Women of HubSpot

Join me, George B. Thomas, on the Women of HubSpot podcast as we dive into the inspiring journeys of women shaping the marketing and technology landscape. In this episode, I chat with Omi Diaz-Cooper, co-founder of Diaz & Cooper, a platinum HubSpot solutions partner. Omi shares her journey from overcoming self-limiting beliefs about sales to leading a successful revenue operations consultancy. We explore her experiences with gender biases, the challenges of running a business during the 2020 pandemic, and how she found empowerment through persistence and self-belief. Omi also highlights the importance of mentorship and community in her career. Tune in to hear how Omi's grit and determination have driven her success and learn how you can empower yourself in your own journey.

What is Women of HubSpot?

Welcome to the Women of HubSpot, a podcast celebrating the voices shaping marketing, technology, and the ever-evolving HubSpot ecosystem. Hosted by George B. Thomas from Sidekick Strategies. Each episode brings you the stories, strategies, and superpowers of the women driving this industry forward. It's their time. It's their mic. This… is Women of HubSpot.

Intro:

Welcome to the Women of HubSpot podcast, the show that celebrates the voices shaping marketing, technology, and the ever evolving HubSpot ecosystem. Hosted by George B. Thomas from Sidekick Strategies. Each episode brings you the stories, strategies, and superpowers of the women driving this industry forward. It's their time.

Intro:

It's their mic. This is Women of HubSpot.

George B. Thomas:

Alright, ladies and gentlemen. It's your boy, George b Thomas, and we're back for another beautiful conversation. Again, if this is your first episode, it was a while ago. It was a Super Bowl. The Philadelphia Eagles were in it, and there's a quarterback for the Eagles that has an all women's team.

George B. Thomas:

I was sitting there, and I started to listen to my daughters talk about how they were just amazed and loved the fact that there was all women's, team behind the quarterback. And it got me thinking, why are we not putting more information? Why is there not more of this? And so I went to LinkedIn. I created a post.

George B. Thomas:

The post went nuts, nuts, crazy. I just said, hey. Tag a woman of HubSpot that you know that is killing it. And I was amazed. My daughters and I, we looked at each other and we said, hey, there's something here.

George B. Thomas:

We've gotta have these conversations. We've gotta create this content. And so we picked up the mantle. We started running with it. And so today I'm excited because it's not just me.

George B. Thomas:

Omi, how are you doing today?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

I'm doing great today. Thank you. I'm glad you told that backstory because it tied some loose ends for me about football and men and women of HubSpot.

George B. Thomas:

Yeah. Yeah. Where the two collided, you gotta kinda give that context to people who are like, how did we get here? Why are we doing this? Here's the thing.

George B. Thomas:

I'm gonna ask you some questions. We're gonna go through what I lovingly call the valley to get to the kind of the peak of the mountain with some of these questions. But before we get started, why don't you explain to people who you are, what you do and kind of where you do it?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

So my name's Omi and I'm the co founder of Diaz-Cooper, and we are a platinum HubSpot solutions partner. But more than that, we're really a revenue operations consultancy. We do strategic rev ops from the top down, right? So from business objectives and the C suite on down. We specialize in aviation and travel, two of our top niches, but really almost any B2B technology, things like that, we have a lot of expertise.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

And we're about to celebrate twenty five years in business next year. So that's super exciting. And we are fully remote. Although I personally am headquartered in Miami, Florida, I have team members in Canada, in The UK, in Texas, in all over Florida, some in Latin America. So we're fully remote.

George B. Thomas:

I love, love, love, love that you're remote. Also, congratulations on the twenty five, coming up on twenty five years. I also have to just say, I love your background. If you're not watching this on YouTube, if you're listening to this on the podcast, between your background and my background, there is just visual delights everywhere that people could be looking at. Okay.

George B. Thomas:

Enough of that. Not why we're here. Omi, if we could go back in time and meet young Omi Diaz-Cooper, just starting out, one, what would we see, and what would she be most surprised about where you are right now?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

She would definitely have her socks blown off by the fact that I am in a sales position. As a young person, I thought of sales in a kind of a negative way. It actually was a self limiting belief that I had to overcome in order to have my business be successful. But I think you saw somebody who was a hustler, who was really wanting to just learn and be open to all kinds of things. My background that you mentioned is actually an homage to the fact that I have a degree in anthropology, which has helped me in my career.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

And I wasn't sure back then that it would, but it has. So, that's another surprising thing that I think young Omi would be surprised by as well as the fact that I've had a long lasting business of my own because entrepreneurship wasn't really on my mind back in my early 20s.

