2015: Year In Review

I’ve posted a Year In Review every year for the last 5 years (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014), and it’s become something I really look forward to doing. It helps me pause, remember, celebrate, and offer my gratitude for another really special year of life on this strange planet.

This year, it’s been an absurdly monumental challenge to just find the time to do my review, which, as I ponder it, seems a rather fitting statement about the crazy year I’m wrapping up.

Let’s jump in!

It’s probably worth noting up front that I didn’t achieve a single one of my goals for 2015. It might be argued that I achieved #4, but the rest… notsomuch. Here were my goals:

1) Maintain my take-home income from 2014, 2) Sell 1500 books, 3) Have at least one baby-free date with my wife every month, 4) Develop consulting methodology and clear product lines for the new brand, 5) Increase speaking revenues 4x over 2014, 6) Read at least 2 nonfiction and 2 fiction books, 7) Blog 1x/month here and 1x/month on the new company website, 8) Host Work Revolution Summit 2 and double the tribe size, 9) Create outline for Book 2

Yeah, I didn’t do any of that.

Here’s what happened: I drastically underestimated the amount of time and energy it would take to do four things:

1. Merge my solo consulting practice with another firm, going from 1 employee (me) to 6 employees (including me), and becoming a CEO
2. Purchase and build a house in another state
3. Add another baby to our family
4. Move said family across the country

At the beginning of 2015 when I outlined my goals, I knew #1 and #3 were going to happen but I did NOT know about #2 and #4. Had I known about those, perhaps I would have written different objectives…? Who knows.

In any case, despite my apparent goal failure, I don’t really see 2015 that way. In fact, I see it as quite the opposite — in my mind, I prioritized the exact right things and I enjoyed the hell out of my last year living in LA! A few notable accomplishments…

My wife and I made lots of time to be with dear friends, went to Disneyland a lot (9 times if you’re counting, including 2 with our newborn baby!), hosted our parents, and crossed all the big items off our “to-do before leaving LA” list. We even squeezed in a few kid-free date nights!

On the health front, I’m thrilled to report that I finally developed a moderately respectable yoga practice. (Something I’ve been wanting to do for far too many years.)

Right around the middle of the year, my new biz partner and I decided to split our one new company into two new companies — one focused on consulting services (beForte.com) and one on products (strengthscopeUS.com). This was a huge amount of work, but we’re already seeing the benefits. I’m also happy to report that the new businesses ended the year profitably, which feels to me like nothing to scoff at given everything else that was going on.

In 2015, I traveled to: San Francisco, San Diego, Kansas City, Seattle, Denver, Detroit, Iowa City, and Chicago.

And, oh yeah, did I mention we did the above 4 things?

All in all, I’d say it was a pretty thrilling year. So what shall we do next…?

 

Goals For 2016:

1. Continue my yoga practice
2. Get my salary back to pre-merger levels
3. Grow Twitter followers 10x (right now I’m at ~2000)
4. Official proposal/outline and agent for Biz Book #2
5. Work Revolution Summit #2
6. Build a thriving local network in Denver
7. 50% unstructured time (no meetings in afternoons)

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