2024 was a year of new chapters — both personally and professionally.
This year felt long. Each quarter felt like it's own era with different trips, relationships, and seasons of business.
I like to follow James Clear's annual review template, which leads you through answering three questions:
If you have a question about any of this or feel like there's an important piece of information missing, please do let me know and I'd love to fill it in as it probably a simple oversight.
It was a fantastic year for Conversion Factory. We nearly doubled our annualized revenue in 2024 (2023 wasn't a full year in business). Despite the challenge of both of my co-founders, Zach and Nick, going on paternity leave in the same month to welcome their new babies, we survived it and came out with better processes and delegation.
The most significant update is that we added teammates for the first time, bringing on contractors for copywriting, design, and Webflow development. Everyone always says they wished they hired sooner, and now I join that crowd. This shift was a game changer, significantly reducing the workload for us co-founders and allowing space to work on higher-level projects. In turn, I’ve been able to work on the business instead of in the business.
We iterated on our pricing several times, improving it based on client feedback and a firmer grasp on our business model. Every time we've made an update, good things happened.
Work travel played a big role in my year, with 88 days on the road and 11 conferences attended. My favorite conferences were both MicroConf US and MicroConf Europe as well as CaboPress. This year solidified my suspicion that smaller conferences are not only way more fun, they're also way better for business. I want to only go to <500 people conferences next year.
A personal highlight was a three-week trip to Europe with close friends and their kids. We explored Italy, the south of France, Scotland, and Ireland, creating unforgettable memories. We also managed to do it with two kids under the age of two, which I talk about in my post about how to plan a trip with friends.
I feel I really hit a stride in this area. I finished the Murph workout in 69 minutes with a weighted vest. My goal was to get under an hour, but that'll have to wait until the next time. Push-ups exposed a need to strengthen my shoulders, which is a goal for 2025.
I maintained a consistent weightlifting routine of two to three times per week and saw great progress in strength, particularly in my lower body.
Jiu jitsu became a bigger focus this year, with training ramped up to three to four times per week. At times I felt like I was plateauing, then some concepts would click and I would have a breakthrough that made a noticeable difference. I also started developing a personal style that leverages my length, focuses on a top game with slow pressure, and prioritizes my favorite submissions.
I published a record amount this year, with several posts performing well in organic search. My posts on men’s fashion and how to beat your friends at poker have driven significant traffic thanks to SEO. I’ve also written on personal topics like recovering from divorce as a Christian, my hair transplant experience, and reflections on an animal-based diet. All of these are available on my blog at corey.co/blog.
I got back into playing guitar this year by leading worship for a small church home group and learning R&B neo-soul style electric guitar. It’s been a great creative and fulfilling outlet.
A big win was following Marek Health’s advice and doing blood panels to track the effectiveness of supplements. This approach helped me increase my testosterone by 45% in under a year.
Debt-free again! Some retail therapy and a few expensive procedures in 2023 after my quarter-life crisis put me in the hole a bit. I diligently paid it down and even paid off my car. Yay!
I’ve had a recurring issue with my right knee, stemming from an MCL tear 10 years ago. This year, it continued to bother me in my travels with days that had extended walking and when going down a lot of steps. I spent a decent amount of money and did three months of injections of special compounds called TB-500 and BPC-157, along with some light physical rehab exercises. Unfortunately, I still feel like I'm at square one.
An ongoing dispute with my ex about the dog has been a huge distraction this year. That's about all I can say about it.
While the audience grew, pruning nearly 8,000 old subscribers brought the total list size down. Sales for the membership and courses slowed, confirming my suspicion that I need to make big updates and create fresh digital products. I also didn’t write as many new editions of the newsletter as I had hoped, which is a focus for 2025.
I took a break from listening to business podcasts this year, and it turned out to be a welcome reprieve. While I missed some aspects, the constant influx of ideas often left me feeling scattered and envious rather than inspired. Stepping away gave me more clarity and focus. I guess the real point of mentioning this is that I feel like my learning was lacking this year and I felt a bit out of touch with what's going on in the industry.
Four SaaS projects — LearnCopywriting.com, Retext.io, OgilvyApp.com, and Commenze.com — didn’t launch this year, which felt like a setback. However, one SaaS project, Truelist, gained traction and has been exciting to work on. Additionally, I bought out my co-founder at SwipeWell and am now searching for a replacement. Development on SwipeWell has stagnated, but I’m optimistic about making progress in 2025.
This year, I started learning Spanish and currently have a Duolingo streak of about 270 days. I want my future kids to be raised bilingual.
This year, I’ve learned the importance of forming my own opinions and not caring as much about what others think. I’ve embraced hearing contradictory ideas while holding fast to what I believe is true. It’s been freeing to realize that differing opinions don’t have to hurt relationships. For example, I can't tell you how many conversations I've had about my diet or dating practices, and that’s okay, everything's still fine.
Working with our new teammates at Conversion Factory has really highlighted the importance of creating solid processes and trusting others to execute. It's the crux to making everything work. I feel like my eyes have been opened, and I'm eager to lean even more into it.
This year was my first time dating in a decade. The dating world has changed a lot since then! Online dating has been both a blessing and curse. It's exciting, easy to filter, and accessible. I met so many people I likely never would have without an app. I've also learned it's fickle and to not to get attached too quickly and to let things unfold naturally. I dated a lot, but now I'm excited to explore a serious committed relationship.
Staying consistent with daily devotions — Bible reading, prayer, and a devotional — made a significant difference in my mindset, happiness, and connection with God.
Reading more sci-fi in particular was a great escape from work.
Here’s a recap of what I read:
