21 Reflections: My 21 Favorite Elasticity Moments of 2021
Aaron Perlut | Partner

It’s been quite a year at Elasticity.

We grew by leaps and bounds, wrestled with the aftermath of COVID, continued expanding westward, added new clients, gained and lost a “Brad,” and so much more.

But in my mind, the most memorable events are not always the traditional wins, losses and lessons. They lie in the margins, often going unnoticed or simply lacking the glamour of the traditional celebratory moments in business.

I spent several minutes — roughly four — reflecting on these momentous occasions recently. The product is my 21 Favorite Elasticity Moments of 2021:

21. We learned Mallory runs races. She doesn’t speak. She just runs. Go figure.

20. Zach K. lost his tight grip on the Customer of the Year honor for Tiny Bar (more on that later).

19. We added the second husband-wife team in company history.

18. Three of us saw rapper Fat Joe perform though none of us knew Fat Joe was still alive.

17. A client said, “Just to be clear — we’re not breaking new grounds on creepiness here, right?”

16. During a time when the average marketing agency experienced 50 percent turnover industrywide, we said goodbye to five Elasticians (out of 35).

15. However, we did lose two long-tenured friends in Ashton Beck and Emily Ann Brown, leaving Emily Engelke as the ONLY Emily remaining on the island.

14. We hired our third Elastician named “Aaron” which is remarkably confusing, especially for me.

13. Lindsay said, “A big man has to be able to sweat on his couch,” during a team meeting. This is true. I know this for a fact. I live this.

12. Nine members of the Elasticity team got to bear witness to semi-professional wrestling and a speech from Hall-of-Fame wrestler “The Million Dollar Man,” Ted Di Biase. We will never be the same.

11. Elasticity hired someone with more tattoos than Denny Blackwell. Hello Jessica Sanderson!

10. Brian Cross, Nick Walden and Benji Vega remained bald — like Kojak bald. I’m not as far behind as you might think.

9. Half of the agency made its broadcast commercial debut during shoots of TV spots for the Boy Scouts.

8. Meg Ryan Not The Actress spent nearly two months living in our Denver apartment drinking vodka-infused seltzer.

7. We successfully dodged the St. Louis City health inspector and an impending class action litigation by shutting down Tiny Bar. Don’t tell anyone.

6. Our team spent the longest amount of time ever in a bar without having a drink (during a COVID video shoot).

5. We hired someone named after a field of flowers and weeds whose surname is related to Thomas’ English Muffins or a hiding place (Meadow Nook).

4. Elasticity experienced its single largest year ever of reassigned company email addresses.

3. Meg Ryan Not The Actress uttered openly, “I know I’ve got syphilis goin’ crazy.”

2. In early summertime we celebrated Parkapalooza with a food truck and games in Tower Grove Park.

1. Emily Engelke gave birth to her first child — a baby girl named Mia (or Mitch Jr.).

Aaron Perlut
Aaron Perlut is a cofounding partner of Elasticity with some 30 years of diverse experience in journalism, public relations and digital marketing. He is a former senior reputation management counselor at Omnicom-company FleishmanHillard, as well as a communications executive for two of the nation's largest energy companies. Throughout his career, Perlut has counseled a range of organizations---Fortune 500s, state governments, professional sports franchises, economic development authorities, well-funded startups and large non-profits---helping manage reputation and market brands across diverse channels in an evolving media environment.
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