Last year I had big plans for 2024 – and I could have tossed them straight in the bin. If I wrote last year that 2023 brought me the highest highs and lowest lows of my life, I can say the exact same thing about this year review of 2024. Only this time, the stakes were even higher.
My Wife and Child Nearly Died
Last year, I felt like I was the one dying. This year, I spent roughly 30 minutes not knowing whether Lucka (and with her, our baby Jonáš) would still be with me. A rare pregnancy complication literally shook our world. One moment I was holding a bleeding Lucka while waiting for the ambulance, the next I was sprinting toward the neonatal unit from the car park. I didn’t make it in time — she went straight from the ambulance to the operating theatre, and all I could do was sit in the waiting room and pray. The entire time, I was suffocated by the thought that our phone call — when she barely managed to say she needed an emergency C-section — might have been our last conversation. Terrifying moments that only someone who’s been through something similar can truly understand.
For the following weeks, I practically lived at the hospital, and later right next door, visiting Lucka and Jonáš every day from morning until evening. We were fighting for every minute and every drop of milk. A series of complications followed, including a collapsed lung for Jonáš… He was born two months early and had to literally fight for his life.
BUT IT ALL TURNED OUT WELL, and that brings us from rock bottom to the absolute peak — a peak that hasn’t ended yet, because our little boy is now as healthy as can be and it’s getting more fun with him every single day! 😆✌️
And that gives me a nice segue into the work side of things — because Jonáš’s arrival forced us to slow down dramatically.
Running a Business with a Newborn
I couldn’t have imagined what life with a baby would look like. Now I’m wiser, and I realise how much time we used to waste on nonsense. We have at least half as much time for work as we did before (and that’s on a good day, with a happy baby and a frantically maintained routine), yet we’re managing twice as much work as an agency.
Last year I wrote that LK Media had six people. We’ve grown again and now there are nine of us. I can’t even keep the website updated! 😆
At home, we had to get far more organised. We have a strict daily schedule and we try to cram as much in as possible — work calls, deep work blocks, coffees, lunches, dinners, trips to the beach, surfing… We’re probably a bit slower than before, but we make up for it by savouring every minute even more.
It also forced me to start using the magic word NO — a word I absolutely hate. I say no to clients, friends, family, salespeople… Whenever something doesn’t feel right. Of course, I’m not as good at it as I’d like (sometimes it takes me three months!), but at least I’m no longer letting other people drag me wherever they please.
Travelling with a Baby? Yes Please!
Sometime in April, Lucka came back from a run and said: “Shouldn’t we buy that motorhome?” So I went and bought it. It was the only comfortable way to continue our nomadic lifestyle with a small baby and our two dogs, who come with us pretty much everywhere. Welcome to the family, Loudáček! (If you want to know more, check out my videos).
It’s opened up a whole new dimension of travel. We’d rented motorhomes several times before and knew it would be amazing. This year alone, we visited Croatia, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal. All in all, Jonáš spent nearly four months outside the Czech Republic. If he doesn’t grow up to be a traveller, I honestly don’t know what more we could’ve done. 😆
We also finally tried surfing, which had been on my bucket list for years. I’ve already ordered a surfboard rack for the back of the motorhome. 😄 Guess what we’ll be doing all summer!
Work Projects
As I already mentioned, we had to slow down quite a bit this year. In the end, it wasn’t a bad thing at all. 😊 As some of you know, we have a LOT going on (e-shops, a café, a marketing agency, a paid community, our own blogs, a concrete mould company…) and I’d probably bore you listing everything, so here are just the highlights:
LK Media
Our brand LK Media is gradually turning into a proper agency (exactly what we always said we’d never become 😆), because clients keep demanding an ever-wider range of services. We keep stumbling onto interesting ideas and — boom — it’s a new service! We hit our revenue target, so we’re fully satisfied. I’m really proud of how things are going — LK Media has been our main focus for two years now.
I won’t go into more detail because we’re currently in the middle of yet another transformation 😆 and there are plenty of things we haven’t figured out or finished yet. 🙏
Patreon
Patreon, our paid community. We hit some rough patches because I simply didn’t have the time, but I’m happy to say we’re back on track and have tonnes planned for 2025. In 2024, we published over 60 posts and videos, bringing our total Patreon content to more than 120 pieces. It’s all included in a single subscription — you get access to the entire back catalogue.
Just from this overview of planned posts (and there will definitely be many more), you can see it’s going to be another packed year.
Since September, we’ve been running our Blogging Challenge, which has loads of improvements over last year (such as video feedback for each task and a slower pace), and dozens of people are taking part. I think I can safely say that our Patreon is helping to build a thriving blogging community in the Czech Republic. 🙃
Blog Earnings? YES-S-S!
Our little bet from 2023 — to grow the blog’s income from around €240 to €2,400 per month — got slightly out of hand, and this year we pushed it even further. It’s looking like we’ll hit roughly €40,000 for the year. 🤯 I report on everything regularly on Patreon. According to the dashboard, we published or updated over 160 articles this year — easily our most productive year ever.
Fun fact: people booked accommodation worth an estimated €200,000–€240,000 through our website. 🤑
Did We Hit Our 2024 Goals?
Did we hit them? Not even close! At least not the ones I wrote down here.
- A son – NAILED IT! 👦
- Turn the Blogging Challenge into a full course – nope, we’re continuing with a second series instead 🙂
- Build a tiny house in the garden – nope, instead we’re thinking about building or buying a proper family home
- Get Portugalbay.com closer to €40,000/month – we’re at zero 😆✌️
- Get loudavymkrokem.cz to €10,000/month in peak season – our best month was about €4,200, but even that I consider a huge win
What I consider the biggest success, though, is that I genuinely don’t care. Goals are about setting a direction, and I stopped getting frustrated about missed targets a long time ago. As long as we’re happy and looking forward to the next day, that’s what matters.
And Goals for 2025?
Have a great time. Stay healthy. Be happy just as we are — all five of us — three humans and two dogs. Do everything because we enjoy it, not because others expect it or because “that’s how it’s supposed to be done.” Simply live well. Oh, and earn a couple more million. 😆
2024 Year Review from Friends and Fellow Bloggers
- Petr Krauz
- Miloš Lácha
- Patrik Pilous
- Pavel Kovařík
- Bronislav Markowicz
- Mário Roženský
- Ondra Martínek
- Zdeněk Dvořák
- Štefan Polgári
- Petra Větrovská
- Jan Ptáček
Want your link included? Drop a comment or send an email to: lukas@lkmedia.cz.
Tips and Tricks for Your Vacation
Don’t Overpay for Flights
Search for flights on Kayak. It’s our favorite search engine because it scans the websites of all airlines and always finds the cheapest connection.
Book Your Accommodation Smartly
The best experiences we’ve had when looking for accommodation (from Alaska to Morocco) are with Booking.com, where hotels, apartments, and entire houses are usually the cheapest and most widely available.
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
Good travel insurance will protect you against illness, accidents, theft, or flight cancellations. We’ve had a few hospital visits abroad, so we know how important it is to have proper insurance arranged.
Where we insure ourselves: SafetyWing (best for everyone) and TrueTraveller (for extra-long trips).
Why don’t we recommend any Czech insurance company? Because they have too many restrictions. They set limits on the number of days abroad, travel insurance via a credit card often requires you to pay medical expenses only with that card, and they frequently limit the number of returns to the Czech Republic.
Find the Best Experiences
Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can book guided walks, trips, skip-the-line tickets, tours, and much more. We always find some extra fun there!
