HubSpot Content Hub: A Candid Look at What It Is + Isn’t

Do you live in a world filled with corporate data? Are you plagued by siloed departments? Are your lackluster growth strategies demolishing your chances for success? Are you held captive by the evil menace Lord Lack? Lack of time, lack of strategy, and lack of the most important and powerful tool in your superhero tool belt knowledge. Never fear, Hub heroes. Get ready to don your cape and mask, move into action and become the Hub hero your organization needs. Tune in each week to join the League of Extraordinary Inbound Heroes as we help you educate, empower, and execute Hub Heroes. It's time to unite and activate your powers. Before we begin, we need to disclose that Devin is currently employed by HubSpot at the time of this episode recording. This podcast is in no way affiliated with or produced by HubSpot, and the thoughts and opinions expressed by Devin during the show are that of his own and in no way represent those of his employer.

Warning. Warning. Warning. I have a lot of feelings going into this conversation today, guys.

Oh boy.

A lot. Okay, so first, as our resident content nerd, there's a part of me that is like weeping with joy that we are here today to talk about HubSpot Content Hub. What it is, its potential, what it means for all of us little inbound nerds out there. I'm very excited. But this is where we get to the tricky part. George, this conversation is going to be a little bit more complicated than our usual HubSpot overview deep dive. So if you're a longtime listener, first time caller, if you go back in our archives, you know we've talked about sales, hub marketing, hub ops, hub, commerce Hub, every, every hub has its very own episode.

We talked about the Hub that is no more. We even talked about the CMS Hub. So we're not there yet.

To the goat.

We're not there yet. We're getting there. We're getting there. So I want to recap quickly. Why have some complicated feelings? And it's rooted in how the big old orange sprocket talks about this hub. So this is what they say. The Content Hub is an all in one AI powered content marketing software that helps marketers create and manage content that fuels the entire customer journey. That's right, kittens. You've not only walked into one of our patented HubSpot deep dive discussions around Hubs, you've also landed smack dab in the middle of the next installment of our series on AI. If you missed the first episode in this conversation, cue up episode 74. It is, dare I say, a highly passionate, no holds barred conversation on why a lot of organizations are failing with AI and content, and they may not even realize it, but here's the thing. It's the AI piece that gives me a little bit of anxiety here. It's the AI piece that is giving me a little bit of complexity in my feelings. And I know I've developed a bit of a reputation for seeming like I'm anti AI. I'm really not. I'm a big fan of. I'm an inherently lazy person. I am a work smarter, not harder kind of gal. Okay? And AI does enable us to do that. But again, as we started talking about in the first installment of this series, with a lot of power, a lot of great power comes great responsibility. And George, in fact, I gotta turn this over to you here for a moment. Cause when you and I were talking about setting up this conversation for this week, what we wanted to get out of it, because we want to talk about its potential. What HubSpot Content Hub is, what it isn't, how we should be thinking about, how we should be using it. You mentioned, without me prompting, that you also have some complicated feelings about it. So I'd love to turn it over to you to talk about what those complicated feelings are and what you're hoping to get out of today's discussion.

Yeah, I'm hoping to get my sanity back, you know, but we'll see if that happens during this episode. First of all, let me just preface the conversation with I love HubSpot. HubSpot is amazing. I think HubSpot does great things. I think that HubSpot has transformed the world as we know it when it comes to marketing, sales, service, content creation, all of these good things. So let me just throw that out there first and then say, HubSpot, why are you making my life difficult? Why are you making me have conversations with people about a platform that was a platform that we added some things to, but because you've been a Time Warner or Spectrum, you know, customer, you're gonna still pay the high price instead of the, like, low price that the new customers might get. I'm joking a little bit there right now, but what I'm saying is the amount of humans who have reached out and talked to me about the needing to upgrade to a new hub when you already had 60 or 70% of what was a CMS hub to get the cool tools has been astronomical. Here's the other thing too, Liz. The way that you gave that definition, an AI powered. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are listening to this podcast and you haven't learned yet that everything we do is human powered. Then ladies and gentlemen, you have the wrong idea of what you're supposed to be doing with HubSpot and what you're supposed to be doing in your marketing and what you can do with things that actually make it easier for your life. So, Liz, I have some few passionate feelings about the other HubSpot humans that are feeling pain and the slight tweak in messaging. Even though I understand AI is all the rage and we want to show that we're in the forefront of what we're doing with our software, it all comes back to the humans.

Okay, so I'm super curious. Max and Devon, you've basically spent the first few minutes of this podcast watching George and I, like in desperate need of some sort of prayer circle group hug, maybe just a nap.

Hey, I went out and bought Sage before this episode so that I can sage my office after we're done.

Okay. If you're going woo woo, we have significant issues. So Max and Deb, I'm so curious, as you're listening to us, do you share our feelings or are you coming at this from a completely different emotional angle about your feelings around the HubSpot Content Hub announcement?

Go ahead, Max.

Yeah, I mean, I'm, you know, I'm generally always excited about anything that HubSpot does. I'm, you know, admittedly I haven't had as much time to play with it as I would like to considering I'm. We're in the midst of this whole, you know, event happily launch and it's literally been my entire personality this whole three weeks. But I will say this, the, you know, thinking back to how I used to like position the difference between marketing Hub and CMS Hub, there was this like kind of like weird way of explaining it where it was like, okay, if your website is externally hosted, then you only need marketing Hub and you could build web pages on it is it can do like landing pages, but you can't build pages for your regular website. But like you can though. But then you would only get a CMS Hub if you're also going to host your Entire website on HubSpot because it like unlocks the website tool which you can also make website pages from. And it's just the landing page tool with like a different name. And is this confusing yet?

