CRIKEY! #Inbound23 Down Under Roundtable: The Ultimate Guide For International HubSpotters

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Yeah, the fun part is actually there is no DEP in here today, but we will get into that here in a minute. It's another episode about HubSpot's hashtag Inbound23 happening this September in Boston. But this one, this one, ladies and gentlemen, I'm super excited because it is extra special. You see, ever since discovering the big Orange Sprocket in 2012, HubSpot's annual inbound event has played a major part to being a powerful and many times impactful part of memories in my life. I mean, I have probably sat with most of the people or talked with most of the people that will be on your screen. And if you're listening to the podcast that you'll be hearing, if you're only listening, by the way, you should head over to community.hubheroes.com and watch the video version. I'm just going to throw that out there. But a couple things that come to mind. Last year at Inbound, I had a couple ladies from the Philippines chase me down, give me an orange ukulele keychain as a membrane of of the things that we had done in the past, had another dope guy from Israel actually chase me down one year and give me like a little prayer charm, which was super cool. But one of the things that I remember dearly is sitting having pizza next to the food trucks with one Moby Siddiq and realizing this was my brother from another mother. There's just all of these stor that I can start to reminisce on and you know, just hashtag memories. Now speaking of that, this is what's special about this Event is we are doing Inbound down Under. Now I would try to do an accent, but I would suck at it, so I'm not going to do that. But let's go ahead and just start to let the Hub heroes audience know who is actually here. So I'm just going to throw this out because sometimes I love to just have chaos. Who wants to go first? Let's.

Tasha go first.

There we go. Ladies first. Ian is the gentleman. Ian is the gentleman on this episode. Tasha, why don't you explain people who are listening or watching who you are, what you do and maybe even how long you've been in the HubSpot ecosystem.

Yeah, sure. Thanks, George. First listening to that intro and actually being on the podcast instead of listening to it, oh my God. On the way to work is like surreal. Like the feels, all the feels. Thank you for having me here. I'm very excited. So my name is Tash or Tea. I get a lot of Tea or Tea money from the team. Moby will call me T. I've been working in the spot ecosystem for geez, I want to say like seven, eight years now. Maybe like I went. But in a while I'm head of HubSpot implementation at Red Pandas, side with Mobes and I look after all things, I guess HubSpot related within the business. Any new projects, optimized projects, implementation, onboarding. Yeah, that's my kind of key role.

Nice. Now since Ian was a gentleman, let's have Ian go next.

All right, so my name's Ian Jacob and I started searching be found about 14 years ago and about 10 of those have been doing HubSpot and, and I think in the journey what I have loved, George, is making great friends. So I think it was actually at a hug. I've actually met Moby, I've met Tasha, I met Craig and we've just built, I can't believe such a long term friendship over that time.

So very grateful and let's go ahead and Craig, have you go next? Who are you? What do you do? And again, you know, are you the grandpa of the HubSpot ecosystem? Am I. I'm trying to figure that out right now.

That's a good question. Yeah, thanks, George. Craig Bailey from Zen and I think it's been more than a decade we've been using HubSpot so possibly similar to you, George, been there for a while. But you know, your intro really talking about memories was so on point because Ian and I, we also have a HubSpot podcast like you do and we actually really? What was Ian's initiative at an Inbound? And he might tell the story later. When we were sitting, we. We had met at a hug here in Sydney. We became friends at Inbound because I would. I had no friends there, and I was at Company. Another great reason to go to Inbound and have a great community around HubSpot. And so Ian just said, oh, let's. Let's join a. Let's create a podcast. And that happened, I don't know, seven or eight years ago. So that's a very strong memory. So I think it's such a good topic you've got today, George. And, yeah, we're continuing to use HubSpot. We've doubled down on HubSpot in our agency as well. So. Yeah, that's quick intro.

Love it, love it. Now, here's the thing. I might just say, Moby, we'll say. We'll say for this one, we saved the best for last. Brother, tell the audience who you are, what you do.

Yeah, thanks, George. George. And, like, George and I are good friends. Like, he really is a brother from another mother. So it's. It's so nice to be here. Co founded Red Pandas seven years ago. We was using HubSpot from day dot, and we recently got acquired by Impact. So friends of yours, George? You know?

Yeah.

Like, hearing everyone talk, oh, my God, everyone is so connected from this ecosystem. Like, you know, I think you guys started your podcast because of George. I don't know if you guys know. You guys know, but I started my podcast because of Ian and Craig. Like, that's why I started mine. And we all met at Inbound and, like, all these relationships, all these friendships, even the acquisition of our business wouldn't have happened if we didn't go to Inbound and meet all these lovely people. So that just blows my mind.

Yeah. Yeah, you're kind of letting a little bit of the cat out the bag, but we'll get to the value of Inbound here in a little bit. But it's funny because, you know, I would consider everybody that I'm here with today incredible human beings. I've known everybody here for years. I've watched you guys flourish. Like, I remember when, you know, when Hubshots was like, hey, we're gonna. We're gonna do this. And I'm like, yeah. And then I used to drive around and listen to Inbound buzz, right? All the time. And, like, God, I love his accent. Why do. Why does my voice suck? And, like, so, like, it's just amazing to watch you guys over the years do the things that you've done and now shoot on yout Kosh. T Money. I'll just call you T Money the rest of the time. Like, you guys are killing it on YouTube shorts and all the stuff that you're doing there. And so it's just really cool to see what is happening. So let's turn the conversation around to the people who are listening and watching. I want to really add value. And the reason that you folks are on this episode is because it's not just value for anybody. It's really value for people who have to fly further than the United States or drive further than the United States. It really is for that global or international audience of the way that you folks think about Inbound, the way that you prepare for Inbound, you know, agency owners, the way that you think of as owners and having teams of people and making that, you know, traverse across the globe, like, that's really who we're trying to help here and who we're talking to. Now, don't get me wrong, if you're listening to this right now and you live in, like, Sheboygan or, like, wherever, you're going to get value, too, because trust me, that's just going to be a good conversation. But here's the deal. Let's dive right in again. It'll be round robin. You all just pick it, and if you got something else to say, I'm just going to let it flow. But when was the first moment for you folks that you realized, holy crap, inbound definitely has to be an annual event?

