The Creator Class

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  Why This Creator Walked Away From Everything Creators Chase 28.07.2026 47мин

  Chaz Smith blew up on Vine as a teenager. The watermalone guy. He turned 6 second jokes into hundreds of millions of views across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, negotiated his own deals with brands like Doritos while finishing finals at an Ivy League school, and had the biggest brands in the world renewing with him year after year.At the peak of it all, he stopped posting. Right after he made the decision, 2 brands came back with long-term offers, one worth a year's salary. He turned them both down.In this conversation, Ronit and Chaz get into why fulfillment and success aren't the same thing, the difference between consistency and rhythm, the pressure to create for an audience instead of yourself, and how growing up in the shadow of an NBA player shaped the way he works.Follow Chaz at @chazsmith. Subscribe to The Creator Class for more conversations with the creators shaping the industry.Chapters00:00 — "I felt like if I did another brand deal, I was going to lose my mind"00:30 — "Creation in its purest form is about expression"02:08 — The story Chaz never knew: Ronit's most vulnerable season03:28 — Becoming the first client03:44 — Watermalone and the start of everything04:06 — When the thing that made you famous isn't the thing you want04:40 — Turning down NYU film school05:23 — When short form stopped being satisfying06:39 — Walking away at the peak07:17 — The pressure to keep giving people what they want07:37 — Growing up in the shadow of an NBA player08:31 — Quitting basketball at 1808:49 — The 6 Working Geniuses10:18 — Wanting to bring joy to the world10:53 — Phoenix in the seventh grade13:08 — Enjoying the content vs enjoying the validation13:37 — The day he told his dad he didn't want to play14:24 — Trading his father's approval for strangers' approval16:39 — Negotiating with Doritos during college finals20:10 — What he says to people who call him ungrateful21:17 — The first week after he stopped posting21:44 — Turning down Old Spice and Nerf22:21 — "That's a lot of money to turn down"23:59 — The comment that ended a beloved series25:20 — Why his best videos took the least effort26:02 — "Why do things need to be hard for me to feel like I'm doing enough?"26:52 — How he was raised28:04 — Ronit's own revelation28:58 — Earning permission to rest29:40 — Play is the key to creativity30:26 — The creator who works 8 months a year32:25 — Where the word "lazy" actually comes from33:39 — Why creator is the hardest job Ronit has ever seen35:53 — No roadmap and a short shelf life36:55 — No wall between you and your audience38:02 — The spontaneity that built his success39:08 — The experiment that tanked his metrics41:11 — Ronit's challenge: one month of only what he believes in43:10 — Consistency vs rhythm44:00 — What's next for Chaz46:23 — What it means to be a creator today47:12 — Where to follow Chaz
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  Why TIME's Most Influential Creator Wanted to Quit Social Media 21.07.2026 59мин

