There’s an African proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” At Mario Morrow & Associates, we wholeheartedly believe that.
When Mario Morrow and Associates (MMA) started over 35 years ago, it was a one-person operation focused on political consulting and campaign management. For MMA to expand and do more, we needed to bring on more high-quality folks who could help to diversify our services. Over time, founder Mario Morrow, Sr. has built a strong team of energetic individuals who are united in cause and purpose: “success by any means necessary.”
Growing our team has allowed MMA to expand our community outreach services and added corporate meeting planning, webmaster, and video production services. We now have a full-service studio in our office where we produce the YouTube-based video series Casual Conversations with Mario Morrow.
One aspect of growing a business that people need to talk more about is how challenging it can be for the founder to step away from doing everything themselves so they can focus on growing the business. Knowing each other and being familiar with each other’s work has helped make that process easier.
The MMA team is comprised of relatives and individuals with longstanding work relationships with our founder. No one is a stranger, and we feel comfortable with each other’s knowledge and expertise. We all have related skills, and each addition happened at the right time.
Mario Morrow, Sr.’s nephew, Ryan Bridges, a skilled media relations and communications professional, is our Deputy CEO. His wife, Shauna, is our COO. She joined our team after a successful 30-plus-year career as a corporate event planner. His son, Mario, Jr., joined after receiving a degree in organizational communications. He is our communications and marketing manager.
Business administrator Carrie Wright’s relationship with Mario extends more than 20 years when they were both in education. She has a massive network and is integrally involved in our outreach work locally and statewide.
Our communications and multimedia associate, China Haley, who directs Casual Conversations, and our webmaster, Kelsey Strachan, also have longstanding prior relationships with our founder and have successfully worked together for many years.
It was an honor to win the teamwork award at the 2024 DBusiness Corporate Culture Awards because, at MMA, we embrace teamwork internally and collaboration with other firms.
We take a strategic approach to everything we do, often pairing multiple team members on projects. Many of our biggest successes have resulted from collaborations with other firms in recent years. From our work getting the word out about the 2020 Census and COVID-19 to our door-to-door work in Benton Harbor during their water crisis, teamwork has made the dream work.
