HubSpot #INBOUND24 Is Almost Here! (Yes, We're Very Excited + a Little Nervous)

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.

Hi, everybody. George, normally you open the show by going, liz, I know you're about to talk, but I want to say something. So I was actually just trying to get ahead of it by leaving you the burp.

Oh, you were trying to give me the space to tell you that I have officially had ChatGPT write me a song about grapes in the toilet. Okay, sweet. I did, but we'll talk about that later.

You do realize for the audience at home who does not join us, lie. They have no idea what it is that you're talking about since I now have to say it.

Noah's fault. That's going to be Noah's fault, though.

Yeah.

Yeah, because the recording button was hit.

Out of context when I was a child, George. Yeah, when I was a child, you.

Put yourself into this situation.

So most parents who are dealing with kids, little kids going off to school right now are dealing with kids who are crying on their way and those who are screaming as soon as they get back home because how dare you leave me to learn letters and numbers and shapes and blocks and sharing and friendship pictures. I was not that child. When I was dropped off at school, my mother apparently would. Elizabeth, have a good day. Bye, Mom. You can go. You can leave. Apparently, at one point I turned around, said, why are you here? And then I just ran off into the school. And then I was either when she came to pick me up, refusing to get in the car because I would be on top of the jungle gym because I had decided I did not want to go new home, or there was one particular occasion where my mother couldn't find me on the jungle gym. So she went inside and asked, where is Elizabeth? Well, Elizabeth is currently flushing grapes in the toilet.

Oh, yeah, we're going to talk about that later.

To which my mother, you know, just the inquisitive woman that she was. Why is she doing that? My teacher apparently replied, unclear, but Elizabeth was on a mission and she's not one to be derailed. Oh, and that was kind of.

That hasn't changed.

Yeah, I feel like that is a pretty good description of you.

Yeah. One not to be derailed.

We do not derail, Liz.

No.

How is your session planning for inbound going, Max?

Not well. Not good at all.

Not well.

No chats, Fire? No. That train. That train has derailed.

In fact, was it ever on the tracks?

I completely missed it. And I don't even think I went to the station. I didn't even make it to the station to see it going off into the sunset.

You got there, the train is already.

I saw a LinkedIn post that said session registration opened up 40 minutes ago. And I said, oh, geez, I should hop in there. And then I saw that the post was posted four days earlier, and I said, I might be in trouble. I up because I wanted to, because I was like, I'm gonna go in there and I'm gonna register for Georgia's session this time because I want to go and see it. And so I went and went to check it out, and it is booked.

Register for the encore. Register for the encore. There's an encore?

I didn't even know there's an encore.

I didn't know.

Yeah, there's no way I could do this encore's book. So, yeah, I don't know. You know what, George? You might have to invite me up to the stage just to sit there with you. Well, you just have a special guest, and I'll sit there and do absolutely nothing.

Will you be my balance on the.

Stage and flush grapes toilet?

Yes. Yes. You're not sitting on the stage and flushing. There is no toilet on the stage. But, Max, will you be my bouncer?

I'll be your bouncer if they.

All right, there we go. There we go. I can get you in there.

Cool. I'll check everybody in with the van. Happily.

Oh, you're the content strategist. I guess it's funny because I'll just be like, yeah, my content strategist. My bouncer. My wife, like, she yells at me.

And asks me existential questions about my childhood, and she says blog posts come out of it.

Wait, Chad says my wife runs the staffing. I'LL get you in.

What? Wait, what?

Chad, is this true?

Wait, how. Wait, what?

Stop. What?

No, wait.

Okay, Ladies and gentlemen at home. What? They are waiting and wowing their way to glory. Welcome to the Frantic one week countdown.

I never knew this.

Where we have.

Okay. Oh, my God. Get Chad.

Get Chad in the room. Have him as a guest.

Do you ever have. Sorry, Liz. I know this is like herding cats and we're going to talk about inbound, I promise. But have you ever found out something in your life that you didn't know? And then you're like, how did I not know that? And then your brain explodes and you don't know where to go from there. That's me right now. I never. How the. Go ahead, Liz.

Liz. Liz is not hurting catch. She's hurting two nasty pigs on a farm that are not well behaved.

I'm hurting two drunk kangaroos with super soakers full of Gatorade going, why? What's the problem, Liz? What could possibly be wrong? Setting everything on fire.

We're so screwed.

So welcome to the Inbound Shot challenge. Every time we say inbound, we take a shot. Is that what I heard?

I've got gin somewhere.

Do it. To be honest, inbound.

This chaos represents the energy I think all of us are feeling with one week to go to inbound, which is why we are having this conversation, because we have George the planner. Yeah, right. The ringmaster. Who, I'm going to guess you didn't have a problem signing up for sessions. George, you were. You were there. Ready to rock and roll.

The ones I wanted to get to. I am signed up for the.

Meanwhile, Max is watching in the distance a train that he was supposed to be on catch on fire, thinking he was supposed to be on a plane three days later. So here we are, ladies and gentlemen, the full range of the human experience.

Yeah.

Welcome. Want it all. So let's just jump right in. How y' all feeling?

Great. And excited and confused all at the same time.

Yeah, I'm also those things.

How about you guys? What? Great podcast, guys. We'll just. Are we done? Are we done here?

No, no, I'm actually. I'm so stoked for him. I. Like, I can't wait. It's gonna be awesome. Like, I. I'm still peeved it happens in September just because it's like, right when, you know, kids are going back to school. My wife's also a teacher. She's going to school. So it's like, you know, we just get into the new routine and I'm like, see ya. And I'm gone for a week and I feel like super guilty about it, but you know, I mean it, dude. This is our summer camp. This is. This is HubSpot summer camp. Like HubSpot family reunion.

