Meg Duffy on Trust, Creativity, and Empowerment Blueprint | Women of HubSpot

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

All right, I'm super excited, but I'm also sitting here and I know this is going to be one heck of a journey. Meg, how are you doing today?

I'm doing well. How about you, George?

I'm better now that you're here because without you, this would not even be any type of journey. But let me kind of give a little bit of background of why we're here. For the people that might be tuning into this. It was Super Bowl Sunday. I was talking to my daughter. We were talking about the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles and his kind of behind the scenes team that is a female team. And I watched her face and I watched her body and I was like, this means a lot to her. And I was, I was literally moved in that moment. And I put this LinkedIn post out and it was, it was just supposed to be like, hey, if you know somebody that's a female and they're awesome at HubSpot, like, tag them in this post, Meg. It by far is the most interacted with post I think I've ever done on LinkedIn in my life. And it brought me great joy to see this happening. And so I was like, you know what, I wanna, I wanna interview these amazing humans. I wanna understand what makes them tick. I wanna, I want to hear the journey that they've been on. And so today that's, that's what we're going to do. So I've got some questions for you. And we're just going to see where we end with this. And so let's just dive in. Are you ready? Are you buckled up and ready to go?

I'm ready.

All right, so here's the thing. If, if we could go back in time and we could meet the young Meg Duffy just starting out, like, what would we see in and what would she be most surprised by about where she is now?

I describe it as kind of a wiggly noodle. I don't know about your experience with how you envisioned your career, but when I started out, I thought my career would be very linear. Both of my parents did, like, relatively the same things for most of their lives. And so I thought that that's what my path would look like, it does not. So I started my career in. In education. I did a lot of ESL and special education tutoring. Fun fact, I actually have a master's in library science. So technically, I am a librarian. I started my career in nonprofit arts. I worked at the Metropolitan Opera organizing their production materials. And then I moved into the startup tech world. So I worked at a startup that made an app teaching kids how to code. I worked at a coding bootcamp for women and non binary folks in tech. And I eventually started my own career coaching business. Ultimately, I joined HubSpot because I love making stuff that helps people do their best work. I feel like that's the. That's the through line, through that noodle. And working on a team allowed me to do that at scale. But I think if you go back, if you go back to those early days, early in my career, I was just so scared. I was really scared about, like, all the stuff that I didn't know. I was very, like, concerned about how my work would be perceived. And I think over time, having built skills, having built experience, you build that confidence where you can root down into your work and have what you're producing actually be good enough.

So scared. By the way, we're in question one. I'm already like, this is so library opera. Like, I'm learning so many cool things already. So here's the, here's the part of that question I want to make sure we answer. Like, what would she be most surprised by where you are at right now in your life?

I think from that initial fear space, she would be surprised that I am such a visible person now. I think when I first started out, I very much did not want to be the person in the front. I very much wanted to be just buried within the rest of the team. And over time, my work has pushed me to be more and more visible, you know, to the point where now you can watch my face on HubSpot Academy all the time. But that was not my default setting when I first started out.

Oh, I love that you said it's not your default setting. One of the things I'd love to talk about is going beyond your default. And it's. It's interesting to kind of think about. You were like, I don't know what your career looked like. Mine was a bowl of spaghetti as well. It's. I've been a, you know, a cook in the Navy. I've been a bouncer at a bar. I've been a pastor at a church, and I've been a HubSpot hero. Like, I mean, I didn't know I was headed here when I headed this way, but here we are. So along the way, there have been people who have been mentors who have kind of inspired me. So I'm curious, Meg, like, who are some of your biggest inspirations or mentors along the way or that you pay attention to today?