Well, annual, you know, in the early days, I think. And you. When did you first go to Inbound, George?

Yeah, my first inbound was in 2012.

Wow. Okay. I think mine was either 2015 or 2016. So it had changed probably a lot in those four years, and it's changed a lot since then, obviously. At the time I remember HubSpot was really gunning in following the footsteps of Salesforce. They had their Dreamforce conference, which was massive and continues to be massive. And so they kind of saw that as an example of where to go. I think Salesforce led the way in many arenas around conferences. And so HubSpot came along and said, right, we're going to. We're going to have a conference that provides a lot of. Of learning. It was very high in content. And because of the nature of their business being a software platform, their platform is changing rapidly. And so a conference in those days was a good chance to spread knowledge widely. It's changed a lot since then because a lot more is online and we can join and have virtual. So but that's only really happened in the last couple of years and of course HubSpot decided to change it from more of a developer conference feel to more of an event and it's become broader and that's been a good thing. So I think it's been really interesting to see their change over the years. There's adapted to the times and because of the very nature of who they are, that has to be annual, possibly more regular because they have mini events. It's almost like the impact is their main TED event and then they've got other local ones almost like the equivalent of a TEDx in various cities around the world. And I think that's, that's a good approach. Annual. It has to be annual. Maybe it has to be more. I don't know. I'll leave that. I'll hand over to the rest for their comments on that.

Yeah, interesting. And it's interesting too, maybe as we move forward on this question, it's like, was there a defining moment, like at an inbound where you're like, oh man, I just, I just need to do this as much as humanly possible too.

I think you definitely get more out of chaining the events. Like my second and third, I got a lot more out of the first because it's just unknown unknowns. Like you're not expecting, you know, like you, you know that you're there to meet people, but you're not expecting the friendships that you get. Like we went to every time we went, we've created content there. So every time you go like, oh, I could do this, I could do that. But like, and George, man, like, you know, I love you, we're friends. I'm always going to be honest. I don't know if you need to go every year.

I love that.

I feel like, you know, okay, if you've never gone, you have to go like, you have to go like if you're serious about HubSpot and you're serious about inbound market and the latest because it's not just HubSpot. That's the thing we've got to remember. Like, I don't know, you know, maybe 50, 60, probably more, maybe 70, 80% of the content isn't HubSpot related. Right. You know, like, so you gotta go like, learn from the best of the best type of thing. But I don't know if you need to go every year because after, you know, I've I went three years in a row and I'm like, you know what, I can chill for a bit. Like, I will go back or maybe, you know, only send, you know, Tasha, who's like the HubSpot expert or send someone else in the team. But I don't think you need to go back every year. But I feel like it is something. You should refill that water bottle of knowledge every so often. For sure.

Can I just jump quickly back in? Yeah, I agree with that. And I might have misinterpreted your question, whether you should go every year or whether the event should be every year. So just to clarify, I think the event should be every year and possibly regularly. But I'm like, Moby, yeah, I haven't been for a couple of years. Ian's the same. He's going back this year. I'll probably go next year. So. Yeah, I totally agree with that.

I think the first time I went, I, like Craig said I was kind of doing it by myself. Met a whole bunch of people like Craig, built some relationships over that, that period. And I think it was really interesting a year that we came back, did a podcast, we invited people to come and hang out with us at Inbound. And I was really surprised at all of these people that came and hung out with it. And Moby was one of them. And we'd sit together and we've still got those friends. And that's what I loved about Inbound is that these, like Moby said, it's those friendships that you develop over years that stick with you. And it just, it changed the whole thing. It goes from being an event to being like a. I'd say like a gathering of friends where you get to hang out and do things that you don't normally do because you're always with each other. Right? You're going to different sessions, you're sharing insights. You're really all growing together and having fun together. Like, one year, Moby. Actually, we spent some time in New York together with my brother in law. Funnily enough, we went to. We went to games together, we ate together. Like, those are things that you can't, you wouldn't do at home. So I'm forever grateful that, you know, we all hung out together like that. So I think it's a lot more than Inbound. I think for us traveling from here, we like to spend time because, you know, before Inbound, I hadn't really spent any time in Boston, I hadn't spent any time in New York. And it just kind of becomes One of those things where you go, well, what more can I see? What more can I learn? Can I get to inbound a different way? So let's catch the train, let's fly. Let's do things differently. And that's what I love about it. So always looking for new ways to do things, new experiences to have. And that's. That's kind of been my thing.

Okay. I totally want to go on a side tangent here. Go off the beaten path, if you will, because, you know, I've been to Boston so many times, I've seen so many things, and it's so easy for me to get there. It's interesting. One that, you know, from the other perspective is maybe it should be every other year. Maybe it should be a rotation of years. Me personally, I'm like, it's a couple hundred bucks in, like, you know, two hours. Like, I'm gonna go every year. So even that perspective to have is interesting to put in there. But going off the beaten path, you've been to Boston, when you stop and think, what is, like, one of the coolest things that you either saw or did while you were in Boston that you would be like, yeah, if. If you're going and you're taking the time, make some extra time because I saw this or did this, like, what. What hits your memory banks on that one?

Lobster rolls, man.

I. I totally agree.

Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Like, all the Aussies are like, oh, lobster. Like, we have lobster. But it's not like Boston, man. It's not like May. It's.

Yeah, I. I actually think we'll be that one year, Craig. All of us, we. That used to be one of the things we do. We'd actually search out reviews for the best lobster roll places and travel around every day eating lobster rolls.

