HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First
Learn Where to Start from the Pros
What’s the first thing you do when you step into a new HubSpot portal?
It’s a question I started obsessing over a few months ago.
People would ask me for my “new portal checklist” — and when I admitted I didn’t have one, they were surprised. Honestly… I was too.
So I started digging.
I asked HubSpot — nothing official.
I asked friends — everyone had a different take.
So I decided to ask even more people… publicly.
This series is me doing exactly that: asking HubSpot pros from every corner of the ecosystem what they actually do first when they open a brand new (or very messy) portal.
Spoiler alert: There’s no one right answer.
But the conversations? They've been 🔥
Come learn with me — and maybe rethink your own approach along the way.
I’ve even used the insights from these sessions to shape my new 30 Days of HubSpot program — designed to help you confidently get your portal up and running, one day at a time. Sign up here to get notified when the next session opens.
5 - August, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First — Featuring Thorstein Nordby
In this session, I chat with Thorstein Nordby, who combines a sharp focus on data quality with a strategic mindset to help portals grow smart and scalable. We covered how to assess and improve your data quality, provided practical tips to prioritize setup steps that align with your business goals, and much more.
4 - August, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First — Featuring Evan Kubitschek
In this episode, Evan Kubitschek, founder of Grow Rogue and a seasoned pro in HubSpot, Marketo, and beyond, offers a refreshingly honest take on what matters when onboarding into a new portal. He’s tool-agnostic, brutally pragmatic, and works hands-on with early-stage teams to get systems working fast.
18 - July, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First — Featuring Hannah Fisher
Hannah Fisher from BabelQuest joined me to discuss her approach when walking into a new portal. Hannah brings a thoughtful, goal-oriented approach to HubSpot onboarding and setup — with a strong focus on achieving quick wins that build momentum and get buy-in fast.
17 - July, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First — Featuring Rylee Powell
This episode, Rylee Powell joined me to share what he does first when stepping into a brand new (or broken) HubSpot portal. Rylee is one of those behind-the-scenes powerhouses who make the rest of us look good. Thoughtful. Strategic. So smart. And always bringing the RevOps lens that turns chaos into clarity.
25 - June, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First — Featuring Margaret Long
This episode, I’m joined by Margaret Long, Team Lead and Account Manager at Penguin Strategies. Margaret brings a powerful blend of strategic marketing leadership, RevOps insight, and real-world HubSpot implementation across a wide range of clients.
17 - June, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First — Featuring Sarah Lane-Hawn
In this episode, I sit down with Sarah Lane-Hawn, the one and only B2B MarketingOps Fairy. With her sharp strategy brain, marketing ops wizardry, and deep experience across teams and tech stacks, Sarah brings the perfect blend of practical and magical thinking to every HubSpot portal she touches.
13 - June, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First — Featuring Kyle Jepson
This episode, I'm joined by Kyle Jepson, Principal Evangelist at HubSpot, the king of #HubSpotTipsAndTricks, and the voice behind so many of the best Academy lessons out there. He’s seen it all, heard it all, and he’s got the rare bird’s-eye view of what makes a HubSpot portal work (and what doesn’t).
9 - June, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First — Featuring Willem Reus
This episode, I’m joined by Willem Reus, Solutions Engineer at HubSpot, who helps businesses connect strategy with systems every day. Willem brings a unique vantage point from inside HubSpot — seeing how all types of customers (and partners!) get started.
5 - June, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring D'Ana Guiloff
In this episode, I'm joined by D’Ana Guiloff, Head of Growth at Supered, a HubSpot Admin HUG Co-Host, and an all-around powerhouse in the HubSpot ecosystem. She brings the perfect mix of systems thinking, marketing brilliance, and admin empathy to every conversation.
4 - June, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring Danielle Urban
In this episode, I'm joined by Danielle Urban, a powerhouse marketer, HubSpot consultant, and Co-Founder of Cartographer Consulting. Danielle’s approach goes beyond surface-level fixes. She brings deep experience in revenue attribution, reporting, and building frameworks that scale.
29 - May, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring Ryan Gunn
When you open a fresh HubSpot portal, what’s the first thing you check? In this episode, I put that question to Ryan Gunn—HubSpot pro and author of the Hubsessed newsletter. We break down his first steps and talk about portal clean-up.
21 - May, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring Joshua Oakes
In this episode, I brought in someone with a very different lens—Joshua Oakes, founder of FranDev Lab, FranDev Lab+, and creator of Who First™. Josh brings deep expertise in using HubSpot to support complex systems—where sales, marketing, operations, and multiple brand stakeholders all collide.
13 - May, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring Karin Tamir
Karin Tamir, CEO of Glare Marketing Technologies, joined the series to share her perspective on the ever-elusive question: What should you do first when stepping into a new HubSpot portal?
8 - May, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring Alexia Petrakos
When you log into a brand-new HubSpot portal, what do you do first? That’s the question I’ve been asking pros across the ecosystem—and in this episode, I got the in-house perspective from Alexia Petrakos, Digital Operations Manager at The Abs Company.
30 - April, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring Amanda Neel
In this episode, I was joined by Amanda Neel, Marketing Operations at Level Agency. Amanda lives at the intersection of marketing, operations, and technology — and brought her unique perspective on what to prioritize first when getting familiar with a new HubSpot environment.
30 - April, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring Nana Grace Kwapong
The question is simple: "What do you do first when you get into a new HubSpot portal?" I’m on a mission to ask the pros how they tackle it. In this episode, Nana Grace Kwapong, Head of HubSpot and CRM at Røtter CRM, joined me to share her perspective.
25 - April, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring George B. Thomas
In this episode, I was joined by the always-energetic George B. Thomas to tackle the question: where do you start? George brings years of hands-on HubSpot experience and a contagious love for helping others get the most out of the platform.
18 - April, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring Reilly McNaught
This episode featured my friend and fellow freelance HubSpot Admin, Reilly McNaught. Reilly joined me for a candid, practical conversation about her go-to moves when stepping into a new portal.
17 - April, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring Chris Carolan
When you log into a brand new HubSpot portal… what’s the first thing you check? That’s the question I’ve been exploring with fellow HubSpot pros in this series—and in this episode, Chris Carolan joined me to share his approach.
11 - April, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring Madelyn Donovan
In this episode of HubSpot Setup Secrets, I sat down with Madelyn Donovan to compare notes on what we looked for first when handed a new account—and why that seemingly simple question can be deceptively hard to answer.
3 - April, 2025
HubSpot Setup Secrets: What Pros Do First – Featuring Trisha Merriam
In this episode, Trisha Merriam and I broke down our first steps when assessing a HubSpot account—what we look for, what we document, and why these steps matter.
Who created this resource?
👋 Hi! My name is Casey Hawkins!
a HubSpot consultant and digital marketing strategist. I help businesses streamline their marketing systems, automate workflows, and get the most out of HubSpot.
Optimize, automate, and grow with expert HubSpot guidance.
