It's been just over a month since I transitioned from my role helping to lead up HubSpot's Agency Partner Certification and training program at HubSpot Inc and joined one of my favorite HubSpot Agency Partners here in Boston, Innovative Marketing Resources.

[ME AND SOME MEMBERS OF THE IMR CORP CREW HANGING OUT AT THE OFFICE DURING MY FIRST WEEK ON THE JOB - NOTE ONE OF THE NEW PLANTS WE ADDED TO GREEN UP THE PLACE, TOO]
Innovative Marketing Resources, or IMR Corp for short - had risen to become one of the better known Certified Platinum Providers in HubSpot's growing network of Agency Partners. As someone who spent their entire career at HubSpot supporting our partners in the marketing industry, I had known and worked with the team at IMR and we had "grown up" in the program together for years. But, times change, and if the agency was to continue to thrive in 2016, they needed new leadership. Meanwhile, I was ready for a change as well. I was looking for a chance to apply all I had learned from 4.5 years working at HubSpot - particularly the management and leadership systems that we pioneered on the HubSpot Academy Team (lead by Mark Kilens, one of the best managers I've ever worked for). And with IMR hiring a senior manager to help lead up the entire agency, an opportunity presented itself. So, with 2015 drawing to a close (and with my wife and I expecting our first child) this was a perfect point in my career to take a chance, strike out and see what I could do if I joined forces with of the leading HubSpot Agency Partners that I admired so much.
Driving fast, taking chances:
In short, it was a fast moving first month for me at IMR. I'm used to that pace from my experience starting as the 250th HubSpot employee supporting around 4,000 customers to and then riding the orange rocket ship as the company went public, grew to 15,000+ customers and 1000+ employees on 3 continents - all within a few short years. I told Kevin Jorgensen and Joe Petterossi (IMR's co-founders and my new business partners), I intended to come into the agency "like a big orange hurricane" and try to "make it rain inbound" all over the place. As their new business partner and joining in the role of agency team leader, I would have a hand in improving all aspects of the agency - client services management, marketing/sales, as well as culture and team development.