Transcript

We Made Our Guest Host Regret Everything (Behind the Scenes of MOPZA 2026)

From Pretty Funny Business · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 31 min · 6,007 words · 199 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "We Made Our Guest Host Regret Everything (Behind the Scenes of MOPZA 2026)", an episode of Pretty Funny Business published September 22, 2026 (31 min, about 6,007 words). It mentions 14 people, works and ideas, including MOPSA, marketing ops, Mike Rizzo, MarketingOps.com, Audrey Harze.

What this episode is about

A satirical look behind the scenes of MOPZA 2026, highlighting the show's candid chaos, offbeat humor, and the miscommunications surrounding discounts, guest hosting, and branding quirks. It centers on the chaotic dynamic among hosts, a first-time guest host, and the blur between real and mock corporate personas.

Key takeaways

  • Brand discipline? They enforce price integrity with a badge of 'premium'—until a 'big summer blowout' surprises the wallet and the narrative.
  • Audrey’s nervy intro reveals a podcasting culture where chaos is data, and authenticity trumps polished polish—sometimes.
  • Mops Palooza lore proves startups win big by DIY trials: garage-sale booths, hotel fees, and golden picture frames.
  • Hyper-specific vanity metrics drive content: live-action, San Diego heat, and shimmering glimmers become branding currency.
  • Self-aware misnaming (marketing ops, perverts.com) doubles as parallel branding—confusion becomes clever intercultural riffing.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: marketing ops, Mike Rizzo, Audrey Harze, Lauren Aalino
  2. – 10:00: Mike Rizzo, Maps a / MOPSA, Gosh
  3. – 15:00: marketing ops, MarketingOps.com, Lauren Aalino
  4. – 20:00: marketing ops, Audrey Harze, Barbie party, Barbie party
  5. – 25:00: Toronto, marketing ops, Alpharetta
  6. – 30:00: marketing ops, Mike Rizzo
  7. – 30:45: Audrey Harze

Notable quotes from "We Made Our Guest Host Regret Everything (Behind the Scenes of MOPZA 2026)"

  • Mike is really from marketing ops.com.
    about marketing ops · at
  • What did you guys do at the first one? I don't Well, I'm so glad you asked, Audrey. We learned a lot of lessons. the first one was our first tattoo booth.
    about Lauren Aalino · at
  • So this year, Moms of Palooa is virtual, WHICH IS AWESOME.
    about Audrey Harze · at
  • Mafal Palooa is a fun mouthful to say, but like it's it gets difficult and so we've been truncating it down just to make it a little easier and hopefully, just as memorable as the content itself usually is, but yeah,.
    about Maps a / MOPSA · at
  • No, but we've got Gosh. we've got H I don't even know how many sessions do we end up with.
    about Gosh · at
  • All here together in San Diego and so we did a chapter meet up, right? And someone came up and was I think that party that you all hosted was like the best thing ever. like you…
    about Barbie party · at
  • Okay. Tell us. You're from Canada. Where are you from? Canada.
    about Toronto · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Mike Rizzo — Person · Participant / Speaker · 3 mentions · first at
    Central participant who explains MOPSA logistics, virtual format, and membership details; provides anecdotes about MOps-Apalooza origin and tattoo booth story.
    Well, we're very excited to also introduce our guest for today, Mike Rizzo of Chicks and Dicksporting Goods.com.
  • Audrey Harze — Person · Guest Host / Main Guest (for episode) · 3 mentions · first at
    Introduced as the episode's guest host and CMO at MarketingOps.com; discusses how she joined MarketingOps.com, provides perspectives on MOPSA curation and member benefits.
  • Lauren Aalino — Person · Host · 2 mentions · first at
    Co-host (founder-level voice) who narrates MOps-Apalooza origin stories, jokes about branding and discounts, and engages guests.
  • Sydney Mulligan — Person · Host · 1 mention · first at
    Co-host of the Pretty Funny Business podcast; moderates conversation, prompts guests, and provides comedic framing.
    The glow is on. so Audrey, do you want to ask Mike Oh.

