George B. Thomas
If you're a long-time listener of the HubHeroes podcast, you know we're not only huge fans of HubSpot Academy, we are passionate, committed education advocates. I mean heck, look at my own story — I'm here today, as an agency owner, because of organizations like HubSpot that believe in selflessly educating others.
However, while folks those at HubSpot can provide you with all of the resources you ever need to level-up your career and your life, it's up to you to grab those opportunities for learning with both hands.
And one incredible opportunity is coming your way in just a few short weeks:
HubSpot's World Certification Week!
For one week, HubSpot is encouraging inbounders of all roles and experience levels to dive into HubSpot Academy and earn their certifications — and for every certification you earn, they will donate $5 to an education-focused charity, which is just amazing.
🔎 Related:
- What is HubSpot Academy? (HubHeroes podcast)
- Ultimate guide to HubSpot Academy certifications (all roles/levels)
Is World Certification Week worth your time? Absolutely. Which is why we're dedicating an entire episode to what it is, what it isn't, and how you can get the most out of it.
WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE
- Is HubSpot just a corporate ploy to bring users to the platform? We keep hearing this question, so we're going to get candid about what we think is a pretty cynical take.
- What do folks really need to know and understand about World Certification Week, and what the goal of it is?
- What's different about World Certification Week this year? What are the new perks, benefits, and features of this global educational experience?
- How do you prepare for World Certification Week? What do good goals vs. unrealistic goals look like?
- What are our goals for World Certification Week? Will there be a bet? Maybe ...
And that's only the beginning ...
RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE
- What is HubSpot Academy? (HubHeroes podcast)
- Ultimate guide to HubSpot Academy certifications (all roles/levels)
- What is HubSpot really? (The answer has changed)
- Why contacts mastery is the key to your HubSpot success
- You need to write (and market) like a human (+ examples)
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Do you live in a world filled with corporate data? Are you plagued by siloed departments? Are your lackluster growth strategies demolishing your chances for success? Are you held captive by the evil menace, Lord Lack? Lack of time, lack of strategy, and lack of the most important and powerful tool in your superhero tool belt, knowledge.
Never fear, hub heroes. Get ready to don your cape and mask, move into action, and become the hub hero your organization needs. Tune in each week to join the league of extraordinary inbound heroes as we help you educate, empower, and execute. Hub heroes, it's time to unite and activate your powers. Before we begin, we need to disclose that Devin is currently employed by HubSpot at the time of this episode's recording.
This podcast is in no way affiliated with or produced by HubSpot, and the thoughts and opinions expressed by Devin during the show are that of his own and in no way represent those of his employer.
Liz Moorehead: Hi. Welcome back to Hub Heroes. Once again, I am Liz Murphy. That's really the only person you need to know on this podcast. Oh, no.
I don't I'm just kidding. Actually, no. I do wanna take a moment to honor one of our Hub Hero pod, podcast hosts. Uh-oh. Devin, you are not here this week.
You are you are off educating the masses in the great state of Wisconsin. Of all And I wrote a poem. I wrote a poem. I thought I made a robot write a poem. Are we ready?
George B. Thomas: Oh, we're starting with that.
Liz Moorehead: We're starting with it, not ending with that.
Max Cohen: Does it reference cheese at all?
Liz Moorehead: Sadly, no. Wow. But it okay. It's a haiku.
George B. Thomas: Oh, okay.
Liz Moorehead: Devin Devin, where are you? Podcast without your jokes bites. Silence ain't funny.
George B. Thomas: Oh, wow.
Max Cohen: That was yeah.
George B. Thomas: Of all weeks, not to be here too. That's what's fun.
Liz Moorehead: I know. Even Max said something earlier. Remember, we're talking about world certification week. Yep. The thing that our man, Demi, got hyped for the last few episodes.
Right?
George B. Thomas: Really hyped.
Max Cohen: Feels weird not having him here for this one. I know.
Liz Moorehead: But Oh, well.
George B. Thomas: We're gonna have to
George B. Thomas: do it.
Max Cohen: We'll get him we'll get him for the recap.
George B. Thomas: Yeah. There we go.
Liz Moorehead: We'll we'll get him for we'll get what's his name for the recap. That's right. David. He's wonderful. Anyway, hi.
Welcome back to yet another episode of hub heroes. We've already let the cat out of the bag. We are talking about HubSpot World Certification Week. It is almost here. It is May 15th through 19th.
We've got a ton of stuff going on here. It basically it's an entire you know what, George? I'm actually gonna turn it over to you. I'm gonna give you a little bit of MC space.
George B. Thomas: A little
Liz Moorehead: bit of lane to run here. I wanna I wanna hear I wanna hear the George sizzle describing World Certification Week.
George B. Thomas: Oh, man. Well, thanks for giving me the reigns, to me actually
Liz Moorehead: Don't get
George B. Thomas: used to it. Oh, I won't. I won't. I know it's only temporary. It's only temporary.
So the sizzle, it's funny because, a, there's so much to actually talk about in this episode, and there's so many good reasons to, like, pay attention to World Certification Week. But I have to, of course, you know, draw it down to its simplest form. And for me, the sizzle is this year, this week, world certification week, could be the thing that changes your life forever. The amount of certifications that you get, the amount of information that you put in your brain, the things that you'll unlock for yourself, for the company that you work with or for or the agency that you're at, the difference that it could make in the ecosystem of your surrounding is what fascinates me. And and I I know that people go at this, and we're gonna talk about it even as, like, well, it's $5 for certification, and also I'm getting my certs, and I'm, like, you know, it's checking 2 boxes.
