Here is a look back at 2024 and the lessons I learned as full-time author and creator. This is the seventh annual project report (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023).
Here is the month-by-month breakdown of the time I spent as a creator:
My Top 25 Projects
- 114:06 – The Religion Teacher Email & Customer Service
- 92:21 – Morning Preview
- 82:18 – ACE Teaching Religion in Catholic Schools Graduate Course
- 64:28 – Daily Review
- 55:42 – Goals to Gold (Book)
- 54:37 – The Religion Teacher’s Videos (YouTube and Membership)
- 52:38 – Weekly Review
- 49:40 – Personal Finances (including purchase of a new home)
- 48:51 – The Religion Teacher Membership Website Launches
- 41:38 – Jared Dees Newsletter (previously Formative Fiction & Bible Breaks Newsletters)
- 37:00 – Speaking Events
- 32:57 – The Religion Teacher Newsletter
- 21:58 – Volunteering (Catechist, Charity Events, Charity Support)
- 14:42 – Untitled Sunglasses Fable (Book)
- 12:47 – Accounting and Taxes
- 12:43 – The History of the Universe in 100 Questions (Book)
- 11:21 – The Gospel According to Video Games (Book)
- 9:07 – Jared Dees YouTube Channel
- 7:11 – The Religion Teacher’s Advent Mini-lessons
- 14:37 – Jared Dees Worksheets & Stories (including ToolsTeach Worksheets)
- 10:33 – The Religion Teacher Social Media
- 6:38 – The Religion Teacher Live Presentations
- 5:32 – The Religion Teacher’s Gospel of Luke Worksheets
- 4:13 – Just Plant Seeds (Book)
- 2:54 – The Religion Teacher Blog
Total Time: 904:52 Hours
My 2024 Vision & Goals
I started the year thinking I would focus my time and effort on becoming an author of middle grade books. I wrote down (and soon abandoned) this vision for the year:
I spent this year mastering middle grade books. My 1,000 words a day went toward middle grade writing. I read middle grade books every day and analyzed each one. I built connections with other middle grade authors and studied the successful people to create templates and blueprints for my own work. I scheduled my first school visits as a middle grade author and I nearly doubled my email list sharing to inspiring stories and fables for kids 8–12.
As I was reading and writing middle grade fiction, I realized something important about myself: I enjoy reading and writing non-fiction much more than fiction! So, I started returning to non-fiction by writing a middle grade collection of stories about some of the greatest track & field athletes of all time. I published this book as Goals to Gold then started working on a series of history books and videos beginning with the history of the universe.
Then at some point towards the end of the year, I wrote this at the top of my goals sheet:
Don’t change the world. Just get one WOW! out of a student each day.
This led to the development of new whiteboard videos and a new focus for the Jared Dees newsletter. I wanted to help teachers WOW their students.
But the response wasn’t as good as I hoped. I spent a lot of time on things that weren’t making a substantial impact.
More on this below . . .
Personal and Family Vision
By the way, I also wrote this family/personal finance vision:
Happily living in a new house without a financial worry.
We didn’t list our house or prepare to sell it, but friends of friends came in and made us an offer.
We moved into a new home on the second-to-last day of the year!
PROFESSIONAL GOALS:
(I updated and changed my goals multiple times throughout the year, but these were the primary outcomes I was trying to achieve this year.)
812,888/1,000,000 words for kids (A part of my #1millionwordsforkids goal) (+171,908 words)
1,152/1,500 Resources (Videos/Worksheets) for Members of The Religion Teacher (+43 resources)
3/4 Books Published—Incomplete
$952/$3,000 saved in business expenses in 2024—Incomplete
PERSONAL GOALS:
52/52 books read—Complete
144/150 30-minute workouts—Incomplete
AN ANNUAL PROJECT REVIEW
2024 By the Numbers
Subscribers
The Religion Teacher Newsletter grew from 94,352 subscribers to 101,747 (+7,395)
The JaredDees.com Newsletter (previously two newsletters) grew from 8,569 to 9,773 (+1,204)
The Religion Teacher YouTube channel grew from 37,500 subscribers to 45,225 (+7,725)
The Religion Teacher membership decreased this year.
Top-selling Books in 2024
- Take Up Your Cross
- Take and Eat
- Beatitatles
- Just Plant Seeds
- The Gospel According to Video Games
Most Viewed Videos from The Religion Teacher in 2024
- The Meaning of Yahweh (YHWH) in the Bible
- The Meaning of Pentecost
- The Meaning of the Lord’s Prayer
- The Meaning of the Sign of the Cross
- INRI Meaning on the Cross and in the Bible
Most Viewed Pages at TheReligionTeacher.com in 2024
- The Nativity Story (Birth of Jesus) Skit Script
- Lent Activities
- Catholic Worksheets
- Ash Wednesday Lesson Plan
- Catholic Lesson Plans
- Advent Activities
- Stations of the Cross Activities
- The Religion Teacher’s Saints Worksheets
- How to Create Blank Venn Diagrams
- Rosary Activities
Most Popular Stories at JaredDees.com in 2023
- The Fish Story in the Move Soul
- Joseph the Dreamer Bible Story for Kids
- Two Boats and a Helicopter Story
- Crossing the Red Sea Bible Story for Kids
- Footprints in the Sand Story
- Jonah and the Whale Bible Story for Kids
- The Birth of Isaac Bible Story for Kids
- “Noel” Poem by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Ash Wednesday Story for Kids
- Jesus Calms the Storm Story for Kids
WHAT WENT WELL?
