Ops Cast

MarketingOps.com

Ops Cast, by MarketingOps.com, is a podcast for Marketing Operations Pros by Marketing Ops Pros. Hosted by Michael Hartmann, Mike Rizzo & Naomi Liu

  1. vor 17 Std.

    State of the MOPro - Mid 2026/with Naomi, Mike, and Michael

    Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show! What does mid-2026 actually feel like for the people running marketing and revenue ops? And has AI made the work better, or just harder in new ways? Michael Hartmann is back with co-hosts Naomi Liu and Mike Rizzo for one of their rare three-amigos episodes, a wide-open conversation recorded at the halfway point of 2026. No guest, no agenda, just three ops practitioners talking honestly about what's happening in the field, what they're seeing in the community, and where things feel like they're heading. The conversation moves from the present state of AI in marketing ops to the bigger, harder questions underneath it. These questions are about the gap between AI hype and actual operationalisation, what it means to lead teams through expectations that keep changing, and what none of them know how to tell their kids about the world those kids are going to inherit. Topics covered in this episode: Whether AI has made marketing ops and revenue ops easier or harder, and why "harder" might be the more honest answerThe gap between how educated people are on what technology can do and how difficult it still is to actually operationaliseFindings (early) from the MO Pros AI assessment benchmark study, including how bots contaminated the data and what human intuition caught that the AI missedJensen Huang's pushback on CEOs blaming AI for layoffs, and what the ops community thinks about that framingHow the current AI moment is different from previous technology waves: it is changing who does things, not just how they get doneThe post-scarcity economy concept and what it might mean for the future of labour and valueEpisode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations Professionals Support the show

    39 Min.
  2. 22. Juni

    Why Most AI Initiatives Fail with Paul Shirer

    Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show! Despite massive investment in AI, many organizations are struggling to generate meaningful business impact. Why? According to Paul Shirer, most companies are treating AI as a tooling problem when it's really a workflow and adoption problem. In this episode, hosts Michael Hartmann sit down with Paul, Founder & CEO of Infinite Ideas AI and Director of AI & GTM Technology at Bridge Partners. Together, they discussed where AI adoption goes wrong, how leaders should think about workflow design and decision-making, and what it actually takes to move beyond experimentation toward measurable value. In this episode: Why AI is a workflow and adoption problem, not a tooling problemWhat's really causing the high failure rate of AI initiativesHow to tell useful AI adoption apart from "agent sprawl"Why Paul moved away from end-to-end automated workflows, and what changed his mindWhat a connected workspace looks like in practiceBalancing flexibility and governance when every team wants a custom solutionWhy the data layer matters even more in an AI-driven environmentWhether you're being asked to justify AI investments or trying to turn experimentation into real results, this is a practical conversation for operators closing the gap between AI hype and AI impact. Learn more about MarketingOps and The MO Pros community at MarketingOps.com. If you enjoyed this episode, do subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone in the ops community who would find it valuable. Episode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations Professionals Support the show

    55 Min.
  3. 15. Juni

    The Missing Layer Between Strategy and Execution in Marketing with Charral Izhiman

    Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show! What if the biggest marketing problem in your organization isn't the marketing team at all? In this episode, Michael Hartmann sits down with Charral Izhiman, Head of Marketing at Bayobab and author of The Marketing Movement, for a conversation about why so many organizations still misunderstand what marketing is supposed to do, and what it takes to fix that from both sides. Charral's perspective is refreshingly different. Her book isn't written to teach marketers how to market. It's written to help non-marketing leaders understand how to actually work with marketing.  That framing opens up a rich discussion about the gap between strategy and execution, and why Ops professionals may be the best-positioned people in the business to close it. In this conversation, they discuss: The outdated assumptions organizations still hold about marketing, and how marketers unintentionally reinforce themWhy Ops teams sitting at the intersection of marketing, sales, finance, and leadership are uniquely positioned as translators across the businessThe SHAPE framework, and why "Activation" is the overlooked layer between planning and resultsWhy organizations romanticize strategy and celebrate execution but skip operational readiness in the middleThe Formula 1 metaphor for marketing leadership: everything that has to come together before you can even competeWhether you're in Marketing Ops, RevOps, or marketing leadership, this episode is full of ideas for anyone trying to bridge the gap between strategy, operations, and the rest of the business.  The conversation doesn't end here. Explore the full SHAPE framework and more in Charral's book, The Marketing Movement: https://themarketing-movement.com/ Episode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations Professionals Support the show

    50 Min.
  4. 8. Juni

    Moving Faster Without Breaking Everything - AI, Risk, and the Human Side of Change with Andrea Tarrell

    Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show! For years, the hard part of ops work was building the technology. Now the tech is getting easier while the people and process side is getting harder. So why are so many organizations still stuck debating AI instead of activating it? In this episode, host Michael Hartmann sits down with Andrea Tarrell, President of the Tech Services line at Trilliad and CEO of Sercante. Together, they discussed the human side of change in the AI world with speed, trust, risk tolerance, and the trade-offs GTM teams are making right now. In this episode: Why the technology got easier, but the people and process side got harderHow much of AI adoption is really a trust and change management problem, not a tech oneFear of job replacement vs. plain organizational inertiaAI may not replace your job, but someone using it well may outperform someone who refuses to adaptSolving the tension between "move faster with AI" and "watch out for the risks."What companies get wrong about risk management and tolerance for risk in the AI worldWhy old governance frameworks may not fit a world of fast experimentationAnd a lot more...Whether you lead an ops team or sit inside one, this is a timely conversation about innovation, speed, governance, and practical business reality. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone in the ops community who would find it valuable. Episode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations Professionals Support the show

