Dr. Jeremy Weisz 18:23
You have an interesting story regarding HubSpot in a conference. Can you talk about sometimes what you do to get amazing guests on your podcast. That’s why this is one of my favorite stories.
Noa Eshed 18:39
Yeah. Of course. So when we started the podcast, we did research for like a year, and we were aiming really high for the podcast and the quality of it. Hey, because, you know, we have to walk the talk. And the quality just has to be good enough.
And because this was a fascinating journey for us. And the purpose of the podcast is to interview some of the world’s top performers so that we’re able to bridge a gap between what’s perceived as success in the media and on social media and real life. And we wanted to show that at the end of the day, it’s all human beings that some are just overcoming challenges because there’s always going to be challenges. And some are deciding, you know, to not try. And we wanted to encourage people to tap into their own superpowers, quote unquote, and just get in the arena.
So I was — the agency was a HubSpot partner agency and I was at a conference, a partner conference in Ireland. And Brian Halligan, the co-founder CEO at the time of HubSpot, was speaking on stage. And I decided I want to go up to him and invite him to be the first guest on the podcast. And, you know, people at the table were telling me, listen, you’re delirious. There’s no way he’s going to be like, the podcast doesn’t even exist.
And this is like a mega speaker. Keynotes, whatever. He’s not going to say yes. And I just came up to him as soon as he got off the stage and I said, hi, I’m not from Israel. I’m a partner agency.
I think I said, we also won the Impact Awards, which is an award that we won of HubSpot a while before. And I said, I’m starting a podcast and I’d love for you to be a guest. And he said, yes. And even when he did, I wasn’t sure it’s going to happen until it did. He told me he gave me an email to reach out to.
So I was writing it and I was really anxious. I was refreshing, like my email, to see what’s going to happen. And it ended up happening and it was fantastic. And of course, it also opened up the road for other guests that his caliber. So that made things easier.
But still of course nothing is smooth sailing as we say in the podcast. So the tactic at the first years of the podcast was really to actually go to keynote speakers at the end of their talk, you know, before they even take off the mic, still, like they’re still pumped from their talk.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 20:59
And just.
Noa Eshed 21:00
And just present myself and really like surprisingly, it was always a surprise. I have to be honest, that they never said no. Like they always said. Yeah, sure, we’ll be a guest. Like the only two people that said no to me that I can recall is what’s his name?
Gary Goldman, the comedian that I heard on the James Altucher show. I saw him randomly on the street in New York, and I just came up to him and I asked him if he maybe wants to go on my podcast. And he told me, no, I don’t do podcasts, which I knew wasn’t true because I learned of him through the James Altucher Show. And then there was Michael Che from Saturday Night Live. I was at a stand-up show of his. He came up on an improv night or something, and I came up to him right after his show, and I think he was quite drunk.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 21:50
And I said, you thought you had a better chance. So I came.
Noa Eshed 21:54
Up to him and I said, do you maybe want to go on my podcast? And he said, no, but I’ll listen to your podcast. So I told him, we both know you won’t, but thanks. And he looked at me like, okay. I think he thought he thought it was rude.
And we parted ways. But those are the two that I can remember. And I got to tell you, I believe in a sense it was my mindset coming out to them because I didn’t feel that they’re really the target, the target people to interview in the first place. So I wasn’t believing it myself. When you sell something that you believe in, you convey some magic that you don’t when you don’t.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 22:30
Yeah, I love that. And that’s why you call it bold digital. You’re just bold. You’ll go up and that’s I love, you know, feeding off the adrenaline. They have that high from the talk.
And it is bold, you know, from the, the, you know, HubSpot piece because it was your first episode, even if it wasn’t your first episode, it was bold, but that he was your first episode. I guess you don’t have much luck with comedians, but like you said, it’s not in your target audience. I remember I did have I don’t know if you know, Ellen Gold, his comedy, but I had him on. He maybe would say yes to you, but he was, he was fantastic. But who are some of your favorite guests that over the years that you’ve had on the show?
Noa Eshed 23:15
That is such a difficult question. I can see one on the screen right now, actually, which was fascinating. Henry, the CEO, the former deputy assistant to President Obama. That’s also surreal to me that I get all these PR people to reach out to me and pitch guests that are, you know, people like the former deputy assistant to President Obama. And it’s just really fascinating to me to speak to those people who really climbed the heights that are not traditional in any sense.
I love it when people, you know, think out of the box and sort of create realities and take part in things that are, you know, like the Obama, I’ll call it, movement became so huge. So it’s like really moving the needle at a, at a global scale. So I love that there was also this Brian Halligan. Obviously that was an episode I’ll never forget. There’s Anastasia Stefanova.
She’s a space journalist and a human test subject on a mars mission, which we’ll probably hear of again these days with the election and Elon Musk. But that’s also fascinating. Like a person who’s been willing to be a human test subject. That’s insane to me. And there was one episode that touched me that stayed with me is Andy Ram.
