Alana Lovett-Griffin: Redefining Success and Self-Worth | Women of HubSpot

Welcome to the Women of HubSpot Podcast, the show that celebrates the voices shaping marketing technology and the ever evolving HubSpot ecosystem. Hosted by George B. Thomas from Sidekick Strategies, each episode brings you the stories, strategies and superpowers of the women driving this industry forward. It's their time. It's their mic. This is Women of HubSpot foreign.

George B. Thomas. And we're back again with another episode of the Women of HubSpot podcast. And I'm super excited. Why? Because I'm not standing here by myself. I am standing here with Alana Lovett Griffin, and I'm super excited to have a conversation today. Ask the questions, get into the deep end, go through the valley and the journey. But hey, if this is your first episode, let me just give you a quick snapshot. It's the Super Bowl. The Philadelphia Eagles are in there. There's a quarterback. And my daughter starts to say these words, did you know he has an all woman team? And I saw her face light up and the excitement and the conversation ensued. And I said, why is this not happening in the HubSpot space? And without any strategy, without any thinking, I opened up LinkedIn as I'm watching the game and I did a post of like, hey, if you know somebody who is super dope and they're a female, a woman, and they use HubSpot, work at HubSpot, tag them in this post. Let's shine the light on the awesome women in our space. Needless to say, it blew up. I looked at my daughters a couple of days later. They looked at me and they're like, dad, we've got to create some content around this. We've got to have these conversations. And I agree, we do have to have these conversations. So, Alana, how the heck are you doing today?

I am doing fantastic. I never get tired of that story. The only part that bothers me is that you might be an Eagles fan.

No. No. Okay, good. I love it.

I was like, in, call in.

I love it. Out of all the people that I've interviewed, nobody has actually asked me what football team I am a fan of. It is not the Eagles. And I think they were playing. Oh, what? What team were they? Anyway, it doesn't matter. But unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on who you are and who you're listening to, this. Before we moved to North Carolina, I was a Cleveland Browns fan because we lived in Ohio, never win, not really sad songs. And then we moved to North Carolina. So of course it's the Panthers is usually who I'm rooting For. Okay, but they weren't in that super bowl, so they can't be part of this story. But I love that you asked that. Okay, Alana, we're gonna go kind of through the valleys and go to the peak as far as some of these questions. But first, can you just let everybody know who's watching this or listening to this, like, who you are, what you do, where you do it, like, how. How you got tagged into this. Like, hey, you gotta be on this show.

I am a woman of HubSpot and woman at HubSpot. Right. So I currently lead a team of partner development managers. So I'm a manager of pdms is what they're called internally. And we essentially coach solutions partners on how to go to market with HubSpot, how to help them scale and build their business using HubSpot as a tool. I'm actually coming up on my four years at HubSpot, which George is like dog ears. Like, it feels very much so with all the change and everything. But it's been great. I was able to connect with so many women who inspire me, and I think that's how I ended up here. It's just someone said, hey, I want to pay it forward. Alana has been instrumental in my time at HubSpot, so I think you should talk to her. I'm honored because of that. So, yeah, let's talk about the valleys and the journeys. I would love to continue to pay it forward, my experience here at HubSpot.

Yeah, let's do that. Now, I do have a sideways question I want to ask you because you said, coming up on four years, I know at five, people that work at HubSpot get a sabbatical. Have you been starting to think about maybe what you're going to do? Or is it too early for that yet?

You know, there it's always on my mind because I love rest. I love a good rest and recharge. I actually am like, on the other side of a lengthier vacation. So you're getting a good version of me. So one thing I really would love to do is one obviously rest and sleep, but I want to travel with my children. So I have two small children, three years old and 19 months old. So as a father, you can understand the complexities of that. But, you know, recently they secure passports. So I think it's just so important for our children, if we have the privilege to do so, to take them places so they can see the world, gain perspective, connect with other cultures. So that is like, one thing that is certainly on my list for sabbatical and of course, sleep, I have to get at least seven and a half hours.

There you go. I love the idea of sleep, but also, I totally agree. Getting your children into the world so they get a perspective of where they live, the family they have versus everything else that is out there is such a. A key piece that I love that you're kind of focused on this. Okay, so let's go ahead, get into this journey. Alana, if we could go back in time, maybe we've got a DeLorean or something along those lines, a time machine of some sort. We go back in time to young Alana Lovett Griffin, just starting out. One, what do we see? And two, what would she be most surprised about where you are right now?

