Creator Empires Podcast
Jan van der Aa
The Creator Empires podcast is all about helping you turn your successful brand into a strong, future-proof online business so you can reclaim your time, build wealth, and grow your impact in the world. Join our community!
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jun 16, 2025 • 18min
196. Will AI Destroy Your Course Business?
Explore the future of creator-led education and how AI might change the landscape. Personalization is key; your audience craves knowledge from you, not just information. Discover why transformation trumps features when selling courses. Uncover new strategies like building communities, hosting in-person events, and even developing software to outpace your brand. Embrace the shift towards access and engagement, leveraging AI to enhance operations. Stay ahead in a market that values connection and experience over mere content.
May 13, 2025 • 21min
195. Simple Framework for Growing your Creator Business
There are only 3 ways to grow your creator business:
Get more views (traffic)
1. Turn more viewers into customers (conversion)
2. Get customers to spend more (product/offer)
3. The hard part? Knowing what to fix right now.
Here’s a simple guide:
1. Optimize TRAFFIC first if:
You’re not getting top views in your niche
You haven’t fully committed to a YouTube strategy
2. Build a PRODUCT if:
You’ve got significant traffic but nothing to sell
You’ve maxed out short-term growth tactics
3. Optimize CONVERSION if:
You have solid traffic and a product that people actually want
But you don’t have proper sales systems in place
Apr 24, 2025 • 10min
194. My Conversion Rates Are Too Low
You’re a content creator selling education, but your conversion rates are too low…
Maybe because you have a big following in low-income countries.
Or you’ve just managed to attract lots of freeloaders.
Now what do you do?
–
First, we need to make sure:
1. You’re offering something that people actually want
2. You have proper sales systems in place
3. Are your conversion rates really that low? (Compare with peers in your niche)
Still not solved?
Try changing the sales vehicle.
Instead of selling through an automated email sequence, try:
- Offering a free course that sells your flagship course
- Promoting your product through regular live streams
- Running webinars
Your audience might not feel comfortable buying through emails, especially if your emails are in a language they’re still learning.
Go from text → video.
Let us know if it works.
Learn more about our events: www.creatorempires.com
Apr 23, 2025 • 12min
193. Your Creator Business is Worth Nothing
Your creator business is worth nothing…
To most investors, at least.
Because when you leave the business, it goes to zero.
But they’re often great for cash flow.
Creators can invest that cash into product-first businesses that fill a real gap in the market.
Something that can outgrow their personal brand.
Software is just one example.
That’s what we’re doing with Teacher AI
Check out our events: www.creatorempires.com
Apr 22, 2025 • 15min
192. The ONE Thing All Successful Creator Businesses Have in Common
The most successful creator businesses I’ve seen have one thing in common:
They all have tons of traffic.
Because if you have traffic and trust, you can sell almost anything — even with bad marketing.
So before thinking about your next product or marketing trick, ask yourself…
Am I really doing all I can to get more views?
How obsessed are you with:
Nailing your video ideas
Perfecting your video packaging
Creating genuinely great videos
Would you give yourself less than an 8/10?
Maybe it’s time to take a step back and nail YouTube first.
---
Notion page on how to research winning video ideas: https://www.notion.so/A-Simple-Way-to-Research-Winning-YouTube-Ideas-1dd42b2379138065932bd9c20432da3c
Apr 18, 2025 • 8min
191. The Power Of 'World Building'
His business never grew exponentially.
He never built any marketing funnels.
But guess what?
Out of 20 language businesses in the room, HIS business was the biggest.
How?
- He was one of the first movers to teach on YouTube.
- He’s been doing it for 15+ years.
- He's published over 100 books, courses, and apps.
He started early... and just kept going.
Simple, but not easy.
Join our events: www.creatorempires.com
Apr 17, 2025 • 10min
190. Stop Doing All The Stuff That Doesn’t Matter
‘’I want to scale, but I don’t have enough time’’
I have to write newsletters, post on six platforms, redesign my website, move to another CRM system, and launch a new $5-per-month membership.
- And I also want to start a podcast.
- And create another course.
- And redo my funnels.
But I don’t have enough time.
How do I scale my business?
This is something we often hear from creators.
The thing is, you can’t scale when you can’t breathe.
You need stability first.
You need to be able to breathe first.
How?
By stopping all the stuff that doesn’t matter.
Sometimes, you need to do less…
Only focus on the tasks you know will bring revenue
Build systems that help you do those tasks better and faster
Once you have a fine-tuned process to consistently make sales and pay the bills, that’s when you can start thinking about adding new stuff.

Apr 16, 2025 • 20min
189. Same Product, Different Offers
Here’s how to promote the same product to your audience every month - without exhausting your audience.
First, remember: the product and the offer are two different things.
You can sell the same product using:
- Different offers
- Different sales angles
Here’s how to keep your promotions fresh and interesting throughout the year:
Month 1: Buy now get free bonus
Month 2: Offer a payment plan
Month 3: Offer a small discount (20-30%)
Month 4: Make the promotion all about the guarantee
Month 5: Align the offer with a seasonal theme
Month 6: Feature case studies
Month 7: Offer exclusive content that leads to the offer
Month 8: Donate 10% to charity
Month 9: Talk about your journey and why you created the course
Month 10: Last chance to buy before the price goes up
Month 11: Black Friday promotion
Month 12: Offer a free trial
Join our events: www.creatorempires.com

Apr 15, 2025 • 8min
188. The Problem With 'Double Down On What's Working'
The “Double down on what’s working” advice has a major flaw.
It can make you overlook obvious gaps in your business.
Example #1
• Who: A content creator with tons of traffic
• What worked: Creating content
• Usual advice: Create more content
• Real bottleneck: Nothing to sell
• Better advice: Create a product
Example #2
• Who: A language learning app
• What worked: Facebook ads
• Usual advice: Run more ads
• Real bottleneck: High churn
• Better advice: Improve the product
A better question to ask (in my opinion) is:
“What is the ONE thing that, if you had it, would make everything else easier?”
Tim Ferriss calls it the “big domino.”
For many creator businesses, it's most of the time a matter of:
- Better video ideas
- More promotion
- Creating more products to sell
- Or simply repackage them
Join our events: creatorempires.com

Apr 15, 2025 • 6min
187. General Advice vs. Niche advice
The power of niche
A ‘Langpreneur’ I know spent $35K on an event ran by a world class entrepreneur that you know from social.
Someone I also look up to.
And yes, loved the event.
They studied his business. Their key insight; his conversion rates were too low.
Then he came to our event for creators in the language space.
And so he asked us how to increase his conversion rates.
And then he told us what his conversion rates were.
We were surprised!
They were high… for a business in our niche..
We could tell, because we’ve been working with language businesses for over a decade.
Suddenly, the conversation changed.
It wasn’t about conversion rates anymore.
After some digging, we discovered another way for him to grow his business.
Something only someone with a deep understanding of our niche would have noticed.
Now it’s still too early to say wheter these insights will actually grow his business.
But the point is clear.
There is a lot of power in creating solutions for a very specific customer avatar. Online language entrepreneurs in our case.
That’s the power of picking a niche.
Join our events: www.creatorempires.com


