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S3 Ep01 Carving Your Own Path with George B. Thomas
50 Plays2 months ago
In this episode of Dial It In, Dave and Trygve kick off Season 3 with a bolt of energy from one of our favorite people, George B. Thomas. Our guest is a happy, helpful, humble HubSpot expert known for his work with Sidekick Strategies and Beyond Your Default. We chat about George's transformative journey from being a supportive team member to starting his own agency, and the philosophy behind his personal brand, built on authenticity and relentless positivity. This is a can’t-miss if you want an energy boost from one of HubSpot’s original content pioneers. Dial In for his insights on business, health, and the importance of being genuine in all endeavors!
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Dial It In Podcast is where we gathered our favorite people together to share their advice on how to drive revenue, through storytelling and without the boring sales jargon. Our primary focus is marketing and sales for manufacturing and B2B service businesses, but we’ll cover topics across the entire spectrum of business. This isn’t a deep, naval-gazing show… we like to have lively chats that are fun, and full of useful insights. Brought to you by BizzyWeb.
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Website: dialitinpodcast.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Dial It In Podcast
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Dial It In, a podcast where we talk with fascinating people about marketing, sales, process improvements, and tricks that they use to grow their businesses. Join me, Dave Meyer, and Trigby Olsen of Busy Web, as we bring you interviews on how the best in their fields are dialing it in for their organizations. Let's ring up another episode.
00:00:30
Speaker
We're back.
Season Three Music Insights
00:00:31
Speaker
Season three, new music, new everything. What'd you think of the new music, Dave? I love it. And, uh, you know, it it kind of speaks to the dial it in part where it starts out fuzzy and then it sharpens. So we'd love to hear feedback from folks that are listening if they dig it as much as we do. Yeah, we were, we were pretty exciting. That was, that was a difficult process to sit and listen through about two, 300 tracks to find fun, but it was fun.
00:01:00
Speaker
Yeah, it was tough. And what did, what was the feedback we got on our old music that led us to changing it? It sounded like just a gigolo by David Lee Roth. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, people were expecting that we ain't got nobody instead of, uh, you know, dialing it in. So that, that was bad. Well, you know, the Northern girls with the way they talk, they keep their boyfriends warm at night. So that's correct. So I'm super excited. We're.
00:01:26
Speaker
in In season three, we're going to have a whole lot of really just amazing people. We're going to be talking about amazing things we're going to do. We're going to try to empower people, have them learn a little bit and also just be entertained as well.
Sponsor Spotlight: Meyer's Blinker Fluid
00:01:40
Speaker
So it's going to be a great season. We've got a lot of great really great guests lined up, but good news is for this year, a lot more sponsorship yeah and in years past, which is exciting because it helps defray some of the costs of doing this. Are you excited about the sponsors?
00:01:57
Speaker
I am. I've, I've heard a couple of previews and boy, these, these are yeah on the spectrum of interesting beyond where we've been before. So I like it. All right. So today's episode is sponsored by Myers blinker fluid, the ultimate solution for all your vehicle signaling needs. Your navigate busy city streets are cruising down the highways. Myer blinker ensures your blinkers shine brighter and last longer.
00:02:25
Speaker
Trusted by professional drivers and car enthusiasts alike, our advanced formula guarantees optimal performance and reliability. Don't settle for less. Choose Meijer's blinker flute and drive with confidence. Get yours today and experience the difference. Use the promo code DIAL for 10% off your first 5 gallon drum.
00:02:49
Speaker
i did I just got a note in from the production department and they'd like to add that with Myers Blinker Fluid, the TikTok will not be banned ever. Oh, okay. Perfect. Perfect. Awesome.
Guest Introduction: George Thomas
00:03:03
Speaker
Awesome. Well, our guest today is dear and wonderful old friend. I think what I'm Michael in the next 45 minutes, because he's without a doubt the happiest and kindest person that I've ever met is let's see if we can piss him off and see if we can get him to be crossed. So ah I guess today is George Thomas. George is a ah HubSpot friend. He is the chief HubSpot helper and owner.
00:03:28
Speaker
sidekick strategies and the chief human helper beyond your default. George helps companies streamline and grow by using the right HubSpot CRM marketing sales service operations and CMS tools. George is a vault of valuable information, which is absolutely true tactics and strategies with a record breaking amount of HubSpot Academy certification.
00:03:49
Speaker
I don't think that's true. I think we have somebody on staff here that can match up, and but joe George's true passion is being catalyst for growth and helping others to be inspired, educated, and willing to work hard to achieve unlimited success.
Exploring George's Ventures
00:04:03
Speaker
In addition to that.
