Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The built hapily podcast is about building apps, companies, and relationships in the HubSpot ecosystem. As HubSpot grows, so does the opportunity - and this podcast puts you in the room with the people making it all happen.
Hosted by Dax and Max, built hapily goes behind the scenes with HubSpot developers, solutions partners, startup founders and community leaders. Each episode delivers tactical insights into launching and scaling businesses around the HubSpot platform.
However, this podcast is about more than just building software. It's about building authentic connections, fulfilling careers, and lives you can be proud of. Guests share their personal journeys, hard-won lessons and philosophies for not just achieving success, but finding purpose and happiness along the way.
After all, this is about more than making apps. It's about building hapily - and you're invited along for the ride. Join Dax, Max and their guests to construct the life you've been dreaming of, one conversation at a time.
bhp S2E00 - Sam Anderson, Origin 63 - Full
===
[00:00:00] I think what's really dangerous is creating something without understanding how your customers are going to use it or even if they need it. I see that happen a lot and I think we've all seen that happen a lot and we've all fallen into that trap of putting hours and hours of time into developing something and then they're like, "I don't get it. I don't need this. This is useless."
[00:00:20] And so if I were going to say one thing to Partners that are like, "I don't know where to start is like, go talk to your customers. What are they struggling with right now?
[00:00:30] Up next on the built hapily podcast, we got Sam Anderson from Origin 63.
[00:00:34] Sam takes us through the origins of Origin 63 and how they built their HubSpot services partner business in this wonderful ecosystem. We also have a deep conversation around their love of Service Hub and the future of where things are headed in that space, all that more on this episode of the built hapily podcast.
[00:01:00]
[00:01:12] Sam, welcome to the built hapily podcast. Welcome to our little round table of understanding who's building what in the HubSpot ecosystem. And I heard about Origin 63 because I like things with numbers. 3, 6, 9, build a ratio. I smelled it. I knew it. I see female CEO. I got to talk to her. So Sam, how are you doing this gloomy San Diego afternoon?
[00:01:35] I'm doing wonderful. I'm very excited to be here and chat with both of you.
[00:01:38] We're excited to have you.
[00:01:40] So one of the things that was interesting when I was looking up all the Origin 63 is like, well, okay, so tell me the origin story because there's got to be something if you got the word. If you're going meta with the name of your agency,
[00:01:52] True, true, true, true. Yeah. So there is an origin story. So in 2020, we were HubSpot Partners and we were running live events [00:02:00] off the backbone of HubSpot. And then March 2020 happened. And so our business basically blew up and we were like, "Okay, what do we do now? So we retained our HubSpot Partner status and we kind of thought about what are we going to do from here? And we decided just to go back to our origin, which was building out HubSpot CRMs, which at the time was just marketing and sales, right? And really making sure that customers are getting the most value that they possibly can out of the data that they're putting into the system. So that was Origin. And then 63 is numerology around community, abundance, and especially during 2020, that was something that we really wanted to bring to our business. But it is something that we embody now, even in our culture as we move forward.
[00:02:48] High respect on the numerology. Everyone is. People gotta know. Don't make me pull out my cards, because we'll start to talk. We'll go down a super rabbit hole. I'm a big 11. Life path. Life path 9. Let's get it. So.
[00:02:58] Where's the 63 [00:03:00] come from?
[00:03:01] Like, how did we find the number 63?
[00:03:03] Yeah, what's the significance behind the number?
[00:03:06] So, the funny thing is, it was the last two numbers of our physical address at the time. And I was like, "Hmm, what, where, you know, what does this mean? And then as I started to go down Google land, I realized the significance of the number 63 as well as the number 9, and that was the numerology of the abundance, community. There's a lot that 6, 3, and 9 for some reason kind of embody.
[00:03:33] So that just felt really good to us culturally, and that's why we adopted it.
[00:03:38] I love that. I'm going back to I think the first conversation you and me had. Back when I was trying to get the Partner stuff up off the ground when I first started over here at hapily and there was a question that I'd kind of like tried to ask in a number of different ways to a lot of different partners. Cause I was like genuinely trying to get to like know them and understand them and kind of understand what's different about them. I remember there was this very interesting [00:04:00] thing that you told me about what you guys do. You had mentioned, and if I'm paraphrasing this wrong or whatever, just let me know.
[00:04:06] And if I'm also, if I'm just imagining this and I made this up in my head, please tell me.
[00:04:10] Curious.
[00:04:10] I'm like really curious now.
[00:04:12] I explicitly remember that you talked about within your services, you guys also focus a lot on change management.
[00:04:19] Yes.
[00:04:19] That okay. Good.
[00:04:21] It is a thing.