Right?

And like, right, you know, like, but at the same time I was also like, well, it makes a ton of sense because like when you think of like classical inbound marketing, right, all the stuff that was In Marketing Hub, that was like a web page were things that had very functional utility for marketers in the whole, like, again, physics of how it all works, right? Like the blog content is what you put out there to attract people organically, right? And then those things have calls to action to them. Go to landing pages, right? The landing pages where you converted somebody and then you had email to kind of take them through a journey or whatever. You could promote this other kind of. And it's like, to me, it made a lot of sense because it was like all the levers that you need to do the inbound marketing thing regardless of where you have your website. It was all there. But then it was still really awkward positioning. Like, I felt really bad because the only time I would ever position CMS Hub is like, oh, your whole website, your www subdomain needs to be on HubSpot. You have to buy this whole other Hub. And like, that was kind of goofy, right? I think what's. Like, I'm still wrapping my head around Content Hub, but I think even just for that argument where at first when I heard, oh, they're taking landing pages and blog and they're taking it out of Marketing Hub and putting it to Content Hub, but then you can get them both and it's called Marketing Plus, I was like, what is this, like a streaming service? Like, I don't know, this is like Disney plus. Really? Like Disney plus. But now I understand that it's just like you get both things together, which is like, great.

Two SKUs in one, right?

Yeah. For someone at a discounted price. Yeah, yeah. Right. But I think it seems like a severely discounted price too, at that. Like, it really only like the jump from like Marketing Hub Enterprise to marketing hub plus is $200. Like, is that like. Maybe I'm reading that wrong? I don't know. I'm just looking at the pricing page now. Don't quote me on that.

I.

You can't. I can't.

Which, by the way, you heard it here first. Ladies and gentlemen, Max Cohen is here with De Facto.

Max told me you tell your rep. Max told me it was only this. By the way, that's before any discounts too. But, you know, there's that too.

I didn't say. Anyway, so the one thing I just want to say. Yeah, yeah.

Marketing plus is available professional and enterprise, and the discount is saving customers $300 a month of professional and $1300 a month in enterprise.

Yeah, like, that's kind of crazy. That's wild, right? That's that's really awesome. I love that. Like the. And so it's cool. You could still get the power of both of those things. And it's not an insanely, you know, you're not. You don't feel like you're paying for two hubs in that case.

Right?

But like, the, the thing that I kind of like now is when you're saying, like, what is the marketing hub for and what is the content hub for? I think there's like a much better delineation between the two because they were very much like, oh, man, sounds like you get a lot of the same stuff in CMS Hub that you do. Marketing Hub. And then I'm like, yeah, because you do. Well, it's like, then which one do I buy? Like, do you need your website on HubSpot? Like, like, you know, and it was like, awkward. You know what I mean? But like, I'm looking at the features now and it's like, okay, this kind of makes a lot more sense now, right? Content Hub is truly your content. Marketing Hub is truly the tools that you use to market that content.

Right?

And there's, I think I'm, I'm again, I'm coming to this realization in real time. Whereas before I was kind of like, oh, Content Hub. It's like udo cms. And like, I didn't really quite get it yet, right? And I know it's like such a kindergarten way of looking at it, but like, you know, for me, if I was a seller of HubSpot now, right? Or someone being, you know, that has to like, talk to customers about it, I feel like I have a much better delineation between the two. And I feel like that's, you know, what was CMS Hub now has just an asinine amount of punch behind it. Instead of just being, oh, you want your website on HubSpot, you can do the WWW domains and like, that's what it was before, like, in the grand scheme of things.

And let me jump in here for one second because, Devin, we still got to get your thoughts. If you're listening to this and you pull open your HubSpot portal and you still have the old style navigation at the top and you're like, well, I still see landing pages under marketing. Please do me a favor and click the new beta navigation. Because then when Max said there's a clear delineation, holy crap, bro. Like, I think you looked that one up before today's episode. Anyway, if you go to that new navigation, you're gonna see marketing as Marketing and you're gonna see content as content and then it does really start to make more sense. The other thing I want to jump in here and say, by the way, is when I did my first, like, little freaky thing, I was like, hey, people's pain points. Just know that I immediately bought Content Hub as soon as I could. From my standpoint, we call that an early adopter, bro. I was. I can't wait to get into the micros of this conversation. Anyway, Devin, what are your thoughts? Because we still haven't really heard from you other than being the pricing genius that you are.

Yeah, I want to get, I want to get a beat on your feelings about this. Excitement, complexity somewhere in the middle. What are we talking about?

Well, for those who weren't watching along and remember, you can always feel free to hang out and watch us record live. I was dying laughing when Max was talking and it was because I was watching Max basically build a slide that I'm looking at real time in his head. It was so. So let me. Okay, so normally, you know, boilerplate Devin, views, opinion, his, all that. Let me actually give you the HubSpot speech and then Max will probably laugh because this is literally what you just said.

It's almost as if I have a webcam in your walls.

Oh, that's creepy.

Wow. Can we talk about the creepy ass look he's giving us right now through that camera while he's playing with his mustache?

Do not play with your mustache ever again. Oh my God. Do not. Zoom in.

Yes, yes, zoom in.

All right, that's enough.

Did I get a screenshot?

Oh, thank God.

