At MOps-Apalooza 2025, I moderated a panel on 'How to start sharing your operations knowledge.' I was honored that these experts agreed to share their experiences in person in Anaheim, California, at this marketing operations and RevOps event: Alysha Khan, Sara McNamara, and Darrell Alfonso.
Ticket holders can watch the conference sessions on demand in the Accelevents portal until January 31, 2026. If you're looking for this session on the platform, it was on Wednesday at 10:55 am. It was one of the top ten most bookmarked sessions at the conference. Contact the Marketing Ops Community with any questions about viewing the recording.
Session description
This is the session description that was voted on by ticket holders to be included as a panel in the conference:
Until recently, Operations has been a behind-the-scenes department and role that didn't receive attention or many educational resources online, leaving professionals to learn through word-of-mouth and trial-and-error. This model of up-leveling and understanding is slow, doesn't scale, and leaves people feeling isolated and alone especially with the common 'team-of-one' ops situation at many companies.
That environment is starting to change in the past few years as communities like this and many individual operations experts have made their knowledge accessible to all, through podcasts, newsletters, books, courses, and more.If you'd like to contribute to this groundswell of knowledge-sharing to help other operations professionals learn from your mistakes and successes, where do you start? How do you complete this valuable work, beneficial for the community and for your own career, when you're already so busy in your stressful operations job?
A panel of operations professionals who regularly share their knowledge will share their strategies for making time for this important work, things to avoid, tactics for efficient and effective distribution, and more. There will also be an audience Q&A to help audience members with their specific roadblocks to starting to share their work.
Creating and curating the questions
I posted a request in several locations, asking about the questions marketing operations professionals have about this topic that they would like a panel of experts to answer. These audience questions served as the basis for the panel, along with a few additional questions designed to fill in gaps in the 'who-what-where-when-why-how' structure and address common objections or blockers to sharing experiences. The proposed questions and structure were also sent to the experts in advance, and adjustments were made based on their input.
For the structure mentioned above, the 'WHY' of sharing knowledge, or the 'WHY' of people attending the panel, could include:
- Helping other operations professionals learn from your mistakes and successes
- Helping yourself learn and remember what you’ve learned by documenting and processing that information
- Helping improve your visibility to advance your career
- And more
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Scroll down to read questions and answers related to: |
And the 'WHO' part of the structure was, of course, the experts, who introduced themselves at the beginning of the panel.
WHAT to share
How did you decide what topic to start sharing about?
Sara lived somewhere without a tech community, and after a layoff, wanted to move to California. She needed to build a network and get known there, so she started posting on LinkedIn. Just starting with a sentence or two of thoughts that seemed like no one would make fun of. People started interacting, so she continued.
Alysha had a few difficult jobs that taught her a lot that she wished she had known earlier, especially about Marketo. So she started making videos about that for people early in their careers or new to that tool.
Darrell talked about the different whys of sharing for each person. He also spoke about how content creation, building a following, selling services, thought leadership, and monetizing content are all distinct approaches. The writing that you do changes based on what you're trying to do, so think about your goal of sharing, because even the monetization piece is kind of a slog.
Alysha mentioned that she decided not to monetize her content work yet because it would force a publishing cadence, rather than sharing when the idea struck her. (This answers a bit of the 'WHEN' to share question as well).
How do you identify which of your daily ops experiences are actually worth sharing with people?
This is another question that could also address part of the 'when to share' topic.
Sara said she aims to discuss topics that people aren’t talking about, topics that could be helpful or relate to aspects of the work that are challenging. She talks with peers and coworkers, asking if they are experiencing the same thing, if they’ve noticed it, but just aren’t talking about it. This is the basis for many posts she shares, where everyone's experiencing a problem but suffering in silence. She said it helps to get it out there, share that information, or share the struggle, to help address the problem.
Alysha knows it's something worth sharing if she has a strong opinion, or a ‘I really wish somebody had told me this before I wasted the last hour of my life’ moment. Or when she’s wandering around the house muttering to herself about something, that indicates a strong opinion that other people may want to hear. Or they will think it’s the wrong opinion, and then it starts a discussion.
Darrell said that when you see other people's writing and guides, you start to realize that there's a better or different way to do it or say it, and that's a good start to identifying something worth sharing. Or a trigger for building onto what someone else shared, Sara said.
WHERE to share
Where did you start sharing your knowledge, and why did you choose that location/channel?