00:04:06
Speaker
He is the creator of the hub heroes and beyond your default YouTube channels and podcasts. In addition, he also shares monthly tactical advice through his sidekick strategies newsletters in what passes for George's free time, which he's actually honestly very protective of. He was a professional speaker, MC, husband, father, and friend in many. Welcome George.
00:04:28
Speaker
Yeah, I'm so glad to be here. First of all, I now know where I can pick up that blinker fluid that my wife keeps asking me if I'm low on when I'm driving. um The other thing too is what's fun is everywhere I go, people know the part I'm playing. So that's amazing, right? I'm not a gigolo, but hey, they know the part I'm playing.
00:04:49
Speaker
it This is gonna be a fun time. I'm excited to be sitting here with you gentlemen. I'm excited to dive into the story. um One last piece I will say. I get excited when people have more HubSpot Academy certifications than me. i'm not I didn't play the game to win.
George's Entrepreneurial Leap
00:05:06
Speaker
I played the game to inspire along the way.
00:05:09
Speaker
Yeah. So how many, do how many HubSpot certifications do you have 14? Yep. My all time high was 42. I think I'm at like 30 something right now, although somebody on my team actually has, I think they're at 46 right now. So we, we love us some certifications.
00:05:30
Speaker
Yeah, we have somebody on our team that is she, there's two, she's too short of completing the entire row. And she's really, wow you you can't talk to her about it. Cause it's funny cause she, she's really mad that she doesn't have the other two. So she's just jealous. Victoria said to say hi. Oh, well, hello back. And we're recording this a couple of weeks before Boston, ah which is the big conference near, you're actually keynoting, uh, once, three times.
00:05:59
Speaker
and Well, so ah we got an encore amazingly. The first session was seats filled in an hour and about 48 minutes. Uh, we're also doing a debate at inbound. And then on Wednesday and Thursday night, we're also doing like the late show with George B. Thomas from five to five 30 as well. So needless to say my calendar is packed because add in dinners and conversations and maybe hitting a couple of sessions. Yep. That's a week. That's a wrap. And for those.
00:06:28
Speaker
It goes so fast. We're we're talking about the ah HubSpot's big giant conference, which is an amazing, or but in addition to that, it is chock full of everything and it is four full days sun up to sun down. It's exciting to see that they're bringing you back for another year.
00:06:46
Speaker
But what I wanted to talk to you about is I've known you for a long time and I think you have such an amazing personal journey. So I met you, you were working for a place called Impulse Creative, which is a wonderful firm based in North Carolina. But then you decided ah and that you wanted to go out on your own, which I think a lot of people have feeling and a lot of people have dream of wanting to do that.
00:07:08
Speaker
And having done that at a point in my life too, I think that's one of the things I wanted to talk about today, is what did you decide would go out of my life? Yeah. So let me just start out with, I never had that dream.
00:07:23
Speaker
I always told myself that I was a great number two to a number one, a great Robin to a Batman. um If we look back even before the Impulse creative, Remington Beg, Rachel Beg, amazing humans. ah By the way, located in Florida, I'm in North Carolina, they're in Florida.
00:07:43
Speaker
But, but if we go past that, right, I was, I was the, uh, you know, peanut butter to the chocolate for Marcus Sheridan when we're at the sales
Support System and Growth
00:07:51
Speaker
lion. And so, um, I loved playing that part for Remington. He was one of the most technical, brilliant dudes at the time with HubSpot and what we could build. And I was kind of the slapstick create, you know, YouTube videos and tutorials and do podcasts and.
00:08:08
Speaker
I've always kind of been like the, you know, the habit to Costello, if you will. And so it hasn't been a dream to like, one day I hope I can sail off into the sunset and own my own company. um I was actually quite comfortable.
00:08:25
Speaker
being inside of an organization until I wasn't comfortable. And by the way, immediately when you start to say that, gentlemen, people are like, oh, some ish happened. Like some somebody made somebody mad. Like that's not what happened. As a matter of fact, usually people will give like a two week notice or 30 day notice.
00:08:47
Speaker
I gave a 60 day notice. Hey, in 60 days, this is what I feel like I'm supposed to do. The universe is calling my name. I really am not sure that I want to do it. I feel like I'm on this massively large cliff. I could die.
00:09:05
Speaker
but I'm gonna give it a shot in 60 days. And I worked every one of those 60 days because I fully understood the gap that I was creating by removing the brand that I had built that was George B. Thomas and out of the organization. um And so it was like, hey, he from his side, hey, I hope you do good. Here's some things to think about. Hey, I still love you as a friend. Like let's make sure we keep in touch. Let's talk.
00:09:32
Speaker
and And then boom, jump off the cliff and the rest has been craziness. Oh, I'm sure. I think that there's so much about that. That's okay. You know, it's okay. If you grow apart from an organization, it's okay. It doesn't mean the organization and just means things change.
