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S3 Summer Edition - George Thomas
12 Plays16 days ago
In this episode of Dial It In, Trygve Olsen and Dave Meyer have a conversation with George B. Thomas, a notable figure in the HubSpot community. The episode celebrates George’s inspirational quotes and energetic approach to work, highlighting his philosophy of playing to inspire rather than to win. They discuss George’s transition from working in organizations to founding his own agency, Sidekick Strategies, and his journey in content creation and personal growth. George shares insights about maintaining authenticity, his framework for success, and his personal health journey. The hosts also talk about new aspects of the show, including its updated music and increased sponsorship. The episode is filled with motivational insights and practical advice for personal and professional development.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Dial It In' and Guest Announcement
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to dial it in a podcast where we talk to fascinating people about marketing sales process improvements and tricks that they use to grow their businesses. Join me Dave Meyer and Trigby Olson of busy web as we bring you interviews on how the best in their fields dialing it in for their organizations.
00:00:26
Speaker
Let's ring up another episode.
00:00:30
Speaker
We're replaying our summer favorites at Dial It In, and this week we're covering George Thomas. We asked all of our production team at Dial It In to highlight their favorites, and Andy, our producer, actually had this to say about George.
Favorite Quotes and Music Evolution
00:00:47
Speaker
First, he said his favorite quotes were that I don't play the game to win. i play the game to inspire others. It kind of resonated with all of us, I think. He also said, i don't go to work. I go to play.
00:00:59
Speaker
And when I go to play, I have way more energy. And he also so highlighted this quote, how can I quickly create street smart content for people to get the ish done that they need and then get back on to the stuff that they want to do?
00:01:15
Speaker
We all loved George's happy, helpful human approach. And Andy in particular loved George's enthusiasm and down to earth common sense to help people figure things out and make it easy to do what they need to do.
00:01:28
Speaker
His helpful nature is what makes him fun to be around. Enjoy George Thomas and we'll see you next week. We're back. Season three, new music, everything. What'd you think of the new music, Dave?
00:01:41
Speaker
I love it. And, you know, it it kind of speaks to the dial it in part where it starts out fuzzy and then it sharpens. So, yeah, we'd love to hear feedback from folks that that are listening if they dig it as much as we do.
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah, we were we were pretty exciting. That was that was a difficult process to sit and listen through ah two, three hundred tracks to find fun. But it was fun. Yeah, it was tough. And what did what was the feedback we got on our old music that led us to changing that it? That it sounded like Just a Gigolo by David Lee Roth. That's right.
00:02:13
Speaker
That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So um people were expecting that we ain't got nobody instead of 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.
00:02:28
Speaker
So I'm super excited. We're in In season three we're go to have a whole lot of really just amazing people. We're going to be talking about amazing things. We're going to ah we're goingnna try to empower people, have them learn a little bit, and also just be entertained as well.
00:02:44
Speaker
So it's going to be a great season. We've got a lot of great really great guests lined
Sponsorships and Humorous Ad Spot
00:02:50
Speaker
up. But good news is for this year, have a lot more sponsorship than in years past, which is exciting because it helps defray some of the costs of doing this.
00:02:59
Speaker
Are excited about the sponsors? I am. i've I've heard a couple of previews and boy, these de are yeah on the spectrum of interesting beyond where we've been before. So I like it.
00:03:12
Speaker
All right. So today's episode is sponsored by Meijer's Blinker Fluid, the ultimate solution for all your vehicle signaling needs. You're navigating busy city streets or cruising down the highways. Meijer's Blinker in ensures your blinkers shine brighter and last longer.
00:03:30
Speaker
Trusted by professional drivers and car enthusiasts alike, our advanced formula like guarantees optimal performance and reliability. Don't settle for less. Choose Meyers Blinker Flute and drive with confidence.
00:03:44
Speaker
Get yours today and experience the difference. Use promo code DIAL for 10% your first 5-gallon blast.
00:03:54
Speaker
i 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.
00:04:06
Speaker
i Perfect. Awesome. Awesome.
Introducing Guest George Thomas
00:04:08
Speaker
Well, our guest today is dear and wonderful old friend. like 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
George Thomas' Professional Journey
00:04:24
Speaker
to be cross. oh So,
00:04:26
Speaker
ah Our guest today is George Thomas. George is a ah HubSpot friend. He is the chief HubSpot helper and owner, sidekick strategies, and the chief human helper beyond your default.
00:04:37
Speaker
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 certifications.
00:04:54
Speaker
I don't think that's true. I think we have somebody on staff here that can match up with him. 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.