Companies & orgs

  • marketing ops — Company · Company / Community · 9 mentions · first at
    Referenced as the community and membership platform that runs MOPSA / MarketingOps.com; central to discussion of membership, tickets, and content access.
  • MarketingOps.com — Company · Company / Platform · 1 mention · first at
    Organization that runs the Marketing Ops community, membership, and MOPSA event; Audrey is CMO and Mike is affiliated with it.
  • Chicks and Dicksporting Goods.com — Company · Humorous / novelty website referenced · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned humorously as an alternate/second website associated with Mike; used in banter and jokes during the episode.
    Well, we're very excited to also introduce our guest for today, Mike Rizzo of Chicks and Dicksporting Goods.com.

Products & tech

  • Barbie party — Product · Event experience / Anecdote · 1 mention · first at
    Recounted as a memorable community event/party held at a previous MOPSA; discussed positively as a standout community experience.

Places & events

  • MOPSA — Event · Event (conference) · 5 mentions
    The episode focuses on MOps-Apalooza (MOPSA) — its origin story, transition to virtual for 2026, programming choices, and community experiences like tattoo booths and Barbie party.
  • Maps a / MOPSA — Event · Event (alternate naming) · 1 mention · first at
    Alternate pronunciations/brand shorthand for MOps-Apalooza discussed in episode (branding decision).
  • Barbie party — Event · Event experience / Anecdote · 1 mention · first at
    Recounted as a memorable community event/party held at a previous MOPSA; discussed positively as a standout community experience.
    All here together in San Diego and so we did a chapter meet up, right? And someone came up and was I think that party that you all hosted was like the best thing ever. like you…
  • Toronto — Place · Referenced location / Origin · 3 mentions · first at
    Referenced as Audrey's origin (Canadian) and discussed briefly in a pronunciation debate.
  • Alpharetta — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a place Audrey lived (in Georgia) — part of her personal backstory.
  • Gosh — Place · Referenced (unclear) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in passing; likely an interjection or fragment rather than a true location reference—low confidence.

Full transcript with timestamps

We don't offer discounts. We just don't do it. Like our services are come at a premium and that's just how it is. But Lauren said that we could offer discounts, but only if we never call them discounts and instead we call them a big summer blowout. Hello and welcome to Pretty Funny Business. I'm Sydney Mulligan.

I'm Lauren Aalino. And today we have with us a guest host, Audrey Horse. Hi everybody.

First official guest host on the podcast. Really? Yeah. We're so excited that it's new.

I feel like maybe you shouldn't have told her that. She was feeling a little bit nervous.

She was nervous. Like, do you want to pop off my bubblegum steak? Is that going to help you feel better?

Here are all the things we didn't tell you ahead of time so that we could get you on this podcast.

You mentioned that you really love spontaneity and live reaction. Yeah, that's what I said. Um, well, we're very excited to also introduce our guest for today, Mike Rizzo of Chicks and Dicksporting Goods.com. Yay, Mike.

Mike is really from marketing ops.com. That is his second website. Yes, it is marketing ops.

I can't believe sporting goods.com. I uh when you told me that it was a thing, I I had How could you not? Everyone right now go to sportinggoods.com.

We need to get our views up. We need to every what she meant to say was everyone like and subscribe to our

pretty funny business. All right. So Audrey is the CMO at marketing ops. You go girl.com. Do you guys still call yourself marketing.com? Am I saying this right?

Yeah, that's right. At marketing.com. I was trying to explain this to Leslie. I'm sorry I did it poorly, but I was like I marketing ops community.

Yes, marketing ops community perverts.com. Marketing ops perverts.com. I do want to say I do want to say that our first Mobs Palooa, which by the way, we're going to be talking about it quite a bit today cuz we're doing something a little bit different this year. But this is our fourth Mobs and Palooa that we'll be at. In our first one, I did plaque it as the International Association of Neurode Divergent Marketers.

Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Like, but we don't have to say that. Okay. It's obvious.

