Tests and lessons #3

Hey beautiful human 👋,

Can you believe we've already wrapped up FY24?

It feels like just yesterday we were setting goals for the year, and now, here we are, gearing up for FY25 starting this July.

If you are scratching your head—yes, it’s still June.

But down here in Australia, and in some parts of the US and elsewhere, the fiscal year ticks from July 1st to June 30th.

So for us, next month is a fresh start!

Reflecting on the past year, if I had to pick just one word to describe it, that word would be “Searching.” Here’s why:

Quick FY24 Recap before I explain:

• 🌏 Over 30 million people saw my face online.

• 👀 More than 2.2 million engaged with my videos for longer than 10 minutes.

• 👩‍🎓 3,000+ learners chose to dive into their education journeys with me.

• ✨ Launched 5 major courses and products.

• ✌️ Received a stellar average rating of 4.7 across all offerings.

Three years ago, I stepped away from the comfortable profits of agency life—where I was pulling in about $1.5-2 million annually.

It was a comfy setup, but something inside me kept nudging for more meaningful work.

That’s when I pivoted to YouTube and launched Designership, my online education platform.

Fast forward to today, with over 180 videos published on YouTube, nearly 200K subscribers, and more than 12,000 designers passing through Designership’s virtual doors, I find myself pondering, "What’s next?"

Do I continue to churn out courses, or is there a bigger picture I'm missing?

Don’t get me wrong—I am beyond grateful.

The ability to impact lives directly and watch learners thrive is incredibly rewarding. But there's a part of me that craves challenge, the kind that sparks growth and innovation.

I’ve been asking myself, how do I turn up the notch on this online education space?

So, this past month, I’ve been deep in thought, talking to students, poring over every piece of feedback, and brainstorming with my trusted advisors and team about the future direction of our platform.

This isn’t a new revelation; it’s been a constant thought since my pivot three years ago. But envisioning a grander future always seemed daunting—too much work, too risky, possibly a setup for a spectacular failure.

Historically, I've played it safe, opting for the “sure wins” that promised steady, albeit predictable, outcomes.

It's a strategy that has served me well, providing financial security my family never had.

However, I’m learning that this approach can also be limiting.

A double edged sword if you will.

At some point, to achieve something truly groundbreaking, risks must be taken.

Not reckless ones, but calculated leaps of faith where the path isn’t fully visible.

As the saying goes…

It’s time for me to take the test.

So, what’s your test right now?

What's that nagging thought or dream you've been prolonging? Perhaps it's time to stop preparing endlessly and just dive in.

Here’s to making bold moves.

PS. Yes, I’ve decided to take the risk and start making bigger moves 👀

Bite sized learnings

1. 📊 Multiple metrics: Whether in business or in life, you can’t optimize for only one metric. For instance, businesses need quality and efficiency to work hand-in-hand. Blindly driving efficiency to reach $1M means the quality goes right out the window and vice-versa.

   1. 💡 Learning: When it comes to defining a strategy for a ‘major outcome’ consider 2-3 core metrics. Ex. Yearly goals. Ofcourse with smaller and micro-decisions, you could get away with just one.

2. 🎢 Have fun: For some reason as we get older, we tend to take things more seriously. I don’t know if it’s because we have less time for 💩, we have more responsibilities, we think this is how we are meant to be or we just have higher expectations? I think that’s all 💩 and we should always have fun with what we do. If you can turn work into fun, that is the ultimate competitive advantage. Trust me, there are a lot of people out there that have built fun-loops into their work.

   1. 💡 Learning: Ask yourself, how can I make whatever I’m doing right now more fun? It’s not impossible, it’s about being creative and committing.

3. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Why not?: Instead of asking yourself “Why should I…?” or asking others “Why do you…?”, what if we re-framed it to “Why not?”

   1. “Why do you work so hard?” — “Why not?”

   2. “Why do you want to $20M?” — “Why not?”

   3. “Why should I re-start my gym membership?” — “Why not?”

      1. 💡 Learning: The use of words can truly alter our reality. How we frame our beliefs can either limit or empower our possibilities.

Useful lil links

• Config (Figma) 24 Summarized - Learn EVERYTHING that happened in 8 minutes; from your favorite YouTuber… Me.

• Framer Forms - Framer just launched native Forms.

• Figma Slides - Figma launched their own Slides (Presentations).

• Superhuman 2.0 - The fastest email experience ever made.

• My First Million - My all-time favorite podcast around business.

Things I’m vibin’

⌚️ Gadgets: To mark our 5-year anniversary last week, I surprised my fiancé and myself with new Apple Watches. She picked the Series 9, and I opted for the ULTRA 2 with an Ocean Band. They’re a perfect match for our active lifestyles.

🏃 Fitness: I never use to enjoy running but it’s definitely growing on me. I’ve upgraded my New Balance 1080 to the New Balance FuelCell SC Elite v4 which has a carbon fibre plate within. I can’t wait to take them out for a spin.

⚡️ My team: This fiscal year, I scaled down my team. I had to make the difficult decision to let go of a few individuals that weren’t keeping up. Even though we are are a smaller team now, the quality and volume of work we are producing is significantly higher. I’m very happy with everything we’re doing and I can’t wait to share some of the projects with you that will be going live in the next couple months.

How can I help you?

Here are a few ways I can help you crush your career goals (just like me):

💼 Build confidence in end-to-end UX/UI design (10 hours) - You’ve mastered the tool and UX research and now you want to learn how to lead, design and manage a project end-to-end. Dive deep into every little step alongside me with a real-world project.(200+ designers — New course ✨)

🖥️ Master Figma (10 hours) - Become an expert in Figma so you can get more done; faster and better. This isn’t just a technical course about features, it’s an end-to-end course on how Figma fits into a real-world project. (7,200+ designers)

🔍 Dive-deep into UX Research & Strategy (10 hours) - Learn how to run UX and business research to make more strategic and data-informed decisions for larger scaled projects and improved stakeholder management.(700+ designers)

⚡️Design 10X faster with 8,000+ pre-designed components - If you’re starting every project from scratch, you’re probably wasting a lot of time. Leverage Shipfaster UI to speed up your process dramatically.(3,400+ designers)

That’s it for this month’s newsletter!

Let me know how you found this month’s edition; what did you love or dislike?

It means a lot to me.

Mizko