00:05:08
Speaker
In addition to that, he is the creator of the Hub Heroes and Beyond Your Default YouTube channels and podcasts. In addition to that, 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 is a professional speaker, emcee, husband, father, and friend to many. Welcome, George.
00:05:33
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.
00:05:48
Speaker
So that's amazing, right? I'm not a gigolo, but hey, they know the part I'm playing. it This is going to be a fun time. I'm excited to be sitting here with you gentlemen.
00:05:58
Speaker
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.
00:06:11
Speaker
i played the game to inspire along the way. Yeah. So how many do how many HubSpot certifications do you have 14? Yep. My all time high was 42.
00:06:23
Speaker
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.
00:06:35
Speaker
Yeah, we have somebody on our team that is, she there's too she's too short of completing the entire row and she's really ticked. You can't talk to her about because it's funny. Because she's she's really mad that she doesn't have the other two. So she's it jealous. Victoria said to say hi.
00:06:53
Speaker
Oh, well, hello back. And we're recording this a couple of weeks before Boston, ah which is the big conference. And you're you're actually keynoting once, twice, three times. and Well, so we got an encore, amazingly. The first session was seats filled in an hour and about 48 minutes.
00:07:12
Speaker
ah 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 5 to 5.30 as well. So needless to say, my calendar is packed because add in dinners and conversations and maybe hitting a couple of sessions.
00:07:30
Speaker
Yep, that's a week. That's a wrap. And for those... It goes so fast. we're We're talking about the ah HubSpot's big giant conference, which is an amazing fair. 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 but for another year.
00:07:51
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.
Entrepreneurial Leap and Comfort Zone Shift
00:07:57
Speaker
So I met you, you were working for ah place called Impulse Creative, which is a wonderful firm based in North Carolina.
00:08:03
Speaker
But then you decided 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. And having done that at a point in my life, I think that's one of the things I wanted to talk about is what did you to decide to go out of my life?
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah. So let me just start out with I never had that dream. I always told myself that I was a great number two to a number one, a great Robin to a Batman.
00:08:35
Speaker
um If we look back even before the impulse creative Remington bag, Rachel bag, amazing humans, ah by the way, located in Florida, I'm in North Carolina there in Florida.
00:08:48
Speaker
but But if we go past that, right, I was i was the ah you know peanut butter to the chocolate for Marcus Sheridan when we're at the Sales 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.
00:09:07
Speaker
And I was kind of the slapstick, create you know YouTube videos and tutorials and do podcasts and I've always kind of been like the, you know, the Abbott to Costello, if you will.
00:09:18
Speaker
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.
00:09:29
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.
00:09:41
Speaker
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. I gave a 60 day notice.
00:09:54
Speaker
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.
00:10:08
Speaker
I could die. but I'm going to 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 out of the organization.
00:10:25
Speaker
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.
00:10:37
Speaker
And, And then, boom, jump off the cliff, and the rest has been craziness. thats 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 is bad.
00:10:53
Speaker
It just means things change.
00:10:56
Speaker
There's one thing I know about Remington is 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 how I going to make sure that there's a soft landing and take care of, you know, there's a lot of IP that we created together and how do we make that work?
00:11:23
Speaker
And now you're you've carved off your own brand.
Growth Challenges and Sidekick Strategies
00:11:27
Speaker
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.
00:11:46
Speaker
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?
00:11:58
Speaker
Like, where am I supposed to go? 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?
00:12:11
Speaker
And I have to give a shout out to my wife because she was like, look, 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.
00:12:23
Speaker
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 ourself, we're going to be a solopreneur.
00:12:42
Speaker
We're going to get a couple of clients. We're going to eke out an existence. And so GeorgeBThomas.com, like we'll just point him to that. I'll be the brand. I've always been the brand. And we quickly realized, oh, man, I'm The 10 years of creating HubSpot tutorials, the 10 years of doing podcasting, the 10 years of adding value, ah 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.
00:13:15
Speaker
And so we quickly hired, I had to start to buy back my time like Dan Martel talks about, right? And so I had to quickly like hire my son to do podcast editing and video editing.
00:13:26
Speaker
hired my daughter to like do project management, hired a ah full-time HubSpot implementation specialist named Jorge, who is kick butt, takes names, a totally amazing human.
00:13:36
Speaker
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,
00:13:48
Speaker
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.
00:14:02
Speaker
I was showing up as a solopreneur, but we were an agency. 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,
00:14:15
Speaker
okay, we need to show up as an agency because that's what we are. And so in in GBT fashion on April Fool's Day, we launched Sidekick Strategies and basically as a, hey, George B. Thomas is going out of business scenario, but only to truly talk about how we're launching the agency as like the place to get HubSpot services moving forward.
