An End-of-the-Year Round Up to Ring in the New Year

As we enter 2021, I’ve continued to reflect on the past year. 2020 was full of changes in every way — personal and professional, local and global.

As Wisio’s Head of Talent, I am proud of our achievements together, including enabling and enhancing a record number of connections between Wisors and their communities. Our company has grown over 25x since this time last year, and I’d like to share some things that influenced me, educated me, and helped me learn in 2020.

Taking a deeper look into social media:

• I fell in love with TikTok — here’s one of my favorite videos. It’s humorous, authentic, light, and serious all at once (and wrapped in a Star Wars bow). If you haven’t already, now’s a great time to start your own.
• Censorship, once mainly restrained to YouTube, is hitting creators on all platforms of pretty much every expertise. Listen to Amber Leitz’s podcast about how she’s embracing pleasure and sisterhood to meet the challenge of having her channel deleted.
• New York Magazine’s most read story in 2020, “Buying Myself Back” by Emily Ratajkowski, has helped me reflect about consent and owning your own image.

Listening to podcasts that take it to the next level:

• Second Life with Danielle Bernstein: We Wore What Fashion Influencer, Designer, and Tech Founder. A fabulous story of entrepreneurship, growth, and building something with your audience.
• How I Built This: Calendly, With Tope Awotona. Hear how Awotona used his obsession with understanding what people needed to create a simple and revolutionary tool.
• Business Casual: The OnlyFans Effect on the Industry. So many gems about the power of entrepreneurship and how a platform can grant creators independence.

Reading as much as possible, particularly:

• Dare to Lead, by Brené Brown. Brown uses decades of her research to show how leadership can be learned.
• How to Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons for Radical Results by Esther Wojcicki. This is primarily a book about how to raise children, yet her main idea “TRICK” (Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, Kindness) can be universally applied.
• Sotheby’s: Bidding for Class by Robert Lacey. A fascinating look at the famous auction house’s history, and the importance of leadership, having faith in your vision, and transforming with the times.

We’re off to a great start, and I’d love to celebrate by hearing what was meaningful to you this past year — Tell me all about it .