My biggest wins, fails, and learnings of 2024

🥂Cheers!

Hey friends,

I’m jet lagged AF right now and somehow managed to tweak my lower back on my way home from Florida to Amsterdam. I’m not sure if it was the 40 pound travel backpack, sitting on my butt for two weeks eating out and drinking beer, squeezing my wide ass into a tiny airplane seat for almost nine hours, or all the screaming kids at Orlando International Airport. Anyway, I’m alive and I’m here to send my LAST POST OF 2024! Everyone else is doing it, so hey, why not? (Hopefully there aren’t too many typos. 🤞)

I figured it’s best to use the win, fail, learn framework. So here goes it!

🥳 My biggest wins in 2024

• I started this thing and stuck to it by experimenting each week with different types of posts.

• I published 1-3 posts every week, except for one week when I was Subslacking. It happens to the best of us.

• One of my Notes went viral, I honestly have no idea why.

• But it led to an influx of subscribers, I went from 0 to almost 600 subscribers in two months. Sounds great, but honestly, it’s basically been downhill ever since.

• This post garnered the most new subscribers (89).

  How I make a 6-figure living as a freelance writer

• Followed by this one (28).

  How I went from being a broke-ass clothing designer to a well-fed writer

• But then I realized, I don’t really want to write about being a writer and my career, at least not all the time. That’s probably why things went downhill. But realizing what you like and don’t like is always a win!

• But also, the post about making a 6-figure living as a freelance writer is not actionable at all. It’s just me making fun of myself. Maybe I need to do that more?

• I think it’s much harder to grow this thing with personal essays and, in my case, thought dumps. But I’m still here mainly because I love connecting with you lovely people and finding shared experiences and feelings.

• I have 3 paid subscribers! Woohoo. Thank you!

• Writing personal essays here helped me realize that it’s a writing genre I want to explore and get better at. I’m working with a writing coach and just submitted my first personal essay ever to a major publication. The Modern Love column at The New York Times. I read that 1% of submissions make it through, so I don’t have high expectations, but I’m proud of myself for trying and will submit it to other outlets if I don’t hear from the NYT after six months.

🤨 My biggest fails in 2024

• I’ve wasted way too much time on branding, rebranding, rebranding, and rebranding. Yes, you read that right. I have rebranded this newsletter multiple times and the temptation to do it again is STRONG. But it doesn’t matter. All that matters (at least for now while I’m still figuring it out) is writing consistently. That said, I’ll probably rebrand at least once in 2025. LOL. I already have some ideas brewing.

• Not starting this personal newsletter sooner. One of my goals for 2024 was to “start something of my own” — very vague, I know. But for some reason I have this urge to create something of my own and I have no idea what it’s supposed to be. In the beginning of the year, I started posting short reels on Instagram with content writing tips thinking I’d grow an audience of small business owners who can’t afford my services but want to DIY their content strategy and writing. That was a fail for multiple reasons, two being that I hate being on video and I hate Instagram. When I started writing here for fun at the end of May, I started fulfilling my goal/need. Now I just hope I can continue!

• I feel like I probably had more fails (this should be more balanced with “wins”), but I can’t think of any right now. They’ll come to me!

🤓 My biggest learnings in 2024

• Not all side projects need to be monetized, but when you can make a few extra bucks it doesn’t hurt (mainly because it’s motivating, I can’t live off of $256 gross annualized revenue). I turned on paid here after reading one of

  Kristi Keller
  ’s posts about paywalling your most popular content. Then I created a 5K+ word guide detailing everything I know about being a freelance writer. I earned a few paid subscribers, but then half of them unsubscribed after I stopped writing about being a freelance writer. Go figure. As I mentioned above, I don’t love writing about being a freelancer, so I’m not sure how much more of that I’ll be doing. Time will tell.

• The posts I write on an impulse (i.e., not scheduled) perform the best. Below is an example of one I wrote from my iPhone while I was sprawled out in bed because I thought I had a brilliant idea. BUT always writing on an impulse gets me a bit anxious too. So I’ve decided to stick to a posting schedule (every Sunday), but I’ll write on the day, in the moment rather than scheduling posts. This way, I know Sunday morning is my newsletter writing time, but I won’t always know what to write about ahead of time. That’s what I’m doing right now. :)

  Am I qualified to give advice?

• I’m not good at recommendations or you all don’t really care. Either way, it’s fine, but posts like this one don’t get much engagement. Hey, I was experimenting. Now I know you’d rather hear about life things instead of a stupid pillow.

  The Luxury Soft One

• Three posts a week is WAY TOO MUCH. One is the perfect amount and if I occasionally slack off, it’s OK. I’m human!

• Don’t cut your own bangs after two beers, and then attempt to fix them a few weeks later when you’re sober.

  

  PROOF.

• Writing about feelings is hard. Half the time it’s because I don’t actually understand what I’m feeling and the other half it’s because I’m afraid of being judged. Not by you, but by my friends and family who could stumble across this at some point. Fuck it, I say! (Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself!)

😇 What to expect in 2025 (I’m writing this part to hold myself accountable too)

• More random ramblings from yours truly. I refuse to niche this thing.

• At least 250 words a week, every Sunday.

• A maximum of ONLY one rebrand.

• Hopefully more great conversations in the comments of each post — don’t be shy! I reply to every comment.

• Definitely not a book club. Tried that here. Major fail.

• There’s one thing I’m still questioning… I enjoy writing funny takes on “how to” guides like this post and this one. I set up a separate Substack called “How To Girl” the other day to go all in on these types of posts. But now I’m wondering…

  I can’t promise I’ll listen to your feedback on this (ha!), but thanks in advance!

🫵 Tell me your biggest win, fail, and learning of 2024.

Alright people, that’s a wrap! I hesitated to write this post, but now I’m glad I did. I’ve been feeling a bit like what’s the point of all this (it’s probably just PMS), but reflecting on how far I’ve come in the last six months has sparked motivation.

I’ll meet you in the comments!

Until next time,

Alexis

P.S. It would mean a lot to me if you hit the like button to increase engagement on this post. Also, feel free to share my posts with a friend. Lastly, consider further supporting my independent writing by upgrading to a paid subscription. As always, thank you for reading!