October 3, 2023 • 29 mins
In this unique episode, Josh catches up with Dreamforce attendees at Yerba Buena Park for their take on Dreamforce, biggest aha's, the best career advice they've ever received and goals for leveraging Salesforce within their own org.
Ever wondered how to leverage Salesforce capabilities and build strong relationships in the workplace? Join us as we bring you the voices from Dreamforce that hold the answers. We get up close and personal with Golden Hoodie awardee Michelle Hansen, who shares her top career advice. Charles Hopkins of Direct TV dissects the product manager role at Salesforce. Chris Clement, Vice President at Erie Home, talks about fostering effective partnerships. Job Ochenghe from Alliance Laundry Systems, Dawn Glover from PACE Industries, and Xavier Emery from Apicero also step into the conversation, revealing career insights and more.
Prepare to be intrigued by Daryl, a Salesforce Account Executive, as he uncovers the complex challenges of finding partners who truly comprehend the healthcare industry's intricacies. As we delve deeper, Xavier Emery spotlights the significance of relationship-building and its impact on your career. Job introduces us to some thought-provoking interview questions and we explore the uphill task of recruiting top Salesforce talent. Packed with an abundance of knowledge, the conversation ultimately leads to an inspiring message. So, tune in and let the spark of learning ignite!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Announcer (00:02):
And now the number one audio program that helps you
to hire, get hired and soarhigher in the Salesforce
ecosystem.
It's the Salesforce career showwith Josh Matthews and Vanessa
Grant.
Josh Matthews (00:21):
Welcome everybody to the Salesforce career show.
This is your host, joshMatthews, and it's just me today
.
This is a special episode andit was recorded live at
Dreamforce.
Now we had a live episode airedjust about two or three weeks
ago I think it was two weeks agowith some of the folks over at
Cercante.
This one's a little bitdifferent.
(00:41):
I found myself with all of mypodcast gear and microphones
roaming around Yerba Buena Parkduring Dreamforce and then also
over at the Marconi Center, andI had a chance to talk to six or
seven folks and ask them somegeneral questions like what's
been the biggest surprise youfound here at Dreamforce or
what's the best career adviceyou've ever received, and they
(01:03):
also share with us some of theircurrent hiring challenges and
even how customers and partnerscan work better together.
Our guests include GoldenHoodie Michelle Hansen, who
shares her top career advice,charles Hopkins, who's the
product manager for Salesforcefor Direct TV.
Chris Clement, who's vicepresident at Erie Home Erie Home
(01:24):
is actually the largestre-roofing company in the
country and he is head oftechnology.
We also got a chance to say hiagain later on that day.
Over at the at the CigarShindig we have Job Ochenghe,
who is senior director of IT atAlliance Laundry Systems, don
Glover, who's a business analystat PACE Industries, and we
(01:44):
finish up the conversation withXavier sorry, xavier Emery from
Apicero, who's associatedirector of marketing.
Now, the folks that we talk toaren't necessarily in this order
.
It's not a very long episode.
I definitely recommend youlisten to the whole thing and
stick around for a message aboutwhat we've got coming up at the
very end of this episode.
And here we go.
(02:06):
What's your name?
Michelle Hansen (02:11):
Michelle Hansen .
Josh Matthews (02:12):
And Michelle, how are you enjoying Dreamforce so
far?
Michelle Hansen (02:15):
This is one of my favorite events of the year.
It's been a great week so far.
Josh Matthews (02:18):
And has there been a highlight?
Michelle Hansen (02:21):
I would absolutely have to say that
seeing all of my old friends andmeetings and new ones has been
the highlight.
Like, the content is great,everything that you can do here
is great, but the people areabsolutely the best thing about
it.
Josh Matthews (02:32):
You got that right.
That's for real.
Michelle Hansen (02:34):
I have had some great first time conversations,
ran into a couple people in theelevator that were getting
ready for their first cert exam,was able to share some wisdom
from the attempts that I've madebefore and I actually connected
both of them and LinkedIn,found out that both of them took
those tips, used them, passedtheir exams on the first try.
Josh Matthews (02:49):
Good job.
That's awesome.
That always feels good.
I've got to ask you if therewas one thing, or even two or
ten.
It's up to you, one little bitof advice that you give to
people who are already in theircareer, not trying to get into
the Salesforce, but they'realready in their career at any
level.
What do you think is the numberone thing that you would share,
to have them keep in mind, tosupport them through their
(03:10):
journey?
Michelle Hansen (03:11):
It's an always keep learning, and by learning I
actually mean two things Like.
One is the actual technical andthe soft skills that go around
it, so don't ever think that youknow enough and you're done
with the learning.
But it's also learning aboutpeople building those
relationships, continuing tobuild that network.
I cannot tell you how manytimes I've been introduced to a
new piece of the technology onthe platform or something that's
(03:33):
related, like Agile and Scrum,and it's the people in my
network that I've been able toturn to for support and insight
that have really made thedifference in my career.
So I lump both those under justalways keep learning.
Charles Hopkins (03:46):
Hi, I'm Charles Hopkins.
I work for Direct TV.
I'm a product manager for ourown branded version of customer
360.
Josh Matthews (03:52):
Oh, terrific.
And do you have product ownersunder you or are you managing
everything yourself?
Charles Hopkins (03:56):
I manage all of our sales and marketing
application.
We just moved to the Salesforceecosystem so we're kind of at
the ground level building up.
Josh Matthews (04:04):
Well, congratulations on that.
Is this your first dreamforceexperience?
This is absolutely my firstdreamforce.
What's been the biggestsurprise so far?
Charles Hopkins (04:13):
Just the amount of information and it's just
like data overload.
I'm mentally just exhausted atthis point, but still super
excited about everything thatI've learned.
Josh Matthews (04:24):
Yeah, it's like you got to go home and now read
all the blogs about the sessions.
Right To remember.
Charles Hopkins (04:29):
Yeah, it's.
You know, I've got just pagesof notes and pages of you know
to-dos from this and I just hopeI can decipher all my notes
because there's just a massiveamount.
Josh Matthews (04:39):
Maybe AI can help you with that, yeah.
Charles Hopkins (04:42):
I mean, that's the.
If there's one theme, that'swhat it is this year.
Josh Matthews (04:46):
It sure is.
You know I write terrible notes, but then I put it into AI and
it makes you know.
90% of it makes sense, unlikemy Dr Scribble.
Charles Hopkins (04:54):
Yeah, you know, like I said, we're just really
starting on the whole ecosystem,and so we're coming in at such
an amazing time and trying tofigure out how to leverage all
of these capabilities for usfrom first time users.
It's, you know, it's superexciting.
It's a daunting experience, butit can't wait to get back and
put some of this into action.
Josh Matthews (05:14):
I'm excited for you, man, so let me ask you
what's the best career advicethat anybody ever gave you?
Charles Hopkins (05:25):
Take your knowledge gaining into your own
hands, jump on trailheadimmediately.
Even if you're not part of thefamily yet, there's so much
curated knowledge informationout there that you can get into
and work toward those firstcertifications and get to
Dreamforce, go to TDX, go to allof these events and really,
just you know, immerse yourselfand talk to your peers network.
(05:45):
There's just so muchinformation out here and people
are super willing to help.
Josh Matthews (05:49):
They sure are.