George B. Thomas:

Oh, that's interesting. Sales, Limiting Beliefs, which by the way, I think right there would be a topic that we could dive in for hours about limiting One of the best books I ever read was by Gay Hendrix and it talked about limiting beliefs in your zone of genius and the big leap. And so if you're listening or watching this and you're like, hey, I have some limiting beliefs. Hey, maybe that book will help. But okay.

George B. Thomas:

So let's kind of continue on. We've got sales. We've got entrepreneurship. You did you say archaeology?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Yeah. Anthropology.

George B. Thomas:

Wow. Anthropology. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

George B. Thomas:

Crazy. Okay. So that's note one of I had no clue nor would I probably ever know. So I'm already glad that we're having this conversation. So you've had this journey, right?

George B. Thomas:

You even mentioned at the beginning of going on almost twenty five years in business. Along the way, and by the way, you can go as back as far as you want to as soon as you want, Who are some of your biggest inspirations or mentors along the way?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

So I do want to start by saying that I was nearly eight months pregnant when we decided to open the business. And the inspiration for it was actually my co founder and husband, Todd Cooper. So I recently wrote about that, like how I was pregnant and working out of a laptop, and that was the genesis of my business. Having two daughters has been a source of continuous inspiration to me. It forces me to be a better person, role model.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

You know, I look in terms of, you know, am I doing something they would be proud of? Am I doing something that they can learn from? That's been, you know, something for me that's been an inspiration. But along the way, gosh, I'm telling you, you've had a couple of them on your show already. You know, people like Courtney Semblur, people like Rania, other women business owners like Tracy Graziani, who's a great friend.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Being surrounded by women like that in HubSpot has really been uplifting and a continual source of inspiration. As far as a mentor, I didn't really have a mentor, but I think my first anti mentor was my last boss. First of all, she was the gutsiest, ballsiest woman I've ever met. She was what you would call you know, like an old fashioned, just a gal. Like, I can't even So she started her business by quitting her job at Wholesome Bread, which was a huge bread company located here in Florida, and telling her job, I'm quitting.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

I'm starting my own company and you're going to be my first client. And lo and behold, Wholesome Breads was her client for over twenty years. A lot to look up to there. Back in the day when she started her business, it was not easy to be a woman in marketing at all. Her name was Sandy Tinsley.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

And I want to say that as an homage to her. But I say anti mentor because when I told her that I was quitting and starting my she was like, ah, kid. You're not gonna last three years. Right? She had this gravelly voice.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

So I said, well, watch me. You know? Watch me. And that really motivated me to to do it. And, you know, we'd have lunches every so often.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

And the first time I ever wanna pitch against her, she called me up and she goes,

George B. Thomas:

I'm looking at you, kid. I love it. I I love too that in that story great story. And and it's funny because it made me think back to I had never really positioned it this way, but if I had an anti mentor, it would be my math teacher. Because my math teacher in ninth grade told me that I would never amount to anything.

George B. Thomas:

And I, too, like you picked up this, like, I'll show you mentality, right? And when you have that I'll show you mentality, plus what you mentioned earlier about getting rid of your limiting beliefs, it's very interesting how far the places and spaces that you can go into. So, amazing, amazing story there. Okay, let's keep going down this journey again. We're getting into kind of some of what I call the valley questions, but I promise eventually we'll go into the mountaintop.

George B. Thomas:

So, Omi, have there been any hurdles, biases that you've had to overcome in your career? And if so, like how did you navigate them along the way?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Oh my gosh, have there? Besides the typical hurdles that we faced in the last couple of decades, like recessions and COVID and almost being bankrupt a couple of times over history, right? I think the ones that really are more like Things that really make you think about how you want to handle them are things like, for example, early on, almost all men clients that we had assumed that I was my husband's assistant or secretary. And I was actually the owner of the company and the president and the CEO. Not to take anything away from him, but he's definitely not like a growth strategist.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

