HubSpot World Certification Week 2024 + Self-Education Strategies [HubHeroes, Video EP76]
George B. Thomas, Liz Morehead, Devin, Max, and Jorge discuss HubSpot World Certification Week 2024 and how to approach self-education. They share strategies for fitting professional development into your schedule and explain why certifications matter for your career growth.
Contemporary poet.
Yeah, contemporary. I'm almost getting that down Max, by the way. That's hot. Like, it's something close. It's close to that.
That's violent there.
Yeah, there you go. So we have a new face, though, on the show for this week.
I know.
Isn't it exciting? Oh, oh, we've got applause also.
You know what I like too, George? I like how right before you hit record, you're like, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna going to hit record and then we're going to banter, because, you know, that's organic.
I mean, well, you knew what I meant. But I like that Chad's already bantering in the chat pane, by the way, because he's like, what up, fam?
That's because Chad's our guy.
He is. Chad is our guy. Chad. Chad. Actually, we might have sent some emails back and forth about HubSpot CMS this week, by the way, like, projects and people and stuff, so. Love cms. I need to teach more about the cms. We probably need to talk more about the cms. I feel like sometimes it's a redheaded stepchild of, like, the HubSpot Hubs.
Oh, if you think I haven't been waiting for us to get done with this big project we've been working on, because I felt like if I brought this up as a topic before now, like, say this week or last week, it would just be one hour of you screaming and then maybe falling down.
Just so. I mean, I'm about to kind of maybe fall down anyway. But you know why? It's. It's because every time I hear.
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's 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.
That's right, Devin. You're on your own. Anyway, welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another week of the Hub Heroes. I am your host, Liz Morehead, joined as always by George, Devin and Max. And we have a special guest today. But I'm gonna get to that in just a second because you know what I love about Hub heroes now?
What?
So our two year anniversary is coming up in July, which is wild.
Oh, my gosh.
Which means I now. I know. Which means I now get to say things like this. Welcome, guys. It is hot. Thank you. So am I welcome.
Whoa.
That's right. We need to, you know, we need to do. We need to add a disclaimer to the intro right after the Devin piece? It's like. And sometimes Liz will say things. Just ignore those things.
Yeah, just ignore this. And most times we edit them. But if we miss one, please forgive us.
I love you all so much. But here's what I wanted to get to the thing that makes me so excited about the fact that we are now going into. We are ending our second year and about to enter our 30s. I get to say things like, welcome to the second annual HubSpot World Certification Week episode. Because HubSpot's World Certification Week is right around the corner. April 15th through April 19th. Yes. And guys, we have annual traditions now.
That's crazy.
So happy.
That's crazy.
Now, before. Before we dig into today's conversation, I want to give everybody a quick reminder of what HubSpot World Certification Week is. For one week, HubSpot is encouraging inbounders of all roles and all experiences, experience levels around the world to dive into HubSpot Academy and earn their certifications. And for every certification you earn, they will donate $5 to an education focused charity, which is just so flipping cool. What's also neat about this is that this is a week long celebration of learning that actually started if.
If my math is correct, as we sit here today and I'm pulling up my, my, my team in the Sidekick Strategies portal, I believe, Jorge, you're up to 44 HubSpot certifications.
Oh my God, Max's face.
Do you see Max's face? Yeah, so. So that's. You are here because I don't know, like, by the way, if you're listening to this and you have 44 HubSpot certifications or more than 44. Not 43, not 42. If you have 44 or more certifications, I need you to email me george, sidekickstrategy.com or georgebthomas.com or send up smoke signals do hit me up on. I don't care what platform. If you beat Jorge, I need to know your name. You need to let me know.
Anyway, we're talking more than just academy certifications.
These are all just. These are academy certifications.
Okay. Because I was gonna say, either way, he's got me beat, so.
Hi, Jorge.
44.
Hey, Jorge.
I'm also 44, but.
Oh, no, I didn't know that it was 44.
Oh, you didn't know there's 40. There's more than 44, I think.
How many, how many did you got left? You got to catch them all.
Oh, I still have a couple left. I think there's the. You know, somebody made a decision to make the boot camps assert also. So I have a lot of boot camps to go through yet. And then also the dev related certs like CMS for developers 1 and 2 and the architecture 1 and 2 certs and then we'll be done.
Jorge, I'm just working on trying to remember to shower every day, so that's amazing.
Yeah. My first question is very similarly related to Max's question here. So, Jorge, how does it feel to be better than everyone else? Just.
I don't know for sure, for sure. I mean, I mean I just have a ton of certs and that's it. But all good. I mean, definitely. Yeah. I mean, I'm pretty happy about the amount of certs that I've got so far, I would say. And I guess we'll dive deeper into this. But for sure, the one takeaway I have thus far is that HubSpot sirs have helped me bridge the gap between, let's call it technical skills and strategy. But we'll get there, definitely. Right? But I guess. Yep, yep. It is what it is. I'm really happy about the amount of certs there and I actually have the link to my connect profile from HubSpot and it just says on LinkedIn HubSpot search count. So anybody that wants to count the search, they can just click on it and then have some fun there. Yeah.
By the way, let's make sure we put that link in the show, notes Liz. So if people want to connect with Jorge and let me just say, like, I'm excited about World Certification Week because I have plenty of certs that I can go get. I'm super interested in what ones Jorge may try to get because I, by the way, am sitting here in kind of this like weird proud boss, proud papa, whatever moment because I remember Back in the day, the most I ever got was, I think, 42. So he's beat that. But I'm sitting here with 21 right now and going, oh, man, I have a lot to. I have. I. I need to catch up.
