Hi,

I was recently watching Russ’ new interview with Chris Williamson and during the podcast, Chris mentioned an interesting mindset concept that no one really talks about.

It’s called the Red Queen Effect - taken from Alice in Wonderland, where The Red Queen says to Alice: "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that."

This idea might sound vague, but it actually perfectly describes a trap I’ve seen creators and artists struggle with throughout their careers.

Let’s explore below.

Let’s dive in ⬇️

In a way, no one really talks about this idea…It’s easy to assume that as you grow your career and find more success, your problems sort of just go away. Whether you’re an artist, creator, or creative professional on the come up, the grind is tough. It can be exhausting, challenging, and even overwhelming at times. Our brains want us to believe that if we actually do find success at some point, the pain of that grind will completely go away.

Our brains aren’t always accurate

Our brains are meant to protect us - as a result, they tell us a story that looks like this:

Work super hard now. Grind. Hit the milestones. And eventually, things get easier.

Artists

• Once you get a manager? Things will be easier.

• Once you get an opportunity to go on tour? Things will be easier.

• Once you have that hit song? Things will get easier.

Creators

• Once that piece of content finally goes viral? Things will get easier.

• Once you hit 100k followers? Things will get easier.

• Once you get that first brand deal? Things will get easier.

The crazy thing is…no one tells you that when you hit these milestones, sometimes things actually get harder.

I've seen this in my own career

Early on in my career, I used to think being an executive meant you made it. That the work got easier and at some point, you sort of graduated from “the grind” and really putting in the work to a life that was super easy and carefree.

Then I grew in my career and what’s so funny is that in many ways, being a senior professional is actually harder.

More pressure. More decisions. Harder decisions. Higher stakes. Faster timelines. More accountability. When you're junior, many times you’re just responsible for execution, not actually making the decisions. When you're senior, the decisions are yours and so are the consequences from those choices.

Artists who hit this wall

Lots of artists have been vocal about feeling overwhelmed and the struggles that can come with success.

Aminé went nearly five years between solo albums after Limbo dropped in 2020. In interviews, he's been open about dealing with depression and needing time away from the “machine”. "In life, it was just the experience of having time away that really helped me," he told Rolling Stone. "I think it made me happier personally... I got to live my life throughout that year, which really helped me mentally to write a better album." His 2025 album 13 Months of Sunshine came from a healthier place - not a depleted one. He also talked about how even positive attention on social media can be damaging: "The negative stuff is, of course, not good for your mental, but even the positive stuff is not good for your mental."

PinkPantheress built a lot of her career on TikTok and social media virality. By 2024, she was opening for Olivia Rodrigo and Coldplay on world tours. Then she abruptly canceled all her remaining dates and told fans she'd "hit a wall" and needed to focus on her physical and mental health. In an interview with Zane Lowe, she said her team pushed back because of the money being left on the table: "If you agree to do shows and you don't follow through, there's a lot of money being missed out on." But she knew stopping was the right call. A hearing condition she'd been ignoring since 2022 - one that left her 80% deaf in her right ear - had been made worse by the relentless touring. She came back in 2025 with new music and new energy. It’s one of the parts no one tells you - more opportunities can sometimes create more stress.

Russ, despite being known for his relentless work ethic and flooding the market with releases, talks about the mental game constantly. In this interview, he acknowledges the “hidden trap” no one really talks about when artists find success and aren’t prepared for it.

Why this happens

There are several forces at play in The Red Queen Effect:

1. The algorithm never sleeps.

Social media platforms reward consistency…if a creator or artist misses a week of posting, it can feel like they’re starting over. The algorithm doesn't care that you're burned out - it just wants more content to continue feeding the machine.

2. Expectations scale with success.

When you have 1,000 followers, a simple post is fine. You don’t overthink it. When you have 100,000 though it can feel like a different game. More pressure and higher stakes. It feels like people are expecting more. It can feel like the bar keeps rising the higher you go. Whether or not this is true, sometimes our brains tell us this.

3. Opportunities feel urgent.

I see this happen with so many artists + creators. As they find success, opportunities come faster. Brand deals. Collaborations. Features. Tours. Press. And they all feel time-sensitive - like, if you don't grab them now, they'll disappear forever.

