You know the rest.

Shortly after that, I decided to try consulting (i.e., working for myself) full-time. Two years feels like just enough time to give an honest evaluation on how it’s all going.

What I actually do

Here are my clients and what I do for work:

• Clay: A business sales software company that uses AI to help other businesses grow. I’m on their education team. I build their self-serve, DIY education courses. So I learn the different tools and strategies, then record videos and documentation showing others how to do it too.

• OpenAI: They own and created ChatGPT. I’m also on their education team. I build their self-serve, DIY courses and certifications. The goal is to upskill millions of workers on how to use AI at their work.

• Remote Life OS: I help people with their careers through my newsletter, coaching, and services.

• Good Morning Philly: This is a hyperlocal weekly newsletter I launched in February! Currently, this covers Fishtown, NoLibs, Kensington, and Port Richmond, but will probably expand. I’m having more fun with it than I expected.

As much as possible, I try to dedicate whole days to one client, e.g., Monday and Tuesday on Clay, Wednesday on OpenAI, etc. That keeps me from bouncing between contexts, and mostly it works, but sometimes the calendar has other plans.

I work as much as possible between 4:30 – 7:00 am, before the kids wake up. Then when the kids are at school, I’m pretty locked in. I’m working with AI a lot, which has really changed how I work. A lot. That deserves its own post; for now, the way I describe it is work feels like a full-contact sport.

You can get a lot done, but you can only sprint for short periods of time, and then you’re drained.

I try to be “done” with work around 5:00 pm, when I leave to pick up the kids for activities. Usually, I’ll log in after dinner to check a few things.

Most weekends, I work in the mornings.

The fancy term for all this is “soloproneurship.” I hate that term for some reason. I prefer “portfolio career.”

The money

Let’s start with how my income mix has changed.

What this hints at: I didn’t just get laid off and decide I’d do consulting, and then I magically landed my clients.

I found my first client while I was working at Reforge. That gave me my first taste of consulting in a low-stakes way. If I hated it or couldn’t juggle the two, it was easy to drop.

I paused everything for a couple of years while I was living in Ireland (I was busy enough and didn’t want to deal with the tax implications).

Then, when I moved back to the States, I picked this back up.

In 2025 (and 2026), 95% of what I earn comes from consulting. The rest comes from the career coaching and a resume review service.

The plan is to slowly flip that ratio between 2026-2030: earn more from selling products and services, less from selling time.

What’s good about a portfolio career?

I choose who I work with. Every client is someone I opted into, a company whose work I find interesting, with people I enjoy talking to and learning from.

With consulting, a hidden benefit is that optionality cuts both ways. Yes they can let you go faster. But that’s true for you, too. If something’s not working out, you can just leave.

Getting paid well is great. But it’s not just the money. It’s knowing you can get the money. You prove to yourself that someone will pay you for your expertise. And if one person will pay you that means other will, too.

The variety keeps me sharp. This past Monday, I worked on a new course on AI agents. Then, on Wednesday, I wrote about what opened on Frankford Ave. Yesterday, I coached someone on how to change their job titles so they were a better fit for the roles companies are hiring for in this market. It’s pretty neat.

I get to walk my kids to school every day. Beforehand, we’re playing wiffle ball or kickball in the street with the neighborhood kids. When I pick them up, I can focus on asking them about their day. I don’t need to be on a call or feel guilty about not minding Slack.

After years of juggling weird time zones and logging back on at 8:30 to work until 11:30 pm, I finally have more consistent hours. I’m sleeping better.

Then I wake up excited to work. There’s so much I love about a portfolio career.

What’s hard about a portfolio career?

I want to be honest about the other side, too.

There are no benefits. No PTO. If your partner does not work, or you’re not covered by their insurance, this alone can make a reasonable person reconsider their life choices.

It’s a lot of time by yourself. You have to get really comfortable with that, and if you’re a social person, it takes a lot of ownership to build that into your life. It’s not just going to “happen” for you. Serendipity is not on your side.

You can be your best friend or your worst enemy. You have to choose every single day. It’s so easy to get up inside your own head (about the work, about what people think, about whether they’ll keep you on for next week) and not be able to find a way out.

There’s a lot of FOMO. At fast-growing companies, especially AI companies, there’s a lot of excitement about what’s coming next. And you’re kinda part of it, but not really. That can be a weird thing to navigate.

The hardest part is the uncertainty. You don’t know how long a client will stick with you… or how long you should stick with a client. You take it week by week, which leads to nights where I ask myself:

Because the option is there. I’ve been asked if I wanted to go full-time, and for now, I’ve deferred. Is that being irresponsible, with four kids, a mortgage, and no benefits?

Even when things are going well, the doubt doesn’t go away. It gets quieter, but it’s always there.

Why a “real job” isn’t the answer

I talked to Brian Balfour about this. I told him I got offers and asked what he thought. He reminded me:

There’s the perception that there’s more security with a full-time, w2 role, because there used to be. That’s the way it worked. Then it stopped working that way.

We’ve all watched that transition play out.

I’m in a group chat with six other people, and all of us were laid off in 2024.

One got cut two days before the company’s seven-figure annual offsite, the one that was supposed to celebrate their growth. Another found out via a Slack message. A third was a week away from his one-year cliff and lost nearly a million in equity because someone pulled the trigger seven days early.

A full-time role is no longer secure.

Instead, optionality is the actual security. The ability to dip in and out of companies and find new work fast, and charge appropriately for your services. Basically, everything I’m learning is with my portfolio career journey.

The scary part of this is that the path is a whole lot less clear. Elena Verna had a great post on what the potential trajectory could look like. The short version:

The “risk” isn’t being a consultant with four kids and a mortgage. It’s putting 100% of your earning power inside one company that can fire you on a Tuesday morning because it’s looking after shareholder value, and you have zero leverage to do anything about it.

That’s not to say I won’t ever go back. Never say never, and as I said, there are awesome things about working with a great company. The gravitational pull of working on a hard problem with smart people and feeling like you’re onto something is amazing.