00:09:51
Speaker
And there's one thing I know about Remington is he's, he's a collaborator and I've chatted with him a number of times and it's always about what's the best for you and what, how can we all grow and benefit from each other's success? So I totally get how that worked. And I remember chatting with you right before that happened, George, and it was exactly that. And you were like, okay, how am I going to make sure that there's a stop landing and take care of, you know, there's a lot of IP that we created together and how do we make that work?
00:10:19
Speaker
And now you're you've carved off your own brand. So you you mentioned that it's been messy and exciting and jumping off that cliff. How's it going? Yeah, it's amazingly I mean, honestly, when you jump off that cliff, the first part, you feel like you're flying, which is both exciting and scary as all get out. um Then you finally kind of land in the land of new and you have to start to ask yourself, well, now that I'm in the land of new, what the heck am I supposed to do? Like, where am I supposed to go?
00:10:55
Speaker
And so when we first made this ah decision to go out on our own, and when I say we, I mean my wife and I made a decision together of like, do we want to attempt this? And I have to give a shout out to my wife because she was like, look,
00:11:10
Speaker
ah I've been with you as you chased your dreams the entire time. Like if this is where we need to go, we need to go. She only had two rules, by the way. I had to make sure there was some sort of paycheck hitting the bank every two weeks like I worked a job and we had to have insurance. Those were the hurdles. So I had to fix those first and get those in place. And and so once we got to that point, though, we realized We jumped out of this plane and we said to o ourselves, we're going to be a solopreneur. We're going to get a couple of clients. We're going to eke out in existence. And so GeorgeBThomas.com, like, we'll just point them to that. I'll be the brand. I've always been the brand. And we quickly realized, oh, man, the 10 years of creating HubSpot tutorials, the 10 years of doing podcasting, the 10 years of adding value,
00:12:01
Speaker
I created a brand that was more powerful than I even had ever imagined because we started getting more clients than I could actually help by myself. And so we quickly hired. I had to start to buy back my time like Dan Martel talks about, right?
00:12:16
Speaker
And so I had to quickly like hire my son to do podcast editing and video editing, hired my daughter to like do project management, hired a full-time HubSpot implementation specialist named Jorge, who is kick butt, takes names, a totally amazing human. um And so now the entire family works for us. We've got multiple contractors. We've got like there's we have just had this expansion and growth. And so we got to a point where i And I've always been the type of guy who's like, I need to show up as who I am, my authentic self. Like, so if people see me on stage, or if they're sitting by my fire pit, or if we're out to dinner, they're like, yeah, George is just George, you get George. I was showing up as a solopreneur, but we were an agency.
00:13:02
Speaker
Like we had the humans, there were more people doing things. We had processes in place. And so we got to the point where we're like, okay, we need to show up as an agency because that's what we are. And so in a GBT fashion on April Fool's Day,
00:13:18
Speaker
We launched Sidekick Strategies and basically as a, hey, George B. Thomas is going out of business ah scenario, but only to truly talk about how we are launching the agency as like the place to get HubSpot services moving forward. And so that's kind of part of the journey is we landed in this place.
00:13:39
Speaker
We quickly realized we needed to pivot. and And so now George B. Thomas is basically MC speaking, ah the author of the podcaster place. Sidekick Strategies is the HubSpot, you know, helping humans with HubSpot ah space.
00:13:55
Speaker
Out of the growth and journey, we were able to start Beyond Your Default, which is a podcast and newsletter, basically ah personal growth and my ability to just be a mentor to many instead of only a mentor to one um on like how to live the best life you can live. And now we're even in the beginning phases of launching what is ah the superhuman framework which is a whole bunch of like individual humans teams and company culture information that I'm very passionate about that we're gonna be bringing to the world in the future. So I sit here after two years jumping off a cliff looking at the fact of we now have these four pillars of what we're doing or what we're bringing to the world ah to help humans.
00:14:46
Speaker
I'm exhausted just listening to all that.
00:14:51
Speaker
But it's fun. Like, here's the thing. I love that you mentioned of being exhausted because one of the mindsets that I've had for a lot of years is um I don't go to work. I go to play.
00:15:02
Speaker
hit And when I show up to play, I have way more energy. And so, like, I go to bed and I, sure, am I tired because we did stuff? Yes, but I go to bed excited because I know I get to wake up hopefully, prayerfully, I get to wake up the next morning and do it all over again.
00:15:19
Speaker
Mm hmm. For sure. And that's the differentiation right there. Instead of I have to, I get to, and to be able to control your own destiny and to set where you're going and what you're doing. I think that's a huge part of that.
00:15:35
Speaker
So as, as you've done this, you know, one of the things that I've always marveled about George is your capacity to create. And, you know, I, I don't mean that you can create, I mean, just the amount of work and, and content that you put on a regular basis across four ventures, you're still generating all of this content. So and by the way how how do you carve that out? It should be noted. George has the innate ability to ruin a bad, better than one.