What I see, I'm looking at. Young Alana is just a woman with so many unanswered questions. So many. And I think if you asked me this question, like, maybe five years ago, I would describe her as lost. But really it's not lost. It's curiosity in a world that's unexplored. So I started my professional career as a school psychologist, and I was working in a K through 12 setting. I was leading, you know, multidisciplinary teams. So we. Working with speech pathologists, special education teachers, and. And ensuring that children, particularly children with special needs, have an educational plan that met where they were at the time and they're constantly growing and we have appropriate goals. So, you know, you could imagine that being in your 20s, that is a big job, because I. I was not a parent at the time. I only had the perspective of school and education. So I'm coming from a place of, like, this is the textbook way to do it. And then now you're in the real world, and it's a lot more complex than it sounds. You know, I probably felt lost, but I was actually really just curious about what was happening, what that experience is. As a parent of a child who has a disability, what it means to navigate these systems and to have meetings in which you're told, hey, your child might not have the life that you intended for them. And that's so big for a young woman making those decisions and not having a lot of experiences to draw upon. I was very curious in an unexplored world. And remind me the second half of that question.

Yeah. What. What would she be most surprised about for where you are right now?

Yes. I think she would be surprised at the amount of peace that I have. So, George, I've been doing this thing lately where I'm not talking about my success in terms of achievement because I think that that no longer aligns with my values. Right. I. I want to talk about my success in terms of the sovereignty that I'm experiencing right now. And I think that she would be surprised at the peace that I have, even though this is probably the busiest I've ever been in my life. So as a. As a working mother, leading a team of people with small children, supporting aging parents, you know, being the sole income provider in my household, and I'm also doing, like, a little side gig where I'm posting my content and trying to launch a business. But because I've leaned completely into things that align with my values, it just feels so much peace that it doesn't feel busy. It just feels like all things that I enjoy.

I feel like we're going to church and we're only on, like, the first real question. This idea of sovereignty, this idea of peace, this idea of, like, additional hustle to start a side business. Your. Your story of going from the educational system to now you're at HubSpot, Help partners in the ecosystem. And honestly, this idea of lost versus curiosity, like, as soon as you said that, like, my cranium started to, like, go, and all the synapses were firing and, like, I'm like, oh, my gosh, okay, already. This is amazing. I love this conversation. So you've been on a journey, right? From school to school system to now HubSpot. Who are some of the biggest inspirations or mentors along the way? This can be before HubSpot. In HubSpot, whatever.

I feel like I've been really fortunate that wherever I landed, there were, like, one or two people that I was able to establish a really deep connection with. We talk about feeling seen, heard, and valued, but it doesn't need to happen with everyone. If you have, like, one or two champions that they really understand who you are and what you're trying to be, you know, you can have lifelong relationships, really, And I've been fortunate to have that. So I'll talk about, like, three archetypes and kind of why they stand out. To me, the first was actually someone in the school system that I work with and I'm still in touch with. And this woman was impressive because she actually came from the corporate environment into the school system. So she kind of did the opposite of what I did. And now that I think about it, it was to pursue her own piece. Like, the corporate space no longer kind of aligned with what she wanted to do. She didn't want to climb, but she wanted to move to like passion filled, purposeful work. And she found that within the school system. And I just remember it like really appreciating how she could walk out of like a very contentious and stressful meeting and still have lightness because she had such control of her emotions. Like it was really beautiful. So that was one person. The other person who has been a champion for me and we're still in touch, I may call him a mentor is someone that I work with at a startup and this startup was a blockchain, credentialing startup. So I'm not even going to like we might need to set up another pod to go into like what that was.

Right.

And I probably can't even articulate what blockchain is as well as I used to be. But the reason why he was so critical to me is because we're in this environment and if anyone has worked at a startup environment, there's, it's very uncertain. You're constantly learning, doing, you're very busy, there's not a clear roadmap all the time. And you're, you're in survival mode. And you know, it's an intimate group of like 25 people. So you really get to see everyone in their like rawest form. So it was important for me to connect with someone who like kept me grounded because that was a space where I was like, I was on the path of crash out, you know, because it's just so busy and it was around the pandemic as well. And then the third person who has just been, and she's lovely, I'm going to name drop that person is Dr. V. Boykin. And you may have seen her on LinkedIn. Formerly a HubSpot. I've never met someone who is, just has such a presence, someone who is so just like deeply rooted in who they are and unapologetic about it, but not in a way that's like, puts you off. It's like she embraces the elements of her strength and softness and I see that and I'm just like, okay, this is possible. She's doing it and she's doing it in a way that's uplifting A lot of women, you know, it's, it's different ways in, in which I think people have been influential and inspiring to me. But it all hit me at the right time in my life and now I can reflect on it and say if I put all these people together, this could be like a super mentor or a Super coach. You know, those are my, those are my top three.

