Speaking at #INBOUND24 Late Night Show Night 1 with George B Thomas + Friends

All right, we're here, ladies and gentlemen, for late night at Inbound with George B. Thomas and Friends. Yeah, the friends. Let's hear for the friends, ladies and gentlemen.

I thought they're the friends.

They're the friends. No, you guys are the friends. But we're gonna have some fun. So I'm super excited because I feel like we actually got a real place at the table this year. Like, we're. We're news anchors.

Table's real.

It's real table.

Yeah.

And we're coordinated. I just want everybody to realize it's blue. Orange.

Blue.

Orange.

Who.

So we are professionals at what we do here. Without a doubt. But we are here to talk about inbound. We're here to talk about HubSpot. And actually, Justin, because I'll not be able to do the rest of the show. When you asked us the square footage of the BCEC and I said 250 million square foot, which I do not believe is the true square footage, that is Rhode Island. Is that Rhode Island? So, Justin, to start us out right, what is the square square footage of the BCEC that we're walking around in for Inbound?

So before I give that, I'm gonna give the audience a tease.

You always gotta do a tease. You do TV 101 engagement.

Does anybody know it out there in the audience?

No.

No guesses.

Okay.

It's not 200 million.

No.

That is ginormous.

So it's really 250 million. Like I said. Oh, it's smaller than that.

It is 2.1 million.

I said, what did you say?

Billion, Million.

Million.

I was close with the numbers, but too many of them.

You're not close with the numbers. You said 250 million.

Right.

Which is way different than I feel judgment right now. Am I being judged?

Yes, you are.

I don't think I should be judged because I don't know the square footage this month. It's not that you don't know.

Your guess was. Not proportionally. That's the problem.

I'm bad at guessing. I'm bad at that. Although I will say I wasn't bad at guessing when I was like, hey, wouldn't it be cool if Ryan Reynolds would be here at Inbound? Because we did guess that on the Hub Heroes podcast. We guessed that.

I thought you were about to say, ladies and gentlemen, Ryan Reynolds.

Come on in.

Who's excited to see Ryan Reynolds this year? I texted him.

He didn't respond last week so I could play around with it and the theme they had made up for this fictional company was B2B Plant Sales. Right. Like, here are plants for your office, B2B botanicals. And like, I was in their AI agent and it was like, hey, on the calendar, upcoming autumnal equinox, here are some fall themed things about plants with images and words formatted properly for all four major social channels. Wow. I just, like, now, like, for a while we've had the ability when you're composing a social post inside of HubSpot to say, generate the text for me and it generates text for you, but for it to proactively say, like, hey, have you thought about a special post for autumnal equinox? Yeah, like, no, I did not think of that. Right. Like, what date even is that?

Yes.

So here's what's fun, is there's a couple of things. Like, I'm super excited about that. And honestly, when I saw that, I was like, I got on slack and I was like, maddie, learn everything about this social media AI agent. She does our social media for us. And I was like, we have to double down on that. I'm bullish on the prospecting agent. I'm like, as a small organization that we don't have BDRs and AES in place, I'm like, could this be a piece of the puzzle to put together with something else that we can do? But the other thing that I want to mention is, is it, is it crazy that I'm kind of happy that Max, you were just sideswiped and taken off guard? Like, that brings me great joy.

If.

Am I a bad person? I don't anymore.

No.

Okay.

Okay.

It's great.

And you know what? I love it because, like, I still know I'm going to come here and I'm going to, I'm going to get surprised by stuff because it was like, one thing when I was like working here at HubSpot and I would come here and see stuff and it's like, yeah, I kind of knew this was happening. But like, now I get to come and everything's a big surprise. Even when I think I kind of know what's coming. So it's just, it's refreshing for me as an attendee now. You know what I mean?

It's so, Justin, you can continue down the Breeze Avenue. You can talk about something else. But like, when you think about Inbound and you're like, I wish more people, AKA humans, knew about this thing at Inbound or HubSpot, like, where does your brain go?

Well, so one of the big things that I like about Inbound besides sides giving us like, hey, this is everything new. It's how you can implement it really fast so you're not just getting, hey, these are all the nice new features. Or this is what you could do. You actually can go talk to a product team right now and say, show me, give me.

Let's.

Here's my example. I want to see work prospecting. Let's see it work. One of my favorite ideas with these agents is the service knowledge base working for. For you and then coming back and saying, hey, you need to create this content because your questions aren't answering it. Now then I can actually involve my knowledge base from an AI standpoint and I'm not having to regenerate the wheel every time.

Yeah, I love it. All right, so let's shift gears here for a second, because needless to say, everybody sitting at this table is, well, we know people, we see people, we talk to people. I'm curious if there's one conversation that you've had with somebody that you either were like, well, that was a shocking conversation, or an aha moment that, like, you're excited to dive into something or create something or do something in the future.