00:14:38
Speaker
And so that's kind of part of the journey is we landed in this place, We quickly realized we needed to pivot. 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 space.
00:15:00
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.
00:15:12
Speaker
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 um to help humans.
00:15:52
Speaker
exhausted just listening to all that. Yeah. But it's fun. Like, here's the thing. I love that you mentioned up being exhausted because one of the mindsets that I've had for a lot of years is um i don't go to work.
00:16:05
Speaker
I go to play. And when I show up to play, I have way more energy. And so, like, I go to bed and I'm 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.
00:16:25
Speaker
For sure. And that's the differentiation right there. Instead of, I have to, I get to. And to 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.
00:16:39
Speaker
So... 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 and 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.
00:16:56
Speaker
Across four ventures, you're still generating all of this content. So and by the way how should how do you carve that up? It should be noted, George has the innate ability to ruin a bad word better than anyone.
00:17:09
Speaker
yeah I'll take that as the person ultimate compliment. If you want to have a bad day ruined, and if you're in a funk and you want to stay in a funk, George is not your bad thing.
00:17:25
Speaker
Yeah. But and back to Dave's question, how do you how do you do that
00:17:30
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.
00:17:41
Speaker
um There's positivity and gratitude because there's also a level of reciprocity that I feel like I owe back to the world. 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.
Content Creation and Personal Branding
00:18:01
Speaker
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.
00:18:12
Speaker
When I flipped the switch to realizing I had this reciprocity that I had to pay back to the planet because of a sudden I was getting these gi gigantic hands up, um all of sudden working for Marcus, um getting picked to do keynotes, different things like that. I'm like, okay, I've got a job to do here.
00:18:32
Speaker
And so when it comes to showing up to play, showing up with positivity, showing up out of gratitude, i'm 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.
00:18:53
Speaker
Now, all of a sudden, we talk about content creation. And for me, it's been an iterate, iterate, iterate, iterate process. How can I create it better? How can I create it faster?
00:19:05
Speaker
um This is why today we're sitting in a room of my house with a pro mic, pro camera, multiple screens, soundboard. 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 I record right to my computer so that it can go right to the editor. Like ah 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 fill 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
00:20:08
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,
00:20:22
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?
00:20:44
Speaker
Yes. But for everyone after that, 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.
00:20:59
Speaker
And I now have, which I dreamt about having this day, I now have a content strategist. that works hand in hand with me on helping to create some of the textual content around the videos we're creating.
00:21:11
Speaker
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.
00:21:33
Speaker
Because 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.
00:21:49
Speaker
Wow. He's also just listening to it. I think what I want to I want to like go run a 5k and also take a nap all the same time. It's like inspiring, but tiring. Right.
00:22:02
Speaker
So I want want to ask one question before, ah because I think this is something that is is really, really unique to you is you also, in addition to everything else, you have a very specific personal brand. Like you're talking about the room you're in right now.
00:22:20
Speaker
it is It is also littered with marble toys and yeah also painted completely orange. So God bless your wife for letting you paint a room in your house orange.
00:22:31
Speaker
She painted it 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 Harry Carey glasses and you have a signature look, which it is rare to see wearing collared shirt.
00:22:53
Speaker
as Yeah. You typically wear hoodies and baseball caps all the time. Yep. Always match at the same time. Yep. 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.
00:23:09
Speaker
Yeah. and 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.
00:23:21
Speaker
And that is it is a beautiful place when you can just show up as a whole ass human. 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.
00:23:35
Speaker
when When you can just put yourself out there and realize people 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.
00:23:48
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 like, dude, you pivot all the time. Like it's,
00:24:05
Speaker
You were a web designer developer, all of sudden 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.
00:24:20
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.
00:24:35
Speaker
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. And so um I turned 50 two, almost three years ago.
00:24:52
Speaker
And most 50 year olds wear a suit jacket or wear a tie
00:25:00
Speaker
and They wear a suit jacket or they wear a tie. And I was like, you know what? I feel like want to 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.
00:25:26
Speaker
And so... The very interesting piece is like, I love Marvel. I love Star Wars. I love the Fast and Furious. I love to smoke cigars.
00:25:37
Speaker
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.
00:25:49
Speaker
but But this idea of like being able to just be and do who you want to be
00:25:59
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. For sure.
00:26:10
Speaker
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.
00:26:36
Speaker
And as you're setting that into the ventures that you've created, you're able to use that as your guiding star, right? So how do you keep all of that organized?
00:26:49
Speaker
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? 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.
00:27:10
Speaker
um And out of those mindsets, philosophies, and best practices, 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.
00:27:26
Speaker
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.
