The HubHeroes Podcast

It's INBOUND week, y'all, and as you may remember from last week's episode, your HubHeroes crew are beyond excited for what's to come over the next few days. But for today's episode, we want to take you on a trip down memory lane to INBOUND 2018, when HubSpot rocked everyone's world with the introduction to the Flywheel:

For those of you who were in the HubSpot world at the time, you know what a shake up this was, as it was a radical departure from the traditional ATTRACT > CONVERT > CLOSE > DELIGHT FUNNEL model we had clung to as the cornerstone of the inbound marketing methodology for years.

However, to this day, this incredible innovation in the inbound space is still mystifying some. So, we're breaking it all down for you in this episode with a deep-dive into the Flywheel – specifically the engage stage – as well as what it really means to build trust as a business ... or is the idea of that crap?

WE ALSO TALK ABOUT ... 

• What inbound is today – no longer a marketing strategy, but an overall growth strategy for a business.
• What the engagement phase really is, and why it's the necessary pivot toward a more human approach in your business strategy.
• Unpacking the mythologized romanticism that's been built up around the concept of creating and earning trust as a business with prospects and customers.
• Devyn also lights it up with this gem: "Be prepared to nuke your whole system. That is usually my default (when giving advice) advice." BOOM!

Are you ready to dig in? Let's do this!

RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE

Some of these we talked about, others we're adding because they're only going to make the episode that much sweeter for you ... 

• What is growth strategy? with Troy Sandidge (HubHeroes, Ep. 6)
• INBOUND 2022 prep, a trip down memory lane, and a pop quiz (HubHeroes, Ep. 5)
• Attraction: What makes great content? (HubHeroes, Ep. 2)
• Join The HubHeroes Podcast community!
• Wait, what the heck is The HubHeroes Podcast?!

YOUR ONE THING FROM THIS EPISODE

I don't care if you write this down on a post-it note, print it out and make it a poster, or scrawl it across your mirror in lipstick. My man, Devyn, laid down an incredibly powerful truth in this episode, and if you remember nothing else, you can't forget it:

Being a helpful human, that's what this is all about.

I've been in this game for decades now, and let me tell you something. It doesn't matter what industry you're in or if you're in marketing, sales, or leadership. Virtually everyone I talk to through my HubSpot consulting and training is, ultimately, trying to achieve the exact same thing – growth.

That's why, in the HubSpot and inbound ecosystem, you hear so many folks talking about growth strategy and growth hacking – and everyone has an opinion on what it is, what actually works, as well as what does and doesn't work.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of confusing information out there on what a healthy, smart growth strategy actually looks like. One that truly empowers you to overcome your challenges as a business and achieve sustainable expansion actually is.

"You've gotta go slow, with measurable goals that make sense.

"Nah, man, you're doing it all wrong. You gotta get super lean and move fast."

"Growth strategy isn't about marketing, it's about sales."

"You've got it totally backward; it starts with marketing, not sales."

If you know me, I've made it my life's mission to simplify confusing and complex topics in ways that help you achieve your goals, no matter what role you're in – marketing, sales, or leadership. This episode is no different, because understanding growth strategy on the whole (and what it takes to get it right) can feel very confusing, but it doesn't have to be.

So, gather 'round the campfire everyone, because we've brought in Troy Sandidge, an award-winning growth strategist and Strategy Hacker™ and epic human as our very first HubHeroes guest to demystify everything you need to know about growth strategy.

WE ALSO TALK ABOUT ... 

• What growth strategy is (really), as well as what it isn't. Interestingly enough, what a growth strategy is does depend on your perspective and your role, but that doesn't mean you're not marching toward the same goals.
• What smart growth strategy goals look like, as well as what questions you need to ask to determine your true capacity to achieve your growth strategy goals.
• How sales should approach a growth strategy, and how that differs from (and complements) the marketing approach to growth strategy.
• The most common rookie mistakes you can make with a growth strategy, and how to avoid them. 
• The questions you should be asking yourself to make the smartest choices while developing and implementing your own growth strategy.
• Also Troy drops a MASSIVE surprise INBOUND 2022 announcement! 

Are you ready to dig in? Let's do this! 

RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE

Some of these we talked about, others we're adding because they're only going to make the episode that much sweeter for you ... 

• Connect with Troy Sandidge on LinkedIn or through his website
• Demystifying your customer buyer's journey (HubHeroes, Ep. 3)
• What makes great content? (HubHeroes, Ep. 2)
• Join The HubHeroes Podcast community!
• Wait, what the heck is The HubHeroes Podcast?!

