This is important

Time for a little (big) life update...

Welcome to a special edition of the Thinking Is Cool newsletter. When I’m not sending special editions, I send emails and host podcasts designed to make your next conversation better than your last. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here.

Friends, Romans, newsletter readers—lend me your ears. I come bearing truly exhilarating news about the future of Thinking Is Cool and yours truly. Because the truth is this: I haven’t just been building Thinking Is Cool this summer. Time to set the record straight. To the Red Table we go...

But first, one very quick announcement. I’m still in between seasons of Thinking Is Cool—come August 23, that will no longer be the case and Season 2 will kick off (with a bang). As you’re about to read, though, it hasn’t been all staycations and thumb-twiddling…

Be on the lookout for a very fun, very interesting, and very thought-provoking episode of Thinking Is Cool...tomorrow. Some conversations are just too good to hold hostage. You know the drill: Listen anywhere.

Now? Time for a big announcement.

Here’s what you likely know already: Since Thinking Is Cool launched back in May, I’ve worked to deliver content that’s as thoughtful as it is thought-provoking every week. You might know what it entailed—podcasts, newsletters, videos, and a great deal of research and reporting.

What you might not know is that achieving that je ne sais quoi that makes Thinking Is Cool what it is would not have been possible without a highly talented, devoutly passionate team working behind the scenes. That team made sure the hard stuff (anything involving a lawyer, accountant, or advertiser) got handled so I could focus on making good episodes.

That team is part of our new venture, Smooth Operations & Creator Services.

Smooth Ops, as we’re affectionately calling it, is a company I’m starting with a few of my favorite people to help content creators operate and scale their businesses. We’ve been in stealth mode building Smooth Ops for the last several months, and guess who was the first creator signed on to Smooth Ops?

She loves saying “that’s show biz baby,” hates Tucker Carlson, and has two thumbs but had to use one to take this selfie.

As a creator myself, I’ve gotten intimately familiar with the struggles of independence. There is an endless list of things to do at all times, and the unfortunate reality is that most of that list has nothing to do with the actual creating we content creators are purported to love.

Enter: Smooth Ops. We complement creators with the business and operational support they need to maximize their potential and capitalize on their opportunities (of which there are many—I’ve never been more bullish on the promise of the creator economy than I am today). 

Here’s how it works: I’m a cofounder and the chief content officer at Smooth Ops, but I’m also the blueprint Smooth Ops client via Thinking Is Cool. With Smooth Ops (and the team I’ll tell you about in a sec) behind Thinking Is Cool, I’ve been free to do what I’m good at (writing, shitposting) while they do the things I’m not good at (thinking strategically, finding ad partners, reading the room).

It’s been the single biggest defining factor for this young show’s early success—without the support of Smooth Ops, I would not have been able to publish episodes or pay my rent, let alone make it through season one of Thinking Is Cool without a mental breakdown.

Simply put, Smooth Ops is changing the game for creators. Here are the people behind the magic:

There’s Josh Kaplan, whom many of you have already gotten to know as a guest star in the p*rn episode of Thinking Is Cool. Josh and I have been building together for years, so we figured no time like the present to build not one but two companies at the same time. Josh is cofounder and CEO of Smooth Ops—I spend quite a lot of time with Josh, and I can confidently say that I’ve never seen him more at the top of his game than he has been building and growing Smooth Ops. Oh and today is Josh’s birthday, so wish him an HBD by sharing Smooth Ops with a friend.

There’s also Jenny Rothenberg, who hasn’t made a Thinking Is Cool appearance (yet) ((I’m hopeful)) but has for years been the all-gas-no-brakes genius behind every product I’ve ever worked on (at Morning Brew and Thinking Is Cool) actually making it to the right audience. At Smooth Ops, Jenny is cofounder and chief operating officer. In my mind, Jenny is the most talented growth engine and operator I know. She’s honest, creative, strategic, and quite literally one of the funniest people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing.

And there’s Ali Ben-Levi, our fearless operations associate at Smooth Ops. As devoted Thinking Is Cool readers know, I tend to avoid sweeping declarations. I’m making this newsletter’s second-ever sweeping declaration in honor of Ali: Nothing would get done without her on this team. She’s the kind of person who’s willing to take on any challenge, and she consistently exceeds every goal put in front of her.

My job at Smooth Ops is to help our creators level up their content. Some days, that’ll look like big picture creative strategy and hours spent finding the right tone and voice. Other days, that’ll look like a lot of copyediting. I can’t wait to start.

I’m eternally grateful to work with these people toward our shared mission of making the creator economy more thoughtful, more fun, and more accessible for anyone who has something interesting to say.

Smooth Ops is just getting started. If you’re a content creator, an aspiring content creator, a writer, a thinker, a marketer, or really just curious and eager to learn more, check out our site here or email us at hi@smoothops.xyz. You can also hit reply to this email with any thoughts, comments, questions, or concerns.

I’m not sure how I’m supposed to sign off on emails now that I’m technically working on two companies, but lord have mercy am I excited for what lies ahead. Thank you for being on this wild ride—I’ll be back with more Thinking Is Cool tomorrow.

Yours in scalable operational support,

Kinsey