0 (2s):
Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation, JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs On Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like my first million today, we'll be focusing on adapting your marketing strategy in the creator age to drop these value bonds. I brought to Kipp Bodnar into EOFire studios. Kipp is the Chief Marketing Officer of HubSpot, where he sets HubSpot's global inbound marketing strategy to drive awareness and demand for HubSpot's inbound marketing and sales products. And today for our nation, we talking about the shift in the world and how top creators have adapted to this shift. We'll talk about best practices for brands, working with creators, and also for creators working with brands and so much more.

0 (48s):
When we get back from thanking our sponsors, the HubSpot Podcast Network is the audio destination for business professionals who seek the best education and inspiration on how to grow a business. Whether you're looking for marketing sales, service, or operational guidance, the HubSpot Podcast Network hosts have your back, listen, learn and grow with the HubSpot Podcast Network at hubspot.com/podcastnetwork. Kipp say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1 (1m 21s):
What is up Fire Nation? Thanks for having me. The thing that I believe that makes you successful is that it is not just how hard you work. It is what you work on. Everybody talks about hard work, hard work. Yes, it's important, but you can work really hard on a boring or low impact thing and waste a ton of time. It is picking the right stuff to work on is what's really gonna make you successful.

0 (1m 42s):
Amen, brother, I love saying that going a million miles an hour in the wrong direction just takes you a million miles in the wrong direction after an hour. So I love that don't focus on the low impact stuff, Fire Nation folks on stuff that moves the needle. What's your 80 20 and Kipp, let's be honest. There's been a shift in the world and those creators who are currently on top, they've adapted to the shift, share some details about this quote unquote shift with Fire Nation.

1 (2m 13s):
It's been a crazy world where creators have more power than ever before the ability to make more money than ever before. And the ability to get their message out in ways that they've never been able to before used to be that brands had all the power and you had to be a part of a big company, whether it be a media company or corporation to really truly be heard in the world. And now you can just be an expert and you could be amazing and amazing creator, and you can get a voice, whether it be on sub stack or Patrion or an awesome podcast, like you're doing John all across the board. And that is an unprecedented opportunity for creators. And I think creators and companies too are going to work together and a bunch of new and different innovative ways because of this shift.

1 (2m 56s):
That's upon us.

0 (2m 58s):
I mean, one of the thing I love about HubSpot is you guys really keep your eyes open to these shifts. And you've seen this massive shift in the podcast space and just the overall audio space. And so what have you done? You've gone forward and you've created this amazing podcast network, which I'm honored to be a part of. And it's a great way to just say, Hey, we've adapted, we've seen the shift. We're going to go all in on this. So let's talk specifics cap about how this shift that we're talking about is currently affecting brands and specifically their marketing strategy.

1 (3m 30s):
Okay. So a few things, if you're a brand right now, your marketing strategy is not media heavy enough at all, and it's not create creator focused enough at all. And it's probably very mano media. It's probably texts and maybe a little bit of video and certainly no audio. And one of the things that I love about the HubSpot podcast network is like, we saw the growth in audio. We had our own shows, but we knew we were only going to get so far. And we, we noticed that there was just an amazing group of creators out there like yourself, John, and so many others that were like, wow, how do we bring them together? And also solve a core problem for listeners, which is man, it's really hard to find the discover new shows still really hard to find the best audio content that can help your business help you grow as a person, as a leader.

1 (4m 16s):
And so what we thought about was like, Oh, how do we bring those, those things together and create a great network. So you might be listening to your show, John, and hear about another awesome episode on a really high quality related show. That's already been vetted and thought of by us and by yourself. And people can just have a real kind of continuity and experience to their audio consumption that is really kind of lacking today. And I think if you're a brand, that's what you try to do, work with the best creators in your space and reduce the friction for your audience, help your audience find the best information as easily as possible.

0 (4m 48s):
Yeah. I love this Fire Nation and you're seeing this in actual action. I mean, what was the show that I promoted today at that at the top of the show I talked about in my first million, which is another great podcast in the HubSpot network yesterday, I talked about being boss tomorrow. We're talking about business infrastructure. I mean, this is what's happening when you can. Co-promote when you can commingle, it's a company that's, you know, frankly has done this spectacularly well for years now, a Wondery where they just co-promote great shows in their own network. And guess what? They just got bought by Amazon for $330 million. So you can see what happens when you build the right infrastructure and you adapt to the shifts and you make things happen. So we'd love talking about best practices on entrepreneurs, on fire Kipp. So what are the best practices for brands who are currently wanting to work with creators?

1 (5m 34s):
First things first, you have to understand that the creators brand is just as if not more important than your own brand. And you have to figure out how to align brands, not try to swallow up the creators brand. It's part of your brand job. One job, two, you have to understand what does a great creator experience look like? You know, I don't know about you, John, but the creators I know, and I know you a little bit, you know what they love to do, what they love to. They don't do all of the administrative stuff around creating. They want to create. And so if you're a brand and you can make it easier and easier for creators to create their work and not have to go through a bunch of red tape, jump through a bunch of hoops, do a bunch of administration. Then you are going to have a much better partnership.

