Inside Marketing with MarketSurge

Speaker: Welcome to Inside
Marketing With Market Surge.

Your front row seat to the
boldest ideas and smartest

strategies in the marketing game.

Your host is Reed Hansen, chief
Growth Officer at Market Surge.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Hello
and welcome back to Inside

Marketing With Market Surge.

I'm your host Reid Hansen, and today
I'm thrilled to welcome Erica Dill,

founder of Operationally Up a consultancy
dedicated to helping entrepreneurs

and small business owners escape the
overwhelm of running their businesses

by creating systems that actually work.

is a master at building operational
frameworks at scale, turning chaos

into clarity and giving founders the
freedom to focus on growth instead

of getting stuck in the weeds.

With her background in project management,
workflow design and leadership coaching,

she helps businesses streamline operations
so they can thrive without burning out.

If you've ever felt like your
business is running you instead of

the other way around, this episode
is going to be a game changer.

Welcome, Erica.

Erica Dill: Thank you so
much for having me, Reid.

I'm happy to be here.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
Yeah, my pleasure.

So tell us the backstory.

You're the founder of Operationally Up.

What inspired you to start this
business and what gap in the

market did you want to fill?

Erica Dill: Absolutely
one of my favorite topics.

So I've been a senior executive
leader in operational management

for consumer goods and e-commerce
companies for about 15 years.

And I have always kind of done, um,
some consultancy on the side, especially

because they're smaller companies that
really need help, um, that just can't

afford a full-time COO, nor do they
need a full-time COO, but they're in

desperate need of process improvements.

The owners are trying to
build their own supply chains.

They're trying to do their own sourcing,
and they're building for scalability.

But they have no idea how to do that.

And that's where I really
saw the opportunity to help

those smaller businesses.

And I've worked in, you know, mid-size
companies so I know what it takes to

scale to a hundred million dollars.

Um, and those small businesses that
maybe the five, the 10, the $15

million companies they wanna get there.

But they just don't have
the systems in place.

And, and kind of as you alluded in,
uh, your wonderful intro of me, you

know, the businesses are running the
business leaders and they don't know

how to get out of the weeds, and that's
where I can bring the operational magic.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: That's awesome.

So what do you think were the
experiences that shaped your approach?

Did, did you intend to be a
project manager, you know, project

management expert or operations
expert right from the get go?

Or did, did you see, um, something
in, in early in your career where

you felt really compelled to,
uh, help businesses this way?

Erica Dill: It's really funny.

My origin story is kind of comical.

I'll put it in a nutshell.

I graduated college and like so many,
I'm wandering around going, well, I

graduated with business management.

What business do I manage?

Um, and so you gotta get your
foot in the door somewhere.

So I got an EA job.

Um, what ended up being my very
first consumer goods startup.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Oh.

Erica Dill: tiny $2 million company, and
I walked in the door and I just, I saw it.

I, you know, I saw the lack of inventory
management and inventory systems.

I saw that they had no production lines.

I, I just saw all of these things
and I kind of just started doing

them, and the owner was like.

This is great.

Keep going.

And I ended up building their very first
international supply chain team, um,

sourcing and manufacturing overseas, uh,
manufacturing here in the United States,

um, and took them from 2 million to
$54 million and four and a half years,

and fell in love and said, this is
what I'm doing for the rest of my life.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
Well, that, that's really cool.

And I'm, uh, I've not, not
really of that mindset.

It seem, does seem like you maybe
were, were born for this or, you

know, have a instinct for it.

And, and I have a few people in my
life that have similar instincts

and, and I'm very grateful.

For those people like that, that just
seem to, uh, you know, crave order

crave, you know, that like really
look at the details and, and keep,

just keep our world running smoothly.

So,

Erica Dill: We all have our niches.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
that's right, that's right.

Now, um, I think people are gonna be
inspired by hearing about businesses

that you said you've scaled up
to a hundred million dollars

plus, which is really exciting.

And I think, um, if.

If more small and medium sized
businesses really embrace that

vision or that hope, you know, I
think they'd, they'd be ecstatic.

What do you see as some of the
most common obstacles that, uh,

you know, that, that you're working
with a new business, um, that might

hold them back from real growth?

Erica Dill: Great question.

So there's a couple things that I know
at, at as soon as I walk into a business,

almost every single business has.

Has, um, the biggest one
is documented processes.

So if you feel like you're reinventing
the wheel every day and your team,

you're having to answer the same
questions about what to do next, the

team members are stepping, kind of
stumbling, trying to figure out where

they go next or doing the wrong steps.