Like, we originally we said the International Association of Neurodyiverent Marketing Ops people, but we were like, "No, no, it's just neurody diverent marketers because they all self- selected ops."

Yeah. Yeah. So, we wanted to have that reference, but then we were like, that is a direct competition to what's already happening here. So,

yeah, that's fine. Yeah. I like that every year that we do Mops of Palooa together, really like inflating the importance of us at this event by saying we're doing Mops of Palooa together. Uh, we get a little bit more legit. Like we always call our first Maps of Palooa was our

our garage sale our garage sale booth because we couldn't afford the booth vendors. So, we

What did you guys do at the first one? I don't Well, I'm so glad you asked, Audrey. We learned a lot of lessons. Um, the first one was our first tattoo booth.

That's right. But because we couldn't afford the furniture from the booth vendors, we bought a bunch of furniture on Amazon and had it shipped to the hotel. That was when we learned that you have to pay a fee for every package that you have the hotel receive on your behalf. So, we learned that. And then we also had to build all the furniture by ourselves with some kind souls that showed up to help us. Thank God.

Um and then we went to I feel like your dad helped. Yeah, your dad definitely helped.

And the whole family then. That's your sister also helped. Yeah. Uh and then we went to Dry Bar obviously as as we do. And on the way home, we went to the dollar store and we bought a bunch of golden picture frames

and printed out all of our booth signage and put it in the gold dollar store picture frames in the booth. At the time we set up the booth and I remember we got it all set up and then we both kind of stood back and looked at it and you went,

"Looks like Does it look like a garage sale?" Yeah. And I was like, "No, it looks incredible. It's fantastic." But now I look back at the pictures of the booth

and it looks like a garage sale. A long way, baby. We've come a long way. We've come a long way.

Good memories. It was fun. It was fun times. That's what the community is all about. Making weird decisions and then standing by them.

Absolutely. That's called being a thought leader. Like approving a tattoo. All right. So, we didn't want to have you both on without giving you a chance to talk. This is great. Actually, I'm having a great time.

It's fine. We just your face. You just want to sit here and nod and maybe interject if you disagree, but

tell me all the ways you do agree. No, just tell me specifically what you liked about being here.

Um, so this year, Moms of Palooa is virtual, WHICH IS AWESOME. WHAT? WHAT? Spoiler alert. It's why we're all in this room together, which we don't get to do very often. But for everyone else, it's virtual. For us, it's live action.

It's San Diego. San Diego. Yeah. It It's hot. It's so hot. So, if you see using, glimmering,

glimmer, shimmering, that's just part of the Emmy brand. Yeah, it's fine. The glow is on. Um, so Audrey, do you want to ask Mike

Oh. to explain Mhm. what going on with virtual? Sure. Mike. Sure. Feeling this.

You mean what's going on with virtual for MOPSA this year? Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. What is going on with Mopsa this year for like virtual? Why

shouldn't you know this? She's not She's not hosting him, Sydney. You're feeding her the questions that she's supposed to ask.

Exactly. Mike, this was all very well planned ahead of time. More girls. Girls.

Yes. Yeah. So, Mike, you're nailing this. What is happening with MOPSA 26 this year?

MOPSA 26. Uh, I mean, it's all online. That's one thing. That's why we call it virtual.

Yeah. Yeah. Mapsa 26 virtual. Mapsa 26 online. Mapsa to emphasize. I mean, Mafal Palooa is a fun mouthful to say, but like it's it gets difficult and so we've been truncating it down just to make it a little easier and uh hopefully, you know, just as memorable as the content itself usually is,

but um yeah, just say Mapsa now. Yeah, I've been trying to just for what it's worth like Mapsa,

you should tell everyone. Yeah, we are. You're seeing it in the brand. She's like He's like I

That was a decision we made. Yeah, it was a decision made. Is that a decision that the CMO made? We made it together.

CMO/PV of marketing PV of marketing. She's going to leave the building. Leave her alone.

So lucky I'm sitting here right now. Do you quit? You can quit. No. No. I'll be nice. I'll be nice. Please stay.