Well, it's because every day in Slack, George.
What? Max, he lapped you.
He did. He laughed me. What the heck?
It's like every other day in slack, he's dropping it. So I just got this certification, like, well, I just managed to make my bed this morning, so whatever, Jorge.
Anyway, the rest of the fee loves it, by the way, because they see the Slack message and they're like, jorge, be always making us look bad.
That's true. But here's the thing. We're not just here to show off the fact that we're in so many ways inferior to Jorge. One of the reasons we're having him join today's discussion is he's going to talk to us about how to prioritize self education and certifications. When, like I said at the beginning of this, we're all very busy people. But before we get into that, I just want to throw this out to the group. Why do we love HubSpot World Certification Week and what it stands for. Devin, I want to start with you.
And make sure I was off mute. Okay, So I love World Certification Week because it lights a much needed fire under the rear ends of some people who have let their professional development slip. Me too.
Also me. Hi.
The thing with me is that I used to be the catch them all guy until I started working at HubSpot, and then I got lazy because.
I.
Don'T have anything to prove. I already work here. But the important thing.
Wow.
Shots fired.
You made it, baby.
For all of you people that used to love Devin, I apologize.
How's the air up there, Devin?
Let me. Let me get the second half in. Let me get the second half in. But the problem with that mentality is that you get locked into a mindset when you should be working on evolving and growing. And there are things that I know that I don't know. Like, part of my job is demonstrating HubSpot to hundreds of thousands of people on YouTube. But it's like, if I go in there and something looks new, it's like, dang it, I should have gotten a certification. And so I. I definitely recommend going through it. And even. Especially if it's something that you haven't done in a while, because you'll be surprised how many things change. How many, Like, I'll remember. I Remember what the inbound certification looked like in 2015? And I can guarantee you that it is night and day different from.
That's the first one I took.
Yeah. Back when there was, like, two and there were five, one or two were free, and then everything else was, you know, pay gated. But now it's all free. Go do it.
Do it.
Or April 15th and then do it for charity.
Yeah. Yeah. So that's. That's the thing. And I love that you kind of just bumped into that, because, Liz, you know me. I. I love when we can actually do something that impacts the world, and I fully understand that just having a conversation about listening. Don't let your professional development go by the wayside. Like, focus on entertainment over edg, like, our focus on education over entertainment a little bit more maybe in, like, the rest of 2024, so that you can, you know, know things. And because you know things, you can do things. Like, that would be enough of a conversation, because I know good things would come out of that. But the bonus here is the fact that anybody who does then dive into this does start to learn more so that they can do more. By the way, when you learn more and can do more, you can earn more. I'm just gonna throw that little ditty out there. Like, if you're trying to get a pay raise, a couple HubSpot certifications is gonna definitely help with the conversation and the things that you'll be able to do, because the things that you're learning, not the certification itself, but the actual brain power that you've invested. But, man, do I really love World Certification Week because it's about the money that also is going to a good cause. And so not only are we changing professional lives, but we're just changing lives in general. And so when you can do a 1, 2 knockout punch for the betterment of the planet, I am always down for that.
Max, what about you?
Well, it's. It always serves as a, you know, reminder for me to. For me to get my button gear and actually pay a little bit of attention to my own professional development. You know, I think the thing that I've. I was, like. It was so funny. I was like. I was. I was on my way to get a coffee this morning, and I was, like, randomly scrolling at my, like, YouTube channel up, and I was just, like, scrolling through, like, videos that I had made, and I stumbled upon, you know, this one that I did right at, like, the beginning of the pandemic, where I started, like, making, like, content on YouTube. And I was talking about this whole, like, back, middle, front, like, approach to inbound marketing. Oh, I remember that because I had, like, it's been on, you know, this one that I did right at, like, the beginning of the pandemic where I started, like, making, like, content on YouTube and I was talking about this whole, like, back, middle, front, like, approach to inbound marketing. Oh, I remember that because I had, like, it's been so stuff that I was, like, hearing myself talking. I was like, man, I really understood this, like, at a much higher level. And I don't think I'd be able to talk about it as eloquently today back then when I was, like, in it, talking about it, like, all the time in an academy certification, that I was just sitting there just like, man, I could really use a good excuse to get a refresher on a lot of these things and see how a lot of the content's changed and the perspectives have changed and the strategies have evolved, you know, ever since I was, like, talking about this, like, during training. Right. Um, you know, I think so. For me, it serves as, like, a good reminder that, you know, I should be paying a lot more attention to this stuff and I should be a lot more intentional.
Right.
But I also just love that, like, you know, HubSpot takes it as an opportunity to give back to the community or a charity or some. I don't. I don't know if we covered what they were doing. I don't know if they've even announced it yet. But, you know, the fact that they encourage everybody to learn and then turn it into, like, a awesome thing to give back to some cause that needs it is just great. And it gives everyone an excuse to tell their boss to say, hey, give us time to get this done. So.
