2019 Year In Review: Time of Professional Growth for Persist Digital

One of our favorite year-end activities and company cultural values is to pause, take a break from end-of-year project closings, and reflect on all meaningful things we’ve experienced and done over the past twelve months. Every week, our team meets and discusses all matters of importance, our projects, clients, and makes plans. This Wednesday, we did a year-end recap, looked back at 2019, talked about our learnings, discussed highs and lows, and shared insights and conclusions.

Keep reading below to learn more about our 2019 experiences. We believe they tell quite an inspirational story.

Great Leaders are Great Learners

Persist Digital team is passionate about professional growth. Attending training programs, acquiring relevant certificates, gathering feedback, cultivating peer relationships, and finding the right mentors furthers our business knowledge, builds our self-awareness, and benefits the company as well.

But we always think we can do more. Isn’t that what we all believe?

Each of us did set goals for 2019 and we are happy to say we did achieve them for the main part.

I achieved my goals partially. The goal was to become Google certified with at least two certifications. One finished. One week left to complete the 2019 goal.
Dusan, PPC Manager

I’ve reached my goals for the year, and my number one advice is to be patient with oneself. There are ups and downs, but with patience and persistence, it can all be a great lesson and take us closer to where we are supposed to be.
Nevena, Social Media Manager and Company Culture Guru

I don’t think I have reached all set goals for this year. I need to change my student status and then I will be able to use all free time and reach new goals.
Ana, Web Developer

I’ve reached my goals for the most part, mainly on a healthier lifestyle side. I advise you to be consistent with the things important to you, be ready for ups and downs, and never give up.
Eric, CEO

I have achieved some of my goals for 2019, but not all. 🙂 One of the major goals was to complete enough development courses but for us, developers what’s actually enough? However, I did create my personal dashboard app for future tasks, invoices, entering important stuff, and much more.
Aleksandar, Web Designer

Compared to the previous 2018 in 2019 we had much more data to compare. We tested a lot of things and now we know what works better and what we should avoid doing. The greatest challenge for me was doing SEO in different industries. I needed to craft a unique strategy for each client and I’m pretty proud with the results achieved. We managed to rank most of the websites on the first page of Google for really great keywords. I’m so proud!
Nebojsa, SEO Master

My goals were mostly about improving my skills as a developer and learning new things. Although I achieved some, there are a lot more things I have to work on. The main reason I didn’t reach all my goals is that I didn’t break them down into smaller, reachable goals and did not have a well-thought plan to complete them. Also, I was not organized enough and did not manage my free time well. I focused more on my work than on improving my skills, thinking that is the way to go at the moment. Later down the road, I realized that had if I was working more on my skills and spent more of my free time learning new things instead of working overtime, I would have probably been more productive overall.
A piece of advice for you and myself — think of how your actions will affect you and your work in the long term, break down your goals into smaller, manageable goals, get yourself better organized and disciplined.
Nikola, Developer

I hit some professional goals, like acquiring certificates for my areas of expertise and setting aside more time to question my methods and improve them, but I also spread myself thin in a lot of areas. One of my major goals for 2019 was to strike the right balance between work and family life, doing more volunteer work, and reading more books, which proved more challenging than I thought. But I’m not giving up.
Advice and a reminder for myself and others in 2020 — take care of yourself, take frequent breathers, go out, and see your doctor once in a while.
Sandra, Writer and Learner

Our Favorite Parts of 2019

Our team is almost unanimous about the favorite part of 2019. It was, unquestionably, our summer retreat, as well as working in a team, traveling, and hitting professional goals.

My favorite part of 2019 was the summer. It was a pleasure to spend time with the team in Zlatibor.
Nevena

The favorite part of 2019 for me was going to Zlatibor and hanging out with colleagues.
Aleksandar

The favorite part of this year, for me, was learning new things and working in a team.
Ana

My favorite part of 2019 was at its very beginning — the end of January 2019; my current employer stated that he is satisfied with the work done and that he counts on me. “The position is yours”, he said, and that made me very happy.
Dusan

One of my favorite parts of 2019 was working on my side project website creating a tool for marketing outreach automation. After realizing an issue we had with outreach and the time we spent on each outreach task, I decided to create a solution for us and anyone else who wants to improve this service.
Nebojsa

Most importantly, I finally lost some weight and started to be more active. The favorite part of 2019 was the Balkans tour with my family and the retreat with my team. I also must mention how happy made me the accomplishments we achieved with volunteer and charity work, KitchenDEV successes, and a strong team we have.
Eric

It’s a rare opportunity to see your colleagues and your family (in this case, my kids) interacting with one another. It was such a great experience seeing them together at the last summer retreat. It was like putting the two worlds together and seeing they enjoy each other. I loved the experience!
Sandra

The Most Exciting Professional Moments of 2019

Sometimes, the most exciting moments come as a complete surprise, but sometimes you can see and feel the hints of something big in the wind, especially if you’ve been working hard.

It’s closing an important deal for our KitchenDEV Pricing Software, with a cabinet manufacturer that has more than 500 dealers. This opened up a tremendous potential for our growth and boosted our confidence.
Eric

My most exciting work moment this year wasn’t really social media related, it was HR related. I’ve learned a lot from that experience and I’m grateful I had the opportunity to develop in that area as well.
Nevena

One of our product clients started using the manufacturer module of our Cabinet Pricing & Ordering Software that we’ve been working on for over half a year. They provide very valuable feedback and help us improve our software even more.
Nikola

I am especially proud of one of our Giving Back projects and the work I did on the Montclair Music Club website. I’m humbled and thankful for the gratitude and appreciation they personally expressed to me.
Aleksandar

The most challenging SEO project in 2019 was a website that had a ton of toxic links and viruses. I’m proud of how we managed to rank it on the first page even after all the difficulties we had. Another very proud moment of mine was seeing that we are receiving leads for our software from Google every week. 
Nebojsa

The most exciting professional moment of the year for me was every time I complete a client’s request on time. It’s a great feeling when you successfully complete a task that your client is satisfied with.
Ana

I know I can wear multiple hats and do many things at work, but client management was still a challenge for me. It was tense at times managing all the expectations, compromising, and setting reasonable goals, but I did manage, all together with my kids in another room, waiting for dinner. I also didn’t think I will be able to keep working on my volunteering projects, but I kept those as well. Nothing is impossible. And whoever tells you otherwise, they’re wrong.
Sandra

My proudest moment was acquiring Google Ads Search Certification because it’s a valid proof of my experience and knowledge.
Dusan

We’re Looking Forward to the New Challenges and Successes in 2020

Thank you for taking this trip down the memory lane with us! We’re happy to celebrate together our successes, share our knowledge at the end of 2019, and enter 2020 together as well! We have grand plans, we have an amazing motivation, and tremendous strength to climb all the mountains that may appear before us in 2020.

We’re already planning our spring gathering and writing down the plans and goals for 2020.

How about you?

We would love to hear from you and learn how does your year in review look like, what were your greatest challenges, how did you overcome them, and what do you plan for 2020. Please leave a comment with any ideas and thoughts that this story may have sparked with you. ✨

Happy 2020 from the Persist Digital team!