Yeah.

Inbound prom. It's all of those things all mixed into one and it's gonna be freaking awesome. I can't wait.

I'm just excited because I get to go.

Yes.

This is a very special.

You did not get to go last year.

Yes.

Or the year before. Or the year before. I haven't been since. Geez, I want to say 2019.

Well, that's like grandpa in Internet years.

It's been a minute.

It's been a hot minute.

That's right. And this granny is going to whip us all into shape today. There we go. That's right.

Yeah.

So I am also excited. There is an element of grape flushing confusion. I don't know what to do with myself. I. I don't know where to go. I got some sessions, not all of them because I was somewhere in between George and Max, where it's like I wasn't four days late, but Liz was definitely running after the train and like hurling her butt like Keanu Reeves and speed when he has to jump on the bus while it is in motion. That was me getting into my session. So I'll admit that. But I am frickin pumped. But we're all frickin pumped for different reasons. Because George, you're showing up as a speaker. Max, you're showing up as both something popsicle of happily.

Yes.

And also a former shilling big polarity sprocket shill. Right. You're showing. And I'm just. I'm there for the vibes and the learning and for me. I love that. George, I want to start with you.

And to see your. Your baby. Your baby boys though too. Right?

I go huggy so much.

Yeah, me too.

I think I'm taller than both of you, aren't I? Because I'm taller than George for sure.

Well, God, you're definitely taller than me because I'm giant.

I'm six feet tall.

I am also six feet. And we are tiny George sandwich.

The same height.

Yeah, let's not switch. That's. Let's. I know when to get my exercise at inbound. When I see Liz and Max together, that means run, run, run.

Because you're gonna get squished. We are going to squish you.

Friendship.

Yes.

I bet this isn't making any of our listeners uncomfortable. At all whatsoever.

George is going to get a little squish.

He's making me uncomfortable.

Does that matter?

So, George, let's switch to something. Maybe either it's going to be more comfortable or less comfortable. You are speaking and your session filled up so quickly you now have an encore presentation. And for the listeners at home, your session is really exciting because you're giving a tactical, real world, practical playbook of how to create human powered AI assisted content. And I'd love for you to just talk, take us behind the scenes a little bit. How's preparation going? How are you feeling? You are one week out as an attendee and a speaker. What's that like?

Yeah, I'm, I'm super excited for the session. Both sessions. Actually three sessions, but I'll get into that here in a hot minute. Actually three sessions in two late night shows. Anyway, I'll get into that.

Six seasons in a movie.

Yeah, it's, it's crazy. Like, I, I mean Inbound is quickly becoming like content creation Mecca, but again, we'll, we'll talk about that in, in the future in this episode as well. Liz, the preparation is going good. It's probably one of the best presentation decks that I've ever created, just in general, but for sure, Inbound, the use of graphics and plain text and it's, it's just sexy. But also I love the fact that this is going to be the first time that I'm not really strapped down to just the presentation deck because it is a 90 minute session that has some workshoppy, like three to four workshop areas where I get to pull up my screen, I get to share with people how I do stuff in real time, how they can do stuff in real time, how they can interact with their assistant, how they can leave the easy button where it belongs, not on their desk, not on their computer, probably in the closet somewhere. How they can embrace their humanity, their power, maybe even the power that they don't yet know that they have and the augmented like energizing expertise that they'll have at their fingertips after the session. So I'm just excited to hopefully be that catalyst for people who are trying but stumbling, are maybe possibly afraid and keeping it or giving it the Heisman. And even he dipped the toes in the water of like more advanced stuff that people are like, oh, I didn't know we should be using that when we're doing that. So it's just, I'm excited because it's going to be a big nerd fest and it's all about the humans. And it's all about empowering them to move forward with better content in the future.

So I want to throw something out there, though, that you haven't really mentioned, which is I think most people attending inbound or maybe who haven't attended in the past couple years or so, we're used to the standard. It's a 45 minute session. Nope, we're not going. You are doing a 90 minute session.

Two 90 minute sessions. Yeah.

Twice. Twice. Twix. I want to go behind the scenes. How do you even prepare for that? Dry heaving into a paper bag for.

No straight and then just praying, no. It's actually using AI as my power assistant for the last two years and have not been talking about it online and trying to be an expert at it and just simply being able to finally share with the world. Here's all the stuff that I've been playing with. Here's all the stuff we've been doing, by the way, here's the stuff we've been doing. And not near one of you that reads our blog or knows who we are. Have ever said that smells like a. Nope, nobody. And so I'm just. Again, I'm not dry heaving. Listen, I've been doing 90 minute sessions 12 weeks in a row for the super admin training that we do. So the time length is like, whatever. I can talk for that long, I can teach for that long. And there's just so many good, juicy areas that we can get into. My biggest fear is that we'll get into a pocket of juiciness and like miss out on some of the stuff. To be honest, if I'm worried about anything. But yeah, 90 minutes, two different times that people can join us. And it's again, George, I'm challenging Juicer. I'm challenging myself to make this the best ever inbound talk that I've ever given. Oh. Which is saying a lot.

So here's my question though, and this is where I'm someone who's a big fan of how the sausage gets made. And I know when I've gone and seen like really big talks like this, like if somebody were to ask me, you know, Liz, what have you been working on a content for the past two years? It would be a three hour run on sentence.

Yep.

And nobody would have any idea what I'm talking about. So how do you synthesize all the work that you're doing into a 90 minute presentation that doesn't break all, like all of our hearts? Right. Because I think when I go to Inbound. I. Sometimes I. For the most part, I feel really excited. I feel like I'm learning things, things that I can take away and immediately, like, use.