I love it. That's. That's hilarious. And I. I love me some lobster, too. Like, lobster, Mac and cheese. I think it's like Yankee lobster, something like that. There's a little shop, and I'm like, yes. It was on. Like, what is that? What's the guy? Diner, drive ins, dives, whatever guy Fieri or Fieri or whatever. I went there because of that, and then I was like, okay, I'm officially in heaven. This is amazing. I don't want to go home type thing. It was really great. All right, so let's do this. Because if you're taking rotation, ongoing, we're probably taking rotation because of the expense and the time allotted to go. How has attending inbound? Like, what has it done for your Business from an ROI perspective, Like, can you tie back to. Because we went, we know that we were able to do this that we didn't do previously. Like, where does your mind go there? So folks listening are like, okay, well, that's definitely a reason for me to invest making this trek.

I'll jump in if you don't mind. This is from, like, I'm not the business owner, but from my point of view, when I went with Mobes a few years ago, he mentioned that contestant piece that was huge. That helped me really understand how to make the most of my time at this conference. Like, if we're spending all this time and all this money and all this effort into going to such a huge event, there was not one down moment. We were like, as soon as the sun was up to the sun being down, we were meeting people, connecting with people. We were going to different sidetrack workshops so that we could come back and share that information together, see what we could apply to the business. We were creating content when we could, eating lobster rolls in between that. But it was just at any opportunity we could. We made the most out of that, like, week that we were there. And like Moby said before, some of the relationships that we made all those years ago are part of why our business has grown the way it has and has this acquisition, which is, you know, such a whole different thing that's going on. But that's from my business owner.

Yes. Honestly, like, the. The people we're in business with today, we would never have met them if we didn't go to Inbound. But I think, like, for. For the macro, for, like, for everyone else, I don't. I don't think anyone should really treat it that way. Like, oh, what am I gonna get out of it? Because it's kind of like the ROI of buying a book. You know what I mean? Like, if. If you're a person who's gonna ask the ROI of buying a book, you have a closed mindset, you know, like, you've got to go there with a growth mindset yout got to go there understanding, you know what? There's people than me, much smarter than me that I'm going to learn from and, you know, I'm going to absorb and take back into my business. So it's kind of like, at bare minimum, the R. It's like the ROI of knowledge. Like, it's very hard to quantify, but at maximum, you may make relationships, I know, like Craig, and other than talk about that, but you make. You make relationships, partnerships, and, yeah, that. That's maximum you could get.

Yeah, I think I have to agree with moving that perspective, considering the broadness of inbound. And so one of the things that I have loved over the years has really been just the different perspectives that we get. So, you know, just things like you would not expect. And I think having an open mind when you go there, because even though you might know something, you still want to give honor to the person who's speaking. Right. And you want to have an open mind because it could be just that one thing in that one second that changes your perspective or changes something that you're doing that you can take away. And you. And you. And you sometimes forget that, because until you talk to people. Because when I was sharing with another friend of mine, I think I shared with him something I learned. And he said, oh, there was this one time you shared with me this particular item, which I kind of went as a bit of a throwaway comment. And he goes, I implemented that in my business, and my business is totally different today. And I'm like, oh, okay. Wow, thanks for telling me about five years later. But that's. That's the thing, right? Like, and I think, like, even my relationship with Craig, every week, like, we. We came away from inbound, we didn't. We knew each other.

Right.

We had meals together. That's what I loved about it. We came back, we recorded. I actually didn't even realize Craig was only lived 20 minutes from where I live.

Right.

Until I asked him. I'm thinking, because, okay, so for listeners, I guess Australia, like, America is a big country, right? You think there's a fair bit of distance. So I. I didn't assume that he was near me until I asked the question. And so this might be a really good point for people like, are you asking the right questions? Do you. As silly as it may sound, do you ask the right questions? So when you get an opportunity, I know Moby's very good at this. When people say, I've got questions, Moby will say, yes, I've got one. And he asked the question. So I think if you're going to inbound, take that time to ask the questions, and you don't know what you'll find. Like, we have, like, seven or eight years this inbound. Like, we've been recording Hubshots and. And the relationship, the friendship, the. The knowledge we built together has been far greater than if I think we did it individually.

Yeah, I want to go, Craig to you here in a second, but I want to dive into something. Because, you know, Moby with Inbound, Buzz, Ian and Craig with Hubshots, even trying to quantify what that choice and creating that content has done for your business can. Can be like, almost unmeasurable. But also, you know that it was life changing, right? So, Craig, go ahead and dive in.

I think this might have. This might pick up on what Moby was talking about around roi. I never think in roi. I'm still lucky that I. Our business is small and I know this won't be the case for many bigger businesses. They do have to very much look at roi. I'm the business owner and it's small. I can kind of do what I want. And that puts me in this luxurious place where I don't have to think about roi. As long as cash flow is okay, great. So coming back to Inbound, and this will be a small segment of listeners, probably not advice for someone that works for a big corporate, but I remember chatting with my wife. It's like, I want to, you know, there's this conference with HubSpot and it's this tool we're using. She's like, well, you should go. It's a reward. And so it wasn't, oh, am I going to make contacts? Am I going to get roi? It was just like, it's going to be fun. So it was a bit of a junket for me. You know, the flights are expensive. That's a lot of money. But it was really good. And so then if I am forced to think about roi, it's. Well, it's around the relationships. And I met Anne. But flowing on from that, on the podcast, you know, I'll chat with a business coach or my mentor and he'll say, well, what ROI are you getting from the podcast? I'm like, I've got no idea. All it is is I get to hang out with Ian every week and chat about something I really enjoy talking about, which is HubSpot. And Ian keeps me motivated. So I've never kind of said, oh, how many deals did we get? Or has this affected the business? I kind of know intuitively it has. And I know we've had clients say, oh, you know, I've listened for years and we've watched you and, yeah, that's why we came here. I'm like, oh, great. I've never tried to put a number on that. I don't think that's advice for bigger companies, but for a smaller company, we have the luxury of doing that. And so if there are people and agency owners that are listening to this and thinking about Inbound or whatever it is a podcast. I think those are the things. And so really where I'm going is it's coming back to experiences. I had a wonderful experience at Inbound, went for a couple of years, have a wonderful experience recording the podcast. I really enjoy it. And ultimately, I don't know if we'll get to this in the conversation today. It's like, what are you doing for all these hours of the day that you're at the office and that Are you actually enjoying what you're doing or are you just doing it because you have to? Now, I know for some of the economic conditions we're in, of course you have to survive. And there are times like that. So I'm not saying be completely oblivious, but ideally, if you can and you have the good fortune where you can pursue what you actually enjoy doing and the relationships and experience related with that, well, you're privileged. Take advantage of that. And I kind of feel very privileged to that. And I guess that's how I position roi. I don't know if that makes sense, George, but do you get where I'm going?

