The Winding Road
The Winding Road
Ryan Gunn: Navigating a New Marketing Role
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In this episode of the Winding Road podcast, I welcome Ryan Gunn, a senior marketing operations consultant at Aptitude 8, a consultancy focused on marketing automation and HubSpot. Ryan reflects on his whirlwind first three months on the job, discussing the combination of learning a lot and feeling like an imposter among the highly knowledgeable team at Aptitude.
We talk about:
- Marketing automation
- HubSpot
- Marketing operations
- Revenue operations
- Solutions architecture
- Imposter syndrome
- Learning and growth in a consultancy
- Career paths in marketing
- The role of accountability in writing and music
- The benefits of having a support system
- The importance of partnership and collaboration
- The challenges of maintaining productivity without a support system
Connect with this week’s guest Ryan Gunn
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanagunn/
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Ep 51 - Navigating a new marketing role with Ryan Gunn
Travis: Welcome to the Whining Road podcast. today I have Ryan Gunn, who is a senior marking operations consultant at Aptitude.
a consultancy, focusing on marketing automation, HubSpot, and, and ops, right? Is is that what they, they focus
Ryann: on? Yeah, we're, we're all about HubSpot. We do, marketing, operations, revenue operations, and, web operations as well as some solutions architecture.
Travis: Nice. And, and you're, you're new, you've, you've only been there for a few months.
Ryann: right? Yeah. I started, I guess it's almost three months now. and yeah, it's been a whirlwind. I mean, the, the company knows so much about HubSpot that I feel like every day I've got that combination of I'm learning a ton of stuff, and also I've imposter syndrome because these people are so freaking.
Travis: That's awesome. I mean, it's a good place to be, right? It's challenging, it's scary. Imposter syndrome's scary, right? Because you think, yeah, what am I doing here with all these super smart people? And, and I'm gonna be found out soon to . I don't know what I'm doing, but you know what you're doing. I see your posts on ho on LinkedIn and, and, and so yeah, to, to know that there are people that know more than you do, that you're working with is impressive.
So, so, yeah, it's always fun when you're in a. Position to, to continue to learn like that.
Yeah,
Ryann: for sure. And and that's really like, I mean, you hear that, that saying that, working at an agency or a consultancy is like dog years compared to an internal position. Mm-hmm. , I'm sure you've experienced that too.
Mm-hmm. , but it's like in the first three months on. In this role, I feel like I've learned more than I did in like any single year at a previous job. Yeah.
Travis: Yeah. I can completely relate to that. cause I was a director of marketing for five, maybe six years, for a company based in Denver. And I just kind of.
Got bored, felt like I was stagnant. you know, I reported to the president, so there was nowhere for me to go up. Like, so I didn't really have anything to work for. Promotional and, and ladder and, and yeah, I mean like in, in a year, little over a year of, of doing my own thing and, and being a consultant consultancy of one and working with a bunch of different clients and really getting into hubs.
I've learned. In that year, then, at least from like a tech, like a marketing standpoint, than I did, in maybe those five or six years in, in that other role. So it's crazy. It is definitely, light years for like speed wise, right? Yeah. So awesome. And so what I'm really curious about, what I wanted to talk with you about today is your, your winding road and getting to where you are now.
So it's kind of like one of those movies that starts with the end and then we kind of go work backwards. And so, so I guess to kick it off, like how did you get into to marketing?
I got into marketing before I knew what marketing was. That's actually kind of like a, a theme across my career is like I do stuff.
Ryann: before I know what it is. And then I learned that there's a name for it or a role for it and I am like, oh, I wanna do that now. Mm-hmm. like that should be the next thing that I do. So I was, you know, way, way, way back in high school. I was like doing social media and designing a website for. , my band that I was in.
Nice. you know, back when, back when the, the go-to c m s was like blogger, , . so I, I started out with that and I had no idea at the time that like you could have a job designing websites or running social media or stuff like that. that didn't occur to me until like, I don't know, seven or eight years later.
