The Value of Family and Career Balance
Meet Jennifer Lagaly, Executive Vice President for Tableau Americas at Salesforce, and a champion for women in the workplace.
(upbeat music)
- Welcome to Inside the Ohana.
I'm Dan Darcy, Chief Customer Officer at Qualified.
And today I'm joined by Jennifer Legale.
Jen, how are you?
- Awesome, hi Dan.
I am so much better now to end my week on this Friday
with you at the Knowing the Ohana.
It's awesome.
- Exactly, happy, happy Friday.
All right, so I wanna dive right into our first segment,
Ohana Origins.
How did you discover Salesforce in the first place, Jen?
- Yeah, you know, Salesforce kind of came to me.
I was finishing up a trip,
or I just got back from a trip a year in South America
with my boyfriend, then turned husband,
got married in Brazil at the end, came back,
and I had a really good friend of mine.
There was a VP of Marketing at Salesforce.
And he said, hey, you need to interview right now,
because he wanted a $2,000 referral bonus.
And I was like, okay, I said, give me a month.
Like let me just like settle back in the United States.
You know, he's like, nope, gotta do it now.
And so I said, fine.
So in a day I turned around to resume and interviewed.
And also it was the only tech company
that was in San Francisco at the time.
It was the only one.
It was like, that's just back in '03, like a June of '03.
So interviewed with a guy named Rob Becker,
and he was hiring his first pledge class of like five people
that was post.com bubble burst.
And it was like the beginning of the hockey stick, really.
And most people were like, why would you go to a .com?
Like that already burst, that bubble's gone.
And so it was kind of, we dropped .com of our name
shortly thereafter, but to salesforce.com I went and man,
19 years later, never looked back.
- That's incredible.
And I love Rob and a huge shout out to Rob Becker
if he's listening to this.
But give me the details at the time back in '03.
What was your job?
What was the company size at the time?
And like what was your first initial impression
of like basically the beginning of the Ohana,
back in '03 I'm curious.
- Yeah, back in '03, so we're 300 people-ish, right?
We had, I'm in sales, I've been in sales almost the whole time
actually, it took a little deviation to raise my second
to batches of children.
But we had a good handful of salespeople
that were focused on the enterprise.
Mark Beniopp had come over, he came from Oracle,
he loves the enterprise, he loves the big,
Mark, he trust him, he knows that's how
you get your name out there and move the needle.
And so we had, I mean, I don't know exactly
that maybe 10 to 15 sales enterprise sales they use.
And then two guys, Rob Becker and this other guy,
George who was a, you know, George became our COO eventually.
And he started off as an intern from Stanford Business School
and he was very good with data.
And he saw some data that said, hey,
I think we could really make some money
off of this small to medium sized business market segment.
And I think Mark was a little bit dubious,
but he said, fine, I'll give you, you know,
X number of heads and resources.
And let's go see, let's just try it out.
And so that started off, you know,
we had probably 15 to 20 people in our group, you know,
for a bit and then ended up being, you know,
what is now our commercial business.
And it's about, I don't know,
if I just 6,000 people that sell now to that segment.
So a pretty remarkable decision made by them
and love that data helped them make that decision.
But we were the first kind of, you know, pledge us.
- I love that you're plugging data really early on
because I know that I know that's where you are at now
at Tableau and we'll get into that in just a second.
And I also love that you plugged George Hu
who was just more recently as well the CEO, COO at Tulio.
And so, I mean, what an incredible beginning
for Salesforce at that time.
Now, Jen, I want you to brag a little
because you've really had an incredible career
and still going strong 19 years at Salesforce.
What would you say is your biggest success you've had
while working at Salesforce
and something that you're really like
the most proud of this far?
- A lot of people will say,
wow, you've got some incredible stamina
to be able to still be in sales at Salesforce
after all these years.
Somebody said it to me recently and I was like,
you know, you can't write.
I should put that on one of my notches,
like, you know, Coodles, well done.
You know, kind of facetiously, I also say
that I'm proud that my five children,
that I pregnant three months after starting at Salesforce,
they're still alive, my five kids.
That right there is remarkable.
So notch number two on the belt.
You know, but there's a couple of things recently.
You know, one, I am proud of the,
I launched a vertical last year,
the marketing, the manufacturing and auto
and energy industry last year.
That was a very fun thing to be a part of and to do.
It was much more complex than just running a territory.
So I'm very proud of that.
That's going very strong.
You know, I just moved over to Tableau.
So that's TBD on my path there,
but hoping to have some good things there.
