Welcome to my 11th radically honest yearly review. You can find previous reviews here: 02014, 02015, 02016, 02017, 02018, 02019, 02020, 02021, 02022, 02023.
This document is divided into three sections:
- We will delve into the most significant learning moments of 02024.
- We will look at some of my proudest accomplishments.
- We will look at the future, and I will share an exciting new mission for 02025.
This is the summary of the review:
Executive Summary
As I complete my eleventh yearly review, 02024 is a year of profound revelation and reinvention. What began as a year of disruption – shutting down Telling Power and La Fabbrica della Realtà, investing personal funds in the business, and experiencing a crisis of confidence – transformed into a journey of deep understanding and renewed purpose.
Through intensive research and development across three spaces – client work, personal reflection, and stage presence – I discovered something larger than business strategy. I developed robust self-coaching abilities, learned to lean into discomfort rather than away from it, and, most importantly, shifted focus from my journey to the transformative impact my clients can have on the world.
This evolution crystallized into a clear mission (revealed in the last section of this review.)
Looking back at a decade of reviews, I see how each year’s reflection has built toward this moment of clarity.
11 years of reviews
I have now produced a review for over a decade. I don’t expect you to read all past reviews, but I have created a chatbot that you can quiz to learn more about what happened this year and in previous years. You can find it below.
How to read this review
These paragraphs are the highlight of the year if haven’t got the time: the year of openness, biggest issue, biggest learning, confidence, mission.
Section One: Biggest Learnings
The year of self-coaching
The most significant breakthrough of 2024 is developing my inner coach. Learning how to process my own emotions, how to influence my mindset, and how to give myself my own interventions.
Surprise! In January, I completely disrupted the 2023 strategy. I stopped my one product, Telling Power. I shut it down. And I started a deep research and development phase into my next endeavor.
In May, I was ready to launch Myth Maker. However, as I approached bringing it to the market, I experienced a crisis of confidence that lasted from June until November and slowed me down tremendously.
This crisis of confidence led me to give myself an intervention in November and develop a new strategy just this month.
The year of peer-to-peer coaching
In the middle of this year, my coaching mentor, Blake La Grange, pivoted his business and disappeared from my sight. On one hand, this allowed me to develop my self-coaching abilities. But I still needed help.
I began coaching with my peers. I want to mention a few entrepreneurs here who have been instrumental in my growth this year.
Jennifer Bishop has been the most prominent presence in my life this year. She has been a tremendous help in the strenuous work of translating the imaginative language of my intuition into actual business actions and processes.
Patrick McAndrew is my reference point, both on the importance of focus and as a great sparring partner in building a business where professional speaking plays a major role.
Gemma Sugrue has been instrumental in helping me overcome barriers to leveraging the power of my presence in the video. She is also the quickest, wittiest, and most empathetic sparring partner.
Remy Lach, Julien Wagemann, and Danny Holtschke and many others have been wise friends and advisors along the way.
Much of the success of the year I owe to them.
(I elaborate on some of those concepts in the video below)
The year of openness
Never, like this year, have I documented every step of the process in public. It all started with me sharing my experience in San Diego in this post.
It then continued as I shared my early learnings on stage at Freelance Unlocked in May.
Most importantly, it came to fruition as I concluded a five-month life review process by giving my most courageous and authentic talk in Berlin.
If you haven’t watched it yet, this talk is not just a yearly review but a life review. If you want to know more about the process, which I’ve also thoroughly documented, please contact me, and I’ll be happy to guide you through this wondrous and eye-opening process.
The year of research & development
This year, I invested in myself.
What does that mean?
Well, first of all, I put some money in my account to allow myself to have enough runway not to have to worry about sales and revenue.
Then I started doing research in these three spaces.
Space number one: coaching with clients. This year, I coached several executives and founders. Compared to previous years, I expanded and extended the scope of coaching to include life, business, career, revenue, dreams, hopes, and imagination. I used new tools. I helped clients in doing what I was doing for myself, which I will describe in the next space.
Space number two: introspection. Much of the year’s research is captured in four notebooks full of insights and countless pieces of paper that have become newsletters, LinkedIn posts, articles, and videos this year. To do inner research and development, all that is needed is to make space.
However, making space may be the most elusive thing among my strengths. If you go on my website right now, you will see the words “chaos and conflict.” And if you listen to one of my talks, I will talk a lot about gaps and discomfort. I’m somewhat of a specialist in sitting down and dealing with the pain and discomfort of my thoughts and ideas. That’s the type of space that we usually drown out through distractions, social media, and YouTube.
By allowing plenty of space for self-reflection and leaning into the discomfort of feeling my emotions, I solved most of my internal problems this year.
