One of you asked what our biggest accomplishments were for 2016. It didn't make it into the final cut of the video but I have an answer for you.
1. Â Traveling together as a production team successfully. Matt and I have very different personalities but we managed to tour LA and coordinate with over a dozen creators smoothly. We dined on rooftops and splashed around in the waves too.
2. Working hard at VidCon. I think I had a good six scheduled events there and it felt amazing to be active helping others through moderating a Sex on YouTube panel to participating in community think tanks.
3. Getting a company parking pass. Complexly, the company that produces Sexplanations moved into a pretty new building and they were thoughtful enough to give me a parking pass to hang from my rearview mirror. It's something small but it makes me feel like I'm part of a team.
4. Reaching goals on Patreon. I try to pay close attention to the finances of Sexplanations and that means a painful awareness of just how overlooked our content is for good advertising rates. If it wasn't for Patreon, I wouldn't get paid, period. That said, it feels amazing when our Patreon community is thriving. Like, when there are new donors, or we reach benchmarks that inspire me to imagine dating the Avengers. I'm so grateful the platform exists and that each of you participate in this way to keep our sex education efforts on-going.
5. Everything's in the green. Going back to analytics, there was a day when I noticed all our numbers were down. Subscribers, down. Likes, down. Comments, down. Views, down. It totally bummed me out. But being the solution-based person I am, I did not carry this weight on my own, and quickly reached out to Hank, our producer for a boost. He ever so kindly reminded his followers that Sexplanations exists and by the next morning all of our negative stats (red) were positive (green) again.
6. We went there. This year some heavy-on-the-heart topics came up and Matt and I did not run away from them. We took on abortion. We sorted through the bathroom mess. We even spoke directly about a proposition in California that would impact the adult industry. We went into the controversy and I'm really proud of us for doing that.
7. I Â did a lot of speaking engagements to carry the message of sex positivity including one at Texas Christian University and another in Tijuana, Mexico which may have taught me more than I offered them.
8. Trolls known as Leafy's Amphibian Army were instructed to hate on us and instead showed gratitude for our videos. Twice this year youtube.com/LeafyIsHere mocked Sexplanations. First for our Toy Vaginas how to and again when he found the casual encounters episode. People warned me that his followers would come and do harm but a least a few times there were Leafy fans who instead expressed their appreciation for what we were creating and knocked Leafy for giving another impression.
9. We raised close over $5,000 for Project for Awesome through Sexplanations donations. Philanthropy is one of my ambitions and I feel very self-actualized when efforts of this kind are successful.
10. Our collaborators felt respected. Between LA and Missoula we worked with 20 people on-camera to sexplain everything from monogamy and sex at 70 to job satisfaction and Disney princess sexuality. I’m ever so grateful for all of those individual’s contributions to the channel and it means a lot that they took away similarly positive experiences.
11. You. Keeping your attention has been a very precious accomplishment. Whether it’s seeing your face on the livestream or chatting through Twitter, I get to know you, the audience, and be proud of the commitment we have with each other. Many of you have been with us since video one, others are new this week. Whatever the case, I’m proud of your presence and engagement. Thanks for staying curious!!
