111: From Burnout to Breakthrough: The HubSpot CRM Behind Sesh Coworking with Maggie Segrich
This episode offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at what a CRM implementation actually costs and what it truly delivers, all from the client’s perspective.
Maggie Segrich, founder of Sesh Coworking, was ready to walk away from HubSpot after multiple failed attempts until the right support helped her rethink how systems should work.
Over six months, her team shifted from resistance to buy-in as chaotic operations became streamlined and automated. This episode is a candid conversation about how the right systems don’t replace human connection, but rather create the space for it to thrive.
Key Points + Topics
[01:20] Danny opens the conversation by introducing Maggie as an active Optidge client, positioning the episode as a rare insider look at what business growth actually requires from the client side.
[01:43] Maggie shares details of her wonderfully diverse background: from high school teacher to Miller Light promoter, finance work in NYC, jewelry design, farm management, and chamber of commerce leadership.
[02:51] When Maggie moved from NYC to Houston in 2018, she realized people wouldn’t visit her home studio like they did before, so she built a coworking space instead.
[04:12] Maggie describes that SESH isn’t just desk space; it’s a place where people feel safe being their authentic selves, whether that’s yoga pants or a three-piece suit.
[04:54] She paints the picture of what it feels like walking through the doors of SESH: Walking in, you encounter a plant wall, a chartreuse front desk, art-covered walls, a library, giant windows, and the smell of coffee and bakery mixing with laughter and conversation.
[06:03] She goes on to detail her day, sharing her morning routine and what she faces once she gets to the office: juggling the responsibilities of operations, marketing, and partnerships.
[07:15] Maggie admits to her struggles with task switching, but prioritizes being present for members in the space who come for advice, connections, and someone to bounce ideas off.
[07:55] Her real reward is seeing members start small and grow, sometimes needing their own office before leaving SESH, which Maggie calls the best way to lose a client.
[09:02] During the discussion of the ins and outs of entrepreneurship, Maggie says she was most surprised by the resiliency she found in herself and others, whether facing pandemics, pivoting because of major life changes, or rebuilding after ideas failed.
[10:17] Maggie believes resiliency is a gift not everyone has; it takes tenacity, accountability, and the ability to be your own cheerleader and boss.
[10:52] Prior to connecting with Optidge and onboarding Hubspot, Maggie went through three CRMs supposedly built for coworking spaces, but none were flexible enough; one company actually told her she broke their software.
[11:51] When her co-owner left, Maggie wanted out of HubSpot entirely in hopes of cleaning things up. When she started deleting things to clear the chaos, she realized she didn’t know what was working.
[12:50] As Maggie considered leaving HubSpot for Zoho, a friend referred to Danny as a CRM expert. After exploring his LinkedIn posts, she felt the universe had sent a sign.
[13:55] Maggie knew she needed someone who would listen even if she didn’t have the right vocabulary, and who would patiently teach her team the right way to use systems.
[14:38] Being a visual learner, Maggie requested an in-person meeting, revealing that the first face-to-face meeting with Danny built the trust she needed to move forward with Optidge.
[15:15] Thoughtful and organized communication is non-negotiable in Optide partnerships; Danny’s AI recording tools that let her search conversations by keywords have been game-changing for her learning.
[16:36] In just a few short months, Maggie stated that her whole mindset on using Hubspot has changed, mentioning that she and her whole team are now obsessed and evangelize it to others.
[17:28] Maggie uses the gym membership analogy to describe her experience: you can have a membership, but you have to show up, get in the car, go inside, and do the work. Danny offered his take that agencies like Optidge serve as the personal trainers in her analogy.
[20:06] As far as features go, Maggie didn’t understand segments at first, but now uses sequences to automate email strings so her team has time for in-person interactions that drive retention.
[21:34] Sequences and other automation tools save her team so much time that they’re no longer stuck at desks typing all day; they have bandwidth to interact with people in space.
[22:32] Maggie wishes she’d known everything Danny taught her three years ago, sharing that her 2025 was flat in revenue, but her HubSpot metrics all went up significantly, signaling a boost in revenue to come.
[23:42] In April, with one person gone and hiring slow, operations were chaotic; by October, the same situation felt light years easier with automation in place. The hours Maggie invested with Danny now compound as she is now able to train new hires faster.