    50 Min.
  5. 1. Juni

    The Dirty Little Secret of AI in Marketing Ops With David York

    Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show! Today, most teams aren't just struggling to build their AI strategies. The real struggle begins when they try to execute their strategies. In this episode of Ops Cast, host Michael Hartmann sits down with David York, Chief AI and Innovation Officer at Helix CXM, to get practical answers about what it really takes for GTM organizations to move from talking about AI to operationalizing it. David has spent years working at the intersection of marketing operations, RevOps, automation, and AI transformation. Together, he and Michael discovered an uncomfortable truth about how most teams are already overwhelmed by manual work, fragmented processes, shadow systems, and operational debt.  Piling "figure out AI" on top of all that creates more chaos. In this conversation, you'll hear: Why the gap between AI strategy and implementation is so hard to closeWhat operational excellence actually looks like in practice, and why it has to come firstWhy mapping how work gets done today is the critical first step before introducing AIThe real difference between automation and "automation plus intelligence"How to identify low-risk, high-value AI use cases (like partially manual lead routing) versus harder onesThe hidden costs teams underestimate: tooling, LLM costs, maintenance, and human monitoringWhere human judgment is still absolutely requiredPractical advice on where to start if you're feeling overwhelmed by AI pressure right nowWhether you lead a scrappy SMB or a specialized team inside a large enterprise, this is a grounded discussion about the reality of AI in modern GTM, beyond the hype and the LinkedIn hot takes. David also published a new book this week, AI-Powered Growth: A 7-Step Adoption and Transformation Framework, which goes deeper into how Marketing Ops leaders can systematically prioritize and operationalize AI initiatives. Grab a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/AI-Powered-Growth-7-Step-Adoption-Transformation/dp/B0H2QCZG5M/ Enjoy the episode! Episode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations Professionals Support the show

    57 Min.
  6. 25. Mai

    From Marketing Spend to Business Strategy with Ondar Tarlow

    Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show! What separates a marketing team that drives growth from one that just stays busy? Ondar Tarlow came into marketing from the business side rather than the traditional marketing path, and that lens changes how he reads a P&L, how he allocates budget, and how he earns credibility with finance and the executive team. In this episode of Ops Cast, host Michael Hartmann sits down with Ondar, marketing consultant and former CMO, for a practical conversation about thinking commercially.  They get into why so many marketers struggle to articulate how their company actually makes money, how to translate strategy into a budget and investment plan, and how to secure buy-in from the people holding the purse strings without getting blindsided in the room. Michael and Ondar discussed: Why coming from the business side reshapes how you approach marketingThe reason so many marketers can't explain how their business makes moneyWhat separates growth-driving teams from teams stuck executing activityHow to turn strategy into a real budget and investment planThe biggest mistakes leaders make when seeking buy-in from finance and the boardBalancing spend across acquisition, retention, partnerships, and brandWhy minimizing surprises is a hallmark of strong operatorsWhere AI is already creating a practical advantage in research and learningHow cheap access to strategic knowledge changes career development, and its risksWhat community building (Fast Lane Drive, Worn & Driven Magazine) teaches about retentionWhat makes a brand partnership strategically valuable versus just promotionalIf you've ever wanted to be the marketer the executive team actually listens to, this conversation is a roadmap for getting there. Episode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations Professionals Support the show

    52 Min.
  7. 18. Mai

    Stop Performing at Work And Start Rehearsing With Kira Troilo

    Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show! Why is it so hard for teams to say what they actually think? We nod in meetings, then raise concerns in Slack afterward. We approve work, then reopen it at the last minute. We pile up version 20, 30, 40 of a deliverable, wondering why nothing ever feels finished. In this episode of Ops Cast, host Michael Hartmann sits down with Kira Troilo, founder of Art & Soul Consulting, who brings two decades of theater experience into the world of team collaboration.  Her insight is that most teams are stuck in "performance mode," being careful and polite, when what they really need is "rehearsal mode," where it's safe to be messy, disagree early, and surface the truth before it gets expensive. Michael and Kira discussed: Why politeness is a hidden source of inefficiency, and what the "silence tax" actually costs organizationsThe real reason approval cycles balloon into endless rounds of revisionsHow theater's "first rehearsal" tradition translates to designing better team kickoffsWhy tools, workflows, and AI don't fix the underlying communication problemPractical tactics teams can adopt this week to give honest feedback earlierWhether AI and automation make these collaboration challenges better or worseHow leaders can shift from managing output to designing how their teams work togetherIf you've ever felt that rework, fire drills, and misalignment are symptoms of something deeper on your team, this conversation will give you a new lens and a starting point. Episode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations Professionals Support the show

    46 Min.

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Ops Cast, by MarketingOps.com, is a podcast for Marketing Operations Pros by Marketing Ops Pros. Hosted by Michael Hartmann, Mike Rizzo & Naomi Liu

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