The HubHeroes Podcast

[00:00:00] Liz Murphy: Welcome back to the Hub Heroes Podcast, George Max. Devin, quick question before we get started. Hi, yes, max. I see you hiding in your hoodie. It's not gonna save you, but so, gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen. I'll be the first week's episode, however, um, the, are you all unwell? happened?
I disappeared week. And anyone? Do
[00:00:29] George B. Thomas: I'll just throw out the, I'll just throw out the unique, he did it not pointing he did it.
[00:00:35] Max Cohen:
even remember what we did last week.
[00:00:37] George B. Thomas: Or
[00:00:38] Liz Murphy: problem. Devin.
[00:00:39] Devyn Bellamy: Uh, time is a construct. Manmade, which. Uh, you're, you're referring, but I, I will say I have Amazon for a new, uh, cable for my
microphone. So
yeah,
that.
[00:00:52] Liz Murphy: That was the most adult version I've ever heard of. Of what? Lamp? Like that's Well, good news. Kittens A back welcome.
To the Hub Heroes Podcast. If you us, my name is Liz. Um, apparently, uh, I'm the same one of the group, but I'm also a content strategist and a Hub hero Wrangler.
I'm joined as always by George Max and
[00:01:17] Devyn Bellamy: Woo. Woo.
[00:01:18] Liz Murphy: Gentlemen, I am so excited about today's episode that I'm just gonna dig right into it with, I'm pretty sure historically speaking, Is the longest title George you and I have ever developed, and let's just, let's do it the Bomb diggity.com. A hashtag inbound 23 strategic success framework for individuals and teams.
Yes, that is the title. We are sticking to it. George, do you have any, do you have any thoughts on the uh,
[00:01:47] George B. Thomas: Yeah. I just give zero craps about SEO for this, uh, episode, to be honest with you. It is, it is gonna be enough just to throw out there. About inbound and the, uh, the fact that we are gonna have a success
framework? Nope.
[00:02:06] Liz Murphy: Not a survival aren't
[00:02:07] George B. Thomas: because everybody has a survival guide and they're not going to the wilderness.
They're going to Boston, and what they need to do is be successful in their education to grow their business.
That's why. But anyway, don't care about SEO
[00:02:19] Max Cohen: we have, We have
trees out here.
[00:02:21] Devyn Bellamy: Well, here's the
[00:02:22] George B. Thomas: Uh,
[00:02:23] Devyn Bellamy: as far as SEO is concerned, I think that this episode and the content they're in is gonna be so impactful that we're gonna be first page for
[00:02:33] George B. Thomas: Oh,
there we go.
[00:02:34] Devyn Bellamy: that's, that's what I'm thinking.
[00:02:36] Liz Murphy: Most bomb diggity.com. You heard it first.
We did it now. Okay, now I've gotta be fair though, and before we dig into this, I have acknowledge that. I could some people are like going, wait a minute. Go ahead. Kittens, May inbound isn't until September. What are we doing talking about this? So you haven't time traveled.
You are absolutely correct. It is May and inbound is in September. But we're about to tell you why we are having the first of a handful of conversations on this podcast about this event because right now, Thousands of hubs, spotters around the world. That's including all of us here on this podcast. Those of you listening right now, every Hubspotter, every HubSpot agency, we have been sitting here watching her inbox day after day, week after week, pile up with exciting announcements about the upcoming event in September in Boston, for example, just a few days ago.
HubSpot shared a lot of main stage speakers who are pretty exciting. We've got Reese Witherspoon, Derek Jeter, Andrew Morgan Debaun, and as a result though, I don't know if any of y'all getting like lots of questions from friends. Like how do I actually get somebody to like my boss?
I would love for them to send me to Inbound. Is inbound worth it if I'm an owner to really send my employees or just as a business? I don't wanna just survive inbound. How do I actually most of it?
[00:03:59] George B. Thomas: Yeah. I don't want to just survive. I want to thrive.
That's what we gotta, I
just don't, yes, no, no. We gotta go there. We gotta go there. Liz. Don't just survive but thrive through inbound. And by the way, I wanna throw this in there and then I'll be quiet. You can continue on for me May. Okay. That's cool.
Proper planning prevents piss poor performance. We're trying to help you out people. That's all we're doing here.
[00:04:25] Liz Murphy: You do know though that saying surviving, not surviving, but thriving at inbound is like the inbound equivalent of the Live left love sign, right? Like, you know that's what you are right
now. You're like in inbound marketing Home
[00:04:36] Devyn Bellamy: He, she
[00:04:36] Max Cohen: is feeling rather basic.
[00:04:39] George B. Thomas: wow. Wow.
Okay.
[00:04:42] Max Cohen: Yo, that's what the bee stands for. George Basic
Thomas.
[00:04:45] George B. Thomas: Yep. So, I, I,
[00:04:48] Liz Murphy: I didn't say that. Now to be
clear, I, didn't choose violence. Max did let
[00:04:53] George B. Thomas: hang on. I gotta go out and get
my tissue box before I start crying here.
[00:04:58] Liz Murphy: While you're doing that, my other two favorite questions we've been getting recently number are which donkeys should I go to? That's very critical. Very important. And also, One of my favorite things that I've heard you say, George, and I'm gonna be honest, haven't heard this question from other people.
