2023 in Review - The year nothing went according to plan.

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The last week of December is all about the yearly review and deep introspection about where we started and where we are today.

So, here is my yearly review.

2023 in Review

The year nothing went according to plan.

If I said 2023 was a good year, I would be lying to you. It was nothing less than amazing! It wasn’t at all what I expected, and there were so many hard things, but it was a good year for me, our family, and the business.

There were times when it was hard. It tested my and my beliefs. At times, I was about to give up on the pressure and settle for something I would not want.

But eventually, it ended up as a gift.

Travel

• We got ourselves Thar in the last week of December, and we did a massive 7,500 km road trip across India throughout January.

• We did an impulsive road trip to Kodaikanal with friends.

• We drove from Goa to Nagpur to Mumbai, then flew to Spain and then the Netherlands and back to Goa. We were traveling for 1.5 months then. 😅 We were so tired when we were back.

• Impulsively booked tickets for the finals of the World Cup in Ahmedabad and witnessed the sad ending live. 😭😢

Business

• The year started with me shutting down our Edtech Content Agency because Edtech ended up becoming no ed and no tech. Our order pipeline dried up, and our clients vanished. Everyone was moving out of Edtech like anything.

• I started the year by building another Agency for content repurposing and the timing could not have been worse. As soon as we got 4 clients, AI tools started dropping down and all our clients did not see any more value in our services.

• I launched an Agency building cohort. I did get a good response, did 2 cohorts, and got some results with the colleagues, but again I did not feel like continuing it and hence discontinued.

• By March, I ended up having no source of income, my runway was drying up, had a decent debt piled up and no clarity on what to do next. I was heartbroken and sad. Anxiety had taken control and I broke down. This was when I was also considering taking up a job in Bangalore and moving back to the city. It haunted me and still haunts me but I was very close to giving up my beautiful life in Goa.

• Then a miracle happened, a Founder based out of the US who was building a community platform offered me a product consultancy gig. I have been talking to him for the last 3 months because I love talking to him and love the problem he was trying to solve. This was the first surprise for 2023. This solved my instant money problems.

• As I was working on the product, I knew someday this would go and I have to build something that generates me side income. So, at least I don’t hit the rock bottom again. And I launched ProductMonk in June.

• After the initial testing of ProductMonk, I got Aneesha on the team to help me with content. My first teammate in my new business. Very thankful to her. ❤️

• Something clicked and ProductMonk started growing and making us some money. We doubled down on it and grew it to a decent size to ensure the continuance of cash flow.

• After seeing the success of ProductMonk, we got Dhara to the team and launched MarketingMonk to replicate the success and we never looked back then. MarketingMonk was a hit, right out of the gate.

• Then we launched Adventures of India. It was slow, was not a home run but I have high hopes from Adventures of India. Eventually, it will become a massive cash flow generator for us.

• By November, our lives were completely turned around. We had paid off our debt, we had decent enough savings and two high cashflow publications.

• As predicted, the plug was pulled off the product gig in December. But, thankfully, Moonshot Media (my media company that holds all the publications) has a strong cash flow and while covering business costs, will also take care of me.

• Moonshot Media is now a 5 member team (including me) and we will soon launch more publications.

• We have invested heavily in Equity in the last six months. I don’t invest anywhere else apart from Equity.

Exciting journey, right?

I am doing all of this to protect my dream of living in Goa and on my own terms.

I don’t fancy job titles or paychecks anymore. I just don’t want to move to a city (Bangalore/Mumbai) for the sake of work. I want to wake up in peace, spend evenings across a beach, and ride my vehicles as a free bird.

All this for a peaceful life.

Kudos to me for protecting my dream for one more year. 👏

Personal

• I gained a lot of weight. 21kgs to be precise because of the inconsistency and stress. I am not proud of this, but this is one critical area where I failed miserably.

• My relations with friends and family are at their best. I never imagined I would be so close to some of them and make new friends in the process. Though we live very far from all our friends, we have regularly found excuses to meet each other and executed them. Even while writing this, our friends are coming over from Bangalore and Mumbai to celebrate New Year.

• Me and my wife, we live at extremes. Nothing happens for a month, pure boredom, we sit on the couch and Netflix for months. But then, there are months at a stretch when wither we are traveling or hosting friends.

Last Year’s Goals

It’s funny to look back on these now. I missed nearly every goal I set last year. But I still feel like it was a wildly productive year! Just very different than I expected.

• Grow and sustain our Agencies to $10k MRR
  Nope, ended up shutting down both the Agencies. But, ended up doing >$10k MRR for 5 months and the rest above $6k MRR with the Product Gig and Newsletters. This was far better than Rs. 22 lakhs CTC, I was in my job in 2022.

• Take up a Hobby Pilot Training Course

  Missed this by a mile. Did not even inquire about it.

• Ride to Leh Ladakh from Goa.
  Missed this too, but ended up traveling to Spain and the Netherlands, I also drove to Dharamshala and back. So, I think it makes it up.

Writing this review has made me grateful for so many things. 2023 was an incredible year, even though nothing went according to plan.

Thanks for reading! And if you wrote your year-in-review post I’d love for you to include a link to it in your comment.

Every year, I use Year Compass to do a deep dive into my previous year and plan my next year. I would strongly recommend you to give it a try. It would surely make you grateful for the last year and be excited for the coming year.

In my next email, I will share my plans and goals for 2024 in detail. 2024 is going to be massive, I am building some amazing stuff and am excited to show you.

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