00:16:04
Speaker
yeah Remotely or I think that is the person ultimate compliment if you want to have your a bad day ruined And if you what if you are in a funk and you want to stay in a funk George is not Yeah, so but and back to Dave's question. How do you how do you do that?
00:16:25
Speaker
it's It's funny because I think um part of is in both of what you just said, right? There's a level of positivity and a level of gratitude that I just show up with. um There's positivity and gratitude because there's also a level of reciprocity that I feel like I owe back to the world.
00:16:44
Speaker
um I don't talk about this a lot, but for the first 25 to 27 years of my life, I wasn't really the happy, helpful, humble human that was focused on giving value back to the world. I was very much a, what's in it for me? How can I like, why am I not seeing the blessings? Like, what's the shortcut? ah There was very little long-term thinking.
00:17:07
Speaker
When I flipped the switch to realizing I had this reciprocity that I had to pay back to the planet because all of a sudden I was getting these gigantic hands up, all of a sudden working for Marcus, getting picked to do keynotes, different things like that, I'm like, okay, I've got a job to do here.
00:17:27
Speaker
And so when it comes to showing up to play, showing up with positivity, showing up out of gratitude, im showing up in a way that you want to pay back where you're at and add in a layer of that my only goal is not to be successful, but to be significant and to be able to see the ripples that are created at the end of my life.
00:17:49
Speaker
Now all of a sudden we talk about content creation and for me it's been an iterate, iterate, iterate, iterate process.
Content Creation Mastery
00:17:56
Speaker
How can I create it better? How can I create it faster? um This is why today we're sitting in a room of my house with a pro mic, pro camera, multiple screens, sound board. you know I look over and there's a GoPro that I could grab real quick and go out and shoot a video. like I record right to my computer so that it can go right to the editor. I had this like set of years, and this was really started back at the sales line where it was like, how do I optimize every minute of my time and to be able to create more content to help um build the educational gap that that exists. and And by the way, I'm saying educational gap in a world where we live with we have HubSpot Academy, and we have a world where there's like 48, you know, certifications that you can get. But there was still a gap because it wasn't the I need to get in, get out and get back to work. It was more like academia but versus like street smarts. And so I've always kind of correlated to
00:19:03
Speaker
How can I quickly create street smart content for people to get the ish done that they have to get done and then get back on the stuff that they want to do? And so all of that kind of formulates into this like.
00:19:17
Speaker
Not to mention, if you've done it a thousand times, it's easy to just get on the mic and riff. Like it's easy to open up HubSpot and just do because you've done it for clients and you've done it for yourself. And you just, you know, the talk tracks that people connect with and understand. And so was where the first hundred or 300 videos hard and took a lot of time. Yes. But for everyone after that.
00:19:43
Speaker
It just becomes easier and easier. and And so that's why we can create what we can create now. I also have to say, though, we've gotten to the point where take that optimization mindset and I now have, which I dreamt about having this day, I now have a content strategist.
00:20:00
Speaker
that works hand in hand with me on helping to create some of the textual content around the videos we're creating. um Helps do some research into the right directions of what we should be creating. like So now what's nice is we went through what I'll call the dark ages of having to edit it myself and shoot it myself and like strategize it myself to now I have a content strategist myself and then two sons who do video editing and podcast editing Cause I just had to buy back my time. So now we're an engine. Now we've added cylinders and oil and blinker fluid and tape deck to listen to David Lee Roth. And like we're a car driving down the road creating content. Wow. He's just listening to, I think what I want to, I want to like go run a 5k and also take a nap all the same time.
00:20:55
Speaker
It's like inspiring, but tiring. I want to ask one question before, ah because I think this is something that is is really, really unique to as you. You also, in addition to everything else, you have a very specific personal brand. like You're talking about the route you're in right now.
00:21:15
Speaker
it is it is also littered with a marvel toys and yeah also painted completely orange so god bless your wife for letting you paint a room in your house orange She painted it
Authenticity in Branding
00:21:27
Speaker
for me. It was a surprise. My room used to be purple and she painted it orange. And God bless your wife for letting you choose a paint color in your own house more than more than they actually doing the work too. But you know also like little things like you have big giant hairy carry glasses and you have a signature look which it is rare to see you wearing colored shirt. Yeah. you Typically wear hoodies and baseball caps all the time and always match at the same time.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yup. What is the personal thing or because I think one of the things that's so great about as a person is you just so decidedly you. Yeah. You know there's there's something that I battle with a a long time in my life. And if I could wave a magic wand I would help people figure this out quicker than it took me. And that is it is a beautiful place when you can just show up as a whole ass human.