Right?

But we've all been in sessions where it's like, why am I here? Why are any of us here? What is happening? Like, the stuff where there's all fluff, no substance, all promises, no payoff.

There's. There's. There's no fluff in this bad boy. I'm allergic to fluff. By the way, I literally was on a podcast earlier today where we were doing a nice dope kind of interview about the journey that we've been on here at George B. Thomas llc, Psychic Strategies byd and now Superhuman Framework. And like, that. That came up where they're like, yeah, we just know that we're never gonna get fluff from George. Like, we're gonna get what we need to hear and what's. What's supposed to be said. And I'm like, that's just. And so, Liz, there's two things. One, there is no fluff in this presentation. I'm not fluffing to be able to make 90 minutes. The other guff.

Is there any guff? No. No.

What about marshmallow fluff?

There's no marshmallow fluff. Although some of marshmallows only.

There's only pickles in that peanut butter sandwich.

No, no.

You know, marshmallow fluff.

And peanut butter is a good sandwich, too, but.

Yeah, but milk in your eggs. Here's.

Here's the thing. Here's the thing.

No fluff.

Here. Here's the thing. I believe, and I've been told historically, one of my superpowers is being able to simplify the complex. Man, did we have to simplify the complex when we were building out this presentation and the things that we're going to talk about, because it would be way easy to just go over everybody's head, but that's not what we're doing.

Liz, you looked so concerned looking off camera to the right there, just looking at her whiteboard.

Do you want to know what the real answer is? Do you want to know what the real answer is?

Because I was convinced you were staring at a ghost. If I'm being honest with you.

You were like, this is where I'm gonna show my ass as a. As a word nerd. I looked at the board, which is a scribble of brainstorming notes, things that will never see the light of day. There are. Internal use only. Will never be published on a website. And I spelled a word wrong, and I felt like an idiot sandwich when I caught it out of the corner of my eye. That is legitimately what happened.

Oh, well, that's not that big a deal. I spell stuff wrong all day and people still love.

It's not.

They just don't love the way you spell.

No, they don't love the way that I spelled, but they love me anyway. This is enough about me.

We're supposed to be talking about inbound enthusiasm, not accuracy.

He spells with his heart, not with his brain. Facts, facts, Max.

Okay, so you're coming at this from the other side, right? Because you're like, well, I never made it to the train. The station is on fire. What are sessions? But you're there and you are busy. So how are you preparing on that? Because you're the chief evangelist at happily. Right?

I'm preparing.

How are you preparing? What are you doing?

I'm preparing mentally, is what I'm doing.

Does your brain do push ups?

Well, I mean, last time we went, I wasn't expecting necessarily to be spending six hours outside both days handing out popsicles to people and looking like a complete freak when I did. So, like, I mean, now at this point, I'm just like, kind of going into it being like, listen, I know my schedule is not going to be my schedule. I'm going to get pulled around in a thousand different directions and have to do all these different things and make all this content and, you know, shake, shake hands, kiss babies, do all this different kind of stuff. And so I'm just. I am just going to clear my calendar completely, assume it's going to be total chaos and not make any commitments, because I'm sure there are going to get overlapped with some other stuff that I have to be at.

Right.

That, and I'm also just, like, awful at planning ahead, too. So I think, like, the ADHD in my brain is just like, you know what? Just be there and talk to people at the booth, and that's gonna be.

Enough to be the happiest people around.

Yeah, it's like. It's like I can just plan to be at the booth and tell everybody how awesome our apps are, and maybe I'll walk around and get a Sodi Pop and say hi to people, but that's all I can handle. You know what I mean? Instead of just being like, oh, man, I'm going into it and I have all these things I have planned and all these on my calendar, and I'm not going to have enough time to get between them, and I'm going to get stopped by people, walk out of the bathroom and do it, you know? And so I'm just like, I need to. I'm.

My.

My brain is just doing everything it can to just say, don't stress out about it. Just be there. Don't have any obligations, nothing. You know, I tried. The one thing I put on my calendar to block out for myself was when I knew George's thing was happening, the one thing I neglected to do was actually book a seat at the session. You know, George, I'll be there in spirit, I guess, unless apparently Chad can make me the bouncer or something. So here.

Here's the thing, though. I want to double down on that because anybody who's listening to this, like, I'll say inbound. But attending any event should not be a reason for anxiety and mental breakdown. Like, when I think about inbound. And if you want to get the most out of inbound or the most out of any event that you go to, you lean serendipity. Like, yes, you make a little bit of a plan. Yes, you set a few expectations. Of course you're going because you want to learn things. But opening your brain up to that, not everything you will learn, and maybe not even the most important thing that you will learn will be from a keynote stage or a breakout stage. It may be in the. In this case, the Weston lobby, drinking a, you know, Pepsi or Coke Zero, Coke Zero or a Bloody Mary or whatever beverage you like. And you might have a conversation that just changes your life, changes your business, changes the way that you think about everything that you historically done, and it was not from a professional speaker. Because we all have the ability to add value to those lives that we're going to meet at these events.

Yeah, I mean, she brought that up.

Last year with magic in the hallways.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, it's about.

Happens in the hallways.

Listen, I've. I've seen it happen over and over and over again, like, and again. There's a lot of great speakers, There's a lot of great sessions, There's a lot of places that I want to be, but I am always opening and. Or open and listening to. Ooh, this might be more important than that. Let me go ahead and take time out to go do this thing. Like, for instance, if I get a chance to talk to Tony this year, I'm gonna talk to Tony this year. I'm just saying because I heard a lot about Tony last year from Max.