Excellent. So historically, Marketing Hub and CMS Hub worked well together for a very specific use case and when the customer wanted to fully run and manage their website on HubSpot. But if a marketer didn't need to build a new website and they just needed to a solution to manage their content and online presence, the two Hubs weren't super connected and they missed the mark. But in 2024, with the launch of Content Hub, we're building the marketing solution our customers need. With that integration, our customers now have the tools to create and manage content with Content Hub and and customized lead generation and automation experience with Marketing Hub. So Content Hub is for managing your content and Marketing Hub is for the marketing of said content. And now you aren't tied to a CMS in order to use all these features that we're going to be talking about.

Okay, yes. So this is the part where I look at all three of you Nerds. And then immediately pivot my head directly to George and say, hi, I need you to tap into your superpowers of simplifying the complex. Because I am pretty deep into HubSpot, I am a content strategist. I've spent time working through parts of the certification this week, and while I have loved a lot of what I have heard, I can't imagine that I am the only one listening to this conversation right now going, I still don't understand what HubSpot Content Hub is and why are we also talking about the CMS Hub? So, George, I would love for you to help us kick off this conversation into mindsets, features, and also the AI piece of it. But we have to start by understanding what HubSpot Content Hub really is and why it's created in the simplest terms possible.

It's a journey back to where we should have been to begin with. Ladies and gentlemen, you've heard us on this podcast say so many times that it's about the content. The content is the engine of the inbound strategy for you to generate leads for you, delight your customers for you. Like, it's always been about the humans and it's always been about the content that we've given those humans. And so the fact that we have this thing now called a content hub is absolutely amazing. And here is it in its simplest form, Liz if you need to strategize about the content that you're going to create, it's in the Hub. If you're going to create the content that you've then strategized on, it's in the Hub. If you need to actually do something cool, crazy, funky fresh, like with HubDB or a customer portal or your knowledge base, it's in the Hub. If you're building website pages and blog pages and landing pages, it's in the Hub. And most of all is if you're doing podcasting, it's in the Hub. If you're using WordPress and you actually want to use smart content on your WordPress website, it's in the Hub.

If you want to do something called.

Content confetti, because you need to just get more amplification on the things that you're trying to teach and the value that you're trying to give to the world, it's in the Hub.

It's in the Hub.

It's in.

We're just going to call you the 50 cent of inbound.

I'm just telling you because you could find you in the Hub, it's in the Hub.

Go ahead, go ahead.

I love it. You know, I bet people listening to this right now are like, wow, those are three of the coolest people I've ever heard silently disavowing us.

Or, or, or, wow, that dude needs medicated. Maybe they're thinking that at this point.

Okay, so if that's what it is. George, talk to us a bit about what the promises of HubSpot Content Hub are like. When we think about each of the hubs, right, they each have a promise within them, what they're enabling your marketing team to do, your sales team to do your operations. What is the promise of content?

I believe, and there are other smart humans that work at HubSpot that may have a different answer to this, but to me, what it does come down to is it simplifies the complexities of understanding the tools that you as a content marketer need to use pertaining to the message messaging, the branding, the content that you're actually creating to the world. Because everything in the way that it's put in the menu to the way that you can now create it is trying to enable the humans to do it in an easier and faster way. Which, by the way, I'll get to how. I think that's a double edged sword and part of it scares the ish out of me and part of it excites me extremely. But when we have these AI elements, not AI powered, human powered, but when we have these AI elements, it leans into a completely different conversation that we need to have then with HubSpot users who historically have maybe not even dipped into AI at all yet. Like, think of like Jimmy, 60 years old at a manufacturing department of some company and has the least thing on his brain is how to use AI. But now there's an AI button in HubSpot in multiple of these tools. Like there is some education to be done, there is some safeguards to be paying attention to, but we'll talk about that later. But, but I think that the overall answer to your question is they're trying to simplify the complex, give easy ways to use the tools to hopefully have people produce more valuable content in a streamlined manner for the community or audiences that they're trying to help.

So you're acting as if I'm not immediately going to shove us off a cliff into the uncomfortable part of this conversation. Yeah, I know. So sorry. And that I'm not sorry at all. AI powered piece is the part, I know that concerns you a lot, George and Max and Devin, I'm going to have you chime in here in a moment. But George, I want you to kick us off here with this piece of the conversation because earlier this week when you and I were talking about the content hub, you said, I have a lot of fears around what people will hear when they see content Hub roll out. When they see what HubSpot is saying. You have fears about what that's going to lead to. Can you talk to us a bit about that?

My, my hopes and prayers is that they don't see an easy button. And we kind of talked about this in the historical other episode around AI and if you haven't listened to it, go listen to it, go watch it on community.hubheroes.com whatever you got to do. Which by the way, actually for all the people who listen to watch it live, send me an email. George.georgeb Thomas.com if you think the Hub Heroes podcast should be on YouTube channel on a weekly basis instead of it being in the actual community area, send me an email. I'm open to that. But Liz.

Yes, we should do that. That's my email.

Sorry.

We are the audience.

We say yes, sending the email now, saving time. Continue.

Okay, so. Wow, that was more than I expected. Immediately.

Yes, so.