00:22:22
Speaker
When you can just show up as you and you don't have to have masks and you don't have to feel like you have to have walls to keep yourself safe, when when you can just put yourself out there and realize people will either love you or hate you for who you are, but the ones that love you are the ones that you're supposed to be spending time with anyway, like it's just a very freeing moment.
00:22:43
Speaker
And one of the things that I think differentiates me a little bit, again, that i if I could give it to people, I would, is that I haven't had a problem being, my buddy calls it a transition specialist. He's like, dude, you're a transition specialist. I'm like, what are you talking about? he's like Dude, you pivot all the time. Like it's you were a web designer developer, then all of a sudden you're ah a marketer, and then you're a HubSpot guy and a podcaster, and then you're doing video tutorials. And now you're doing stuff with AI, like you're always pivoting and transitioning. And I'm like, well, I'm curious.
00:23:16
Speaker
and And I want to learn more. like and And so this idea of being curious, being your whole self, be allowing yourself to pivot into the places um to learn the lessons, less to worry about the failures. And that's the thing, I've created all this content and not ever worrying if anything went viral or if somebody would call it a failure because I was focused on the value that it would bring.
00:23:40
Speaker
And so um I turned 50 to almost three years ago, and most 50 year olds wear a suit jacket or wear a tie.
00:23:55
Speaker
they wear a suit jacket or they wear a tie. And I was like, you know what? I feel like I wanna zig when other people zag. And so this is literally when I started to do the orange hoodies, the orange hats, ah the purple hoodies, the purple hats, like all of the things that I could actually um change or or be different, be me. And so,
00:24:23
Speaker
The very interesting piece is like, I love Marvel. I love Star Wars. I love the Fast and Furious. I love to smoke cigars. I like to drink some whiskey. I like Jesus and like to go to church. Like, so if I can just, I love HubSpot. I love orange. It's not my favorite color, by the way. Surprisingly, it's purple. But but this idea of like being able to just be and do who you want to be
00:24:54
Speaker
Everybody else is taken. I know that's a saying, but everybody else is taken. So just quit trying to fit into a mold and create your own mold along the way. ah Sure. And I think that's one of the tricks that you've been able to master George is when you're doing you, you're also keeping that in a framework that helps you grow the organizations that you're part of. right So as we talked about right before we started recording, you know the the theme of dialing it in, you have a compass and as you're setting that in into the ventures that you've created,
00:25:36
Speaker
you're able to use that as your guiding star, right? So how do you, how do you keep all of that organized and how how do you, how do you keep like as, as a family business, literally a family business, how are you keeping everyone on the same page?
00:25:52
Speaker
Yeah, so it's it's funny. There's a couple things that come to mind when you ask me that. One, there's um we're always paying attention to mindsets, philosophies, and best practices. um And out of those mindsets, philosophies, and best practices,
00:26:09
Speaker
content can be created all day, every day, all day. But also, you can build frameworks and processes around the mindsets, philosophies, and best practices that you have. So one of the things is that everything that we're talking about, um it leans back into the the universe, God, however you feel about it, has been designing me to be a certain human being.
00:26:35
Speaker
And in 2013, I didn't realize the power of the words that were coming out of my mouth when I ended one of my HubSpot tutorials with, don't forget to be a happy, helpful, humble human. oh because Because those words, those forward yeah, those and by the way, they're on the, like literally the hat that I'm wearing, it has the words on there, happy, helpful, humble.
00:27:01
Speaker
Those words have over time been constructed into a 10H element ah framework called the superhuman framework. That framework is stood up on what we call the four cornerstones of the framework.
00:27:18
Speaker
and so From an individual human standpoint, from the teams that we're building and from the organization or organizational culture that we're developing, we're always looking at the cornerstones and we're looking at the framework. So, for instance, the four cornerstones, ah well, actually,
00:27:40
Speaker
above or around all of that. Everybody needs to understand if we dial it in, for us, our organization, and the people that we're helping, we're always trying to point to, it's all about the humans.
00:27:53
Speaker
internal humans, external humans, human-centric approach, human experience, like it's all about the humans. If there are no humans, there's nothing. We don't need to do any of this if we're not on the planet. If we're not healthy, we're corrosive. So how do we make this all about the humans?
00:28:13
Speaker
So when you think about it, it's all about the humans and we go into the four cornerstones. Now we're talking about love, purpose, passion and persistence. So we were looking through the lens of like, why do we do it? Because we love humans. Like we're passionate about it. It's our purpose. Like it's a it's a deeper calling. um So what's the key to success? Being persistent. It's one tutorial every day for 10 years gets you to a magical place.
00:28:39
Speaker
Like it's it's that Will Smith thing of building a wall one brick at a time, right? Pretty soon you have a wall and you thought you only had a pile of bricks. So you think about those four things, love, purpose, passion, persistence, and then the 10 H's, which is like holistic and be and helpful and humble and human and hungry, aka hustle, ah holiness.
