“I think you’re this dark horse in the creator space, Jay... 

We’re gonna blink and you’re gonna be the guy at the top.” — Justin Welsh

Meet Jay Clouse.

As a kid, Jay only saw one path:

Go to college, work for 35 years, then collect a pension.

But going to college – blew up the map.

He met two guys who’d started small businesses in high school.

They introduced Jay to the world of entrepreneurship.

The trio were thick as thieves.

They’d hang out, drink, and pitch business ideas.

Until one day when Jay’s friends urged him to pitch one of his ideas at a local club for entrepreneurs.

Jay was hooked.
He soon began organising events.
And went on to lead the club in his senior year.

Before leaving college, Jay was rejected by a handful of the top consulting firms – including Deloitte and McKinsey.

Meanwhile, his friends held him to account, “Aren’t you going to start your own thing?”

This gave him an idea.

The college career fair was a swarm of big corporations. So Jay organised a career fair of his own.

He invited small local businesses. 

While speaking with business owners, Jay met a startup founder looking to hire his first employee.

Days later, he took the job.

For the next 2 years, Jay worked at Tixers (a ticket marketplace). 

He was the founder’s right-hand man. 

He helped build Tixers from scratch, right through to sale in 2015.

It was a low downside, high upside opportunity. He got to learn the ropes of business-building on someone else’s dime.

Post sale, Jay stayed at Tixers for another year. Then went to work at a VC-backed Health startup called Olive.

However, he’d gone from having a seat at the table to being second-tier leadership with a boss. 

His feedback fell on deaf ears. He grew frustrated.

So Jay decided to build something for himself.

In Jan 2017, Jay set himself a challenge:

Publish an email newsletter for 365 days straight.

“Subscriber growth was small but the personal growth was huge.”

This helped him stay in touch with his network of founders and entrepreneurs he’d been building since college.

By April 2017, Jay had grown tired of working at Olive.

So he quit.

He left with no plan and just 2 weeks’ salary to his name.

But Jay was determined to strike out on his own.

He gave himself till July to start making money.

Month one…crickets.

“What am I even doing?” He wondered. 

However, he stuck at it. He began freelancing, offering website builds and email marketing services.

Persistence saw him land some big clients, including Atlassian and Ohio State.

Finally, he was doing things on his own terms.

Over the next 3 years, Jay’s creator efforts went from strength to strength.

In that time, he started:

• Creating courses for LinkedIn Learning and himself

• A podcast with his friend, speaking to startup founders

• And, a community helping freelancers, founders, and creators

He realised that content was more than just media – it was a product.

Then things took a turn.

And he found himself back as an employee.

His employer? Pat Flynn’s SPI Media.

Pat was so impressed with what Jay had done with his community (Unreal Collective) that he bought it.

Jay then helped Pat launch what became a 200K-member community (SPI Pro).

In doing so, he discovered a love for serving creators.

He’d found his calling.

And in 2021, Jay gave up freelancing to double down on Creator Science (his media company) – which helps creators get a higher return on attention. 

Today, Jay has:

• Amassed over 260K followers across all platforms

• 2M+ podcast downloads

• 4M+ views on YouTube

The key theme in Jay’s story is optimism. 

“A lot of people are very pessimistic, which lets them off the hook from trying and doing stuff… When you see people achieve crazy things it’s because they have crazy belief.”

So whether you believe you can or you believe you can’t – remember…

You’re right. 

So why not choose the belief that serves you?