The Busy Bee's Word of the Year | 2022

Don’t get us wrong; we love writing specific goals for The Busy Bee every January. In fact, just a couple weeks ago, we sat down together and hashed out some pretty big goals for this year. We wrote specific milestones we hope to achieve. We put together a plan for the next 12 months, gently molding the direction of TBB’s future. However, there’s always a guiding principle behind these plans and goals. There’s always a catalyst that sends us in a particular direction. This guiding principle or catalyst is never a sentence and rarely a phrase. For us, a simple word is sometimes the best way to encapsulate our fine-tuned trajectory each year. We found ourselves in that same position in 2022, looking for a Word of the Year that sums up all the individual goals and milestones we’ve carefully written out.

We’re so excited to announce: we found it.

TBB’s Past Words of the Year

Before we dive into this year’s word, let’s take a moment to reflect on past Words of the Year, beginning with our words four years ago.

In 2018, Jenna felt the word cultivate, while Shannon felt the word useful.

In 2019, Shannon felt compelled by the word mindfulness, while Jenna opened her year to embrace.

In 2020, we decided that it would be the year of clarity.

And in 2021, well, we never publicly named a word of the year! We both have fuzzy memories of discussing a word and naming it, but can’t seem to find it anywhere. I guess some things were bound to fall through the cracks with the unusual nature of the last two years. But, in hindsight, 2021 was all about growth and chasing dreams. We grew our team and launched our homewares shop that we long dreamed about. We can name a Word of the Year in hindsight, right?!

two women standing in front of white wall wearing coordinating outfits in blush, maroon and beige colors; word of the year

TBB’s 2022 Word of the Year: Implement

But this year is the year of doing. As soon as we heard it, implement felt like this year.

How It Came to Be

This is how we knew implement was our word. Last week, Jenna was on a family vacation while Shannon was holding down the fort. Shannon texted our Content Manager, Laurie, that she knew TBB’s Word of the Year had to be about “doing,” but she couldn’t quite put her finger on the word that truly encompassed what she meant. Laurie threw out the word “implement,” which simply felt right. A few days later, Jenna, who had been out of the loop, texted our TBB team group and said that she wasn’t sure what the word is yet, but it needs to be the year of doing.

We’re telling you, we have a twin thing going, despite our three-year age gap! A thousand miles away and we’re still on the same wavelength, feeling the same things in our hearts.

So, just like that, implement became 2022’s word.

a brunette woman and a blonde woman sitting on an outdoor patio with blue wall in background; word of the year

The Details

So, why implement?

Let’s start with the definition.

Implement (v.): to carry out; accomplish; especially: to give practical effect to and ensure of actual fulfillment by concrete measures

Last year, we chased dreams. We took leaps of faith. We expanded our team and fine tuned our brand. And, if we’re being honest, we also lost sleep some nights with the uncertainty of growing a small business and starting another on both our shoulders. Sometimes, the demands of opening a shop took away from our creative time, as well, and as much as we loved what we were building, we missed the more abstract side of the business.

But we also came alive in 2021. We know now more than ever our direction with TBB.

So now, it’s time to implement. Last year, we had so many brain dump meetings and ideas that we tossed around. We daydreamed about what our ideal realities would be for TBB and APIARY. And so, it only felt right to make our word for 2022 to be about carrying out those brain dump meetings and daydreamt realities.

Putting Our Word of the Year into Action

We plan to implement…

making The Busy Bee a place for more voices to share our community’s collective yet individual Hostful at Heart journeys.
using concrete data, such as our readers’ top posts, to drive future content. (We want to share what you love seeing!)
quarterly 90-day planning meetings to be able to better visualize upcoming content.
Thursdays as content creation days that involve an organized list of creations to photograph.

By implementing these goals with concrete ways forward, we know we’ll be able to grow our business and our community. We can’t wait to keep sharing with you our love of #HostfulHacks and our core belief that everyone is #HostfulatHeart and that be welcoming loved ones in, you allow your heart to pour out.

And we are SO excited for what’s to come.

Hap-Bee Hosting, Bee Family!