Wrapping Up 2024 - Building Better Developers New Years Eve Special

Welcome to Building Better Developers, the Developer podcast, where we work on getting better step by step, professionally and personally. Let's get started. Well, hello and welcome back. If you notice that we've got, because Michael needs to do this, is edit the audio so that you've got your little year-end cheering or bells. I forget what it is, but it's there. You just heard it. That was all due to him doing some extra editing work. Not a lot, but hey, it's there. Anyways, we are Building Better Developers. We are the Developer podcast, and we are at the end of another year. This year happens to be 2024. Mind-blowing in itself from somebody that was born last century, so it's been a while, and it's like, wow. But we are wrapping this thing up. We're wrapping up the year, and as always, we want to do our year-end specials, and we're going to have a year beginning special in our next episode. This one, I want to look back a little bit on the year and talk a little about looking back and then sort of like, what are the things we need to do as we close this year out, sort of closing out. Now, some of it, it may be a little too late, but we'll talk a little bit about some of those things that you're going to want to do, and that'll also help prep you for the next year 2025. Before we get into that, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Rob Broadhead. I'm one of the founders of Develop and Doer. I am also a founder of RB Consulting, where we come in. We help you manage technology. We help you take whatever it is that you got, take a look at your business, and find the best way to leverage technology to do your business better, whether that's through simplification, automation, integration. Any of the shuns that are out there, we're going to do them in a way to help you function better and do better and make more money in the year ahead. Good thing, bad thing. Let's see. Good thing, bad thing. Good thing, bad thing. Good thing, bad thing. Good thing, Christmas. Just got through Christmas. It's actually, the bad thing was getting to Christmas was exhausting. There's just too much stuff going on, and I didn't even do as much as Natalie, and yet I got the blowback and was exhausted by just watching her do all this crap and deal with all of this stuff. The good thing was Christmas was awesome. We had a great time. We did family games. The family loved it. The people that normally wouldn't like it are the grouchy old people that are like, get off my yard. They were still having a good time. So hey, it was a win all around. So a very good way to get towards the end of the year for us. And another good thing is I get to have yet another episode that I get to record with Michael who is going to introduce himself. Hey everyone. My name is Michael Molloch. I'm one of the co-founders of Develop-a-Nur. I'm also the founder of Envision QA, where we help technology companies with little or no software quality assurance or problems with their software. We bring to the table a test-driven approach, unit testing, functional testing, integration testing, and we help you turn your software around. We take you from essentially chugging along, having bugs and problems to cleaner, more productive, more streamlined software. So essentially you go from once the developers are done, you can tell if the software is ready to go out without any guesswork. Good thing, bad thing. Good thing, again, like Rob said, Christmas is finally here, gone, passed, and I actually was able to disconnect from a computer for 24 hours. Shocking. I am glued to this thing well over 100 hours a week, which is scary. Anyway, that's the bad thing. The bad thing is leading up to Christmas, you have all that trying to get things done, rushing around, getting bills paid, things of that nature. And then you see the Christmas bill. And then it's like, crap, we spent a lot of money again this Christmas. So I had to write those checks. So that was the bad thing. With that, I am looking forward to this episode and working with Rob and getting us through to the end of the year. So year in, we have always talked about planning and following up on plans and accountability and a lot of that kind of stuff. So as we wrap up the year, I think once again, I'm going to share some of the stuff that I do. And hopefully these are some things that you've done already and are not like scramming at the last minute to do. Now one of the things, if you've got a side hustle or anything like that or a business, this probably is a time that you're going to be doing some wrap-up stuff, some year in things. It is a very good time. And this is whether you're doing a side hustle, and this is even probably in your personal life, you're probably doing some level of, or at least it's going to be helpful, I think, to do some level of like an annual financial, your personal business, your household and stuff like that and how that runs. And take a look at it and make sure that you're sort of positioning yourself to pay those last bills that you need to to make sure everything gets paid on time, particularly when you're in this like holiday season where banks are closed like all but three hours a day and random days and all that kind of stuff is making sure that you get those things in and get those things covered and get your bills paid on time and all that goodness. But also it's a good way to look at where am I spending too much time or money or resources of other sorts? Where do I need to make some adjustments? Looking back, like were those investments of time and everything else that you made, did they pay off the way that you want them to? And really spending some time like a retrospective in a development sprint is basically saying like what did I do right? What went right? What didn't go