But I think when I went all in on this, I saw a portfolio career as a bridge for the moment, a way to bide my time before going back to a real job.

Two years later, it’s setting in that a portfolio career is what gets me out of needing one.

That a portfolio career is the whole game.

The post Building a Portfolio Career (2 Years In) appeared first on Christopher Ming Blog.

I called the owner to tell her.

She picked up the phone:

You’re telling me.

By any objective measure, it was a rough start to 2026. There was The Tesla Incident. Our fridge broke. We found water leaking through the stucco on the back of our house, which means we need to replace the entire exterior. We lost Deefer, our dog, in January.

So yeah. Rough quarter.

Underneath all of that, a lot happened.

What happened in Q1

Good Morning Philly newsletter

The biggest thing I built was Good Morning Philly, a free weekly newsletter covering the River Wards (Fishtown, Northern Liberties, Kensington, Port Richmond) that ships every Monday at 6 AM.

I’d been wanting to do this for almost a year but kept putting it off. In February, I just started. I got the landing page up on a Monday. Hit the first 100 subscribers by Wednesday through personal texts and posting in neighborhood groups. I published the first issue on February 23.

After six issues, we were at 450+ subscribers with an open rate of 66%.

The growth got interesting in mid-March when I used an AI tool called Perplexity Computer to set up Facebook ads.

I’d been putting off paid acquisition for months because it felt freaking daunting: creating a Meta Business account, adding a pixel, designing creative… On a whim, I asked Perplexity Computer to do it. On Tuesday it set up the infrastructure. By Wednesday, it placed the ad. And on Thursday morning, I had my first two paid subscribers.

(It felt like my very own hungry caterpillar. But instead of eating fruit, it ate to-do lists.)

Soon, I was spending around $25 and getting 30 new subscribers per day.

Perplexity computer also helped me build a summer camp finder with 130 camps searchable by age, budget, and neighborhood. And helped me write a 67-spot River Wards Insider Guide.

Putting RLOS in maintenance mode

For two years, I built Remote Life OS, a newsletter and coaching business for people looking for remote and flexible work. I grew the list to 8,000+ subscribers. I launched coaching cohorts, then pivoted to 1-on-1 coaching, then built a service called Land The Interview, where I analyze resumes and LinkedIn profiles.

The top of the funnel worked. People signed up. People opened the emails. But the revenue model never clicked. Land The Interview had interest but few conversions.

On March 23, I made the call to put it all on maintenance mode. The automated job posts keep running. The list stays warm. But I’m not writing new newsletter content and I’m not trying to force a business model that hasn’t shown signs of life after two years.

The one thing I kept: coaching. I still genuinely love the 1-on-1 sessions. Helping someone reframe their job search or rethink their career path is energizing in a way that writing another newsletter issue isn’t. So the coaching stays, even as the rest winds down.

How AI is changing how I work

At the start of this year, I was intimidated by Claude Code. I’d heard about it, I knew it was powerful, but I hadn’t actually used it. In January, I talked to my friends Jill and Akash about it and they pushed me to just start building with it.

Now I use it every single day.

I’ve built 15+ custom commands that handle my daily operations. Morning triage, email prioritization, newsletter research, note organization. I built start-of-day and end-of-day routines that review my notes, surface action items, and catch things that would otherwise slip, e.g. a reply I owe someone, a deadline coming up, or a connection between two projects I hadn’t noticed.

One of the biggest wins this quarter was using AI for tax prep. I have four business entities, and organizing the expenses, CSVs, and documentation for my CPA used to be a multi-weekend project. This year I did it in a few focused sessions with Claude Code pulling it all together.

Going from “I’ve heard of this but haven’t tried it” in January to “I can’t imagine working without it” by March has been one of the bigger shifts in how I operate.

How the family is doing

Some updates:

• We hit our monthly hosting goal: a Chinese New Year dinner with 15 people, a karaoke session with our NJ family, and regular neighborhood dinners.

• Madeline is adjusting beautifully, Theodore is the funniest person in the family, and Oliver and Annabel walk to school together with their friends.

• We lost Deefer in January. He was on palliative care for months, and we knew it was coming, but it still hit hard.

What I’m focused on for Q2

• Good Morning Philly: Get to 4,000 subscribers. Start monetizing with local sponsorships

• Consulting: Keep doing good work for Clay and OpenAI.

• Health and fitness: Training 3-4x per week and finding the afternoon slot that actually works for me.

• Family: Navigate Amy going back to work in mid-April. Spring break activities. Nashville trip in April. Keep the monthly dinner hosting cadence. Take more photos.

• RLOS: Cull the list. Keep the automated job posts running. Keep coaching.

One more thing

The biggest lesson from this quarter isn’t about newsletters or AI or training consistency. It’s about knowing what to stop.

I spent two years trying to make RLOS into a business. It’s a good newsletter with a real audience. 8,000 people who care about remote work. But the business model wasn’t working, and I was spending hours on something that generated a fraction of what consulting produced in a single day.

When I put it in maintenance mode, it felt like the right call; not giving up, but being honest about where my time should go.

There are only so many hours.

This is my fifth quarterly review. I’ve been doing these since 2022. Previous reviews: 2022 Q1, 2022 Q2, 2022 Q3, 2024 Q2. I publish them because accountability works better in public, and because someone usually replies saying they needed to hear the same thing I needed to write.

The post ☑️ 2026 Q1 Update appeared first on Christopher Ming Blog.

I write and publish birthday letters for the kids. Yes, this includes Deefer Dog. You can read Deefer’s 10th birthday letter here. And here are Oliver’s, Annabel’s, Theodore’s, and Madeline’s recent letters.

Eight months ago, we asked the vet when we’d know it was time. She didn’t hesitate:

I wanted specifics. A date. Confidence levels. Standard deviations. But that was all she gave us.

So I did what any reasonable person would do. I started feeding ChatGPT his entire medical history.

Stage 4 heart murmur. A mass on his adrenal gland invading his vena cava. Seven different pills every day. I logged it all. If the vet couldn’t give me a formula, I’d build one myself.

