Join me at the Membership Summit June 23–25! It's a free 3-day event teaching you how to build a membership in 2026. It's based on what I've learned running The Lab since 2022 (which earns ~$500K per year). I'll cover why memberships work in 2026, what actually makes people renew, and you'll walk away with a 30/60/90-day roadmap.
Instagram has been BUZZING with Jessi Jean's launch of the Yap Challenge. If you're not in the loop, here's the tl;dr...
Jessi Jean is an Instagram creator closely tied to a rising trend called "yapping." Yapping is just speaking to camera. But it's gotten a name because "yappers" are uniquely skilled at holding your attention with storytelling. It's a hard thing to speak directly to camera and both 1) capture and 2) hold a short-form viewer's attention for 30+ seconds!
Jessi Jean is really good at it. And people want to learn how to do it as well as she does, because yapping feels like a cheat code: winning in short-form video by just talking? Low editing? Sounds kind of easy, right?
Well, shoutout to my friend Tom who was early to this trend too, and as he pointed out, successful yapping actually requires a lot of forethought and an understanding of how to construct your story arc. Unless you're already a great storyteller, it's not as easy as just talking to camera off the cuff.
Jessi Jean's yapping grew her account from 0 to 363,000 followers in <8 months. This week, she launched a paid challenge to teach people her process, priced at $297.
That launch generated a reported $1.2 million (4,000+ students).
And now that the challenge has begun and people are posting their ownyap videos, she's getting even more attention. She could have an even bigger second launch of her challenge because of something I call Public Homework.
I'll break down exactly what Public Homework is (and how you can use it yourself) after a quick note from our sponsor...
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Meet Agent A: the AI Agent Built to Do the Marketing Work You’d Rather Not
I've been playing with Agent A, a new AI workspace powered by Ahrefs data, and I've been really impressed. It's an AI agent, but not the "write me a tweet" kind, and not like a CustomGPT. The difference is that it's much more proactive and collaborative.
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Public homework is an aspect of a program that encourages (or requires) the user to mention the program publicly. It's homework—but completed in public.
In the Yap Challenge, students are sharing their yap videos with the hashtag #jjyapchallenge.
This isn't new, and it's powerful magic. I first saw it in 2021 with Ship30for30, when students were encouraged to publish their daily essays on Twitter with the hashtag #ship30for30.
Why public homework works
It's long been known that people are more likely to stick to their goals (commitments) if there are stakes involved. Those could be positive or negative – money, reward, public accountability, or even shame.
So when you commit to a goal within a program, you increase your likelihood of success by creating stakes. By announcing to your followers that you're doing a thing and they can follow along, you create public accountability.
Do you want to let my followers down? Show that you don't keep your word?
With so many concurrent students, it's not uncommon for you to see the #jjyapchallenge hashtag on Instagram—a signal that this person is making progress and their goals AND an invitation to explore how you can do the same.
75 Hard does this too. It has 7 requirements to keep your streak alive – one of which is to take a progress photo. It's encouraged to share that progress photo on social media with the hashtag #75Hard.
And why not? It's free content, and it shows your progress.
The dark side of public homework
You can probably see the beauty of this mechanism already. You may already be asking yourself, "How can I create an element of public homework in my own programs?"
That's a good question, and a good answer can unlock a viral loop that grows your program on autopilot.
But there is a risk to be aware of:
Public homework can serve your business—but you should design the experience to serve the customer first.
Designing the experience to serve the student first is not only more ethical, but it's also more effective. If the mechanism helps the student reach their goal, each individual student is more likely to share in public more often—because they stuck with it.
If you add a step to your program to share something but it doesn't raise the stakes or benefit the STUDENT directly, it'll fall flat. Plus, it'll feel kinda gross.
Your homework
Think about your own programs. What is the student trying to accomplish? How can you increase their commitment and improve their likelihood of success by introducing an aspect of public homework?
If you figure that out, every new student should be both 1) more likely to succeed and 2) help new potential students discover you too.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 🎧
#307: Richard van der Blom — The state of LinkedIn in 2026 (based on data from 1.3 million posts)
Richard van der Blom published his first LinkedIn algorithm report years ago as a curiosity project. This year, he and his team analyzed 1.3 million posts from 50,000 creators — and the headline number is hard to ignore: reach is down 60% for active creators over the last two years. Even harder to stomach: 80% of the comments Richard receives in the first five minutes of any post are written by AI.
Richard is the author of the annual LinkedIn Algorithm Insights report — the most data-backed independent study of the platform I've found. He's also been targeted by LinkedIn's legal team, banned from the platform, and watched the third-party tools he relied on get shut down one by one. He keeps publishing anyway.
In this episode, we talk about:
Why reach is down 60% for active creators — and why LinkedIn says that's intentional
What "topic fingerprinting" is and how to use it to re-teach the algorithm who you are
How your comments now shape your interest graph, not just your human visibility
Why LinkedIn newsletters are outperforming regular posts on reach, engagement, and conversion
By the end of this episode, you will understand exactly what changed in the LinkedIn algorithm, why the old playbook is working against you, and the specific moves to make in 2026.
Join us at Boise Brewing for our first-ever Creator Science in-person meetup! Meet other creators in town for Craft + Commerce and start the conference off on a high note with some new friends (and a couple drinks on us). If you meet a member of The Lab, be sure to ask them about their experience with the community too. Space is limited.
