Jay’s success is hard to believe — unless, of course, you’re Jay
“Just because your writing hasn’t got many claps or views, it doesn’t mean it’s sh*t.” — Scott Stockdale
I wrote this line two years ago.
It was a reminder that you shouldn’t judge an article until you’ve read it. There may be nuggets of gold inside.
Jay Clouse’s early blogs are great examples of this.
Some of Jay’s Medium posts are over ten years old, and many have zero claps. I doubt more than a hundred people have ever read them:
So why should we pay attention?
Well, Jay is now one of the world’s most successful content creators.
He’s the founder of Creator Science, and his creative pursuits have made him over $2.1 million since 2017.
I’ve admired Jay for a long time.
I bought his freelancing courses in 2020. He hosted a workshop with Pat Flynn. The courses were extremely helpful and helped me land my first freelancing client.
What I didn’t realise is just how long Jay has been playing this game.
People are finally appreciating his brilliance.
“I think you’re this dark horse in the creator space, Jay. You’re coming for the top spot and moving really smart and stealthily. We’re gonna blink and you’re gonna be the guy at the top.”
— Justin Welsh on Twitter
Best of all?
I went through all of Jay’s Medium posts, and they are full of gold. He also predicted his business success ten years ago.
Let’s go back in time.
Jay’s early thoughts on building a business
This post is over ten years old (published in April 2014).
In it, Jay talks about why he hates 9–5 jobs:
“Well here’s the thing: having a job [expletive] sucks, and I don’t want to do it. Having a job, to me, means my mind compartmentalizes 8+ hours of tasks within my weekday of things I don’t really want to do. That meaning, if the pay were nonexistent, I wouldn’t do it. It would be, simply, a means to an end […]
“I want to work on something where I can have a measurable impact every day. I want to work on something that isn’t a “job” and something that makes me excited to get out of bed, solve problems, and meet new people. I want to work on something where the working hours are Necessary a.m. — Necessary p.m. and not defined by an arbitrary corporate structure.”
I love this graphic he included:
At the end, Jay links to this opinion post by Jeff Haden.
Jeff talks about getting rich.
I suspect Jay was influenced by this businessman’s thinking:
“Want to be remarkably successful? Want to get really rich? […] Then check out this little gem of an investment opportunity.
“It’s a simple investment. You only have to invest almost all of your money. On the upside, after a year, you might earn 3 percent more. The downside? Any day, you could lose it all, for reasons usually outside your control and that you will almost never see coming.
“Would you make that investment? Of course not.
“Yet millions of people do — every day they go to work for someone else.”
It’s clear that even ten years ago, Jay wanted to start a business.
So what did he do?
Early in his career, he worked with startups. He wanted to learn what it takes to build a business.
Similarly, from 2019–2022, I helped deliver successful SEO campaigns for 118 118 Money, MyProtein, Watches of Switzerland, and other big-name brands — both in-house and at SEO agencies.
Only after gathering all this experience did I decide to jump into self-employment.
Takeaway for you
Work for other people for two years to learn the industry and hone your skills.
When you feel ready, do your own thing.
Zig Ziglar’s goal-setting framework
Jay shares three videos of Zig Ziglar — a famous motivational speaker who died in 2012.
In the first video, Mr Ziglar shares his 7-step goal-setting framework for achieving anything in life:
“It wasn’t until I wrote it down [step 1]; put a date on it [step 2]; listed the obstacles I had to overcome [step 3]; identified the people, the groups, and the organisations I needed to work with [step 4]; spelled out a plan of action [step 5]; set a time limit [step 6]; and identified all of the benefits to me [step 7]— it was only when I did that that the goal became a reality.”
In videos two and three, Mr Ziglar tells stories about the costs of inaction and not being specific with your goals.
“The rule is take action now.” — Zig Ziglar
Jay is a man of great action.
He took these lessons to heart.
Takeaway for you
Use Zig Ziglar’s goal-setting framework, and take the first step today.
