Behind the Scenes of Running the Brainwaves Platform - Q1’Y2

Quarterly Update

Drew Jackson

Feb 26, 2025

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: Reading

I read all of the time.

I generally average a book every month (or two if I’m busy). I read 5 newsletters every day. I read the news and doomscroll on Reddit for hours each day.

Reading has been key to my growth and development—and is integral to the content I produce (I’ll write a long article on this in the future, don’t worry).

Here are some tips that I use to make my reading extra impactful in my life:

  1. I take notes, underline, and write in the margins on everything I’m reading. After I’m done I compile all of these into a document that I can refer back to in the future if I need quotes, have additional ideas, or just want a quick refresher.
  2. I add anything relevant that I’m reading (quotes, links, etc.) to anything that I’m working on, right then. This increases the depth of my content and allows me to further connect different ideas across a variety of content sources.
  3. Don’t read what you aren’t interested in. If you start reading something and don’t like it or don’t understand it or aren’t feeling the vibes, put it down and read something else.
  4. If there are sublinks or external sources for something you’re interested in, read those, or skim them to see if they would be interesting to read too
  5. Find and read different perspectives on these issues, don’t just read what you always read or what confirms your opinions

If you aren’t already reading a large amount, I would recommend adding that to your daily routine.

Thanks for listening to my short monologue, and with that, let’s get into the quarterly update.

Brainwaves: What Happened This Quarter?

This quarter involved a large variety of big-brain thoughts, from what I want my website to look like to a huge new series I want to begin to many new books that inspired cool article ideas. The way I think about and process things going on in the world is starting to change and I see that manifesting in my content.

As a refresher for those of you who may be new, many of my historical articles set the groundwork for each topic I discuss, explaining more of the basic details across the board. From there onwards, I’ve slowly been expanding on each topic, diving into niche subtopics and other areas that I believe are interesting and will affect our future.

Articles You May Have Missed From This Quarter:

The Saturday Morning Newsletter: What Happened This Quarter?

This was the second quarter that I have been releasing The Saturday Morning Newsletter. I’ve been slowly refining the formatting and the content to flow and be formatted in the best way possible. I think I’m finally to a point where I feel confident about what I’m producing and it’s decently easy for me to write.

Each article addresses recent current events happening in each of my core subjects (Space, Venture Capital, Energy, Economics, Philosophy, and Intellectual Property). These articles are fun ways to see in real-time how sectors are evolving and adapting to the world around them and provide a way for me to double down on some of the theses I’ve talked about in previous articles.

Articles You May Have Missed From This Quarter:

Brainwaves: By The Numbers

Huge progress this quarter, one of the largest growth rates yet of ~60%. As you can see, the platform is beginning to go on an exponential growth curve, and hopefully that means the only way is up (significantly up). Having more subscribers helps increase the chances that someone benefits positively from my content each week.

Views have been slightly higher this quarter on average, but there haven’t been any crazy stand-out articles. Open rates have been slightly declining, but overall, solid growth and great performance. Hope the following quarters continue this great performance.

Views are going up, averaging around 50-70 views—with great engagement on each post. Open rates slightly down due to the increase in subscribers, but overall the growth here has been great. I’m excited to see how this project grows in the coming quarters.

Twitter has been a rocky journey for everyone this quarter. Many people are transitioning over to Bluesky. So, there’s a very noticeable drop in followers. I had to brainstorm new ways to approach my marketing, eventually landing on a laid-back marketing structure where I post on both platforms less often. We’ll see how that goes in the upcoming quarters.

The website has been slowly puttering along as we build the rebrand. We’re averaging 80-100 views a week, decent numbers in my opinion. Anywhere from 10 to 25 new people visit the site each week, helping convert people into subscribers.

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 in 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 (ish).

I think readers have enjoyed the experience this month, but I think that I still have lots of room for improvement in this department, specifically with email courses and a new website that’s much more interactive and approachable from a reader’s standpoint.

3) Subscriber Goal In 3 Months: 115

Success.

We peaked at 128 subscribers this quarter, breaking the ambitious goal I set for growth. Honestly, I didn’t think we were going to make it for a second there. People continue to find value in this platform and have begun to stick around for the long term. That makes me super happy to see.

4) Take a Step Back From Weekly Content Creation

Success.

I’ve majorly been publishing articles every other week this quarter which has been good and bad. The good part is that my mental health and stress levels are much lower now that I don’t have to put out long-form content each week. However, the bad part is that it simply takes me more time to evolve my subjects and get articles out as I have to wait 2 weeks instead of 1. This has led to deeper, more in-depth articles, but it sometimes makes me feel like I’m moving too slowly.

5) Curate an Email Course

Neutral.

Technically, the email course does not exist, so in many regards, this goal is a fail. However, I have figured out most of the structure of the course and am currently working on writing the content to best fit an email course. Hopefully this quarter something actually materializes—you’ll be the first to know.

6) Redesign the Website

Neutral.

The website is in progress. It took a bit longer than I would have expected to finalize the new design in a way that was easily buildable and would still accomplish all I was hoping for. Over the next quarter at some point, the new website will go live and you’ll be able to see the design (hope you like it).

7) Expand the Instagram Account - @brainwaves.me

Success.

The Instagram account is up and running, with content posted for each article. I don’t expect it will blow up or anything, but it is nice to keep a clean record of my content all in one place.

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 in 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 to begin with. 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 in 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 maybe know more about these subjects than I do or maybe they have a unique viewpoint that I haven’t considered.

Surrounding this entire process is the pursuit of making a positive impact in 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.

If you have come to this platform, but haven’t enjoyed your experience thus far, please let me know (brainwaves.me@gmail.com). I’d love to learn about your situation and hopefully provide a better experience.

I hope you enjoy the content each and every week!

3) Subscriber Goal In 3 Months: 175

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 175 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 175 people shouldn’t be hard. To put it into perspective, with 128 of you currently subscribed, we just need a referral rate of 0.36 to get to 175. 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 more 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) Finish the new website design, and have users love it

The new website is cool. I looked at 50+ websites that I enjoy in preparation for the design and I think I’ve built it with easily navigable sections to each of the subtopics and eventually to the new email course.

I welcome any feedback on the new design once it goes live, hopefully you enjoy and it’s easier to navigate to content.

5) Fully develop and publish the email course

The content portion of the email course is in the works. You’ll probably see a couple of random articles over the course of this next quarter that are important, but are majorly for the email series (I figure it’s good to gauge reception and everything before I put them confined in an email course).

As for the logistics of how you actually create an email course, that’s still unknown. I’m going to cross that bridge when the time comes, but in the meantime, I’m focusing on the content offerings that will be built into the email course.

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:

An Analysis of Competition?

Thoughts About the Future?

Playbooks for Growth?

Intellectual Property Discussions?

….and more

With that, thank you again for your support! As is customary, here’s a Kardashian + friends quote to brighten your week:

“I feel like, growing up, I haven't had a lot of room for error - I don't have room to make mistakes. You need to make mistakes to grow and learn, but I'm just a little different because the world is watching me, every single thing I do.”

- Kylie Jenner



Thank you again for another great quarter!

Drew Jackson

Twitter: @brainwavesdotme

Email: brainwaves.me@gmail.com

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