I'm kind of curious when youlook at bringing people onto
your team right, what's thebiggest challenge for
identifying top talent?
Charles Hopkins (05:59):
I don't know what's the challenge.
What you're looking for issomeone who can think outside of
the box and get away from thetraditional kind of IT product
waterfall approach.
You know we had to.
You had to get super agile andyou had to embrace, you know,
safe and you had to move awayfrom that old, you know nine
month long roadmap that you needto get to, and so finding
(06:21):
people that are willing toembrace that and take the risk
to fail fast I think that'sthat's the key piece.
Josh Matthews (06:26):
That's agile.
Charles Hopkins (06:27):
Yeah, absolutely yeah, and we know,
and again, with our move toSalesforce we're moving to a
really agile kind of safeframework, and so you know you
have to do that, especially in abusiness where the direct TV is
in.
You know it's a it's adeclining market and you have to
make sure that you're able tokeep up with changes and turn on
a dime, and that gives us theability to do that you do and
(06:49):
just so you know I'm a customer.
Great, yeah, we need.
We need as many as we can getwhen we're out here.
We've got a great partnershipwith Slack that we're kind of.
You know we're part of thekeynotes here.
We're really trying to leverageall of what Salesforce gives us
to make that customerexperience delightful, to make
our agent experience delightful,and it's such a great tool.
Josh Matthews (07:08):
It sure is.
Now.
This is a question I like toask sometimes.
If you could hire anybody rightnow, like if you could just
push a button and the perfectperson showed up to support you
with what you're, what you'redoing at direct TV right now,
what would that role be?
Charles Hopkins (07:24):
Someone who understood the Salesforce
environment, someone whounderstood the automation tools,
the ability to take complexprocesses and turn them into a
flow, and someone who couldleverage the new Einstein, ai
and GPT functions to really justtransform that entire
experience.
Josh Matthews (07:43):
Thank you so much , Charles.
Charles Hopkins (07:44):
Absolutely have a good one.
Josh Matthews (07:46):
Next we're joined by Chris Clement from Erie Home
.
What's the biggest surprisethat you've had so far?
Dream for us.
Chris Clement (07:53):
Biggest surprise is just the amount of AI
availability in a productionstate.
Didn't realize it was going tobe ready this quickly and
because we're in a pretty goodshop from our technology stack
perspective and our data isclean, we'll be able to start
taking advantage of this AI,hopefully within the next couple
months.
Josh Matthews (08:09):
I'm so glad for you with for that and tell me
your company name again please.
Chris Clement (08:13):
Company is Erie Home and it's out of Toledo,
ohio, and we're the largestre-roofing company in the
country, with over 70 locations.
Josh Matthews (08:22):
And what's the best career advice you've ever
received?
Chris Clement (08:25):
Best career advice I've received is to not
necessarily silo any onetechnology.
Because of my role being moreof a broad strategist, if you
will, or architect, if you willyou know, keeping your eyes open
across multiple platforms andtrying to understand how all
(08:47):
those platforms work together isthe best advice I've gotten,
versus being siloed with justone.
Josh Matthews (08:54):
Makes sense to me .
What advice would you seek toaccelerate your career even
further than it's?
Chris Clement (08:59):
gone so far.
I would be, I guess, mostinterested in hearing you know,
helping me understand what'spossible, and somebody that has
maybe deployed platforms overdifferent industries, who's kind
of been there and done thatjust to see how it could relate
back to either my industry thatI'm in or other industries.
But just having that globalholistic approach across
(09:23):
industry is what I think wouldbe most helpful for me in my
career journey.
Josh Matthews (09:28):
I imagine you're a hiring manager.
You have a team.
Chris Clement (09:31):
I do have a team and I roughly 20 individuals on
my team within IT.
Josh Matthews (09:36):
And what is the biggest challenge in bringing on
top talent for yourself?
Chris Clement (09:41):
We're a company that still is all on site.
We've never been hybrid, otherthan the times that had to be
during COVID, and so findingtalented Salesforce people in
Toledo, ohio is a challenge.
So because we do like to workwith them on site.
But so now we're starting toget our leadership to understand
(10:04):
that we, for these skilledpositions, have to look abroad
and start looking to remoteworkforce for specific key
skilled roles, and we're findingthat we have kind of tapped the
market that we're in and we nowneed to start going abroad and
I don't mean abroad as in, awayfrom the United States, but just
looking to have people in amore remote capacity.
Josh Matthews (10:26):
Yeah, it's a serious challenge, especially
for larger companies that are inthe trade industry.
It's just something thatthey're not really used to, and
convincing leadership to move toa remote for specific roles
it's a serious challenge.
Chris Clement (10:40):
Yeah, definitely, and that's my biggest concern
is because the work is endless.
The business wants to continueto take advantage of all these
great capabilities, of theseplatforms we've implemented,
along with all of this awesomedata, but the requests are
coming in too fast for us toeven keep up with.
And and how do you prioritizeand staff accordingly?
And really, where is the focusand what should be, should we be
(11:04):
working on to have the highestimpact in the business?
Still also needs to beunderstood at the leadership
level to help direct these workstreams and work the workforce.
But this problem is not goingto be ending anytime soon.
I know I'm going to always havethis challenge of having the
right staffing levels internallyas well as the right external
(11:26):
staffing levels by leveragingpartners and things like that.
Josh Matthews (11:30):
That's a really you know, it's a common thing
that you're experiencing rightnow.
I'm kind of curious if youcould hire anybody right now,
like boom, they showed up onMonday ready to rock.
What title would that be?
Chris Clement (11:42):
You know it's funny you're asking that
question because I'm strugglingwith that title myself Right now
.
It's a what I would say more ofa business analyst, but with
more leaning towards thetechnology understanding.
So a business analyst that mayhave implemented Salesforce,
like in a call center, forexample, or is closer to the
(12:03):
business side not necessarilythe technical side of Salesforce
and finding people that havegood technical skill sets, that
can work with functional leaders, functional SMEs and convey
those requirements to a teamthat is technical in nature,
that can actually conduct thework, that is a key role for us
and not an easy role to fill.
Josh Matthews (12:25):
Yeah, not, maybe not in Toledo, right, you know
it's definitely a challenge.
It sounds to me almost like abusiness analyst, but someone
who's possibly been a leadconsultant or is on track for
solution architect, that kind ofperson.
Chris Clement (12:38):
That kind of role , exactly, yeah, that would.
If I could have somebody nextweek doing that, that'd be great
.
Josh Matthews (12:43):
Okay, well, I have people, so give me a call
after this, okay?
All right, Chris, it's apleasure to talk to you.
Thanks so much for taking a fewminutes and I hope that you
have a terrific rest of theDreamforce.
Chris Clement (12:54):
Thank you Very nice to meet you as well.
Daryl Sanford (12:55):
Thanks, Hi Darrell Samford.
I'm an account executive withSalesforce Again.
How long have you?
Josh Matthews (13:01):
been in AE for.
About two years now Were you insoftware sales.
Daryl Sanford (13:06):
before that, I was yeah, I was in the
electronic medical recordbusiness before coming over to
Salesforce.
Josh Matthews (13:12):
Okay, and so do you focus on health and life
sciences.
Daryl Sanford (13:15):
I do yep Healthcare specifically for
about 15 years now.