So, Liz, I don't want them to see it as an easy button, right? And my biggest fear is that they're gonna lose, through the streamlined ability to use the tools that HubSpot has given us, that unfortunately they are going to lose their humanity and they're gonna break trust for their prospects, leads and customers because they're gonna put stuff out there that doesn't look like, smell like or feel like them. And I understand that HubSpot has put a voice and tone and brand elements into this piece that they're doing, but how many people are going to take the time to do a voice and tone workshop? How many people are going to make sure that they've actually set up the brand elements right versus just hopping in a woo, let me just hit that remix button. And also how many people are going to hit that remix button and, and not have any design like that's what looks good or that's what look, that's what poop looks like. And actually like start the max and start to just put stuff out on the Internet that erodes their brand? So what I'm saying, if I boil this down is, ladies and gentlemen, just be careful when you get into this and use the time to have the learning curve to do it right instead of just going in, guns ablazing and like then sitting back and going, oh, yeah, this was a really bad idea. Because you know how many people said content marketing was a bad idea because they did it crappy at first, and then their competitors smashed the crap out of them because they did it right. Like, don't do Content Hub AI features wrong at first. Take time to do them right as you get started.

Max and Devin, what about you guys? Do you share similar concerns?

I'm. I don't know, like, if I would say concerned, flummoxed perhaps. I really just want to scrabble or something. Okay. The only thing, like, I think I'd have close to a concern is like, man, when the content you were producing was just blog posts, back when it was just marketing, like, if you think about the what's like, the content that's powering a lot of the stuff that you're doing, like, inside of HubSpot, like back in the day, like, the blog post was the unique thing that could only be found on that website that drove a lot of your organic traffic, and it was hard enough for people to do that.

Right.

I think what's really amazing about Content Hub is how they're really starting to kind of get outside of just the written word content, and they're also giving you these tools to be able to make a lot of content from that written word content. Like this whole podcasting angle that they're taking and the new tools that are available to do that. You know, it's almost just like, can this be, like, overwhelming a little bit for a team that hasn't been producing content in the past? Or are these tools going to enable people to do more with their content?

Right.

And I think only time will tell.

Right.

But you know, it'll be really interesting to kind of see. Also, I think, like, did we really hear much about, like, HubSpot video with this, where they already knew, like, video features that they kind of put out into Content Hub? Like, I feel like that's kind of like a big sort of like, missing piece. Like, HubSpot video has been around for a while and they, like, hide it in, like, a second layer of, like, the files tool for whatever reason.

Yeah, right.

And I would assume Content Hub would have maybe tried to put an effort out there to get video a little bit more front and center. Right. You know, they kind of introduced podcasting into the mix, but video still kind of feels like it's sitting back there a little bit. Unless there's something I haven't seen that I've completely missed, but I don't know okay, Devin. All right, so.

So that's the thing here. I want to. I want to put it. I want to put a pin in something right now. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the worst that it will ever be. We know HubSpot. We've seen what they've done to a marketing hub. We've seen what they've done to a sales hub. We've seen.

Shoot.

Do you remember the service hub when they launched it? Good God, what was happening there? This is the worst that it will ever be. So, Max, I think video is coming. But it is funny, though, that you talk about hidden things, because one of the things that I want every listener or viewer of this podcast to do is go into one of your HubSpot pages, landing pages, or website pages, and do this little search content library, and realize there's a module now in your HubSpot portal that, because it's not in the main navigation under the content navigation, that you might not realize is part of what you have as your arsenal to actually do a content library on any of your pages and look at what that module actually enables you to do, because that's a little hidden feature that people need to know about.

I need to know why Devin was mean mugging at Max.

No, he was saying, shut up, bro.

No, he was making a face. He was making a face to the point where Max went, all right, I.

Feel like he was eluding.

I need to know what that face is about.

Because there are things that I'm not allowed to talk about.

And, yeah, at the beginning of the.

Podcast, yeah, all I can say is that we hear you back. That's all I'll say.

All right, Sick.

Can we talk about how Devin is really slipping into, like, big shill energy today? He's like, I can't say nothing.

Well, the funny thing is, I'm just.

Here on behalf of Big Orange Sprouts.

Part of my role in this rollout has been training partners. And so as a result, I've been creating an insane amount of collateral around Content Hub. So I won't say that I've accidentally become an expert in it, but there are phrases that I now say in my thanks to, for instance, the 40 minute training video that I produced. And so, as a result, like, I'm pretty familiar with Content Hub, the positioning around it, our goals with it, and then I'm also familiar with some of the tools that are coming in the pipe that I may have test driven and may be a part of a future conversation one day.

I'm so jealous.

Must Be nice.

Yeah, you're making. I'm watching. Jealous. George gets so jealous.

Yeah, man.

Well, Devin, why don't you lead us off in the next part of our discussion then? Since you are just sitting there being like, I'm not saying I know a lot of things that you guys don't know. I'm just saying I know a lot of things that you guys don't know. Why don't we speak more broadly? Why don't we speak more abstractly? Devin, if you could talk to our audience a bit about the mindsets that you want people to be approaching content hub with, where would you start?