It's probably 'cause you don't have the
right documentation for your systems

and everybody's like, I don't have time
to stop and document every process.

But if you look at the amount of time
wasted and inefficiencies with people

not knowing what to do next, skipping
steps, skipping important steps.

Believe me, it's worth it.

And I always tell people that
documentation and process improvement

is one bite of the elephant at the time.

Don't sit down and say, I'm gonna
document every single process

in my company off the bat.

Take a department, have the actual team
members who are doing the business.

Write down those steps and go from there.

Because if you get the team involved,
they have some sense of ownership

in the process and you end up making
the work instructions and the SOPs

so much faster and of better quality.

So that's probably the biggest one.

The second minor one I'll,
I'll touch on quickly.

It's.

Picking systems and
processes that can scale.

A lot of times companies are like,
I just need something right now.

I just need it to solve
this one little problem.

But if you pick that solution that that
software or that system or that process

to solve that problem, right now, you're
missing the bigger picture and you're

gonna have to redo that work later on.

So if you think, if you sit down,
look at a business plan, look at three

to five years, where are you going?

Which I know it takes time.

But it's gonna save you so much headache
because you can pick that system

that's gonna scale with you over the
next three to five years and taking a

few minutes to think it through ahead
of time and pick the right solution

for you is actually going to be an
incredibly time saving on the long term.

And that's where people
kind of get tripped up.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

Okay.

uh, you've mentioned supply chain is
a place where you, an international

supply chain, a place where
you've, um, seen a lot of success.

Uh, do you think these principles apply?

traditionally when we're thinking
about a COO, you know, they're, they're

working on the supply chain, they're
working on the logistics, but, um.

They're, they're often
doing much, much more.

What lines of business do you think
really benefit from, from process

or, you know, or, or where are the,
where are the low hanging fruit in the

Erica Dill: That's,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: process?

Erica Dill: so glad you asked, because
people are always like, oh, you're in

manufacturing, you're in consumer goods.

You just do, uh,
production assembly lines.

You just do supply chain.

And what people fail to realize
is that these process improvements

and these systems are company-wide.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Erica Dill: Look at
your finance department.

Are you processing invoices
the same way every day?

Is there.

Uh, consistency in how you're doing it.

Are you treating every, all of your
vendors or your customers the same way?

In that process, look at
your marketing department.

You know, if you are producing social
media ads, if you're producing, uh,

media content, whether that's print
or video, do you have a brand guide?

Do you have the processes in place so
that the person creating those social

media posts is following the brand?

The colors, the system,
the approval process.

All of that is documentation and
systems that need to happen in a

business that have nothing to do
with supply chain or manufacturing.

And you can really carry that
theme through the whole thing.

So for those of you listening,
if you've got a service-based

business, if you have a, maybe it's
a B2B product, it doesn't matter.

You can benefit from system development
and process improvement and documentation.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: That's, um,
you know, really good advice and, and

I think that where my business has had
process in place, that's the part of

the business that's doing really well.

And where we're reinventing
the wheel each time is.

Where it seems like we're
spending the most of our time.

And, um, you know, and I, I, I think
that's a, that's a great thing to,

to, uh, focus on as a, as a leader.

Um, but leaders, of course.

Get pulled in a lot of di uh, different
directions and, um, you know, I know

that as a business leader myself, that
I need to delegate where I can, uh,

you know, and then do it effectively.

Um, what, where do you think is the
balance of I should do it myself?

You know, I'm the business owner.

I'm the business leader.

I need to be accountable and
I need to make sure this is

done in the quality I want.

And where should I delegate?

What do you have, like a good
framework or rule of thumb on, on

how those decisions should be made?

Erica Dill: Okay, I'm gonna try not to
get on my soapbox here, but this is one

of the things that I see time after time.

When I walk into smaller businesses,
because they are one person shows that

business owner has started their baby
from scratch and they're carrying it

through, and sometimes it's hard to let
go of different tasks, but you really

have to do that if you're going to scale.

So one of the things that I walk
through and exercise is a Venn diagram,

and I put three overlapping circles.

One is, what does the owner like to do?

One is what is the owner good at doing?

And the third is what is the business
need and where all three of those overlap,

that's where the business owner should
be focusing their time and the rest of

those tasks is what needs to be delegated.

There's no need for the business owner to
be doing tasks that they hate, that they

disdain, or that they're not good at.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Hmm.

Erica Dill: That's where I help them to
find other people, valued team members who

can take on these tasks and probably do
a better job, which is okay 'cause that's

what building a business is all about.

