2024: Wins, Challenges and Lessons Learned

As the year wraps up, it’s time for my annual tradition: reflecting on 2024. Think of this as a public diary entry where I celebrate wins, share struggles, and get real about the highs and lows – including insights into my earnings and the challenges of juggling passion projects, speaking, family life, and work. Who knows, maybe there’s something here you can relate to or take away for yourself!

Luckily, client work picked up again. At the same time, I aimed to maintain my 2023 output, all while family life with our three girls got even busier. Nila, our oldest, started secondary school – a transition I underestimated – and we’re still trying to find our groove with it. Some videos ended up being edited four to six months after recording. I even stumbled upon one I finished editing back in March but forgot to release 🤦‍♂️. All of this highlights that 2024 was a bit too much, and I need to accept that I can’t do it all. More on that later.

My highlight definitely was that I had the pleasure of edutaining around 1,700 people on five stages this year. On WordCamp Vienna, Beyond Tellerrand Düsseldorf, Smashing Conf Freiburg, uxcon Vienna, and Push UX in Munich. I really enjoyed leaning into