1 (6m 15s):
Your audience is going to get much better content. It is going to work out and be a win-win for everyone. And then the second thing, the third thing you have to do, excuse me, is you have to figure out how are you going to give the creator, the autonomy to tell their authentic story to the market and then align your brand story. And sometimes that's through partnerships. Sometimes that's through sponsorship. Sometimes that's through co-created content can happen a whole, whole host of ways. But if you're just trying to shove your narrative through, through a creators channel, it's not going to work. It's not going to be authentic to the creator. It's not gonna be authentic to their audience, and it's going to actually be detrimental to your brand. So you have to figure out how your brand story can be additive to what the creator is trying to do.

0 (6m 54s):
So many value bombs dropped here, Fire Nation. I want to go through a few of these real quick, number one, don't try to swallow up the creator's brand. That's not the point. In fact, that will have potentially the opposite effects. I mean, you want to have that great alignment, that parallel success, and then what would make a great creator experience? Like if you're a brand, you've got to ask that question going in. And then I love that last part, which is how do you align the actual brands brand story with the creator, allowing the creator to continue being authentic, to continue being genuine, to continue being who they are, who is able to grow that great brand, that great audience, that great following. And again, you know, not to continue to toot HubSpot's horn here, but I mean like this exactly what they did when they approached me, I mean, they were saying, John, we want to just take what you're doing and amplify it.

0 (7m 42s):
We want to combine your show with other great shows so that we can commingle your message with others and co-promote, and cross-promote and do all these fantastic things to get entrepreneurs on a fire in more earballs than is currently in right now. And, you know, lining me up with Allana over at HubSpot. Who's fantastic. And making sure that we're like looking at the numbers and the analytics so that we are all winning because all ships rise in a high tide. So those best practices for brands want to work with creators. How are you making this a win win? Because when the creators are winning, that brand is winning as well. So how do you have that value exchange and rise that tide and Fire Nation, if you think we're even close to done drop in value bombs, you've got another thing coming.

0 (8m 26s):
We are going to keep up the heat. As soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors, managing conversations with prospects and customers throughout all stages of their journey can be tough. Information gets lost between departments in your customer's experience, suffers as a result, HubSpot wants to change that. That's why they created a CRM platform that makes it easy to align across teams. So how does HubSpot do it with one unified system of record? This means that engaging things like live chat conversations via your website, sending marketing emails, booking prospect meetings, and having access to a document library allows every department to seamlessly work together towards a common goal, a next level customer journey that drives growth in lifetime loyalty, say goodbye to multiple systems that are cobbled together and having data channels and teams that are disjointed.

0 (9m 17s):
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0 (9m 58s):
What about collaborating with team members? Streak helps you do that to share emails and pipelines, no matter where you are, and no matter what device you're on, you can leverage streak on desktop or mobile app to add and share info during a meeting at a job site, or while working on the go sign up for streak today at Streak.com/fire and get 20% off your first year of their pro plan, their most popular option that's Streak.com/fire for 20% off their pro plan streak, STREAK.com/fire. So KIPP let's flip that script. We talked about the best practices for brands working with creators. What about those creators that are listening right now that are thinking about working with brands?

0 (10m 41s):
Like what should they be thinking about when choosing which brands to work with?

1 (10m 46s):
Look, if you're a creator, I think working with brands is a fantastic opportunity. I'm biased because I'm on like on the brand side, obviously, but at the same time, if you're a creator right now, and you have a bunch of subscription options is how you monetize. It's like, it kind of stinks for your audience to have to like subscribe via sub stack and maybe subscribe to your podcast. But behind a Patrion, paywall get really messy and working with brands is a great way to not just simplify that for your audience, but most brands can help you grow your audience and accelerate your audience growth, which is, I think, as a creator, one of the core things you have to do to be successful. And so if you're working with brands, I think it's one, does this brand have the sheer same audience and values that I do?

1 (11m 31s):
Can I tell my authentic story in partnership with this brand? And so you need to know who they are and the audience they serve. The second thing is, what does this brand care about? What are they trying to achieve? And am I passionate about helping them achieve that? And do I think that my audience and the stories I'm telling can help them achieve that? If so, wow. Looks, we could probably have an amazing partnership. If not, maybe I should go and work and talk with somebody else. And the third thing here is how do I build a really authentic story for my own audience at the brands, a part of, and how do I bring the brand into my story instead of trying to, co-create some new story with the brand.

1 (12m 12s):
If you're a creator, you're doing a great job creating right now, you've got an audience, you have a community. How do you really bring the brand into the fold as another authentic participant in

0 (2s):
Fire Nation? I hope you're taking notes. I hope you're hitting the rewind button a couple of times here to go back through these things because listen, KIPP is preaching to the choir here, and this is the exact process that we went through.

