Podcasts about HubSpot

This week, I'm speaking with my friend Jeff Umbro. Jeff is the founder and CEO of The Podglomerate, which helps you produce, market, and monetize your podcast. The Podglomerate's worked with some of the biggest podcast clients in the world, from creators like me to major brands like Netflix, NPR, PBS, HubSpot, Harvard, Substack, and more. Since its start in 2016, The Podglomerate has grown to represent more than 70 podcasts, accounting for more than 30 million monthly downloads. All that to say, Jeff is legit, and he knows his stuff. One of the things I appreciate most about Jeff is that he's honest and a straight shooter. So, in this episode, we talk about podcast growth, explore both organic and paid growth strategies, Jeff's experience with both, and, of course, I share my experience as well. PodglomerateIntrocastPodrollAdvertise with Acast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Full transcript and show notes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Jeff's ⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠ *** TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Jeff Umbro: Podcasting Powerhouse 05:42 Innovative Marketing and Networking Strategy 06:33 Niche Show Strategy Planning 10:45 Podcast Audience Growth Strategy 13:39 AI Prompts Drive Web Traffic 17:03 Building Cross-Platform Audience Connections 21:10 Growing Podcast Audiences: Strategy Insights 22:32 Podcast Promotion Over Essays 29:06 Spotify's Editorial and Algorithmic Opportunities 32:03 Apple Podcast Metrics and Exploits 35:24 Spotify's Video Incentive Strategy 38:52 Spotify's Creator Fund Strategy 42:22 Ad Strategies: Effectiveness Varies 45:16 Podcast Advertising & Audience Alignment 47:51 Effective Pixel-Based Attribution Tracking 49:32 Monetizing Podcasts Through Feed Drops 52:56 Pod Roll: Dynamic RSS Episode Inserts 57:28 Affordable Podcast Advertising Platforms *** RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#212: Dan Misener – How to ACTUALLY grow your podcast (and measure its success) → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#177: Chris Hutchins – A master of podcast growth and building relationships. *** ASK CREATOR SCIENCE → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Submit your question here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ *** WHEN YOU'RE READY

Want our free Loop Marketing Prompt Library (with 100 prompts)? Get it here: https://clickhubspot.com/kcl Ep. 362 Did you know that 58.5% of Google searches now end without a click? Kipp and Aja Frost, Sr. Director of Global Growth at HubSpot, dive into how AI has fundamentally changed the marketing landscape—and what you can do about it. Learn more on why old-school tactics like linear funnels and basic personalization are outdated, how “loop marketing” can future-proof your strategy, and which AI-powered tactics drive explosive growth when traffic and attention are harder than ever to capture. This episode was recorded at HubSpot's Inbound 2025.  Mentions HubSpot Inbound https://www.inbound.com/ Aja Frost https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajafrost/ Claude https://claude.ai/ Perplexity https://www.perplexity.ai/ Breeze Assistant https://knowledge.hubspot.com/ai/use-breeze-assistant Gemini https://gemini.google.com/ Get our guide to build your own Custom GPT: https://clickhubspot.com/customgpt We're creating our next round of content and want to ensure it tackles the challenges you're facing at work or in your business. To understand your biggest challenges we've put together a survey and we'd love to hear from you! https://bit.ly/matg-research Resource [Free] Steal our favorite AI Prompts featured on the show! Grab them here: https://clickhubspot.com/aip We're on Social Media! Follow us for everyday marketing wisdom straight to your feed YouTube: ​​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGtXqPiNV8YC0GMUzY-EUFg  Twitter: https://twitter.com/matgpod  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matgpod  Join our community https://landing.connect.com/matg Thank you for tuning into Marketing Against The Grain! Don't forget to hit subscribe and follow us on Apple Podcasts (so you never miss an episode)! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-against-the-grain/id1616700934   If you love this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review https://link.chtbl.com/h9_sjBKH and share your favorite episodes with friends. We really appreciate your support. Host Links: Kipp Bodnar, https://twitter.com/kippbodnar   Kieran Flanagan, https://twitter.com/searchbrat  ‘Marketing Against The Grain' is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by Hubspot Media // Produced by Darren Clarke.

Yemi Akisanya, Head of JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) at Axon, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about how the DEI conversation is evolving post-2020, why quotas are being replaced with performance-aligned strategies, and how Axon is making inclusion measurable and mission-critical.---- Sponsor Links:

Digital marketing expert Hope Bellair shares insights from HubSpot's Inbound 25 conference and tailored Q4 marketing strategies for different types of jewelry businesses.Reach Hope Bellair at hope@punchmark.com or 704-910-4774, extension 318 for more information about holiday marketing strategies.Learn about our sponsor JewelerOS: trytheringbuilder.comSend us a text Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com Inquire about sponsoring In the Loupe and showcase your business on our next episode: podcast@punchmark.com

Hey CX Nation,In this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast #266, we welcomed Adam Coffey, Founding Partner of The Chairman Group based in Dallas, TX.The Chairman Group™ is a consulting firm founded by Adam Coffey.  Adam spent 21 years building 3 national companies for 9 private equity firms.  During his career Adam completed 58 acquisitions and had $2.4 billion in successful exits.  As an author, Adam's books "The Private Equity Playbook" (2019) (2024), "The Exit Strategy Playbook" (2021) and Empire Builder (2023) all became #1 Amazon Best Sellers.His mission today is to help business owners, private equity firms and executives maximize outcomes. In this episode, Adam and Adrian chat through the Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback. Plus share some of the ideas that Adam & his team think through on a daily basis to build world class customer experiences.**Episode #266 Highlight Reel:**1. The "Pilot's Philosophy": Know Your Destination 2. Fixing what matters most in any customer experience 3. Focusing on the "high-value" work as a Founder/CEO 4. Avoiding arrogance & mastering the art of delegation 5. Dreamers vs. Does -- stop dreaming & start doing Click here to learn more about Adam CoffeyClick here to learn more about The Chairman GroupHuge thanks to Adam for coming on The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring his work and efforts in pushing the customer experience & private equity space into the future. For Apple & Spotify podcast listener friends, make sure you are following CXC & leave a 5 star review so we can find new members of the "CX Nation". You know what would be even better?Go tell your friends or teammates about CXC's custom content, strategic partner solutions (Hubspot, Intercom, & Freshworks to name a few) & On-Demand services & invite them to join the CX Nation, a community of 15K+ customer focused business leaders!Want to see how your customer experience compares to the world's top-performing customer focused companies? Be one of our Pioneer users of the recently launched CXC Healthzone, an intelligence platform that shares benchmarks & insights for how companies across the world are tackling The Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback & how they are building an AI-powered foundation for the future. Thanks to all of you for being apart of the "CX Nation" and helping customer focused business leaders across the world make happiness a habit!Reach Out To CXC Today!Support the showContact CXChronicles Today Tweet us @cxchronicles Check out our Instagram @cxchronicles Click here to checkout the CXC website Email us at info@cxchronicles.com Remember To Make Happiness A Habit!!

Gemma Price is the founder and CEO of HubGem, a UK-based diamond HubSpot partner that has grown from a kitchen-table startup to a 20-person team serving schools and nonprofits worldwide. Her story blends bold entrepreneurship, deep commitment to culture, and a clear-eyed embrace of AI as an amplifier of human potential. In this episode, you'll hear: How Gemma turned her experience in education into a thriving HubSpot consultancy Why every HubGem employee is now “AI-amplified” and what that means for scaling without losing quality The PACE Model (playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, empathy) and how it shapes team culture and customer relationships Practical examples of navigating client fears and resistance to AI adoption Why HubGem's people-first approach earned recognition at the British HR Awards Gemma's advice to other partners on scaling authentically while holding fast to their values It's a masterclass in building hybrid teams where humans and AI work together—without losing the heart of the business.

I chat with Craig Hewitt , founder of Castos. We talk about his journey from running a podcast editing agency to building a SaaS hosting platform. We cover the challenges of bootstrapping, raising funds, and going international. Craig shares how he uses distribution channels, how AI affects small teams, and what it's like to scale in a niche market. We end with advice for indie founders on picking business models, taking risks, and keeping up with tech changes.My twitter: https://x.com/wbetiagoAbout Craig HewittTwitter: https://x.com/TheCraigHewittPodcast: https://roguestartups.com/Timestamps by PodsqueezeGreg's Background and Starting Podcast Motor (00:01:02)Getting First Clients and Sales Approach (00:06:29)US vs. Europe: Customer Acquisition Differences (00:08:25)Localization and Multi-Currency Pricing (00:13:18)Transition from Agency to SaaS: Castus (00:16:30)Distribution Channels and Product Positioning (00:19:06)Impact of AI on Team and Product Development (00:25:28)Bootstrapping vs. Raising Money: Tiny Seed Experience (00:30:25)Agency vs. SaaS: Which to Start First? (00:31:33)Tiny Seed Accelerator: Value and Learnings (00:35:55)Distribution, Churn, and Growth Challenges (00:38:56)Balancing Family, Agency, SaaS, and Accelerator (00:41:05)Using Investment to Scale and the Realities of Raising Money (00:44:05)Investor Returns and Exit Expectations (00:51:19)Podcasting Market Realities and Churn (00:54:10)Pricing, Retention, and Content Marketing Plateau (00:57:23)What to Do When Growth Plateaus (01:00:59)AI's Impact on SaaS and the Economy (01:10:21)US vs. Europe: Entrepreneurial Mindset Differences (01:14:53)Conclusion and Where to Find Greg (01:17:58)Links and MentionsTools and Websites"Castos": "00:01:02""Podcast Motor": "00:01:02""Audacity": "00:05:40""Ecom from Skype": "00:05:40""Blueberry": "00:05:50""Buzzsprout": "00:05:50""Seriously Simple Podcasting": "00:17:36""HubSpot": "00:19:14""Cursor": "00:15:11""Zencastr": "00:22:33""Zoom": "00:22:33""Figma": "00:24:26""Cursor": "00:27:41""TinySeed": "00:30:25""11 Labs": "00:26:30""Claude": "00:26:30""Marnus": "00:26:30""TinySeed": "00:48:33""WordPress": "00:51:19""Podsqueeze": "00:54:10""Apple Podcast Connect": "00:55:13""Rogue Startups": "01:17:58"Books"Steal Like an Artist": "00:19:31"Videos and Podcasts"Nathan Barry's Podcast": "01:08:40"

The guys preview the upcoming games this weekend for Week 2 of the NFL season and share which players from each game they're looking to start or sit in fantasy. Check out our 2025 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here!⁠ Email us! ⁠ringerfantasyfootball@gmail.com (05:52) Eagles-Chiefs (13:22) Bears-Lions (21:44) Seahawks-Steelers (30:42) Giants-Cowboys (38:20) Rams-Titans (43:08) Jaguars-Bengals (49:58) Browns-Ravens (57:12) Bills-Jets (1:11:54) 49ers-Saints (1:20:35) Panthers-Cardinals (1:21:17) Broncos-Colts (1:24:51) Falcons-Vikings (1:28:15) Raiders-Chargers (1:32:00) Buccaneers-Texans (1:36:12) Ringer 107 Picks for Week 2 The all-new Hyundai Palisade Hybrid. Get started today at HubSpot.com  The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Kai Grady, Carlos Chiriboga, and Ronak Nair Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI can do a lot, but it's ineffective when it comes to building relationships with prospects. Even though creating connections is important, most sellers tend to struggle with this. I invited my guest, Ravi Rajani, a sales coach and author of Relationship Currency, to join me in this episode to discuss his newest book. He shares what inspired him to write this book and why sellers need to focus more on building relationships to create strong pipelines.The Origins of "Relationship Currency"· To start, Ravi discusses what inspired him to write his first book. He shares a funny story about talking to his mentor about the idea of writing a book while having a second baby on the way. · Looking back on his career and life, he noticed how much his relationships influenced his success. He learned that by building trust and communication skills, other sellers can achieve the same success.The Central Role of Trust· Would you be friends with your bestie if you didn't trust them? Your prospects feel the same way when it comes to doing business with you. · Trust is the glue that holds relationships together. In his book, Ravi talks about the "Three Cs" of trust:o Connection (the emotional bond)o Character (your invisible values)o Competence (showing expertise without being overbearing)· You need all three to establish lasting trust, whether with clients, colleagues, or partners.The Art of Listening and Empathetic Questions· Ravi explains how surface-level questions yield surface-level relationships, but conscious questions develops deep relationships. · A “conscious question” is rooted in positive intent and service. For example, instead of “How are you?” ask something you know the other person is emotionally invested in.Five Habits to Build Relationship Currency· Here are the five habits that help build the Three Cs:o Transform Your Internal Story: The relationship you have with yourself sets the tone for all others.o Ask Conscious Questions: Rooted in service and positive intent; paired with deep listening.o Unearth Your Charisma: True charisma makes others feel significant.o Tell Stories That Inspire Change: Especially social proof stories—show, don't tell.o Become the Trusted Guide: Help others achieve their goals without self-interest, bringing all habits together.Ravi's Advice for Leaders: Model the Change· If you want your team to be more passionate or authentic, you need to model that energy and intention yourself.· Reinforce these behaviors by acknowledging team members who practice them.· Genuine compliments go a long way—they activate the same brain areas as financial rewards!“I believe that the only currency that has mattered is relationships. And the only currency that will matter moving forward is relationships, especially in a world increasingly being shaped by AI.” - Ravi Rajani.ResourcesRavi RajaniBook | Speaker, Coach & Consultant | Ravi RajaniRavi Rajani's mission is to help B2B tech sales teams ditch feature dumping for storytelling so they can get their prospect's attention, become trusted advisors and win more relationships.Sponsorship Offers1. This episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot.With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and

