Meet Robin Daniels, a leadership expert who has mastered driving action through messaging. With more than two decades of experience spanning companies like Salesforce, Box, WeWork, LinkedIn, and Matterport, Robin has transformed the way people communicate and connect at work.
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(upbeat music)
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- Welcome to Inside the Oana.
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I'm Dan Darcy, Chief Customer Officer at Qualified.
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And today I'm joined by my great friend,
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Robert Daniels.
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Robin, how are you?
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- Oh, stop, great Dan.
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It's so good to see you.
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You know what?
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You and I have known each other for like 15 years now.
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And you were always one of my favorite people at Salesforce.
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So I'm so excited to chat with you here.
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But even my wife always says, Dan Darcy, I so great.
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Keep your members meeting you.
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And you're just 'cause you treat everybody well
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and with respect.
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So I'm excited to be here, man.
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It's awesome.
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- All right, Robin.
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So I wanna dive right into our first segment,
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"Oana Origins."
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Robin, how did you discover Salesforce
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and start your journey?
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- So I was taking a step back and just
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explain how I even got to California
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and into the tech world to begin with.
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So I was born and raised in Denmark.
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But I've always loved technology.
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I've loved how technology can impact our lives,
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both the way we work and the way we live.
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And so I always wanted to be a part of that movement
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and consider myself as super geek,
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you know, at the core of it.
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And so when I was 21 in February 1st, 2000,
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I ended up buying a one week ticket and going to California.
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And after two weeks, I got two job offers.
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And I know I'm taking a job at a startup company
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in Los Gatos and Silicon Valley.
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And a month after I got there in March of 2000,
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the whole market crashed.
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And I was like, what just happened?
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So that company did not end up making it.
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I went to another company, that did not end up making it.
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Then I answered up going to a bigger company called Veritas.
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And with them, I moved to England.
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And it was in England that I really started
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like discovering Salesforce.
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It's just that the leadership from Mark Benioff
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and the movement that he was creating around,
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moving everything into the cloud.
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Back then, it was called On Demand.
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It wasn't even called Cloud of course.
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That came later.
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But I was just always fascinated by it.
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So I actually applied to join Salesforce in 2006.
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And it was for a senior director
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of product marketing role in the UK.
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And I went through a lot of interviews with Woodson
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and Clarence and other people over there,
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even George Hsu.
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And I didn't get the job.
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But the feedback I got afterwards was like,
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you're great, we love your energy, we think you're smart,
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but you're not quite senior enough for this role.
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So we're gonna have to pass.
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But we'll keep you in mind for the future.
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Fast forward a year and a half, I took another job.
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Suddenly out of the blue, Salesforce reaches out to me.
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And they're like, hey, we have a different role now.
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We've grown the team.
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We'd love you to come in and this product marketing role
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and lead product marketing for Europe,
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Middle East and Africa for these kind of products.
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I interested and I said, yeah, but you know,
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I was there a year and a half ago.
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I spoke to so many different people.
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You know, you probably have a record of it somewhere.
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And they said, well, like what?
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I said, yeah, you know, I used to be Robin Gertson.
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I've changed my name to Robin Daniels.
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You know, being a progressive male,
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I took my wife's last name and when we got married.
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So I've changed my name and they went back
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and they talked to everybody who interviewed me
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and they came back and said, yeah,
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everybody remembers you.
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They loved you.
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They thought you were really smart
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and we'd like you to come in just for kind of a final round.
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So the second time I came in there, it was super easy
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because everybody luckily remembered me
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and they ended up hiring me.
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And that was how I got my start at Salesforce.
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- I love it.
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So give me the details of what was your initial job?
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You know, what was your initial impression?
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Like, tell me all about that.
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- I ended up working for a guy called Tim Barker in Europe.
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You know, he came into an acquisition.
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He's one of the smartest, nicest guys.
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He'll ever meet in the world.
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And he became a really good mentor for me.
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And based on the success that we had in growing that region,
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I remember, you know, really that we were the fastest growing
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region at the time, faster than America is faster
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than APAC and so on.
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I think it created enough of a momentum around me
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as a person, a leader and everything else
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that he got the attention of headquarters, you know?
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And eventually headquarters said,
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hey, we're about to launch this new thing called chatter.
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Do you want to come back to the US and work on that?
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And so when I got that offer to go back to California,
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I said, this is my chance.
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And there's always a moment in anybody's career.