For eight months, it worked. More good days than bad.

—-

Friday. Amy ran upstairs to get ready. I was trying to get the kids to play Mario Kart. Deefer threw up three times. Then he started throwing up his water. And he kept throwing it up.

Saturday morning we were at urgent care. Blood work, fluids, anti-nausea meds. They suggested an ultrasound, but MLK weekend made scheduling difficult. I said I’d bring him home and monitor him there, where he’d be comfortable.

I had ChatGPT. I had a plan.

I prepared a triage station in the kitchen. Blue pill bottles lined the countertop. Boiled chicken. Two kinds of broth at the ready.

By noon Sunday he was holding water, but he wouldn’t eat.

That’s okay. Anti-nausea cocktail. Pain meds. Hit him with gabapentin, cerenia, ondansetron.

He was drooling constantly. He’d never been a drooler.

—-

That night he was barely able to rise to his feet. I picked him up, and put him on my lap. We watched The Last of Us. The episode where Bill asks his husband to euthanize him.

“Just give me one more good day,” Bill said.

Fucking HBO.

Deefer’s breathing was shallow, raspy. Then it settled. I picked him back up and brought him back to the kitchen. He took some water. I can still turn this around, I thought.

He had drooled straight through my sweat pants, through my boxers. It was clammy and cold.

—-

Monday morning I came downstairs to our triage station. He was lying in the same spot. I checked the floor and his bed for throw up or piss. Nothing. Good sign. I gave him a rub. Checked his water bowl—he hadn’t touched it.

I went to grab the bowl and slipped on a puddle of urine, hidden in shadow between beige tile and overhead light.

Then I picked him up and realized he was soaked.

I brought him upstairs to the tub. Washed him with the kids’ body wash, then back down to triage.

More pain meds. Nausea meds. Offer water. Offer food.

He kept the meds down. A sip of water. Still refused the food.

I called another emergency vet in New Jersey and scheduled an ultrasound.

—-

“If you are independently wealthy, we could certainly try,” the vet said. “But even if we resolve all of this, there’s still the underlying adrenal gland tumor. His prognosis is not good.”

She paused.

“I’m so sorry.”

She left and I laid him on the couch. I called Amy.

I should have given her more time that morning, before I rushed out the door. A chance to say goodbye in person. She was his person. Hers first, then mine. I wish I had just slowed down.

We FaceTimed so she could say goodbye. Then I called my mom. Then my sister. Then Amy’s mom.

Everyone got their goodbye.

—-

Amy reminded me to take photos and video. So I did.

I pulled his brush from my bag—I’d actually remembered it—and brushed his head, his ears, his belly. The hair came out clumpy from his ears, like loose threads.

I rubbed his paws, his back, felt all the cysts and bumps. Buried my face in his fur. Even old, his fur still smelled like puppy. But there was something else now, too. When he breathed, he smelled cold.

I picked him up, walked to the intercom.

I told them we were ready.

The vet came in with four vials. Milky white first. Then a clear one. Then a bright purple-pink one you could mistake for Calpol. Then one more clear one.

She told me his eyes might stay open the whole time.

They did. They stared at the wall. His heart slowed. The rise and fall of his chest stopped. She put the stethoscope to him and listened for the quiet. We listened together.

Deefer gave one last gasp, a cold breath escaping his mouth.

“He’s gone,” she said.

And so he was. My sweetest boy.

—-

I stayed in the room. Went through the routine one more time, tried to remember how he liked his rubs. His back, his paws, his head. Took one last smell.

Then I buzzed, and a tech came in. He said he was sorry. He took Deefer.

I gathered my things, went to the front desk, paid my bill. It was $1,986.45. We got a $65.40 discount. I didn’t ask why.

I sat in my car. Cried.

When I got home, the kids asked about Deefer.

“Is Deefer dead?”

“Is he not coming home?”

They sat with me for a while.

Then Oliver asked: “Do you want to play Monopoly with me?”

Annabel asked: “Can we get a cat now?”

Life goes on.

—-

That night we went through photos. All the way back. 4,084 days with our boy.

“I wish we could have given him a great meal,” she said. “A burger. A steak.”

I nodded.

But most times, you don’t know when to cash in that last good day. You don’t know it’s the last one until it’s gone.

Maybe better that way. Simpler.

Just give the people you love—the ones who love you back—more good days than bad.

The post 🐕 More Good Than Bad (Deefer Goodbye) appeared first on Christopher Ming Blog.

Madeline Mei Jing Lee was born on November 26th, 2025.

I write and publish birthday letters for the kids. You can read Oliver’s, Annabel’s, Theodore’s, and Deefer’s recent letters.

We went to visit our family friends, Ali and Tommy, with your Mima. They’d just finished remodeling their house.

Ali opened her walk-in closet.

“Tada,” she said. Shoes lined the room floor to ceiling—Manolo Blahnik pumps and Jimmy Choo and Louboutin heels, all on perfect display. I wear Hokas for every occasion, but somewhere The Corrs were playing. It left me breathless.

Later, Tommy took us to the basement, showed us his tool collection. Everything perfectly hung, tools stenciled to the pegboard so you’d know exactly where each one belonged. Everything in its place.

My dream house.

When we left, I asked your Mima: “Did they want kids?”

“Ali did,” she said. “Tommy didn’t. They nearly divorced over it, years ago.”

“Then what?”

She shrugged.

—

Your grandad suggested a few names for you.

We didn’t hesitate. We’ll take the calm one.

Your parents are optimists, Madeline. We wanted to conjure some stillness into your personality. This house runs on chaos—usually after dinner, before bed, the volume rising until someone cries. We were hoping you’d bring some balance.

So far, you’ve held up your end of the bargain. Like you knew we needed it.

You’re also the last one. Which means there’s this tension: we know the most about parenting, but have the least time to do anything about it.

I can’t promise Louboutins or an orderly life. With four of you, I’m not even promising college. You all might flip for it—the winner goes.

But I promise you this: you are born into a family that will show up for you. Everyone is cheering you on. There’s so much love here, Madeline.

