We caught up with the brilliant and insightful John Dombrowski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

John, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I think one of the meaningful projects I’ve worked on as a creator and scientist was with the White House in 2022 for the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act. As a marine biologist with a large platform being able to advocate for passing climate positive bills and regulations has been something extremely meaningful. I specifically studied shark conservation and biology where I focused on advocating for better conservation and protection measures for these imperiled animals and have used my platform for this since the beginning of my time online. During my time at the White House I was able to meet with and interview President Biden and Vice President Harris, as well as various members of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Within the IRA Bill as well as the 2023 Department of Defense Bill various protection measures for sharks, our oceans, and coastal economies! Being able to advocate for these things at the highest level of our government was an indescribable experience that truly left me awe struck and more motivated than ever before to continue pursuing real lasting change using my platform imbued with my academic experience from my education at Cornell University. This is something I continue to pursue to this day.

John, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I began posting on social media on September 19th 2019 with a simple TikTok video about growing up. in Georgia and attending public high school (Roswell High School). From that first video I garnered over 1.6 million views and quickly went into regaling various stories from my life until I pivoted into College Application advice. I grew up in a lower middle-class family so I couldn’t afford fancy test tutors or college counselors and thus did everything on my own. I was able to gain admission to schools such as Cornell (my alma mater) and other institutions such as Columbia, Dartmouth and NYU. Afterwards I began posting about my studies and passions such as Biology, Science News, and even the biology and chemistry behind skincare products. All of this helped put me through school and allowed me to pursue an education. I worked 3 jobs as a lab technician, an English tutor, and as a content creator while successfully completing two majors (Marine Biology and Entomology) as well as three minors in English, Communications, and LGBT Studies. All of this formed amazing content ideas allowing me to intertwine my studies with my work. This synergy was arguably the only way I was able to get through such a hectic time but it allowed for so many wonderful opportunities. Over the last five years across my four accounts I have garnered over 3 million followers, over 4 billion views, and had countless amazing chances to advocate for sustainability in government and industry. In skincare I have been able to meet with brand owners and founders such as Hailey Bieber, Scarlett Johanson, and many more. In politics I have had the pleasure of speaking with both Former President Clinton and Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and business leaders like Bill Gates. These all have been under the guise and scope of advocating for sustainability, protections for groups most at risk of climate change related issues, and taking care of our planet.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think as a scientist oftentimes it is difficult to engage the general public. One of my favorite personal sayings is “Your research is only as good as your ability to communicate it”. This is something many scientists do not have the ability or skills to do, but over the last five years communicating science to a general audience has become my most sharpened skill. It has allowed me to pursue careers in corporate and post-graduate academic settings and give various talks at conferences such as the Cornell Alumni Conference and the Entomology Society of America international conference. Being able to lead. by example on how to engage the public and equip them with the knowledge of what is going on in the world has been beyond rewarding and inspiring. Seeing people make newly informed and nuanced decisions based on my own work, or the work of other experts who learned from me is both something I am extremely proud of yet always humbled by. Being able to advocate for animals that people may not have as much empathy for like sharks or spiders (my other major was focused on arachnids) and give people the opportunity to glean something new from them outside of fear is a dream I’ve always wanted to achieve. Sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most like people taking spiders outside instead of squishing them or local fishermen changing the hooks they use on lines to be less harmful to sharks during the catch and release process. It’s the ability to form a cathartic connection with others, and foster empathy in them for the world around us, and all its inhabitants that really keeps me going.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson I had to unlearn is that you don’t have to be perfect, which as a tried and true pessimistic perfectionist was a herculean feat to say the least. I’ve always strived to be as perfect and neat as possible. Every day I attempted to Marie Kondo my entire life and to an extent it worked. I was able to balance near impossible responsibilities all at once and reap the rewards from those endeavors, but facing burnout was almost inevitable. Once I did hit that point of inevitability I realized I needed to make a change. It wasn’t about pivoting my content or work hours, but altering how I experience life and reevaluating what I want out of it after graduating. I started to focus less on tons of content and leading an exciting instrgram-able life going to every museum and reviewing every product and instead focus moreso on the people I love, how they can inspire me and how they can help me feel joy. Acts of service for my friends, family, and co-workers, as well as volunteering in various ways in my free time became like fuel. I was no longer forced to focus only on myself, my academics, my caffeine intake, my creativity finally took the passenger seat in my life and in a way that is what I desperately needed to keep going as a creator this many years down the line.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jcdombrowskicreate.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jc.dombrowski/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jc-dombrowski/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jc.dombrowski
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jc.dombrowski