Your guide to growing and monetizing creator-first businesses.
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Welcome to our third edition of Self-Timer — a fresh look into how successful creators run their businesses.
This month's guest is Jennifer Chou, founder of VeganTechNomad and Chaos Creator, productivity and business platforms teaching a community of 130K+ creatorpreneurs to build systematic approaches to content and business growth.
In this issue:
📊 How hook testing led to 40x more views on identical content
💰 The viral series that launched a full-time creator career
📱 A 28-tool tech stack for under $2K annually
— Natalia Pérez-González, Assistant Editor
How the best in the game actually build
Shaan Puri. Codie Sanchez. Chris Koerner. Tyler Denk.
If there was a Mt. Rushmore for the Creator Economy, they would be on it. And they’re joining forces to give you the info to turn your business into a full-blown empire.
On July 16th, join The Creator Business Summit, where these four experts will be breaking down their frameworks for building real, lasting businesses.
From newsletters to media companies and more, these creators have turned ideas into revenue-generating institutions. And now they’re sharing the exact roadmaps they followed—so you can do it too.
Whether you're just starting out or scaling fast, this is the event to level up your creator business.
Free. Virtual. Unmissable.
Jennifer Chou is a tech and productivity creator known for her "unhinged tracking" — 24/7 time tracking, aesthetic data dashboards, detailed Notion templates, and comprehensive finance spreadsheets. As a solo operator, she's built ADHD-friendly systems for a community of 130K+ entrepreneurial, often neurodivergent creatives who value intentionality and self-awareness.
Her business centers around her life tracking course, where she teaches people how to reflect, organize, and follow through on their goals, alongside template sales and newsletters.
Subscribe to Jennifer’s productivity newsletter, VeganTechNomad, and her business-focused newsletter, Chaos Creator.
The below answers have been edited for tone and clarity. Bolding and italics our own.
Creator Spotlight: You've built a following of more than 130K across your platforms — what were the key inflection points in your growth?
Jennifer: At the end of December 2023, while still working full-time, I went viral with a life-tracking video that earned me 10K followers and thousands of newsletter subscribers overnight.
I rang in 2024 with my first $400 newsletter sponsorship, followed by a $1K contract for client video work in February, which felt massive at the time. In April, I sent an email gauging interest in 1:1 coaching sessions to help others build their content creation knowledge. The response was incredible, and I was shook that someone actually paid me $1K for weekly calls.
That viral moment taught me the formula: consistent posting plus relentless analysis of what resonated. I treated content like an experiment, testing formats, hooks, and visuals to identify what had potential.
Hook testing was my game-changer. I'd take the exact same video and change only the text in the first four seconds. This alone led to a 40x increase in views.
Here’s an example of my exact process:
Filmed one video, created five different hooks
Posted all versions simultaneously
Tracked the difference: One version hit 5K+ views while the others got just a few hundred
Main takeaways:
Hooks suggesting a new framework perform better (“exposing my system”) because they get people curious
Visual hooks matter: showing my data dashboard in the background performed better
Educational videos (3 ways to…) don’t perform as well as story-based content because stories are more entertaining
CS: How do you measure content success beyond vanity metrics?
Jennifer: I track ROI on my time since I log every hour, 24/7. I assess how much money or opportunity each activity generates per hour and use that data to guide my focus. But I also factor in what I enjoy doing — not just what performs best.
To evaluate community health, I look at newsletter reply rates, poll responses, and DM quality. Depth matters more than breadth — I'd rather have 1,000 engaged followers than 10,000 passive ones.
CS: What single piece or content series has performed best for you?
Jennifer: My best-performing series has been on life tracking — specifically, documenting how I organize and reflect on my work. It had the highest view-to-follower conversion rate of any content I’ve made.
CS: Walk us through your content creation process for this series.
Jennifer:
Inspiration: Just showing cool things I was doing as if I were talking to a friend.
Planning: Minimal. I didn’t script or overthink — just shared what felt exciting. This is what I advised my friend to do as well (lean into his natural energy) and he got 5M+ views on a video.
Tools: iPhone, screen recording, and CapCut.
Timeline: Less than 2 hours from idea to post.
Distribution strategy: I posted it after another video had gone viral, so my account was getting lots of profile visits. It was also around New Year’s, when people are more focused on productivity and setting goals.
Data screenshot from Jennifer’s newsletter, Chaotic Creator.
CS: What impact has this content series had on your business and audience?
Jennifer: The first video in my life-tracking series generated 3.9M views and converted 44K+ new followers — a 1.11% conversion rate that became the catalyst for everything. It positioned me as "the life-tracking girl," which gave me product clarity and helped me go full-time. While it's hard to quantify the exact dollar impact, I've since built a $60K+ business directly from that positioning.
Jennifer’s courses and live programs — her ADHD Content Creator Course, ADHD Content System, and Unhinged Life Tracking course — comprised the bulk of her income in Q1 2025.
In Q1 2024, she made $14K, with 58% coming from B2B work (sponsors and agency services).
By Q1 2025, she hit $16.5K — a 15.6% increase — but now 81% comes from her courses and programs (B2C). She successfully transitioned from relying on external partnerships to building her own products.
Her first dollar as a creator: My first dollar came from a newsletter sponsorship after I went viral — $600 from a single email that took 15 minutes to write.
The most she’s made from a single piece of content or deal: I once made $2,000 from a single short-form brand video.
Most effective monetization strategy: If a brand agrees too quickly, I now see it as a sign I underpriced. For career development content, pricing based on perceived value is key. When I priced my course at $199, people said it was too expensive. When I raised it to $299 but added a discount to bring it back to $199, people stopped complaining. Pricing psychology matters.
Jennifer runs her multi-revenue-stream business on 28 tools while keeping costs minimal; she pays $1,700 yearly for beehiiv and uses free plans for everything else. Below are key tools from each category that power her operations (view her full breakdown here).
CONTENT ADMIN
Notion (documentation + ideas)
Metricool (scheduling + analytics)
Get Link in Chat (DM + content automation)
FINANCES
Wave (accounting)
Wise (invoicing and payments)
Lemon Squeezy (storefront)
CONTENT CREATION
GummySearch (content ideation)
Founderpal (understanding your audience)
CapCut (editing)
WEBSITE
beehiiv (newsletter)
PostHog (surveys)
Xperiencify (hosting courses)
One newsletter she’ll never miss…
The Curiosity Chronicle by Sahil Bloom
Two creators who inspire her…
A podcast she regularly listens to…
Nudge — all about the psychology behind marketing decisions.
Any books, courses, or resources that have significantly impacted her creator journey…
Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
