Taurus 2021 Year in Review

It’s difficult to put into words just how challenging and transformative 2021 has been both personally and professionally. Like many businesses, Taurus has suffered the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic with staff turnover, communication challenges during lockdown and a focussed battle to address the general uncertainty. It has forced us to reimagine the Taurus brand, to be better and more empathetic team members, and what has made me the proudest, take bold steps towards new innovations, paving the way for Taurus to be a leader in tech and other industry marketing.

It was also the year I lost my darling Mother, a grief I have never known and continue to feel and process. I am so grateful to my team and community for showing so much love and support for myself and my family.  It is a strange feeling to be the Matriarch now.

Here is my year in review, a year that has taught me patience, more tolerance and gratitude:

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1.    The launch of Taurus ‘Going for Gold’ campaign and gold logo

The goal is always to stay relevant and ahead of the game. Six months ago, when Sydney was heading into its longest COVID-19 lockdown, we were advising Taurus clients to focus on re-branding as a way to refresh and reinvent but also to send a message of strength to their stakeholders.

As always, we eat our own cooking, and I took my own advice and gave the Taurus brand a refresh. Our Going for Gold campaign, complete with a new gold logo came at a particularly poignant time as Australian athletes were competing at the highest level on the global stage at the Olympics. Our new logo represented the Olympian spirit, demonstrating our tenacity, our bravery and our resilience.

2.    The launch of TaurusCrypto©

2021 saw Taurus become the first PR and Marketing agency in Australia to offer crypto marketing as a dedicated service with the launch of TaurusCrypto©.

The Taurus team and I have worked with crypto entrepreneurs successfully for some time to set strategy, build brand, and positive awareness plus strengthen their relationship with investors.

The TaurusCrypto© service will set strategy using our TaurusBullseye© strategy methodology to mitigate risk, define key messaging, and build trust and reputation for Crypto brands.

Like with all our new tech initiatives, it’s not enough to be on the strategy side, we also need to be in it, to really give it a go. Which is why we’re taking the bold step to bonus our team in crypto, giving them access to digital currency financial advisors and industry experts so they themselves can becomes experts in the field crypto.

3.    Launch of TaurusTV©

It has always been a dream of mine to create a broadcast platform to showcase Taurus success stories. Last week we launched TaurusTV©, a broadcast channel that facilitates the telling of Taurus stories on leadership, culture, methodology, strategy and communication success from the past 27 years in business.

Our inaugural series will focus on leadership, interviewing past and present Taurus team members to reflect on their experience and journey with Taurus and how the TaurusAcademy© has fast tracked their careers to where they are now.

Our line-up of guests includes:

• TaurusAcademy© alumni Troy Douglas, Co-founder & CEO at NEXBA
• Taurus alumni Charlotte Riddle, Senior Growth Rep at Unmind
• Current Taurus team members: Ian Dose, Taurus IR & Government & Crisis Comms Expert, Samantha Sakr, Senior Account Manager and Ashleigh Duff, Account Executive

You can watch our first episode with Charlotte Riddle here:

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 4.    The Great resignation and the Great Courtship

This year, thanks to COVID, there has been much discussion in the media about 'The Great Resignation’ and the lengths employers are willing to go to, to retain their staff. I too have fallen victim to staff turnover in the past year and it can be difficult to see people you love and have invested in, move on. But I’m a great believer in following your passion and if that passion is no longer here, I will support that person’s career wherever they go – the relationship doesn’t end just because they’ve moved on.

This is in part why we launched TaurusTV©, so we can celebrate past and present team members and the extraordinary achievements and careers they have cultivated as a result of their learnings from Taurus.

My advice to other business leaders is to embrace the change and opportunities that crisis and disruption provides and focus on your team, and come together to create innovation. After every big war, humankind has seen extraordinary change.

With regards to the Great Courtship  I believe the reason our Taurus Team members go on to achieve extraordinary things is due to the mentoring and coaching they received at Taurus, a practise that remains today under the TaurusAcademy© program, and one I personally invest much time in. It is also, I believe, the reason we attract top talent, because of our reputation to invest and nurture careers and our results driven, outcome driven philosophy of live to work, not work to live.

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5.    Death of my Mumma

The loss of a Mother (or someone so close) is unparalleled. She was my beacon, even when she wanted distance. I was loved, I was cherished and I know, this was her gift.

I will cherish my Mothers pride in me. I will forever live her memory daily. And as some of you have shared in your own loss and grief of loved ones, I will scream in the shower and on car journeys, cry into the pillow until, I am told, it gets easier. Although after all the advice, kindness and messages, I realise it doesn’t get easier – grief will become part of who I am.,

My lesson as a leader, is to give those in my world far more space to grieve moving forward and be far more empathetic with the after effect of grief and loss in and out of the workplace. Grief requires compassion and support.

6.    Empathy is the new brand currency

As a leader I always wanted to create the company I would want to work for, so right from the outset at Taurus, I worked to create a caring, supportive community of unparalleled high standards and output and a total focus on the individual. The joy of working for a mid-sized entrepreneurial business is the freedom to focus on each personality as unique. The working single Mum needs a different approach and different conditions to the 23-year-old straight out of University or the semi-retired expert who has adult families to juggle. Empathy has always soared high at Taurus, but now it’s a brand necessity. Glad to see other brands out there finally catching on. Empathy rules. Empathy needs to be an essential part of our day.

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7.    The revelation of changes to work place (for everyone else – we’ve been doing it for years) so good to see everyone else catch up

Our work practices during Covid have barely changed so it’s great to see everyone else catch up.  Founded with working Mothers, we have also always enjoyed flexibility, work from home days, flexible hours, pyjama and doona days, so our work from home transition was smooth. However, it is fair to say most team members are social and working together in person, the comradery and physical chemistry is a basic human need. I will continue to support a hybrid workforce but also pull us together at every opportunity to keep us focussed and united. The technology will continue to evolve to support the work from home environment and that’s what I’ve got my eye on in 2022.  

My life, after experiencing so much loss in 2021 will never be the same again, but 2022, as with every new year provides a new start. Good luck, travel gently and see you the other side.

Sharon X