The Rise of the Dedicated HubSpot Super Admin

A not so long time ago, in an inbound universe that ... well, not exactly far, far away, managing your company's HubSpot was easy. You could have an content or inbound marketer who had HubSpot responsibilities delegated to them within their existing role, and that was fine.

💥 Related HubSpot Resources:

• Why Go HubSpot? Ultimate Business Growth Guide
• With HubSpot Content Hub, Is HubSpot Still a CMS?

But, for many companies, those days are long gone. As HubSpot has expanded in its complexity, as well as the solutions it offers, managing it can (and should be) a full-time job. With the multitude of features, integrations, and capabilities that HubSpot now provides, the need for specialists who understand the platform inside out has become crucial.

This shift highlights the importance of having experts who can effectively communicate, customize, and optimize HubSpot to meet the unique needs of each business. In a rapidly changing digital environment, where multiple teams rely on HubSpot for various functions, having a dedicated HubSpot specialist is essential for maximizing the platform's potential and driving business growth.

So, this week, that's exactly what George, Max, and I discuss:

• Do you actually need a HubSpot super admin?
• How do you know when it's time?
• Is there a case for still only having a marketer or specialist who also deals with HubSpot?

In This Episode

This week, George, Max, and Liz explore the increasing complexity of the HubSpot platform and the need for specialists to manage it effectively. They discuss the shift from HubSpot being primarily a marketing tool to a CRM system, which has led to the rise of HubSpot specialists. They highlight the importance of communication and customization in managing the platform and the challenges that arise when multiple teams use HubSpot.

The conversation also touches on the awareness of organizations about the need for specialists and the accessibility of HubSpot for smaller teams. The conversation explores the topic of when and why businesses need a HubSpot Super Admin. It emphasizes the importance of having someone dedicated to managing and optimizing HubSpot, especially when multiple hubs and complex processes are involved. The conversation also touches on the benefits of hiring externally or internally for this role, as well as the potential challenges and considerations. The hosts discuss the impact of the economy on hiring decisions and highlight the value of investing in a HubSpot Super Admin to maximize the tool's potential and drive business growth.

Keywords

HubSpot, complexity, specialists, CRM, communication, customization, challenges, awareness, accessibility, HubSpot Super Admin, hiring decisions, business growth, economy, investment, tool optimization

Key Takeaways

• The HubSpot platform has become more complex, requiring specialists to effectively manage it.

• The shift from a marketing tool to a CRM system has increased the need for HubSpot specialists.

• Communication and customization are crucial in managing HubSpot and addressing the challenges that arise when multiple teams use the platform.

• Some organizations are aware of the need for specialists, while others still underestimate the complexity of HubSpot.

• HubSpot is still accessible for smaller teams, but as organizations grow and use more features, the need for a dedicated HubSpot specialist becomes more apparent. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to when a business needs a HubSpot Super Admin. The decision depends on factors such as budget, available talent, and the complexity of the organization's HubSpot usage.

• Having a dedicated HubSpot Super Admin becomes crucial when multiple hubs and complex processes are involved. This role ensures coordination, optimization, and effective use of the tool across the organization.

• Businesses should consider both external hires and internal candidates for the HubSpot Super Admin role. External hires bring fresh perspectives, while internal candidates with business context can bridge the gap between HubSpot and the organization's specific needs.

• The economy should not be a deterrent to investing in a HubSpot Super Admin. Doubling down on knowledge and expertise in HubSpot can make an employee indispensable and protect them from budget cuts.

• Business leaders should have smart and honest conversations about the importance of HubSpot and the need for a HubSpot Super Admin. Investing in HubSpot without taking it seriously is a waste of resources.

• Knowledge of HubSpot is valuable and at a premium. Businesses should strive to have a deep understanding of the tool and its capabilities to maximize its potential for growth and success.

And so much more ... 

Additional Resources

• Why Go HubSpot? Your Free Ultimate Business Growth Guide
• Why Go HubSpot Service Hub?
• What Is Customer Delight + Who Is Responsible?
• How Have Inbound + HubSpot Changed?

Episode Transcript

George B. Thomas: no, he's not here. Don't care. Don't want to hear it.

Liz Moorehead: No one's 

George B. Thomas: You know, here's the thing, though, too, when I was listening to that intro, Liz, it said KNOWLEDGE! and immediately came to my brain, I'm like, man, knowledge is

at a premium when it comes to HubSpot Right. now, like A 

Liz Moorehead: me what that means.