It's checking more than 2 boxes. You you sometimes you forget that you're a box that needs to be taken care of and checked.
Liz Moorehead: Well, hang on. Okay. So we're meeting with a pretty powerful metaphor there. Guess what, everybody? We're boxes this week.
George B. Thomas: That's right.
Liz Moorehead: Just kidding. Alright. But that's exactly why we're dedicating an entire episode to this. So for all of you long time listeners, first time callers, you you know that here on Hub Heroes, like, we are huge fans of HubSpot Academy number 1. But even more importantly than that, we are just overall committed education for humans advocates, HubSpot, anybody, doesn't really matter.
So that's why we are taking this week's episode to dedicate an entire well episode to the incredible inbound education opportunity that we all have before us just in a few weeks. We're gonna be talking about what it is, why it matters, and how to make the most of this opportunity. But I wanna lead with a question. And I I can just imagine that there's somebody out there in the audience listening right now to this going, okay, y'all, this is a company who is incentivizing people to take certifications on their platform. This is corporate shill written all over it.
Gentlemen, what say you?
Max Cohen: I mean, corporate shill, I think, would be kind of a weird way to, to to point at it considering they're not selling anything here, really. I mean, I guess you could make the argument that more people taking it, more people getting their eyes on HubSpot. Yeah. I'm sure there's nice benefits that'll come from that. But I mean, here's the way that I'm I'm kinda thinking about it.
HubSpot economy is great. There's, like, a lot of awesome educational stuff on there, whether you wanna lean into, like, the strategy side of things in our universe or the product side of things in our universe, like, whatever. But the thing is tough for some people is that like, it is it is it is overwhelming. The amount of stuff is in that's in there and the different paths you can take and the different places you can go, and what you can learn, and the journeys you can create for yourself from an educational perspective as you bask in the fields of all this, you know, content glory that's in there. But I think, like, what's really neat beyond the incentive to do these certifications so you can, you know, do it for the kids.
Right? Get get that money donated, help HubSpot hit its goals there. But I think if you were ever looking for an excuse to expose yourself to a lot of this content and you've always been in a place where it's either been too overwhelming for you to start because you don't know where you should start. I think what's really interesting is, like, you're seeing them build all these different, like, events around this that just helps you, like, navigate this stuff. Right?
Because, you know, sometimes we can get a little bit of analysis paralysis and and, you know, avoid this great learning opportunity we have in front of ourselves, but, like, now there's, like, really no excuse, because they're really gonna be guiding you and holding your hand through how you should approach all this stuff. So I think it's a great opportunity for for even that just by itself.
George B. Thomas: And I'll say this. Like, first of all, if you're full of excuses, because I think I heard Max say the word excuses, like, I don't know, 5, 7 times just a second ago. Like, you gotta knock that junk off. Like, you just gotta realize you have a limited amount of time to absorb the amount of education that you need to get yourself to the place that you wanna be in life. And by the way, what I'm saying here is we are what we read, listen, or watch.
Right? And so I I like to talk about things, you know, in ways that are kind of weird and in indifferent. But, you know, is this the year that you actually start to subscribe to Education Trump's entertainment? Are you gonna use world certification week to be the jumping off point of, like, I'm gonna focus on all the things that I need to learn to become the person that I wanna be, and I think it's a great opportunity. And and, again, Liz, you just talked about shilling for corporate.
Shill for yourself. Freaking shill for yourself for a week. Like,
Max Cohen: oh my gosh.
Liz Moorehead: Yeah. And, hey. The reason why
Max Cohen: Well well, I was just gonna say is, like, yeah. Is this a marketing thing that HubSpot's doing? Yeah. Absolutely. But it's also injecting some good into the world, and it's also giving you a really good opportunity to really learn how to wrangle this and take advantage of it.
So take advantage of it.
George B. Thomas: Right? Which, by the way, not marketing things aren't bad things. Listen. No. The world cert or not the world certification, but the world's largest webinar in 2012, was it a marketing plan or attack or scheme or strategy?
Yes. Did it bring a bunch of people in who were the foundation of the HubSpot and inbound ecosystem? Absolutely. Did it just change the trajectory of where HubSpot is today? Without a doubt.
And that's why I'm saying that World Certification Week can be that same thing to you, the listener. It can be that catalyst moment.
Liz Moorehead: Okay. Look. Sidebar on the word catalyst. Nobody else knows this, but you and I have been battling over the word catalyst for over a year.
George B. Thomas: We have.
Liz Moorehead: You already we we already hashed out 3 months ago. I think it's a great word now. I'm on board with it. Moving on. Thank you for rubbing that one in there really appreciate
George B. Thomas: it. To say and slide it in there.
Liz Moorehead: Just had to slide it in there. I pre you know what? Honestly, respect. Respecting the salt on the wound gang.
George B. Thomas: Man, I got Little rose. And respect today, Max. I am batting a 1,000. I should just clock out right now and let you guys do the rest of the podcast.
Liz Moorehead: Actually, yeah. That would be great, George. We actually don't wanna hear anything else from you today. That would be wonderful. No.
You know what I actually really find frustrating about that question? The reason why I put that question in there is actually somebody asked me that recently. And the immediate reaction I had is, okay, so number 1. So what it Yeah. It's a company.
But also number 2, how cynical? How cynical of a thought? Because here's what I'm thinking. And this takes me back to our HubSpot Academy episode where we were just talking about the idea of HubSpot Academy overall. Who says that a for profit organization cannot be of genuine service and helpfulness to their audience.