The other people is me. I am this person. Is it true when they say the magic happens in the hallways at inbound? And what does that even mean? So that is why we are here, ladies and gentlemen, Gaina pigs, whomever you are, we are here in May on the mic telling you to throw out all of the inbound survival guides you've seen in the past as we look to September and instead again, let us talk about the most. bu.com Inbound 23 Success Framework. Oh, dear Lord, success framework for individuals and teams. So you could start plotting
[00:05:41] George B. Thomas: gotta take a large
[00:05:42] Liz Murphy: now. Are we
[00:05:43] George B. Thomas: like you gotta inhale a lot before you're gonna like attack that
title. I'm just saying. Yeah.
[00:05:50] Liz Murphy: I know I'm working It's still happening, but let's dig in. All right. Also, do we wanna take any bets, by how many times George is gonna Over under
[00:05:58] George B. Thomas: accepted. Zero, Zero,
[00:06:01] Liz Murphy: that's right.
[00:06:02] Devyn Bellamy: Yeah, I'll take those
[00:06:04] Max Cohen: Yeah, I'll take it.
[00:06:05] Liz Murphy: Yeah. Right. So tell me about what kinda magic happens in the hallways, George?
What kind of, what kind of magic? Yeah. Okay. That's what I thought. First, let's talk about the two most common questions. I know we hear a lot about Inbound, and what's funny is that they're two different questions, but they're two sides of the same coin, right? How do I get my boss to send me to is it even worth sending my people to inbound? George, I see you nodding, and I don't wanna start the episode with you complaining.
[00:06:29] George B. Thomas: So, First of all, y'all already beat me down. There's no complaining here for the rest of the episode. I'm just trying to survive and make it out alive, to be honest with you. But, um, here's, here's the thing. The, the, the, the fact that this question even gets asked. Sometimes just blows my mind because the amount of things that you can do, attend, uh, talk about, um, build a foundation from that happen at inbound, is crazy to me.
And here's where I think that sometimes it goes off the rails. And Liz, you even started with like, uh, these grandiose people are gonna be on the main stage and that's what. People focus on and go, well what's the value of that? Ah, excuse me. But the value is in all the workshops and the breakout sessions and like, and again, we will talk at some point about the magic moments in the hallway cuz it's a true fact.
Anyway, like if you just focus on that and, and if you as a team start to think about a framework of what you wanna learn and why you wanna learn it, you'll quickly be able to pair something in those regular breakout and workshop areas that you're like, oh, this is gonna be money well spent. Not to mention.
Not to mention, and then I'll be quiet
the way that I historically have felt as an employee being sent to inbound. Makes me feel special, makes me feel like somebody believes in me and wants to invest in my growth, which then dramatically changed the output of who I became. You gotta remember my journey starts with we won tickets, not an investment.
I totally get it to inbound, every year since then, somebody has invested in me to send me to that to grow, to who I am and who we have become. Right as a hub, hero,
community.
[00:08:19] Liz Murphy: that. And you know what, actually it reminds me of it because I've heard the same thing like. Every time I've heard somebody complain and, and, and whether it's an agency employee, agency owner. You know what it reminds me of? Like, yeah. HubSpot's inbound is drastically different than it was what, 20, 20 12 and 2016.
Right. But I almost feel like we're penalizing our favorite band going mainstream and becoming successful. So they still have all of the, what, hundreds of breakout sessions. They're getting much more particular, much more dimensional, much more quality threshold in terms of what those breakouts look like. And they're bringing in big speakers, but that's all they hear, right? Well, what's the what? I'm gonna spend a bunch of money to have someone go learn how to do a marketing campaign for Reese Witherspoon. If that is the point of the whole Devin Max. sprocket contingency and form, a big sprocket contingency
[00:09:14] Max Cohen: David, I'm gonna, I'm gonna let you go in a second, but there's literally two helicopters flying over my
[00:09:19] George B. Thomas: Last week it was bees.
[00:09:21] Liz Murphy: is that big sprocket is big
[00:09:23] George B. Thomas: last week it
[00:09:24] Liz Murphy: Oh,
[00:09:24] George B. Thomas: bees. Now it's Apache Helicopters.
[00:09:27] Max Cohen: swear to God,
there's like two giant Apache
helicopters with like missiles and stuff
[00:09:34] Liz Murphy: in line.
[00:09:35] George B. Thomas: max, if we go on the podcast next week and you say The wiggles are outside your window, we're drawing a line, you're, you we're buying you a shade, we're closing it. You're not allowed to look
outside anymore.
[00:09:46] Liz Murphy: Wait, let me get this straight, George. Hold on. We, we have to stop the podcast for a second. So let me understand this Apache helicopter. Okay, but we draw the line
[00:09:54] George B. Thomas: I mean, if I could draw a shade right now, I'd draw a shade. But you know, he's already seen the helicopters. He saw this shiny object. He's now
focused on it. We're in trouble.
[00:10:03] Max Cohen: Devin
[00:10:04] Liz Murphy: No, it's no. Totally.
[00:10:05] Devyn Bellamy: Well, the thing is that I know it's not us because he didn't say they were orange
Apache helicopters, so
[00:10:11] Liz Murphy: No, they were mine. They're mine. I'm keeping them all in. Line two are on the way to you and, uh, and George
[00:10:15] George B. Thomas: They weren't orange.
[00:10:19] Devyn Bellamy: But thing is, like for me, the very first year I went to Inbound in 2016, we got them, uh, as a perk our contract. Right. Um, which was great. But every that I've had since then, I've had it included in my employment contract that they Inbound every year. And the thing is, it's like Liz hit it right on the head.
