We were all VERY ready to welcome 2021, weren’t we? And I think we can all agree that 2020 brought some huge challenges on both the personal and professional front.
But before we kiss it goodbye…I want to remind you that there might have been some good in there as well. Be careful about throwing the baby out with the bath water.
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Hey everybody, Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute, this week coming to you from my home as I get ready to begin to take down the Christmas decorations and welcome the new year. And you know what? I don't think there's ever been a more anticipated or eagerly welcomed new year as 2021 experienced this past week. But before we dismiss 2020 as the dumpster fire that every meme seems to make it, and I am not taking away from the fact that there was a lot of loss of every variety in 2020, but you know what? For most of us, there were also some things that were good, that we learned, that we discovered because we had to. One of the things I loved about 2020 is there was no room for procrastination. Once the pandemic hit, we all went into overdrive. We didn't overthink it, we did not get paralyzed by perfection, we just went into action. And, you know, I think one of the things that happened for all of us is that we learned some things about our business, our clients, our prospects. Let me give you a couple examples. I offered some workshops virtually that I had always said before 2020 would not translate well in a digital environment, that I had to teach them live. Well, you know what? I was wrong. They were well-received, people have found a lot of value in them. I also believed that there were certain kinds of meetings, certain kinds of facilitations that I do, that I had to be in the same room with my clients for that to be effective. Now, I'm not going to say that it's not better to be in person because I fully believe that it is, but we figured out ways to make it effective and work. So, I learned a lot about my own business and how I could deliver what we teach and what we offer to our prospects in different ways that I would have never ever even tried if it weren't for the pandemic. So here's my point with all of this: Before we kiss 2020 goodbye, and we label it as a complete and utter disaster, and we label it as a complete and utter disaster, I believe, for every one of you, there are one or two things that you learned or you offered or you changed or a behavior that you shed or put on in 2020 that served your agency and your clients well. And what I don't want you to do is throw the baby out with the bath water. And when you spend a little time this week while everyone's still in holiday hibernation, when you spend a little bit of time thinking about what things you did or stopped doing in 2020 that worked, and how can you incorporate those into your plans for 2021 even after the pandemic is long gone, that everyone's been vaccinated and we're back to whatever "normal" looks like. There are things that you learned in 2020 that were valuable and useful and probably profitable, and I don't want you to lose that because we're so eager to get on with 2021. So spend a little time, do some reflection. And the things that worked, keep them, figure out how to enhance them, and be mindful of the bad habits that you shed because you had to. There's no reason to put those back on. All right? I'll talk to you next week.
