I always have trouble with how exactly to start this post every single year. I sit down at the end of each year, and I try to peel back the curtain on SoBros Network and share some insight as to what our year looked like from behind the desk of the EIC. It’s all based in the context of the fact that we started SoBros Network from nothing…no previous following…nothing…all of it, our brand, our following, was built from the ground up, out of dirt. We’ve been able to turn this from a hobby into a promising business capable of sustaining itself and keeping the lights on without draining my personal checking account. Yes, we’ve worked hard…but it wouldn’t mean anything without the people who have helped to support us in getting this crazy overambitious idea off of the ground. That’s you guys – and yes, I’m still trying to think of a better name than “SoBros Nation.” Without the special little community that was born out of SoBros Network, I don’t know that I’m sitting here writing one of these posts for the NINTH time. So, I figure it’s the least I can do to at least give you guys a glimpse into what your time investment on SoBros Network has yielded, and what it’s meant for us.
I’m always emotional at this time of the year – I have a bad habit of working myself to exhaustion, and waiting until I’m on the brink of collapse to realize I need a break. I don’t often slow down to smell the roses throughout the year – I’ll jot down a win here and there, but I don’t really let our accomplishments hit me until I’m wrapping up our to-do list for the year and look back upon all we’ve done. And, I just love the fucking holidays – it’s a special time of year, one designated for reflection and time spent with loved ones. I’m a regular old Kris Kringle, and maybe that makes me a little more prone to tears anyway. But this year, I feel especially emotional. I’m fucking tired. I’ve worked and pushed myself harder this year than I have in quite some time. It’s not quite as bad as when I was sleeping for four hours a night and my doctor told me that if I didn’t stop burning the candle at both ends, my heart was going to explode. But, I felt early on in 2021 that we had an opportunity to really cement the comeback that 2020 was for us by putting our foot on the gas and not letting up.
And, by and large, it worked. There was a lot of real life shit that kept me from getting a hot start in 2021 – I had covid in December of 2020, and that had me bed-ridden for nearly two weeks. The result was having to push a lot of stuff off of 2020’s plate and on to 2021’s. 2020 wasn’t nearly as bad of a year for SoBros Network as it was for many others, but not being able to cap it off properly really stuck with me. Then, I moved into a new house in January, and that was a process to get settled in. Ultimately, it was February before I felt as though I was ready to hit my stride. Some of 2020’s goals were pushed into Q1, and some of Q1’s goals were pushed into Q2. So, I had to play a bit of catch-up to get the to-do list back on track. Now, after running hard for nearly 10 months, I sit here in December of 2021, ready to go on a break for a couple of weeks, and I’m looking at a to-do list that’s at 104% completion. Sometimes, that’s what it takes – just buckling up and getting shit done.
We were able to hit our hallmark goals of reaching a new ad deal with a new client by providing value for their brand, figuring out how to code our own ads, hitting our stats goals (1.25M total hits, 300K unique visitors to SoBros Network dot com), hitting our revenue goal (we’re actually at 105% to goal), filming and posting an introduction video to SoBros Network, and building out a newsletter. While I definitely want to redo the “what is SoBros Network?” video with a better production value and more SoBro involvement, I’m happy with what it is for the time being. The newsletter, on the other hand, sucked ass out loud. I mean, hell – you can’t win ’em all, right? No one signed up for the damn thing, it was awful, and it was a huge time suck for me every week. I’ll be thinking of a way to redo it in 2022, for sure.
On the content side of things, the pandemic taught us a few tricks that we were able to carry into 2021 and will likely carry on with us into the future. Namely, we saw an increase in livestreams – we did multiple live episodes of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast and The Unofficial Titans Podcast, in addition to a kickass livestream for Drinking With… around Halloween. Back in the spring, we set a new streaming time record twice in the same week. First, Brandon, Steven, and I went for nearly four hours for a live Oscars watch-along broadcast. Then, a few days later, Steven, Owen, and I went for nearly five hours covering the first round of the NFL Draft. I want to make these streams more of a focal point for SoBros Network in 2022 and beyond. We also reached our goal of getting 6,500 content items, be it articles on the site or podcasts, out into the universe. After the strain of 2020 saw us producing less content, we were able to up that in 2021 and hit that goal by the end of Q2. We produced 12 new t-shirt and sticker designs for SoBros Shop, including the first #GinFriday design, which people had been asking me for for years prior to its release. That felt like a huge win.
