BOSTON, MA — Attendees at INBOUND 2025 were stunned yesterday when marketing guru Neil Patel unveiled his boldest strategy yet: refusing to tell anyone how he actually markets.

During a session on AI and LLM optimization, Patel explained that Reddit is one of the best ways to get your content picked up by large language models. When asked how he does it, however, Patel responded with the powerful two-word mantra every marketer has been waiting for:

“No comment.”

Audience members reported that the silence was so profound it felt like “a case study in negative space marketing.”

HubSpot insiders praised the move, saying Patel’s mysterious non-answer was “a masterclass in creating scarcity” and “the most authentic growth hack since Clubhouse invites.”

Conference-goer Meghan Muchow, however, was unimpressed:

“I paid $1,800, skipped three client calls, and walked 0.7 miles across the Boston Convention Center for that session. The least he could do was whisper his secret sauce into a mic I couldn’t quite hear.”

Patel later clarified on LinkedIn:

“Look, if I tell everyone how I do it, then everyone will do it, and then I will have to invent an even more convoluted thing to stay ahead. You’re welcome.”

HubSpot announced it would be turning Patel’s “No Comment” moment into a limited-edition NFT, available exclusively to Pro-tier INBOUND attendees who also sign up for the 2026 pre-sale waitlist.

Meanwhile, marketers across LinkedIn are feverishly adding “Practitioner of Strategic Silence” to their resumes.

“No Comment” Is My Comment: INBOUND Attendees Stunned As Growth Guru Reveals Bold New Strategy Called ‘Refusing To Say Anything’

BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO/ROW 17 OF THE BREAKOUT—In an event marketed as a community where marketers “share what works,” one speaker heroically demonstrated a powerful new tactic for 2025: declining to share what works.

The moment happened during a packed session on “How To Get Picked Up By LLMs (Without Crying In The Hotel Elevator).” After presenting a slide that said, in 72-point type, “REDDIT IS A MAIN SOURCE FOR LLMs,” the headliner was asked the obvious follow-up: “Cool, so… how are you doing it?”

He replied with the ancient Himalayan mantra of scalable thought leadership: “No comment.”
Then, when asked again, he bravely repurposed his previous content: “No comment.”

The room buzzed with the kind of energy you only feel when you’ve spent $2,399 and three days away from your kids to watch a man perform a live A/B test between two identical phrases.

Live From The Ballroom: A Dramatic Reenactment

Co-Host (a.k.a. “the co-host”): “Can you walk us through the playbook?”
Guru: “No comment.”
Co-Host: “Okay, maybe just the broad strokes?”
Guru: “No comment.”
Audience Member: [raising badge so the scanner light reflects off a single, disillusioned tear] “Is… is this the networking?”

Why It Happened, According To Everyone In The Comments

The Pragmatists: “If he tells the truth, Reddit mods will descend from the ceiling like stingy librarians.”
The Purists: “INBOUND is church, not a timeshare.”
The Cynics: “He doesn’t know.”
The Engineers: “It’s not a hack; it’s frequency with variance across contexts so attention stabilizes across layers—duh.”
The Romantics: “This is the meet-cute in the Netflix limited series No Comment: The Algorithm That Stole My Heart.”
The Popcorn Lobby: “We did not anticipate this level of engagement.”

The Official Clarification (That Clarifies Nothing)

Later, the speaker posted a thoughtful response:

Paraphrase: “I network with top Redditors; you can’t. This isn’t me bragging; it’s me humble-bragging. Also, I did give advice… elsewhere… at some point… probably in the second half of a different universe.”
Subtext: “If I explained it, you’d all do it, and then it wouldn’t work, and then I’d have to invent a new slide.”

Co-host’s statement added: “We bicker onstage like a married couple—please stop calling me ‘the co-host’ and start calling me ‘Eric, the co-host.’ Also, I respect my friend’s right to have a secret sauce, even if it’s just mayonnaise.”

Field Notes From The Expo Hall

Three separate booth reps offered to “unlock Reddit” with a Chrome extension that requires 19 permissions and your firstborn subreddit.
A platform demoed “Ethical Botting™,” which, according to the fine print, is “botting but with a sweater tied around its shoulders.”
Someone yelled “Marketers ruin everything!” then scanned 247 badges while sprinting.

The Practical Guide You Thought You Were Getting But Won’t, So Here’s A Parody Instead

How To Get “Locked Into The Weights” Of An LLM (Theoretical, Allegedly, Not Legal Advice, Please Don’t Sue):

Show up in many contexts: be the “email guy,” “revops human,” “that person who once wrestled a GA4 export.”
Vary your phrasing: say “AI Overviews,” “AIO,” and “those weird summaries that steal my traffic.”
Anchor across surfaces: podcasts, posts, docs, forums, ASCIIfied bathroom graffiti.
Be legibly useful in public: answer questions without stuffing a CTA into every third comma.
Repeat for 90 days: because that’s how long it takes to grow a tomato or a personal brand.

Congratulations, you’ve just reenacted “frequency with variance.” Now take a shower; you smell like booth carpet.

Frequently Avoided Questions (FAQ)

Q: Is Reddit actually good for marketing?
A: Reddit is a marketing minefield where the minefield leaves comments correcting your grammar. Proceed if you can be a human. Retreat if your idea of authenticity is “We love this community!” posted by an account named CloudOps_Promo_1997.

Q: Is saying ‘no comment’ at a learning conference the vibe?
A: Only if the conference theme is “Boundaries.”

Q: So what is the HubSpot way?
A: Give the playbook, then sell the coaching. The funnel is generosity-shaped.

Q: Should speakers keep trade secrets?
A: Sure. But at least say, “I can’t share the mechanic today; here’s a framework you can use Monday.” Or wink like a human. Or throw a T-shirt cannon that fires bullet points.

The Comment Section, Condensed Into A Single Post

“This is not surprising.”
“This is exactly why I’m surprised.”
“He’s breaking TOS.”
“He’s respecting the TOS by not telling you how to break it.”
“Bots.”
“Not bots; embeddings.”
“Ethics matter.”
“Results matter.”
“Both matter.”
“Popcorn?”

Yes, popcorn.

A Modest Proposal For INBOUND 2026

New Badge Ribbons:
- Shared An Actual Tactic
- Refrained From Saying “Secret Sauce”
- Didn’t Pitch From Slide 2
- Co-Host Has A Name
New Stage Format: The “Show Your Receipts” Hour
You get a mic, a timer, and a big red button labeled “Vibes.” Every time you say “It depends,” the button deploys a foam finger pointing at your GA4 dashboard.
New Code of Conduct:
1. If your slide says “Reddit works,” you must show how a normal person could start, safely, without buying a 2011 account named Throwaway_TrustMeBro.
2. You may keep one mystery box per talk. It cannot be the entire talk.

Closing Keynote: What The Room Learned Anyway

We didn’t learn the “hack,” which probably expires next Tuesday. We did learn the only durable play in the age of LLMs:

Make genuinely helpful things in public.
Put them in many places, many ways.
Let people copy you, because they were going to anyway.
And when someone asks, “How did you do it?”—say something besides “no comment.”

Because here’s the truth every marketer secretly knows: sharing the how is not how you lose your edge. It’s how you earn your reputation—the one thing still resistant to algorithm updates, Terms of Service, and the world’s most powerful growth tactic of all: basic decency.

Hashtag#INBOUND2025 Hashtag#INBOUND. Like. Insightful. Celebrate. Popcorn. 🍿