right? Are there things that I should start doing more of? Are there some things that I should maybe stop? And a lot of this people do I think more with a like a new year resolution bent of just like oh well I should lose weight. Everybody always should lose weight and it's just like that seems like that's always the thing to do but if you just do it at the beginning and say oh I'm going to lose weight and you spend two days in a gym and then you give up like most people then it's not going to work. I think what you need to do is take a look at like what have you tried and maybe all the way back to New Year's last year. What are some of those resolutions? What stuck? What didn't? How can you do that better in the year ahead? What are some things that or maybe there's things you don't want to. Maybe you made a resolution at the beginning of the year to become a I don't know a world class violinist and you realize you hate playing the violin and so like all right mix that off of your list. Or is there things are there things that you do on a regular basis? Are there their habits that you have or even hobbies maybe that you have? You're just like it's not I'm not feeling it. It's like I'm it's just like you know professionally maybe you're burned out a little bit so maybe you should look at seeing if you can change your approach to work or maybe the project that you're working on or the focus that you have or depending on what your ability is to to drive those kinds of things. Or maybe it's like your side hustles are wearing you out. Maybe you should pick a different side of hustle or maybe you shouldn't side hustle at all. Maybe you should spend some time just chilling and relaxing and allow yourself to just recharge a little bit. These are kinds of things I think are very helpful as you get towards the end of the year because it is just while it is just another you know day on the calendar to some extent it's also an excuse for us to pause a little bit and look back and say where are we at? Like do a little self-assessment. This is I think where people that are truly content and happy and things like that these are the things that the habits that these people have is that they look at the things that are out there and they say these are the things I like to do and they find ways to get to that. And these are things I don't like to do and they find ways not to do that. Sometimes that is it's not as easy as it sounds. Sometimes there are things where there's like there are shades of I like it and I don't like it or like for me there are things that I like to do but I suck at them and so I really shouldn't do them. It's a waste of time. It's like it'd be like being a professional singer. That would be sort of cool but not for me. So I'm not going to go waste my time trying to go do that. We're now adults so it's not like kids when you're like yeah chase your dreams. It's like let's tie our dreams back to reality a little bit because we get to. We get to go try some of this stuff out and make sure that what you're doing and what the path that you put yourself on at the beginning of the year or the beginning of your career that it's still working out because it's never too late to maybe to pivot or to make some adjustments and say you know I really thought this is where I wanted to go and I found out that it really isn't that I want to do something differently and don't be afraid to just like roll the dice a little bit and try something a little different and it's funny because this was as I was sort of like starting into this episode and doing the introduction that's one of the things that I found that like I switched last year and said we we started I think right at the beginning of the year. Oh no I guess it's more like February March. We actually started doing video recordings as well so if you're if you're just listening to the podcast like you always have we also have this out on YouTube. And so now we are recording this as we're doing it from a video as well as an audio point of view and it very much changes for me it has very much changed how I see this how I approach this and so for somebody that had done 700 plus episodes of non video podcast pure audio podcast it's actually been a little bit of a rebirth because it's something that's like oh hey I just tweaked this a little bit and you may not hear anything different this is the same audio thing that you've always had it's probably done a little better because now Michael's doing the editing instead of me but other than that same thing yeah we've changed the format around stuff like that but even in the past when I would record and do it with the interviews because almost always I was actually seeing the person I was interviewing those didn't go out anywhere and just changing that perspective of like now I'm not the only one that's going to see this has changed stuff and it really changed like my focus on just this thing that I've done it is I guess pretty much it is a labor of love I've been doing this for years so obviously I must enjoy it so those are kinds of things you can do is take a look at like what you do what do you like what don't you like because I think those are those are our whys those are what really drive us it's like you can you can point to things like you know you need to you want to be successful whatever successful is or things like that that you know or you want to earn money or you want to be well known or you want to be you know ethical or giving or whatever there's all these things that are very positive in themselves but it boils down to we can't be everything to everyone we really need to be true to ourselves and understand what we like to do because we don't want to be in a situation we are doing something we don't like because it helps other people or makes them happy unless the primary thing for us is