[00:04:21] And to me, what it sounds like, you tell me if I'm, I'm incorrect around this, but like, to me, what it sounds like is like through your services and the way you guys deploy and the way you guys do stuff is you put a very special emphasis on the adoption of things, right? And ensuring that processes are changed and you go way beyond the whole, like, "Oh, we built you this cool CRM. Here's the keys to the car. Good luck."
[00:04:41] Right? And it feels like that's something that's very much built into the DNA of what it is that you guys offer, but I'm sure there's also like a strategic reason behind why you do it, right? And so like, could you tell us a little bit about what that means?
[00:04:55] What is that a certain service? Is it just the part of the blueprint in the way that you [00:05:00] deploy your services? Why do you guys put a special focus around that? Is it still a thing you're doing?
[00:05:04] For sure. Yeah, for sure. So, just to put in context, Origin 63 is a HubSpot Solutions Partner, and we're helping customers grow through customer retention with HubSpot tools. So we've been Partners for 10 years. One of the things we learned over that decade. I hate to say I can't believe it's been a decade, actually. But or maybe I'm glad to say it's been a decade. What?
[00:05:27] What a decade.
[00:05:28] Right? But one of the things that we learned is you can't just implement software, hand over the keys and say, "Bye, guys, have so much fun." Like, Even when somebody is buying a car, like, you have to make sure they have a driver's license, right?
[00:05:43] Like, they go through training, they have to be certified, like, they can actually drive the car. They can't just take it off the lot. And we're like, have fun, you know?
[00:05:52] HubSpot, any kind of CRM, any kind of software, but HubSpot, especially HubSpot today, is exactly like that too. We want to make sure that people know how [00:06:00] to do their jobs in the software. So when we approach implementations, we have a whole change management process from start to beginning that's just baked into the philosophy of how we approach implementation. So we're training. We're anchoring change. We're really making sure that stakeholders are heard at the very beginning. And even before we go live, we're doing more of that training.
[00:06:26] So we have a user acceptance testing period, which is incredibly important. I hope all Partners do it today, especially those that are Upmarket and Enterprise, because that is the time to stress test the system as well as make sure that your users are getting their driver's license. They basically know and can prove that they can really work HubSpot after you are gone, which at the end of the day, I think that's the real true sign of success for an implementation partner.
[00:06:55] Yeah.
[00:06:56] And then even after we go live, we have a period of what we call [00:07:00] Adoption Support. So we're really staying in there with our clients and anchoring the change, making sure that they're building behavior, which I won't even go off the deep end on that one, but if anyone has ever done any like research around the psychology of building a behavior, it takes time. And so if you want your salespeople to actually be using all the tools in HubSpot and not just revert back to their spreadsheet, you have to have a change management and adoption plan. Otherwise it's just going to be this fancy thing that you just put on the shelf.
[00:07:33] Yeah. And is this is this like fundamental to the way that you guys deliver your services? You wouldn't sell your services to someone without the change management aspect of it, right? Like it's baked into like how you deliver and why it's successful is because we do this, and there's a process around it.
[00:07:50] So if you're not interested in going through that process and making sure that adoption actually takes place and people understand how to lift their job out of [00:08:00] one system and put it into the other and actually get value out of it. We might not be the best people to work with.
[00:08:05] I just question people too, when they're like, "We don't care about a training and adoption. I'm like, "okay, so, that's interesting. Tell me more."
[00:08:15] But yeah, absolutely. I mean, even if we're doing a lightweight project with a team that knows HubSpot really well, we're still going to have a component of that enablement. That's change management. The training piece. It's just inevitable.
[00:08:28] I love that. Sam, you are, without a doubt, I think Service Hub's greatest warrior. I've yet to see somebody as passionate about Service Hub as you are. I like to think I am. It's my favorite hub by far, right? But you sing Service Hub's praises from the and I want to know where's a lot of that love for Service Hub come from?
[00:08:54] I know. People are always like, why Service Hub? And truthfully, it's because a few years ago, we were [00:09:00] working with so many different SaaS companies that had their marketing and sales inside HubSpot. And it felt really good, right? Marketing and sales had a nice play together. They had the same data.
[00:09:11] Everything was going great. So the acquisition was working really well. Well, what we were finding was so many of them are running success and service outside of HubSpot. So they're using Zendesk for service and ticketing. They're using things like Gainsight for success. And so what was happening was two out of the four teams that they have are working completely siloed with a completely different data set. And a lot of times what was happening was the context from one to another was getting lost. And so what I really loved about the idea of Service Hub from the very beginning was this idea that we could run everything inside of HubSpot. And that's even more true today. We've got Help Desk, we've got Success Workspace. And the reason that that's so powerful is that when companies actually focus on [00:10:00] retention, they can literally get like a 5x return. So, especially in the world that we live today, acquisition is even harder than it ever has been. So people that want to get that hockey stick growth, they need to focus on retention. And that's where success and help desk come in, which is the Service Hub. You can't do that if your teams are not talking to each other.