Jess here. My guest this week is Jeff Selingo, an author and speaker I've admired for a long time. His work on college, college admissions and the transition to work and life in emerging adulthood are essential reads for anyone looking to understand what want and need in higher education and life. His books, There is Life After College, Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions and his forthcoming book, Dream School: Finding the College That's Right for You are all essential reads for teens and emerging adults as well as parents of teens and emerging adults. I adore all three, but I wanted to talk with Jeff about a few aspects of his writing: how he created a speaking career, finds his topics, and how on earth he gets people to talk about topics that tend to be shrouded in secrecy behind very high walls (such as college admissions). Check out Jeff's newsletter, Next, and Podcast, Future UKJ here, as you probably know, to tell you that if you're not listening to the Writing the Book episodes Jenny Nash and I have been doing, you should be. Jenny's working on her latest nonfiction, and I'm working on my next novel, and we're both trying to do something bigger and better than anything we've done before.We sit down weekly and dish about everything—from Jenny's proposal and the process of getting an agent to my extremely circular method of creating a story. We are brutally honest and open—even beyond what we are here. Truly, we probably say way too much. And for that reason, Writing the Book is subscriber-only.So I'm here saying: subscribe. That's a whole 'nother episode a week, and always a juicy one—plus all the other good subscriber stuff: the First Pages: BookLab, Jess's From Author to Authority series, and whatever else we come up with. (It varies enough that it's hard to list it all.) Plus, of course, access whenever we run The Blueprint—which, I don't know, might be soon.That's all I've got. So head to amwritingpodcast.com, get yourself signed up, and come listen to Writing the Book. Then talk to us. Tell us—tell us about your book writing and what's going on. We really want to hear from y'all.Thanks a lot. And Subscribe!Transcript below!EPISODE 465 - TRANSCRIPTKJ Dell'AntoniaHowdy, listeners—KJ here, as you probably know—to tell you that if you're not listening to the Writing the Book episodes Jennie Nash and I have been doing, you should be. Jennie is working on her latest nonfiction, and I'm working on my next novel, and we're both trying to do something bigger and better than anything we've done before. We sit down weekly and dish about everything from Jennie's proposal and the process of getting an agent to my extremely circular method of creating a story. We are brutally honest and open—even beyond what we are here. Truly, we probably say way too much, and for that reason, Writing the Books is subscriber-only. So I'm here saying: subscribe. That's a whole other episode a week, and always a juicy one—plus there's all the other good subscriber stuff: the First Page Booklab, Jess' From Author to Authority series, and whatever else we come up with, which kind of varies enough that it's hard to list out. Plus, of course, access to whenever we run the Blueprint, which—I don't know—it's going to be soon. That's all I got. So head to AmWritingpodcast.com, get yourself signed up and come listen to Writing the Book, and then talk to us. Tell us—tell us about your book writing and what's going on. We really want to—we want to hear from y'all. Thanks a lot, and please subscribe.Multiple SpeakersIs it recording? Now it's recording. Yay! Go ahead. This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone. Try to remember what I'm supposed to be doing. All right, let's start over. Awkward pause. I'm going to rustle some papers. Okay. Now, one, two, three.Jess LaheyHey, it's Jess Lahey, and welcome to the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast. This is a podcast about writing all the things—short things, long things, poetry, proposals, queries, nonfiction, fiction—all the stuff. In the end, this is the podcast about getting the work done. And in the beginning of this podcast, our goal was to flatten the learning curve for other writers. So I am super excited about who I have today. Oh—quick intro. I'm Jess Lahey. I'm the author of The Gift of Failure and The Addiction Inoculation, and you can find my work at The New York Times, The Atlantic and The Washington Post, as you can find the work of my guest there too. So my guest today is someone that I have looked up to for a long time, and someone I use as sort of a—to bounce things off of and to think about how I do my work and how to do my work better. Jeff Selingo, thank you so much for coming to on the show. Jeff is the author of a couple of books that I'm a huge—In fact, I can look over at my bookshelf right now and see all of his books on getting into college, why college is not the end point. He has a new book coming out that we're going to be talking about—really; it's coming out real as soon as this podcast comes out. And I'm just—I'm a huge fan, Jeff. Thank you so, so much for coming on the pod.Jeff SelingoJust the same here—and I'm a huge fan of this podcast as well. It's on my regular rotation, so...Jess LaheyOh yay.Jeff SelingoI am thrilled, as always, to be here.Jess LaheyIt's—it's changed over the years, and now that we have four different, you know, co-hosts, there's sort of different takes on it. We've got, like, Sarina—the business side, and Jess—the nonfiction geek side, and KJ—the fiction side, and Jennie—the nuts-and-bolts editor side. So it's been really fun for us to sort of split off. But what I wanted to talk to you about today are a couple of different things. Your book Who Gets In and Why is—um , on the podcast, we talk about dissecting other people's work as a way... In fact, I was talking to my daughter about this yesterday. She's writing a thesis—what she hopes will be one chapter in a book. And I was saying, you know, one of the things you can do is go dissect other books you think are really well constructed—books that are reaching the same, similar audience. And your book, Who Gets In and Why, I think, is essential reading for anyone who's writing interview based, and specifically nonfiction around attempting to get their arms around a process. And a process that—for you—what I'm really interested about in this book is a process that's usually, you know, guarded and kind of secret. And no one wants to let you in for real on all the moving parts and how the decisions are made, because the college admissions process is—it's an inexact recipe. It depends on where you are, it depends on the school, but everyone wants the secret. Like, Jeff, just get me the secrets of how to get in. So how do you approach people who are, in a sense, some ways, secret-keepers and guardians of the secret sauce—to mix metaphors? How do you get those people to agree to be a part of a book—not just to be interviewed, but to actually put themselves out there and to put the sausage-making out there in a book, which can be a huge leap of faith for any organization or human being?Jeff SelingoYeah, and I think it's definitely harder now than it was when I did Who Gets In and Why. I think it's harder than when, you know, other people have been inside the process—whether it's, you know, Fast Food Nation, with the, you know, the fast food industry, which is a book that I looked up to when I was writing, Who Gets In and Why. I think it's—people just don't trust writers and journalists as much as they used to. So I think that's—a lot of this is really trust. First of all, you have to approach organizations that trust their own process. When people ask me, “Why these three schools?” You know, I approached 24 schools when I wrote, Who Gets In and Why, and three said yes. Twenty-one said no. And when I describe the people who said yes and why they said yes, they trusted their own process. And they also trusted me. But the first thing they did was trust their own process.. And so when I heard later on from people who had said no to me—and I would, you know, talk to them, you know, off the record about why they said no—there was always something about their process, their admissions process, that they didn't trust. They were getting a new, like, software system, or they had new employees that they didn't really quite know, or they were doing things—it's not that they were doing things wrong, but that, you know, it was at the time when the Supreme Court was making a decision about affirmative action, and they didn't quite know how that would play, and so they didn't quite trust it—and then how that, obviously, would be used by me. So the first thing you have to do is think about organizations that really believe in themselves, because they're going to be the ones that are going to talk about themselves externally. And then you just have to build trust between them and you. And that just takes—unfortunately, it takes time. And as a book author or a reporter, you don't always have that on your side.Jess LaheySo when—were some of these cold? Like of the 24, were all of these cold? Were some of these colder? Did you have an in with some of these?Jeff SelingoI had an in with most of them, because I had been covering—I mean, that's the other thing. You know, trust is built over time, and I had been covering higher ed for almost 25 years now. So it was just that they knew me, they knew of me, they knew of my work. I had other people vouch for me. So, you know, I had worked with other people in other admissions offices on other stories, and they knew people in some of these offices, so they would vouch for me. But at the end—so, you know, it ended up being Emory, Davidson and the University of Washington. It was really only Davidson where I knew somebody. Emory and University of Washington—I kind of knew people there that were the initial door opener. But beyond that, it was just spending time with them and helping them understand why I wanted to tell the story, how I thought the story would put play out, and getting them to just trust the process.Jess LaheyThere's also something to be said for people who have some enthusiasm for the greater story to be told—especially people who have an agenda, whether that's opening up admissions to the, quote, “whole student” as opposed to just their test scores, or someone who feels like they really have something to add to the story. Both of the people who I featured in The Addiction Inoculation and who insisted on having their real names used said, you know, there's just—there's a value for me in putting this story out there and finding worth in it, even though for these two people, there was some risk and there was embarrassment, and there's, you know, this shame around substance use disorder. But these two people said, you know, I just think there's a bigger story to be told, and I'm really proud to be a part of that bigger story. So there is a selling aspect also to, you know, how you position what it is you're doing.Jeff SelingoAnd there's—so there's a little bit of that, and that was certainly true here. The admissions deans at these places were longtime leaders who not only trusted their own process but understood that the industry was getting battered. You know, people were not trusting of admissions. They felt like it was a game to be played. And there was definitely a larger story that they wanted to tell there. Now truth be told—and they've told this in conferences that I've been at and on panels that I've moderated with them—there was also a little bit of they wanted to get their own story out, meaning the institutional story, right? Emory is competing against Vanderbilt, and Davidson is a liberal arts college in the South, when most liberal arts colleges are in the Northeast. So there was a little bit of, hey, if we participate in this, people are going to get to know us in a different way, and that is going to help us at the end—meaning the institution.Jess LaheyDo you have to? Did you? Was there a hurdle of, we really have, you know, this is some PR for us, too. So did that affect—I mean, there's a little bit of a Heisenberg thing going on here. Did the fact that you were observing them change, you think, anything about what they did and what they showed you?Jeff SelingoIt's an interesting thing, Jess. It's a great question, because I often get that. Because I was—you know, originally, I wanted to do one office. I wanted to be inside one institution. And when all three of them kind of came back and said, yes, we'll do this—instead of just choosing one of them—I thought, oh, this is interesting. We have a small liberal arts college. We have a big, private urban research university. We have a big public university in the University of Washington. So I wanted to show—kind of compare and contrast—their processes. But that also meant I couldn't be in one place all the time. There's only one of me, and there's three of them, and they're in different parts of the country. So clearly I was not there every day during the process. And somebody would say to me, oh, well, how do you know they're not going to do X, Y, and Z when you're not there? And I quickly realized that they had so much work to do in such a short amount of time that they couldn't really—they couldn't really game the system for me. After a while, I just became like a painting on the wall. I just was there. And in many cases, they didn't even notice I was there—which, by the way, is where you want to be—because they would say things, do things, without realizing sometimes that a reporter was present. And there's the opening scene of the book, which is just a fantastic—in my opinion, one of my favorite scenes in the book—right where they're talking about these students and so forth, and in a way that is so raw and so natural about how they did their work. If they knew I was in the room at that point—which of course they did—but if they really perceived my being there, that would have been really hard to pull off.Jess LaheyDid they have, did you guys have an agreement about off the record moments or anything like that? Or was there and speaking of which, actually, was there any kind of contract going into this, or any kind of agreement going into this?Jeff SelingoI basically told them that there would be no surprises. So everything was essentially on the record unless they explicitly said that, and that was usually during interviews, like one-on-one interviews. But while I was in the room with them, there was really nothing off the record. There couldn't be because it was hard to kind of stop what they were doing to do that. The only thing I promised was that there would be no surprises at the end. So when the book was done, during the fact-checking process, I would do what The New Yorker would do during fact-checking. I wouldn't read the passages back to them, but I would tell them basically what's in there, in terms of it as I fact-checked it. And so they really kind of knew, for the most part—not word for word—but they kind of knew what was in the book before it came out.Jess LaheyI like that term—no surprises. It's a real nice blanket statement for, look, I'm not looking to get—there's no gotcha thing here.Jeff SelingoThere's no gotcha, exactly...Jess LaheyRight. Exactly.Jeff SelingoThis was not an investigative piece. But there were things that, you know, I'm sure that they would have preferred not to be in there. But for the most part, during the fact-checking process, you know, I learned things that were helpful. You know, sometimes they would say, oh, that's an interesting way of—you know, I would redirect quotes, and they would want to change them. And I said, well, I don't really want to change direct quotes, because that's what was said in that moment. And then they would provide context for things, which was sometimes helpful. I would add that to the piece, or I would add that to the book. So at the end of the day—again—it goes back to trust. And they realized what I was trying to do with this book. It's also a book rather than an article. Books tend to have permanence. And I knew that this book would have, you know, shelf life. And as a result, I wanted to make sure that it would stand the test of time.Jess LaheyYeah, I've been thinking a lot about your new book—your book that's just coming out as this is getting out into the world—called Dream School. And by the way, such a great title, because one person's dream school is not another's. But like, my daughter happens to be at, I think, the perfect school for her, and my son went to the perfect school for him—which, by the way, wasn't even his first choice. And in retrospect, he said, I'm just so glad I didn't get into that other place—my, you know, early decision place—because this other place really was the perfect match. And I think that's why I love that title so much, because I spend a lot of time trying to help parents understand that their dream may not necessarily be their child's dream. And what makes something a dream school may, you know—in fact, in terms of time—my daughter was applying to colleges just coming out of COVID. Like, she had never been to a school dance. She'd never—you know—all that kind of stuff. So for me, the dream looked very different than maybe it would have four years prior, thinking I was going to have a kid that had the opportunity to sort of socially, you know, integrate into the world in a very different way. So I love that. And is that something that—how did—how do your ideas emerge? Did it emerge in the form of that idea of what is a dream school for someone? Or—anyway, I'll let you get back to...Jeff SelingoYeah. So, like many follow-up books, this book emerged from discussing Who Gets In and Why. So I was out on the road talking about Who Gets In and Why. And I would have a number of parents—like, you know when you give talks, people come up to you afterwards—and they say, okay, we love this book, but—there's always a but. And people would come up to me about Who Gets In and Why, and they would be like, love the book, but it focused more on selective colleges and universities. What if we don't get into one of those places? What if we can't afford one of those places? What if we don't really want to play that game, and we want permission? And this—this idea of a permission structure came up very early on in the reporting for this book. We need to be able to tell our friends, our family, that it's okay, right? You know how it is, right? A lot of this is about parents wanting to say that their kid goes to Harvard. It's less about going to Harvard, but they could tell their friends that their kid goes to Harvard. So they wanted me to help them create this permission structure to be able to look more widely at schools.Jess LaheyI like that.Jeff SelingoSo that's how this came about, and then the idea of Dream School—and I'm fascinated by your reaction to that title. Because the reaction I've been getting from some people is—you know—because the idea, too many people, the idea of a dream school, is a single entity.Jess LaheyOf course.Jeff SelingoIt's a single school; it's a single type of school. And what—really, it's a play on that term that we talk about, a dream school. In many ways, the dream school is your dream, and what you want, and the best fit for you. And I want to give you the tools in this book to try to figure out what is the best match for you that fulfills your dreams. It's kind of a little play on that—a little tweak on how we think about the dream and dream school. And that's really what I'm hoping to do for this book—is that, in some ways, it's a follow-up. So you read Who Gets In and Why, you decide, okay, maybe I do want to try for those highly selected places. But as I tell the story early on in in Dream School. A. It's almost impossible to get into most of those places today—even more so than five or six years ago. And second, many of the students that I met—young adults that I met in reporting Dream School—ended up at, you know, fill-in-the-blank: most popular school, brand-name school, highly selective school, elite school—whatever you want to put in that blank—and it wasn't quite what they expected. And so that's another story that I want to tell families in this book—is that, hey, there's a wider world out there, and there is success to be had at many of these places.Jess LaheyThere's something I say occasionally, that I have to take the temperature of the room, just because I—you know, you and I speak at some fairly similar places, like, you know, the hoity-toity private schools that—you know, everyone's just go, go, go, do, do, do, achieve, achieve, achieve. And every once in a while, I like to insert—I like to, number one, tell them that my college was, I think, perfect for me. I went to my safety school. I went to the University of Massachusetts and had an extraordinary experience. But I'm a very certain kind of person, and maybe for another—like, for example, my daughter, when we were looking at schools, our state school was just too big for her. It just—she was going to get lost. It wasn't going to work very well. But the thing I like to say when I can, when I feel like the audience is ready to hear it is: What if it's a massive relief if you don't have an Ivy kid? If you have a kid who's not going to get into an Ivy school, isn't it a relief to say that's not what we're aiming for here, and we can actually find a place that's a great fit for my kid? And that sometimes goes over really well. For a few people, they'll come up and thank me for that sort of reframing afterwards. But for some people, that is just not at all what they want to hear.Jeff SelingoAnd it's—you know, it's really hard. And I think you go back to audience, and—you know—most people make money on books kind of after the fact, right? The speaking, as you mentioned, and things like that. And it's interesting—this book, as I talk to counselors about it, high school counselors—oh, they're like, this is perfect. This is the message I've been trying to get through to parents. Then I talk to the parents—like, I'm not quite sure this message will work in our community, because this community is very focused on getting into the Ivy League and the Ivy Plus schools?Jess LaheyYes, but that's why your title is so brilliant. Because if you're getting—and I talk a lot about this, I don't know if you've heard, I've talked about this on the podcast—that with the substance use prevention stuff, it's hard for me to get people to come in. So I use The Gift of Failure to do that, right? So you've got this title that can get the people in the seats, and then you, in your persuasive and charismatic way, can explain to them why this is a term that may—could—use some expanding. I think that's an incredible opportunity.Jeff SelingoAnd it's important, too—early on, my editor told me, “Jeff, don't forget, we're an aspirational society.” And I said—I told, I said, “Rick,” I said, “I'm not telling people not to apply in the Ivy League. I'm not saying they're terrible schools. I'm not saying don't look at those places.” All I'm saying is, we want to expand our field a little bit to look more broadly, more widely. So we're not saying don't do this—we're saying, do “do” this. And that's what I'm hoping that this book does.Jess LaheyWell, and the reality is, people listen to the title. They don't read the subtitle, because subtitles are long, and they have a great use—but not when you're actually talking about a book with someone. And so what they're going to hear is Dream School, and I think that's a fantastic way to position the book. But since you opened up the topic, I also—I am right now mentoring someone who is attempting to sell a book while also planning for a speaking career, which, as you know, is something that I did concurrently. How did you—did you know you wanted to do speaking when you were first writing your books? Or is this something that sort of came out of the books themselves?Jeff SelingoIt just came out of the books. You know, the first book, which was College (Un)bound, which was 2012, sold better than I expected, but it was aimed at a consumer audience. But who ended up reading that were college leaders, presidents and people work at colleges. So I had a very busy schedule speaking to people inside the industry. Then I turned my—you know, the second book, There Is Life After College— really turned it to this parenting audience, which was a very new audience to me, and that really led to me to, you know, Who Gets In and Why, and now this book. The difference—and I'm always curious to talk to parenting authors like you—is that college, you know, people—even the most aspirational people in life, I understand, you know, people in certain cities think about preschool, what preschool their kid's going to get into to get into the right college—but in reality, they're going to read a college book when their kids are in high school. And that is the more challenging piece around, you know, I—unlike most parenting authors who have a wider audience, because a lot of the issues that face parents face parents when they have toddlers, when they have pre-teens, when they have teens. Obviously, some parenting authors just focus on teens, I get that.But this book really has kind of a short life in terms of the audience. And so what we're trying to do—so think about it: Who Gets In and Why— it's still in hardcover. Has never been published in paperback, largely because there's a new audience for it every year, which is fantastic...Jess LaheyYeah, I was going to mention that. That is the massive upside. And for me, it's usually a four-year sort of turnover in terms of speaking anyway.Jeff SelingoYeah, you're right. And so the nice thing on the speaking front is that I have almost a new audience every year, so I could continue to go back to the same schools...Jess LaheyRight.Jeff Selingo...every year, which has been really helpful—with a slightly different message, because the industry is also changing, and admissions is changing as a result. So, no, I—the speaking came afterwards, and now I realize that that's really kind of how you make this thing work. I couldn't really have a writing career without the speaking piece.Jess LaheySince figuring that out—and I guess assuming that you enjoy doing it, as I hope you do—is that something that you're continuing to market on your own?Jeff SelingoYes. So that's what we're doing. You know, one of the big changes from the last book is that we have developed a—you know, we built a customer relationship management system under our newsletter. So we use HubSpot, which is, you know, like Salesforce. It's something like that And so we've now built a community that is much stronger than the one that I had five years ago. That's a community of parents, of counselors, of independent counselors. So we just know so much more about who we serve, who our readers are, and who will ask me to come speak to their groups and things like that. So that, to me, has been the biggest change since the last book compared to this book. And it has enabled us—and it's something that I would highly encourage authors to do. I don't think they have to go out and buy one of these big, robust systems, but the more you know about your readers and build that community, the more that they're going to respond to you. They really want to be with you in some way. They want to read your books. They want to come to your webinars. They want to listen to your podcasts. They want to see you speak. They want to invite you to speak. And building that community is incredibly important to having that career, you know, after the book comes out.Jess LaheyIt's also for marketing purposes. So Sarina Bowen—again, brilliant at this. he way she does that is, she slices and dices her mailing list into all kinds of, like, where the reader came from—is this someone who's, you know, more interested in this, did I—did I meet them at this conference, you know, how did I acquire this name for my list? And she does a lot of marketing very specifically to those specific lists, and that information is amazing. And I think so many of us tend to think just—and I have to admit that this is where I spend most of my time—is just getting more emails in your newsletter. Owning, you know, the right—because it's an honor of being able to reach out to those people and have them be interested in what you have to say. But that's your—I may have to have you come back to talk specifically about that, because it's increasingly—as we're doing more of the marketing for our books—I think that's the future for people who want to keep things going.Jeff SelingoAnd that's—you know, that is the reality today. That's why proposals sell. Because people—you know, publishers really want people with platforms. And if you're not a superstar, there are very few of those out there, you need to figure out another way to build that platform. And so marketing yourself is critically important, and I've learned that from book one. You know, people would say, “Well, you're always just selling your book.” And I said, “Well, if I don't sell it, no one else,” right? So at some point, the publisher—you know, there's only so much the publisher is going to do. And they don't really have the tools that you do. And more than that, Jess, like, you understand your audience. Sarina understands her audience, right? Like, we understand our audiences in ways that publishers, who are doing, you know, dozens and dozens of books a year, just don't get.Jess LaheyRight. No, absolutely.Jeff SelingoLike, no offense against them. I think they're doing really good work. But it's just—it's hard for them, I think, to really understand, well, who's going to really read this book?Jess LaheyAnd I love the idea of using the questions you get. As you know, I tend to take the questions that I get and turn them into videos or—and I do answer all the emails—but I keep a spreadsheet of what those questions are so that I can slice and dice it in various ways. And they're fascinating. And that shapes like, oh wow, I had no idea so many people—like, I had no idea that so many kids were actually interested in knowing whether or not the caffeine—amounts of caffeine that they're drinking—are healthy, or how to get better sleep. Because if you ask their parents, they're like, “Oh no, they don't care about sleep,” or, “They just drink so much coffee and they don't care.” And yet what you hear from the kids is such a different story. And the thing that I also love is the idea of, you know, what that dream school concept means to the actual kid applying. You've probably heard this before, but I needed some symbolic way to let my kids know that this was not, in the end, my decision, and how important this decision was for them in terms of becoming adults. And so I said, the one thing I will never do is put a sticker for a school on the back of my car. Because your choice of where to become a young, emerging adult is not—I don't—that's not my currency to brag on as a parent. It's too important for that. And so people go nuts over that. They're like, “But that's what I really want—is that sticker on the back of the car!” And so I have to be careful when I talk about it, but for my kids, that was my one symbolic act to say, this is about your growth and development, and not my bragging rights. And I think that's a hard message.Jeff SelingoI think that's really important—especially, I have two teens at home. And I think this is a whole topic for another conversation around, you know, most parenting authors are also parents at the same time that they're doing this—advice out to everybody else. And I—I'm very aware of that. I'm also very aware of the privacy that they deserve. And so that's an—it's a fine line. It's a hard line to walk, I will say, for authors, because people—they want to know about you. And they ask you a lot of questions—like, especially around college—like, “Well, where are your kids applying? Where are they going to go?” Like, “Oh, I bet you—especially this book, where I'm encouraging parents to think more broadly—well, you're probably giving that advice to everybody else, but you're not going to follow that, surely, right?” So it's—you just have to—it's hard when you're in this world that you're also part of every day.Jess LaheyIt's really tough. And things have gotten a lot more complicated—as listeners know, I have a trans kid, and that means that everything that I've ever written about that kid is out there. Some of it changeable, a lot of it—most of it—not. And would I do it again? I don't—I don't think so. And that—you know, that's been a journey. But it's also been—you know, we can't know what we don't know. I don't know—it's a tough one. But I really admire your—that's why I throw my safety school thing out there all the time. I'm like, “Look, you know, I went to the place that saved my parents a boatload of money and allowed me to do stuff like traveling that I never would have had the ability to do if I hadn't gone to my state school. And my priorities were big, and adventures, and lots of options.” And I'm very, very clear that standing up for myself was something that I wanted to learn how to do more. On the other hand, that's not been the priority for both of my kids, so... Can I just—I want to ask one quick college question, just because it's—in reading all of your books, this comes up for me over and over again. How do you help parents see the difference between their dream and their kid's dream—or their goals and their kid's goals? And how do you dance that line, which I think is a very easy place to lose readers, lose listeners, because they just shut down and they say, “That's not something I want to mess with. This is too important to me.”Jeff SelingoIt's a fine line. It's a difficult line to walk. At some point I have to realize who's the you that you're speaking to. And I even say this in the introduction of the new book—it's largely parents. They're the readers. I know that—I hope their kids will read it. Maybe—maybe they will, maybe they won't, and maybe they'll read it as a family. But I'm really speaking to the families, and I want them to understand that college especially is an emotional good. It's something many of us—you're talking about your undergraduate experience. I'm not going to ask you how long ago that was, but my undergraduate experience...Jess LaheyI'm 55. So it's been a long time ago.Jeff SelingoAnd I'm 52, right? So same here. But we have this—you know, most people, because of the audiences I tend to speak to, they're not first-generation students, right? They're mostly parents. You know, most of the parents in the audience went to college themselves, and for many of them it was a transformative experience, like it was for me.People met their—they met their lifelong friends, they met their partners, they decided what they wanted to do in life. It was— it was this experience we all think it is. And as a result, I think a lot of parents put that then on their kids. “Well, this was a transforming experience for me, so it definitely has to be a transformative experience for you. Oh, and by the way, these are all the mistakes I made in doing that. I want to make sure you don't make any of those.”Jess LaheyAnd, by the way, no pressure, but this is going to be—this is where you're going to meet your best friends, your spouse. It's the best years of your life, so don't sacrifice even a second of it.Jeff SelingoYeah. And then I...Jess LaheyNo pressure.Jeff SelingoNo pressure. And not only that, but it is—it is something we bought a very long time ago. I'm always amazed when—sometimes we go to the Jersey Shore on vacation, and I'll be out on a walk on the beach in the morning, and I'll see people wearing, you know, college shirts, sweatshirts. And, you know, some of these people are old—much older than I am. And I say, “Oh”—you know, we'll start to have a conversation, and I'll say, “Oh, so does your grandkid, you know, go to X school?” Terrible assumption on my part, I know. But they say, “No, that's where I went.” And it's amazing to me—these are people in their 70s and 80s—because I'm the only other person out that early walking—and they love this thing so much that they're still kind of advertising it. But it was so different back then. And that's the thing that I—going back to your question—that's the thing I try to explain to parents. You can guide this. You can put guardrails up. You might have to put guardrails up about money and location and all that other stuff. But college has changed so much that—don't try to make this your search. You had your chance. You did your search. It worked out. It didn't work out. You would have done things differently. I think that's all great advice to give to your kids. But this is their life. This is their staging ground. They have to learn. And again, it's also different. Like, part of what I hope my books do is to try to explain to people—who, you know, kind of dip in and dip out of higher ed just when their kids are applying—that it's very different than when they applied and went to college.Jess LaheyThe thing I like to mention a lot is that people in admissions read so many applications that they can tell when something is sincere and something is personal and smacks of a kid, as opposed to when something smacks of a parent. That is a very different application. It's a very different essay—which is the thing that I guess I have the most experience with. But—so I am just so incredibly grateful to you for this book. I'm so grateful that there's evidence that people will actually agree to be interviewed, even in thorny situations like college admissions, which—I don't know. I'm still in awe of the fact that you got anyone to say yes. But—and I heavily—I heartily, heartily recommend Dream School to anyone who's listening. I just—I don't even have anyone applying to college, and I think it's just a fascinating topic, because the idea of where we become who we're going to be, and how we prime lots of other stuff that's going to happen later on in our life—I think that's a fascinating topic. So thank you so much for writing about it. Thank you for writing about it with such empathy and such interest. That's the other thing—is you can tell when someone really is interested in a topic when you read their book. And thank you for providing a book that I recommend all the time as a blueprint—as a dissection book—for people writing nonfiction, heavily interviewed nonfiction. So thank you, so, so much. Where can people find you if they want you to come speak, if they want you—if they want to find your books—where can people find you?Jeff SelingoPretty simple. Jeffselingo.com is my website, and you can also follow me on most social—handle is @jeffselingo, as in Jeff. And I just love hearing from readers. As you know, books change lives, and I love hearing the stories when readers tell me they read something in a book and they acted on it. It's just the most beautiful thing.Jess LaheyYeah, it's the best. I get videos occasionally; too, of like little kids doing things their parents didn't think they could do. And—“Look! Look! They did this thing!” It's just—it's an amazing and place of privilege. You have a newsletter also…Jeff SelingoI do. Called Next. It comes out twice a month.Jess LaheyIt's Fantastic!Jeff SelingoOh, well, thank you. And I have a podcast also called Future U— that's more around the kind of the insider-y nature of higher ed and how it works. But a lot—I know a lot of families listen to it to try to understand this black box that is college. So that's called Future U as in U for university.Jess LaheyThe reason I love the podcast so much is, a lot of what parents get exposed to when they're doing the college admissions process are those graphs—scatter graphs of like, where do your numbers intersect with the expectations of this school—and it's a real human version of that. It's a human version of how that black box operates.Jeff SelingoAnd at the end of the day, as I always remind parents, it's a business. You might have this emotional tie to college, but if you don't—if you don't—and you know a mutual friend of ours, Ron Lieber, who writes for The New York Times around...Jess LaheyHe's the best! The best!Jeff SelingoCollege finances, right? He always reminds people of this too. I don't remind them as often as he does, and I probably should. It's this—you're buying a consumer product. And you have to act as a consumer. Yes, you can have an emotional tie and a love for this place, but this is a big purchase, and you have to approach it like that.Jess LaheyDid you see his most recent piece about, yeah, taking some time and seeing—seeing what kind of offers you can get? I loved it. I love Ron's approach to—he's just a great guy. And his books are fantastic. Thank you again, so much. I'm going to let you get on with your day, but I'm always grateful for you. And good luck with the launch of Dream School.I will be out applauding on pub day for you.Jeff SelingoAppreciate it. Thank you, Jess.Jess LaheyAll right, everyone—until next week, keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game.NarratorThe Hashtag AmWriting Podcast is produced by Andrew Perella. Our intro music, aptly titled Unemployed Monday, was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output—because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