We did some really cool things on the SoBros Patreon this year, and while that community continues to fluctuate between shrinking and growing, the fact that anyone would find premium SoBros Network content worth their hard-earned money is mind-blowing to me. I take my responsibility to hold up the ‘premium’ side of the bargain very seriously. We had some really killer episodes of The Patreon Files Podcast this year. We also launched two new podcasts on SoBros Network in Drinking With… and the Nashville Creator Series.
Of course, we had to mix in a little pleasure to go with all of our hard work. Back in early August, we all got together at the Game Terminal here in Nashville to celebrate both the birthday of SoBros Network (8/5/13) and our passing of the 1M total hits milestone. We actually passed 1,000,000 pageviews/downloads in the summer of 2020, but seeing as how that was the height of the covid-19 pandemic, we opted out of a large party. Thankfully, we were able to celebrate that accomplishment this year. But, 2021 was far more than just the sum of our completed tasks. It was about the heart of this team, too.
I’m incredibly grateful for the SoBros team, who makes me feel supported each and every day I log into the site to write some new foolish bullshit. This is a team that has graciously given their time to SoBros Network out of a belief in what we do and who we are. None of us are getting rich doing this – it’s all a labor of love. But, it’s made easier when the team believes in each other, and has bought in to the vision of carrying SoBros Network to new heights. I’m thankful for them, and I’m always happy to see them rewarded for their efforts. We had four SoBros – FOUR! – that became credentialed members of the press this year: Brittany Fernandez, Steven McCash, Brandon Vick, and me. That’s a huge milestone for a company that started out with nothing – it feels good to have your work recognized as valuable enough to warrant entry into an event, no matter how big or small it is. I hope Brandon, Brittany, and Steven are as proud of their work as I am. I have plenty of reasons to thank the team, but they will hear those during our end-of-year company celebration to follow tonight’s 2021 SoBros Awards Ceremony.
We still haven’t gotten back to content trips, and we still haven’t set up a table to sell merch since 2019. Thankfully, we’re making more ad money than we ever have before, and that’s made the need to get out and sling shirts at fairs and festivals less necessary. I made the call to stay in and reduce the risk of catching/spreading covid in lieu of trying to make every dollar we could because of that. As we continue to navigate this pandemic, I’m feeling more confident each day that we’ll get back out into the world in 2022 (lookin’ at you, Watertown Mile Long Yard Sale).
Some of our other big wins from 2021 include some of the pub our work got – I’m proud to have covered the Super Bowl as a credentialed member of the press back in February, Brandon seems to be getting new swag from studios and production companies each week (I really like the Tick Tick Boom sweatshirt), Brittany was listed as a film critic on IMDB, and I swear that every time I see Steven, he’s telling me about a new show he’s been invited to out and about town. We reached 1M social media and search engine impressions in a month for the first time in SoBros history during the month of October. And, though we didn’t make as much money as we did back in 2019, we still made enough for me to make sure I got my donations in to Room In The Inn, the Nashville Humane Association, The JOY Clinic, and more. I think about the core values I’ve set forth for SoBros Network:
- Be humble
- Create Fearlessly
- GSD (get shit done)
- Uplift others
I know it sounds corny, but I try to keep those values at the heart of every decision I make regarding the future of our company and the vibes that we put out into the world. I think that we, as a team, have done a great job of upholding those values in 2021, and putting a product out onto the internet that exemplifies those values.
All of this is a long-winded way of saying “here’s what we did, and thank you for helping us to do it.” You guys helped to make 2021 another fantastic year of doing what we love here at SoBros Network.
Now, we’re going to take a little bit of time to take our foot of the gas because I believe that’s important. I believe we all should take some time at the end of the year to reflect upon the year that’s gone by, think about what we’re proud of and what our favorite memories are. We should make an effort to spend time (safely) with the ones we love. And, we should clear our minds so that we can come back to the routine with a renewed vigor for the year to come.
Thank you all for making this another fun year of running SoBros Network. We’re closed now – see you guys on 1/3.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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