But you know, really what I feel,
feel the most proud, you know, you feel proud here is,
I recently did a TED Talk, a TEDx Talk.
It's maybe about a year ago I did that.
And it was all about how, you know,
the pivotal moments in my life
that allowed me to become an executive
but still remain a mother and kind of be proud of both.
And that's a, you know, it's not an easy thing to do.
You've got to be very intentional about that.
And so, you know, anytime I join a new group,
they look me up on Google and they look,
they see that I did a TED Talk.
And I get all of these like,
oh my God, I just watched your TED Talk.
Thank you so much.
This has been a very difficult,
I wasn't sure if I was going to stay in the game or not.
And, or my wife was having a hard time
and this really helped us.
And so, and to stay in and still have a career.
And so that's something that I'm continuing to want
to build on that too, because I feel like it's something
that's really important.
It's raising kids, it's hard,
but it's very similar to leadership, by the way.
So I'm going to start a series here pretty soon
in my Tableau world and kind of bring that out
and connect with people in that way.
- That's incredible.
I mean, me being just a new dad myself,
I'm obviously a little bit later in my career.
And I say this to all my friends as I worked with them.
I'm like, I don't know how anyone did this, you know,
back in the day.
So, you know, so can you give us a little bit of those,
like what are those tips that you would say, you know,
from your TED Talk?
I would love to understand and like dig into that
a little bit around, you know,
what advice you would give to, you know,
working parents, but also more specifically working moms.
- Yeah, and I can almost give both
because I can give my husband's perspective as well, right?
But the three pivotal moments that I talk about
in my TED Talk are one is you pick the right partner
and stay in the game, because picking the right partner
actually allows you to stay in the game.
And the second one is to step on that first rung.
And this is a lot for women actually more than men
because women tend to not do it.
I didn't start leading until I was 41.
I'm an EVP now.
I started, I was an AE itself versus an EVP
and every in 10 years.
And so I started late, but I really embraced it
actually after a year and a half for a year and a half.
I said, I'm not sure if I'm gonna like this or that,
but I then I full on loved it and braced it.
But step on that first rung is a really important thing.
And then the last one is how do you mute the noise
around you and you know your worth?
And so I'm not gonna go into all three,
but I would say the first one that I mentioned
is incredibly important and that is picking the right partner.
And you know, this is maybe even more of like a life advice
as well, but you really need to pick a partner
that sees you as an equal and that appreciates you
for your strength, right?
And what you can go contribute to the family
in a lot of ways.
And we are as mothers and wives and sisters
and daughters and all of that.
We are, you know, that's the most fulfilling part
of what we do, but it is so fun to own something
that is yours and that is your career
and that is what you're giving back to your community
and to work and to feel like you're also part
of the financial aspect of giving back
to the family and the partnership.
And so it's very fulfilling to be able to do both.
Not easy, but very fulfilling.
So that's, you know, if I was gonna give any piece of advice,
you've got to share all of the home life
as well as the work wife.
- So let's take it to the opposite side of the spectrum
where, you know, like what would you say
was a tough lesson that you learned while at Salesforce?
- Yeah, interesting.
I, it was a good lesson.
I'm gonna share this one, which is, you know,
I was coming to the end of my second year
as a second line leader.
We call it an ABP here at Salesforce,
the area vice president and in that year,
our team actually was performing incredibly well,
but leadership above wasn't having as great a year
and there was a lot of friction there
and so much so that it made me rethink what I was the role.
And I, for the first time ever at that point,
had ever, I looked outside of Salesforce
and looked at changing roles.
And I looked at, I looked outside everywhere,
looked inside of Salesforce everywhere.
Like I didn't actually take interviews, but I was,
and I realized, I'm like, you know what?
I'm in the exact place that I wanna be.
I'm managing the team and the segment.
I'm in the role that I wanna be, that I wanna be.
And, but by releasing that, it kind of made me say,
I'm gonna lead the way I wanna lead the way
I think is the right way to lead
that will get the best performance out of my teams
and also the most fulfilling for me.
And once I kind of broke the chain
of trying to please my bosses,
and I chose to please my team and myself,
but still hold true to Salesforce,
meaning grow the business, which is, you know,
growth, I'd say this is the number one verb
that everyone needs to do at Salesforce
is the only thing we're focused on is growth.
Then, you know, once I did that,
I realized that I became a better leader.
And that, that year, I became the number one ABP
in the company and, you know, that leader
that I was talking about basically would say,
you're a great leader.
