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On today's episode, we talk with Ahmad Moore, founder of Pressure Marketing, to unpack his unconventional but deeply inspiring journey into marketing operations. From IT help desk roots to sales leadership and now running his own MOps-focused agency, Ahad shares how leaning into empathy, technical curiosity, and a hunger for alignment helped shape his path.

✨ Tune in to hear:

• Why marketing ops is “IT with better branding” — and why that matters
• The underrated power of listening deeply and building an “empathy engine”
• How cross-functional experience in sales, strategy, and support creates a sharper MOps perspective
• Lessons learned from building systems under pressure (literally and figuratively)
• How Ahad is using AI and HubSpot to scale smarter, not harder

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On today's episode, Mike Rizzo talks with Martin Pietrzak, founder and president of Pinch Marketing, to unpack what Google and others have called “the messy middle” of today’s buyer’s journey.

Gone are the days of the simple, linear sales funnel. Instead, buyers loop through endless cycles of exploration, evaluation, and self-education before they ever talk to sales — if they do at all. Martin shares how marketing ops pros can embrace this new reality by becoming strategic partners who help build flexible data-driven systems that enable real-time insights, better attribution, and scalable growth.

You’ll hear:

• Why the messy middle exists — and how buyers’ behavior has changed forever.
• How technology, data, and AI are reshaping go-to-market architecture.
• The critical role marketing ops plays as the “marketing scientist” in modern organizations.
• Practical steps to capture buyer signals and turn them into actionable insights.
• Why marketing ops leaders must think like product managers to architect the GTM stack.

Whether you’re building your ops career or leading teams through complex martech stacks, this episode is packed with insights you can apply right away.

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In today's episode,  we talk with Irwin Hipsman, founder of Repititos, to explore the often-overlooked world of customer marketing and the critical role of customer contact data. Irwin shares findings from his recent research report on the state of customer contact databases, revealing why so many organizations struggle with poor data quality and how it impacts customer communications, renewals, and crisis response.

Together, they dive into:

• The definition of customer contact databases and why focusing on individuals—not accounts—is crucial.
• Key findings from Irwin's research, including an industry-average database health score of just 47%.
• The importance of cross-functional teams in maintaining healthy customer data.
• Actionable steps ops professionals can take to assess, clean, and maintain customer data health.
• Why better customer data translates directly into stronger customer relationships, higher retention, and better crisis management.

Whether you're in marketing ops, customer marketing, or revenue operations, this conversation offers practical insights that can help transform your organization's approach to customer data management.

Access the customer health score assessment here.

Access Irwin's report here.

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On todays episode, we talk with Rick Collins, Vice President of Demand Generation at ConnectWise, to explore his unconventional yet inspiring journey from IT to marketing operations and ultimately into executive marketing leadership. Rick shares how he transitioned from managing systems to driving demand, the pivotal career moments that shaped his path, and the leadership lessons he’s learned along the way. Whether you're early in your marketing ops career or looking to break into leadership, this conversation is packed with valuable takeaways on navigating transitions, building trust, and expanding your influence.

Tune in to hear:

• Rick’s unique career path from IT and QA into marketing operations and eventually to a VP role in demand generation.
• How to leverage technical and relational skills to create career mobility within marketing.
• The importance of curiosity, relationship-building, and challenging assumptions—internally and externally—for leadership growth.
• Insights into managing through organizational change, including private equity acquisitions and team restructuring.
• Tips on transitioning from managing ICs to managing other managers, including the importance of communication, presentation skills, and executive alignment.

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The rise of AI tools has dramatically changed the landscape of email marketing and sales outreach, creating both exciting opportunities and significant risks. As Mustafa Saeed, co-founder and CEO of Luella, explains in this eye-opening conversation, many revenue teams are now "scared shitless" about how their reps might abuse these powerful new technologies.

When AI-powered automation tools are implemented without proper guardrails, organizations face serious threats to their brand reputation, domain health, and even compliance standing. The problem isn't AI itself, but rather "AI coupled with reckless automation" that floods inboxes with content that lacks genuine value. As email service providers like Google and Microsoft respond with increasingly aggressive spam filters, even legitimate messages from trusted senders are getting caught in the crossfire.

The solution isn't abandoning AI but reimagining how we use it. While many AI tools promise to remove humans from the loop, Saeed argues for bringing them back in through thoughtful collaboration between humans and AI agents. This approach combines the best of both worlds—AI's ability to analyze vast datasets and humans' talent for building authentic relationships.

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Ever wondered why your marketing data isn't delivering the insights you need? The answer lies in what Nicole Alvarez calls "the ugly work" – those essential but unglamorous tasks that create the foundation for beautiful marketing results.

In today's episode, Nicole, a Solutions Architect at ClearPivot with a fascinating background in psychology and cognitive science, explains why field audits, permission sets, and process documentation deserve more attention. Drawing from her experience across multiple industries, she reveals how these behind-the-scenes elements enable the exciting, visible outcomes that marketing teams celebrate.

