{"podcast":{"title":"Marketing Operators","slug":"marketing-operators-6861665","podcast_index_feed_id":6861665,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/f23bffe0/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marketing-operators","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/40540184/40540184-1781006264217-c57060f709315.jpg","author":"Cody Plofker, Connor MacDonald, and Connor Rolain","episode_count":134,"summary":"Some call it the greatest ecommerce podcast in existence. Behind three behemoth brands stand three juggernauts of the marketing world: Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) & Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad). Finally, they’re pulling back the curtain to give you a never-before-seen look at what works and what doesn’t work to drive growth.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-29T02:20:23.918211+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/marketing-operators-6861665"},"episode":{"title":"The Performance Creative Director Hire: Operator vs. Ideator","slug":"the-performance-creative-director-hire-operator-vs-ideator","published_at":"2026-07-14T13:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/marketing-operators-6861665/the-performance-creative-director-hire-operator-vs-ideator","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/marketing-operators-6861665","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marketing-operators/episodes/The-Performance-Creative-Director-Hire-Operator-vs--Ideator-e3m1na0","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/f23bffe0/podcast/play/122788608/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-6-13%2F427895124-44100-2-fdd97e8680834.mp3","summary":"“She has built an amazing system and an amazing flywheel.” What separates a performance creative director worth hiring from one who just manages a content calendar? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) dig into what it takes to hire a director of performance creative today, why the creative strategist role has split into two distinct skill sets, and how AI agents are emerging as a serious ecommerce conversion rate optimization play. They debate whether a great creative strategist should be an operator or an ideator. The answer is neither alone. Both hosts unpack why less prescriptive creator briefs are now producing better-performing ads than heavily scripted ones. The hosts close with a quick over-under on the retention tools most brands either overinvest in or ignore entirely. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 https://9ops.co/motionapp-creativebenchmarks2026 NeonPixel https://9ops.co/neonpixel Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus https://www.haus.io/operators Operators Newsletter https://9operators.com/","meta_description":"“She has built an amazing system and an amazing flywheel.” What separates a performance creative director worth hiring from one who just manages a content…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4316,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/marketing-operators-6861665/episodes/the-performance-creative-director-hire-operator-vs-ideator/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/marketing-operators-6861665/the-performance-creative-director-hire-operator-vs-ideator.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}