Thank you for all the support along the way.
We are approaching the end of the calendar year. You know what that means: it's that time for influencers to publish cringy year-end reviews.
It's been a tough year for me trying to get back into the workforce. However, zooming out, I don't forget that a lot of people in the world are suffering because of conflicts. In that framing, my problems are so small.
In the same format as last year, you will hear: the big lessons I learned and how I performed against my 2023 objectives, as well as my goals for 2024.
2023 Lessons
Prioritizing productization
The biggest lesson I learned this year is the importance of creating products. I'm not aiming to buy houses in Brentwood or drive a G-wagon, but as my follower count continues to grow, doing what I love and serving you while financially supporting myself is something I aspire to. And I can’t expect you to exchange your hard-earned money for my random knowledge.
This year, I've worked hard to create products that you are willing to pay for. I've formalized a paid tier for my newsletter, and my job board is launching soon (email coming shortly). I will continue to brainstorm ways to create and capture value; that's the difference between a hobby and a side hustle/entrepreneurship.
Value of focus
I have done a good job of focusing on fewer things this year. I discussed the Pareto principle many times in my content, which is the idea that 20% of causes drive 80% of the outcome. It applies here.
The more I run Richard Toad, the more I resonate with experienced investors’ saying that 2-3 things matter to every business. That's a good thing because I can dedicate my time to activities that drive value for you and for my business, instead of on poor returns on time endeavors.
Willing to invest in the business
I make the mistake of being stingy when it comes to spending money on my own business. This tendency likely stems from: 1. My socioeconomic upbringing 2. Inexperience as a business builder. This year, I have embraced AI to free up time to do what I love most: learning and sharing my knowledge.
Thanks to paying for AI-based tools like the silence remover and script-based video editing, my YouTube video production time has significantly decreased.
I've also invested in a game-changing keyboard, the Logitech MX Mechanical, which has improved the precision and speed of my typing (and thus the speed of content creation). The previous me might have hesitated at the $170 price tag, but my mindset has shifted. Now, I consider how much more content I can produce in the same amount of time, making the return on investment significant. It's a product I genuinely advocate for. If you want to turbocharge your productivity, I encourage you to consider buying one.
The same goes for my Shure SM7B microphone. Big YouTubers say audio is 50% of the video-watching experience, and they are right. Comparing it to my first YouTube video, clear and deep audio elevates the content quality. While content value will always be more important, higher production value can't hurt, right? There's a reason why prominent podcasters and YouTubers opt for this microphone - it is the GOAT.
Writing also takes less time thanks to ChatGPT. Of course, I still put in the human touch at the end.
I've learned that if it involves a reasonable expense, I need to be willing to spend to buy back time. This allows me to reallocate my time to higher value-add activities and drive the business forward.
For us human beings, money is not the most scarce resource; time is.
Game rules change
Thanks to a few of you who encouraged me to write articles and produce videos, I lucked out by branching out from just being an Instagrammer to a multi-platform influencer.
Social media platforms are businesses; the companies that created these platforms won't hesitate to change the rules of the game if it makes business sense, even if it's to the detriment of a subset of creators.
I am amazed that I was able to grow on Instagram to where I am via mostly text-based content. Today, however, the Instagram game has changed for the worse for me. Instagram is prioritizing short-form videos to compete with TikTok, which is understandable from Meta's business standpoint.
However, I am neither skilled nor passionate about creating short-form content, so my Instagram follower count has not grown during the entire year. Ironically, as an influencer who originated on Instagram, the platform is now the biggest leaking bucket for me. Knowing this, I have stepped off the Instagram content hamster wheel to focus on long-form content on Substack and YouTube.
Thankfully, that's okay. Looking at things holistically, my Substack and YouTube growth is the needle mover now, and my overall online follower count has solidly grown this year.
The lesson is: the only enduring connection I have with you is your email address. If you follow me on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, or any platform, I am renting your attention. Aside from business purposes, I am very passionate about meeting smart people and building enduring relationships through the content I put out.
Along with my point of narrowing down, I will continue to prioritize Substack and YouTube, where long-form content is searchable and evergreen and doesn’t require daily content creation.
Tribal mindset
This point is related to my job search. You might know I have been looking for a job in Strategic Finance or FP&A for a technology company for a while. It has been really difficult. As much as I blame myself, I think some of the issues are external (such as tech being in a down cycle.)
The harsh lesson I learned is something that resonated with me a lot when Mason Morfit discussed the concept of tribal mindset. Companies are not just desks, phones, and computers; human beings work in them.
As a solo entrepreneur for the last 2 years, I concede I have become too self-involved about what I envision how the world should work while ignoring how the world works.
After a few dozen informational interviews, I understand why so many of you want to pursue investment banking. Every FP&A and strategic finance job description is open to candidates with investment banking, private equity, and management consulting experience while ignoring equity research and public buy-side candidates.
The punchline is the pathway from financial services to corporate is there, but equity research and public equity investing seem orphaned.
Conversely, there will always be more absolute number of ex-investment bankers on the corporate side who are in the position to let you in. The tribal mindset dictates they prefer someone with similar work experience and educational background to theirs. That means investment bankers, private equity professionals, and management consultants from target schools are favored.