I love that so much and how you broke that down. By the way, I do love Dr. V. I had an opportunity to interview her before the previous inbound inbound 2024 and it was one of my favorite, like kind of on the road or pre inbound interviews. Inter in Inbound talks was the, the name of the show that we were doing then. And what an amazing human. I also love that you broke this down into kind of these three different archetypes. I love that. We also learned that not only did you go from education or, or educated to education, but now also you listed in their startup. So you've been in the startup world in between then in HubSpot, I'm just learning all sorts of kind of cool things about you, but also I started to have another moment where I'm like, oh my gosh, like, are we, are we related somehow? Because you started to talk about this idea of purposeful passion. And one of the things that I'm talking about at Inbound this year is the superhuman framework which I built. Not why we're here, but just so you know, Alana, the four cornerstones of that framework are purpose, passion, persistence, and love. And so when you started to go down that road, I was like, oh, like let's go, let's go. Okay.

I promise I wasn't prepped, everyone.

Yeah, I'm telling you, it's, it's all good. It, it feels authentic. I know that we're just a dope conversation, which I'm getting excited just how this is going so far. So now we're going to crest into some of what I call the valley questions before we kind of go ch. Travel up the mountain and get to the peak. And so I'm super curious, like, you're a woman. You, you work at HubSpot. You're a woman of HubSpot. You've had this crazy journey that we've been kind of talking about, education, startup, all that along the way. Have there been any hurdles or biases that you've had to overcome in your career? And how did you actually navigate those or navigate them?

Yes, the short answer is yes. I think the biggest like, and I've, I've actually have now decided to undo some of the things that I was doing before is not only being a woman in like a male dominated space that's tech, but also being a woman of color. You know, it has its unique experience in. And then being a black woman. Right. Because one of the things That I will say is that while, while HubSpot has done great work in terms of driving culture and diversity, there's still work to be done in terms of representation, particularly black women in leadership positions. Right. And that's all over the industry. So I think what I used to do and the challenges I faced were connected to, like, how I saw myself in this larger space where a lot of times people didn't look like me. I would shrink, George. I would choose to be like, hey, if I was low maintenance and reliable, like, nobody would would tell that I was a black woman. Which, you know, hearing me articulate that out loud is just like, alana, what are you talking about?

Right?

But now what I've done is like, yes, this is part of my identity. I am proud of my identity. I am proud to show up as a black woman in a space where I'm underrepresented and I'm owning it. And we're going to do this and I'm not going to shrink. There'll be elements about me that may be different from, you know, my counterparts. And that's great that that makes this whole thing beautiful. Right. So I, I think the biggest challenge that I had, yes, of course people may see you in certain way and come to you with biases, but it was with myself. It was in my own ownership of my identity and recognition of the beauty that I'm bringing into spaces because I'm different.

Oh, man, I love that so much. How did you navigate it? What comes to my mind is, like, inner exploration, like loving myself so that I can love others and present the best of me to the world is where my brain goes. And I love that so, so much. Okay, so let's continue on with these questions because I can't wait to get to all these answers. I'm loving this so much. Okay. Have you ever faced a moment where you felt underestimated, overlooked, out of place in the industry? And again, how did you handle that when you're in that scenario?

Yes, I can't say that I always handled it well.

Okay.

