Newsletter #27: 2023 recap, a 365-day challenge and a recording studio session

Hi there,

Happy new year! I wish you the very best, both professionally and personally.

I’m coming back from a 3-week break all refreshed and full of energy to kick off 2024.

Do you remember when, in edition 10, I shared a picture of my work set up?

Well, I’ve made some improvements to it…

Here is what changed:

• I said goodbye to my Acer Swift 14” laptop and welcomed a beautiful Macbook Pro 16” with a M3 Pro chip.

• I replaced my HP Full HD 21.5” monitor with a massive curved Dell 34” one.

• I traded my 110x40cm wooden top for a beautiful curved 140x70cm one.

• I added a banana desk mat, inspired by Jordan Jenkins’s one.

• And the final touch… I added my little 3D printed Pikachu and Spiderman.

I feel like I now have the ultimate set up for my needs. No excuse not to do great work. Bring it on 2024!

In today's edition, we're discussing my 2023 recap, a 365-day challenge and a recording studio session.

Let's dive in.

Work

Since 2018, I have been writing down every important thing that happens to me so that they don’t fade away in my memory. I’m certain I’ll be happy to come back to these notes in 10 or 20 years. In the meantime, it’s a great list to reflect on at the end of each year.

It has become a ritual for me to take some time at the end of December to read my notes, take these memories in and sum up my year.

Once done, I write about the state of mind I’m in. Do I feel tired? Relaxed? Disappointed? Happy?

Finally, I set my goals for the next year. I often read that goals need to be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely). Some of mine are, in areas such as fitness, time off, revenue, and saving goals. But that’s not the case for all of them. Other goals are just a direction I’d like to take, a path I want to be on at the end of the year, with no specific progress requirement.

Overall, 2023 was a great year for me.

Here are the professional accomplishments I'm taking away from it:

• Worked for a year as a Shopify Theme Developer at Clean Canvas. I left in December to pursue a new journey. I’ll tell you more about it soon. I really enjoyed my time there. My colleagues were great. They made me feel like a part of the team since day one. We worked on amazing projects together and had memorable team meetups. I'm very grateful for this adventure.

• Launched a newsletter: 26 editions, 500+ subscribers, 62% open rate.

• Sold my shares in my first Shopify app: see my article “Exiting my first Shopify app after 2.5 years”.

• Released my second Shopify app, built with a friend. I will share more about it soon.

• Ran workshops for Shopify France to help French web agencies looking to move to Shopify.

• Organized an event for the French freelance Shopify developers community. They travelled from many cities just for the event. We had people coming from all around France: Angers, Bordeaux, Dijon, Montpellier, Nantes, Paris, Villard-de-Lans. I felt so honored to have them there! See edition 26 for a picture and more details.

• Published 127 posts on LinkedIn, which is an average of 1 post every 3 days, for a total of 1M+ impressions. My best year so far on this platform!

• Got interviewed by Tobi Lütke and Harley Finkelstein during a Shopify internal Town Hall, with fellow Shopify Partners Trudy MacNabb and Youness Idbakkasse. See my LinkedIn post for more information.

• Got featured in the Liquid Weekly newsletter several times.

What a ride!

On a personal level, 2023 is the year where I travelled the most.

I lived in Lille for 3 months, in Bordeaux for 3 weeks and in Paris the rest of the time.

Most importantly, I took weekends as opportunities to explore new territories.

I happily discovered new cities such as Angers, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Nancy, Bruges in Belgium and Alicante in Spain.

I also went back to Le Mans, Nantes, Nice and Madrid in Spain, to spend some quality time with friends.

And that's a wrap!

2023 was an important chapter of my life. I’m now very excited to start the next one.

I can't wait to share with you what I'll be doing in 2024!

Inspire

My inspiration this week comes from a tweet I’ve read.

This really resonated with me.

This balance of extremes is something I’ve always been juggling with, without finding the right words to describe it. I’m thrilled to push hard on various long term projects, whilst also making the most of my free time to relax and live in the moment. Having both is the right balance for me.

This tweet alone was enough to inspire me, but it then got even better. I checked Zach Pogrob’s Twitter account and found a link to his YouTube channel where he just started an interesting challenge.

Zach has named 2024 his “obsession year”: he will be posting a YouTube video every single day for 365 days.

Looking at the first 3 videos, it seems like he will mainly document running challenges, but perhaps there will be other topics as well.

Why is he doing this?

“Because one year of obsession can change your life.” And I agree with him!

I strongly believe that the key to achieving success in any endeavor hinges on two interconnected principles: discipline and consistency.

Discover more about Zach Pogrob in his tweet and in the first video of his 365-day challenge down below.

Explore

As you now know, I’m passionate about music and the creative process in general.

This week, one of my best friends, Ntoyi, gave me the perfect gift: he invited me to one of his recording studio sessions.

Ntoyi is an artist. He writes, produces and records his own songs. If you’d like to discover his music, you can give him a listen on Spotify.

That day, he had an appointment with a famous sound engineer to mix his latest song.

Arriving at the studio, I was impressed to see framed pictures of famous artists in the hall. They had all come here to record or mix their songs.

We then entered the mixing room for a 5-hour session. Ntoyi and the sound engineer worked to improve every single detail of the song, whilst I was quietly sitting on a couch, watching and learning.

What an incredible day!

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.

I'll talk to you soon.

Take good care of yourself.

Coralie