It’ll leave you breathless.

The post Can’t Deny This (Madeline Birth Letter) appeared first on Christopher Ming Blog.

It was only after Chris died last November that I finally got a reply from an old friend. I’ll call him “Alex”.

Eight years of emailing Alex, with no response. Birthday messages. Life updates. The occasional “thinking of you, man.” I never got anything back.

It took a message about the motorcycle accident to break the radio silence.

It keeps me up sometimes. Because there were times I wasn’t a great friend. There were times (cringey, crawl-into-ball-and-die moments) where I chose convenience over loyalty, where I let him down. And I think maybe I earned the eight-year silent treatment.

But there were good moments too. Times I showed up when it mattered. I want to believe it balances out. I’m not sure it does.

The only move left: look at where you failed, and try to fail less. Look at where you succeeded, and do more of that.

That’s what these reflections are for. Once a year, once a month, every day… the frequency is a detail. But you have to look. Reflection is how you steer instead of drift.

This is a review of my 2025 and a public sharing of my 2026 goals.

At the end, I share why I do this and how I review the year.

To summarize: This helps me look back at what worked, what didn’t, and what I want to focus on in 2026.

2025 Recap

 Remote Life OS

What I said:

Move RLOS from the back burner to the main focus. Grow RLOS to $100K in revenue. Launch three 30-day LARJ cohorts. Continue offering coaching and self-paced tiers.

What happened:

I reached 10% of the revenue goal.

RLOS quickly became not the main focus (more on that below), but I still managed to chip away at things. The email list grew from 2,000 to 8,000+ subscribers. I re-set up a Solo 401 (k) for the business. Small win, but it felt like leveling up.

The bigger shift: I completely moved away from the cohort model. When you think about it, the promise was broken from the start: “Hang out with me for four weeks, and you’ll learn how to get a job…then you might still have to go get that job” just isn’t a very good offer. The job search is too variable. Unlike physical training, where you can track reps and weights, the ups and downs of looking for work don’t fit neatly into a four-week sprint. Some people need two weeks. Others need six months.

So I tweaked the offer. More one-on-one and group coaching, which gave me the flexibility to meet people where they were. I also developed a service I call Land The Interview: I analyze and break down resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles so people can land more interviews. The value is clearer, and the promise actually delivers.

 Consulting

What I said:

Consult for 15-20 hours per week. Build enough pipeline so you’re not chasing work. Use consulting to replace W-2 income while building RLOS.

What happened:

This ended up being a much larger share of my time, resources, and energy than I thought (in a good way).

I checked all the boxes. Consulting fully replaced my W-2 income. I didn’t have any W-2 for 2025.

I worked with four different companies this year: I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Clay, The Rundown, and OpenAI. Each one taught me something about where I’m best suited for this type of work and what kind of clients I’m looking for.

Going deep on it this year made me realize I’m ready to start writing about solopreneurship. I’ve been doing it—either full-time or on the side—for most of my career. In the last ten years alone, I’ve done it while moving five times, going through two international relocations, and raising four kids. There’s a story there. And lessons learned. I’m ready share it. More on that below.

 Family

What I said:

Get involved with kids’ extracurriculars (coaching BJJ or soccer). Schedule more date nights with Amy. Take more pictures. Be less petty.

What happened:

I coached Jiu-Jitsu until summer, then coached Oliver’s soccer in the fall. Date nights happen—Amy mostly initiates them, and I haven’t been as proactive as I could be. I did not do a good job taking pictures this year. I still catch myself being petty at times, especially with the kids and especially at night, when I’m tired. It’s something I try to be mindful of. Sometimes, I’m able to stop it.

The biggest surprise: finding out we were pregnant in February and having Madeline in November. That and the house (more on that below).

So yeah, major updates on the family front that didn’t make it into last year’s planning session

Briefly, on the kids: Oliver and Annabel now walk to school with their friends now. They continue to be their own little team. Theodore is coming into his own. He may be our best chance to have a professional athlete in the family. And Madeline Mei Jing is adjusting to the chaos.

I thought for sure Deefer was going to die this year. He started struggling in March and April. He was diagnosed with an adrenal gland tumor and a blood clot in his leg. We thought we’d only get another month with him. But he’s doing well on medication and palliative care. Every day, I’m so glad I get to see his face

 Friends & Network

What I said:

Keep building relationships in Philadelphia. Restart soft networking in a sustainable way. Use upgraded Calendly with different calendars for catch-ups, work, etc. Stretch goal: host work and networking events in Philly.

What happened:

I did okay building relationships in Philly. Between school drop-offs and soccer Mondays, connections happened. But I want to be more deliberate now. We bought the house, so we’re here for the next ten years, maybe more.

Soft networking fell off the list until December, when I realized I hadn’t reached out to anyone in months. More on this below.

Lastly, hosting networking events didn’t happen in 2025, and it’s not a priority for 2026.

 Health

What I said:

BJJ 2x per week. Weight train 3x per week. Start incorporating cardio. Focus on consistency, not intensity. Don’t compete in tournaments.

What happened:

I did okay. Gym 1.5x and BJJ 1x per week. I got injured a few times but never let it spiral: I kept eating in check, got back into it, bodyweight training as soon as I could. I started doing Peloton. I stopped doing it.

I’m still finding consistency, especially with the house and now, with Madeline.

 Money

What I said:

Save enough for a down payment on a house ($160,000 for an $800K house). Sell crypto holdings. Keep up automatic investments. Get business finances to improve tax and investment efficiency.

What happened:

We saved up a down payment on a house so we could buy one in a year or two, as planned… then we bought one.

The saving was easy enough. But between having the baby and running out of room in the apartment (I could change Theodore’s diaper while brushing my teeth and join a Zoom seated at my desk, and Annabel and Oliver were sharing seven square feet of floor space) this house checked so many boxes. Good location. Parking. Actual bedrooms for actual kids.

Looking back on it now, it’s like:

Even after buying, we don’t think about the mortgage. It hasn’t touched our day-to-day finances.