He's more of a CFO. He's more of a farmer and a mechanic than a hunter. So there were differences that made it work. But a lot of times, I mean, I sat in a room where men just assumed that I was the secretary. So overcoming that, overcoming the fact that women don't get women owned businesses still don't get funding the way that men owned businesses do.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Like honestly, any tech pro with a laptop can get funding from just about anybody, but women have to triple and quadruple prove themselves. So we learn to bootstrap and we learn to self fund and we learn to just make it happen with, again, with grit. And then my own head, right? So being able to say like, yes, I can do it even though I'm a woman. Yes, I can do it.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Yes, I can show up and be my full self and be a, you know, and be kind and listen to people while still acknowledging that I might be smarter than some of the guys that I'm talking to. That's a that's a tough pill for some people to swallow. And it's also I came from a background where, my own mom said, you know, hey. Like, never show how smart you are because men don't like that.

George B. Thomas:

Oh, wow. Right? So, yeah. Man, it's so many good things already. Because when I hear you talking about that, I hear like self love, self belief, and then this thing that I think is so important and you called it grit, like I love to call it persistence, right?

George B. Thomas:

Just, hey, put your head down, figure it out, like with grit, let's get it done. Again, a key thing if you're gonna be successful to kind of pack away or build into yourself. Oh, okay. Let's dive a little deeper into that because you kind of alluded to like sitting at the table and people having the wrong perception of even who you are. Have you ever faced a moment where you felt maybe underestimated, overlooked, out of place just in the industry?

George B. Thomas:

And and how did you handle it?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Yeah. I think there's been moments like that throughout throughout history. I I recall I was in a boardroom one time with, you know, two guys and my coworker and I are two women. And it was a highly technical discussion. And she and I knew that there was a lot more behind the issue that we were discussing.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Like, the problem of why this thing hasn't happened yet is because there are things going on in the back it was, like, highly technical. There were things going on in the back end that needed to be resolved before we could step in and make the right integration. And I just felt like we were being completely dismissed because we were two women and they were two men. Yeah. And I think they felt like gals can't possibly know.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

You know, they just can't get it done. Their team isn't capable. And I finally ended up, like, literally drawing it out on a chart for them. And then the light bulbs kinda went off, and they were like, oh, okay. We, you know, we get it now.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

So sometimes you just you you can't let that get to you, and you can't get defensive. You have to, like, listen and see if there's a better way to explain it, though, that they will listen, you know, to you. Right? Without resorting to, like, well, my dev's a man, you know, or my other dev's a man or whatever. You know what I mean?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Yeah.

George B. Thomas:

I love this idea of you can't let it get to you, listen, and you trying to figure out how to communicate a better way where they can get it. I think the power of listening, again, we're kind of unpacking all these pieces so we build them into ourselves as we kind of move forward and learn from the journey that you've been on. So let's, again, kind of go into this, and I love the stories that you're telling, a little bit deeper. I I promise we're gonna crest to the mountaintop here in a hot minute. But have you ever experienced significant failure, a setback where it just felt like a punch in the gut?

George B. Thomas:

And and if so or when, what did you learn from it?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

I'm gonna say one of the biggest ones was absolutely 2020. We had already survived the dot com bust. We had already survived the real estate crash. We had already survived the recession. And we had very carefully pivoted to being mostly a travel focused company.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

And so literally, had airlines, we had cruise lines, we had hotel chains. Everybody was a travel company. And so you can imagine that by the end of 2020, we had lost nearly 80% of our revenue. And I felt like a failure because I had made the decision to go into that niche. I had made the decision that that was a space that I loved.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

It was a space that I felt alive in. But I said to myself after a grieving because I gotta tell you, none of this is easy. Right? Yep. And you have to allow yourself the time to feel it and to and to grieve a little bit before you can move on.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

But I said this isn't gonna, you know, this isn't gonna end us, and I believe that this is going to come back. And so my first instinct wasn't let's cut people or let's cut this and that. My first instinct was, oh my gosh, a lot of my friends are being furloughed. A lot of people that have a lot less than me that depended even more on this industry than I did are suffering right now. And I put out a whole series of emails on, you know, if you know people, if you know people that are hiring, if you know people that, you know, that have food banks, know, things like that to help out in the industry.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

And then thank goodness, you know, yes, we were able to pivot. We were able to get more SaaS clients. A lot of clients use the time to do communications around COVID safety, etcetera, etcetera. And between some of the loans and some of that we were able to make it through. But I think if I had let that gut it was a major gut punch.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Don't get me wrong. I mean, I literally was sobbing at the table a couple of times, you know, thinking about like, oh my gosh, you know, we've we've survived so much already and now for this to also happen. But not letting it get to you. Like I said, you know, giving yourself the time to grieve and then figuring out how you move on. But starting from a place of how can I give back?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

How can I help others first? Because eventually, it'll come back to you somehow or another, but that's not why you do it. You do it because you genuinely feel like, oh my gosh. It's a horrible situation for me, but look at all these people that are even worse.