00:29:01
Speaker
like health. And so you now you have these 10 gauges that you can start to look at on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, again, from an individual human from your teams or from from your organizational culture of like the health or or lack thereof.
00:29:21
Speaker
of this entire framework. and And what's crazy is I have pretty much a personal story, either around teams, around organizations I've worked in, or my life itself that tie back into all of these elements. Well, here's a question I want to ask Dave. Let's pretend, let's talk about George as if he weren't here for a minute. Because that's a great thing to do on a podcast.
00:29:47
Speaker
What, what's interesting for me is when I hear other people saying pretty much exactly what George was saying, I just, but when George does it. Believable. I want more and I want to follow that guy and I'd like to subscribe to it. Why?
00:30:06
Speaker
my My impression, and I agree, I have the same the same experience when when I'm talking with George, anything that he that he touches, it's the enthusiasm and the realness of of what he does. and It's so clear when you talk to George, when you see him on stage, when you hear him in any of his various forms, that he is who he says he is. yeah He's not a talking head. He doesn't doesn't goof around. He doesn't play. He's not pretending this is who George is. So that authenticity just screams right through. And so I think that's that's what captures my attention. He's a fully found person. He knows who he is. and he's
00:30:52
Speaker
So. Oh, hey, George is back. Yeah, George is back. So I have drilled this down because I've been asked that question and there's been that conversation around me before.
00:31:04
Speaker
um
00:31:07
Speaker
My my dad, when I was younger, he used to say this thing like, I don't want lip service. I want the truth.
00:31:19
Speaker
Good, bad or indifferent, I've been built in a way that if I hear something, I'm gonna tell you the truth, my truth of how I feel or think about it. The other piece is, I care. I don't care about revenue. I don't care about looking good.
00:31:45
Speaker
I don't care if people judge me on my weight. I don't care if people don't like the fact that I wear a hoodie. I do care if you get value out of the words that come out of my mouth. I do care if you get insight. I do care if you take action. I do care if I was at any point small or large a catalyst in your life.
00:32:11
Speaker
and made it better, like, cause here's the thing. One of my, my internal narratives that I run is how do I leave them better than I found them? How do I not provide lip service? The fluff. I hate the fluff. How do I leave them better than I found them? And how do I walk away and they feel like, Ooh, that dude cares. That's my goal.
00:32:34
Speaker
hey go i like a guy that can handle it let's go oh yeah yeah he'll complain to be like oh smiling and way boys my but and well we'll trust him so you mentioned you and was a So tell me more about that process because I. You started walking as a way to lose. Yeah. And just you were doing six, seven miles a day. Yeah, it's been a crazy journey with that. Um.
Health and Lifestyle Changes
00:33:13
Speaker
Look, I've always, my my demon is food and my demon, that's my drug of choice, by the way. And my ah belief that people told me you when I was younger, oh, you're just big boned.
00:33:30
Speaker
Oh man, i if I could go back and just tell some people not to say one thing about me that but that became a belief structure for so many years that didn't have to be true. um So it was funny because COVID happened back in the day and I was like, I need to get out into the world and I don't want to be stuck in my house. And so one way I could do that is I could go out and walk.
00:33:59
Speaker
And so I started walking and it was like an hour here, an hour there, and it just progressed into and where I was walking like three hours a day. We were hitting anywhere from six to nine miles a day. And I went from At that point, 320-ish pounds, um down to 254, I think was the lowest weight that I got on that journey. I lost like 79 pounds in about nine months.
00:34:30
Speaker
and um Then I did one of the dumbest things I have done in my life. I took a break over Thanksgiving and Christmas. yeah And um that break stayed consistent for about two years. And I went back up to about 311 pounds. And so now for the last,
00:34:51
Speaker
It's probably been five or six months. I'm on a new journey, a different journey. It kind of mirrors that journey. But there's a big difference that I want people to know about. I am walking again. um By the way, the reason I walk and I don't run and I don't really do like heavy weightlifting is because I have rheumatoid arthritis. And so like I, I have pain in my body.
00:35:14
Speaker
um I deal with it. It is what it is. Walking I can get away with. Swimming I can get away with and not actually feel like I just want to curl up in a ball and cry when I go to bed at night. And so walking is a good thing. But here's here's what changed because five or six months ago I ended up in the hospital again.
00:35:33
Speaker
And it was inflammation around ah my heart and my ah but like there's a liquid sac there and inflammation in my colon, which by the way, rheumatoid arthritis is just inflammation of the joints. And so my body literally was like, well, if if if the joints ain't enough, let's just go ahead and throw it in a couple of other places.