Wow. so that was kind of my first dabbling in it. I went to college. I was a creative writing major, so I, I loved writing. That's another, another thing that I didn't know you could get paid for unless you were Stephen King, you know, write in three books a year. I didn't, I didn't understand that writing was such a valuable, Skill to have in marketing and, and pretty much any job, like being able to communicate clearly is hugely, hugely underrated.
mm-hmm. . so yeah, after, after college, I, I continued that like theme of I'm doing marketing, but I don't know what I'm doing. I worked at a, a poetry press and I was. Launching an online edition of their magazine. so I was putting everything into WordPress and, you know, making the formatting match what was on the printed page, stuff like that.
so yeah, that's all of that is like before I even touched a marketing role, . Wow,
Travis: that's, that's awesome. And I mean, communication is, is huge. And I, I just bought a, I mean, I'm buying books all the time. I've. A, a book problem, man. And, and my wife finally just gave up. It's like, all right, I'm not gonna say anything anymore.
but it's a, it's an old book, an older book, and it, it's, I can't remember. I don't have it down here in one of my piles of books, flanking my desk. but it's something like, and you probably know what book this is. getting your point across in 30 seconds or less or something along those lines.
Travis: Older book. and, yeah, I mean communication is, is vitally important. And, I was an environmental science major. I ended up going back and getting an MBA and focused on marketing and kind of ops. Ops was more for the fun piece of it, like op traditional ops, right. but man, I'm so jealous of the people who have degrees in writing or journalism.
I'm like, If I would've known now, then what I know now, things would've been a lot different. Right. So and you probably did that not even knowing like what it would would
Ryann: lead to? Oh, for sure. I, yeah, I would say that the creative writing workshops I took in college were more valuable. in terms of developing the, the soft skills that I use every single day.
Then anything that I learned when I got my mba, which I did mm-hmm. like shortly after, not knowing what I was gonna do after college. ? Yeah, . but you learn like. You learn how to give and receive critical feedback. You learn how to not take that stuff personally. Mm-hmm. , you learn communication. You learn how to put yourself into the shoes of another person or in, in the case of creative writing, it was more another character.
and all of that stuff I use every single day. Yeah,
Travis: exactly. Yeah. I mean, I, I would guess that from what I'm hearing, and, and I've done some recruiting here and there for some friends who've had, had agencies and are looking for, for marketing folks that what you learn in school just is not even close to, to what you're actually doing as a marketer.
And there's such a disconnect that I can't believe people are. for that. It's crazy. and, and I can imagine that like having a degree in creative writing or journalism, even if you wanna go into marketing, would probably be better than having a marketing degree because of how watered down and, and like what you're not learning
Ryann: that half.
That's, I a hundred percent agree with that. I would say if you want to go into market, Go get, get an English degree. I, so I did get my mba, and focused in marketing for that. And what I learned basically during that was all of the things that I was previously qualified before, before getting my mba.
Like so many job opportunities that I just didn't know existed. And I think that's probably the biggest failing. , like my undergrad experience was that I, I never understood how I could apply that English degree. Mm-hmm. , it was, that was always the joke of like, oh, you have a degree in English. What are you gonna do with that?
Yeah. You can do anything.
Travis: Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. Yeah. It's amazing how, how things have have shifted from that perspective and. I got my mba. I mean, I, I'm old as dirt and I, I don't make any bones about it. I got mine in two, I I graduated in 2006 and the iPhone wasn't even a thing. And I'm actually really glad that that's when I got my MBA and focused on marketing because I feel like I, I got a better education around the fundamentals of.
and, and what that is before all of the digital crap got piled on, that made people lazy and not even really understand what is marketing. Right. So I actually feel, I'm glad that that, none of that stuff really, I mean, AdWords existed then, right? And analytic Google Analytics, things like that. But digital was in its infancy.
But I'm really glad that I did it when I did to actually get a good marketing foundation. .
Ryann: Well, I'll tell you what, I, I don't know that the curriculum has changed that much since you did it. Oh, really? Because when, when I got mine, there was only one class, not, not one C like class, but one day of class that, in all of the marketing classes that I took that touched on a marketing automation platform.
Really? Wow. Anything. , basically anything other than social media. and it was that one day that kind of set me on the career path that I'm on now, because we did a case study on HubSpot and how they used inbound marketing, which was their methodology to market themselves. So they were their own case study interest.
and I, I talked to my professor after the class, cuz I found it fascinating. I was like, this is the stuff that I wish we were learning about day to day. Like we are learning, you know, great fundamentals, but I don't feel like we are learning practical skills. Mm-hmm. . . And he was like, Hey, if you like HubSpot, they've got HubSpot Academy, they've got certifications, they've got courses like you can do some learning on your own.