to make other people happy in which case great you can go be a mother Teresa or something like that but if it comes back down to it what really do you enjoy doing and try to do more of that in the year ahead and this is a perfect time to sort of look back spend all the time and say huh how much fun did I really have this year and if it was a ton cool let's just do more of that next year if it wasn't then what are some things that I can avoid now caveat you can't avoid some of the things that is the rest of the world so if you hate advertisements if you hate the fact that like election years where you get like advertisement advertisement sorry can't do much about that well or maybe you could stop watching TV or maybe you're like I'm gonna earn more money so I can have a subscription streaming service that doesn't have advertisers there's almost always a way out another way out for me is so that I can go drink my tea I'm gonna pass this over to Michael and get some of your feedback and your thoughts on this so it's interesting kind of reflecting on the year you know we're talking about wrapping up closing out the year and I just kind of want to look back at the year because this has been a kind of rebuilding year for my business and for me late last year I decided I went through a marketing campaign a marketing manager and kind of reevaluated where my company was going you know we're coming out of cove it the world's kind of reset we're kind of back to where we're going what does business look like today how do we currently work in today's market because it's ever evolving and within that conversation I basically realized that my company was not on the path that needed to be I was not happy I was doing too many things that I didn't like so I went into this program called co-starters and kind of went through even though I've been running businesses of many natures over 20 some years it was time to kind of just do a reset hey what am I doing right what am I doing wrong what is business look like today and that kind of carried through into March and at the end of February first start of March I finally rebranded and decided to relaunch my company as Envision QA I'm more focused on what the company is going to be I'm more happy with the path I've chosen for the company and with that I very quickly found my first customer kind of went through the fun process of you know working with the customer doing something I loved and it turned into a blossoming relationship we have a new project out of it and having a lot of fun but it's not all bells and whistles so there was things going on this year that weren't always that great some things in your control some things out of your control the biggest thing out of my control is health we've had some family health issues we've been working through trying to figure that out and it it's a struggle you know it can drain you so as you're looking to next year it's kind of funny we've talked about many different things this season of building better habits and one of the big things the big takeaways I have especially with working different projects and back in agile as fluently as I have is it comes down to kind of some concepts of priority you know what do I need to do to be happy what you know what is important what so it's kind of you know what do I need what do I want what is you know a few a goal you know what is something to reach for but isn't really as important to be done today it's you know kind of like a stretch goal and a lot of things as I'm reflecting at the end of the year is there was some things I wanted to do that weren't priority that weren't needed to be done so as I worked through these things it's like oh I'm really burning out I'm kind of struggling to get through these things and you may as well and stop look at where you're at and determine is this something that is really necessary is this something that I need to do to be happy or I need to do to get something done or am I just being busy or my wasting time if you falls into the ladder pivot find something else to do you know I do like playing video games but I don't like it when video games basically make it feel like work the games as a service when you have to log in every day and basically go do all these microtransactions it's like no that's not fun talking to you Diablo but not so much Diablo but the first descendant microtransaction hell great story microtransaction hell Diablo a little bit better but the new one that came out path of exile to really well done I got lost on Christmas Day playing probably about six hours of that just figuring out the game and I'm back to loving it you know Diablo 2 style it's like great I found something I liked so look at these things you know in the intro free show we had I briefly talked about you know paying the bills off you know it's kind of that time of year you know we had all the Christmas expenses finances is important make sure that you are kind of living within your means yes we have emergencies so maybe one of your goals for next year might be hey put aside 20 bucks a paycheck put a little bit of a nest egg in the savings so if something does happen you don't have to panic if the credit cards are maxed you have some extra cash to go pay for that emergency to go to the doctor or you know maybe take a short vacation to reset your mentality you know it's the end of the year it was a rough year election years are always rough because they're so draining and like Rob said you know it early on it's like okay who are your candidates gonna be sure you kind of need to pay a little bit of attention but it's like you know at some point you need to go on a media fast and just take a break because it mentally drains you so as you look towards the end of the year as you're looking into that next year stop and take a moment and make a list look