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Creator Science with Jay Clouse
#264: The paradox of book writing AND other things I'm working on [Weekend Update]
00:06:36
The first edition of Weekend Update
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Something I've been really struggling with as I write this book proposal is how I think about it and the way it lives in the business. Because there's a very clear paradox here, and that is that books have uncertain, even unlikely returns, but at the same time they have a huge cost. The investment into making a book is super, super high. So typically in the business, what I'm trying to make are asymmetric decisions where the downside is very low and the upside is very high. And a book is kind of the opposite of that. Right? Like the downside is actually pretty high and the upside is typically pretty low. So on the face of it, writing a book is not the most prudent use of my time in the business right now. And because there are so many things competing for my time, that is a clear recipe for saying no to something. But this isn't a business decision, this is a personal decision. Because writing a book is something I've always wanted to do. In fact, I think writing books could be the long term arc of my career. So what do I do with this? Because it's difficult for me to make a case if the business to spend as much time on it as I want to make it as good as it can be. And I also can't put expectations on this thing that it's going to be hugely successful. Because if I put that expectation on it, then that puts a lot of pressure on it, which is both paralyzing and sets me up for disappointment. If I don't put expectations that it's going to be successful, then also it just becomes more difficult to justify as a use of the business's time and resources. So as I've been working on this proposal, which is over 50 pages now, we're getting close to the end. But you know, quick aside here, you know how sometimes you're filling out like a survey online and it will have a progress bar that shows like you are 90% done. But then there's like an optional box that you check and it backs up the progress and says, oh, because you chose this option, actually you're 60% done. That has been my experience with this proposal. Because as I get more clarity on what it is that I'm proposing here, some of the stuff that was done suddenly becomes clear. It's not quite done. Anyway, as I'm working on this proposal, there are many days where I dedicate large blocks of time to working on it and it's slow going and it doesn't yield the results that it needs to yield. And so I've been building up this frustration of my gosh, I'm put so much time into this and it seems like I'm going backwards. What is going on? And in the meantime I am putting a lot of the business projects on hold and that's just not sustainable. I can't quite do that anymore. So what I have decided is I'm going to treat the book at this stage as a personal project. It is in fact going to live outside of typical business working hours, meaning I'm doing it in the morning, I'm doing it in the evening, I'm doing it weekends, I'm doing it in pockets of time that aren't taking away for where I would typically be working on the business. Because this is not at this time a business project. Now that could change. If the proposal has a good reception, if there is a good deal to be made for the book, then it becomes more of a business opportunity. But right now this is a personal project is what I've decided. And that means that I am getting back to business. I am reprioritizing other projects that move the core creator science business forward, specifically continuing to focus on the lab, making all tiers of that experience better and better. We've been working on programming some new live sessions. Gonna have Chanel come in, do a newsletter session, going to have Natasha Willis come in, do a a mini chat session. We're gonna have a conversation in the community about growing on substack. So we're scheduling more live sessions in the community. I'm doing a lot of one to one outreach, checking in with people, seeing how they're doing, how I can help. And I'm picking up my signature product, product which is as meta as it sounds. I've been building that in public inside the lab, but I've paused that project for a few weeks as I try to finish up this proposal. But I can't continue to pause that. I need to push it forward because I think it's important and people in the community were really, really loving the process and excited about the final product. So I'm going to finish that project up or I should say pick that project back up. I'm also thinking that it's time for me to improve my existing evergreen email course. It's called the Professional Creator Crash Course. Kind of a mouthful, not a great brand name, probably need to update that. But also I've had some new high quality writing that I want to slot in for that course and I think it becomes a better lead magnet. So I'm going to update that and I'm going to improve the format of the newsletter and the content of the newsletter as well as this podcast what you're listening to right here. This probably sounds like a typical voice memo episode that I do. I like doing that. But I'm thinking I might have a series of these voice memos that I'll call Weekend Update as an homage to my my beloved Saturday Night Live. But the the idea is on the weekends I will share a quick direct update like this to give you a little bit behind the scenes, what's going on in my world, what I'm thinking about, what I'm working towards. This is a small preview of what it's like to hear my retros on a monthly basis, but I think that this could be a fun format. Would love to hear what you think about it. If you if you like this idea of me just kind of sharing not only just something I'm thinking about, but what's going on behind behind the scenes in my business. If you're on Spotify, leave a comment, let me know. Otherwise tag me on social media. Let me know. We also published a new video today which is a behind the scenes tour of my podcast studio, my in person studio here at our house. I'll link to that in the show notes so you can check it out. Would love for you to leave your feedback there as well. It breaks down the design decisions we made, the gear purchases that we made, and hopefully helps give you some ideas too. I hope you had a great week, I hope you have a great weekend and I will talk to you on Tuesday.