Space number three: the stage. Allowing myself to perform on stage again after many years allowed me to share my ideas and see how they resonate in real-time. This avenue of self-expression, aka my artistic side, has helped me better understand the insights I was working with and to start spreading them with passion and energy.
The findings of the year
I’ve learned that I am a much better business and founder coach than I could ever be a story or storytelling coach.
I’ve learned that I can help everyone, but I am most effective coaching entrepreneurs.
I have observed that the world of work is in massive flux, and I am in the perfect position to help individuals navigate the change ahead, as I have lived through similar changes in the past 13 years.
I have doubled down on the importance of mindset over any hard skill and observed how my limiting beliefs have slowed me down.
I help people tackle the same challenges I face. I don’t coach on what’s easy for me; I guide you through what I find difficult.
My problem with operating
I’m highly intuitive.
I can grasp really complex things in a very short time. This sense, honed by years of psychoanalysis and therapy, of meditation, reflection and journaling, is one of my most substantial assets. It’s worth paying for my coaching services because of my intuition and ability to connect the dots.
All good, right?
On the other hand, I am also a business operator myself. I am an entrepreneur, just like the founders I coach. And I am very good at “operating.”
Why the quotation marks?
At times, I may operate from intuition rather than from business practices.
Said in simple terms: I will often do the wrong thing really well.
The combination of my intuition (my willingness to sit in a room and daydream) and my nerdiness (my willingness to operate and work on a computer for days) is not well balanced. I get stubborn, measure results in an emotional way, and make great leaps in the wrong direction.
Internal insecurity leads to making definitive decisions (“often wrong, never in doubt”) rather than smart tests (“strong opinions, loosely held”).
In other words, Matteo, the operator, can be obtuse, while Matteo, the creative, can be too idealistic.
I knew perfectly well I had a problem operating when I had to color code my projects to understand which task belonged where. If I need triage to deal with my tasks, it means I am doing something wrong at the root.
If I am to create a lasting legacy and a company that outlives me, I will do that by overcoming this giant hurdle with operating.
An even bigger issue: my own confidence
I, the confidence guy, have struggled with confidence for most of the year.
I began the year as a business coach to entrepreneurs inside a new container called myth maker.
But as I encountered difficulties marketing and selling myth maker, my certainty started to buckle.
I started meeting different customer personas. Executives, board members, and my narrow and specific focus started broadening.
As the first people I had selected to be the ideal clients of my new offer started bailing out, I began seriously doubting myself.
Instead of reading the business numbers as what they were: a failed experiment. I took these bad numbers personally and I let them erode my confidence.
By May my confidence was at an all time low. That’s where I made this mistake.
My biggest strategic mistake: my speaking strategy
I designed a marketing strategy based on speaking on stage.
Instead of facing the confidence issues, I decided to lean into my comfort zone.
My coaches smelled that something was fishy. But I stubbornly went ahead.
What’s wrong with a marketing strategy based on speaking on stage?
First of all, you don’t have direct access to stages. There are gatekeepers.
Second, you don’t control who’s in the audience. Those gatekeepers decide who’s in the audience.
Third, these conference speeches don’t happen right now, they may be in the future.
My marketing plan was the wrong thing to do tactically. But the root of the problem was creating a plan based on a weakness. Instead of solving my crisis of confidence, I ran away from it.
What I learned from my biggest issue and my biggest mistake
I “wasted” 5 months on the wrong strategy. Another reminder that entrepreneurship ain’t easy.
When I noticed the mess caused by my lack of confidence, I gave myself an intervention.
The intervention looks something like this. You take the things that make you uncomfortable and turn the volume to 11. You ask them questions, lean into them, and try to experience them in every moment of your day. It’s not a pleasure.
Here’s a video where I describe a part of this “discipline.”
Then I used self-coaching to rephrase all of the negative into a positive. If you read my diary, there’s stuff like, “I’m ashamed. I haven’t made it yet. I haven’t had success as a coach.” And next to it, “I am proud that I haven’t made it big yet and that my best accomplishments are in the future.”
Once I made it very clear to my subconscious that we were not moving an inch unless we got to the bottom of this lack of confidence, the ideas started to bubble up.
These ideas looked an awful lot like what I had told myself in January. I want to work with founders. I want to work on big personal and business issues. I am great at helping people make space for big discoveries. I am born to do that.
The problem with all of that, there’s a lot of “I am.”
Then I started observing what my clients were doing.
The “I am great” started transforming into Frank, bringing transformation into a corporation and creating a space where he can be successful in his own way even within the strict rules of corporate.
“I want” morphed into Sophie, embracing her own magic, and rather than believing that she has to toil creating a product-based angel-backed company, she knew that she could develop radically new types of leadership retreats where extraordinary woman founders would build the next unicorns.
A mission began to emerge. To learn more about that, go to section Three.
