Hi everyone,
If you’re getting this, you’re subscribed to the newsletter for Thought Liters. Just FYI going forward: these will now be addressed from me. Just felt less personal to not have my own name as the sender on this.
Good? Good. Moving on.
Today’s note is longer, and contains a nitty gritty data dump of what it’s like to build the show and be a small creator on his way up. I’m talking analytics, data, etc.
(it’s long because it’s the first one, relax, it won’t always be this long)
If that’s not your style, all good: instead, here are few recent full episodes you should turn on in the background to get me some of that sweet watch time on YouTube:
I’ll keep pubbing new episodes here, and I’ll still do “investor” updates like (late) Q1 2026 investor letter. So stick around; see you next time.
For the rest of you: let me hit you with some data and stats and truth about this big professional risky-ass swing.
Building on YouTube as a Small Creator
Sucks, at first, basically. Sure there’s a lot of creative freedom, you can produce with relative anonymity, you can change your focus at will — but until your first video hits…there’s a lot of grind. And as a 34 year-old pouring most of my time into this, with a family to support…believe me, I feel it.
Goals (long-term)
For anyone trying to turn their content into money, there’s really only one goal: get monetized on YouTube. Get to 4000 hours of watch time on your content per year, and you can start earning money from the AdSense program, through which the platform gives 55% of its advertising revenue to creators.
What about TikTok, LinkedIn, etc. Adam? Right now, those aren’t tangible or reliable sources of income. IG doesn’t pay creators. LI has a very small program generally reserved for large creators (though it’s slowly expanding). TikTok’s program pays very little, but can work for large creators and for live shopping (N/A to me, for now).
What about brand deals? Yeah, obviously, once the show’s big enough. Just wait for the numbers below, you’ll see why I’m not drowning in brand deals. Working on it.
Honestly most of my $ is gonna be made, in the short and medium term, from client engagements I win as a result of Thought Liters (by building content series for other brands for high-stakes bizdev and storytelling). But looking up the YouTube monetization mountain is always an effective pressure toward making better content that more people will watch and engage with, and that may ultimately lead to secondary (maybe even primary) revenue.
Numbers (long-form)
So, YouTube is the game. Let’s see how well Adam plays that game, using the last few long-form videos as an example, in order of recency:
Video | Views | Impressions | CTR | AVD | Watch Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
55 | 151 | 14.6% | 14:51 | 13.6 hrs | |
168 | 2038 | 1.9% | 8:08 | 22.8 hrs | |
125 | 1157 | 5.0% | 8:59 | 18.7 hrs | |
88 | 1423 | 1.9% | 6:01 | 8.8 hrs | |
198 | 4146 | 2.0% | 7:22 | 24.4 hrs | |
336 | 2438 | 1.2% | 20:24 | 114.3 hrs |
Note: this includes Wednesday’s release. Stats as of 2pm 5/15/2026.
Views are low. I get it. But here’s what else I see in this mumbo jumbo:
The most-viewed video has the highest AVD (average view duration). I feel like that’s an outlier, because videos get shown to increasingly casual viewers as views go up. Shouldn’t that generally mean AVD goes down?
The highest CTR video has the worst impressions and 2nd-lowest views (excluding this week’s release). I guess I should expect those metrics to inversely correlate as the video goes wider?
Separately, it might mean the packaging (title/thumbnail) for the Perforated video is ass, since it tried pushing more impressions but didn’t get views.
Also it might mean this week’s release has a shot at performing well, based on early numbers.
“Time ROI” is really low. Other than the Humotech episode, I put more hours into making each of these videos than they earned in watch time. Remember, I need 4000 hours of watch time per year. AKA, this is a huge problem. I’d need 35 Humotech-level performers every year to qualify. In theory it gets easier with a bigger audience, but right now it’s painful.
What about Shorts?
Just post clips, they said. You’ll rack up views, they said.
Here’s the thing: I don’t think the data backs that up.