I had it five minutes before we went live, man.

God is good.

Yes.

All right.

And it literally, the lady I was talking to, she has been in HubSpot for years, and she goes, I need to hire, but I don't have to hire as many people now.

Oh.

Because of the way it was presented. Like, you can use these agents as supplement workers.

Yeah.

I'm not saying we don't need humans. We always need humans. How do you sell? You sell to a human. You're not selling to an AI machine. Wait, he is real.

Okay. Yeah.

Just want to make sure with that, we can expand and create that creativity farther because of AI.

Yeah.

I love that.

And.

And that led to what she said.

I had no sense. You know what's, like, really interesting about that too, is, like, think about, like, we're knocking on the doorstep of no longer having the issue of, like, oh, I can't deploy that hub because I don't have a customer success person. Cause I don't have BDRs for my salespeople.

Right.

Like, we're not that far away from a world where it's like, if you don't have the person power to run that hub, there's an agent that can basically play that role until you do at, like, whatever capacity that it does, which in a year from now, what is that even gonna look like or.

Even Just digest what was requested to.

Then go build the hub.

Yeah.

Totally crazy. It's interesting. And Kyle, I'm gonna go to you next for the question. But, Max, when I hear you say that, the thing I think about is if you're going to lean into that world and if you get that capability. Now it comes down to two things as an employee or a business owner of how curious can I be and how creative can I be with the tool that I now have to fill that gap. I think that that's a word that we're gonna hear a ton at inbound. Well, a couple words, curiosity and creativity. And I think there's going to be this level of looking at these agents in a mindset of iteration.

Yeah.

Because it might not be the greatest of assistance out the gate, but you have to think about when you hired the last employee. They might not have been the best employee out the gate. They had to get training for sure. So, Kyle, conversation that you had that you're like, aha. Or, well, I didn't see that coming.

So not. Not about any particular HubSpot products. Mostly inbound for me is me getting to connect with people who we have interacted on the Internet, but never in real life or in a very limited context in real life. Right. People love to come up and tell me sometimes very personal stories.

Yes, that does happen.

And the one that has just really rocked me today, that I'm still sort of processing. A guy came up to me.

He's like, is this. Is this G rated?

It? Totally. Yeah. Not those kind of personal stories. That's where I was going.

I'm like, where are we going?

This guy came up. This guy came up to me and he's like, oh. We're like passing in the hall.

Yeah.

He's like, oh, hey, Kyle, I quit my job because of you.

I was like, what?

I was like, this is not a passing in the hallway, but come back, come back. And. And he's like, yeah. I don't know if you remember, you once in passing said this thing that, like, I don't. As he said it, I was like, I don't even know in what context I would have said this phrase. But he's like, it made me realize, like, I was living below my potential at the place I was working. So I left and started my own business. I was like, holy moly.

First of all, that's amazing. But also scary as crap, right?

Yeah.

You're like, ooh, I have that ability. I do have just a side kind of tangent. How many Selfies have you taken so far? Like, how many people?

Minutes.

Well, or just today, like, if you had to guesstimate.

Funny story.

Okay.

Two inbounds ago, first one back in person. Post Covid.

Yes.

That was the first time we'd. Because me posting regularly on LinkedIn is a thing I did to keep my sanity during the lockdown. Right?

Yes.

And so it had been a couple years that. And come to inbound for the first time, and suddenly there were just people who want to take selfies with me, which was what, weird and uncomfortable for poor, introverted little Kyle Jepsen. And so last year I was like, I need a way I can manage this. Because after inbound 2022, I was telling my wife, I was telling everyone, like, no, like, a lot of people wanted to take stuff, like, like a lot. And they'd be like, how many can you estimate? And be like, I don't even know.

There was just so many.

So last year, something I did that helped me quantify it and really process it is I got a little clicker counter app on my phone. Oh. So I can tell you that Today I'm at 51. Yesterday I hit 38. So I'm at. I'm at 89. What time did you get here this morning? Yeah, sometime during the 8 o' clock hour.

How many hours?

It's only 5 o', clock, but over.

Yeah, but over the two days. 89. So far.

So far.

Yeah. My man. Thanks.

All right, so we only have, believe it or not, three minutes. Holy crap. 30 minutes flies when you have this crew. Okay, so I have this question and this, this question. I love her to death.

You love this question.

My wife, okay. Yes.

She hates AI.

Like, that's an awkward house.

Yeah, we. Yes, we have conversations because I talk to my AI agents like they're human. And she's like, yeah, okay, so let's not talk to my wife, Kelly, but let's talk to the business owner, the employee who is like AI Heisman. We'll start max. We'll work your way down. What do you say to those employees about the importance of mindsets embracing? Where do you want to take them?

I mean, the big thing I was always say is like, use it, don't abuse it.

Right.

