HubSpot Inbound 2013, Day 3

Hi again, from HubSpot’s Inbound ’13 – Day 3! While my conference cohorts celebrate around the corner with One Republic, I come to you from the comfort of my Newbury Street hotel room. I just got off the phone with my son and learned a kid gave him Red Hots at camp today, and he liked them. My son is the pickiest eater in the world, so this is thrilling to me: I eat peperoncinis out of the jar, for breakfast.

So back to my great day at Inbound! The morning started with this moving video by Charity: Water, and I urge anyone reading this blog to please consider donating to their cause.

http://youtu.be/6bH7SPNdSt4&rel=0

Immediately following that tear-jerking call to action, the great Arianna Huffington took the stage for her keynote speech. She was funny, whip-smart, and urged us to get more sleep, put down the devices, recharge, and forge meaningful relationships. This is a message that resonates throughout the talks I’ve seen this week, and an ironic one for a bunch of hyper-connected, over-achieving marketers. But I’m pretty sure we all get it. For myself, I’m going to take advice from one of her anecdotes, and stop telling my son to “hurry up” … it’s time to strike that phrase from our home.

Next up was a day-long series of “Bold Talks” in Ballroom A. This is a very electric TED-style environment, with industry thought leaders giving the talks of their lives in 10-15 minutes. Here are my 3 favorites of the day:

Julien Smith – Breather.com
This guy is high energy, controversial, and describes himself as someone who has been successful by being “first” at everything he has done. He said in order to be first, we need to get out of the clutter, that social media is dead as a profitability tool, and don’t look at what could happen next, but what must happen, when trying to predict trends. Examples: distributed authorship (medium.com); the sharing economy; wearable computers (clothing, medicine, etc.); 3D printing; gaming (bigger than the movie industry right now!); smart phones as wallets and ID (uber). He said we need to look at the hobbyists of the world because they are the ones who are creating the future. In their basements.

Erika Napoletano
Erika is having a breakdown, literally, and she had the foul-mouthed bravery to share it with us on stage today. She explained that she had an entirely different talk planned for this week, but at the last minute changed it to “The Not-So-Fine Art of Losing Your Shit.” Because she found herself in a frame of mind many of us have, in which she couldn’t take it anymore — she didn’t want to get on another plane to do another speech to tell more people how to whip themselves into shape and live their dreams.

She didn’t want to write anymore articles for Forbes, or be called up by magazines as a “marketing expert.” She said she’s tired of it and doesn’t want to do it anymore. I can’t think of anything more vulnerable or wonderful. She brought the house down and had a line of people waiting to give her hugs. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Beth Dunn – UX Writer & Editor at HubSpot
I’ve been familiar with Beth for a long time because I see her comments on the “ideas” section of the HubSpot site. I just didn’t know she was so funny and happy about writing! Her talk was entitled “How to be a Writing God,” and the room was packed. She explained that ten years ago she was an unemployable writer, and that the key to becoming better at anything is to make yourself do it every day. This is advice we’ve heard before (“practice, practice, practice”), but I’ve been hearing it more and more lately when it comes to writing. Beth summed it up perfectly: “write [like crap if you have to] every day — keep the streak alive.”