And it was because I had chosen to lead the way I wanted.
- So, Jen, I wanna ask you about the meaning of Ohana.
And I asked this of all my guests
because I feel like everyone really describes it differently.
But I'm curious, how would you describe the Ohana
and what does it really mean to you?
- The way I think it is, the general,
people who love the Ohana,
they want to go squeeze the juice out of life, right?
I don't like to say have it all
because have it at all is a misnomer.
It's have it all that's important to you
is what you're trying to go do, right?
Which means prioritization,
which is a Salesforce thing too.
But squeezing the juice out of the Ohana
means, you know, there's this pace that we run at.
And I think it's most people know what it is
or have heard about it.
But, you know, the pace that we run at Salesforce is hard.
There's urgency.
There is a desire to succeed.
There's winning, there's performance.
You know, but it's all been balanced out of this thing
called giving back to the community
and the humility that you get
by keeping everything in check.
Like it is not winning at all costs.
It is winning the right way.
You know, it is not just doing well.
It is doing good.
And so you, so you know, it scratches this itch
of really wanting to go be the best,
this adrenaline rush that you really get
from striving for something together as a team.
You're all like locked in arms.
It's you're doing it as a very collaborative way.
It's one thing that, you know, people come in
to another company that'll say,
wow, it's crazy how much people help everybody here.
And it's true.
We are all going after the same thing, you know,
but we do it in a way that is giving back to society too.
So it grounds you in this humility, you know.
So, you know, I kind of talk about Salesforce.
I always hear, you know, from people that come back
with own boomerangs.
And so for the boomerangs that come back,
oftentimes they'll say, I left because of the pace,
but I came back because of the pace.
Because it's the pace that we run out here so hard
that actually is what creates success.
And it makes you have to do the best work of your career.
There are very little less than eight players here.
And that means you need to go be at your best every day.
And if you love that environment,
then this is the place for you.
- I truly love that definition of yours, Jen.
So thank you for that.
Before we get into our next segment,
are there any special stories or ohana moments
that are a little behind the scenes
that you would like to share?
- I mean, I'd dance with them looking at you.
Maybe I'm gonna pull the one that you and I went to go do
where we went to Sri Lanka.
And we, that was an amazing trip.
And it was a trip that was really focused on
how do we go into all of those tribes
and really the interior of Sri Lanka.
And we partnered with a group called Room to Read,
which was really focused on how do we,
there's this talk about multi-level,
this multi-level way to up-level the education of children
in Sri Lanka by getting them libraries
but also reaching out to their communities.
They also to make sure that they got to the girls
in these tribes because girls weren't allowed to go
get educated, they had to stay back and do work for the family.
How do they go get them to college?
And it was a really,
we went and helped to build a school with concrete,
made it used all of the,
we could create this reading room outside.
That was a lot of hard work in the sweltering heat.
But those kids in that village were just,
I mean, we still have those pictures.
They were so appreciative of us being there,
so appreciative of what we went there to go build.
- That was an incredible memory
and definitely a very, very special HANA moment.
I'm so, I'm really happy that you shared that one
'cause that is something that I will never, never forget
and always take with me forever.
So let's get into our next segment, What's Cooking?
Jen, you are now the EVP at Tableau in sales.
Talk about how you got to where you are now
and what your journey has been like
to get your current role.
- Yeah, well, you know, it's funny.
Just the top of mind for me right now is interesting.
It's like, you know, I feel like the last three or four years,
things have moved so fast that people have been promoted
very quickly because of all of the,
just the equity that's been in the market
and all of the jobs that have come open.
And every single one of my roles,
I've been in it for a minimum of three years, right?
So I'm kind of like, not specifically
in the team necessarily, but in the role.
And so, you know, one thing that I have done is,
the one thing I really do focus on is love what you do.
You do it well and good things come.
And literally, I don't, you know,
I've obviously interviewed for roles,
but oftentimes I've been asked to interview for roles.
I think it's almost every time actually
because I'm not necessarily always worried
about getting to that next peg and that next ladder.
Like that's not really, even now you ask,
what am I, well, I'm an EVP.
I'm definitely higher than I ever thought I was going to be
when I started at Salesforce certainly, you know,
19 years ago, but now like for me,
every option is open now.
And so, you know, every job that I've done,
I've done, because I've built great relationships,
you know, I always say the brand that you build
and who you are as your brand happens
in every interaction you have with somebody.
And everything that you do on the team that you're on,
that is the brand that you build.
And so, you know, the brand that I build
is ahead of wherever I go.