We just needed to get into a place we loved. Every time I walk in, I find something new. The foyer fits two strollers. The garage that doesn’t require a parking spot prayer every time we turn the corner. The high ceilings make the chaos feel less claustrophobic.

I sold half of my crypto holdings to cover the down payment, in an exercise of half relief, and half treasure hunt. See, my Ledger kicked the bucket sometime after the Dublin move, and I had no idea how to recover the crypto on it. It took me four hours at the end of one night: laptop open, ChatGPT running, digging through exchanges I’d forgotten existed… but I got it out.

In more fiscally responsible moves, I continued with automatic investing. Got financial planning advice from my friend Joe Shure, took a tax planning course from Ankur Nagpal’s Silly Money, and I’m trying out Carry.

 Leisure & Travel

I visited my brother’s family when they had their first baby. We celebrated Theodore’s first birthday. Hosted a triple karaoke birthday party for him, my sister, and me.

In the summer, went to Denver for Scott’s wedding. Took a family trip to the Poconos. Amy and the kids went to Dublin, and I set up the new house.

I wanted to go back to Nashville, but punted for 2026.

Kept reading and watching movies (move on that below). Kept playing poker, stopped playing chess (not sure why).

2026 Planning

My 2025 theme was: Take risks under your name.

The 2026 theme is: Consistency is a super power.

Showing up isn’t enough. You need to show up in a way you can sustain for an unreasonable period of time. Obsess over this. Build the systems and habits to make this a competitive advantage.

Summary of 2026 goals: Split RLOS into two brands. Grow consulting income; make product income 30% of the mix. Be present for the family. Take more photos. Build friendships deliberately. Train 4-5x per week. Pay down the mortgage faster. Stretch: Start Philly newsletter.

 Remote Life OS

I’m splitting Remote Life OS into two different verticals.

RLOS Jobs Newsletter: The focus is on landing remote roles. I’ll keep the newsletter running weekly. The Land The Interview service stays: resume, cover letter, LinkedIn teardowns that help people get interviews.

The operational goal: improve operations so I can increase cadence to 3x per week (e.g. use an agentic browser, Notion Agent, etc. to make publishing stupidly simple). Start paid acquisition once I’ve reached 10,000-12,000 subscribers. Then monetize with partnerships, no ads. For Land The Interview, optimize my inbound process: better segmenting of leads, better follow-ups.

RLOS Solopreneurship Newsletter: Solopreneurship is the next vertical for Remote Life OS. Like landing a remote job, solopreneurship is a tool; another way to design your life around what actually matters to you.

I’ve been doing solopreneurship on and off for seven years. I’ve been quiet about it because I was focused on the jobs side. But going all-in on consulting this year reminded me I have a story to tell here (e.g., I chipped away at this while working for four companies, moved five times, and had four kids).

Revenue goal for Remote Life OS: $100K and make this a larger part of the overall income mix.

Stretch goal: Launch a local Philadelphia newsletter. I’ve wanted to do this for the past year and haven’t prioritized it yet.

 Consulting

Goals:

• Grow consulting income by 50%

• Double down on this niche I’m carving out for myself

• Squeeze more out of each opportunity and client. Go to the office. Meet more people. Add more value.

 Family

One of the BJJ coaches asked me what it was like having 4 kids. I told him it was fun. He replied:

Goals:

• Keep it fun.

• Take more photos.

• Consistency is king: with activities, schedules, and family traditions. Prioritize spending time with family.

• Hold the standard. Keep reminding them: this is how we behave, especially as they’re exposed to more outside influences.

 Friends & Network

Goals

First, more soft networking.

I used to be better at this. I thought technology could help me get back on track.

At first, I built an elaborate Clay table to help me do more: automated email finding, research scraping, and an apparatus that’d make Rube Goldberg blush. And then I never deployed it. It sat there, pristine and untouched, like a Planet Fitness membership.

My friend Scott is really good at this type of networking. I asked him what his process looked like.

I used to do exactly this. Then somewhere between kid two and kid three, between the moves and the sleep deprivation, it slipped. One of those habits you stop doing and don’t notice until it’s been gone for months.

So now that it’s top of mind again. I stripped out the friction. I deleted the Clay table. I’m focusing on three principles:

1. Think it, do it

2. Add value

3. Volume

Others goals:

• Have people over to the house for dinner or drinks, 1-2x per month.

• Have a monthly lunch with friends

• Start attending Philadelphia networking events

 Health

Goals:

• Weight training 4-5x per week.

• BJJ training 2x per week

• Better meal planning

• Start seeing a doctor again; get regular blood work

 Money

Make no major moves. Focus on making more money with more consistency, changing up income mix (more products, fewer services), and tax optimization.

Other goals:

• Continue with tax optimization, e.g. Solo401k and backdoor roth.

• As income increases, increase mortgage payment; pay down in 6-7 years.

• Move towards a 10-year plan of buying a house in Ireland.

 Leisure & Travel

Goals:

• April: Nashville.

• May: My 40th birthday.

• Summer: Beach holidays & more beach tips.

 Fun Stuff

I watched 39 movies this year. Up from 38 last year, though this year included a lot more with the kids. Annabel loves watching movies; Oliver covers his ears at moments of high narrative tension.

Random standouts: Relay, Furiosa, Dazed and Confused, Wake Up Dead Man.

I read 19 books. Up from 18 last year.

Some gems in no particular order: Both of Chris Whitaker’s books All the Colors Of The Dark and We Begin At The End were haunting and riveting and I can’t wait to re-read them. Anthony Mara’s Constellation of Vital Phenomena was terrific. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed Sally Rooney’s latest, Intermezzo. Finally, I started re-reading Dennis’s books.

Why Do This At All?

Writing this takes about 20 hours in December. Twenty hours of scrolling through Google Photos, reading old notes in Roam, and deciphering my own handwriting. Then another five hours typing out what I did and didn’t do over the past 365 days, while Oliver and Annabel have their screen time and Theodore shouts at me, demanding a bottle or a bagel or scrambled eggs

To be honest, the whole exercise is so strange and narcissistic navel-gazing. It’s like writing a year-end performance review for a job, where I’m both the employee and the manager and the only person who’ll ever read it.