  Joy Cho started Oh Joy! 20 years ago. She was named one of TIME's most influential people on the internet twice, holds the Guinness World Record for the most followed account on Pinterest, published 7 books, and built over 50 licensing partnerships with brands like Target, Band-Aid, and Keds.At the peak of all of it, she wasn't happy. She was projecting colorful, happy Oh Joy! to the world while privately wanting to get off the internet entirely.Instead of quitting, she redesigned everything. She scaled her team from 8 people down to just herself and rebuilt her business around the life she actually wanted to live.In this conversation, Ronit and Joy get into how she pitched her way into every major opportunity of her career, the licensing playbook almost no creator knows exists, the moment she realized success had stopped meaning what she thought it meant, and what 20 years on the internet teaches you about lasting.Follow Joy at @ohjoy. Subscribe to The Creator Class for more conversations with the creators shaping the industry.Chapters00:00 — "How does one of the most influential people on the internet want to get off the internet?"00:50 — "I had built what I think was a dream situation"02:37 — Reconnecting after 8 years03:46 — 20 years of Oh Joy!: the records, the books, 50+ partnerships04:16 — When success started meaning something different04:57 — Hitting every goal and never celebrating05:42 — The 4,000 square foot studio and the team of 806:36 — "I was realizing I wasn't happy"07:58 — The flu in January 2020 that changed everything08:43 — The advice to take funding and blow it out09:27 — Scaling from 8 people to 2, then to just her10:04 — The hardest thing to let go of11:06 — Letting go of a team you love12:48 — Getting the fun parts of the job back13:31 — Designing work around her kids' remaining years at home14:26 — The hustle that built everything15:54 — Why waiting to be discovered doesn't work16:36 — Landing jobs at companies that weren't hiring17:43 — The Target pitch built overnight19:21 — Showing up 15 minutes late to the biggest meeting of her career20:49 — Pitching the bigger vision21:10 — The best time to pitch the 2.023:33 — What a bad pitch looks like25:01 — What a good pitch looks like26:07 — "You have to serve it all up on a platter"27:10 — The blog as a marketing vehicle29:00 — The heyday of getting paid to post29:29 — When content turned into commercials30:49 — Creativity watered down31:28 — The hamster wheel33:39 — Creative lulls and the 2-year funk34:43 — Nothing stays exciting forever35:46 — "What do I really stand for now?"36:54 — Why she got rid of her content calendar37:12 — Wanting off the internet38:02 — Thinking about getting a regular job38:52 — "My name is Joy and everyone thinks I have to be happy all the time"39:35 — Watching the numbers drop when you take a break40:36 — If her daughters wanted to become creators41:30 — The hardest part: online criticism43:11 — How to protect young creators while they learn44:43 — Licensing 10146:57 — The anatomy of a licensing deal48:04 — Royalties from 2.5% to 25%49:36 — Minimum guarantees and why to always ask for one51:30 — Do you need to be big for brands to take you seriously?53:36 — When a deal goes wrong mid-contract55:05 — "You have to trust me": pushing back on a brand55:55 — See something, say something57:21 — What she'd tell her 2005 self58:41 — What she tells herself now59:31 — Where to follow Joy
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  The Editor Behind Billions of Views Says We're Chasing the Wrong Metric 14.07.2026 51мин

  Hayden Hillier-Smith has edited videos watched over 5 billion times.He worked with Logan Paul and Mr Beast at the peaks of both their careers. He won a Streamy. He's shaped how millions of people watch video. He's also spent the last several years convinced that the creator industry is measuring the wrong thing.Views work as a substitute for connection. The chase for more of them is volatile, shallow, and increasingly dangerous. Hayden has watched the algorithm hijack the careers of almost every creator he knows.In this conversation, Ronit and Hayden get into why retention editing kills story, why your first hundred videos are supposed to be bad, what it means to treat content as a bid for connection, and how grief shaped his entire creative philosophy.Follow Hayden at @hilliasmith. Subscribe to The Creator Class for more conversations with the creators shaping the industry.Chapters00:00 — "We need to stop looking at analytics. You're all doing it wrong"00:14 — Editing billions of views for the biggest creators on the internet00:41 — Why fame on the internet is volatile and shallow01:28 — The video that saved Hayden's life02:27 — Meeting at the bat mitzvah03:07 — Hearing Hayden speak at VidSummit04:26 — The most pivotal moment of his career05:09 — Retention editing vs storytelling05:46 — Telling a data conference to stop looking at data06:28 — Getting hired as Mr Beast's story specialist06:41 — The isolation video where the engagement ring was the throughline07:55 — "People don't care about emotions"09:42 — Being afraid to put himself on camera09:55 — Watching his mother die at seven years old10:50 — Logan Paul gave him permission to be big13:44 — Putting himself in front of the camera for the first time15:17 — The validation he'd been deprived of his whole life16:54 — His CPTSD diagnosis19:01 — Why creators feel isolated19:29 — The pandemic creator economy boom20:22 — When a million views stops being enough21:13 — "It's the same as drug addiction"22:38 — When shareability was the metric that mattered23:54 — The best videos are the ones people sit you down to watch24:33 — Finding your passion as a creator26:13 — Why most men never figure out what they're passionate about27:30 — Finding your art outlet29:38 — Why all creators feel the same emotionally31:13 — Why your first hundred videos should be bad32:00 — When the algorithm hijacks your channel33:35 — Treating the channel as leverage, not the destination34:52 — Why Hayden's YouTube channel is his editing show reel35:32 — Ending the editing podcast38:20 — Forced accountability39:09 — How to find a mentor40:33 — Content as a bridge toward future possibility41:16 — Making content for the specific people you want in your life43:04 — Why art is the biggest form of connection44:16 — The video that saved his life45:07 — How toxic ego led to one of the worst things in internet history47:04 — The decision not to take his life49:06 — Being celebrated, then vilified51:45 — What it means to be a creator today53:14 — Where to follow Hayden
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  The World's Most Influential Beauty Creator Broke Every Rule 30.06.2026 52мин

