Hello!
Welcome to the quarterly update for the Brainwaves platform. As another quarter draws to a close, I’m pleased to present our comprehensive update. In the following, I’ll walk through quarterly highlights, discussing successes, obstacles overcome, and the exciting opportunities that lie ahead. I built this platform based on the value of transparency, so I’ve compiled this piece to give you a clear picture of where we currently stand and where we’re headed.
A Key Insight into Producing Content: Depth
I just finished writing my longest article to date - a whopping 58 pages long. It took a few weeks of steady additions, meddling, and tinkering. It’s full of depth, arguably too much of it.
I get bored easily when there isn’t much depth. I despise making pointless small talk simply for the sake of filling the awkward silence. As such, I tend to gravitate toward people capable of supporting and engaging in deep conversations.
Similarly, I rarely read fictional stories. They often lack the depth I’m looking for in my learning. Often, when you do find me reading, it’ll be a deep philosophy, economics, or otherwise engaging book (those which people usually detest for their difficulty and obtuseness).
When creating content, I try to provide a sufficient amount of depth. There is so much information out there that readers can be incredibly discerning with their attention. If you don’t provide the depth necessary (along with uniqueness in that depth), readers won’t find your content engaging enough to continue reading it.
It’s due to this that I always try to look for ways to add depth to my content. This includes trying to take topics from one domain and apply them to another, collecting all manner of relevant quotes, reading from and citing the best in the industry, and so on.
It requires additional effort to add depth - it demands a certain level of serious study beyond a simple Google search. It isn’t for the faint of heart.
In my opinion, it’s definitely worth it. Firstly, it makes readers engage with your content more and find more enjoyment from it. But, more importantly, it allows you to look back on your content with a more appreciative eye.
Thanks for listening to my short monologue, and with that, let’s get into the quarterly update.
Brainwaves: What Happened This Quarter?
This quarter included a heavier level of thinking into topics that I’m interested in, specifically into the mindset with which we’ve approached them over time and how we’ll continue to approach them in the future.
I’m super excited about the articles released this quarter, and I’m looking forward to what’s coming ahead. These articles were some of the longest articles I’ve written to date, comprising many niche subtopics that build into the larger sector.
Articles You May Have Missed From This Quarter:
If I Were To Give A Graduation Speech - A unique perspective on my past, present, and future
The Myth of “Our” Climate Problem - Dissecting the current climate issues to find the base of the problem plaguing the world
Addressing A Critical Flaw In Our Education - A long-form deep dive into Futures Thinking series tenet #3
Intellectual Property: A Futures Thinking Exploration - A modern viewpoint on the current state of intellectual property, offering suggestions on how to unlock the full potential in the future
Life Is A Continuous Game of Tetris - A long-form deep dive into Futures Thinking series tenet #4
The Passion Economy - Discussing the development and proliferation of passionate creators and producers
Navigating the Modern VC Ecosystem: Megafunds, Return Rivalries, and Investment Strategies - Examining evolving trends and fundamentals in the venture capital industry
The Saturday Morning Newsletter: What Happened This Quarter?
I’ve been almost continually travelling this quarter (yay graduation + time before I start work full-time), so that’s led to a couple of close calls, but I’ve maintained my consistent weekly content execution. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed it and it helps you keep up to date with happenings in these subsectors.
Articles You May Have Missed:
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #40: Difficult Decisions, Happiness, Nihilism, Empathy, Utah, and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #41: Flourishing, Incarceration, Healthcare, Birds, Paint, and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #42: Ubuntu, Rats, Japan, Acidity, Coral, and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #43: Congestion, Cameras, Drones, Bankruptcy, Balloons, and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #44: Decomposition, Parents, Conversations, Culture, Graphene, and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #45: Your People, Air Purifiers, Hurricane, Heat, Airships and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #46: Taste, Caring, 7 Sins, Insurance, Pet Food, and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #47: Productivity, Power, Throwaway, Africa, Nanoplastics, and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #48: Bill Nye, Abduction, Disneyland, Mystery, Substack, and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #49: Suicide, Clothes, Weather, Tipping Points, Motors, and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #50: Abuse, Geography, Firing, Australia, Microplastics, and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #51: Touching Grass, Humanity, Red Tape, Destruction, Safety, and More
The Saturday Morning Newsletter #52: Skepticism, 2034, Slumps, Refueling, Meat, and More
Brainwaves: By The Numbers
This quarter has continued the rapid growth trajectory we’ve been on, surpassing my aspirations for our performance. Hopefully this trend only continues to be followed over time (that’s a ton of subscribers in the end). Having more subscribers helps increase the chances that someone benefits positively from my content each week.
