Creator-Operators with Josh Kaplan The Deep End by ODF

Josh Kaplan was an early employee at Morning Brew and was a product manager during their meteoric rise as a media company. Now, he’s taken what he has learned as an operator in a creative space and applied it to his role as co-founder and CEO of Smooth Ops to help content creators scale their businesses.

Today’s conversation is about the deeply challenging logistics involved in the creator economy. Josh contends that most creators find themselves thinking relatively short-term. While it’s important to focus on producing great content, it’s also crucial to plan for the future—not just the next podcast episode or newsletter. Creators need operators as partners to help them think about and build for the long term, even as they focus on the next project at hand.

This core theme led us in all sorts of interesting directions. We discuss the competition for talented producers on the frontlines of creative markets, how the flow of social relationships has changed, and how to create optionality for content creators throughout their careers.

Josh also gives his optimistic vision for the future and reminds content creators to have fun. This episode was a blast.