Are you a creator scientist?

This week I'm sharing a revelation so important that it prompted an entire rebrand of my business.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [Creator Science]( Presented by [RankIQ](=) Hello my friend! I know what you're thinking. "Is that a new logo? What's Creator Science? What happened to Creative Companion?" Well, I won't keep you in suspense – I'm very excited to share that yes! I have in fact rebranded this newsletter. Although, I think of it less as a rebrand and more of a natural evolution of what I'm trying to build. Next week I'll share a full behind-the-scenes of how I went about this rebrand, but today I want to talk a little bit about why you should care. You may still be thinking, "But...creator...science??" We've been conditioned to believe that art and science are at odds. They should be kept separate like church and state, right? Well, I don't think so. In fact... I believe being a successful creator today is more science than it is art. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I became obsessed with one question For the last several years, I've spent most of my time talking to creators. And these creators span the entire spectrum from just getting started to borderline celebrity. This began as a hobby and then became my obsession. I started dedicating more and more time to trying to uncover how casual creators become professional creators. And even more specifically, "Why are some creators about to break through more quickly than others?" The answer was in the data The more conversations I had, the more I came to the same conclusion: the most impressive and fastest-growing creators are almost always data-driven. If they weren't data-driven in a quantitative sense, they were data-driven in a qualitative sense – they were constantly analyzing their work (objectively), putting it in front of their audience, and taking in feedback. And if not direct feedback from people (at a micro level), feedback from the way their content was performing (at a macro level). To put it bluntly: today's top creators aren't just artists – they're scientists. "Webster's dictionary defines 'science' as..." I know – when you hear the word "science" you start thinking of beakers, test tubes, and lab coats. But that's not quite accurate. Science is the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the world through observation and experimentation. Experimentation is the operative term. So science can be thought of as both a body of knowledge (things we have already discovered) and the process of gaining new knowledge (through observation and experimentation). And a scientist is the person conducting that study (hi, it's me). 👋 Remember the scientific method from school? - Make an observation - Ask a question - Form a hypothesis or testable explanation - Make a prediction based on the hypothesis - Test the prediction - Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions Sounds like a pretty useful way to understand and grow your creator business, right? The creators you look up to don't leave growth to chance. They are constantly forming new hypotheses, testing things, and changing direction based on the results. Not only that, but they share their results with their creator friends! They are creator scientists. That's where I come in. I'll be your lead creator scientist. And Creator Science will be your new creator friend. I'll do the work of compiling shared knowledge here as well as acquiring NEW knowledge. That may be through interviews, first-hand experience running this business, or off-the-record conversations. Well, rest assured, reading Creator Science will be doing a lot of that hard work to save you time and give you a leg up. With this information, hard work, and a [little luck](), you'll be a professional creator in no time. Same goal, new name Just as before, I'm here to help you become a professional creator. A professional creator is someone who not only creates content for others but is also rewarded financially for their work. More often than not, they're leveraging their [earned insight](. Being a professional creator doesn't mean you have to be a full-time creator...maybe you are, but it really just means you're being compensated for your effort. It means you TREAT your work like a professional. (and, by the way, professionals are usually data-driven) Creator Science is here to shorten your learning curve. To help you get there faster by giving you the benefit of MY experimentation and the experimentation of other top creators. Now, I will give you one caveat of a slight change... I'll be tailoring my work to more advanced creators. My writing, the podcast, and especially [The Lab](=) (the new name for our membership community) will go beyond the beginner topics