Today’s email is from Lee, who runs Changer’s Creator Business Lab.
Inside the Lab we test how creators actually turn audience attention into real businesses. Lee will occasionally share what we’re learning as those experiments unfold.
For the past few years, something has been bothering me. Not publicly, but during the quieter hours when sleep won’t come.
Running the Accelerator and the MBA, Changer has worked with thousands of serious and talented creators. Many of them have built real businesses, taking their channels to higher levels of success. Their revenue grows, they build teams, and opportunities they’d never considered before begin to open up.
But the creator economy moves fast.
Platform incentives shift and monetisation tools evolve. Audience behaviour changes. What worked two years ago doesn’t always work the same way today.
Which is when I realised something uncomfortable:
For many of these creators, success depends on algorithms and sponsorship budgets. It depends on momentum continuing and how well they can hold burnout at bay.
This was where Creators put their attention. This was where we helped them. However, if we weren’t actively testing monetisation systems in the real world, and doing it continuously, our thinking would slowly drift from sharp to stale.
Not because the frameworks we’d been coaching people on were wrong. But because the environment keeps changing. It’s just the nature of the beast. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good that the beast keeps moving, it keeps things fresh and creators on their toes. However, like any moving target, it’s problematic if you lose sight of it.
So this year, we formalised something we’ve been doing quietly for a long time.
We built the Creator Business Lab.
The idea didn’t come from theory.
Over the past few years we’ve run more than 650 workshops with over 19,000 creators across 50+ countries. That exposure has been invaluable. We’ve seen patterns, learned countless lessons, and been exposed to a huge range of creator business models and monetisation approaches.
The Lab is where those insights get pressure-tested and refined in real conditions. It’s a small, hands-on environment where we work deeply with a select group of trusted creators to test monetisation systems in the real world.
The goal isn’t to scale their ventures for its own sake. We’re seeking proof.
What actually converts attention into an owned audience?
What actually turns the audience into recurring revenue?
What holds up over time (and what quietly breaks)?
The Lab exists to make sure everything we teach inside our Accelerator and MBA for Creators stays grounded in live testing, not recycled best practice.
It’s the bridge between theory and practice.
How It Works
The goal is to test systems, not just tactics.
Things like:
How does sequencing email, membership, and livestreams affect recurring revenue?
Under what conditions does a membership model outperform sponsorships?
When does relaunching something actually improve results, and when does the audience simply not want it?
Every test must produce something informative and highly actionable:
Decision rules
Framework updates
Case studies
Improvements to Changer’s curriculum
Those insights then flow directly back into our programs so our modules get sharper and our examples stay real. It means that the claims we make to creators have live evidence behind them.
It’s a process
With one creator, we’re testing how YouTube attention converts into owned audience and recurring revenue.
Email has grown quickly once we aligned topic selection and promotion intentionally inside existing audience touchpoints.
For example, when the creator began promoting the newsletter weekly through Instagram Stories with a specific methodology, teasing the upcoming email content, the list grew 236% in a single week.
The takeaway is simple:
Email grows fastest when you promote it inside the places your audience already pays attention (stories, videos, etc.), rather than relying on passive signups.
Membership growth, on the other hand, has been slower. That’s forced deeper work around the offer itself - understanding what the audience actually wants and why someone would move from viewer to member.
We’ve also run two livestreams so far.
The first performed strongly. The second tested a different format, which was still successful, but slightly less so.
Now we’re looking closely at how we promote via email, how we structure engagement during the stream, and what actually drives Superchat behaviour versus passive watching.
Why am I sharing this?
Because too many Creators kick for goals, unaware the posts have moved. Too many channels are profitable but fragile. Too many creators see revenue streams spike without compounding.
Hence why I believe the next generation of serious creators will win not by optimising content, but by designing revenue architecture.
They’ll build:
Owned audiences
Layered monetisation
Clear sequencing between revenue streams
Systems that convert attention into long-term value
The Lab exists to make that thinking practical. And to make sure everything we teach inside our programs is grounded in real, current testing, not theory from three platform cycles ago.
If you’re building something real behind your channel, and you care about designing a business, not just growing views, I think you’ll find what we’re working on in the Creator Business Lab interesting.
I’ll share what we’re learning here in this newsletter as it develops.
Cheers!
✌️
Lee
Head of Creator Business Lab, Changer
What are you building?
I’d love to know what you’re building. Send me an email [email protected]
Upcoming Changer Events
Changer x YouTube Event - The Creator Business
Join YouTube and Changer for a practical workshop to help you turn your channel into real businesses.
Featuring:
Sabine Zonderland - YouTube (Top Creators AUNZ)
Justin Brown - Primal Video (1.9M+ Subscribers)
We’ll down how creators are building long-term revenue, deeper audiences and scalable businesses on YouTube.
Location: Brisbane CBD
Date: Thursday 26 March
Time: 530pm - 9pm
Cost: Free
Limited capacity
This event is part of a national YouTube x Changer events series, bringing creators together across Australia to build what’s next.
More events announced soon.
Cheers!
✌️
The Changer Team
Build more than a channel.