This week, Joe and Robert dig into the Reddit phenomenon. Leading in AI findability (AEO) and trusted by geeks everywhere, the platform is having its coming-out moment. Is it time to ride the marketing train to Reddit town? Here's why Reddit marketing could be your next big business move OpenAI wants to make a full-length animated movie that isn't AI slop. Can they pull it off, or is this just a content marketing play? (Hint: the latter.) OpenAI wants to make an AI movie that isn't slop Meanwhile, the team at Robinhood is rolling out a new social media app. But is now the right time for another platform? Reddit, X get new rival with Robinhood Social's launch Marketing winners and losers this week include Liquid Death (Yahoo Can Coolers – Liquid Death) and Ben & Jerry's (Ben & Jerry's founders want to scoop out their brand). Rants and raves feature the AI-driven destruction of the career ladder (AI isn't just ending entry-level jobs. It's ending the career ladder) and LinkedIn's latest analytics upgrade (Post | LinkedIn). ------- This week's sponsor: Did you know that most businesses only use 20% of their data? That's like reading a book with most of the pages torn out. Point is, you miss a lot. Unless you use HubSpot. Their customer platform gives you access to the data you need to grow your business. The insights trapped in emails, call logs, and transcripts.  All that unstructured data that makes all the difference. Because when you know more, you grow more. Visit https://www.hubspot.com/ to hear how HubSpot can help you grow better. ------- Get all the show notes: https://www.thisoldmarketing.com/ Get Joe's new book, Burn the Playbook, at www.joepulizzi.com/books/burn-the-playbook/ Subscribe to Joe's Newsletter at https://www.joepulizzi.com/signup/. Get Robert Rose's new book, Valuable Friction, at https://robertrose.net/valuable-friction/  Subscribe to Robert's Newsletter at https://seventhbearlens.substack.com/ ------- This Old Marketing is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network: https://www.hubspot.com/podcastnetwork    