And that's what having a team
is all about is finding your

strengths and supporting them.

It's hard, I have to walk through with
owners all the time about how to kind of

let go and delegate and get comfortable
in that uncomfortableness, but that's

really how your systems are gonna scale.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay, so
here's a subset of that question.

Um, now you've worked

Erica Dill: Hmm.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: international
sub uh, supply chains and, um, with

within the delegation equation there are.

You know, a few different
decisions to be made.

Uh, you're, you're delegating
a task that maybe you're not

good at or, um, don't wanna do.

Um, and so it's probably not best for the
bus, best for the business that the owners

occupied with that, but they, uh, you can.

it to a, a consultant or a
vendor, you can hire somebody

with that expertise or bandwidth.

and, and that could be like a local
person that you see face to face,

or it could be a remote employee
or it could even be a international

employee where you benefit from the.

Um, you know, the cost of,
uh, the currency difference,

but you have some other risks.

Sorry, I've, I've asked a very complicated
question, but, um, but delegation

usually comes down to one of those four
things, and actually all out of fifth.

Um, there are now AI agents that
do a lot of, um, tasks like that.

Um, do, do you, do you have a
metric for deciding between those,

those different possibilities?

Erica Dill: Yeah.

You know, unfortunately there's no.

Secret, big, easy button when
it comes to figuring that out.

Um, I, I myself still have
clients that we're working with,

like, Ooh, which is better.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Mm-hmm.

Erica Dill: the thing that I would
just encourage companies to look at is.

You know, what is it that they truly need?

Put it down on paper.

Um, and what is of value to them?

Um, and start with that.

Um, I have put in AI systems
that don't take over jobs because

you can't take over the job, but
they help the person in the job.

Um, and sometimes it's
that pairing of the two.

Um, a big misconception that I
warn people about is when they do

outsource work, um, to whether it's
an agency or a consultancy, those

people still have to be managed.

A lot of times people are like,
oh, I'm just gonna outsource it to

an agency and they're gonna take
care of it, and I can walk away.

I see it all the time with
like marketing companies.

If that's not true, you still
have to manage that company.

So if you, if the benefit is like, oh,
I'm gonna outsource it to an agency and

therefore I don't have to manage it.

Don't put that into the equation
because that's the wrong approach.

You still need to manage that team.

Um, overseas employees are wonderful.

Um, I've always worked
in international teams.

Um, the thing that comes to
international team members and remote

team members is that there is a
different skillset to managing them

as opposed to managing somebody that
you can see face-to-face in person.

So make sure that you're.

Uh, aware of the different skillset
and how to build rapport and how to

build connection via a remote platform.

Some business owners just
aren't comfortable with that.

Um, so there is that skillset
that you have to learn.

So those are kind of some things that you
should think about and weigh in, um, as

you're trying to decide which route to go.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah, that, uh,
that's very helpful and, and, um, I think

a lot of businesses are, are weighing
these, these, uh, possibilities and, um.

Uh, yeah, there's, there's pluses
and minuses to each approach

and, and also just feels like
circumstances are changing.

Like there,

Erica Dill: Yeah.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: you
know, on one hand it's like there,

the population of people that are
flu in English is way increased.

And,

Erica Dill: Mm-hmm.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: the tech
technical skills are all over the

world that it's not limited to
people that go to elite universities.

It's, um, you know, very.

there, there's just many people
that PO possess those skills and

AI is getting much, much better.

And, uh, so many options.

Well, maybe we could
drill into a specific one.

And I thought, uh, this was a great
idea when we were talking earlier.

Uh, you and I are both podcasters
and you have, uh, uh, you know,

I've learned that you, you've even
taught a course on operationalizing

your, uh, podcast process.

I'd love to hear about that.

You know, talk about like.

Uh, you know, first I see as a marketer
that podcasting is a tremendous

channel, uh, low barrier entry, but very
authentic and very, um, uh, engaging.

And I would love to do more of it
and, you know, but, but I, I, there's,

there's several steps that can be kind of

Erica Dill: Yeah.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
with all the, all the steps.

How do you operationalize that?

Erica Dill: Yeah, absolutely.

So, uh, as I kinda mentioned earlier, I
operationalize every process that I touch.

So when I decided to start a podcast,
of course, the first thing I did

was how do I automate most of this?

Um, I was told, um, when I was.

Thinking of starting one.

You have to get, you know, a
company that can produce your

podcast, you have to do something.

I'm like, that sounds really expensive.

And there are some fantastic
companies that will produce

your podcast out there for you.

Um, but I was kind of.

