2025 was the year where a lot of things I’d been practicing quietly — delegation, product thinking, trusting other people, trusting the process — started to compound in visible ways. It didn’t feel flashy while it was happening. Mostly it felt like showing up, making small decisions, and handing things off earlier than felt comfortable.
Looking back, though, the results are kind of wild.
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.
The Conversion Factory crew grew to 16 people this year — us three cofounders plus thirteen others.
That number still feels fake when I say it out loud.
Revenue increased by ~35%. Yay money!
A big theme of the year was learning (again) that hiring isn’t just about getting work done — it’s about scaling yourself. Our goal was to create a bunch of mini Coreys, mini Zachs, and mini Nicks. Every time I handed something off that I could do myself, it felt risky. And almost every time, it worked out better than if I’d held onto it.
Delegation has real magic to it. Not in a hustle-guru way, but in a very practical, “oh, this is how leverage actually works” way.
We also acquired a newsletter — H1 Gallery — which is incredibly exciting and still feels early in the story.
On the Swipe Files side, we rebranded and published four ebooks like the SaaS Marketing Ideas eBook, which felt amazing finally seeing these come to life.
A big win this year was finding a new cofounder for SwipeWell. That alone changed the trajectory of the business and my own energy around it.
A big loss: I paid out of pocket for a developer who refused to use AI and, despite a lot of time and money, basically never shipped anything meaningful. That one hurt. Basically about $10k and 6 months down the drain.
Still, the new cofounder win outweighed the loss. We're just about to launch the "2.0" version that includes a ton of new features, many of which leverage AI. He shipped more in the first couple weeks than the previous developer did his entire tenure.
I'm very excited about it's future!
Thanks to AI and a lot of practice, I went from struggling vibe coder to someone who actually understands how software works.
You can see how my shipping rate ramped up as the models drastically improved toward the end of the year.
I don’t write any code anymore — but now I have a thorough understanding of software best practices: tooling, workflows, architecture, UX, and all the invisible decisions that make products feel solid instead of fragile.
Because I've been vibe coding since the very beginning, I also feel like I have a really solid grasp of how to harness the power of AI the best and constantly be on the cutting edge of workflows and tools.
I still use Cursor, but Claude Code is my go-to now. The whole experience is a step up from anything else before it.
I shipped a lot of projects this year — some serious, some just for fun.
I won’t name names for the SaaS projects (copycats are real), but the numbers tell the story:
On top of that, I shipped smaller things like Conlang and Invoice Command and TestDummy, which were mostly just fun experiments — but still sharpened my skills.
Shipping begets shipping.
I experimented with other frameworks outside of Ruby on Rails and have now really come to appreciate the Nextjs stack and ecosystem.
I did a DEXA scan this year, which gave me a much clearer (and more honest) picture of where I’m at physically. I like data. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable, but it beats guessing.
I also ran monthly blood tests, kept a solid diet and fitness routine, and stayed consistent with supplements. Despite all that, I haven’t been able to move the needle on my testosterone any further. That’s been frustrating — but informative.
In 2026, I’m planning to experiment with peptides and see what happens.
My jiu jitsu hit a new level this year, and I’m still just as in love with it as ever. Still a white belt, but honestly I kind of love that. The "white belt mentality" keeps me loose and, for once, not goal oriented. My goal isn't to get the next belt for some kind of external validation, it's to keep enjoying learning and challenging myself.
One of the quiet wins this year was prioritizing sleep.
It paid huge dividends — not just physically, but in day-to-day energy, mood, patience, and overall happiness. Turns out being well-rested makes almost everything easier. Who knew.
I almost never use my alarm. And sometimes I sleep in when I pull a late night. I've never been a morning person, so it sucks to start my day even later than usual when I need to catch up on sleep, but my productivity is so much higher when I’m fully rested.
I traveled a good amount this year, but the trips weren’t just “check a box” travel.
