Diabetics Doing Things 2024 Wrapped with Rob Howe

[00:00:00] Rob Howe: Welcome back to another episode of Diabetics Doing Things. This is it. This is the 2024 Wrapped version. So you guys are going to hear about everything that we accomplished in 2024. And we did a lot. And specifically, I did a lot. There were, as I was writing these things down, this started as a note for what did we do in 2024. And it got pretty long. So I'm going to attempt to get through it. But I have at the end of this episode just a list of our 2024 wrapped data from Spotify, data from iTunes, as well as what's next. So what you can expect from me and diabetics doing things in the future. So let's get to it. As of recording, it's December 18th. This will be the last episode of the year because next Wednesday is Christmas Day. The following week on Wednesday is January 1st, which is my 20th anniversary. And I'm taking the day of both of those days away from podcasting, from publishing episodes. So you guys will have the rest of the year off after this episode airs. I'm thinking about 20 years with diabetes. it's a meaningful milestone to me and I'm using it as a jumping off point for everything that we do next year at Diabetics Doing Things. What have I learned from 20 years? What do 20 years mean to me? Thinking back to that first day at Children's Medical Center of Dallas, 16 years old, 20 years from now, I certainly did not visualize myself podcasting. And I've been doing podcasting almost 10 years. In November of this year will be 10 years of the podcast. So it's kind of a meaningful round number there on both of those things. But to be where I am 20 years in with diabetes, still my physical peak, managing well, using technology, having, I would say the best diabetes outcomes of my life thus far with the least amount of input from me. I'm happy with that. And, you know, my mental health is in a great place. You know, those of you who have been following along with me on social media who are close to me know that this is over six months now. December 3rd was six months, uh, totally sober for me. So, So we're living now for six months. And fortunately for me, that's, I think, what I'm going to be doing forever because I feel better. There's fewer ups and downs emotionally. I'm able to manage my workflow and all my responsibilities, both at home and at the office, much better. And even though my WHOOP data, because I compared my WHOOP data from the day that I got sober six months prior and then the six months following. and the data was like within one percent for exercise for calories for sleep for recovery all of that but what i realized is that there are more than just physiological symptoms for toxins and drugs and alcohol so you know for me even though it wasn't a problem quote-unquote problem i was a person who did not have addiction issues or anything like that But to see the benefits in my life holistically from taking those things out, I could not put a price tag on how valuable it's been for me and those around me. And I'm really looking forward to the future with that. So with that, what did we do in 2024? We published 52 podcasts on this feed. Holy moly. That's every week we published a podcast. We had a couple that were revisited from previous episodes, but I think three or four tops. So that is a ton of interviews with people editing, publishing, syndicating, graphic design, editing videos. All of that was part of our 2024 output. I, if you've ever had a call with me, you probably know that I use Calendly to help manage both of my calendars so that I'm not double booking myself and I'm able to see when I actually have time for phone calls. I booked and completed 113 calls on Calendly. So that's not even including the various meetings that I have every day, but 113 calls via Calendly for Diabetics Doing Things. Crazy. We hosted seven events. Diabetics Doing Things hosted seven events, and I was the host for all of them. So North Texas Food Bank agencies meeting, we met with all of the different agency pantries in DFW in January. We had our Pax and Beneficia meetup in April. We're going to announce another one. There's a new Pax location in Debellum. So we're going to do another Pax meetup in the spring 2025. We did Diabetes Legends Dallas in June. We did Doing Well with Diabetes No. 1 that Theracos Bio sponsored for us in South Dallas. We did Doing Well with Diabetes No. 2, which we did in West Dallas. Again, sponsored by Theracos Bio. We did Diabetes Legends Denver in September. We did the Diabetics Do Anythings Pickleball Classic on November 30th. We were able to grow all of those events each time we did it. Diabetes Legends Denver was bigger in 2024 than it was in 2023. Pickleball Classic No. 2 was bigger in 2024 than it was in 2023. we're growing we're putting work in and a shout out to t1d and one of our top five episodes all time chris rudin won the fun division of the diabetics doing these pickleball classics so each year we've had a t1d winner on the pickleball tournament first year breck bassinger in the competitive division and second year chris rudin in the fun division big fun i also spoke at seven events at the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists in Texas in March, at ADA with Medtronic, at the Breakthrough T1D Summit in the summertime in North Texas, at the ADCES meeting, at Rising Above T1D November 1st with Risely Health, for World Diabetes Day at Medtronic headquarters, and then we did an event with Beyond Type 1 the huddle for diabetes in December. So tons of meetings where I was speaking or, you know, involved in the production there. And then I went to six industry meetings. I went to ATTD in Florence, which we covered on the pod, ADA, which we covered on the pod, which was in Orlando this year, ADCES in New Orleans. We did the diabetes gala for breakthrough T1D here in April, North Texas