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Now that I mentor a lot of other people
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and I coach people on their careers and their growth,
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there's always at some moment in your career
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where you're given the shot to do something great.
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You have to decide that as a person
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how much you lean into that.
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When it is, you decide how much you work on it,
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what you do in terms of your,
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like what you're willing to sacrifice
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'cause taking your career and having it take off
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requires a lot of sacrifices, no doubt about it.
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But when I was given the opportunity
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to really lead product marketing for chatter,
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to me I kind of seized that.
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And it created enough momentum in my life
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'cause I think we did well enough
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in terms of launching that to the world
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that all other companies afterwards came and found me.
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- Well, I'm excited you moved out to California
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because that's where we got to really know each other.
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And obviously work on building chatter together.
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So Robin, building on that,
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I want you to brag a little
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because I know you've had just incredible success
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during your time at Salesforce.
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What would you say is your biggest success
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or something that you're the most proud of thus far?
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- So chatter was a huge moment,
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but it was also a great experience
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because we launched chatter in 2009 at Dreamforce,
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but the product wasn't ready.
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It wasn't a real product at that point in time.
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Then we said, okay, in order for this to stick,
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we can't use the same playbook
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that every other company in Silicon Valley uses.
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Whereas it's launched something once
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and then we get some articles and maybe in TechCrunch,
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maybe you feel lucky in Wall Street Journal,
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New York Times, blah, blah, blah.
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And then you're good to go.
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Then everyone is hurt.
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We said, no, if we really want chatter to stick
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and be a force to be reckoned with,
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we have to go into this kind of mode
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of relaunch, relaunch, relaunch, relaunch.
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- Launch, relaunch, relaunch.
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- Launch, relaunch, relaunch.
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We came up with this playbook that said
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every basically five to six weeks,
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we're gonna relaunch chatter in a brand new way.
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Of course, the core of the product is the same,
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but the story around it was different.
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Chatter mobile, chatter app exchange,
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chatter for this industry or chatter success story,
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but there was always something in the news.
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And we went on this hyper-intense journey
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over about a year and a half of every five or six weeks
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would have some news to announce about chatter.
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And it meant that after that kind of, I would say,
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year and a half, chatter was like the most talked about
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product that sales force had ever launched.
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At that point in time, I'm sure it's probably been
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now super seated, but it meant
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suddenly sales force was sexy again.
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'Cause nobody really wanted to worry about a CRM system.
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CRM system, honestly, is just not that interesting,
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but we built this social component on top of the CRM system
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that made it super interesting.
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But the story of building a CRM system with a social component
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was something that nobody else in the industry had.
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It meant that we could suddenly beat all the other CRM vendors
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'cause we had an interesting component.
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And we could beat all the kind of social vendors
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that was jive and Yammer at the time,
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because the combination of those two products was unstoppable.
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And so it created so much momentum.
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I mean, I remember, again, it's not like,
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I'm taking credit for this, but because of the execution
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of everybody who worked on this, including you,
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the stock price doubled in that time,
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when many other companies saw their stock price
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not really moved because there wasn't that much new
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and exciting in the market.
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And if we had just written about CRM,
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I think sales force would not have created that momentum.
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If we'd just talked about CRM, it'd not seem.
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But we created this social atmosphere around it
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that was really, really interesting for companies.
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- What I really loved hearing was the value-based messaging.
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Instead of calling it Facebook for the enterprise,
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you talked about all the different value metrics
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and the time savings and everything that companies can do.
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The message around launch, launch, and relaunch
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kind of repeating those moments over time
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and perfecting the message.
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And then of course, storytelling is really about,
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is everything.
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So that's great.
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Now on the opposite side of the spectrum,
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what would you say was your biggest lesson learned
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at your time in sales force?
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- One thing I've always tried to take with me,
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in every company since then is this notion
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of really marketing yourself like a consumer company.
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And I've done this test honestly thousands of times maybe.
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I ask people, tell me three brands you love.
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Every single time, 100% people will mention consumer brands,
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every single time.
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Oh, I love Tesla, Lululema and Apple, Nike, you name it.
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And so the answer to me is obvious,
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market yourself like a consumer brand, as much as you can.
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And look at what Salesforce does.
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I think with something that's honestly pretty technical
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and honestly, you could argue it's pretty boring.
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They've done a phenomenal job of the storytelling,
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of marking themselves nearly like a consumer brand,
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even though they're so far from a consumer brand
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as anything in tech,
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but they do a good job
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'cause they always come back to the human story.