George B. Thomas:

Yeah.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Right?

George B. Thomas:

I I love that you kind of well, first of all, the idea of giving it space and grieving and then moving forward from it. When you give it the space, you can actually learn from it, which, by the way, nobody saw any of that coming. It was just all a sudden it was there. And so it's like nothing we can control. We didn't have power over it.

George B. Thomas:

Like any decision we made before that had nothing to do with it. And so, but the fact that you leaned into how can I help other humans? Because they're going through this. First of all, that tells me a lot about who you are as a human. And I'm always in the camp of like, how do I show up as a happy, helpful, humble human for those that we're trying to serve?

George B. Thomas:

And so the fact that you leaned into that is absolutely amazing to me. All right, let's dive a little bit deeper, but now we're gonna kind of crest out into the mountaintop questions that we're gonna get into. Omie, what does empowerment mean to you? And how do you pass it on to others in your field or that you work with? This idea of empowerment.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Yeah. I think first and foremost, empowerment is not something anyone else can give you. Empowerment is something that you have to dig deep and find out and gift it to yourself. So that to me is how I see it. And it is not an easy lesson to learn.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

But I think it's that source of, you know, what we were calling grit or persistence or whatnot is that you have to have a level of belief in yourself. And I'm not talking about the surface fake it till you make it kinda thing. I'm talking about, like, really saying, what can I do? How can I show up in the world? How can I help others?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

What is my what is the meaning of what I'm doing? And then showing up for that. And that's going to give you the most empowerment than anybody else can give you, you know, in any other way. Mean, obviously, there's great books and there's great mentors and great examples, but you gotta find it within yourself.

George B. Thomas:

Yeah. I I love that so much. I love that you said gift it to yourself, like, and and it's your meaning. So those are some things, the threads that I would want the viewers or listen to pull in is like, what is my meaning? How do I gift myself this empowerment mindset?

George B. Thomas:

So with that said though, can you share a moment where in your career you felt especially empowered or proud of something that you achieved?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Yeah, there's, Thankfully, there's been quite a few of those as well. One of my earlier ones was when I was on stage at Inbound twenty seventeen with Dan Tire, and he picked little old me to be on a panel and speak in front of like four or 500 people that were in the room. And it was about sales. And the reason that that felt so empowering was because I had overcome my beliefs that sales was something like used car salesman and that it was tactic y and gimmicky and manipulative. And I had flipped the switch and learned through one of the greatest salespeople in HubSpot's history, Dan Tire, that sales is about helping other people.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

That sales is about figuring out what solution you can offer, seeing if the person has that problem that that solution will fix, and then connecting the two for a happy ending, right? Once that switch had been flipped, you know, that changed things for me. And so the culmination of having gone through the boot camp and graduated and then being part of being on the stage at Inbound was really, really gratifying.

George B. Thomas:

I love that story. And I'll also love me some Dan Tire. Like, he is an amazing human. And to be on stage at Inbound is an amazing feat. So congratulations on that.

George B. Thomas:

And I I love too that it just ties back to like, I had this personal hurdle. I got over this hurdle. And because I got over, I got to actually educate others again to that helpfulness that seems rooted deep inside of you. So.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Yeah. I teach that boot camp now, the way.

George B. Thomas:

There you go. There you go. I love it. Love it. So if you haven't taken that boot camp, go take the boot camp because you might have to get past your own hurdle.

George B. Thomas:

That's a little plug there. So, Omie, if you could change one thing about how women are supported in this industry, what you got a magic wand. What the heck would you change?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

The the way that we connect together as as women. So I'm probably in four or five different Slack groups for different women's groups, and that's fabulous. Having, you know, having these micro communities is is fabulous. But I wish there was some bigger thing that we could all come together under, that we could all collaborate under and learn from each other and support each other. Because for a long time, back in my mom's day, I think part of what came out of that advice she was giving, you know, back in those days, it felt like a lot of women were like more like competing against each other and, you know, like trying to claw their way out, you know, the depths.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

But we've, you know, I think we were standing on the shoulders of those women and we now need to see that we'll get a lot further by collaborating, communicating and helping each other out. There's plenty of business for everyone. And we all have a slightly, even if we do the same thing, we either do it for different audiences or we do it in a slightly different way or we have a different niche. So there's really no reason why there couldn't be some sort of like a broader platform for women to come together instead of all these little micro communities all over the place.