Honesty is the best policy, as the youth said. I, I was a bit of a crash out in this example. So I'll give you an example now. I feel like I, you know, if you pull my LinkedIn, they're going to be like, girl, what else did you do? There was a stint in which I like to say a cup of coffee was had with the NFL Players Association. So I was there for about a year. And I just thought I had all these ideas which I did. And no one was listening to my ideas, right? No one was listening to me. So what I did, George, is I got louder and I was like, maybe it's because I'm not talking to enough people, maybe it's because I need to be more direct. But the reality was I wasn't taking into account my environment. In an association environment, in that work and work culture, things have been the same way for years. And it's not that they're change averse, it's just that the change management process is longer. You need to build up more equity in terms of what you're in in that space instead of coming in for complete disruption. I needed to do a little, I needed to be a little bit more emotionally intelligent in terms of how I was working with my career, I mean with my peers. And I just like needed to take a step back and fully understand kind of the implications of what I was recommending. I felt this way of like, oh, they don't appreciate me. And ultimately I left, right? I was just like, this is not the place for me. But in reality it could have been like, it could have been a place where I made changes. Change just look very different in that environment. And so, you know, one of the things that I'm able to do now that my, you know, for brain is fully developed is to have a sense of like patience and reflection and look at things holistically and actually have people challenge me. That's something that I'm doing now, working with my leaders here at HubSpot. I'm just like, hey, here's a brain dump. Pick it apart. I do that with ChatGPT. Read me to filth. There's something wrong with how I'm thinking about this challenge me and, and I wasn't willing to do that at that stage in my career and it manifested in me feeling unseen and unheard. My ideas aren't good, but in reality it was my approach. My approach was a little bit abrasive at the time and I needed to edit.

So good you used the word patience in there. Reflection. One thing that I'm learning quite quickly about you, by the way, can we just say education, startup, NFL association. But one thing I'm learning about you too is I would tell you right now, from the way that you're answering this, these questions, your hindsight is 20 20, like being able to actually go back and break down why did that happen and what can I learn from it? And here's how I'm going to move forward. There are so many lessons that the viewers or listeners could be pulling out of this. I hope, I pray that they have their notepad out as we continue to go through this. So, Alana, this is. This is dope. Okay. How. Have you ever. This question might not be dope, though. This is a hard one to answer. Have. Have you ever experienced a significant failure or setback? And if so, like, if you're transported to a moment in time, like, what did you learn from that? Setback or failure?

Yeah, I think. I think one of the biggest kind of setbacks and it, you know, it led me to HubSpot. So, yeah, it's a. It's. It's a good story. It has a good ending, but it started off rocky. The startup that I was with was acquired by a larger company, and through merges and acquisitions, there's just a lot of change. You know, culturally, you're going into a bigger organization. At the time, everyone was remote. So that organization is based in Ohio, and I was working home from Maryland, so that the connection piece is a little funky too. And the integration into the larger organization was just, like, really hard for me. I was trying to find an opportunity of, like, how I could fit in. And I was, like, pitching these ideas I was deeply into at the time, just like diversity equity, and I was really important. And it was around the time of which we had the George Floyd situation. So all of those things were very loud. I started to pitch these ideas and like, again, here I go, pitching ideas. And I wanted to establish a position for myself that I kind of married this idea of operationalizing DEI efforts. And I failed, like, visibly. Like, nobody listened to me. And it wasn't that no one listened to me. It was just like, again, you're trying to change something that is just harder to change. And influence in my approach to it was like, hey, guys, this makes a lot of sense. I have all this data. Look at me. And I was having some great meetings. And it doesn't even have to be me, right? It could be anyone who steps into this space, but it just did not work. And in tandem with that, George, like, my job was not working. You know, the. The block. Blockchain credentialing system was like deprioritized customers weren't interested in anymore. Like, they weren't interested in digital credentials. And then it was volatility around, you know, bitcoin and crypto in general. Like, everything kind of came crashing down. And it actually led me to, like, doing more introspection to say, okay, I'm not going to necessarily Define my value in if this new position is created or if I can, like, navigate what blockchain credentialing looks like in this large company. My. My worth and my energy has to come from doing work that aligns with my values. And that's what got me to HubSpot. So even though I wasn't able to navigate this new work environment and find a space and even just maintain the customers that we had at the time, it led me to doing some deep work to say, guess what? It's okay because you don't belong here. And that's okay because this doesn't sit with you.

You said, my value is not my position. And then you said, here are my values. And what I heard after that in my own mind is, let me go find work that aligns with my values, because that's where I'm going to make the most impact. That's so good. I would ask the viewers and listeners, are you somewhere in your life where your position is your value? And if so, is there something that you can learn from what Alana just said? Okay, Alana, we're gonna crest up the mountain now. Those are. Those are, like, the questions that I. That I ask. So let's talk about empowerment, and what does empowerment mean to you, and how do you pass that on to others in your field?

So I'm gonna tell you what it used to mean to me before, and I'll tell you what it means to me today, because what you'll know is I'm all about. You said Hindsight is 20 20, so I'm all about the growth moment. What it used to mean to me, empowerment was becoming more, more. Whether it's through title, whether it's through, like, more fitness, you know, healthier, more educated of a mom. And how I approached that, it was just like, more, more, more. How can I stack more accolades?