And I think HubSpot, whether we're talking about HubSpot Academy or we're talking about World Certification platform, but people can also earn certifications. They can put on resumes to go to companies that have nothing to do with HubSpot. You can learn about SEO. You can learn about website design. You can learn about social media, paid advertising, chat, marketing.
Like, anything you can possibly think of, you can learn there. And so the reason why I wanted to lead with that is that, like, if you're listening to this and you're immediately going, World Certification Week, it's an event, It's people making a podcast about an event because it's a relevant topic to have. So no. Honestly, if this wasn't worth its weight in gold somehow, we would not be talking about it.
George B. Thomas: See, and I don't get that. I I don't understand why people think that way because, Liz, let's be honest. Do you think that Netflix has a TikTok, a YouTube channel, a whatever because they're like, oh, we just wanna give you a little bit of free, like, entertainment. No. It's about the subscription.
Right? So, like, we we we deal with it all the time in other different ways. So why when a company and instead of
George B. Thomas: focused on, entertainment, is focused on education, why is
George B. Thomas: all of a sudden there Some people just wanna watch the world burn. Oh, shit. But I'll just I don't get it.
Max Cohen: Some people just wanna watch the world burn. Oh, yes. But also, like, if you think about it, it's a win for everybody. Like, what's great for HubSpot Spot is, like, sure. Are are they are they getting people to, like, go and get on their platform maybe for the first time because of this and possibly selling some more HubSpot?
For sure. Are they also enabling a big chunk of their user base to become even more skilled and proficient with HubSpot so they can go do more with it and keep their companies around longer? Absolutely. But are all those people who are taking advantage of it, learning a lot more skills, and being able to do a lot more with their skill set, and and hopefully, make more money, and get better jobs, and further their career. Absolutely.
Right? Is this also gonna generate some money to go to the kids? You bet. Right? No one's losing in the situation.
George B. Thomas: But For
Max Cohen: certification week is a big w. Like It's
George B. Thomas: it's a big win. But but, Max, we even have to go we even have to go another layer deeper to that. I don't know. If you've been in the space for a while, you might realize there's a little bit of what I would call a talent shortage. Is World Certification Week actually gonna generate some more inbound humans that we can hire?
Because I'd love to see some of those folks that haven't been in the space for 8 years and won a 150,000 bazillion dollars to work at an agency, but somebody's new. They're in college. They go to world certification week. They come out. They're happy to make 40 to $60,000 a year, and they're down with the inbound methodology and strategies.
Yes. I'll take more of those, please.
Max Cohen: Break into HubSpot. Forget break into tech. Just break into HubSpot. Just break into HubSpot.
Liz Moorehead: With a crowbar or with okay. No. So you
Max Cohen: didn't mean With your brain. With your brain and
Liz Moorehead: your heart.
Max Cohen: It sounds like her. Soul.
Liz Moorehead: Oh. I love it. I will love one thing you brought up also, Max, that I wanna make sure we touch upon. Like, they're literally giving money away to a charitable organization Mhmm. For every certification awarded.
George B. Thomas: Yep.
Liz Moorehead: So, like Yeah. I just don't wanna hear. Anyway, so let's switch gears a little bit. You know, when we were riffing before we started recording, you guys were both taking a look at the new World Certification Week website, which just rolled out when we we started recording this. Yeah.
George B. Thomas: Talk to
Liz Moorehead: me about what you saw there because, George, I watched you multiple times ago. Oh. Oh.
George B. Thomas: Oh, yeah. Yeah. So so first of all, and this is gonna sound really design nerdy, I don't think I've ever been to a website where I look at the top hero section, and I feel like the website is breathing. And what I mean by that is if you go to the website and you look at the orange and yellow bars in the hero section, it literally feels like it's the same pace in which I am breathing where it's slowly going up and down, up and down. Inhale.
Exhale. Like, I'm sitting here staring at it, and it's just relaxing the crap out of me, and it's just a design tasty piece. But at the end of the day, if you go above that, that's where the important stuff lives, where it talks about grow your career, talks about learn new skills, get certified during the 3rd annual. By the way, I can't wait till it's, like, the 30th annual World Certification Week, but the 3rd annual World Certification Week. And there's a place where you can sign up.
There's even a place that you can add it to your calendar. And listen. If you're listening to this, look in advance, try to block off as much time as you can, hit that sign up button, add it to your calendar, and start to figure out a strategy of certifications you can get. But but, again, past the breathing, Liz, there's, like, what is world certification week? There's numbers and stats because marketers and professionals like numbers and stats of, like, the amount of donations, almost $500,000 in donations, 95 plus countries, 100,000 active certified users.
There's a world certification across the globe section that you can actually hover and interact with. There's how to participate, a 1, 2, 3 step.
George B. Thomas: Everybody loves a 1, 2, 3 step when they're trying to actually get
George B. Thomas: into something. An events calendar that you can look at. There's which certification should I take, which by the way, I am a big fan of this section. Which one should I take? Individuals or partners?
And everybody should know that we're big fans of this. We literally did an episode on HubSpot Academy. We literally dropped an article of, like, road maps that people could take around certifications that they might wanna get. And so this is like a nice little bite sized version of that. And then your impact go ahead.
Go ahead, Max.
Max Cohen: Well, I was gonna say, also, take a look down at the bottom built by Spinfluence, a HubSpot partner. So shout out to Spinfluence. Looks like you built this, built this for HubSpot. It's it's it's gorgeous. We love it.
We love you.
George B. Thomas: Yeah. Look at that. Spinfluence. I'm gonna
Max Cohen: have to happily partners, probably.