One of the things that I love about HubSpot Certification Week the most, other than the obvious, like, annual kick in the pants of Liz, I understand you spend all your time in portals, but have you done the certifications to tie it all together and make sure you're using things correctly and know the full capabilities of what you're doing? Like, I like that part. The other thing I like about it, as the content nerd, and this is something I think we've talked about in the past, but. And even if we have, it bears repeating. HubSpot leads the way and sets a. A, A sterling example of what it means to put yourself out there with selfless education, with the idea of empowering. Like, Devin, you brought up something really fascinating. Right? It used to be that some of them were paywalled. And I remember that there were one or two. I think it was like HubSpot and inbound certification where. Where free. And then the other ones, you had to either like be part of an agency or you had to have some sort of active HubSpot subscription in order to do it, which is how I ended up with five. And that's. I'm like the girl that peaked in high school. I peaked with HubSpot back when it was five. Right. But what I love about it is that, you know, I still have conversations with people who talk about, who get nervous, understandably, if they're not familiar with inbound. They get nervous to be that selfless, be that open with education. And it just, it's the whole ethos, I think that that attracts a lot of us to HubSpot and the whole inbound community in general. And George, I know you talk about this a lot, is that why don't we focus on serving the humans first and then see where we end up? And I just love how they do that. I love how they continue to just radically give stuff away to create thoughtful, intentional, purpose built, natural, not throw away education that's given away for free. Like, people can go and do HubSpot certification week, radically alter the courses of their lives and their careers or their businesses, and never spend a dime with HubSpot because so many of their certifications, while much of it is rooted in the technology, a lot of it is agnostic, A lot of it is just strategy. George, I see you pacing a little bit. What's, what's on your mind?
No, I, I love the fact that, like, man, my brain is going like 100 different miles an hour. But like, adding value to the world is always right. Doing the right thing is always right. And when you can do the right thing and add value to the world, like, again, HubSpot is knocking out the park and they are being a shiny example of what we as business owners can be. But a lot of the pacing part has to do with. You're talking about how you can change your life and how you can change your business. And if you change your life and you change your business, by the way, you change those around you. And I'm talking about your employees, I'm talking about your, your neighborhood, your community. Like, like there's always this ripple effect that's happening. And I, I don't know if HubSpot Academy or HubSpot just in general understands the massive impact that they've actually made through like all the individual humans along the way. Like, if it wasn't for HubSpot Academy, there would be no theme. If there was no HubSpot Academy, Jorge wouldn't work at George B. Thomas, aka now Sidekickstrategies.com like, I. I wouldn't be able to own a business if there were no HubSpot Academy. Right. And so the fact that there's that much power, and then somebody sat in a room years ago and said, you know what? We should give it a day. And then some other smart people sat in a room and said, you know what? We should give it a week. And then all of a sudden, smart people were like, and we should donate money for, like, every one of these. Like, it's just. It's just amazing.
Yeah. In fact, I would encourage our listeners, if they haven't listened to our episode that just talks about the power of HubSpot Academy in general outside of certification week, I would highly recommend that as a great deep dive into a lot of what we're talking about here, which is that the certifications are a gateway to possibilities, and you get to define what those look like. Now, I have another question I want to throw out there to you guys. What do we think either most people get wrong or do not realize about HubSpot World Certification Week?
Sorry, did you ask me?
I asked anybody.
She just asked anybody.
It was so quiet. I'm like, what? Did I miss something?
You're gonna make me pick on somebody, aren't you, George?
Why's it gotta be me?
Because you didn't. Because no one said.
Which, by the way. Which, by the way, I'll let everybody know. There are literally two Georges on this call right now. So. Actually, she may have meant the other George.
No, I did not. I did not. He's in the hot seat. Next. I tried.
I tried. Like, I was like, so here's the thing. And I'm. I'm gonna tie into something that I did for many years that I'm kind of pissed at myself that I did and pseudo ashamed that that's actually the game that I was playing until I realized the real game that we should be playing. And the thing that I think that people get wrong with World Certification Week is that they just try to get as many certifications as fast as humanly possible, because it' the certification and the $5 per cert to do that. And so, like, they just take the test to pass instead of and put the education in their heart or put the education in their brain or put the education in a way that it's like educate and then execute. Educate and execute two. By the way, Chad's comment of like any comment on the real world portal experience versus amount of search you have. Yeah, yeah, it'd be nice if they could go hand in hand. Can you learn on the job?
For sure.
But when you're learning, especially with World Certification Week, what I would beg you to do is it doesn't have, by the way, remember there's hundreds of thousands of people that are like gonna see this, pay attention to it. And so like you getting three more certifications than the two that you should be getting is not tipping like the $5, you know, wheelbarrow of like helping the planet. Like I would suggest that you pick the one or two or two or three that you know, you can physically and mentally do in that week period, but more for the education that is inside of the certification. Not just to have the badge to show people when you really didn't retain jack squat of the badge that you're showing people.
I'd also say it's not a competition, but it is a team sport.
Yes.
I think it's like a really good opportunity, especially if you work on like a team of people. They're involved with any of your inbound efforts or HubSpot or like whatever. You know, it's not like you need to compete with your, your, your co workers. Co workers to get as many as you can. I'd suggest a divide and conquer approach, right? So like getting together with your team, saying like, hey, we're going to get dedicate some time, you know, set aside to be able to go through and do certifications. Where do we think that like we could use some additional knowledge or some different perspectives or be able to like boat up our knowledge around a certain tool or strategy and then go ahead and go in there and say, hey, Jeff, you're going to take this one. Sally, you're going to take this one. Darren, you're going to take this one. And then like find time like after World Certification Week to do a recap, present it back to your team. That way like you can, you know, democratize the learning a little bit. Right? Make it so, you know, people can regurgitate what they actually learned versus just going through and getting as many as they can and trying to like look up answers or cheat the system somehow. Right. Because if you have to present it back to your team, you know you're going to pay a little bit more attention. Like when you're actually going through the certification and then they can learn what you learned, and you can have a multiplier effect. So, you know, it's not a competition, but it is a team sport.
