Hi, this is Punny. The New Year 2025 is just around the corner!
As tradition goes, grab your notebooks and reflect on 2024:
What did you accomplish?
Where did you travel?
Did you learn from the experiences that shaped your year?
Take a deep breath at dawn and write down your thoughts:
What are you grateful for?
Who are your competitors?
What challenges do you want to overcome, and what goals do you want to achieve?
Of course, we respect the rights of others—their dreams, their choices, their health, and their lives.
This year, I spent a lot of time rethinking my direction and desires. For a long time, I worked as a freelancer. I faced a lot of stress, not knowing when the next project would come. But there were positives too! No one dictated how much I worked, when I took breaks, or whether a manager liked me or not.
While I’m not giving up on freelancing, I’ve realized that relying solely on freelance platforms can hold you back. Helping clients and contributing to their projects fills me with immense motivation!
This year, I:
Built my own website.
Defined the first product I want to launch and started working to build a fanbase for it.
Dreamed of creating a mini animated show—or even a theme park someday!
Created a product line plan.
I also began learning what it takes to truly engage people. Think a $1,000 monthly ad budget will save you? (Ho ho ho!)
I developed a style, theme, and character that resonate with me and tested them out.
Could all this have been done in a month? Maybe. But understanding yourself is far more important.
There’s still so much to learn—more books to read, courses to take, and skills to develop to feel confident in the market. Perhaps it’s time to pick up another language too?
I battled social media algorithms, analyzed data, tracked monthly performance, and eventually cracked the code... Social media is like a roulette wheel, with entry barriers and an audience divided into paying and non-paying groups.
So, what’s next? Now, I’m focusing on listening to people:
What do they want to see?
What do they want to read?
What shows captivate them?
What are their concerns and why?
I want to dig deeper because I can’t afford a from $2,000-a-month marketer—haha! I’m just running a small startup.
If you plan to start a business in 2025, write down your goals and stay focused. There will be plenty of obstacles. For some, life becomes a cycle of debts, helping others, and protection. Cruelty always finds its way back to its source.
Be grateful for the sunlight and water, and stay calm.
Best,
Punny & Panda
manga, illustration, punnypanda, gamedev, 2D, webtoon, comic, book