Episode 4
· 24:26
This is my 2022 year in review. I've been writing these every year since 2013. If you'd like to read this, you can find it on my blog, justinjackson.ca/2022 dash review. Traditionally, these have focused on my business highlights in addition to any personal experiences I feel I can share publicly. Just like anything else people publish on the Internet.
Justin:There's all sorts of personal stuff I can't share, but these are the things I can share. So first, what happened in 2022 for transistor.fm? As many of you know, John Buda and I started transistor in 2018. It's a podcast hosting and analytics platform. And overall, I love waking up and going to work at at transistor with John, Helen and Jason, in addition to some of the contractors we've been working with like Jason Beggs and Joshua Anderton.
Justin:I'm still passionate about the podcasting space and really excited about all the cool stuff we get to build for podcasters. Despite all the economic uncertainty right now in tech, especially, there's been lots of layoffs. We grew revenue in 2022. So just nice stable double digit growth. And, also according to folks like James Cridland, who's the reporter for Pod News.
Justin:Transistor was one of the fastest growing podcast hosting providers with the new number of new shows almost doubling between 2020 and 2022. So Overall, I feel incredibly fortunate. Transistor has given me a really great life. Every additional day that I get to work on transistor. Feels like a blessing and the rewards in margin that Transistors given my family are just enormous.
Justin:I can't I can't describe it. It's just it's been life changing. In January of 2022, John and I finally met up in person for our founders retreat after two and a half years of not each other due to the pandemic. John joined me in BC for a week and it was really, really great. We did some planning for 2022.
Justin:We had a big long drive, from Vernon to Revelstoke where we could talk and You know, when you're on a drive, it gives you these opportunities for maybe bringing up issues that you've been meaning to talk about but haven't talked about. Really important for 2 founders. But we also did lots of snowboarding and dining out and hanging out. And starting the year that way was just a huge benefit for us as as partners and for the company. We started to sketch out some of our goals and intentions for the year and, one of mine was, to improve how transistor performs in on search results.
Justin:So especially the last few months of 2022, I've been trying to improve Transistors search results for terms like how to start a podcast both on on Google and YouTube. And you can keep track of how I'm doing if you just open up your phone and search how to start a podcast and see where Transistor, is. And, of course, if you click on that search result, that also helps us out. I appreciate that. While I could have hired someone else to do all of this search engine optimization, I really enjoyed learning about it and testing different strategies.
Justin:A few key lessons off the top of my head ranking on YouTube is a massive opportunity for small companies in general, but small SaaS companies, especially, backlinks are really important if you wanna rank for competitive keywords. We had a number of, pages on our site that were, you know, had all of the right ingredients, but just needed more sites, authoritative sites linking to those URLs. And so I've been reaching out to folks I know, bloggers and friends and, asking, you know, folks that already have content about, you know, podcasting to link to some of our resources on the transistor blog. If you have a site and you have, you know, you can maybe link to us, let me know. Yeah.
Justin:If there's anything on our blog that might be good reference points or resources for your site. Yeah. It really helps to get those back Google also seems to be rewarding pages with structured data markup. You can read more about this if you sir if you search for structured data markup. It's basically all these additional kind of, data types like reviews, frequently asked questions, that they're surfacing in search results and if you include the JSON for, you know, on your pages for And if you include the JSON, the structured data markup, for these different types, Google seems to be highlighting those.
Justin:So I'm gonna try to use more of that. It really helps to track the changes you're making on your marketing site so that to see if they develop into results. And I'm using this tests feature in seotesting.com for that. And in our market, podcast hosting, website hosting, a skyscraper content seems to rank highest. And skyscraper content is where you just get a massive really long article on a topic.
Justin:So instead of breaking it up into a number of different resources, you just have everything in the same page. All the advice I got was that's what's working for your competitors, and so you should do that as well. We launched so much new stuff on transistor in 2022, updated podcast website builder and new podcast website themes, multiple languages for podcast websites, the free podcast website builder, podcast achievement badges, multiple improvements to dynamic Ad insertion, episode timestamp links, episode comparison charts, guest host and creator profiles for podcast websites. Really cool m p three chapter feature that automatically generates timestamps in your show notes. Removing the email address from the RSS feed so Our customers don't get spammed and a big refresh on the transistor marketing website that I've done with Joshua Anderton.