Josh Matthews (13:19):
Good for you.
I was just at the Life SciencesDreaming event down in Fort
Lauderdale, so tell me, what doyou think is the biggest
challenge in identifyingpartners and partner, sorry, not
partner well, yeah, partners,partners needs, like.
How do you, how do you choosethe right partner to recommend
to your clients?
Daryl Sanford (13:37):
Yeah, I think the the important part is to find
people that are versed in theindustry.
So I think every industry is alittle bit unique, healthcare
especially.
There's a lot of niche partnersthat are out there that focus
exclusively, and I just think ithelps to take the best of what
works for other industries, butyou've got to have a specific
focus on healthcare.
It has unique challenges, ithas regulatory aspects.
(13:58):
So I look for kind of that mixof kind of what's your
experience within the industryto recommend partners.
Josh Matthews (14:06):
And what's the number one bit of advice that
you would give to your customersto be able to work well with
the partners that they choose?
Daryl Sanford (14:14):
Yeah, I think the the important thing is really
to just set the goals andexpectations.
I think you've got to.
You've got to be able todelicate what you want done from
the partner, but you've got togive them a little bit of leeway
to work the way they like towork and the way that works well
for them with other customers,and that's hard.
I think it takes a little bitof trust to find the right
(14:34):
partner that will work withinthere.
But I think if you just focuson the goals and outcomes of
what you want with theengagement, let that be known,
get it in writing and then letthe partner perform the way they
want to perform.
Josh Matthews (14:46):
Well, that makes perfect sense to me, my friend,
absolutely, when you think aboutthe future of healthcare and
sales force.
I mean, certainly we'relearning a lot about it.
This week, and I'm sure thatyou know the organization has
been prepping you all week onnew things that are coming out
and this kind of thing.
What's the what's the bitthat's most exciting for you?
Daryl Sanford (15:05):
Oh well, I think.
Of course, though, a big focusfor the whole event has been
around AI.
I think AI is very exciting,but at the same time again, with
healthcare there's there's risk, and that's what I think.
The trust aspect of AI iscrucial, and that's what I'm
really excited about.
Sales forces focus on trust.
I think that's a piece that'sso important to healthcare.
(15:26):
You trust your doctor, youtrust your health insurer.
You have to trust the AI ifit's going to help, and, believe
me, we need the help.
Healthcare needs AI, I think,more than any other industry,
but it's got to be done in theright way, and I think that's
the exciting part of where we'reat.
Josh Matthews (15:42):
Yeah, very good, I couldn't agree more.
I'm just going to ask you aweird one what's the weirdest
interview question you've everbeen asked?
Daryl Sanford (15:49):
Wow, the weirdest interview question.
Oh yeah, one of them recently.
Well, it wasn't that recent,but somebody asked what upsets
you?
That was it what upsets you?
And they were they're kind oflooking for like a quick
response or just being able tothink on your feet.
But it took me back because I'mkind of like what upsets?
(16:12):
Like?
I don't want to be negative, Idon't want to talk about
something that I so it reallygave me, gave me pause, I had to
think about that one prettyhard and and ultimately they
were.
They didn't really care whatupseted me, they just wanted to
know how can I think on my feet?
How do I come up with aresponse to a question I wasn't
ready for?
Josh Matthews (16:27):
Well, you're sitting on this little little
stool out here in Yerba BuenaPark eating lunch and I'm
throwing some questions at youand you're doing just fine, so I
can tell you got the job.
Daryl Sanford (16:38):
Yeah, I did ultimately get the job Exactly.
That's why practice makesperfect Practice interviewing,
and you'll be good at it.
Josh Matthews (16:44):
It does.
If there was any bit of careeradvice that you would be seeking
in the next say, you know sixmonths to five years, what?
What's the thing that you wouldwant to know to help you
accelerate and grow your career?
Daryl Sanford (16:57):
Wow.
I think I'd say the interestingthing is really about finding
out what your personal goals are, and that's something that I
think has evolved over time foreach person.
But a lot of times we look atthe industry, we look at the job
, we look at these differentthings and we don't stop and
think about what's my personalgoal?
What am I after?
Is it more money?
(17:17):
Is it recognition?
Is it leadership?
Because those things don't allmap the same way, especially as
you grow in your career.
So I think it's about justfocusing on what's important to
you and then be able to alignthat with the right career in
the right industry.
Josh Matthews (17:32):
Darrell, thank you so much.
I appreciate you chatting withme today.
Daryl Sanford (17:36):
Yeah, no problem, thanks, josh.
Josh Matthews (17:38):
Okay, what's your name and what do you do?
Don Yadda Glover (17:41):
My name is Don Yadda Glover, but everyone
calls me Don.
I work for a custommanufacturing company.
We are a high pressure diecasting company, so we make
custom metal parts for HarleyDavidson, Weber GMC.
Josh Matthews (17:57):
A terrific.
Is this your very first dreamfor us?
Don Yadda Glover (18:00):
Yes, I'm a business analyst for them, sorry
.
Josh Matthews (18:04):
OK, terrific.
And then what's been thebiggest surprise about this
event so far?
Don Yadda Glover (18:08):
The biggest surprise was definitely for me.
It was tab tablood gestures.
I thought that was really cool.
Josh Matthews (18:19):
So it's something you think you can use in your
work pretty immediately,potentially.
Don Yadda Glover (18:23):
Definitely.
I know that I could use it.
Our executives would love touse it.
It's really cool.
Josh Matthews (18:28):
Excellent.
Well, it's nice that they sentyou out here for sure.
Let me ask you this what's thebest career advice that anybody
ever gave you?
Don Yadda Glover (18:37):
The best career advice that anyone ever
gave me is probably to just hangin there and go with the flow,
keep adapting, keep learning andalways just go the extra mile.
Josh Matthews (18:49):
You know, it's good to hear they say that
adaptability is the number onething that most employers are
looking for.
It's the, it's the it's thetrait that's in highest demand
in the ecosystem right now,because I think people are
dealing with shorter staffs orsmaller staffs and people have
to wear more hats, which meanswe have to change.
And then, of course, with AIand everything else that's going
on, we've got to.
(19:09):
Like you know, everyone's doingflows, then they're not.
Now they're doing this and thenthey're doing that.
Right.
Don Yadda Glover (19:14):
Yeah, definitely.
I actually also served in themilitary and that was just the
first skill that I learned andit's been helpful throughout my
career.
Josh Matthews (19:22):
Well, thanks for your service.
You know we had a special inJuly right around.
We did it on July 5th and I hadDavid Navar he's a golden
hoodie and he was on the showand so we've got two episodes on
the podcast that are dedicatedjust to military, so feel free
to check those out.
My name is.
Job Ochieng (19:37):
Joe Bucing.
I'm the senior director of ITfor Alliance Laundry Systems,
based out of Wisconsin.
And is this your first dreamforce?
This?
Josh Matthews (19:46):
is my first dream force, and what's been the most
Well, what's been the biggestsurprise so far?
Job Ochieng (19:53):
I think the biggest surprise for me is just
understanding Salesforce alittle bit more and just how we
can use it in an environmentlike ours that has a lot of
different applications and thatare standalone right now.
But what we can be able to doto actually bring the business
together, bring the applicationstogether to be able to make our
(20:16):
practices more efficient andhave the information at the
fingertips of our executiveleaders.
Josh Matthews (20:22):
Yeah, efficiency, ai, customer 360, pulling,
everything together, yeah,exactly.
Job Ochieng (20:28):
And I think from the customer 360, I also liked a
little bit about themanufacturing 360, which also
touches on sales, touches onmanufacturing, you know, touches
on so many processes that we'vebeen talking about wanting to
bring together.
Josh Matthews (20:42):
Let me ask you this what's the best career
advice anyone ever gave you?
Build relationships.
Job Ochieng (20:47):
That's one thing that I was told very early on in
my career and I've seen thathappen, even just when you
partner, have strategic partnersthat you build relationships
with, and what do you think isthe key to building
relationships?
Josh Matthews (21:00):
Be open, just be open-minded.
Job Ochieng (21:03):
Give people a chance to hear what they have to
bring.
So when you go into a place,remove all the preconceived
ideas.
Have an open mind to see whatthe other person has to say.
Joe, that's terrific advice.
Josh Matthews (21:15):
What's the weirdest interview question
anybody ever asked you?
I think, when they ask me likewhat are?
Job Ochieng (21:22):
my strength and weaknesses.
I don't think anybody ever goesto the mirror and sees.
You know what is strength andweaknesses.
You need relationships aroundyou that can tell you what your
blind spots are.
Those are the people who cantell you what your weaknesses
are.
Strengths are normally what yougravitate to and what you're
good at.
If there is something that youwould like to know, that would
help accelerate your career.
Josh Matthews (21:41):
It sounds like you're having a great career
already, and so congratulationson that.
But if there was one thing youknow, one question that you
would ask a top recruiter or acareer coach, what would you
want to know?
Job Ochieng (21:55):
What is some of the things that the companies that
would hire somebody that can belooking for and what can I do to
be able to allow myself to beattracted to those careers or
those industries ororganizations?
Josh Matthews (22:10):
Yeah, it's a great question and of course I
guess it would depend on whatyour job is and who you are and
these sorts of things.
We never want to tailorourselves to a company.
We want to find the companiesthat we're already tailor made
for.
Does that make sense?
Job Ochieng (22:24):
Yes, that makes absolute sense.
For example, in the informationtechnology space, I'm not going
to fit in every company, andevery company is not going to
want somebody like me.
There's different parts that wehave to look at, and we also
have to look at what do we bringto the table to the company?
What does the company bring tome that can actually bring the
best out of me too?
Josh Matthews (22:43):
What's the biggest challenge that you and
your organization are facing forbringing on top Salesforce
talent?
Job Ochieng (22:49):
I think the biggest challenge right now we're
facing is understanding thatintegration is key.
Right now you have a lot ofstand-alone silos and people are
not understanding it.
If you bring everythingtogether, there's so much wealth
in working together as anorganization.
Josh Matthews (23:05):
And so when you do need to bring people on board
, are you able to find themfairly easily, or is it quite a
challenge?
Job Ochieng (23:11):
It's been challenging because when you
work for an organization thathas a little bit of legacy stuff
and you're finding people outthere who've moved their skill
sets to the next best thing,nobody wants to look backwards,
everybody's looking for theforefront.
Xavier Emery (23:26):
Hey, I'm Xavier Emery.
I'm the marketing lead forIPCero, an entity data company,
and we are a sponsor here atDreamforce and we are a
Salesforce partner for all theSalesforce product integration
and we also have with our IPCerocompany.
We are an expert in mule softintegrations.
Josh Matthews (23:47):
Tell me what's the biggest surprise or your
biggest takeaway from Dreamforcethis year.
Xavier Emery (23:53):
I think.
Well, obviously it was allabout AI, and I don't think that
was a surprise, because we knewwhere it was coming.
I think what's interesting isthe way Salesforce is tackling
the subjects.
It's not about making us dreamof some kind of a future with
robots that would just controlus.
(24:13):
I think it was kind of like areality check what is AI today?
Where are we at?
And I can only make sure thatit serves a purpose and that it
can be very helpful for yourcompanies, while maintaining a
high level of trust,confidentiality and data
security.
So I think Salesforce isleading a good battle here,
(24:39):
because a lot of people are justhappy that we have some shiny
AI technologies out there, butthey don't really worry about
what bias it could bring to ourcompanies or our societies.
Josh Matthews (24:52):
Yeah, it's not a world robot takeover.
We're not Terminator quite yet,are we?
Xavier Emery (24:56):
No, I don't think so.
Josh Matthews (24:58):
Okay, what's the best career advice anybody ever
gave you?
Xavier Emery (25:02):
To pay attention to people.
When you meet people, remembertheir name, remember their face,
remember what they do andnetwork all the time, not just
when you need it.
And I think that in today'sworld, that's key, because
that's where you're going tofind mentors, that's where
you're going to find role modelsto follow.
(25:23):
And also, yeah, when toughtimes happens, when you are a
little lost or when you'relooking for new opportunities,
those people are the ones thatwill bring you to the next level
.
So, yeah, pay attention to thepeople you meet.
And in the world today where weare all some people working
from home it's more remote andsuch.
(25:44):
I think it's even moreimportant.
And actually an event likeDreamforce is actually the best
place to connect with peoplethat you might be following on
social media all year long, youmight have never met in person
before, and suddenly they arehere and you can actually engage
in meaningful conversation andcreate those human being bonds.
So, in the world of AI, I thinkthat's probably the best advice
(26:07):
I was given.
Josh Matthews (26:08):
If you could hire one person, just press a button
and magically have a new personon your staff to help you.
What would they do?
Xavier Emery (26:17):
Well, that's funny .
In the world of AI, that personwould be, for me, a content
person, a copywriter, someonewho has an understanding of how
technical things are in ourspace and can write it in an
appealing way to allstakeholders.
And I know that there is a lotof discussions about replacing
(26:39):
these people by AI and I thinkthat, in some ways, do's
technologies will help news copywriters and news creative
people in general to maybe likefacilitate some kind of
brainstorming steps on how tostructure whatever they are
creating.
But at the end of the day, thathuman touch, that's those brain
(27:01):
connections that make it theright story for the right people
.
I believe in these people andright now in my team I don't
have that person.
So that would be that person acreative person.
I think creativity is what'smissing, especially in
enterprise software.
It's technical, right, but atthe end of the day and I think
(27:22):
Salesforce is amazing in thatway that they manage to bring
all those characters and allthat culture around the software
it's not just about software.
People are not coming toDreamforce just to talk about
the last text, right?
They're also here to take apicture with Astro.
Josh Matthews (27:40):
I got mine done yesterday or two days ago.
Xavier Emery (27:42):
Yeah, I mean I just got Jeannie that I missed
last year and I saw Zigg DeZebra yesterday, so I'm all set.
Josh Matthews (27:49):
Terrific.
Hey, thank you so much for yourtime.
I really appreciate it.
Xavier Emery (27:52):
Thank you.
Josh Matthews (27:54):
Thanks again, everybody, for tuning in and
catching this very special liveepisode of the Salesforce career
show.
Next week we will be joined bynone other than Vanessa Grant,
our very own, and Vanessa isgoing to be doing something
special.
In fact, she'll be sharing thedo's and don'ts to help you find
your place in the Salesforceecosystem.
(28:14):
This comes from one of herDreamforce presentations and
it's a presentation I believeshe's given elsewhere as well.
It's going to be reallyinteresting and we're confident
it's going to help spark someinterest and likely some
direction to help you have asuccessful career.
So if you've never been to ourlive broadcast, you can join us
every other Wednesday, and thatis at 230 Pacific, 530 Eastern,
(28:40):
on Twitter or X.
Okay, if you want to stay intune with how to follow them,
check out at the Josh force.
That's my tag, my handle andall announcements are going to
be there.
Okay, thanks so much, everybody.
Have a wonderful day and thanksfor tuning in as usual.
Bye for now.
And now the number one audio program that helps you
to hire, get hired and soarhigher in the Salesforce
ecosystem.
It's the Salesforce career showwith Josh Matthews and Vanessa
Grant.
Josh Matthews (00:21):
Welcome everybody to the Salesforce career show.
This is your host, joshMatthews, and it's just me today
.
This is a special episode andit was recorded live at
Dreamforce.
Now we had a live episode airedjust about two or three weeks
ago I think it was two weeks agowith some of the folks over at
Cercante.
This one's a little bitdifferent.
(00:41):
I found myself with all of mypodcast gear and microphones
roaming around Yerba Buena Parkduring Dreamforce and then also
over at the Marconi Center, andI had a chance to talk to six or
seven folks and ask them somegeneral questions like what's
been the biggest surprise youfound here at Dreamforce or
what's the best career adviceyou've ever received, and they
(01:03):
also share with us some of theircurrent hiring challenges and
even how customers and partnerscan work better together.
Our guests include GoldenHoodie Michelle Hansen, who
shares her top career advice,charles Hopkins, who's the
product manager for Salesforcefor Direct TV.
Chris Clement, who's vicepresident at Erie Home Erie Home
(01:24):
is actually the largestre-roofing company in the
country and he is head oftechnology.
We also got a chance to say hiagain later on that day.
Over at the at the CigarShindig we have Job Ochenghe,
who is senior director of IT atAlliance Laundry Systems, don
Glover, who's a business analystat PACE Industries, and we
(01:44):
finish up the conversation withXavier sorry, xavier Emery from
Apicero, who's associatedirector of marketing.
Now, the folks that we talk toaren't necessarily in this order
.
It's not a very long episode.
I definitely recommend youlisten to the whole thing and
stick around for a message aboutwhat we've got coming up at the
very end of this episode.
And here we go.
(02:06):
What's your name?
Michelle Hansen (02:11):
Michelle Hansen .
Josh Matthews (02:12):
And Michelle, how are you enjoying Dreamforce so
far?
Michelle Hansen (02:15):
This is one of my favorite events of the year.
It's been a great week so far.
Josh Matthews (02:18):
And has there been a highlight?
Michelle Hansen (02:21):
I would absolutely have to say that
seeing all of my old friends andmeetings and new ones has been
the highlight.
Like, the content is great,everything that you can do here
is great, but the people areabsolutely the best thing about
it.
Josh Matthews (02:32):
You got that right.
That's for real.
Michelle Hansen (02:34):
I have had some great first time conversations,
ran into a couple people in theelevator that were getting
ready for their first cert exam,was able to share some wisdom
from the attempts that I've madebefore and I actually connected
both of them and LinkedIn,found out that both of them took
those tips, used them, passedtheir exams on the first try.
Josh Matthews (02:49):
Good job.
That's awesome.
That always feels good.
I've got to ask you if therewas one thing, or even two or
ten.
It's up to you, one little bitof advice that you give to
people who are already in theircareer, not trying to get into
the Salesforce, but they'realready in their career at any
level.
What do you think is the numberone thing that you would share,
to have them keep in mind, tosupport them through their
(03:10):
journey?
Michelle Hansen (03:11):
It's an always keep learning, and by learning I
actually mean two things Like.
One is the actual technical andthe soft skills that go around
it, so don't ever think that youknow enough and you're done
with the learning.
But it's also learning aboutpeople building those
relationships, continuing tobuild that network.
I cannot tell you how manytimes I've been introduced to a
new piece of the technology onthe platform or something that's
(03:33):
related, like Agile and Scrum,and it's the people in my
network that I've been able toturn to for support and insight
that have really made thedifference in my career.
So I lump both those under justalways keep learning.
Charles Hopkins (03:46):
Hi, I'm Charles Hopkins.
I work for Direct TV.
I'm a product manager for ourown branded version of customer
360.
Josh Matthews (03:52):
Oh, terrific.
And do you have product ownersunder you or are you managing
everything yourself?
Charles Hopkins (03:56):
I manage all of our sales and marketing
application.
We just moved to the Salesforceecosystem so we're kind of at
the ground level building up.
Josh Matthews (04:04):
Well, congratulations on that.
Is this your first dreamforceexperience?
This is absolutely my firstdreamforce.
What's been the biggestsurprise so far?
Charles Hopkins (04:13):
Just the amount of information and it's just
like data overload.
I'm mentally just exhausted atthis point, but still super
excited about everything thatI've learned.
Josh Matthews (04:24):
Yeah, it's like you got to go home and now read
all the blogs about the sessions.
Right To remember.
Charles Hopkins (04:29):
Yeah, it's.
You know, I've got just pagesof notes and pages of you know
to-dos from this and I just hopeI can decipher all my notes
because there's just a massiveamount.
Josh Matthews (04:39):
Maybe AI can help you with that, yeah.
Charles Hopkins (04:42):
I mean, that's the.
If there's one theme, that'swhat it is this year.
Josh Matthews (04:46):
It sure is.
You know I write terrible notes, but then I put it into AI and
it makes you know.
90% of it makes sense, unlikemy Dr Scribble.
Charles Hopkins (04:54):
Yeah, you know, like I said, we're just really
starting on the whole ecosystem,and so we're coming in at such
an amazing time and trying tofigure out how to leverage all
of these capabilities for usfrom first time users.
It's, you know, it's superexciting.
It's a daunting experience, butit can't wait to get back and
put some of this into action.
Josh Matthews (05:14):
I'm excited for you, man, so let me ask you
what's the best career advicethat anybody ever gave you?
Charles Hopkins (05:25):
Take your knowledge gaining into your own
hands, jump on trailheadimmediately.
Even if you're not part of thefamily yet, there's so much
curated knowledge informationout there that you can get into
and work toward those firstcertifications and get to
Dreamforce, go to TDX, go to allof these events and really,
just you know, immerse yourselfand talk to your peers network.
(05:45):
There's just so muchinformation out here and people
are super willing to help.
Josh Matthews (05:49):
They sure are.
I'm kind of curious when youlook at bringing people onto
your team right, what's thebiggest challenge for
identifying top talent?
Charles Hopkins (05:59):
I don't know what's the challenge.
What you're looking for issomeone who can think outside of
the box and get away from thetraditional kind of IT product
waterfall approach.
You know we had to.
You had to get super agile andyou had to embrace, you know,
safe and you had to move awayfrom that old, you know nine
month long roadmap that you needto get to, and so finding
(06:21):
people that are willing toembrace that and take the risk
to fail fast I think that'sthat's the key piece.
Josh Matthews (06:26):
That's agile.
Charles Hopkins (06:27):
Yeah, absolutely yeah, and we know,
and again, with our move toSalesforce we're moving to a
really agile kind of safeframework, and so you know you
have to do that, especially in abusiness where the direct TV is
in.
You know it's a it's adeclining market and you have to
make sure that you're able tokeep up with changes and turn on
a dime, and that gives us theability to do that you do and
(06:49):
just so you know I'm a customer.
Great, yeah, we need.
We need as many as we can getwhen we're out here.
We've got a great partnershipwith Slack that we're kind of.
You know we're part of thekeynotes here.
We're really trying to leverageall of what Salesforce gives us
to make that customerexperience delightful, to make
our agent experience delightful,and it's such a great tool.
Josh Matthews (07:08):
It sure is.
Now.
This is a question I like toask sometimes.
If you could hire anybody rightnow, like if you could just
push a button and the perfectperson showed up to support you
with what you're, what you'redoing at direct TV right now,
what would that role be?
Charles Hopkins (07:24):
Someone who understood the Salesforce
environment, someone whounderstood the automation tools,
the ability to take complexprocesses and turn them into a
flow, and someone who couldleverage the new Einstein, ai
and GPT functions to really justtransform that entire
experience.
Josh Matthews (07:43):
Thank you so much , Charles.
Charles Hopkins (07:44):
Absolutely have a good one.
Josh Matthews (07:46):
Next we're joined by Chris Clement from Erie Home
.
What's the biggest surprisethat you've had so far?
Dream for us.
Chris Clement (07:53):
Biggest surprise is just the amount of AI
availability in a productionstate.
Didn't realize it was going tobe ready this quickly and
because we're in a pretty goodshop from our technology stack
perspective and our data isclean, we'll be able to start
taking advantage of this AI,hopefully within the next couple
months.
Josh Matthews (08:09):
I'm so glad for you with for that and tell me
your company name again please.
Chris Clement (08:13):
Company is Erie Home and it's out of Toledo,
ohio, and we're the largestre-roofing company in the
country, with over 70 locations.
Josh Matthews (08:22):
And what's the best career advice you've ever
received?
Chris Clement (08:25):
Best career advice I've received is to not
necessarily silo any onetechnology.
Because of my role being moreof a broad strategist, if you
will, or architect, if you willyou know, keeping your eyes open
across multiple platforms andtrying to understand how all
(08:47):
those platforms work together isthe best advice I've gotten,
versus being siloed with justone.
Josh Matthews (08:54):
Makes sense to me .
What advice would you seek toaccelerate your career even
further than it's?
Chris Clement (08:59):
gone so far.
I would be, I guess, mostinterested in hearing you know,
helping me understand what'spossible, and somebody that has
maybe deployed platforms overdifferent industries, who's kind
of been there and done thatjust to see how it could relate
back to either my industry thatI'm in or other industries.
But just having that globalholistic approach across
(09:23):
industry is what I think wouldbe most helpful for me in my
career journey.
Josh Matthews (09:28):
I imagine you're a hiring manager.
You have a team.
Chris Clement (09:31):
I do have a team and I roughly 20 individuals on
my team within IT.
Josh Matthews (09:36):
And what is the biggest challenge in bringing on
top talent for yourself?
Chris Clement (09:41):
We're a company that still is all on site.
We've never been hybrid, otherthan the times that had to be
during COVID, and so findingtalented Salesforce people in
Toledo, ohio is a challenge.
So because we do like to workwith them on site.
But so now we're starting toget our leadership to understand
(10:04):
that we, for these skilledpositions, have to look abroad
and start looking to remoteworkforce for specific key
skilled roles, and we're findingthat we have kind of tapped the
market that we're in and we nowneed to start going abroad and
I don't mean abroad as in, awayfrom the United States, but just
looking to have people in amore remote capacity.
Josh Matthews (10:26):
Yeah, it's a serious challenge, especially
for larger companies that are inthe trade industry.
It's just something thatthey're not really used to, and
convincing leadership to move toa remote for specific roles
it's a serious challenge.
Chris Clement (10:40):
Yeah, definitely, and that's my biggest concern
is because the work is endless.
The business wants to continueto take advantage of all these
great capabilities, of theseplatforms we've implemented,
along with all of this awesomedata, but the requests are
coming in too fast for us toeven keep up with.
And and how do you prioritizeand staff accordingly?
And really, where is the focusand what should be, should we be
(11:04):
working on to have the highestimpact in the business?
Still also needs to beunderstood at the leadership
level to help direct these workstreams and work the workforce.
But this problem is not goingto be ending anytime soon.
I know I'm going to always havethis challenge of having the
right staffing levels internallyas well as the right external
(11:26):
staffing levels by leveragingpartners and things like that.
Josh Matthews (11:30):
That's a really you know, it's a common thing
that you're experiencing rightnow.
I'm kind of curious if youcould hire anybody right now,
like boom, they showed up onMonday ready to rock.
What title would that be?
Chris Clement (11:42):
You know it's funny you're asking that
question because I'm strugglingwith that title myself Right now
.
It's a what I would say more ofa business analyst, but with
more leaning towards thetechnology understanding.
So a business analyst that mayhave implemented Salesforce,
like in a call center, forexample, or is closer to the
(12:03):
business side not necessarilythe technical side of Salesforce
and finding people that havegood technical skill sets, that
can work with functional leaders, functional SMEs and convey
those requirements to a teamthat is technical in nature,
that can actually conduct thework, that is a key role for us
and not an easy role to fill.
Josh Matthews (12:25):
Yeah, not, maybe not in Toledo, right, you know
it's definitely a challenge.
It sounds to me almost like abusiness analyst, but someone
who's possibly been a leadconsultant or is on track for
solution architect, that kind ofperson.
Chris Clement (12:38):
That kind of role , exactly, yeah, that would.
If I could have somebody nextweek doing that, that'd be great
.
Josh Matthews (12:43):
Okay, well, I have people, so give me a call
after this, okay?
All right, Chris, it's apleasure to talk to you.
Thanks so much for taking a fewminutes and I hope that you
have a terrific rest of theDreamforce.
Chris Clement (12:54):
Thank you Very nice to meet you as well.
Daryl Sanford (12:55):
Thanks, Hi Darrell Samford.
I'm an account executive withSalesforce Again.
How long have you?
Josh Matthews (13:01):
been in AE for.
About two years now Were you insoftware sales.
Daryl Sanford (13:06):
before that, I was yeah, I was in the
electronic medical recordbusiness before coming over to
Salesforce.
Josh Matthews (13:12):
Okay, and so do you focus on health and life
sciences.
Daryl Sanford (13:15):
I do yep Healthcare specifically for
about 15 years now.
Josh Matthews (13:19):
Good for you.
I was just at the Life SciencesDreaming event down in Fort
Lauderdale, so tell me, what doyou think is the biggest
challenge in identifyingpartners and partner, sorry, not
partner well, yeah, partners,partners needs, like.
How do you, how do you choosethe right partner to recommend
to your clients?
Daryl Sanford (13:37):
Yeah, I think the the important part is to find
people that are versed in theindustry.
So I think every industry is alittle bit unique, healthcare
especially.
There's a lot of niche partnersthat are out there that focus
exclusively, and I just think ithelps to take the best of what
works for other industries, butyou've got to have a specific
focus on healthcare.
It has unique challenges, ithas regulatory aspects.
(13:58):
So I look for kind of that mixof kind of what's your
experience within the industryto recommend partners.
Josh Matthews (14:06):
And what's the number one bit of advice that
you would give to your customersto be able to work well with
the partners that they choose?
Daryl Sanford (14:14):
Yeah, I think the the important thing is really
to just set the goals andexpectations.
I think you've got to.
You've got to be able todelicate what you want done from
the partner, but you've got togive them a little bit of leeway
to work the way they like towork and the way that works well
for them with other customers,and that's hard.
I think it takes a little bitof trust to find the right
(14:34):
partner that will work withinthere.
But I think if you just focuson the goals and outcomes of
what you want with theengagement, let that be known,
get it in writing and then letthe partner perform the way they
want to perform.
Josh Matthews (14:46):
Well, that makes perfect sense to me, my friend,
absolutely, when you think aboutthe future of healthcare and
sales force.
I mean, certainly we'relearning a lot about it.
This week, and I'm sure thatyou know the organization has
been prepping you all week onnew things that are coming out
and this kind of thing.
What's the what's the bitthat's most exciting for you?
Daryl Sanford (15:05):
Oh well, I think.
Of course, though, a big focusfor the whole event has been
around AI.
I think AI is very exciting,but at the same time again, with
healthcare there's there's risk, and that's what I think.
The trust aspect of AI iscrucial, and that's what I'm
really excited about.
Sales forces focus on trust.
I think that's a piece that'sso important to healthcare.
(15:26):
You trust your doctor, youtrust your health insurer.
You have to trust the AI ifit's going to help, and, believe
me, we need the help.
Healthcare needs AI, I think,more than any other industry,
but it's got to be done in theright way, and I think that's
the exciting part of where we'reat.
Josh Matthews (15:42):
Yeah, very good, I couldn't agree more.
I'm just going to ask you aweird one what's the weirdest
interview question you've everbeen asked?
Daryl Sanford (15:49):
Wow, the weirdest interview question.
Oh yeah, one of them recently.
Well, it wasn't that recent,but somebody asked what upsets
you?
That was it what upsets you?
And they were they're kind oflooking for like a quick
response or just being able tothink on your feet.
But it took me back because I'mkind of like what upsets?
(16:12):
Like?
I don't want to be negative, Idon't want to talk about
something that I so it reallygave me, gave me pause, I had to
think about that one prettyhard and and ultimately they
were.
They didn't really care whatupseted me, they just wanted to
know how can I think on my feet?
How do I come up with aresponse to a question I wasn't
ready for?
Josh Matthews (16:27):
Well, you're sitting on this little little
stool out here in Yerba BuenaPark eating lunch and I'm
throwing some questions at youand you're doing just fine, so I
can tell you got the job.
Daryl Sanford (16:38):
Yeah, I did ultimately get the job Exactly.
That's why practice makesperfect Practice interviewing,
and you'll be good at it.
Josh Matthews (16:44):
It does.
If there was any bit of careeradvice that you would be seeking
in the next say, you know sixmonths to five years, what?
What's the thing that you wouldwant to know to help you
accelerate and grow your career?
Daryl Sanford (16:57):
Wow.
I think I'd say the interestingthing is really about finding
out what your personal goals are, and that's something that I
think has evolved over time foreach person.
But a lot of times we look atthe industry, we look at the job
, we look at these differentthings and we don't stop and
think about what's my personalgoal?
What am I after?
Is it more money?
(17:17):
Is it recognition?
Is it leadership?
Because those things don't allmap the same way, especially as
you grow in your career.
So I think it's about justfocusing on what's important to
you and then be able to alignthat with the right career in
the right industry.
Josh Matthews (17:32):
Darrell, thank you so much.
I appreciate you chatting withme today.
Daryl Sanford (17:36):
Yeah, no problem, thanks, josh.
Josh Matthews (17:38):
Okay, what's your name and what do you do?
Don Yadda Glover (17:41):
My name is Don Yadda Glover, but everyone
calls me Don.
I work for a custommanufacturing company.
We are a high pressure diecasting company, so we make
custom metal parts for HarleyDavidson, Weber GMC.
Josh Matthews (17:57):
A terrific.
Is this your very first dreamfor us?
Don Yadda Glover (18:00):
Yes, I'm a business analyst for them, sorry
.
Josh Matthews (18:04):
OK, terrific.
And then what's been thebiggest surprise about this
event so far?
Don Yadda Glover (18:08):
The biggest surprise was definitely for me.
It was tab tablood gestures.
I thought that was really cool.
Josh Matthews (18:19):
So it's something you think you can use in your
work pretty immediately,potentially.
Don Yadda Glover (18:23):
Definitely.
I know that I could use it.
Our executives would love touse it.
It's really cool.
Josh Matthews (18:28):
Excellent.
Well, it's nice that they sentyou out here for sure.
Let me ask you this what's thebest career advice that anybody
ever gave you?
Don Yadda Glover (18:37):
The best career advice that anyone ever
gave me is probably to just hangin there and go with the flow,
keep adapting, keep learning andalways just go the extra mile.
Josh Matthews (18:49):
You know, it's good to hear they say that
adaptability is the number onething that most employers are
looking for.
It's the, it's the it's thetrait that's in highest demand
in the ecosystem right now,because I think people are
dealing with shorter staffs orsmaller staffs and people have
to wear more hats, which meanswe have to change.
And then, of course, with AIand everything else that's going
on, we've got to.
(19:09):
Like you know, everyone's doingflows, then they're not.
Now they're doing this and thenthey're doing that.
Right.
Don Yadda Glover (19:14):
Yeah, definitely.
I actually also served in themilitary and that was just the
first skill that I learned andit's been helpful throughout my
career.
Josh Matthews (19:22):
Well, thanks for your service.
You know we had a special inJuly right around.
We did it on July 5th and I hadDavid Navar he's a golden
hoodie and he was on the showand so we've got two episodes on
the podcast that are dedicatedjust to military, so feel free
to check those out.
My name is.
Job Ochieng (19:37):
Joe Bucing.
I'm the senior director of ITfor Alliance Laundry Systems,
based out of Wisconsin.
And is this your first dreamforce?
This?
Josh Matthews (19:46):
is my first dream force, and what's been the most
Well, what's been the biggestsurprise so far?
Job Ochieng (19:53):
I think the biggest surprise for me is just
understanding Salesforce alittle bit more and just how we
can use it in an environmentlike ours that has a lot of
different applications and thatare standalone right now.
But what we can be able to doto actually bring the business
together, bring the applicationstogether to be able to make our
(20:16):
practices more efficient andhave the information at the
fingertips of our executiveleaders.
Josh Matthews (20:22):
Yeah, efficiency, ai, customer 360, pulling,
everything together, yeah,exactly.
Job Ochieng (20:28):
And I think from the customer 360, I also liked a
little bit about themanufacturing 360, which also
touches on sales, touches onmanufacturing, you know, touches
on so many processes that we'vebeen talking about wanting to
bring together.
Josh Matthews (20:42):
Let me ask you this what's the best career
advice anyone ever gave you?
Build relationships.
Job Ochieng (20:47):
That's one thing that I was told very early on in
my career and I've seen thathappen, even just when you
partner, have strategic partnersthat you build relationships
with, and what do you think isthe key to building
relationships?
Josh Matthews (21:00):
Be open, just be open-minded.
Job Ochieng (21:03):
Give people a chance to hear what they have to
bring.
So when you go into a place,remove all the preconceived
ideas.
Have an open mind to see whatthe other person has to say.
Joe, that's terrific advice.
Josh Matthews (21:15):
What's the weirdest interview question
anybody ever asked you?
I think, when they ask me likewhat are?
Job Ochieng (21:22):
my strength and weaknesses.
I don't think anybody ever goesto the mirror and sees.
You know what is strength andweaknesses.
You need relationships aroundyou that can tell you what your
blind spots are.
Those are the people who cantell you what your weaknesses
are.
Strengths are normally what yougravitate to and what you're
good at.
If there is something that youwould like to know, that would
help accelerate your career.
Josh Matthews (21:41):
It sounds like you're having a great career
already, and so congratulationson that.
But if there was one thing youknow, one question that you
would ask a top recruiter or acareer coach, what would you
want to know?
Job Ochieng (21:55):
What is some of the things that the companies that
would hire somebody that can belooking for and what can I do to
be able to allow myself to beattracted to those careers or
those industries ororganizations?
Josh Matthews (22:10):
Yeah, it's a great question and of course I
guess it would depend on whatyour job is and who you are and
these sorts of things.
We never want to tailorourselves to a company.
We want to find the companiesthat we're already tailor made
for.
Does that make sense?
Job Ochieng (22:24):
Yes, that makes absolute sense.
For example, in the informationtechnology space, I'm not going
to fit in every company, andevery company is not going to
want somebody like me.
There's different parts that wehave to look at, and we also
have to look at what do we bringto the table to the company?
What does the company bring tome that can actually bring the
best out of me too?
Josh Matthews (22:43):
What's the biggest challenge that you and
your organization are facing forbringing on top Salesforce
talent?
Job Ochieng (22:49):
I think the biggest challenge right now we're
facing is understanding thatintegration is key.
Right now you have a lot ofstand-alone silos and people are
not understanding it.
If you bring everythingtogether, there's so much wealth
in working together as anorganization.
Josh Matthews (23:05):
And so when you do need to bring people on board
, are you able to find themfairly easily, or is it quite a
challenge?
Job Ochieng (23:11):
It's been challenging because when you
work for an organization thathas a little bit of legacy stuff
and you're finding people outthere who've moved their skill
sets to the next best thing,nobody wants to look backwards,
everybody's looking for theforefront.
Xavier Emery (23:26):
Hey, I'm Xavier Emery.
I'm the marketing lead forIPCero, an entity data company,
and we are a sponsor here atDreamforce and we are a
Salesforce partner for all theSalesforce product integration
and we also have with our IPCerocompany.
We are an expert in mule softintegrations.
Josh Matthews (23:47):
Tell me what's the biggest surprise or your
biggest takeaway from Dreamforcethis year.
Xavier Emery (23:53):
I think.
Well, obviously it was allabout AI, and I don't think that
was a surprise, because we knewwhere it was coming.
I think what's interesting isthe way Salesforce is tackling
the subjects.
It's not about making us dreamof some kind of a future with
robots that would just controlus.
(24:13):
I think it was kind of like areality check what is AI today?
Where are we at?
And I can only make sure thatit serves a purpose and that it
can be very helpful for yourcompanies, while maintaining a
high level of trust,confidentiality and data
security.
So I think Salesforce isleading a good battle here,
(24:39):
because a lot of people are justhappy that we have some shiny
AI technologies out there, butthey don't really worry about
what bias it could bring to ourcompanies or our societies.
Josh Matthews (24:52):
Yeah, it's not a world robot takeover.
We're not Terminator quite yet,are we?
Xavier Emery (24:56):
No, I don't think so.
Josh Matthews (24:58):
Okay, what's the best career advice anybody ever
gave you?
Xavier Emery (25:02):
To pay attention to people.
When you meet people, remembertheir name, remember their face,
remember what they do andnetwork all the time, not just
when you need it.
And I think that in today'sworld, that's key, because
that's where you're going tofind mentors, that's where
you're going to find role modelsto follow.
(25:23):
And also, yeah, when toughtimes happens, when you are a
little lost or when you'relooking for new opportunities,
those people are the ones thatwill bring you to the next level
.
So, yeah, pay attention to thepeople you meet.
And in the world today where weare all some people working
from home it's more remote andsuch.
(25:44):
I think it's even moreimportant.
And actually an event likeDreamforce is actually the best
place to connect with peoplethat you might be following on
social media all year long, youmight have never met in person
before, and suddenly they arehere and you can actually engage
in meaningful conversation andcreate those human being bonds.
So, in the world of AI, I thinkthat's probably the best advice
(26:07):
I was given.
Josh Matthews (26:08):
If you could hire one person, just press a button
and magically have a new personon your staff to help you.
What would they do?
Xavier Emery (26:17):
Well, that's funny .
In the world of AI, that personwould be, for me, a content
person, a copywriter, someonewho has an understanding of how
technical things are in ourspace and can write it in an
appealing way to allstakeholders.
And I know that there is a lotof discussions about replacing
(26:39):
these people by AI and I thinkthat, in some ways, do's
technologies will help news copywriters and news creative
people in general to maybe likefacilitate some kind of
brainstorming steps on how tostructure whatever they are
creating.
But at the end of the day, thathuman touch, that's those brain
(27:01):
connections that make it theright story for the right people
.
I believe in these people andright now in my team I don't
have that person.
So that would be that person acreative person.
I think creativity is what'smissing, especially in
enterprise software.
It's technical, right, but atthe end of the day and I think
(27:22):
Salesforce is amazing in thatway that they manage to bring
all those characters and allthat culture around the software
it's not just about software.
People are not coming toDreamforce just to talk about
the last text, right?
They're also here to take apicture with Astro.
Josh Matthews (27:40):
I got mine done yesterday or two days ago.
Xavier Emery (27:42):
Yeah, I mean I just got Jeannie that I missed
last year and I saw Zigg DeZebra yesterday, so I'm all set.
Josh Matthews (27:49):
Terrific.
Hey, thank you so much for yourtime.
I really appreciate it.
Xavier Emery (27:52):
Thank you.
Josh Matthews (27:54):
Thanks again, everybody, for tuning in and
catching this very special liveepisode of the Salesforce career
show.
Next week we will be joined bynone other than Vanessa Grant,
our very own, and Vanessa isgoing to be doing something
special.
In fact, she'll be sharing thedo's and don'ts to help you find
your place in the Salesforceecosystem.
(28:14):
This comes from one of herDreamforce presentations and
it's a presentation I believeshe's given elsewhere as well.
It's going to be reallyinteresting and we're confident
it's going to help spark someinterest and likely some
direction to help you have asuccessful career.
So if you've never been to ourlive broadcast, you can join us
every other Wednesday, and thatis at 230 Pacific, 530 Eastern,
(28:40):
on Twitter or X.
Okay, if you want to stay intune with how to follow them,
check out at the Josh force.
That's my tag, my handle andall announcements are going to
be there.
Okay, thanks so much, everybody.
Have a wonderful day and thanksfor tuning in as usual.
Bye for now.
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