Especially when, in my completely non-biased opinion: I already won. I won this game.

I met, married, and am building a life with the love of my life. My family is healthy and beautiful and they love one another. We have our home—the one with the foyer and the garage and the high ceilings—where we’ll spend at the next decade (probably more). Every morning, I wake up and do work I find challenging and enjoy, with full autonomy over when and where I do it. I spend no time thinking about things I want. Zero calories on coveting anything, other than more hours in the day. (And a home sauna. That’d be dope. Would love that.) But that’s it. That’s the whole Wi$h Li$t.

So why spend 25 hours doing this every year? Why bother?

Two reasons.

First, the Bill Gates quote sums it up:

We’re capable of great things. They just take time.

Second, having joy—treating things joyfully in what’s considered mundane.

Chris Bailey wrote:

In other words: there’s joy in looking back.

How I Review My Year

My process:

1. Review and retrospective on the last year.

I review:

• Photos

• Swarm check-ins (yes, I’m the guy still using Swarm)

• Instagram

• Google Calendar

Then, I review my notes on Roam. I put these in six buckets: Long-term projects, Career, Relationships, Health, Finances, and Leisure. For each bucket, I think about: (1) What went well (2) What could be improved.

2. Plan the next year.

I review notes about (1) my long-term goals and (2) my Perfect Tuesday. These are my North Star metrics as I plan what I want to accomplish in the new year.

Finally, I keep the following in mind:

Success is measured by inputs and intention, not blindly following a set path.

 The End

Here are my reviews of 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2018, 2017

How was your year? If you did an annual review, LMK. I’d love to read it.

Ending Note

If you’re enjoying The Connection, I’d appreciate you sharing it with a friend. They can sign up here. This is the same email I sent to friends & family, so I hope you like it.

And if we haven’t connected in a while, please hit reply and give me an update on your life! I’ve found this is the best way to stay meaningful in touch — better than social media.

The post 2026 Goals & 2025 Recap appeared first on Christopher Ming Blog.

He unboxed the Kuro Sumi ink and the Raven Superior. A power supply box. Needles and cartridges. Stencil paper, ink caps. He spread his haul across the dining room table we had rescued from the dumpster behind the apartment.

“You taking tattoo lessons?” I asked.

He snapped on a pair of black latex gloves and powered up the gun. He took his first lesson. A small black heart, on his thigh.

I could see it from his smile. That big one, that shined in his eyes. Hooked from that first taste of ink.

Chris started inviting co-workers over to get tatted after we finished our shifts at the Thai restaurant.

We’d finish our last tables, close out, collect our tips. Then we skated home.

30 minutes later, busboys and line cooks started showing up at the door, still clutching their post-shift Modelos.

He’d swap his white button-up for the latex gloves, and ushered them into his makeshift parlor in our dining room. He got to work. Into the morning hours, the incessant hum of the gun and a single incandescent bulb filled the apartment, low voices punctuated like a record screech by guffaws of laughter.

I don’t think he even charged them for the ink. It didn’t feel right to him.

Because more than anyone else I know, Chris lived by a code.

Part of that code was a complete disdain for doing anything he hated. Chris took moral offense to the mundane. Activities that others agreed were just part of being a functioning adult.

Doing dishes. Cooking a meal. Anything that required paperwork.

Every inconvenience was a hard pill to swallow. None the intended dose.

But when Chris loved something, he went all in. He spent hours in the Venice Beach skate park. Covered the apartment walls with his paintings. And he loved his bikes. Everything about them: the sound, the speed, the culture.

His love was so big, he couldn’t keep it to himself. If he was passionate about something, he wanted you in on that passion.

When I couldn’t afford a skateboard, we shared his, like a joint custody arrangement.

He taught me how to ride a motorcycle. We used his bike. When I laid it down, he picked it up. Told me to try again.

Chris had a generous heart. He freely gave his time, money, and energy.

Three months into living in Los Angeles, I landed my first Hollywood internship.

The night before my first day, my face blew up from an allergic reaction. One eye had swollen shut.

I told Chris I was going to call out. He looked at me like I was crazy.

“Look, if you’re so ugly that you’re scaring clients, they’ll tell you to go home. But you gotta show up.”

He was right. So I did.

That was Chris. Part of his code. He showed up.

And he made sure you did, too.

The post ⚓️ A Man Must Have A Code appeared first on Christopher Ming Blog.

At the end, I share why I do this and my process for reviewing the year.

To summarize: This helps me look back at what worked, what didn’t, and what I want to focus on in 2025. I have to pause, reflect, and be honest about where I’m at—and where I want to go.

Let’s jump into it.

2024 Recap

Remote Life OS

My 2024 goal:

I missed the goal by more than 50%.

I also wrote this in last year’s goal setting:

I had way more success here. I focused on executing, and just solving the problem in front of me.

For example, the common mistake here is investing time to build a channel before testing the offer. I could have spent 6 months building an audience on TikTok before testing the offer again.

It’s not that TikTok is not a good channel or the wrong channel, but this would be the wrong sequence.

If you don’t have an audience, just direct sell. You’ll learn 10x faster direct selling an offer than wasting months (or even a year) building an audience… only to STILL have to validate whether they’d buy your offer.

Every iteration of LARJ taught me something new. Key milestones:

• Create a compelling offer. A compelling offer is clearly defined, promises a specific outcome, and reduces as much friction as possible. Learn the problems people face, then share how you’ll solve these problems, point by point.

• Three cohorts completed. Each time the program improved, and each time I doubled the price.

• Lean approach. I ran each cohort out of Notion, Zoom, and WhatsApp. I sold over LinkedIn and email messages, with a sales page I put on Notion. I didn’t even create a proper course until the end of the year, and still managed to sell about 10 units of just the course itself, without the cohort experience.

• Why people buy. Customers buy for different reasons. Some want a process. Others want accountability. Others need a sounding board. You don’t need to be all things to all customers to give them great value or get them results.

