• Has working with us helped you see positive changes in your business? Why or why not?
• Do you feel like we've really understood your issues or problems and offered helpful, impactful solutions?
• What could our team do better?
• Did you feel clear on expectations (both yours and ours) throughout the duration of the project?
• Did we successfully understand and incorporate your feedback?
• Did we leave you with everything you needed to continue implementing the changes/progress we made together?
• What’s one word you would use to describe us, and why?
• How likely are you to recommend working with us to others?
• Please share any additional thoughts or feedback, if you’d like.

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Customer stewardship [Success!]

Worked with mission-driven organizations

The services we provide helped improve the social impact of other businesses or organizations. Here are our clients in 2023 that carry an impact beyond the deliverables we hand them:

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Pro-bono:

• Box2Box
• CLUCKY
• LexPoMo
• M'Power Rhythm
• Seedleaf

Nonprofit:

• Lexington Art League
• Seedleaf
• Bike Walk Kentucky
• Breck Create
• High Country Conservation Center
• Kentucky Distillers' Association
• Lexington Philharmonic
• Paducah Symphony Orchestra
• AAF Lexington

Mission-driven:

• LFUCG’s Lexington Recycling Campaign
• LFUCG’s Safe Streets Campaign
• Broomwagon Bikes + Coffee
• Engagement Quotient
• Heller Built
• Interfold
• Intuitive Nutrition
• Michelle Hollingshead

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Customer stewardship  [Coming Soon!]

Written policy for ethical marketing, advertising, or customer engagement

Policies are easiest to follow when objectively written to clarify our boundaries on our values.  We set a goal to add a policy to our standard documentation in 2024 (and then follow it!).