As a result, you feel like you’re being forced to make decisions faster but sometimes you don’t have all of the information to make those decisions. Now there’s a stress of losing those opportunities vs. having to make challenging decisions quickly.

4. Success opens entirely new operational burdens.

This is the big one.

Think about an emerging artist with a small fanbase - their job is relatively simple: make music, create content, market themselves, and try to build an audience. The economics are scrappy but the operation is fairly small up until a certain point.

Now that artist starts gaining traction…suddenly they have the opportunity to go on tour. That’s kind of every artist’s dream, right?

What most people don’t realize is that they now they have to figure out an entirely new business:

• booking shows

• routing the tour

• finding a road manager

• hiring musicians

• dealing with hospitality riders

• managing per diems

• understanding guarantees vs. door deals

• perfecting a live show that's completely different from recording

• etc

Touring is its own full-time job - and it's been added on top of every other part of a career.

Same with merch. You start selling t-shirts and vinyl because your fans want them. Amazing…But now you're dealing with managing inventory, fulfilling orders, shipping costs, customer service, and returns. Out of nowhere, you’re trying to figure out an entirely new business.

Same with building a team. You hire a manager because you need help. But now…you have to manage the manager lol. You hire an assistant, a social media person, a booking agent. Now you're spending hours per week in meetings, giving feedback, making decisions about other people's work. You became an artist to create - now you're running a small business. It’s one of the key differentiators most creators don’t realize.

Every level up opens a new operational layer. And each layer requires skills you may not have yet, systems you haven't built, and time you may be short on.

How to break free from it

It’s not easy but there are ways to prepare for it.

1. Design for sustainability from the start

Nic D is one of the biggest independent artists in the world. His catalog generates 1 million streams per day - roughly $800-900k per year just from streaming alone (these are insane numbers, I know lol).

But there are a few interesting things about how he's built his career:

• He doesn't tour.

• Barely sells merch.

• Hasn't focused heavily on content in a while.

• Lives in Culpeper, Virginia with his family in what he describes as a simple, quiet life.

He was intentional from the beginning about building something he could sustain. He carefully studied the economics of his operation and from the start, was intentional about creating something he could scale and make money on without it owning his life or causing him stress.

Every artist is different and what works for Nic won’t work for everyone else but his approach shows it’s possible.

2. Define your "enough"

Most creators + artists chase "more" without ever defining what "enough" looks like.

What if you decided that $75k/year was your goal? Or $100k? What if you decided that 3 posts per week was enough, not 7? What if you decided that playing 30 shows a year was the ceiling, not the floor…

When you don't define enough, you're constantly chasing something you haven’t even defined yet. You hit a goal and the goalpost moves. There goes The Red Queen.

3. Say no to stay sane

The other side of this is simply just saying no to things, just like Nic D did.

When you define what feels like “enough”, not every collaboration will be worth it. Not every brand deal is worth it. Not every "once in a lifetime opportunity" is actually that.

The creators who sustain are the ones who protect their time ruthlessly. They know that saying yes to everything means saying no to their health, their creativity, and their longevity.

4. Take the break before you're forced to

Emma Chamberlain didn't take a break until she hit a wall. PinkPantheress didn't stop touring until her body literally gave out and her hearing was damaged.

Don't wait until you're forced to stop. Build rest into the system. Schedule breaks. Protect your off-time.

Part of being able to endure long term is knowing when to take breaks.

The real goal

Here's what I keep coming back to:

The goal isn't to run faster. The goal is to play a different game entirely.

That doesn't mean quitting. It means designing a career where success doesn't automatically mean more stress. Where growth doesn't automatically mean more operational complexity eating your life. Where you can win without running yourself into the ground and actually enjoy life and your creative pursuits.

Hopefully this was helpful on your journey.

Thanks for reading, until next time.

_{The Vault}

 1) Emergent - my cousin actually introduced me to this one! It’s similiar to Lovable, a platform that can be used for building web applications with AI but Emergent has more integrations. For example, it recently just integrated with Claude Sonnet 4.5 More info HERE