I have an I heart Tony shirt.

Yeah.

So he's my boy.

Yeah. If you don't know what we're talking about, go back and listen to last year's episode where Max talks about Tony.

Friendship and definitely 100 getting people's names right on the first try.

His name is John.

His name is John. I'm like, no, it's not.

Anyway, moving on.

Love that. So, George, I actually want to stick with you here for a moment because you're starting to dig in.

I feel like I'm in the hot seat. Good lord.

No, but it's because you're prepared.

You are. Because I'm not prepared. You have interesting things to talk about. I have anxiety.

Max, how do you feel? Present.

I'm here. I am here and I'm excited. And I'm also staring at my calendar next week and I just don't want next week to have to happen anyway. Yeah.

I mean, to be honest though, Max.

Want to fast forward right now.

Do you think are listening with kind of a similar. I'm excited.

I think this is excitement. Yeah.

There's packing and there's flights and there's all sorts of stuff in the middle of.

Don't want to drive. I just don't want to drive into.

Boston, George, while I stressfully clutch dry erase markers.

Yeah.

Talk Max and I and our listeners off the ledge about it's okay to be a little, you know, calm down. What should be doing. What should we be doing in this week leading up to inbound? What should we be doing right now?

Yeah, I. I think there's a couple things and we can get to the, like, micro pieces, but from a macro level. And again, this is hard to maybe imagine and somewhat hard to do, but I literally have Thursday and Friday of the week before we go to inbound mostly blocked off. I have some important meetings, but I have it mostly blocked off for what I would call the decompression of information that I don't need in my brain. Meaning if I'm about to go fill up, I need to, like, make some space. I need to think about, like, what can. What cannot be on my brain that I might be thinking about? What things can I close out so that I'm not using that energy? How do I free myself to have a four day experience, a four day human centric experience, and not have these, like, lingering pieces that I'm thinking about and worrying about? So literally, like a. How do you drain the brain a little bit so that you can refill it with the stuff that's going to happen at inbound? I'm also, during this time, what should I pack? Do I have comfortable sneakers? Do I have enough hoodies? Do my hoodies match my hats? Like the important stuff, like, do you have the right jewelry to go with your outfit? Which by the way, I too am.

Worried if my hoodies match my hat.

Listen, listen, you have to dress comfortable. So like, that's the one thing. It's funny the amount of times that inbound the team has messaged people that it's like casual, professional, like, make sure you have comfortable shoes. Like, don't wear your cowboy boots, probably don't wear your high heels. Like be comfortable. Because again, it's, it's, it's about the experience of the humans that you're going to be around and the education that you can bring into your life. And so there is a level of packing, there's a level of decompressing. But I was telling Max when we got started, I love Max's guest appearance of his dogs on the podcast every now and then.

I'm sorry, no, you're fine all day. And now she found her squeaky toy.

We keep it real. So, so here's the real thing though, that and I talked to Max about this before we hit the record, Liz, before you got here. Right now, what everybody should be doing is, is mentally thinking about how they can absorb as much energy as humanly possible into their body, their spirit, their psych, whatever. Like I'm, I'm for the next week, I'm like charging up to have the energy that will be expended over that four to five day period. So like drain the brain, infuse yourself with energy, take lots of vitamin C before you get on the dang plane and spend time with about a bazillion other humans. Make sure you pack properly and then go for it. And, and I would treat inbound and I, I know I mentioned serendipity. I would treat inbound, your inbound experience like a four day roller coaster. Let it take you where it's going to take you. Try to stay on the tracks that you created the most you can, but just enjoy the dang experience.

Love that, George. You're also prepping stuff for something a little bit extra special that's outside of your two sessions. Are we allowed to talk about it?

Yeah, we can talk about it. Which, which by the way, I keep referencing three. I have two sessions that I'm doing the 90 minute sessions. And then I want to also mention, because I need to mention for the other human that is going to be part of this. We are doing a debate and it's an AI debate. And I could have swore. Yeah, yeah, here it is. So debate AI in marketing, pilot or co pilot. And so it's going to be myself and it's going to be Doug Davidoff and it's going to be Dale Bertrand and we're going to be talking about AI pilot or co pilot. So I'm excited about that. But Liz, I don't think that's what you were mentioning. I think you were mentioning the inbound late night show with George B. Thomas. Yeah. So it's happening two nights, Wednesday night and Thursday night from 5pm to 5:30. There is a location, a stage that we will actually be able to be on. It's like a news anchor desk that has like four chairs. We're gonna have different humans in those chairs. Wednesday and Thursday. I think Max is going to be there Wednesday or Thursday. Liz might be there. I've got Chris, Carolyn. I've got other people that were inviting to be part of this. Heck, it might even be a little bit of a round robin. Sit down, get up, let somebody in during the 30 minute session. But we're going to break down all the things that we're loving about inbound, things that we're learning, things that people should be thinking about. We're going to do our best to make the audience that is present laugh and enjoy and some additional education. But really we're going to try to, we'll see if we can pull this part off. We're going to try to do a LinkedIn live for each of those nights so that people who couldn't make it to the inbound could actually see what we're talking about, see the different guests, see kind of around the experience that we're going to be in the middle of. So I'm excited because a couple years we have done this show like audio only in hallways, in the yard, in what felt like a broom closet. One year. So the fact that we're actually going to be on stage and there can be an audience for this 5 to 5:30, Wednesday and Thursday, Inbound late night show. I'm, I'm, I'm pretty psyched to see where it goes and what we can do with it.

