Our first-ever 6-figure launch started with a cold email I didn’t respond to. Twice. The third time, I wrote back. A few months later, we ran a 3-day free virtual summit that drove $101,666 in revenue — with a $78,400 margin. This is the full breakdown of how it happened, what we’d do the same way again, and what we’d change.

Joining me for this behind-the-scenes recap is Anna Reich, the integrator here on the Creator Science team. This was Anna’s first launch — 3 and a half months into the job — and she was right in the middle of all of it. We ran this summit in partnership with a third-party team called After Harvest, who pitched us on the whole concept via cold email and worked on a 15% performance-based fee.

In this episode, we talk about:

By the end of this episode, you will have a clear-eyed view of how a virtual summit launch actually works from the inside — with all the numbers, the chaos, and the lessons on the table.

Work with Sean and the After Harvest team

Build a Beloved Membership — 50% off the self-paced version

Full transcript and show notes

***

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Introduction: the first-ever 6-figure launch and what this episode covers

(03:44) Registration and attendance numbers: 3,145 registered, 1,000+ live on day 1

(04:34) Revenue breakdown: $63K cohort, $9K upsell, $17K downsell, $11K VIP tickets

(08:29) Cost breakdown: After Harvest’s 15% deal, $1,800 in affiliates, $7,800 domain

(10:01) Timeline: cold email in February to contract in April to summit in June

(13:56) Things we’d do the same: VIP ticket, compelling web work, full offer stack

(16:12) Why the $47 VIP ticket was the biggest surprise of the whole launch

(20:54) The live day-2 pitch — 30 minutes, almost no drop-off, and why the bonus mattered

(24:30) Things we’d do differently: simpler structure, drop WebinarJam, build launch capability in-house

(36:24) The core mistake: building all the assets before locking the presentation content

(42:10) The 80/20 version: what to lock in before you open registration

(52:28) Skipping affiliates for high-ticket offers, and why one-click opt-ins backfired

***

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

#144: Bari Baumgardner – How to create the perfect 3-day event (IRL or virtually)
#191: Breaking down my $60,723 product launch

***

ASK CREATOR SCIENCE

Submit your question here

***

WHEN YOU’RE READY

📬 Creator Science Newsletter

🚀 Get CreatorHQ (creator operating system)

🧪 Join The Lab (private membership community)

🧞‍♂️ Get a Personalized Offer

***

CONNECT

🐦 Connect on Twitter

📸 Connect on Instagram

💼 Connect on LinkedIn

📹 Subscribe on YouTube

***

SPONSORS

💼 View all sponsors

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard is the co-founder of ⁠1of10⁠, a research platform built by YouTube strategists, and his team has quietly been behind the scenes for some of the biggest channels on the platform—helping creators accumulate over 2 billion views through a repeatable, data-backed system.

In this episode, Richard walks through his complete four-phase ideation system—audience identification, outlier research (using five distinct methods), idea remixing, and validation—and backs every step with real examples. We talk about what happens when the wrong audience floods your channel, why creators should double and triple down on formats that work, and how a single title change took one creator's video from 10,000 views to 150,000. He also shares data from 300,000+ YouTube outliers on the ideal title length (hint: shorter than you think) and where the sweet spots are for video duration across different niches.

⁠Full transcript and show notes⁠

***

TIMESTAMPS

(01:12) Where 80-85% of YouTube success comes from

(01:50) Phase 1: Audience

(03:19) When should you start a fresh channel instead of pivoting?

(04:09) The danger of going viral with the wrong audience

(05:40) Phase 2: Research

(07:37) Format vs. Interest Topic

(08:00) Method 1: Inside your own channel

(10:52) Tripling and quadrupling down

(12:33) Method 2: Inside your niche

(13:45) Method 3: Adjacent niches

(16:00) Method 4: Outside your niche

(17:37) The "Japanese Rule" format

(20:56) Method 5: External inspiration

(22:07) Phase 3: Remixing

(23:00) Escalation, inversion, and interest topic replacement

(24:10) Viral vectors: concepts that work across all niches

(25:28) Phase 4: Validation

(27:00) Optimal video duration by niche

(30:45) Why long videos are making a comeback

(31:39) Total Addressable Viewership

(34:36) Titles: Fear, Curiosity, and Desire as the three core drivers

(37:17) Data: Title Length

(37:51) Three methods for generating title angles

(42:11) Thumbnails: Composition and Elements

(45:11) It's never too late: title/thumbnail changes

(46:10) Live demo: 1of10 thumbnail generator

(48:10) The full 1of10 workflow

***

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

→ ⁠#282: David Altizer — How to Make Great Thumbnails (For Non-Designers)⁠

***

ASK CREATOR SCIENCE

***

WHEN YOU'RE READY

***

CONNECT

***

SPONSORS

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most productivity advice operates in one of two categories: you’re missing a skill or system, or you have a mindset problem. Cat Mulvihill thinks both camps are right — and both are incomplete. There’s a third category that almost nobody is talking about, and she argues it’s the one most likely to be the actual culprit when you’re stuck.

