There’s no doubt about it. 2021 was… a year. The disappointing sequel to 2020, if you will. Remember those few weeks when we thought the pandemic was over? Yeah, good times. Still, it wasn’t all bad. We continued learning how to think on our feet and change strategies on the fly, even if a few of us left our sourdough starters to languish.
Bureau members proved their resilience, continued supporting one another and making things work. The Slack chatter never died down, and we kept sharing resources with the group, including business tools and useful articles to navigate the madness. Each week we collect the best of these and send them out in a newsletter email, an exclusive club you can join just by clicking here. But if you missed them in your inbox, we’ve collected the highlights from the last month and included them below.
Articles, Books & Podcasts
People talk about missing the forest for the trees, but it’s the individual trees that give you shade, right? In tough times we really focus on our lofty goals, but we sometimes miss out on the little things that make everyday worth living. On the latest Bureau Briefing podcast I waxed a little philosophical about this through the lens of my experience running the Philadelphia Marathon. Speaking of stories, Brené Brown has some great advice on her website about story stewardship and how we can help safeguard others’ experiences by keeping the focus on them.
More to keep your eyes and ears occupied:
Tools & Resources
If you’re like me, you’re constantly scouring message boards and talking with colleagues about how to keep your company organized and productive. Instant Agency Tools offers a free toolkit that can really help you nail the basics. From running more effective meetings to tracking the KPIs most important to you, it has some great solutions. And when you bring in talent, have you ever thought about student loan assistance as one more benefit to attract the best people? Check out the resources offered by Peanut Butter (that’s really the name of the platform, not the snack I’m currently daydreaming about).
And here’s a few more tools to help you stick to your goals as a company (I swear that wasn’t a peanut butter pun):
Fun Music Playlists
Finally, we all share the serious business stuff, but going back to my first point, what about the little things that make us happy? We all have our favorite playlists that give us a little extra juice to make it through the day, so here are a couple that Bureau members have shared that I find particularly good. Listen and enjoy, and add your own in the comments below!
On that note (still not an intentional pun), that about wraps it up for the best of our December content. Keep plugging along and remember to take some time for yourself.
And if you’re not getting our newsletter each week, in my humble opinion, it’s worth signing up for.
Until next time, my friends.