[00:10:24] Everybody is super, super, super all about new customer, new customer, new, new, new, new, new. Remember when we first, first started our very first app was the Customer Service Portal, which people got really sticky on. Throw back to 20 late or the 2019 and we were just like, Oh, well... because there was nothing else and people want to run it. They didn't want Zendesk. They didn't want to use something external. Everything needs to be native. Why am I using this, that, and the third and especially selfishly enough and hapily right now, our shout out to Ben, our newest motion is how can we make people succeed for the long term? How can [00:11:00] we enable people that do use HubSpot better?
[00:11:02] Because as we're learning, a lot of people don't know how to use HubSpot. We're teaching people that we shouldn't be teaching about how workflows work. And if you're not versed in those basics, if you're not versed in those fundamental building blocks of how HubSpot works, and how it operates, and how it kind of speaks to each other, then yeah, no matter who you're working with, Origin 63 is going to get a red flag. You know what? I'm not like, and I spent all this money and I'm still X, Y, Z.
[00:11:26] Right. And the blame game and you're not really that rolled up, but when you do see success, when people can talk to their customers and understand Kmart has customers. Our folks have clients when, when they're talking to their clients and understanding. What they're doing, how they're using it. Right? I'm really looking forward to seeing like usage metrics, especially for SaaS companies thrown into the help desk, into success. So you can see who's using it. Who's not using it. Those are really big deals. And so the praise for Service Hub is a huge deal because it's always ran somewhere else or it's not ran at all.
[00:11:56] Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And I don't remember who [00:12:00] I was talking to, but they were talking about just this idea that, you know, Capital was so cheap for so long that that Saas companies could just keep taking Capital and just run with it. But now, especially, like, the last few years it really kind of dried up.
[00:12:17] And so in order to grow they were finding we can't acquire enough customers. But we have all these customers, but we have this leaky bucket. We've got churn. So retention has really been like the answer to that growth trajectory that people have been looking for when they don't have Capital to just spend and keep going.
[00:12:36] So here we also like to, you know, celebrate things that you've built and let you talk about things that you've built. And since we were so on the topic of Service Hub, Hubdesk. Tell us about it. What is this? This seems, at face value, a service that y'all offer. I don't know how geared specifically towards a certain hub it is, right? [00:13:00] But it definitely looks like sort of a new way of offering services like yours. Talk to us about this where the idea come from. Have you been testing it? Is it a new sort of concept? Is it working? Are you changing? Give us a story. HubDesk.
[00:13:16] Sure, why not?
[00:13:19] Yeah. So HubDesk is basically our premium support model, but it's really based off this idea of this gap in the marketplace of strategic consultative support. And what I mean by that is even now HubSpot, by the way, still has superior support when you compare it to something like Salesforce, right?
[00:13:43] But even now when you have a very specific challenge and you go to support, you call, you make a ticket. You are going to get that red tape that's like, "Look, I can help you with troubleshooting. Here's a knowledge base article, but I can't help you with that. If you want that, you need to go [00:14:00] purchase these like premium consultative hours, which I think are like, $250 plus from HubSpot, right?
[00:14:06] And so what we were finding was we were setting up customers so well on HubSpot. We were getting done with implementations, our integrations, our migrations, all of that. We were going through the adoption period. And then they were like, "Cool. We feel great."
[00:14:20] And we're like. "Great."
[00:14:22] But the challenge was is they would keep coming back with questions because there was nowhere else for them to go. So we created this lightweight support offering that gives them the ability to talk to human beings, get strategic answers to their questions and have us there as their experts basically in their back pocket, but without having to pay like a super, super heavy retainer.
[00:14:43] Which is another gap kind of in our services marketplace. So we've been doing that for about six months and people are really loving it. Even HubSpot admins who like, that's their sole job. They found a lot of value saving tons of time instead of trying to Google it or go to chat [00:15:00] GPT and try to figure out what's real and what's not. Which is a daily struggle for me even.
[00:15:04] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think it's interesting too, because, you're experimenting with some really cool ways of what are services that us as a partner can offer that isn't just, like, straight up an implementation? And like you guys have been on the cutting edge doing this saying like, "Just do implementations. We also really care and think about and, deploy change management strategies." Right? But now you're also experimenting with what's another way we could take the HubSpot knowledge and understanding and strategic value that we offer, but then package it up into a different way that isn't just for, "Oh, you just bought HubSpot and you need to get implemented. There's this whole big project." Right? I think you've identified this area of opportunity out there where it's like folks that want to be able to talk to support, but support's not quite enough. And then you've got these different ways of having another way of bringing on revenue that isn't like a giant project, right? Which, which is interesting.