Oh, yeah, I do. It actually makes sense because I love that you were used the word privilege. I've always used the word. I feel like I'm cheating. You know, I used to love to make the Hubcast episode episodes with Marcus because it was just two guys hanging out, having fun, talking about stuff that we're nerdy about. I love doing the Hub Heroes because we get to sit down with Max and Devin and Liz and just nerd out on content and sales and marketing and just kind of keep the the sword sharp. And do I ever really go, oh, well, the podcast is, you know, making us this or, you know, we've closed business. Not really, because I think that takes a little bit of the funness away from what we're doing, at least when we're creating this content. But again, some businesses have to tie return on investment. I do want to dive in a little bit deeper and feel free to get emotional on the podcast. That's always good for listened and views because the first question was like, ROI as a business. But I'm curious if there's like a personal ROI for attending inbound meeting. And let me explain. In 2000 2012, you know, as a designer developer guy who like a pizza and a six pack of Coke would come in one side and a website would go out the other, I had this transformative moment where I was at Inbound. Listen to Gary Vaynerchuk speak on stage and said, I want to do that. I want to become a marketer when I grow up, and I want to be able to speak on that stage. And when those words hit my brain, I had zero clue of what that meant for the rest of my life and where I would end up. But, man, has it been a ride. And so I'm curious if there was a time at Inbound where you just. Something happened and you knew, okay, this just changed me for, like, the rest of my life. I know I'm gonna think different, be different, do different. Like, what comes to mind from an individual standpoint when I ask that question.

So when. So you had the luxury of, you know, working closely with Marcus for so long. You guys were colleagues, business partners. You work together at a multiple businesses. And, like, I've always loved public speaking, and I've always loved, you know, doing what I'm doing. And then I. I saw Marcus, and, like, I always joke, right? I always joke like, I've got a girl crush on him. I was like, oh, my God, I want to be like that.

Yeah.

Like, I want to be like that. Like, you know, I thought I was good. Like, I. Like, I thought I was good. I looked at him. I'm like, I'm just gonna chuck everything I was planning on doing in the bin, because that's exactly how I want to be. And then, like, since then, like, years later, like, I said to Tash, you know, like, I would love to take our business to a point where we can get acquired by a business that Marcus works in, impact, and then, like, it happens. So, like, when you say life changing, man, like, that would not have happened. And, yeah, it is inbound. Of course it's inbound.

Right?

But it's like, it's like what the. The gents we're talking about. It's the relationships you build. So I don't say any more than that because I'll take all the airwaves. But it's been transformational for us.

And me personally, I'll go next. I think for us, you probably heard me say before, it was that one. It was that last day of inbound. I think the. When I was sitting next to Craig and a few others, and I turned to him and I said, let's. Let's record a podcast. How could we not go back and record? And we even actually went and took. We managed to find Brian and Dharmesh and a few others, and we took photos with them. Right now, this was just in the hope that we will do something right. So I look back at that time and I think, wow, that that was very pivotal for us together and. And had no idea where it would lead us. Like, the relationships we have, you know, even just Moby reaching out to us and us forming a great friendship together. Yourself, George, Just other people around the world. Like, I'm constantly amazed at the change. Now. Did I want to become a speaker like others? No, I don't think that was ever my. I just wanted to. I just wanted to do good. And I think one of the things that Craig and myself, we have just been. We want to help good businesses with good values or with great values make a difference in this world. And that's. That's really what we're about. It's like, how do we make a difference to transform businesses that are making differences in the world? And that's kind of been the driver when we do. What we do is like, are we helping good people and are they making a difference?

I love that. Ian, if I can, I'll just jump on the back of that. I love speaking. Yeah. But that's definitely not what I feel like came out of my visit to in. I don't think I'd be on this podcast today if I didn't meet you, George, at Inbound conference all those years ago. I don't think that my career would have taken the path that in becoming, you know, the HubSpot certified trainer them or the onboarding specialist that I am. I don't think it would have taken that direction if I didn't go to inbound and meet the people that I saw and rub shoulders. The people like George and Ian and Craig and everyone else that's, you know, there that you rub shoulders and you feel that energy and you feel that vibe and you're like, oh, I like this. I want to be like these people, and I genuinely want to help people learn how to do have. And they love it. They love it when. If they. They see how much I love it and then they're like, I love it. I truly think that that wouldn't have happened. I wouldn't have had that same. If I didn't go to inbound and feel it in person and pick up on that. So that. That works for me. I feel like I'm due for an inbound trip. Mobs, just so you know.

There you go. There it is.

We literally came back from the States like, three, four weeks ago, so I don't think I could do that again. It's such. It is A long, but maybe next year. But yeah, definitely. It's that vibe, it's that energy. You know, if you haven't been to inbound, you don't, you don't know like when you get there and you walk in and that sign hits your face, it's like, whoa, where are you? So that's probably like my little two cents.

