What does it take to scale a community-led business without burning out or selling out?

In this episode, Mike Rizzo, founder of MarketingOps.com, shares how he transformed a personal need for connection into a thriving community of thousands of marketing operations professionals. Mike opens up about the scrappy early days, the pressure of funding a million-dollar conference, and the moment he realized they needed to shift from sponsorships to a sustainable membership model.

He talks about the tactical side of building community infrastructure, the lessons he learned from using Slack, and why he believes your go-to-market stack should be treated like a product.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:17) Mike’s start in marketing ops

(03:23) Founding MarketingOps.com

(05:06) Why Mike committed to a $1M event

(08:12) Cash flow stress and high-stakes decisions

(11:06) Defining community success

(14:38) Growth via automation and feedback loops

(17:24) The challenges of using Slack for community

(19:36) Building the chairperson program

(22:00) Going all in after layoffs

(25:02) Shifting to a membership model

(30:10) What makes MOps-Apalooza different

(32:11) Why GTM needs product thinking

(35:02) The vision for certified GTM professionals

Connect with our guest:

• Mike Rizzo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedrizzo/
• Learn more about MarketingOps.com: https://marketingops.com/

Connect with Daren:

• Daren Lauda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darenlauda/
• Learn more about Outset: https://outsetops.com/

This episode is sponsored by:

Learn more about ekai: https://yourekai.com/