My 2024 Recap

So many people are doing 2024 recaps, so I figured I’d write one too.

2024 was a weird year. That’s even an understatement.

At the beginning business was extremely slow. It rather sucked.

Most of the business I had this year pushed off to the 2nd quarter or later. Thank goodness for ongoing maintenance and hosting business.

Once the year picked up, it wasn’t as fruitful and I had hoped.

But I did discover a new vertical to explore — podcast coaching.

Podcast Mastery was born out this weird and rather sucky year. Unlike when I started Goldstein Media 17 years ago. The interest in podcast coaching is hot right now. To be honest podcasts in general are in their second or third renaissance.

Enter Podcast Coaching Arena

What I found is that business people are realizing that having a brand-related show or sponsoring a relevant podcast makes sense for brand recognition and even some return on investment, though the latter takes time.

So, hung up my podcast coaching shingle.

I decided that the complete suite of podcasting wasn’t where I wanted to focus. I do my own production work for my Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast and Digital Marketing Dive, but I’m better suited to help people get started with their shows and how to keep them going for the long haul, than doing the whole production process.

What I work on with my current clients is how to structure the podcast, set expectations, and streamline the overall process to ensure success. This alone is quite a bit of coaching and fully in my area of expertise.

I’ve been podcasting for 15 years, it’s hard to believe, and in that time I’ve learned so many things to do correctly from doing them the wrong way.

So, with a few clients already signed up and more coming onboard this year, I’m really excited for where that’s going.

Mentoring Startups

I’m worked though my 4th (or was it 5th) cohort as a mentor for the Founder Institute’s Keystone chapter. I really enjoy helping emerging startups with their digital marketing.

I’m currently working with four startups in varying degrees as an advisor, and I’m finding what I can contribute to be really helpful and rewarding.

Homelife

Last year was another year in the life of being a father to an amazingly smart (often too smart) son and an extremely lucky husband to the most amazing woman in the world.

All I’m going to say about parenting is that it’s hard and add pre-teen moodiness and puberty to the mix, is a real trip.

The kiddo turned 12 in November. Looking back I can’t believe how old he’s getting and did I mention how smart he is? He’s already surpassed my knowledge of math a long time ago and he’s coding Roblox experiences and types faster than I do. He’s getting all A’s in school. I’m proud of him.

Looking Forward… 2025

Man, this year’s going to be interesting. I’m hoping that what’s going on with WordPress and it’s co-founder Matt Mullenweg simmers down and the community takes over the project from the “BDFL”, who hasn’t been acting very benevolent and WordPress, which powers more than 40% of the websites on the interwebs continues to grow and evolve, with LESS DRAMA.

I’m cautiously hopefully that something good will happen, but hopefully not going as far as a phoenix rising from the ashes. God, that’d be horrible.

I’m really hoping the podcast coaching practice picks up and grows as it looks like it’s trending.

Hey, it’s day two of 2025. Let’s buckle up and get going!

#2024 #LookingBackAt2024 #LookingForwardTo2025 #Retrospective