Well, I made it through another year.

Another year of coaching coaches to coach coaches who coach coaches.

*I took a trip to Hungary this year with my wife and in-laws*

Welcome to my 2024 Annual Review.

This is my 11th time doing this. Kind of crazy. I wrote my first Annual Review at the end of 2014, the year I started my coaching business.

Since I’m not on social media anymore, these reviews will hopefully convince you that I’m a real person and not just an AI bot churning out content. Of course, that’s what I’d say if I were an AI bot.

Nevermind.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

What Went Well Last Year?

Published 29 YouTube Videos

I doubled down on YouTube in 2024. Wow, there was a lot to learn. I hired a Hungarian video editor who I later found out was in high school (respect). Outsourcing the editing and thumbnails allowed me to save hours and get into a weekly publishing cadence.

I had a few videos that did pretty well. For example, my book review of $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi popped off:

Funny story about that video. I had someone who beat me in a high school wrestling match email me randomly and be like, “I saw your video in my feed! I want to do what you’re doing one day” I’m not on social media or anything so he must have found it randomly. My high school self felt redeemed.

Here’s another one that didn’t get as many views but I got great feedback on:

I slowed down my video production later in the year. YouTube was growing my email list to a certain extent, but it wasn’t really generating applications. Until I stopped, at which point it promptly started working. Sometimes things be like that.

*The hard work started to pay off about 8 months in with more people mentioning YouTube in their coaching applications*

Redesigned My Website And Got Headshots

Over my last 10+ years of business, my website has gone through multiple iterations. I worked with GoLive (affiliate link) to design the website and Nikki Groom to update my branding. In the past I’ve done my own websites so it was nice to get some expert support. You can see my website evolve through the years (using the Wayback Machine):

*The first version of my website in 2014*

*The most recent version of my site before the update*

In addition to updating my website, I drove to Rhode Island to get some great new headshots from Stephanie Ewens. It was fun!

Pro tip: You can use a site called photofeeler to figure out the best pictures to use in your marketing.

Now I can more easily fool people into thinking I know what I’m talking about.

Played Outside A Bunch

Work is overrated. Which is a good thing, because I didn’t do much of it this year.

Instead I chose to climb, snowboard, and separate my shoulder mountain biking. Now my collarbone just sort of sticks out. My modeling career ended as soon as it started.

*Messin’ around at Cold Hollow Sculpture Park*

*Lots of walks with Emma and Cricket, our 3 legged pitbull*

*I got first place in an outdoor bouldering competition*

*Driving back from a winter cold plunge with my two oldest guy friends, one of whom moved to Vermont this year*

*I did a ton of snowboarding including some backcountry + a trip to Utah*

Strengthened My Marriage

My main word going into 2024 was Partnership. Emma and I already had a great marriage, and we kicked it up a notch last year. We did some couples therapy, started scheduling monthly “mystery dates” (where one person plans a secret dinner and activity for the other), continued fostering teenagers, and saved $20k by DIY’ing a bathroom renovation:

*We hosted family for Thanksgiving and Christmas*

Took Some Great Trips

I went to Salt Lake City with my friend Toku, Puerto Rico with Emma, and Toronto with the teen we fostered before he turned 18.

*Went to Cape Cod to see my parents and took weekend trips with each of them this year*

The big trip was Hungary with my wife and in-laws. Emma’s dad grew up in Budapest and escaped as a child after the Hungarian revolution. It was great to have him and my wife as tour guides. We found gluten free versions of local baked goods, went to three different thermal baths, and stayed for a couple nights in a great airbnb outside of the city.

What Didn’t Go As Well?

Had A Hard Time Staying Motivated

This year it really hit me that I’ve been doing this for 11 years. My business has given me freedom, both financially and time-wise, but it does require a lot of emotional labor. It can be exhausting to self-motivate week in and week out for years.

At the end of 2023 I parted ways with my assistant and leaned out the business. With the exception of some limited coaching and support, like my video editor, I wasn’t investing as much in the business. I set up a lower monthly revenue target and just focused on hitting that goal each month. But that financial goal just became a source of anxiety without something bigger to move towards.

This year reminded me of the importance of deadlines and social accountability. For example, when I decided to launch a new membership I got into action and ended up enrolling 50 people. When I had the accountability of my video editor, I produced a video every week. I got everything in place for my website redesign. When I didn’t have those forms of external accountability, I struggled to get things done.

Got Lots Of Applications But Didn’t Take On Many New 1-1 Clients

Out of the 14 total clients I worked with 1-1 this year, only five of them were new. And two of those were from Weeks That Work, a group program I ran with my colleague Gemma Gilbert. On one hand, this is a good thing - it means that I have lots of returning clients who enjoy working with me. I seriously have the best clients. I also started signing certain people on for a year at $27k instead of six months at $15k. Highly recommend.

But here’s the thing: I got 64 applications for coaching in 2024. This was largely the result of my past SEO efforts, email marketing, an online summit, and YouTube.

Out of all those applications, I only had 22 strategy sessions. And out of those sessions, I only took on five clients. Five clients out of 64 apps. You may be thinking, “If I was getting 64 applications in a year, my business would be freaking huge!” Fair enough.

I’ve gotten incredibly picky about who I work with. It sometimes feels risky to take on a new client who might be a pain in the ass compared with my long-term clients who I love. Over the years I’ve had a few challenging clients who have really shook my confidence and caused me stress. In fact, I had one client this year who I gave a partial refund to so we could part ways early. Meanwhile, the rest of my clients were knocking it out of the park. Like my client Aashi who just finished a two year stint of coaching with me.

It’s really true what Marshall Goldsmith says about coaching: “Your biggest challenge as a coach is customer selection. You pick the right customer, you win. You pick the wrong customer, you lose. Focus on helping great people get better.”

A lot of the applications I get are from people who are earlier on in their business. They want 1-1 support, but the investment to work with me has gotten so high that they need to generate revenue quickly to get a good return on their investment. Which is why I’ve experimented over the years with lower end courses and group programs. But those models, while scaleable, have their own issues.

So sure. I got enough leads this year. But I didn’t get too many leads that I wanted to work with, and that showed in my metrics.

Had A Lower Revenue Year

This followed naturally from the above two points. With lower motivation, and fewer new 1-1 clients, my revenue went down by about 25% compared to 2023. I also saw smaller enrollment numbers this year for one of my programs, Weeks That Work.

Fortunately, because I had already leaned out the business significantly, my take-home pay remained steady and I was able to keep saving and investing. In fact, my wife and I crossed a big financial milestone this year that I’m super proud of. This is why I love using systems like Profit First to manage my business finances.

What Am I Focused On This Year?

2024 was a good year overall. I spent lots of time playing outside and working as a team with Emma. There were so many things that made me feel alive. But I just didn’t get that same spark consistently from my business.

Each year, I like to choose one word for the coming year. Here’s a nice little list of words I found to choose from. My word for 2024 was Partnership. And my word for 2025 is Release.

I hope to reimagine what work looks like for me now that I’ve built a happy, financially stable life. What would I do if I didn’t need to prove myself to anyone? What would I do just because it feels worthwhile? I don’t have all the answers yet but have already taken some steps forward.

I’ll end this review with a quote from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”

Thank you for reading this incredibly self-indulgent blog post. Happy New Year and remember to take good care of yourself.

Here are all my past Annual Reviews if you want to read more:

Annual Review 2024: Boulders, Budapest, & Balancing The Books