Liz Moorehead: Okay. Alright. Calm down. Chilling. Chilling for
Max Cohen: How'd you get the
Liz Moorehead: how'd you get the shill in there real quick? Oh. Has your has your has your corporate shill members only jacket shown up yet with the popsicle on it? Mhmm.
George B. Thomas: Mhmm. Max is sending it to me
Max Cohen: in the mail?
George B. Thomas: No partner for him.
Liz Moorehead: Look at George pretending to say a swear again.
Max Cohen: Well, again again, anyone attending world world World World Certification Week, you you should definitely go to this website, especially if one of you were one of those people that I was talking about at the beginning that has been overwhelmed by the amount of content that you're seeing on there because you can literally go down to the events calendar, and all of the different events that they're running are literally ways that can help enable you on how you navigate the enormous amount of content that you have at your fingertips. Right? So if you're struggling to find that path on what to learn, why to learn it, how to kind of manage your time and structure your journey, There is plenty of stuff here enabling you on how to figure that out. It's not just the certifications themselves because your learning lasts past this week. Right?
So sure. You could approach this in just the I'm gonna rack up as many con you know, certifications as I can so I can brag about it on LinkedIn and get as much money sent to these kids as possible. Sure. You could absolutely do that. But the big value that you're gonna get out of it long term is when you really, really figure out how you structure your journey around this stuff.
So you can keep making progress on it past world certification week and not just during this week because it should be a year long, year, you know, year round thing. Right? Not just 1 week. Right?
George B. Thomas: Yeah. So and here's another thing. I didn't even mention the testimonial section. Right? So, like, you got because listen.
We we can show we can say we love HubSpot. Can we everybody knows I'm a HubSpot Academy evangelist. Never worked for him, but love him to death. But to see other folks like Pablo Morales, right, say HubSpot Academy has helped me deepen in different topics that comprise my day to day life and are of vital importance. Moreover, it always guides me through the challenging processes to execute them correctly.
It is a great support and information center for everyone. Real humans wait. Wait. Real Be humans. With real Loud words.
I'm just saying. Words. Words. Word. Words.
Words.
Liz Moorehead: Speaking of words
Max Cohen: Sorry. Keep getting you on the delay. I was just gonna say, you know what? The certifications have a lot of words.
George B. Thomas: They do have a lot of words. Words. Yeah. Wow.
Liz Moorehead: Did everybody know that the word
George B. Thomas: is the word thing?
George B. Thomas: Hit me
George B. Thomas: with the hang on. Hit me with
Max Cohen: the hang on. Yeah.
George B. Thomas: Yeah. Max, I you know, I didn't ever really wanna pull this out on the podcast, but that right there really deserves just a just a just a big old fat.
Max Cohen: Oh, I was hoping I'll get the drums.
Liz Moorehead: Suck it, Max.
Max Cohen: There we go. Oh.
Liz Moorehead: You're welcome, everybody. Awesome. So okay. Now that we've done we've sufficiently spent a lot of time talking about how great this website is, and I'm not diminishing that because I think it was really important to walk through each of those elements. I do now wanna dig into World Certification Week itself.
We've talked about the what of World Certification Week, we've talked about, like, how they're rolling it out and what they're talking about. Now let's talk about we're arriving at World Certification Week, right, virtually speaking, of course. What are you most excited about for World Certification Week this year? And I'll put and I'll let you answer either way, either for yourself or for the masses or both.
George B. Thomas: Yeah. So I think for me, it's actually maybe 3 different layers of of excitement, to be honest with you. The first one, and not that it's the most important, but the first one, I'm I am excited for me because, and almost 2 pronged on that, to be honest with you. But I'm excited for me because over the last 11 months of of starting a business, running a business, helping people with their HubSpot, I went from a guy that, well, let's just say used to have, like, what, 40 HubSpot certifications to a guy who needs to research a whole crap ton of them, and and regit another whole crap ton of them, because I'm down to, like, a handful. And I just I know it's time for me to take that time to research, re get them, because I don't wanna be a hypocrite.
I wanna make sure when, my clients go into their portals and they look at people that said, hey. You gotta talk to this guy. He's the HubSpot guy. They don't look and feel like a completely blank. Like, no certifications.
How's he the guy? Like, that's the proof in the pudding right there. So I'm excited to spend some time personally and and, like, get that beef back up. But I'm also super excited for the team. Right?
And when I say the team, by the way, the reason this is so important, Jorge Fuentes has been kicking butt and taking names and getting certifications. But, also, unknown to many people, like, I've hired at this point, what, 75, 80% of my family? And so when I Yeah. When I say when I say teen, I'm also talking about my 2 daughters, you know, my 2 sons. Like, I know that they're in the HubSpot Academy.
They're all heads down. They're all getting certifications. So and so just the amount of certifications we can get as a family, aka the businesses George b Thomas, excites the crap out of me because we know that we're giving to each other. We're giving to the, you know, the kids and the and the the $5 per person know, I should probably write an article about that, Liz. Like, why education as a business owner or agency owner is important and how to go about that.
The third reason that I'm super excited about world certification is I am a big fan of being a blessing bomber. And the idea of being able to put some work in my self and for the family, and us to be able to bless others around the world with what HubSpot Academy and the certifications and the donations are gonna be able to do moving forward. Like, I'm just again, if you get a chance to be a blessing bomber in life, man, you that's that's next level stuff right there.
Max Cohen: Papa Bless. Papa Bless.
George B. Thomas: That's it.