We hit a new milestone this quarter, as every single article has received over 100 views. That’s a pretty impressive feat. There are enough consistent readers that are pushing the numbers up each week, which is crazy to even think about. I’ve had a couple of standout articles this quarter, receiving high views and interactions. It’s always fun to see which content you like the most.
Similarly, over the last quarter, The Saturday Morning Newsletter has continued to grow in retention and popularity. The open rate decline has stabilized, and views have only continued their positive trend. I’m excited to see how this project grows in the upcoming quarters.
We had our biggest week from a views and interactions standpoint recently. This primarily came from a small number of highly engaged users. We’re continuing to average 80-100 views a week, which isn’t half bad, in my opinion. Hopefully we continue to reach newer and better highs.
Last Quarter Goal Execution
1) Dive into my unique brainwaves each day, write about them, and publish my in-progress views each week, hopefully making a positive impact on someone’s life each week
Success.
As I’ve already touched on, this quarter has been a very exciting time for learning, discovery, and growth. I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned in the upcoming quarters.
2) Curate an experience that readers enjoy, one that makes them want to return for more
Success.
I think readers have enjoyed the experience this quarter, with the new website and the roll-out of new types of content structures and topics. Obviously, there is always room for improvement, but hopefully, overall, I’m doing a good job.
3) Subscriber Goal In 3 Months: 210
Success.
As you probably saw, we’re up to 221 subscribers, far surpassing our goal. Thanks to our new Chief Marketing Officer, Jasmine, we dramatically increased our social media presence, leading to the rapid achievement of our growth numbers. It’s been a fun quarter of experimentation, and I hope we only continue to pursue this chaotic trial-and-error process.
4) Build the tech for the email course and publish the course for subscribers
Fail.
I was reading back over the content I wanted to discuss in the email course and realized that it wasn’t to the level that I need it to be at, so I decided to redo a tiny bit (you’ll see it coming this quarter). As such, the rest of the development of the email course was put on standby.
5) Start up a Medium account to post updated articles and reach a new audience
Fail.
I started the account and posted one updated article on my personal account, but realized that to create a publication (i.e., to create another “Brainwaves” over there) I would need to pay to be a premium member and we’re just not at that stage yet - maybe later on.
6) Read more books associated with subjects I’m interested in
Success.
I’ve read a bunch of new books on related subjects this quarter, and I’ve definitely seen their effects in the breadth of content produced. I’m able to go deeper into each subject they relate to, discuss and argue against their positions on the subjects, and come to a more refined conclusion on my key points.
7) Get 3 more interviews completed and published
Fail.
I think my response rate is just lower than what I would want and I haven’t put in enough time to hit a significant quantity of outreach. I’m still working on fine-tuning the outreach opportunity.
Goals For This Quarter
1) Dive into my unique brainwaves each day, write about them, and publish my in-progress views each week, hopefully making a positive impact on someone’s life each week
This goal is the first and most important goal of this platform and the reason that I started this journey. I view this platform as a great excuse to dive into my unique views on some of my favorite topics, trying to understand and constantly improve my viewpoint on each subject.
I subscribe to the mantra that you learn more about a subject when you have to teach someone else about it. Through the Brainwaves platform, I’ve created an artificial obligation to produce content each week, meaning I’m building time in my schedule to learn about new topics that I might not have made a priority before now.