of how to get started with things and focus more on leveling up. If that's not for you, that's OK! You can always unsubscribe. But you can also always reply to these emails if you have questions or if you need a resource to help you get started – I'll do my best to help. Thanks for following me on this journey and I hope I've inspired YOU to become a creator scientist. If I succeeded, hit reply and let me know. ​ Share This Essay: [Share via facebook]( [Share via twitter]() [Share via whatsapp]( Your personal share link: [ ​ ​ ​ [Sponsor Image](=) PRESENTED BY RANKIQ Learn SEO from one of the best Is your blog missing out on valuable Google search traffic? Are you spending hours creating amazing content and not getting the traffic you want? You need a guide. Someone to help teach you actionable SEO and traffic-building tactics that actually work. And your solution is the Blogging Millionaire podcast with Brandon Gaille. Brandon gets more than 5 million monthly visitors from over 100,000 first-page Google rankings. He knows what he's talking about. When you apply what you'll learn, every blog post you write will begin to compete for a first-page Google ranking. With each passing week, your traffic will continue to grow. The Blogging Millionaire podcast is one of Apple's ten most downloaded marketing podcasts and has over 500 five-star ratings. 🎧 [Listen on Apple Podcasts]( or [Listen on Spotify](=)​ [Learn more and subscribe](=) ​ ​ UPCOMING WORKSHOP 📅 Kickstart your creator business Every week I get emails from creators asking questions about focus and prioritization. So I built a live workshop to help you kickstart your creator business. It's called Creator Catalyst, and it runs on Friday, August 5 at 12pm ET (9am PT). [Creator Catalyst workshop](=)​ ​ Finding traction as a creator in 2022 can feel like walking through the mud. Thankfully, after 100+ interviews with today's top creators, I've developed a formula to make that walk feel shorter and easier. In this 90-minute workshop, you'll learn: - A 7-part framework for finding traction - Where to focus your energy (right now) - How to look legit (even as a non-designer) - How to set yourself up to sell digital products If you're feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or not sure where to start, this is the plan I would personally follow if I were starting today. [Enroll now ($40)](=) ​ LISTEN ON CREATIVE ELEMENTS #110: Polina Marinova Pompliano [Details] How "The Internet's Biographer" writes great profiles [Creative Elements Cover Art](=) Polina Pompliano is the author of The Profile, which studies the most successful and interesting people and companies in business, entertainment, tech, sports, and more. The Profile is a paid newsletter. Before Polina was writing The Profile, she wrote for Fortune, USA Today, and CNN. Polina also has nearly 130,000 followers on Twitter and in order to write exceptional profiles, says she read 1.8 million words online last year – the equivalent of 25 books. Profiles are a rare breed of writing – and Polina is really good at it. She’s written profiles of Sara Blakely, Elon Musk, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Dolly Parton, Kris Jenner, and many more. In this episode, we talk about the difference between profiles and biographies, the economics behind a paid newsletter, the most effective strategies she’s found for growth, and why the secret to a great profile is found in the Details. [Play episode](=) [Apple Podcasts](=) [Spotify]( [Stitcher]() [YouTube](=) New to the show? Start with a [curated playlist](). ​ ​ LAST WORD 👋 Thanks for reading! I'm so excited to really lean into this brand evolution. I've actually involved members of [The Lab](=) in every step of the process – from considering the rebrand, to coming up with the name, to all of the actual design revisions. It's been really fun! I'll share more behind-the-scenes next week. But just add that to the list of reasons why The Lab is so great – more and more, it feels like an asynchronous mastermind of creators where EVERYONE is learning a lot. Even me. If you've been on the fence, [I'd love for you to join us](=) (and remember: members get access to all past, present, and future workshops at no additional cost)! Cheers, Jay --------------------------------------------------------------- [Photo of Jay Clouse]( Jay Clouse [Say hi 👋 on Twitter]() or [Instagram]( ☎️ [Book a 1:1 call with me]( Thanks for subscribing! 📬 Reply to this email or [contact me]() anytime. [Edit your profile]( or [unsubscribe here](. This email was sent with [ConvertKit]() and designed using [Palladio](=). Want to say thank you? ❤️ ☕️ [Buy Me A Coffee]() or send a note to P.O. BOX 797, Worthington, OH 43085. [Sponsor this newsletter](=) to get your message in front of 13K+ creators.