KP’s 2023 Annual Review
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” — Bill Gates
CAREER:
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What are top 5 highlights this year?
- Was full-time founder CEO much of this year. Launched BIPF and BIPPF and ran 5 cohorts serving 55 founders across the two programs
- Sunset BIPF as I couldn’t find PMF (full story here)
- Crossed $100k in revenue across all projects
- Launched and sunset 2 SaaS projects: Sponsorsoup and LeaderBird
- Shipped 38 podcast episodes, 48 newsletter editions. Grew my X to 49,000 from 40,000. Grew my podcast to 17,800 plays from 8200 downloads.
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What energized me this year?
- Activities that involved me advising and guiding founders REALLY energized me (this happened through 1:1s at BIPF, Office Hours at ATV)
- Activities that involved teaching or presenting slides in live sessions (w/ interactive Q and A) with founders (did this for nearly 100 sessions at BIPF, talks at UGA biz school, ATV and guest workshops at other communities)
- Building an amazing high-trust team at BIPF that energized me and aligned with my vision and leadership style
- Being very intentional about picking the right kind of customers to serve vs accepting anyone into BIPF or any other projects I did
- Getting to interview some really remarkable people on my podcast and using that as a platform to explore my genuine curiosity
- Being open about my founder journey and seeking advice from other founders who I trust and respect
- Getting to collab with Neil Thanedar on Utopic as a Venture Partner
- New high-trust high energy friendships that spurred from BIPF (like Andrew Tsao etc)
Two specific podcast appearances of mine that energized me:
- Workshop for the Heartbeat community: “The Cult-Like Strategy Changing Brands Forever (KP) ” link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV_UPIzMcHA
- My interview on Jeremy Redman’s Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se3M6BwH7tM
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What sucked my energy this year?
- Operational work at BIPF like sending event invites and update emails to founders (luckily I found Maryam who helped me with this)
- Financial reviews and tax planning (luckily I hired outside experts who’ve been helpful here too)
- Trying to ship BIP OS course. I had a wrong mindset from the start and kept getting side tracked and never stood the chance to finish it. So I abandoned it as it got to be super painful towards the end. I learned from this experience and that helped shape my next course (PH Masterclass, see below)
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What am I proud of this year?
- Shipping this high-quality Product Hunt Masterclass course. I am very proud of this given how I struggled to finish a course earlier this year but for this one I maintained a steady focus and cultivated the skill of taking one step at a time.
- Shipping this high-quality lead magnet for BIPF
- Helping 32 hunts on Product Hunt this year (many of them landing the top spot of the day)
- High NPS scores of BIPF cohorts and the wonderful community that has formed over there which will pay intangible dividends in the long run.
- Super proud of 2 SaaS experiments I ran despite the unfortunate results. I learned a ton in the process and can’t wait to get back into the arena in 2024.
Side note: Here are some additional lessons I documented a few weeks earlier: https://thisiskp.com/blog/golden-lessons-i-learned-in-2023
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What am I most thankful for this year?
- Opportunity to serve and help founders at ATV as an Advisor
- Being featured on Atlanta Business Chronicle
- Feeling loved and appreciated for my presence and work by an incredible group of founders globally. See this.
- Little moments like these that made me happy and grateful through the year
- My mom leaving wholesome comments on my Youtube channel :)
- Being invited to be the 1st guest on alma mater’s podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEDHJfRtUz8&t=1054s
- Being the 1st guest on Jim Kroft’s podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXPJG51aNzg
- My incredible team (Maryam Khan, Waela and many others who supported me this year)
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What was my output in 2023?
Creatively and professionally, 2023 was a signature year in terms of my output. I was insanely productive without feeling burned out. I have finally mastered the balance of being present with my family while working in bursts and leveraging my small team to augment my productivity where needed.
Here’s all that I shipped in 2023:
- 32 Product Hunt campaigns for founders
- 38 podcast episodes on BIP Pod
- 36 newsletter editions on KP’s Column
- 12 newsletter editions on How I Built This In Public
- Shipped 181 videos on Youtube (in total)
Here’s some of my favorite outcomes from the work above:
- Grew my X account from 40,000 → 49,000
- Grew Linkedin to 1750 followers
- Grew Youtube to 588 subscribers
- Grew podcast downloads to 17,800
PERSONAL LIFE:
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What are my favorite memories this year?
- Trip to India where Neil got to physically see his grandma (my mom) and his great grandma (my grandma) for the first time
- Trip to Panama City Beach with my wife and son
- Trip to Smoky Mountains with my wife, son and in-laws etc
- Note: In my annual review last year, I shared an intention to have:
- “Have a brilliant year with family time, fun memories, plenty of opportunities to feel loved and offer love to others and grow as a human”
- This manifested 100% in 2023 and I’m so grateful for that ❤️
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What are some of the roughest memories?
- Losing our baby due to miscarriage
- Having to part ways with some friends who aren’t energy matches for me anymore
- Having to wind down BIPF (which I loved) but was impractical financially
- Having to quit BIP OS (my online course) which became too painful to finish
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What are some new personal growth skills I cultivated?
- Learning to trust my gut and energy compass better while making decisions (ex: hiring, firing, client decisions etc)
- Ability to bounce back after a setback within 2-3 days as opposed to weeks or months (ex: in the past, a decision like shutting down BIPF would have crushed me but I got back up in 3 days)
- Ability to ask and seek advice without shame or ego (talking to my wife, calling my sister during crucial business decisions etc)
- Appreciating my loved ones and respecting them even more (this year I truly valued them and showed my gratitude clearly and frequently)
- Over indexing on love and joy vs fear and doubt (got to practice this a lot thru daily affirmations and journaling)
RECOMMENDATIONS:
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What are the top books/podcasts that inspired me?
- Founders Podcast by David Senra
- Acquired Podcast by Ben and David
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Who are those who inspired me a lot this year?
- Alex Hormozi through his lessons on sales, leads and offers
- David Senra through his obsession on his craft of reading biographies and podcasting
- Charlie Munger through his wisdom and life lessons (which I learned via many podcasts and books)
- Danny Miranda whose friendship I cherish and who I believe radiates the most authentic and happy energy
and many more that I can’t remember now
LOOKING AHEAD:
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What are my top focus areas of 2024?
- Be financially thriving, eliminate all my debt (currently have about $50k) and add $20,000 in savings
- Finish finding a great new full-time role at a startup to maintain cash flow and financial stability
- Found a SaaS startup (on the side) and grow it to $2k MRR by Dec 2024, try as many as 12 startup ideas in 2024 until the right one takes off
- Be in the fittest shape of my life by Dec 2024, workout 300 times in the year (at least 25 times a month)
- Become an even more of a learning machine (through books and podcasts)
- Start a Mastermind group for other ambitious + kind founders who want accountability, support and feedback
- Spend just as much as in 2023 or more time with my wonderful wife and son and even my mom and sister
- Be an even bigger teacher in 2024 (publish more videos on Youtube to teach, more podcast solo episodes, more workshops to share your knowledge, more tweets on insights etc)
- Be an even bigger giver in 2024 (send great books as gifts for others, help those in need for money, volunteer to help founders like this, write small donations to charity etc)
Note: If you want to read my 2022 review, click here.
Enjoyed this? I write KP's Column weekly for 6,500+ founders. And I genuinely read every reply - say hi at @thisiskp_.