I would start with getting on YouTube and doing a search for Devin Bellamy, TedX, because I got a TED Talk out now, people, and it is about this topic. It is literally about AI generating content and the mindset around it. And the idea is that the future is going to belong to people who know how to leverage AI. It's not going to belong to AI. It's going to belong to the people, the facts. Humans, dare I say yes, who know how to leverage AI. And in my, in my talk, I approach it from a point of view, AI and technology as a means of accessibility, because I have learning disabilities and all kinds of fun stuff that you learn about watching the TED talk. But the idea is that if you take a step back and think about the great content, you guys hit it on the head earlier, is the people who suck and the people who have bad intentions, they're going to become the new background noise and they're going to become a platform for my outstanding content to shine against. And so if that's, if that's what's going to happen, that's what's going to happen. It's going, these people are going to do it and then it's not going to work because people are going to be desensitized to just AI generated noise. But the thing is, is that if you yourself start out with this key concept, like my friend Gaddy, who is a chef, nothing about his food is AI generated, but everything about his brand is marketing, everything else is, and he is functioning well at the core of what he's doing. He's using AI to help him do what he loves. And that's the core of the messaging. So with all these tools that are out here, if you are a creative, if you are passionate about something, if there is a subject you love to nerd out about that might be totally niche, you don't have to create a team to get excited about it. You don't have to create a team to market it now. You don't have to. You can, you can do what you're passionate about or if you just want to help build somebody else's dream, you can just go ahead and get really specific with things and help them build it. But what's the fun in that? Work until you die. Okay. I love working at HubSpot, but it's not all I do. I do have hobbies. But when you think about the tools are coming out, you know, image generation, AI blog post generation, website assistant, content remix, AI translations, brand voice, blog post, narration, membership, blogs, content library, content approvals, content embed and podcasts. And it doesn't matter where your website lives for you to use these tools. It doesn't matter. Like it doesn't matter that you don't have your website on HubSpot CMS anymore. That's a non issue. That was a hurdle for so many people who didn't, who couldn't wrap their.

Heads around the value.

You know what? Fine, do it, don't do it, whatever. The Marketing plus bundle is going to affect how you create your content. So now you're still going to be able to manage your single source of truth and still be able to get done what you need to get done. But you'll be able to do it with less effort. You'll have increased bandwidth and you'll be able to focus on sharing, you know, what you love. If you're out here just going to use this tool to try and make money, try and get money from people, then you know what, good on you. Go ahead, you pay your monthly fee. My kids need shoelaces. The thing is, is that if you are really out here trying to, you know, make the world a better place and leave this universe better than you found it, there are ways that you can use AI to do that. But yeah, that, that literally is the CliffsNotes to my Ted Talk. Definitely go check it out on YouTube.

That section brings me so much joy. I literally did a happy dance, like several times punching the screen.

George's happy dance is shadow boxing, so I loved it.

Right. While you guys are talking about a happy dance though, I'm watching Max in the corner just kind of like, dude, talk us through what's in your head right now because you gotta.

My brain just skipped because. So it's so hard to call HubSpot. Like it's so hard to call Content Hub a CMS. Well, you can't because it almost feels like.

Hold on, let me stop you. Right there. Yeah, you can let me literally stop you right there. In the partner training, there is a section where I say stop saying cms. We're not. We don't say CMS Hub no more. We ain't doing CMS up that anything no more. Now it's Content Hub. And we're not calling Content Hub cms. We're calling it AI powered Marketing solution. Because.

Good thing I'm. Good thing I'm an app partner and not a solutions partner. So give me a HubSpot demo portal and then we'll talk.

Anyway, back up, back up. But hang on, this is painful because.

The thing is that you can still create the things. Like the thing is. Oh my God, I wish, I wish I was allowed to talk that.

I know you can't.

But all I can tell you, all I can tell you is wait for the spring spotlight. That's all I'm gonna say.

That's. That's all I can say.

Max, Max, here's the deal. Max. I have a almost over 9,000 word article that we have written that we were getting ready to launch on Sidekickstrategies.com titled HubSpot CMS versus WordPress to which now I have to go back and retitle it and content hub versus WordPress and find all.

Yeah, I know.

Find all the words.

All the times we're trying to optimize.

For the searcher and the search engine where we said HubSpot CMS.

Hey, George. George. My favorite part about that statement you just made is the fact that you said you are doing that. I'm sorry, what do you think I'm doing tomorrow?

Hold on. Or about the fact that you could just do it with AI now. You don't got to look back for anything. Oh, what do you mean that's not true?

No, no, no, that's not true. Okay, now we're gonna. Now we're gonna take a little tangent and Liz is gonna have a little moment.

You can't take a blog article, put it in a chat GPT and say replace the word CMS with Content Hub.

Come on. You can do that.

And then read it and read it and watch what else it changed on your ass.

Oh, I guess, I guess.

Well, it's not just that. It's not just that. Hold on, hold on. Stop. As the person who actually spends the most time touching written content. Okay, let me just put it this way. You can absolutely do a search and replace. That's not right.

You can do this in Microsoft Word.

I forgot.

Go ahead. I'm sorry. I love you.

I will pull this podcast over, I will turn this around, I will take us home. No, I'm kidding. The issue is that the context of the conversation has changed. It's not as simple as it's just CMS now, it's Content Hub. The context of the conversation has entirely changed. So there is stuff where we need to go in and take a look. And this is what we just displayed here is exactly. The thing that freaks me out with AI is that people go. And I'm not saying, max, you do this. This is not my implication, but I know for a fact there are organizations that go, oh, just have AI do it. Just with no thought, rhyme or reason around the context of the content that they're creating, what, what you're actually putting out there. I'm going to be perfectly honest. I will say the name of the company after we stop recording. But I've received three emails this week from a very large organization where I was freaking flabbergasted that I'm like, this entire thing was written by AI. I cannot, like, it is so obviously written. There's that noise and, and it's just, it's, it was a lot. I, I, I couldn't believe that it was this organization. So my, my concern here is that this, that easy button mentality that we're talking about now. Max, you have a, you have a salt gun. So I, I'm going to turn to the person who doesn't have weapons.

I had to talk about the mindset piece before I was so rudely interrupted by everybody. Just kidding. I wasn't really.

You just said, well, I'm sorry your takes were so bad. It required all your efforts, but you.

Didn'T listen to me. Y' all didn't listen to what I was gonna say. I was gonna say, it feels insulting calling it a CMS anymore, okay? Because that barely describes what it is.