We need to have a live recording of Hub Heroes next year. And I do solemnly swear that I promise not to get us canceled or to say anything.

Don't practice, don't promise.

I'll take care of it.

The worst I'll do is flush grapes down the toilet. Okay. That's the worst. I'll do.

That. Right there. Yeah. Anyway.

I really can't be trusted, can I?

No, not really. Not when it comes to.

We actually do. I would be. Okay, so you're telling me, are you. I could keep it together. I'm. I can do it. I'm an adult.

I believe in you. I believe in you. I think you can do it. I. I trust you. We can do it.

So what. What everybody's listening to right now is the mental collapse of my psyche, what I perceive myself to be, and the realization of who I am. I believe and aspire to be a functional adult human. Hey, I am, in reality, a literate chaos gremlin.

And that's fine. Everybody needs to be who they are as long as you're showing up as a whole ass human.

I love that whole ass Gremblin.

Yeah.

Just don't feed them after midnight. Or get him wet, I guess is what they say. So.

But what if I want ramen after midnight?

Oh, I like. See, I like ramen. But anyway. Okay, we need. Okay, we need it. We officially need a T shirt that just says whole ass Kremlin.

Whole ass Kremlin.

Chad put in the chat. Whole ass Kremlin.

Whole ass. That. That would be Liz. That would be. I'm a whole ass human before midnight. After midnight.

I know that. I know that. We. I'm assuming we're getting on to some of the things that we're excited beyond.

Yeah.

Some of the session stuff we've already talked about.

I don't know.

I'm not sure if I missed that boat. Kind of like I missed all my sessions yet.

Let me get this straight.

Yeah.

You were four days late to signing up, and now you are. You are, quote unquote, being the responsible one getting us back on track.

I mean, I was. You know what I was. I was the one that said, I hope that question wasn't asked, and I forgot to answer it. And this is me casually bringing it up just in case.

And you said you had.

You were panicked about what we were excited about.

You said you didn't know that's how we got onto the trains.

Oh, no.

All right, Max, how about this? Max, for the very first time, never been asked before, how are you feeling about Inbound this year? What are you excited about?

Well, I thought that was different than, like, what specific things happening at Inbound are we excited about? I thought that was going to be a whole conversation about which sessions and stuff like that, but maybe I've completely missed all of it. I just want to say I am particularly per. I am particularly excited about the product spotlights this year.

Yes.

Because I don't want to say anything is going to get me in trouble. There's a couple of things that I have been privy to that I. And I will not. I will not name any of my sources. I will not give any hints to what it is. All I know is there are things that the, you know, that are coming that are very, very, very exciting. I was caught a little bit off guard with all the AI stuff that happened last year, which was really cool. But there are some really, really big things that I've at least, you know, known are coming down the pike that are going to be super cool. And so I'm very excited about the product spotlight stuff this year. I just want to say that. And I'm going to leave it there because I definitely can't talk about what it is. But yeah, it's going to be cool. It's going to be a good one. Everybody just buckle, buckle the up. It's going to be an awesome product spotlight.

I feel like that's payback for earlier when we would earlier share.

Might be, but, you know, might be.

I'll take it. I'll take it.

Yep, yep.

I'll take it. Because I never get to be the one with secret.

And like, mind you, I think some of this might be like super nerdy stuff that maybe the general public may not appreciate as much as me, but as someone who eats, breathes and drinks and sleeps HubSpot, you know, really big fundamental stuff.

Oh, man. Now I'm really in the. Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So.

So this is where I want to go with you, George. This is the journey I want us to go on. Because we talked a bit kind of more in the abstract about how to prepare for the event.

Yep.

But they're. In addition to the sessions, inbound is also where we see product reveals, product updates. Although last year I remember it being kind of strange because you guys reported from the front lines. We had big products, spotlights, and then they launched a whole ass hub without telling anybody.

Yeah, yeah.

Remember that?

Yeah, well, yeah.

How do you keep. How do you. What is your approach going into this year of how to make sure you're getting all the product updates you need? How to absorb, synthesize, take away the right things. How would you advise your audience, our audience, to do the same?

Yeah. Well, so first of all, I would.

Say.

The days of waiting for inbound to pay attention to HubSpot product updates are long gone. Like, how do I prep for inbound for product updates? I read the product Updates inside the HubSpot thing almost daily and sign up for betas as they're released. And so I'm curious to how much will be a beta that I already turned on that they're talking about, but I'll be looking for then the. The nooks in the nooks and the crannies or however you say that whatever.

You don't. Nooks and. Wait, did you say the nooks and.

Crannies inside the English muffin?

Yes, yes, I'll be looking for that. Because there I, I feel like especially after Max's thing, there's going to be some, like, hidden gem secrets that all of a sudden will like, kind of. So I'll be paying attention to the micro because for the rest of the year I've been paying attention to the macro that's been happening of like hundreds of updates and almost hundreds of betas. But there, but there are certain directions where I'm trying to see threads that are continuing. For instance, one of the things that I'm excited that I want to try to get to is a session called Money Moves and it's how to sell like a Pro with Commerce Hub, because it's Jack Cooper Smith who's actually doing the session. And I feel like he's the type of guy that will say about as much as he humanly can about what you could do and will be able to do in the future with the Commerce Hub. So I'm excited about that. So, like, there, there's even one. I think it's. I'm trying to think if it's Mark Hahn or Kyle Jepsen or there's literally like one that's called updates from Q3 that you could go to and literally pay attention, which, by the way, when you're doing an Updates and you got to limit it to a quarter of updates to do a presentation on, it's like, okay, so like, that's, that's the thing. You could look for that Q3 update session. You could look at the hubs that you love because there's certain ones that, that are. There's speakers that are HubSpot employees that are going to dive into the, the minutiae and nerdiness of those. That. That would be my suggestion.

