Your First Weekend Lift of 2024
Time to reflect on 2023 and prepare for 2024
Good Vibes
This week in the news
- Exploring the mental health benefits of listening to new music.
- CUTE overload: Mouse caught on camera cleaning a man's shed.
- Tips to help you feel better in 2024.
- Ringing in 2024 around the globe (in photos).
- Science finds the best way to make New Year's resolutions.
- Thirteen-year-old become first to officially beat Tetris.
- How a 2012 Louisiana sinkhole devoured a town.
- Visualizing 2024's popular cocktails.
Leader Profile
Brent Babyak, Co-Owner and Chief Operating Officer at Pile O’ Bones Brewing Company and Nokomis Craft Ales
Brent's born and raised in Saskatchewan, he found a way to successfully marry his passions with work. Brent is part owner and C.O.O. at Pile O’ Bones Brewing Company in Regina, SK and Nokomis Craft Ales in Nokomis, SK. A recovering IT-aholic who can still be found glued to a computer at times, he lives in Regina with his wife Laura and their collection of Lego sets.
What’s your ideal start to a Sunday?
An Espresso, Americano, or if I'm feeling frisky a Latte and a podcast. Sunday is generally the only day of the week I get to wake up without an alarm so it's usually a late rise and a slow burn. I dig Sundays.
Your current obsessions.
Podcast wise - I flow from political to business to general interest. I am a near daily listener to The Mansbridge Podcast, which covers Canadian politics and current events. A Regina-based podcast called The Clean Energy Show is another must catch every week that keeps me plugged into the ever expanding green economy.Other recent favorites are 13 Minutes to the Moon, The Lazarus Heist, and Business Wars.
I’m currently reading Making it So by Patrick Stewart and enjoying it thoroughly.
I’m an avid board and video gamer. Chill strategy video games that exercise my mind are a favorite. Farming Simulator anyone? As for board games, the bigger and deeper the better. These days I spend tons of time terraforming mars…
What’s one piece of advice you’re glad you didn’t follow?
When taking the plunge into entrepreneurship and leaving behind a government job that I enjoyed with great people and a great pension I was handed a whole lot of advice (solicited and unsolicited!) coaching me against the idea. Taking risks is always a bit of a leap of faith, but I felt I had a good enough foundation laid out in front of me that the potential rewards were worth the risk.
How do you take care of yourself during the weekend?
This answer varies a little based on the time of year. In the winters I enjoy spending quality downtime building Lego with my wife Laura. We generally purchase a couple large collectors sets a year and spend time watching old/related movies and building the sets together. Lego is really on point with some super cool stuff nowadays! And just like puzzles, Lego helps you focus in on the moment and reset your mental state. If I'm not doing that, I'm generally playing a video game or a board game.
During the summer I generally spend a lot of weekends working. Brewing beer is a somewhat seasonal business and you have to strike when the iron is hot so to speak. That said I enjoy a good road trip so I have been trying to sneak away more time in the summer to just hit the road. Laura and I recently drove all the way from Regina, SK to Tofino, BC and it was an extremely relaxing trip.
What are your plans for this winter? Any trips planned?
This winter I’m Mexico bound! I love opportunities to just turn everything off and have someone else do everything for me for a small amount of time. It always feels like a great reset. Over the next couple months we’re also planning trips to the UK and Costa Rica.
2024 Goal - Read more
One-minute reads that pack a [coaching] punch
Got any genius ideas? Want your glorious self on the blog? Crave the fame of sponsoring this knockout newsletter? Don't just sit there, reach out and dazzle me!