My guest this week is Cat Mulvihill, a speaker, trainer, accountability coach, and licensed Immunity to Change facilitator who has been leading workshops for more than 20 years. After being formally diagnosed with ADHD in 2024, she developed the Momentum Formula — a framework separating the reasons we fail to follow through into three distinct categories: logical, biological, and psychological. Cat is a longtime Lab member and led the second-highest-rated session at this year’s Lab Offline event in Boise.

In this episode, we talk about:

By the end of this episode, you will have a concrete diagnostic framework for understanding why you’re not doing the things you know you should be doing — and what to try first.

Full transcript and show notes

***

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) “Are people going to think I’m a sellout?” — the dreaded identity, cold open

(00:19) Introducing Cat: the Momentum Formula and why the biological roadblock gets missed

(01:59) The 3 roadblocks — logical, biological, psychological — and where brain chemistry fits in

(04:29) Diagnosing which roadblock you’re facing: why Jay thinks his problems are “just chemicals”

(08:04) How to check the roadblocks in order — and the patterns that signal it’s not logical

(10:55) A real Lab member example: when great systems still don’t get used

(14:40) The Four Tendencies (Gretchen Rubin): upholders, questioners, obligers, rebels

(19:25) The “dreaded identity” — the hidden psychological block most creators can’t see

(21:14) Working through all 3 roadblocks with a LinkedIn example

(25:44) Energy management and the biological roots: dopamine, blood sugar, sleep, environment matching

(32:17) How to work with obliger tendencies instead of against them

(36:18) The Immunity to Change framework and next steps for going deeper

***

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

#171: Nir Eyal – Writing books, persuasion vs. coercion, and how to be indistractable

***

ASK CREATOR SCIENCE

Submit your question here

***

WHEN YOU’RE READY

📬 Creator Science Newsletter

🚀 Get CreatorHQ (creator operating system)

🧪 Join The Lab (private membership community)

🧞‍♂️ Get a Personalized Offer

***

CONNECT

🐦 Connect on Twitter

📸 Connect on Instagram

💼 Connect on LinkedIn

📹 Subscribe on YouTube

***

SPONSORS

💼 View all sponsors

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Closing the doors to a membership is supposed to hurt signups. But one of Tom's clients did exactly that — closed it, added an application, doubled the price, then reopened. His next launch sold out in 4 minutes. Same community. Same people. Just different mechanics.

My guest this week is Tom Ross, the founder of Learn.Community, where he helps community builders design learning experiences that actually stick. His clients have reached millions of people and generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue. Tom has been building online communities for 20 years, and he's been a member of The Lab since 2022.

In this episode, we talk about:

By the end of this episode, you will understand exactly why most membership churn is decided before someone joins, and what to actually do about it.

Full transcript and show notes

***

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) “People inherently don’t know what they don’t know”

(00:29) Tom's background: 20 years building communities, what we're covering

(04:06) Most retention problems start before someone joins — the targeting failure

(07:51) Application process as the biggest membership lever — and how to handle rejections kindly

(10:09) Closing doors creates demand: one client’s launch sold out in 4 minutes

(14:43) The “bacon medicine” approach to membership positioning

(24:28) Tom’s “delight, direct, connect” onboarding framework

(29:01) Responsive vs. linear onboarding — why static sequences break

(33:01) Learning pathways: reinventing the traditional course

(36:47) AI agents, deep worksheets, and vibe-coded SaaS tools inside the pathways

(40:02) Turning off course comments and routing engagement back into the community

(50:49) Real results: completion up from 20% to 50%, churn down, engagement way up

***

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

#260: Detailed Breakdown: Our First Offline Event (And What We’ll Do Differently Next Time)

***

ASK CREATOR SCIENCE

Submit your question here

***

WHEN YOU’RE READY

📬 Creator Science Newsletter

🚀 Get CreatorHQ (creator operating system)

🧪 Join The Lab (private membership community)

🧞‍♂️ Get a Personalized Offer

***

CONNECT

🐦 Connect on Twitter

📸 Connect on Instagram

💼 Connect on LinkedIn

📹 Subscribe on YouTube

***

SPONSORS

💼 View all sponsors

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, my wife Mallory joins me for only her second podcast appearance ever to break down everything from The Lab Offline Powered by Circle — our second annual 2-day in-person retreat for Lab members, hosted June 8–9 at Hotel Renegade in Boise, Idaho. Mallory planned essentially everything: seating charts, venue contracts, menus, swag, run of show. She's been at it for roughly 6 months.

In this episode, we talk about:

By the end of this episode, you will have a clear picture of what it actually costs to run a high-quality community event, what's worth paying for, and what we'd do differently.