Darrell began creating content on the Marketo Nation forum. He spoke about how, when you would answer people's questions to try to help those people, the super experts of the time would kind of slap your hand or correct you. Darrell said it was incredibly intimidating and deterred many people from sharing. He kept going anyway and set a goal to write something every day in the community. Additionally, the forum was gamified, with points awarded for writing questions or responses. He thought of it as ‘I don't care if you told me I'm wrong. I'm just gonna do it.' And eventually you start to get it right, he said.
Alysha completed an undergraduate degree in journalism and has always been passionate about writing, so she started sharing her knowledge by writing blog posts and sharing them on LinkedIn. She began speaking more after joining the Marketo Champion Program, but initially chose to share information using the medium in which she felt most comfortable. So if you’re comfortable in front of a camera and need to process through out loud, video may be your first choice, she said. Alysha likes the editing ease of writing, ensuring it says exactly what she wants to say, without the barrier of learning video editing.
Sara has already spoken about starting sharing on LinkedIn. Sara added that when you first start posting, if there's not a lot of interaction, that is not a failure. You're getting the reps in, you're finding your voice, you're figuring out what resonates, and what you feel good about posting. And then, usually, over time, you'll find that other people interact with that... or you see everyone hated something, and delete it, like ‘never mind,’ she said.
Related to people not reacting or engaging with what you're sharing, Alysha mentioned a post from Lauren Aquilino that initially didn't receive many reactions, but there are pieces of it that still stick with Alysha (for those people who are chronically online, you could say it lives rent-free in your mind). So, even if people don't have an immediate reaction, she thinks you still have a chance to stick in the back of somebody's head. Another example was a LinkedIn article from Justin Norris about speed-to-lead technical setup, which she still thinks about. She said you need to publish because there will be somebody, even just one other person, who will see it, and one day they will pass that knowledge on to the next person.
HOW – time & process
How do you make time for sharing your knowledge?
I discussed time blocking for my newsletter work, knowing it would require a few hours every week, and made sure to reserve time for it and respect that time on my calendar. We briefly discussed how respecting that time can be challenging because life often gets in the way.
Darrell said that before he started a new job, he was able to publish his newsletter every week for 70 weeks. He knew it had to go out on Tuesday morning. So just like work projects, he was fitting it into his schedule. He spoke about how often you'll come up with ideas for a work problem while walking a dog or taking a shower. When this happens, he goes immediately to the phone, gets it all out of his head into a note, and then it's there when he's ready to edit. He said that the hard thing with time blocking is that you need inspiration first to be able to use that time, so writing notes in your phone in the moment will help you with that. Collect your ideas somewhere convenient, in the moment you have them, so you can revisit them when you have time to edit and expand on them.
Alysha said she was really consistent with her newsletter for a while, but then it dropped off because of life, including having a toddler. She likes to think about a general theme throughout the week, so something is in the back of her mind, cooking for most of the week. By Friday, she'll have enough to write on Saturday and then send it on Sunday. She doesn’t recommend that process, because then Saturday and Sunday are a do-or-die phase of stress. She’s working on collecting all her ideas more often, such as using voice notes that capture tone, and then sitting down to write. She will sometimes still share posts in the moment when an idea strikes.
Sara said she writes directly on LinkedIn when she has the thought. People ask her if she has a content calendar, but she says that the posts she publishes directly in the moment are usually her best. When you feel that inspiration, it comes to you more easily, she said. If she hesitated too much, then it wouldn't necessarily be the most honest thoughts on things.
Alysha said the longer she waits, the more worked up she gets on the strong opinion topics, so she likes to wait and edit for a good 24 hours (to let it simmer).
What is your process for creating & publishing?
We covered most of this topic above, as we are efficient operations people! Alysha added details about her very organized and operationalized process.
Alysha created an AI writing twin from all her articles, videos, speaking engagements, LinkedIn posts, newsletters, and voice recordings, so ChatGPT uses that as source material to reference her work, rather than creating randomness out of thin air. She thinks out loud in voice recordings and feeds them into ChatGPT to get a first draft. This helps to get the draft out of your head and onto paper, and not get stuck. Then she edits it, from a stylistic perspective and from a voice perspective. And then she sits on it for 24 hours, and comes back to it to make sure that it still sounds like her. So, if she has a random thought, she can turn on Loom, voice record it, and continue with her day. She also mentioned that she has a sort of time block for content creation-related work, as there's a 3-hour block on Saturdays when her parents watch her toddler.