00:35:57
Speaker
And so I got through the hospital and I decided, do you know what? It's time to take this bull by the horns and I'm going to ignore all the ah belief structures that I've historically had and I'm just going to dramatically change my life. But for the first time in my life, I'm not going to go on a diet because a diet is something I can take a break from. I'm just going to change my life and I'm going to eat in a way not to lose weight. I'm going to eat in a way that I don't feel pain.
00:36:27
Speaker
Cause if I don't eat sugar, I don't really, my ah my arthritis doesn't flare up. If I don't eat breads and pastas, my arthritis doesn't flare up. If I stay away from processed foods, right? So what I'm saying is if I eat more grains, beans and like natural foods, I feel better. What's funny is when you're eating that way to feel better and you move your body,
00:36:53
Speaker
you just start to lose weight. So now we've gone down ah from 311 in the last five or six months. The last time I weighed myself, I was right about 275. So again, we've lost what, like 40 some pounds roughly. um And I'm on a mission to like, I'm just gonna keep going.
00:37:13
Speaker
because why wouldn't I like eating healthy and moving your body and if it happens to shed down to a certain, amount like I don't have a goal, wait, I have a, I don't wanna hurt and I wanna be healthy goal. So who knows where that ends? I could be like 180 at some point, maybe, but I don't care. Like again, it goes back to what do you care about and what don't you care about? um Here's the funny thing though is,
00:37:43
Speaker
I do care that I can be on the planet longer. I don't care if somebody judges me because I'm like, you know, 26% or 18% body. I don't care about that. But I do care about being on the planet longer.
00:37:58
Speaker
Because the longer I'm on the planet, the more time I have to help the humans, because it's all about the humans. And the more humans I help, the more ripples I get to see at the end of it. The longer I'm here, the more significant I can become. So you can see how all of this ties back to the main dialed in goal of How do I be the catalyst for humans to change the world? And it sounds like a, dude, you can't change the world. I don't care. I'm going to try in my own little way. And you were actually an inspiration for me. Cause once you started posting about your, your journey, I started feeling about myself. Cause like, okay. Why doing it? And so I started doing it instantly because
00:38:50
Speaker
where where am I going? What am I doing? And so the thing that I found is I have a professional wrestler buddy who does this all the time is they called Conqueror Channels. And what they do is they take fictional journeys and then they put full mileage around
00:39:12
Speaker
can control maps your physical but to the frictional story start of twenty twenty three Started my fictional journey Shire. I walked six hundred and twenty three miles Shores of to throw the rate of power into And dude a purpose it had can a thing it made control in the depths of February maps your wanting to actual physical activity to the fictional story. get out because what I was I have to have to battle so I need to go up I need to walk in 20 below zero weather and it was a it was a big game changer for all these medals now said that and it and it was great because every once in an email saying oh great this part of the story and here's some postcards for the movie and things like so if you're ever wanting to do something i wholly recommend and that was a big life changer for me so i'm actually down as of this morning like 56 pounds let's go from so so two things
00:40:15
Speaker
Two things. One, I'm super proud of you. That's freaking amazing that that you're yeah on that goal. Second of all, I hope it's in the show notes. I hope you slack it to me. You email it to me. yeah What like I want the details of that, because first of all, I didn't mention this earlier, but like ah Lord of the Rings or like going to the Shire or like getting nerdy like, dude, if I could tie that to like my walks, because by the way, I don't have a problem with aimlessly walking around, like doing two laps around my community, because I love the breeze, I love the leaves, I love the clouds. But if I could nerd out at the same time. orrd out at the same time Oh, I'm down. I am down. And they've got all sorts of other ones. I think that the current one that they're doing is
00:41:01
Speaker
ah remember, but then then you can do like all sorts of like, famous historical ones. So you can walk the Great Wall of China. And then as soon as you're done, pay your money and they fall, you fall along in the out see where you're at. And you know, once you're done, they they send you a finisher medal to finished America. That's amazing. I love that.
00:41:18
Speaker
The last thing I wanted to talk about before ah we we wrap up is is is, as we're talking about how you've evolved, one of the things that you've evolved in relatively early in HubSpot was something that I'm involved in, which is the HubSpot Bootcamps.
HubSpot Super Admin Bootcamp
00:41:31
Speaker
And you co-founded, you've founded, really, I think pioneered the whole concept of a HubSpot administrator being a valuable thing for an organization.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. yeah it's It's been interesting, like ah you use the word pioneering, like to be able to sit back and and little old me realize I was part of like the partner onboarding service beta. um i They reached out as far as like they want to do a super admin bootcamp. Hey, would you be part of it? I'm like, yeah, absolutely.
00:42:04
Speaker
And what's fun is we, from the ground up, we built this six week, one hour each week. Like here's what you should be thinking about as a super admin, which by the way is such a difficult challenge because we have super admins who are super nerdy.