You may also find my 6-month plans helpful.
Jay’s advice on starting a business
The brilliance of this post is its simplicity.
“To start an online business, start an offline business. Find something people are willing to pay you for, and try to sell it. When they tell you, ‘Oh I don’t really want this,’ then find out why not. Find out what they want.
“Try again.”
Takeaway for you
Start small.
I like to remind myself of this quote by Derek Sivers. It’s how most people approach business:
“Watch out when anyone (including you) says he wants to do something big, but can’t until he raises money.
“It usually means the person is more in love with the idea of being big-big-big than with doing something useful.”
“Yesterday, I worked 14 hours and made $0”
Here, Jay tells the story of building The Unreal Collective, a community of creators that he later sold to Smart Passive Income.
He admits that the early days were a struggle:
“I love being independent. But it’s worth acknowledging that the 1000 day rule is a real thing, ala the classic Tropical MBA blog post:
“‘People don’t understand they need to be poor for 1000 days.
“‘Our basic hypothesis: you’ll be doing worse than you were at your job for 1000 days after you start your muse business. I’ve seen it happen a bunch of times.
“‘For many of us it’s been almost exactly those 1000 days it took for us to get back to the level of income we enjoyed in our corporate days.’
“It isn’t sexy and it isn’t easy. But I prefer it.”
Takeaway for you
Creator businesses aren’t built overnight. They usually take a few years to get going.
Since September 2018, I’ve been creating content—videos, podcasts, articles—week in and week out.
I made my first £1.86 nearly two years later.
“It’s been two years since I quit my job”
This is the last post that Jay published on Medium (in April 2019).
He shares what it was like quitting his job and the immediate after-effects:
“In less than 72 hours, I had made the decision to leave my company and was fully unemployed with no real plans and no real responsibilities.
“I remember calling my parents to tell them that I had quit my job and that ‘I would probably never take a job again.’
In 2018, he was still trying to figure things out.
He misunderstood his cash flow, ran out of money, and had to do freelance marketing and WordPress development to pay the bills.
Unreal Collective was working — but in small ways.
“It was still pretty unproven, and a lot of folks were joining the Accelerator on blind faith in me. I was lucky to pull together 15 folks in a cohort.”
Then, Jay got a “great stroke of luck”. A presentation he uploaded to YouTube caught the attention of the LinkedIn Learning team, and they hired him to produce a course in their Product library.
He went on to produce four courses for LinkedIn.
This LinkedIn money was helping, but Jay was still leaving lots of money on the table compared to if he worked a normal 9–5 job.
“With a background in Product Management and enough skill to teach Product courses for Linkedin Learning, I’m forgoing a salary of $85K-150K annually.
“That means that even with my earnings, I’ve eaten more than $100K in opportunity cost over the last two years.”
Jay said it wasn’t about the money.
“Two years into the journey, I feel more confident than ever that I’ll still be building my own business two more years from now.
“I’m saving. I’ve figured out taxes, healthcare, and cash flow. I’m not afraid of going broke.”
His prediction was spot on.
Flash forward to 2024, and Jay is still building his business.
I wonder if he knew just how big his business would become.
Takeaway for you
Back yourself.
No one is going to do it for you.
Takeaways
Jay’s success is hugely inspiring — not least because it’s been ten years in the making. (This isn’t to say it’ll take you this long!)
It’s also rare that we get to see exactly what a successful content creator was thinking way back when they first started.
Here are the key takeaways:
- #1: Work for other people for two years. Learn the industry and hone your skills. When you feel ready, do your own thing. Building a successful business is a proven route to riches.
- #2: Use Zig Ziglar’s goal-setting framework. And take the first step today.
- #3: Start small. Find something people are willing to pay you for and try to sell it.
- #4: Have patience. Creator businesses aren’t built overnight. I made my first £1.86 online after two years of putting out content.
- #5: Back yourself. No one is going to do it for you.