#228: A change I'm making in 2025 [Voice Memo] - Creator Science with Jay Clouse

Summary

Creator Science Podcast Summary Episode #228: A Change I'm Making in 2025 [Voice Memo] Release Date: November 25, 2024

In this insightful episode of Creator Science, host Jay Clouse delves into personal and professional challenges he faces as a new father and content creator. Jay shares his reflections on maintaining his publishing pace, the intricate balance between productivity and personal well-being, and his strategic plans to streamline his business operations in the coming year.

1. Navigating Personal Challenges and Publishing Pace

Jay begins the episode by candidly discussing the difficulties of adhering to his established publishing schedule amidst the responsibilities of new fatherhood.

"I've been trying to record these voice notes every Friday for you, but I didn't publish one of these on Friday, which is symptomatic of a larger overall challenge for me as a new father, which is keeping up with the publishing pace that I have set for myself." [00:00]

He acknowledges the supportive feedback received from his audience on platforms like LinkedIn and Bluesky, where followers suggested adopting a more sustainable publishing rhythm.

"A lot of people saying, hey, why not do less and better, or why not just, you know, publish less? Generally, do you need to keep up with the pace?" [00:00]

Jay explains the business model he has cultivated, where increased publishing correlates directly with greater attention and revenue generation. Reducing his publishing frequency could negatively impact his income, presenting a significant dilemma.

"The more I publish, the more attention comes into the business, flows through the system and turns into revenue. The more I publish, the more I earn." [00:00]

2. The Dichotomy of Easy vs. Hard and Simple vs. Complex

Drawing inspiration from a discussion between Tim Ferriss and Derek Sivers, Jay explores the nuanced differences between 'easy and hard' and 'simple and complex'.

"Easy meaning close at hand. You're actually well equipped and skilled enough to do this. You've done it before. Hard is. It's not well at hand. You have to learn. It's. It's not something you are already skilled at." [00:00]

"Simple does not have any dependencies and something that is complex does have dependencies." [00:00]

He emphasizes that while 'easy' and 'hard' are subjective and based on personal skill sets, 'simple' and 'complex' are objective measures rooted in the presence of dependencies within tasks or systems.

3. Assessing Business Complexity and Its Impact

Jay critically assesses the current complexity of his business operations, identifying numerous interconnected elements that contribute to mental overhead and stress.

"I have a very complex business right now in that a lot of things are interconnected. There are a lot of dependencies, which brings some mental overhead and stress." [00:00]

To address this, he plans to evaluate his Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to determine which activities yield the highest outcomes relative to their effort. This analysis aims to identify and eliminate or reduce less impactful tasks, thereby simplifying his business model.

4. Strategic Simplification for 2025

Looking ahead to 2025, Jay outlines his strategy to reduce business complexity by streamlining operations and focusing on high-impact activities.

"One of the things I'm looking to do over the next year in 2025, is reduce complexity in the business, reduce some of these, some of these dependencies and interconnected points to make the business as a whole simpler." [00:00]

He specifically mentions sponsorship operations as an area of focus, noting its high effort yet significant outcome. By applying the 80/20 principle, Jay considers maintaining 80% of sponsorship revenue through 20% of the activities, potentially scaling back on podcast sponsorships in favor of more efficient channels like newsletters and YouTube.

"Can I still get 80% of the outcome of sponsorship by doing only 20% of the activities?... podcasting represents less than 20% of sponsor revenue." [00:00]

This approach aims to reclaim personal time and emotional space, ensuring that content creation remains a source of joy rather than stress.

5. Embracing Elegance and Simplicity in Business

Jay advocates for a broader adoption of simplicity and elegance in business operations among creators. He encourages his audience to evaluate their own workflows and consider eliminating unnecessary complexities that may hinder personal well-being and business efficiency.

"I think we could all, you know, better pursue elegance and simplicity in the way we run our businesses." [00:00]

He concludes with a motivational note, inviting listeners to reflect on their own practices and inspiring them to implement similar strategies for a more balanced and effective creative process.

Conclusion

In Episode #228 of Creator Science, Jay Clouse offers a transparent and thoughtful examination of the challenges faced by content creators in balancing productivity with personal life. By dissecting the concepts of ease, difficulty, simplicity, and complexity, Jay provides actionable insights into optimizing business operations for sustained growth and personal fulfillment. His commitment to reducing complexity in his business serves as a valuable blueprint for creators seeking to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of content creation with grace and efficiency.