He was, I think, number one in tennis. I think he, he, I think that’s the title. I can’t remember what year. And I just was blown away by his optimism. So it was we spoke quite early when the war broke out here, and we even had to pause the recording because we had rockets fired at us and we had to take shelter.
And the man was so positive. It was just like a breath of fresh air to speak to him. Like, I remember getting empowered by talking to him because he just he was saying like the glass. If people tell him that the glass is half empty, he says, just get a bigger glass.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 25:14
Yeah. I’m sure during those times it’s especially important to hear words of optimism as well.
Noa Eshed 25:22
Yeah, like from somebody in the trenches with you. So it’s. I.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 25:25
Yeah I see one. Hello Foles. How was that one.
Noa Eshed 25:30
He’s great. He is really great. He’s like Israel’s unofficial tech ambassador. It’s packed with value. He’s all about like also tech hacks which was impressive.
He taught me how to get on your iPhone to get all these shortcuts. So if you put like two words then that fills up to a full word. Saves a lot of time. He’s a very smart man.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 25:54
Talk about you know. No, we talked about kind of the evolution of the niche for a second. And you are very clear about your ideal client, which is interesting. It’s not only just tech. You do serve startups, but also they have to be funded startups.
So it’s not you know what I mean? So that they can actually grow right with, with, you know, you need funds to grow obviously. Talk about from the services side. Right. It sounded like you went through a journey on that side from like content to PPC, talk about the services journey a bit.
Noa Eshed 26:29
So it was really about honing it and realizing that if, for example, a tech startup spends less money on ads, then they can use that money for actions that can have more impact. But then also realizing that if you take the content that you create and you can amplify it, and then you can get more relevant people to see the content. So there was always like a process of honing the services from what seems to work best. And it’s not that straightforward because, you know, you keep on reading and educating yourself and learning and seeing what works. And it’s actually, I’ll say this, something that’s not PC, but it’s sometimes also misleading because, for example, HubSpot, which, you know, I’m a fan of, of HubSpot, but they were preaching and educating that pretty much if you write the content and you put it out there, then Google, you’re going to you’re going to rank on search engines as if as if SEO is pretty much just going to happen.
If you click a few buttons, use your interface, optimize a bit for on site, which means basically the technicalities of the website page. Maybe create pillar content meaning to create one piece of content and then content supporting it. And you start because it seems so convincing. And with time you realize it’s just not as straightforward because there’s more elements to consider. And life really isn’t as simple as what perhaps the HubSpot Academy want you to think.
I remember I actually speak on stage at a partner day of HubSpot, and they invited me to talk about our agency and our experience. And I remember telling the new agencies there that HubSpot will have you think that it’s enough to do that. But, but, but it seems that Google didn’t take the HubSpot Academy. So. So you just hit reality and then you and then you self-correct.
But I think it’s always about self-correcting. I think in marketing you can’t afford to be static and you can’t afford to put honestly anything on autopilot. I think once you do, it’s a matter of time before things decline. So that’s pretty much the evolution of always understanding what’s the best value you can bring, but from the perspective of what you do, but from a perspective also of the industry of competition, it’s there’s never a one-size-fits-all solution. And I believe that matters because I’ll tell you this, I was thinking that such an agency is something that is so scalable because you can bring, you know, you can build pods and you can teach people what to do and almost put it on autopilot.
And I realized that that’s not what I’m selling. I realize I’m saying a boutique agency where my knowledge is taking the central stage, and that the idea here is to now see how to bring the best value. Through my experience and together with my team, to see how we can create the best presence for our clients. But that was part of the evolution of the services. To really understand that you can’t. I believe you can’t scale a boutique to levels of automated services.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 29:50
I’d love to hear you know about some of your mentors in business and what you’ve learned from them. And it could be, you know, obviously personal mentors, but it could be also distant mentors, right? I know James Altucher has influenced you and other people, but both categories maybe start with James Altucher and what you learned from him.
Noa Eshed 30:11
Great. That’s really the first name that came to my mind because I listened to his podcast and I also read his book Choose Yourself. And I realized that I really believe in what he’s preaching, that you need to remove the gatekeepers in your life and just move forward. So I think that it’s true that you don’t need to start at the end of the line and then climb up some sort of ladder that either society creates or a specific company. And you know what sometimes also is in our head.
So I think that the largest thing that I learned from him is to remove the gatekeepers. And wherever you can be, the media, you know, so don’t try, you know, instead of trying to get accepted, create the platform. Like for example, with our podcast, we just made it happen and then things fall into place, right? So that’s what I learned from James Altucher. Wow.
I listened to a lot of podcasts and I read a lot of books. So for every book I take something. And also in my iPhone notes, I actually write down everything that I want to take away from what I’ve read. But books like such as The Lean Startup, I think that’s fantastic. I think it’s just so accurate.