Justin:By far, the biggest highlight of the year for Transistor was the team retreat we did in Montreal, Quebec. It just to be in person with Jason, John, and Helen, all for the first time being in the same place simultaneously in such a beautiful vibrant city in the fall when the colors were amazing. It was wonderful. Just So many highlights. We rented this really cool hotel in Old Montreal and explored the waterfront and restaurants in historic streets.
Justin:We went to a Montreal Canadiens hockey game. We bought tickets to this moderate concert. We toured the Saint Lawrence River by boat. Helen and I went to a light show at the Notre Dame Cathedral. We had many amazing meals together and I think the experience of exploring product ideas in the same room was really helpful even more so being able to further our relationships with each other, make memories.
Justin:That's just It's kind of it, you know, when you're building a team and a life. We recorded a great podcast about it on the Build Your SaaS podcast. You can check that out. I would say that in 22, I started to feel the need for collaboration. We didn't hire anybody new, last year but I started to feel like I could use some collaboration on the marketing side.
Justin:I just haven't had the same Spark or Energy these last few years as I've had in the past. And I think in particular watching John and Jason work together, and interact in the dev Slack channel inspired me to team up with some contractors, in 2022. So I heard a variety of people, Jason Beggs and then Josh Anderton at various times, and also collaborated with Jeremy Enns on a live stream event. So and in particular, the last part of the year, I worked a lot with Joshua Tannen Transistors marketing site. He's helped do so he's been building a ton of things.
Justin:Refresh the marketing I refreshed our reviews page, refreshed our blog, refreshed our change log. Almost every, high impact page on our site Joshua has already redesigned and rebuilt, and he's rebuilt all sorts of custom stuff inside of the statemix CMS. That's really exciting. So that's been amazing. Hoping to do even more of that in 2023.
Justin:What else? Oh, yeah. Conferences. Even though we launched Transistor in 2018, I'd still never been to podcast movement, which is like the big event. So I Committed to attending, the August conference in Dallas.
Justin:And, you know, conferences are like summer camp for adults. After so many years of not being at a conference, it just gave me a massive boost of energy. I met So many people, customers, Internet friends, people that work at Apple Podcasts, people that work at Spotify. My competitors, I hung out with the Buzzsprout team quite a bit and, it was just wonderful. In particular, I got to spend time with Jay Clouse and Jeremy ends and, those in person kind of relational times were really just wonderful and meaningful.
Justin:So even though I'm committed to flying less, I I've cut my annual flights from probably 8 to 10 down to 3 to 4 a year, for climate change reasons. I I also See there's the the importance of getting together with folks in real life. So I'm gonna attend at least One more podcasting event in 2023. Yeah. Really helpful.
Justin:Okay. So that's it for Easter news. A lot of people have asked what happened to meeps. So in 2021, Josh Anderton I started building meeps which is a better way to create online communities and memberships. And the idea was to stop using Memberful and a bunch of other tools I was already using for the Mega Maker community, which has been going since 2013 and switched to Meeps as the community management tool.
Justin:And, you know, at the time, driven largely by the pandemic, there was a lot of interest in building online communities. Startups like Circle, Club Clubhouse and Hopin were attracting these mega valuations. The energy kind of felt similar to The podcasting space when John and I launched Transistor in 2018, it felt like there's good momentum. Lots of people are starting Discord chat groups. There's the whole NFT craze and how it was, like, all around community.
Justin:But unlike podcasting, the momentum just didn't last long. Tatiana reported this in her newsletter. If you're hoping to grow a community business Since 2023, a lot of what you might be hearing right now is not optimistic. With the winding down of pandemic, people are finding other social Options to occupy their time. We are spending less on things that feel optional because of inflation and pending recession.
