Well, 2024 is over and 2025 is here tomorrow. Honestly, I had a great 2024. Professionally, I grew my business, freelanced a bit for people around the world, grew the agency I work for, got hired, and learned more about what I *don’t* want in a client. I made more money than I had before, learned a ton of new skills, made some content I’m proud of, and overall tried (and I think succeeded) with the proverbial “putting myself out there”.
Workwise, I started attending WordPress Meetups, went on podcasts, did live streams with new friends, and attended the now infamous WordCamp 2024 in Portland where Matt dropped some bombs.
Do you still have that ‘joy’ every day?
I made a post in January 2024 about reflecting back throughout the year. I worked too much this year but it was also very rewarding. I saw someone post around Christmas time “Does your job pass the Christmas test”? This meant “Do you feel like a kid on Christmas every day?” Do you wake up in the morning excited and slightly nervous because you are anticipatorily waiting to see what presents you have to unwrap today? I still feel like that upon waking every day still. I think that having joyful curiosity in my life keeps me going much farther than I would otherwise.
For me, there’s a lot of highlights, but here’s a few:
- I more than doubled my subscriber count on YouTube (now over 2.1k). I got multiple clients from YouTube and through online spaces. Creating short YouTube videos turns out to be one of the primary ways I got new clients in 2024 and will continue this in 2025.
- Got hired by Digital Gravy, Kevin Geary’s company that builds AutomaticCSS, Frames, and now, Etch. I started using ACSS and bought Frames the day it came out a few years ago. It was surreal he reached out to ask about hiring me. I’ve learned a shit load from Kevin so it was a no brainer joining them along for this journey. It’s been great to get more product and generalized WP support experience helping the clients
- Joined Bridge Builders live streams with Matt Eastwood and Mark Szymanski
- Was invited on WP Minute with Matt Medeiros to discuss Bricks Builder and WP Agency life.
- Attended my first WordCamp and met some heroes, made new friends, secured some sponsorships, and in general did the networking thing. Also met many of my heroes of WP face to face!
- I taught myself automation techniques and helped my existing clients and got new ones who needed help automating various aspects of their business.
- Signed my most expensive projects to date
Automation, API, and AI
I’ve used APIs and automation tools over the course of my web career, but really went hard this year. I taught myself a good bit about how to properly interact with the WP REST API, and used that to extrapolate to other web tools with deep dives into other CMS, connected with frontends, and in general feel like I unlocked the next level of my career.
I made some well received content on automation with Activepieces, and recently discovered Coolify where I’m selfhosting n8n, which is one of the most amazing tools I’ve seen. You can seriously automate so many things with complex or simple flows. I discover new stuff there every day and I really have loved learning and getting into these tools.
I also self hosted a few projects on other CMS (Strapi , Directus, Payload), got my hands dirty with other databases tools (Supabase, NocoDB, Xano), and connected all these together with fancy frontend tools (WebStudio, Toddle, Divhunt).
I feel like I’m also on the precipice of the next level of web design, where AI agents, automation, and lowcode API connections with a GUI front end tool are dramatically lowering the barriers to entry for this stuff. I’ll keep trying to learn and not skip ahead, but life is short and I got more to learn. Move fast and break things…right?
Whats happening in 2025?
I have more content planned, particularly around automation and AI, as these become more crucial skills to develop. Web Design as a profession isn’t going anywhere, but there will be dramatic changes to the landscape as AI takes much of the low hanging fruit over in short order. WordPress is in a weird spot right now, not least of so because of the ongoing WPEngine vs Automattic battles and the blowback surrounding that. WP also isn’t going anywhere, but it won’t be the same place.
I am relatively late to the party with so many other seasoned veterans around the scene, but I hope to stick around, and also not be stuck – that is, I will continue to explore other tools, different CMS, and tools beyond the traditional WP scene as this industry continues to evolve.
I enjoyed a quick trip down memory lane that Matt, Brian, and Mark did recently on a livestream of WP Minute. It’s wild how much WordPress has changed, grown, and still been the same somehow all these years. I consider myself lucky to be in this realm, with you, here.
Cheers & Looking forward to creating more with you in 2025.
-Brendan O’Connell
