2016 Year In Review

I had a great 2016!  Like any year, there are always ups and downs, but I really enjoy reflecting back on everything, especially the positive things I’ve accomplished.  It’s incredible how much you can do in a year!  Here are the highlights.

Personal

A complete focus on health, exercise, and wellness completely transformed me for the better. I feel a million times better mentally, sleep better, and have the best mobility/strength in years. There’s much more work to do be done, but that’s OK - 2016 was all about laying the foundation.  It’s a marathon, not a race, after all!

Began seeing a Personal Trainer in June (have had ~20 sessions). It’s been a fantastic investment: I’m losing weight, increasing my strength (and can tell!), and improving my mobility (so important since I work a desk job!).

Hiked many trails, including Rattlesnake Ledge for the second time in August. The first time, in Fall 2015, was very tough and demotivating - it’s all uphill switchbacks! After a lot of hard work over many months, the 2nd time around was much better: I made it all the way up without stopping once. 

Plenty of new, fun activities: brewed my first beer, attended my first rap concert, first first class flight…

Travel

My wife and I flew somewhere or had someone visit us almost every month! This was absolutely intentional, as we made it a big priority of ours to explore the West Coast.

9 “groups” of friends visited us in Seattle (15 people total)

Visited 10 unique states (way too much flying!)

Continued exploration of the West Coast and beyond:

• Walla Walla, WA (wine!)
• San Francisco (Microsoft Build conference)
• Las Vegas (college buddies)
• Columbus, Ohio (Rock on the Range concert weekend)
• Olympic National Park, WA (w/in-laws)
• San Antonio and Austin, TX (Lisa conference and visiting friends)
• Surprise road trip up and down the Pacific Coast highway 101! (WA, Oregon, CA)
• Milwaukee, WI (Buddy’s bachelor party… Go! Marquette!)
• Chicago, IL and Minneapolis, MN (Buddy’s wedding and family reunion)
• Denver, CO (GABF and BeerSwift launch)
• Leavenworth, WA (Bavarian town weekend getaway)
• Chicago, IL and Madison, WI (home for the holidays)

…and already lots planned for 2017!

Slalom 

I had a wonderful, very challenging first full year at Slalom. Looking forward to year 2!

YTD Utilization: 105.03%

2 major clients

Over 50 hours of internal training/leadership classes

Participated in many fun work events (even tried Rowing once at 6am on a Saturday!)

Tons of Slalom Toastmasters meetings at 7am on Wednesdays, leading to… my Slalom Speaks speech! (above pic)

App Business

This year, I focused less on Apps and more on health, Slalom, travel, etc.  In 2017, I’ll be refocusing on Fitwatchr and BeerSwift. I tracked hours worked this year for the first time.  I put in over 180 hours of work on nights/weekends, about 4.5 40 hour work weeks’ worth of time. Time went spent!

3 years of selling Apps!  On October 4th, 2013, I got my first iOS app sale.

Over 35,000 users across 5 apps!

Continued to maintain an (almost) 3 year streak: selling 1 or more apps every single day since February 2014!

Reached just short of 2,000 support tickets to date. With 35,000 users, that’s 5.7% of my user base that has written in over 3 years.

Finally launched BeerSwift at Great American Beer Festival (above pic)

Close to launching my first Pluralsight developer course (Q1 2017) on PhoneGap Build

Cheers to a happy, healthy 2017!