Right?

So when we were getting into the mindset piece of it, I kind of think back to some recent conversations I've had with people. And I've probably said this on the podcast, but, like, when people say, oh, why did you like why? I'm using past tense here. Can't say this forbidden CMS word anymore. The new C word. Well, I guess content is so.

Management software.

Yes. Listen, listen. The, the, God. What? When people would ask me, they'd say, why do you like HubSpot CMS, right? And I would go, I don't know. It's hard for me to have that conversation as someone who doesn't build a lot of websites. I'm not a developer. I don't think I can give you the answer.

You, you.

That is worth hearing. But the one thing I will say is that I'm pretty sure it's the only CMS platform that is also a CRM at the same time.

Right?

Which you can't really say for other CMS platforms out there.

Right?

And so when I.

Why does that matter? Why is that important?

Why does that matter? Things like smart content, things like how you can totally change the experience somebody has on the website based on what you know about them. And it's like dumb easy. You're not building any stupid integrations or like doing any wild coding or anything like that. You're literally highlighting a section of your website saying make it smart. And all of a sudden it's smart, right? And it's like the easiest thing to do. And like. But now it's so interesting. Before that was like, why host your hub, your website on HubSpot? But now we do the whole content embed thing and oh shit, HubSpot just made every other CMS platform also your CRM at the same time. Because you can literally do now do smart content if you're on WordPress or if you're on anything.

Right?

So it's like I, my, my brain is like kind of like melting a little bit.

So let me melt it more.

Because it's like you can't do on WordPress.

Yes.

But you can do the other stuff, George.

Melt the brain.

So you can't do like on, like in embeds.

Yes, smart content. There's literally a video.

That's what I'm talking about. So if you.

I stand. But that's what I mean, even thinking about that.

Yes, you can embed embeds, you can do smart content. You can put it on your WordPress site. It's absolutely amazing. It's a game changer. It's one of the most fundamental changes. Take that any other CRM, because you can't do that. But here's the thing. I want to melt your brain a little bit more. If you have historically been a podcaster, if you don't understand when I say a podcast on top of a CRM, the dramatic change that that makes for what you can do as a podcaster, then just hang up the mic because you're podcasting for the wrong reasons. It's not about humans, it's not about community. But if it's about humans and community, and that's the reason you're podcasting. Having a podcast on top of a CRM. Oh, in the near future, watch out for all the other people that have been hosting podcasts that haven't been paying attention to this little Diddy.

Is that, like, you could send an email to someone after they listen to your podcast?

Have you met HubSpot yet? Do you know what they're gonna do in the future?

Bro, I have no idea.

Imagine smart content in podcasting. Imagine how you can do dynamic ads in, like, something like transfer transistor fm. But now imagine being able to do dynamic ads in HubSpot podcasting and have it hooked into your ads account. That's in HubSpot. And dude, the things where my brain goes for what you could eventually do with that alone is crazy talk.

Yeah.

All right, nerds, Nerds, assemble, organize. George, I love the dynamic ads conversation. I love where we've started going down the well here, but I want to bring us back up here a minute because I know mindsets is something that's particularly important to you because all of these incredible features that we're talking about right now only work if you're looking at things in the right way. Devin, you've talked a bit about your mindsets. Max, you have as well. George, I'd like to hear from you where you're at with the mind.

Yeah, mine's. Mine is not going to be surprising.

Is it about the robots? Is it all about the robots?

No, it's about the cyborgs, dude. It's about the automatons.

It's all about our AI overload.

No, it's. It's. It's all about the humans. And. And it's about keeping your humanity and. And here's the deal. If you really want to know how I feel about this, if you really want to see what I've been doing for the last year, if you really want to see me get nerdy when it comes to HubSpot and AI and content creation, I hope you're gonna be at inbound, because that's exactly what I'm speaking about. This year, I will be hitting the stage and talking about humanity and being human in an AI generated content world. And so keep it about the humans. Don't lose your humanity. Make sure you keep focused on doing the hard work, because when you do what is hard, life will be easy. As soon as you hit that easy button, your life is going to get real hard because people are going to stop trusting you and decide to go follow somebody else. Because you are an AI cyborg, not A human automaton.

Devin, buddy, I know you have to hop a little bit early today, so I want to turn it over to you before George Max, I want to wrap a little bit about some features, but Devin, hit us with your final thought. Hit us with your mysterious parting words.

Go ahead and go to them first. I'll come back.

Okay, Seth, cut this part out. We will continue.

That's Noah, though.

He sent me a slack.

Different editor, different podcast.

Hi Noah. I also love you, Noah. What's up? Okay, so now that we've got the right mindsets in mind, what are some of the ways that we want to see people maximizing these features? Because again, trepidation, concerns, fears, Oogie boogies about AI. Let's now set those aside for a moment. When you look at the potential of the platform and you look at the potential of the features, what excites you? How do we want people using these things? George, I see you nodding already along. Go ahead.