George B. Thomas: like, listen,

I, I've been doing these super admin trainings and so I have this

group of humans who have been using HubSpot for a while, are focused on using HubSpot

better.

And I'm asking questions cause I like to do this thing called, you know, I ask a question, I'm like, put it in the

chat pane. Uh, XYZ. Yes.

No, and I watched the answers to these things inside the training. And I'm like,

wow. Um, the price of

entry, like just was worth it right

there. Like fact that they now know this and it used to be a no.

And after this

will be a yes. And I've had over the last four weeks, cause this is a 12 week program.

I've had, uh, several times over the last four

weeks where, um, I go into a training and I'm

like, I don't know if people will

get value out of this, but it's where

my brain is at. It's what I'm thinking about.

It's the way that I would communicate it versus maybe how

HubSpot's communicating it. And so I go in

nervous and then I find these moments where people are like, Holy crap. That's a thing or, Oh, I should probably do that

yesterday. and I, and I just sit here and I go, wow, HubSpot is getting so

big that knowledge is of a premium right, now. 

Liz Moorehead: you know, what's interesting about this is that it is a spark of chance, a zippy twist of fate, that it's just you and me today, because this was not planned, which says to me, if that is where your brain is at, this is where we need, I want you to stay there because there has been. A question that has been kicking around my mind and that I want to talk to you about because periodically some of our listeners may know this. if you're new, you're about to find out periodically. It'll just be me and George on the mic. And we do that on purpose. Uh, George has been in the, industry and in inbound for over a decade. He's spent all of that time talking to humans, educating humans about HubSpot. like you guys know, who George is. He's the best.

As Dan Tyer said, he's inbound in human form, right like we know, these things. so I periodically just like, to corner you verbally to just say, okay, let's get out of the tool And let's talk high level, what is happening in HubSpot in inbound. And the reason why I bring this up is because specifically the thing that has been going around in my head is that 10 years ago, when you were getting into inbound marketing,

it didn't really matter what the size of your

organization was, unless we're talking like super duper international enterprise, extraordinary explosion time you were hiring.

An inbound marketing manager or a content marketing manager or a content writer who also happened to know how to use a tool and that tool was HubSpot, but their focus wasn't a mastery of the tool. It wasn't

the, you know, becoming the deep specialist in it, it for many years. That's all you needed, an inbound marketing manager or a content marketing manager who knew how to use a tool.

And you created this super admin training because there is this rise. There is this need to have people who are genuine specialists in the tool. And so my mind is going in a bunch of different directions. Right? Are we now? 

George B. Thomas: Yeah, so let me jump in there because I want to be very careful because we're talking about how right now there's a need for specialists. By the way, there's always been a need for specialists. It's just when you list content manager or inbound strategist or inbound marketer, or just even a general marketer, they were a specialist in marketing.

Uh, HubSpot was a marketing tool. Like it had a very small set of tools to help you do marketing. And not have a Franken, you know, system of trying to put this, that, and the other thing together. It had started this journey of the all on one or all in one platform. So, so we were specialists. Like, I mean, I went from design development to HubSpot.

I want to be a marketer when I grow up, let me teach myself how to be a marketer. Now, let me be good at HubSpot along the way. And so these folks are specialists in their craft. The thing is, and I said this earlier today, is that when we started in 2011 or 2012 or whenever you started, most likely you were stepping inside of a Volkswagen bug and you were managing a Volkswagen bug.

Um, now you're managing an entire race team. One human cannot drive five cars. It's impossible. And so now we've gotten to this place, which I'm, I'm interested to see where my brain goes when we dig into this of like, sure, we might need a super admin. Somebody like, again, I'll keep with the racing analogy.

Like when you have a race team or multiple race teams, or there's an individual racer, you have somebody on the headset that's talking to you. They can see turn two and turn four, and they can see that there's an accident or a wreck, and And so we're getting to the point where we need like this super admin, overarching, seeing, you know, the departments inside of what's happening inside your business and inside of HubSpot to be that person on the headset, to be that person that's like, Oh, sales team, there's a wreck on turn three, be super careful, like, let's make sure that we use that playbook and make sure we get that information and all that kind of stuff.

So. But there's this other layer where you almost have to have this like knowledgeable, educated, uh, SVP or person that's focused on sales person that's focused on operations in general person that's focused on service. And so there's this higher level and secondary level that almost needs to happen. Guess what? We have a friend joining us.

Liz Moorehead: Oh my god, Max!

Max Cohen: Oh, Hi! 