Max Cohen: Papa Bless. I'm excited. I'm I'm excited for anybody who's been plagued by that
George B. Thomas: analysis paralysis, but has really, really wanted to dive
Max Cohen: into the content to kinda get paralysis, but has really, really wanted to dive into the content to kinda get what they need to really start that journey. That's that's one thing I'm excited about. Personally, I'm excited for me because I'm this is a really good excuse for me to kinda get back into the certification swing of things. Let's go. Because, you know, as a 7 year employee of HubSpot, being surrounded by HubSpot 247, being literally inside the belly of the beast and at the the forefront of things changing on the product and having to know it like the back of my hand, I didn't necessarily rack up that many certifications, like, at all.
Right? Believe it or not. You know what I mean? So one thing that I've really kind of been struggling with ever since I left is saying, like, how do I keep the the sword sharp? How do I make sure I'm I can validate that.
I understand these things and how can I relearn a lot of this stuff that I've learned in, in, in, you know, more unorthodox ways rather than just getting certifications? Because I was, you know, on the inside, if you will. So I'm I'm super excited to kind of start racking these certifications up and really kinda testing the knowledge or the preconceptions I've had around a lot of this content, which will be super cool. You know? So I'm stoked to actually start getting into the swing of actually getting certifications again and, you know, being proud of that.
And, you know We should do a little challenge.
George B. Thomas: We should
Max Cohen: It'll be you. But here's the
Liz Moorehead: No. You know what? No. No. No.
No. No. No. Wait. Hold on, Max.
You hold on. You hold on. No. George Yeah. You and me.
I'm gonna I'm gonna go for it.
George B. Thomas: Oh, okay.
Max Cohen: Yeah. Oh. No. Watch that.
George B. Thomas: Come on. You know you want some Here's another Get in the game now.
Max Cohen: A weird deeply alright. I'll try. Here's another deeply personal one for me. Right? This is the 1st world certification week where I am I have my sleep apnea being treated.
Oh. Right? Now the reason
Liz Moorehead: I thought you were gonna say, like, not at HubSpot. I'm like,
Max Cohen: that's great. Well, yes. True. True. Right?
But the reason why that's important, and I'm sure plenty of people were just like, what the hell are you talking about? Is before I started getting treatment for my sleep apnea and and using, like, a CPAP machine, I couldn't read through a page of text without falling asleep. I couldn't watch a video at my computer without dozing off. Right? So a lot of the educational experiences and content that I was interested in, that I really wanted to learn, I literally, physically could not sit down and just consume information for a while, because I would be, like and literally fall asleep.
And it really sucked because I didn't have the ability to, like, learn the way I used to. And so now, since I can actually pay attention and I'm alert during the day, and I'm not just falling asleep every 2 seconds, I can sit down in front of something like a a sort of like a HubSpot certification. And actually, you know, ingest what's happening and stay awake for the entire thing and and remember what I'm watching. Right? So for me, it's it's it's cool because I'm I'm in a place where I'm taking care of myself enough where I can open myself up to new learning and stuff.
Whereas before, that was really, really hard for me to do.
George B. Thomas: So I'm actually actually really happy that you went down that road because, one, I'm just happy for you, my dude, the fact that you know that you're gonna be able to leverage into that. But the other thing is there could be hundreds of people listening to this podcast going, oh god. Do I have sleep apnea? Hey. If you think you might, go get checked out because it's a real deal Holyfield.
I'm just throwing that out there.
Max Cohen: Dead acid, it changed my life. Going on a CPAP machine changed my life completely, and it saved me. So
George B. Thomas: Liz, we're trying to help people. Don't don't be giving us that look. We're trying to help people. Hey. People need to call
Max Cohen: us heroes for a reason. Okay?
George B. Thomas: That's right. Alright? That's right.
Max Cohen: Heroes. Part of it's getting a nice good night sleep.
George B. Thomas: We're being heroes right now, Liz.
Liz Moorehead: We're here
Max Cohen: for
Liz Moorehead: we're here for sleep apnea, inbound education, podcast
Max Cohen: is taking a weird pivot. Yep.
George B. Thomas: Yeah. Yep.
Liz Moorehead: Okay. So, guys, we're gonna we're gonna bring it back. We're gonna bring it back for a moment. So I wanna now take us down the line of recommendations for folks who are gearing up for World Certification Week. And I wanna put 2 trains of thought in your head.
There are going to be the folks who are taking certifications, and then there are gonna be the folks who are potentially managing, leading, running the business, in within which humans may be taking these certifications. How do they prepare? What recommendations do you have? I wanna double click on one thing first though, George, because I saw you get excited and I'm gonna make you wait this time. I do wanna double click on one thing you said earlier though, which is you made a casual reference to this ultimate HubSpot certification guide that you created.
By the way, it's amazing, completely ungated. It goes by role, by topic. George gives, I think, more than 35 certifications, hand selected recommendations. Definitely check that out. That'll be linked in the show notes.
But with that little bit of table setting, George, please go right ahead.
George B. Thomas: Yeah. I think so I know you said 2 veins. I really think that I wanna hit upon 1. I I mean, I I don't know. I probably will end up going down both, but dang it.
My brain is, like, literally screaming right now to the, the owner of the company or the owner of the agency. And being able to, again, give your people the space to become the best versions of themselves possible. And and, again, if you can figure out what is the future ROI of the education that they'll be putting in their brain versus the revenue that you're spending for this 1 week period or portions of this 1 week period, I would I would beg you to understand that most likely the output or the ability of things that they will be able to do and know will be far greater, and they will be very appreciative of actually working for a company, a boss, that puts something that enables them to be the best human they can be at the forefront of the culture of the organization. And so many times we get, as business owners, stuck on the conveyor belt of what needs to be done for who it needs to be done for. We forget about what we need to do for our employees.
And I just think this is a great opportunity to do something great for your employees. Like, literally, I'm trying to email all of our clients and ask them to come along for the ride with us. I want the clients to be so focused on getting certifications and educating themselves that they're in the battle with our team as we're getting educated along the way as well. And so as much time as I can open, as much freedom I can give, the employees, that's what's gonna happen, at least in our organization. Because I I want I wanna create a space like that.
And you you have to sit there and ask yourself, owner or manager, do you wanna create that space for your people?
Max Cohen: I'd say one of the biggest things is is if if you are gonna be someone who's taking multiple certifications this week, which, you know, I think that's very much in the spirit of World Certification Week, try to do what you can to I guess what's the easiest way to put this? Stack your knowledge within certain categories by tactically stringing together certifications that are of similar subject matter in the correct order. Right? So when I say this, something that I always used to tell customers when I was onboarding them as an implementation specialist. Back then, we were mostly working with the marketing tools.
Right? And back then, there was an inbound marketing certification, and then there was a HubSpot marketing tools, like, certificate like HubSpot marketing software certification. And, you know, when you look at, a lot of the the certifications and content in HubSpot Academy, there is some stuff that is very heavily focused on the tool and it's meant to get you better at the HubSpot product and how to click the buttons and click on the right way and do the things with them. But then there's plenty of content that has nothing to do with the product, and it's all about strategy. But the thing is, those product based certifications hit way differently when you have the context of the strategy you're deploying with that product.
So what I mean by this is if you're coming into this week and you're going, man, I really wanna get the sales software certification or I wanna get the, you know, I wanna get the the marketing software certification. What I would recommend that you do first if you haven't already or even if you just need a refresher, Take the strategic course first, and then do the tool based course in that category. Because when you go and, like, get that nice refresher or learn of, like, what inbound marketing actually is in its essence, and in the strategy, and in the the the the ethos of it. Right? When you understand the nuance of of those marketing motions, and then you go and take a product focused certification where it's showing you how to use all the tools that deploy that strategy, you are gonna be armed with so much more context than if you hadn't done that, that when you go and learn about these tools, you're gonna go, I know why I'm learning about this now.
I can think of ways that I would practically use it, not just know how to use it, but why to use it. And how to use everything in more of a symphony rather than just a bunch of different things I can do within the product. Right? So try to layer the strategic to give you the context. Right?
The more strategic courses and then the actual product ones after that. Because it'll it'll I think they'll play very nicely into one another.
George B. Thomas: So, Max, I love all and everything that you just said. All of it. I upvote it. However, I will say this too. I had a chance to be on agency unfiltered with our boy, Kevin Dunn, to talk about world certification week.
And I gave him an answer very close to what you kind of said in this, like, you go call you got this. And then I jokingly said, or you can just take all of the shortest certifications possible and get as many as you can. To which then
George B. Thomas: Do it
Max Cohen: for the kids.
George B. Thomas: Which which then my brain went to, man, it would be nice if. And then my brain went to, oh, actually, can we hack this? And I don't know if anybody pays attention to HubSpot Academy this much or not, But you can literally go into HubSpot Academy. You can select award type and say only show certifications. Then you can go over to duration and you can say show me the certifications that are an hour to 2 to 2 hours.
So if you wanted to start and you're a partner, by the way, because some of these are partners, some of them are not. If you wanted to start with 1 to 2, there's guided client onboarding, platform consulting, and digital advertising. Then all of a sudden, you could bump it up and be like, well, show me the ones that are 2 to 3 hours. Without you know, you can jump into contextual marketing, marketing hub implementation, inbound, and and the Salesforce integration certification if you have access to that. And then then you can go and open it up to the 3 plus, which gives you all the other certifications.
But you literally have a little bit of a hack that let me start with the shortest and work my way to the longer at kinda toward the ends of the week.
Max Cohen: Yep. And, hey, here's the thing. World certification week is what you make it. Oh, yeah. You can go in with different sets of goals.
You might be the person that wants to go and say, hey. This is the time I really get serious about my education. And if it helps some kids out in the process, that's fantastic. I've got all this extra enablement from HubSpot Academy in terms of how I'm planning this out, and I'm gonna do it in a in a in a very strategic way, and I'm gonna pace myself. Right?
Great opportunity to do that. But also, if you're just like a HubSpot psychopath and you wanna go in there and just rack certifications like you're putting deer heads on your wall. Right?
George B. Thomas: Yes.
Max Cohen: Let's go. You can get it done.
George B. Thomas: Come on. Right?
George B. Thomas: Come on. Just wanna
Liz Moorehead: go there
George B. Thomas: and be
Max Cohen: a complete demon and get those certifications. This is your week to shine, baby. Go out there and just take it. Take advantage of it. Catch
George B. Thomas: them all.
Max Cohen: Carpe the diem. Seize the carpe. Catch them all. That's right. Catch them all.
George B. Thomas: Catch them all, baby.
Liz Moorehead: So I have a question. I was really excited originally to have this conversation about world certification week, but you guys are just really, like should I have picked a more interesting topic? You guys are just so excited about this.
George B. Thomas: I need a nap. So
Max Cohen: I mean, I did start talking about sleep apnea, so I guess so.
Liz Moorehead: You a 100% did. Alright. So let's flip let's flip the script here a little bit, guys. What are some rookie mistakes that people should watch out for and be careful of? Because you you Max just said something interesting there.
He said, world certification is what you make of it, and that can cut both ways. It's the good stuff you do, and it's the accidentally not so good stuff that you do.
