If you’re reading this, you’re one of 62 “investors” in Thought Liters. You’ve given me your time and attention — 1) thank you, and 2) you’re owed returns.
So in this edition, I’ll open up the books and share the upcoming roadmap.
Adam’s notes:
Little late for Q1, Adam, what gives? I had a kid. Will I see her soon? Funny enough, she won’t be leaving the house until 35 when she’s finally allowed to date
tbh writing this newsletter has felt like a chore so I’m going to try and strip down the voice a little. Lmk if you like this one.
Money time.
$8,976.20 out.
~$10,000 in.
Wait, wtf? That looks a lot like profit, doesn’t it?
Technically, it’s true. But lemme shank the sugar plum fairy:
Lots of costs against the inflows aren’t yet accounted for, and
I’ve spent enough in Q2 to return me to deep red.
But for a brief, glittery moment…this thing was technically** profitable in 2026.
** Inflows include more than closed-won cash solely for Thought Liters. I also count value of client engagements I earn, thanks to Thought Liters. For those unaware: I produce content series for B2B businesses for the express purpose of high-stakes bizdev, and also do assorted other video work. When I can link that work back to Thought Liters, I’ll count it here. So it’s real money, it’s just not all #ad money. Moving on. But also call me if you need any of that.
Q1 Strengths
Input: Q1 was spotty in terms of uploads — and only two of them were actually filmed in 2026. But: I filmed ten. Those are starting to roll out now, on a weekly basis — and as of now, I’m on a trajectory to keep a weekly cadence for the foreseeable future. The input was high, even if the output wasn’t.
Guests: I diversified the guest pool to include the show’s first athlete, first content creator (upcoming), and first few “grown ups” outside the startup world (that’s how PIT Airport CEO Christina Cassotis referred to them, anyway).
Aside: I did a few episodes without beer to make sure the core format still worked without it. It does.
Outreach: I earned some cool guests in Q1, like Christina and like Kevin Acklin — and got their attention by going above and beyond standard email or LinkedIn intros. In fact, it’s how I hooked the majority of my 2026 guests so far. (I’ll elaborate in a future newsletter.)
Q1 Opportunities
Consistency: I’m more talking about clips and derivative content here, which was published in fits and starts. I could blame that on the kid prep, but instead I’ll chalk it up to poor time / resource management. I’ve already improved that in Q2.
Travel: I went to LA for a few filmings in Q1, mostly to test if I can make this thing work on the road. I did one in a studio, and one with my own gear. It worked OK, but production moved slowly. There’s opportunity to take denser advantage of the shots I get to create content away from home base.
What’s next
In February, I wrote down a few goals and posted them to LinkedIn. Among them were some long shots with a full-year focus, like:
40 long-form interviews
first Fortune 500 CEO appears
Monetized on any social platform
“Big” Guest Talent (this was a list like Cuban, GaryVee and others I admire)
Full time on Thought Liters in 2027.
As for Q2: there will be a more consistent upload schedule — I’m going to try weekly, so 40 new episodes in 2026 might actually happen.
As for any of the others…working on it.
Also: Q2 will bring include details for the 2026 Thought Liters Ship and (fingers crossed) a partnership or two. More to come there.
As I said up top: you 62 are the closest thing I have to investors in this project. I truly appreciate you following along. I’ll do my best to keep putting in the work as this idea grows.
Let me know if this newsletter was more readable than some of the other recent ones (trying to strip it down a bit without losing all sense of format).
Also let me know if you have an idea for a story or guest who should feature here. Always looking for suggestions.
Adam