[00:15:54] Well, and my theory is especially with the advent of AI disrupting service [00:16:00] spaces is that service teams are really going to be like treating their customers more like Saas customers. And what I mean by that is what Saas does really well, other than service is that they built a community, an ecosystem around their product. It's not just a one and done transactional relationship. It's like, "You're using our products, but we're going to enable you. We're going to connect you together in our. Our customer community, we're going to continue to introduce you to new ideas, new concepts, et cetera." In order to enable their customers to continue to grow with them. Service teams have sort of been doing that, especially those who are marketing focused, right?
[00:16:44] I think they have found a good way to do that, but I think in order for us to really compete in this age of AI, we need an offering that's going to be human connected. Because so much of the implementation process in the future could be completely commoditized through [00:17:00] AI. Let's be, let's be real, right?
[00:17:02] As someone who is very in tune with what's happening around Service Hub, right? I want to get your thoughts on the direction you see it going and what's still really missing there, right?
[00:17:15] Because I'm sure a lot of big Service Hub projects and probably working with some companies that might have a little bit more ambitious needs out of it, I guess, what are the really big gaps, and which ones are you excited to see get filled?
[00:17:28] I would say if you haven't looked at HubSpot for Service Hub in the last even three months, Look again. Things have changed so much so fast with Service Hub. What were gaps previously are no longer gaps, and I'll give you some examples. The biggest, biggest gap that we had was we can't port numbers, which was really big deal. Porting numbers basically means like I moved from one carrier to another. I want to keep my phone, my identity, my phone number.
[00:17:55] And now. We actually have the ability. It's in beta, but to port [00:18:00] US-based phone numbers and then in the future we'll do more countries is what I've heard. And what that gives us the ability to do is actually run try not to use all of the vernacular, but IVR, which is.
[00:18:14] I don't even know what that stands for,
[00:18:16] but yeah, it's a, it's a phone tree.
[00:18:18] Interactive voice recording.
[00:18:19] Thank you. But all of that is there. So, basically, that was one of the major hindrances for people moving over with the support team was they would have to use a 3rd party tool, which they might still, if they have a large enough team, like, they have hundreds of people that they need to route to, it might still not be the best fit. HubSpot might debate me on that. We'll see. Um.
[00:18:42] the why behind
[00:18:42] that? Like what the nuanced? The nuanced why behind if you have like hundreds of people on the ivr may not be the best thing
[00:18:49] Is it because like it's too overwhelming to build that in the IVR interface? Is it more so it just can't handle it because of some weird capacity thing or...?
[00:18:57] Calling is like a whole other [00:19:00] beast and you start getting into are we doing simultaneous ringing? Are we doing sequenced ringing, which basically means like, if I ring you for 2 seconds and you're not available, it goes to the next one or, or whoever picks up picks up. So when you start to get to that point of like capacity and people having to wait and like wait times and things of that nature. Like if you have a really high call volume, I don't know if HubSpot is there yet, but it can still do like, but, and that's rare too. Like we're still not seeing huge, huge, huge, huge, huge call centers come over. Right? But we are seeing is the opportunity for support and success to come in to one platform, I think we actually have a lot of parity with a lot of tools now, and I know we're going to be rolling out some really cool AI features too that are going to compete even more with the Zendesks, the Freshdesks, the Gainsights of the world.
[00:19:55] Yeah
[00:19:56] There isn't honestly a lot that we've run into where we're like, no, can't do it.
[00:19:59] [00:20:00] I was literally in a demo the other day. Yeah. And they like, were like rapid firing at people. And we were like, "yes, here's how. Yes, here's how. Yes, here's how."
[00:20:09] Whereas like maybe nine months ago even I would have been like, "Ooh, well, there's a workaround for that. There's a bandaid for that."
[00:20:18] We're past the bandaid phase in Service Hub, which is amazing.
[00:20:21] What's your take on how the whole reimagining of conversations into helpdesk?
[00:20:26] This is a big, this is a big one.
[00:20:28] This is a big one. I love it.
[00:20:31] Yeah, talk to us. What have you observed, and where does it still need to get sort of like, shored up to really compete with the Zendesks and stuff like that out there?
[00:20:41] I think we're there. I think we are competing. Yeah, because I'm, I'm ripping Zendesk all day long.
[00:20:47] Okay, what was the last big thing that made us not there, that now gets you into the place where it's like, "I'm ripping Zendesk all day long?"
[00:20:55] Great question. I would say there were two things. So one was we were a [00:21:00] little bit behind the 8 ball when it was the with AI features. Zendesk was like, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. And then people were like, "But do you have this?" And the second thing that I think has really happened is Help Desk because Help Desk combines the Inbox and Tickets into one workspace, basically. So what was happening before was you would have a Inbox, and then it would maybe create a ticket, and it was kind of connected, but you were working in the inbox, but you'd have to go over to the ticket to get all the features.