00:42:20
Speaker
And we have super admins who are just getting started with a HubSpot. And so how do you bridge that gap of like conversating with them? And so I had done it probably three different cohorts we had put through this super admin training with Debbie and Stefan and Olivia helping along the way. and I just got this like wild idea of like, this is just not enough. It's just not enough. And there's other conversations that we're not having that we could be having. um And so went from doing the super admin bootcamp with HubSpot Academy to let's also launch our own version of that. And so we created a 12 week
00:43:01
Speaker
which now we've actually honed it back to 10 weeks after getting our first like, I'll say cohort even though that's not what we call them. Getting the first set of humans through through the 12 weeks, they're like 12 weeks is a long time. So okay, let's do 10 and let's figure out how we do additional content throughout the week that we just drip into your like super admin portal that we give you.
00:43:26
Speaker
And so now we're refining, we're going to launch the second version of this September 27th. And it'll be a 10-week super admin program where we're digging deep into like mindsets that super admins should have. We're diving deep into documentation and governance um and just some things that are outside of the typical like, here's how you create a custom property. Now we'll teach that too.
00:43:52
Speaker
Uh, you know, any data modeling and mapping, like we'll, we'll talk about that too, but, but there's just some other fundamental things like how to be a great communicator to the C-suite and to your team.
00:44:05
Speaker
Like that's hard to find and hard to teach, but if there's a guy who knows how to communicate, I think it's me. If there's a guy that's dealt with C-suite and team members, I'm pretty sure that's me. And so like, the again, elements of who I am and who I've become injected into HubSpot nerdiness, ah human communication, documentation, and building roadmaps that these these humans can actually understand what their role is supposed to be and the expectations that they should be holding up to or setting inside the organization. So I'm excited about um where this goes eventually, how many people actually end up going through it. we're We're still early stages. I think there's a disconnect of a lot of the HubSpot um ecosystem doesn't quite really realize when they've become a HubSpot super admin or not.
00:45:00
Speaker
Like, no, I'm just a normal human being that happens to use HubSpot. Like, listen, if you're doing these five to seven things, you're a super admin. You just don't know it yet. We can help you. So we'll see where I feel like we're a little bit ahead of the puck, but we'll see where it goes and and go from there. Love it. It's always a joy to be around. I always feel better about myself. I love it. like ah I'm a little bit more jazzed. Any parting thoughts before we wrap up?
00:45:27
Speaker
Now, just a word of thanks and connection. yeah I think for the theme, and again, we're trying to bring more heart and a little bit more whimsy to the podcast as we go into season three, and no better way to start this. So, George, you've been a huge help to us, always an inspiration, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing you at Inbound and attending.
00:45:55
Speaker
And I think the thing that that the team or that everyone that's listening can take from this is all you need to do is keep your core at the forefront. And I think the thing that really shines forward with George and what he does is he goes to serve humans. you know nobody Nobody's going to turn you down or back away if it's clear that all that person wants to do is help you. right So who doesn't want help? If they if it's clear that
00:46:27
Speaker
You have self-serving goals in mind and it comes off as hypocritical. Maybe that's when people are going to tune out when people have a really good BS smelling detector. And so there is no BS with George. And so I'm so excited to have you here and thank you for joining us on the pod.
00:46:47
Speaker
Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity. Hopefully we're able to inspire some people to action. um Honestly, after that, Dave, I just need to clock out and be done for the day. I don't know how it gets any better.
00:46:59
Speaker
Well, we'll we' leave it at there. But George, just in case, where do you, where can people find you um online? Yeah. Yeah. The easiest place, uh, you can go to psychicstrategy.com. You can go to beyondyourdefault.com. You can go to georgebthomas.com. But honestly, what you're probably going to do is go to LinkedIn, George B. Thomas, or you're going to go to Twitter, I guess we're supposed to call it X, George B. Thomas. yeah I'm just saying. Anyway, so you can find me on socials. If you Google George B. Thomas, whatever your favorite platform is, but by the way, ah if you want to have a real deal Holyfield conversation and you don't want it to be in front of the rest of the world, you could always email me George at GeorgeBThomas.com.
00:47:41
Speaker
there holy
00:47:47
Speaker
Or just deflect one of your tires, wait about 20 minutes, George will come by with an air pump. its He's my radar. I'll go off. Beep, beep, beep. Jenny has a flat tire. Let's go. Somebody needs me. Uh, a big H. Yeah. thanks steve Thanks. Hopefully this would be great season three. And, uh, we're excited for, excited for more. Fill it in is, is produced by Nicole Fairclough and Andy Wachowski. I'm Trigby. That's been Dave and we'll see you for the next, uh, next turnaround. Thanks everybody.