No, but we've got Gosh. Um, we've got H I don't even know how many sessions do we end up with.

Gosh, a lot. It was a lot. Yeah. Uh, the team submissions or that you accepted? Uh well submissions overall were just as high as they always are and

and then we went through the curation process and I ended up selecting I kind of tried to like match once once everybody kind of did their voting and all the things happened right I tried to like figure out okay well nobody can speak twice you know one brand doesn't show up multiple times like these kinds of things

uh and then once we once we got down to it it was like there was so much good content that I tried to just treat it just like regular MOPSA and almost like there's four concurrent stages like you know it's running for two full days, two and a half full days or whatever.

Um and the team the virtual team that's like helping us produce this this year's event was like Mike you're crazy. Like how are we going to do all of that content inside of two half days? Like what are you talking about?

And I was like but the stages are unlimited cuz it's virtual. Yeah, we'll just have 10 sessions happening at the same time.

And I'm like, it's the pooa. The infinite sessions glitch. Yeah. So, yeah. So, I got a little bit.

It is nice about It's always nice to be together in person. Like, I'm excited. Mopsa Mopsa is going to be in person again next year, but spoiler alert.

Spoiler alert. But it is nice to have it virtual because you can go back and attend

Yeah. every session if you want. And we found that uh because we've run it hybrid every year um and we found that I mean for months afterwards I would get messages from people like hey what was that one session that Rachel did

and you know I'm having a hard time finding it what was the title again and so you know we're trying to find ways to create a taxonomy let people search for it and all this stuff and they are coming back like time and time again. So this year virtual uh allowed us to focus on new things. Um the certification and stuff that we're that we launched and all that came to fruition as a result of giving us some brain space and capacity to

you know limited time, limited resources, all the things. But we're excited to have it back um in general. So

it'll be amazing. Very exciting. It'll be fun. Can everyone access the recordings? Um, everybody who is an attendee will have access to the recordings for the track that they have access to. So, there's two very particular types of tickets. There's a as a member, you have access to the event, you don't have any um any limitations. You have access to all the content. Uh if you are a non-member and you are invited on a guest ticket by a member, uh you will have a a guest pass and the guest pass has well a lot of content that it has access to, but there's a few things that um is for members only.

How do you become a member? Uh of what? You go to chicks andporting chicksickporting.com/register.

Yeah, we have that domain. Can you point it to us, please? Yes. If you go to chicksanddicksportinggoods.com, which you will see at the bottom of your screen, what you'll see is a link to read funny business episode that Mike was on.

Yeah, it's on your full website now cuz we're going to have to put this chickens.com. Probably the only thing you can properly vibe code uh and get away with.

Yeah, a website. Yeah, that website. Yes, that website. Yeah, you are discounting how seriously I take the presence of Nick Sporting Good.

One of my favorite moments. But yeah, so uh you can become a member if you go to marketingops.com. Uh join as a pro member at the moment. I think once this episode is live, it uh will still be at its current rate, but the rate will go up towards the end of the year. Um, and our intention is to just always make really at the end of the day, the membership is uh a way for us to allow you to invest in yourself in this career. Um, with or without your boss's budget. Um, of course, if you can get your boss's budget or your company's budget, you should always ask for it.

You should fight for it. But we try our best to make it as approachable as we can cuz uh to your point earlier when we were kicking off like a lot of people sort of self- select their way into or accidentally find their way into marketing ops and

association of paradigm it's it's it's hard like stumbling and fumbling your way through this career is challenging and

I think between our communities and what we're doing like we're trying to make that a little less challenging. I do believe that there is a discount code for pretty funny business listeners and

if you enter this code appearing now at the bottom of your screen you can get a discount on a marketing.com

you believe it's PFB10. Okay, let me tell you a funny story about discount codes.

The story is we were talking about um discounting like offering discounts are not for Emmy collective and like we don't we we don't offer discounts. We just don't do it like our services come at a premium and that's just how it is. But um Lauren said that we could offer discounts, but only if we never called them discounts and instead we call them a big summer blowout.