Yeah, one of the. Well, there's, there's multiple exciting things like I literally talked about content library because what you'll be able to do with that and the starting point of what it's at is going to be amazing for a lot of organizations that have multiple different types of collateral that they want to be able to give people access to with ease. But one of the things that really excites me is the new AI generated blog narration because I had actually built a system where we would use natural reader to read our blog articles to give us a decent AI voice so that we could put a transistor FM player on every article so people could either listen to it or read it depending on how they learn best. Because some people learn by watching or listening. And so we wanted to have this multi attack based on them having a great experience. And so now that that can just be in HubSpot and that I know that there's a day coming. HubSpot hasn't said this. This is my guess. I'm going to get out my crystal ball and see the future. There will be a day where I will be able to create a George B. Thomas voice print and I will be able to have everybody listen to my blog articles and it be my voice. And that is being able to scale the out of myself. Pardon me for my French, but that excites the crap out of me. The other thing that I have to dive into here is where remix is now and where I think remix will be in the future. Because I am a big advocate of if you've taken the time to create the content that you felt was difficult to create, then you might as well chop it up and make some content confetti. And the idea of being able to use remix to easily do that in the future, based off of a blog article, a landing page, a pillar page, whatever it is, and just be able to amplify your production and amplify the way that you can share it to the world. Like, those are some exciting pieces for me.

Max, what about you?

Yeah, to me, this is a. I think the other big thing I'm kind of unlocking here is that this, this is the beginning, I think. I mean, this is a really, this is a really good beginning of it. But what I really feel like they, they've been doing a lot of this, like with AI, but then really kind of like just like punched through the wall with this one, is that you can tell they're doing a really good job at removing the barriers of the difficulty around content creation.

Right?

Because again, you've, you've heard me say ad nauseam, you've heard me say on this every time, like, HubSpot's easy. Making content is hard. That's the hard part. No one wants to do it. The sales people aren't going to tell you how hard it is, right? You just could turn it on, leads gonna appear, right? Like, the, the act of creating the content is always so difficult. But like, when I look at things like content remix, when I look at things like brand voice, when I look at things like, I mean, how easy it is to freaking go get the podcast up. Like, ryan Gunn from Aptitude 8 hit me up on LinkedIn the other day. He's like, dude, I, I just did almost nothing and I have this podcast episode on the, my website and I'm absolutely speechless because of it.

Right?

Like, the, the, the thing that I think is so cool here in terms of, like, making the hard part much easier is that we're almost at a place where, you know how I always talk about, like, make the content in the format that you're comfortable doing, right? And then, you know, focus that way and then, you know, use tools to kind of split it out and do whatever. Whether you're someone who likes to create content via written word or you're someone who likes, who likes to get behind a camera and talk. Because you're not a good writer. Me, right. I'll make videos all day. I'm not writing, like, I am not writing anything.

Right?

But. Right, see, like, here's the thing. You can Start with written word, content, remix. Go fix it up. You've got a lot of pieces of content that you can deploy in a lot of different ways, right? And you saved a whole bunch of time getting there. And like, you just go in there and you're kind of doing some adjustments. Maybe if AI talked a little weird, at least it's there and you can put your own spin on it, right? But even if you're someone who likes to do video, right, there's two. There's tools you can use to just take your video, transcribe it, and then start at that same process, right?

George, are you all right?

So it's like I'm not.

Oh, my God. Okay, but here's the thing. For someone like me who hates producing written content, right? I feel like I'm closer to having an avenue to be able to do that without it being a giant burden to me, right? And I can express myself in the way that I'm comfortable doing it. So my most authentic content gets created. Turn that into words, and then turn it into additional content in that form that I'm not comfortable creating it, right?

George, I need you to express yourself before you explode.

Max, I'm talking directly to you, brother, because you are my brother. My. My brother video brother. I don't work for HubSpot, so I don't care, but I'm gonna get my crystal ball out again one more time. And I want you to imagine a world where you've taken the time to create that 15 or 20 minute video. And now HubSpot asks you, who would you like to remix that video? And all of a sudden you have some magical clips that you can take and put out through the Internet in horizontal, vertical, and whatever other ways that you want. Oh, I can't.

Wait, wait, does it already do? Okay, it doesn't.

Yes, yes, one thing.

This is the beginning of it yet, but it's okay. But, you know, it's probably not that far away from doing it because other tools do it. They're probably figuring it out like, this is what happens Spot does, while they're not first to do a lot of this stuff, right? And I dealt with this at the, at the Apple Store for so long where like the iPhone would come out with like a feature, right? And then you'd get the idiots that would come in there with Androids, be like, oh, Androids had this for years. And it's like, okay, dude. Like, they took their time to figure out how to deploy it in the best way that they could in the way that they wanted to. And now they can move their icon screen.

Yay.

Yeah, now you can move your icons around. Of course you could do that. But listen, I think HubSpot does that also.

Right?

So, like, when, George, you tell me, like, oh, you know, imagine a, you know, a world where you can take your video and then do the same thing. Content remixes, other stuff does that. I applaud HubSpot for while. They could have probably thrown something out there because the tech exists.

Yep.

Right.

They probably could have just thrown that out there. That would have been like, a huge awesome thing to have for. For content remix. I think them taking the approach of, like, hey, let's. Let's nail down written word first before we, you know, let you put anything from like a, you know, a podcast to a video to a, I don't know, your only fans account into a content remix.

Right.

You know what I'm saying?

Right.

No, I really don't like that. They're kind of like trying to prove this out first, and then when it's right for video to go into there and to do what you just said, it'll get there.

Did we just get canceled? I feel like we just got canceled.

I don't know, but I just want. I always have to do this every time this happens. It wouldn't me.

Yeah, wouldn't me.

I didn't like.

We just got canceled.

Wasn't me.

It was me.

No, I think I said it was. It was.

Nevermind.

This is what happens when Max doesn't have his croutons. All right. I knew we were tempting the chaos gremlins when we went this route without the croutons, but I would just like everybody to note this occasion when Max doesn't have croutons.

Yeah, I've only had croutons one episode.