Community Summit, North Texas Walk. I was around. I was out and about. And I think for me, I'm really happy to be able to show up and have the energy to put into those various community activities. But for my 20th year of diabetes and for the growth of Diabetes Doing things. It's going to require focus. So my theme for 2025 is doing more with less. So you're going to see improved podcasts. You're going to see bigger guests. You're going to see more sponsors that allow us to do better content. But you may not see me around everywhere at so many of these events because I just have to be able to say no to some things in order for me to grow. I can't do everything that everyone wants me to do. So I'm saying that for accountability on here. You guys know, I love doing things. This is the name of the podcast. But in order for us to get Diabetics doing things where it wants to be, I have big goals for this year. I want us to chart on iTunes. I want to 10x our download number. We had a great year of downloads. We grew our listenership. We had 18% increase in listenership this year from new listeners, which is really great. I want us to grow over 100%. I want us to grow a thousand percent next year. I want us to be bigger and better. I think we can do that with me focusing more on making great podcast content, focusing more on what makes us unique and getting some big name guests. I think we can do that. So where do we go from here? Let's dig into Diabetics Doing Things 2024 wrapped. number one most popular new episode we we divided this between spotify and apple because we had one episode did better on spotify and the other episode did better on apple so the spotify winner bet most popular new episode lissy pointer from january 2024 was our most downloaded episode on spotify for new episodes and mila clark The Hungry Woman was our most popular new episode on Apple Podcasts. So shout out to both of those ladies for leading the charts in 2024. Our most popular old episode, this always makes me laugh, is the Diabetics Doing Things CBD episode, which I did in 2018. And I interviewed like four or five different people with diabetes for talking about CBD. It's pretty interesting. I'm surprised that CBD is still as popular as it was. I need to revisit that episode and see if my takes on it have changed. I don't use CBD anymore, but it's certainly if you need it for pain relief or reducing some anxiety, I'm sure there's certainly some benefits you could get from it. And there was one person in there in that interview that actually had like a prescription, really heavy duty CBD that she used for her insulin sensitivity. So I'll have to revisit that episode. our most liked social post for 2024 diabetes is political which we published on election day which featured the executive director of t1 international shana casper it had 576 likes 109 shares and 49 saves that was our most liked social post it was also our most viewed video 31 000 31.5 000 views which was our most viewed video of 2024. Diabetes is political. I realized that politics is a really hot button topic in the world at large. People love to talk about it. So I'm working on an in-depth video of why diabetes is political. And it doesn't have anything to do with parties, but it's just a history of the politics of diabetes. If you are a person with diabetes, diabetes is political. And And that made a big, there was a lot of response, a lot of discussion, and a lot of conversations around the politics of diabetes. So we're going to continue to create more information on that so that there's good answers for you when people ask, well, you know, what do you care about as a diabetes voter in the United States? Total minutes listened to diabetics doing things across Spotify and Apple podcasts. we're not able to get the timing from youtube but it's probably just a little bit there it's not as popular just yet 6.9 million minutes so lots of time frame for total minutes listed almost 7 million minutes listened percentage of listeners who were our top podcast i actually just got a number for this we had 300 listeners we were their top podcast so shout out to you guys we had a small number last year. We wanted to continue to grow that. So shout out to those 300 day one fans. I appreciate you guys. If you are one of those people, send us a DM. Let me know. I want to see your Spotify wrapped. Top countries. We had 40 countries listen to us on Spotify. Our most popular country is the United States. That's not too much of a surprise, but it was really cool to see us expand our global reach. I think overall, we've had over 80 countries represented in our downloads over the years. But for us to be able to have that global reach and global footprint, I'm extremely grateful for. So shout out to you guys. That is our Diabetics Doing Things 2024 wrapped. I'm going to post these graphics on our Instagram alongside this episode. So be on the lookout for that. And what is next? What can you expect from Diabetics Doing Things in 2025? 