George B. Thomas:

I love this idea of a bigger community, and my brain goes to like a community where you can be lifting up. You know, you you I think that comes to my mind because you're kinda like clawing or scratching our way out and, like, standing on the shoulders of these other women. And now you're in the position or it feels like you're in the position to want to, like, how do we just elevate or escalate this even more than where we are now? And I I love that idea. Somebody needs to, like, put something together for that.

George B. Thomas:

If you're listening to this and you're like, hey, this is something I think too, then, well, you know that you should probably reach out to Omi and we can see if something can happen there. Okay. Omi, this is, it's called the Women of HubSpot podcast. I literally ask one question about HubSpot, by the way. And so we've arrived at that moment.

George B. Thomas:

Are there any particular tools, strategies or trends in HubSpot right now that excite you?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

I'm going to say that a lot of people obviously are very excited about the AI direction that HubSpot is taking. And I am as well. However, I feel like what is more exciting is that we can be a lot more human utilizing the tools. It has been said a lot, but you really have to live it. You really have to be genuine.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

You really have to give value first. You really have to stay in touch and in connection with your customers to make sure that you're that they're getting the impact that they signed up for. And as a as a customer platform, HubSpot helps you do that. So do it, right? Like start using the CX tools to see like how they're doing.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Don't just send the damn survey, right? Follow-up, call them up, follow-up with a personal email. The other day I took a client out to lunch and I'm doing that with the local clients that we have. Because that human connection, that's what keeps the clients happy. Knowing that you've heard them and that they feel listened to and heard, that's what's going to keep you in their good graces and what's going to help you serve them better.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Right? And so all the tools that, you know, for automation or whatever, they're all wonderful. They're all great. But just make sure that you're using them for that, that you're using them to listen better and to give more value and to be more human.

George B. Thomas:

I love listening, more value. And you had me at Be Human, by the way. Felt like it was my Jerry Maguire moment. You had me at Hello. So here's one, networking.

George B. Thomas:

How important is networking with other females or just general humans? And if it is important, like are there certain strategies that you use to build connections?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Oh yeah. So networking, whether it's at live events and luncheons and things like that, or whether it's on, you know, communities and Slack channels and groups is super, super important. Because the more other people get to know you and who you are, the likelier they are to then remember you and refer you. And it's not always about trying to get business, right? I approach it more as curiosity.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

For me, curiosity is the biggest, best trait that you can have when you're networking, right? So asking questions, genuinely listening to people, something may or may not come out of it. But sometimes by just being naturally curious and having nice human conversations, you might find out that they have a cousin or they have a friend or that their own business needs X, Y, and Z or whatever the case might be. Just the other day on one of the Facebook groups, one of my friends from one of my women's groups recommended me for a niche that somebody was looking for because, again, she just knows me. She trusts me.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

It's really about building that trust. And building trust isn't you can't do it with AI generated content. Building trust is about making people feel heard. It's about, again, providing that value and having those human connections so that people then feel like, okay, yeah, I trust that that person is saying that if they're saying they can do it, can because I trust them.

George B. Thomas:

I love that so much. So many good pieces in there. It might be a rewind point of this episode, to be honest with you. But I love this idea of curiosity as a networking superpower. I think that is so amazing.

George B. Thomas:

Omi, you've had an amazing journey. We've covered some of the things, you know, hurdles and things that you have gone through. So I'm curious on the other side of the coin, like what has been the most rewarding aspect of your career?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Besides obviously helping clients reach their objectives, right? And being able to have clients that come back even after they switch jobs. We've had one that has taken us with them on like four or five different jobs. That's obviously the number one. But the one that is very close to my heart is seeing some of the people that started out with us as very young, sometimes interns, sometimes entry level people.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

And now today seeing that they have positions as VPs of marketing at a major pet chain and a major jeans manufacturer and digital strategist for a major tech company. Like seeing these folks had a journey with us and that learned certain things. And I'm not saying it was all because of us. Just the fact that we were part of that journey and we gave them an opportunity and in many cases did teach them things. Right?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

That's very gratifying to see that their success today.