I definitely agree with Max. He's. If that's a way that works for you, I definitely would recommend it. I, however, am chaotic good. So I am definitely going to make a competition out of it. If I were a business owner, it would be a week of just sheer chaos. There would be cash prizes and a minimum of three specific certifications that were the most relevant to my company as a whole that I would make everybody take everybody and their mom would get these three certifications. And if you don't get the three certifications, then you're not fired to win.
You're out.
Yeah. But also, shame on you shaking the fingers. So I am all for the gamification as far as, like, any other 51 weeks of the year. Definitely divide and conquer. Let's sit and talk and present. Let's share with each other what we've learned, how we can grow as a team utilizing our individual strengths.
Or else what World certificate.
Then you're not fired to win.
You're out.
Yeah. But also shame on you shaking the finger. So I am all for the gamification as far as, like, any other 51 weeks of the year. Definitely divide and conquer. Let's sit and talk.
Asian Week, though.
No, we wow. We getting everything. We're saving the planet, we're saving the people, and we're saving ourselves.
Or.
And present, let's share with you else.
I love.
In other words, he doesn't agree with me.
I feel like it got really. I feel like World Certification week got really cutthroat. Like, yeah, I'm going to take you out with my service.
And that's why Jorge is about to save us from ourselves. Because, Jorge, I want to turn to you for a second because, let's be honest, I know you're not the guy who wakes up in the morning and goes, I want to understand a new way to make other people feel my power, feel each other.
What we've learned, how we can grow as a team utilizing our individual strengths.
Or else what?
World Certification Week, though. No, we wow. We getting everything.
We're saving the inferior bask in my certification glory. But I am curious. You have 44 certifications under your belt, and I know you're not stopping. You have more left to do. But I'm curious what your mindset is around this. Do you have a specific goal in mind? Do you take it day by day? Like, how because this isn't something where you just randomly woke up one day and you're like, I'm gonna get 44 certifications. This has been not every time. This has been you the whole time you've been with Sidekick. Right?
Right, Liz. And the one thing I will add, just to break this down a little bit, search should help you get better at what you've already explored. So that's where a different type of hunger comes in. You do have the initial when you know nothing about a certain topic and you just want to discover it and run through the whole certification and then that's useful, that's very good. But then there's a different type of hunger where when you already have the experience, like the in platform experience of doing certain things, let's call it service hub, sales hub, marketing hub, et cetera. And then that is what really has a larger impact on both your hunger or thirst to kind of get through the certs or through the different amount of certs and then also changing being a game changer at your organization. Right. So I would say that that's to. That's two different ways that you can go about the motivation of getting the certs. Right. As far as my goals, like, you know, if I would say like, let's call it that realistic slash professional goal would be to yes, at some point, you know, get as many certs as I want and to take the time to do it whenever it becomes relevant for me as well. But the real answer to me is like, yes, I want to catch them all and get all of them right. The one difficulty I've been having is, you know, getting to those boot camp certs because they do take a little bit of more time and you get a, you know, go into these synchronous, let's call it, meetings, etc. With the whole team, etc. But yeah, I would say that that would be my goals for that. And then the way I go about getting motivated by the certifications, like I said, whenever I ran into a specific roadblock with a client or with, you know, internal team, etc. Let's call it a reporting issue or like I really wanted to master the custom report builder and had a lot of, let's call it different tasks, you know, around mastering the HubSpot custom report builder, that's when the HubSpot reporting certification got really relevant to me at that specific time. Right. Not before, I mean before I would be like exploring it. And yes, let's take that cert. I'll be, you Know, doing the lessons, etc. But it just gets even more relevant as you actually bump into a specific challenge as work.
It's interesting. I want to dive in here because, Jorge, you're literally talking about something that pre HubSpot, pre HubSpot Academy that happened in my life where I literally had a job at an agency. And listen, they can't fire me now. I own my own company. I didn't know what I needed to know to do the job that I had do. And so I would go home every night and I would watch Linda.com before it was LinkedIn learning videos, and I would, I would literally learn the thing that I needed to learn because it was effing relative. Like, I, I mean, I needed to know it tomorrow and I would watch the video so I could go to work the next day and actually do the thing that they needed me to do. And, and so like, this education, out of necessity, to be the best you can be for yourself and for the clients and for the employer that is actually giving you the opportunity to work with humans and, and help them pass these hurdles that they have. Like, that's a, that's a, a juice that you have to find in yourself of, like. Because there's a lot of other people. When I hear you say that, Jorge, there's a lot of other people that'll be like, boss will cover it. Somebody else will figure it out. Like, it'll sort itself out. But this idea of digging in because it's relevant to the ish, I need to know right now. That's a superpower, bro. That's a superpower.
Shout out to Linda.com for a second. We love you.
There was a time where I was spending more time with Linda than I was with my wife.
We love Linda.
Linda. Whoa. That was my girl.
Linda, girl, we love you.
I, I will say, I have to raise my hand. I probably spent more time with Linda than my wife at some point in time too.
Just saying here we are supporters of HubSpot education and confused relationship goals. Anyway, continuing, moving on. So, Jorge, I, I want to, I want to stick with you here for a moment because with HubSpot World certification week coming up, we have a lot of different mindsets around how some might want to approach it. We have Max's approach, we have Devin's. Totally not aggressive, completely neutral way of approaching it, but doesn't really matter either way. Somebody has to sit down and make self education a priority. And hopefully not just for one week. But I'd love to hear from you what are some tips or advice based on your experience you have for folks who are equally busy but struggle to make the time to get their certification work done? Like, do you have, do you have it scheduled on your calendar? How do you do that? What do you recommend there?
