Hello my friend! There are a lot of new folks here on the ’gram and I thought I would (re)introduce myself.
I’ve been doing this content thing since 2017. That’s pretty old in content years. We didn’t say “content” or “creator” then—I just wanted to make a living as a writer. And at the time, I thought that looked like sending emails to strangers from MailChimp! 😂
As I tried to deconstruct how people were making a full-time living sending emails, I started writing about what I was learning. People liked that. So I kept explaining what I was learning as I went along.
Fast forward a few years, that experiment → learn → share framework became my business: Creator Science. I believe that the most reliable way for you to make this content creator career work is to experiment and find your own path! Along the way, you can learn from the experiments of peers and teachers like me to help you avoid some potholes on your journey.
I still share what I’m learning every week. If you want to learn from me, comment NEWS and I’ll add you to my industry-leading newsletter that’s read by over 65,000 creators every week.
⚡️Comment NEWS to join my newsletter and get posts like this every Sunday.
I just closed the books on year eight as a creator, and, in many ways, it was the best year yet!
I share this graph each year because it highlights a few important truths:
1.) I’ve been doing this for eight years
2.) It took me four years to have my first 6-figure year
3.) My revenue actually dropped in year three
4.) You can see how powerful compounding is
Along this eight-year journey, most of my peers have quit. A lot of them were talented and even found success! But this path is hard – and if I would’ve quit in years 1-5, you can see what I would’ve missed out on.
Remember that comparison is the thief of joy. I empathize with the desire to benchmark your performance against someone else’s, but you need to give yourself some grace. If you’re early in the journey, you shouldn’t compare your numbers to those of someone in year eight.
But if you’re starting today, here is what I would do...
With this strategy, you’ll have three revenue streams:
1.) Consulting
2.) Sponsorship
3.) Digital product
This gives you a diversified, resilient business.
You’ll simultaneously be growing across your newsletter AND social.
And as your audience grows, so will your revenue.
This approach is simple, but it isn’t EASY.
It takes hard work and time to become one of the most knowledgeable creators in your space.
It takes discipline to publish consistently – especially in the beginning.
Be resilient. Work hard. Have faith.
This is a long game.
2 years
143 videos
100,000 subscribers
Thank you for watching 🙏
Tons of credit to @conorconaboy and @thethumbnailgrail for their work in making this a reality.
📩 Comment 304 for the full pod 📩
If you're running Meta ads (or thinking about it), take a page from @samvanderwielen .
Treating Meta ads like a content channel of their own? Underrated move.
One day, out of the blue, I got a text message from @mbs_works .
He heard me talking on my podcast about my challenge hiring and delegating, and how it was becoming a real hindrance on the business.
“Jay - your delegation issue is probably “hard change” not “easy change”. More tactics won’t help. You already know the tactics. I can take you through a process that might help. It will uncover the “foot on the brake” even if you’re pumping the accelerator. And we could record it and consider it for your pod. Pod or not, happy to do this with you.”
So we recorded a podcast! And Michael introduced me to a framework for making hard change.
It wasn’t about burning the boats or making big, irreversible decisions — he encouraged me to start small and experiment.
Spoiler: We’ve done both! Not only did this conversation with Michael help me to delegate more to my assistant, but it was the first step on the path to hiring someone new on my team as an integrator.
We’re operating at a high level right now! I’m so proud of our team AND I’m excited about actually building the team.
Comment “302” to listen to the full episode.
This may be a hot take...
When you have a bad month or two, the knee-jerk reaction is to cut costs. It seems to make logical sense and provides a bit of a mental salve. But if your business has some savings that can absorb that loss, cutting investments in growth may be shooting yourself in the foot.
I made this mistake a few months ago. Revenue took a temporary dip, I looked at my biggest cost center (YouTube) and cut some of those costs.
What happened? The channel suffered. I lost momentum. I regret it.
If the things you’re spending on have proven that they provide results, cutting them in a fit of panic may further compound your problems. And, if YOU’RE experiencing a down period, chances are others might be too — which may be a great time to invest in more help!
tl;dr: When the world changes around you, you need to adapt to it. Simply playing defense and hoping the storm passes isn’t adapting. It’s time to go on the offensive.
⚡️Comment 304 for the full episode
I believe this. I just don't live it. I have a hard time fully stepping away. I'm almost always running at some version of work mode, even when I'm technically away from the business.
But the moments I have disconnected (a workout, a walk, a trip), something always clicks.
Working on it.
@samvanderwielen
Happy Mother’s Day to the mother of my daughter and (future) son!! This woman continues to surprise and impress me. Have you seen her new 3D printing operation? Our new patio design? Has she helped you buy a house?
There’s nothing she can’t do. I never want to go back to the Before (Mallory) Times.
The "quality vs. quantity" debate rages on. But who defines quality?
YOU have your own taste, but quality is in the eye of the beholder—and that's your audience. Since you're serving them, THEY will tell you what "quality" is with their attention.
I’m in a growing season. And I’m not talking about revenue, I’m talking about personal growth.
I’m doing a lot of new things for the first time, which means I’m solving a lot of new problems and creating a lot of new processes.
It’s really uncomfortable to feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. I love the comfort of familiarity and mastery, but for all the mastery muscles I’ve developed, there are a lot of muscle groups I’ve completely ignored (like hiring and delegating). Working on a super long-form project like a book feels like trying to ride a bike with square tires—parts are familiar, but it’s also totally new and harder than I expected.
Our tendency when dealing with this discomfort is to run away and distract ourselves with more comfortable tasks. Email. Instagram. Even recording a podcast.
But skill is acquired by working THROUGH that psychological discomfort. The things we want are on the OTHER side of hard.
So I’m training myself to recognize psychological discomfort and treat it like a compass.
“Ah! THAT’S where I should be headed!”
Then I go through and not around.
As weird as it sounds, I hope you’re dealing with some psychological discomfort. And I hope you don’t run away from it.
