Every year I take some time to reflect on the previous and set goals for myself for the upcoming year. Well, 2022 is a new year so here are my goals!
Hear a more in depth overview of my goals on the latest episode of the Compressed.fm Podcast.
My 4 Pillars
Each time I plan, I create 4 pillars for myself. These are high-level initiatives that I can use to align my individual goals with. In other words, every goal that I create should align somehow to one of those pillars.
Give Back to the Community
This is always a top priority for me. As I continue to grow a following and audience, I want to leverage that not just for myself, but for the benefit of the community. There are lots of ways to do this.
- monthly giveaways
- highlighting content from other developers
- showing up in Discord, Twitter, etc.
Ship a New Personal Brand
This was a top item for me last year that I didn't quite accomplish. I'll be working with my fabulous podcast co-host, Amy Dutton, to do a complete rebrand this year.
- new website
- YouTube + social templates
- much more!
As part of the new brand, I'll be migrating my website from Gatsby to Next.js. Keep an eye out for that!
Repurpose and Cross-Promote
This is something I talk about all the time, but never feel like I do a good enough job. It's easy to get on the "content hamster wheel" and set your goal to ship as much content as possible. BUT that's a quick way to get burned out.
Not every piece of content needs to be brand new. It's better and more effective to repurpose content and share in other places. For example, as I my site from Gatsby to Next.js, there are infinite nuggets along the way that I should be sharing. These nuggets could come in many different forms.
- code snippet tweet
- YouTube video
- TikTok + YouTube short
- blog post
See that? With one initiative, I can create contnet for multiple different platforms and not have to start from scratch on each one!
Create Focused Content
This year I want to be a bit more specific with the topics I cover in my content. I've been loving SvelteKit recently and want to explore some of the new React frameworks. I also want to learn more about CI/CD/DevOps and testing. Expect me to put a lot of time and focus into these areas 👀
By the Numbers
The 4 pillars are really the most important piece, but I bet what you are most interested in is numbers: followers, subscribers, money, etc. As you read through these, remember they are just numbers. They are not the important part.
The important part is me focusing on creating value for myself and the community. Whatever growth that leads to is an extra benefit.
Side Income
In 2021, I earned about $65,000 outside of my full-time job. It's such a wild number, that I still have trouble believing it's real. Regardless, it's immensely encouraging to think that people value the things that I create enough to pay for them. In general, I make money from several different things.
- YouTube ads
- sponsored YouTube videos (and other content)
- courses
- Podcast sponsorships
It's really great to have several different sources of income, all of which I really enjoy.
So, my goal for the upcoming year is to generate $100,000 in side income.
We'll see how this goes, but I'm optimistic and I can continue to create great content that other people believe in.
YouTube
Last year, I grew to 100k subscribers on YouTube and this year my goal is 300k. My numbers recently have been much slower which makes this interesting. Hopefully, the growth picks back up and puts me back on the path to 300k!
Courses
Amy and I will be launching Everything Svelte in the Spring. This is going to be the biggest course I've ever been a part of and I am so excited about it. For now, you can sign up for the newsletter, so go and check it out.
We are also talking about a few more smaller courses throughout the year. These will probably be similar to our Advent of JS and Advent of CSS courses. I think these courses with a series of challenges are fun to create and also really helpful for learning developers.
Wrap Up
I'm so excited for this year! I've rambled long enough, so I'd love to hear what your goals are for this year. Let me know in this tweet.