After 19 conversations with some of the sharpest operators around, I’m closing the year** with someone who rewired how I think about building process: Laura Warden.

Your job as an operator is to make things work. So you do. You patch. You duct-tape. You make something 10% better, then 15%, then 20%. Over time, you get excellent at optimising a system that (maybe) shouldn’t exist in the first place. Laura brought me back to the idea of constructing or reconstructing from first principles: “If you could build this optimally from day one, would it look like this?”

She’s operated across different scales and contexts—running recruitment and talent at Hays, managing ~500 people at Google, and now supporting dozens of companies as Head of Operations at Folklore Ventures.

We touch on her journey and:

• How dyslexia shaped her superpowers
• Scaling hurdles: moving too fast without process, founder span-of-control failure, and insufficient communication
• Why leadership teams need to feel visible (and Google’s multi-modal comms example)
• The management triangle: Empathy + Business outcomes + Clear direction
• Why your job isn’t to be the hero—it’s to build an environment where heroes can emerge
• Your network as an external brain (and why it needs to be small and value-driven)
• Rising above the weeds: asking, “What have I missed? What’s going to derail this or make it less impactful?”
• Hiring observations: companies hiring a generalist operator first, then building specialist teams around them
• Laura's motto: "Sh*t happens. Accept it. Then figure out how you pick yourself, your team, and the organisation up from that.

**P.S. Catch my solo episode, "What the Year Taught Me", on December 23, before we tuck into the cauli' cheese and Christmas cheer.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Teresa Lilly
• Savannah Black
• Dianne Ward
• Nicole Hopkins
• Alister Coleman
• Rochelle Ritchie
• Sundar Pichai
• Romy Bundy
• Naomi Browne

Guest ideas?

Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please share your suggestions with me via LinkedIn.

A note from your host, Laura:

My goal for Calling Operator is to open-source stories from startup operators across various functional areas and learn how they excel at building and scaling companies. As a Chief of Staff, I often find myself in (virtual) rooms with people facing similar challenges and reinventing the wheel. I want this podcast to open a line for operators across Australia and New Zealand to learn from fellow operators. Each episode shares personal stories, the execution behind big ideas, career-defining moments, successes, failures, and lessons.

Never miss an episode:

Subscribe on your favourite platform:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• (Other) CallingOperator.com

Every great founder has a small Avengers team turning vision into operational reality. This episode shines a light on someone running marketing, customer and revenue operations while acting as the CEO’s trusted right-hand.

Inside:

• 15+ years' CRM, ops, and scaling insights from a multi-functional perspective—from Sonar6 (acquired by Cornerstone), AskNicely, Plexure (formerly VMob) and Joyous
• Leaving memorable marks that show character and care
• Balancing startup freedom with enterprise rigour as Ask Nicely’s first employee
• Why Joyous turned off the tap on traditional marketing—and what broke
• Knowing when to keep systems simple vs. adding complexity
• The CEO partnership model that makes Ruby (Joyous' CEO) say: “I wouldn’t be here without him”
• When to leverage AI and when to stay firmly human
• Spotting whether you’re building or maintaining, and when you’ve outgrown your role

Guest ideas?

Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please share your suggestions with me via LinkedIn.

A note from your host, Laura:

My goal for Calling Operator is to open-source stories from startup operators across various functional areas and learn how they excel at building and scaling companies. As a Chief of Staff, I often find myself in (virtual) rooms with people facing similar challenges and reinventing the wheel. I want this podcast to open a line for operators across Australia and New Zealand to learn from fellow operators. Each episode shares personal stories, the execution behind big ideas, career-defining moments, successes, failures, and lessons.

Never miss an episode:

Subscribe on your favourite platform:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• (Other) CallingOperator.com

Laura Nicol dials into Anna Prell, VP Operations at Ivo.

Anna reminds us why being an operator is a) so damn exciting and b) the ultimate leadership testing ground:

"In a startup, you can be your own version of a founder. You’re the founder of whatever it is you’re in charge of. You keep testing, learning, and scaling until it works."

Inside this conversation:

• Moving to the US in 2020—and operating inside ANZ companies state-side
• Shifting from Chief of Staff to leading a function (Ops > Customer Success)
• Learning how to manage people
• EAB acquiring Forage—Anna’s role in the story
• Finding a home in EAB post-acquisition
• The operator-founder partnership. Pure MAGIC
• Building again at Ivo as VP Ops
• How she found the “right fit”
• Building the infrastructure that helps teams scale

Want to connect with Anna? Find her on LinkedIn.

Also mentioned:

• Olga Eippert
• Min-Kyu Jung
• Jacob Duligall
• Amy Glancey
• Clara Ma
• Alicia Wells

Pre-interview chats:

• Katie Noonan (Listen to Katie's Calling Operator episode)
• Tom Brunskill

Guest ideas?

Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please share your suggestions with me via LinkedIn.

A note from your host, Laura:

My goal for Calling Operator is to open-source stories from startup operators across various functional areas and learn how they excel at building and scaling companies. As a Chief of Staff, I often find myself in (virtual) rooms with people facing similar challenges and reinventing the wheel. I want this podcast to open a line for operators across Australia and New Zealand to learn from fellow operators. Each episode shares personal stories, the execution behind big ideas, career-defining moments, successes, failures, and lessons.

Never miss an episode:

Subscribe on your favourite platform:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• (Other) CallingOperator.com