tl;dr 👇
The annual review is one of my favorite/frustrating pieces each year. Life can be really hectic and attempting to write in the midst of a hectic season is frustrating. But I realized that I’m not writing this review for 2020 Matt – I’m writing it for 2021 Matt and beyond.
I have yet to settle on a framework for the review, the style seems to change each year as things in my life shift and change. That’s normal, even as someone who feels very comfortable with routine and structure.
This year I’m using a simple framework of categories to tell my story of 2019. The focus will be on work, relationships, side hustle, and self. The year was full of change, new routines, and even a new person! 2019 reset what I did and expected out of life, and I’m sure 2020 will be no different.
Work at ConvertKit… then Podia!
The biggest change of 2019 happened in April when I accepted the Director of Customer Success role at Podia. Leaving ConvertKit was bittersweet in a way I didn’t expect, and that’s all a credit to the people who built an incredible culture and product.
That being said… I’m excited to be in my role at Podia and continue helping creators earn a living on their work. The Podia team is great and I feel blessed to work with amazing people every step of the way. We have an exciting roadmap for 2020 that is going to further our mission and give creators more tools and resources to grow (or start) their business.
A work goal that I didn’t succeed at in 2019 was upping my technical skills. I set a goal to learn basic data analysis Python and SQL, but ended up doing very little with either. I still have a desire to reach baseline competency with both, but at this time it’s still on the back-burner.
The main I reason I let technical learning slide was related to changing companies – what I’m doing at Podia doesn’t require knowing “how to code” (to be fair neither did my role at ConvertKit). Being in a Director role has required me to learn and use more skills for setting a long-term strategy, prioritizing projects with limited resources, and building playbooks for both our team members and Podia customers.
I’m fortunate to have worked at ConvertKit and to continue serving creators at Podia. This market of people who build audiences and serve them through the products and communities they create is so diverse and I love being a part of it.
Side Hustle
YouTube
My YouTube channel had another good year, with 33 videos published, up from 27 videos published in 2018! Views increased as well, though I couldn’t say what the percentage difference was between 2017-2018. That would be the real metric to track, because views should go up with more videos published to go with past videos.
A few milestones were my first 500k view video (How to Journal), total views crossed 2.5 million, and subscribers crossed 40,000! I also crossed 15,000 lifetime email subscribers, only to prune the cold ones off for better overall engagement.
I also launched my first physical product, a sticker set with two phrases I use a lot on the channel – “Get your head out of your apps” and “Progress over Perfection”. You can check out each and buy one (or both) here!
The first run of 50 sold out in a weekend, which was great! The downside is that I didn’t have any kind of fulfillment or address collection set up, so shipping was a pain. But the release was successful enough that I set up a Shopify store to handle all the payment and shipping – my goal in 2020 or early 2021 is to have my own branded notebooks to sell, stay tuned!
My first speaking gig
I went to Craft + Commerce for the 3rd year, where I delivered my first main stage talk about time management and creative focus. It was an honor to be invited and something I want to do even more in 2020. Read more about the process here, and watch the talk below!
My first big course
The biggest accomplishment outside of YouTube was creating and launching my course 25 Hour Days (I’ll be re-launching in February). I’ve done small launches in the past, but this was the first one where I went “all the way” with webinars, a 7 email sequence, downsells, everything.
Launching was definitely more emotionally draining than I expected, even after my experience assisting so many creators on their launches. I worked about 10 “extra” hours per week in the month leading up to the launch, so the stress wasn’t from a struggling-to-get-things-done perspective. It was simply stressful to put a product out there and see how people respond to it!
Sidebar: I do believe that my work on YouTube, email newsletters, and courses is a bit of a superpower… I go through the creative struggle our customers do, and the empathy is real! On the same side, the work gives me a unique perspective on how the app helps creators sell their work.
From a sales perspective I hit my signup and sales goals, but barely. I certainly didn’t have one of those launches you read about on blogs, and that’s ok. The bigger goal was to do the thing; webinars, email sequence, downsell, the whole bit – and I did that.
During the launch a mentor was telling me I couldn’t keep moving the finish line – it’s a trap I’d never get out of. There’s always another number to chase. I really needed to hear those words, maybe you do too. Set your goals with an understanding of what you can commit to achieving them, and work your ass off to do it. Let the chips fall where they may, your job is to do the work.
Money
Let’s talk about money real quick. Income reports aren’t as popular as they used to be (I think), and I don’t feel comfortable yet sharing actual numbers. But I do like my friend Charli’s idea of sharing percentages so you can see how things shake out.
2018 Side Hustle Income = 5% of total income(yes I know it’s last-last year, just for comparison)
- Digital Products = 40%
- YouTube Ads = 60%
2019 Side Hustle Income = 25% of total income
- Digital Products = 60%
- Sponsored Videos = 30%
- YouTube Ads = 7%
- Affiliates = 3%
The big boost in digital products came from the course and I had my first few sponsored videos on the channel. What’s interesting is even though YouTube ads dropped from 60% to 7% of revenue, I made 40% more on YouTube ads in 2019 than I did in 2018.