Dipping my toe in the water and I was
like, oh, I don't wanna commit, um,

and spend money if it's not something
that I'm gonna be doing long term.

So I was like, I gotta be able to
figure out how to do this myself.

And I did.

I was able to get, um, my podcast down.

I can produce an episode from recording
to finish in less than two hours,

and it costs me 50 bucks a month.

So if anyone out there is like,
oh, I can't do it, it's too much.

I guarantee anybody can
have their own podcast.

It does take work.

Um, so some of the steps that
I've automated in it is, um, I

have a Google form that collects
all of my potential guest.

Headshot information, bios, how they
wanna be introduced, where they want

me to point the call to action to.

Um, so I just send a form link
and it collects everything for me

and it dumps it into a spreadsheet
so that I can refer back to it.

Um, I use, um, I.

Riverside for all of my recording
it just like the script, which is

spoiler alert, what we're using now.

Um, they both are great
systems at automating things.

So you create those one minute
magic clips or trailers, um, and

both have this amazing ability.

You click a button and it makes 10 of 'em.

Um, you know, back in the day
you'd have to go through and like

edit each and every single one.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Mm-hmm.

Erica Dill: and there are
systems out there that.

You know, our standalone systems that I'll
do that, but I found that the system in

Riverside and Descrip is you're already
there and you're already paying for it.

You might as well use it.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Erica Dill: Um, of course
I use Calendly for booking.

Um, all of my meetings, even the
actual recording episodes so they

can pick a time on my calendar.

Um, and then I write, um.

I write a loose script for all
of my podcast guests so they know

kind of what we're going over.

Um, I turn that episode into an article.

Um, I write, uh, four to five, uh,
LinkedIn posts about it with the mat,

with the little one minute trailers.

And spoiler.

I do it all using ai, Chad,
GBT and I are our besties.

Um, and it's not perfect.

Obviously you have to go
through and do the editing.

You can't just like throw it
in, copy paste, copy paste.

Um, but I am an ops.

Person.

I am not a writer.

I went to school for
business, uh, not literature.

So I definitely need help when
it comes to wordsmithing things.

And, um, I just have found that
AI has been a fantastic tool.

Um, I put all of my
thoughts, all of my prompts.

You have to be a very good prompt writer
to get what you want the first time.

So I have a, a catalog
of prompts that I use.

Depending on the situation.

That way I don't have to write the prompts
new every single time that I go to do it.

I just copy and paste and
put in information in it.

Um, and I have, uh, Canva
to do all of my graphics.

Um, so I've set up templates
in Canva and I just.

Drop in titles, dates, headshots,
and it's all the same template

and everything is there.

So all in 50 bucks a month, two hours
for, uh, recording, editing and posting.

Uh, so anybody can, can really do it.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: That's awesome.

That, I mean, really impressive.

Do, do you, do you mind if I ask
how many you, uh, post a month

or how many you produce a month?

Erica Dill: Yeah, so I do two
a month because, uh, apparently

I still need to work to eat.

So I can't be a full-time podcaster yet.

Um.

But, uh, so I do an episode
every other week, um, and that I

found is the good cadence for me.

Um, everybody, you know, some people are
like twice a week and that works for them.

Um, they normally have
a team at that point.

Um, but I like to give each one of my
episodes enough marketing time and enough.

Intro.

So I spend one week hyping it up and,
you know, getting the word out there

and giving the marketing content.

And then the next week it's a little
bit of hype and uh, post the episode.

And so that cadence really works for me.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
That's fantastic.

Um, well, I have really
enjoyed this and I think.

Erica, you were, you
were born for this and

Erica Dill: I.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: you, uh,
I think I would recommend you to

anybody in a small and medium sized
business that really wants to level

up, you know, free up their, their
time to, and, and grow their business.

I think, uh, you know, having
somebody like you engaged would,

would greatly improve things.

Um, for listeners that wanna
work with you, where are the best

ways to connect and find you?

Erica Dill: First of all, it's
so kind of you to say that, Reid.

Thank you.

Um, second of all, I'm on LinkedIn.

You can find me.

It's just Erica Dill.

Dill like the pickle.

Um, and, uh, I can also, you can also
find me at erica@operationallyup.com.

Um, pretty easy to find.

I'd be happy to talk and I, I
love listening to stories and

giving, um, actionable advice.

So if you just wanna have a quick
phone call and talk through a

problem, I'm not gonna charge you.

I'm happy to do it for free.

It's a hobby, um, as
well as a life career.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
Well, thanks so much, Erica.

Erica Dill: Thank you so much, Reid.

It's been a pleasure.

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