Looking back on this year, I am proud of how much has changed. My 2025 review:
Agency
- Worked with several interesting clients, and one really big one (Publicis)
- Service business really teaches you the ropes of business
- Agency revenue however was relatively stagnant, more people using AI
- Sometimes I enjoy the work (creative), sometimes I dont (process)
- Need to reflect on how much time I spend working on other people's stuff in 2026
Apps
- Shipped Media (trymedia.ai) and kept growing my first app
- Got a legal threat from a huge company who tried to stop me launching Media (survived!)
- Shipped several other apps, most failed
- Final app shipped was Launch (trylaunch.ai), which is now my fastest growing app
Podcast
- Our podcast HYPEWORKS (hypeworkspod.com) passed 50 episodes
- Learned to use AI to speed up production from guests to filming to editing
- The podcast grew faster than I expected, with better guests, deeper conversations and more inbound than ever before
- Took it offline with our first summit in Bangkok
- Seeing people show up in real life made all the late nights worth it
Success
- This was also the year I properly learned to ship products via vibe coding and entrepreneurship
- Building in public wasn't something I ever did personally in corporate, now it's every day
- Distribution is now so important, trying to do more social media personally and with the pod
- Fail fast was something I thought was a cliche but it's true, have to keep shipping
Failing
- I learnt I have a LONG way to go with coding and dev work, hit my limits in terms of what I can do, especially using AI
- Worked myself into the ground at times which then cost me time/health
- Didn't travel or spend time with friends overseas enough
- Didn't invest enough time in my own social media/personal brand
- Didn't implement enough systems and processes to make life easier
Personal
- Made the most money I ever have from my own work/entrepreneurship
- A full year living the nomad life in Thailand/Bangkok in particular gave me space, energy and momentum.
- Worked harder than ever on physical fitness, completed first Hyrox and soon HK half marathon to round off the cycle
Still a lot to do.
But this year laid foundations I will be building on for a long time.
Ending the year peacefully in Scotland. Happy new year!