CONFIDENCE & CONCERNS
Were you scared of looking foolish when you first started sharing your advice and experiences?
When Sara first started sharing, she said she wanted to keep it safe with little pieces of commentary. She said this is why doing the reps is so important, because the more practice or experience you get, the more you know how to handle the occasional troll and develop thicker skin. You also learn that most people are extremely supportive, especially in this community, she said.
Alysha said she was terrified when she started sharing information, since she was working with Marketo champions and felt she only knew the bare minimum. She was worried about saying something wrong. It helped to focus on an audience and think about what you could tell someone who knows a little less or is just a little earlier in their career than you, she said. Additionally, seeking advice and help from community members became a valuable way to learn more and then share that knowledge with others.
Have you ever avoided sharing a valuable lesson because it would expose how dysfunctional your current company's processes are?
Sara said this is tricky because sometimes people will see themselves even in a post that is not about them, even when posts are anonymized and distanced, and even when she focused on the lesson and not the people involved. Usually, the feedback she receives from coworkers is that they say they're glad she shared it, and they'll laugh with her about it, which encourages open communication within the team. Only one person has correctly identified themselves in a post, she said. "I used to hear people in my old job be like, Sara, is this gonna become a post?"
Alysha discussed referring to everyone in the content as a client or stakeholder, even for in-house jobs, to anonymize all parties. She also spoke about putting some time or distance between the situation and the publishing date.
How do you know what information can be shared publicly or ONLY shared internally in your company?
Darrell said it depends on your risk tolerance. At Amazon, which had a million employees, he thought they would never see his writing and speaking, and so he didn’t ask permission. They never did, even though he’s a public speaker. "I'm not saying do that," he said, because he has a high risk tolerance. However, at a more recent job, he began to feel the consequences and get his hand slapped, so to speak, as his reach had extended further and more people were seeing what he was sharing. He is and was very open about what he is writing. He said you have to become comfortable with what your boss is going to say when you’re writing, which can help you put a lens on what you're sharing. "It's a really gray area, and especially if you work in a legacy industry, people are not going to know what you're doing. They're going to think it's wrong. So it's going to be different for everybody," Darrell said.
Sara said that many companies have an employee handbook, and typically, it includes a social media section that outlines what employees can and cannot post. However, that does not prevent them from reprimanding you or bothering you about it. "I've had my LinkedIn post read to me by HR, which was a top three leaving-my-body experience," Sara said. However, that situation ultimately turned out fine; they were just not used to people posting information or being visible outside the company. Many companies are now accustomed to it, she said. It's becoming more encouraged, especially in software, because companies are realizing that authentic voices and faces are actually really good for their business.
Alysha added that your risk tolerance may be higher if you have a savings fund where you’d be financially OK if they fired you, which is the worst that could happen. And since posting and being visible are good for your career, finding a new source of income could be easier after that.
How do you share knowledge authentically when you're still learning and don't feel like a complete expert yet?
Alysha said that honestly admitting that you're not an expert, these are just your learnings, this is what has worked for me in these scenarios, and then letting other people own their space. She knows she will never know everything. There will always be more to learn, she said.
Darrell likes the advice to write to yourself three years ago, about what you wish you had known then.
LESSONS LEARNED
What would you do differently now if you were just starting to share your knowledge?
All the panelists agreed that they might start sharing a little earlier in their career or be a bit more consistent with sharing.
Darrell said that there are things we can’t control, like the LinkedIn algorithm, but there's still value in putting your ideas on paper. It makes you smarter. Even if it helped no one else, if no one sees it, it really helps you, he said.
Conclusion
With all the excellent insights the experts shared, we ran out of time for audience questions (which is my own lesson learned about planning the timing for each question in future panels of 3+ people), but I had lined up a few additional submitted questions in case time permitted, such as:
- How do you find your unique angle when it feels like everything in ops has already been covered?
- How do you balance being helpful vs. being seen as self-promotional when sharing in public places?
- How do you strike a balance between simplifying for non-ops team members without removing too much detail for understanding?
These may be added in a potential future 60-minute version of this evergreen topic panel, allowing for time for audience questions. This 30-minute time slot was a bit challenging to plan, and still allow time for natural conversations between panelists.
Thanks to the Marketing Ops Community team, MOPZA attendees, the production team for their amazing work, and, of course, a big thank you to Darrell, Sara, and Alysha!
You can connect with the operations panel professionals here: