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 am 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 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.
They have an experimentality.
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.
Our shared goal
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, comment below and let me know.
PS: Want to look behind the scenes of the rebrand?