Yeah, I'll just make a comment because I don't think I could possibly beat Moby's path that has come out of inbound. But there's a bit of a joke around attending conferences. It's almost like you fly to the other side of the world to actually make friends with your local colleagues. I think there's a truth to that. And part of it is because you do travel so far, you kind of go with a different mindset of this has got to be significant. But the second is you're there for a couple of days and you don't get that at a hug or just a one day event. The physical routine of catching up with people for multiple days I think is under appreciated perhaps. And I don't know how you can duplicate, replicate that locally. So there is something about that. And so maybe that's a realization that I've had attending things like I don't attend a lot of events. I'm pretty, pretty particular about the ones I go to. And so that has, that's probably been a takeaway I've had. And so just the thought of, well, would I go again or would I send team members? Yeah, I think there is something deeply or long standing that comes out of it. Perhaps not related to being acquired. That's probably like a, a very rare but wonderful story that comes out of it. Maybe you're not going to create a podcast out of it, but there is something significant about those relationships and you can't get that online. Well, you can get it online, but it's a different way. It's not the only channel, but it's, it's something that you realize when you're there. You're having an experience that is actually going to be long standing.

Yeah, I think the key words there are energy. Right. And experience. And I'm. What I love is that every one of us had a life changing moment. And I think that happens for everybody when you get there and you experience that energy. Craig, it's interesting. You make me want to go off the beaten path for a second. I'm going to ask kind of a selfish question because not everybody knows this, but one of my bucket list Items is actually to travel to Australia to be able to see New Zealand and do some stuff there. How far away do you guys think we are from having like an inbound down under? Like for real, like where HubSpot says, hey, there's enough people that we just need to have one in Australia, in America, in this place here? Do you guys see a time where that happens? And especially for Australia, how far away are we from that? Like have a brother out here? I want to go speak in Australia.

It's a long way, George. And look, it might happen. I can't see it happening anytime soon. It such a long way. I mean, of all the places to have a conference, Australia is probably the worst place if you want to have a large conference. Really? I don't know. What do you think, Tasha?

I feel like I'm the optimist so I'd like to say that it's coming soon. But with that said, I tend to agree with the gents that it is. It's far away, man. It's so far away. Like maybe Singapore, because I know HubSpot have got a Singapore office and that's not too far from us. So that's, you know, maybe like kind of like a halfway. It's more 2/3 of the way for you guys, a third for us. But yeah, man, I'd love one. I'd love an inbound down under for sure. I'd be there in a heartbeat.

Oh, I love it. But look, there have been some others and if you look in the SEO space, I mean search Engine Land hat used to have conferences and they put one on in Sydney for a year or two. It just didn't really take off. People weren't going to make the trip even it was hard to get speakers down here. So I think it's very, it's, it's, it's hard and I, I hope I'm wrong and like you, Tasha, like what, what can we do to change it? Maybe when we get faster airplanes or something like that or I get, get here quicker. I don't know.

I don't think it happened because HubSpot does do the grow events, right? So they'll do these one day events. I don't, I don't know if they have them where you are, George, because they have inbound that like in our region in, in some other countries. I think they'll have these one day grow events where it's like a, you can't call it a mini inbound. You really can't. It's not the Same. But you have breakout rooms, you have keynotes. So I think that's probably the only way. So, George, I guess you just blow up, get bigger and bigger and bigger, and then maybe they'll pay you to come down to a grow.

There we go. There we go. I think it's possible everybody that works at Inbound or that works at HubSpot, that's listening, you got to get your boy to Australia. Like, we got to figure out how to make that happen.

Well, we've, we've had events, as Moby said, great. Where we've had senior HubSpot people down. Have we had Dharmesh down under? Don't think we've had Brian. We've had Matt Barbie and when he was at HubSpot, and we've had some, you know, Kip Bodnar came down. We've had a few others over the years. So it's not out of the question. We'd have a smaller event. And George, he'd be pretty high on the list of people we'd want.

There we go. There we go. All right, so now let's quit being selfish here and let's actually get back to adding value to. To the listeners. I want to go from the agency owner's perspective here. What advice would you give to folks who have to travel internationally that are agency owners thinking about, you know, sending themselves, sending employees, and, and this can be like, how can they get the most impact or what? Tips, travel tips, clothing tips, I don't care. This is open to whatever you want to share. But how can agency owners, or what should they be thinking about from a mindset. Mindset. I'll just shut up. You guys know what I'm asking. Let's see what you got.

I think from an agency owners, a lot of this applies for, I think normal businesses, but especially agency owners. Like, you have to grow your people. Like, you have to, you know, we, we are tasked. We are, you know, it's a privilege, right? Like, I think Craig used that word before something similar. Like, we're in this position where we're supposed to be the repositories of knowledge. We're supposed to know what's latest and greatest in, you know, digital marketing. HubSpot, whatever. So, like, it behoves us to do that, and it behoves you as an agency owner or in senior leadership in an agency to take your team to these things. So whether it's if, hey, like, inbound is definitely on the top of the list, but whether it's inbound or something Else you have to invest in your team and knowledge so you can learn from each other, not just be an echo chamber whilst other agencies leave you behind. So like when you, when you said that, that the first angle that comes to my mind, George, is just, you know, yourselves and your team members and I think for agency owners, because it is such a big lift, look, we said everyone, you should be creating content, but for agency owners, you have no freaking excuse you need to be creating content. Like what are you doing if you're not creating content? So that's, I wouldn't say this to a normal attendee, but if you're an agency owner, use that as an opportunity to create content as well.