We, we, we talk about, you know, how the big names that be there and, and they're great, but I can't tell you how much they are not. I'm going to go, um, like Reese Witherspoon is a gem. Derek Jeter is, status. Um, But I also don't care. My thing is I'm
looking at the
[00:11:02] Liz Murphy: Max, are you all right buddy? Do you need a moment? Do you need a
[00:11:05] Max Cohen: a Red Sox fan. How do you think I feel about Derek Jeter?
[00:11:08] Liz Murphy: Fix your gloves like Nomar. and Move
[00:11:10] Max Cohen: I'm not even gonna, address
[00:11:11] Liz Murphy: like Nomar.
[00:11:11] Devyn Bellamy: oh man, but the thing is that there are over 200 other speakers that are going to be there. And the people that are going to impact you, your life and your career the most on the headlines. Um, what you should be doing is looking at some of these talk tracks when they come out. And some of the titles keep in mind that literally thousands of people apply to speak Inbound every year. And this year it's, uh, we're, we're, they've selected the best and the of submissions and. If, if you're going to reasons to go, um, you can look at just past session titles. You can look at some of the, the, the past agendas and seeing the things that you have the opportunity to learn.
Reese Witherspoon, Derek Jeter, that's icing on the cake. talking about, um, all the cool stuff that happens on Thursday nights. That's all of is just the sprinkles on what is an amazing, an amazing pastry. Inbound is going to make you a better marketer, a better and a better manager. If you go to the breakouts, if you're just there to have fun, or I'll say since George can't network, then you're, you're only getting a, a piece of the pie. You're not seeing what is truly
[00:12:32] Max Cohen: I'll keep it end. I think it's just like there's no. Other opportunity that occurs that has this much concentration of HubSpot inbound and anything in between and surrounding this world that we lo all live in than than the conference. Right? So, um, There was really like no better chance to come and kind of learn from other people in the community, right?
Not just your, your, your HubSpot Academy certifications, but other people who are kind of living in the same roles as you, having similar experiences, but doing it from different angles and learning from their mistakes and gone through and, and what they've learned. Um, you know, I, I, there's no better place to do it, especially if you take HubSpot or Inbound or, or rev ops or anything like that, seriously, in any capacity, right?
So it, it's worth the trip out here. It's worth the networking that you, you're gonna get. Um, but also like, you know, just be able to kind of come together like amazing community by itself, like is such a special thing. And I can't wait to finally do it in person after to, it's gonna be
[00:13:40] Devyn Bellamy: And let quick. Um, Even don't care about HubSpot, even if you're not a HubSpot user, even if you have no intention get HubSpot, it, it doesn't It's still going to be one of the most impactful experiences. The, the, the sessions that have affected me the most and it helped me grow the most, have absolutely
[00:14:03] George B. Thomas: Yeah, and let me jump in here too cuz I want to get very tactical and specific for a second cuz one of the questions that led us in here was how do I get my boss to send me to inbound? I have one word for you. Spreadsheet. Now hear me out. What I want you to do is I want you to get a spreadsheet out and I want you to list out the actual speakers and topics that you're gonna go to.
I want you to strategize and plan your trip, because what it comes down to is what are you going to learn and how is that gonna pay off at the end of the day? What the missing metric is, the roi, what is your boss's return on investment? In you to go to Boston to inbound, the hotels, the travel, the whatever, and if you can show, look.
I'm gonna get X, Y, Z better at what I already do. I'm gonna learn 30% of what we actually need to move into. If we're gonna say like top of mind and in the like upper echelon of our industry, and I'm even gonna do 10%, that forces me out of our comfort zone because who knows, in 10 years or two years or two months, we might need to know about NFTs or maybe not, but we're gonna spend 10% of the time.
To actually educate ourself on that, again, spreadsheet strategy plan, and come from the mindset of your boss. You need to prove the ROI of the time spent doing the things that you're mapping out.
[00:15:30] Liz Murphy: question for you before we move on. Does it hurt your soul that you humans
[00:15:35] Max Cohen: Mm, could use one We could use one right now?
[00:15:38] George B. Thomas: I,
[00:15:38] Liz Murphy: a good juicy one right now? Right
[00:15:40] George B. Thomas: I say humans,
then I'm, then I'm gonna wanna say that humans need to, but not
rock unbound.
[00:15:48] Max Cohen: Oh,
[00:15:48] George B. Thomas: just saying. Yeah,
[00:15:50] Liz Murphy: was
[00:15:50] Max Cohen: that's great.
[00:15:51] George B. Thomas: do what I
[00:15:51] Max Cohen: wild.
[00:15:52] Liz Murphy: I loved it. Really, really big fan. Related to this conversation, guys, what do you think most people misunderstand about the inbound experience? I wanna actually dial that question in deeper with the real roi.
because that's what you talked about there, George, right there.
[00:16:07] Devyn Bellamy: Yeah, let, let me, let me jump in real quick. The, the. The thing that people miss about the inbound experience is they think it's all about learning. and working with HubSpot and HubSpot Um, HubSpot users will benefit immensely from going to inbound.