And they put it on the on on the proposal to the client and has to say really big summer blowout.

Each have a picture of Oaken because I didn't want them to do it. I was like, "Listen, if you want me to cave on this," which I don't want to.

Big summer blowout. This is going to be the requirement. And they were like, "Done."

Okay. Big summer blowout. We did it two times. We absolutely did. Yeah. You know what? I think if you are a prospect at any collective and you get a proposal that says big summer blowout on it and you don't think it's funny, then this is probably not the place for you.

Yeah, fair. Fair. That is fair. And there's only two per year. So, yeah, we've already used our two for 2026. But

check in in 2027. I love it. Like, we need a way to filter them out before we get to quote, though. like

Big Summer Blowout. Oh, about whether or not they're going to think Big Summer Blowout is funny.

Yeah, that's what we're doing right now. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Like before you have a call with Leslie, our head of growth, you

want you to know that listen to a podcast episode and decide whether or not this is a liability for you.

Yeah. Did I take insurance to have you host Mopsa this year? That's like Harvey coverly go BY

like summer blowout insurance.com. Yeah. Um I know we've talked about this before, but

at the for the first maps of we were doing the tattoos and we asked you if we could do the tattoos.

Yep. and you said yes, but did not know what you were agreeing to, which I think is a theme

for our relationship, you know, just like at this point, I think that you're saying yes and just like go with God.

Just trust it. It always is fine in the end. So, just hasn't been that bad so far.

Yeah. But when I asked you, "Hey, Mike, is there a booth that we could be in that would have a bathroom close enough to it that the tattoo artist could go wash his hands without going through any doors?" And you were like,

"What?" Yeah. And I was You were like, "Did you mean real tattoos?" Like, "Yeah, real tattoos." You're like in my head what happened in that moment is that like Ben Affleck meme where he's just outside smoking and I was just like

cuz we had asked like can we do tattoos? Yeah. And he said yes. But he thought they were temporary tattoos.

Oh. Uh yeah. Thought they were temporary. That's sweet. Temporary tattoos. And then we started asking questions about like things that department was going to require and he was like

what are you talking about? Yeah. But what he said was I cannot spend any money on this.

Yep. Or time or insurance or anything. Said it is all it is all you. I didn't ask you to.

I know. That was good. It's a very scary moment. Yeah. To be fair. I mean, it was just like it

Yeah, I think it was a great ask. It ended up like being a probably literally the most trafficked area on the floor that day, the most talked about for the what, the two years that we did it, right? The years that you did it.

Yeah. Um rip. Yeah, but then you banished us to the back. No, I didn't. Yeah, you sure did.

No way. I gave you I gave you some kind of selection based on when you signed. Don't look at me. I have ADHD

and I had nothing to do with that. Audrey's on our Aby's like, "Yeah, I TOLD HIM THAT HE SHOULD HAVE PUT YOU BACK IN THE FRONT LIKE he wanted."

If your marketing tech stack is basically a haunted house of random automations and abandoned Salesforce fields, marketing ops.com is your new happy place. Templates, advice, a job board that doesn't suck, and a community of humans who get it. Honestly, it's like therapy but cheaper. Sign up with code PFB10 for 10% off paid membership. Your stressed out marketing app self will thank you. Last year we had a lot of fun. Last year we had our like tea room lounge area which was awesome. Spill the tea thing was great.

I had our Barbie party. Our dream party. Barbie party. That was the best day of your life.

I had so much fun. I never wanted. We literally we had a chapter meet up that we were all at last night cuz we're all here together in San Diego and so we did a chapter meet up, right? And someone came up and was like, I think that party that you all hosted was like the best thing ever. like you the way your team does it up and I was like heck yeah that's awesome

right like the way your team does experiences I was like keep going tell me more specifically what you like

I think y'all just do it right was very nice yes actually I'm going to need you to vouch that I didn't do that I didn't ask him to

this is something that we've been working on is when someone pays Lauren a compliment her instinct is to ask for a more detailed compliment

it's because I'm always collecting data and so when someone pays a compliment like oh especially if it's pretty banned

can we complete this leads profile like oh someone said I really was mad about this one and exactly enrichment that's what we're sticking with when we were at demand and expand

um earlier this year and someone came up to us and was like I love your brand I love what you're doing with your brand and I'm like

thank you what you specifically what about Which part? Thank you. What part resonates with you most?

