After a 2023 shower thought shocked me into action — and following 16 months of inaction — I’ve been publishing Thought Liters for about a year now.
In this final newsletter post of 2025, I’m giving an honest look back on the year. The highs, the money, and the goals going forward.
If you want the full visual experience (sips and all), you can watch the full video below (it’s only 11 minutes):
Real Talk: the Stats
Let’s rip the band-aid off. It’s the last day of December 2025. I’ve been at this for a solid year. We’ve produced 17 episodes (15 are released including this one). Here’s where that year of work got the show to in 2025:
Subscribers: 169 total. (Picked up 100 this year!)
Views: 37,584 views in 2025 across long-form and Shorts.
Watch Time: Over the last 90 days, I’ve gotten about 90 minutes of watch time daily (this is only important for eventual monetization on YouTube — a long way away, btw).
Expense: $24,204.
Revenue: $0.
We can be honest with ourselves here: those are rookie numbers. We need to pump up those numbers. But analytics only tell one side of the story.
The Wins Beyond the Watch Time
Despite the red ink, 2025 had some incredible bright spots that proved the concept works.
Thought Liters Ship: What started with a hastily-scribbled LinkedIn shitpost ended up with me putting a yacht on the Allegheny River to test the IRL events arm of the Thought Liters brand. 65 founders / CEOs / investors trusted me enough to show up, and made for a massively fun evening. There was no key objective for the night — just to make something cool — and cool it was. This was my highest point in 2025, and I’d like to repeat / expand in 2026.
On Tap: Not content to stop there, I tested the live experiential arm of the Thought Liters brand with a live recording of the show at StudioME. I was joined by Ryan Shazier, Steelers All-Pro and founder of the Shazier Fund. We talked about on-field and off-field forced pivots — something any entrepreneur can relate to — and pulled off a fresh, open-book conversation before a live studio audience. On Tap proved that the live format works, and so I’ll make an effort to re-do that in 2026, too.
The “Six Pack Series” concept: 2025 also marked the first brand partnership for the show, via a 6-part miniseries in tandem with Innovation Works, one of the most active early-stage investors in the US. Comms Director Jane Joseph and the team trusted me enough to let me take flight with their CEO, Ven Raju, and five of their prized investments. The “Six Pack Series” will return (and may become a product at some point — still ironing that out, but I feel like there’s value there).
Quick Plug: How I Paid For It All
You might ask, "Adam, did you take $24,204 out of your kid’s mouth just to drink with a bunch of founders downtown for a year?”
Uh, no. Also, weird question.
I run a media production business called Authentic Avenue, which partners with B2B brands to convert high-stakes relationships via the creation of flagship podcasts and video series. That business is how I make money, and I use the proceeds to pay for this show.
(So if you think content like this can help you better connect with prospects and hopefully-expanding clients…call me up, or forward me to someone who know who could use it.)
Looking into the Crystal Glass (2026)
I feel okay about the schtick of the show. In 2026, I want to continue the ascent:
Keep Momentum: I did a lot of new s*** this year. All that means is that the next guy behind is gonna innovate harder to beat me out in this genre. I need to stay ahead of that threat.
Expand the Guest Pool: We all know this show has mostly been entrepreneurs so far. In 2026, I want to try to break more into the worlds of comedians, musicians, athletes, and visiting creators. After all, they build brands on the most public of stages.
Broaden the IRL Community: If you’ve studied the creator economy at all, you’ll know that in-person, physical events are roaring back into popularity. After I attended Press Publish NYC this year, and stood in a room of 400 creators with a combined following of 400 million followers (I had 128 at the time), it became obvious what a captive audience could mean for a brand and a creator. As I plan to keep building this show in Pittsburgh, and having seen the impact firsthand…the swings on this front will only get bigger.
Watch the full episode here on YouTube, by the way. Here on Spotify. Here on Apple.
Bottom Line: Look, even a few years into content creation, I still feel new at this. I’m not the best creator in the world, by a mile. I don’t create the most clickable thumbnails. I still get down after seeing 10 views on a video, hours after upload.
This shit takes a lot out of you. But it takes patience — and requires you to put a lot in.
To the 60 of you who are subscribed to this newsletter on top of following Thought Liters elsewhere: thank you. You’ve been my oxygen. A final cheers to you.
See you in 2026. (first up will be the Q4 ‘25 investor update.)
Adam
