--- title: "Women of HubSpot: Jessica Palmeri on Charm and Disarm, Teaching Humans to Fish, and Never Succeeding Alone" url: https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/women-of-hubspot/women-of-hubspot-jessica-palmeri-charm-and-disarm-empathy description: "Ever inherited a HubSpot portal you were scared to touch? Jessica Palmeri of IMPACT on charm and disarm, winning over naysayers, and the call she made as a mom." type: article updated: 2026-11-13T21:03:35Z canonical: https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/women-of-hubspot/women-of-hubspot-jessica-palmeri-charm-and-disarm-empathy --- # Women of HubSpot: Jessica Palmeri on Charm and Disarm, Teaching Humans to Fish, and Never Succeeding Alone [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAb4igCH37c) [Listen to the episode](https://share.transistor.fm/s/5a5e6b88) Have you ever inherited a HubSpot portal somebody else built and been afraid to touch a single workflow? Jessica Palmeri has. It took her six years to figure out the portal an agency built for her first employer. Today, as Director of HubSpot Training at IMPACT, she wants her clients to become independent enough that they never need someone like her again. I've said it too. I'm trying to work myself out of a job. In this episode of [Women of HubSpot](https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/women-of-hubspot), I sit down with Jessica to talk about teaching, skeptical sales teams, and the humans behind the HubSpot work. ## What You'll Walk Away With - **A better place to start with resistance:** the fears behind a rep's objection, not just the new process you want them to follow. - **A pre-training exercise:** ask senior leaders how it's going to go wrong and who your rabble-rouser is. - **A definition of empowerment you can act on:** raise your hand for the problem everybody knows about and nobody owns. - **A family-first decision:** the call she made at UNBOUND and the CEO who supported her. ## Six Years Inside a Portal She Was Afraid to Touch Jessica's first job out of college and graduate school was at a small startup selling hiring software. Around 2013 or 2014, the company decided to move from Pardot to HubSpot and hire an agency. The thinking was that an agency would be like hiring 10 marketers at once. The decision moved fast. Her boss was on safari in Africa when the CEO told her to save whatever data she thought she needed from Pardot. She pulled reports and lists, CC'ing her boss along the way. By Friday of that week, she thinks, he texted to say he had Wi-Fi again. What was going on? They made it through the migration. The agency built lists and workflows, but when Jessica asked how she'd do things herself, the general vibe was that they had it covered. Don't ask questions. After about a year, the company couldn't trace any customers back to the agency investment. An HR assistant might download the e-book of interview questions; the person choosing hiring software didn't necessarily find it relevant to their purchase. They ended the agency relationship and handed Jessica the enterprise-level portal. > 23, 24-year-old Jess was terrified to touch a gosh darn thing. And what I realized is that if I was a HubSpot trainer, I could eliminate that fear from any other person in a similar position. > > _Jessica Palmeri_ She joined IMPACT in 2019. She thinks she was hired as an account executive, and within a couple of months she moved into full-time HubSpot training. Her earlier experience explains the promise she makes now: > We're gonna teach you how to fish. We're gonna do this together, but you're gonna ultimately be independent and be able to do this for yourself. > > _Jessica Palmeri_ ## Charm and Disarm Starts With What a Rep Has to Lose Jessica says bias can show up subtly. Sometimes she senses skepticism about a young woman teaching a CEO how to run their business. Sometimes she doesn't. Her response, especially in sales training, is what she calls "charm and disarm." > Sales training hits an emotional nerve more than any other area of HubSpot. > > _Jessica Palmeri_ A rep's work in HubSpot connects to selling, closing, and earning commission. They've provided for their family doing the job a certain way. Even when a change is better for the business, it can bring up fears about that ability to provide. She leads with empathy for those fears, worries, and concerns. I called that a possible first rewind point of the episode. Even if you don't teach sales teams, what does that look like with the humans you deal with? ### Find Your Rabble-Rouser Before Training At an on-site sales summit, Jessica faced a room that included 40 or 50 sales reps, plus IT and others. Ahead of a session like that, she asks senior leaders: - "Tell me all the ways this is gonna go wrong." - "Who do I need to watch out for? Who's gonna be my rabble-rouser?" They named a sales manager who was resistant to adopting HubSpot. Instead of avoiding him, she brought him on stage to try the tool. He discovered that it could help with accountability, one of his own frustrations. He didn't feel his work was seen, and he wanted others to follow through on their commitments. He had that realization in front of the room. Jessica says the rest of the organization then got on board. This isn't a guarantee. Her first move is to try to win over the naysayer, and she's clear about its limits: > Maybe that's an optimistic attitude. It doesn't always work, but that's always my first card that I'm going to play. > > _Jessica Palmeri_ For another conversation about the humans behind adoption, listen to [Justine Gaignard's episode](https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/women-of-hubspot/women-of-hubspot-justine-gaignard-on-trusting-your-gut-building-confidence-and-making-hubspot-adoption-feel-human). ## Why She's Watching AEO Jessica's excited about HubSpot's AEO tool. She likes being able to track prompts and see how well a brand is mentioned in AI, inside HubSpot. But she also calls AI a black box: what works today might not work in two weeks or two months. What she values is the simple view: > Am I up today or am I down today? If I'm down, how do I address that? > > _Jessica Palmeri_ ## The Day Her Values Got Tested at UNBOUND Jessica was in Boston for HubSpot's UNBOUND conference, excited about meetings and time with her HubSpot friends, when she got a call that her husband wasn't feeling great. As a new mom, she hadn't faced this kind of choice on a big work trip before. She canceled her plans and drove home. Her CEO, Bob Ruffolo, supported her immediately. She says she'd have made the same decision either way, but his reassurance mattered. She acknowledges the cost of missing client meetings. She thinks she cleaned up those relationships okay. What she's proud of is knowing where she stood when her values were tested: > No job is ever gonna be as important to me as my family. > > _Jessica Palmeri_ I told her I was proud of her. Family first, always. ## Empowerment Means Owning the Problem Nobody Wants For Jessica, empowerment means knowing you can do hard things yourself rather than just outsourcing them. It's volunteering to tackle the problem everybody knows about and keeps putting off. That doesn't mean succeeding alone. At IMPACT, she's working with a team of HubSpot trainers whose interests complement one another. What she loves doing isn't necessarily what the others love. They can take burdens off each other's plates. They're still figuring out the structure, and she's encouraged by what they're finding. > I work harder when I know it's for someone else. > > _Jessica Palmeri_ That willingness to learn with others runs through her career. Her early manager, Michael, helped her stop treating an email draft as her perfect finished work and start collaborating on improvements. At IMPACT, mentor Carina Duffy showed her how teaching and relationships with HubSpot's product managers could become a career. When I asked for advice to other women considering her path, she recommended blending advice from others with trusting your gut. Find your footing, build your business acumen, then chart your course. She's seen both entrepreneurship and the corporate ladder work for some humans and not for others. > So there's no one right way to do it. > > _Jessica Palmeri_ ## Look Past the First Impression Given a magic wand, Jessica would remove the stigma around different personalities and approaches. Quiet power and a bubbly personality can both carry strength. She wants us to get to know the individual rather than judge their competence by how they show up. > Hey, let's have that deeper conversation first before we judge. > > _Jessica Palmeri_ Can we get past surface level? That would be great. When we closed with her definition of success, she didn't reach for revenue or new business. She talked about the organizations she can help and the humans she can connect with and uplift. > The success of those around me. I cannot imagine a world where I succeed alone. > > _Jessica Palmeri_ I told her it sounded like she'd moved from success to significance. At work with her fellow trainers and at home parenting with her husband, her approach is team mentality or bust. It's their time. It's their mic. This is Women of HubSpot. ## Frequently Asked Questions **What Does Jessica Mean by Charm and Disarm?** It's her approach to winning over a skeptical audience through empathy. She looks for the fears behind resistance, particularly when a new sales process affects how reps earn commission and provide for their families. **How Does She Prepare for a Resistant Sales Team?** She asks senior leaders what could go wrong and who's likely to resist. At one summit, she brought a skeptical manager on stage and helped him discover how the tool addressed his own accountability frustration. She says her approach doesn't always work. **Why Does She Want Clients to Stop Needing a Trainer?** She wants them to own their HubSpot portal and work independently. She spent six years figuring out an agency-built portal, and that fear helped shape her desire to train others. **What Does Empowerment Mean to Jessica?** Knowing you can do hard things yourself without just outsourcing them. One example is taking ownership of a problem nobody else wants to tackle. **Which HubSpot Tool Excites Her?** The AEO tool. She likes its simple view of prompts and brand mentions in AI, while acknowledging how quickly that environment changes. **What Career Advice Does She Give?** Blend guidance from others with trusting your gut. She recommends finding your footing and developing business acumen while recognizing there's no single right career path. ## About the Guest Jessica Palmeri is Director of HubSpot Training at IMPACT, a coaching and training company, and a HubSpot certified trainer. She joined IMPACT in 2019. Her early experience managing an agency-built portal informs her goal of helping clients become independent in HubSpot. Find [Jessica on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpalmeri/) or visit [her IMPACT team page](https://www.impactplus.com/team/jessica-palmeri). ## Take Action Now - **Ask about resistance before training.** Have senior leaders name likely problems and the humans who may push back. - **Listen for what's underneath an objection.** Use Jessica's example to explore whether a process change brings up worries about commissions, quotas, or pride in work. - **Name a problem you could own.** Jessica finds empowerment in taking a crack at work others have put off. ## Key facts - **Format:** Women of HubSpot - **Author:** George B. Thomas - **Published:** November 13, 2026 --- Source: https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/women-of-hubspot/women-of-hubspot-jessica-palmeri-charm-and-disarm-empathy Sidekick Strategies ยท HubSpot consulting and content operations