Each year, I’ve been doing a life and business breakdown where I go through my year and list some of my accomplishments, failures, and new years resolutions for the coming year.
You can look into my 2016 Life and Business Breakdown and my 2017 Life and Business Breakdown.
It’s nice to be able to look back on my life and keep track of my progress. I also share it as inspiration for others out there into personal development.
Cool Shit I did in 2018
- Went snowboarding at Howes Caverns
- Went to El Salvador for 10 days and found my birth mother
- Did a 30 day challenge to slim down
- Flew in a helicopter over NYC
- Spoke in public to entrepreneurs
- Went Hiking in New Jersey
- Did a photoshoot for the first time
- Met my new sister in LA
- Traveled to LA, Big Sur, Pismo Beach
- Did National Novel Writing Month
- Bought a suit for first time
- Went Axe Throwing
- Went on a sailboat for my bday
I went through a lot of big changes this year. I got much better at fashion, and oddly enough, that kind of turned into my new years resolution for the year that I completed.
I also got more into hairstyles and for the first time in my life, changed up my hair. It was very out of the comfort zone for me.
Books I read in 2018
- Review of the Way of the Wolf by Jordan Belfort
- Review of The Way of Men by Jack Donovan
- Takeaways of Sell or Be Sold by Grant Cardone
- I’ve also been reading the Untethered Soul, NLP, Copywriting, Rational Male, and one on leadership. Scientific advertising. The problem is that I haven’t finished them and I have yet to take notes on them.
I am disappointed by my reading progress this year. I did learn a lot from Russel Brunson by watching his videos more and other YT content. It can be annoying to take notes, but I need to keep it up.
New Gear
- White board
- Backup camera battery, SD card
- A lot of fashion stuff
- Small tripod
- New Camera Lens 50 mm
- Final Cut Pro
- GoPro
I used my wireless mic a lot this year when making videos in the backyard of my apartment with my white board.
I have yet to get a new drone after I smashed my Hubsan in El Salvador.
By far, my biggest expenses were for my new apartment with all of the furniture and my fashion items which transformed my look.
Main YouTube Channel
Compared with 2017, my main YouTube channel, Crowdfunding Demystified, grew by 49%. I can sense it’s starting to level out though. I need to keep growing it in the coming year.
It did almost three times the amount of revenue as it did in 2017. Woah! Some months were better than others.
In order to keep growing, I think I’m going to have to diversify the content a bit. I also have been seeing solid business results from the back-end from my YouTube channel.
Side YouTube Channel
My side YouTube channel, Life of Freedom, experienced a lot of growth this year. It was my goal to get to 1,000 subs so I could start to have my vids monetized.
Due to my “finding my birth mother” video, it’s now at 3k+ subs and doing well. You can see this big spike in views from 2017 to 2018 down below.
These views also brought in revenue to my surprise. I didn’t really expect that. I was kind of hoping I’d make a little passive income, but it was more than I thought.
However, this initial success comes with a price. How am I going to repeat that this year? I don’t think I’ll be able to stumble upon some kind of unbelievable story again.
I have to continue to put out content on this channel and figure out ways to grow it. Not sure how I’m going to do that yet. However, I am also using it to promote some of my side products and document my travels.
Products I Created
- Blogging for Beginners Book
- Blogging for Beginners Udemy Course
- Kickstarter Launch Formula Udemy Course
- Wrote most of “Finding Home”
- Equity Crowdfunding Explained
- Filmed all of podcasting course
I wish I created more products this year. It’s hard balancing all of this. I had many new students enroll in my programs. Coaching has been a good revenue stream.
My Failures
- Leadership: I need to get much better on this front. While my goal was to delegate more and I was able to accomplish that to some degree, I also realized I lack core leadership abilities leading to some un-intended effects.
- Drinking: While I’m not an alcoholic, drinking does negatively affect my life. My plan was to stay away for the first six months of the year, but I failed at that.
- Friends: I have been letting my personal relationships down due to work, etc. I need to invest more time in making new friends and keeping existing ones.
- Wasting money: I’ve spent way too much money this year on things I don’t need. In general, I haven’t been very frugal with my money. This is partly because I’ve been earning more than I have before and for the first time in my life can actually buy things for myself.
- Diet/Body: From October on, my diet has been horrible and I’ve put on more weight due to stress and lack of proper exercise
My Thoughts
A recurring theme seems to be not enough focus on reading, personal growth, drinking as a negative habit that has bad effects on my life.
My personal finance system has been doing better. I’m starting to grow more in my wealth due to this. However, I need to focus on cutting down my personal expenses.
I think that on the negative side, I was far too showy/egotistical, and a bit too focused on income this year. I need to be more humble, appreciative, and stop needing “stuff.” This is rooted in my having nothing when I first got started.
I definitely got better at selling, which was one of my goals for the year. I got a bit better at delegation, though I still have a ways to go.
My biggest positive impacts in 2017 hold true for this year as well. If I could do more reading, I would be happy.
My Life at This Age
Last year I felt my age a little bit. This year, I definitely feel it. I have a limited amount of time to accomplish what I want to in this life. I have to stop screwing around.
I think that I need to go all-in on my existing business and focus. Then, use that income to cash flow real estate and other assets. I need to save up for a downpayment on a multi-family property.
I have also started to think about some of the things I want to do by the time I’m 30, like travel more. I only have 2.5 years left until I’m there. It’s weird. If I want to have kids some day, I also have to plan that.