This is the last time we're gonna cover it in this class. Wow. and that, that really set me on the path. Like I, I did get certified. I got my. Job after that at a HubSpot partner agency. Nice.
Travis: That's awesome. And have you been hub, you, so you've been HubSpot from, from day one, essentially, right?
Ryann: Yeah, it's been, about eight years that I've been in HubSpot.
So that, that first job at a, partner agency. and then ever since then I have kind. Built my job, search around that. Anytime I'm switching roles, I'll, I'll search for, you know, HubSpot in quotes, and then marketing or HubSpot and operations, something like that. And I've only worked for companies that use HubSpot since then.
Nice.
Travis: That's that's awesome. But, but you've used different CRMs, right? Like sa, Salesforce, with HubSpot?
Ryann: Yeah, for sure. yeah. Yeah. So the. , the two companies that I worked for, that I was in an internal role. Both of them used that combination of HubSpot and Salesforce. And then now on, on the consultancy side, I've done stuff with Salesforce, I've done stuff with Pipedrive, and of course tons and tons of HubSpot stuff.
Mm-hmm. .
Travis: Yeah, exactly. Nice. And, and kind of going back to the writing piece, you, you've written a book.
Ryann: I have not written a book. I've written, I've written several short stories, one of which was published. Okay. That's what it was. yeah. I would, I would love to write a book. I don't know where I'm gonna find the time, but that's, that's definitely like on the bucket list.
Yeah.
Travis: Nice. Nice. Well, I think, maybe, we'll, we'll have to, like, I, I commented on, on one of your posts recently, maybe an accountability group of people who wanna write. Cause I wanna write another one. and I think you just need that, that accountability man that helped me write my first book. cuz I did it through a workshop where I was going through it with people doing it at the same time and we were sharing what we wrote every day with each other and getting feedback and.
And I think that was critical. I don't know if I would've been able to finish it without that accountability and knowing that I have to show up every day, not just to write my own, but to comment and help other people going through it. And if I stopped, I felt like I would, I was bailing on them. So it really kind of, kind of helped motivate me.
So
Ryann: yeah, I think that's a great idea. I mean, I, I'm absolutely the same way where if I don't have that kinda accountability and, and, Partnership with other people, then I become a lot less productive. Mm-hmm. , like I, it, it's true with writing, it's true with when I was playing music, you know, once, once those guys that I was in a band with went separate ways.
We all live in different cities now. I fully stopped playing guitar because Oh wow. It, like, I love doing it, but I love doing it with those guys. Mm. and, and having someone else to bounce ideas off of and, and stuff like that. And it was kind of the same with writing. Like I've done a lot less writing for myself since I, since I graduated from college and, and didn't have those workshops.
Mm-hmm. .
Travis: Yeah. That's interesting. And makes me think of when I was writing a lot, I kind of had that support system of other people writing at the same time and. and then I kind of exited those workshops and things and yeah, my writing just kind of stopped . So, so yeah, there's something to that. And, and, before I get into to my next question, that kind of piggybacks on that one question I did have early on that I haven't asked you yet.
What, what kind of music did your band play?
Ryann: We played, like garage rock music. We were kinda. Grungy. And, there, there was four of us. So I played guitar. We had another guitarist and a singer, a bassist and a drummer. and I still keep in contact with those guys. I mean, I, I saw two out of the three at a wedding a few months ago.
Travis: Nice. That's awesome. And did you put anything on iTunes or is it, is it available out
Ryann: there? I was actually just looking at that right before we hopped on. Cause I like, I, I knew that's like where my. Journey started and, and that we were gonna talk about it. So, I went and found like all the files that I have on my, my cloud drive.
Nice. and I looked into like, how can I get this on Spotify? Because people like do ask about it. anytime I say I was in a band, people are like, oh, let me hear some of your stuff and it'd be great if I could just. Send them to a Spotify page instead of digging in and finding an MP3 somewhere in, in my files.
Travis: Yeah. I wonder, I mean, I wonder if SoundCloud would be a good, a good place to,
Ryann: to drop some, yeah, there's a bunch of free, free options out there that I can use, so, , by the time you publish this episode, I'll have, I'll have a link to you. Nice.
Travis: Awesome. awesome. Yeah, that'll be great. I'll put it in the, in the show notes, so people, can, can find that and listen.