25. We already talked about my 20th anniversary. What am I going to make of that? 20 years with diabetes, it sounds like a long time. I've got to be honest with you. It has flown by. The first 10 years look markedly different than the second 10 years. You guys have been with me for most of the second 10 years. And that is the biggest difference. I was talking about my story at the huddle for diabetes with beyond type 1. And the question to me was, you know, what advice would you give your younger self? That advice is make a friend with diabetes. My life with diabetes since I've opted into the community has been so much more gratifying, so much more valuable, so much more full and rich since I raised my hand and said, I have diabetes. I want to be part of something bigger than myself. So 20th anniversary coming up on 1-1-25. I'll try not to get too philosophical about it, but I'm really excited for year 20, or I guess technically year 21. you guys have always talked about, and I was told just like you, hey, a cure is probably five to 10 years away when I was diagnosed 20 years ago. And there's a lot of cynicism. There's a lot of conversations around whether that's true or not. Well, this next episode, the next new episode that I'm going to be releasing after the first of the year is a special cure episode. We are going to meet someone who has had their type 1 diabetes cured. and you know you think about it would be this amazing celebratory moment but there are gives and takes and we are going to dig into the reason why you don't want this kind of cure right now because of what it takes to get approved for this type of procedure so really going to dig into cure and why it's not a dirty word and why there are currently people walking around with their diabetes cured so that's exciting and you know i'm going to really hype that up a little bit because I think there's a lot of misconceptions. I think there's a lot of trauma that we all have gone through hoping and praying for a diabetes cure that we've never gotten. But there are some people who are walking around with it. So that's coming very soon. We're going to continue to publish the Doing Well with Diabetes feed on this podcast. So we have two more episodes that we'll release in January in our collaboration with the International Diabetes Federation. Hopefully some more updates on that collaboration here as well. But we have the most decorated U.S. Olympian with type 1 diabetes ever coming on the podcast. So if you know who that is off the top of your head, that person is coming up. Followed by yet another Olympic sport champion from France. So really exciting couple of episodes coming up from the Doing Well with Diabetes series. As far as that goes, I have a list of about 12 people that I'm going to book interviews with. but for January I'm taking the rest of January off from new episodes and I'm digging deep into what 2025 is going to look like on this podcast we're going to have a little bit of a programming change in terms of the cadence and release quality of the podcast digging back into the email newsletter social videos social posts if we're going to 10x this thing we're going to have to do some things differently be a little bit more buttoned up but I'm really excited to reveal to you what's coming on Diabetics Doing Things. We're doing more with less. I did too much last year, and I cannot pour from an empty cup. My family needs me around. My businesses need me to be focused, and Diabetics Doing Things needs me to dig into what makes this so special and why we've been doing this for almost 10 years. So get ready to do more with less. I'm going to take January off. I'm going to take a nice holiday break, and I'm really looking forward to digging back in with you guys after the new year. So one thing that I did notice on all of our podcasts is we got like a 4.3 rating on Spotify and I think we're 4.9 on iTunes, but it's been a long time since we've asked for reviews. So I'd love for you guys, if you enjoyed this podcast this year, go on Spotify, go on iTunes, rate this podcast five stars and give us make sure you're following so that you those episodes in your feed. If you want to find out where we're all at, diabeticsdoingthings.com slash subscribe has all of the links to our email newsletter, links to the podcast, links to the YouTube channel, links all around. And finally, the big reveal of what's next for Diabetics Doing Things. You guys know I'm very passionate about our Diabetes Legends basketball clinics, and I want to continue to do those for the foreseeable future. So because of that, we have officially filed for the nonprofit license, the 501c3 for the Diabetes Legends Foundation. And Diabetes Legends Foundation is going to be completely focused on youth and adult events for people with diabetes. So Diabetics Doing Things will be back to just podcasts and content and Diabetes legends will be focused on the events. So the work that we've been doing with the kids and with our seniors is inherently charitable. People have asked if they could donate. People have asked how do we get involved? And we needed a good answer for that. And we've never had a nonprofit. I'm on record saying that I don't believe the world needs more nonprofits. But I also have learned over the years that not everything is a chance for me to innovate. There are things that have been done the way they've been done because they work. And this is one of those things. So for the kids, we are starting the Diabetes Legends Foundation. More announcements to come once that's official with the state of Texas, but the paperwork has been filed as of recording. Guys, it has been an amazing year. When I look at the amount of work that a small and now smaller team at Diabetics Doing Things is doing, we've done a ton. We've gone a long way and we still have way more to go. There are people out there who've never heard of Diabetics Doing Things. There are people out there who don't know anything about diabetes. Type 1 diabetes, type 2, LADA, MODY, type 3C, or any of the above. And we want to be there to educate them, to introduce them to a world with diabetes that doesn't have to be dark, doesn't have to be lonely. It can be an open place where you can feel inspired, encouraged, even when we're talking about difficult things. So keep it locked on Diabetics Doing Things. amazing episodes coming up starting off the year strong with a cure episode continuing to support our doing well with diabetes series please go check out that on the Doing Well with Diabetes feed from the International Diabetes Federation more to come there with those partnerships let's do more with less in 2025 and from my diversity to you happy new year and I'll see you on the other side in 2025 Rob out