Full transcript and show notes

***

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Cold open: people were moved, tears were shed

(00:53) The Lab Offline explained: 2-day member retreat, goals, and agenda

(06:44) Initial impressions: a reunion feeling, smoother logistics, zero fires

(13:08) Attendee feedback numbers: 9.3/10 overall, 91% returning, 34% said underpriced

(18:46) Event economics: $30,459 revenue, $38,800 costs, $8,300 loss

(23:05) Top cost drivers: hotel catering, travel, venue rental, dinners

(26:52) Planning challenges: acoustics, dietary restrictions, every decision is a trade-off

(36:52) What to keep: assigned seating, Kat's Immunity to Change workshop, Fighting Off the Sleepies

(42:04) What to improve: more mastermind sessions, less solo writing, better acoustics

(47:49) Open question: should the event stay paired with Craft and Commerce?

(53:49) The case for Columbus, 2 events per year, and an international option

***

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

#260: Detailed Breakdown: Our First Offline Event (And What We’ll Do Differently Next Time)

***

ASK CREATOR SCIENCE

Submit your question here

***

WHEN YOU'RE READY

***

CONNECT

***

SPONSORS

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The highest month of membership revenue in Lab history was also the setup for the highest month of churn. One year later, February delivered both records.

I have been building community in some form since 2012. I ran Startup Weekend events in Columbus, led online Mastermind groups, consulted on the launch of SPI Pro, and spent 2021 leading the community team at Smart Passive Income before going back out on my own. In early 2022, I launched what became the Lab, a membership for creators earning at least $10,000 per month in non-service revenue or with 10,000 followers on a single platform. The Lab now has around 340 members across three tiers and is still standing after years of waves of communities coming and going.

In this episode, we talk about:

By the end of this episode, you will have a clearer picture of how a membership actually works over years, not just at launch.

Full transcript and show notes

***

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Introduction and episode context

(02:08) How Jay started the Lab (from Startup Weekend to SPI Pro to Creative Companion Club)

(09:37) The scarcity play: record revenue month followed by record churn

(10:38) What actually works as a marketing lever for a community

(13:46) Why Jay runs applications and has a 90% conversion rate for accepted members

(16:30) The design philosophy: reduce effort, increase impact

(24:19) Mid-boarding: the missing piece between onboarding and renewal

(35:13) Jay's onboarding framework and the two secrets he's been keeping

(40:46) Why offline events matter for retention (not necessarily growth)

(47:00) How to think about scaling community without destroying culture

(49:19) Who shouldn't launch a membership (and what to figure out first)

***

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

#292: Chenell Basilio — The state of email in 2026, growing your list without social media, and new predictions.

***

ASK CREATOR SCIENCE

Submit your question here

***

WHEN YOU'RE READY

***

CONNECT

***

SPONSORS

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad Hoos is the CEO of Outloud Group, one of the top influencer marketing agencies in the United States. His clients include AG1, Chomps, KitchenAid, and Whirlpool, and he’s managed campaigns across tens of thousands of creator partnerships. Jay found Brad while researching for his book proposal on trust, trying to track down the agency behind AG1’s dominance in podcast advertising.

In this episode, we talk about:

By the end of this episode, you will think differently about how brands choose creators and how creators should position themselves for long-term partnership success.

Outloud Group

Full transcript and show notes

***

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Introduction

(01:10) What brands actually want when they hire an agency

(06:20) The two things brands need to understand before a campaign starts

(07:09) Brand voice vs. brand advocacy: why the difference matters

(10:18) How trust changes what brands allow creators to do

(15:48) What running AG1’s campaigns taught Brad about influencer marketing

(20:39) How creators can position themselves to attract brand deals

(22:52) Why entertaining your audience beats being the “perfect” brand advocate

(27:24) Why the creators who say no most often perform best

(39:10) The data: no meaningful correlation between CPM and creator performance

(42:47) What Brad believes is true but can’t yet prove with data

(44:09) If you could only pick two platforms right now

***

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

#179: Justin Moore – A step-by-step strategy to get anyone sponsored, regardless of audience size

***

ASK CREATOR SCIENCE

Submit your question here

***

WHEN YOU’RE READY

💬 Creator Science Newsletter

🚀 Get CreatorHQ (creator operating system)

🧪 Join The Lab (private membership community)

🧞‍♂️ Get a Personalized Offer

***

CONNECT

🐦 Connect on Twitter

📸 Connect on Instagram

💼 Connect on LinkedIn

📹 Subscribe on YouTube

***

SPONSORS

💼 View all sponsors

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the first time ever, I'm teaching my most popular course, Build A Beloved Membership, live over four weeks. You'll learn the exact approach I've taken to building The Lab to a ~$500K/year membership.