Ever worked with a leader who treated everything as "urgent" until nothing felt important anymore? In this conversation with Drew Lints, founder of Revflow Growth Partners, Cam and Otis explore the human side of business systems and how the right tools can actually help leaders care for their people better."At the end of the day, we want to accomplish the thing that I was so bad at early on—keeping track of everyone, making sure that they're cared for," Drew explains, revealing how his own leadership journey shaped his approach to CRM and business systems.From discussing the fine line between genuine urgency and manufactured pressure to exploring alternatives to expensive enterprise solutions like Salesforce and HubSpot, this episode offers practical insights for leaders looking to grow without losing the human connection. Drew shares how simple tools—even just an Excel spreadsheet with names and personal details—can transform how leaders engage with their teams and clients.Whether you're scaling a business, leading a team, or just trying to bring more intentionality to your work, Drew's approach to "efficiency creates clarity, and clarity unlocks growth" offers a refreshing perspective on how technology can enhance rather than replace human connection.More About Drew:I help organizations unlock growth by building smarter systems, clearer strategies, and more efficient workflows. As Founder & CEO of Revflow Growth Partners, I bring over 25 years of experience in coaching, consulting, and revenue leadership.My journey began in 1999, leading people, building teams, and driving mission-focused growth. Those years shaped my passion for aligning vision with strategy and creating systems that help people flourish.In 2023, I launched Revflow to scale that mission. Today, we design CRMs, automations, and growth systems that eliminate waste, create clarity, and drive lasting results. I also provide fractional CRO services, helping companies accelerate revenue and scale without the cost of a full-time executive.At my core, I believe efficiency creates clarity, and clarity unlocks growth.#10xyourteam #LeadershipWithHeart #HumanCenteredGrowth #BusinessSystems #TeamEngagement #IntentionalLeadership #EfficiencyUnlocksGrowth #ClarityInAction #SmartWorkflows #LeadWithPurpose #ScalingWithCareChapter Times and Titles:The Technology Struggle Is Real [00:00 - 05:00]Cam's equipment troubles and planning lessonsIntroduction to Drew Lints and RevflowSetting the stage for systems discussionFinding the Balance in Urgency [05:01 - 15:00]The challenge of determining what's truly urgent"I'm always everything is urgent" - Drew's honest admissionHow leaders can better prioritize for their teamsKeeping Track of Everyone [15:01 - 25:00]Drew's early leadership strugglesFrom simple spreadsheets to robust CRMsThe core purpose: making sure people are cared forRight-Sized Tools for Growth [25:01 - 35:00]Alternatives to expensive enterprise solutions"They cost a lot and they have a lot of stuff that as a small business you don't need"Finding the right tool for your specific situationWhen Systems Meet Ego [35:01 - 45:00]The irony of mission-focused leaders getting wrapped up in themselvesHow good systems can keep the focus on peopleBalancing process with purposeConnecting with Revflow [45:01 - End]RevflowPartners.io introductionHow to schedule time with DrewFinal thoughts on creating systems that serve peopleDrew Lintshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-lints-45bb9045/https://revflowpartners.io/

Want 22 ChatGPT Marketing Agents to handle your work? Get it here: https://clickhubspot.com/bpg Ep. 361 Marketing is only limited by your own creativity and ambition right now. Kipp and Nicholas Holland, Head of AI, SVP Product at HubSpot, dive into how the world's top 1% of marketers are deploying AI for explosive growth. Learn more on why context is the most important word for AI in 2026, the rise of agents and assistants for every marketing use case, and how today's marketers can 10x their creativity by practicing and pushing past the limits of what's possible. Mentions Nicholas Holland https://www.linkedin.com/in/nashvilleholland/ HubSpot Breeze https://www.hubspot.com/products/ai ChatGPT https://chatgpt.com/ Gemini https://gemini.google.com/ Nano Banana https://nanobanana.ai/ Google Veo https://deepmind.google/models/veo/ Get our guide to build your own Custom GPT: https://clickhubspot.com/customgpt We're creating our next round of content and want to ensure it tackles the challenges you're facing at work or in your business. To understand your biggest challenges we've put together a survey and we'd love to hear from you! https://bit.ly/matg-research Resource [Free] Steal our favorite AI Prompts featured on the show! Grab them here: https://clickhubspot.com/aip We're on Social Media! Follow us for everyday marketing wisdom straight to your feed YouTube: ​​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGtXqPiNV8YC0GMUzY-EUFg  Twitter: https://twitter.com/matgpod  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matgpod  Join our community https://landing.connect.com/matg Thank you for tuning into Marketing Against The Grain! Don't forget to hit subscribe and follow us on Apple Podcasts (so you never miss an episode)! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-against-the-grain/id1616700934   If you love this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review https://link.chtbl.com/h9_sjBKH and share your favorite episodes with friends. We really appreciate your support. Host Links: Kipp Bodnar, https://twitter.com/kippbodnar   Kieran Flanagan, https://twitter.com/searchbrat ‘Marketing Against The Grain' is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by Hubspot Media // Produced by Darren Clarke.

