If you’re scaling past $1M, $5M, or even $10M+, you can’t afford dysfunction between marketing and operations. And yet, it’s everywhere. One team is launching campaigns like confetti, while the other is duct-taping backend systems to survive the fallout.
In this episode of the Special Ops Podcast, Emma Rainville and Yara Golden rip the lid off this dysfunction and explain why so many businesses stall, burn out, or quietly implode.
Below are the 7 real, raw reasons your marketing and ops are costing you money and exactly how to turn the chaos into clarity.
1. Marketing and Ops Speak Different Languages
Marketing lives in “what if.” Ops lives in “what’s real.”
This isn’t about personality differences. It’s about functional misalignment. Marketers throw around ideas like candy that is half-baked offers, viral hooks, limited-time bonuses and expect teams to “run with it.” But ops hears those same ideas as mandates.
The result? Time wasted. Money spent. Projects abandoned mid-flight. Resentment festers.
👉 Fix it:
Build explicit communication protocols. Define the difference between idea exploration and execution discussion. If you’re the marketer, say: “I’m just playing with ideas. Don’t act on anything yet.” If you’re in ops, don’t assume “we should try this” means “build it today.”
2. You’re Holding Meetings That Shouldn’t Be Meeting
Ops shows up with checklists. Marketing shows up with chaos.
Marketers call it a “planning session” and mean “let’s brainstorm.” Ops hears “planning” and assumes a go-live date. Then they build it…only to be told two weeks later: “Oh, we’re not doing that anymore.”
That’s not just annoying. It’s expensive.
👉 Fix it:
Have two types of meetings:
- Brain Dumps: No execution allowed. Ideas only. Space to play.
- Execution Planning: Ideas already vetted, now we build.
Emma’s take: You can brainstorm solo. Show up with something real to work from…or don’t call it a meeting.
3. Creative Chaos Isn’t Being Filtered or Prioritized
Most visionaries throw out 100 ideas.
Ops teams try to execute 10 of them.
Only 1 should’ve made it past the notebook.
The disconnect isn’t a lack of ideas, it’s the lack of a filtration system. No one’s asking: “Is this aligned to our actual goal?” Everyone’s busy. But busy doesn’t equal productive.
👉 Fix it:
Appoint an integrator, or assign a strategic operator to filter the idea firehose. Emma’s teams use recurring “brain dump” sessions where founders pour out every wild idea and then filter by ROI, timeline, and operational bandwidth.
Yara coined “process parties” to make systems fun for creatives. Don’t laugh…it works. It’s marketing strategy wrapped in operational infrastructure. That’s how scale happens.
4. No One Is Selling the Vision to the Internal Team
Here’s the irony: Your marketing team can sell a $1,997 offer to strangers…
But can’t explain to your fulfillment team why this funnel matters.
When you don’t sell the internal vision, your team just sees tasks. Not transformation. And when people are executing blindly, they burn out fast.
👉 Fix it:
Use Emma’s WAVE Framework (Vision, Alignment, Values, Execution). If you don’t have an internal story for why your current push matters, people default to resentment. Marketing should sell the dream internally before they sell the offer externally.
Remember: “Your team isn’t your staff. They’re your first buyers.”
5. Passive-Aggressive Culture Is Killing Your Growth
The real problem isn’t loud conflict. It’s quiet resentment.
Snide Slack messages. Side group chats. Meetings filled with fake smiles and silent judgments.
And once that passive-aggression leaks into lower levels, you’re done. Emma’s seen companies implode from it…because no one had the courage to say: “Hey, we’re not on the same page. Let’s fix it.”
👉 Fix it:
Steal this leadership line from Emma:
“I don’t know what I’m doing that’s making us feel at odds. How can I show up better so we can both succeed?”
It disarms ego. Reopens the lines. And most importantly, it re-centers the mission.
Because the real enemy isn’t each other. It’s inefficiency, misalignment, and slow death by dysfunction.
6. You’re Setting “Goals” Instead of Making Commitments
“I want to hit $5M” is not a commitment.
“I will launch X, Y, and Z this quarter, with a complete backend in place” is.
Marketers love dreaming. Operators live for execution. But goals without commitments are like vision boards without deadlines…useless.
👉 Fix it:
Kill the word “goal.” Replace it with “commitment.”
Yara explained how this one shift changed how she shows up for her ops team, for her launches, and for herself. She went from “I hope this happens” to “I will make this happen.” And the entire company leveled up.
7. Every Department Thinks They’re the Most Important
Let’s make this brutally clear:
You are not the most important department. Neither is your team.
Marketing without ops = hype without delivery.
Ops without marketing = great systems collecting dust.
Sales without CS = churn.
CS without product = noise.
👉 Fix it:
Shift from “me vs them” to “us vs the goal.”
Emma nailed it:
“Marketing is the gas. Ops is the engine. One without the other is either explosive or dead.”
When you stop competing and start collaborating, profit becomes predictable.
Final Word:
You don’t need another campaign, funnel, or idea.
You need alignment.
You need internal clarity.
You need your marketing and ops teams to stop bleeding your business dry.
🚀 Your Next Mission:
✅ Download the FREE Marketing + Ops Alignment Playbook. Get the 3-step framework, tools, and scripts: https://specialopspodcast.com/visionary-vault
✅ Send this episode to the person in your business who’s constantly butting heads with another team.
✅ Apply one fix this week and watch the energy shift.