Liz Moorehead: Hi! thought it was just gonna be the two of us!

Max Cohen: Yeah, well, I'm here 

George B. Thomas: And by the way, just just to bring you up to

Liz Moorehead: We threw out the outline!

George B. Thomas: out the outline, we've shifted gears, so have fun holding on. Buckle up. It's gonna be a fun ride.

Max Cohen: Let's go. 

Liz Moorehead: Oh yeah. Max, you know what? We're just gonna throw you right into the fire with a question. 

Max Cohen: Oh, no. Okay. 

Liz Moorehead: Do you have croutons with you? No, I'm just

George B. Thomas: Oh 

Max Cohen: I could, I 

Liz Moorehead: Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. 

Max Cohen: uh, you could use some, yeah, Some stress croutons. Yeah. 

Liz Moorehead: stress croutons. 

Is that a euphemism or just actual? Okay. 

Max Cohen: it's actual stress 

croutons. Yeah.

Liz Moorehead: So here's my question for you, Max, because I've already gotten an answer from George on this. When you think about the past 10, 12 years of HubSpot, right, and we had a time when you could just have that inbound marketing manager who also knew how to use HubSpot to do their job well, right, and now we're living in an age where the HubSpot ecosystem is much more complex.

George, I loved the analogy you used about how it used to be that you were driving a Volkswagen bug, and you could do that on your own, and now often for some organizations, you're trying to manage an entire race fleet of cars, and a single human cannot drive five cars. So, Max, my question to you is this. What shifted? To make the need for HubSpot specialists specifically much more important today, or 

Max Cohen: I mean, 

Liz Moorehead: it's not?

Max Cohen: no, it, became a CRM system. That's why, I mean, if you think about it, like the, it was, what was the, I'm trying to remember like how it actually kind of like fell into it. Right. So it, was like, the marketing hub and we had contacts and then people were integrating it with Salesforce and then people from Salesforce were stepping into HubSpot going, Oh, This feels a lot, nicer and easier.

Why can't I just do my stuff in here? Right. And then we launched the CRM. And then as soon as you launch the CRM and start doing like, you know, it was one thing that we had, like the deal objects, right Cause you know you get, had to do the closed loop reporting with Salesforce integrated and like all that kind of stuff.

Then when the ticket object came. And it was like, Oh, crap. Well, everyone can be in here now. Right. That's I think where it kind of took off. Right.

Because this used to be, I remember I was, uh, my like famous, not famous, but like my favorite saying to folks, uh, back when I was onboarding marketing hub customers was, uh, there's a reason you don't see a lot of people with the job title HubSpot admin.

Right. And that was like my gotcha, uh, to be when we would ask, like, how hard is this to manage? Because back then when it was just the marketing team using it, it was just the people that were using HubSpot were the ones adminning HubSpot, right? But then as soon as it became this giant business playground for everyone to be able to play in, things change, right? because it's no longer just like the marketing team who all talks to each other and knows what each other's doing and like, they can kind of. work in there and they understand what other people are doing, everyone's kind of pointing in the same direction. When you start to get the other teams in there that aren't as aligned, that don't understand the nuances of the other folks that are in there, right, and don't know how to you know, get all these things to play together, especially if you weren't trying to build any sort of strategic flywheel, or you weren't Thinking about the marketing to sales handoff or the sales to service handoff or how service can, you know, impact this idea of like promoters and all that kind of stuff, right.

Uh, you know, that's where things start to get crazy. And then that's where you start to see the rise of like the rev ops sort of role or the theory of rev ops or the whatever, right? Which if you really think about it as just sort of the, cohesive strategic glue that like points all those, You know business soldiers in the right direction and like get some working together, right? Um, you know, And so it, was like, you know, in terms of like, when did that. switch? It's like, when HubSpot changed its identity from a, from a marketing tool to a CRM, because that was what gave way to everything else happening with the service hub. Everyone could start to play in there, you had more teams, in there, thus more confusion, thus the need for Uh, cat wranglers.

George B. Thomas: Yeah. 

Max Cohen: CRM cat 

wranglers, right?

George B. Thomas: wanna double click on something because I think it's really important uh, to, to highlight here that Max is uh, talking about and kind of, um, dancing around is that when you start to take a platform and a methodology and you start to add more humans to it, all of a sudden there becomes

Liz Moorehead: Oh, yeah.

George B. Thomas: and potential chaos.

And one of the things that I have found myself saying more and more during the super admin trainings that we're doing, is. It's okay to talk to your teams. You should be focused on conversations and communication. You should be asking them on a weekly and monthly basis for feedback. You should be using that feedback to make revisions and do maintenance to things like your sales pipeline, your ticket pipeline, the settings that you turn on or off because it is, or isn't working for the way that your company's using HubSpot because all of these.

Conversations and this communication can lead into what is probably one of the most powerful things that we have that HubSpot has grown from a Volkswagen bug to this entire race team is the word customization and being able to wrap HubSpot around your organization, around each department, around each process, but that happens because of the growth.

Because of the change, but because of the ability for a super admin to step in and

have this communication or conversation portion of what needs to happen.

Liz Moorehead: Okay, So all of us though are coming from the perspective of living in the tool every day, working with the tool every day, like we live, breathe, bleed orange, right? Like that that is what 

George B. Thomas: I will say my walls are the only walls that are

orange on this podcast right now, but hey.

Liz Moorehead: I'm not sure

legally I'm allowed to paint my walls orange,

but you know, that's fine. you know what? My emotional walls are orange. How about that? So here's my question though. What about the organizations that both of you are talking to who use HubSpot? Are do they have this awareness that. the increasing complexity of the tool for some of them is Is going to necessitate a new human.

Like what is the awareness of this with the people who are actually using HubSpot, in different industries?

George B. Thomas: I would say and Max, I'd be interested in

your Potential take on this. It's a mixed bag from what I've seen there. There are some people who still live in historical fantasy land They don't know what they don't know Um, they think that it's still a small, uh, system, or they've only purchased a few pieces of the system because they haven't opened their mind to what they truly can do.

However, more and more, and, and, you know, I know that it's, it's heading in this direction. There are organizations and people inside these organizations that are feeling the pain. That is taking place because multiple teams are wanting to jump on and use this tool. multiple teams want to then add integrations.

Multiple teams want to add customization. Multiple teams have problems and ideas. And so this 1 person who is running through the green or orange fields of HubSpot, frolicking around, loving their life. Creating content and doing marketing stuff all of a sudden is realizing I'm in pain.

How do I fix this?

And,

and so those folks are the organizations that I

find are like, okay, uh, we're

officially giving you a new

title. It's super

admin or it's RevOps director, or it's whatever you want to throw out there for

this. And, and I'm seeing more and more and more of this, which the reason I think I see more and more of this is because one, we started with HubSpot Academy, which by the way, if you're going to start

something to figure out if there's a true need, starting it with HubSpot Academy is a really smart way to do it.

But we

started the super admin bootcamps. And the first time out, we had over 300 people sign up for the

Super Admin Bootcamp. If you look at what Kyle Jepsen is doing with the HubSpot.

Super Admin HubSpot User Group, or HUG,

and you see how many people show up every frickin Tuesday. And what's happening on their YouTube channel, you realize that this ecosystem of humans

that use HubSpot of the humans that use HubSpot is starting to feel this pain and realizing they need to move into this direction of having specific folks who are real rich and deep in knowledge of using HubSpot overarching and I would even suggest in certain departments to help assist that just general super admin human.

Max Cohen: in terms of how, like, I've seen it, I I'm also kind of in the same boat where I've seen it, like, all over the place. Um, I'd say, like, one thing I'm seeing a lot, though, uh, especially as I involve myself more with the sales stuff at Happily, is there are people that

are in the realm of I was brought in to take over the HubSpot and I kind of got to figure it out right and you know Being brought in to take over the HubSpot account To me kind of says well At least some people are making the decision to go Oh, we could get a lot more out of this thing that we're paying for but like we need someone to come in and own it Right.

So I am, I am seeing that, but I think the other thing you got to remember too, is like, you still can admin hub spot the old way, depending on how much of it.

you're using, Right. Cause you still can just be a marketing hub customer and just hook it up to Salesforce and

just like when you're, I, know, I'm, I know, I I'm 

Liz Moorehead: that goes into my question. That's my question. 

Max Cohen: which is beautiful.

Yes. Which is beautiful because it means it's still, it means the product is still approachable, right? It means it's still accessible, right? you don't need to go hire a HubSpot admin to get started, but it can be powerful enough and it can do enough and it can be used by so much of your organization to get to the level of it's so complex you need I think that more so speaks to its capability versus Oh, it's too hard now.

So you have to have somebody right? It's more so it can do so much more now. So it necessitates, you know, the reasonably you would bring someone in whose job is to run it Right. Um, but it's not like you can't get started with it unless you hire someone right out the gate, right? I don't know if you can say that about Salesforce.

I don't know how many people are just stepping into Salesforce and figuring it out on their own. You know what I mean? Um, but can you step into HubSpot and get started on your own, right? And then eventually hand it off to someone once it, it, it, it, it. calls for that. Sure. Right. It's still very accessible.

You know what I mean? Um, for smaller teams, 

George B. Thomas: Yeah, it's, and I should back up, because I did kind of yell in the middle of you

Liz Moorehead: a little bit? There was some yelling. That's okay.

George B. Thomas: why? Like, 

Max Cohen: don't yell at me, 

George B. Thomas: I don't disagree with you. I guess because of where I'm at and the journey I've been on, like, when I think of HubSpot, I immediately, which I fully understand most humans probably don't do this, but I understand the connective tissues of how all the hubs would be able to work together and fire on all eight cylinders if they're there.

So I will step back and say, yes, you could just buy sales hub. And you wouldn't need a super admin. You would just need a salesperson who not a person salesperson, but like SVP that's running the, um, sales side of it, right? You could do just marketing. You could do just service now, eventually. And I've seen this over the years.

Somehow magically, no, not magically HubSpot's gotten really good at putting them damn icons in the navigation to

get you to click to wonder why

you want to integrate. They do stuff on purpose, ladies and gentlemen, but eventually you end up dripping

into these other hubs or these other tool sets. And That's what I would say

to folks that might be listening to this as they're trying to figure out, do I need a super admin is like, do you have one hub?

Are you getting ready to drip into your second or third one? Um, it is, it, are you building over time something that has become more complex? Because you may grow yourself right into either being that human or needing that human, depending on what you want to do. Um, but, but I will agree with Max. You can start out small.

You can start out with an individual person. That's kind of focused on this. Um, 

Max Cohen: Plus their other plus their main role, right? So maybe it's the marketer that's like really excited to figure out how to get HubSpot to work better for everybody. But the problem is with that is if you're going to make a concerted effort to get your marketing sales and your service team onto HubSpot.

That's when you should think about hiring one person to run it all. Because the mental capacity it takes to be able to coordinate all of that stuff on the platform, that's a full time job. You can't pull someone, you can't pull someone from their current job that they have to also say, Hey, focus on making this work for everybody else, because then they're going to suffer in their own main role.

And then they're not going to be able to put enough time and effort and energy and what it takes to actually coordinate that. Right? So like, you know, again, if you're just using it for one function of the business, It's kind of fine if someone in that business function is also saying, I'm going to take on the mantle of making this thing work for us, but as soon as you start to say, Hey, everyone's going to use this and we're going to run the thing on HubSpot, that's when you need somebody, because that's a full time job 

George B. Thomas: which, by the way, I think I've seen more and more. And also, I think it's going to happen more and more, which, by the way, um, Chris Carolyn is in our chat pane. Him and I are starting a new hug. It's the customer platform hug and here's the thing. Here's what I want to shout out here is. Um, if you go to, it's not a bundle anymore.

It's the customer platform. That's how HubSpot is messaging this. This is a road they're going down. If you're listening this and you have not purchased HubSpot yet, and you're literally looking at the pricing page and you're like, I think I just want to get the customer platform. I would beg you to immediately think about, and how do I get a super admin to help run the customer platform?

Because now we're immediately multiple hubs. Super levels of complexity, setting up a metric, but ton of processes, automation, communication for multiple teams.

So that's like, for

me, that's a defining factor. if you're going to move into customer platform or start with customer platform, then you'll want to think about having a HubSpot super admin

Max Cohen: Yeah. Or, or look internally at who you already 

George B. Thomas: who could 

Max Cohen: For someone who might be who knows the business That might be interested in taking on a new project, right? Maybe wants to get outside of their department a little bit, right? But has that added benefit of having the business context, right? Because it's I think it's a lot easier to find that person that like is maybe looking for their next thing is passionate about the business, knows the business, stuff like that, right? and to bring them in, that's a little less scarier than going out and just hiring someone, right? Because you can learn HubSpot, right? It's harder to have the context of the business down pat to translate it into 

George B. Thomas: I don't know. So. I I'm, 

Max Cohen: You don't know you can learn HubSpot? Brother, you are the pinnacle of 

you can learn HubSpot.

George B. Thomas: hang on, brother. 

Max Cohen: are the, 

Liz Moorehead: Listen, brother!

