2015 in Review

I planned to write this sooner but #excuses and I'll try harder in the future. Never the less, shipping late is better than not shipping at all, right?

At my Family Christmas party, I was chatting with my sister in law Angela and her fiancee, Roger after dinner. During our discussion, she mentioned how she's getting into marketing.

In the past, I would cringe at the word 'Marketing' but 2015 was different. This year I actually learned what marketing was... Or rather what it should be.

This year it intrigued me!

An hour past in the span of minutes. We discussed everything from marketing principles to podcasts. From books to apps for organization.

It was a torrential downfall of wonderful words I wish recorded!

In fact, there so much valuable content, I told Angela I would follow up with links. This is that follow up.

Podcasts

I knew about podcasts but never got into them until the summer of 2015. I wish I discovered them earlier but more so, I'm glad I didn't wait another 5 years to figure them out. Here is a list of the top 4 podcasts that helped me change my way of thinking in 2015.

Rough Draft by Demian Farnworth

I didn't like the first minute of Rough Draft. Something about Demian's voice and pacing unsettled me. Still, I endured past it, determined to give him a fair shake.

By the end of that same podcast, I had the rest on his series queued for download. Yes, it was that good and that profound.

Demian took me on a fantastic adventure with his prose that ignited my imagination.

Startup School by Seth Godin

Anything with Seth Godin is gold. When I discovered this 15 part talk with new entrepreneurs, I pounced at the subscribe button. It helped me change the way I look at may aspects in my life and I'm currently on the second listening of the series.

The Model Health Show by Shawn Stevenson

This was another podcast I was unsure about the first minute I listened to it. But just like Demian's Rough Draft, I found my playlist queued with Shawn and Jade episodes at the end.

What's more, I also have caught myself speaking like Shawn at times which I'm not mad at. he's pretty charismatic and knowledgeable.

Smart Passive Income by Pat Flynn

Are you ready for another marathon of podcast binge listening? Pat Flynn interviews all types of entrepreneurs on his podcast. It's a one stop shop for good ideas. In fact, that's how I met Shawn Stevenson.

Another person interviewed by both Pat and Shawn is is Lewis Howes and the School fo Greatness. His podcast is on my to do list.

Applications

I tried listing my top 3 and failed hard. Maybe next year but 2015 introduced me to a ton a gems that changed how I do things and made me a ton more productive. I want to share them with you. My top 6 apps of 2015

Podcast Addict

Androids don't get much love from iTunes but luckily a programmer came to the rescue. This app is great and helped me become a better version of myself by giving me an easy way to listen to all these podcasts.

Feedly

With so many websites with so much good information, it's easy to get overwhelmed with the noise. That's where Feedly comes in. This app makes it possible to zoom through 100s of articles to curate the best for my weekly newsletter. It's a god send.

Evernote

I'm using Evernote to write this. In the past I used notepad++, word, docs, memo, voice recorder. The problem was my best ideas were always away from the computer.

Now I can just select my note and use the speech to text feature on a walk or in a car. It's all saved to the cloud and is accessible whenever I hop on my computer to produce my content. It's made my life a ton easier.

Hemingway

I Ramble, and use passive voice a lot. adverbs too, excessively. Basically I'm not a great writer. At least that what the Hemingway app taught me.

I learned about Hemingway from Demian Farnworth. This app is exactly what I need to make my articles not the worst in existence. Honestly, I've gotten emails about how my content have improved since using this app.

In fact, I'm using Hemingway right now. I had 14 difficult to read sentences. Now it's down to 5. Thank you Hemingway and yes I left the adverbs in or purpose in this section. I'll also share my Hemingway score with you at the end.

Buffer

Buffer is the reason my Twitter feed isn't a desert wasteland. Before I used post forwarding from Facebook. It wasn't pretty, it's wasn't clear, and it wan't concise.

Now I can broadcast to all my social media channels at once or one at a time. What;s more, they don't look like trash and I can schedule my posts ahead of time. I block a chunk of time to release posts for the week and then am done.

Mailchimp

This app changed my life. They keep track of my email lists and show me stats on how my subscribers interact with the email. Before I had a file of email I copied and pasted into the BCC field. Now I can segment the list into people just in Sugarland or people who have engaged with my last 5 emails. I can even find the people who haven't opened my emails in the last 6 months. All great information to know.

Books

Pre-podcast, I read quite a few books. Books that opened up my eyes, my head, and my heart to ideas that have help me change my life. Here's the top ones I red and recommend. Disclaimer: These are not light reads. You'll want to take notes and reread these books several times for the best effect.

All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin

This book opened my eyes on how I didn't actually know what marketers were. I confused them with manipulators and this book verified that I'm not alone in this thought. There is a pretty profound difference between the two.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

I'll be honest, I still haven't finished this book. It's a big read, much like Godin's book. Each sentence is a paragraph of information. Powerful words you'll need to read over and over again to adsorb.

Small is the New Big by Seth Godin

This book contains hundreds of Seth's works. It's another knowledge loaf that needs slicing before you can devour it. His amazing insight in the marketing world actually clarifies what the heck goes on. I now see the world in new eyes. I wonder how I survived wandering about blind to this for so long.

Conclusion

This has been a marathon post for me. One of the hardest I have written. Not because I lack information but because there was so much information to share. Had I shared it all, it would continued forever.

Among my years goals is to dig deeper into this content and to dedicate a post to each. Another goal is to make a content audit and organize my content to more manageable chucks.

As for my content, Angela inquired where to find that so I'd be rude of me to leave it out.

Hamenopi (YouTube)

My Youtube channel where in 2015 I talked about role playing games and did silly things. This year will be a little different. I'm excited for what in store and invite you to take the trip with me.

Hamenopi (Blog)

My RPG Centric blog. I broke off the non-RPG content into smaller blogs last year. I'm not sure how I'll structure my blogs going forward yet. During my content audit, I'll make that decision so until then, here's Hamography.

Hemingway score:

Readability 4

Words: 1330

Read Time: 5 minutes

Hard Sentences: 0