EPISODE · May 7, 2026 · 29 MIN
The Operations Editor: How Leah Leaves Fixes the Silent Killer Inside Marketing Agencies
from The Authority X-Factor Podcast · host Kelly Schuknecht | Two Mile High Marketing
In this episode of The Authority X-Factor Podcast, host Kelly Schuknecht sits down with Leah Leaves, founder of Alderaan Enterprise, to explore what happens when a journalist-turned-operations-specialist spends a decade inside marketing and advertising agencies and realizes that creative chaos, not bad strategy, is the thing quietly killing most of them. Leah started her career in technical journalism, went remote at the very beginning of her professional life, and evolved through content marketing into a fractional operations role that eventually became its own company. Since founding Alderaan in 2012, she has embedded seasoned directors of operations, project managers, and fractional COOs directly into agencies that are ready to stop drowning in their own growth. Leah's story is one of organic evolution, honest self-assessment, and learning to articulate what she had been doing by instinct for years. Her Authority X-Factor is the ability to see an organization from 30,000 feet and from boots on the ground at the same time, and to build the infrastructure that connects those two views into something that actually moves. In this episode, you'll discover: Leah's Authority X-Factor: Why operations is the silent killer inside most marketing agencies, and why so many founders never see it coming until they are already in the weeds How Alderaan evolved from a solo independent contractor practice into a full fractional team The difference between a task rabbit hire and a true operations partner, and how Leah helps founders understand which one they actually need Why Leah compares great operations to great theater The Alderaan approach and how it systematically addresses an agency's vision, existing systems, and execution layer in a way that respects each agency's unique culture Leah also shares her honest advice to her day-one self Resources: Alderaan Enterprise Website: https://alderaanenterprise.com/ Connect with Leah Leaves on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/1eah1eaves/ Alderaan Newsletter: https://agency.alderaanenterprise.com/newsletter-in Leah's Podcast Guestings: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/51DXfuBcgsYKfzJKrQuYkJ?si=XDsYZ1TERPqjV0BI8YXw4g&nd=1&dlsi=2763cf11cb9b42d6 Connect with Kelly Schuknecht: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyschuknecht Buy Unlocking Your Authority X-Factor on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0el8IVIm Website: https://twomilehighmarketing.com | https://kellyschuknecht.com Subscribe to The Authority X-Factor Podcast on your favorite platform and leave a review if this episode added value to you!
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What this episode covers
In Episode 8 of The Authority X-Factor Podcast, Kelly Schuknecht sits down with Leah Leaves, founder of Alderaan Enterprise, whose career began in technical journalism and evolved organically into one of the most specialized fractional operations practices in the agency world. Leah has been solving the same problem for over a decade: marketing and advertising agencies that are brilliant at the creative work and completely overwhelmed by the operational infrastructure required to sustain it. This episode covers the full arc of her career from solo contractor to fractional COO to building a team of embedded operations leaders, the burnout that came from taking on too much, and the journalism-trained framework that turned out to be the secret architecture behind everything she does.
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The Operations Editor: How Leah Leaves Fixes the Silent Killer Inside Marketing Agencies
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