Family

Last year I wrote:

There’s a corollary to this that I’m starting to wrap my head around:

Here’s an example: sometimes the kids want pancakes on a school day. If they ask me, there’s no way it’s happening. I’m trying to shovel eggs into my face while carrying a baby and packing 3 lunches.

Ain’t nobody got time for pancakes.

Amy’s response?

Buttermilk or chocolate chip? How about both?

For years, I thought the path to becoming a better dad was to make the damn pancakes.

But as Amy worked the griddle, and I cleared the dish rack, changed Theodore’s diaper, and packed the kid’s school bags, it dawned on me:

I don’t need to be the parent that makes the pancakes.

I can be the parent that makes the time and space so someone else can make the pancakes.

In other words: sometimes the best way to be a great father is to be a great husband.

Other family highlights:

• Theodore. And a six-month paternity leave to spend with him. You can read his birthday letter here.

• Oliver and Annabel. Watching them continue to grow closer together as siblings

• Culture over rules. Culture is what a group of people do and don’t do. That’s how we’ve framed our expectations for the kids: this is how we behave in this family. Last week, Annabel reminded an adult to take off their shoes in our apartment. Something is sticking.

• More tools in the toolbox. This means more ways to be a better parent. Which makes parenting easier, and more fun.

• 3 family weddings this year. I love weddings.

• We spent the summer in Ireland. And spent a lot of time with family in Dublin and Cork.

• Work-life balance works both ways. WLB can mean canceling the afternoon because Theodore came home sick with a fever. It can also mean working weekends. WLB cuts both ways. That’s OK.

• Always be investing in family relationships. You never get to stop investing in family. The corollary: Investment works both ways. Invest back into the people who invest in you. 

Friends & Network

In 2024, I said I wanted to deepen existing relationships with standing lunches, catch-up calls, and standing weekend hangouts.

I did OK on this in the first half of the year. It was less of a focus in the back half after Theodore was born and we went to Ireland for the summer.

My good friend, Chris, passed in a motorcycle accident before Thanksgiving this year. We moved to Los Angeles together. We got our first apartment together, waited tables together, got started in Hollywood together. I always thought we’d have the chance to run it back down memory lane. Now he’s gone.

These things are the reminder you need: life is short. Make time for friends.

Career

At Persefoni, I built one of the first free carbon accounting tools. Any person or business could create an account and calculate their carbon footprint, even if they didn’t know anything about carbon emissions. I loved being deep in the trenches in climate tech, and working on this with smart, passionate people. I came into the industry with zero knowledge and learned a lot.

I phoned in the first half of the year, though. My motivation was low. One part because I was looking forward to paternity leave, one part internal factors at the company. I checked the box but my heart was into it.

Coming out of paternity leave, I started interviewing for my next role. Then realized now was the time to build under my name. More on that below.

Health

In 2024 I fixed my hip and glute pain. The root cause was my feet. Getting better shoes, getting insoles, and regular stretching did the trick.

I continued to train BJJ and weight train. I always find my way back to consistency, after Theodore, an injury that kept me out of training for 3 months, and extended travel. Without working out with a trainer, I still struggle with intensity.

Money

I used to work with a financial advisor. There was an exercise where we had to list out dream assets. Top of my list: get a minivan. #dreambig We bought our minivan in 2024. It feels like a luxury every long drive we take.

We’re back to a 25/25/50 savings, investing, and spending rate.

I switched from Kubera to a Monarch for day-to-day and net worth tracking. I’m loving the app.

Leisure/Travel

We spent the summer in Ireland. Saw the Taylor Swift Eras tour and the All Ireland semi-final in Croke Park. Oliver got really into soccer, and we saw old friends.

I went to Vegas for my cousin’s bachelor party.

I wanted to take trips to Budapest and Nashville, neither of which happened this year.

2025 Planning

My 2025 theme:

h/t Naval Ravikant

Summary:

Remote Life OS

I’m moving RLOS off the back burner. It’s on the main. It’s time to give this an honest go.

The revenue goal is $100,000. I think I’ve said this in past updates, but it feels simultaneously ambitious and sandbagging. Time will tell which.

The core of Remote Life OS will revolve around my cohort-based course, the Land A Remote Job (LARJ) program. I’ll launch three 30-day sprints. I’ll continue to offer a coaching and self-paced tier.

Consulting 

Consulting has been a part of my career portfolio since 2021. I help experts build million-dollar courses.

This year’s challenge: balancing RLOS with consulting. I want RLOS to be the main focus. Consulting is just a hedge, a way to make my monthly nut while I’m building RLOS.

I think I could make the math work so I could focus ONLY on RLOS, but I’m naturally risk-averse and that’s only increased with each car seat in my minivan.

But it doesn’t always work that way.

My ideal: I’d consult for 15-20 hours per week, and have enough pipeline where I’m not chasing work. That’s enough to replace my w2 income. Then I can spend the rest of my time on RLOS.

Family

I want to be involved with the kids’ extracurriculars: this will probably take the shape of coaching BJJ or soccer for them.

I want to continue investing in family, scheduling it ahead of time so that it happens. That includes more date nights with Amy.

I’m going to take more pictures.

Finally, I also want to be less petty. Earlier, I said:

The corollary to that is:

Friends & Network

Keep building relationships here in Philadelphia. Re-start soft networking in a sustainable way. Pro tip: upgrading my Calendly account and having different calendars for catch-ups, work, etc. makes this really easy.

Stretch goal: host work and networking events in Philly.

Health

Focus on consistency: BJJ 2x per week, weight train 3x per week. Start incorporating cardio, not sure how yet.

I’m not going to worry about intensity. I’m not going to compete in any tournaments.

Money

I want to have enough saved for a house downpayment this year. I’m estimating a purchase price of $800,000, which means $160,000 down.

I’ll sell my crypto holdings and keep up automatic investments to get there.

I also need to get Amy’s and my business finances in order, for tax and investment efficiencies.