We might have to ship you some more, brother.

I just need to. I just. I didn't take my strict character.

That's what it is.

Everyone's doing great. All right, so final question of today's episode, gentlemen, we have a lot of people out there right now who have a choice in front of them regarding moving to HubSpot content hub. Digging more into it.

It's.

It's in front of them like this big, happy, fun mystery box. Okay? The fact that George has now sat down off screen, I don't know if I should be concerned. George, do you need an adult? Are you all right, buddy?

What are you sitting on?

That silence is really comforting, by the way.

I'm shaking my head yes. And I'm sitting on a stool because I am going to go last, which is why I removed myself from my mic, because you're asking this question, which you'll probably start over now that I've interrupted by sitting down, but there you go. I, I, you have to understand when.

You bounce, when you pet, I'm used to you bouncing and I'm used to you pacing and I'm used to you making faces. You literally were like, oh, the last question I'm gonna remove myself from.

See the amount of pent up energy that is gonna come out around this last question. I may have been trying to meditate or pray for like 45 seconds before we get there, but I'll just, I'm gonna go back to my stool. I'm gonna quietly sit here.

We're gonna leave this all.

Noah, you don't cut any of this out at all. So.

So, because the world needs to know that this is the first time you've had to sit down and find Jesus before you answer a question on Hub Heroes. So this is a first.

They now know I have a stool, so I don't actually stand all day. That's important too.

That's incredible. We're learning so much about each other.

George said poop and stool in the same episode.

Duty.

It's my duty to do these things.

Are we recording on a Friday? No. Why do you ask? All right, so a lot of people have a choice in front of them right now when it comes to HubSpot content hub, whether they're dipping their toes into it. I know I'm hearing conversations about people saying like, well, I have a renewal coming up. I'm not sure how I should be approaching it. There's a lot of question marks for.

A lot of people.

So if each of you could give one piece of advice to folks who are making this decision, what would that be and why? And George, I fully anticipate you will give me seven pieces of advice instead of one. And I, I just. You are who you are, so that's fine. Devin, do you want to kick us off?

Absolutely. The mindset here is that specializations isn't for specialists anymore. You don't have to be a writer to have written content. You just have to be passionate about what it is you want to say and leverage the tools to help you say it. Not you use the tools to say it for you, but leverage them to help polish what's going on inside your head. Basically, you really just need to go check out my TED Talk. That's what it is. Hopefully. What you guys, you know, drop the link in chat so one of these guys can check it out.

Oh, you mean the thing I just did? Because I'm amazing.

But I think that video lends a lot to the mindset that you're going to need to have in order to work with AI powered content in general. Because the thing is that you're never going to be able to effectively and fully utilize it or even wrap your head around its full capabilities if you're constantly afraid of it. So the idea is to learn how to work with the tool, get over yourselves, get over your preconceived notions and grow. Because the workforce in the workplace is changing and right now Content Hub is right on the bleeding edge. So keep up.

Max, I don't think there's ever been a better time than now to start using HubSpot. I'm only saying CMS Features, what we would call CMS Features, right? Because it literally just became Content Hub.

Right?

But like, for folks that didn't look at in the past because they were like, oh, we gotta bring our whole website over to HubSpot, that sounds like a big painful project. Nope. No, you don't. You don't have to do that anymore.

Right?

And you can still, you know, take advantage of all these tools because there's so much more behind it, you know, beyond the argument of, oh, if the website's on HubSpot, you can do content. I mean, you can do smart content.

Right?

It's now so much more than that.

Right?

It's like truly, like a really, really cool tool to help you produce said content, to create the said content.

Right?

Versus just hoping you're naturally gifted at doing it on your own.

Right?

So I'm just glad that there's like a billion other reasons to buy it now besides that very plain website on HubSpot use case. Right? So you should be looking at it and you should think about it more than just like, we're gonna host our website on HubSpot.

George, have you prayed your way to. Okay, he has a pen in his head. There's a lot happening here.

Yeah.

George.

Yep. Jesus has taken the wheel. So here's the deal.

The flywheel.

Yes. Jesus is taking the flywheel.

Flywheel.

Somebody has to do a parody on that right now.

I'll make a meme. I'll make a meme.

Don't worry. So here, here's, here's the deal. Unfortunately, too many of my friends and too many HubSpot users that probably don't even have a clue of who I am are going to allow this conversation to be about money. Well, what do you mean I have to pay XYZ to get these tools. By the way, Liz, you did mention if you're getting ready to like re engage your contract, well then use that as leverage to get a deeper discount because you're actually upgrading to a set of tools and give it like a longer time frame. Do a two year or three year anyway you you can have those conversations later. But here's the deal. Too many people are going to let it be about money and they're going to pay attention to that hundred 200, $300 a month and they're going to get bent out of shape instead of thinking about the man hours that it's going to save and the amount of money that you pay your humans per hour and what that equals in a month. They're not going to think about the metrics that you're now going to be able to have based on being able to put your podcast and different things in there and the additional tools that we have. They're not going to think about the management of assets and creating a better user experience with content library. And most of all, they're not going to be able to think about or not stop to think about maximizing their potential through the efforts of their content and releasing it into the world to help the humans get past their hurdles.

I love that. Did you? You just dropped such a a deep knowledge bomb there that you forgot to say something sassy at the end to.

Cut us off trying to think of another word for poop, stool or duty and I can't do it. Okay, Hub Heroes, 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 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 Hub Heroes Podcast on any of the socials and let us know what strategy conversations you'd like to listen 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.