[00:21:28] You don't have to do that now because a conversation comes in. I open it. It's already a ticket. Everything's on the side right there. I, as a rep, actually don't even have to leave. I don't have to leave that space. And so the name of the game with support tickets is speed. If I can work more tickets faster and close them with the same quality, which is where all the AI tools come in, like the Breeze and Suggested Responses and things of that nature, then I win as a service team because A) the company doesn't have to add more [00:22:00] heads as it adds customers. And B) I have the opportunity to be really efficient in my work. And that's why people are coming over. Because it's not just like a ticket to ticket thing.
[00:22:13] It's a ticket to a ticket with a CRM.
[00:22:17] Yeah.
[00:22:17] Right. It's like, what do I know? What do I know from the past? All the past, all the information, all of that. And that's, you just need to know everything. All the answers are contextual. Everything about communicating with clients is context. Do you have the context? Are you going to answer a question that they've been asking or you're missing the same question that they've been asking five times and you're like missing it out?
[00:22:38] That context is what AI needs and what's what humans need. I want to talk to a human. I want to feel like I'm talking to a human that knows me. Therefore, it needs to have the context of what my relationship is to your company. And everything is now
[00:22:50] Yes.
[00:22:50] with that.
[00:22:51] I feel like surveys and feedback is now due for a major overhaul though, right? I mean, that surveys tool Well, I think it's [00:23:00] great. I think the last big, you know, update it got was what being able to do like multi page surveys or something like that?
[00:23:06] Yeah, Yeah, but... The crazy thing is, I don't know if you've ever seen, like, Zendesk surveys, but it will only send CSAT, and it's in, like, this ugly, plain text email.
[00:23:17] Oh gross. That's terrible.
[00:23:19] So, like, I think surveys in general, probably across the board, could use an uplift.
[00:23:25] This is me complaining and I feel like we're on the cusp of it because there's a couple of things that I saw today during the update with Kyle that I think is happening. So like for example, there was a update in development about being able to send surveys via workflows. My thought there of what that maybe means is that if you could send it from workflows, well, does that mean just contacts or does that mean other workflow or other object types? And if it means other object types, does that mean we can start tying those feedback submission records to something that's not [00:24:00] just a contact, right?
[00:24:02] Which is kind of what it is and pretty limiting today. So I think surveys, we're probably just on the cusp of like a really cool resurgence in functionality there.
[00:24:11] Next month is Spring Spotlight. HubSpot always does their Spring Spotlight, right? I think there's going to be a lot of updates coming that are going to be well received by lots of people.
[00:24:25] Yeah, you heard it here first. You heard it here first. Well, Sam. With the ultimate Service Hub tease. Alright. Kind of moving on from Service Hub. We just, we just had ecosystem kickoff. We did. Give me the Origin 63 gut reaction. How are you feeling? Give us the live react, what's going on, what's, what's in Sam's gut here
[00:24:52] around, you know.
[00:24:53] Well, I'm, I'm excited. I'm super enthusiastic. In fact, like, you guys are kicking off [00:25:00] my Heads Down Week for strategic vision planning and thinking. I'm taking the whole week off. Oh, gosh, people are going to watch this and be like, Sam was out of the office, but she wasn't out of the office. She was really there. Anyway, there's a lot to think about and I think it's no secret that the HubSpot ecosystem is really trying to understand where we're headed with AI in general, how to enable our customers, how to enable ourselves and what does that mean for our services in the future? For me, that's the biggest question I'm asking. It's not about like, "Oh gosh, AI is going to take our job."
[00:25:36] I don't think that's true, but I want to know where I can be more efficient in our services, but I also want to know where people are going to value us in ways that perhaps were actually undervalued today as a service provider. And that's where that's the human connection piece that I keep going back to, you know.
[00:25:55] Does a lot of this AI stuff have any sort of like, ways it changes like your [00:26:00] calculus or the way you're thinking a lot about the change management stuff that you guys already have like baked in as part of your your DNA or no? Or is it an addition or like, does it, is it unrelated completely?
[00:26:10] That's a good question. I still think it's going to take people to support adoption. And so that's one of my theories is that training, like people to people training and any kind of people to people interaction right now is kind of undervalued. But as we have more AI, which is going to make us efficient in a lot of other ways, and I can like, rattle off so many from project management to just the process of data mapping and consolidating and understanding data quality and data cleanup. Like AI is going to do incredible things for those areas. Technical services are highly valued right now because nobody can do it. Well, what happens if AI comes in and whomever can prompt AI the best can provide the best technical services? What's left? And so that's why I keep going back [00:27:00] to people-to-people. Like, what is it that we provide that is going to be the baseline, regardless of how much AI decides in the future?
[00:27:10] I like how I said AI decides, like AI is just out there. Doing its thing, but anyway.