Awesome. And then, and then to kind of come back, cuz Yeah, I was, when you were talking about a band, I was curious like what kind of music did you play and, and things like that. And, and when you're talking about the accountability with writing, and how important that was, it made me think like, . Do you now, or have you throughout your career had a mentor or, or mentors?
yeah, a few times. So I would say, , definitely when I was getting my mba, I was, I was one of the youngest people who was getting it, so I met a lot people that were kind of where I wanted to be. another thing I learned is, is that age isn't really a, a measure of success or, or wisdom or anything because there were a lot of people there that were.
pretty difficult to work with and, and acted immaturely, but there were a lot of people who were really great. So, you know, I, I got to learn from a lot of different people there. But I would say more recently, kind of a, a more traditional like mentor mentee relationship. when I was at my last company Array.
Ryann: I came into the company, as their new head of marketing. I, it was the first time I had headed up a department. and they had previously hired a, fractional C M O, so I worked with him very closely. We had, he was, he was more or less my, Direct superior for the first few months. And then as he started to transition out, it was more of like a mentor role.
We'd meet, you know, once every other week and, and talk about what was going on. If I was having any sort of issues or needed advice on how to, manage a situation or a project, something like that. he was there for that. So that. an enormous learning opportunity for me, and, and I'm so thankful for, for the array team, for like enabling that opportunity for me and also, to the guy himself, his name's Mike De Petro, and he's, he's a consultant, but it, it was great learning from
Travis: him.
Nice. Are you still kinda in that mentor relationship now or, or once you left array that, that kind of.
Ryann: Yeah, it was, it was mostly for the first year I was there, I was there for two years and then he actually got hired on full-time by one of his clients. So he, you know, stopped having that sort of, fractional C m O role.
and we still talk every once in a while, but it's, it's definitely less of that, mentor relationship. But I've got, a bunch of people, as I was saying before at at Aptitude eight who are super smart that I'm, I'm learning from every day, so I've still got something there. Yeah.
Travis: And I think that's, that's the key as well.
I think a lot of people want a mentor and they think they have to go out and find a person, but I think the reality is that a lot of people probably have mentors and they don't even. it, it's not a formal thing. Right. And it sounds like that's what you're in right now?
Ryann: Yeah, I would say so. I mean, the, the culture of the company is so built around helping one another and teaching one another, that it feels like there's mentors everywhere I look
Travis: Nice. That's a great situation to be in. What, what advice would you have? Like, let's say someone's listening and they, they want to. Have a mentor, but you know, it's scary to go ask people and, and, you might get shot down. Like what, what advice would you have for someone who out there who wants a mentor but doesn't really know kind of where to start?
if you are in a, if you're currently in a role where you have a direct superior who is, kind of in the same function as you, if, if you're working in marketing and they're working in marketing, then. , A great suggestion that has worked really well for me is take work off their plate. Mm-hmm. ask them like, what, what can I take off your plate?
Ryann: And then it's gonna be more than you know how to do by yourself. So that puts them in the position to kind of coach you through what you need to do there. so you get, you get big props. Making their life easier, but also you get to learn from them. Mm-hmm.
Travis: nice. And, and when you do that, and, and like let's say you get a project and it's the first time you've ever done that kind of thing, are, are you asking them for, for help and, and open about that or trying to figure it out and then asking for help or what's that that typically look
Ryann: like?
I think a lot of people struggle with asking for help. Mm-hmm. , I know I did early in my career, I prob probably still do. But it's one of the, the most valuable things you can do. Don't, don't sit and struggle with something and then just like end up giving up or doing it totally wrong. But I do think there's value to, putting in some work before you ask for help, come in with some context of, Hey, I haven't been able to figure this out, but this is what I've tried so far.
Ryann: Mm-hmm. . And then that way you're not just saying, I don't know how to do this. Tell me how. Hmm,
Travis: exactly. Yeah. You've kind of built a, built the map. You're looking at it, you're like, I see. , I get it, but I don't really know how to get from here to there. Can you show me which roads to take? Right? Like mm-hmm.
kind of mapping it out and, and understanding it first. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I think a, I think that's where a lot of imposter syndrome comes from, and, and I think that the, the reality. And, and the what's in people's heads are so different and so unaligned, right? That I think people feel like they.