So opportunities come because people hear about what I've done.
You know, so that's what I would say,
like whatever role you're in, just freaking do it well.
Enjoy it.
First, pick something you love.
When you love it, the passion comes out.
It's obvious.
I see so many people that I want to give more to
because they're passionate.
They're in it.
They're leaning in.
They want to go do extra things.
Those are the people that I want to go promote.
And, you know, and then, you know,
and then what I'm looking for now is every role that I'm in,
I want to be challenged.
I want it to be hard.
Leaders get paid to solve problems.
They go, they go, they pay to do the things
that nobody else could figure out or wants to do,
or, you know, or it needs to happen,
but doesn't know how to go do it.
And so I want hard problems, you know,
and right now we're taking Tableau,
which we acquired two years ago,
and then, you know, gone through COVID, et cetera.
And we're zippering up Salesforce and CO,
Salesforce and Tableau to be a one company.
We're creating our new world.
What is the new world?
We're not going to be just Salesforce,
and we're not just Tableau.
We are Tableau and Salesforce,
and what does that look like?
And it's been a blast so far.
- I mean, speaking of that specific challenge,
like, how are you, like, taking what you've learned,
obviously, while at Salesforce for those 19 years
and applying it to really bringing Tableau
and Salesforce together as one?
If you're maniacally focused on the success of your team,
you never have to think about yourself.
You'll naturally find success.
You don't have to worry about that.
You don't even have to spend time doing that,
because as soon as you start thinking about yourself,
you're going to start to spiral.
It's the wrong, always the wrong focus that you need to have.
If you're focused on making sure that your team
is successful in what they do,
you will have success, period.
The second thing is,
is if every decision that you make,
and every, you know, everything that you do
is aligned to what I always say, what would Mark do?
So what would Mark Benny off do?
What would he do in this situation?
Whenever I come across a crossroads,
I'm like, okay, I've got to make a decision here.
How do we do it?
I just take myself all the way up to Mark.
Now we can say Brett, 'cause we're co-CEOs.
So what would Mark or Brett do?
I also put Brian Milham, of course, in that,
and he was an incredible executive here at Salesforce,
but he had been here for 20 years, almost the whole time.
What would those three do?
What decision would they make in this situation?
And if everything that you're doing,
and everything you're building is in line with like,
some people try to get to these like,
fiefdoms, like what would be good just for my team.
But if you open that up and you say,
what is good for Salesforce would drive success
for the company?
And what is your role in it?
You're gonna find success.
So those are the two things that I always say,
is the driver and how you drive success in the future too.
- Yeah, so I'll recap that for the listeners and the viewers.
It's obviously focusing on the success of your team,
and success for you will come from that.
And then place yourself in your leader's shoes,
and what decisions do you think they would take into account
when they're making those decisions and go from there?
Yeah, I mean, 'cause you know, a lot of those folks
that would be listening don't really understand Brian,
Mark, or Brett, but I know exactly what you mean,
but yeah, it's just really thinking about it
at that higher level and going from there.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So what's next for you?
I mean, I know you have this going on with Tableau
and you're bringing that together,
but I mean, what's coming up next?
And how are you thinking about shaping the future
as you continue on your leadership role at Tableau?
- Yeah, well, it's interesting.
I mean, Tableau is an incredible company,
an incredible company.
They've built over $2 billion business
on really aligning with the success of admins
and analysts, et cetera.
And they talk a lot about how we help you see
and understand data, right?
And that is the bread and butter
of what we do better than anybody else.
You know, but we're all evolving right now.
And we're trying to supersize, okay,
how do we supersize Tableau and Salesforce?
And we have this broader story that we can now tell.
And if you look at it, data and AI, big data,
it is in every single digital transformation conversation.
It's what every company needs to go do.
Data is not getting smaller.
It is accelerating in terms of how much data we have out there.
So when I think about what we're doing is,
how do we go tell this whole story end to end
where we get the data, how do we visualize it?
How do we get insights, a lot of AI and machine learning?
How do we go get that?
And then most importantly, how do we take action on it?
And we've got this incredible platform
that is Salesforce from beginning to end,
focused on the customer and customer experience.
How do we make sure that data informs all of that?
And so really is broadening that
and really going out there and growing the value
that we have with our customers.
All right, Jen, let's get into our final segment,
Future Forecast.
So Jen, what do you envision
as the future of the Salesforce ecosystem?
- Future of Salesforce is, you know,
wow, we are almost 30 billion and 85,000 strong right now,
right with an incredible ecosystem around us.