[00:27:15] It's probably going to be making its own decisions.
[00:27:17] Exactly. And I'm not talking 6 months, right? Like, I, I, know that that's that implementation isn't going to completely disappear tomorrow, but there's a lot of things that AI is really good at that it is going to take our place, and that's not a bad thing.
[00:27:34] That's going to take our place for the stuff that humans hate doing.
[00:27:37] Yeah, we don't want to do it anyway.
[00:27:39] I don't want to do full on research papers anymore. I just want to think, right? Reason.
[00:27:45] Yeah.
[00:27:45] I don't want to look at four softwares and figure out which properties are the somewhat same, but a little bit different, and they all now need to come into HubSpot.
[00:27:55] Yeah, I used to not want to do two plus two, but they got calculators that came out.
[00:27:58] Sam as someone who's [00:28:00] had a HubSpot Solutions Provider successfully running in the ecosystem for a long time now, what sort of advice would you have maybe for some of the smaller or newer Partners that may have been part of that Ecosystem call and perhaps they're having, or maybe, you know, it could even be Partners that have been around for a while. Anyone who's experiencing some AI panic after that call, because I think there was, especially in the conversation with the guy who is talking about teaching people AI stuff. I think like what I'm wondering is if there's a lot of, you know, partners out there going like. "Oh man, we have to have an AI offering, and we have to start using AI in every single thing we're doing. And AI, oh my god, people are going to expect us to have AI services." What sort of advice do you have to maybe calm those folks down a little bit? Just say, relax, you don't need to rush in anything. I don't know, like, I don't know what's your take on, any sort of partners that might be having a bit of [00:29:00] a existential services crisis that if they're not doing that already, and just be careful on how you just run into stuff thinking that you have to do it.
[00:29:08] Well, here's how I'm approaching it. Which I feel is logical. And others might feel as well is the first thing that I'm doing is I'm basically asking my teams, "What are some things that we do that take us way too long? And that you really don't need a college degree to do. Maybe you don't even really need any industry experience to do but it requires human capital today?"
[00:29:31] And those are the first things that I want to figure out how to replace. And that to me is what most people are doing. That's internal, to start.
[00:29:39] The 2nd thing that we're doing is creating our own POV around the availability of AI tools within HubSpot. How should our customers be using them?
[00:29:49] This is part of the change management adoption piece, right? So how should they be using them and what context does it make sense for them to use those tools in their own business? [00:30:00] And how do we continue to enable and train them with more and more new tools? And then the third thing is how do you feed those tools?
[00:30:08] So what do we need to start implementing or teaching customers to implement in order to, for instance, take advantage of the Customer Agent? You can't do that if you don't have a really robust knowledge base, or a really robust spreadsheet that acts as an internal knowledge base with a bunch of queries and answers.
[00:30:28] Don't say the S word on our podcast.
[00:30:30] The Spreadsheet word!
[00:30:32] I was like, "what S-word did I say?"
[00:30:36] Spreadsheet. We've made that, we've made that a bad word.
[00:30:40] Oh, we made it a bad word. Okay. Yeah.
[00:30:41] Well, we made it, we made it a bad word. There's a lot of funny, bad words.
[00:30:44] I gotta put a dollar in the swear jar.
[00:30:46] It's a business slur these days. Yeah. .
[00:30:48] Business slur. Let's steal that. That's funny.
[00:30:52] Yes, that's good. I like
[00:30:54] But you're so right. People don't have those like, I'm guilty. When your knowledge base isn't updated and [00:31:00] it's old and it's the last thing.
[00:31:01] "Oh, we'll get to it. We'll get to, get to it." Then again, you're going to be behind. You're behind in helping the humans that are leveraging your software or leveraging your services about how it works. You're behind on being able to accelerate yourself and get the hockey stick efficiency of duplicating yourself. So you don't have to ask the questions because guess what? Your internal teams, your external teams are gonna be like, "Hey, do we still have the five seat thing?"
[00:31:22] Yeah, I mean the AI stuff is really interesting and I really like your perspective on it where it really kind of sounds like hey you know, until maybe you have like a really good handle on how you're doing it on your own, maybe figure that out before you kind of rush into saying "We need some sort of AI service that we offer people."
[00:31:37] It's Like, Hey, I need computers. I know we need computers, but we haven't got electricity turned on yet, but we need computers, computers, computers, computers.
[00:31:44] I think what's really dangerous is creating something without understanding how your customers are going to use it or even if they need it. I see that happen a lot and I think we've all seen that happen a lot and we've all fallen into that trap of putting hours and hours of time [00:32:00] into developing something and then they're like, "I don't get it. I don't need this. This is useless."