This platform also allows me to publish my in-progress views on each subject I learn about each week. This is a great opportunity to get feedback from readers who may know more about these subjects than I do or who may have a unique viewpoint that I haven’t considered.
Surrounding this entire process is the pursuit of making a positive impact on someone’s life each week.
2) Curate an experience that readers enjoy, one that makes them want to return for more
The goal of this platform is to create an experience that readers enjoy so much that they want to continue coming back each week for more and more content. Now, that’s an incredibly lofty goal, but one I continue to strive towards each week.
I hope you enjoy the content each and every week!
3) Subscriber Goal In 3 Months: 265
I hate asking people for help, so I normally keep my “ask” to share/subscribe to this publication very short, and usually most people just brush right past it.
Today, I’m putting it front and center.
If you enjoy and/or get any value from the Brainwaves platform, help me get to 265 subscribers by the end of February by doing any of the following:
Forward this email to friends and tell them to subscribe,
Share on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook with a short note,
Share within your existing community or your company Slack channel.
Getting to 265 people shouldn’t be hard. To put it into perspective, with 221 of you currently subscribed, we just need a referral rate of 0.20 to get to 265. I’d really appreciate it if you could spend a couple of minutes helping me broaden the reach and impact of this platform.
To reiterate, the goal of this platform is not to become famous or to generate an income stream, it is purely to educate people, like yourself, about things I believe are critical factors to our future lives. So, the goal to increase subscribers is not to grow larger (although that is a nice economies of scale byproduct), it is simply a goal to reach a broader audience consistently, and an audience that I will hopefully have a positive impact on every single week.
In addition, more people subscribing means more views and a greater likelihood that one of my readers knows more about a subject than I do, meaning there are more opportunities for me to learn and grow through this process.
4) Continue to develop the email course
I’ve finally written all of the articles for the email course. I’m beginning to work through them to update them for an email course and to do any further editing. I’ve looked into tech and haven’t found the perfect solution for my constraints yet, but that’s my goal for the next quarter.
5) Continue building on our social media success
We’ve had a ton of social media success this quarter. My goal is to continue pushing content and creating a measurable impact on our subscriber base via the social media efforts this quarter. That’s a lofty challenge that involves tons of views, interactions, and engagement as well as a decently high conversion rate.
I think it’s an ambitious goal, but well within reach.
6) Read more books associated with subjects I’m interested in
I’ve started to read some books on subjects that I’ve been interested in, and they’ve definitely helped round out my thinking, provide new perspectives, and deepen my knowledge of the niche subsegments of each sector.
I’ve already got some exciting books lined up for some segments I’m interested in. Hopefully you’ll get to see a couple of insights here and there.
7) Get 3 more interviews completed and published
I’ve been reaching out to many small business owners to see if they would feel comfortable being interviewed for a content piece in the newsletter, mainly to show how small business owners face many of the challenges and decisions I’ve previously talked about and dissect how they’ve chosen to address them.
I’ve already performed a couple of interviews, they are still in the compiling and editing phases, and you’ll see them shortly (if you haven’t already started seeing them).
I hope they provide a valuable, down-to-earth approach to my content by offering real-world examples of topics discussed.
Thank You + Bonus Content
Thank you for sticking around. For anyone new here: thank you too! I hope you’ve enjoyed your time and will continue to return for more content each week.
I’m excited to see what happens this next quarter. This passion project continues to grow and develop, astounding me every single day. Like always, this is purely for fun and learning, and so far it’s been great.
As a little thank you, here’s a little hint at what’s coming down the pipeline:
A Chocolatier’s Predictions?
The Creation of Food Labels?
Part 2 in a Mini-Series?
Threats to Space?
….and more
With that, thank you again for your support! As is customary, here’s a Kardashian + friends quote to brighten your week:
“I think when you know so deep in your heart that you just to listen to your intuition and follow your heart, there's no right or wrong thing to do.”
- Kim Kardashian
Thank you again for another great quarter!
Drew Jackson
Twitter: @brainwavesdotme
Email: brainwaves.me@gmail.com
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