My 2025 in numbers...and a chart
“Statistics are like bikinis, they hide all the good stuff”
Yesterday was my birthday, so this week has been an interesting rollercoaster of emotions, productivity, and time traveling thoughts, erstwhile and otherwise.
Because my birthday sits at the end of the year, the energy around it gets coupled with all the busy-ness of the holiday season, like a double whammy of stress, activities, and planning.
That said, I ended it on a high note and with a tinge of kismet: my server at dinner last night was my birthday twin. What the helly.
He informed me that actress Hailee Steinfeld, and that dude from Boy Meets World also had birthdays yesterday.
To which I informed him that Nikki Sixx, the bassist from Mötley Crüe, did as well.
Birthdays and Decembers are meant for reflection.
So now’s a good time to catch you up, whether you’re new here or want to go back down memory lane, of my top-performing letters this past year.
This year, on average my letters got 3.5K views monthly, with outliers in March and June.
Content entrepreneur | Agency Founder & CEO | Bestselling author Featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Bankrate, Cheddar TV, and HuffPost | Join more than 6,480 people on the internet who follow me for discerning lifestyle, travel, and money content:
When I investigate what happened, I figure it was because of a couple of things:
In March, the blip occurred after publishing these pieces:
Rituals: My mornings and evenings look like...
PSA: I’m going LIVE on the Substack app next Friday, March 14th at noon EST.
My solo snowboard trip to Park City
The last time I was in Utah, it was 2018 and I was attending a late summer event hosted by Summit Series on Powder Mountain.
And also in tandem with Substack’s food event, Grubstack, where I went live in conversation with a beloved chef as we (okay, mostly I) chowed on tapas:
In June, the spike happened after I published this piece:
I checked social media to see what else was happening around this time, but it was nothing substantial, aside from a Tous Les Jours recap…
Aside from these newsletters, here were the other most popular letters this year by open rate, engagement, and comments:
For this, I relied on ChatGPT to parse data.
Substack has made it absolutely insufferable to do any substantial data analysis of your own work.
I also use ChatGPT to sift through data and discover insights, particularly for financial budgets and accounting…if you’d like to know more about how I do this, then hit me up:
The letters you opened the most
Take note, email marketers.
My titles are my subject lines too, and these resonated most, with the most readers clicking into/opening these letters:
The letters that got conversations going
In addition to the "How Charlotte and Chapel Hill shaped me” series (which I’ll be resuming again in the new year) these letters got you engaging and commenting the most:
What were your faves? Let me know with a comment:
And don’t forget to like this with a ❤️ at the top or bottom of this letter!
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Until next time,
Shindy
On Instagram + TikTok
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I loved this and look forward to your Friday’s posts. What I appreciate the most is that your topics each week go from A to Z. You may be talking about your fav pizza 🍕 spots one week, and the next weeks posts may include your childhood and family, travels, fashion, your company, being invited to being a speaker at a fascinating conference, how to invest, and so immensely more eclectic topics! I LEARN SO MUCH!
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