Creator Science

#66: Chris Sutherland – How a Physics professor built an audience of 2M+ followers on TikTok (in less than two years!)

Jul 27, 2021

Chris Sutherland, a former collegiate physics professor, shares his journey from academia to becoming a full-time content creator with over 2 million TikTok followers. He discusses how humor and teaching skills helped him engage with a younger audience. We learn about the differences between TikTok's rapid engagement and the slower growth on other platforms like YouTube. Chris also explores the evolving landscape of creator monetization, the delicate balance of short-term content strategies versus long-term branding, and what's next for him in the crypto space.

51:27

Creator website

Episode guests

Chris Sutherland

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

2min

From Classroom to Content: Embracing TikTok Culture

2min

From PhD to Physics Professor

9min

Building Connections: Understanding Gen Z in the Classroom

2min

Navigating TikTok Success

14min

Navigating the TikTok Tension

5min

Navigating TikTok's Creator Economy

9min

Rapid Audience Growth and Monetization on TikTok

2min

Chris Sutherland is a former collegiate Physics professor turned full-time content creator. Chris began posting videos to TikTok in January 2020, quickly going viral and building an audience of more than 2 million followers.

Chris parlayed that audience into 144K+ Instagram followers, 60K YouTube subscribers, and 30K followers on Twitter too.

Today, Chris is building a new TikTok profile focused on crypto and building an online course too.

In this episode, we talk about Chris’s path to becoming a collegiate professor, how Humor helped him grow his TikTok audience so quickly, the differences from Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, why he left academia, and what’s next for him.

Follow Chris Sutherland (sutherlandphys) on TikTok

Follow Chris Sutherland (sutherlandcrypto) on TikTok

Follow Chris Sutherland on YouTube

Follow Chris Sutherland on Twitter

Full transcript and show notes

***

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

→ #40: Matty Benedetto

***

WHEN YOU'RE READY

📬 Creator Science Newsletter

🚀 Get CreatorHQ (creator operating system)