A New Chapter – Welcoming Erika Reilly!

Join us in welcoming our new Director of Customer Success, Erika Reilly, responsible for enabling and supporting our customers in building successful podcasting programs for their businesses.

Customers may recognize Erika’s name from a uStudio Case Study or Podcast on Podcasting episode. That’s because Erika previously served as the Global Strategic Program Manager in the Technical Sales Organization at Dell Technologies. During her time, Erika was tasked with identifying the best private podcast platform to meet Dell’s needs … which was the start of her successful podcasting program hosted through uStudio!

Erika’s not only experienced starting and managing a private podcast program, but chock-full of best practices and energy to ensure uStudio customers reach their podcasting goals. We recently sat down with Erika to ask her a few questions about her new role and thoughts on corporate podcasting.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? 

I just joined uStudio after 6 years at Dell Technologies, previously EMC. I started there immediately after graduating from Boston College, where I studied Business Psychology and led the BC Cheerleading team (Go Eagles!). At Dell Technologies, I was a global strategic program manager in the Technical Sales organization, responsible for large-scale initiatives aligned to the vision of my leadership team, and they could be to benefit our people, enhance our go-to-market strategy or anywhere in between. Through that role, I fostered the skills to effectively establish global processes, manage a lot of moving parts, and drive organizational change. One of my first programs as a PM was to identify the best podcast platform to meet our needs, establish a strategy and process, and deploy across our 1500-person Specialist organization. That was the start of a great partnership with uStudio and how I ended up here! Outside of work, I love to spend time with my family and Cockapoos in Boston or eating lobster at our summer home in Maine. I enjoy golfing or going to the beach in the summer. I have also been getting back into skiing and snowboarding in the winter. Last season I spent time in Montana and Utah on the mountains, and it was a blast! You will find me doing pretty much anything I can to get outside or stay active. (Follow me on Peloton! @RikRides)

How do you feel about joining the uStudio team? 

I am thrilled to join the team! Everyone is so collaborative and innovative; working with uStudio as a customer was an incredible experience. Now, as a uStudio team member, I get to really be a part of the conversation, represent the needs of our customers and help shape the future of our product and business strategy.

What is it about podcasting that excites you? 

Private podcasting is so cutting edge and has truly changed the way the world communicates. Our inboxes are flooded, and it is difficult to juggle work responsibilities with our personal lives, so traditional communication and training methods are not nearly as effective or engaging. Mobility, accessibility, and on-the-go consumption is critical for an informed and enabled workplace - podcasting provides all of that and uStudio is leading the charge!

What was your favorite part of managing an enterprise podcast program? 

That is a tough one... I would have to say my favorite part was providing an avenue for our leader to be raw and candid with his people, which is particularly important in such a large organization. We were able to scale uStudio across our entire 5000-person technical sales organization. It allowed him to really connect with his audience while cascading critical messaging.

What was your biggest takeaway? 

The more the merrier... obviously for users, but especially for podcast admins and content creators. When I told people about this initiative, the excitement of bringing something so innovative to communications really drove interest and I used that to my advantage. When we launched uStudio we started our podcast pilot with 3 shows. I managed the production and publishing for the first show (applicable to all users), but I knew immediately that I needed to enable more admins. I created governance documentation to drive quality and consistency and self-help guides to teach admins how to use Audacity and Adobe Audition to create and produce content. Even though it wasn't part of their job responsibilities to own these shows, they were spending time and energy creating their own content because they saw the value.

What was something that was challenging for you when you managed Dell’s podcast program, that you hope to make easier for uStudio customers?

Starting from scratch. It was really fun, and intimidating, to build a communication and podcasting strategy from nothing. We were changing the way our audience was receiving critical information and that culture change was really tough. But I learned so much and created a variety of process and governance documentation to scale a podcast program. I am really looking forward to creating templates and sharing all of my best practices with our uStudio customers – these, along with our new Guided Services, will be invaluable for driving private podcast success.

We are excited to have Erika on board and know she will help make your private podcast the best it can be. uStudio customers with technical questions or issues should continue to reach out to support@ustudiostage.wpengine.com.