YOUR ONE THING FROM THIS EPISODE

When it comes to the topic of a growth strategy, it can be all too easy to be swept up in (or completely turned off by) people couching the whole topic in becoming the next Elon Musk. Put that out of your mind. There is so much goodness packed in this episode, but the one thing you need to take away is that your growth strategy will be unique to you.

Moreover, your success will hinge upon your ability to ask yourself the right questions, be honest in your answers, and then take action accordingly. What are those right questions you need to focus on? Good news, Troy unpacks them all in this episode! 

Y'all, it's almost here – HubSpot's INBOUND 2022 event, which is dedicated to showcasing incredible thought leadership across marketing, sales, customer success, and revenue operations. And I cannot even begin to tell you how stoked we are. Although to be selfish here for a moment, I'll admit there's one thing about INBOUND 2022 that makes me happy and sad at the same time:

Once again, I'm speaking this year at INBOUND, and my session on pillar pages and content cluster strategies is already full! Again, it's exciting! And also sad! Is that strange? Anyway, I digress ... 

Given that Max, Devyn, and I are your humble HubHeroes, you just had to know that with HubSpot INBOUND 2022 right around the corner (September 7-9 in Boston and online!), we were going to be dedicating an episode to it. Especially given that it was 10 years ago that I attended my very first HubSpot INBOUND, and that's when everything changed in my life.

It's crazy how time flies. 

It's also crazy about how much actionable HubSpot INBOUND 2022 goodness we were able to pack into this episode – whether you're attending in person, attending digitally, or thinking about whether or not HubSpot's annual event may be in your future someday, you should tune in and take notes.

We talk about our favorite memories and speakers from years' past, we break down our secrets to making your HubSpot week absolute magic for you (as a human) and the goals you're trying to reach, and where you'll likely see us when the three of us during all of the endless festivities. 

WE ALSO TALK ABOUT ... 

• How HubSpot INBOUND is about way more than just marketing. Seriously, if you think this is just an event for marketers by marketers, you are sorely mistaken.
• Pro-tips for first-time INBOUND attendees, from footwear to Boston public transportation secrets, we get very specific on to how to get the most out of what is an amazing event ... but it can also be very overwhelming if it's your first time.
• With Barack Obama speaking this year (crazy, right?!), we play a few pop quiz rounds on the speaking fees of some of the event's biggest headliners in recent years.
• The INBOUND 2022 speakers we're most excited to see and why. 
• All the deets on the INBOUND 2022 meetups and get-togethers you need to know about – including a couple we're running ourselves! 
• Also, is it possible to get compensated as a speaker at INBOUND in Dunkin' Donuts gift cards? Because, apparently, that's all you need to get Max to show up on your main stage – take note, event planners!

Just typing all of that up got me hyped for INBOUND and for this episode.

RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE

Some of these we talked about, others we're adding because they're only going to make the episode that much sweeter for you ... 

• HubSpot INBOUND 2022 event page (in-person and some digital passes still available)
• BLACK@INBOUND
• Get to know the George B. Thomas origin story (And my 2012 HubSpot experience)
• Learn about the Content Creation Masterclass (limit of 20 spots)
• Join the HubHeroes community on Facebook
• HubHeroes Podcast, Ep. 1: Why HubSpot? Why Inbound?
• Wait, what the heck is The HubHeroes Podcast?!

YOUR ONE THING FROM THIS EPISODE

HubSpot INBOUND is an annual event that is so much more than many people think it is – even the folks who've attended in the past can sometimes forget how much it is evolving, and how expansive the wealth of knowledge is that HubSpot is sharing. So, your one thing if you're attending (online or in-person) is take the time to really research what's available to you through this year's programming and make a plan. 

We've already talked about the buyer's journey and creating great content – two foundational elements of what it takes to be successful with HubSpot and inbound. But you can't talk about what it takes to be successful with inbound without talking about buyer personas.

The most basic definition of a buyer persona that folks toss around is that they're fictional representations of your ideal buyers, but they are so much more than that. That's not technically wrong, but there is so much more to the buyer personas discussion that often gets totally missed:

• When you develop your buyer personas with intentionality and purpose, they are the compass that points you in the right direction of what content you create. 
• Not all your buyer personas should be the decision-makers you're targeting. 
• Marketers aren't the only ones at your company who should be using buyer personas. 

That's why we knew we had to dedicate our HubHero superpowers fully in this episode to the topic of buyer personas. Because they're so dang essential, and yet they're so often completely misunderstood.