You know, I think the future of Salesforce looks like,
it looks like it's probably leaning a lot into
where we've already gone,
which is the core of everything that is Salesforce is,
how do we allow our customers
to create an incredible relationship with their customer, right?
And we want to give them everything that they need
with our ecosystem as well to go do that.
And I would say, you know, the future of Salesforce
is how do we continue to make that easy?
How do we make it easy?
How do we get the right information
to the right people at the right time?
And as we see this innovation that's happening,
how are we continually reacting to the innovation,
you know, that we do with mobile,
and then we do with social, now we do with AI,
and big data, et cetera,
how are we continue to evolve our entire platform
to be able to make sure that we are
where our customers are every time,
that they need to be us to be there.
- Yeah, I agree.
I think, I mean, obviously the future of Salesforce
is always staying relevant
with where the innovation and technology is going.
That's awesome. - Yeah.
So, General, last question, any advice
for any parents out there who are also aspiring entrepreneurs
or executives?
- First of all, watch my TED Talk.
No, it's easy for them to get the baseline
on how to think through it
and to navigate some of those sticky parts.
But, you know, I think with this is that
it is not an easy road.
I remember I'm gonna give you this little moment
that I had when I had my twins,
so I now had five kids, five kids in less than four years.
Twins, you know, I went for the fourth,
one of that, did not necessarily want that fifth,
but got it anyway, so buy, forget, win free.
And I remember I was going into the car
and I just had to get some milk,
and I, you know, got all the kids,
loaded them in the car,
and I couldn't get this car seated,
and I was like, I was almost gonna have a breakdown,
and I just couldn't want to get you.
I'm like, you know what?
Why did I think this is gonna be easy
to go to this store and get milk?
It wasn't.
This is gonna be hard as will everything else
that I do in the next 10 years.
And it just is.
And so, like, being a parent,
I think what you need to do is you've gotta go
into look at what the future looks like,
because this too shall pass,
every parent's favorite phrase,
this too shall pass,
and you don't wanna make short-term decisions
to, you know, as opposed to the long-term.
So, what do you want your life to look like in 10 years
and just start, and work towards that,
knowing that it's a painful gauntlet
you gotta get through sometimes,
trying to fit work and parenting into the same thing.
But if you've got a partner that isn't in it with you as well,
and you love what you do, you'll get through it.
Sage, Sage Advice, thank you so much.
So, but before letting you go,
let's have fun with a quick lightning round.
You ready for this?
I'm ready.
Favorite product?
Tableau.
(laughs)
Of course.
(laughs)
Classic or lightning?
Oh, got lightning, of course.
I saw a classic window club the other day,
and I was like, ooh, the product memories.
(laughs)
Favorite Salesforce character?
Oh, my gosh.
I'm gonna have to go with Einstein.
He's just so smart.
And Einstein and Data.
(laughs)
Oh, actually, I mean, I know we've a new one.
We've a Data Rockstar, Data Rockstar for Tableau.
I'm gonna have to go with him.
And he's super cool with the leather jacket,
so I'm gonna guitar.
Data Rockstar.
Data Rockstar.
Nice.
Favorite brand of anything besides Salesforce?
Oh, my gosh.
I mean, I live in my Lulu Lemons.
It's either work clothes or Lulu Lemons,
so I'm gonna have to go Lulu Lemons.
(laughs)
Secret skill, not on the resume.
Oh, I can read people.
I can read everyone in two seconds.
I love that.
You just won front row seats to your dream event.
What is it?
I'm gonna have to say, it's gotta be the Warriors.
I love watching the Warriors.
Front row.
They're so fun right now, too.
Tonight, we have a game we're gonna-- game two.
Yeah, it's gonna be incredible.
Jen, I just want to say thank you.
This has been so much fun, but before I let you go,
let the listeners know where they can find you.
And is there anything else you'd like to plug or share?
Why can't you find me?
I think the easiest way for those that aren't in the Salesforce ecosystem.
I'm at Jlegaleat Salesforce.com email me at any time.
Or go to my LinkedIn.
That's kind of--
LinkedIn has really become a great social media for me.
No, I'm not that--
I love being on the show.
I love going back into the O'Hanna.
I do think that what we built at Salesforce is very special.
And I think the fact that you're going in and you're figuring out,
what is that special?
Everybody's got their own take on it and why they let--
how that allowed them to be successful in their own career.
And I think it's awesome how you enjoy the stand.
Oh, thank you, Jen.
And it's great to see you.
Thank you so much.
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