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’ve built this platform 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: Reassessment

One of the greatest pieces of advice I ever got was to take an extra minute or two to review my work before submission.

This transitions nicely to the subject of producing content as each piece of content is your brand. As you publish on the internet, once a piece of content is out there, it’s out there for good. So, double, or triple-checking your work before publishing is critical to success as a content creator.

But, simply reviewing work doesn’t cover the breadth to which you should be reassessing as a content producer. Consider this rebrand I just went through. It took a careful reassessment of what I had learned, how I had performed to that point, and where I wanted to be in the future.

In this case, and many others, reassessment is critical to success. Not just a reassessment of content, marketing, or other performance, but also a careful reassessment of yourself. Not everyone is suited for content production. That’s just the truth. I’ve only been doing this for 9 months now, so I’m not going to tout myself as an expert by any means (I’ll wait until the 3-year mark), but I have seen even in myself throughout this time, tendencies to be excited about producing content and also tendencies to be reserved about producing content.

No matter where you are at, in any journey you are on, even if you’re the absolute best at what you do, reassessment is always warranted. Even if that’s a simple check of: “Hey, am I doing everything I need to be doing right now, the way it needs to be done? Yep.” Perfect. That’s as simple as it needs to be, yet it’s an integral part of being successful at whatever you are doing.

I’m a big proponent of the idea that the most change comes from within, so find time to reassess parts of yourself often. And if that scares you, start by attracting outside people to your fold, ones that will reassess you often and provide targeted positive feedback.

Once you get into the practice of reassessment, it’ll become easier and easier and you’ll see more and more benefits in your life and in whatever you are doing.

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 quite a bit of branching out when it came to Brainwaves content. As the first two quarters were more about establishing a baseline content repository, this third quarter I was able to branch out and start discussing more niche subtopics.

Those who don’t have a large knowledge of topics that I discuss can always refer back to previous material (usually referenced at the top of each post). Those who have followed this content journey and/or are already up to speed about these topics can enjoy the more niche topics discussed this quarter (and in the future).

Articles You May Have Missed:

• Renewables: Is Hydropower the Best Solution? - Introducing the topic of hydropower and comparing it to other renewable energy solutions
• When Will Humans Next Be On the Moon? - Explaining recent missions and planned future missions to the moon to figure out which country will be the next to the moon
• Is Fusion Better Than Fission? - Detailing the current state of fusion technology and comparing it with current fission capabilities
• Supply & Demand: How Does It Work? - Breaking economics down to the basics and laying a foundational analysis of supply and demand
• Nuclear vs. Renewables: Solution to Energy Crisis? - Culminating the series on nuclear technology and renewable energy to figure out what I believe will be the energy used to solve the clean energy crisis
• Ubuntu and Other Meanings of Life - Everyone should have meaning in their life – this article dissects some of the most popular and unique ones
• Space Commercialization (Part 2) - Explaining more about the low earth orbit economy and different emerging space industries
• Water Desalination - Understanding some of the different water desalination methodologies and their current uses today
• The Current State of Recycling - Dissecting the current recycling system and highlighting some of the ways it doesn’t work efficiently or effectively
• Climate Pledges: Real or Façade? - Analyzing the effects of climate pledges to understand whether any lasting changes have been implemented through their initiatives
• Economics of ESG - ESG has been a popular business term for years, but what does it entail and how effective is it?
• Money Velocity - Diving deep into a complex economic term to try to explain it simply and rationally
• Introducing the Brainwaves newsletter - Explaining some of the rationale behind rebranding and dissecting some new initiatives and changes

Brainwaves: By The Numbers

Since the last quarterly update, we’ve grown the subscriber count by 61% which is impressive (beating my expectations). Over the last month, I’ve begun a more exponential growth trajectory with the amount of subscribers gained, surpassing the expected goal trajectory. I hope to continue growing the subscriber count this next quarter, hopefully continuing on this higher trajectory line.

The Brainwaves newsletter has experienced a monumental growth in views over the last quarter. The newsletter surpassed 1k views (trailing 30 days) this last month which was a huge milestone. The open rate continues to remain consistently around 40% which signals new subscribers view the newsletters at the same rate, a good sign as the subscriber count continually increases.

Honestly, I let the Twitter/X account hit the backburner this quarter as everything was prescheduled when I began my summer internship and during the summer I focused my efforts on the rebrand. The good part was that the number of followers remained constant and the number of engagements per post remained relatively constant. Impressions dipped, but I hope to have a rebound this upcoming quarter.

For those of you who haven’t seen the huge update, Brainwaves has a website now. I’ve only been tracking the analytics for the last month or so, so the analysis isn’t very exciting yet. I’m going to table this discussion for the next quarterly update. In the meantime, if you wouldn’t mind visiting the website to boost the numbers that would be good.

Last Quarter Goal Execution

1. Continue having fun writing posts and running this content platform

Success.

I’ve had my focus majorly elsewhere (the rebrand) this month, so yes I’ve had fun writing posts and running this content platform, but I’ve also had quite a bit else on my mind.

2. Continue diving deeply into interesting topics (new and old)

Success.

I’ve learned more this last quarter than any other quarter before. And I only hope this trend continues.

3. Continue to produce high-quality content

Success.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the content this last quarter. I’m planning on continuing to produce high-quality content, branching out to touch more niche subjects now that we’ve established a baseline knowledge.

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 in the first place. 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 created this platform as a way to produce content surrounding each subject I’m interested in. I subscribe to the mantra that you learn more about a subject when you have to teach someone else about it. Now 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.

3) Subscriber Goal In 3 Months: 80

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.

Getting to 80 people shouldn’t be hard. To put it into perspective, with 55 of you currently subscribed, we just need a referral rate of 0.45 to get to 80. 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) Drive views to the new website

The new website is great. I would encourage you to take a look to see all of the content we have and subscribe if you haven’t had a chance. I plan to continue developing the website with new content offerings and newsletter support functions throughout this next quarter, so there will be more to share come the next update.

5) Execute the new marketing strategy

As I discussed in the rebrand article, I have a new marketing strategy going into this quarter, comprising some new goals and a new day-to-day operational program. The high-level highlights are below:

1. Invest a little more time into marketing
2. Extend the reach of my content
3. Provide differentiated content

6) Get the new Reddit account up and running

The Twitter/X account associated with this content platform was able to be rebranded and the account handle was able to be changed (@brainwavesdotme).

Yet, the Reddit account associated with this platform could not be rebranded, so I was forced to start a new account (@brainwavesdotme). If you’re familiar with Reddit, you’ll know this means building up enough karma to post on certain subreddits, meaning it’s going to be a little delay before I begin posting actual content.

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 (actually twice a week now).

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:

Space Object Interactions?

Nuclear Energy: An Update?

A Book Report?

Secrets to Success?

….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 as long as you learn from your mistakes and don't make them over and over again, you're on the right path.”

- Kim Kardashian

Thank you again for another great quarter!

Drew Jackson

Twitter: @brainwavesdotme

Email: brainwaves.me@gmail.com

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