Notable Quotes:

"The more I publish, the more attention comes into the business, flows through the system and turns into revenue. The more I publish, the more I earn." — Jay Clouse [00:00]
"Easy meaning close at hand. You're actually well equipped and skilled enough to do this. You've done it before. Hard is. It's not well at hand. You have to learn." — Jay Clouse [00:00]
"I think we could all... better pursue elegance and simplicity in the way we run our businesses." — Jay Clouse [00:00]

This episode serves as a compelling exploration of the intersection between personal life and business strategy, offering valuable lessons for creators aiming to thrive in a demanding and dynamic environment.

Transcript

A (0:00)

I've been trying to record these voice notes every Friday for you, but I didn't publish one of these on Friday, which is symptomatic of a larger overall challenge for me as a new father, which is keeping up with the publishing pace that I have set for myself. And I shared this on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Yes, I'm on Bluesky now. You can find me at J Blog. But I got some really kind messages. People being very supportive and a lot of people saying, hey, why not do less and better, or why not just, you know, publish less? Generally, do you need to keep up with the pace? And the thing is, I've done a good job in the business of setting it up so that the more I publish, the more attention comes into the business, flows through the system and turns into revenue. The more I publish, the more I earn. So if I publish less, then revenue has a noticeable impact. That's why I try to keep up with it. Now, of course, I'm always trying to improve the system so that it's more efficient and I could make system improvements so that I can publish less and earn as much as I'm doing right now. But even in that world, keeping up with the current publishing pace would then mean I earn more as well. So it's a. It's a tricky thing. The biggest thing to work on is just mentally giving myself some more grace. But the reason I want to record this voice memo in particular, I was listening to a recent episode of the Tim Ferriss show. He interviewed Derek Sivers, who's also been on Creator Science. And Derek talked about this blog post he read. So he was telling the second hand story. I'm now telling the third hand story. But he read a blog post that broke down the difference between the simple and easy, complex and hard. In this definition, easy and hard are subjective. Easy meaning close at hand. You're actually well equipped and skilled enough to do this. You're. You've done it before. Hard is. It's not well at hand. You have to learn. It's. It's not something you are already skilled at. Simple and complex are more objective measures though, because the root of the word, the etymology of the word has to do with connection points. Something that is simple does not have any dependencies and something that is complex does have dependencies. And if you apply that to your business, if I apply it to my business, I have a very complex business right now in that a lot of things are interconnected. There are a lot of dependencies, which brings some mental overhead and stress. So one of the things that I'm looking to do over the next year in 2025, is reduce complexity in the business, reduce some of these, some of these dependencies and interconnected points to make the business as a whole simpler. One of the ways I'm doing that is I'm looking at my KPI tracker for the year and saying, okay, if I looked at the activities of the business in terms of effort and outcome, what can I remove or at least reduce? Right now, one of the highest effort parts of the business is sponsorship operations, but it has a big outcome as well. So your immediate thought is, am I willing to take that to zero to reduce complexity? But I think what I could actually do is say, what is the 8020 of sponsorship in my business? Can I still get 80% of the outcome of sponsorship by doing only 20% of the activities? That might look like reducing sponsorship on the podcast. The podcast is actually the more operationally intense bit of sponsorship for me, and it drives the lowest amount of revenue in terms of channel Besides newsletter and YouTube. My newsletter and YouTube Drive essentially an equivalent amount of sponsorship revenue, but as a whole, podcasting represents less than 20% of sponsor revenue. So I'm looking at things like that to say, what can I do to reduce complexity in the business, to give myself some space and joy back so that I can not only have the time to produce content to the degree that I want, but also the energy, space and the emotional space that I have when things are really tight, when I find time to create content, if I'm not in the headspace I would ideally like to be, that's also not good, you know, for me, for the business as a whole. So one of the things I'm doing over the next month and a half, as we have holidays here, is thinking about the year ahead. How do I reduce complexity, make things more simple, remove dependencies, and be willing to leave revenue on the table where the cost of earning that revenue is not as valuable as the time that I might get back by not taking in that revenue? Maybe that inspires you to do the same as well. I think we could all, you know, better pursue elegance and simplicity in the way we run our businesses. And I think this is a good time of year to consider that. I hope you had a great weekend this Thursday, or, sorry, this Friday is Black Friday and I am running a Black Friday promotion, but it's only available if you're on my email list. So go to creatorscience.com and you will get your unique promotion on Friday to consider. No pressure or expectation. I know the holidays are tough for some, so no pressure whatsoever. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and I'll talk to you next week.