We walked away and our two team members Jamie and Sarah were like, we saw the whole thing.

Bravo. Thank you. But I want I'm just collecting data cuz like Okay, what do you like about it? Because then I'll keep doing that and people like it then like it's basically just attribution that I'm the UTMs on this compliment.

This is why you stepped into the CMO role. So, well, that's true. Thank you. I'm now PB of marketing.

Some people are VPs, but I'm the PB. That's right. I love it. Yeah. Audrey is the CMO,

obviously. Do you know how to do you know how uh all of the things have ever come to fruition in the community is like because uh someone asked for a tattoo booth or someone said we should host a conference or someone said we should have chapters. Um, in this case, uh, we said, "We really need help in marketing. Uh, is anybody in the community interested?" And Audrey raised her hand.

Yeah. Audrey, did I know that for a life sentence? Why did you do that? This was years ago now.

This is years ago. Many, many years ago. Yeah. When? Tell us more. I don't even know what year it was.

Tell us specifically why you made that choice. I think it was I think it was the first career fair.

She didn't know Mike yet. It was. She didn't know Mike yet. Yeah. It was the first career fair that we did. And you had put a tiny little thing at the bottom just like I could really use someone's help or something like that.

Yeah. Click guess what I'm available or you know what do you need that kind of thing. And

yeah we talked a few times in like what did you been in marketing ops like even actually before it was called marketing ops honestly.

Well tell us a long time. Tell us your lore. Oh my lure. I'm from Canada. No. Um

Canadian. You're Canadian. I DIDN'T KNOW THAT. ANYTHING ABOUT YOU MIKE? She's the other host. But in reality,

we always end up liking the girls more. Okay. It's not about you. Just here to listen.

Okay. Tell us. You're from Canada. Where are you from? Canada. And you're Toronto.

Okay, cool. I was recently informed that I was saying Toronto incorrectly. That I can't say Toronto. That

Toronto? Yeah. You're supposed to say Toronto. Toronto. That's what you just said. Toronto.

Toronto. Toronto. I really working on it. Do you know he's never been to Canada?

I have never been to Canada. No. I live in New York. I'm so close to Canada. Yeah. Why haven't you gone? So many Canadians in New York.

Yeah. Yeah. Have you been to Canada? Like you're connected. You're calling. That's pretty close.

Yeah. All right. Let's go. Have you been? Yes. Okay. I was going to say I feel like

my can my story is like most traveling Americans not all have been to Canada. Been to Canada.

I've been to Europe and Mexico. But I will also say I live in Cleveland, Ohio, which is like very close to Canada. So, I've been to Niagara Falls and Toronto and then

I mean Canada is still a fight. No, from New York. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Depends on where you go.

That's true, too. But like I could get to Toronto's like a Unfortunately, Toronto Toronto is on the

It's like It's like here in SoCal there's Huntington Beach, but it's Huntington Beach, but here it's Huntington. You don't say Huntington.

Yeah. North Carolina. I know there's all these towns that end in V I L L. But you do not pronounce it Vil. It's V.

V. Greenville. W. We'll say Oh, yeah. That's right. I think that's You can say Asheville.

I think it's just wrong. Like that's just an accent. No, pronounce it V. I think if anybody gets anything out of this episode, it's how to pronounce uh cities.

Toronto. Okay. So, you're from outside Toronto and now you live in California. I do in Northern California, the Bay Area.

When did you move to California? Where did you go? Well, tell me your journey from Toronto to California.

Okay. Toronto to Georgia. Georgia? Where in Georgia? Alpharetta. Okay. Yeah, I know.

North of Atlanta by Buckhead. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There for had all our four kids there.