Need to come into situations, knowing everything, knowing how to do absolutely everything, in such an unrealistic way. and then, and then they get there and they feel like they should know and they're afraid to ask, like you mentioned. And then it just kind of snowballs into this thing of, I don't know, this.
And the imposter syndrome just starts to get. You know, bigger and bigger and, and I think, yeah, the, the best thing you can do is just, it's okay not to know everything. You're not, no one knows everything. And so that's how you learn is just get some help. Right. Leverage
Ryann: the resources. Absolutely. Yeah. At and my current company, you know, I was saying, I, I came in with a lot of imposter syndrome pretty quickly.
I figured out, , everybody has, really deep expertise, but only in a few areas. Hmm. there's very few people I would say at my company, that they do exist, but there's very few that have like a really deep understanding of all of HubSpot, for example. for the most part, people have a, a really deep understanding of one part of it.
Like they really know sales hub, they really know, you know, custom coded actions and, and the more technical side of things. there's, there's one guy in particular I'm thinking about that like can do the most. Technical stuff you've ever seen done on with coding and, and all that technical side of things in HubSpot.
But if you ask him to put together like a pretty basic email workflow, he would not know where to start. really . So, it's, what it really comes down to is like, I have to realize. . Oh. I also have a deep understanding in a, in a few certain areas, and I can be helpful to other people that don't understand that stuff.
Mm-hmm. and I can learn from them. where they have deeper knowledge. Mm-hmm. .
Travis: Yeah. And that's, that's an interesting point. And I think for someone, like in my position, the imposter syndrome comes in because I'm trying to know everything about HubSpot and it's, it's hard. I mean, it's so complex and there's so many nuances to everything.
Within HubSpot and then they keep adding more. It's like . It's like, is he Kyle? jsu come out with these videos. I'm like, dude, slow down. Like . I need to learn what you just showed me last week first. Like it's too much too soon. But, but yeah, I think, you know, what advice would you give, you know, someone like me or someone in my situation who is a kind of a solo HubSpot consultant that feels like they have to.
everything like that. Their clients are gonna expect them to know, know everything.
Ryann: I think there's a lot of value to being able to say on a client call or something like that, I don't know how to do that, but I know how to learn how to do that. Mm-hmm. , and you, you can say, look, I, I can't give you that answer.
Write this second. But by the time we meet next, , I will have an answer for you. I'll have figured out how to do it. So you don't need to know everything right now. Mm-hmm. , you can prioritize based on what client's needs are, and obviously you need a, a. A foundation of understanding, but if you are just kind of skimming those Kyle Jepson videos, it'll be somewhere in the back of your head.
You're gonna know that that feature exists. Mm-hmm. , even if you don't know how to use it. Exactly. .
Travis: Exactly. And how, and what about like partner collaboration? is that something that would be a good thing to, to kind of think about, lean into and like, if you're a solo. Consultant, maybe think about going really, really deep in some certain area, and then you get a project and then you, you have a supporting cast of people you can pull in who do have those other pieces.
Is that something that you think is, is possible and, and a good idea?
Ryann: Absolutely. Yeah. When I, when I started at array, I've kind of positioned myself in the application process as a one man marketing team, and I very quickly learned that there is so much about marketing that I don't know or can't do, or I'm not good at.
and like for example, I'm not a graphic designer. I can like throw something together in Canva real quick. . But I am not like a brand person. I am not a web designer. so I did, I hired people or, or got freelancers or or retained an agency to help me out with that stuff because I can't do it , so, , you have to have those partnerships.
Ryann: You can't do everything yourself. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, exactly.
Travis: And I'm the same way. I'm not a brand person, I'm not a copy person. And I think what's interesting, and I wanna get your take on this cuz you're a writer. I'm a writer. I. copy is different. Like it's so different. If you ask me to write a book, I could do it.
If you ask me to go create an email campaign, like I'm like scared to death. I'm like, I don't know how to do that. Like, what do I say? Right. Does that feel the same for you as well?
for me it's, it's easier if I care about the subject matter, so I. . The first job I had outside of an agency, was for a FinTech company, and that was a really cool company to work for.
Ryann: But we did work in alternative investments and I don't really care about alternative investments. Like, that's not, yeah. Something that excites me. That's not something I'm doing research on in my own time. Mm-hmm. , and it was the same at Array. It was, we were doing, medical. <AFFIRMATIVE> meetings and, and life sciences events.