One of the people that had the biggest impact on me was actually someone that I met as a kid. I feel like I still think about, like, my high school cross country coach all the time because I feel like he embodied the essence of good coaching, you know, And I think it's something that I try to model in everything that I do. I think a lot of times when we say we need to treat people equally, it means that we treat people the same. When actually, sometimes folks need nuance in that coaching. So talking about in my early career, very nervous, very anxious. I'm not the type of person that you need to, like, get hyped and, like, have them meet the moment that way. I need to be calmed down and kind of, like, take the pressure off. And he had such a great way of recognizing what you needed in that moment and meeting you with that. And I think that's something that I've taken through my career. And, I mean, I got that lesson as a kid also. I think, like, just having incredible managers, I feel really lucky to have gotten the support that I need at HubSpot to really come into my own in a way that I think served me where I was. I like management, where I can come to you with questions and get answers, but also have the freedom and the trust to know that you trust in my ability to, like, execute my work and put my hand up when I need help. And I feel like being in that sweet spot has really allowed me to grow a lot in the past couple of years.

I love that trust that you believe in me, that I can do the thing that I have to do. That's so amazing. So, obviously, this has been a journey, right? And I'm super curious, like, have there been any hurdles or biases over that you've kind of had to come over in your career? And if so, like, how did you navigate those times?

I think especially since my work now and work as a coach and, you know, previously, I've been making a lot of content. I've been putting a lot of stuff out there, and when I first started publishing work, I had a lot of perfectionist tendencies because I really wanted to control how that work was perceived. And From a very real perspective, the Internet can be a rough place. And particularly as a woman in tech, you sometimes get a lot of feedback that is just someone's opinion. In the beginning, I took that really personally. The more practice I got releasing work, the better filter I was able to build around what's actionable feedback and what's somebody's own personal view, and recognizing that it's okay to set a boundary that says, hey, I'm not actually accepting feedback on this particular aspect of my work. I also learned that creative work is inherently uncomfortable. And for me, that's probably not going to change. Know. And so I think I stopped wrestling with that anxiety, and now I expect it, because when you are doing something new, there is no roadmap. There is no guarantee that it's going to work. There is no guarantee that it will be received. Well, for me, that discomfort dissipates a little bit once I have an outline. You know, I always talk about how, like, when I can see the project and kind of see what form it's going to take. But I think just knowing when I'm in the pocket of that discomfort is progress.

The pocket of discomfort is progress. That. That right there is powerful. I also love that. I heard you kind of. I had to set barriers. And then also when you mentioned opinions, it's like, opinions are like buttholes. Everybody has one. It doesn't mean you have to pay attention to it. Right. So there's so much goodness in there. Meg, I'm super curious. Have you ever faced a moment where you felt kind of underestimated, overlooked, out of place in the industry? And if so, how did you handle that and kind of move forward, past it?

I think for me, that moment happened earlier on when I was making the transition from nonprofit arts into tech. When I was at the Metropolitan Opera, I was kind of one of one. Like, there was no path forward. That was really obvious. Like, that was just kind of the job, and you did the job, and you could look around within the organization. Organization. But I think I was kind of butting up against the limitations of, like, what was possible within the system. And if I'm being honest, it's like I had a lot of conversations with, like, my boss and my boss's boss at that time, and we were all just kind of like, we want to go faster. You know, we want to automate more things. We want to systematize more things. And I think at that point, we were all kind of, like, pressing up against, like, the limitations of the organization at that point. In time and, like, what we could do. It's been neat to see the directions we've all taken in our careers since then, because I think we've all taken different steps towards that goal of being able to move faster, of being able to break down those barriers between teams and get people to connect more. But, yeah, it was tough at that time, feeling like I want to put my foot on the gas and I kind of have to go 25.

Yeah. And it's almost like because of that, it's like at some point that might have been a catalyst for the transition into the tech space to where you're at now is like, I feel I need this thing, and so let me do this thing. It's so, so interesting. All right, so kind of a different angle at this. Have you had a time in your life where you've experienced what we'll call significant? It doesn't have to be massive, but we'll use the word significant, like a significant failure or what you felt was a setback in life. And if so, like, what did you learn from that?

