Why We Completely Rebuilt Endless Customers Live for 2026 [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 172]

This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy. 

[00:00:00] Bob Ruffolo: The agenda for

[00:00:00] Bob Ruffolo: Endless Customers Live happening in Hartford

[00:00:02] Bob Ruffolo: October 5th through 7th just dropped, and we're excited to

[00:00:05] Bob Ruffolo: finally share what we

[00:00:06] Bob Ruffolo: have planned Because if you wanna become the most known, trusted, and recommended company in your market in the age of AI,

[00:00:12] Bob Ruffolo: this is the event

[00:00:14] Bob Ruffolo: we've built for you In this episode, Stephanie and I are going to break down

[00:00:16] Bob Ruffolo: exactly what you'll learn and experience

[00:00:18] Bob Ruffolo: at Endless Customers Live, including how to become the company AI recommends and how to optimize your entire funnel so you can win more customers

[00:00:26] Bob Ruffolo: We'll walk you through the agenda, the sessions we're most

[00:00:29] Bob Ruffolo: excited about,

[00:00:30] Bob Ruffolo: and what

[00:00:30] Bob Ruffolo: we want every

[00:00:31] Bob Ruffolo: attendee to be able to take back and put in action immediately.

[00:00:35] Bob Ruffolo: Let's get into it ​

[00:01:20] Bob Ruffolo: And welcome back to the Endless Customers Podcast. We are here with Stephanie Baiocchi. Hi, Stephanie. How are we, how are we doing today?

[00:01:29] Stephanie Baiocchi: Good. Happy to be back 

[00:01:31] Bob Ruffolo: Stephanie is on our marketing team. She's our Director of Marketing and Events. And Stephanie, before we even jump into anything, how are you feeling?

[00:01:40] Stephanie Baiocchi: Thanks for asking. I'm feeling all right. For those of you who don't know, I'm pregnant. Um, I actually due in January, so I'll, uh... Don't worry, I'll still be there at October, the big event we're about to talk about. And I am getting over a cold, so forgive the sniffliness, but I'm feeling good 

[00:01:54] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah, Stephanie had a little bit of a rough week this week, but so glad that you still came on for the episode, so thank you

[00:01:59] Stephanie Baiocchi: I'm, I'm [00:02:00] so excited to talk about this. I always am, so wouldn't miss it 

[00:02:03] Bob Ruffolo: Awesome. And, um, also, um, I also wanna thank you For getting pregnant in between conferences so that way you're back in time for Hartford as well, or, uh, uh, for Chicago again in, in the, in the 

[00:02:16] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah. See, I'm, I slipped that right in between. My pleasure, you know. I'll be out January 1st to April 1st. I'll see y'all April 5th in Chicago. 

[00:02:23] Bob Ruffolo: Awesome. Well, you know, Stephanie, 

[00:02:26] Bob Ruffolo: um, y- I mean, we've done, what? 13 events, 14 events together now up until this

[00:02:33] Stephanie Baiocchi: lost track 

[00:02:34] Bob Ruffolo: Um, and I love working with you on all these. Um, and, and we always, after every event, we retro and we say, "Okay, what went well? 

[00:02:42] Bob Ruffolo: What could, could have been better?" I thought

[00:02:45] Bob Ruffolo: we it 

[00:02:45] Stephanie Baiocchi: during the event.

[00:02:47] Bob Ruffolo: always happens during the event.

[00:02:48] Bob Ruffolo: If you ever look at Stephanie and I, we're always texting each other.

[00:02:51] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah, we're like, "That was good. Save that," or, "Do this differently." 

[00:02:53] Bob Ruffolo: exactly. Um, and, uh, you know, I thought the last event 

[00:02:58] Bob Ruffolo: we did in Chicago was a 

[00:02:59] Bob Ruffolo: very [00:03:00] good one. Um, I think there were some things that we could have done better. Um, and I also realized that a lot has changed. We both realized that a lot has changed in the last six months

[00:03:10] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah, I mean, even just the Slacks we've sent each other, there's probably 10 to 20 of, "Oh, for live we gotta change this. Oh, for live we gotta remember this." 

[00:03:18] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And, um, and we've done a, a, really advanced the material of Endless Customers in, in just the last six months as well. Um, if you remember, we-- a few weeks ago, we did the AI visibility study. We announced that here on the podcast. Brian came on. We talked about, um, what's working today, 

[00:03:37] Bob Ruffolo: what's not.

[00:03:38] Bob Ruffolo: But we don't just want AI visibility, we want more customers, although AI "

[00:03:41] Bob Ruffolo: visibility is a function of that. Um, our coaches are seeing different things working today than maybe even worked a year or two ago, so we've adjusted a lot of our recommendations in just a short period of time. Um, so Stephanie, you and I kind of went through a process of saying, "Okay, let's look at this event," and it needs to be [00:04:00] very different than any o-other event we've ever done in the past.

[00:04:02] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah, I think this is the most we've overhauled event content and the agenda since probably COVID 

[00:04:09] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. Because before COVID, it was always, I mean, there was some, like They Ask You Answer blocks, but then we had a lot of guest speakers

[00:04:18] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah. And you know, it's not to say that the content we just did in Chicago was wrong in any way either. We're just building on it and expanding on it, and we know that there's more that has to be focused on now than just what we were able to focus on last time 

[00:04:31] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah. Yeah. Um, you're exactly right. Um, and, uh, you know, this is-- for anyone that thinks that this will be another review of the, the fundamentals, which they will be there. 

[00:04:44] Bob Ruffolo: We've, we've still made sure 

[00:04:45] Bob Ruffolo: that those, uh, that are coming to the event that have never 

[00:04:47] Bob Ruffolo: done Endless Customers before still have that foundational piece, and there are still 

[00:04:51] Bob Ruffolo: elements that we have to reiterate with everybody. But a lot of that got moved to workshops, 

[00:04:57] Bob Ruffolo: and we're jumping right in with some new stuff this [00:05:00] time, and, and the flow is still gonna, going to be there. It still will flow

[00:05:03] Stephanie Baiocchi: for, for people who've maybe never been before, should we talk about, like, what the event, kind of how it flows? By all means, Stephanie, jump right into that

[00:05:10] Stephanie Baiocchi: I mean, I'm sure many of you listening have probably been to one of the events, but if you haven't, just an overview of Endless Customers Live in general, it's a three-day event that starts in the afternoon on Monday, and it goes from about 1:00 in the afternoon to dinnertime, and then we break, and we pick back up on Tuesday for a fully immersive day, like, from breakfast through after party, which is a lot of fun after a day of learning.

[00:05:33] Stephanie Baiocchi: There's always a theme. And then Wednesday we d- like dig in a little bit deeper on a few specific topics in the morning, and we wrap up around noon. And so we've kept that flow, and we've kept a lot of main stage content where you're seated at round tables, which is really important to us in the nature of this event We want you to be there working together, either with your team or with people you meet at the event, with people in an industry like yours or maybe completely different from you. You get to work together in these [00:06:00] round tables in this room all at once, bringing everyone along on the journey together.

[00:06:04] Stephanie Baiocchi: But then we do have a couple of breakout options for your specific industry or experience level or role 

[00:06:10] Bob Ruffolo: that was a beautiful overview. That was

[00:06:11] Stephanie Baiocchi: Hey, thanks. 

[00:06:12] Bob Ruffolo: It's like you've done these events 

[00:06:13] Bob Ruffolo: before. 

[00:06:14] Stephanie Baiocchi: I know

[00:06:15] Bob Ruffolo: Good. So, you know, without any further ado, why don't we just talk through, 

[00:06:19] Bob Ruffolo: um, the the, the, the new, um, vision bringing for the 

[00:06:24] Bob Ruffolo: event and, and how things are gonna change. If you were in Chicago or Hartford last year, what will be 

[00:06:29] Bob Ruffolo: very different this time? 

[00:06:31] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah

[00:06:31] Stephanie Baiocchi: let's do it. Um, do you wanna start with kind of your overall philosophy on this content now? 

[00:06:37] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah. Well, I think, you know, having done the AI visibility study, seeing what's working today s- uh, having lots of conversations even at the last event, um, companies that were doing really, really well, companies that may have been doing a lot of it but still struggling, what were they missing? And, um, we are experimenting right now and, and really we're, we're seeing a lot of, uh, uh, great, [00:07:00] 

[00:07:00] Bob Ruffolo: um, just reception from the audience, but also in, in practice these things are, are better things to be focusing on.

[00:07:08] Bob Ruffolo: Uh, and they kind of go in order, and what we're calling them is the 10 factors of becoming a known, trusted, and recommended company. So 10 factors of a known, trusted, and recommended company. Um, and the agenda is now following these 10 factors. So we've done the pillars in the past. We've gone deep into the big five, but-- and now that's, that's part of the factors, but we're gonna be looking at everything totally differently.

[00:07:31] Bob Ruffolo: Um, so, so that is really the high level of it, and these are really the top things that if you strengthen these 10 out of 10, um, you will likely become the most known, trusted, and recommended company in your market in the eyes of AI and in the eyes of buyers

[00:07:47] Stephanie Baiocchi: Exactly. And I think when we look at these 10 factors, you'll see we've kind of flipped things a little bit in the way that we need to work on our business. Before, we said you create your business, then you create all this content, and then you need to get it recommended by [00:08:00] AI, and then we kind of stopped there.

[00:08:02] Stephanie Baiocchi: But that's actually only half the story. Once you get recommended, you still have to capture and convert this potential buyer. And so we're stepping back with the 10 disciplines and saying, "Okay, are we clearly defining these points in your business that make people actually convert and buy from you? How do they know that they're a good fit?

[00:08:20] Stephanie Baiocchi: How do they know that you're the best choice for them once you've been recommended to them?" And we're making sure that's taken care of in addition to being recommended, so that you can recommend, be recommended and convert. 

[00:08:31] Bob Ruffolo: All right, so before we go into the agenda, Stephanie, why don't we go through these 10 factors and, and make sure we introduce these to everybody, and then we'll, we'll see how the, um, entire conference will come together.

[00:08:41] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah. Perfect 

[00:08:42] Bob Ruffolo: All right, so first, um, you have to have a, a great business with a strong promise. Um, what we mean by that 

[00:08:47] Bob Ruffolo: is, uh, we've been talking about this a lot on the 

[00:08:50] Bob Ruffolo: podcast, is that it's much harder to do marketing if you don't have a fundamentally sound business. Um, when we also talk about that is do you have a real reason [00:09:00] for someone to either choose you over the competition or switch from their current vendor over to you?

[00:09:07] Bob Ruffolo: Um, and a lot of businesses, that's, like, a business strategic decision, and we've learned a lot about things that we could be doing, and going back to Endless Customers principles, which is doing things in your business that others are not willing to do. Do we have enough of that so that customers will choose you over other options?

[00:09:26] Bob Ruffolo: Uh, and that is a new factor that we're spending more time working with clients on. Uh, it has to be a fundamental part of, of everything because even if you do everything else right, if you still don't have that compelling reason for someone to choose you, you're not going to win. So that's factor number one.

[00:09:41] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah, that's great. And communicating those factors is part of the training we'll do at Endless Customers Live. It... You might already have something like this in your business, but are you saying it on your website, in your content for buyers and AI? 

[00:09:53] Bob Ruffolo: Exactly. Exactly. Now, number two, and this is the leading thing that came from our AI visibility study. [00:10:00] Uh, the number one, um, uh, thing that AI puts the most weight on when it recommends a company or not is being clear 

[00:10:08] Bob Ruffolo: on exactly what you do, who you're a fit for, and who you're not a fit for. 

[00:10:13] Bob Ruffolo: So that 

[00:10:13] Bob Ruffolo: is factor number two.

[00:10:15] Bob Ruffolo: Now, we've taught this a lot 

[00:10:16] Bob Ruffolo: about, you know, what, uh, you know, having on your website who you're a fit for and who you're not. We're gonna take this to a whole nother level at the event because, um, there's so much more we're learning in terms of how you should be doing service areas if you're a local business and how you show up in, in results for every town or every county or every area that you're in.

[00:10:34] Bob Ruffolo: Um, so how we take this from, like, where most businesses are at a four and bring it to an 11

[00:10:39] Stephanie Baiocchi: ah, crank it to 11

[00:10:42] Bob Ruffolo: Number three, um, reviews. We all know how important reviews are. I don't think we've really ever fully went in depth on how to create a review generation operation inside your business. Um, we've learned a lot from, especially on the podcast, we've seen what, what Aaron's been doing at, at Eco Plumbing and others.

[00:10:58] Bob Ruffolo: So, um, we're [00:11:00] gonna go really deep into how do you build a review generation function for your business and for different types of 

[00:11:05] Bob Ruffolo: businesses as well 

[00:11:06] Stephanie Baiocchi: Definitely. I'm excited about that one. I know we've got some really cool examples to share of people doing this well 

[00:11:13] Bob Ruffolo: Number four, um, uh, the AI visibility study taught us the importance of not just having customer proof, but very specific and timely customer proof on your website. These are testimonials, these are reviews, these are, um, uh, case studies. Uh, we saw from the AI visibility study that would recommend 

[00:11:35] Bob Ruffolo: potential companies because you ha-- the, the-- another company, they had a case study on their website that looked just like you.

[00:11:43] Bob Ruffolo: So the more case studies you have that look like your potential customers, the more likely AI will recommend you. So we're gonna teach you exactly how to bring that onto your website

[00:11:51] Stephanie Baiocchi: That one was like the most mind-blowing to me. Seeing that, it's like, how did we not think of this? 

[00:11:56] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah. And we've, um, we've, we've always taught customer journey videos, [00:12:00] and that is certainly part of it, and that really is a case study video. 

[00:12:03] Stephanie Baiocchi: Of course 

[00:12:04] Bob Ruffolo: but, you know, how do we do this so AI can read it and

[00:12:07] Stephanie Baiocchi: Exactly. That's the, the key 

[00:12:09] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah. Number five, and we know this one, pricing transparency with explanation and options.

[00:12:15] Bob Ruffolo: Um, and this is gonna be talking about, you know, 

[00:12:18] Bob Ruffolo: both, um, the perfect pricing 

[00:12:19] Bob Ruffolo: page at a high level, um, but also how are we doing this in a way, again, so AI will understand it and recommend it. And we found from the AI visibility study, although it doesn't necessarily put a lot of weight to companies, um, that do pricing transparency, is the top number two factor that gets a company eliminated from a recommendation is when they don't address pricing.

[00:12:40] Bob Ruffolo: So we're gonna talk about that All right, number six, um, people positioned as trusted and credible experts. So this is-- we're gonna go over EEAT at the deepest level, um, because as we think about everything here is, um, your company is an, is an entity. Your products and [00:13:00] services are entities that could all be reviewed, could be get, you know, feedback online, could be recommended.

[00:13:05] Bob Ruffolo: Um, but your people hold a lot of weight in terms of strengthening the business entity and the entities of your products and services and their entities and theirselves, themselves. They need trust signals pointed to them. Um, so how do you do that at the highest level? Because if you look at AI recommendations, often when they're recommending a company, they're also recommending the people in that company as, as a reason why they chose them

[00:13:28] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah. And we're gonna drink every time Bob says entity. I'm just kidding. Entity, entity, entity. That's three. But you can not

[00:13:36] Stephanie Baiocchi: I can't drink, I'm pregnant. I'm gonna miss our bourbon nights.

[00:13:40] Stephanie Baiocchi: I know. Maybe we'll do Chicago, we'll do another bourbon tasting, uh, invite only. It's really fun, guys 

[00:13:46] Bob Ruffolo: All right. Well, if you heard this on the podcast, send me an email and be like, "Hey, I want in on your bourbon night,"

[00:13:51] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah, we'll get planning. We'll get Ace on it 

[00:13:53] Bob Ruffolo: We'll see how people actually listen to these episodes. Uh, number seven, 

[00:13:57] Bob Ruffolo: uh, buyer education. That's They Ask You Answer. That [00:14:00] is, um, and actually for me, AI, uh, work we were doing, um, as it goes through its 

[00:14:06] Bob Ruffolo: process of recommending, it pretends like it's a buyer.

[00:14:09] Bob Ruffolo: It pretends there's questions that a typical buyer would ask, and it wants to know how you answer those questions. And that is a fa- a heavy 

[00:14:18] Bob Ruffolo: factor of weight in, in recommendation. So we've known They Ask You Answer is part of it. That's how it fits into the factors. Um, eight, nine, and ten real quick. Um, a, a website that's optimized for humans but also for AI has

[00:14:32] Stephanie Baiocchi: got some cool content for this one. I'm excited 

[00:14:35] Bob Ruffolo: As more and more of the research is being done by AI bots, how do you make sure that your website is readable and understandable and crawlable, um, for these AI bots and, and really shopping agents going through your website, coming back and, and, and either recommending you or not?

[00:14:54] Bob Ruffolo: Um, and by the way, it's a lot of it's the same as human, but it's not all exactly the same. So how do you do 

[00:14:59] Bob Ruffolo: both at the same [00:15:00] time? We're going to cover that in great detail. Um, nine, uh, is self-service and, um, and, and easy conversion options. So are we building a website, um, that is really easy to take the next step, whether whatever that next step is, until you're good and ready to talk to a human and then when you are, having those options to easily get scheduled and set up

[00:15:24] Stephanie Baiocchi: And if you've seen self-service content from us before at an event or online, this is deeper. This is beyond build the tool. It's really optimizing every step of the way to keep people engaged and move them forward in their journey 

[00:15:37] Bob Ruffolo: And then the last factor is speed to lead in a guided sales experience. Um, and, uh, speed to lead, we have a whole bunch of new stuff on speed to lead. So this is obviously not an AI visibility thing at all, but in a very competitive environment right now, how are you the one that's reaching back out 

[00:15:56] Bob Ruffolo: to the prospects first and creating the best experience for them?

[00:15:59] Bob Ruffolo: And of course, [00:16:00] educating them along the way, 

[00:16:01] Bob Ruffolo: guiding them so that they make the sale, which is assignment selling. Um, and we will, we will do that at a, at a very high level at the event. So those are the 10 factors. Um, you, you'll see here that some of you know some of these, um, and there's things we've never really talked about, uh, with the audience before.

[00:16:19] Bob Ruffolo: There's a lot of new stuff here. So Stephanie, I will turn it over to you now. Um, now we know we've based the agenda on these 10 factors, how-- what's the flow look like?

[00:16:30] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah. So I think something worth noting is these 10 factors don't necessarily happen in that order all the time. There's-- This is an order that we're working with, but it's not necessarily the order of the event. So we'll jump around, um, from the factors. But, uh, when we kick things off on Monday, we're really starting with looking at what it means to be known, trusted, and recommended. And so there are some of those factors in there. We're gonna look at how buying actually happens now. That's from AI recommendations and citations to actual agents [00:17:00] shopping on your behalf, like we talked about, and a real look at what that looks like in, you know, different industries and where content needs to live, um, throughout that.

[00:17:09] Stephanie Baiocchi: And then, uh, we will have a guided work section in each of these big segments on the main stage. We've always had a workbook at these events. If you've been to our events, we give you a workbook, you fill it in, you have something to take home and implement right away. We are finally moving that workbook digital, and it's gonna be really cool because, uh, we're gonna have prompts in there for your AI tool of choice, some recommended things you can paste into AI, and we'll have power strips on the table.

[00:17:35] Stephanie Baiocchi: We'll have plenty of Wi-Fi. So this is going, like, full working session. Um, and you won't lose your workbook, so yay. 

[00:17:42] Bob Ruffolo: And, and Stephanie, Stephanie, we're gonna have to get really good 

[00:17:44] Bob Ruffolo: at this. When my hand goes up, your laptop goes shut.

[00:17:49] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yes. If you see hands up, laptops close. That's what's gonna happen. Um, so we'll, we'll work on that together. We'll hold your hands. It's okay. We can close... We... I know we get excited. We really can [00:18:00] move on, but I know you'll want to because you don't wanna miss what's up next, and the next thing after the activity is always even more exciting. And so, uh, one of those is we're gonna dive into how to figure out, once AI tells you what to do, once you get a response from this prompt, or you find out whether or not you're being recommended, what do you do first and how do you do it really well? That's what we want you to take away from this event. It's not just a list of things to do and go home and go, "Oh my gosh, We have all this work to do." We're gonna help you prioritize it, figure out what to tackle first, and give you a map to get there. So then our second main stage segment is all about what Bob said, which is building a business worth recommending.

[00:18:36] Stephanie Baiocchi: That's clarifying who you are and aren't a good fit for, uh, building that competitive, great business. Why should someone choose you Why are you the best choice? and then we're gonna wrap up the first day, Monday, with the mechanics of credibility and being recommended, and that's where that EEAT piece comes in.

[00:18:54] Stephanie Baiocchi: I'm so excited we're gonna have our good friend David Meerman Scott is joining us back on stage. He's been at a few of our [00:19:00] events, and he's got some new content to share about humanity and credibility and using your human nature and human self as, uh, credible content, and it's gonna be really inspirational, but also you're gonna have stuff to do with it 

[00:19:13] Bob Ruffolo: Incredible. I'm so excited to have David 

[00:19:16] Bob Ruffolo: back. He brings

[00:19:17] Stephanie Baiocchi: Me too. So much energy. I mean, He's Like, he does those huge Tony Robbins events that are just massive. Like, he's, it's, he's really gonna get everybody excited 

[00:19:26] Bob Ruffolo: that was some feedback we had. We want to see some more energy brought onto day one and to day, day two, so that's why we, 

[00:19:31] Bob Ruffolo: we asked David to come and join us because he's, he's just, uh, 

[00:19:34] Bob Ruffolo: he'll get you there. He'll get you there.

[00:19:36] Stephanie Baiocchi: the best. And so then we also have our Endless Customers, uh, Trust and Transparency Awards that we'll be presenting throughout the event. If you haven't heard, it's, endlesscustomers.com. You click on Awards. The applications are actually closed for this event, but they'll be opening up for the next one soon.

[00:19:51] Stephanie Baiocchi: And, you know, awards are a great trust signal for AI, and so part of why we give them out is to help these businesses that are doing great things get seen by AI [00:20:00] for the work that they're doing. So we'll be giving, uh, one of our awards there, and it's not just about giving the award on stage. Each company that's selected to win one of these Awards. is going to be interviewed on stage, and we're going to show why they won, what they did, and what you can learn from what they're doing. 

[00:20:15] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah, and the, the first, first award winner is 

[00:20:17] Bob Ruffolo: who? I'm 

[00:20:19] Bob Ruffolo: just just kidding I'm just 

[00:20:21] Bob Ruffolo: kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. 

[00:20:22] Stephanie Baiocchi: You thought you could trick me. So, uh, then we'll have a little reception with some, some drinks, and we'll go our separate ways for dinner, and then we'll come together for a fully immersive day on day two. And I personally love this first session.

[00:20:39] Stephanie Baiocchi: I'm calling it Show the Receipts. It's ... Nobody takes your word for it anymore, even AI. You have to show the receipts. And so this is where we'll talk about those things like customer proof, operationalizing, uh, your review generation. we'll have another award and killer examples to show, uh, and then some guided work as well on how You can take the next step.

[00:20:58] Stephanie Baiocchi: Uh, and then we go into our first [00:21:00] round of breakouts, and this is where you'll see a clear divide in ...uh, you should know which breakout you wanna go to. I mean, send me a personal email if you don't know, but it should be pretty obvious. And so we're going to have one really about filling the gap of content and how to draft your content plan with agentic AI and build a calendar really based on the Big Five, which by now you should have or should start to read Endless Customers, and you should know what the Big Five is.

[00:21:26] Stephanie Baiocchi: We'll also have some breakouts r- Uh, for, like, we're gonna do one for home services specifically, where we do a deep dive, and a one about reviews. So there'll be lots to. do there. and then we will break for lunch, and we're actually gonna have a couple of breakouts over lunch as well. Now, these are totally optional.

[00:21:42] Stephanie Baiocchi: You can just grab your lunch and network and chat. But, uh, for instance, the one I'm most excited about, and Bob, I don't even think I've fully told you this one, uh, we, we are doing a, an AI readiness accelerator for HubSpot users. So if you already have a, HubSpot account, you have [00:22:00] credits, and if you're not using your credits, they disappear at the end of each month.

[00:22:04] Stephanie Baiocchi: They don't roll over. It's a use it or lose it situation. And so we wanna make sure that you're using those credits, and we're gonna give you a little accelerator course on how to do that. 

[00:22:12] Bob Ruffolo: Oh, that's 

[00:22:13] Bob Ruffolo: cool.

[00:22:14] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah. So if you're a HubSpot user, and you grab your lunch, grab your laptop, we're gonna get right to work.

[00:22:19] Bob Ruffolo: Amazing.

[00:22:20] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah. uh, So then after lunch, we'll come back, and we've got a couple more of those main stage segments. We've got, uh, what buyers and AI expect from education, the perfect pricing page, and even video. And don't worry, we are gonna talk about YouTube. I would not let an event go by without us talking about YouTube at some point,

[00:22:36] Bob Ruffolo: it's one

[00:22:36] Bob Ruffolo: of the biggest things that feeds 

[00:22:37] Bob Ruffolo: AI 

[00:22:38] Stephanie Baiocchi: Absolutely.

[00:22:39] Stephanie Baiocchi: And, you know, I think it can be seen as like, oh, we talked about YouTube last time. that. is the farthest from the truth. There's So much to unpack here, and we have a cool award as well in terms of video to share, and some cool short-form and long-term video content, uh, from those examples. And then our next round of breakouts, I think the breakout I'm most excited in this one, it's a toss-up, is [00:23:00] either self-service tool breakdowns, where it goes beyond just do you have a self-service tool on your website?

[00:23:05] Stephanie Baiocchi: But like I said earlier, we're looking at is it fully optimized? Is there education every step of the way? Are you really moving people forward with your tool? Um, and you'll get to audit your own tools if you have them or work on building one if you don't. Uh, we'll also have a breakout from our friends at Vidyard.

[00:23:21] Stephanie Baiocchi: We know sometimes it's hard to get your team on camera, and we're gonna help with that. And then, uh, our friend Ruan from Splash Dash is also gonna do a breakout all about AEO optimization. Yeah, that one's gonna be really good. And then back on the main stage, I told you it's a fully immersive, it's a long day, but it's, it's great.

[00:23:37] Stephanie Baiocchi: You're... I promise you're not even gonna feel it. It flies by. Uh, that's humans and AI agents and building a site that works for both, so a website that's built for both humans and machines. we'll do some live website throwdowns. We know we love Mary Brown doing the live throwdowns. People always get a lot out of that.

[00:23:54] Stephanie Baiocchi: But we'll also give you a little bit of guided work you can do on your own site, uh, within your workbook. and [00:24:00] then finally, we'll wrap up with winning the moment they reach out, and that is where we talk about speed to lead, your modern assignment selling, and how this all comes together in a whole system that your company can run with all 10 of these factors all the way through.

[00:24:14] Stephanie Baiocchi: And that's the 10 disciplines within the event.

[00:24:17] Bob Ruffolo: Let's go. And, and the assignment selling, we have 

[00:24:20] Bob Ruffolo: some updated, uh, education on that as well 

[00:24:22] Bob Ruffolo: because it's, it's, a little bit different 

[00:24:24] Bob Ruffolo: in AI first, uh, world where people are doing a lot of their research and getting recommended from AI. So how do we lean into that more? 

[00:24:30] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah, and how do we track it? And a lot of with Endless Customers and They Ask You Answer, a lot of what's changed, uh, from the old, I guess you could say, outdated assignment selling to the modern assignment selling, is not so much the principle. The principles, as we know, stay the same. that is still the case.

[00:24:48] Stephanie Baiocchi: You need to educate buyers. It helps accelerate the sales cycle. It's just the tactics of how you do it. And if you're doing it the old way, you might be falling behind. Okay, so then, of course, Tuesday night 

[00:24:59] Bob Ruffolo: we do- yeah, we're [00:25:00] done learning now?

[00:25:01] Stephanie Baiocchi: We're not do- we're done learning on 

[00:25:02] Bob Ruffolo: We're done learning for the day?

[00:25:03] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah, we're done learning for the day, so it's time to, you know, shake That all off. You don't even have to take your workbooks back to your room. I guess you have to take your laptops back to your room. Uh, but we have dinner, we have drinks, we have open bar, we have casino night. It's a lot of fun.

[00:25:15] Bob Ruffolo: you're just gonna blow right past C- Casino Night 

[00:25:17] Bob Ruffolo: there? 

[00:25:18] Stephanie Baiocchi: Oh

[00:25:18] Stephanie Baiocchi: no, I would 

[00:25:19] Bob Ruffolo: that was a 

[00:25:20] Bob Ruffolo: blast last year when we did that

[00:25:21] Stephanie Baiocchi: night is so fun. You know, we had been looking for the perfect activity for people to be able to hang out and talk, 'cause after this whole day, there's

[00:25:28] Stephanie Baiocchi: You're all excited. There's so much you wanna talk about, but you wanna do something, too. And we know with, like, if we did karaoke, you wouldn't be able to hear each other. Also, we'd have to deal with karaoke. but in this case, uh, you can kind of move around the room as you want. You can play for a little bit, network for a little bit. We have, like I said, great dinner, open bar. It's a lot of fun. And then we do have a couple of real prizes. So it's fake money. You're not playing any real money in the casino. But you'll get, uh, chips and tickets, and we do a raffle at the end for some prizes 

[00:25:55] Bob Ruffolo: Amazing. Amazing. It's a good time. All right, and we're not done 

[00:25:59] Bob Ruffolo: there. [00:26:00] We

[00:26:00] Stephanie Baiocchi: We're not done. We

[00:26:01] Bob Ruffolo: more day on Wednesday, 

[00:26:02] Bob Ruffolo: do we expect 

[00:26:04] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah, so with Wednesday, we're really looking at what I'm gonna call from prompt to published. This is AI content workflows and agents and things, uh, within the AEO tool in HubSpot, within your AI tool of choice, how you can get your whole team creating content efficiently. And of course, We're gonna hear from our good friend Marcus Sheridan, wouldn't be here without Marcus Sheridan, going through his thoughts on 

[00:26:30] Stephanie Baiocchi: where things are with AI visibility and where AI and SEO are going.

[00:26:34] Stephanie Baiocchi: He always has the most cutting-edge things to share, and I'm really excited to see what he'll bring us. 

[00:26:40] Bob Ruffolo: Amazing. So that's our event. That's our event. Now, on top of that, we also have some great 

[00:26:44] Bob Ruffolo: sponsors that are-- that this event wouldn't be, uh, possible without 

[00:26:47] Bob Ruffolo: them. So, uh, Stephanie, who do we have on 

[00:26:50] Bob Ruffolo: our sponsor list this, this year so far? 

[00:26:51] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yes. So our, uh, top two headlining sponsors are HubSpot and HighLevel. We're very thankful to have them sponsoring, and what I like [00:27:00] about these spon- well, you know, like a lot of things about all these sponsors, but HighLevel and HubSpot are kind of similar in what they do, but they're very different in who they serve.

[00:27:07] Stephanie Baiocchi: So, um, we'd never put you in a choice of an either/or situation, or we, we wouldn't do that with the sponsors. But so HubSpot and HighLevel, uh, we're excited to have them there. Our friends at SalesMessage doing texting, Vidyard with, uh, video and agentic 

[00:27:21] Bob Ruffolo: And by the way, Sales Message and 

[00:27:23] Bob Ruffolo: Vidyard, uh, we highly recommend them. You just did a webinar with them, uh, a few 

[00:27:27] Bob Ruffolo: days ago. Um, and we're also will be, uh, partnering 

[00:27:31] Bob Ruffolo: with them at Unbound in Hartford,

[00:27:33] Stephanie Baiocchi: we're doing a happy hour 

[00:27:34] Bob Ruffolo: in, uh, in, in Boston. So yeah, that'd be great 

[00:27:37] Stephanie Baiocchi: Revenue on the Rocks, if you're going to Unbound, look it up. It's at Legal Seafood. 

[00:27:41] Stephanie Baiocchi: Uh, so then we've got our friends at G4 Marketing, and they are gonna help teach us about operationalizing reviews in your organization. Uh, we also have Quick Page, who is the GOATs of assignment selling.

[00:27:51] Stephanie Baiocchi: Splash Dash, like I said, with AEO. We have HubSearch. As always, our friends at HubSearch help you find the perfect person to help you with HubSpot. And then [00:28:00] Signpost is new this year. I'm really excited, uh, to have them as well, and they're gonna be really great for specifically home services

[00:28:06] Bob Ruffolo: Amazing. Um, and, uh, we have a few more spots for 

[00:28:09] Bob Ruffolo: sponsors left, 

[00:28:10] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah, I've got, I've got two more in the works, some up my sleeve, and, uh, I believe I have one more table open, literally one 

[00:28:17] Bob Ruffolo: Okay, so if you're interested in being part of it, please let us know. 

[00:28:20] Bob Ruffolo: Um, and,

[00:28:21] Stephanie Baiocchi: there's two, I'll make room. 

[00:28:23] Bob Ruffolo: she'll, she'll find a way. Um, this is, uh, this... I h- hope all of you that have 

[00:28:28] Bob Ruffolo: been to the event before are seeing this is a very different, uh, uh, flow from what we've done before and how we're educating. I'm really excited for this one.

[00:28:35] Bob Ruffolo: I hope we, uh, don't 

[00:28:36] Bob Ruffolo: screw it up. 

[00:28:39] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah, I don't think we'll screw it up. Uh, I'm really excited for it, and I think what I'm most excited about is this content came together so naturally as a result of what we've learned in the study and the work we've been doing. Our coaches have so much to share and talk about from the work they've been doing.

[00:28:54] Stephanie Baiocchi: It's like these, these talks build themselves. Uh, you know, before we might have said, "Oh, let's take this thing from the [00:29:00] book and we'll put it into slides and we'll make it a presentation." Um, but man, these babies write themselves. 

[00:29:05] Bob Ruffolo: Now, if somebody's 

[00:29:05] Bob Ruffolo: interested in attending the event, 

[00:29:07] Bob Ruffolo: or sponsoring the event, where should they go?

[00:29:09] Stephanie Baiocchi: Endlesscustomers.com, click on live 

[00:29:12] Bob Ruffolo: endlesscustomers.com/live. 

[00:29:14] Stephanie Baiocchi: And if somebody wants to register, is there any special pricing or anything we have going on?

[00:29:18] Stephanie Baiocchi: I'll do some special pricing for the podcast. I'll set it up right now. If you use the code PODCAST, you can save $200 on your ticket, uh, regularly priced tickets. So they're 1,299, we'll make them 1,099. We'll knock 

[00:29:31] Bob Ruffolo: Oh, awesome. There we go. So, uh, make sure you use the code podcast, and if you have any trouble using that, make sure you email Stephanie. Um, awesome. Perfect. Um, well, I'm excited for this, and I'm excited to be up in Hartford with everybody. I, I hope that the whole community comes out. We do these events twice a year.

[00:29:48] Bob Ruffolo: It's a community event. Um, not only is the content great, but the best 

[00:29:53] Bob Ruffolo: conversations happen in the hallways, and that's just the reality of it. Uh, so you want to see what the, uh, other members of this [00:30:00] community are doing at the highest level, find out how they did it. Uh, you'll find that this is a community about sharing and helping.

[00:30:06] Bob Ruffolo: Um, it's, uh, it, it's a very... It's, it's a community. It's not just a conference. It's a community of people really coming together to help each other and learn together.

[00:30:14] Bob Ruffolo: So 

[00:30:14] Stephanie Baiocchi: there's people who come multiple times and from different companies, and now they, like, meet up for breakfast the first day 'cause they know they're gonna wanna share stuff 

[00:30:20] Bob Ruffolo: Amazing. Amazing. And Stephanie, you always do such an incredible job with these conferences, so thank you for all the hard work that you do on these

[00:30:27] Stephanie Baiocchi: Thank you. I love it. I love seeing people learn and come together, and I can't wait to see you all in October 

[00:30:31] Bob Ruffolo: And, and by the way, at some point we might wanna add a third or fourth conference, so we'll, we'll

[00:30:35] Stephanie Baiocchi: Yeah, no. I'm 

[00:30:37] Bob Ruffolo: I'll get I'll get, I'll get you a team first. How

[00:30:39] Stephanie Baiocchi: we I would love to do more. And, you know, we know where we wa- where people want us to bring this event as well, so I w- I would love to do more 

[00:30:46] Bob Ruffolo: Amazing. Amazing. All right, so that is, uh, Endless Customers Live in Hartford, and the dates are October 

[00:30:54] Bob Ruffolo: 5th through 7th. Uh, so make sure you register 

[00:30:57] Bob Ruffolo: now. And this has been another episode of the [00:31:00] Endless Customers Podcast. Until the 

[00:31:01] Bob Ruffolo: next episode, we will see you there

[00:31:03] Stephanie Baiocchi: If you liked this episode, please take a minute to leave us a review. Thanks for checking out the Endless Customers Podcast.