But all of that misunderstanding ends today. By the end of this episode, you'll have total clarity on how to create buyer personas for your teams (or refine them to make them more powerful, if you have them already!), and how to use them properly.

WE ALSO TALK ABOUT ... 

• Negative buyer personas – what they are, why you need them, and why they may not always be negative buyer personas forever.
• Understanding the power of the researcher persona, because while they may not be your primary decision-maker, you absolutely need to pay attention to them and feed them great content.
• Why your sales team should also care about buyer personas, because they're not just a tool for marketers! 
• If you're a B2B marketer, you'll love this one:! We also dig into the differences between ideal customer profiles and buyer personas, and how they work together. 

Are you ready to dig in? Let's do this! 

RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE

Some of these we talked about, others we're adding because they're only going to make the episode that much sweeter for you ... 

• Demystifying your customer buyer's journey (HubHeroes, Ep. 3)
• What makes great content? (HubHeroes, Ep. 2)
• Join The HubHeroes Podcast community!
• Wait, what the heck is The HubHeroes Podcast?!

YOUR ONE THING FROM THIS EPISODE

Honestly, I need to mention two things from this episode: I know that's cheating, but whatever. These two things matter! 

• If you've already created personas, now is the time to revisit them. Do you have negative personas? Have you overlooked researcher personas? Are you even using them to their fullest potential?
• And if you haven't created personas, your directive is simple. Make your buyer personas, and take the time to get them right. The power is in your hands! 

Ahhhh, the buyer's journey. On paper, the buyer's journey is the process by which your ideal buyers become aware of their problem, consider their solutions, and then (fingers crossed🤞) become your customer.  Sounds simple enough, right? Well, yes ... and also no.

The conversation around what the buyer's journey really is (and how it works effectively) changes when you look at it through the lens of marketing, sales, and service. Because understanding what the buyer's journey is and how you use it to drive your inbound strategy is so essential to your success – especially if you're just getting started with HubSpot! – we're dedicating an entire episode to the topic.

Even if you think you are a buyer's journey master, you must take notes during this episode. We not only unpack what the buyer's journey is and how it connects to all of the great content you're creating ... 

WE ALSO TALK ABOUT ... 

• What the true function of content is in your buyer's journey.  Max unpacks this in a way that reminds us that while the buyer's journey isn't rocket science, it's easy to look at it the completely wrong way with your content.
• How the buyer's journey relates to sales and the sales process – because Devyn has a lot of great takeaways on how to use the buyer's journey to create a better strategy.
• In my effort to always stay on-brand, I talk about the human side of the buyer's journey, because it's all about your customer, right?  
• For you seasoned inbounders, we also spend time debunking some of the most insidious buyer's journey myths that may be holding you back.

... and we may or may not have had the first official HubHeroes disagreement? There's only one way to find out! 

RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE

Some of these we talked about, others we're adding because they're only going to make the episode that much sweeter for you ... 

• You've gotta go back and check out the second episode – what the heck is great content?! (HubHeroes, Ep. 2)
• What is the buyer's journey?
• If you have questions about your current HubSpot strategy, I've got your back
• Wait, what the heck is The HubHeroes Podcast?!

YOUR ONE THING FROM THIS EPISODE

Remember, you don't control the buyer's journey, your customers do. Heck, it's their journey, right? So, if you remember nothing else today, let it be this – if you're unsure if you're doing the right thing (sending that email, pushing that piece of content to someone), ask yourself, "Have I earned the right to do this?" Yes, you're facilitating the journey of your buyers, but you have to earn their trust along the way. 

Great content is the fuel of any powerful inbound strategy – and when you nail how to create great content, attracting the right humans to your business is easy. There's just one teeny, tiny problem we need to talk about. Well, actually, it's more of a question that we need to answer – a question the three of us get asked a lot: How do you create content that attracts the right people?

What's funny is that, when we start digging a little deeper beyond that question in those conversations, we often find that while, yes, understanding what great content that attracts the right people is an essential knowledge gap that needs to be filled, there are greater, more insidious problems at play:

• Marketers and leaders who are absolutely convinced that content will work for every industry but theirs, because their industry isn't sexy or cool or interesting enough.
• There's a fear of (or at least an aversion to) creating content purely for the sake of educating the ideal customer on their terms, because it feels safer to create content with a totally obvious undercurrent of sales and self-focus. ("How else are we going to create content that sells?!")
• Content strategists and marketers who are obsessed with immediately targeting decision-makers, instead of investing in the creation of content that cultivates internal champions those decision-makers may listen to.

