A Red Mage 2025: Divining and Defining What's Next

2024 is over! Crazy how time flies.

Red Mage as a platform (and the communities I'm a part of in general) has been one of the big highlights of my year, and I'm thankful for community and to the subscribers I have that have tolerated the 15 posts so far. Frankly, 2024 has been somewhat of a struggle. I'm remaining hopeful that 2025 proves to be much more fruitful and filled with community.

With that being said, big changes coming to Red Mage, which I've consolidated below. Consider this an expected change log for Red Mage v2025.1 - 2025.12.

Red Mage Creative & Technical Consulting

The biggest change I can say in Red Mage is working to expand and provide consulting services to others. My primary focus is to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, especially if they are part of an underserved or marginalized community. You can read more at https://redmage.cc/consulting/

Extremely thankful that I've already started working with a couple of clients in their endeavors either starting / optimizing their business. I've found great fulfillment in these opportunities thus far, which is hard to do in the software engineering space. My goal in 2025 is to expand this impact and fulfillment further.

I will do my best to containerize the "business speak" to a singular category for those that prefer the core of Red Mage's content. You can also follow the page on LinkedIn if you'd like to keep your business speak in that layer of social media hell. If you are interested in hearing more on that directly in your inbox, take a look further below on how the blog is updating.

Blog Subscribers: What you can expect

• New blog post categories / newsletters for posts you can opt-in and -out for at any time. Ghost CMS is still something I'm learning, so it may be some time before these features are implemented in January.

  • Business Magic - Curious about how a Red Mage can help? I'll be highlighting implementable practices, results I've accomplished, and other things relevant to Red Mage as a consultancy. Already have a couple AI tools I'm evaluating that could be game changers.

  • Monday Motivation - A weekly tarot card pull on Mondays serving as an opportunity to reflect and set intentions for the week. Don't knock it til you try it. Also will be posted to LinkedIn!

  • Doublecast - A weekly roundup on Fridays of some changes in the AI world that have meaningful positive social and environmental impact. Also will be posted to LinkedIn!

  • Off Cycle - Literally the wild card. Could be video games, could be something entirely different. Sometimes I need a break from the monotony, and those posts will generally encapsulate those breaks.

• Collaborations - I am intentionally setting out to bring other voices to Red Mage, whether I or they publish. Can be AI focused, but might be more variety as well. You'll see some guest posts and potential interviews throughout the year. Consider reaching out to [email protected] if there's an opportunity to collaborate!

• Sponsorships - Red Mage is working to be a meaningful contributor to causes and groups that matter. We are already sponsoring Fort Collins AI for Everyone on Jan 6th, and have a couple more opportunities in the works. As for sponsors supporting Red Mage, I'd rather put positive energy forward for others first.

• Stability - The blog is staying free, and staying around! Information is a human right, and I'm not going to paywall things / nickel and dime. Cha Cha (or at least a dog picture) is also a guarantee on every post!

Thank you again to everyone that has thus far supported Red Mage as an endeavor, and I'm excited to see where 2025 leads!

-Andres

Here's Cha Cha and his Christmas gift: a heated blanket. He has literally barely left the thing since we've started turning it on for him in the mornings.