The main lesson in all this, especially if you’re a YouTuber (or podcaster, blogger, any kind of creator) – own your audience and products. With just one launch I dwarfed my 2 year total for ad revenue, and I have 40k subs and over 2 million views in that time! You don’t need thousands of subscribers to start earning. Connect with your audience and work to find out what they want, and make that thing.
Personal
Family
Benson was born in December 2018, so 2019 was a full year with the little guy and two kids. I definitely had to recalibrate my time and commitments with another infant (now toddler), but of course he’s totally worth it. Going through the entire cycle of having another baby does make me think about what’s important, how I’m modeling life for them, and the choices I make with my time and attention.
Another thing I was happy about was my wife and I started having semi-regular date nights again in 2019. The couple years before this our time together had been pretty irregular, but we made our time together a priority in our calendars and our budget.
As odd as it may seem, we often have agendas for our dates! We have a question to talk about with each other, plan future trips, or just knock out a list of little family topics that are tough to string together with two small boys demanding attention.
Fitness
From a more personal perspective, 2019 brought me back to CrossFit and a community of sweat – which I love. The “box” is only a few miles from home and I’m in the same class as my brother, which is one of the best perks. Another little benefit of training is the experience of not being very good at something again. For example I spent a couple of months trying to learn double-unders, and it was really frustrating! Eventually I got the movement down, but going through the beginner training phase was a good lesson for me. Next up, muscle-ups!
Books
I didn’t track my reading as much in 2019 as I have in past years, i.e. I couldn’t tell you how many books I read or what each one was. To be honest going through all my Amazon and McKay’s (local bookstore) purchases is a huge time suck and would have delayed this review even more. So instead of a subtle flex with my book count like I’ve done in the past, here are 6 books that impacted me in 2019:
- Awareness by Anthony De Mello (it’s better on Audible)
- Obviously Awesome! by April Dunford
- I Will Teach You to be Rich by Ramit Sethi
- Keep Going by Austin Kleon
- Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday
- Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
Travel
Having a young baby limited our family and my personal travel in 2019, but we still made a few trips outside of Nashville. My favorite was our first family camping trip with the two boys. We actually put a small pack and play crib in the tent! Here’s where else I went in 2019.
- Oceanside, CA for the ConvertKit retreat
- Jacksonville, FL to visit family and the beach
- Boise, ID for Craft + Commerce and camping in the Sawtooths
- Smokies and Asheville for vacation
- Gainesville, FL for a wedding
- Atlanta, GA for the Blog Societies conference
- Asheville, NC for Christmas
Miscellaneous news & notes
- Attended two weddings
- First solo flight with a kid (he was great)
- First burpee-free Spartan race
- New vlog camera (Canon M50)
- Re-designed my office
- Won my fantasy football league
- New tattoo, completing the big pieces from my Narnia theme
Looking at 2020
2020 feels like a big year. I’m fortunate to have a lot of things working in my life right now. My family is healthy, work is going well, and I’ve built an audience of people who are interested in my ideas. It’s a cool feeling that is ripe with potential.
My primary theme for 2020 is Focus. I want to focus on what’s working in life and what matters. The biggest part of this for me is actually doing less of the things I know don’t matter as much. Scrolling through my phone, having one AirPod in, and spending time on urgent but unimportant tasks have a tendency to suck a day away.
I want to be really good at saying to myself and others “this is what matters to me, this is what I need to do” and having the discipline to follow through. I also want to be easier on myself with the rhythm of work and rest that I’ve struggled with for years. My rhythm has been more akin to burnout followed by rest mixed with self-flagellation for needing to rest. Saying it out loud (or typing) sounds obvious but has proven difficult in practice.
For all my work, both at Podia and my side hustle, my 2020 theme is experimentation. I’ve hit a solid level of success but am staring in the face of a classic “what got you here won’t get you there” sort of problem. If I really want to level up I’ll have to do things a little (or a lot) differently while still balancing family and personal health. That’s going to be a challenge!
One specific goal that I have for 2020 is to double my side hustle revenue. To break it down to an actual system, I know that I need to launch the course 3-4 times this year and continuing growing my list to have a chance at accomplishing this. Building a lead to launch system is the best outcome and opportunity I have to reach the double-revenue goal.
Thanks for reading my 2019 review! Like I said at the top, writing these always feels hectic to me, and this year was the latest I’ve ever published (still in January though). But I don’t write these for the moment, they’re for 2021 Matt and beyond. In another sense they’re for my boys too, building a personal archive of thoughts and takeaways from years past.
My boys are one of the reasons I do any public work, it’s why I started my YouTube channel. Sharing ideas, documenting life, talking through problems – how cool will it be that they will be able to read and watch everything?
I mean who knows when they think it will be cool, but I believe many of us would like a window into our parent’s experiences and mindset at some point. Even if they don’t, there’s always future Matt. Life is easy to forget, and this is a way to remember.
See you out there friends!