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So it's a huge, huge lesson I've taken with me.
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Love it.
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Now, if you could go back and talk to Robin
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that's just starting out with Salesforce,
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or the Robin that just got turned down by Salesforce
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for the first time, what advice would you give yourself?
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- That's a great question.
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I would say be bolder.
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I think it was a little too timid in the beginning.
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And it's because I didn't know the level
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and caliber of people around me and what was expected.
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So I don't think I, it's not like I screwed up.
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I didn't do well, but I don't think I was bold enough.
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I wasn't aggressive enough or assertive enough
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in the things that I wanted to do.
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Realizing that Salesforce was the kind of place
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that were born in boldness.
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So I think I played it a little bit too safe,
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probably in the first six to nine months or so,
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trying to do what was expected versus going beyond
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what's expected of you and really like taking those chances.
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I mean, I have this framework I use now,
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and a lot of it comes from Salesforce,
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even though we didn't use this exact same framework
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at Salesforce, but I think individuals and teams,
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they operate at three different levels.
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Either do tactical things that brings incremental results,
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you can do strategic things that brings linear results,
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or you can do epic things that brings exponential results.
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And I think Salesforce is the kind of company
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that really rewards that level of epic thinking
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that brings exponential results.
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I mean, especially 'cause you have a course of support
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around you that's willing to support you
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in those endeavors.
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- I love the reflection there.
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So Robin, I wanna ask you about the meaning
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of O'Hanna, and I asked this of all my guests
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because everyone really describes it
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just a little bit differently,
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but I'm curious, how would you describe the O'Hanna,
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and what does it mean to you?
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- Salesforce was always about,
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we were like evangelical warriors out there
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to create a movement that would change the world,
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to change the lives of people,
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and we were a family in doing it.
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And we were kind of like,
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family maybe is not the right word,
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but we were like a movement,
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and the movement always I think starts internally,
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which is why I think Salesforce did such a good job.
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A movement to me never starts externally,
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it starts internally.
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And Salesforce, maybe I think a lot of it came from Benioff,
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really realized how to harness that kind of passion
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of the people.
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I don't think there was ever really like
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a lot of people who just thought,
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I'm just selling more crap, it's like,
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no, we're trying to create a better future for everybody.
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- I love it.
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Now, before we get into our next segment,
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are there any special stories or O'Hanna moments
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is what I like to call them,
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that are a little behind the scenes
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that you wanna share that you normally wouldn't share?
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- I think it was four days before
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we were about to launch chapters to the world.
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And I'm sitting in this kind of meeting
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with Crick Swenzhoot and Kendall Collins,
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and lots of other people talking about the launch.
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And I remember just like,
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after I went to all the things that we're gonna do,
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like, here step by step,
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what we're gonna do, what we're gonna talk about so on.
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I remember, I think it was Craig,
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who was like, this is not good enough.
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We need to do better.
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We need better stories, we need better customers.
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And I'm like panicking, you know?
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It's like four days, so we're about to launch.
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And it's like, it feels like my biggest moment.
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And I feel like I'm kind of screwing this up.
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But it was also a reckoning of like,
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this notion that I mentioned earlier,
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always pushing each other to do better.
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And because of course, whatever I would do,
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he was my boss at the time,
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would always sort of like, better on him.
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So he wanted also, of course, to be a big moment.
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But what I took away from that is, you know,
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it's never too late to actually go and do something better.
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Even though we only had like four days to fix it.
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- Yeah, I was just gonna say four days,
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that's a whole world of time, like, if you're seeing
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four hours, like that is obviously an also believable story.
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- But we had to go out and shoot new video,
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new customer videos, we updated the messaging
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and even the launch plans and so on.
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But it was a stressful act.
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But it also, again, that pushing for excellence,
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I think, is something that I've always taken with me.
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- Love it.
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Let's get into our next segment, What's Cooking.
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Robin, now you are an executive advisor at many companies.
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I want you to talk about how you got to where you are
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and what your journey has been like
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to get to your current role.
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- Sure, so after I left Salesforce, you know,
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I was there, I think it grew from around a thousand people,
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maybe a little bit more to maybe 8,000, 10,000 people.
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And I thought to myself,
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I really wanna get in earlier
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and be part of an earlier journey.
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So when Box reached out to me in the end of 2011
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and basically it was Aaron Levy saying,
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whatever you did at Salesforce, come do it for us
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'cause he wanted to mirror that journey.
