Marketers on small teams get lonely.
We build, create, post, measure, track, and launch. Often those efforts are done alone or with very few teammates with whom we can share ideas or vent about our struggles.
The post-pandemic world only exacerbated this, with many of us working remotely and only getting a fraction of the human-contact that we marketing (often, extroverts) so desperately crave.
We miss the happy hours after work. We miss the room full of creative brainstorming. We even miss work conferences. #gasp
And so like me, many of you probably filled up the emptiness in your heart and Google calendars with Zoom meetings that had only one agenda item: to connect with other marketers and just... vibe.
In September of 2021, I had one such meeting with the kind, thoughtful, and marvelously candid Linda Schwaber-Cohen (at the time, Head of Marketing at Brighthire).
We got to know each other. We shared our frustrations. We discussed how to better crack open opportunities in a challenging economic time. We pondered how we would grow our teams, when able to hire.
We decided that we should have a community for any marketer who needed a "team" around them when their official team was small. Our idea was simple—facilitate more conversations between marketers who were on teams of 0-8... and could use a marketing community that wasn't being dominated by marketers at huge brands (and budgets), with ARR that was 10x our own.
At the time, Slack communities weren't as pervasive as they are now, so we simply started one with the two of us. Then we added a few more names. Every time we met more small-team marketers with similar struggles they'd received an invite.
The community is designed for people who already are strapped for time so it was—and remains:
Casual: It's not the place for fancy frameworks or Instagram-perfect campaigns. There is no overly-manufactured admin and it's a come-as-you-are vibe.
Friendly: Even though we might be competing for jobs at some point or in the same circles, the group is designed to uplift each other. We help each other solve problems and give feedback in a constructive way.
Fun: When you have a crazy group of people like small-team marketers, we of course need channels like #random and #shamelesspromo and #riff to express ourselves and what we're working on. The community is full of bright, bold, and brilliant personalities.
And how did we come up with the name? I always loved this quote from Jeff Bezos:
"Never have a meeting where two pizzas can't feed the entire group."
That's us. We may have small marketing teams, but we see the positive in that. We can be nimble. We can unleash our creativity. We're not held back by bureaucracy in any way. We can launch and iterate with speed.
We're 2 Pizza Marketers.
And if you or someone you know is one of us, you can request to join the community here.
Read on to learn how the podcast - in 2022 - sprang to life out of this small, but mighty, community of small-team marketers.
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