[00:32:05] And so if I were going to say one thing to Partners that are like, "I don't know where to start is like, go talk to your customers. What are they struggling with right now? And it may not be something that even has to do with AI. You should just talk to your customers in general, but, most companies, I would venture to say right now are just struggling to figure out how it all fits into their ecosystem, into their tech stack, into their daily use uses. I think a lot of companies have employees that are just off using their own tools in a variety of different ways. Talk to your people. Find out how they're doing it today. Because I think that's the best way to come up with an offering is just understanding where you fit in. You have to know what the gaps. It's just like anything else. I think people are just kind of overhyping it because of the potential of AI and also it blows your mind what it can do. [00:33:00] Because we've never really seen anything like this before. Which is exciting. It should be exciting to people.
[00:33:06] Yeah
[00:33:07] If I only said one thing, that would be the one thing. Like, don't freak out. Get excited.
[00:33:11] chill,
[00:33:12] Drink a 7UP Yeah. You've built this, you know, wonderful HubSpot partner business, in this ecosystem and again, this show is really all about celebrating that stuff, but also helping people learn from it. And I think selfishly, I think me and Dax want to really have this podcast help influence the next generation of builders of anything in the HubSpot universe by listening to the people that came before them and the ones that have really made it happen. Right? What's like the biggest piece of advice that you have for someone today trying to build a HubSpot Partner Business of really maybe any type? Maybe it's a someone they got their [00:34:00] app on the app store or someone who's like i'm just getting started doing like HubSpot Consulting, right? What's the thing you wish you knew?
[00:34:07] Okay, so this is going to be a shout out to my original Cam. We don't even have Cams anymore for those who are new to the ecosystem. It's basically my HubSpot liaison. Let's say. Dan Vivian, who's not even with HubSpot anymore, but he had told me early on and I didn't listen, but I needed to figure out what our unique point of view is. What our unique niches is. What are unique offer is, et cetera. And it's really easy when you get started you just have like, this natural demand for what you're doing, because it's usually just you and maybe 2 other people and you can get enough work to feed 3 people.
[00:34:46] But as you start to grow, you start to realize that you really need to create that engine to feed your company and still be profitable. And that was the one thing that I went back to and really helped us expand [00:35:00] and grow, which was "What is our unique voice in this industry and in this ecosystem?" It's so easy as a HubSpot partner to get stuck in the echo chamber. We're all following each other on LinkedIn. So it's like, well, that guy's doing it. I should do that. And they're all saying the same thing. It's like, it's so easy to get stuck in it.
[00:35:22] Oh, it's the worst. HubSpot/LinkedIn Echo Chamber is nuts.
[00:35:27] And I, and I think it's great. We have an amazing community. So I'm not, I'm not bashing it at all but...
[00:35:31] That's, that's a byproduct, that's a byproduct of an amazing community, but it is all of us sitting around saying the stuff that we all know.
[00:35:38] If we're all vibing together, doing the same exact thing, saying the same exact thing, like when we get into a situation where we're competing against one or two Partners, because, you know, it is, that is how it works now, right?
[00:35:51] And Mid-Market, Upmarket. You are almost always in a competitive sell. What makes you unique? And it can't be [00:36:00] your tier. It doesn't work that way anymore. It can't be that you offer technical services, or just implementation, or that you're HubSpot focused. All those things four years ago were a differentiation. You have to continuously find your new differentiation because this ecosystem moves so fast.
[00:36:18] How would you define Origin 63's niche, if you were to say, this is what our niche is? Like, what would you say to that?
[00:36:24] Yeah, so we are helping customers to grow their retention on top of HubSpot. So we're really hyper focused on post sales. So we're, we're still working with marketing and sales teams, but it's in the full customer experience engine. So our whole philosophy is if you aren't doing these things, you don't have a smooth sales to service handoff.
[00:36:49] You don't have customer support in your Portal. You don't have any kind of customer success motion. You don't have to have a dedicated team, but like, how are you upselling?
[00:36:59] you [00:37:00] renewing? How are you getting repurchases? Then, how are you growing?
[00:37:04] And the thing that I love about that is that you're not niching on an industry, which is what I think a lot of people think niching is and I'm guilty of saying it too, right? Like i've been someone to say like "Hey, listen if you want to stand out as a Partner , you got to bring industry knowledge and combine it with HubSpot knowledge and be able to translate those things together and be like I am the HubSpot Partner for pet grooming businesses. You know, when anyone who's been a student of Inbound for a very long time understands that Inbound is simply the physics of selling to human beings, right? At the end of the day, that's, that's, that's really all it is when it comes down to it. And so when someone like you hears on the phone, "Oh do you guys have experience in the X Whatever Sector, right? And you in your head go, " I mean, you're still selling to humans at the end of the day. Inbound's gonna work, cause you're selling to [00:38:00] people."