I did just learn that you have four kids. And I got to say, you look incredible to have four kids. And I mean,

what's your secret? Like, does is there a genie or like a a hex? Did you hire an Etsy witch?

Oh, you're so sweet. No, kids are awesome. witches. Yeah, there's Etsy witches.

I don't know what that is. Yeah, they didn't witch. Etsy. I I know what that is.

Okay, so you have four kids. Yes. Incredible. You were all born in Atlanta or Alfred?

Yeah. And Alfreda. Uh I don't think we were there for about 10 years. Okay. And then we came to California.

Toa. Yeah. Why'd you come to California? My husband's job. What does he do? He's in finance.

What does he do? Is he in the mafia? He's in finance. If he was, I wouldn't really say. No, obviously not. He works in sanitation.

He's a CFO. He's a numbers guy. All the things. He's a CFO and a CMO. A real power couple.

Love it. Your kids are so lucky. My parents are badasses. Do you think they feel that way?

NO. BUT WHEN they're a little older, they went I don't know. I don't look back and be like, I was such an idiot. My parents are badasses. And you can clip that for your kids. That's a good point.

This was all for you kids. It was all for you. The only part you can know how many Etsy witches your mom had to hire to look this incredible after she had all four of you. What?

Yeah. Yeah. And here we are. Um, so where were you working before you started working with Mike?

Um, couple things. I had an agency for about 15 years. Cool. Doing marketing ops work.

Marketing apps working and I was WORKING WITH MIKE. ALL ROSE POINT. I'm fine. Can we speed it up?

We don't know how that happened. So funny. Yeah. I did that for 15 years. I kind of burned out though. It was a lot of work.

Easy to do. Yeah. It was a lot of work. And I was so sick of the We hired a man. Paper came out instead.

Yeah. Yeah. We had to call We started calling it PP work. Yeah. If you make a paperwork a joke, then it's 1% less painful. But for the rest of it, you do need the Etsy witch.

It's true. Yeah. We hired a man to do all of our PP work. Yeah. See, so smart. Yeah.

You got to offload whatever you can. Exactly. Yeah. So, I decided to like close the agency down and, you know, all these opportunities came up to do like independent work and Yeah. That's when I tried.

That's when I started working with Mike. Yeah. Wow. So glad you're here. Yeah. Thanks. It's been an awesome journey.

No one's more glad that you're here than Mike. Yeah. Thousand%. Yeah. We work really well together.

Yes. You guys really do. It's lucky to find a good partnership. Yeah. Well, you guys know.

Yeah, you too. You know better than anybody. We started a business and we didn't even know each other.

Blind dating. This 90day fiance. Yeah. Yeah. We didn't know each other. I remember I remember reading about your story. It was like amazing.

Yeah. But it worked out. Third year or fourth year. You post the annual photo this year.

Fourth year. Yeah. The fourth year. This is our fourth. That's the beach one, right?

Yeah. There's a picture with my baby on the beach. Yeah. Yeah. So cute. Should we do it?

Letter rip. Letter wrap. How bad could it get? Turns out bad. Turns out I'm tired.

Good for us. We're good. So good. So good. I can see how it could go bad. It's definitely knocked at least a decade off my life.

Oh. Oh, it's a long time. It's a long time. The Etsy witch is going to be I was going to say Audrey Audrey might have a tip for you.

The cigarettes. The cigarettes are the Is it the Zen, the cigarettes, or the Etsy witch? What's What's the key to happiness? Who knows?

Oh my goodness. So, I have a couple of things since you guys are the experts in marketing ops

that I was wanting. Chairs of the neurody diverent marketers. The board not like chairs you sit in like a roll chair people.

The chair people. Um, some quick questions. Okay. Some Q's. We banned Q's. We banned Q's except for in real time. Like if I'm in a meeting with you, you can ask me Q.

Sure. Okay, that's fine. It's the QQ's over Slack is that we That's what we can That's a good ban. We should We should probably ban that. Yeah.

Are you banning that for each other? Stop asking me questions. Think about that.

