Directors of Operations are a rare breed. They often work behind the scenes in an all-guts-no-glory flourish. They organize. They research. They schedule, arrange, and assign. They not only order the coffee for the office, they ARE the coffee of the office; they increase productivity and give everyone the ability to focus their energy in true and meaningful ways.

And this, friends, is why I am more than happy to introduce Stephanie Welsh as MediaSpark’s, new Director of Operations.

Stephanie comes to us with over 20 years of experience and a fearless attitude about trying new things. Since joining our team in September, she has made quick work of becoming our behind-the-scenes coordinator, keeping us on time, on our toes and on the top of our game. In other words, she does for us what we often do for our clients; she uses her talents, experience, and energy so that we can more effectively use our own.

Play to Your Strengths

When we first started MediaSpark, we structured it on my client-side experience with branding and budgets and Andrea’s experience with media buying and strategy. As our business expanded, the background elements of running the business were taking more and more time. It was clear we needed to grow and delegate so our clients got the best parts of our brains. After all, this is why clients hire us in the first place; they lean on us for our media marketing expertise so they can focus on other parts of their business.

Make Room for Growth

We are constantly encouraging our clients to try new things—a new platform, a new ad, a different media buy—to achieve optimized results. “It’s difficult to create positive growth if you close yourself off to fresh perspectives and new ideas,” said Stephanie in her interview. For us, this meant making room on our team for someone who can help us work harder and smarter, while delivering more value.

Minimize Mistakes

If you don’t have a Director of Operations—or someone handling your media marketing—you don’t know what you are missing (unless you are missing deadlines, meetings, and sales opportunities—then you know all too well). By growing a team you trust, you create time to focus, to brainstorm, and to challenge ideas, often smoothing out wrinkles before they have a chance to set in.

At MediaSpark, we have prided ourselves on being an effortless extension of our clients’ marketing teams. Their end customers never know our name, but the results speak for themselves and on every channel. When it comes to expanding your own marketing team, the trick is knowing both how and who; for us it was creating the Director of Operations role and finding someone like Stephanie to fill it.

How will you expand your own marketing efforts?