2024 went by pretty fast and it was overall a relatively good year for me.
Got fitter and healthier.
Helped more than 10 business owners increase their lead (and sales).
Income increased.
Travelled with my family.
(And first trip with wifey without the kids!)
While I look back at these positive moments…
I want to reflect on what possibly led to those outcomes.
Because I believe they are the by-product of a certain set of habits and effort.
And looking back, there weren’t any big changes I made to my life.
I didn’t hustle like mad to increase my income.
I did not force myself to hit the gym 3-4 times a week to get fitter.
All I did was to put in place simple habits and just told myself to follow it.
So in today’s letter, I want to share the simple but powerful habits which I will continue to do in 2025.
Prioritising health & fitness
I started regularly exercising back in 2022.
It started with just once a week swimming.
Now, I swim twice a week, and also go to 1 aerobics class and 1 pilates class.
Why?
It gives me mental clarity.
It helps me to be more disciplined.
When I started setting a simple schedule to follow, I noticed other areas of my life started to improve.
Overall, I have become more consistent.
More consistent with my exercises.
More consistent with my content creation.
Consistency over time often leads to bigger results.
I shared my weekly schedule previously, you can check it out here.
So this is something I will definitely continue.
Right now my exercise schedule looks like this:
Mon: I trek Bukit Timah hill with my parents
Tue: Swim + gym
Wed: Aerobics/stretch class
Thu: Swim
Fri: Pilates
When you prioritise your health first, you will have the right physical and mental condition to focus on work.
If you’re planning to start, my advice is to start with something really simple.
Like going for a 20 min walk, starting with just once a week.
Then, build on those baby steps!
Run just 1 simple lead generation funnel
While I run many different offers for my clients to attract new customers…
My own client acquisition funnel is really simple.
I run just 1 ad to give out my free ‘Ugly ads’ PDF.
People who opt in will join my email list.
I write emails and sometimes run workshops, which eventually will turn some of these people into clients.
(Some of them are reading this right now lol)
In 2024 alone, I’ve met more than 5 new clients from this funnel alone.
This is when I realise there isn’t a need for any complicated funnel.
One simple funnel to help you start conversations will work equally well with a complex funnel that has a sales page, upsells and downsells, or even webinar funnels etc.
Btw, if you haven’t seen my ad yet, it looks like this:
It’s funny because in the comment sections, I have 2 groups of people.
One group would be the naysayers…
Calling my landing page dogshit and all.
Another group are the supporters.
I’ve never deleted any of the comments.
Just gonna leave it there because it’s quite entertaining.
Since day 1 of this ad, the ad image and copy has remained the same.
I did turn the campaign on and off for a while.
But somewhere around mid 2024, I’ve left it running till now and will continue to keep it running.
I’m spending $1k per month on this ad.
Overall ROI for this campaign is definitely at least 5x (based on the returns I get from acquiring new clients).
Focus on 1 mode of content creation
What I mean here is not the type of content platform to use.
Eventually you’d want to have your content spread across the various social media platforms.
You can see my content strategy here where I dive deeper into it.
I mean focusing on one type of content medium.
Writing?
Video?
Audio?
If it’s writing, is it blog posts, or tweets, or IG stories…?
If it’s a video, is it short videos on IG reels, or long form videos on Youtube?
You see as I start to go deeper, you get confused with the options.
My key point is to just do well in one.
Or rather choose one that you are comfortable in doing.
For me, while I’m very comfortable in front of a camera…
I still prefer writing.
I write emails, newsletter, and after that I make them into videos.
Somehow writing allows me to think and organize my thoughts properly more than video.
But for you it may differ.
Choose one that you can do consistently.
Get better at it.
Because the point here is to be consistent in putting your content out there.
So people can hear you, see your message, and know you better.
And eventually build that connection with you and will want to work with you.
Protecting my time
Something that I’ve been quite careful about is protecting my time.
Simply put, if a task can be delegated or outsourced, I probably will do it.
Don’t get me wrong though.
I still meet people and clients for coffee pretty often.
But when it comes to work, I’d delegate it so I can focus on other parts of the business.
I’ve been working with video editors, website designers, graphic designers to help with my work.
I once read this quote by Naval Ravikant and found it interesting:
Set and enforce an aspirational hourly rate.
If fixing a problem will save less than your rate, ignore it.
If outsourcing a task will cost less than your rate, outsource it.
It’s probably why I buy stuff from IKEA these days…
I’d pay for them to help me fix it.
A book shelf will probably take me 2 hours to build.
In those 2 hours, I could create a new video, write an email, or do other more impactful stuff.
There you go.
Simple habits I’ll keep doing in 2025.
Exercise regularly
Run the same lead generation funnel
Write more emails
Outsource whenever I can.
Here’s wishing all of you a productive and impactful 2025!