This year, I’ve tried a combo of pod clips, trailers, and a behind-the-scenes (BTS) short series where I share a more unfiltered look at the show / biz. Here’s some data on that, using a few clips of each type from 2026:
Video | Type | Engaged Views (YT) | % Stayed to Watch (YT) | Watch Time (YT) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pod clip | 651 | 48.4% | 5.3 hrs | |
Pod clip | 798 | 55.8% | 6.4 hrs | |
Pod clip | 458 | 33.1% | 2.8 hrs | |
Trailer | 74 | 26.2% | 0.3 hrs | |
Trailer | 575 | 64.1% | 3.8 hrs | |
Trailer | 90 | 34% | 0.6 hrs | |
BTS | 977 | 68% | 8.9 hrs | |
BTS | 931 | 78% | 10.3 hrs | |
BTS | 404 | 33.8% | 2.1 hrs |
Note: “Engaged views” is a subset of total views, as defined by YT. Watch time isn’t a perfect judge here because some clips are :30, and some are :60. That’s why I include the % Stayed to Watch, which implies what videos are getting swiped away and which aren’t. Stats as of 2pm 5/15/2026.
This is a much more revealing dataset:
BTS: the “behind the scenes” videos I shoot in one take, with no edits other than captions, perform best on every metric here. Infuriating.
Trailers: perform poorly in a Shorts-only context. They do perform well on LinkedIn, though. And apparently they’re meant to help retention in long-form, but now I’m questioning this.
Almost makes me wonder if I should lead the long-form videos with a more off-the-cuff phone shot, then go a trailer, then go to a full conversation.
Or maybe the trailers are just bad?
Clips: are in the middle. I think I know the key problem here (the hooks are mid), but the more glaring gap to me is the time ROI. Clips typically require a fair bit of fine tuning to properly tell the stories within (1-2+ hrs total if there’s any graphic or extra elements added). There’s ROI there, but currently less than BTS. With better hooks, they may improve. It needs more testing.
Key Takeaway: I need to do way more BTS on the short-form platforms that reward volume like YT, IG etc. (Not sure that would work on LinkedIn. TBD). Also I might dump trailers off short form altogether.
Note: I stopped doing BTS earlier this year, when I had a kid, just because I wasn’t working. There was nothing to say. I’m back above water on that front now, so can get back to it.
Other Stats to Note
Since I’m apparently just laying out all of my numbers here, lemme just throw a few more at you, since the world ain’t all YouTube (yet). Stats are 2026 YTD:
Newsletter (Beehiiv): 59% open rate; 4.8% click-to-open rate. Open rate has stayed within the same ~5 percentage point range all year long. Followers are largely unchanged at 62 (literally have no idea how to promote newsletters)
LinkedIn (Personal): 42,734 impressions; 1,354 engagements; +278 followers
The Thought Liters LI page gets almost no organic reach (as in, literally some of my posts get like 4 impressions). So I’m not including any numbers from it here
Generally, I’m not thrilled with any of it except maybe LinkedIn, but even then discovery’s an issue. Working on it; need to get better at it.
Final Word
Look, I’m fortunate enough to be in a position where I can spend most of my time on this and not fear going hungry or losing the roof over my head. That puts me ahead of a lot of people.
But don’t get it twisted — I’m going as hard as I know how to go to make this work. I’m risking good earning years. I don’t have a blue-chip brand on my resume. Literally everyone I used to go to school with or work with makes more money than I do, and that hurts my pride (why lie; it does). But I just can’t shake the vision of this thing working, and I’m stubbornly holding out until it does.
So I’m grateful for the attention. I hope the stories are worth it. Thank you.
Once again: this was a data dump. It was longer than I thought it would end up. I just wanted to set a baseline. Future editions covering this sort of stuff will be shorter, and cover less ground.
The number one thing you can do to help me and the show is to watch, like, and comment on the show on YouTube. If you scrolled all the way to bottom of this thing first, that’s the tl;dr. Consider subscribing as well.
If there are specific aspects of the content creation or business side you wished more small creators talked about, let me know and I’ll try and layer it in to future newsletters.
I read everything, and respond to everything.
Cheers.
Adam