But there are things, tips, tricks, stories in, in, in opportunities that, and I can't stress this enough, have nothing to with HubSpot. And if you go into it thinking, oh, that's that HubSpot conference, right? You're missing the point. There is so much that is going to make you a more well-rounded coming out of it. Like, like I, I don't go to any of the hub. I can count on one hand how many HubSpot centric breakouts that I've been to going to inbound because there's so much more about learning the why behind what it is that makes you a professional and, and the why behind, you know, learning analytics or, or.
Optimizing your conversion path. And as you can do these with any tools, it's learning these foundational things that make you a good marketer, a good sales professional, uh, a good manager, a good operations person that have absolutely nothing to do with HubSpot. You can you go there and see HubSpot in action.
Can you learn HubSpot? Can you talk of course. But it's not just about HubSpot. That's why it's called Inbound, because it's, it's not, it's not. We're going to hubspot.com, the
[00:17:47] George B. Thomas: is thinking I'm, I'm trying to give Max
room here just
[00:17:50] Max Cohen: So I'm buffering, I'm buffering. I, I think because I'm trying to, I'm, I don't know if I kind of said this already, but like, It's, it's such an amazing chance and to go stand like shoulder to shoulder with people who are either dealing with the same exact problems you're dealing with in your business or people that have dealt with the same exact problems and found creative ways to solve them.
Right. And so like when you talk about like that networking piece, if you're going inbound, Chances are you're dealing with a lot of the similar situations that other people have that are going there. And it's a great way to see different perspectives and get new ideas on how to solve those problems.
Right. Regardless of if you're using HubSpot or not. Right. We're all pretty much there cuz we're in business in some way, shape, or form. Right. And a lot of those problems that we have are kind of shared
across. They just take on different shades.
[00:18:39] Liz Murphy: Wait, does that mean I
could stand up like in the middle of Columbia bound with a bullhorn and be like, blogs in my right guys? And everybody's just like, Yeah.
[00:18:47] Max Cohen: And then SEC Security
pulls you out of there and takes you out. Yeah,
[00:18:50] Devyn Bellamy: Yeah, I, I don't know if I'd recommend that, but it technically
is
[00:18:54] Liz Murphy: Okay. Okay. Let's not shame
the
[00:18:57] George B. Thomas: Oh, no, no,
[00:18:58] Liz Murphy: can get fussy and make
poetry. We're gonna
[00:19:01] Devyn Bellamy: one thing about Max's point that I want to point out is, is not just about hearing other people's problems and standing shoulder to shoulder with people who are either going through or may have experienced it, but one thing that you're gonna notice. Is validation. You're gonna get so much validation on the stuff that you deal with on a day-to-day that you think is unique to your company, that literally almost everyone else is dealing with.
Like, oh, the sales team, am I right? And it's going to be like they're trying to solve the exact same problems that you are. And it's gonna happen time and time again to a point where you, you, you, these are gonna be like your new digital drinking buddies because you have
[00:19:41] George B. Thomas: All right. Listen.
[00:19:42] Max Cohen: It's LinkedIn in real life.
[00:19:44] George B. Thomas: nope, nope. It's canceled. Canceled. Okay. Listen, listen. I gotta, I,
I gotta get this out. Yeah. Security. Somebody please somebody come get him. Take him away. Uh, but, but here, listen. Listen. Here's. Here's the real deal. Holy field. Okay? you guys have been dancing around the entire time.
I've heard each and every one of you say it, and that is, it's an experience. Now I want you to think about that. When you have your 18th birthday or your 21st birthday or your 50th birthday, it's an experience. You go on to Niagara Falls, right? And you, you know, on vacation, it's an experience. Uh, you happen to get married.
Maybe it's an experience. You have your first child and it's experience. It's these experiences that actually shape us into who we be. Come. And so to think about that, everything I listed is like a personal experience. I want you to think about how many, and hopefully there are some great business professional experiences that you have had in your life, and understanding that inbound could be. of the most magnificent experiences that Inbound is inbound is the human side of HubSpot. And the experiences that you could create while you're there will dramatically change not only your business but yourself. And again, we're gonna get into those magic moments in the hallway, and I'm gonna tell you a story about Doug Davidoff and George B.
Thomas at Inbound. man, I'm just telling you
like. It's about the freaking experience. It's not
[00:21:13] Liz Murphy: George, wait, wait, wait.
[00:21:14] George B. Thomas: Yes. Can you get educated? Yes.
That's part of
it.
[00:21:17] Liz Murphy: George,
why don't you just go ahead and tell the
[00:21:19] Devyn Bellamy: Yeah, we're here now. Stop teasing me
[00:21:21] Liz Murphy: let No, because Stop it. Stop teasing me. Stop. Lord. I want to know what the magic in the hallways is. That is why I'm here. Honestly, it's the only reason I showed up today is I want to know what that
means.
[00:21:31] George B. Thomas: And you gotta give space for this, right? So don't, when I told, I said spreadsheet earlier, don't fill it full. Leave some room in it. Okay? Because when you can sit at the Weston and have conversations, Booz, by the way, I could literally go into the time where we were sitting at the West end and Brian Halligan came and sat down right next to us and just started having a conversation like we were
best buds,
[00:21:52] Liz Murphy: I sat next to him
[00:21:53] George B. Thomas: Hi, I'm, so, here's the thing though. Here, here's the thing. I, I'm, I'm gonna catch you. Not I, I sat outside of the Starbucks and it was myself. It was Doug David off, I think maybe Remington bag and maybe Doug's son was there. we were talking about like just some straight up, Stuff, and I won't say what Doug said on the podcast, but Doug had one of those moments where he said something to me and it went in my brain and it ripped out wires and plugged them in in different places.