  The most influential beauty creator in the world built her career by breaking almost every rule she was told to follow.Shima Katouzian has 3.5 million followers. That's a fraction of the platform most top beauty creators have. Yet she's the number 1 creator in the world powering conversation around beauty, number 6 by Earned Media Value globally, and number 3 by impressions. The reason is trust.Shima built that trust through radical honesty. She only promotes what she actually uses. She refuses to soften her opinions for brand partners. She's open with her audience about money, products, and the industry itself.That honesty has come with a cost. The Iranian regime banned her book. They banned her from returning home. When her father passed six months ago, she couldn't attend his funeral.In this conversation, Ronit and Shima get into the real cost of honesty, what it takes to survive coordinated cancel campaigns, and how to stay yourself when the world wants you to be someone else.Follow Shima at @herosheemaz. Subscribe to The Creator Class for more conversations with the creators shaping the industry.Chapters00:00 — "You are the number one creator in the world powering conversation around beauty"02:35 — Meeting Shima at a brand conference03:39 — The moment on the panel that stopped Ronit cold04:39 — The stat that makes Shima different from every other beauty creator06:06 — What Creator IQ's data says about her influence07:11 — Leaving Iran in 2017 with no plan09:30 — Landing a job at Tesla without knowing what Tesla was10:39 — Posting through the pandemic while everyone else stayed home12:18 — "It felt like FaceTiming my friend"12:27 — Could she have done this if she'd stayed in Iran?14:09 — How cancel campaigns work at her scale15:29 — The coordinated attack that nearly destroyed her business17:57 — The two-week rule a podcast taught her19:30 — The morning ritual that got her through20:46 — Why the campaign ended in 200,000 new followers21:21 — Why it took three years to quit Tesla22:24 — The "fuck it" moment23:12 — Discovering affiliate links by accident25:02 — The $6,000 she didn't know she'd made26:02 — Why her conversion rate is unlike anyone else's27:28 — Launching her beauty line three years ago29:05 — The gap she saw in beauty30:23 — Building her products with her followers30:41 — The Immigrant Girl eyeshadow palette32:15 — Sitting with Selena Gomez and Jennifer Aniston36:17 — Why she'll never become a lifestyle creator38:04 — The bubble she built with her audience38:27 — "They can relate to me because I never changed"40:38 — The book she wrote 15 years ago42:03 — Becoming the best-selling book at the Tehran book fair43:00 — The moment she realized her audience was real45:05 — "I care about your hard earned money"46:25 — Losing her father, banned from going home47:00 — "I'm the biggest threat to the Iranian regime"47:30 — "We are a real person in a digital world"50:00 — The cost of honesty51:23 — Why influence invites envy52:34 — Where to follow Shima
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  How to Pitch Yourself as a Creator (Jessica Kaylee Live Workshop) 24.06.2026 1ч 3мин

  One of the biggest challenges creators face isn't building something valuable.It's recognizing and articulating the value of what they've already built.Over the last five years, Jessica Kaylee helped pioneer a storytelling format that has since become one of the most-watched content genres in the world. What started as a creative experiment grew into a global audience of more than 20 million followers and billions of views.But what makes this episode unique is that it becomes a live creator positioning exercise.As we unpack Jessica's audience, impact, bio, social profiles, visual identity, and public-facing brand, a larger story begins to emerge - one that even Jessica hadn't fully articulated herself.Together, we explore why her content resonates so deeply, the role creators can play during some of the most formative years of their audience's lives, and how the way you tell your story shapes the opportunities available to you.The conversation also examines the often-overlooked relationship between audience psychology and creator positioning. Jessica didn't just build an audience. She became part of her audience's lives during some of the most memorable and influential years of their development.What follows is a conversation about storytelling, influence, audience connection, creator positioning, and the power of understanding your own narrative.Because many creators aren't struggling to build something meaningful.They're struggling to tell the story of what they've already built.This episode doesn't just tell Jessica's story.It helps her discover it.
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  This Former Video Game Addict Built an 8-Figure Creator Empire 16.06.2026 1ч 2мин

