The creator economy is booming. 

While many influence their audiences significantly, only some creators can build a sustainable career. 

Why? 

Because in today’s content-driven world, creators are businesses, and businesses need operators.

Today on The Creator COO, host Matt Estes is joined by Josh Kaplan, co-founder and CEO of Smooth Media, to discuss the differences between a creator and a creator-operator mindset. 

They explore why creators need operational business partners and dive deep into the nuances of finding, hiring, and compensating a creator COO. They also discuss the varied personality traits and skillset differences between creators and operators and unearth practical strategies for the moments when creative passions clash with the realities of running a thriving enterprise. From aligning objectives with a creator partner to redefining success metrics, this episode will equip you with the tools you need to navigate these complexities!

Show Notes:

Here are the key takeaways from our conversation with Josh:

Why Creators Need Creator-Operators: Being a successful creator requires many different skill sets, namely creativity, audience building, and operational excellence. While the lucky few have all three, most creators excel in the first two and need to catch up on the operation side of things. That’s where the creator-operator comes in! As Josh says, for creators to scale successful businesses, they need a team that consists of specialists in different roles, including what Smooth Media refers to as a “fractional COO.”

What it Means to “Objectify the Business”: Even once they’ve achieved content-market fit, many creators hesitate when it comes to expanding their team and bringing in operational assistance. Josh’s advice? Help them look objectively at the business. This can be difficult for creators, who are quite literally the name and the face of the brand, but Josh suggests sharing relevant content and resources to help them conceptualize what it will look like to scale their brand and catalyze the business toward unprecedented success.

Building a Brand Alongside the Name: A creator’s business is closely tied to their name, image, and likeness, but when they choose to expand, sell, or exit the brand, they shouldn’t have to worry about selling their name. Developing a standalone business alongside a creator and leveraging their name during the build is the goal.

Jump into the Conversation:

[04:30] Establishing credibility with creators as a creator-operator

[08:14] What a fractional COO is and why many creators need operational business partners

[11:45] Why creators should consider partnering with Creator COOs (and how to find one)

[14:04] Advice for creators who push back on expanding their team: objectify the business

[19:22] The nitty gritty of finding, hiring, and compensating a Creator COO

[25:27] How creator brands can navigate the use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL)

[31:00] Mindset differences between creators and Creator COOs and how to collaborate better

[38:58] Potential billion-dollar creator businesses, the role of digital products, and more

Continue the conversation with these resources:

Follow Josh Kaplan on LinkedIn and X

See what a successful creator/Creator COO partnership looks like with The Publish Press by Colin and Samir

Read Traction, the book Josh recommends for Creator COOs

Check out Miss Excel by Kat Norton