4Ps in a Pod

#3: "What's The Story You Want To Tell?" | Tayyab Rizvi (Patreon)

Jeevan Grewal & JP Del Carmen

In our third episode, we chat with Tayyab Rizvi who is a Product Marketing Lead at Patreon. Patreon is a platform that enables creators (i.e. podcasters, musicians) to build direct relationships with their biggest fans, share exclusive work, and monetize their efforts. Patreon currently has over 250K+ creators, 8M+ members & has paid $3.5B+ out to its creators. Tayyab helps to identify new features to increase creator engagement & develops the go-to-market plan to bring them to life. Before joining Patreon, he had an incredible 8 year run at Google where he most notably led Creator Marketing efforts for YouTube. Tayyab started his career in digital marketing at General Mills. 

When Tayyab isn’t helping creators explore new ways to engage with their fanbases, you can find him exploring NYC (most likely, laughing it up at the Comedy Cellar). 

Now, we know this episode runs longer than usual but you won’t regret it (we might be a tad biased…). We chatted about: how he thoughtfully approaches career planning, how Patreon is starting a new chapter, what defines a great product marketer, and his cautionary advice for those considering Big Tech. We may also talk about his cool experience with top YouTube creators like Sean Evans on “The Hot Ones”. 🔥

More specifically, Tayyab shared his thoughts on the following questions:

  • If your career was a book, what are the chapters? (6:29)
  • What sparked your interest in marketing? (10:49)
  • How did you navigate being unemployed? (11:56)
  • How has your approach towards career planning changed? (18:46)
  • How do you set yourself up for success in the next role? (20:26)
  • How did you navigate a large organization like Google? (23:12)
  • What does Product Marketing look like at Patreon? (26:59) 
  • What is it about Product Marketing that you love? (28:40)
  • Do you have some examples of great product marketing in action? (30:18) 
  • What differentiates an average Product Marketing Manager (PMM) from an exceptional one? (38:27) 
  • What transferable skills does someone w/o tech experience need to break into tech? (40:33) 
  • What is some cautionary advice that you would have for someone considering big tech? (41:56)
  • What are you most excited about in this next chapter? (48:12)
  • Why do creators gravitate towards Patreon? (50:13)
  • Rapid fire - we put him in the hot seat! (52:25)



People on this episode