I came into 2025 mostly fine. Not on top of the world, not in a crisis. Just… me, doing my work, trying to get a little better at it.

It also turned out to be my last year at Thrive Themes and Awesome Motive.

After a few years there, I could feel that I’d reached a kind of peak. 2025 still felt meaningful, though. Thrive has been in a bit of a transition phase, and I got to spend this last stretch doing what I’ve always loved there: building the community.

This year I:

• Optimized sales funnels.
• Ran weekly webinars.
• Created content that tried to actually teach, not just promote.
• Helped customers understand how to use AI alongside Thrive Suite instead of being afraid of it.
• Launched a new Thrive University course, Thrive Architect: From Beginner to Expert, helping Thrive Suite users go from complete newbies to confident designers.

That course was by far the longest and most challenging project I’ve ever worked on in my life. It teaches people how to design S&P 500–level websites using only Thrive Architect, without writing a single line of code.

Overall, it was a lot of educating, empowering, and just trying to show up consistently for the people building their businesses with our tools.

I’m genuinely grateful for the opportunities I had at Thrive Themes and Awesome Motive. It was a good place to be, and I probably could have stayed longer, played it safe, and continued to grow there.

But at some point, I started to feel like I’d gotten everything that chapter had to offer me. The learning curve was flattening. So I made what felt like an uncomfortable choice: to leave without having everything neatly lined up, and to go look for new challenges instead.

It’s a strange feeling to walk away from something that’s still “good.” But 2025 was the year I accepted that “good” isn’t always enough reason to stay.

Building With Ratio: 12 Apps, AI Everywhere, and the Next Level

Even while my 9-to-5 was fully focused on Thrive, I kept working with my dad at ratio.dev, building SaaS solutions and web and mobile apps for clients.

My main focus this year was front-end design and UX, but 2025 was also about expanding my skillset and setting up the next phase of my career.

Some highlights:

• We built over 12 Bubble applications for different clients.
• We integrated AI systems into 8 of those apps, turning them into smarter tools instead of just static software.
• We established recurring income from clients on monthly retainers, which is a huge step toward stability and scalability for the business.

On top of that, Ratio became a bronze-level Bubble agency, which is a nice milestone but also just a starting point. We’re not far from reaching the silver-level.

So one of my big goals for 2026 is clear:

I want to become a true back-end expert in Bubble, not just the front-end person. That means understanding the architecture deeply, owning the data side, and being able to design and ship full systems end to end.

2025 felt like portfolio-building and groundwork. 2026 is about leveling that up.

3Dcine: The “Toy” That Accidentally Went Viral

If you know me, you know I love storytelling and marketing, and a lot of that comes from my love for movies and film.

On January 1st, 2025, I published the first ever episode of 3Dcine, my Spanish-language film podcast. I started it as a little side project, something fun on the side that would let me talk about movies the way I actually think about them.

Over the year I:

• Published over 54 podcast episodes (one per week).
• Posted between 3 and 6 short-form reels every single day to social media.
• Closed out the year on TikTok with 35+ million views and over 35,000 followers.

I went viral a couple of times, sometimes for my movie takes, and sometimes for reasons I’m still trying to decide are good or bad.

Because the podcast is in Spanish and I’m fully bilingual, I pronounce movie titles in English the way they’re originally meant to be pronounced. A lot of people love it. A lot of people find it hilarious. And a loud minority finds it absolutely unbearable.

Some people call me a meme. I get trolls on pretty much every video making fun of my accent or the way I mix English into a Spanish-speaking podcast.

Here’s the thing, though:

I’m not going to change that. It’s how I speak. It’s who I am. If being authentic turns me into a meme, then so be it.

I’m still figuring out whether this “meme” energy is a double-edged sword though. On one hand, it brings views and engagement. On the other, I do think about how it might affect potential brand deals or partnerships.

But right now, 3Dcine is still a little side project. I spend about:

• 30 minutes of prep per episode
• 1 hour recording
• 3–4 hours editing and scheduling content each week

For what it gives me back, that’s a fair trade.

The project has also opened real doors:

• I’ve met a lot of people in the film space.
• I’ve talked to actors, dubbing actors, and voice-over professionals.
• I’ve connected with other film content creators.
• I even partnered with a movie theater to create content on-site from time to time.

Whatever happens next with 3Dcine, 2025 proved that small side projects can turn into something bigger than you planned.

Personal Life: She Said Yes

On a personal note, 2025 was probably one of the most important years of my life.

On February 1st, I proposed to my beautiful fiancée.

I was fortunate enough to ask the question. I was even more fortunate to find out that she said yes.

In 2026, on May 30th, we’ll be getting married. That date alone is already enough to make 2026 one of the most meaningful years of my life, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Work, projects, metrics, views, revenue — all of that is important. But this decision, this commitment, sits on a different level. It’s the part of my life I’m most grateful for right now.

Travel and Turkey

Whenever I read other people’s year-in-review posts, there’s usually a section about all the places they traveled to.

That’s… not me.

I’m not the most travel-friendly person out there. I like staying home, staying productive, and making an impact where I am: on my work, my family, and the people around me.

That said, I did get one special trip in this year.

I had the chance to go to Turkey for the annual Awesome Motive retreat. I’ve never regretted going to one of these. They’re always intense in the best way: meeting people you usually only see on Zoom, having real conversations, and putting faces and stories to Slack avatars.

This year I:

• Spent time with teammates I’d worked with for years.
• Met new people across the company.
• Even got to do a one-on-one interview with Syed, which was a lot of fun and something I really appreciated.

For someone who prefers to stay home, Turkey was a reminder that getting on a plane once in a while can lead to moments you just don’t get any other way.

What I Learned in 2025

Looking back at all of this, a few things stand out:

• “Good” is not always enough. Staying at a good job can be comfortable, but growth usually sits on the other side of discomfort. Leaving Thrive was a reminder that sometimes you have to walk away from something that still works on paper.
• Side projects can change your trajectory. 3Dcine started as a little side project and turned into millions of views, new relationships, and real opportunities. It reminded me that small experiments, done consistently, can become a big part of your identity.
• Skills compound when you stack them. Design, Bubble, AI, content, and community building are not separate “jobs” for me anymore. They compound. The more I lean into them together, the more valuable my work becomes.
• Consistency beats intensity. One podcast episode a week and a handful of reels every day did more for me than any single “big launch.”
• She matters more than any metric. Getting engaged and planning a wedding made it clear that what actually counts isn’t revenue or followers, but the life I’m building with my fiancée.

These are simple ideas, but 2025 was the year they stopped being theory and started feeling real in my life.

Looking Ahead to 2026

If I had to sum up 2025, I’d say it was the year I chose the uncomfortable path:

• Walking away from a “good” job at Thrive Themes / Awesome Motive.
• Leaning deeper into Ratio and committing to grow as a full-stack Bubble developer.
• Treating 3Dcine as a serious little side project, staying consistent, and owning my bilingual voice even when it turns me into a meme.
• Committing in my personal life and getting ready to marry the person I love.

2026 is already shaping up to be huge: new professional challenges that I’ll be sharing soon, a wedding, and probably a lot more unknowns.

I’m going into it with a simple intention:

Stay honest, choose growth over comfort, and keep building things I’m proud of — both online and offline.