The Religion Teacher Newsletter – We hit a new milestone this year: 100,000 subscribers. It’s hard to imagine that the number of people who receive my newsletter each week could not fit into Notre Dame’s football stadium. Although the list did not grow as fast this year as in previous years, it continues to be a welcome resource every Sunday for religious educators around the world.
The Religion Teacher’s YouTube Channel – The YouTube channel also showed consistent growth. I increasingly hear from people that YouTube is the place they first found me and that the videos I create are the most useful tools I make. I also experimented with YouTube Ads this year. I turned on ads with some hesitation about what people might say. I didn’t hear a single complaint about the ads and the income was higher than I expected.
The Angelus & Regina Caeli Book – I put this book in my “didn’t go well” category last year, but it has turned out to be a great backlist title. I re-published it hoping that it would be a consistent seller with a better title, subtitle, and cover and so far it is reaching the audience I hoped for it to reach.
Speaking – I was able to do a little more speaking this year. I did a number of virtual events that went well and the in-person events were wonderful. I always appreciate the opportunity to meet and work with people face-to-face.
WHAT DIDN’T GO WELL?
Revenue & Expenses – It is hard to admit, but financially this was the worst year for the business since before COVID. I saw a big dip in memberships, product sales, and book sales across the board. I can think of a lot of different reasons for this dip, but the most important outcome here was a big motivation to increase focus for 2025.
Professor Dees – I taught a graduate level course at the University of Notre Dame this year for the ACE program. I really enjoyed the “Teaching Religion in Catholic Schools” course and getting to know the first-year teachers, but I underestimated the time commitment. It was a great experience, but it took me away from a lot of projects and parenting duties. I’ll never forget how much my teenage daughter laughed when one of my students called me “Professor Dees” in the dining hall.
Goals to Gold Track Book – I loved writing this collection of stories about the lives of great track & field athletes, but I didn’t make time to promote it during the summer nor did it fit well with my core audience. I loved the research and the writing, but the lack of success shows the need to validate ideas before publishing them.
Book Launch-less – I would say that the book launches for the three books I published this year were unsuccessful, but that wouldn’t be true. The truth is that the launches just didn’t exist. I didn’t do outreach or any effective launch beyond the newsletters. I’m not sure what I expected to happen. Why spend so many hours writing something without dedicating just as much if not more time promoting what you created?
Jared Dees Newsletter & YouTube Channel – Towards the end of 2024, I had a vision of expanding beyond religion into history with my “Jared Dees” newsletter and YouTube channel. The response was not as great as I hoped despite my enjoyment of the research and writing. Open rates for emails decline or remained flat and the YouTube channel of whiteboard videos only experienced limited reach.
WHAT DID I LEARN?
I would say I learned three main lessons in 2024:
- A clear theme is better than a clear vision. I wrote a long vision statement again this year, but I still haven’t recreated the success and focus of 2022’s “Year of the Worksheet.” That narrow focus on just worksheets led to so much productivity and enjoyment of the process. In 2025 year I’m trying to return to that simplicity with another theme: “Year of the Products.” This is much more concrete than the long vision statement about becoming a middle grade author that I wrote for myself in 2024.
- Teaching takes a ton of time. I enjoyed being a professor this year, but between the planning and grading, I spent more time than any other project I did this year and it was only a one-credit course. I could have spoken at a half-dozen events for about the same amount of time and a lot more income.
- Product-Audience Fit. I wrote a book of track & field stories for kids then started a book about the history of the universe. I loved the work. These are topics that really interest me, but they aren’t the reason people signed up for my newsletters. For those projects to be successful, I would have to create a new audience. It is better to find work that fits with the interests of my current audience. Just Plant Seeds, on the other hand, had a lot of success. I received a number of bulk book orders from schools, parishes, and dioceses. This book was a much better product-audience fit.
- Publishing is not launching. I worked in book marketing for years. I know this. There are two parts to every book launch: author’s audience and outreach. I launched to my newsletters, but I didn’t do the much harder work of reaching out to influencers and organizations to share the books. That is what sets apart a launch from an announcement.
- Buying a house take so much time. I forgot how much time it takes to buy a house. I’m not even talking about the moving and packing. The number of phone calls and applications and steps to buy a house and secure financing took a lot of time away from the time I needed to work.
- Messy goals lead to messy results. I changed my goals multiple times through the year. I broke one of my writing rules of “One page, One product, One person.” Instead, I worked on multiple products for multiple different people. I still created one page a day and that kept me productive but productivity and purpose are not the same things.
- Less time eventually leads to less income. I’ve increased my time as a dad and decreased my time at work. This was an unexpected side-effect of working from home. I need to be much better about finding time to work and getting help from babysitters. This challenge has been growing in the last couple of years. The health issues my son had towards the end of this year showed how much I rely on his preschool time to get work done.
