Consulting, Client Relationships & Career Growth with Mike Rizzo

Michael Hartmann (0:00)

Hi, I'm Michael Hartmann.

Naomi Liu (0:01)

I'm Naomi Liu.

Michael Hartmann (0:02)

And I'm Mike Rizzo. And this is Ops Cast.

Naomi Liu (0:06)

A podcast for Marketing Ops Pros.

Michael Hartmann (0:08)

And Rev Ops Pros. Created by the MoPros, the number one community for the marketing operations professionals.

Naomi Liu (0:15)

Tune in to each episode as we chat with real professionals to help elevate you in your marketing operations career.

Courtney Makara (0:23)

Hello, I'm Courtney Makara, and this is the Society of Marketing Technology Consulting Podcast. SMTC has joined forces with the marketingops.com community, but our mission is still the same, to educate and support anyone involved in the MarTech world as a consultant.

Michael Hartmann (0:39)

Hey, this is Mike from marketingops.com. If you're thinking about going into consulting or you're already a successful consultant, join us online by becoming a member. As a pro member, you can join the SMTC and other private networks at marketingops.com.

Courtney Makara (0:55)

In this podcast series, Grant Gregorian and I interviewed guests on their journeys as consultants. We discussed all that it means to be a great MarTech consultant from setting up their business or joining an agency and how to find new clients and keep their existing clients happy. I hope you enjoy the interview.

Today joining us is Mike Rizzo with WeWork in New York City. Hi, Mike.

Mike Rizzo (1:18)

Hey Courtney, how are you?

Courtney Makara (1:19)

I'm doing good. Thanks for joining.

Mike Rizzo (1:21)

Thanks for having me. This is fun.

Courtney Makara (1:23)

Yeah.

We're going to pester you with questions about your work history and your experience doing marketing operations work, both as a full-time employee and you did some agency experience as well, correct? I have. Once you tell us a little bit about that first transition, about going from the traditional American dream of the W2 employee to leaving that comfort, and what made you decide to go a little bit of a different route?

Mike Rizzo (1:54)

Sure. One of the first things that always excited me about an agency was the concept of working with different types of people, projects, companies, industries.

I'm working with different professionals with different backgrounds from coding technical experience to developing and all different types of skills. So just really getting that experience with different types of people and projects. I always just found really, really exciting.

Courtney Makara (2:24)

That's very cool. How did, how comfortable were you making that leap? You're like, okay, this sounds exciting. I get to work with all these different people. But was it was, was it just like, oh, there's a job opening and I'm going to apply. No big deal. Or were you a little bit nervous to change gears and really be that outside, you know, consulting relationship or did it come natural to you?

Mike Rizzo (2:45)

So yeah, I was, to be honest, I was a little hesitant at first because I never really considered myself a consultant. But once I got in there with my team at Digital Pi, based off of how much I've learned from them in terms of even just from knowledge to even like personal confidence, I kind of started to sink in maybe like a year into the role that, wow, okay, I actually know some things. I've seen different projects that folks might not have had.

So a little hesitant at first, but with the support of an agency behind me, it became much more comfortable in the end.

Grant Gregorian (3:31)

I've heard that before where people, can you just explore that feeling of uncomfortable being a consultant? What made you think that you wouldn't be, like you know so much, you've done so much in the Mops role in your other companies. Why do you think you hesitated? What did you think it was like?

What was the disconnect between what you thought consultant was like, and the fact that once you got in there, you found out, oh wait, I could totally do this. What do you think that came from?

Mike Rizzo (4:04)

So for me, I had two previous roles at startups in New York City, and I've always thought of consultants of these, like seasoned veterans. They have been all over different companies and have this wealth of knowledge. But once I started my role, you realize that other companies have very similar issues, database wise, all different reasons. And I just realized that, okay, maybe this isn't as scary as I thought it was going to be. No, again, it came with the support of other team members that if it was maybe a situation where I wasn't comfortable in, whether it's like a high level executive kind of strategic meeting at first to bring in other team members for that support. So I would say it was kind of the initial fear of not knowing everything and advising people on those decisions, but then once you got in there, you realize that the team has your support, that wouldn't put you in a situation that's not comfortable, and then you learn from it.