Beach or mountains?

I prefer the latter, especially when you add a calm lake and forests into the frame (think Lake Tahoe).

But spending time in sunny Mediterranean towns is fun.

In this edition, we feature the brains behind one of Europe’s (and the world’s) most popular creators.

Today, in 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn:

• 👩‍🏫 How an Oxford PhD economist became a key player in a YouTuber's content empire

• 💪 How to reframe setbacks using the 10-10-10 rule and other mental tactics

• 🤑 The surprising financial upside of leaving academia for the creator economy

• 💻️ Non-obvious advice for switching to the creator economy, irrespective of background

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👩‍🏫 From Professor to Ali Abdaal’s Head of Content | Ines Lee

Ines is currently Head of Content for doctor-turned-entrepreneur Ali Abdaal. She leads a talented team to make content on Ali's various content platforms (YouTube, social media, etc) and helped create the New York Times Bestselling book Feel-Good Productivity.

She’s passionate about helping creators and entrepreneurs make impactful content through writing and developing data-backed content strategies.

Previously, she was an Economics lecturer in the UK and got her PhD in Economics from Oxford University. She lives in the UK, grew up in Hong Kong, and her parents are based in Malaysia so she’s still figuring out where ‘home’ is :)

Tell us about your career journey.

I started my career in academia. I did a Masters and PhD in Economics at Oxford University. At the time, I was pretty sure I wanted to go into the policy-making world (think World Bank, IMF)

As a kid and teenager, I loved writing and painting. That creative side died down as I got more serious about my studies and pursued my career in academia.

But that creative itch kept coming back. I picked up these creative interests again over the dreaded Covid lockdown period. At that time, I’d finished my PhD and was teaching undergraduate Economics at Cambridge while doing research (on the economics of health and education 🤓).

The creator economy was booming and my sister sent me an Instagram post where Ali Abdaal, a YouTuber I'd been following, announced he was hiring a “content writer”. It was my first time hearing this job title. I applied, waited for a few months (there were 3-4 rounds in the process), and got an offer.

In October 2021, I officially started working with Ali. I wasn’t ready to leave academia yet so I kept my ‘main gig’ in academia and wrote for Ali on the side.

At the end of 2023, I decided to quit academia and go full-time. My role at Ali’s has been a roller coaster ride (in the best way possible): YouTube scriptwriter, book researcher-writer-marketer for the New York Times Bestselling ‘Feel-Good Productivity’, and now Head of Content. It's been a lot of fun.

In your article, ”Want to work for a YouTuber? Try this.” you described how you discovered and applied for the content writer job with Ali Abdaal. What do you think helped you stand out?

When I applied for the content writer job at Ali’s, the trial task was to write a YouTube script for a book summary video on Adam Grant’s book ‘Originals’. If I look back, I think the key things that helped my writing stand out were:

1. An ability to distill information in an accessible and entertaining way. This applies to both the sentence/paragraph level (e.g. how can I keep this amount of information but make the paragraph shorter?) and to the macro level of the piece (e.g. how many parts should the piece have and what's the relationship between each part?) This skill is super important when writing academic papers, so I’m glad that academic training seeped into my creative work too!

2. An understanding of Ali’s tone of voice. This is very important whenever you’re writing for someone. You want to make sure that they feel like they would say the words that you’ve written.

3. An understanding of how to use visual and audio elements to supplement the writing: The writing has to fit the medium: you shouldn't write a script in the same way you'd write prose. My script contained screen directions (e.g. what b-roll to use to clarify a point) as well as hand-drawn illustrations.

Given your insider POV, what are 2-3 skills that creator businesses look for in candidates, but have difficulty finding?