And that's very cool, but it's not something that I really care about. So writing copy for it was kind of difficult. Mm-hmm. . but what I've found since I started being more active on LinkedIn, since I got, my, my job at Aptitude eight and I'm doing Marketing Operations Day to. , I feel like I could write about marketing operations forever.
Mm-hmm. , if, if you asked me right now to write an email campaign, I could knock it out. Mm-hmm. , and it to be as I care about the subject matter and it just, it seems to flow so much more easily. But I'm, I'm so glad I'm not doing creative for. , other industries. Mm-hmm. and, and having to learn that stuff when I don't really care about it.
Travis: Yeah. Yeah. I think being on the creative side of an agency and having to work with so many different clients and so many different things, gosh, that would be, that would be tough. Really tough. And I think, yeah. C having the, like, caring about the topic is, is huge. Right. In a lot of ways. And like, not just writing, but.
Your job like in what you do on a day-to-day basis. Like it, it's so Im important. I mean, yeah, you could try to filter through the, what it is you're selling or marketing, right, and, and just kind of focus on the how and the, the strategies and those things. But it, that can only last for so long. I think you really have to.
Care about the bus, care about the business, care about the products or services, which then leads you to care about the customers because if you don't like, it's gonna be a struggle as a marketer, right?
Ryann: Yeah, absolutely. And what I found that the first agency job I had, I was doing creator for our clients.
And what I found is, at the end of, I was only there for a year. At the end of that year, I didn't have a single piece of content that I had written that I was proud enough of to put in a portfolio because it was, I was, it felt like I was just dipping my toe into what those clients were doing. Mm-hmm. , and it was, it was easier for me when I was, internal because then I can really dig deep.
on a single, you know, quote unquote client, and have a, a better, more complete understanding of what they're doing. But it's still, you still hit a point where you're like, okay, I know it, but I don't really care about it. it, it, it's, your writing's not infused with that, that passion in the same way that it is when it is something that you really care about.
Travis: Yeah, a absolutely. And. Kind of speaking to writing about what you care about and, and you mentioned like picking up your writing on LinkedIn and, and your posts and, and things like that. when did you really start, when did that really start to kind of click for you?
Ryann: That was pretty recently. It was only maybe six months ago.
Mm-hmm. , I, I had a conversation with, a good friend of yours, actually, Mason Cosby, about what he was doing on LinkedIn because I was getting a lot of value out of what he was posting. he was writing about stuff that I cared about. and at the time I was working for Array, so I was, I was mostly writing stuff that I didn't care as much about and that really I had been looking for.
A creative outlet to kind of fill what writing had been to me before. Mm-hmm. . and I hadn't found it. So I talked to Mason and, and kind of saw the opportunity not only in terms of a creative outlet that posting on LinkedIn could be, but also the, the potential opportunities that I could open up for myself by putting that stuff out.
On a platform that where professionals are reading it and gaining value from it and, you know, the whole personal branding thing. So that, that really, opened my eyes to kind of the possibilities of, of posting on LinkedIn in a way that I hadn't. understood them before. Mm-hmm. .
Travis: Yeah. That, that's interesting.
And, and within the last six months, how, how have things changed for you from like opportunities and just like, how is it, how has it changed after you started doing that?
well I think it's important to note that I'm on this podcast right now because of of LinkedIn because you and I, yeah. Engaging on LinkedIn.
so that's one thing. It's, it's opened up, you know, speaking opportunities. It's opened up, just conversations that I've had with people that I may have never talked to if, if I wasn't doing this. I got lunch the other day with someone in, in Richmond, Virginia where I'm from, a HubSpot, agency owner, Lauren Kennedy.
and we connected on LinkedIn before. we met in person even though we're in the same city. Nice. so that's, that's just kind of like the interpersonal connections. But when I was making the transition from working at Array to Aptitude eight, I saw a lot more interest in my applications and, and just, Me as a potential job candidate, because of what I had been posting on LinkedIn.
Ryann: Mm-hmm. , I, I talked to, Connor Jeffers, the c e o of Aptitude eight before I had an interview and, you know, he passed my name along to, to our people operations team and, That, that kind of created a foundation for what became this job.
Travis: Nice. Yeah, I mean, I think it's huge. You know, I, I, I, I wonder about the people who aren't active on LinkedIn or just being visible, right?