And all of a sudden I was like, I mean, I, I was melting and everybody sitting there could tell that I was mentally melting. But in all the best ways. All the best ways. The only thing that I can closely equate it to Liz, so that you'll know and, and so at some point we'll probably have to tell the same story or a different story, is when you and I were going through our voice tone workshop and you said to me, What would it be like if you showed up at like a whole ass human?
And, and that for me was a moment in time. It was an experience that I knew for like moving forward, I was gonna be a different dude if I wouldn't have been at inbound, if I would've been sitting around with Doug David off, if I would've opened myself to the magical moment of him being able to put into me the words that he said. Who knows where we'd be. And that's the thing, there's somebody, you're gonna meet it inbound that's gonna say something that they weren't a breakout, they weren't a main stage, they paid for a ticket just like you. And you're gonna take it back and be like, that was the fricking gem right there.
[00:23:31] Liz Murphy: You know, George, you have literally made up for everything that you did as the Chaos King in last week's episode by saying the whole as
[00:23:38] George B. Thomas: It was, it was, and I just want everybody to know that I made it through that entire spiel and I didn't say,
[00:23:46] Liz Murphy: But now I wanna talk about networking guys. I want to actually talk about it because there are like eight, like my favorite part is like, you know how there was that joke? Winter is coming. We are about to have the onslaught of 8,000 thought leadership pieces about how to survive networking as if it's some sort of like demonn spawn networking is just being with other people who have like-minded interests and maybe just maybe you can help
each other.
I don't think that's a bad thing and I would
[00:24:12] Devyn Bellamy: of us, it's
[00:24:13] Liz Murphy: Devin, you and I can hide somewhere in club inbound
after security has failed to find either of
[00:24:17] Devyn Bellamy: Well, the thing is for me, um, and, and most people who know me know this, but those of you who are listening might new be new to me. Hi, I'm Devin and I have social anxiety issues. I went to a conference, uh, in Wisconsin and these are people that I know and, I, I have a stress meter on my watch, and it was maxed out the entire time, and I was even talking to one of the conference organizers.
And he was like, how are you feeling? I was like, well, I'm better now, but check this out. And I showed him the spread, the graph on, on my phone that shows what my stress levels are like through the day and during the networking portions it was completely maxed out. Like it was a hundred percent you are about to have a heart attack cuz you are completely stressed out.
And, and the thing is, is that I don't like meeting new people. I don't like talking to people. Um, which kind of sucks because I'm, I'm, I'm. Fairly well known at Inbound, and people always want to talk to me. But the thing is, is that what gets me out of my shell there is that I know it's. It's unlikely that there will be any other time of the year where I'm going to be surrounded by people who do what I do love the things that I love and can have conversations on and, and be passionate about the same problems that I'm facing.
And there are so many opportunities for networking, be they in the hallway at a networking event, or, uh, if you, if you don't have it, you, you can start your own, which is one of the things that I'm known for with starting Black and Inbound, which is just a networking opportunity for all the black professionals that are there.
To come together and talk. And it started from 13 people and now there's hundreds and it has its own team of people that manage it. And it, it, it all started with the need for a conversation. And so when it comes to, talking and, and introducing yourself and, and, and all that stuff, for me it's terrifying.
Every day of the year, with the exception of when I'm at Inbound. When I'm at inbound, it's literally the only time that I'm an extrovert. It's the only time I feel comfortable in my skin because I know that these are my people. It's like. If you've ever been to a comic book convention, do you feel shy at comic book conventions?
No, because you're surrounded by a bunch of nerds who nerd out the same way. You nerd out, and you just gotta find the flavor of nerd that nerds out about the same things you nerd out about. It's literally the exact same thing. At inbound, only people smell better. So what you should do is find people. Um, and just, and just talk about whatever it is that you're excited about when it comes to marketing and sales.
You're gonna find that all these people are like, yeah, I know. And then you start vibing and telling stories and saying things like conversion path metrics. And I don't know how to define my KPIs when we're talking about social media and, and, and everyone around you will be like, nerds, but you'll be like, no, we're the cool ones because you're an inbound.
[00:27:17] George B. Thomas: Oh,
[00:27:18] Max Cohen: It's like the olive garden. When you're here, you're
[00:27:21] George B. Thomas: ah, yeah.
[00:27:23] Liz Murphy: And completely
unhinged.
[00:27:25] George B. Thomas: I love that so much. it's interesting because, I wish people would, I wish people wouldn't look at it as networking because Devin, you said something in there, you're like, uh, conversations. It's, that's all you're doing. You're just, you're just gonna go have some conversations.
I feel like sometimes people who say, I'm gonna go network, they have a hidden fricking agenda
and network actually means I'm gonna go subtly sell some stuff. No, no, no. Just go have some conversations. Just meet people. Just listen. Just be human. And if, if there happens to be a reason for there to be a need to have another conversation, a need to assist them with your product and service, well great serendipity wee.
But to go in and be like, I'm gonna go do some networking and be a networking robot. Have you been keeping count? Anybody doing
shots then? Then you're doing,
[00:28:18] Devyn Bellamy: I just know that I already won my
bet. So yeah, go ahead.
[00:28:21] Liz Murphy: I am obliterated.
[00:28:22] George B. Thomas: you know that you're going about it. Dare I say. Without getting hate mail the wrong
way.