I strongly doubt intrinsically my research comrades and I are unable to do what investment bankers/private equity and management consultants do in terms of financial modeling or fundamental analysis, but we don’t live in a world where the most qualified get every job.
This job search has to work out eventually. I just need one job. I just want to put this here to remind myself to keep pushing
2023 Evaluation
Treat Myself Better
I say that every year and I definitely can’t give myself an A+ this year. As a broke solo entrepreneur, I had the time freedom. My parents convinced me to go back to China with them for 1.5 months. I also just came back from a one-week trip to Portugal. Great times. I could have done more traveling, but traveling requires money that I should not be spending and time that I should devote to building the business.
I am not a social media person who portrays only the good sides of my life because you need to know social media distorts the complete picture.
We humans are constantly balancing between financial and time independence. We don’t live forever, but remember time independence is hard-earned and entrepreneurship is harder than working for an established company where you trade time for money. That’s why there are always more workers than entrepreneurs on this planet.
Publishing more stock content
I have been actively searching for that evergreen content idea pipeline for a long time. Thankfully, I have found some. This year, I have produced book reviews and podcast reviews, adding my thoughts, which have been well-received by many of you.
Unfortunately, business and stock analysis remains a work in progress; I strive to change that in 2024. Stay tuned.
Read more
I did not read a lot this year. There is just a lot of flip-flopping between brainstorming ways to grow the business, producing the content, sourcing job leads, and preparing for job interviews. Hopefully, you can tell that's already a lot.
I joined a local business book club, and I am optimistic that it will keep me disciplined with at least one book per month. Also, I listen to more podcasts nowadays, so I could be learning using a different format.
Focus on fewer things
I have done well in focusing on higher-impact activities this year.
Earlier in the journey, I did an exceptional job pulling myself in 20 directions: I didn’t know what matters, I didn’t have a content-audience fit, and I didn’t know what sells (still figuring it out of course).
As I get better, I am abandoning lower return-on-time activities. I suppose that’s what the big dawgs say “niche-ing down”
For example, you probably have noticed that I no longer add b-roll or images to my YouTube videos. At the time, it was a risk I decided to take. I thought about the math: if the watch % goes down by 10%, but I can recoup 10-15 hours of tedious editing and I can produce more quantity of videos, I am willing to make that trade-off.
The result? Thankfully, most of you are tolerant of watching or listening to me without caring about the production quality (even with editing, my video has 35-40% watch % anyway.) That 10-15 hours of precious time is reinvested into reading/learning so I can produce more content. It becomes a quantity game, not a quality game, which I can live with because I don’t aspire to become Chris Nolan or Mr. Beast. I aspire to be a learning machine that teaches well.
The same goes for Instagram. I have accepted the fate that my Instagram has become a leaking bucket. That said, I still love sharing bios of successful financiers, founders, or executives. So the Hall of Fame content is here to stay. You can reach me on Instagram via DM and I will continue to host polls and monthly Q&As there.
Build more leverage
I have also done well in creating leverage, which the internet is great for. I am focusing on producing content on Substack and YouTube and monetizing through products with no incremental cost to serve an extra subscriber.
Nevertheless, I still do things that don’t scale because I believe a one-on-one relationship, preferably in person, remains the most powerful way to build lasting connections in the age of bots talking to bots and all this AI jazz.
2024 Resolutions
Find a damn job
That’s it. That’s the resolution.
Have more fun
I say that every year. I hope to get my financial freedom back in 2024.
Even without much money, I am very happy to move back to California during peak COVID and spend more time with my parents after living in New York for 8 years where I dreaded the winter and couldn’t come home for all the holidays.
Create more products
I will continue to focus on creating products that can be exchanged for monetary value.
Be metrics driven
With more revenue coming in, I have done more spreadsheet work for my business (that’s strategic finance, ain’t it?)
For example, I was solving for what number of subscribers to get to break even between a 9% take rate versus a 7% take rate and a flat monthly $12 fee.
I want to start setting more explicit goals for growth and revenue, and then execute.
With that, let’s show a scoreboard for follower counts (as of 12/25/2023):
YouTube: 1,696 (and I started YouTube last year in October at 0)
Substack: 2,129
Instagram followers: 16,588
Twitter: 1,231 (I want to do more here)
For 2024, I shoot for getting to 3,500 YouTube followers and 3,500 Substack readers.
Do business and stock analysis work
I miss the research game. My portfolio has done well this year without me doing anything, thanks to the flight to quality large-cap tech names which I own plenty of (why overcomplicate things?)
But I love doing work on businesses and stocks, so I am writing this down to keep myself honest – it's a great product idea as well. Stock analysis will be the most time-consuming endeavor, but I will try my best to get my thoughts out there.
Happy holidays to you and your family. I wish you a wonderful 2024.
Thanks for reading. I will talk to you next year.
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Great 2023 recap, thanks for giving us the background/foreground on your production process, Mr. Toad. Tech market is tough now, but you'll be at the front of the line once it comes back to life. My request for a post in 2024: short-sellers. Who are the best SS's, and what makes them successful? What are some the lesser-known (yet profitable) reports, and why were the campaigns effective? Especially interested in the role of unconventional data sources, channel checking, etc. Cheers!