Justin:Many of the communities that were started in the last few years are now either ghost towns or defunct. So as we spoke to a lot of our early access customers, I think we had about 150 people that tried it. It just became apparent that building a community was harder than starting a newsletter, a podcast, or a blog. And there's just not that many people like me, who have active communities like MegaMaker. So for now, I'm still using meeps for the mega maker community and it's working awesome.
Justin:There's so many cool features we have in it that, Yeah. That are just really neat and I'd love to see more people using it but we're gonna keep it running and, You know, in the future, we might find a use case with more traction that makes sense to, you know, invest more in marketing. But until we really feel that pull of the market. We're just going to let it coast for a bit. A few more personal experiences to share.
Justin:Paddle boarding was a huge part of my Life in 2022, my wife and I had, like, probably in the summer, almost like 4 or 5 days a week on the lake paddle boarding. There's just something about being on the water that we found incredibly grounding. Any worries we had before we left would just evaporate as soon as we were floating or paddling. It was really therapeutic, and I think we're gonna definitely keep doing that in 2023. In that spirit, I also just Spent way more time with people in real life.
Justin:You know, code restrictions accelerated this trend of spending more time on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. And while I've benefited immensely from the relationships I've built online, I think the pandemic just showed how important our real life interactions are. Comedian Matt Ruby recently commented on this in his new special.
Justin:I'm supposed to, like, Figure out what I learned through this project. One thing that kept coming up is that I feel gratitude towards you guys for being here, and I think this Comedy club and stage is like a holy space. So I've been thinking about, like, why is the that the one thing that comes up? Because it's kinda, like, hippie dippie, you know? And, I think it's because, like, our lives, like, we got I don't know.
Justin:Everyone's so angry. We're so furious. There's, like, this cancel culture stuff, the Politics, the tribalism, everyone's, like, anxious. Everyone's depressed. And I just think, like, the antidote to all of it is what we're doing right now.
Justin:It's thank you. You're the antidote. Together, we're the antidote. Right? I think we're, like, a room full of people coming together to laugh or dance or sing or worship or whatever is The antidote to everything that's, like, going negative and, like, we just gotta get off screens.
Justin:And I think, To me, it's like the closest I get to religion is having that experience. And I'm so grateful and thankful for it in my life that I think It keeps coming out of my subconscious when I just let it rip.
Justin:Yeah. So that really resonated with me. My favorite moments in 2022 were all related to spending time with people offline, snowboarding with friends, taking my family to Disney, meeting up with my friend Andrew and his family at Disney, going to Vancouver with my wife, visiting friends and family in Edmonton, having my sister's Family visit us in the summer, going to concerts, dancing, karaoke, parties. I just Want and need more of that energy in my life. And I think post pandemic or whatever stage of the pandemic we're at, We all need that.
Justin:We always needed that. And, it's clear that online isn't going to be enough to fill that gap. Kind of related are some thoughts related to public discourse. In retrospect, Twitter, Facebook, and other short form social media haven't improved our public discourse. Sam Harris echoed some of the thoughts of many when he left Twitter, and he said
Justin:I just came to believe that my engagement with Twitter was making me a worse person. It really is as simple as that. I have a lot to say about Twitter and about what I think it's doing to society, But I left it because it suddenly became obvious that it was a net negative influence on my life. The most glaring sign of this That's something which I've been concerned about for a few years is that it was showing me the worst of other people in a way that I began to feel was It's actually distorting my perception of humanity.
Justin:I'm someone who cares deeply about human progress. The sharing of Ideas and critiques have been a key part of our evolution as a species. Creating spaces for respectful debate, dialogue, and dissent is how we really examine ourselves, our leaders, our societies, and make them better. And for a long time, it felt to me like the Internet was improving our public discourse. Over the years, I've changed my mind on a variety of Pretty big topics after hearing people's thoughtful reasoning in blog posts, forum threads, and podcasts.
Justin:But the proliferation of toxicity and misinformation on social media is really turning that tide. We have, as Sam Harris says, a larger problem now to deal with.
Justin:It's still not clear what to do about the social harm of misinformation and disinformation At scale. Algorithmically boosted speech isn't ordinary speech, and many people Don't see this. We have built systems of communication in which lies and outrage spread faster and more widely than anything else. Scale matters. Velocity matters.