Right. So I definitely do use my calendar surprisingly to block out time mostly whenever I feel that work gets a little bit slower, like let's call it Friday afternoon, something like that. But yes, yes, definitely. I mean, to me it was a matter of exploring the whole platform. I mean, I'm a HubSpot specialist throughout, you know, since I've been with. I would say that most of or all of our clients have a very interesting combination of different hubs. Right. So we got some that have sales hub and the CMS hub, some have the marketing hub and service hub. And so like, I really needed to get to an approach whereby I kind of knew or could dive into any of the specific hubs all day long. Right. And so to me that was my motivation and then making the time for getting those certs, even though it was really busy. I guess it's a matter of distinguishing between the days where you are most busy with a ton of meetings and then whenever, you know, do you have a bit of downtime. Right. And that's when I would squeeze them in. By the way, I do listen to most lessons at 2x speed, right. So I mean, I would say that's another tip right there. Like don't like if you're able to get through it very quickly with just the lessons. Like I don't mind listening to the instructors in, you know, a very fast paced voice. And yeah, that would be my only suggestion. I mean, definitely it is a thing of, you know, in my specific case, when I joined George here, it was just a matter of, you know, any roadblock I encountered with clients, which were many at the beginning. And still there are challenges day in, day out in the path of several different certs at a different time. And then you would be surprised. But actually if you divide, let's say 44 certs over 12 months, that's about an average of 3 to 4 certs per month. Right. So I mean, you do get the time to do it. I would say if you kind of like really organize your, your downtime, right. So be, be on the lookout for your downtime. And I would also suggest that, you know, make it a, an enjoyable thing for you. Like, don't, I mean, if, if you dread joining an academy lesson or like logging into the HubSpot Academy and you really don't like that, that's probably not the way you should go about it. Like you should maybe go about doing search that are relevant to you even if it's just one or two. Like the number of search really doesn't matter but rather the relevance that they can have for you and also making it an experience that you actually enjoy.
I would say so Liz, I want to, I want to jump in here because I want to talk to the.
Downtime and I would also suggest that you know, make it a, an enjoyable thing for you. Like don't. I mean if you dread joining bosses.
And owners that might be listening to.
This or an academy lesson or like logging into the HubSpot Academy and you really don't like that, that's probably not the way you should go about it. Like you should maybe go about doing search that are relevant to you, even if it's just one or two.
Like the ladies and gentlemen, Jorge gets shit done. I'm just going to throw that out there. Like when it comes to yes, I should have probably beeped it out. Maybe we're gonna get canceled, I don't know. But at the end of the day when clients need something, Jorge's like Johnny on the spot when they have a question. He. I see him in slack like when, when the, when the stuff is due, the stuff is there. So everything that we're talking about is that he's doing it and getting work done, which means it's possible. But the other thing I want to say to the bosses and to the owners is that we also give him space to do the thing. Like we're, we're not trying to completely.
Opt number of search really doesn't matter, but rather the relevance that they can have for you and also making it a, an experience that you actually enjoy.
I would say so Liz, I want to, I want to jump in here because I want to talk to the. Optimize every percentage of Jorge's time to be client facing or client work. Like literally, you know, 10, 20% of his week. We're fully like, hey, spend some time educating yourself. Spend some time in HubSpot Academy. Spend some time anywhere. Like build a roadmap to where you're trying to go because we are firm believers in our organization on like that will make the humans better humans which then will be able to provide better services. Clients will love it more, they'll want to be there longer, pay more. And yes, I'm literally tying the fact of like we're going to give Employees the freedom and time to better themselves because we know that in the long run, we'll benefit from it. And so work's getting done, time is allotted. And it is possible for you to do that inside of your organization.
You knew I was going to leave Runway for that. You give that speech now, what, every 10, 12 episodes?
It just drives me, it drives me nuts when I see the opposite of that because, like, oh gosh, I gotta be careful because I don't want to piss anybody off. But like, if you're not, if you're not giving your employees the space that they need to actually grow themselves into better humans, you are very short sighted, plain and simple.
Take that.
Boom.
Get, get mad.
I mean, punch me when you see me at inbound if you have to, to make yourself feel better, but it's just a real fact. Like the long run is grow humans into better humans. Organization becomes better organization and profits and revenue and everything that you're stressed out about that keeps you from actually letting them educate themselves because you're trying to get that 47, 89%, whatever rate that you're looking at. Just charge me dots.
What do you think business owners, and let's be honest, also agency owners are afraid of? Why are they, why do they have such a death grip sometimes on time?
Sometimes I think we've outgrown the pants that we should be wearing. And therefore we're like so focused on trying to be profitable with too many people that if we would have just stuck to where we probably should have been, then people would have been happy and people could have educated themselves and we could have created better products for them. But we're on this like growth, growth, growth, growth, growth, growth, growth, growth for growth sake. And we get ourselves in positions that maybe we shouldn't be in yet because we're in a hurry up and let's scale it so we can sell it instead of focusing on the actual reason why we're in the room, which is the humans.