You know, you have to have an MVP, you have to stay thin and you have to check that you’re actually there’s a product market fit that you’re not running ahead and that there’s actually people on the other end who are going to buy. And you have to keep it lean. So that’s another one that jumps to mind. There’s also Chase Jarvis. I’m a huge fan of creativity, so I love listening to conversations with people who are tapping into their element and are ready to be brave and be creative, and I think we can learn so much because at the end of the day, we’re all unique, and if we tap into that, then magic happens.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 32:10
Yeah. What are your favourite books you have? No, I don’t know if you listen on audible or you read, but yeah. What are some of your other favorites?
Noa Eshed 32:16
I got to tell you. Like, I never thought I would be able to listen to a book. It seemed to me like you sort of get lost in the audio. And for years I’ve been listening to books and I’m completely hooked. And I love this is probably not going to be surprising, but Bold by Peter Diamandis, the futurist.
So that’s also a book that made a huge impact on me again, around, you know, moving the needle, making an impact, identifying problems, seeing how you can overcome challenges. I love Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 32:54
What about Ronan?
Noa Eshed 32:56
What?
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 32:57
Your co-host?
Noa Eshed 32:59
No, I know, but how.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 32:59
How did you meet him and talk about some lessons from there?
Noa Eshed 33:04
Sure, yeah. Ronan is a very good friend of mine. We’ve been co-hosting the podcast for years and I actually met him during my law internship. I started there to promote parties, so I was actually promoting some of the parties in a bar that he owned. And we were also doing creative campaigns for that bar.
So we got to know each other and we became friends. And then years after, we were also collaborating in business projects and then we started doing the project. And Ronan — I think Ronan is like a creative genius. So you have to just talk to him to see how he thinks differently. And he’s always approaching things in a very creative way, and he always has this little bit of wisdom to inject into our conversation.
And nothing is ever normative there. It’s always unique. And, and, and when you listen, you really feel that he’s onto something. So I’m very lucky to have him as a partner.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 34:07
Now I want to talk about some stories, some success stories because so people can understand a little bit more about what you do. And maybe we can start with business blocks of course.
Noa Eshed 34:23
So Business Blocks is a company that we helped actually sell a few years ago. And we won the HubSpot Impact Awards based on the work we did with them. And what we did with them is we helped them get to their target audience through a very targeted inbound marketing campaign. They were selling courses to small businesses. So we researched to understand exactly what the pain points are of those businesses.
And then we created this online survey for them, where they actually got a sort of course, through, through what we created, where the online businesses had to sort of filter answers to what they, where they stand with respect to their marketing and finances and all these other aspects of their business. And then they got a very detailed response with tips on what they can improve, and the idea was to sell the business box courses and that was a huge success. So many, many customers converted through that campaign. I will say it’s less complex than a very heavy B2B campaign. There wasn’t the decision-making process was not as long as a complex B2B tech, but that was a huge success. And they got sold and we got and we won the Impact Awards based on it.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 35:42
But I’m looking at it and people can check this out alongside me on Bold Digital, you can check out some of the resources. There’s a case studies page that kind of goes through some of these things. What was interesting about the business blocks, one is talk about the partner webinar side. You have some really big companies here. What do you — what are your thoughts on partner webinars?
Noa Eshed 36:04
Oh, I think that’s a great way to get in front of more relevant audiences. So. If you map out your ICP, your ideal customer profile, and then you realize what tools they use and where they hang out for information and in general, what other companies may be complete what you offer and you’re able to collaborate with those companies, then you can really grow your reach to targeted audiences. And that’s what happened with business blocks. So they were doing partner webinars with companies such as GoDaddy.
That obviously is relevant to small businesses and with Square and with Zenefits and Nerdwallets. And through that, they were able to expand their reach and generate more leads. And of course it’s a co-webinar. So it helps the other company. But typically if you do it with a larger company then it’s more the value is more for you.
But those companies the value that they get is that they offer. Once you offer quality content, then everybody wins. You know, like they maybe don’t get It leads, but they get value for the audiences, which is what companies that get business actually want to do.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 37:18
How hard is it to get in front of a GoDaddy or a Cabbage or Zenefits to do a partner webinar? You mean, I don’t know if they started with a huge list, right? So they can kind of business blocks-wise, could say, listen, we have this huge list. How do you get in with some of these companies or what’s the approach?
Noa Eshed 37:36
I think it’s like the approach for PR with the end of the day, you have to come to approach them, get grab their attention and then offer something that stands out. But as with a lot of things in business, it’s also about personal connections. So I honestly think that it’s about first maximizing those. Same with journalists, same with almost everything. It’s like with also, no matter how much value I bring to companies, word of mouth will always prevail.
So that’s the case here too. So if you know somebody at that company or you know somebody that can introduce you, that’s going to work much better than if you email the relevant POC and get a sequence on it.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 38:16
Noa, I want to be the first one to thank you. This has been fantastic hearing your journey, your lessons. I want to encourage people to check out BoldDigital.Com. To learn more, you can check out the podcast RealLifeSuperpowers.com and obviously any of the podcast channels. And just thank you so much. It’s been amazing keeping in touch with you and connecting with you over the years.
Noa Eshed 38:41
So thank you so much for the stage and for keeping in touch all these years.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 38:46
Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Noa.