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And there were about 200 people at the time.
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I thought, well, this is my chance and opportunity
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to get in a more senior role, pre-IPO
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and help grow them through that journey.
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And then I thought to myself,
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well, now I've kind of taken that hyper growth journey.
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Let me go even earlier and go to a place
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where I can come in, at the ground floor,
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not maybe as a founder, but I would call it a near founder
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and help really scale and grow a company from nothing.
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So I joined a company called Vera that was still in stealth.
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We just raised our seed round of $4 million
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and they hired me to be the chief marketing officer
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and the chief revenue officer.
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And we scaled that company just over 10 million in revenue.
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It's just over 100 people.
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So it's great to spend, but I left that company
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not because I didn't love the job itself.
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I loved the art of marketing.
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I was, that was my main focus there.
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But because I wasn't, I didn't love the problem
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that we were solving, which was a cybersecurity company.
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The world needs it.
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God bless the companies who are solving cybersecurity
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for all of us, but I'm just not passionate about it.
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I don't wake up being passionate about that world.
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What I'm really passionate about,
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I had this moment of realization is I love working
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on technologies to bring people together.
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So afterwards, I really wanted to go to a company
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that was all about bringing people together
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and I ended up going to LinkedIn again
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through my Salesforce connection.
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And LinkedIn of course is the ultimate platform
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that brings people together.
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And if you'd re-round the clock there,
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I would probably thought I would have been in LinkedIn
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for quite a while.
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But then we were a cave and knocked on my door.
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And at first I wasn't really sure I said no
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and then they were very persistent.
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And I ended up of course becoming
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the chief marketing officer at WeWork
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and saw them through $20 billion valuation,
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$47 billion valuation towards an IPO
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and then it all came crashing down.
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It was pretty painful.
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But it was still a fun experience.
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So even though I left WeWork then,
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I ended up going to a company called Matterport
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which is also about bringing people together around spaces.
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So I went there, went through hypergrowth with them,
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took them public in 2021 which was super fun.
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But I left because during that time
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I also ended up moving to Denmark,
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moved back from Silicon Valley to Denmark.
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And the nine hour time difference honestly is,
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was just too tough.
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So I left at the end of 2021.
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And since then I've just been working
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with a bunch of cool companies.
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And what I'm doing now is I call myself an executive advisor
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but I'm really trying to work with teams and CEOs
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and companies who just wanna like unlock
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the potential that they have.
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Sometimes that's in marketing programs
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so obviously I have a lot of experience in marketing.
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Sometimes it's the people themselves
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that need to be unlocked and need to think bigger
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and differently about things.
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Sometimes it's about the culture itself.
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For example, I'm here at a company called Beemoree
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in the UK, I love the team here.
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They're about 400 people, series C, they're growing fast,
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they're kind of a talent platform.
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And I was here two weeks ago and I delivered
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kind of a four hour course on how do you develop
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high performance teams and how do you create
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high performance cultures?
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Because it's one thing that growing teams
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oftentimes struggle with how do you get everybody
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to perform at the right level and hold them accountable to it.
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So these are the kind of things that I'm working on.
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I still love marketing.
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It's kind of my passion, of course branding, storytelling
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but it's beyond that.
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It's much more about the people
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and the potential at this point.
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So that's what I'm doing these days.
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- Well, I mean, you're the perfect person to ask this
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because you are going across a lot of companies
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but what challenges are you seeing now out there?
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And how are you helping apply what you've learned
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from Salesforce to the challenges
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that you're seeing in the market?
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- It's the right question to ask
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because so many of the companies are struggling
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with a couple of different things.
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They're struggling with certainly pipeline.
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Like how do you get the right pipeline
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for the growth trajectory that you've set forth?
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And I'm not talking about you.
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I don't want to give anything away about them.
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I think they're doing quite well
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but I've speak to a lot of companies to your point.
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So a lot of companies are struggling with
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how do you create not just pipeline,
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you can create pipeline
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but how do you create good pipeline
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and sustainable pipeline and predictable pipeline?
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Those are tough things.
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And how do you create urgency in the buying cycle
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for people to move?
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A lot of companies I feel like are realizing
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that things keep getting punted.
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And this again comes back to Salesforce
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using my lesson at Salesforce.
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The two most important questions you have to answer
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in marketing is why should people care about your product
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and why now?
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And most companies are really good
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at answering the first question.
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I think they can give you a product pitch all day long
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but then you get to the point where why now?