In addition to, like, working at HubSpot, I've also. I've done the career coaching piece of things, and a couple years ago, I had this vision of, like, you know, I really want to take what I do in one on one sessions and, like, turn it into a course. And I worked my butt off on this thing. Like, I was like, all right, I'm scripting it, I'm filming it. And I kind of, like, I ran out of gas by the end. So I, like, put up this course and did essentially, like, no marketing for it. And nobody bought that course in the first month. And it was like. It was funny because it was like, such a disconnect between, like, I had all this excitement and enthusiasm, and it's just like another reminder of, like, unless you are explaining to people, like, why they should care, there's so much going on on the Internet that it's like, it's just gonna get lost. I was bummed, no lie. I. I had higher expectations for the. The course at that time. But I think it also helped to take a step from that very real acknowledgement of, like, did I do the work to do the marketing? No, I did not do that. So it's like, you can't be mad if you didn't take it all the way across the line. I think it's something that can be tough with. On especially, like, personal projects when it's like, you're the only one that is accountable. It's like, great to put things out when it's successful. It's also very challenging because when it fails, you are the creator and the CEO and the marketing department and all those things. So it's like, well, the buck stops literally with me, because I'm the only one.

I love that. It's like, listen, it was me. And if I didn't take it over the line, you know, I gotta look inward. And what I really love is that we're actually on a chat about Women of HubSpot, and I totally took away a life lesson is that marketing matters. Like, I should probably have marketed the thing that I put all of this energy into. So that's. That's so fun. All right, so, Meg, let's shift gears, because I'm super curious. What does empowerment mean to you, and how do you pass that on to others in your field?

When I think about the work that I'm doing and the impact that I want to make, just like, in my life, like, my personal goal is to be a person that takes actions on her ideas and also motivates other people to do the same. You know, when we're talking about creative work or just, like, being a person, like, there's so much pressure, both internal and external, that keeps people from trying something new, putting it out there, taking that risk. And so for me, empowerment is about, like, hyping people in my circle up, supporting their ideas, connecting them with resources, helping them stay motivated to bring that idea to life, whatever it happens to be, you know, And I want to push myself to do that same thing. And that means surrounding myself with people who are going to do the same thing for me, you know, who will kind of give me that boost when I get tired. Yeah, it's just really scary putting new things out into the world. And so through that process of kind of practicing with myself, practicing with others, I want to stay connected to that feeling of how brave it is to put something new out into the world.

Connected to how brave it is or how brave you are by putting that in. That is so good. All right, I want you to transport yourself somewhere for me. So, like, mentally go to. Go to this moment, and I want you to share a moment in your career where you felt especially empowered or very proud of something that you achieved. What's that thing? What's that moment?

Last year at Inbound, being able to run two Academy labs back to back was something that I've always wanted to do. And I think, like, last year was just a really busy, challenging year. So the Fact that that opportunity came when I didn't necessarily feel ready and I rose to that challenge was something that felt amazing. You know, that HubSpot trusted me to do it, that I had the expertise to do it. Yeah. And just getting out there speaking in person, very different than being on camera, but it was an incredible experience, and it felt like the culmination of all the stuff that I've been doing behind the scenes.

Yeah. Again, so amazing. The words I pull out of that is trust and expertise and the ability to rise up and do it, which totally can be translated to, like, I had to step out of my comfort zone because it's something different than I typically do, but it feels great once I got to the other side of it. I love that. I love that so much. So, obviously we're here on series Women of HubSpot, so I have to ask this question. Meg, if you could change one thing about how women are supported in this industry, what would that one thing be?

Like, let women cook. Like, let them cook. Like, give them, like, when we're talking about the trust element, trust that my ideas are solid and that I've backed them up with data and ideas. Give them the resources that they need and just let them do stuff. That's it. That's the tweet. Like, let women execute their best work.

I love that so much. Just, like, empower them to execute. Step back and let the magic happen. Meg, a lot of magic happens in HubSpot. So I'm super curious. Are there any particular tools, strategies, trends in HubSpot or kind of the inbound ecosystem, if you will, that super excite you right now?

So I am lucky that I.