George B. Thomas: hang on. Let, 

Max Cohen: everyone, George P. Thomas just said I don't know if you can learn HubSpot. F that, George. Are you kidding me? You, you are 

the, you, how many 

Liz Moorehead: and Daddy are 

fighting. Is it my fault? 

Max Cohen: no, 

I'm just surprised that he pushed back on that point. 

George B. Thomas: me get the words outta my mouth. There used to be a day max that I would agree with you. It was much easier to learn HubSpot than to learn the business. I would tell you that with how large HubSpot is, Operations Hub, Commerce Hub, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, all the AI tools, like, I believe that it's probably easier to go through a 30 to 60 day onboarding and know everything about a business and how they're trying to go to market.

than it is to actually educate. I've been educating myself for 11 effing, no 12, 12 years to get to where I'm at with HubSpot. I've learned hundreds of businesses along the way with discovery meetings and helping clients over time.

One 

Max Cohen: know, you know why else I agree with 

George B. Thomas: Hundreds of clients in meetings, like, so, so that's the only thing I was trying to say is I

think it's easier to learn the, business at this point than it is to learn HubSpot.

Yes, of course, anybody can learn HubSpot, but

man, it takes time. And boy, is

Liz Moorehead: what this reminds

me of? Do you know what this reminds me of? I watched the DVD commentary of Armageddon

recently. don't ask me why. Ben Affleck was on there. and he was telling, he was telling me

Max Cohen: Hold on, Liz. Stop. Stop. why?

Hold on. You don't get to move forward? Why? 

Why? 

Liz Moorehead: a single

person who lives by myself and I had nothing to do. Like, I don't have kids. I don't have a partner. I can do whatever weird,

weird, single stuff I want to do. So that's why. But you know what you just

said, George, that reminds me of that. There's a reason why I brought this

1. Ben Affleck told a story about how, I think he went to Michael Bay or

Jerry Bruckheimer.

I can't remember which of the two. And he said, Wouldn't it.

be easier to teach NASA scientists how to drill rather

than to teach drillers how to be, how to be, uh, astronauts? and apparently the guy just looked at him and went, shut the F up. 

George B. Thomas: but, but facts, facts though, 

Max Cohen: it's true. I think also here's why I'll also agree with George too as well is like oftentimes the Oftentimes you need that. outside perspective To be able to be like, Oh, Hey, this strategic thing that you're doing in your business is dumb and you should do it this way instead of having the baggage of, Oh, this is how we've always done it Right and you know, so I, I do agree that like there are benefits of pulling in people from the outside that already, you know, HubSpot totally. Um, but also I think it's also a great opportunity for someone who's passionate about a business to be like, Hey, I've got ideas that have a how it can make it all work.

Right. Maybe I'm in charge of the HubSpot and I can learn it

I think there's benefits of

both

George B. Thomas: don't, don't

Liz Moorehead: So I have a

question for both of you. want to throw in a question here though. So we're talking in an idyllic landscape, right? We've talked about

the inflection points, when people need to start considering this, when organizations need to start looking at this, because it is a, an organization by organization choice.

However, we do have to contend with the elephant in

the room, which is The economy isn't

exactly the strongest it's ever been, guys. We have a lot of organizations that are looking to tighten their budgets, who are being maybe a bit more conservative about their hiring, who may be trying to reduce potential perceived redundancies in their head count.

So my question to you is George, cause I see you pacing. I see you pacing. God, the face. I'm so excited about this George, We're going to turn it directly to you. Think about the business leaders and the organizational leaders who might be listening to this who may make

a fear based decision rather than a

smart decision.

Like what is the business case for potentially investing in this HubSpot super admin?

Max Cohen: don't be scurred. That's all I'm going to 

George B. Thomas: yeah, like, Uh, uh, uh, 

Liz Moorehead: economy solved, 

Max Cohen: what I'm saying. I don't have, I don't have any good big brain takes on like economy shit. so, I'm just going to say don't be scurred. Just do it. 

George B. Thomas: Here's the thing, and I know the words that are gonna come out of my mouth are probably easier said than done, And if you're a business owner that hasn't set yourself up for the times when the economy's gonna be hard, this is gonna be really difficult. And I do understand that sometimes you just have to make payroll, been there, done that, like, holy crap moments.

But let's be honest, if you look at the people who truly are successful, it's when the economy is down that they're doubling down. Like, when does Warren Buffett buy the most stocks and invest the most? When it's the cheapest, when everybody's dumping it, getting rid of it, scared to death, and he's doubling down, and that's why he is who he Like.

If you just look at that right now, here's the other thing that I'm going to apply this to what we're talking about. If I'm just a marketer, please no hate mail, but if I'm just a marketer, it's very easy to get cut. As part of like a budget line item, if I'm just a sales, so and so person, it's very easy to be like, well, unfortunately, there's 17 of you.

We got to go down to 12 of you and it's a line item. Same thing on any of the other departments. However. If you are in an organization that historically has been thriving, has historically been using HubSpot and you've elevated yourself to a super admin, AKA RevOps God, buy a hat from, uh, Max, he's got them for sale.

Um,

Liz Moorehead: What's that website?

Max Cohen: CloseOneCity. com, 

George B. Thomas: you go, 

buy some hats, if you've turned yourself into a HubSpot, aka RevOps God, and you literally have your fingers and toes in all of the departments, all of the processes, all of the workflows, like, you know, how hard it is to remove that human from your organization, because the minute you do that, there is nobody else on the planet that understands how this Gets to that, gets to that and interacts with this.

And so what I'm saying by this is if you want to, as an employee, give you the strongest of abilities to not get cut because of the economy, then doubling down on your knowledge, becoming super educated in HubSpot, probably getting as many certifications as you can and getting a title of super admin in your organization and the C level.

Uh, suite and owners knowing this guy or gal is a god amongst men and women when it comes to the processes that we have in our organization, you become almost untouchable. Well, unless the 

Max Cohen: Yeah, Jerry, 

George B. Thomas: of business, but, 

but, 

Liz Moorehead: You're totally fine unless you're not totally 

fine. Okay, got 

Max Cohen: moral of the story is if you want to absolutely grab your company by the balls and take them hostage, go become the superadmin of your upspot account and just say, I own the keys to the castle and without me, this whole 

place burns to the ground. 

Liz Moorehead: You can fire me, but sales and marketing can lose all their intelligence.

George B. Thomas: can say that in a good way 

though, 

Max Cohen: rebuilding all these workflows I just deleted. Bye bye. 

Liz Moorehead: You know what we're doing right now? 

We're making a lot of business owners and leaders out there feel super confident about letting someone have all the keys to their kingdom, aren't we?

George B. Thomas: but, but, but here's the thing. It's funny that you mentioned that, but I, I would look and as nerdy as I am. And as much as I'm entrenched in the business and in HubSpot and in training people, frankly, I would look forward to the day where I could just hand over. And be like, just make this the dopest shit ever, because I just want to go do this, and focus on this, and I want to be great at this, and I know that you have the brainpower to like, orchestrate this to be the most amazing thing humanly possible.

Like, I, I, I, I look forward to those days when I can start to add and insert, uh, trustworthy humans that don't delete my workflows, Max, but trustworthy humans into the organization to just make it better than it historically may have been when it's like one person trying to work on one hub or one person trying to work on all hubs.

Liz Moorehead: my last question to both of you is the same, and we're going to start with Max because George, you know what I'm going to ask. It's my one thing question, which means you'll have five and I've made peace with my rev ops God that you will not follow directions. And that's just my lot, my cross to bear in this life.

And that's fine. So Max, what is your, between one and 17 things you want people to remember from this conversation? 

Max Cohen: I think the biggest, I think the biggest takeaway is that, or the biggest thing you should think is that there is no one answer on the, when do I need a HubSpot admin conversation? I think everybody's going to be different. Everyone can afford different types of people. Everyone has access to different types of people in their organization, I don't think you should, you should put a bunch of analysis and an analysis paralysis into like absolutely feeling like you've got one chance to get it right in terms of who manages the stuff, right? You have a lot of different options. You have a lot of different options, right? There's plenty of talent out there in the marketplace.

If you're looking for someone who's just like, Hey, we can get them up to speed on the business. As long as they know HubSpot, that's what you're looking for. Great. Plenty of admins out There looking for jobs. Right. You got someone, someone hungry in the organization and wants a little bit of change that you feel like they can run it.

Cool. The, the, the resources available to them to understand the tools so they can take that plus their business con you know, their, their, their, their business context and passion to make things work together and get everyone to work together and make their coworkers lives a little bit easier. Great. you got those people too. Right. Um, I don't think there's just like one answer. Just know that. I don't want people to think hub spots in a place now that I can't buy it without hiring a full time person Right because I think that's also dangerous too and we start to think about it's just approachability especially at like the single hubs of the world and the smaller levels and How easy it is for a small business to use this that might have a lower budget, right?

I don't want this conversation to scare those people away, right? I think if anything it should give people solace in the fact to know You That HubSpot can handle a lot more than we thought it could in the past, right? And that's why it necessitates the need for folks who can come in and be the orchestrator.

The, the, who's the guy who leads the conductor? If you will 

of the symphony of HubSpot and that's a good thing. That's a good thing. It's not a bad thing, right? Um, you know and You've got this wonderful network of people to help you make that decision. Keep that in mind, right? HubSpot is like the has like one of the best communities that you could enter into And ask these questions.

Hey, our business is getting this size. We're thinking we want to like bring these different parts of the organization, you know, into HubSpot. What do you guys think? Do I need to go hire someone? Should I look internally? Should I do this? Should I do that? Think about how many avenues people have to have those conversations, whether it's HubSpot user groups, posting innocent questions on LinkedIn, going into any of the different, different forums, talking to any of the number of people that have opinions on this stuff, right?

Don't stress about it. Whatever you do, don't stress about this conversation. Just know that the right answer is out there. You can find it and the right answer might be different for someone else. it.

might be different for you, but there is one, right? 

Don't stress it. 

George B. Thomas: Liz, what's your, no, what's your one thing? Like, you've been sitting here, yeah, you've been sitting here asking the questions. You've been sitting here listening to us. Like, what's the one thing that you would want the listeners to take away pertaining to this conversation?

Liz Moorehead: it's a mental flow chart. Is HubSpot critical to your organization? Okay. Then are you going to take it seriously enough to ask yourself the question? If you're not, Going to look at that question seriously. If you say you take HubSpot seriously, then guess what you don't take HubSpot seriously. So why are you even investing in it?

If you're putting money into a tool, it behooves you from a budgetary perspective, from an investment perspective, from an ROI perspective, from a growth perspective, to have smart conversations internally about what it is you need To make that tool do the work for you that it is meant to do, because if you are looking to HubSpot to keep the promises of growing better, whether that's just in one part of your business.

Multiple parts of your business or all parts of your business. If you are doing a multi hub rodeo, why are you wasting your time and money? If you are not willing to have a smart and honest conversation internally about this question, I honestly do not understand it. I get that there may be fear based on like, well, we don't know what the economy is going to look like.

We don't know what's going on here. Guys, you are potentially spending tens of thousands of dollars every Each, uh, each year, if not more in some cases, a hundred thousand dollars or more in this investment. Right? So what is it that you are doing? You are either taking this investment seriously enough to ask the question or you are not.

I'm not saying this from the place of knowing what the answer is for you. As Max pointed out, like you may not need to make a change. You may have exactly what you need. But that's my one thing is that you're either serious about using HubSpot to grow your business better or you're not.

George B. Thomas: Yeah, this isn't my one thing, by the way. I'm gonna give this caveat, but Liz, when you were talking, I started to think about, yeah, imagine buying a gym for your home. Mm hmm. And then not going into it, that'd be weird, but imagine the power that you could get if you bought a gym, you went into it and you actually hired a personal trainer, now you're going to get the maximum results out of your investment because you have somebody that keeps you accountable, that knows the intricacies of like how to work the muscle, like there's just, there's just a different thing that you start to think about, but, but let me get into my one thing that.

It's not really one thing, but it's my final

Liz Moorehead: has 18 footnotes.

George B. Thomas: it's steps here

Liz Moorehead: Take us out, George.

George B. Thomas: the thing, um, where we started at that everybody needs to pay attention to is knowledge of HubSpot is at a premium and only you can dictate the amount of knowledge that you have about HubSpot that you can insert into the business we talked about.

Several times this word came up and it just drives me nuts. This idea of running a business or doing a business through fear. And, and man, I gotta be honest with you. Like I have a weird relationship this, but fear is false evidence appearing real. And if you're making business decisions about false evidence, that's just simply appearing real, then be careful because it's so much, um, More exciting.

It's so much fun when you actually can run a business and make business decisions out of this life of abundance that you can actually create. And again, you got to make smart decisions and you got yourself, set yourself up for success. But it's just a way better place. So if you can have this massive amount of knowledge, if you can live in a life of abundance, then you have to realize what is the thing that I have to be thinking about.

And again, I'm going to kind of go against Max. I, I'm going to tell people in this podcast, if I want to win a race, I have to put a driver in the seat of the car. Now my choice is. I'm the driver, or I hire a driver, but I cannot put a car on the starting line and not have a human in it and feel like it's gonna do me any good.

So the decision is, is it you, or is it somebody else? But somebody's gotta smash that gas pedal and get to the finish line.