Eight Years of Indie: Motherhood, Growth, and What’s Next

To celebrate Indie’s eighth birthday, founder Molly Baker goes solo to reflect on eight years of building and scaling an agency. She opens up about her first year as a mom and business owner, why the people side of growth is harder than she ever expected, and the speed that keeps agency life a constant grind. Molly also shares the advice she’d give her day-one self and her vision for building a company that lets women have both a family and a career. It’s an honest, personal look at ambition, balance, and what’s next as Indie heads into year nine.

How has Indie’s 8th year been different from the previous years?

It’s hard to believe that it’s been eight years. The thing that really has stood out to me in the past year is what it’s been like becoming a mom and also running a business at the same time.

I had my son last September, so he just turned one, and I was really curious to see what this experience of motherhood and business ownership would be like. For so long, Indie has been my baby of sorts, and it’s been a huge priority in my life. And what happens when you add something else into life that is a bigger priority?

I don’t think my relationship with the business has changed as much as I thought it was going to. So often you hear one of two things when someone has a baby and is running a company, at least if you’re a woman. Either their ambitions have changed and business just isn’t as important to them anymore. Or sometimes you hear the opposite: “I love my work and I can’t imagine not having work and it’s more important to me than ever.”

My emotional attachment to Indie has always been one where balance has felt important. It’s a piece of my identity, but it’s not the only thing I care about and it’s not the only thing that makes me who I am or makes me happy. Having that perspective was really helpful when I also became a mother because so many things can be true at once and people are more dynamic than we give them credit for. So often people want to just put everyone in a box. I don’t think it’s as black and white as that. There’s a lot of gray and there’s a lot of different facets to people and that’s what makes all of us interesting.

Now I have this other part of me as a mom, in addition to work and running and my marriage and my friends. It’s maybe made me more resolute behind my purpose with the company and how I spend my time at large. You just don’t have as much free time as you used to. So how you spend your time and keep discipline around that has become even more important for me. It’s given me more conviction to show up every day and be the best version of myself and stay true to my goals and my purpose behind this business. Just more conviction is probably the biggest shift.

What has this past year taught me about what it takes to grow and scale an agency?

Many people told me earlier on in the days of building Indie that the people side of building a business is always the most challenging. And I would sit there and think naively, not for me. I like people and I will hire good people and I will make sure that everyone works well together and how hard could it be?

The reality is that they were right and I was wrong. The people side of scaling a company, especially one that’s service oriented, is unbelievably challenging because there are new dynamics introduced regularly as you scale and every person is different and unique.

Making sure that you have the right culture fit and skill sets and operational systems in place so that people can do their best work is really challenging. And making sure that you’re hiring the right people fast enough requires its own work stream and area of focus.

At the end of the day, this business is the people and will be about the people. We will do our best work and stand out the most because of the people that we have here. And I think it speaks volumes to the people that are working here today.

What’s one thing about building and scaling an agency that’s underrated or people on the outside simply don’t see?

In the world that we live in today, especially now with AI, speed is everything. The speed at which we operate and that we need to keep up at to be able to feed these content machines that are social media today is really fast paced. That sometimes just isn’t seen looking on the outside in.

I like moving fast. I always have, but how do you move fast and make sure that systems don’t break and quality standards are there is challenging. Sometimes it might just look fun and cool and oh, you’re making social media content and how awesome. But it’s a lot of work and it’s really fast paced. And with AI and further digital transformation, that’s even more so today.

Has becoming a mom changed any of the decisions that you make as a founder or the way you prioritize your time and energy?

I don’t think that it’s changed my decision making because I have always had other things to me that are important outside of work. I travel less. That’s one tactical change, which is weird on a personal level because I love being on planes and I love new places, but I definitely want to be home more with my son. I do bring him with me sometimes, which is nice, but adds a whole other layer of logistical challenges.

Prioritizing my time and energy is something that I’m still trying to get right. You want to show up and be the best version of yourself in the office, and then you want to get home and be the best version of yourself at home. And I want to wake up in the morning and be the best version of myself running or at the gym. And then it’s like, wow, I was just trying to be the best version of myself for 16 hours and I’m going to go to sleep and then do the whole thing over again.