I would also say only if there was a weekly show, every Monday morning Shale Brother Show, Max and Kyle that meticulously went over each and every single new product update. And put it into perspective.

Oh, is that a thing?

It might be a thing. It's called the Monday Morning Briefing, and I host it with Kyle Jephson every Monday, and we go over every single one of those. Darn.

If I'm listening to this and I don't know.

Yeah, good question.

Hypothetically speaking, if this beautiful thing were to exist.

Yeah, if it were to exist, we do it live on LinkedIn every Monday. Right. And we. LinkedIn is, like, so stupid in the way that, like, you schedule lives and stuff like that. But if you go follow the HubSpot tips and tricks LinkedIn page, that's where we go live from every Monday at 10:30 Eastern.

We'll make sure.

Yeah, for sure. But, yeah, me and Kyle, we just literally bring up the product update panel. We sit there with our coffee and we just go, what do we got? And we, you know, and I very intentionally don't pay attention to product updates until that, because I try to give my genuine reaction on it. And I also just like, literally have no time to even look at that panel. And so I'm just, like, stumbling across people talking about it, like, during the week, like, in their, you know, LinkedIn posts and stuff like that. But, you know, me and Kyle are gonna try to do something to you, figure out what's the best way that we can kind of synthesize, you know, everything that. That drops at inbound the. The week after. So.

Is it terrible? I mean, is it terrible that I was like. As you were explaining this, I'm like, like, oh, I. I wish I could sit with Max and Kyle on a Monday and come to us about product updates, but you should join us for one. I. I don't know if I could add one more thing to my plate, but I was literally having FOMO knowing that. But I can at least go back and watch the recordings. Yeah. Anyway, I digress.

I love that for all of us.

That. I digress, honestly.

You want it with my. Yeah, I love product updates. I feel honestly, a lot more relieved hearing you, George, talk about them. And same with you, Max, because I think, again, we. I made it as a joke earlier, but we do kind of have the full spectrum of experience here at the virtual table of going to inbound, with the exception of someone who's never been. Although, quite frankly, it's been so long, it kind of. And it's so different. It. It feels like the first time. Right. But when I think about what it used to be like, what go leading up to inbound, all of the big Things were going to get revealed there. Now it's a bit more of a wild west situation where you open up the portal. It's like, where's this to us gone now where's this? It's different, but every day you're kind of like opening a door and now there's a new room on the other side. Or the wallpaper used to be pink and now it's orange. And you're not really getting notified of these changes. But then we'll have weird little blips like last year where we did have a lot of announcements and they're just like, oh, and also, by the way, there's a HubSpot commerce hub. There it is. Hello and goodbye. Right. So hearing you talk about that really makes me realize that, you know, inbound is still the event to connect, to learn to see what the next evolution of HubSpot is going to look like. Where we are, where we're going, how we're going to get there.

Yeah.

But you're reinforcing an important thing that I think some people have forgotten. Have to self educate. Oh, we have to make it a point to stay connected.

Without a doubt to learn. Yeah.

Now I do have a couple other.

Well before you jump in there, because this is actually perfect segue, Liz, because you people might have heard you say that and they're like, well, that sounds uncomfortable. If you just heard what Liz was talking about and it sounds uncomfortable to you, then you should check out Jay Schwedelson's session at Inbound that is thriving in discomfort. How being uncomfortable fuels growth. I'm just saying that might be the session for you if when Liz said that you have to do those things, you're like started to twitch.

I make people twitch on a regular basis. I completely understand. Now, George here, I have a question. That is for Max, but also for me because I wasn't late, but I wasn't on time either.

Yeah.

So there may be folks who either missed the train on scheduling their sessions, did not realize there was a train they even needed to catch or some sort of horrible in between limbo states.

Yeah.

What do you do if your sessions aren't booked yet or you're only partially. But what. What's your plan of attack if you were in our situation?

Yeah. Be really, really good at getting first in line. And what I mean by that is every session that is booked out right now, they leave a percentage of empty seats for people who can make it into a line for people who don't show up even though they booked the session. So it as full as full could be, it isn't really full. And so if there's like one, three or seven sessions that you're like, oh, the train just went on by. Just figure out how to map your running from one to the other to be first in line, and you'll probably make it into the room. Now if you're in that mode.

What time is your session again, George?

Yeah, so let's see, the first one.

You know, for friends, for our listeners, right?

Yeah, let's see. Let me look here real quick.

Max, you're so selfless. For the listeners.

So Thursday, it's at 9:45, so you'd probably want to be there at about.

Adding that back to the calendar now.

9:30, probably to get first in line. Friday, it starts at 12:45, so you'd probably want to be there at 12:30. Which, by the way, I didn't even mention that. I'm excited that I'm just gonna. I'm gonna be like Liz for a minute. She had a year where she said, I opened for John Cena. My Friday session. I'm basically opening for Ryan Reynolds. I just want everybody to know that it's me.

Isn't that thing. Because technically it's true.

It's true.

Technically, it's true.

Yeah.

Wait, he's coming onto the same stage.

That you're going to stage, but it's. Shut up after me.

So if someone were to look at the agenda, they would have seen that Liz Murphy warhead. Whatever. Liz was the last session on the last day, the last thing you watch before you and your suitcase go see John Cena.

Yeah.