[00:28:28] Liz Murphy: so wait, let me, okay. You might have subtly dropped a nice little hot take there because I think we all know companies. Agencies that go there and it's like, yeah, you can totally go learn employees, but you have a sales quota you have to make while you're
here. And they aren't necessarily sponsors either.
So I'm not talking about people who are on the floor. Right. I'm talking like, we
[00:28:52] George B. Thomas: you're on the floor, you got a
[00:28:53] Liz Murphy: heard
[00:28:53] George B. Thomas: you, well, first of all, if you're on the floor, you got a job to do. Hopefully there's a nice rotation. Hopefully everybody's getting what they need. All that good stuff that I, I wouldn't slight anybody for spending 30, $50,000 in saying, let's go to work.
Right.
Yeah,
[00:29:08] Liz Murphy: That's called sell. We're there to
[00:29:09] George B. Thomas: like we're going incognito, like, you know, Hey, let's go do some educating. By the way, here's brand new business cards. Here's your script that you're gonna say to everybody that No,
[00:29:18] Max Cohen: I am probably gonna try to sell some hats though.
[00:29:24] Liz Murphy: Jill still.
[00:29:26] George B. Thomas: I mean, my plan is I'm just gonna be giving pins away. I'm, I'm just gonna give pins away the entire time, just so everybody knows. That's all I'm gonna say.
[00:29:33] Liz Murphy: I apparently am just gonna
be running from security the whole time between the Weston
and Club inbound,
[00:29:39] Max Cohen: screaming in the middle of a floor with a
[00:29:41] Liz Murphy: I won't. And I'm six feet tall. Like I'm not exactly subtle, so this is gonna be a real good time. It's gonna be like the easiest for game of where's Waldo. But speaking of where's Waldo terrible segue.
The last thing I really wanna get into today is something that, quite frankly it's, it's part of the title, it's why we're here today, kids. What are the differences between planning to go as an individual versus planning to go as a team, whether that's the dos, the don'ts, the mistakes. The strategic, the the strategic jury, right.
[00:30:11] Devyn Bellamy: So,
[00:30:12] Liz Murphy: George, you pointed
at the screen, but Devin, you sound like
[00:30:15] Devyn Bellamy: oh, I, I am so ready. All the bombs. Okay. So first you're going there as an individual. Only spend 50% of your breakout sessions on things that are relevant to your job. Spend 25% on things that are relevant to your life and spend 25% on things that have absolutely nothing to do with your job. that are completely outside of your job function.
If you're a marketer, go to a sales thing. If you're a salesperson, go to a marketing thing. Go to leadership things. Even if you're an individual contributor, do things that are gonna take you outside of your box, outside of your comfort zone. Because even if they don't directly enrich you personally, what they will make you do is communicate with better with people who are in those and help you understand the struggles that they're going with, and it'll expand your mental horizons.
And if you're going with a team, don't, don't clump up. I, I cringe every time I see a clump of t-shirts from the same tech company, it's like you're doing it wrong. Everybody split up, take notes, share together after inbound, you don't even have to do it at the end of the night. You can split up and, and basically just go and absorb as much knowledge as possible and then when you get home, Then you can do a team wide debrief on, Hey, here are some of the things we learned.
You can have Google Docs where you're actually taking notes in, in a one area, and everyone can see what everyone else is learning about and, and you can ask questions about the other person who's in the other session. If you happen to not be in and when and see something, it's like, Hey, I have more questions about this.
You can give minor presentations back at the office about some of the things you've learned. There, there you. What you don't want to do is, is be all clumped up with your buddies, people who you see all day, every day, all year split up, go experience new things apart, and then bring those experiences together so you can benefit as a whole instead of like, you might as well just gone by your damn self if you're gonna do that.
[00:32:19] George B. Thomas: Yeah, I, so I love this so much cuz divide and conquer. I agree with you. You know what gives me anxiety when I see like 50 pink shirts walking down the hall together and I feel like I'm just gonna get run over because like, but here's the thing too. I'll say I love the idea of a morning or an evening.
Hashtag one thing. Like what's your one thing from today? Just share it around with the group real quick. Okay, let's break, let's go. The other thing that we, uh, have. Historically done. and I believe this was an impulse creative with Bremington big and that team is, we'd have an inbound Slack channel where we could dump little quick quips of things that we wanted to make sure we talked about when we got back.
So there was like a running thread of information. What's fun about that? It was a running thread, not only for those of who who attended, but people who actually weren't there that then could ask like additional questions if there was something that popped up. That interest them and then we knew we could have conversations when we got back.
So I love all of what you said, Devin, around that. Here's the thing, cuz we're talking about teams, right? Teams. I've seen the exact opposite. The exact opposite. Get to inbound and you don't see them jokers the entire time. What is that? Why are we, why are we running away from everybody when we land and not taking the time to actually have a dinner together or, you know, brain dump together as, and then like, sure, I agree with the divide and conquer, but please do me a favor and don't go on the polar opposite end, like find a middle ground of what Devin and I are talking about right now.
Because sometimes I get a little sketched out, Hey, has anybody seen Jackie the last four days? Or is, is Jackie checking out? Like, uh, yeah, you know, that place, the Paul Revere thing and
the duck? Where's, where, what?