And just engaging with people in a, in a, in a place like LinkedIn and. I just wonder like how their career is gonna pan out, right? Like how, like what if they got laid off then, then what? Like maybe they have, maybe I'm so digitally connected that I forgot what it's like to have like real relationships offline.
Right? and, and maybe they've got strong, strong offline relationships, but I just think, man, like. over the past few years with LinkedIn and cohort learning and workshops and the things that I've done and the people I've met through that I just think about, man, what would it be like to, for the people who haven't done that, right?
Like I just, I don't know, man, like it, I feel like my career has, I feel a lot more secure in my future through those things than if I didn't have them.
Ryann: Yeah. I think that Covid has also shaken things up in that arena because prior to Covid hitting, I only had jobs in the same city that I was living.
Mm-hmm. . So if that's, that's where most of your personal relationships are, or, yeah, wherever you live and that. , you can open up job opportunities where you live through your personal connections. But now that Covid has taken so many things remote and and it, I feel like it's made those digital connections so much more valuable.
Mm-hmm. , I, I definitely would not have, gotten my last job at Array, which was in Denver when I was living in Virginia. or this job, aptitude Aid is fully remote. We don't, we don't have an office. So you, everybody's a digital connection. I haven't, yeah. Met in person, a single one of my coworkers. I, I will later this month.
but so far it's like we are all interacting on Zoom and yeah, through email and, and chat. .
Travis: Yeah. And yeah, and I, and I guess for me, I forget about the days of like going into an office because I haven't worked in an office since I left. Microsoft in like 2013 or 14. And, and so I've been remote and have rarely worked for a company in the same city as me.
And that's why my wife and I moved to Spokane from Seattle. It's like we both were working remote in 2015 and like, what, why do we need to stay here and spend this much on a mortgage? let's just go somewhere else. And, and so yeah, just, but that also, from a personal standpoint, Has kind of hurt me in Spokane because I've been here since 2016 and I don't feel like I don't know anybody.
you know all my friendships and if I look, and I lived in Denver and Seattle and Los Angeles and I went to Los Angeles for the Super Bowl cause I'm a Bengals fan. In February I went by myself cuz my all Colt's fans and cause I'm from Indie and And, and yeah, I was, I was in LA by myself for the Super Bowl, but I was not by myself at all because I knew people from living there that I just hung out with the whole time I was there.
Travis: And so, most of the friends I have have come from jobs where I've met them and then one of us left, or both of us left and we stayed friends. Right. And so, I haven't worked for a company in Spokane since I've been here. And I'm trying to like, spin up events now cause I'm like, I've gotta meet people.
This is crazy. so next week doing a, like a local event,with just local rev ops and, and marketing ops people I found, on LinkedIn and I just connected with them that are here in Spokane or Coeur d'Alene. I just said, Hey. I'm getting these people together in three weeks. Are you interested? And they said, yeah.
So, so yeah, trying to pull that together to just to meet people and kind of get outta my digital world for once.
Ryann: Yeah, that's, I've like, I mean, like I said before, I've, I've met people who live in Richmond through LinkedIn. It sounds like you're doing the same. you should look into HubSpot user groups.
Mm-hmm. , see if you can start a, uh, Spokane HubSpot user group.
Travis: Yeah. And I've, I've thought about that and I looked into it in, in like the criteria is like, you need to have public speaking experience, all this stuff. I'm like, well, maybe I'll just podcast inform like speaking . Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And so I've tried to talk to them about that and but I think maybe I'll just do an informal like, Hey, this is just like our grassroots, like hubs.
people getting together to drink beer and talk about HubSpot. Right. so yeah, I think that's, this is kind of the beginning of, of that, and I think I want to do it once a month, and have a theme each month of like the type of people I pull together. and so, so yeah, I think eventually that's kind of where I'm going, where I will start to like, say, okay, let's tighten this up and really start to focus on HubSpot professionals locally.
Ryann: So, so yeah, there are lots of 'em out there. There are,
Travis: there are. So cool. I know we're coming up on time and ah, man. I could talk for another hour, , even though I might need more coffee cuz my voice is, is need to get warm it up more. But yeah, it's been great, chatting today and really appreciate you coming on on the podcast.
Ryann: Of course, yeah. Thanks. Thanks Travis.
Travis: Yeah, you bet.