Gone are the days of coming home from work on a Thursday and you’re like, I’m just going to sit on the couch and order food and watch a mindless show. So how do you build in those moments of reset is something that I’m trying to work out still.

After eight years, what do I think Indie does exceptionally well today?

What sets us apart in this very crowded and competitive space is how we show up for our clients and the type of partner and people that we want to be. I want our clients to get off calls with us and have us be a bright spot in their day. That’s something that we’ve always done a really good job at.

Someone said to me earlier today that it’s not what you say to people, it’s how you make them feel. That sort of energetic component to the work that we do, while might sound a bit woo-woo, is really important. Outside of our amazing marketing and great work that we deliver, we are just good people to work with. And if that’s something that we continue to do well at, I will view that as a success.

If I could go back and give myself one piece of advice on the day I started Indie, what would I tell myself?

It is hard for someone who is ambitious and has seen so much success just by getting the job done and going above and beyond to transition into an entrepreneur. There are times where you just think, well, out of sheer force and will and grit, I will power through this because I will just work harder. I have used that mentality at a lot of points in building this business, especially in the earlier days.

If I had to tell myself anything, it would be that sometimes that’s not the right answer. Sometimes taking a step back or letting the game come to you is the right answer. I don’t want to say that speed and making decisions quickly and working hard are not solutions because they absolutely are, but not everything can be overcome with just sheer grit and force. For someone who has seen success by just powering through, that can be hard, but it does also lead to burnout at times because there’s only so much that one person can do.

So that’s what I would tell myself. If you know that eight years from now you’re going to be sitting on this chair talking about this business and the growth that you’ve had, don’t freak out too much. It’s all going to work out and be okay.

As I look to the ninth year, what am I most excited about?

We’re coming up close to a decade. I haven’t done anything for a decade. I haven’t lived anywhere as an adult for a decade. I haven’t worked a job for a decade. I haven’t been married yet for a decade. This will be my most longstanding commitment, but we won’t talk about 10 yet when we’re really just coming onto nine.

The things I’m most excited to continue to build and explore are mostly around the team and how this group continues to grow and evolve and how we’ll continue to break into new spaces in marketing to service our CPG clients. I’m very excited about some of the changes that we have coming up and what this business will look like a year from now. I think it will be very different than what it looks like today, and I’m excited by that. I’ve always loved the continuous change here. It keeps me engaged and interested. Progress to me is everything.

I’m still early on in being a mom and running a business. We have a mostly female workforce, not intentionally, but it’s working out that way. I want to have a business that even though we are small, supports women that want to have families and have a career at the same time. And that it is possible to do both.

For so many years I have been told you can’t have everything at once. And there is some truth to that, right? I have a very nominal social life these days and I’m okay with that. There’s always going to be something you’re sacrificing when you’re pursuing big goals, but I don’t want there to be this narrative that you can’t be a great mom and have a great job or be passionate about your career at the same time. It’s possible to do both and it’s possible for your job to make you a better mom. And I want to be hopefully an example of that and have a business that allows people to do the same.

One of my goals for Indie has always been for Indie to be an enabler in people’s lives, not a blocker. I am here to make people’s lives a little bit better, even if it’s just their days a little bit better. And that is what keeps me coming through the door every day.

I still think that starting this company is one of the best decisions I ever made in my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. This business has shaped so much of who I am. When you start the business, the business just feels like a reflection of you, but as it grows, I really view the business as something that teaches me a lot. It’s going to help me be a better mom and a better partner and a better daughter and family member. And if at any point Indie becomes a blocker, then something has to change.

For anyone who listens to this, thank you for listening and just being a supporter in this journey. The number of people who have been Indie supporters over the years have just blown me away, honestly. And I have so much gratitude and appreciation for that. It means the world, whether it be asking about it or referring people our way or introducing us to smart podcast guests or other businesses. So thank you for all the support over the years and for listening to this podcast and cheers to eight and let’s see what nine has in store.

Follow @namedrop.pod on Instagram & LinkedIn and @molbakes on Instagram for all future episodes and insights.