[26:21] For service or product businesses, Maggie ranks a good CRM as priority number one because websites, social, email, and phone calls all feed into it.
[27:10] Maggie’s been pondering whether to merge her coworking business with the SESH Foundation nonprofit, which could be more powerful and focused if she can find the time. For now, she feels momentum and excitement about pushing everything forward.
[33:27] In our lightning round segment, Maggie reveals that she lives and dies by her Outlook calendar, and champions long-form blogs as a personal, nostalgic way to know a brand versus algorithm games.
[34:49] Find SESH at SeshCoworking.com and on TikTok and Instagram at the same handle; Maggie is most active on LinkedIn, sharing about business ownership and community.
Guest + Episode Links
Danny Gavin (Host) : 00:25
Hello, I’m Danny Gavin, founder of Optige, Marketing Professor and the host of the Digital Marketing Mentor. Today’s episode is a special one for us. For the first time on the podcast, we’re sitting down with an active Optidge client to talk about business growth from the inside, what it’s really like to scale operations, implement the right systems, and make strategic decisions about how you manage your business and customers. I’m excited to welcome Maggie Segrich, owner of SESH Coworking. Maggie’s the founder behind a thoughtfully designed co-working space built around community, flexibility, and supporting modern professionals and entrepreneurs. In this conversation, we’re going to talk about Maggie’s journey as a business owner, what led her to build SEH, how she thinks about operations and growth, and what she’s learned from implementing CRM systems and business automation, including what’s worked, what’s evolved, and the systems that have made the biggest impact. This episode is all about perspective, honest insights from the client side that business owners can learn from Maggie. Welcome to the show.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 01:20
Hi. It’s Friday. Yay.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 01:22
Yay! We release these on a Wednesday. So anyone who’s listening, you’re gonna feel the Friday vibes. So maybe you can wait a couple days to listen. So, Maggie, uh we’ve known each other now for feels like a year, maybe less. It’s so awesome to have you here.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 01:36
Thank you.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 01:37
All right, so let’s jump right in. Can you walk us through your career journey and what your professional life looked like before starting SESH?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 01:43
I’ve done a little bit of everything. I went to school initially thinking I was gonna be a high school English teacher. Turned out that wasn’t for me. Did promoting for Miller Light, radio stations, and then ended up in New York, working in finance. Also not for me. Went back to school, had a career in jewelry design for 10 years, ran the family farm as well, started a chamber of commerce as well, did some real estate and sesh. A little bit of a lot of things.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 02:21
I didn’t know about the farm. Yeah. That is really cool. And yeah, I didn’t know about promoting for Miller Light. You definitely have like a, I feel like you’re like Mary Poppins. Like you could pull whatever you put out of that bag.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 02:32
Yeah. Maggie’s bag for sure.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 02:35
Totally. Obviously, you’re now with Sesh, which is an amazing place. And anyone who’s in Houston has to come visit it because it really is one, one of a kind when it comes to co-working and just the community environment. So we’re going to be talking about it today. But Maggie, can you tell us the story behind Sesh and how the idea came to life?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 02:51
I moved to Houston in 2018 from New York City, where I had my jewelry company and I had founded that Chamber of Commerce. So for me, it was like the best of both worlds. I had other business owners who I was meeting with regularly. If I had questions, I could just get their resources or bounce ideas off of them. And because I lived in New York, my jewelry studio was in my home, which I came to find out when I moved to Houston, would not be normal. People don’t go to other people’s homes to visit their jewelry designer. So when I moved here, I was like, well, I need other business owners and I need a place for my jewelry studio. I couldn’t find a happy medium. Eventually, I found my former business partner hosting these like once-a-month coffee meetups. And uh she was talking about building the space, and I was like, yes, let’s do it. I need that. Other people need that. And here we are, 2026 now. So almost eight years later.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 03:57
Wow, that’s amazing. We think about in life how many people have ideas and don’t actually like to do them. So it’s cool that you grab the bull by the horns on that one. There are co-working spaces, not like you created the idea, but what gap did you see in the co-working or flexible work six space that you wanted to solve?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 04:12
It was approachability, inspiring, and a sense of safety that people could show up as their authentic selves in whatever capacity that is. You know, if it’s yoga pants and a t-shirt and flip-flops for the day, great. If it’s a three-piece suit, great. But we just wanted to build a space that people felt just comfortable being wherever they were in their day, their entrepreneurial journey, or even their creative journey.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 04:45
So outside of the dress, like can you paint a picture of what Sesh looks like, what it is for someone who’s never visited there before?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 04:54
Like when you walk in the doors, there’s this plant wall, and then you approach the front desk, and it’s this bright uh chartreuse screen, and there’s usually a couple smiling faces, usually mine, also behind the front desk. And as you turn around, you see art adorning all the walls, you see the library, giant windows surrounded by plants, you smell coffee, you smell the bakery that’s right next door, um, which is very enticing. And um, you hear that like laughter and typing and low murmur of ideas being generated. And it’s almost more of a feeling when you walk in the front door than it is like just one visual thing.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 05:48
No, I think you’ve described it beautifully. And it really does feel that way when you walk in. It is, it’s like it’s a feeling, it’s just a feeling.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 05:55
Yeah.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 05:56
So let’s talk about being the business owner. What does a typical day look like for you as the owner of SES?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 06:03
I wake up every day at about 6: 30, check my emails really quickly. Not anything too, too dense, but like, is there any I need to respond to as soon as business hours start? And then do the morning routine with my 12-year-old and head into the office usually around 9 30, 10, meet with the team, talk about any, you know, client stuff. And then a lot of my time is spent either on operations, marketing, partnerships, website stuff, a lot of the back-end stuff that nobody sees.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 06:40
So I was gonna ask you what’s the most challenging part of what you do, but it sounds like just juggling so many different components. Would you agree?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 06:47
Yeah. And it’s oftentimes the hardest part is the task switching, having to prioritize, okay, I’m working on this right now, but then suddenly this has come up and it needs immediate attention and switching to that and then being like, okay, wait, what was I doing? And going back to that, that task switching is, I find very draining.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 07:09
Yeah. And I can imagine sometimes it’s frustrating, especially when you’re trying to do something and it’s like, I just want to get it complete.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 07:15
Yeah.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 07:16
Yeah.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 07:16
It’s important too that when I am in space, that I’m there for the people who are there. Cause that’s a lot of times that’s what they want. They want to come say hi to me. They want to talk to me. They want to bounce an idea. They want to know if I know someone or a resource. And so having that balance of not overtaking myself while I’m there in the space so I can have the bandwidth for the people who are there.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 07:42
So obviously, when we talk about perks, Maggie wasn’t going to say herself, but definitely one of the one of the sesh perks is Maggie. And you can Yeah. So that’s cool. Okay. So that covers some of the challenging things. But what would you say has been the most rewarding?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 07:55
Oh my gosh. Most rewarding is seeing my members collaborate with one another, seeing them win, whether it’s they land a big client, they win a grant, they win some award. It’s most rewarding when they come to SESH and they start small and then they grow and they grow. And then the next thing they need two offices, and then their team
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 08:19
is so much bigger than just them when they started. And that’s kind of like not that we had a hand in it, but being able to see that growth in other people, it’s rewarding.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 08:29
That’s so cool. And I’m sure there’s quite a few that you’ve seen come through the doors who have grown like that.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 08:36
One of the things that I say a lot is like the best way that we can lose a client is they’ve outgrown the space and they go on and they get their own space. Like me, that’s like that’s the best way to move someone to lost clothes, you know?
Danny Gavin (Host) : 08:52
Yeah, I know it’s true. It’s growth, but in a very positive way.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 08:56
Yeah.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 08:57
I know this is not your first rodeo, but what has surprised you the most about entrepreneurship?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 09:02
I think the thing that surprised me the most is the resiliency in myself and in others. And whether that’s like the pandemic or the Duration or people completely having to pivot because of a marriage, a divorce, death in the family, or just like their ideas didn’t work, you know, the resiliency and kind of knowing that, like, oh, this is really hard for me right now. But like that person just pivoted and looked at them, they’re flourishing. So, like being able to have that reflection for myself and for others, you know.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 09:42
Do you feel like everyone has that inside of them? That sort of entrepreneurship resiliency, or do you feel like it’s something that either you have to learn or just not everyone has that gift?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 09:51
I don’t think everyone has that gift. Just like I don’t think everyone has the gift of being a good remote worker. True. You know, it takes tenacity, it takes responsibility, accountability. You know, you kind of have to be your own cheerleader and boss. And those can be hard to toggle back and forth between because every day is a roller coaster as an entrepreneur.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 10:17
Oh, yeah. And therefore, I think some people are just made for the nine to five clock in, clock out. And I don’t mean all corporate jobs are clock in, clock out, but you know what I mean.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 10:26
Yeah. And there are days where I’m like, why didn’t I do that?
Danny Gavin (Host) : 10:30
We all have those days. All right.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 10:33
So let’s pivot over to business operations. So when you approached Optidge about HubSpot, you were working in HubSpot for quite a bit. So let’s talk about the world before. So, how were you managing customer relationships, business operations? We could even talk about pre-HubSpot, like before you even had a CRM. What did that look like?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 10:52
- You know, we HubSpot’s where we landed. We probably went through three other CRMs. There’s a lot out there that are made specifically for co-working spaces. And, you know, when we started in 2020, they just didn’t do what we needed them to do. They weren’t flexible enough. One company actually had the audacity to tell me that I broke their software. And I was like, I thank you. That’s quite the honor that you think I have that capability, but I’m pretty sure I don’t. So um, can you just cancel it? We ultimately landed in HubSpot and it’s been
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 11:35
a journey.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 11:36
Obviously, there was a change in your business structure. You had a you had a co-owner, and you know, they’ve left, and therefore it moved on to more onto your plate, naturally being the sole owner. What made you realize it was time to bring outside help to help with the CRM, to help the systems?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 11:51
To be fair, I really wanted to get rid of HubSpot. I was like, that’s it. It’s broken, it doesn’t integrate with anything, it doesn’t do what I need it to do. I don’t go in there. And it was just like, I was like, this is a disaster. I can’t find anything. I, in true Maggie fashion, just went through and started straight up deleting things. I don’t like chaos, I don’t like piles of paper. Like, so like for me, just going into HubSpot, I was like, you know what? I’m gonna take it down to zero and I’m gonna start from scratch. And so I kind of tried to start doing that. And then I got into some things where I was like, hmm, I don’t know what this is, and I don’t want to break it because I don’t actually, is it working? Is it not working? Do we need it? Don’t we need it? I couldn’t answer those questions. And so I was like, I need help. So that’s what made me reach out. I actually reached out because I saw it on your HubSpot profile.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 12:50
Did Jenny tell you about me or did you stumble upon? So what happened? I don’t remember.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 12:56
Jenny told me about you because I was like, Oh, I’m thinking about leaving HubSpot and going to Zoho. And she’s like, Oh, let me ask my CRM friend. And she was like, he says stay on HubSpot.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 13:06
And I was like, Oh man.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 13:09
I don’t want to talk to that guy.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 13:11
Well, I was just like, I don’t understand. And then it was like the world sent this message down to me on your LinkedIn post about the U of H class.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 13:22
Right.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 13:23
And I commented on that. And then you DM’d me, and I totally did not know why you were DMing me because I had completely forgotten that I commented on your post. All I saw in your profile was like a HubSpot guru. And I was like, oh my, this is a sign from the universe. And so I said to you, I was like, so tell me more about Hubspot and what you know. And that’s how it happened.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 13:49
That’s how the magic happened. Yeah. What mattered most to you in choosing a partner to help you?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 13:55
I wanted to learn it. And I needed somebody who I felt like was gonna listen to me because I didn’t really know what I was talking about. Like I might not have the language or the vocabulary to express to you in HubSpot terms. But then two, I wanted somebody who was gonna have the patience to walk me through it uh and really teach me. So that way I can appropriately teach my team. Um, that way things are on the regular, just done the right way.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 14:27
What made you feel like, oh yes, I found the right person? Was it like our first meeting? Or was it like, I don’t know if you remember, or was it just that the first meeting was good, the second was, we just ended up continuing.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 14:38
I was like, can we meet in person? And you’re like, well, I normally do these virtual things. And I was like, I’m a visual learner, and if we could meet in person the first time, that would be and then I was like, okay, this will work. This is fun.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 14:49
So awesome.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 14:50
And it’s funny because I think we’ve only met in person once, which is silly. Yeah. Um, so we definitely need to meet in person more often, but it’s cool that that sort of gained the trust that you actually saw me, so I’m a real person. Like, you know, it’s not just some virtual guy down in Antarctica who’s like, who knows, who knows if they’re even real. Working with an agency from your side, what makes an agency-client relationship actually work?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 15:15
Ugh, communication’s a big one. Thoughtful and organized communication is like the specific part of it because you can communicate with people and have no idea what each other are talking about or make bigger problems, right? And so I feel like you in particular, you’re very good at that. Like you have that amazing thing that records all of our calls, and then you send it to me, and I can go in and be like, oh yeah, I wrote down this word, and I just type the word in and it holds it up in the conversation. And I’m like, no, no, yes. And it blew my mind. And for me, that was like that allows me as the student to be a better student because you can teach it to me and my house might catch on fire and then I forget, you know.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 16:07
Uh but I think what’s interesting is that both you and I naturally are like note takers, and therefore we feel like we have to take everything down. What’s so cool about using these sorts of AI recording tools and using them properly? Yes, we can still jot down notes, but we don’t have to rely on it as much. And therefore, we can at least focus a little bit more on the moment, which is nice.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 16:29
Yeah, totally.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 16:30
Is there anything that surprised you about working with an agency on CRM
Danny Gavin (Host) : 16:35
systems implementation?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 16:36
I love HubSpot now.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 16:38
You would have never known.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 16:40
No, um and my whole team are like live and die by HubSpot now. They’re all obsessed with the tasks. They make themselves more tasks. I’m going out and telling people that they should like to use HubSpot. And I’m like, who am I? Like, had you talked to me in December of 2024, I was ready to throw it in the garbage and light it on fire. So I think that is like the biggest surprise for me.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 17:08
It’s crazy, but it’s also amazing.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 17:10
Yeah, that’s what happens when you learn.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 17:12
Exactly. Are there any responsibilities that you think clients sometimes underestimate on their end? Because I always say that it’s like a marriage, an agency and a client, and we both have to do our part. Anything that you think people sometimes underestimate the work that they need to put in on their end?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 17:28
All the time. All the time. Like whether it’s for yourself or even like when I started the Chamber of Commerce in New York, the biggest thing was like, well, what’s the chamber gonna do for me? And I’m like, well, it’s kind of like having a gym membership. You can have the membership to the gym, but that doesn’t mean you’re gonna lose weight and get in shape. Like you actually have to like go, get out of your car, go inside and lift the heavy things and move your body and do the work to see the change and to then feel the impact of your work,
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 18:07
right? And I think that that’s a misconception that a lot of people have, whether it’s working with an agency, working with a therapist, even with a co-working space, they’re like, Well, what’s this gonna do for me? And I’m like, well, step one, show up. Step two, talk to the people in the space. You know, you have to put in the work. Because unless you just expect to have a really, really high exorbitant bill for you to just do everything, then you know, you gotta put in the work.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 18:46
The crazy thing, Maggie, is so yesterday I was in a HubSpot call with actually HubSpot rep, and the way they described a HubSpot and sort of HubSpot relationship was HubSpot is the gym, and you could go to it, but you really want a personal trainer, so you should really get an expert to help you. So I just want to be hearing the uh Hubs the gym analogy twice in two days.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 19:09
It works well, and I think it makes it an easy analogy for people.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 19:13
You know, true, because most of us have gym memberships that we don’t go to, right? Exactly. Oh, and that reminds me, another cool thing that just to let everyone know, one of the cool things that Maggie does is when people are interested in coming, she makes them actually come. They need to actually see what it looks like to drive to space. Because you have to know what it means to wake up in the morning, get in a car, and come here. And there’s no point in signing up if you don’t actually know if that’s gonna work for you, which I think is genius. I love it.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 19:44
Yeah, because uh the other thing is it is like maybe you don’t like the commute. I sometimes don’t like the commute. Like it’s Houston. So hello traffic, you know. Like, I get it if it’s too much. I totally get it.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 19:58
So diving a little bit deeper into HubSpot, are there some specific HubSpot features or workflows that have made the biggest impact since we started working together?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 20:06
I now know what segments are. My team is like, what is this amazing feature? I remember
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 20:12
I met with someone else before you and I started working together, and she was trying to explain to me segments, and I was just like, I don’t get it. And now that I’ve implemented them, we can just automate those emails to people. And a great example.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 20:33
We have put somebody in a segment and are you referring to sequences? Sequences, yes. No, it’s fine.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 20:42
See, I still don’t have the vocabulary.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 20:44
It’s okay.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 20:45
She did not interact with the sequence, but she did book again.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 20:49
So let’s just quickly break it down for our listeners. What a sequence is, is that you can create a string of emails and tasks and like to do a phone call over a period of time. This way you don’t have to keep following up on people. When
Danny Gavin (Host) : 21:06
they actually respond to that, to one to an email, then they automatically unenroll, and that’s really cool. So in Maggie’s line of business, there’s lots of times where you need to update people, you know, whether you send out the contract or there’s a new renewal and things like that. So this has really been a cool key to that she’s had it on. So in this example, she sent the sequence. The person’s getting the emails. She may not even clicked on the email, but eventually, like you said, she actually did come ahead, get in contact with you.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 21:34
Exactly. I think the reason why my team is like, oh, is because it saves them so much time. They don’t feel like they’re just typing and focused on their computer screen all day, every day now. Um, they can just enroll people in these sequences and then they have more time to interact with the people who are physically in the space.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 22:00
So if you think about it, it’s sort of a microcosm of AI, right? I mean, it’s the idea of taking those things which we really don’t need to spend time on, automate them so now I can have space to do the things that I enjoy, that really count, and make a huge impact.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 22:14
Yeah. That in-person
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 22:16
interaction that my team has with the people in the co-working space, that’s part of our retention, you know. That’s how we keep people coming back. So it’s important.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 22:28
Is there something you’ve learned about business systems that you wish you knew earlier?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 22:32
All of it. Everything that you have taught me about HubSpot, I wish I knew like three years ago. All of it. Like had I known all of this, I feel like my business would be in a completely different place. So for example, I just reviewed our 2025 numbers in full transparency. We’re flat on the year, which is okay. But I dug into my HubSpot metrics, and all of my HubSpot metrics are up compared to 2024. We did more deals, we closed more deals, we have a higher open rate. Uh, just like all the numbers are up. And so I’m like, ah, it’s working. All the work that Danny and I have been doing, it’s working, even though the dollar signs say it’s flat, you know?
Danny Gavin (Host) : 23:24
I think for many businesses, 2025 was a hard year. So the question is if we didn’t have all that amazing activity, who knows if you would have been flat, right? Like it may have been less. God forbid, right? But the other way of looking at it is we’re building momentum. So hopefully that’s gonna compound and make this 2026 the best ever.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 23:42
Yes. And I will tell you another example of the way it changed. I let someone go back in April, and I had a period of two months where I was trying to hire someone new. And I only had one other person at the front desk with me, and it was very tedious, and lots of emailing and lots of clicking and focus work in HubSpot. Fast forward to October when I let the next person go. And those six weeks were so much easier. Like it wasn’t as chaotic because we had things automated, we had these sequences set up, and it was like the difference between that April and May experience and the October and November experience was just light years away. In my head, that wouldn’t have been a result that I would have expected. I saw that in real time in six months.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 24:48
Yeah, I mean, that’s just a celebration moment. Wow.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 24:51
Yeah.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 24:52
So I think this comes to a good point.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 24:54
We know when talking to other people, it’s sometimes hard to balance the time investment of setting up the system and getting it to work with running the day-to-day operations? How important is it to do that? Super important.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 25:07
The time that I invested with you, all the hours we spent working on HubSpot, right? I have now trained three different people in HubSpot with these things. The first person who I started training came back from the old era where like HubSpot was just like a dumpster fire, right? And I didn’t know how to use it. And that person had the hardest time implementing the changes along the way. But then these two new people came in and the system was already set up. The second person probably took about six weeks, the last person took four. And so yeah, it just goes to show that it expedites your training processes by having your operations and your systems set up. I don’t know that that gets emphasized enough
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 26:00
when you’re starting a business.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 26:02
So, what would you tell another business owner? Like you’re planning on setting up a business and you know how important implementing a CRM or working with an agency to help implement a CRM is. Like if you would put that on the priority list, obviously it depends what type of business, but where would you stick that on that like rank? Like how important is it to get that right?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 26:21
Well, if you’re in the business of providing a service or let’s say a product, I honestly would have to say it’s number one because all of your websites, your social media, your email marketing, your phone calls, they all plug into that. Having that one central hub to store all of that information will save you so much time. And when you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t have a lot of time. That’s like your most expensive resource.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 26:53
And you’re a wife, and you’re a mom, and you’re a friend, and you’re everything else. So I’m just stressing like your time is like, right? So you need to have something where I can put the time you do put in, it’s quality and it’s not quantity.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 27:06
Yeah, exactly.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 27:07
Wow. So, Maggie, what’s next for Sesh?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 27:10
Something I’ve been really pondering about lately is we have a nonprofit arm, uh, the SESH Foundation. And so I’ve a lot of the work that we do with SESH co-working is very mission driven. And so I’ve been really wondering if I need to, rather than running them as two separate entities, bring them together and merge them and run the whole thing as a nonprofit. And so that’s something I’ve been kind of like swirling the drain on. Like I think it’s gonna happen. It’s just if I can have the time and the space to make it happen, you know?
Danny Gavin (Host) : 27:42
Wow. I mean, that’s it, it’s a big step, but I think it’s such a cool step because it’s kind of like having two identities, but really it’s one, and then it just might make it easier, but also powerful. It just allows you to focus more and then be more powerful with everything that you do.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 27:57
Yeah.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 27:57
So I assume 2026, are you excited? Excited where you’re headed?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 28:01
I’m excited because okay, so in 2025, I felt like I was entering this long dark tunnel. And I was like, I don’t know, is there a light down there? And I was like, well, I gotta get out of this tunnel by the end of 2025 because I have a whole other tunnel I want to go into in 2026. I was like, hopefully, if I did the math right, I should be starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in like September or October. And that’s what happened. And so now I’m excited for 2026 because, like, to your point, now I feel like I have momentum and I feel like the stuff that I’m gonna be working on in 2026 is gonna build that momentum and uh really push us forward.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 28:44
So yeah, I know, and I know it will. So that’s awesome. Thank you. All right, well, it’s time for a lightning round. So I’m gonna mention the topic and you’re gonna let me know what comes to mind. You can spend a little bit of time telling me about it, but let’s see the other side of Maggie. So, Maggie, who’s your favorite artist? Musician or let’s first talk about art and then we’ll get into music.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 29:04
Okay. I’m gonna have to say it must very obviously be my neighbor, Katherine Liggan. She’s an artist from here in Houston because I own probably like eight or nine of her paintings.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 29:17
Wow, that’s awesome.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 29:19
So I kind of feel like that’s like the obvious answer, right? Yeah.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 29:25
Well, we’ll have to definitely put a link up to her. I imagine she has a website, but we’ll put it up for her. That’s cool. All right, and what about music? What’s your favorite music to listen to or band artists?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 29:34
So I grew up in the Midwest and my parents were divorced. So I basically grew up with four parents, and so my musical taste, like my mom would listen to like top 40, my stepmom would listen to only country, and then my dad and my stepdad would listen to rock. And so, like, I just have this, and then because I grew up in St. Louis, there was a heavy like RB and rap influence with all the other kids that I went to school with. So my musical tastes are all over the map, but the artist that I have gone to see the most in concert is Beyoncé.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 30:15
So I would not have guessed, but that’s pretty cool.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 30:19
I know. Um there’s even a Beyonce bathroom at Sesh.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 30:24
I did not know that. I’ll have to see it next time. That’s so cool. Travel.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 30:30
Italy. I love going to Italy. It’s been six or seven times. I took my mom for the first time last summer.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 30:38
That’s nice.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 30:40
That was amazing. Whenever we go to Italy, we always have some quirky mishap/slash adventure. So this time we were trying to go to a restaurant and we went on a detour. Initially, the road that we were on was a gravel road. And then eventually we somehow were in the middle of a wheat field and the car was stuck. So my mom, my husband, and my daughter all had to get out of the car. I was in the driver’s seat driving, and they were behind the car pushing the car through the wheat field. And we made it out the other side of the wheat field. But we were, it was insane. It was uh we were like so far into the wheat field that it was like we gotta, we’re the other roads gotta be right there. That looks closer than trying to pack up and go backwards from where we came. So we made it.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 31:40
It literally sounds like a scene out of an HBO comedy. I love it.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 31:44
And that’s what happens every time we go to Italy. So we’re kind of like, we should keep going back. This seems fine, you know.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 31:53
Maggie, curious. Have you been to Capri?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 31:56
No, not yet.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 31:57
Okay.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 31:58
Crazy, right?
Danny Gavin (Host) : 31:59
I definitely have to go.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 32:00
I know.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 32:01
It’s just quickly, I don’t think I’ve told this story on the podcast. When I was 15, I went on a traveling camp to France and Italy. And I don’t know how, but they had like a raffle, and the best five kids won a weekend trip to Capri. We got on a flight from Paris to Capri, took a little yacht thing to Capri, and we spent the weekend there. Why? Crazy. Because Ronnie Prolman, who is or was the CEO of Revlon, made a decision that wherever he goes for the weekend, he needs a quorum of men to pray with. It was one of his religious things that he did. And I don’t know how religious Ronnie was, but when it came to prayer on a Saturday, that was he was willing to dole out the cash. So a little 15-year-old Bips week. And I was one of those, and it was crazy. It was absolutely nuts.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 32:52
That’s so cool. That’s so cool.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 32:57
So it was fun. I mean, I called all my friends from the hotel. Like maybe I shouldn’t have, but like, you know, and I even still have some little alcohol bottles that I took when, you know. So it’s just good times. But yes, you definitely have to go. It’s a really beautiful spot.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 33:11
I know. I can’t believe I like that we haven’t done coastal southern Italy at all yet.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 33:18
So well, now you’ve got another reason to go back besides for an adventure.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 33:23
Yes.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 33:23
Outside of HubSpot, what’s one tool you can’t live without right now?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 33:27
Probably Outlook. I live and die. I live and die by my calendar. Like I tell my team and my family, if it is not on my calendar, it does not exist. If you don’t put it on my calendar and I don’t show up, that’s a problem. That’s not a problem for me problem.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 33:45
Yeah. I I I’m trying to get my wife to agree with me on that matter, but I can understand. And then what’s an overhyped marketing trend or underhyped one that you’re seeing or dealing with? I think blogs are underhyped.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 33:60
I think that there’s a nostalgia to long form content. And maybe it’s just because I have an English degree, I like to read and I like to write. But when I go to other people’s websites and I’m like, oh, they have a blog. And the last blog post was from like five years ago. I’m kind of like, you should just take that off your website. Don’t, don’t, don’t do that to me. And plus, I feel like it’s like a very personal way to get to know a brand versus like their social media where you’re just like playing the algorithm game a little bit, you know?
Danny Gavin (Host) : 34:40
No, I love that perspective. I haven’t heard that point of view in a while. So it’s definitely very refreshing. So, Maggie, where can people learn more about Sesh or connect with you?
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 34:49
They can learn about Sesch at SeshCoworking.com. And we’re super active on TikTok at SeshCoworking, Instagram, the same handle, and LinkedIn. I personally am most active on LinkedIn. I love to talk about all the things that are going on in my life that relate to being a business owner, a Houstonian, and just that are community driven. Um, so if you want to get to know me more, LinkedIn is the spot.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 35:20
I love it. Well, Maggie, this has been such a special conversation. I know we speak a lot, but we never really just get a chance, like chill. And that’s what it felt like today. So thank you so much for joining me.
Maggie Segrich (Guest) : 35:31
You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.
Danny Gavin (Host) : 35:32
Yeah, totally. And thank you, listeners, for tuning into the Digital Marketing Mentor. We’ll speak with you next time. Thank you for listening to the Digital Marketing Mentor Podcast. Be sure to check us out online at thedmentor.com and at the DM Mentor on Instagram. And don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts for more Marketing Mentor magic. See you next time.