[00:34:07] Liz Murphy: Everybody just needs to get a WhatsApp and make sure you're
checking
[00:34:10] Devyn Bellamy: That's what I'm saying. You can text each other or, or Slack each other. I mean, and my way works, especially if you hate your coworkers, but yeah. Doing the networking thing and, and, and brain dumping and connecting. I mean, you can treat it as also a, a, you know, your, your company retreat. Like I literally went to inbound for my honeymoon.
That that's how
[00:34:31] George B. Thomas: Oh, there we
[00:34:32] Devyn Bellamy: that I
[00:34:33] George B. Thomas: There we
go. Hey, let l.
[00:34:34] Liz Murphy: Aww,
[00:34:35] Devyn Bellamy: but we're getting a divorce,
So, who cares. But the thing,
[00:34:38] George B. Thomas: diff different episode. Yeah.
[00:34:41] Liz Murphy: but the love, but you know what? Your marriage with
no, but your marriage with inbound
[00:34:45] George B. Thomas: we
go.
[00:34:45] Devyn Bellamy: there you go.
Absolutely.
[00:34:47] Liz Murphy: that.
[00:34:47] George B. Thomas: before you go, I do have to throw something out there. Um, small disclaimer, if your name is Jackie, I was not talking about you. Okay, there we go. I was just pulling a name randomly out of the ethos.
I love all Jackie's in the world,
so. Ether, ether,
[00:35:03] Max Cohen: But at the same time, at the same time, Jackie, you know who you are. You know who you
are. All right.
[00:35:09] Devyn Bellamy: Can't control the weather.
Jackie, I'm sorry.
[00:35:12] Liz Murphy: All right.
[00:35:13] Max Cohen: Stay out of the penguin pit at the aquarium. Um,
anyway,
[00:35:18] Liz Murphy: Wait. there's a penguin pit. Hold on, hold
[00:35:21] Max Cohen: to God.
[00:35:22] Liz Murphy: Forget All penguins
[00:35:24] Max Cohen: All right. All right. One story from when I was a kid, we definitely, uh, went to the, it's a New England Aquarium. Boston Aquarium, I can't remember. We definitely went there when I was in middle school.
And, um, 100% I, I, I swear on everything I love. That when we were on the ride back in the bus, a kid pulled out a penguin from his backpack. I don't know
how he got it? But apparently he
[00:35:50] Liz Murphy: How big was it.
How
[00:35:52] Max Cohen: services. I don't know, penguin sized it, but it was a penguin and a backpack. Um,
so,
[00:35:59] Liz Murphy: I'm sorry, did you just say penguin
[00:36:00] Max Cohen: so if you're going to Boston and you're looking for a souvenir, I mean, the penguins are there.
Um, yeah, I mean, I was gonna kind of say divide and conquer as well. Georgie kind of stole the, kinda the only thing I had to say about
this, but. Yeah. Like, hey, remember, listen, there's a lot to do in the city, right? There's plenty of donkeys. You could go on coffee runs too as well. So make sure you get some time outside, you know, spend some time with your coworkers that may not be, that easy to spend time with when you're all like working remotely and not in the same place, right?
I'd say use it as a great team bonding activity, right? I mean, especially in the world when we're no longer in the office anymore, there are rare moments where we actually get to. Come and work together and be around each other. so I'd say this year is probably a really great time to take advantage of that.
Uh, and sure you'll get some work done as well. Um, but yeah, divide and conquer. Like if you can grab someone from like another department where maybe you're having like. Issues working together are solving a problem between departments. Like if you're a sales director, why don't you take your marketing director and go to a session that helps solve problems between sales and marketing alignment, right?
Get really tactical for what you choose to go to and who you choose to go to it with, cuz there's probably plenty of problems between the way that you work with your coworkers or between a par, um, Departments that could be solved by going and seeing a new perspective, together and then having a chat about it when it's fresh in your mind and taking those learnings back, once inbound is over.
So, you know, just, just, just, just think about what you go to and who you go together with. Right. And just make sure there's like something that you guys can get out of it
[00:37:33] George B. Thomas: I love that. Hey Max, uh, quick question, uh, cuz you got me thinking about penguins. Uh, what do you call a happy
penguin?
[00:37:39] Max Cohen: uh,
[00:37:40] Liz Murphy: Oh
[00:37:41] George B. Thomas: A pen grn.
[00:37:41] Liz Murphy: what?
[00:37:42] George B. Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. Hey, hey. Do you know how to, do you know how
[00:37:45] Devyn Bellamy: Good night ladies
and gentlemen.
[00:37:47] George B. Thomas: One more, Do you, do you know how to
[00:37:49] Liz Murphy: I still,
[00:37:50] George B. Thomas: with a penguin?
You, you just give him a little
wing.
[00:37:53] Max Cohen: Oh,
[00:37:54] Liz Murphy: no,
[00:37:55] Max Cohen: I was gonna say, you put 'em in your
[00:37:56] George B. Thomas: Ha.
[00:37:57] Devyn Bellamy: I'm sorry, Noah.
I'm sorry for everything.
[00:38:00] Liz Murphy: light,
no. It's our producer.
[00:38:01] Max Cohen: Off the rails, off the
rails.
[00:38:05] Liz Murphy: You know, just when I
think recording on Friday afternoons when everybody's clearly totally fine and totally, you know, we're, we're doing great. All right. Um, and, and on, on that note, I don't even have a poem
[00:38:18] George B. Thomas: my
[00:38:19] Liz Murphy: like that's what's
happened. We have, I know.
will ruin your lives. I
will ruin your, oh, that was dumb. You
[00:38:26] Devyn Bellamy: Oh.
