Post #17: My Brazil Operations Experience

During my time as VP of Operations in Brazil, one of my biggest challenges was centralizing telemarketing operations across 12 campuses with only a 2nd grader’s level of fluency in Portuguese. We relocated everything to Rio de Janeiro, merging 12 decentralized telemarketing departments into one cohesive team. It took nearly six months to set up, and as someone new to both sales and telemarketing, I had to learn quickly.

The company was highly decentralized, so I held daily calls with all school directors twice a day for nearly two months to ensure accuracy in KPIs, daily reports, and procedures. While streamlining operations, sales were lagging. Fortunately, I found a mentor from Full Sail University who flew down to give me a crash course on sales strategy, telemarketing basics, and how to leverage KPIs to drive admission rates.

I faced two significant challenges: first, standardizing operations across multiple campuses, which required persistence and reinforcement of my message. Culture isn’t built in a day, and changing it takes time and commitment. The second challenge was improving sales, which required outside expertise. I waste no time picking up the phone or shooting an email to an expert or trusted mentor whenever I’m facing unfamiliar territory. While it's becoming rarer as I progress in my career to make decisions without full confidence, I still don’t leave things up to chance. Even today, if I’m uncertain, I reach out for guidance and review my work 5x-10x times rather than hope for the best.