[00:38:00] But like, But, but the thing is, is like customers coming from the outside don't understand that, right? They don't get that. So like the thing is, is like they want to be able to say, "Oh, I want to work with someone who understands this industry because I only think someone who understands that industry would be able to deploy HubSpot in a way that makes sense for it, right? Now, is there a greater truth behind that? Yes, totally. Absolutely. Right. But I think that that's interesting But I think what you're kind of showing is that you don't have to niche in an industry. You can niche around a specific problem people are trying to solve for. Which is a great way to 1) Get really good at what it is that you're delivering and become the experts in that. But also 2) don't pigeonhole yourself into, yeah, don't pigeonhole yourself into a specific industry, which is the risk you run doing that first method of niching down, right?
[00:38:54] True. And I will say, Max, that the whole reason that B2B does that is because that's how we [00:39:00] buy as human beings, right? We want to see ourselves using that product. We want to know that other people like us use that product. And so I don't think it's wrong. And even for us, like, we've kind of chosen 3 that we're really working on building specific POVs for, specific approaches for, so that when we do get those questions, we can say, "Yes, of course. And here's how we
[00:39:24] approach your industry." But I was always nervous early on of choosing just one industry because we were seeing the opportunity for, especially for Service Hub across so many. And it was such a new for us in the ecosystem. It was such a new product still. So it was like, who is going to latch on to this?
[00:39:43] And that's smart too because I think what you're doing there is you're not pigeonholing yourself into a singular identity, right? But you're also prepared to prove that you can serve that space when asked.
[00:39:54] Yes, especially again, when you're in those Upmarket sells. Like, that's a big [00:40:00] deal. And then it comes with a bunch of other truth metrics that you have to figure out. Like, we ended up going to get SOC 2 because that was a really big piece and probably will be continuously. I actually only see that growing in demand. So I think again, getting back to your original question, which was like, if I'm a new Partner in the ecosystem, I think it's like what figure out what you're really good at. But also figure out what the gap is in the marketplace. There's thousands of us. There are still gaps and steer into that gap, even if
[00:40:31] it's just a positioning of your service. Change management and adoption was a gap 3 years ago. It's not so much anymore. We rode that until it became just like table stakes. And I think, again, that is what happens.
[00:40:45] Things that are exciting and new and different will eventually become table stakes, and then you have to change and move on.
[00:40:54] Innovate.
[00:40:55] Always.
[00:40:57] Sam, you done laid it out pretty flat, which is awesome. Loving [00:41:00] that Origin 63 has the niche, has the path, and is continuing to grow on that. So one of the things that we like to do before we sign off is ask three random questions. Sam, first question. What's your favorite success app in the HubSpot ecosystem.
[00:41:15] Ooh.
[00:41:17] I really like Impact Pilot. They're doing some really interesting things. It's a customer success tool that connects with HubSpot. But they are doing some really interesting things with being able to predict what actually causes churn so that you can basically attack those specific things. So they're using AI in really cool ways.
[00:41:39] Got it. Favorite SoCal activity.
[00:41:42] Okay, the very first thing that came to mind was finding the best California burrito.
[00:41:48] I literally was about to ask what's your favorite SoCal burrito with french fries. And they're like, what's the favorite SoCal burrito? Well, that's hilarious. Well, there it is. Burrito search.
[00:41:56] Burritos, Yep.
[00:41:57] That's really funny. I was almost, I literally was about to [00:42:00] say, "Okay, SoCal burrito. What is it?" Okay. So now that you said that so you have to go far for Inbound next year, which is interesting place, but where's the furthest you've been from home?
[00:42:09] Ooh I think technically New Zealand. If you're going that way. Cause that was the furthest flight I think I've ever been.
[00:42:17] That's far regardless of where you're at. It's far. Max can't be on an airplane for more than 35-seconds.
[00:42:23] Oh God. It was like living on an airplane for a day. Yeah.
[00:42:26] That's crazy. Quite literally was living on an airplane for a day. That's crazy.
[00:42:32] You got like a motel, but it's in the air. That's good.
[00:42:35] Kind of like? No, is.
[00:42:36] No, actually, it was. Yeah.
[00:42:38] Wild.
[00:42:38] 20 some hours. You're on there all day if you're, yeah, that's the thing. So Sam, we appreciate you coming out. Looking forward, where can we find you at? Where can these folks look to get some more information about Origin 63
[00:42:49] yeah, absolutely. So you can always find me on LinkedIn at Sam Anderson. I also have Origin63.com, and then you can email me as well, but I probably shouldn't say it live on a [00:43:00] podcast.
[00:43:00] That's fine. We'll go ahead and give it out to him. No, I'm just kidding.
[00:43:02] You're gonna put this on the leaderboard, personal email and Cell with extension. So either way, we appreciate you, Sam, and thanks for coming on.
[00:43:10] Sam we appreciate you. Thank you so much
[00:43:13] Thank you both. So much fun.