at what things drained you what things you didn't like what things brought you down and then right next to that the things that you did like to do what things made brought you joy what things you know were you happy on you know what is the correct path and then as you go into next year look at okay where can I pivot you know can I change some of this course one of the things could be simply find another job the job you're in could be you know life-sucking soul-crushing time to find a change you may not be in a position where you can change but start looking it I don't know the proverb but you know take that first step don't just stand still don't just be motionless take one step forward then take another step and eventually you'll be far down the path to happiness yeah that's the thing is this is where we don't have to make we don't have to make big changes sometimes sometimes it's a little bit of a change sometimes it's a it becomes a big change I think like a perfect example is you know Michael was sitting there like I'm gonna maybe think about my business and the next thing you know he's completely rebranded and he's gone into you know done a lot of stuff but it's it's one of the things I was reflecting a little bit earlier today it's like the difference a year can make and in my life there's a whole lot of change there's a whole lot of stuff that has been is dramatically different than what it was part of that is because I have with when you have a lot of kids and there's a lot of change and they're in that level of they're at that age where there's like a lot of change where you've got graduations and all kinds of stuff going on but even with myself then going to an empty nester mode is obviously big change there's things like that but there's all these little things too there are it is amazing to me now looking back a few years ago one of the changes that I made as I realized that I enjoyed reading just reading fiction and I hadn't done it in decades I had always I was just there was always work stuff there's all these things I was doing and I said you know what I'm gonna just read 15 minutes a day and my goal was actually just read you know before I fall asleep into the day I'm gonna I'm gonna shut stuff off I'm gonna read for a little bit and through that time I have ended up you know I mentioned I think earlier this year I ended up reading all of the Shannara series all like 40 books or whatever that thing is and I'm going back into some other series and things like that that I hadn't touched in I haven't touched in years and years and it continues to be something that is just a really good way to end my day really has been a way to help me you know fall sleep better relax chill let go of stuff that's going on during the day and you know all the drama and the work and all the other crap that goes on and to be able to just like enjoy life a little bit and so something like that may be all you need it may be like get up ten minutes earlier and like just have a quiet ten minutes with your morning tea or coffee or something like that or going for a walk or like a little bit exercise or try like a pomodoro or something like that and just doing a little thing you're like hey I'm gonna actually take a break for five minutes after I do a little bit of a work push and just see how these things go it doesn't have to be huge but I think you'll find I know because we talk about all the time the value of incremental improvement will eventually get you there like Michael said like if you're if you're just saving 20 bucks a paycheck and you get one you know twice a month well by the end of the year that's 40 times so that's almost 500 bucks that now you haven't savings as you did in a year ago you know and then of course if you start adding interest and all that kind of stuff it grows there are so many so many places and directions you can go that's like if you start incrementally you will be able to achieve some really huge goals along the way nothing's done in one shot it's always gonna be like you you get moving there you start making that journey and you will get to where you know often you will get far beyond where you ever thought you were going to be we are not gonna get farther beyond where we thought we were going to be we're gonna go ahead and wrap this one up I want to wish you from all of us our families and everybody else to the grand you know audience that we have out there happy new year and hopefully you have a great one you have a safe one that you go out there you get to enjoy some time with your family friends and all that kind of good stuff that you do get to relax a little bit you get to celebrate some it's like hey we made it through another year and hopefully with a lot of optimism for the year ahead if you want to shoot us an email you can always shoot us an email about that and be as optimistic or pessimistic as you want just let us know info at developinure.com you can also check us out on the developinure.com site we're on x at developinure we've got a Facebook page you can leave us comments and feedback wherever you are watching this video or listening to this podcast always happy to hear from you because we will do a next episode we'll come back with another special and then we'll dive back into building better habits and wrapping up that season then stepping into whatever the next one is and we haven't figured that out yet so feel free to throw us some suggestions that being said got there and have yourself a great day a great week a happy new year and we will talk to you next time. Thank you for listening to building better developers the developinure podcast you can subscribe on Apple podcast, Stitcher, Amazon, anywhere that you can find podcasts we are there and remember just a little bit of effort every day ends up adding into great momentum and great success.