Max Cohen: Yeah. I I would say it's it's missing out on what this week can set you up for in terms of everything you're doing after it. Right? If you're if you're if you're someone who's new to this and you just go, oh, I feel like I need to go get a 1,000,000,000 certifications and, like, that's all you do. And you don't take advantage of any of those, like, extra courses and webinars that they're doing about how to structure your learning journey with HubSpot, that to me would be a huge l that someone would take in a in a big mistake.
George B. Thomas: Yeah. So for me, a rookie mistake is forgetting to hit the resources tab. Right? So, like, if I take for instance, Jory Munro, the HubSpot reporting, literally, when you go into the collecting meaningful business data section, which has, like, 5 videos in it, there's a resources tab, which allows you to download the slides and download the transcript. So, a, you can read it, and you can look at the slides for, like, the major bullet points they're talking about.
But then also under there, there's a blog post, the ultimate guide to integrations and why your business needs them, getting started with data sync by HubSpot, demystifying integrations,
George B. Thomas: platform audit worksheet, top rated apps
George B. Thomas: by like, there's just so much additional resources that you can dive in. Everybody historically has kind of talked about at least in circles that I've roam, maybe it's different for other people. But I've talked about the certification being the ending point. The certification is the beginning of what could be a far greater journey if you were to leverage some of those additional resources and keep going in the things that you're actually learning through the certification.
Liz Moorehead: I love it. Sounds like really the only mistake really you can make with this is to just not do anything.
George B. Thomas: Well, god.
George B. Thomas: Even doing
Liz Moorehead: one little thing. Even doing one little something.
George B. Thomas: I mean
Liz Moorehead: Well, no. But I, come on, guys. Let no. I'm being a 100% serious. It is one of those things where it's like there's this wonderful opportunity there.
How much you are able to do? Because when I think about one of the biggest mistakes you can make make is see like, hearing us go back and forth about the fact that, like, we're gonna go out and do this and do that. We're gonna get 18 d d d certifications and it'll be so much fun. Like, for you, that win might be just 1 or 2 certs, 1 or 2 lessons, whatever that is. So I want my biggest thing is, like, set realistic goals for yourself.
George B. Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. And share them with somebody. Right? Because as you're talking, Liz, I'm like, yeah.
I'm saying all this. And then all of a sudden, I got a pit in my stomach right now where I'm like, oh, what happens if I get past this weekend? I didn't get any certifications. And all of a sudden, they asked me if I got any certifications. Oh, god.
Liz Moorehead: Wait a minute. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.
Do we need a Liz versus George Hub Heroes HubSpot Certification scorecard for 2023 leading into inbound?
George B. Thomas: Uh-oh. But yeah. But see, here's the thing. We're setting ourself up for success because we're telling somebody about our goal. We're challenging each other.
And I'm curious. Like, if you're listening to this, can you put something in your organization where you put a challenge? So, yeah, you're giving $5 to the kids through HubSpot Academy, but is there some type of challenge you could put in your organization for the the person that comes out of the week with the most learned things. You know, I don't know. You do what you wanna do.
You do, do, boo. But I'm just saying maybe maybe there's a way you gamify the crap out of this in your organization.
Max Cohen: Yep. I'd also say for the individual, though. Right? You know? Again, if the numbers are your are your goal, that's great.
But, you know, for for someone who hasn't taken a lot of certifications. Right? I think the best thing you can do is just ask yourself what you wanna get out of that week versus saying, how many can I get done? Because, like, ultimately, the important thing is is that you walk away from this week with skills and knowledge that you didn't have before, that you can tangibly put to use in some way, shape, or form in your career. Right?
Don't forget, you're making this time commitment for yourself. It's great that the kids are getting money. That's awesome. We love that for them. You're gonna help that like, make that happen.
Right? But you also gotta say, hey. I'm making a big time commitment here. What is it gonna do for me? How is it gonna help me out?
What's a realistic goal I can set for myself? What do I want to learn this week? Right? Focus on that. Everything else I think is gonna be a good byproduct from it.
You know? But just don't set yourself up for failure, because the last thing you wanna feel at the end of the week is, like, man, I put all this time and effort in, and I didn't do freaking 10 certifications. It's like, hey, man. Just just learn something. Right?
You you could do more certifications later. It's not like it shuts down after this week. Right? The whole point is set yourself up for
George B. Thomas: So there shouldn't be a guilt moment even if you do set that higher goal, which I hear you, Max, because I like to go for those beehive goals, those big, hairy, audacious, like, I'll never reach that goal, but not in a way that I'm gonna disappoint myself, in a way that I know that I can continue on even if I miss it. Because if I put a, like, if I put a half okay goal, then I kinda feel bad because I was like, you know, I probably coulda done better. But if I put a, like, behead goal out there, I know I am far further than I ever would have gotten without it. And now I can just chug along a little bit, you know, a little bit longer, 1% each and every day. Boom.
Finally reached that goal.
Max Cohen: Yeah. I mean, I'll I'll tell you my goal this week. I just wanna get the the event the the reporting certification done.
George B. Thomas: Let's go.
George B. Thomas: That's
Max Cohen: it. I've been I mean, I've been wanting to do that one for years. There's even a piece of content I made originally when I was a implementation specialist that was used in at least the first iteration of it. I'm not sure if it's actually in there or not. So that was kinda cool.
So I wanna see whatever that evolved into. But, like, I've been wanting to take that certification forever, and I've just never gotten around to it. Well, hey. There's no time like the present. So I don't have, like, a crazy number goal certifications.