There we go. It only took us, what, 40 minutes to get there, but we got there. Guys, we did it. We can go home now. No, just kidding. I have more questions. In fact, I want to start talking a bit about why these certifications are important. And I actually want to begin here because it goes back to what Chad was saying earlier, right? He was talking about, I do a lot of practical work inside the hubs versus the gotta catch them all approach to, to certifications and how well does that fare? And I think it's one of those things of like, I mean, I could. I could build IKEA furniture without the manual, but we might have a couple things in the wrong direction, and it won't be as efficient. Like, I think there's something to be said for. Sometimes I got to just get my hands dirty and just start using things. But I think this idea that everything can be learned and where you are maximizing the potential of all of the tools in your strategic know how, that comes with proactive education. That comes with saying, I don't just want to be able to know how to use a tool. I want to understand how they're all supposed to be working together. I want to understand strategically how they're all supposed to be married together. I want to understand the fullest capabilities, the things I may not see. Because when we're doing practical application where we're just like, I don't have time to get that certification, but let me just get my hands dirty. In the Hub, you are only going to explore the places where you actively have work to be done, and that work is only going to be created by folks who have the same limitations as you do, which is knowledge, or lack thereof of what is truly possible. So I think that's, at least to me, what makes these certifications important. Says Liz, who is so behind on certifications, it's a little bit terrifying. So. So that's what. That's what I'll be focusing on this certification week. But, Max, I'd like to hear from you first this time. That's right. I tried not calling on you guys last time. I tried to just let an organic discussion develop, and you just all looked at me like deer in the headlights. So we're back to me just throwing you to the wolves. Max, tell me your feelings.
I missed the question. I'm not gonna lie.
Oh, my sweet Jesus.
I got distracted by something really important.
Where's your steering wheel, Max?
Worst way, I don't have a serum, but I do have my Bug Assault.
Oh, my God.
This is the toy that I brought today.
So, Max, this is a shotgun that.
Shoots salt at flies.
It's one of the you know what.
Mentions of mankind's history.
And we were mocking me earlier about the fact that we have to edit so much of me out. I don't think I'm going to be the problem child for our producer this week.
I feel like I just want to.
Start drinking because they're not paying us to be excited about Bug Assault.
Oh, all right.
Not. Not a. Not a sponsored podcast episode. I feel like I need to pour a whiskey at 3:46.
Anyway, okay, just give me the basic.
Gist of the question again.
No, it's really short. Why are these certifications important? Oh.
Yeah, all that.
You didn't figure that out for my 2 minute answer where I'm like, I'll go first, let me tell you why certification. Noah, please cut all this out. So Max, just go into your answer.
Oh, no, no. Do not cut any of that out. Leave it, leave it all in.
Oh, my God.
Well, you gotta think about it, right? Like HubSpot, the tool is meant to be deployed in a very specific way, right? Even though it's very flexible and you can do a lot of things with it, right? You gotta remember the HubSpot tool was built to deploy a strategy, and that strategy is inbound, right? So while you can learn how to use the tool and you can learn how to deploy the strategy, the best part is when you can combine the two together, right? And I think the beautiful part also of certifications is that you tend to see the certifications kind of split into like tool knowledge and strategy knowledge, right? You could take that strategic knowledge and go use it elsewhere if you're not fortunate enough to have HubSpot, right? Which is, which is really cool. You don't have to use the HubSpot tools to be able to do inbound, right? So if you find yourself in a situation where maybe you don't have the best tools available to, you know, to do this, right, you at least have the knowledge to go deploy it in a different way using a different tool set, right? Because the knowledge can still be applied, right? But you know, it's really, really important, I think, especially for folks who are maybe stepping into HubSpot for the first time, right? Because you can go take a certification that tells you which buttons to push and what to do. However, you gotta think about nowadays stepping into a HubSpot portal, how freaking overwhelming it is. You thought it was bad when you used to step into it and it was just a marketing tool, albeit a very comprehensive marketing tool. And you had to go there and say, oh, I don't really know how to connect all this stuff. But then you go get a little bit of knowledge about what inbound marketing is, and all of a sudden the picture starts to become come a little clearer. But think about the poor folks nowadays that are going in there and seeing a plethora of marketing tools, sales tools, service tools, CMS tools, and they're sitting there going, what the do I even do and where do I begin and where Do I start? Right. Well, the truth is there's a strategy that shows you how to use all of this stuff together. It's called inbound, right? And it really, really helps to get the context of that, to be able to put these millions of things you're seeing in front of you and all these levers you can pull in, buttons you can press into context, right? So if you're finding yourself a little bit overwhelmed, right, by this giant tool set you may have just gotten access to or your company just bought and you got put in charge of it, it is very important that you go get your certifications. But don't just focus on tool ones or just focus on strategies. Make sure you get a healthy mix of both, right? Because one will assist with the other and the other will assist with the one or the other. Whatever. You hear what I'm saying, right?
Synergy, Very important.
Put it all in perspective, because there's a lot to put in perspective.
And see, I think there's another layer that I would add to this, and I'll just use this as my answer to your question, Liz, is that one thing I learned several years back is that HubSpot users are begging for somebody to show them how to connect the dots. And you'll hear things in our ecosystem of like, force and friction and upstream and downstream. And what that does that even mean, ladies and gentlemen? Well, it means that usually you're stuck in your little silo and you're the marketing of the marketing place, or the sales of the sales place, or the service of the service place. And there's this fantastic place, we could call it heaven, but we'll call it HubSpot Academy, where a marketer can actually get a window into sales, can get a window into service, and start to understand the force and friction of sales and service. If you're the marketer can actually start to connect the dots and understand the other upstream and downstream effects of an entire organization. The funny thing is when in 2012, when I actually bumped into HubSpot Academy and started learning, I said I want to grow up to be a marketer. What's happened over the last almost 12 years, though, is I've become one of the most badass business coaches because I understand marketing, sales service, cms, CRM, rev ops, like, I just keep adding to the, like, plethora of tools on the superhero tool belt, if you will. And that's exactly what they can do. Yes, you can learn strategy marketing sales service, you can learn the tool marketing sales service. But if you start to do all of them. Like Jorge with 44. Did we mention that Jorge has 44 certifications? Now all of a sudden, you start to create yourself as somebody who understands how to connect the dots. And I literally put in the chat page. Certifications equals the connective tissue of the entire HubSpot portal that you might be walking into, like Max said. And be like, what? What?