George B. Thomas:

I love that because, well, one of the things on my georgebthomas.com website, the tagline is Catalyst for Growth. And what I hear you saying is we like to help our clients grow, but it's also really cool when you see people who are inside of our own walls, virtual or real, go to be do these great things. And I love that because again, it comes down to like this idea of being helpful, of being human, and almost even like a little bit of mentor in there. And so speaking of mentor, let's get you to be a mentor for a second. What advice would you give other women who might want to choose this same career path that you've been on?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Well, first and foremost, you know, this whole believing in yourself, you know, it is not easy. I'm sitting here saying like, hey, anyone can do this. Like, no. You're going to have moments where you're yourself. You're gonna have moments where you're gonna feel like somebody punched you in the face.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

And, you know, let yourself feel it and then figure out how to move on. But the number one thing that I that I would tell people today is don't try to be something that you're not in the hopes that you will eventually get there. Okay? If you genuinely feel that you're gonna get there, then be true to where you are and learn as much as you can along the way. But don't overpromise.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Don't use fake tools to you know, because people will suss you out. And I think that's gonna be a bigger hurdle, you know, during these times than any outside perception of female, you know, capabilities or anything like that. I think a lot of that hopefully is is behind us. Maybe not all of it, but, but I think you can hurt yourself more by being inauthentic than anything else.

George B. Thomas:

First of all, that is the rewind spot for sure if the other one wasn't. But, like, you can hurt yourself more by being inauthentic than anybody else could. I So again, you've been on this journey. There's so much I want to say about that, but I'm just going to let it sit there so it can brew in the brains of the viewers and listeners. You've again been on this amazing journey, you know, going on twenty five years in business.

George B. Thomas:

You've reached this destination that you are right now, but I'm super curious. Omi, what are your long term goals from here to wherever?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

So we're actually working on that now. So we're my husband and I are kind of in the last five years or so of where we'd like to really figure out what's next for the company and what makes the most sense. In an ideal world, I would love for the company to be run by the team. I have a very capable team. I think it could play out really nicely that way.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

But personally, I am dying to just live long term in Europe, particularly in Spain and Italy, around the Mediterranean. My husband loves to sail. We both love the ocean. I'm of Spaniard descent, and I speak Spanish and Italian. So I'm just so looking forward to that.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Yeah. We're working towards making that happen in a way that everyone ends up winning, hopefully.

George B. Thomas:

I love that. I love that everybody ends up winning. Team driven culture and company would be amazing. And by the way, sailing and Yeah. Let's go.

George B. Thomas:

Come on. That wouldn't suck at all. At all. Okay. So we're going to land the plane.

George B. Thomas:

We've got two more questions for you, then we'll let you get back to your regularly scheduled day. So I've learned a lot about you, by the way, a ton during this interview, so have the viewers and listeners. But I just need one more thing. Like, what's a surprising or little known fact about you that people might not expect?

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Probably the fact that I really love horseback riding, don't get to do it enough. And if I had my choice of where I would be on any given moment, if I'm not like reading a book, I would be on horseback.

George B. Thomas:

I absolutely love that. By the way, I grew up in Montana, so I used to ride and train horses. And a little unknown fact, not why we're here, but before HubSpot, I was actually a certified Western and English riding instructor.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

So Oh my gosh. I used to take dressage, so I can I can ride both saddles as well? There you go. So there's another little thing I wanna say in that you and I are kindred spirits in another way, because I know that you also talk a lot about being human and being kind. And you could see from my mug here that I believe in that as well.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

And I'm not sure if you remember, but we actually met back in Inbound, like in 2018 or something and had like a long conversation. And you were one of my early inspirations to like stick it out and stay as a partner. So,

George B. Thomas:

Thank you so much. That is amazing. See, I love when I get those little nuggets handed back to me that I was part of a conversation that actually made a difference. And in your case, probably many, many differences. So absolutely, love it.

George B. Thomas:

Okay, last question. Last question. Finish this sentence for me. Success to me is blank.

Omi Diaz-Cooper:

Success to me is feeling like I've helped others to achieve something greater than they could have otherwise and and feeling good about it.