Justin:And like Sam, I'm not entirely clear how we solve this problem. Intuitively, it feels like part of the answer is more slow media. Blog posts, articles, and podcasts are an example of this. Because mindful media is usually decentralized using tech like RSS. It doesn't suffer from the monetized outrage we see on platforms like Twitter.
Justin:Instead, I think these channels, these mindful channels, encourage a more thoughtful way to express our ideas, concerns, and theories. All of that being said, the most effective method for respectful discourse I found in the past year is person to person preferably offline. A number of times over the past few years, I found myself getting into an argument with a local friend on Facebook. And When possible, I got in the habit of reaching out in DMs to see if we could get together for coffee. Surprisingly, When we met up, we'd spend most of our time reestablishing a personal connection.
Justin:Hey, how are your kids? What's your job like these days? How's your parents' health? And it it made me realize how much of our humanity gets stripped away by social media. There's not as much room for depth, nuance or real connection.
Justin:Whenever I meet someone in person, even those I deeply disagree with, I instantly have more empathy and understanding for their point of view. Often, we'll walk away from that meeting still disagreeing on a few things but with greater respect for each other. Regaining a connection with someone you've been fighting with online feels like progress. So that's enough on that. Just wanna mention, I'm still going to therapy.
Justin:I see my therapist almost every month, and it's continued to have a profound impact on my life. I think every human needs good mental health. And one of the tools to have good mental health is to see a therapist regularly. So if you can, you should. There's a lot programs, in North America at least that, are trying to offer therapy, more affordably to people.
Justin:And if that's something you haven't done yet, I encourage you to go. I was someone that was embarrassed by the thought of therapy, be, anxious about the thought of therapy nervous. And once I found, my current therapist, everything changed. I had to try a few different therapists before, the one I'm seeing right now, and it's just been a game changer. Sure.
Justin:Yeah. So I'm gonna end with some gratitude. I'm incredibly grateful for my wife, Lorinda, and our kids. I just Love my family and the life we've built together. It hasn't always been easy.
Justin:But just this year with our oldest going to college and our 3 boys in high school. It was just so clear that, wow, we've really built Something special here together. And, Yeah. Really thankful for it. I'm really grateful for having a business partner like John Buda and the business and the team we've built together.
Justin:It's just, like I said earlier, just Really wonderful. I'm grateful for the opportunity to travel, go on road trips, and experience different places with cool people. I'm grateful for my parents, my siblings, and extended family, grateful for every moment we get together. Just realizing you you only get so many moments and really enjoying them when they happen is, something I think about a lot. I'm grateful for my friends and the time we get to spend together.
Justin:I'm grateful for the events, meetups, and concerts I get to go to. I'm grateful for my health and the health of my family. I'm grateful for our family's financial situation. And I'm really grateful for people who put out good podcasts and articles. So plans for 2023.
Justin:I need to add to this, but here's just a few things I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about hiring someone to help me on the marketing side for Transistor. I'd like to podcast more. I either need to start something new or reboot one of the many podcasts I've Already started. I'd like to do 3 or 4 trips with family.
Justin:I'd like to go snowboarding in Revelstoke. Maybe speak at one conference. I'm still committed to making Transistor the most recommended podcast hosting tool in the world. John and I still need to book our 2023 founders There's retreat and another team retreat in the fall. I'd like to keep researching and acting on climate change.
Justin:Even though it can be stressful, it's just Apocalyptic fiction is becoming reality. There's floods, fires, melting glaciers, mudslides, heat domes, and all of this is happening in My province right now. So, yeah, I we need to act. I wanna keep walking every day. I'd like to be more generous in 2023.
Justin:I think some of my happiest moments in 2022 came from giving. And I'd like to do another family reunion in the summer. Alright. That's it. Thanks everyone for listening.
Justin:And, and if I if you wanna reach out to me, I'm on Mastodon, Twitter, Instagram, all the things at m I justin, or you can email me, justin@megamaker.co. Talk to you later.
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