I heard someone saying the other day, we're going to be like, more co creating with AI versus like AI taking over our job. Which is really, I think it's like a really kind of beautiful way of looking at it.

Right.

So it's just. Just like, don't be afraid of it, but, you know, also keep your eye on it. I would, I would say, because, like, the big thing that I'm kind of like walking away with this year is like, usually inbound to inbound, I can go like, okay, they did this. I would probably be at next year. They're going to like, do this. Be it like a new feature. This. I have no clue what they're going to do next year.

Right.

Like, if this is what this is now.

Yeah.

I, you know, usually it's like, oh, probably a couple new APIs, or like this new feature they're going to add to Sales Hub or like, whatever. I have. No.

Do you always use that voice?

I think he does, yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

No, it's me. I'm speaking healthily, talking at a healthy volume. This is how I do it. But yeah, I mean, that's exciting. I got no idea what's going to happen next week. Imagine kind of freaking me out, but, like, super exciting.

Yeah.

The abusing side is you got to iterate with it.

Yeah.

A lot of people get frustrated with AI because they're like, well, I asked it to do this and it didn't do that.

Yeah.

And.

And I love telling people when you sound like a human, when you meet somebody new, do you just start telling them your life's.

No. No.

Well, it depends. Well, yeah.

Yeah.

People just yell at, yeah, but I quit my job. If you meet somebody new, you've got to give it contextual information. Who are you? Where are you from? Why do you have a Southern accent? Because I live in the South.

Yeah. Yeah.

But if you start a chatbot, Breeze Chat, gp, whatever, and you're just like, hey, write this code for me, or, hey, write me an email. It's gonna write you junk.

Yeah.

Because you're not giving it information. So iterate process.

Dude, you're still in my talk for tomorrow.

Perfect.

I love it.

But if you don't know how to iterate, George has this awesome talk tomorrow.

We do have a. We have a talk tomorrow.

Yes.

So, Kyle, your answer to the question.

What would you tell. Yeah. So I am also a person who has intensely mixed emotions about AI.

Okay.

And I will. I will tell you, Max and I, as we're watching the product keynote, the hey gen version of Andy Petrie kind.

Of freaked us out. Yeah.

Now, what do you mean this? What are you talking about?

And so we're a little like the thing to understand. Right. Like in content hub, in HubSpot, for instance, you can. Content remix can output entire podcast episodes with Audio included. And the thing you have to realize is like, hey, Jen. Or podcast production. That's not for me. That's not for you. Right, Right. That's not for you. Right. We're just going to keep doing our thing that we do.

We like our faces.

Right. And we are comfortable just talking in a mic, making things up on the flight. If you are a person who. That is an insurmountable barrier. Your brand and your experience, you have things to share with the world.

Yes.

But the thought of, of talking into a microphone to record a podcast or talking into a webcam to make a video is just like, kill me now. I can't do that.

Yeah.

AI is going to help you a lot.

Right.

And I think AI is so broad, it can do so many things that, like, it's really helpful for some. As if you're a business owner, there's some aspect of your business owner of your business where it can help you. Right.

Where.

Where there's something you cannot currently do.

Yeah.

Because you're spread too thin or that's not your skill set.

Yeah.

And that's where you introduce. I don't let. If you're really good at like sales prospecting, don't start with AI prospecting. Like, why would you do that if you're already strong there? Think of AI as the place to make up for all your. All your weaknesses, all your deficiencies, all your gaps that you can't fill by hiring people or by upskilling yourself. And that's where to insert. Hold on.

I just want to say real quick, I applaud you for not doing the hae gen hands while you were giving that very specific response. And you have very specific hand motions.

Yeah. He's real. He's here. It's interesting because, Kyle, when you say that, what I hear is that it can be your assistant that can augment you as a human in the places that you know that you're weak in. But to know that, and to do that, you pretty much should know your strengths and your weaknesses and then build a roadmap and out based upon that.

Yeah.

And it doesn't have to be you personally. Like Max was saying earlier, if you can't build a customer support team right now, you just don't have the funds or whatever to do that. Start with a little AI chatbot and you know, add. Add humans.

Later when you're able, write some knowledge base article.

Iterate context.

You can use it.

So we're supposed to iterate.

Iterate.

Iterate.

Isn't that what we do in life.

I mean, if you're doing it right. I feel like it is, yeah. Because trust me, if I was old George today, I wouldn't be sitting at this desk. But we had to iterate along the way. Bam. Hey, everybody, give it up for Max Cohen. Give it up to Justin Givens from Simple Events. And give it to Kyle Jepsen from HubSpot. HubSpot Academy. The Inbound Universe. God Among Men.

The Monday morning briefing.

Monday morning briefing. These two, give it up for George. I'm George B. Thomas from Psychic Strategies. And remember to be a happy, helpful, humble human and do some happy hubspotting along the way.