[00:38:26] Liz Murphy: said that. That was
dumb. And you should feel dumb and you should feel bad. You are. I'm so excited to record with you next week, George. It's going to
be so much fun. And on that note, I do have one last question to take us out then.
Since George has sucked the life out of me as a poet, what is the one thing you feel like everybody should be talking about, about Inbound right now? That they aren't?
[00:38:49] Devyn Bellamy: For me, it's the learning opportunities like I am. The marketer I am today largely in part, be because of, of what I've learned at Inbound. Um, I and I, I've talked about this specific breakout session numerous times. Um, but Christopher Penn building the data driven customer journey inbound 2016 changed the way.
That I do marketing change the way I report on marketing. I literally just in Wisconsin, was teaching on a lot of the concepts that were introduced to me during his session. And there are so many opportunities, like just things that are just revelatory and groundbreaking in the breakout sessions and we don't talk about them enough.
Um, there is just so many different ways for you. To become a better professional and a better human being. Um, but like, you know, Derek Jeter, Reese Witherspoon, yay. That's all well and good. Um, but it's like, it's like continuing education. You, you gotta do it.
[00:39:59] George B. Thomas: All right. So for me, um, I was a little confused. To be honest, uh, I put a post out, uh, a couple days ago about, um, a thing that talked about going to inbound in person or virtually to which then somebody threw back. It's only in person. no virtual portion of it this year, which I was like, oh, wow, I missed the memo. I wanna actually say though, if you go, and this is why I'm talking about it, because I don't know if enough people are talking about it, because if all of a sudden there's like this cyclone of like, it's only in person happening wherever that's coming from, if you go to inbound.com/, which by the way, check out this word after the diatribe that I went on experience, and you scroll down the page, you'll literally see a big block.
That says livestream watch Inbound 2023 live via YouTube in September. We understand that not all attendees can make the trip to Boston, which is why we're excited to bring attendees a front row seat to main stage spotlight, and what's next? Speakers and programming live through HubSpot's YouTube channel.
Our three day live stream will feature over 20 plus sessions, English, closed captioning, and ASL interpretation. Sounds kind of virtual to me. I'm just gonna throw that out, like at least you're gonna be able to get to some of it, not all of it. So I want people who are like sitting here going through, here's my ultimate success plan, and I've tried to get my boss to let me go, and maybe it falls a slight bit flat. Not all is lost. Check out the YouTube channel.
[00:41:35] Liz Murphy: Max Bobby, talk to
me.
[00:41:37] Max Cohen: Maybe this is like, uh, we say, what are people talking about that they're not talking about or that they should be talking about? Um, Maybe not along the lines of like public discourse, but I think maybe internally, like at your company with your peers, right. I think a lot of the conversations are probably talking about, oh, so excited, can't wait to go, and less of the conversations are on why are we going, what are we gonna do?
What are we looking to get out of it? And like really thinking tactically about it. So if you haven't like sat down with your coworkers who are going to this thing like. Take the time to put together like a game plan and like plan ahead. Like all the speakers in the sessions are on the website right now.
There's no reason why you guys can't start chatting through it, coming up with a game plan instead of doing it last minute when you're on the plane flight there, right? So start talk about it now. Come up with a game plan. Go crush it. Have a good time. Go steal a penguin. Get a large French vanilla iced coffee regular.
You know all the
things.
[00:42:35] George B. Thomas: my goodness.
[00:42:36] Liz Murphy: Oh my gosh. Okay. And I'll leave it with this. The one thing I wish more people were talking about with Inbound is I wish people who are going, who have gone in the past, if you are around people who maybe aren't bought into it, maybe are new or whatever. I don't know if you'll, maybe this is making the assumption that a lot of people are like me whenever I go to inbound.
It's not that I've forgotten why I do what I do or why I'm part of this community. It is that boost. It is the most epic intersection of professional development, fun, excitement, and like dopamine and like all of the good, the feelgood chemicals about why I am doing this work in this community and not going somewhere else.
It's that, it's that thing we always talk about, right? Like what's the reason you showed up and what's the reason you stayed? Whether that's in a company, a friend group, a network, whatever it is that we're talking about. And so the one thing I would really encourage you to do is that if you are someone who feels like me and what I'm saying to you resonates with you, tell that to other people.
Don't be shy. Don't assume people won't listen. Maybe not everyone will listen to you. Maybe a few people will be like, yeah, you know what? HubSpot sold out and now they have Reese Witherspoon like, but there's going to be someone who's going to hear you, and it will change their life because they will listen and they will go and they will thank you, except they won't thank Max because they will be in prison for stealing a penguin.
And
[00:44:03] George B. Thomas: Well, hold up. Hold up. No,
no. I wanna give, I want to give one last
[00:44:08] Liz Murphy: Come on.
[00:44:09] George B. Thomas: networking, networking tip.
Okay. I
[00:44:13] Liz Murphy: you not hear
[00:44:14] George B. Thomas: Yeah. Now 1 1, 1 networking
[00:44:17] Liz Murphy: No, go ahead. Go ahead.
Go ahead,
[00:44:18] George B. Thomas: Why did the two networking penguins jump when they first
met?
[00:44:22] Liz Murphy: No,
[00:44:23] George B. Thomas: they were trying to break the ice. Woo.
[00:44:27] Max Cohen: Oh, yes,