Keep playing your hits
Jay Clouse
Founder of Creator Science — helping creators get uncommon results. Studying others, running experiments, and sharing it all with 60,000+ readers!
I had a phone call this week with a new friend, Kevin. We were connecting over some of the head trash we each deal with, and he brought up the imposter syndrome he feels with some of the clients he gets to work with.
I've been there – sometimes we find ourselves working with people or organizations and we feel like we've somehow tricked them into trusting us!
How could this person possibly be looking to ME for advice??
I like to think of every skill or ability that we have as a spectrum – almost like a ladder. Imagine that you're a 9 out of 10 in terms of your personal finance knowledge...almost at the very top of a ladder.
Now imagine that a famous athlete wants to hire you to help them with their finances. They're?not?a 9 out of 10 on personal finance – they're looking at YOU, standing above them on the personal finance ladder, and saying, "Can you help me?"
The problem is we often look at the OTHER abilities where these people excel – the ladders they stand on ahead of you.
This person is a MUCH better athlete than you...they may be better at social media than you...hell, let's just say they're even a?fantastic?singer.
Suddenly, we're calculate this "ultimate skill score" and we think they are?way?ahead of us...
How could this person possibly be looking to ME for advice??
But they don't need you to help them be an athlete. They don't need your help with social media. And they don't need singing lessons.
They need help with ONE thing.
And if YOU are better at that ONE thing, then this "ultimate skill score" doesn't matter. If you're really good at something, or some intersection of things, then you are the PERFECT person to help?anyone?who doesn't have those skills.
When I shared this idea with Kevin, I could see him relax.?He told me that he'd never thought of it that way and that he really liked that analogy.
But here's what I really wanted to share with YOU today...
This wasn't a new idea. I first shared this idea in?February 2019 ! And when I shared the idea in February 2019, it got really positive feedback.
...but that article has lived in obscurity buried somewhere on my website, barely mentioned and not developed any further since.
When I saw his reaction to this idea, it was a really important reminder – we're often better off further developing our best ideas rather than creating something totally new.
One of my favorite episodes of Creative Elements is with?Andy J. Pizza ?of Creative Pep Talk, and he calls this "playing your hits."
Too often, we focus on making something new rather than doubling down and continuing to beat the drum of our ideas that we?know?resonate.
Bands don't write new songs for every concert they play – we wouldn't want them to! We want to hear the songs we love.
The same is true for messages or ideas that resonate. We continue to appreciate hearing those ideas even if we've heard them before.
And this works in smaller ways too. That idea you Tweeted or posted on Instagram? Maybe you share it again in a month or two. Maybe you remix off of it tomorrow.
You don't need to be completely original with everything you make.
A lot of creators build entire thriving businesses on the back of?one?great idea that resonates. They develop that idea further and explore it more deeply.
What if that was your approach too?
Enjoy reading Creative Companion? If so,?subscribe to my Sunday edition .
#90: Wes Kao [Rigorous Thinking] – Should you teach a cohort-based course?
Wes Kao is co-founder of?Maven , the first platform for cohort-based courses. Maven helps creators build a cohort-based course and deliver an incredible student experience at scale.
She helped build cohort-based courses for Outlier.org (from the co-founder of MasterClass), David Perell’s Write of Passage, Tiago Forte’s Build a Second Brain, Section4/Professor Scott Galloway, and Morning Brew.
领英推荐
Previously, Wes was the co-founder of the altMBA. Under her leadership, the altMBA grew from zero to 550 cities in 45 countries in three years.?She designed the altMBA's beloved coaching system, grew the global community, built the marketing engine, and built a team of 40 people to support rapid scaling.
In this episode, we talk about Wes’s early experiences building cohort-based courses, how you can decide whether teaching a CBC is right for you, the frameworks you can use to design your course curriculum, and why Rigorous Thinking helps her to build quickly without wasting time on failed experiments.
Want to learn more about Web3 and NFTs?
?? Friday, February 11
?? 12:00 - 1:30pm ET (9:00-10:30am PT)
Over the last few months, I've been spending a lot of time in the Web3 rabbit hole. It's new, it's exciting, but I was also pretty skeptical.
Fast-forward to today – it's still new, it's still exciting, and I'm still pretty skeptical! But I am participating every day and I've learned a lot.
At this point, I have about $35,000 in cryptocurrency and NFTs.
I have realistic expectations and know I could lose ALL of it!
But my participation came from a desire to learn?the fundamentals that creators like us should know...and it's paid off.
If I could've gotten a 90-minute download from someone who had been living it for several months...it would've saved me a LOT of time and learning things the hard way.
We'll cover the basics as well as some harder need-to-know stuff:
I've reserved time for Q&A as well if you want to talk about how I vet different opportunities, etc.
Interested in joining us?
About The Author
Hey, I'm Jay Clouse! I'm a full-time creator as a writer and podcaster.
Most of my creative energy is directed towards my podcast,?Creative Elements , and my newsletter,?Creative Companion .
I've created a number of courses and?workshops ?including my best-selling?Podcast Like The Pros ?and my?Freelancing School Course Bundle .
I want to support YOU on your own journey to creative independence.
The path is long, but you can do it. And I'll be right there by your side, encouraging and inspiring you the whole way.
I help executive teams in high growth companies ($5-150M) fix stubborn growth problems & speed up great results.
2 年GREAT article Jay! There is so much pressure to be a content machine, or always invent a new way to talk to your people. But your hits are hits for a reason right? (Instant fan.) I also see people get caught in the Experience/Expertise Trap. Basically the better you get at any given skill, the more unreasonable your expectations will be for performing in some other area. To use your example, you're really good at finance, a 9 out of 10. When you start writing you generally expect yourself to be immediately proficient. And when you realize you're not also a 7, 8, 9 at writing, it's easy to feel really discouraged or even give up. It takes time to develop new skills. But it's not about where you start, it's about the work you're willing to do to become. I think a lot of people would be really shocked at who they're able to become if they gave themselves a fair shot.
Fractional CMO, Author of Free Money, Founder of Freelance Cake and Business Redesign → Raise your rates, delegate confidently, and free up 10 hrs / wk so you can have a record year while working less
2 年Love this. And well put in the article. We cannot learn from perfect people, so you there, the guy or gal worried about not having something original to say. Just share your messes with us instead.