HubSpot's Social Impact Lead, Kaiya Salemy, joins Behind the Impact to discuss her career journey, HubSpot's approach to social impact, and more.

In this episode of the Digital Agency Growth Podcast, I'm joined by Eric Baum, founder and CEO of Blue Leads—one of the top HubSpot Solutions Partners globally.Eric shares the full arc of his journey, from accidentally starting an agency after hacking Yellow Pages spend for his plumbing business, to scaling a team of 40+, to building one of the most successful HubSpot implementations agencies in the world.We dig into what it actually takes to get out of the sales seat, build second-layer leadership, and scale without losing your mind.If you're running an agency, this is a masterclass in letting go, thinking bigger, and staying relevant in a fast-changing market.⏱️ Timestamps0:00 – Intro & Eric's journey from plumbing franchises to marketing2:30 – How $25K Yellow Pages spend turned into Blue Leads4:00 – Betting on HubSpot before anyone cared6:00 – From accidental agency to structured growth9:00 – Discovering EOS and transforming the business13:00 – Cash flow traps and scaling mistakes16:00 – Why most agencies grow like a jigsaw puzzle18:00 – “Inbound is broken” – what's working now21:00 – Strategic partnerships & the Crossbeam approach23:30 – AI hype vs. actual implementation: where to invest26:00 – Building your second layer of leadership30:00 – Letting go of the vine – how to replace yourself34:00 – What tools and platforms Eric would bet on today37:00 – If he had to start over, here's what he'd do39:00 – The sales team you should've hired42:00 – Where to find Eric online (and why he loves war stories)

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Are you stuck acting like an order taker instead of leading your clients with strategy? If you want to grow an agency that survives the competition, you need to do more than deliver pretty websites or manage ad budgets. You need to lead with strategy, prove it with data, and guide your clients through the journey—not the other way around. Too many agencies are still making decisions based on “gut feelings” instead of data, which is why today's featured guest is tackling exactly that problem—making it easier for everyone in a company to use data daily, so decisions are grounded in reality, not instinct. Pete Caputa is the CEO of Databox, a business intelligence platform built for small to mid-market companies that makes data adoption simple across teams. Before that, Pete spent nine years at HubSpot, where he famously launched and scaled the agency partner program—now responsible for billions in revenue. But Pete's journey didn't start in SaaS boardrooms. He began as an engineer, dabbled in early 2000s web apps after learning to code, and struggled through the grind of bootstrapping. his own ventures. A key pivot came when he connected with sales coach Rick Rober, who helped him sharpen his sales chops. That path eventually led him to HubSpot as the fourth sales rep and later, the architect behind the company's groundbreaking agency channel. In this episode, we'll discuss: Creating the HubSpot Agency Partner Program. Why agencies need to lead with strategy. AI as the new strategic edge. Selling strategy as a service. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. The Birth of the HubSpot Agency Partner Program Early HubSpot sales conversations looked familiar to many agency owners: lots of free education, lots of excitement… and lots of ghosting. Agencies wanted to roll HubSpot out to their clients, but deals rarely closed. Pete recognized the deeper problem —agencies were stuck in project-based work and living on the cash flow rollercoaster. So he set out to teach agencies to package ongoing retainers instead of chasing one-off projects. That simple but powerful shift unlocked stability and scale. Agencies suddenly had recurring revenue, longer-term client relationships, and the ability to deliver compounding value. HubSpot, of course, became the backbone of that service delivery. What started as a scrappy idea became a multi-billion-dollar channel—and one of the most successful agency programs in SaaS history. Leaving HubSpot As HubSpot scaled, so did its internal politics. Pete found himself in the middle of a growing conflict between the direct sales team and the partner channel. Instead of collaborating, the two operated like competing businesses, often clashing at the deal level. Pete saw a solution, but realized implementing it would be painful in company scaling that fast. He eventually stepped away, even though he was responsible for nearly 40% of HubSpot's revenue at the time. “It got harder to get things done,” he admitted—proof that what works in a startup culture doesn't always survive as companies mature. The Evolving Challenges for Agencies Back in the early 2000s, agencies had to convince clients digital marketing was worth investing in. SEO, social, and funnels were foreign concepts for most businesses. Agencies had to sell belief before they could sell retainers. Today, the problem isn't buy-in—it's competition. Businesses now see digital as essential, but agencies are often commoditized into executing tactics. Instead of being trusted advisors, many find themselves replaceable—either by freelancers, in-house hires, or other agencies that “do the same thing cheaper.” The risk is clear: if you're not leading clients strategically, you're just a vendor waiting to be swapped out. Agencies Need to Lead With Strategy Most agencies claim to do strategy, but really, they only use it to justify selling a tactic. Redesigning a website? They'll run some quick competitor research. Launching content marketing? They'll whip up a persona doc. But that's not strategy—it's sales collateral. Pete is now working on a framework he calls Predictable Scale. It starts with true strategy: competitive research, customer research, defining vision and mission, and setting clear objectives. Only then do tactics come into play. Most agencies don't put these together in the right sequence and, as a result, get pushed in to executing tactics. For agencies, this is the key to breaking out of the execution box and earning a permanent seat at the table. AI as the New Strategic Edge These days, agencies can leverage AI to accelerate strategy and client service. It can be as simple as using AI to run a SWOT analysis, refine your brand voice, mission and vision, and then taking all the data and use it to create a custom GPT you can run to generate client-facing plans. One mastermind member, Chris Dwyer, took this to the extreme by building a board of AI advisors (finance, marketing, sales, and acquisitions) and saw incredible growth as a result. Pete's team has also dabbled in this use of AI and created a custom GPT called Pete GPT. They feed in customer interviews, surveys, and Pete's own writing so the tool can generate content in his voice. Beyond content, AI is speeding up product feedback loops. By connecting call transcripts, chat logs, and support tickets, his product team can instantly spot customer needs and prioritize features—a process that used to take weeks of interviews. Pete also has an AI agent that handles about 50% of his agency's conversations with prospects and clients, with a customer satisfaction score of 70% so far. For agencies, the message is clear: if you're not already embedding AI into your workflows, you're falling behind. Onboarding and Client Retention Still Matter Most Not everything should be automated, however, especially when it comes to onboarding. Onboarding can make or break a client relationship in the first 60 days. Too many agencies rely entirely on Zoom and automation, missing the opportunity to build true connection. “No one meets with clients in person anymore,” he said, and it's costing them. Some of the most successful agencies in Jason's mastermind make it a priority to visit new clients in person during the first quarter. That small gesture builds trust, creates deeper bonds, and makes it much harder for clients to churn later. With competition as fierce as it is, going the extra mile in onboarding may be the simplest competitive advantage agencies can claim. Selling Strategy as a Service Pete wrapped up the conversation by introducing Databox's new program for agencies: business intelligence as a service. Until now, most agencies used Databox to report on campaign performance. But Pete sees a bigger opportunity—helping agencies package BI consulting as a strategic service. Instead of being the vendor that just improves ad ROAS or runs SEO reports, agencies can step up as partners who improve an entire company's performance. That means quarterly reviews looking not just at marketing metrics, but at sales, ops, finance, and customer success data too. For agencies tired of being “order takers,” this is the chance to finally sell strategy over tactics—and get paid for it. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

In this episode of No Brainer, hosts Geoff Livingston and Greg Verdino welcome Scott Brinker, one of the world's leading experts on marketing technology. You may know him from his long-running blog at chiefmartec and his widely used MarTech landscape “supergraphic”, as the man AdAge has called the “Godfather of MarTech,” or from his time as HubSpot's VP of Platform Ecosystem. Scott shares his insights about the evolving role of AI in marketing, the AI opportunities and challenges faced by small and mid-sized businesses, and the importance of data strategy for successful marketing AI implementation. The conversation emphasizes the need for organizations to adapt their culture and leadership to embrace AI, focusing on innovation rather than just efficiency. The episode concludes with insights on the future of work and the potential of AI to transform industries. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:17 The Intersection of Marketing and Technology 06:47 Challenges for Different Business Sizes 10:09 Empowering Smaller Businesses with Technology 13:57 The Power of Individual Creators 19:57 Navigating Change in Organizations 23:52 Data as a Strategic Asset 24:38 The Importance of Data Infrastructure 28:43 AI's Role in Data Management 33:44 Embracing Innovation Over Efficiency 38:41 The Future of Work and AI 45:29 Final Thoughts and Future Directions Links Scott's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjbrinker/ Chiefmartec: https://chiefmartec.com/ The latest MarTech “Supergraphic:” https://chiefmartec.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/martech-map-marketing-technology-landscape-2025-slide.png Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's episode of Little Talks, Roop and Claudia are back from HubSpot's INBOUND 25 marketing conference in San Fransisco, and boy oh boy do they have updates! Everything from new HubSpot products to a new marketing playbook for the AI age called Loop Marketing, it's a LOT. Plus their favorite speakers, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and friend of the podcast, Jay Schwedelson (who had a special message for Sam, since he wasn't able to go this year).So where to begin? Well, this week we just try to unpack what they saw and heard from a high level. In the coming weeks you'll get breakdowns on new HubSpot offerings ranging from Breeze Agents (HubSpot's AI platform) to Smart CRM (their data enrichment tool that is truly next level), as well as a deeper dive into The Loop (HubSpot's reimagined playbook for staying in front of customers where they are in the age of AI.Think of this episode as a "preview" of what's to come. Going to catch our breathes, see you again next week!—Roop, Claudia, Sam and ChelseaP.S. Pre-order Jay Scwedleson's new book, Stupider People Have Done It: Marketing Truths, Career Moves, and Life Advice for Doers! All proceeds go to V Foundation for cancer research.Tell us what you think!

¿Tu negocio no crece como debería? El problema no es tu marketing, ni tus ventas… es tu modelo de negocio.

The guys react to Monday Night Football featuring the debut of  J.J. McCarthy on the Vikings and Caleb Williams' first game with Ben Johnson as the Bears coach.  Next, SHOWDOWN TIME! Must-add players at each position ahead of NFL Week 2. (0:00) Intro(1:49) Monday Night Football(26:41) RB Waivers: Dylan Sampson (Browns), Trey Benson (Cardinals), and Bhayshul Tuten (Jaguars)(43:22) WR Waivers: Cedric Tillman (Browns), Hollywood Brown (Chiefs), and Kayshon Boutte (Patriots)(01:01:09) TE Waivers: Harold Fanin Jr. (Browns) Brenton Strange (Jaguars), and Juwan Johnson (Saints)(01:18:18) QB Waivers: Daniel Jones (Colts)(01:20:09) D/ST Waivers: Seahawks, Patriots, and Buccaneers Check out our 2025 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here!Email us! ringerfantasyfootball@gmail.com The all-new Hyundai Palisade Hybrid. Get started today at HubSpot.com The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig HorlbeckProducers: Kai Grady, Carlos Chiriboga, and Ronak Nair Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey CX Nation,In this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast #265, we welcomed Mario Baddour, President & CEO of InteLogix, based in Park City, UT. InteLogix provides customer experience (CX) solutions and accounts receivable management (ARM) operations that enhance customer loyalty and revenue for their clients. They combine human engagement with digital tools and automation to minimize customer effort and boost loyalty by offer long-term value through scalable CX and both first-party and third-party ARM operations.Their mission is to make lives better by engaging, listening, and resolving consumer concerns and obligations with empathy and innovation. And advocate for their clients brands and reputations as their own.In this episode, Mario and Adrian chat through the Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback. Plus share some of the ideas that his team at InteLogix think through on a daily basis to build world class customer experiences.**Episode #265 Highlight Reel:**1. Focusing on building an elite Team above all else to drive success & growth 2. Solving problems for your customers & providing constant value  3. Structuring & configuring your data before finding the optimal tech-solutions 4. Building & deploying living playbooks to propel your team forward rapidly 5. Taking customer data & feedback to drive product development Click here to learn more about Mario BaddourClick here to learn more about InteLogixHuge thanks to Mario for coming on The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring his work and efforts in pushing the customer experience & customer contact space into the future.For Apple & Spotify podcast listener friends, make sure you are following CXC & leave a 5 star review so we can find new members of the "CX Nation". You know what would be even better?Go tell your friends or teammates about CXC's custom content, strategic partner solutions (Hubspot, Intercom, & Freshworks to name a few) & On-Demand services & invite them to join the CX Nation, a community of 15K+ customer focused business leaders!Want to see how your customer experience compares to the world's top-performing customer focused companies? We launched CXC Healthzone, an intelligence platform that shares benchmarks & insights for how companies across the world are tackling The Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback & how they are building the pillars upon an AI-powered foundation for the future. Huge thanks for being apart of the "CX Nation" and helping customer focused business leaders across the world make happiness a habit!Reach Out To CXC Today!Support the showContact CXChronicles Today Tweet us @cxchronicles Check out our Instagram @cxchronicles Click here to checkout the CXC website Email us at info@cxchronicles.com Remember To Make Happiness A Habit!!

Marketing today comes with more choices than ever—social platforms, ad strategies, content creation, AI tools, and data analytics can all feel overwhelming. But at the heart of it, effective marketing comes down to making clear, confident decisions that align with your goals, resources, and audience. In this episode of The Power of After Show, Greg and I together have a conversation about recent decisions I've made about marketing and how I worked through some of the thought processes. While doing so, we unpack the key factors that drive better marketing decisions and explore how to avoid common pitfalls. We also share practical questions you can ask to ensure your strategy is focused, sustainable, and impactful. Full article here: https://goalsforyourlife.com/marketing-decisions Get POWER OF AFTER BOOK HERE: https://amzn.to/3GpEGlJ  Make sure you're getting all our podcast updates and articles! Get them here: https://goalsforyourlife.com/newsletter  Resources with tools and guidance for mid-career individuals, professionals & those at the halftime of life seeking growth and fulfillment: http://HalftimeSuccess.com  CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Introduction 02:13 - Marketing Goals and Objectives 04:37 - Marketing as a Solution to Customer Needs 09:58 - Importance of Data in Marketing Investments 12:38 - Effective Allocation of Marketing Budget 18:00 - Understanding Frequency and Reach 20:16 - Generating Sales Opportunities through Marketing 22:25 - The Role of Hope in Marketing 24:10 - Key Takeaways and Summary 25:25 - Thank You for Joining Us 27:28 - Outro

What happens when your firm is ready to scale its marketing engine—but doesn't yet have a unified CRM? In this episode of Amplify!, host Meg Hoevener sits down with James Kuch, Digital Marketing Specialist at Yeo & Yeo, to talk about building a robust automation strategy in HubSpot, even when infrastructure isn't fully in place. James walks through the creative ways his team supports multiple service lines and brands under one marketing platform—from list segmentation and email workflows to internal campaigns, digital advertising, and social scheduling. You'll also hear lessons learned from transitioning off Constant Contact, how to integrate other platforms using HubSpot's Operations Hub, and what to prioritize when bandwidth is tight. Whether you're a solo marketer juggling multiple tools or part of a firm evaluating your next MarTech investment, this episode offers tactical takeaways for building smarter, leaner campaigns.   For more Amplify episodes and to learn more about the Association for Accounting Marketing, visit accountingmarketing.org/category/amplify

We're bringing back one of our most popular episodes from the archive with Ron Tite, because the lessons are just as relevant today as when we first recorded it. As salespeople, we all know that grabbing attention and earning trust are two of the hardest (and most critical) parts of the job. Ron breaks down exactly how to do both without relying on gimmicks or old-school tactics.Meet Ron TiteRon Tite is the founder and keynote speaker of the Toronto-based agency Church+State, and the author of Think Do Say: How to Seize Attention and Build Trust in a Busy, Busy World. With a background as an executive creative director at a multinational ad agency and years of experience as a stand-up comedian, Ron brings a unique blend of creativity, storytelling, and practical business insight to the world of sales and marketing.Why Attention Alone Isn't EnoughSalespeople are fighting for space in an overcrowded marketplace. From flashy billboards in Times Square to hyper-targeted street-level sellers, everyone's competing for attention. But attention without trust won't get you very far. Ron explains why chasing vanity metrics is a dead end and how to build credibility in a noisy world.The Three Anchors: Think, Do, SayRon shares a simple but powerful framework:· Think: What do you truly believe in as a salesperson?· Do: How are you reinforcing those beliefs through your actions?· Say: How are you communicating them authentically without falling into “pitch slap” mode? When you align these three, your outreach feels human, real, and trustworthy.Invest in Being GoodJust like comedians can't fake being funny, salespeople can't fake caring about their clients. Long-term success doesn't come from gimmicks or platform-hopping, it comes from genuinely adding value and building relationships.Real-World Examples· Red Bull: Their entire brand is built on a belief (life with an adrenaline rush is better) and consistently reinforced through actions and messaging.· Ron's own career: His first big client came not from tricks, but from trust he'd built over years.Lessons for Sales Leaders· Don't hire someone hoping they'll “save” the business—hire coachable people who are hungry to learn.· Give your team clear responsibilities so they can excel where they're strongest.· Focus on humanity and credibility over hacks and short-term wins.“Looking for ways to seize attention and build trust may be difficult, but resist the desire to scheme. Do the hard work, be human, and focus on solving real problems.” – Ron TiteResources· Connect with Ron Tite on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter and Instagram.· Check out his book: Think Do Say.· For more sales insights, connect with Donald on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.Sponsorship Offers1. This episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot.With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and turn prospects into pipelines. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com/sales.2. This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn.Are you tired of prospective clients not responding to your emails? Sign up for a free 60-day trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator at

The marketing news of the week: A federal judge has ordered a shakeup of Google's search engine. Some call it a slap on the wrist, but it's clear even the courts see Google's dominance slipping. With AI search and new competitors on the rise, will Google's empire burn down? -- Judge orders search shakeup in Google monopoly case | PBS News Meanwhile, the so-called “marketing AI boom” is running headfirst into a crisis of customer trust. But do people really care about privacy, or is it just talk? Joe and Robert debate whether it matters at all. -- Marketing AI boom faces crisis of consumer trust Winners and Losers: Creators landing SNL deals (Creators Take Over SNL

In staffing, your applicant tracking system (ATS) may feel like both a lifeline and a limitation. It's great at storing resumes and ensuring compliance—but does it actually help you nurture candidates, align with marketing, or forecast sales? In this episode, host Alexandra Whitmore is joined by Abigail Allen, SVP of Sales at SmartBug, to tackle the big question: Is it time to fire your ATS? Together, they explore:

Jessica Zwaan, Author of Built for People & COO at Talentful, joined us on The Modern People Leader.We talked about AI adoption in HR, from policy design to hands-on building. We explored the “Wild West” of AI use, tool selection, overcoming the stigma of ‘cheating,' and practical frameworks like the 4Bs (Bot, Build, Borrow, Buy) to guide adoption and innovation.---- Sponsor Links:

HubSpot, a software company headquartered in Cambridge, has a dwindling presence in Mass.

This Podcast Is Episode 644, And It's About Five Hidden Ways Contractors Lose Profits (And How To Stop It) Where did the money go? If you've ever looked at your bank account at the end of a busy month and thought, "I did all that work—so where did the money go?", you're not alone. This is one of the most common frustrations we hear from small business owners in the construction industry. You're booking jobs, staying busy, and delivering great work—but the profit doesn't seem to match the effort. As construction bookkeeping specialists, we've seen behind the numbers of dozens of small contractors. And time and again, we find the same hidden leaks draining their profits. The good news? Once you know what to look for, you can fix them—and finally start keeping more of what you earn. Here are five common ways contractors lose profits (without even realizing it)—and what you can do to stop the leaks. 1. Untracked Labor Hours: Working More Than You Billed Labor is often your most considerable cost. But for many small contractors, labor tracking is one of the weakest parts of their system. If you (or your crew) aren't logging actual hours worked on each job, you're likely underestimating how much time the project really took. That means you're effectively working for free on those "extra" hours. Real example: A contractor estimated a bathroom remodel at 40 hours of labor. The job actually took 55 hours. At $50/hour, that's $750 of lost profit—just from labor under-tracking. Multiply that across several jobs, and you can see how the profits evaporate. How to fix it: Use a simple time-tracking tool (like QuickBooks Time, or even a shared spreadsheet). Log hours daily—not at the end of the week when details are fuzzy. Compare estimated vs. actual hours after each job. This helps you improve future bids and spot inefficiencies. Bookkeeper's tip: If you track hours properly, I can show you job profitability in real time—and you'll see exactly which jobs (or crew members) are eating into your margin. 2. Unapproved Change Orders: Giving Away Work for Free Scope creep is the silent profit killer. A client asks, "Can you just add this?" and you say yes because it seems like a minor request. But those "little extras" add up quickly—and suddenly your margins are gone. Real example: A deck project initially included a standard railing. Midway through, the client asked for an upgraded design. The contractor agreed but never adjusted the invoice. The upgrade cost him $500 in materials and 10 extra labor hours—completely unpaid. How to fix it: Create a straightforward change order process. Stop work when clients request something new until the change is approved in writing. Even if it feels awkward, remember: change orders protect both you and the client by keeping expectations clear. Bookkeeper's tip: Keep a change order log for each job. We can help track approved vs. pending changes—so nothing slips through the cracks. 3. Material Waste and Overruns: Small Leaks, Big Losses Materials are another common leak. If you're not reconciling receipts against your estimates, you may be spending far more than you realize. It's not always theft or big mistakes—it's the little things: over-ordering, miscuts, lost supplies, or last-minute runs to the hardware store. Real example: A contractor estimated $5,000 in materials for a kitchen remodel. By the end, he had spent $5,800. That $800 didn't seem huge—but on a project with a $2,000 expected profit, it wiped out nearly half. How to fix it: Match every material receipt to the job. Track waste (e.g., lumber offcuts, unused drywall sheets). Build a small buffer into estimates (5–10%) to account for inevitable overruns. Do weekly check-ins: Are material costs still aligned with the budget? Bookkeeper's tip: If you send us your receipts consistently, we can flag when a job is trending over budget before it's too late. 4. Late Invoicing and Slow Collections: Cash Flow Gaps Many contractors do the work first and think about invoicing later. The problem is that late invoices result in late payments. And late payments can create cash flow crunches that force you to dip into savings, use credit, or delay your own bills. Worse, some clients "forget" to pay unless reminded. If you're not consistent about invoicing and follow-ups, you might never collect everything you've earned. Real example: A contractor finished a $10,000 basement project but didn't invoice until six weeks later. The client delayed payment for another four weeks. That's 10 weeks without income—while the contractor was already paying subs and suppliers. How to fix it: Invoice immediately at milestones—not weeks later. Use progress billing: collect deposits upfront, then bill at set phases. Set clear payment terms (Net 15, Net 30) in your contracts. Automate reminders using software like QuickBooks, Joist, or FreshBooks. Bookkeeper's tip: We can set up a system where invoices go out automatically and overdue payments are flagged—so you never have to chase clients down again. 5. Forgetting Overhead: Missing the True Cost of Running Your Business This is one of the biggest mistakes we see: contractors price jobs based only on direct costs (labor + materials) and forget to include overhead. Overhead is everything it takes to keep your business running, like: Truck payments and fuel Insurance and licenses Office supplies and software Marketing and advertising Your own salary! If you don't factor in overhead, you might think you made a profit—but really, you just broke even. Real example: A contractor charged $15,000 for a renovation. Materials and labor cost $11,000, so it looked like a $4,000 profit. However, once overhead was factored in (including fuel, insurance, phone, bookkeeping, etc.), the actual profit was closer to $1,200. How to fix it: Calculate your monthly overhead. Divide that into your billable hours or projects. Add it to every estimate. Bookkeeper's tip: We can calculate your overhead burden per job, so you'll know exactly how much to add to every quote to stay profitable. Recap: 5 Hidden Profit Leaks Untracked labor hours Unapproved change orders Material waste and overruns Late invoicing and slow collections Forgetting overhead Each of these may seem small, but together they can drain thousands of dollars from your business every year. The Bottom Line: You Don't Have to Keep Losing Money The difference between "busy and broke" and "busy and profitable" isn't more jobs—it's better control of your numbers. When you track your labor, materials, change orders, invoices, and overhead, you stop the leaks and keep more of the money you've already earned. And you don't have to do it alone. As construction bookkeeping specialists, we help small contractors: Track job profitability in real time Catch hidden leaks before they get worse Set up systems that save time and reduce stress Contact us today and get the help you need. About The Author: Norhalma Verzosa is a Certified Construction Marketing Professional and serves as the Web Administrator of Fast Easy Accounting, located in Lynnwood, WA. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and is a Certified Internet Web Professional, with certifications in Site Development Associate, Google AdWords Search Advertising, and HubSpot Academy. She manages the entire web presence of Fast Easy Accounting using a variety of SaaS tools, including HubSpot, Teachable, Shopify, and WordPress.

In this episode of RevOps Review, Jeff Ignacio sits down with Rich Archbold, SVP at HubSpot, for a deep dive into how one of the most iconic GTM platforms is using AI, not just to scale workflows, but to rethink them entirely.Rich shares how HubSpot is applying AI across the customer journey, from CRM hygiene to guided selling, to coaching reps via custom GPTs, and how frontline teams are quietly becoming GTM engineers themselves. They explore what happens when every employee uses AI, how this impacts org design (including middle management), and why building a “faster horse” just won't cut it anymore.If you're navigating AI in a RevOps or go-to-market leadership role, this one is a blueprint for what's coming next.

Want our NEW Loop Marketing Prompt Library? Get it here: https://clickhubspot.com/lmp Ep. 359 Did you know that 60% of Google searches now end without a single click? Kipp and Aja Frost, Sr. Director of Global Growth at HubSpot, dive into why traditional marketing is broken and what the future of conversions looks like in a world dominated by AI. Learn more about how AI is upending search and website traffic, why the future belongs to marketers who can personalize experiences at scale, and the brand new Loop Framework that will transform how you drive results in 2024 and beyond. Mentions Aja Frost https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajafrost/ HubSpot Loop Marketing https://www.hubspot.com/loop-marketing ChatGPT https://chatgpt.com/ Claude https://claude.ai/ Perplexity https://www.perplexity.ai/ Quora https://www.quora.com/ Reddit https://www.reddit.com/ Discord https://discord.com/ Get our guide to build your own Custom GPT: https://clickhubspot.com/customgpt We're creating our next round of content and want to ensure it tackles the challenges you're facing at work or in your business. To understand your biggest challenges we've put together a survey and we'd love to hear from you! https://bit.ly/matg-research Resource [Free] Steal our favorite AI Prompts featured on the show! Grab them here: https://clickhubspot.com/aip We're on Social Media! Follow us for everyday marketing wisdom straight to your feed YouTube: ​​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGtXqPiNV8YC0GMUzY-EUFg  Twitter: https://twitter.com/matgpod  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matgpod  Join our community https://landing.connect.com/matg Thank you for tuning into Marketing Against The Grain! Don't forget to hit subscribe and follow us on Apple Podcasts (so you never miss an episode)! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-against-the-grain/id1616700934   If you love this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review https://link.chtbl.com/h9_sjBKH and share your favorite episodes with friends. We really appreciate your support. Host Links: Kipp Bodnar, https://twitter.com/kippbodnar   Kieran Flanagan, https://twitter.com/searchbrat  ‘Marketing Against The Grain' is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by Hubspot Media // Produced by Darren Clarke.

Wanna start a side hustle but need an idea? Check out our Side Hustle Ideas Database: https://clickhubspot.com/thds The marketing world is experiencing its biggest transformation in years, where success no longer comes from driving maximum traffic but from creating authentic connections with fewer, higher-intent prospects who arrive through AI channels. Kipp Bodnar, CMO of Hubspot joins the show to talk about how you can steer the ship in this new frontier. Plus: Hard seltzer is at a hard stop and Google holds onto Chrome. Join our host Jon Weigell as he takes you through our most interesting stories of the day. Follow us on social media: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thehustle.co Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehustledaily/ Thank You For Listening to The Hustle Daily Show. Don't forget to hit subscribe or follow us on your favorite podcast player, so you never miss an episode! If you want this news delivered to your inbox, join millions of others and sign up for The Hustle Daily newsletter, here: https://thehustle.co/email/  If you are a fan of the show be sure to leave us a 5-Star Review, and share your favorite episodes with your friends, clients, and colleagues.

* In light of the INBOUND conference taking place right now, we decided to re-release the biggest takeaways from the 2024 event. While this episode was originally released last year, the information is still very relevant to solopreneurs now, so be sure to tune in! *HubSpot hosted their massive annual conference that covered the latest trends and tactics in marketing, sales, and AI…and we had two people attend who are ready to give you the biggest takeaways from the event that apply specifically to solopreneurs. Co-host of this podcast and founder of LifeStarr, Joe Rondo attended, and our very own George B. Thomas not only attended, but presented multiple times. So you have some very credible sources sharing their insights today.From groundbreaking strategies to fresh perspectives on automation, AI, and scaling small businesses, this episode is packed with golden nuggets for solopreneurs who want to stay ahead of the curve.Whether you're looking for new ways to generate leads, streamline your processes, or take your customer experience to the next level, this episode has you covered. Okay, this might be the craziest offer we've ever made. We're giving away a solopreneur platform that normally costs five hundred dollars a year…For twenty-five bucks. And not for a month, not for a year… forever.All you have to do is pre-order our new book: Solopreneur Business for Dummies.When we first went solo, we thought we could just Google our way through it. But the advice out there? It was built for startups with teams and money, not someone trying to do it all themselves. We kept thinking: “There's gotta be a better way.”So we made one. LifeStarr Premier is the system we wish we had back then: the tools, the strategy, the community, all in one place.Go to book.lifestarr.com to lock it in.This deal goes away when the book drops, October 6, 2025, and it's not coming back.Pre-order the book. Upload your receipt. You're in. For good.

Alex Theuma speaks with Kieran Flanagan about his learnings from leading AI and GTM at HubSpot. Kieran shares his journey from leading HubSpot's inbound and PLG transformations to spearheading its AI-powered GTM initiatives, including: - Why integrating AI into your workflow is now essential for top performers. - The rise of new AI-driven roles like AI trainers. - The AI experiments at HubSpot driving 300–500% increases in booked meetings. - How startups can apply AI to GTM without breaking the budget. - A sneak peek at his upcoming SaaStock Europe keynote presentation. Guest links: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieranjflanagan/ Marketing Against the Grain podcast - https://blog.hubspot.com/podcasts/marketing-against-the-grain Website - https://www.kieranflanagan.io/ HubSpot website - http://hubspot.com/       Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 

In this episode of HubSpot's Marketing Against the Grain, GaryVee joins to talk about the future of marketing in 2025. From the decline of follower counts to the rise of attention-based algorithms, he explains why most businesses measure the wrong things and how AI is reshaping the landscape. If you want to understand what will actually matter for brand growth in the years ahead, this conversation is a must-listen.

Want Kipp's Loop Marketing Prompt Library (over 100 prompts)? Get it for free: https://clickhubspot.com/elm Episode 74: Is SEO really dead—and if so, what's the number one marketing skill you need to stay ahead in 2025? Matt Wolfe (https://x.com/mreflow) and Kipp Bodnar (https://x.com/kippbodnar), CMO of HubSpot, unravel the post-AI marketing landscape and the strategies you'll need to thrive. Kipp Bodnar is one of the world's most influential marketing leaders and the Chief Marketing Officer at HubSpot, where he is pioneering the integration of AI into every layer of modern marketing. Known for his hands-on expertise and his “Marketing Against the Grain” podcast, Kipp dives into how AI is upending everything from day-to-day productivity to industry-defining strategy. This episode explores why “taste” trumps tactics in an AI-first world, how HubSpot achieved a 400% boost in email engagement using AI personalization, and why anyone can build faster, smarter, and more standout brands by mastering the new dynamic marketing loop. Matt and Kipp break down the brand new Loop Marketing Playbook, the death (and rebirth) of SEO, and what it means to optimize for AI engines instead of search engines. Check out The Next Wave YouTube Channel if you want to see Matt and Nathan on screen: https://lnk.to/thenextwavepd — Show Notes: (00:00) AI's Impact on Marketing (05:35) AI Productivity and Automation Hacks (06:28) Wispr Flow: Streamlined Voice Dictation (11:00) Super Intelligence Abundance and Human Consumption (14:50) Decline in Website Visits (18:33) SEO Principles Apply to AEO (21:00) Taste Differentiates: Know Your Audience (24:38) Leveraging AI for Marketing Success (27:00) “Moving the Free Line” Concept (30:50) Real-Time AI Reporting Loop (34:40) Understanding Customers Beats AI (38:18) Optimal Time for MVP Testing (41:14) Post-AI Marketing Playbook (42:32) Personalization Is Key in Marketing — Mentions: Kipp Bodnar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kippbodnar/ HubSpot Loop Marketing: https://www.hubspot.com/loop-marketing Marketing Against the Grain podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-against-the-grain/id1616700934 Wispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai/ Intelligence Superabundance: https://www.notboring.co/p/intelligence-superabundance Genspark: https://www.genspark.ai/ Get the guide to build your own Custom GPT: https://clickhubspot.com/tnw — Check Out Matt's Stuff: • Future Tools - https://futuretools.beehiiv.com/ • Blog - https://www.mattwolfe.com/ • YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/@mreflow — Check Out Nathan's Stuff: Newsletter: https://news.lore.com/ Blog - https://lore.com/ The Next Wave is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by Hubspot Media // Production by Darren Clarke // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano

HubSpot launches 200+ products to drive growth with hybrid human-AI team.Try AI Box: ⁠⁠https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustleVisit HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/products/artificial-intelligenceChapters00:00 Introduction to AI Innovations at HubSpot03:01 The Importance of Data Hub and Context06:02 Transforming Marketing with AI09:12 Introducing Breeze Agents for Enhanced Productivity11:58 The Future of AI in Customer Interaction15:05 Setting Up and Training AI Agents

Get the inside scoop on HubSpot's game-changing INBOUND 2025 releases! Denamico team members, Alise Kostick, RevOps Strategist, and Sophie Schaffran, Marketing Director, break down key updates through the lens of organizational roles.They focus on how HubSpot is unifying data and transforming how teams work together. This episode is for RevOps leaders, marketers, sales professionals, and service teams who want to understand how these updates will impact their daily workflows and strategic initiatives.What You'll Learn:Operations Hub to Data Hub transformation and what it means for RevOps professionals managing complex data workflowsMarketing Studio, the new visual campaign planning tool that combines whiteboarding, project management, and performance trackingSmart CRM updates including Kanban boards, timeline views, and a map view for territory planningAI-powered CPQ in Commerce Hub and who it's for today Breeze AI evolution including Breeze Studio, Assistants and new AgentsSelf-generating CRM data that pulls unstructured data from sources like email signatures, auto-responses, and call transcriptsReleases Mentioned:HubSpot INBOUND 2025 Fall Spotlight Denamico newsletter: 3 big shifts from INBOUND Data Hub: Data Studio, Data QualityCommerce Hub CPQ (in public beta)Smart CRM: Self-Generating CRM Data, Smart Insights, Flexible CRM ViewsBreeze Studio: Customer Agent, Prospecting Agent, Data Agent, Breeze Assistant Marketing Hub: Marketing Studio, AI-Powered Email, Segments and PersonalizationIs your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you'll see: Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations A clear view of your operational maturity Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it's not) Let's Connect Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter LinkedIn YouTube Explore the show at revopschampions.com. Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!

Pilar Muner, VP of People & Talent at ChartHop, joined us on The Modern People Leader.We covered:- Why fractional work isn't always the burnout cure-all it's made out to be-How ChartHop is using AI to power HR workflows in-house- The AI vendor checklist every HR leader needs — what to ask, what to watch for, and how to cut through the hypeIf you're evaluating AI tools for your people team, this episode will give you a practical lens on security, data integrity, and what to prioritize in vendor selection.---- Sponsor Links:

Host Aydin Mirzaee welcomes Marquis Murray, productivity consultant and YouTuber, to share how AI agents are transforming day-to-day work. Marquis walks through live demos connecting Claude to Asana via MCP to auto-build projects from transcripts, generate executive-ready status PDFs, and create “AI teammates” in Asana that triage requests, draft briefs, write emails/blogs, and route approvals—keeping humans in the loop. Once you see it, you won't go back to manual setup.Timestamps0:06 – Why manual project planning is over; AI compresses weeks into minutes.0:17 – Introducing Marquis Murray.0:43 – Starting the YouTube channel during lockdowns; documenting Asana learnings.2:06 – From corporate to consulting; helping teams adopt Asana, HubSpot, Zoom, Slack.4:05 – Making companies more productive with AI and integrations.4:53 – Today's plan: Claude + Asana + agents.6:06 – Using Claude as a “central AI” via MCP.8:17 – Building a Customer Appreciation Event project in Asana directly from Claude.12:20 – Custom fields/sections: what connectors can and can't create.13:06 – Finished example: phases, tasks, owners, dates.14:05 – Feeding transcripts and docs to generate realistic demo projects.19:05 – “If you're not doing this yet, start today.”19:42 – Pulling Asana status into Claude and exporting a polished PDF.23:34 – Exec-friendly reports: progress bars, metrics, priorities.24:50 – Asana AI Studio: agents as virtual teammates.27:23 – Auto-correcting human errors: naming, missing info, duplicates.29:02 – Agents rename tasks, create briefs, draft assets.35:42 – Agents gatekeep incomplete requests; ask for specifics.37:13 – AI-generated campaign brief, email, and blog drafts.39:08 – Human-in-the-loop approvals before going live.43:01 – Triage demo: vague video request → structured follow-ups.45:25 – Auto-created subtasks to collect missing details.46:33 – “Easy mode” for building agents with natural language.47:03 – Marquis's wish: a true AI chief of staff that restructures your day.48:56 – Where to find Marquis's tutorials; wrap-up.Tools & Technologies MentionedAsana — Project management platform; AI Studio builds rule/LLM agents (“teammates”).Claude (Anthropic) — AI assistant used for brainstorming, MCP connections, summaries.Perplexity — AI search and research assistant.HubSpot / Salesforce / Jira — CRM/dev tools commonly integrated with Asana workflows.Zoom & Slack — Core collaboration stack surfaced during remote shift.MCP (Model Context Protocol) — Lets LLMs securely interact with external tools like Asana.Fellow.ai — AI meeting assistant for accurate summaries, action items, and insights.Google Drive, Gmail, Calendar, Canva — Connected apps Claude can use to orchestrate work.Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.

This week on the podcast, Joe and Robert break down the big takeaways from Content Entrepreneur Expo (CEX): The future of human content vs. AI content and why this tension may define the next decade. Why leaning into your “crazy” could be the smartest business move you'll ever make. The rise of new search metrics and how they're quietly reshaping the creator landscape. Marketing news this week: Cracker Barrel's Logo Backlash – A nostalgic flip-flop for the ages. Was this a brilliant PR stunt, or a brand fumble that shows just how powerful memory and meaning are? CBS News | Ad Age Perplexity's Publisher Program – 80% of ad revenue promised to creators. But is this really a fair shake, or just another platform mirage? Digiday Marketing losers of the week: A troubling study on gambling ads saturating sports broadcasts The Guardian The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ends its print edition. And in rants and raves: AI ad networks invade ChatGPT – the future of monetization or the end of trust? [Ad Age] The strange, hilarious world of a print newspaper… from Uranus Fudge. ------- This week's sponsor: You don't become the world's most valuable women's sports franchise by accident. Angel City Football Club did it with a little help from HubSpot. When they started, data was housed across multiple systems. HubSpot unified their website, email marketing, and fan experience in one platform. This allowed their small team of three to build an entire website in just three days. The results? Nearly 350 new sign-ups a week and 300% database growth in just two years. Visit https://www.hubspot.com/ to hear how HubSpot can help you grow better. ------- Get all the show notes: https://www.thisoldmarketing.com/ Get Joe's new book, Burn the Playbook, at www.joepulizzi.com/books/burn-the-playbook/ Subscribe to Joe's Newsletter at https://www.joepulizzi.com/signup/. Get Robert Rose's new book, Valuable Friction, at https://robertrose.net/valuable-friction/  Subscribe to Robert's Newsletter at https://seventhbearlens.substack.com/ ------- This Old Marketing is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network: https://www.hubspot.com/podcastnetwork

Managing both candidates and clients in one CRM can feel impossible, but it doesn't have to be. In this episode of SmartBug on Tap, host Alexandra Whitmore (VP of Sales at SmartBug) sits down with Sandy Moore (Senior Director of Account Strategy at SmartBug) to unpack why staffing firms struggle with “double funnel” operations and how HubSpot helps solve the chaos. You'll learn: ✅ What the “double funnel” is and why it causes friction ✅ Common CRM mistakes staffing firms make with candidates vs. clients ✅ How legacy CRMs fall short in supporting both sides of the staffing equation ✅ Ways to structure HubSpot pipelines, objects, and dashboards for clarity ✅ Quick wins staffing leaders can implement this week ✅ Long-term shifts to prevent double funnel burnout If your CRM feels more like a data graveyard than a growth engine, it's time for a reset. SmartBug has helped staffing firms of all sizes optimize HubSpot for recruiting and sales success—let's do the same for you. Key Highlights: [02:10] What the “double funnel” is and why it creates friction for staffing firms [03:35] Common CRM mistakes when managing candidates and clients together [05:16] Why legacy CRMs often fail to support both funnels [07:26] How to design HubSpot pipelines for client acquisition and candidate placement [08:12] Best practices for keeping both funnels clean, connected, and collaborative [10:50] How recruiters, sales, and marketers can work in the same CRM without overlap [12:43] ATS vs. HubSpot: when to integrate and when to replace [14:20] Quick win: auditing your CRM to boost adoption and performance [15:26] Long-term fix: stopping duplicated efforts across teams [16:20] How SmartBug helps staffing firms optimize HubSpot for double funnels

JooBee Yeow joined us on The Modern People Leader to talk about why HR must stop overfunctioning and start diagnosing real business problems—especially when revenue is on the line. We discussed how HR leaders can step out of their silo, challenge assumptions, influence revenue growth, and flip the HR pyramid to prioritize high-impact, strategic work.---- Sponsor Links:

Is your CRM helping you drive placements—or just creating more admin work? In this episode of SmartBug on Tap, host Alexandra Whitmore (VP of Sales at SmartBug Media) sits down with Casey Peddicord (Senior Director of Channel Sales at SmartBug) to uncover the biggest mistakes staffing firms make with CRM strategy—and how to fix them. From poor adoption and messy data to clunky handoffs between recruiters and sales, Casey shares why so many firms struggle to get real ROI from their systems—and what a healthy, revenue-driving CRM should actually look like. You'll learn: ✅ The top pitfalls staffing firms face with CRM adoption and usage ✅ How to spot the warning signs your CRM is costing you placements and revenue ✅ What separates “using” a CRM from optimizing one ✅ How HubSpot helps break down silos between sales, recruiters, and marketing ✅ Practical steps leaders can take today to improve CRM performance Whether you're relying on a legacy staffing CRM, piecing together spreadsheets, or trying to integrate an ATS with your tech stack, this episode will help you rethink how CRM strategy should work for your business. ⏱️ Key Highlights: [01:08] Why recruiters resist CRM adoption (and how leadership buy-in changes everything) [02:32] Data overload: when CRMs become a chore instead of a growth engine [03:55] Missed placements: spotting signs your CRM is quietly draining revenue [06:25] Using vs. optimizing a CRM — why it's the difference between record-keeping and revenue-driving [12:20] What a healthy CRM system looks like for staffing firms today [16:56] Breaking down silos: aligning sales, recruiters, and marketing inside your CRM [22:04] How HubSpot automation turns handoffs into handshakes [27:21] The role of AI in scaling recruiter productivity without losing the human touch [30:04] A quick-win staffing metric you can improve this week [32:03] The mindset shift: moving from “reporting tool” to “revenue tool” [33:52] How SmartBug helps staffing firms customize and optimize HubSpot for growth

Tiffany Stevenson, former Chief People Officer at WeightWatchers and Patreon, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about this being the CHROs toughest chapter yet, how AI is reshaping HR, and what HR brings to the boardroom.---- Sponsor Links:

Hey CX Nation,In this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast #264, we welcomed Mika Yamamoto, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Freshworks based in San Mateo, CA. Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) builds uncomplicated service software that delivers exceptional customer and employee experiences. Their enterprise-grade solutions are powerful, yet easy to use, and quick to deliver results. Their people-first approach to AI eliminates friction, making employees more effective and organizations more productive.Over 72,000 companies, including Bridgestone, New Balance, Nucor, S&P Global, and Sony Music, trust Freshworks' customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) software to fuel customer loyalty and service efficiency.In this episode, Mika and Adrian chat through the Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback. Plus share some of the ideas that her team at Freshworks think through on a daily basis to build world class customer experiences.**Episode #264 Highlight Reel:**1. The power of reflection & attention to the customer journey you're building 2. Enhancing customer experience through employee engagement  3. Building your playbook on tech-stack efficiency and utilization 4. Breaking down silos to build world-class customer & employee experiences 5. Investing in "Voice of Customer" (VOC) & "Voice of Employee" (VOE) Click here to learn more about Mika YamamotoClick here to learn more about FreshworksHuge thanks to Mika for coming on The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring her work and efforts in pushing the customer experience & customer success space into the future.For our Apple & Spotify podcast listener friends, make sure you are following CXC & please leave a 5 star review so we can find new listeners & members of the "CX Nation". You know what would be even better?Go tell one of your friends or teammates about CXC's custom content,  strategic partner solutions (Hubspot, Intercom, & Freshworks to name a few) & On-Demand services & invite them to join the CX Nation, a community of nearly 15K+ customer focused business leaders!Want to see how your customer experience compares to the world's best CX-driven companies? We recently launched CXC Healthzone, an intelligence platform that shares benchmarks & insights for how companies across the world are tackling The Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback & how they are building the pillars upon an AI-powered foundation for the future. Huge thanks for being apart of the "CX Nation" and helping customer focused business leaders across the world make happiness a habit!Reach Out To CXC Today!Support the showContact CXChronicles Today Tweet us @cxchronicles Check out our Instagram @cxchronicles Click here to checkout the CXC website Email us at info@cxchronicles.com Remember To Make Happiness A Habit!!

Shea Belsky shares his top do's and don'ts for managing neurodiversity in the workplace.— YOU'LL LEARN — 1) Why neurodivergency is unavoidable at work2) The unique strengths and struggles of autistic people3) When and how to discuss neurodiversity at workSubscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1087 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT SHEA — Shea Belsky is an autistic self-advocate. He is a Tech Lead II at HubSpot, and the former Chief Technology Officer of Mentra. Having been the manager of neurodivergent & neurotypical employees, he brings many unique perspectives on neurodiversity in the workplace. Shea has championed neurodiversity for organizations like Novartis, the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Northeastern University, in addition to being featured in Forbes and the New York Post.• LinkedIn: Shea Belsky• Podcast: Autistic Techie• Website: SheaBelsky.com— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott• Past episode: 150: Expressing Radical Candor with Kim Scott• Past episode: 860: The Science of Compelling Body Language with Richard Newman• Past episode: 1049: What Dyslexia Can Teach Us About Creativity, Problem Solving, and Critical Thinking with Kate Griggs• Past episode: 1070: An ADHD Strategist's Pro Tips for Staying Motivated and Productive When You Can't Focus with Skye Waterson• Past episode: 1085: How to Find More Fun at Work Every Day with Bree Groff— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Strawberry.me. Claim your $50 credit and build momentum in your career with Strawberry.me/Awesome• LinkedIn Jobs. Post your job for free at linkedin.com/beawesome• Quince. Get free shipping and 365-day returns on your order with Quince.com/Awesome• Square. See how Square can transform your business by visiting Square.com/go/awesomeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.