I just wanna cross this one off my list that I've been eyeing and eyeing and eyeing and procrastinating and procrastinating. I wanna get it done.
George B. Thomas: Hey, Max. And now I need
Max Cohen: to because in my new role, I gotta be really good at reporting, and I'm I'm not.
George B. Thomas: So Hey, Max.
Max Cohen: It's gonna have some tangible stuff for me.
George B. Thomas: Max, I'm gonna give you another thing. First of all first of all, Max
Intro: Just 2 wits.
George B. Thomas: Alright. But past that, now the listeners will have to go watch the the replay. But from where we're sitting right now, Tuesday, the, let me look at my calendar. Tuesday, 2nd. K?
Yes. No. Maybe. Hang on. Yes.
Tuesday, 2nd at 11 AM. I don't know what you're doing. But there is a reporting deep dive webinar that the Kyle Jepsen, super admin hug is putting on that you could actually go register for. If you're listening to this after that, go to the super admin hug page, historical trainings are on that page. And if you're like, yeah, Max.
I hear you on reporting. That's gonna be another place you can get some education.
Liz Moorehead: Gentlemen, let's round this out. If you could give everybody one piece of advice, and this is the only thing they remember from this entire episode about World Certification Week, what is it and why?
Max Cohen: Pace yourself. You could still get a lot done by pacing yourself. But if you pace yourself and not just barrel through this, right, I think you're gonna walk away with a lot more than just a number of of certifications. Right? And that's always gonna be 10 times more valuable.
Right? So pace yourself.
George B. Thomas: Listen. Education trumps entertainment. Superman and Lois will be there. Sons of Anarchy will be there. American Idol will be there.
The rookie will be there. Whatever your favorite. Love Island. I'm not I'm not judging. Maybe it's The Bachelorette or Bachelor.
It'll be there later too. You can stream that junk some other time. Educate, educate, actually. Educate, execute. Educate, execute.
That's what I would ask you to do, and just slow down on the entertainment. Quit flipping through TikTok and every real system that social has and social platform and just
Liz Moorehead: Max and I are trying to get engagement on TikTok. Come on
Max Cohen: now. Unless it's our TikTok. Like just get off to
George B. Thomas: Nah.
George B. Thomas: Yeah. I'm just telling you. Just put this in your brain. Education trumps entertainment. I'm gonna leave
Liz Moorehead: everybody with this parting thought, which has nothing to do with World Certification Week and everything to do with the fact that I was today years old when I learned that Lil Jon and Pitbull put out a new song and everybody should go listen to it. It's a banger. That's right. I have nothing good to contribute. That is what I am leaving us with.
George B. Thomas: It's so funny because I was, like, real nervous for a second because I thought I was gonna be like, oh god. I'm getting, like, in trouble now. I'm
Liz Moorehead: No. Here's what makes it so amazing. Pippa and Lil Jon made a song sample and jump around. It is so good. Go put that on, and then listen to it while you're getting your certification.
Jumping.
George B. Thomas: Jumping. Okay.
Liz Moorehead: Heck, yeah. Okay.
George B. Thomas: I Is this new? I'm literally googling on this now. And who's it going? Little John and
Liz Moorehead: Pipple. Pitbull and Lil John. Not little. Lil. You gotta How
Max Cohen: many times does he say Dalet in it?
Liz Moorehead: Doesn't say Dalet. I was so surprised. I don't
Max Cohen: wanna listen to it, though.
Liz Moorehead: Yes. You do. Yes. You do. George, how how long does it take to take jump?
George B. Thomas: Yo. Yo. First of all, that's not what came up. Like, I had to add, pitbull and and little John to it, but it's it is now up on my screen. I'm gonna play it very loudly when you finally let us be done with this episode.
Liz Moorehead: We're oh, wow. Wow. Hurtful. We're done then.
Max Cohen: End of the night. Episode, Liz.
Liz Moorehead: Peace out.
Max Cohen: Get us out of this hell.
George B. Thomas: Okay, hub heroes. We've reached the end of another episode. Will lord lack continue to loom over the community, or will we be able to defeat him in the next episode of the hub heroes podcast? Make sure you tune in and find out in the next episode. Make sure you head over to the hub heroes dot com to get the latest episodes and become part of the league of heroes.
FYI, if you're part of the League of Heroes, you'll get the show notes right in your inbox, and they come with some hidden power up potential as well. Make sure you share this podcast with a friend. Leave a review if you like what you're listening to, and use the hashtag hashtag hub euros podcast on any of the socials, and let us know what strategy conversation you'd like to listen into next. Until next time, when we meet and combine our forces, remember to be a happy, helpful, humble human, and of course, always be looking for a way to be someone's hero. We've officially started this thing, so let's go.
Max Cohen: Let's go.
Liz Moorehead: Let's bleeping go.
George B. Thomas: I'm just waiting for the day we get shut down for that, But, you know.
Liz Moorehead: Yeah. I was having so much fun. It was. Why do you hurt me?
George B. Thomas: I don't know.
Max Cohen: Didn't ESPN just do layoff?
George B. Thomas: Thank god.
Max Cohen: Maybe they can't afford
Liz Moorehead: Layoffs. For copyright.
Max Cohen: I wonder
George B. Thomas: how many
Liz Moorehead: Who's talking about layoff?
George B. Thomas: I wonder how many of
George B. Thomas: the Layoffs.
George B. Thomas: How many how many of the ESPN, layoffs are, attending world certification
Liz Moorehead: Week? Layoffs? Layoffs? Am I talking about layoffs?
Max Cohen: No. No. We're here. About layoffs?