All right. Technically, I have a kind of similar experience. The closest thing I've ever gotten to this is back when I played competitive paintball. A whole lot of. There was actually a time where Nessen, which is the New England Sports Network, which is like where you watch all your sports on tv, if you like, live in New England.

Yeah.

Came out and they filmed one of the events, like, to do it on the set. Have you ever heard of, like, Dirty Water? It's like a Boston TV show where they do, like, a lot of local stuff.

Okay.

And. And they filmed the event and I actually had. They interviewed me because I was like one of the players and played the whole thing and all that kind of stuff. And, like, I was one of the first clips at the beginning. And guess what aired directly before that on that channel? Patriots football post game conference with Mr. Tom Brady.

Wow. Yeah.

So Tom Brady opened for You.

Tom Brady opens.

Wow.

Oh, my. Good. Yeah. Holy.

Yeah, we have Masson down here. Not necessarily. Well, obviously, it's New England Sports Network. Mid Atlantic Sports Network.

Yeah.

So I actually do have. I do have one bragging. Right. That I usually don't talk about, but I would love to share because it's a real one. It's not like I open for John Cena. So one time I had to give a talk in front of Dharmesh, which is fine, and not at all something that makes me want.

Oh, I know where this was. I know where this was.

Yeah, yeah. It was in Hartford. It was an impact live. And Kathleen Booth, who I was working with at the time, who now is the. She's over leading up marketing at Pavilion. An incredible online community for CRO and marketing leaders.

Slightly shilling. Slightly shilling right there.

I don't even work for them. She's just a nice person. Anyway, so I get off stage, and I'm a little bit panicked because I knew it went well, but I had. I went a little bit over time. I was a little freaked out. I was teaching people about pillar content for the first time, which is something people think is, like, homework. I thought I had made it fun and engaging. And Kathleen pulls me aside and says, you need to check Twitter. And I said, why? And she said, well, yeah, bro, Dharmesh was in the audience, and he was on his laptop. And then about two minutes into your session, he closed his laptop and started watching. And then later on, he picked up his phone, and then I went on Twitter, and I saw that Dharmesh tweeted, liz is funny. And that's a lot for me. That's a lot coming from me because I have Netflix.

Oh.

I printed it out, hung it up on the wall.

Right.

Oh, my God. Put that on your LinkedIn. Are you kidding?

I just. I just, you know, sometimes I get really sad. Like. But that one time back in 2017, Darmesh thought it was funny.

Yeah. What's your claim to fame? Dharmesh thinks I'm funny. Boom.

Dharmesh was in the chat of the last Monday morning briefing that we did, and I almost died.

Yeah. Nice.

I was like, oh, he's watching us. I was like. I'm like, I'm gonna put all the best possible version of myself that I can. Yeah.

I feel like he's always watching, though. Like, somehow, some way, like, he'll just appear in places and be like, I see you.

First time. Long time. Yeah.

Yeah.

Whenever I see him, I want to say hi, but Apologize at the same time. And I have no idea why.

Not a clue.

Anyway, back on track.

Nick. Nick from Fargo said he has an agent for that. Yeah, chat spot is everywhere.

But yes, that was my. That was my claim to fame, my excitement. But okay, I need to know this. We've talked a lot about dues. What are the don'ts? What are the absolute don'ts? I actually want to start here on this one. Oh, I want to start here. I actually. I finally have some advice. Instead of sass. Don't beat yourself up about a number of things. You have likely all been connecting with people you haven't seen in a long time and you're hoping to see them at the big show. You will see some, you will not see others. You will not make it to all the sessions that you want to go to. Some of the sessions that you want to go to that you will really be excited about will let you down. You're not going to get as much sleep as you want. You're not going to get everything done that you want. And that's okay.

Yeah.

The biggest don't for you is don't focus on the things you don't get to do because you're going to miss out on the magical opportunities you could not plan for that you will have.

Yeah.

It is a chaos show because it is a magical glitter unicorn. Orange explosion. Happy time. They all leave better and happier.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's also, I think just to piggyback on the don't. There is like, give your. Give yourself space to be a free range chicken a little bit. Right. And just have. Have empty spaces. Like, don't. You don't have to account for every single hour that you're there. Like, give yourself time to just roam around and suck it in and do something like, you know, let. Give yourself space to let spontaneous moments happen, whether it's running into someone in the hallway, discovering some cool solution at a booth you didn't know about.

Yeah.

Talking to another partner, seeing someone that you've only seen on LinkedIn before. Like, give yourself the space to do that. You know?

Yeah.

Use the bathroom. Like, you know what I mean? Like, that's the thing.

Yeah. One of the biggest don'ts. Don't pee in the middle of a keynote stage.

Don't pee in public.

Yeah, without a doubt.

Sure.

But for sure. Nick from Fargo says.

I'm sorry.

Yes. Yes. So whatever. So here's the thing. Here's the thing again, Nick from Fargo. Yes.

Human time.

That's what you want to pay attention to human time. But Liz, I don't know if you covered the biggest don't of inbound.

Maybe I left it for you.

Like, the biggest don't of inbound is don't get drunk the first night.

Or do if you like, you hear me?

Don't get drunk the first night. Because then all you do is you walk around as a human with a hangover for the next two days and you're like, why did I do that? I can't learn anything. I don't really want to talk to anybody because I need three Advil and like some tomato juice or something. Like, listen, there's some. Just go to the parties, have fun.

But like, get a good night's sleep on Monday.

Get a good night's sleep the first night so that you're energized and prepped and ready. I can't tell you the amount of years I've gone there and I've gone out, like, just because we're gonna eat and stuff, and had what I call oh boy moments where I'll see somebody that I know has an inbound tag and I'll be like, oh, boy, like that person's in trouble like the rest of their. Like they might be. I, I know of a human that spent half their time in their hotel at inbound because of the first night of their experience.