Section Two: Biggest Results
Business Evolution
Happiness vs Revenue
This year, I would rather report on my rising happiness than my revenue level. However, regarding hard numbers, 2024 required me to invest personal funds in the business significantly.
But there is a quality to the revenue I generated. First of all, the average revenue per client grew 5x. Secondly, even though I didn’t do much client acquisition, the cost of client acquisition went to nearly zero, bringing my profit margin way up.
Shutdown Telling Power and La Fabbrica della Realtà
I shed all the brands that didn’t represent me anymore. Telling Power was 1 year old. La Fabbrica was a venerable 13-year-old.
La Fabbrica della Realtà represented my consulting and Telling Power my training efforts. These belong to the past.
Launched Myth Maker & Rebranded to matteoc
I started developing both the myth maker and Matteo Cassese personal brands.
I launched my professional speaking website.
I also produced a showreel with the help of Thad Swift and Sascha from Roger Paletti.
Public Presence & Content Creation
Speaking & Events
I am very thankful to Amélie Gagné at Factory Network for her support in running my first Behind the Scenes event and two successful Pitch Practice Workshops. Here’s to many more events.
I also:
- Gave one big talk
- Many smaller ones
- Hosted 12 online Q&A sessions
Content Creation
- 113 LinkedIn posts. Follow me here.
- 69 newsletters. Sign up here.
- 7 articles. Find them here.
- 10 YouTube videos. Subscribe now, this space is about to get hot.
Hosted First Event at the Farm
The first retreat at the Myth Maker farm was a blast. More details here.
A new retreat is launching soon: email me if you wish to join!
I also hosted the first cars & BBQ at the farm – just look at this picture. It was rad.
Personal Growth & Lifestyle
Living at the farm
I am enjoying living at the farm even more than in previous years. The mild summer, the peace and quiet, being in the forest everyday all contribute to me enjoying living in Brandenburg even more than before.
Renovations
This year, there have been the usual renovations and maintenance on the farm. A custom made wardrobe was fitted to my bedroom, the original wooden flooring in one of the rooms was restored, the fireplace was refurbished. The one more significant project has been the replacement of the old asbestos roof of my tiny garage.
New gym equipment
I also fitted a rack to my home gym.
Making Space for Dating
One of the consequences of making space for my thoughts, feelings, and intuition has been highlighting how I need new, better friendships in Berlin and that looking for romance is not something I want to postpone anymore. So I finally started dating again and meeting some sweet and interesting guys.
Movement & Health
Car Adventures
I did just one longer road trip where the 911 stretched her legs. This year Mazda, Ford and Alfa got their service.
I am still very much in love with the Alfa because it resets my mood, grounds me, and connects me to what matters. She just got a carburetor rebuild and a full service from the caring and talented Mauro Capuozzo and is ready for many more kilometers.
| 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 Porsche 911 Carrera S | 2.121 Km | 5.753 Km |
| 2019 Mazda MX-5 | 10.090 Km | 5.833 Km |
| 2007 Ford C-Max | 2.077 Km | 1.705 Km |
| 1972 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super | 4.663 Km | 4.324 Km |
This is the total Km tally:
2023: 18.951
2024: 17.615
Fitness & Health
I have experimented with caloric deficit over two quarters of this year and lost significant weight and body fat. For the second part of the year, I switched to a slight caloric surplus to aid in muscle gain.
I’m still delighted to train with Nico at Spree Intense Fitness. I can count on my strength and endurance at all times, and besides having minor issues with my right leg, I am in rude health.
Speaking of health, I had COVID again in September and then this very long head cold two weeks in November.
Tools & Technology
AI Companionship
I spent the year in constant dialogue with the LLMs. I plan a longer video on using language models to help with my work. You can interrogate my past reviews here. And I’ve spent countless hours in dialogue and tuning Claude to make it the perfect companion for my work.
I feel truly blessed to have lived and worked through the birth of the web in 1993 and this new extraordinary language model revolution.
Life Improvements
I started air frying – my second favorite tool of the year (after Claude!) is my air fryer. I never had so many healthy potato chips like this year.
Got comfortable with psychomagic – I started assigning psychomagic acts to myself and my clients. The what and why is explained in my life review talk.
Mental Clarity
Mindset Intervention
I honed my self-coaching abilities to the point that I could give myself an intervention and, over a month, come up with a new strategy.
Managing Distractions
I am not living in a silent retreat, and neither am I having zero minutes of screen time a day. But each time I feel like I need a distraction, I think about it for a moment and then decide if I want to lean into it or avoid it.
I have set some new rules, like no distractions while eating (especially when eating alone), no YouTube videos, and no podcasts as background noise.
I am consuming media but mostly long-form (movies, high quality shows) on the TV screen without distractions. So, the time spent on media consumption is focused.