There's a few considerations because often it depends on the people. So in our agency we're a remote team, we're all remote, we're not in the office. Everyone's quite introverted and when I mentioned, oh, would you like to go to a conference? And that they're like, no, do you want to, you know, do you want to fly and travel or not? No. And so it's not a fit for us. And I'm a bit like that. So the reason I mention that is because there are some people on your team who would love to go. And if I come back to when I was going companies, it's a reward. As maybe said, you've got to look after your team and are they going to learn something there that they couldn't learn online? Well, maybe, maybe they're in a mindset where they haven't got day to day distractions and they're free to really think deeply. Yeah, of course, that's great. Do you need to go to Inbound to do that? No. But if you go to Inbound, I think yeah, it's a reward. And you're saying first and foremost, yeah, well done and this is a significant expense for us and you're worth it. Second though, if you go as a group, exactly like we talked at the start, it's like you almost become, ah, here's this person I've been working with or near for ages and now we're actually friends. You know, it goes back to that being together for a couple years. So I think they're the factors I'd think about. And then there's relationships. I know a lot of people attend inbound to meet HubSpot people or meet people in the community. And so that's the third part. Is that going to be most of the team members? It will be for the agency owner. Will it Be for most of the team members, probably not, I'm guessing, again, depending on their kind of personality type. But yeah, there are three ways that I would think about it as an.

Agency owner and let me chip in here. I think one of the things if you are going is to make sure a, you're organized and you've actually looked at the schedule. I think as Inbound's grown, there's been a lot more breakout sessions and a lot more specialized sessions. And I think just even doing it online in the recent years is if you know what you're trying to get out of it, you can find those sessions and you can be more proactive about getting there. So that's what one of my things is that don't, don't waste the time. Be proactive. Get to places, talk to people, be interesting. Right. I think Moby does a good job of that. And, and always be open, have a smile on your face, say hi to people, because you just don't know what, what, what will happen and who you'll meet. And I think that's been the biggest thing, like, even with yourself, George. Like, I remember turning up, I think, to one of your podcast meetups and sitting there with a bunch of people that I didn't know. But I'm like, I'm going to be uncomfortable meeting all these people. And, you know, I love that you guys took the initiative to do that because you just, you just meet people and you learn new things in that, in that time. And so that would be my advice, like, don't be afraid. Be open to having new experiences even though it is uncomfortable for you.

Yeah. Don't go there and try to take. If you have to work, you have to work. But I love what you said there, Ian. Don't go there to work. Like, try to block that week out in your pockets of time. Don't open up your laptop. And you know, again, if you have to, you must. But you're right. Be really intentional about that.

Yeah. I love this idea of blocking out the time without a doubt. So I want to keep rolling. Time flies when we're having fun. And I do have, like a special treat too that we're going to do at the end of this. I may or may not have just opened Chat GPT and, and done something for us to have fun with as we exit this. But let's go in this direction. What's the super secret hack to make the most out of Inbound that you really don't want to share with anybody? So it's A little bit deeper level than we just went. But on the Hub Heroes podcast, you're like, yeah, let me, let me share this little thing again. This can get a little personal, but what's the super secret?

I'll jump in if you don't mind. This one is, I feel like you can do it at Inbound. You can do it anywhere. When you see someone in a room and you know who that person is, they got some clout, they're big. You feel nervous. You feel that inside of you, Sweaty palms, Your breath starts to get shallow because you're, like, really nervous that that person's in the same room as you. But you want to meet. Go up, take a big deep breath and meet them, introduce yourself and say, george, that's legit how I felt when I met you. So I'm just, like, stoked that I get to say that to you now in front of you. And also, I know that feeling. Like, even though I'm an extroverted, high energy person, I still have that feeling. I still have it. I just, like, squash it a little bit and then lean into it a little bit more. So I feel like that's what I would tell to people going to Inbound. You're going to see people that you've seen on your phone, on your computer, on your emails. Go and meet them, say hi, tell them you love their content or whatever it might be, make that relationship.

So I've got one, and this is legit, what I did.

Right.

I hope you're gonna talk about what I think you're gonna talk about.

I don't know, you tell me.

Right?

And this is the same reason why it's often a good idea to start a podcast. Because there's a bunch of people who have, you know, like Tash said, they're, they're intimidating. You don't know how to approach them. And yeah, if you, if you, if you stop them in the corner and, like, it's so much harder to say, oh, can I have five minutes of your time? You know, maybe Mr. Marcus Sheridan, Mr. George V. Please, sir, can I have two minutes of your time? And you'll give us the time, but then you will go, right? So. But if there's something in it for someone, they're going to be a lot more, you know, likely to give you half an hour, an hour of your time, of their time. So what I had done, I can't remember which one it might have been the first time is I looked at the agenda. It's like Ian was saying, you got to be prepared. You got to look at what you're going to do. But then I looked at it from the mindset of, okay, which people do I need to talk to and need their time? And which people, like, even the stand exhibitors, whatever, right? Like, who is really interesting there? Who's like a really higher up, that I need their time? And then I just went out and say, hey, look, I wanted to. So we. We did. We've done podcasts on site and we've done vox pops, like, you know, quick interviews on site. So my hack was like, hey, look, listen, I want to speak to you real quick. George or Marcus around, blah, blah, blah. You know, insert specialization. Do you have, you know, 10, 15 minutes, and they'll give you half an hour, an hour, and then you've now started a relationship. So, like, that's what I did with you, George. That's what I did with Marcus. Like, that's what I've done with so many people. And by my first show, everyone, like, Dharmesh knew me, Brian knew me. Like, all the higher ups knew me. But that's because like. Like Tash said, when. When we go, it's like. And I said to Tasha, when we go, you are not going to rest. We're going to go boom, boom, boom.

Or it could be Moby's inbound thrift shop video. If anyone has not seen that, please, George, share that in the show notes.

That is what I'm talking about.

I certainly. That's old now. That is fyng.

No, it's not cringy. You can't do that. Because I. I gotta be honest with you. It's one of the things that. That year I was like, I. I gotta meet this dude. Like, this is dope right here. This is dope.