What?
Ray.
Can we just also give a shout out to Chad in the comments who just dropped this little gem? We could call it heaven, but we'll just call it Kyle Jepsen's house.
There we go. That's what it should be. That boy be giving me a run for my money, I'm telling you. Oh, my God.
Jorge, I want to ask you something. And this is Max. Pay attention. This is a question for all of us.
Question coming up. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Take my strattera this morning. Give me a break.
All right, so, Jorge, we're gonna start.
Yep.
Wow.
So. Oh, my God. Put the bug zapper down. Are we good?
Gentlemen, we're back on track.
Okay. I understand that we're doing certification week, which is like an academic and education themed topic, but I have never felt more like a middle school teacher at an all boys school than I have been in this moment. And I just need to say that out loud. I'm loving it. This is entertaining.
Holy Mac. I feel like I just got slapped across the back of the head or my hand with a ruler or something.
George, you've been fantastic. You're dropping knowledge bombs in the comment paint. Max, how are you doing with your weaponry? You good?
Locked and loaded.
Let's go. Locked and loaded with knowledge. That's right. So Jorge, kick us off salt and salt. Jorge, kick us off here. What are your goals for this year's certification week? What are you focusing on for yourself?
Right, so the one cert that I do want to get on this certification week is the service hub demo certification. I guess this time that's the one I'll focus on. Really not doing much of catch them all anymore right now. At least I've slowed down a little bit on that because I got 44 already. So all good. But definitely, yeah, that's going to be my focus. Service hub demo certification. I do have service hub software certification, but just want to dive deeper into service hub. And definitely the demo part of it is important to, you know, in case I do get to explain it to the clients. And even then, having that expertise and knowledge surrounding that specific hub is going to be ideal for sure. And so, yeah, that's my goal, I guess.
Devin, what about you? Other than chaotic world domination and forced synergy, what are you thinking about this year for your goals?
My goal is to get at least one certification I've never had before, preferably one that I'm not in. Ooh, Light Flex.
Yeah, I'm in. Yeah.
No, my goal is to get outside of the box, and I'm really looking at the solutions architecture because I know what I know. And I remember when we first did the demo for the solutions architecture, I took the very first iteration of the quiz and it was too easy. So they toughened it up and I'm looking forward to taking that and giving it a shot.
George, what about you?
Yeah, so I have two goals, by the way. Goal number one is kind of like, Devin, I want to take some certifications, but it's weird. I've had it, but I don't have it. And it's new. And that's one of the reasons why I want to do it. The new email certification, like when it was Isaac Moshi, by the way, that did the original, like, email certification. There's a new one now, and so I want to do that. Also, there's a social media too, that I have never been able to get around, but I love how Crystal King did social media one, so I definitely want to get over to that. So if I can get the email cert and get the Social 2 cert, we're going to call it a day. But I'm also going to use that time to double down and try to do some research. Now, I understand you probably don't get five bucks per research because they're actually not off yet. But I got. Listen, I got a lot of red exclamation marks, scary, like, staring me in the face. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. So I want to do a lot of researching, but then definitely focus on those two certs, email and social, too.
Max.
My goal is to actually take a certain time for myself. Nope. Because make some time for myself to actually spend some serious time on it. Because I've been doing but been doing nothing lately than demoing our events app to people. And it's literally the same conversation 45 times this past week. So I'm hoping to give myself a breather there. Oh, wait. You know what? I just realized I'll actually be on vacation during World Certification Week, so I'll have all the time in the world to actually get some done. So hopefully, if the kids let you, I'll Be doing it. However, I will say there. A little birdie told me that there is a. A, there's a certification coming that I am. I'm very excited about. I'm not going to say exactly what is because I just slacked him to ask if it would be live by then. And I got back an emoji that said this, which was, by the way, for you, listen, exactly what it is. All I'll say is there was a very prominent member of the academy who moved on to a different role that ended up being that the shoes were filled by someone I referred who was a very good friend of mine that I worked.
Oh, I'm putting pieces together.
What it is.
I'm putting pieces together.
But let's.
George definitely don't slack me later.
Let's just say he's been working on revamping a very iconic certification that has been around for a long time, and I am extremely excited to see. See the new and improved version of it delivered by a very good friend of mine. And it's gonna be a very. I'm gonna be very proud of him to see it.
I love when I know how puzzle pieces fit together.
Yeah.
Yeah. I wanted to say exactly what it was, but since he sent me a emoji, I'm not gonna do it. But my goal is to take that certification and then sit there and just be like.
I need to get a soundboard. Oh, my God.
See, there you go. I just have that on demand. It's just right there. It's like, you know what? You know what you need? That's what you need.
That's my evil laugh. I did it. Wow. That's really. It's really awkward and uncomfortable. Hi. You're right, Liz just.
