Jay Clouse

Founder of Creator Science — running experiments, interviewing remarkable creators, and studying trust. 🎥

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

I'm building something new.

For a long time, most of my products have been designed for creators who already have some traction.

But I haven't had a useful, accessible product to help creators go from 0 to 1. And overwhelmingly, that's what I hear people asking for.

So, I'm building it.

It's called Traction Plan, and it's designed to give you a personalized plan to find traction with your content.

It's not a course (though it'll be educational). It's a guided, responsive experience that takes your inputs and workshops language and strategy in real time. The goal is to give you a plan that fits YOUR business, YOUR goals, and YOUR schedule.

I'm aiming to launch this in early November.

Is this something you'd be interested in?

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

Nobody is tracking your send cadence the way you are.

One complaint out of 85 sales taught me that more concretely than anything else this year.

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

I sent the same sales email four times in four days, same body copy, only the subject line changed, and expected disaster.

Here's what actually happened:

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

Think about how you actually read email. On your phone, between meetings, half-distracted. You miss things. You scan the subject and move on.

Your readers are doing the same thing.

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

@MillyTamati It’s a useful practice — i’ve recorded one of these every month since nov 2022!

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

Every month, I record a private video for members of The Lab diving into my actual numbers, how I did with my goals, what's working, and what's not.

A few times a year, I share one publicly. This is my October retro, recorded here from paternity leave.

Timestamps:

0:00 The closet project that started labor
2:45 The numbers: $51K in revenue
3:11 Our second-best month of follower growth
6:06 Our biggest month of podcast listening all year
10:56 Rebuilding the whole website with AI
14:07 The custom tool I built for Lab members
18:29 The team is running the business without me
19:41 The YouTube-to-email process that brought in 96 new subscribers from one video
23:06 The Lab's join rate went from 1 in 4 to 1 in 10
24:49 The new tier we might scrap
26:01 The product that won't be ready for Black Friday
29:18 Building things as a fun distraction
32:24 Why 2027 is my year of video
34:02 How creators lose the plot when they succeed
36:04 Why I'm leaning harder into interviews
37:21 A B2B advisory arm?
38:27 I work to live, not live to work
39:14 Goals for November

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

@serxzsz fair

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

If you'd be into seeing this every month, join us!

https://t.co/7lYI7MrWGb

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

I know I’m supposed to sleep when the baby sleeps but when do I play the new Grand Theft Auto? because I don’t think it’s appropriate for a newborn to play

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

Attention can be bought. Trust can't.

If your content metrics only show reach and impressions, add one more question: did anyone buy, refer, or come back?

That will tell you whether you're building trust or just getting attention.

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

@cecibuilds probably the urgency of the deadline

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

Earlier this year, I sent the same sales email to the same audience four times in a row—only the subject line changed.

July 3: 18 sales
July 6: 14 sales
July 7: 24 sales
July 8: 29 sales

$17,000 revenue. Only one complaint.

No one is paying that close of attention to you.

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

@Jayyanginspires gotta know yourself—if it works for you, it works. if you have a pattern of announcing and then not following through, I’d learn from that

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

One of the biggest mistakes people make is announcing the thing before doing the thing.

“I’m going to write a book!”

When you announce your grand plan to [whatever], you get more juice than you do from the early stages of doing the work. So doing the work feels worse by contrast.

Most people then quit.

Much better to do the work and prove to yourself that you like doing it before there’s any external validation.

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

@ItsKieranDrew i could’ve added, “ask me how I know”

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

@ItsKieranDrew looool welp that broke

[Jay Clouse @jayclouse]

It's not too late to get started.

Yes, it sucks being “bad” at things.

Yes, sooner would’ve been better.

Yes, it's more competitive.

But platforms have never been more meritocratic than they are now.

Good content gets seen.

The bar for "good" just gets higher all the time.

[isaac @theisaacmed]

When is the last time you spoke to a normal American? A normal person?

Not an asset owner. Not some tech person.

No - a normal citizen trying to enjoy their lives and enrich their families.

If you did, you would realize that things aren’t good. They haven’t been good since Covid. And they have gotten worse each year.

Affordability is a real issue. People can’t afford rent. The price of steak is higher. The price of gas slaps them in the face daily.

They don’t want to hear about ai, but it’s constantly blasted at them as this demon that’s here to take their jobs. There is little optimism in the storytelling from the companies themselves.

And on the news, you hear story after story of the people at the top enriching themselves.

‘People are getting richer, and having a good life, but not me.’

It’s at the very very top. Heavy grifts bombarding them daily as a grim reminder.

And it follows them home.

Their kids are addicted to slop lottery machines on their phones. Their eldest son losses money sports gambling. It’s not his fault, he found the apps through an undisclosed ad.

It goes on.

This is not about a culture war or left or right.

People want decent ideas and common sense. They want people who care at the top who can focus on things that matter.

Go talk to your fellow man. Their problems are real. It doesn’t matter that the market is ripping. The market isn’t everyone.