That was extreme. That's why I didn't mention. Thanks, Tash, for mentioning. But that, like, that. I didn't mention that. But George, that was really intentional too. Like, people don't know that that was the first year I went out on my own as an agency owner. And I'm like, this is a lot of money for me. I'm dipping into my savings, right? I need people to know. There's certain people, I need them to know me.

Yeah.

And that's just me, Right? I know. Like, it's. It's probably something not Craig would want to do, right? But I'm like, I need people to know me. You know that. That's just the way I am. So I'm gonna do this music video And I'm going to release it a few days before. And it didn't go viral, but it had like 5,6000 views within two days. So, yeah.

Yeah. Craig, I am curious. When are you gonna do your next rap video?

I would pay to see that. I would pay per view that.

You know, I think it is worth me mentioning that my experience and approach. Yeah. Is different to everyone else. I do have some intention, as Ian said. I do look at the agenda very carefully, but I don't know if this is my hack or anything, but I'm the total opposite of maybe. As he. As he alluded to. I go with no expectations. And I think when I've gone to conferences in the past saying, oh, I want to get this out of it, and what do I want to do? I'm like, oh, really tired at the end. And I didn't achieve it all. I'm kind of down. I'm like, inbound is a reward for me. I just go, no expectations, nothing. No responsibilities. And I'll change during the day. Oh, I'm going to see this. There's no people I'm going to try and meet. There's no. There's no. It goes back to that ROI question. So is that right for everyone? No, it's just different. And I kind of feel that, you know, if you're listening to this, pick your. Choose your own adventure, that kind of thing. Pick your path, because we're all different and we all get our own benefits out of it.

I don't know.

I think my secret between yours and Craig's movie, I think for me, it's being intentional. I me, it's about having fun. Like Craig said, it is a bit of reward for us, traveling all the way from Australia, from down under here. And so I try to do other things. I like to stop at different places, explore new things, do different activities. I think when I'm talking about inbound, I think being intent, like, if you want to meet someone, being intentional with wanting to meet them is a great idea. Reach out to them first, like Moby was saying. But also even having time to have a meal with them. I think we've all shared meals together, and I think that has totally transformed our relationships with each other. So if you want to get close to someone, take the time to have a meal, shout them to a meal, take them to your favorite lobster roll place, because you don't know what will come out of that and the friendships and the relationships that come from that. And I think that's probably my biggest Thing is that how do I unlock a different part of inbound for people that they might not think because they're going for a event, essentially, and they're going, I'm going to get stuff. But what can you give while you're out inbound?

Yeah. For years we've talked about, the magic moments are in the hallway, right? And when I hear all of us talking on this podcast today, really where my brain goes is strategically be strategic and flexible at the same time. Right. Have a strategy, but leave that room to kind of be able to do what needs to be done to grow your future family. Because that's almost what we're talking about on this podcast is it's. It's an inbound family. It's a HubSpot family that you're creating. Which, speaking of HubSpot, by the way, I want to shift gears for a second because I had to throw a little bit of a speed round in here and not just talk about inbound the entire time, but let's talk about HubSpot for a second. And so for each of you, the question is, again, while I have you here, what's the thing that you love most about HubSpot and what's the thing that frustrates you most about HubSpot? I'm curious what we're going to talk about.

It's on the edge of your lips.

God, Moby's like, I'm going last.

I think we should have a couple of rounds because I'm pretty. I'm pretty sure we'll feed off each other and want to revise our. Our answers at the end.

Look, I love how easy it is to use. Right? And every time I get a new client onto HubSpot, that's the feedback. It's just. Oh, that's just easy. It's just easy. It is. I absolutely love how easy it is. I love how easy it is to train someone on as well, to get them up to speed. See the, you know, the value in the software so quick. I'm all over that. More recently, what's become more frustrating? And I think. I think it's in their pipeline. Maybe George knows more than mine. But the menu bar at the top needs to be customizable, like 100%. And I feel like it is coming. But that menu bar at the top, like, the constant feedback from all my team, like, they might not be using marketing hub yet or sales hub yet or service hub yet. And it's like, why do they need to see this? No. So put that out there.

Yeah, I didn't, but I won't. I may or may not have been part of a meeting where we may or may not have talked about HubSpot menus. Okay, I'll shut up.

I'm going to follow Tash there and say the word consistency and inconsistency. So one of the things we've all loved about HubSpot, it's just a very consistent platform. Right. It's not cobbled together. So that's been its hallmark, I would say, for many years now. And so then on the flip side, when there is inconsistency, I find that frustrating. I think they have such a beautiful drag and drop builder experience with web pages, landing pages and email building. And then you go to the knowledge base and say, what? Who, which siloed committee built this? Right. And then so that's kind of what I my frustration. I think 90% of it is incredibly consistent and streamlined, which I just love. And so perhaps that's when it's inconsistent. It jars so badly for me. They're getting better at it though. So even things such as the views metaphor that they're using across all the things, you know, create a view across contacts or companies, and now it's across workflows or it's across emails, I think that's really nice. When, when that's finished rolling out, I think that's going to bring consistency back up. I wonder if they're going to do that for knowledge based articles. We'll see. So, yeah.

And Craig, I wonder if they're going to do it with subfolders to folders. That would be nice too. I'll just throw that out there.

Well, there you go. Some things you can put in folders. Okay. Does it have subfolders? No. Oh, this one does. Yeah. But I think that's the views metaphor. It's going to replace all of that. I think that's where they're going.

What do I love? I love. It's constantly evolving. That's one of the things I love about HubSpot. I'm one of those guys who turns on all the beta features to test them out. So I love playing with that and I think it's just my nature to do that. So that's one thing I do love. Have to agree with the inconsistencies like Craig was saying in the platform. But overall, and to be honest, we don't play with many other platforms. Can't complain too much. But I tend to agree. And I think as things roll out, you just got to be adaptable to change. I think one of the things that people, one of the things I often hear people tell me is that, oh, I don't want to change that. Oh, why are we doing it this way? I'm like, no, you've got to change and evolve. And I think when we even look at workflows, are there faster ways to do things? Are they new actions that we can use? So optimizing workflows is a really good example of how you can use those new features within HubSpot.