Superhuman Framework and Health Transformation
00:27:40
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 person.
00:27:52
Speaker
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 their happy, helpful, humble.
00:28:06
Speaker
Those words have over time been constructed into a 10-H, 10-H element ah framework called the superhuman framework. That framework is stood up on what we call the four cornerstones of the framework.
00:28:23
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, uh,
00:28:43
Speaker
Well, actually, 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.
00:28:58
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.
00:29:12
Speaker
If we're not healthy, we're corrosive. So how do we make this all about the humans? So when you think about it's all about the humans and we go into the four cornerstones. Now we're talking about love, purpose, passion and persistence.
00:29:25
Speaker
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.
00:29:36
Speaker
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. 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.
00:29:52
Speaker
So you think about those four things, love, purpose, passion, persistence. And then the 10 H's, which is like holistic and being helpful and humble and human and hungry, a.k.a. hustle, ah holiness.
00:30:06
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.
00:30:25
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.
00:30:40
Speaker
Well, here's a question I want to ask Dave. Let's pretend, let's talk about George's if he weren't here for a minute. Because that's a great thing to do on a podcast.
00:30:52
Speaker
What, what's interesting for me is when I hear other people say pretty much exactly what George was saying, just, but when George does it believable, I want more and I want to follow that guy. And I'd like to subscribe to this.
00:31:09
Speaker
you Why? my My impression, and I agree, I have the same the same experience when when I'm talking with George, anything he that he touches, it's the enthusiasm and the...
00:31:26
Speaker
realness of of what he does. 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.
00:31:39
Speaker
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 formed person. He knows who he is and he's okay with
00:31:57
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.
00:32:08
Speaker
um My my dad, when I was younger, he used to say this thing like, i don't want lip service. um I want the truth.
00:32:24
Speaker
Good, bad, or indifferent, I've been built in a way that if I hear something, I'm going to tell you the truth, my truth, of how I feel or think about it. The other piece is I care.
00:32:42
Speaker
I don't care about revenue. I don't care about looking good. I don't care if people judge me on my weight.
00:32:54
Speaker
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.
00:33:05
Speaker
I do care if you take action. I do care if I was at any point, small or large, a catalyst in your life And made it better. Like, because here's the thing. One of my my internal narratives that I run is how do I leave them better than I found them?
00:33:24
Speaker
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?
00:33:37
Speaker
That's my goal. There you go. I like a guy that can handle it. Let's go oh yeah
00:33:44
Speaker
go. He'll complain and be like, oh, smile and wave, boys. my But and well we'll trust him. So you mentioned you were a big deal. You used to be a big fat guy like me. Yeah. Now we are both considerably less than we used to be, physically speaking.
00:34:00
Speaker
less of a human to become more of a human, right? um Tell me more about that process, because a you started walking as a way to lose weight. Yeah.
00:34:11
Speaker
And just, you were doing six, seven miles a day. Yeah, it's been a crazy journey with that. um Look, I've always, my my demon is food and my demon, that's my drug of choice, by the way.
00:34:28
Speaker
And my ah belief that people told me you when I was younger, oh, you're just big boned. 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.
00:34:47
Speaker
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.
00:35:04
Speaker
And so I started walking and it was like an hour here, an hour there. And it just progressed into where I was walking like three hours a day. we were hitting anywhere from six to nine miles a day.
00:35:18
Speaker
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.
00:35:35
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.
00:35:50
Speaker
And I went back up to about 311
00:35:54
Speaker
And so now for the last, 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.
00:36:05
Speaker
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 have pain in my body.
00:36:19
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.
00:36:31
Speaker
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. And it was inflammation around ah my heart and my ah like like there's a liquid sack there and inflammation in my colon, which, by the way, rheumatoid arthritis is just inflammation of the joints.
00:36:53
Speaker
And so my body literally was like, well, if if if the joint saying enough, let's just go ahead and throw it in a couple other places. And so 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.
00:37:14
Speaker
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.
00:37:29
Speaker
I'm going to eat in a way that I don't feel pain. Because 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.
00:37:42
Speaker
If I stay away from processed foods, right? So what I'm saying is if I eat more greens, 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,
00:37:58
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. ah two seventy five So again, we've lost what, like 40 some pounds roughly.
00:38:13
Speaker
um And I'm on a mission to like, I'm just going to keep going. 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.
00:38:26
Speaker
Wait, I have a, I don't want to hurt and I want to 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?
00:38:44
Speaker
um Here's the funny thing though is 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.
00:39:00
Speaker
But I do care about being on the planet longer. 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.
00:39:15
Speaker
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.