Section Three: Future Focus
Accessed a new kind of certainty
As I figured out my mission (sorry for teasing, all will be revealed in due time) I accessed a new type of intuition. It’s hard to describe. So I will let the words from my journal take over:
“I don’t feel the adolescent tingle over the new thing. I’m not excited and eager to execute. I’m content and meditative, observant. I feel the road narrowing. The choice is obvious. It’s not really even my choice. I’m not the mastermind, neither the operator. I am the pawn, moved by bigger hands to fulfill the vision and mission beyond me. There is a melancholy, almost a grieving of the self. To accomplish the mission, I will need to let go of the self and all its issues and problems. Am I worth it? Can I make money? Can I run the business? All of these questions must remain unanswered. My intuition is not alone. She is connecting with a layer of common intuition. It’s a new frequency. The receiver is not ego, and the source is not internal intuition.”
“This collective intuition is more calm. It believes in fate. It doesn’t instill the holy fire in individuals. It manages a common holy fire. It’s my choice to follow the path, but the path is not mine. It has been traced by a force bigger, less comprehensible. Tests I have been subjected to in 47 years were just probes. Can you do it? Will you stand? Will you give in?”
“Creating space uncluttered from stimuli is the easiest and quickest way to enlightenment. This space exists in the day-to-day. Everything is a distraction. The job of an entrepreneur is to tune the receiver. It’s a monk’s life. The only direction is deeper. The deeper I go, the more feelings are subtle. At the surface there is fear, anxiety, depression, enthusiasm. At the core there is a subtle romantic melancholic energy, it’s empathy. But everything is turned down, low volume, simple hum.”
Found my mission
Still from the diary:
“The clarity does not shine, it’s not a shiny object, it’s a simple truth. My journey has chiseled me to be a companion to entrepreneurs who are on the way to finding meaning. I’m not sure how much this was my decision. I can either accept a mission or ignore it. Either way, the building must be built: a house for empathetic, impact-driven, caring, and attentive entrepreneurs.”
“There is a special sense of purpose and focus simply on the craft, doing one thing. The building could be called focus. To build it, start helping. You already started. Accept those that ask for help, make yourself available, talk about the mission.”
New Positioning
I am a founder coach. On a mission to…
New world of work
Everything is changing in the world of work. As I documented in this video, my offer exists within this new world. AI may not take your job, but will take your motivation.
Corporate has changed, and it will get worse before it gets better.
Freelancing looks like an inevitable choice for many, but it’s also a very perilous one.
Entrepreneurship is hard. So hard in fact that starting a company just to create yet another corporate looks less and less interesting to me.
I will spend 2025 elaborating and spreading my message on the only sane outcome of this new shift: the evolution of impact entrepreneurship.
It starts from the Farm
I will invite a selected group of clients to my farm in February to present the new journey for the first time. If you’re invited, it’s something you don’t want to miss.
02025 goals
’24 was a year of major disruption. ’25 will offer creative consolidation.
I will speak on many stages.
I’ll produce more YouTube style videos.
I will also produce some business documentaries together with my clients.
I will begin spreading my new mission.
I will double down on the routines that do good to me. Limiting distractions, keeping fit, working smart not hard.
The work ahead will be intense: the new vision will need a whole business to support it. I will build a team. Give structure to the vision. Develop offers. Meet new backers, supporters, fans, and clients.
I am ahead because I think I am behind
“I am further in the journey than I think. My strength is also not knowing this.”
Final Thoughts
There’s a delightful irony in writing this year’s review. While working on it, I used Claude to analyze my past decade of reviews, asking it to identify patterns and project trends. Remarkably, given the right prompt, it predicted about 50% of what actually happened this year, including a major pivot and the rebranding. This speaks to the incredibly exciting times we live in – where AI can help us understand our own patterns of growth and transformation.
When I started these yearly reviews in 2014, they were trendy. Several entrepreneurs I admired were doing them. Over the years, most people stopped, but I stuck with it. Now, after a decade of reviews, I finally understand why this practice has been so powerful: everything I can think of, I can do. Every project that hits these pages becomes real. It might not always succeed, but it materializes. There is profound power in witnessing this pattern over a decade of documentation.
I’m entering 2025 with deep optimism and commitment to my new mission. Yes, I know I will encounter challenges I can’t even imagine yet. But I’m in such a good place today, and my greatest wish is for others to join me here. This isn’t just about my journey anymore – it’s about creating space for all of us to find this kind of clarity and purpose.
Looking back at these reviews, I see they’ve evolved from simple business metrics to a chronicle of personal transformation. Each year has built upon the last, creating a foundation for what’s to come. I’m grateful for every lesson, every setback, and every breakthrough that has led me here.
The future feels both clear and mysterious – exactly as it should be.
Happy 02025 everyone!
P.S. Don’t forget to play with the AI powered review here.