So yeah, so look, I, I agree with everyone. You know, Tash like talks about how easy it is 100% as an agency owner. It is the software. If you're getting to CRM, don't go with these little really cheapy, low cost alternatives. Don't try something like Salesforce. You want something that's going to be easy for you and the clients gonna love you for. So absolutely. Craig mentioned the crafted thing and I've heard a saying, Craig, I don't know if you've heard it. Crafted, not cobbled. And that's definitely HubSpot. And you know, did I what Ian is saying? So I think all that stands, right? But like when you, when you analyze, you know, like the best sports teams, right, what they're really good at doing is being self aware and critical. They're like, look, we're doing these things really, really well, but we need to improve on this. Like they're not like, yeah, it's, it's la la land and everything's amazing and. Because that is the path to businesses like Enron, right? So on the HubSpot site and the like, I will say this before I start, you know, you know, talking shit about HubSpot, I will say this. They are very open. Like I was there last week and I was talking about some of these things I'm about to talk about now and they get it, they're on it. And what they're really good at is they take advice from their partner. They have an open growth mindset. So I love them for that and I do think nothing is like insurmountable. Anyway, my complaint with HubSpot is and it might just be something that we're picking on because we've been there, you know, Craig, even more from the start. But in terms of their quality of service, their sales people, like they've lost a rung. They really have. Like I was complaining last week about their salespeople. When they try to sell, it's like, feature, feature, feature, feature, feature, feature. It's like, dude, like, the CEO of a plumbing company doesn't give a shit about workflows. Tell him how it's gonna make money. Asking really good questions. So on the sales side, you know, Tash is dealing with one of our high, high marquee clients right now. We're not gonna obviously say who, but it's. And they pay a lot of money, and it's like trying to get support from the person. It's like getting like blood out of a stone. Like, they're still responsive, but it's not the same. Like, it's not like it was. So I feel like as they've grown and we feel this, too, you have growing pains. Their service level, they're quite like, from a sales perspective, I definitely think that they felt that. And maybe it's been because they had to make some redundancies like every other big company in America. But. And again, I don't think it's insurmountable, but I just. And it might just be something that we notice because it's. Even though I'm making these complaints about HubSpot, they're still the best that's out there compared to everyone else. But they do. And I think they have the right people there. They need to. They do need to pick up their game. They can't let this slide because if they do five years from now, it's going to be a really shitty business. But it's. I don't believe it's going to get there.

Yeah, I would definitely agree with everything that everybody has said. And I will say Moby, to piggyback on what you said. They are on the winning side. Right. I literally had a client so say to me the other day, why would I drive my blue pickup truck when I can drive my orange Ferrari now? When that's the mindset of the consumer. Something's happening, but we got to pay attention to that or else two, three, five years from now, we're going to be in trouble. I want to be cognizant of your time, so I've got one last question. You can answer it kind of in speed round, and that is if people remember. And back to inbound. Right. If people remember nothing else, what is the one thing that you would want people to take away from our talk today? And inbound?

Make a friend or two or three or four or five. Just make friends. Create good relations and eat good food. Lobster rolls to be present.

Go with expectation.

Come on.

Yeah. Be intentional about it. But, like, if this is going to be, like, the last thing I'm going to say, I just want to say, George, you are such an asset to the HubSpot community. So, like, be a friend with people like George. Almost every year I've gone, they do these word cloud association things and George B's name is the biggest because it got the most mentions. And I don't know if you've been on the big stage yet, but if they're not doing that, what the hell are they doing, man? Because you are such a pull for the community. A lot of people in this room together are here because of you. Ian was talking about the podcasting you guys did. It was freaking phenomenal. So, yeah, that's the last thing I want to say. You're an asset to the community and it's a pleasure knowing you.

Ah, well, I appreciate the kind words. And it is still on my bucket list, by the way, which I have gotten quiet about it to be maybe a potential inbound keynote speaker at some point in time. I'm just gonna keep working hard until we reach that day and then there's gonna be one big ass party. I'm just letting everybody know that. But I do have a little. I do have a little gift for you too as well. We kind of exit the show the theme of having an inbound down under someday. I asked Chat GPT to actually write us a short poem about what that might look like. So here we go. It says, down under sun where dreams unfurl HubSpot's inbound event in Australia swirl from outback's heart to reef's vibrant song Entrepreneurs gather, success grow strong Boomerangs of strategy ideas take flight as HubSpot's magic ignites, innovates light. From Sydney to Adelaide, Melbourne to Perth, you guys will give me a 1 through 10. How well I did on those or not. After this is over. Inbound sparks growth transforming Worth didgeridoo's hum echoes HubSpot's call to connect, engage, build bridges Tall in Australia's embrace United we stand down unders inbound hand in hand.

I'm that one guy in the corner.

Oh, and we're out of here.

Sa foreign.

We'Ve reached the end of another episode. Will Lord Lack continue to loom over the community or will we be able to defeat him in the next episode of the Hub Heroes podcast? Make sure you tune in and find out in the next episode. Make sure you head over to thehubheroes.com to get the latest episode episodes and become part of the League of Heroes. FYI, if you're part of the League of Heroes. You'll get the show notes right in your inbox and they come with some hidden power up potential as well. Make sure you share this podcast with a friend, leave a review if you like what you're listening to, and use the hashtag hubcast on any of the socials and let us know what strategy conversation you'd like to listen in into next. Until next time, when we meet and combine our forces, remember to be a happy, helpful, humble human. And of course, always be looking for a way to be someone's hero.