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And unless you can answer that,
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you become one of those products that,
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ah, it sounds really cool Dan but next year,
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next year when I get to find some budget, you know,
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oh and then it keeps getting punted
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unless you can create some urgency
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which is really hard to do,
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you're always gonna not live up
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to your potential less of business.
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And so I see a lot of companies struggle
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so they're trying all these digital channels,
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they're trying all kinds of marketing tactics
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but they haven't answered the fundamentals of the story itself.
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Why this product and why now?
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So you can try all,
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you can spend endless amounts of money on Google AdWords
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and LinkedIn advertising
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but unless the story is compelling
18:14
and I say this, I'll go into VCs or founders
18:18
and they'll say, eh, we've tried these channels
18:20
and it's not working and my question's back as always,
18:23
what's the story you're sharing?
18:24
And then they show it to me and I'm like,
18:27
this is not good enough,
18:28
there's no urgency in this story
18:30
and it's hard to do it, don't get me wrong.
18:31
It's not like, if it was easy, everybody would do it
18:34
but this is what it takes to become a great company today.
18:37
- Yeah, I mean, it's hard to create that anxiety
18:40
in the buyer to get them to move
18:43
and I think it's a special talent that you bring
18:45
so that's awesome.
18:46
- And I've always had the mindset of
18:49
I only put out marketing that's aspirational
18:52
and inspirational, the world has enough fear
18:54
so I don't wanna add more fear to the world
18:56
but that's of course juxtaposed with actually
18:58
how do you create urgency?
18:59
So I always think of it this way
19:01
in my mass marketing that goes out to the world
19:03
it should be aspirational and inspirational
19:06
and even the one, so that's the one too many,
19:08
even the one too few should be that way.
19:10
But when you're with a customer,
19:12
you have to figure out at some point
19:13
how do I actually get them to engage
19:17
in a way that's urgent a little bit more.
19:18
And that can be done to marketing
19:20
but it can also be done to do sales very well.
19:22
- Well, and if the listeners and the viewers out there
19:25
aren't following you on LinkedIn
19:27
they should follow Robin Daniels
19:28
because you do drive a lot of aspirational messages
19:30
that is very inspiring to everyone
19:32
so thank you for doing that Robin.
19:34
So what's next for you and how are you shaping the future?
19:37
- Well, I think about this question a lot.
19:40
It's either stay doing what I'm doing
19:43
just walking across a bunch of companies
19:46
which has a lot of fun
19:49
but I also miss being part of something.
19:51
So my inclination is to join something
19:55
or start something because I think
19:58
when you're in and out, it's fun for the freedom you have
20:02
and the connections you create
20:03
but you're never as fully engaged as I think I like to be.
20:07
For some people it suits them just fine.
20:09
You're kind of in and out
20:09
but for me, you know me from Salesforce
20:12
when I go into something where and I give it my all
20:15
I'm in 200%, a thousand percent.
20:18
There's no half asking it with me
20:19
and I'm not saying I'm half asking it out
20:21
but you're kind of not not fully committed in
20:23
and I like doing that.
20:24
So I would say stay tuned
20:26
but I'm thinking a lot about what's the next in 2022?
20:30
2023 I guess is where we're coming up to.
20:32
- Well, I mean, I'll just give you a little idea
20:35
but I think you're becoming a major LinkedIn influencer
20:38
and you create that LinkedIn influencer army.
20:40
That would be kind of pretty awesome.
20:41
- Oh, that's a good idea.
20:42
I don't know if that's enough to satisfy me
20:46
but I like the idea.
20:47
- I do like, I think LinkedIn is just such a,
20:50
I just wanna, I think talk about it just for a sec
20:53
because it's such a special community
20:55
and it's special because it's based on people's real identities
20:59
and it's very positive and supportive community.
21:01
I mean, I think people are so supportive of each other
21:03
when people put out vulnerable, authentic posts
21:06
about the struggles that they have
21:08
or the things they need help with
21:09
the community really rallies around those people really well
21:13
and I've seen it, they've done it for me
21:16
and I'm forever grateful, you know?
21:18
And that's one thing.
21:19
The second thing that I realized
21:22
and if you're a leader and you're listening to this,
21:24
I only started realizing this probably about two years ago
21:26
is it's the best channel for internal communication.
21:30
I had no idea but you know,
21:32
how often do you have all hands?
21:34
Probably once a week, maybe once every two weeks,
21:35
maybe once a month.