The trip with my uncle was particularly meaningful, as it was a tour to see his old friends and visit churches he helped plant decades ago.
Plus, my cousin and I skydived in the Swiss Alps together. Memories for life.
I made real progress with Spanish this year, helped by a 620-day Duolingo streak that I refuse to let die.
More meaningfully, my girlfriend and I started volunteering at an orphanage in Tijuana. It's crazy that Tijuana is literally right across the border from San Diego — it's a portal to another world just 15 minutes away.
It’s been great for my Spanish, but more than that, it’s been very fulfilling personally and spiritually. We get to build relationships with kids that don't have any source of consistency in their lives.
I also spent more time working on emotional intelligence — learning how to identify what I’m actually feeling and communicate it clearly and subjectively.
I'm very dude-coded. My therapist had to give me a "feelings pillow" with a giant wheel of emotions on it to help me get more specific about what exactly I was experiencing.
It's taken a lot of practice and I still very much feel like a novice. But it’s showing up and paying dividends everywhere: relationships, leadership, stress-management, and self-awareness. Worth it.
I think part of this progress has also been a daily prayer practice. I've never been more consistent with prayer until this last year, especially thanks to my girlfriend and praying with her.
I leaned into curiosity this year.
Manic all-nighters coding. Hundreds of hours of YouTube videos on writing fiction. Binge-watching organized crime dramas. Going deep on things with no clear ROI.
It wasn’t always balanced — but it was worth it. And I don’t regret it.
In the past, I would have told myself "one day I'll get to that" and then it would constantly be on my mind, distracting me from the things I needed to do.
By indulging my curiosity, I was able to let it take it's course and then get back to my main priorities.
I still haven’t listened to a business podcast in almost three years.
As a result, I experience way less jealousy, FOMO, and discontent. I work on things I actually find interesting instead of whatever I hear is working for other people. I feel more original.
I want to keep it this way.
Coding-wise, mobile apps were my weak spot.
I have about five half-baked mobile apps sitting in limbo — good ideas stuck behind bugs I (AI) couldn’t seem to squash. It was frustrating, humbling, and a reminder that every skill set has edges.
I didn’t solve this one yet. But at least now I know exactly where the wall is.
In a much pettier — but still annoying — loss, Capital One closed my account unfairly, and I lost 234,000 points I’d been saving.
Not life-changing. Still brutal. I will never emotionally recover from this.
I also didn’t launch my book, Founding Marketing, this year like I planned to.
It continues to be the thorn in my side.
It wasn't that it didn't get the attention it deserved. I put a ton of hours into it and delegated quite a few times. It just took a lot longer than I expected.
I'm pushing for a soft launch in April of 2026. Let's see how that goes.
The lowest moment of the year had nothing to do with work.
While I was out of town in Raleigh for a conference (which I had to cut short), my dog was attacked by a coyote. He needed emergency surgery to repair a punctured lung. It was genuinely life-threatening.
The vet gave him a 30% chance of survival at best but he made a miraculous and complication-free recovery.
That put a ton of stress on me. On work, my girlfriend, my sleep, my finances, my sanity.
The vet bills were over $18,000, but thankfully I only paid about $2,300 out of pocket. Looks like all those years of paying for insurance finally paid off.
About half way through the year, we realized that were paying ourselves the wrong way at Conversion Factory. Our (now previous) accountant mixed up our business structure and we basically paid ourselves the least tax-efficient way.
We estimated that we overpaid by about $30k. Ouch.
Thankfully, we're now paying ourselves in a very tax-efficient way and that feels amazing.
I also got reinvigorated about a long-term vision I’ve had for a while: owning multiple businesses that not only fund my life and financial security, but also consistently support nonprofits and ministries I care about.
The dream is sustainable, ongoing giving — funded by business profits, not personal sacrifice that's limited by own time and resources.
Reading slowed way down this year. It happens.
Still, a few stood out:
Even a short reading list is still a mirror of the year.
