2020 Summary – Thank You!

How was 2020? Keep reading for my 2020 summary, my experiences throughout the year and some plans for 2021

In this post I don’t have any technical information for you. I’d like to share with you some of my main experiences of 2020.

I think we can all agree it was a seriously challenging year.

The Beginning

Everything started more or less according to plan. If you remember my happy New Year post, I explained how I was going to focus more on my business, on teaching in two universities and, of course, on creating content.

But well, there were many changes starting around March when the quarantine started, well at least in Mexico.

Business

My business stopped completely. I’ve had around five shoots, in the last nine months. That’s it.

So no, my business right now is not working correctly but there are signs of recovery. 

So yeah in that respect 2020 was not a good year, not for my photography services business, everything almost stopped.

Teaching

It was hard. However, I kept teaching! Teaching is one of those activities that didn’t stop, and I taught at two universities and I was able to transition to online teaching more or less easily: I already had some background working remotely when I was a project manager, and I already understood many of the tools involved. 

In some of my previous jobs I learned about instructional design, and some of my materials from my traditional classes, we’re already online so it wasn’t a big deal for me; and I tried to make it as painless as possible for my students. 

Of course, and most important, I was able to help other people in this transition to online teaching, whether it was other teachers or my own students.

So I think in that respect yes 2020 was challenging, but I think it had a positive outcome. I was able to help people and I’m really happy about that.

Content Creation

In terms of content creation: yeah, it was seriously challenging.

I was reusing some of the materials that I was using for my online teaching, for the YouTube channel. If you remember that series about product photography using homemade lighting, it was a part of that strategy.

But at some point I was a bit overwhelmed because, even though some of my classes for one of the universities were already in the process of being automated, and I was already using online tools and things like that, on the other university I did not. I didn’t have any materials or a platform and things like that.

That was seriously challenging and demanding so, at some point as I was saying it was overwhelming. I was not able to keep up with content creation and, if you noticed, I pretty much just stopped posting videos or blog posts for, I think, a month-and-a-half. 

Positive Outcomes

However, two very important things happened during this year that I’m really thankful for. One is that I fulfilled all the necessary requirements in order to monetize the YouTube channel, and that was awesome! That was amazing! It’s not that I’m making thousands of dollars every month, but that was a goal that I had for this year and I accomplished it, but I didn’t do it alone: it was thanks to you.

The other thing that I have to mention is that, while I was overwhelmed with all this work and teaching and creating content for my students, there were a few comments in the YouTube channel like this one:

Or like this one:

Or this:

So I just wanted you to know that all of your comments, all of your kind words, really really helped me, really touched me, and for that I’m seriously thankful. I seriously appreciate all the kind words, all the encouragement, all the criticism, because not everything was “I love your Channel” or whatever. 

Some of you suggested some changes, some topics, and I really appreciate that. So, I think that’s making me refocus all my efforts for 2021.

Summary

Even before looking to the future going to 2021 I just wanted to say: Thank You!

Thank you for all the kind words, for all your sharings, for watching the videos, and of course for subscribing to the channel. I think you really made my year, you really helped in difficult times, and I just wanted to acknowledge your effort, your kind words.

I think 2021 will still be challenging, but I think we’re now better prepared, both you and I, because you have expressed the content that you want, I agree with it, so I think 2021 looks great. 

In any case I’m going to make a special post about 2021 plans. Keep an eye out for that. In the meantime I just want you to remember to stay safe, keep learning and keep creating!