21:37
That means that most of the people in your company
21:39
are not hearing from you maybe as much as they need to
21:41
but guess what?
21:42
They're all on LinkedIn every single day
21:44
and I started realizing, especially during the pandemic,
21:46
that when I would post every single day,
21:49
I got messages from engineers and from product people
21:52
and from finance people that I've never met saying,
21:54
hey, I saw what you posted.
21:55
It really kind of made my day or something
21:58
and it became kind of a channel for internal morale as well.
22:01
And if you're a leader or CEO,
22:04
just think of it for that reason alone.
22:06
That's why you should use LinkedIn.
22:07
Let's get into our final segment, The Future Forecast.
22:11
So, Robert, what do you envision as the future
22:12
of the Salesforce ecosystem?
22:14
It's funny, I'm about to go and speak about this here
22:16
in just a moment.
22:17
I think there are different levels
22:20
that you can win as a company.
22:21
You can either have the best feature,
22:23
you can have the best product,
22:24
you can have the best category,
22:26
you can be a category leader
22:27
or you can create a full movement
22:29
that stands the test of time.
22:31
And I think when I look at Salesforce's journey,
22:34
they're on their way to really have created the movement
22:37
that is the cloud for everything.
22:39
I don't think they're quite there yet.
22:40
They're certainly the category leader.
22:42
So, they've gone beyond feature level winning,
22:45
beyond product level winning.
22:46
They're definitely the category leader
22:48
when it comes, I think, to just like the enterprise
22:51
and business cloud.
22:52
But I think they're on their way to create a movement.
22:54
And the companies that have created movements
22:56
like Tesla, Apple, Google, they're not quite there,
23:00
but I think they're heading that way.
23:02
Meaning, they're so woven into the fabric of society,
23:06
how people get jobs, how they make their living,
23:09
how businesses operate, how our personal lives operate.
23:11
These companies that have reached movement level status
23:14
have really changed the fabric of society.
23:17
And I think Salesforce is nearly there.
23:18
>> What advice do you have for aspiring leaders out there?
23:22
>> Well, in times like this, you have to over-communicate
23:26
and you have to be really clear.
23:27
What people, especially in your team, hate more than anything,
23:31
is uncertainty.
23:32
And so, you can't be one of those leaders that hides away.
23:35
Sometimes I hear these stories, I'm like,
23:37
oh, I haven't heard from my leader in two weeks.
23:39
I'm like, honestly, it's just not good enough.
23:42
If you've been given the privileged opportunity to lead,
23:45
you have to, especially in uncertain times like this,
23:48
step into it and lead from the front.
23:50
Be visible, be heard, communicate with clarity,
23:54
communicate with empathy.
23:55
I think communication is the key.
23:57
I always say to anybody, as communication is why I've succeeded
24:01
in my life, and it's also why I fail sometimes.
24:04
And I've learned a lot of it from Salesforce
24:05
'cause they were so great at communication
24:07
in all aspects, internal, external, you name it.
24:10
>> All right, well, before letting you go,
24:12
let's have fun with a quick lightning run.
24:14
Are you ready?
24:14
>> I'm ready.
24:15
>> Okay.
24:17
Favorite Salesforce product, not chatter.
24:19
(laughing)
24:21
>> Einstein, just 'cause I love the characters in which.
24:23
>> That's awesome.
24:24
>> Favorite Salesforce character?
24:27
>> I mean, chatty, come on, of course.
24:29
(laughing)
24:30
>> R.I.P. Chatty.
24:32
>> Exactly.
24:33
>> Favorite brand of anything besides Salesforce?
24:36
>> I always say there are three brands I can't live without.
24:38
If I could choose.
24:39
It's Apple, it's Whole Foods, and it's Lulu 11.
24:44
I'm wearing a Lulu 11 shirt right now,
24:46
so damn comfortable.
24:48
But those three brands, I think,
24:49
are just brands that constantly deliver, I think.
24:52
>> Love it.
24:53
>> I'm so glad you brought that up.
24:55
I'm so glad you brought that up,
24:56
because that was what I was gonna say.
24:58
>> I know.
24:59
You've always been looking for that video.
25:00
I have the video.
25:01
(laughing)
25:02
>> That's awesome.
25:03
So you just won front row seat tickets to your dream event.
25:07
What is it?
25:08
And it can't be your band.
25:09
Okay.
25:10
But go forward.
25:11
(laughing)
25:12
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25:13
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25:14
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