Hey,
🎄 Merry Christmas — hope you’re getting a quiet moment between plans, food, and everything else today.
Welcome to this week’s Experiments in Progress issue.
This week’s issue is a pause.
Instead of predictions or rumors, I’m looking back at the decisions that quietly changed how the channel works even though this wasn’t a big, flashy year.
In this issue, I’m breaking down:
🧠 The behind-the-scenes decisions that reshaped how the channel works
🎙 A candid podcast update on the less-visible parts of the business
🔮 Why this year makes thinking about 2026 a lot easier
Let’s dive in👇
*Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products or services I believe will add value to you.
🧠 Why This Was Our Most Important Year (Without Big Numbers)
This wasn’t a year of big spikes or headline moments.
It was a year of decisions.
Most of them weren’t exciting at the time but they’re the reason the business feels clearer and easier to run now.
1️⃣ The year forced a reset
Early on, a few things changed quickly.
Chris, who’d been deeply involved in researching and shaping video ideas, moved to Canada and stepped away. Not long after, I also let Hudson go, who was working as a full-time videographer.
That forced a choice:
replace people quickly or slow down and…
… rethink how everything worked.
At the time, that meant less certainty and a bit of friction. But it also created space to rebuild things properly.
2️⃣ Bringing work closer in-house
One clear outcome of that rethink was moving more work in-house.
Matt joined this year — someone I’ve worked with before — and now helps manage the channel day-to-day: ideas, thumbnails, scheduling, admin, brand communication.
We also brought editing closer to home.
Remote editors can be incredibly talented, but time zones and long feedback loops add friction — especially when deadlines matter.
Having people in the same place simply makes decisions faster.
We’ve only really landed this setup in the last couple of months, but it already feels more stable.
3️⃣ The decision to stop chasing what “should” work
This was probably the biggest creative shift of the year.
Previously, a lot of ideas were driven by performance logic: “This worked for them, so it should work for us.”
This year, that changed.
We started looking at products and asking a simpler question:
“Is this a video we actually want to make?”
The tradeoff was obvious:
some videos pulled lower views
But what we gained mattered more:
clearer direction
ideas we enjoyed making
lessons that were actually ours
Instead of borrowing confidence from other channels, we started building our own.
4️⃣ What naturally stuck
Once that shift happened, patterns started to appear.
I consistently enjoyed covering things like:
MacBook Air and Mac mini
Outside of phones, a few interests grew naturally:
PC gaming (I’m basically done with consoles)
devices like the ROG Ally X
fully committing to the Lumix camera ecosystem
And some of the best parts of the year weren’t about content at all — like getting into 3D printing at home with my son.
5️⃣ Quiet business decisions that mattered
A few behind-the-scenes decisions made a big difference.
The newsletter was outsourced and properly structured.
The website reached the point where it almost covers its own costs.
We signed with an agency, which helped smooth gaps between brand deals and push pricing upward.
We also leaned into a small group of long-term brand partners — which made the year feel far less reactive.
6️⃣ Keeping growth constrained (on purpose)
One thing that didn’t change (deliberately) was output.
We’re still doing one long-form video per week.
Writing and shooting are real bottlenecks, and I’m very clear about keeping work within reasonable hours — for me and for the team. No seven-day weeks. No constant catch-up mode.
This year was about making a series of quiet decisions that reduced fragility and increased clarity.
📱 Enjoying this newsletter? Share it with a friend who’s as obsessed with tech as you are:
🎙️ Podcast: When an Affiliate Platform Doesn’t Pay Out
This week’s episode of Aspiring Creator gets into the less-visible side of the creator business — delayed payments, underperforming brand deals, and drawing firm lines with paid promotion.
I talk openly about $20k in affiliate earnings stuck with Howl, what it takes to accept when a sponsored video doesn’t land, and where I refuse to give brands control.
Inside this episode:
$20k in affiliate earnings still owed by Howl 💸
Making peace with a poor-performing sponsored video 🧠
Where I draw the line with brand control and paid promotion 🎯
When paid promotion starts to feel wrong 🚫
For anyone building a creator business and wanting the unfiltered version of what’s working (and what isn’t).
🎧 New episodes every Wednesday
🧭 Next Issue: New Year Goals (Without the Burnout or BS)
If you’ve ever written ambitious New Year’s resolutions on January 1st…
and quietly abandoned them by mid-February — same.
In the next issue, I’ll break down how I actually set goals now — and what’s made them stick.
In the next issue, you’ll get:
How I set goals for the year (and why I don’t start with a long resolutions list)
What I don’t do anymore when planning a new year — even though it’s popular advice
The filters I use to decide which goals are worth pursuing vs. quietly deleting
Simple frameworks that help me stay consistent past January
A few mindset shifts that made goal-setting feel lighter — and more realistic
✨ No toxic productivity. No “new year, new you” pressure.
Just a grounded way to set goals you’ll still care about in March.
🗓️ See you Saturday.