Leisure/Travel

• Spring: Visit my brother and his wife when they have their first baby. Celebrate Theodore’s first birthday. Host a karaoke party for my birthday.

• Summer: Oliver’s birthday, wedding in Denver, maybe a trip to Dublin, family trip to the Poconos

• Autumn: Annabel’s birthday, Nashville trip

• Misc: keep playing chess, reading, watching movies

Fun Stuff 

I watched 38 movies this year, same as last year.

Random standouts: Wicked, It’s What’s Inside, The Substance, Dune 2, Hit Man, Snack Shack, My Old Ass.

Wicked and Dune 2 I loved the most.

It’s What’s Inside and Snack Shack were surprise hits.

I read 18 books this year. Last year I read 14.

Some gems in no particular order: Demon Copperhead, Dune, Chain Gang All Stars, Service, The Poisonwood Bible, Later, Presumed Innocent.

Why do this at all?

Why document it? Two reasons

First, the Bill Gates quote sums it up:

We’re capable of great things. They just take time.

Second, Having joy, treating things joyfully in what’s considered mundane.

Chris Bailey wrote:

In other words: there’s joy in looking back.

How I Review My Year

My process:

1. Review and retrospective on the last year.

I review:

• Photos

• Google photos

• Swarm check-ins

• Instagram

• Google Calendar

Then, I review my notes on Roam. I put these in six buckets: Long-term projects, Career, Relationships, Health, Finances, and Leisure. For each bucket, I think about: (1) What went well (2) What could be improved.

2. Plan the next year.

I review notes about (1) my long-term goals and (2) my Perfect Tuesday. These are my North Star metrics as I plan what I want to accomplish in the new year. (I cover long-term goals, including specific $ I plan to earn, here.)

Finally, I keep the following in mind:

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

Success is measured by inputs and intention, not blindly following a set path.

Here are my reviews of 2023, 2022, 2021, 2018, 2017

How was your year? If you did an annual review, LMK. I’d love to read it.

The post 2025 Goals & 2024 Recap appeared first on Christopher Ming Blog.

 Updates

I’m now on TikTok! Big thanks to my friend Aakash for the push. It’s more fun than I thought it’d be. You can follow me here.

The next cohort of the Land A Remote Job program starts October 5th. It’s group coaching for ambitious professionals looking to land their next remote role. Past clients have landed jobs at meta, hims & hers, Samsung, Harry’s, and more. Learn more here.

ICYMI, last month I published:

• My three-step playbook to prepare for interviews

• When do you start looking for a new job? (and more burning questions)

• Annabel’s 4th birthday letter

Not Made To Play The Son

This newsletter was supposed to be a victory lap.

See, I thought I had my next job lined up. I was already drafting a case study (ha!) showing how to use my interview prep strategies.

It was supposed to be a seamless transition from paternity leave to my next remote job.

I was 90% confident I’d get the offer.

But I did not.

Horse meets cart.

Let’s talk about what’s next.

The process you control

I ran a post-mortem on not getting the role. The TL;DR:

The process is the only thing you control. You don’t always get the desired outcome. That’s the game.

I’m wearing my stoic hat right now. But to be very clear: I was surprised and disappointed. It was a great role. I would have been great it in.

But I’m lucky. I’ve been passed on before. What I’ve learned is:

No doesn’t mean never. It just means not now.

Crisis meets opportunity

Niccolo Machiavelli said it first. He’s best known for being featured in Taylor Swift’s song, Mastermind (joke) (half).

I did what one does after a rejection: I started taking more interviews. Halfway into the process, I realized: I had zero enthusiasm for joining another company.

So I paused all my job search efforts and dug into “why?”

I landed on three reasons:

1/ I have a 6 year goal in mind (outdated now but directionally correct).

Is jumping straight back into a w2 the best way to achieve that 6 year goal?

Or instead, could I focus on the side hustle… and find consulting jobs to meet my monthly nut for now?

2/ All paths lead to this.

Taking another w2 now only delayed the inevitable.

All paths lead to me working on this side hustle or working myself. The only question is “When is the best time?”

3/ The climb up a corporate ladder never interested me.

I never wanted to manage people, much to the chagrin of my managers.

I didn’t want that path, clamoring from a Senior IC to a Director to VP to C-Suite aka professional liar.

This reminds me of a quote from The Wire:

In a nutshell: Do I accept uncertainty today for more money and freedom tomorrow?

Not getting this job might be the push I needed.

Crisis meets opportunity.

No best time

The more I’ve stewed on this, the better I feel.

This isn’t optimism. It’s pragmatism, with a firm grip on reality:

1/ We have insurance.

This is the first question my friends have been asking.

And rightfully so. When your insurance is tied to employment, your mind thinks of all the cataclysmic events you’re now bound to endure once that COBRA runs out. Fortunately, we can get this through Amy’s employer and check that box.

2/ There is no best time.

But this time is as good as it gets.

We’re settled in Philly for a while, and I don’t even want to think of moving house for at least 2-3 years. The kids are in school. We have a 4-month-old but to be honest, after the second kid, the marginal amount of work is negligible. Parenting feels the same, you’ve just got this baby in your arms while you’re doing all the things.

Now is the time to take on additional volatility in exchange for future upside.

3/ The immigrant mentality.

I talked about this more here.

We saved money. We rent, so our cash isn’t locked into a property. We pay cash when we buy cars and don’t carry over credit card debt. Plus, during COVID, I started building cashflow projects, so we could calculate our cashflow for 12 months with about 90% confidence.

4/ This is a 2-way door.

I can always find a w2 later.

5/ I’ve test-run this during COVID.

I wrote about that here.

6/ I’ve been testing the Remote Work business.

I’m a year into this experiment.

It’s a fledgling business, not even ramen profitable yet. I think there’s a there there — maybe not in this exact iteration, but close. And I have the tools to chase it down.

This is the quest

Not the goal. As David points out, the distinction is critical:

The challenge is the fun.

Thanks for reading.

Enjoyed this? Subscribe below

The post ✂️ The Connection 005 – Not Meant To Play The Son appeared first on Christopher Ming Blog.