That's tough.

I have a story. And then another don't the story. You are not allowed to ask follow up questions, but.

Oh, no, no, that's not fair. That's not fair.

I'm going to preface this by saying the reason you can't ask follow up questions is because genuinely, this isn't about me. This is genuinely about a friend, not a quote, unquote.

She's going to start this story saying, so I was playing shuffleboard with Shaquille o' Neal on top of a tower in Dubai. You can't ask me about it.

No, you can't. No. Actually what happened was the. One of the last years I was at inbound, you know how agency be agency, life be like, have you considered rooming with five other people in a room built for two? So we had four girls in a room and two of the girls had gone out the previous night. And by the way, they didn't get wrecked, they didn't get trashed, and they were still up the next morning. In fact, one of them, one of them was a sociopath and was at the gym by 5 and I hadn't even been drinking. And I'm like, don't be that guy. And why. Exactly. But what was really cute, it was kind of a cute thing. They came back and I was there with a friend of mine and they were trying to be quiet. That is it quotes. So they apparently had gone to McDonald's. Then they were like. They went. They went into the bathroom and closed the door because they didn't want to wake us up. The problem is, is the bathroom was a giant echo chamber. So for about an hour it was just giggles. And then when I went into the bathroom in the morning, there was a hamburger bun. Just.

Oh, God. Oh, God. Yeah. Don't put hamburger buns in your shower. That's a. Don't.

Don't put grapes in your foot.

Memories. Make sober memories. Now my other don't. And this is very practical and very tactical. Don't wear stuff that's uncomfortable. Yeah, wear stuff. Don't wear stuff you are wearing for the first time. You need to get up and go. You need to wear things that are comfortable and broken in. You need to wear things that you feel good in because you're going to be not. And I'm not talking about, like, I look good. I feel good. Know that it looks good put together. Know that it, like, it's polished and you don't look like a Cheeto dusted covered potato who just rolled out of bed. But, like, wear things that you don't have to pull on. Wear things that don't make you feel insecure because you are wearing them for the first time. Like, whenever I wear cardigans or blazers, I'm constantly tugging at them because if I raise my arms, the blazer pops up. Like, I'm not comfortable. Right. Wear things you feel good in. Wear things you can walk in. Wear things that go from daytime to nighttime. And then also understand it's a conference and people are going to be a lot more forgiving than you think. Simple is better. Less is more.

Yep, yep. I have one last. Don't. Don't be shy.

Oh, gross.

Please, please, please, please. Introvert. Just be slightly extroverted. Just people like, you know, Devin would.

Yell at you if he.

I know he would. I know he would. But. But here, he's not here. So I can say this. Like, if you see me, come say hi. Come shake my hand. Give me a high five. If you see somebody else that you know from online, like, don't. Don't be the person from afar. Don't. Oh, I don't want to bother them. It's not a bother. Like, like, it's it's the energy, it's the gas that keeps us going. Because again, this is a family reunion. This is a inbound prom. This is a whatever analogy. So just take the four days and. And don't be shy.

Well, I would also say don't make the assumption that it's not built for introverts because one of the things that Devin talked about a lot last year is that yes, there's the part where it's like, whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, it doesn't matter what vert persuasion you are, some part of inbound is going to push you outside of your comfort zone. Some part of inbound is going to feel a little bit fish out of water. You might be an expert extrovert who's going there on their own. You might be a leader who's there with your team. And you have to lead your team, get sales, but also empower your people. Like, they're going to be lots of different ways in which you are challenged to show up differently than a way that is you're usual, you're natural, you're evil. Right. But I would say because inbound is so big, I think it had it. They have done a really good job of creating micro networking station networking opportunities. Right. They also have quiet rooms. They have created spaces. Whether you're just, for example, whether you're naturally introverted or maybe you have have a neurodivergency where you might get overly stimulated in a way where you need to find a way to reset. Right. Those spaces are available. But then also you have the ability to go back to your room. Right. Like if you just need some time to take a beat, take a beat. But don't be afraid to go there and meet people. It they are. Conferences are scary no matter what. They are scarier for introverts. I can understand that for sure.

Yeah.

But it is a place where there is a concerted effort to genuinely create opportunities for everyone, no matter who you are, how you learn, how you like to interact, to grow better together.

Love it. Love it.

That's what I would say.

I have one quick do. I have one quick do because. Because I have to go soon. Is speaking of that go because it'll. This will make you do do get a Porchetta sandwich from Penny packers or Chicken and Rice guys. But if you can get a Porchetta sandwich from Pennypackers, which is one of the vendors, one of the illustrious vendors that they're going to have at the Food Truck Circle, do it you will not regret it. Thank me later.

Or do this Get a lobster Mac and cheese from Yankee Lobster. It's a hole in the wall but O m G you know what, Liz?

I thought that is my inbound tradition.

Yeah, it's Liz I thought Is this a dream or a twisted fruity fate? Why are they in the water when they should be on my plate? Grapes in the toilet what a crazy sight Bobbing and weaving in the porcelain light oh, I don't know how they got there but now they're making waves Life's got funny moments like these grapes in the drain did they roll off the counter in some midnight race? Or did someone decide this was their final resting place? Her name might have been Liz I could see them bobbing gently like they didn't have a care I laughed so hard thinking how'd they get there? There's no rhyme or reason no sense to explain Sometimes life's just silly like fruit down the drain 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 hubieroes Podcast on any of the socials and let us know what strategy conversation you'd like to listen into next. 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.