Jay Clouse

I'm building something new.

For a long time, most of my products have been designed for creators who already have some traction.

But I haven't had a useful, accessible product to help creators go from 0 to 1. And overwhelmingly, that's what I hear people asking for.

So, I'm building it.

It's called Traction Plan, and it's designed to give you a personalized plan to find traction with your content.

It's not a course (though it'll be educational). It's a guided, responsive experience that takes your inputs and workshops language and strategy in real time. The goal is to give you a plan that fits YOUR business, YOUR goals, and YOUR schedule.

I'm aiming to launch this in early November.

Is this something you'd be interested in?

Every month, I record a private video for members of The Lab diving into my actual numbers, how I did with my goals, what's working, and what's not.

A few times a year, I share one publicly. This is my October retro, recorded here from paternity leave.

Timestamps:

0:00 The closet project that started labor
2:45 The numbers: $51K in revenue
3:11 Our second-best month of follower growth
6:06 Our biggest month of podcast listening all year
10:56 Rebuilding the whole website with AI
14:07 The custom tool I built for Lab members
18:29 The team is running the business without me
19:41 The YouTube-to-email process that brought in 96 new subscribers from one video
23:06 The Lab's join rate went from 1 in 4 to 1 in 10
24:49 The new tier we might scrap
26:01 The product that won't be ready for Black Friday
29:18 Building things as a fun distraction
32:24 Why 2027 is my year of video
34:02 How creators lose the plot when they succeed
36:04 Why I'm leaning harder into interviews
37:21 A B2B advisory arm?
38:27 I work to live, not live to work
39:14 Goals for November

I know I’m supposed to sleep when the baby sleeps but when do I play the new Grand Theft Auto? because I don’t think it’s appropriate for a newborn to play

Attention can be bought. Trust can't.

If your content metrics only show reach and impressions, add one more question: did anyone buy, refer, or come back?

That will tell you whether you're building trust or just getting attention.

Earlier this year, I sent the same sales email to the same audience four times in a row—only the subject line changed.

July 3: 18 sales
July 6: 14 sales
July 7: 24 sales
July 8: 29 sales

$17,000 revenue. Only one complaint.

No one is paying that close of attention to you.