Feel like we did promise Audrey that we wouldn't do any rapid fire. Rapid fire for her so I can absolutely

How about we make Audrey rapid fire? Oh, no. Go ahead. I could, but she doesn't have it in front of her. So,

no, go do it. I want to hear it. Um, all right. Ready? One prediction for marketing apps in the next 12 months.

Uh, the profession. Yes. It's a rapid fire. Mike, thank you so much. Everything is about you, Mike.

Uh, I think I think asking a clarifying question further emphasizes that I was once and still remain somewhat a marketing apps professional. So, by definition, if you are telling me that an MQL is something, I'm going to clarify.

Mhm. However, prediction for marketing ops in the next 12 months. Um, you will become more strategically involved at the business level than you ever have been.

That's called manifesting. I hope that's true. That's true. Mhm. All right. One tool everyone still buys, but they shouldn't.

That's a great question. It sounds like she's got an answer, too. I don't, but I love it.

Are you sure? What do you think? You can put a asterisk on it. Outlook. We just We just did a text. Out.

Gosh. We just did a tech stack review thingy. We were like, "Promote your tech stack review thingy."

Literally, it was a conversation. Yes. No. Yes. No. Uh oh. OH. SO, the lights just went out and we're back. Maybe if we just It would be good. All right. So, you almost got away with not answering the question.

I did answer the question. Outlook is not a real answer. It's a tool that people buy and they shouldn't. You're a tool that people buy.

Okay, that landed too well. I'm sorry she said that. I'm not. I like you as a person. You are not a tool. You're good.

Um, I'm going to say something. Okay. Well, and then I'm not going to say anything, but I don't think that we all need to be buying a marketing automation platform.

Wow. Now, who's getting cancelled? Me. We'll talk more about that uh at Mafa 27.

Is it the not tattoo booth? That's a great teaser. As if we invite him back. Did you hear?

It's not nice. All right. One thing you'd fix industrywide tomorrow if you had the power.

Sales and marketing alignment. Boo. Dumb answer. Last one. All right. Last one.

Not when you guys say evaporate AI. That was the right answer. I would never have treated you this way if you were the guest. But I know you're the host, but I just want you to know

that this is still a safe place for you to come back to someday. I don't and I don't think Mike can be hurt by us.

Um I just Do I need to back off? I just go and cry in the back. That's fine. No, we love you very much. All right, last thing. Most used word for Mapsa this year. Said with love or with dread in the submissions.

Oh, in the submissions. Well, they're all written by AI. So, is it what? Quietly.

Actually, 100%. I just can't. It's uh it's painful. Don't like this podcast. A podcast actually worth listening to.

Yay. That's perfect. With an actual host, Audrey Hart. All right, I feel like we're going to lose light again. In conclusion, in conclusion, it's been pretty funny business. Lost my cigarette. Dr. Sig, thanks for coming. Audrey Hartz, Mike Grizzo of marketing apps.com. We love you guys very much and very excited from APSA this year. So,

thanks for having us. Yay! Yay!

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "We Made Our Guest Host Regret Everything (Behind the Scenes of MOPZA 2026)"?

Sydney Mulligan (Host), Lauren Aalino (Host), Audrey Horse (Guest), Mike Rizzo (Guest).

What is "We Made Our Guest Host Regret Everything (Behind the Scenes of MOPZA 2026)" about?

A satirical look behind the scenes of MOPZA 2026, highlighting the show's candid chaos, offbeat humor, and the miscommunications surrounding discounts, guest hosting, and branding quirks. It centers on the chaotic dynamic among hosts, a first-time guest host, and the blur between real and mock corporate personas.

What is mentioned in this Pretty Funny Business episode?

14 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including MOPSA, marketing ops, Mike Rizzo, MarketingOps.com, Audrey Harze, Lauren Aalino. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "We Made Our Guest Host Regret Everything (Behind the Scenes of MOPZA 2026)"?

The episode runs 31 min; the transcript is about 6,007 words in 199 timestamped sections.

More from Pretty Funny Business

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated November 2, 2026.