I developed a really awkward evil villain laugh that I had to train myself out of. Didn't even realize that it was an evil villain laugh. Like.
That'S like evil Santa. He's coming to take my presence away.
And so I just leaned into it at one point and just added the muaha in the beginning of it. So it started out, oh, man, it was too much.
But I'm a little jealous. I'm a little jelly right now.
Well, in terms of this mystery certification, gentlemen, all I'm going to say is, George, definitely don't slack me later today with your puzzle assembling capabilities. But here is my goal for this certification week. I am going to be taking the content strategy course. I haven't taken it. And a really. The certification. I haven't taken it in a really Long time. And I'm excited to learn a lot of content things, and I'm excited to see where my brain disagrees with the collective HubSpot brain about content. Because I will say one of the things that has bummed me out is that I think there may be, like, one or two or there at least used to be, like, lessons about storytelling and voice, and it is just. It is so woefully absent. HubSpot Academy. Call me. Anyway, there's a place you could put.
Videos about that if you wanted. I don't know if You've checked out Sidekickstrategy.com yet, but you could talk about voice and tone there. Just gonna.
Oh, I could.
Yeah.
I could do that, maybe. George, I want you to take us home today. I want us to.
I want you.
I am already home.
My God. Gentlemen.
Devin left on that one. He's like, I'm out.
People trust you to help bad, and you should feel bad.
Okay, I feel bad.
I'm sorry.
People trust you to help them solve their most pressing business challenges. This is. This is factually true for all of us on this call. Okay, great.
That's good. This is why. This is why I don't book meetings Friday afternoons. Because at this point, I'm done. All right?
You were the one who picked this time.
No, no, I'm saying that's why I do the podcast now. I don't talk to clients now, George.
Okay, so take us out today. Max, do you want to hit it one more time? Just give us one. Thank you. Is everyone got the sillies out? Are we good? I literally have one more question to get us through. Guys, one more question. Put the weapon down, Max. Put it down. Thank you very much, George.
Sally.
George, what is your challenge to our listeners this year for World Certification Week? If you could leave them with one battle cry, one challenge, which means I know you're going to give me five, but we're going to start with one and see where we end up.
My challenge for you is take something you're strong at and make yourself stronger.
Oh, mic drop. I love it. Anybody else? Challenges for the. For the populace.
Do at least one thing that scares you. Oh.
Oh, God. This isn't an alpha podcast. Come on, Devin.
No. Yeah, no. Learn something new. Something that has absolutely nothing to do with your job function, maybe even in a completely different sphere. Just. Just try it. Worst thing you'll do is not get certified, but you'll learn something. I promise.
Jorge, what about you? Oh, look at him holding up a certification. I Like how even though he's like, check out my Certs, he still has this voice and tone that's just like, oh, hey, guys, how's it going? Just happy to be nominated. Everything's fine.
Look at my voice.
It is.
It's a fantastic flex voice because, like, the number of times that you drop bombs in this wonderfully gentle. I'm a specialist. Respect my gangster. Is just wonderful. Wonderful.
Oh, you Jorge. You need that on a shirt. Respect my gangster. Max, what about you?
Just make sure the locks on your door work. You need about 30 to 40 liters of water to last you the week. Bring plenty of meals ready to eat. You can just store them in a nice, cold, dry environment, Right? Try to reduce the amount of light. Perhaps invest in a pair of blue light glasses.
Are you hiding from your children for.
A very long time? No. I mean, if you want. If you're going to be doing certifications all week, you got to just go all in, right? Shut your phone off, put it on do not disturb mode. Right? And do absolutely nothing. But here's the. Here's the fun thing, right? And most people don't know this. You don't actually have to sleep. You don't. Humans don't need to sleep. You're sitting down, your body's resting.
It's a mess. Yeah.
All you do. It's a myth. Yeah. All you got to just do is just consume knowledge for a straight week, and then by the time you come out, I don't know, you'll be certified as. Right? And that's what the whole point of the week is for.
You know, Max, your comment about snacks did make me think of a question that bothered me.
He talked about military rations. What are you talking about? Snacks.
You know, snacks in there. Maybe they're snacks anyway, you know, totally related to certifications. Why do we cook bacon but bake cookies? Bothers me. It bothers me. Anyway, here's my challenge to all of you. Certificate. Well, Max, are you okay? It's upsetting, isn't it? I know I got over park on a driveway and drive on a parkway like in high school, but then somebody said the bacon and cookies thing to me last week, and it lost my. I lost my mind. I don't. I don't feel emotionally comfortable about it. So here's my challenge about World Certification Week. Do not make assumptions about what you think. You know, one of the. I am a content specialist and strategist, and I am going out of my way to take the content. Now, there. There is no one right way to approach Certification Week. Yes, George, I see you here pacing. We'll get to you, bud. I know we got you. You'll bring us home. Here's the thing about World Certification Week. You can be an opportunity to challenge yourself with things you've never experienced or learned before. But also, it is an opportunity for you to level up in the disciplines that you call your passions, that you call your focus areas. And again, while I made a goof about we're going to see what I do and don't agree with, the reality is, is that I am going in there to learn to hone my craft and to get better at what I do. Because whenever I take a HubSpot certification, particularly about the things that I always feel really confident that I know how to do well, those are the ones I walked out the most surprised about. Like, whoa. I learned something that's going to, like, even if it's small, even if it's fractional, it's that multiplier effect of new skills and ideas. So, George, now that you've paced an entire trench in the floor of your home, what do you got, bud?
Yep. True masters are always the best students.
