If I said 2020 was a good year would you angrily stop reading now? It wasn’t at all what I expected, and there were so many hard things, but it really was a good year for our family.

How is this a gift?

When going through hard times it’s easy to focus on the negative. We all do, and it’s perfectly natural. But it can also help to ask one question: how is this a gift?

2020 was a crazy year. It was painful, lonely, and filled with uncertainty, but there are ways that it was a gift.

• Josiah was born on January 1st, 2020, the first day of a year with once in a century events. I was able to take plenty of time off to be with him and the rest of my family, but usually I would still go on a handful of business trips throughout the year. Thanks to COVID I went on exactly one: our team retreat at the end of February. Other than that trip, and a quick weekend trip with my older boys later in the year, I got to spend time with him every single day.
• I am far more resilient and confident that I was a year ago. I started my career in 2008 and had never lead a company through a recession. Because the last 8 years that I worked on ConvertKit were all through a rapidly growing economy I wondered if I had what it would take to lead through a crisis or recession. I did. While the economic crisis wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected (at least not yet), I prepared and lead through it in a way that I am really proud of. I expect 2021 will have just as much adversity as 2020—world events don’t care about your calendar—but I know that I’m a more resilient person facing whatever 2021 holds.
• I trust my instincts more. I’ve run ConvertKit on a solid, profitable foundation from the beginning so that we could weather adversity. When so many people said we should raise money, hire faster, and spend more aggressively, we charted our own path. We prepared for the recession and that paid off. You can read my post to the team in March. Back in December I was talking to friends and family about the virus. Maybe it means I pay too much attention to world events, but that gave me plenty of time to prepare and not be caught off guard when the world changed. When you’re charting a different path it can be hard to trust yourself. I was right and my preparation paid off, because of that I trust my instincts more now.

Celebrating the ways the year was a gift doesn’t in any way diminish or take away from the pain, hurt, and loneliness that I and so many other people experienced.

​Read the rest of my annual review »​

FROM ART OF NEWSLETTERS

What all creators can learn from the world of hip hop

Dan Runcie is the founder of Trapital, the newsletter that breaks down the business of hip hop. We learn all about his favorite hip hop artists, of course, but he also shares what indie creators can learn from the world of hip hop and so much more.

Dan shares his opinion on Substack—the out-of-the-box newsletter service that seems to be everywhere these days. You’ll find out why Dan started Trapital on Substack, and why he later switched to ConvertKit.

You’ll also learn unexpected insights from the world of hip hop, including lessons indie creators can take from Beyoncé’s sales funnel, and why Master P’s cutting-edge albums in the ‘90s show that consistency might just matter more to creators than quality!

​Listen to the full episode »​

If you just want to see clips from the episode, check them out on Twitter or Instagram.

Thanks for joining me this week!