Here's what you'll get:

That last bullet is a big deal. Because after these four weeks are over, a year inside our Basic Membership (which typically costs $699/yr on its own) gives you monthly office hours with me for a year. So after the cohort, you aren't totally on your own again; you still have our community by your side.

→ Learn more and enroll​

I won't run this again in 2026. The timing just doesn't work with our next baby on the way—so I'll be going all out on THIS cohort. By the way, it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun.

​Here's the full cohort page to learn more. We have more than 30 students enrolled already, and enrollment closes Wednesday, July 1 at 11:59pm ET.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I brought back Becky Pierson Davidson to compare notes on where community is headed — and we found a few areas of disagreement. Becky works with 6, 7, and 8-figure businesses helping them build memberships and courses through design thinking and customer research, and she's seeing a major shift right now: course businesses are slowing down, and the smart ones are pivoting to membership models. The difference? Shared learning experiences are replacing self-paced education. Community is what people stay for.

We dig into the real mechanics: how to set expectations that don't feel like a bait-and-switch, why meaningful engagement isn't what most people think it is, the mastermind paradox (increases retention, decreases forum activity), and why in-person events might be the most important retention lever you're not using. Becky's hot take for 2026: content drops are dying. People don't need more stuff — they need connection and programming that moves them forward.

⁠Full transcript and show notes⁠

***

TIMESTAMPS

(02:35) Defining community as a product, not a growth engine

(04:09) Why community is rising as a business model in 2026

(06:02) The reality of transitioning from courses to memberships

(08:01) Finding the right community design for your appetite

(10:02) How to avoid the bait-and-switch with member expectations

(13:06) Value perception vs. value experience

(13:57) The smallest viable promise for your sales page

(16:44) Where we disagree: transformation vs. community of practice

(21:14) Forum design: why fewer spaces wins

(23:17) Solving the engagement problem (what meaningful engagement actually is)

(25:50) How the best members actually use your community

(29:46) The mastermind paradox: retention up, forum participation down

(32:09) In-person experiences and the graduation weekend model

(36:39) The economics of offline events

(39:35) 2026 Hot Take: Content drops are dying

(43:07) Retention rethink: Did I get my money's worth vs. Will I next year?

(46:04) Why connection drives retention more than results

(48:23) Tool stack: Circle 9 times out of 10

(51:14) The future: personalization in community software

***

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

→ ⁠Episode 197: Building Raving Fans⁠

***

ASK CREATOR SCIENCE

→ ⁠Submit your question here⁠

***

WHEN YOU'RE READY

📬 ⁠Creator Science Newsletter⁠

🚀 ⁠Get CreatorHQ⁠ (creator operating system)

🧪 ⁠Join The Lab⁠ (private membership community)

🧞‍♂️ ⁠Get a Personalized Offer⁠

***

CONNECT

🐦 ⁠Connect on Twitter⁠

📸 ⁠Connect on Instagram⁠

💼 ⁠Connect on LinkedIn⁠

📹 ⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠

***

SPONSORS

💼 ⁠View all sponsors

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sid Yadav is the CEO and co-founder of Circle, a community platform trusted by creators like Jay and thousands of others to build membership businesses. Today, Circle has ~280 employees and has raised around $30 million.

Before Circle, he was the third hire at Teachable, where he helped build the infrastructure for the creator economy before the term even existed. He spent four years as a tech blogger, writing about startups five to ten times a day, and was one of the first people to ever cover YouTube—back when it was a dating platform!

By the end of this episode, you will understand why the most successful community businesses aren’t built around content — they’re built around a specific transformation.

Join the waitlist for early access to Circle AI

Full transcript and show notes

***

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Introduction

(01:44) Teachable origin story: the “I don’t want to play Tinder with you” email that started it all

(06:18) Tech blogger at Mashable — and the story of being first to write about YouTube

(09:15) ~280 employees, $30M raised — the scale of Circle today

(12:52) Why self-paced courses are in terminal decline (the leading indicators Sid saw in 2018)

(17:16) The “course as the wrong abstraction” moment — community as the right container

(22:00) Circle Eclipse: the three major updates launching

(24:00) The connective tissue opportunity: one plus one must equal ten

(33:19) Admin dashboard evolution — where Circle AI lives for returning users

(35:30) The morning brief: five recommended next steps, then you’re good for the day

(38:50) The biggest bet in Circle’s history: 80 engineers, 4 months, Spain offsite

(40:00) Member-side AI agents and where they’re heading

(43:24) Discover: from supply-side listing directory to the first real marketplace for transformations

(48:00) The promise: Discover will never market inside your community — ever

(51:55) Sid’s #1 recommendation: define your transformation

***

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

#295: Community Building Trends for 2026 with Becky Pierson Davidson

***

ASK CREATOR SCIENCE

***

WHEN YOU'RE READY

***

CONNECT

***

SPONSORS

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices