WEBVTT - Smart Talks with IBM- Clicks, Not Code: Transforming Digital Experiences with Salesforce 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.480 This season of Smart Talks with IBM is all about 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.480 new creators, the developers, data scientists, c t o s 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:23.280 and other visionaries creatively applying technology in business to drive change. 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.680 They use their knowledge and creativity to develop better ways 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.280 of working, no matter the industry. Join hosts from your 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.880 favorite Pushkin Industries podcasts as they use their expertise to 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:37.480 deepen these conversations, and of course Malcolm Gladwell will guide 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:39.839 you through the season as your host and provide his 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:43.000 thoughts and analysis along the way. Look out for new 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:45.480 episodes of Smart Talks with IBM on the I Heart 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:49.159 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:55.560 and learn more at IBM dot com slash smart talks. Hello, Hello, 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:59.840 Welcome to Smart Talks with IBM podcast from Pushkin Industries, 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:05.000 I Heart Radio and IBM. I'm Malcolm GLABWEW. This season, 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:09.560 we're talking to new creators, the developers, data scientists, c 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.240 t o s and other visionaries who are creatively applying 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:18.040 technology and business to drive change. Channeling their knowledge and expertise, 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:23.520 they're developing more creative and effective solutions no matter the industry. 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:28.280 Our guest today is Phil Weinmeister, had a product Salesforce 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:33.039 America's at IBM. Drawing on IBM's offerings and expertise, Phil 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:38.680 helps businesses craft better digital experiences for their customers, employees, 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:43.479 and business partners. A lack of highly specialized software engineers 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.680 is a major challenge for companies trying to improve their 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:51.880 digital experiences, so using the Salesforce platform, Phil teaches people 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.360 with little or no technical background how to make custom 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:59.640 digital solutions on their own without needing to write code. 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.920 On today's show, you'll hear Phil's thoughts on human centric design, 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.880 unlocking the potential of the low code, no code approach, 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:16.120 and how IBM consulting powers digital transformations with the Salesforce platform. 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.960 Phil spoke with Jacob Goldstein, host of the Pushkin podcast 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:24.720 What's Your Problem and former host of nprs Planet Money. 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.440 Jacob has been a business journalist for over a decade, 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.680 reporting for NPR, The Wall Street Journal, the Miami Herald, 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:36.040 and is the author of the book Money, The True 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:40.040 Story of a Made Up Thing. Okay, let's get to 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:45.840 the interview, just very briefly, sort of what's your role 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.079 at IBM. Yeah, It's a good question because my role 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:53.160 is it is a bit unique. So we're Pribum Consulting, 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.800 which is a consultancy. Salesforce is one of the platforms 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:01.960 that we deliver services for. My team is a product team, 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:06.680 so we're like a product organization within a consultancy, and 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:09.760 I had that team up. So yeah, it's really cool 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:14.959 because we get to combine the client needs client problems 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:19.160 that are brought to us through consulting engagements, but we're 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.200 ultimately product development, so we get to build solutions. So 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:24.919 I kind of love the sweet spot that we're in there. 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.880 So basically, businesses have problems, and you build solutions for 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:34.560 those problems, for those problems, but also thinking about future clients. 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.200 So we build it so that we can re use 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.080 it in the future for different clients. So that that's 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:42.640 what makes it a little bit unique at the consultancy 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:46.440 versus you know, typical engagement. You solve a problem and 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:48.960 you move on to the next problem. But we solve 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.520 it while taking a step back and saying, well, what 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:56.400 are similar problems that other clients um that could be 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.280 solved through the same application that we build. That makes sense, 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:02.880 It does, and I think we'll get into some specific 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:08.760 examples which will really help help us everybody understand. Um, 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.480 can you just talk a little bit about the kind 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:16.040 of challenges around digital transformation that a lot of businesses 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:18.839 are facing right now. There are a few things that 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:22.679 I personally seem quite a bit um, one of which 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:26.839 is that businesses simply don't have the data they need 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.480 to provide the right type of experience. I mean, at 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:33.839 the end of the day, customers want something very easy, 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:38.000 and ironically it it's actually somewhat hard to provide an 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:43.279 easy experience. A lot of experiences are probably overthought, over engineered, 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:48.359 and that creates this divide between an organization and their customers. 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.880 I mean, organizations want to know their customers, they want 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.080 to know their partners, they want to know their employees, 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.840 and if they do that right, it's a game changer, 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:03.680 it's absolutely transformational. But without that, and that's all data centric, 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:08.120 data driven, you don't know your customer. You can't give 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.360 them what they want because you don't know who they are. 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:12.800 There's a phrase that I know is important in your 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:14.880 work and that I want to make sure we touch 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:19.120 on here, and and that phrases human centric innovation tell 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.159 me tell me what that means, you know, in this 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:26.320 case and more generally in your work. Yeah. Absolutely, So 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:32.960 when we think about a solution, especially with digital experiences, 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:39.719 we are always thinking about who is the end user? Right? 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.200 And with the digital experiences, you know, one thing I'd 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.640 like to say, do a lot of presentations at Salesforce events, 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.160 and I've spoken on topic of personalization a few times. 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.560 I think it's useful to start with where things have 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.240 been and where we are coming from, which is really 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:59.400 a one size fits all web experience, and that still 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:03.000 exists throughout the web in quite a few places. Is 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.800 this is a dissemination of information, right, It's a push. 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.120 I have information I want to get out, or I 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.880 have actions that I want you to complete, and I'm 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:16.680 going to set up an experience. Do you know, get 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.159 the information you need or do the things I want 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:23.560 you to do? And we're seeing that the demands have 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:28.400 significantly changed, right, Customers expect a lot more these days 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.680 and simply one size fits all. So that direction we're 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:36.000 headed towards is starting with that end user and really 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.119 thinking about who is this person, what do they want, 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:44.400 what are they trying to achieve? And starting from that perspective, 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.800 So the the audiences that we're building a solution for 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:52.840 now become more critical than ever and they're not an afterthought, 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.279 but instead who are these audiences that are going to 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:59.679 be part of the solution. We do things like journey 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.440 map right where we walk through the flow from beginning 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:06.479 to end. What does their experience look like? What do 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:09.800 they want at each stage? And we have to think 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:14.640 about that in the solution. So, uh, you mentioned Salesforce, 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:17.400 and Salesforce is It's kind of a funny thing right 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:21.080 in the world of business. Salesforce is this gigantic company 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.960 that has transformed software, has transformed business in a lot 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.600 of ways, but outside of kind of enterprise scale business, 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.280 lots of people have never heard of it, right, amazing, 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.800 So just like, very briefly, what is Salesforce? You know, 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:40.920 it's it's been a complete game changer. It is technically, 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:45.120 it's a customer relationship management platform, and that though I 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.440 don't think, really captures what it is. And when I 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.640 describe to people I know, technical or non technical, I 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.840 describe it as this is a platform on which you 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:58.080 can run your business. For me personally, Um, it's been 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.600 it's been completely revel lutionary because I came from an 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:05.520 organization at the time that had everything custom built, homegrown, 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:07.000 which I think it was a little bit of a 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:10.160 sense of pride at that organization, But what was happening 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:16.480 was everything required hundreds of hours. Any change was a 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:21.560 major project, super costly, and things broke when changes were made. 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.960 And when I started on the Salesforce platform, I think 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.520 the biggest thing is stuck to me was the low 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:33.480 and no code development capabilities that business minded people who 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.360 are not necessarily technical in the sense that they write 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:41.040 code can now be empowered to actually deliver solutions. So 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:43.079 I think that's how i'd say it. It's it's a 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.560 platform you can run your business on. It is that 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:50.320 single source of truth. It's the interface that your employees 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:52.439 are going to interact with on a daily basis to 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.040 get their jobs done. So there was a phrase you 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.280 mentioned in in passing. That phrase was a low mode 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.679 or no code development, and I'm glad you did because 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.320 it's one of those phrases that I've been hearing and 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.480 that sounds kind of amazing, But I also feel like 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.199 I don't quite get So let me take this opportunity 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:17.400 to ask you what is low code or no code development. Well, 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:21.120 I love the question because I'm personally very passionate about 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.880 this coming from where I was before, at an organization 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:29.080 that had, like I said, custom built solutions. Any change 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:34.680 to the digital experience required code. That that is where 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:36.200 I was coming from, and that's where a lot of 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.840 organizations are coming from today. So what that means is 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:45.679 you're always dependent on a technical resource to make that change. However, 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:50.000 when you want to make some basic changes, some let's 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.880 say some process automation or some update like that, that 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:59.600 maybe isn't wildly complex, it is fairly limiting to not 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.000 be to actually implement any of these changes yourself. So 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.440 when we say lower no code platform, essentially what that 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:09.920 means is, there's another phrase that's used by Salesforce clicks 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.760 not code. So think about it this way. Salesforce has 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.720 done all the hard work and written many millions of 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:22.280 lines of code behind the scenes to provide an interface 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:27.160 where through clicks we can essentially build a solution. So 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.359 I wrote a book a few years ago called Practical 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.840 Salesforce Development without Code. Right, it's still development. You're building 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.440 a solution that can be implemented and drive value for 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:42.319 a customer. But it is literally through clicks. Now that 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.800 doesn't mean it's you know, always super easy, it can 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.960 get pretty advanced, but literally through clicks you can do that, 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:53.000 so that that's a completely different way of thinking. And 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:55.960 when you say clicks, you just mean you're using like 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.040 a graphical user interface. You're pointing and clicking, get different buttons, 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.520 dragging things around. Just to be clear, when you say clicks, 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:03.719 that's the kind of thing you made, right, Yeah, exactly, 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:07.959 exactly right. It's sort of democratizes the technology a little bit. 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:10.600 And I think the biggest thing though, is you have 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:15.360 all these you know, smart business people who are business 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:21.240 minded in throughout the world who don't necessarily code, and 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:26.200 it just allows them so much more ability to drive change, 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:28.880 is I think what we're seeing. So it's it's a 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:32.200 great thing and I and I personally love it because 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:35.400 it gives us more tools in our arsenal. For sure, 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.920 you work for IBM at kind of the intersection of 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.160 of IBM and Salesforce, right, I mean, can you tell 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:48.680 me about the way IBM uses Salesforce tools to to 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:53.560 help businesses improve, become more efficient, adopt a more data 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:58.959 driven approach. Yeah. Absolutely, we're approached for a number of 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:03.360 different reasons. A lot of times we work with organizations 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:08.520 who are coming at us with industry specific requests. They 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.480 have needs, there's quite a variety. So we have we 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:15.800 are set up to have experts in each of those areas, right, 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:21.760 business experts, technical experts, and we've gone through a number 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.040 of solutions in each of those paths. At the same time. 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:29.640 Then we have more horizontal UH experts as well, who 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:34.440 are Salesforce technical architects for example, business analysts, those that 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:40.360 know the platform. By combining those, we can not only 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:45.320 understand what's needed in those industries, but the reality is 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.280 you have to know the platform well right. You can't 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.400 just come in with industry knowledge and try to build 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:55.160 a solution on the Salesforce platform without knowing it very well. 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:59.960 And it's now just so massive. There are so many 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:04.559 clouds they call various products under the platform umbrella clouds, 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.560 and these are these are Salesforce clouds, right, Salesforce so 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.680 megap products exactly. You know, we it started with sales 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:18.199 cloud service cloud, marketing cloud. There's philanthropy cloud, consumer goods 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:20.800 cloud just launched, right, higher education cloud. There are all 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.640 these different areas of expertise, So it's it's that combination 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:29.280 of the industry knowledge, platform knowledge. And then you mentioned 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:34.520 human centered design and thinking, really trying to putting the 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:37.240 end user at the center of the experience and thinking 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:41.080 about their journey and then designing a solution that at 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.520 the end of the day will deliver what they need, 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:49.360 keep them happy, and keep the business moving along. So 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:54.560 that idea of combining industry specific knowledge and salesforce specific 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:59.439 knowledge seems really interesting and powerful. Are there any specific 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.000 exam bowls of that in action that you that you 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:09.800 want to share. Yeah? Sure, So we recently we built 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:17.000 a manufacturing solution on the Salesforce platform. Essentially, what this 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:22.040 was was based on the industry expertise, so we internally 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:27.360 we met with individuals who had expertise in manufacturing. The 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.080 audience here for these organizations was their partners. So the 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.560 concept of us, how do we deliver a solution like 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:37.800 a basically a PRM solution for the manufacturing industry. What 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:43.920 RM stand for Partner relationship management, So, uh, manufacturers often 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.640 are interacting with suppliers, distributors, all of those and that's 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.800 a common need, especially digitally, and you can imagine This 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.120 is one of those areas that was widely neglected for 0:14:56.160 --> 0:15:01.080 many years with either very poor or non existent digital experiences. Right, 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:05.000 so we met with industry experts internally to understand what 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.320 these use cases were, and then we took a step 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:12.120 back and looked at how we could leverage this on 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:15.680 the platform. So the solution we came up with was 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:20.280 essentially a template. It was a a digital experience template 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:27.840 that organizations could employ really with a few clicks. Obviously 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.840 they would have to configure it, they could customize it, 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:35.400 but it was a rapid accelerator that allowed for these 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:41.280 specific use cases for example, distributing and assigning leads to 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:48.840 these distributors, providing reporting metrics on opportunities or leads, all 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:53.160 that type of data we provided and it was a 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:57.040 template so they could start quickly right, get up and 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:01.320 running in a few weeks, and then leveraging our professional services. 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:04.640 They could customize it as well, so they would work 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:08.280 with us and they could provide their you know, individual 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.400 client needs and take it from there. So that's one 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:14.640 example of a solution that we built that again took 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:18.840 the industry needs, but also it was it was married 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:24.240 to a platform specific technology. If you were trying to 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.560 boil it all down and you wanted to give just 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:31.080 one tip for a business that's trying to improve their 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:35.840 digital experience. What would that tip be? I would say 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.280 that you need to be open to change and be 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:42.480 open to breaking away from the old way of doing things. 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.360 I think I think a lot of times customers can 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:53.040 hurt themselves by being tied to what exists today, right 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.440 maybe for cultural political reasons that their company that maybe 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:00.280 they feel like, you know, they've invested so much a 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.880 solution already that they want to try to get as 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.880 much out of that as they can. But I think 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:10.320 being open to the innovation, being open to new technology, 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:12.720 I think makes a world of difference because if the 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:17.080 client is open to a new solution and we come 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.639 in and we can listen to them, really anything is possible, 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:23.800 and that's where I think the biggest changes are made. So, 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.040 while it may sound very simple, I think that would 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.040 be my number one tip is just be open to 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:34.359 a new way of doing things. Film mentioned certain areas 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:39.440 of business like manufacturing or distribution, often neglect the digital experience. 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:44.639 By finding and connecting experts across IBM salesforce and a 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:49.280 client's industry. Phil helps businesses bridge these gaps in their 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:53.760 digital experiences, and Jermaine cognizant of their human end users. 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.760 The clicks not Code approach becomes so important here because 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:02.560 it empowers almost anyone in an organization to create human 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:07.679 centric digital solutions. As Jacob and Phil continued their conversation, 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.639 Field explains how he got involved in teaching Salesforce to 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:16.359 begin with, and how he cultivates creativity in his professional life. 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:20.920 So I want to talk some about creativity and want 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:25.080 to start with with your writing. And you're teaching right. 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:30.320 You have a blog about Salesforce features in the Salesforce platform, 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:36.439 You've written books on Salesforce CRM online courses. I'm surious 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.520 how you sort of got into writing and teaching in 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:43.920 the first place. Yeah, it's a great question. When I 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:48.440 first started building solutions on the Salesforce platform, I was 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.720 very excited about that, being able to do more than 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.639 I ever had been able to before through the clicks 0:18:54.680 --> 0:19:00.320 not code approach, and I started sharing what I was 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:06.000 learning with other employees. Personally, I feel like it's a 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:08.800 benefit to everyone and it's a benefit to myself. So 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.560 I started communicating to other employees. You know, a little 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:15.880 tips and things like that, and one employee my company said, hey, 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.639 have you ever thought about writing a blog? And I hadn't. 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.200 I thought that could be kind of interesting. So now, 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:27.680 about maybe eight to ten years ago, I started sharing 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.680 some tips. You know, here's how to solve this business 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:35.320 problem using Salesforce, that type of thing, and you know, 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:38.680 it was surprising to me how quickly it was picked 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:40.639 up and people would respond and say, hey, this this 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:42.880 really helped me out a lot. And then one day 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:47.520 I got a phone call from a publisher and they said, 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:52.199 you know, we want to start publishing books that have 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.399 to do with Salesforce. Would you be the author of 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.119 the first book we're going to publish on Salesforce? And 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:01.520 he said, you can call me if you think that, 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:03.679 you know, I'm pranking you or something, because I was, 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:06.440 I was like, where, you know, it was pretty surprising. 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:10.560 So my first thought was, you know, Salesforce has a 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.720 lot of help documentation. What would the benefit of another 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:17.720 book be? You know, So I kind of went through 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.920 the is this really going to help anyone out? And 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:25.320 it's been awesome. Um. I really put my heart into 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:28.040 these books, and I try to communicate as clearly as 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:30.600 I can. I use a lot of visuals, a lot 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:34.639 of examples, so I walk people through, you know, with 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:39.320 actual data, and it's just been amazing because so at 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:44.080 this point I've sold over seven thousand books, which to 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:46.040 me that that seems like a lot. That there are 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:47.760 a lot of people out there that using it. And 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:51.879 I've received a lot of feedback from people who have said, 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.040 you know, this really helped to get me back on track, 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:58.040 or this helped me learn this concept and really made 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:00.840 a difference in my day to day job. And that 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:04.680 just you know, kind of fuels feels the creativity more. Right. 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:07.080 It's just an exciting thing to see. It's the best 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.720 part of writing is getting that feedback. So I'm curious 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.960 to you, you know, what does creativity look like? How 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:17.040 do you how do you think of yourself as a 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:23.480 creative technologist slash business person. So I would say that 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:28.879 creativity and business is definitely related to just being creative 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:33.520 in general. And I think that for those who are creative, 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.480 you know, in the business world, they are probably creative 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:40.320 just across the board in their personal life. Right. I 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.920 think it's about being open, it's about being inquisitive and 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:48.400 it's being resourceful, at least for me. Also, one thing 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:52.000 that is unique about this ecosystem is there are a 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:55.240 lot of information shares and there are a lot of collaborators, 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.560 and so just being willing to talk to others and 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.600 work with others absolutely is a piece of that too, 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:05.640 because I learned a lot from other people. I mean, 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:08.280 I learned a lot of new ideas seeing what others 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:10.640 have done, and so we kind of build on each 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:14.840 other's shoulders. One thing that I'll mention is, I think 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:19.560 sometimes being creative actually is just being able to ask 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:23.160 the right questions. Right. If we go in maybe slightly 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:27.000 arrogantly thinking, you know, this is all just I'm coming 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:29.240 up with all of this in my own mind, we're 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:31.880 missing out a lot. So I, you know, I try 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:36.520 to be open to others thoughts and work with them 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:41.520 on things, and so just being able to solicit what's 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:44.359 in other people's minds and then have conversations about it, 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:46.800 I think is one way that you know, I come 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:50.080 up with new ideas too, is asking people the right 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:53.320 questions and then like I said, listening as well. I'm 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:58.560 curious about what what you have learned from these collaborations 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:01.760 clearly you know your things to the clients all the time. 0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:06.520 Are there examples of you know, skills or insights that 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:14.280 you've recently had thanks to these partnerships, Yes, definitely. So. 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:18.679 I recently was at dream Force, which came back in 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:22.600 almost full effect after a few years of being on 0:23:22.680 --> 0:23:26.560 pause because of the pandemic. Enforce is the big salesforce 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:32.760 gathering you got it? Yeah, it used to be north 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:36.399 of a hundred and fifty thousand people in San Francisco 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:39.120 for a week. Um. They toned it down a bit, 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:42.560 only only thirty five thousand. Um, you know a few 0:23:42.600 --> 0:23:46.840 weeks ago. How big the salesforce universe is, right, People 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:51.520 who are not in kind of enterprise software business applications universe. 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:54.520 It's like this giant force behind everything we touch. We 0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:58.320 just don't know it, you know exactly. Yes, it is 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:02.560 actually very very large. So um, it was a great 0:24:02.600 --> 0:24:07.159 opportunity for me. I was selected to speak UM in 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:10.520 a few sessions, so on stage at Dreamforce in front 0:24:10.600 --> 0:24:13.560 of different audiences, which is very cool. And I was 0:24:13.640 --> 0:24:16.960 asked to be a part of one particular session that 0:24:17.119 --> 0:24:21.280 had to do with Salesforce and slack um and so 0:24:21.720 --> 0:24:24.480 a colleague of mine. Jared Kingston, who I would also 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:28.119 call a definitely a you know, a creative mind and 0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:33.320 a great collaborator. He and I worked with Salesforce and 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:38.520 Slack to deliver a session around It was called build 0:24:38.560 --> 0:24:42.480 the Way You Want with Slack and the Salesforce platform. 0:24:42.520 --> 0:24:45.639 The whole idea was to show the different ways that 0:24:45.720 --> 0:24:48.440 Slack could be used, whether it's you know, with clicks 0:24:48.440 --> 0:24:54.160 with code to deliver solutions and so speaking about collaboration 0:24:54.200 --> 0:24:58.080 and me learning new things. This was a great example 0:24:58.119 --> 0:25:01.800 of that because we took to roles on this presentation 0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:06.600 and I learned a lot from my colleague Jared because 0:25:06.600 --> 0:25:11.320 he and UM, a seasoned member of his team, built 0:25:11.400 --> 0:25:15.600 out some actual solutions. So we're very keen on live 0:25:15.640 --> 0:25:18.720 demos in our sessions, so we we do. I've done 0:25:18.720 --> 0:25:20.960 a lot of presentations over the past few years, and 0:25:21.440 --> 0:25:27.479 UM I very much ms supporter of live demonstrations on 0:25:27.520 --> 0:25:29.720 the Salesforce platform. That's one of the great things that 0:25:29.760 --> 0:25:31.960 we can do with that is instead of just going 0:25:32.000 --> 0:25:35.440 through slides and trying to convince people of the great 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:37.400 things that can be done, why don't we show them 0:25:37.480 --> 0:25:40.800 live you actually do the thing. You actually do the 0:25:40.840 --> 0:25:43.560 thing right there on stage that you're talking about exactly, 0:25:43.560 --> 0:25:47.359 and it really resonates. People love to see you doing 0:25:47.440 --> 0:25:51.600 a B and C and then they see the end results. So, um, 0:25:51.720 --> 0:25:56.960 he and his colleague built out this solution with slack it, 0:25:57.400 --> 0:26:00.800 you know, showing how you can automatically host to Slack, 0:26:01.160 --> 0:26:05.320 automatically create a spin up, a channel for collaboration, all 0:26:05.400 --> 0:26:08.480 of this. That was part of that session and it 0:26:08.600 --> 0:26:11.520 was great because I learned quite a bit through it. 0:26:11.680 --> 0:26:15.000 So it was, you know, we collaborated together. I learned 0:26:15.000 --> 0:26:17.760 from him. So that was an example that's a little different, right, 0:26:17.800 --> 0:26:20.000 it's not working with a client, but it was working 0:26:20.000 --> 0:26:25.200