We explore a powerful technique for demonstrating the value of data cleanup – building reports with bad data to show stakeholders why investment in data quality matters. When executives see inaccurate reports that don't reflect business reality, they better understand why dedicating resources to "boring" operational work is essential. 

Whether you're struggling to maintain clean data, communicate the value of operations work to executives, or simply looking to improve your marketing systems, this episode offers practical wisdom from seasoned professionals. Subscribe to OpsCast for more insights on the critical work that happens behind the scenes in successful marketing operations.

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Join us as we welcome back Garrath Robinson and first-time guest Sebastian Hidalgo from RevXcel for a deep dive into what it really takes to execute a go-to-market (GTM) strategy effectively today. Spoiler: it’s not just about tactics or tools—it’s about speed, trust, and team unity.

Garrath and Sebastian challenge the old playbook of siloed teams and rigid strategies, and instead offer practical insights into how GTM execution needs to evolve to match buyer behavior and internal team dynamics. From sales being the true face of the brand to using frameworks like STRIKE and SWAT to stay agile, this conversation is packed with hard-earned lessons and bold takes.

💡 Episode Highlights

• Why connection and speed are the only competitive advantages left in a post-AI world
• How frontline execution—not just strategy—can make or break your GTM motion
• The gap between marketing and sales (and why the “revenue team” mindset matters more than ever)
• Why “best practices” might be your biggest blocker to moving fast and being relevant
• How frameworks like STRIKE and SWAT bring clarity and execution back to the people doing the work

🎧 Tune in to rethink how your team shows up at every stage of the buyer journey—and why now’s the time to ditch the handoffs and play as one team.

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Feeling swamped by marketing operations busy work?

AI-powered automation can help you reclaim your time — but knowing what’s real versus hype isn’t easy.

In this episode, Tarun Arora, a marketing tech veteran and founder of RevCrew, explains how AI goes beyond traditional rule-based automation by handling tasks that require human judgment. He shares how "agentic AI" systems act like virtual team members — making decisions, managing your tools, and only checking in when needed.

You'll hear real-world examples, from inbox management and campaign optimization to audience selection, showing how AI can eliminate busy work and free you up for more strategic projects.

Tarun also offers practical advice on where to start: focus on your biggest needs first, test real use cases, and remember — this is just mile one.

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When your marketing team needs to produce thousands of content pieces each month, the operational challenges can become overwhelming. In this eye-opening conversation with Satej Sirur, founder and CEO of Rocketium, we explore the emerging field of Creative Operations and how it's transforming how enterprise brands manage their content production.

Satej shares how his "pet project" evolved into a platform that now helps performance marketers and creative teams work more efficiently together. We unpack the fundamental tension between creative expression and performance optimization - a struggle familiar to anyone who's tried balancing brand guidelines with marketing results.

The most fascinating insights come when we discuss what makes creative content perform well. While marketers claim to be data-driven, few have systematically analyzed which creative elements drive results. Should your logo be larger in awareness campaigns? Does showing a product outside its packaging perform better than inside? Most decisions rely on gut feelings rather than data. Rocketium changes this by extracting creative attributes and correlating them with performance metrics to identify winning patterns.

For organizations producing high volumes of content (2,000+ pieces monthly) with substantial teams (10+ members) and significant ad spend ($5-10M minimum), Creative Ops solutions offer a way to eliminate repetitive tasks and focus on strategic decisions. Satej emphasizes that technology alone isn't enough - implementing these solutions requires a cultural shift toward data-informed decision-making while still respecting creative expertise.

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What does it take to elevate marketing operations from a technical support function to a strategic business driver? AJ Driscoll reveals how understanding product marketing fundamentals transformed his career trajectory from system administrator to co-leader of an entire marketing department.

The journey begins with a data-driven approach to validating and refining ideal customer profiles (ICPs). Rather than accepting conventional wisdom about target markets, AJ demonstrates how combining quantitative analysis with qualitative research creates powerful insights that sales teams can actually use. He walks us through his methodology for evaluating historical win rates, customer demographics, and industry trends to identify where businesses should focus their efforts.

Most remarkably, AJ shares his unique philosophy on cross-functional collaboration. "My job is to help other people be better at their jobs," he explains, detailing how this service-oriented mindset helped him build relationships throughout his organizations. From creating automated alerts for sales teams to designing ROI tracking systems with finance, these collaborative efforts eventually earned him company-wide recognition typically reserved for top salespeople.

For marketing operations professionals looking to expand their impact, AJ offers practical advice on developing business intelligence skills and becoming industry experts. He shares how new AI tools have accelerated the research process, allowing ops professionals to quickly gain domain knowledge that enhances their strategic contributions. The combination of technical expertise, product marketing understanding, and collaborative spirit creates the foundation for a marketing operations professional who can truly drive business success.

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