In short, this seemingly simple concept of "attracting humans with great content" is actually a tangled ball of Christmas lights; and in this episode, we're going to untangle it together by talking about what great content really is, how great content really gets made, and how every industry is capable of creating it (really). 

WE ALSO TALK ABOUT ... 

• Getting over the industry excuse – because it does not matter what industry you're in, there are content opportunities out there ... just waiting for you to capitalize on them to hit your marketing and sales goals.
• The format of your content means nothing if the substance sucks. Seriously, you need to stop thinking in terms of format or medium and focus deeply on the quality of what it is you're trying to produce.
• Why you need to set aside your wants and needs, and create content from a place of selflessness. Your ideal customers will flock to you when you show you care about their problems or the health of the industry overall, rather than your own piece of the pie.
• Also, Max talks about this one time when great content (and a few drinks) transformed him into an internal champion and, well, the delightful fanboy we know him as today. (Never change, Max.)

I don't even need to ask if you're ready to crush through this episode, I know you're ready. So, let's get right down to business ... 

RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE

Some of these we talked about, others we're adding because they're only going to make the episode that much sweeter for you ... 

• HubSpot Academy (bookmark it, live it, love it)
• HubHeroes Podcast, Ep. 1: Why HubSpot? Why Inbound?
• Navigating the negative naysayers in your life
• Learn about the Content Creation Masterclass (limit of 20 spots)
• Join the HubHeroes community on Facebook
• Wait, what the heck is The HubHeroes Podcast?!

Welcome to the inaugural episode of The HubHeroes Podcast! Our mission is a bold one – to empower all of you (marketing, sales, and business leaders) to explore the expansive universe of inbound and HubSpot in a way that's never been done before, so you can become a HubHero in your own right. So you can don your own majestic cape as a HubHero of traffic growth, leads, and sales.

But before we talk about WHAT you need to do to make your growth goals a reality, and HOW you get there, we have to answer one other question first – WHY? Actually, we need to answer more than one WHY question first, not just one.

For example:

• Why are we obsessed with transforming you into inbound masters and HubHeroes?
• To understand WHAT your first steps are with HubSpot, we first need to answer WHY you turned to HubSpot in the first place?
• And the same holds true if you're first dipping your toe into the world of inbound – WHY are you getting into the idea of inbound?

Those last two questions are absolutely essential, and make up the core of our conversation in this episode. What makes inbound so powerful is its limitless potential. What makes HubSpot a powerful platform for growth is that it's a blank canvas upon which you can paint awe-inspiring marketing, sales, and service masterpiece. 

However, you can only realize the limitless potential of inbound and paint your own HubSpot masterpiece is challenging yourself to ask that simple question: Why? Are there specific gaps in your sales, marketing, and service processes? Did you realize that something big needed to change?

So, in this episode, we begin our epic adventure into all things inbound and HubSpot with a conversation that will empower you to answer WHY for yourself, your teams, and your organization overall. 

WE ALSO TALK ABOUT ... 

• Change management strategies, because one of the biggest friction points in adoption of HubSpot and inbound is an unwillingness to change within your teams.
• How HubSpot Academy is so powerful, you should consider it a mandatory part of your adoption strategy – because education is key to your success.
• The core of success with HubSpot and inbound is understanding everything you do (creating content, publishing on social media, creating valuable sales sequences) should be geared around the primary objective of building trust.
• George, Max, and Devyn share their HubSpot origin stories, and how HubSpot at its core is about humans. Serving humans, understanding humans, empowering humans.
• George also adds fuel to the fire by igniting controversy over his love of pickle and peanut butter sandwiches. 

And that's just the tip of the iceberg, folks! So, strap in and get ready to push play on the first-ever episode of HubHeroes. It's going to be a wild ride, but take the leap – we know you're ready.

RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE

Some of these we talked about, others we're adding because they're only going to make the episode that much sweeter for you ... 

• HubSpot Academy (bookmark it, live it, love it)
• What is the HubSpot Flywheel? 
• Get to know the George B. Thomas origin story
• Heroic habits in your life
• An enormous leap: Changes to my inbound, agency, and HubSpot journey
• Start with Why (a TED Talk by Simon Sinek) 
• Wait, what the heck is The HubHeroes Podcast?!

Do you live in a world filled with corrupt 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 toolbelt… Knowledge? Never fear HubHeroe! 

Get ready to dawn your cape and mask, move into action, and become the HubHero your organization needs! Tune in each week to join the League of extraordinary Inbound heroes as we help you educate, empower, and execute. HubHeroes, it’s time to unite and … activate your powers!