  Kevin Espiritu paid for college with online poker winnings. Then he became addicted to video games. Then he accidentally discovered gardening.Today, he runs one of the largest creator-led businesses in the world—an eight-figure company built around one of the least likely categories imaginable: gardening.What started as a personal attempt to improve his own life grew into Epic Gardening, a business spanning content, commerce, community, publishing, and acquisitions, reaching millions of people around the world.But what makes Kevin's story so fascinating isn't the scale. It's how he built it.He didn't start as an expert. He started as the audience.In this conversation, we explore how a complete beginner built one of the internet's most trusted brands, why solving real problems beats chasing attention, and the lessons he learned scaling from solo creator to CEO.Because Kevin didn't just build an audience. He built something people depend on.
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  What a Hollywood Actor Had to Unlearn to Reach a Billion Views a Month 10.06.2026 1ч 4мин

  Hollywood actor and digital creator Adam Rose gets a billion views a month.For someone whose career grew up inside the traditional entertainment system, what he's built online now reaches an audience that eclipses many television shows. The biggest TV programs in the world attract a few million viewers and call it a hit. Adam's videos can clear a million views in a matter of hours.But the part of his story worth sitting with isn't the scale. It's everything that came before it. Decades of creating, posting, auditioning, and trying to make it. Following rules that didn't work. Chasing versions of success that never quite fit.In this conversation, Adam shares the hard-earned lessons behind his success, the mistakes that kept him stuck for years, and what finally helped him break through. We talk about building a career that can thrive both inside and outside the traditional entertainment system, creating sustainable systems for long-term success, and what it really takes to succeed as both a Hollywood actor and digital creator.Subscribe for new episodes.Timestamps:00:00 Cold open01:30 Two worlds, one career05:00 Hollywood is a permission-based business09:00 What the early YouTube years actually looked like15:00 The dance video that hit a million views overnight20:00 What changes when you don't need anyone to say yes23:00 The Seth Rogen quote about quitting26:00 The years Adam spent trying to look cool30:00 Posting for everyone else, not the people who know you35:00 Building the team, and the mistakes that came with it44:00 Where the creativity actually happens48:00 Why repeatable formats aren't lazy50:00 Working smart inside an unpredictable schedule56:00 Does Adam need Hollywood01:00:00 How a billion views changes the room01:05:00 Where the money actually comes from01:09:00 The three things every piece of content has to do01:13:00 Sharing is the metric Adam optimizes for01:17:00 The trampoline problem01:20:00 Audience questions01:31:00 The person underneath the character
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  What Really Happens After Creators Go Viral 03.06.2026 51мин

  Reza Khan has 6 million followers, 100 hundred million monthly views, and brand deals coming in. By every external measure, he's winning. So why does it still feel like none of it is building toward something meaningful?In the first episode of The Creator Class, I sit down with Reza Kahn, one of the internet’s leading family creators, for a live strategy workshop on the future of his business. We dive into audience psychology, community-building, and how creators can move beyond chasing momentum to building something more intentional, mission-driven, and personally fulfilling through the content they create and the businesses they build. We also unpack the realities of brand partnerships, the major shifts happening inside the creator economy, and what creators need to understand if they want to stand out to brands, platforms, and entertainment companies today.If you're a creator who's growing and can't shake the feeling that none of it is adding up, this episode is for you.Follow Reza:Instagram: @therezakhanYouTube: @rezaandpuja/Follow Ronit:Instagram: @ronitcohnLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ronitcohnSubscribe to The Creator Class for new episodes every Wednesday.
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  How Creators Survive After Growth Plateaus 03.06.2026 40мин

  Sean Does Magic grew 1M followers a week for 7 weeks straight. By 21, he had 25M followers across his platforms, billions of views, and a meteoric rise the entire industry was watching. It was also the lowest point of his career.In this episode of The Creator Class, I sit down with Sean for a live strategy workshop on what it actually takes to come back from a stalled career. We unpack the unspoken cost of growing too fast, the difference between viral content and a career that lasts, why most creators are jumping on a trampoline when they should be building a skyscraper, and how Sean is now navigating one of the hardest pivots in the creator economy: evolving from a magician into a lifestyle and travel creator without losing the audience that built him.This episode is for creators at every stage of growth, the industry professionals shaping their careers, and anyone trying to understand the human side of building a life inside this business.