0 (12m 30s):
And we just started this month, by the way, may of 20, 21, a two year partnership that could turn into even more than that, we went through this process, like I had to ask myself, like, what does HubSpot care about? Am I passionate about this? And I really went through this process of thinking and having great conversations with KIPP's team and saying, yes, like this is exactly what I created entrepreneurs on fire for to hear amazing stories from entrepreneurs about the strategies, the tactics, the inbound marketing, the content marketing that works. And these are all the things that HubSpot believes in and have built their massive brands over. And then I had to ask myself, how can I bring the HubSpot brand into my authentic story?

0 (13m 11s):
Like, how does that work and how is that going to look not just one month from now, but you know, potentially one year from now. And these are all conversations that you as a creator Fire Nation, if you're on that creator side, have to think about when you're going to potentially be partnering in, joining up with a big brands, such as a HubSpot. And so let's get specific about HubSpot for a secretary cap. We are obviously seeing that you guys are committed to the process of partnering with the right creators. I mean, you have six amazing podcasts in your podcast network. You're doing other things outside of the podcast space and other audio spaces and other just overall spaces out there. So how are you specifically approaching this topic that we're talking about right now

1 (13m 55s):
On the HubSpot side of things? We have like a VR, we have a very clear mission. We want to be the number one CRM platform for scaling companies, but like, I'm not going to bore the world with boring product marketing. What I want to do is educate and inspire the next generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs. That's what I want to do. That is what I wake up every day in the morning trying to do. And so there's so much work that we're basically trying to do, but it's all centered around that core principle. So the work we're doing, the podcast network for you, for example, that's great. All the free products that we offer, folks, free CRM, all of that. That's great. But at the same time, we're, we are have an amazing YouTube channel that is growing like a weed. We are doing social audio.

1 (14m 36s):
We are, we are investing in, doubling down on our blogs and Academy certifications. Education is helping match people and helping them find jobs out there in the world, in the world of sales and marketing customer success. And so what we're fundamentally trying to do is educate, and, and I could not be more excited John, to be working with you and a whole host of amazing creators to just help shape the next world, a next generation of entrepreneurs. I heard some data recently that in a conversation with Google, that it is likely that the first half of 2020, we will see more business creation than ever before. More new businesses will be created than ever before. There's never been a better time to start a business and to be a creator.

1 (15m 17s):
And we had HubSpot and really just want to help empower the next generation and help educate and help inspire them.

0 (15m 23s):
You see how clear HubSpot's mission is and their values and their goals are Fire Nation. They want to empower entrepreneurs. They want to empower small business owners to make this world a better place to create real impact. So Kipp, this has been a fantastic chat. I want to really circle back and double down on the one key takeaway that you really feel like Fire Nation needs to walk away with with all these value bombs dropped. What's the one thing you want to make sure we really get from today's chat.

1 (15m 52s):
The thing I really want everybody to understand is that we are moving into a new way to market where creators and be people who have the strongest voice and perspective on a market matter so so much. And if you're a business or you're an entrepreneur, aligning yourself with the best creators in your market, to tell your story and to tell them the most impactful story to the market alongside them is going to be how you change the trajectory of your business

0 (2s):
Fire Nation. How can you not get excited about a brand that cares so much about these specific things?

0 (16m 23s):
Don't you want to be a part of that? I mean, you know that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with KB in JLD today. So Fire Nation keep up that heat. And if you head over to EOFire.com and type Kip, KIPP in the search bar, the show notes page will pop up with everything we talked about. These are the best shows in the biz, timestamps links galore. Please check out the HubSpot podcast network with great podcasts like yours, truly being boss, business infrastructure, my first million and others definitely check that out. Cause you love listening to podcasts, Fire Nation. These are other hand selected amazing podcast and the HubSpot Podcast Network.

0 (17m 7s):
And of course, what are you using for CRM Fire Nation? Do they care as much as HubSpot obviously cares about you and your creating experience? Think about it and just check out HubSpot.com. So Kipp, thank you so much for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today, for that we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side.

1 (17m 29s):
Thank you so much, John. Thanks Fire Nation. Thanks for having me. Hey,

0 (17m 32s):
Today's value bomb. Content was brought to you by KIPP and successful entrepreneurs. They accomplish big goals, which is why I created the freedom journal to guide you Fire Nation in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days, and we're talking, step-by-step visit TheFreedomJournal.com use promo code podcast for a $15. And thank you for listening to my podcast and I will catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. The HubSpot podcast network is the audio destination for business professionals who seek the best education and inspiration on how to grow a business. Whether you're looking for marketing sales, service, or operational guidance, the HubSpot podcast network hosts have your back, listen, learn and grow with the HubSpot Podcast Network at HubSpot.com/podcastnetwork.