00:39:33
Speaker
I don't care. I'm going to try in my own little way. you actually And an inspiration for me. Cause once you started posting about your, your journey, I started feeling about myself. Cause like, well, I can do it.
00:39:49
Speaker
Why doing it? And so I started doing it instantly because, ah Where, where am I going? What am i I'm just, I'm just, and so the thing that I found is I have a professional wrestler buddy who does this all the time is found.
00:40:05
Speaker
They're called conqueror challenges. And what they do is they take fictional journeys and then they put full mileages around.
00:40:17
Speaker
can control maps, your actual physical activity to the fictional story. So start of 2023.
00:40:27
Speaker
started my fictional journey Shire, walked 623 miles the shores of Mount Doom to throw the ray of power into Mount Doom.
00:40:40
Speaker
And so it had a purpose, it had a thing, it made in the depths of February wanting to get out because, well, I was i have have to, have to, the good battle, so yes, I need to go, I need to walk in 20 Below Zero Weather.
00:40:55
Speaker
it was ah It was a it a big game changer for all these medals now said that we did. and it it And it was great because every once in a while an email saying, oh, great, this part of the story. Here's some postcards for the movie and things like.
00:41:08
Speaker
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, 56 pounds. Let's go. from so So two things, two things. One, I'm super proud of you. That's freaking amazing that that you're yeah on that goal.
00:41:26
Speaker
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.
00:41:41
Speaker
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.
00:41:54
Speaker
But if I could nerd out at the same time, nerd out at the same time. Oh, I'm down. i am down. And they've got all sorts of other ones. I think the the current one that they're doing is, uh,
00:42:06
Speaker
I remember, but 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 app, see where you're at. And you know, once you're done, they, they send you a finisher medal, finished America. That's amazing.
00:42:21
Speaker
I love that. The last thing I wanted to talk about before ah we we wrap up as is, is, as we're talking about how you evolved, one of the things that were involved in relatively early in HubSpot was something that I'm involved in, which is the HubSpot bootcamps.
HubSpot Super Admin Bootcamp
00:42:36
Speaker
And you co-founded, you founded, really, i think, pioneered the whole concept of a HubSpot administrator being a valuable thing for an organization.
00:42:47
Speaker
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.
00:43:01
Speaker
um I they reached out as far as like they wanted to do a super admin boot camp. Hey, would you be part of it? I'm like, yeah, absolutely. And what's fun is we from the ground up, we built this six week, one hour each week.
00:43:15
Speaker
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. 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?
00:43:32
Speaker
And so I had done it probably three different cohorts. We had put through this super admin training with ah Debbie and Stefan and Olivia helping along the way. And I just got this like wild idea of like, this is just not enough.
00:43:48
Speaker
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 12 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.
00:44:14
Speaker
um 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.
00:44:31
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.
00:44:45
Speaker
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 to, 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.
00:45:10
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.
00:45:21
Speaker
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...
00:45:36
Speaker
understand what their role is supposed to be and the expectations that they should be holding up to or setting inside their organization. So I'm excited about um where this goes eventually, how many people actually end up going through it.
00:45:53
Speaker
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.
00:46:05
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.
00:46:21
Speaker
Love it.
Closing Remarks and Future Collaborations
00:46:22
Speaker
It's always a joy to be around you. always always feel better about myself. I love I feel like I'm a little bit more jazzed. Dave, any parting thoughts before we wrap up? ah Just add 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 um whimsy to the podcast as we go into season three and no better way to start this.
00:46:48
Speaker
So George, you've been a huge help to us, always an inspiration. And it's it's ah i''m very much looking forward to seeing you at Inbound and attending.
00:46:59
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.
00:47:10
Speaker
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?
00:47:29
Speaker
if they If it's clear that you have self-serving um 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 Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity. Hopefully we're able to inspire some people to action.
00:47:57
Speaker
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.
00:48:04
Speaker
well We'll leave it it there. But George, just in case, where do where can people find you um online? Yeah. Yeah. The easiest place, ah you can go to sidekickstrategies.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.
00:48:29
Speaker
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.
00:48:46
Speaker
there or holy
00:48:52
Speaker
Or just deflate one of your tires, wait about 20 minutes, George will come by with an air pump. his My radar will go off. Beep, beep, beep.
00:49:02
Speaker
Jenny has a flat tire. Let's go. Somebody needs me. a drag signal A big H. Yeah. Thanks. steve thanks Hopefully this will be a great season three and we're excited for excited for more.
00:49:14
Speaker
It in is is produced by Nicole Fairclough and Andy Wachowski. I'm Trigney. That's been Dave. And we'll see you for the next ah next turnaround.
00:49:25
Speaker
Thanks, everybody.