Meet Jamie Domenici, GoTo’s Chief Marketing Officer. Previously, Jamie spent 10 years at Salesforce as a marketing leader in various roles, learning the power behind a strong brand narrative. Now, Jamie brings those same lessons to Inside the Ohana, where she shares her best advice about writing your brand’s story and crafting your own personal narrative.
Meet Jamie Domenici, GoTo’s Chief Marketing Officer. Previously, Jamie spent 10 years at Salesforce as a marketing leader in various roles, learning the power behind a strong brand narrative. Now, Jamie brings those same lessons to Inside the Ohana, where she shares her best advice about writing your brand’s story and crafting your own personal narrative.
Quote:
“The narrative is something a product marketer will craft, but the inspiration is from everywhere else. It’s from your customer success agents on the front line, your sales reps who are pitching every day, from your customers who are living and breathing and using your products.”
Episode Timestamps:
*(1:38) - Ohana Origins: Meet Jamie Domenici
*(10:42) - What Does the Ohana mean to Jamie?
*(14:42) - What’s Cooking: Jamie’s Current Role at GoTo
*(17:16) - Future Forecast: What’s in Store for the Salesforce ecosystem?
*(20:59) - Advice for Aspiring Marketing Leaders
*(23:10) - Lightning Round!
Sponsor
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[00:01:28] Dan: Welcome to Inside the Ohana. I'm Dan Darcy, Chief Customer Officer at Qualified, and today I'm joined by my friend Jamie Domenici. Jamie, how are you?
[00:01:37] Jamie: I'm great. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:38] Dan: Well, I want to dive right into our first segment, Ohana Origins. Jamie, how did you discover Salesforce and start your journey?
[00:01:53] Jamie: Fun fact. Even at my first job ever outta college, I was implementing CRM. So like, I had an appreciation from it early on. And then I went to a company called Ingress, which was open source database. It was very cool in the eighties and my CIO there, he kind of pioneered SaaS. He wanted to end-to-end a hundred percent the SaaS tech stack back in like 2005. So not a lot of people were doing this, and I was his apprentice. So I was the Salesforce admin. I was the VREs admin if you have like old school marketing knowledge. So my journey and like appreciation for Salesforce started before Salesforce, but then 2010 comes around and I've been admin for a long time going. Dreamforce drinking the Kool-Aid, and I get a call from Mike Costell, who you probably know.
[00:02:37] He was my boss in a past life and he was working at Salesforce doing m and a, and they had acquired Jigsaw, which was a really big acquisition at a time, and he said, Hey, there's this marketing department here. They need to figure out how to integrate it. I need you to meet with this woman, part named Shannon Duffy, and I needed to interview with her. She needs help so, I interviewed with Shannon Duffy, which if anybody follows me on Instagram, you know, I spent, and Shannon's now one of my best friends and we like travel around the world together. So it was a, it was a good interview. I nailed it. She hired me and that kinda, that was my start of a, you know, a long 10 year run back in 2010.
[00:03:11] Dan: I mean, calling out VTrends, pretty awesome back old school. Yeah. But I mean, go, give me the details though, about the whole process. You know, what was your job within marketing? Yep. You know, your title. What was your initial impression of Salesforce coming into that with the.
[00:03:27] Jamie: I, and it was interesting cause I was on the other side of the acquisition, so that was really an interesting way to come in, like a smaller subset of the bigger company by big. At the time it was 2010, I think there was like 2000 employees. So it was a really different time in history. It was small. We were in a build one building and my first job then was to do m and a integration. But actually at Salesforce I had I think eight jobs. So I went from integration to running demand. And then I was hired on a sales cloud, which I, I found this kind of an interesting moment. Linda Crawford, at the time, she was the GM of Sales Cloud with Mark Woo. So they called me and they said, Hey, we want you to come over to product marketing, but we want you to do demand Gen. And I was like, this moment where marketing at the time was like, No way. You can't have demand gen in product marketing. And Linda was like, Why in the number? So I need her over here. So I was like this controversial hire, but I also think it was like kind of that movement of starting to build. More many CMO type product marketing roles where you're responsible for end to end, hitting a number, aligning to sales, driving a target, like more than just messaging and positioning. I was on the Wave team, if you remember way, which we can on the analytics cloud. I ran SMB and I actually ended my run at Salesforce. Doing customer success, which was a crazy transition, like how'd you go from marketing to customer success? But I said the last two years there doing a lot, including marketing, running a sales team, running the product team, focusing on services. So just really having exposure to all sides of the business.
[00:04:49] Dan: For the listeners out there, Salesforce was really good at valuing product marketing, and you can hear here from Jamie too, just talking through how product marketing really held a lot of different roles like demand. In this example. And so Jamie, you know, just thinking through your history as Salesforce and, and, and all the great things that you've done, I just want you to brag a little because I know you've had such incredible success, but what's the biggest success you've had while working there and something that you're most proud of?
[00:05:16] Jamie: Oh, I love a humble brag, um, , so many things. Dan. I was definitely proud of the teams that we built, and I always named my teams, which was kind of weird. I was part of the Jigsaw Mafia. I was part of the SMB trend set. It's part of the Wolf tax. So like a lot of incredible teams were built and worked with over time. But actually probably if I had to pick, my most favorite though is probably launching the Success Cloud. I said I went to customer Success and it's kind of an interesting transition. It was weird at the time, Maria Martinez. Who ran customer success. She called me and said, You know, I want you to come run marketing for me. What, how? Like, what is that? You know, you're in customer success, Dan. You know, it's a really important part of the organization, but it sometimes can get lost, I think. And it did at Salesforce. It was behind sales, you know, everyone was growth at all costs and customer success was a really important piece of the model.
[00:06:05] But it didn't really get a lot of the limelight, you know? Um, maybe you feel that now. I hope so. I hope you're getting limelight. Yeah. . Yeah, I'm getting some, so it's good getting some. Okay, well, if you need help, let me know. Yeah. . But fast forward, I, I joined team and what we did was relaunch it. And what does that mean? Well, we had to write a whole new narrative. And narrative writing's really hard, and in this environment it was very hard. Uh, a lot of Moises , but, but we rewrote a whole narrative around customer success and how Salesforce is. Help you, like do it with you, do it for you, or teach you how to do it. And this narrative was something that we enabled all of customer success on, which is 12,000 employees, but actually the entire company and like really gave this as a differentiation for Salesforce to leverage something we had already in house. And then two, like we had to bring life back into the organization. So we did what you do at Salesforce. We got a character. We launched Blaze. She's a wolf and she's a she. So it was really exciting to have our own character. We had a big presence at Dreamforce and we built out all these how-to clinics. That's people still leveraged today. We launched the COA Club, which for those of you who don't know, COA is a, was an internal club where if you were at Salesforce for 10 years, you became part of the coa. We launched that for customers. So customers who have been with Salesforce for 10 plus years. We invited Mark Hammil. He came and gave them a personalized talk and made them feel special. And, you know, we, we really put ourselves back on the map and created and used our narrative to become a differentiation within the company. Which was, which was awesome. It was a great moment.
[00:07:34] Dan: I remember this really well and I, I love this moment because it really did bring a whole new life to customer success. And you know, obviously Salesforce helped pioneer the customer success organization starting off with a customer success manager once you bought a piece of software back in, you know, 99, 2000, but it needed a refresh, and it started with your narrative of really bringing that all together. Now, on the opposite side of the spectrum, what would you say is your biggest lesson?
[00:08:01] Jamie: Oh, you mean did I sail? Okay. I had a couple. Had a couple. And actually it's also not a narrative. I, I had a, I learned a hard lesson. I was working on the sales cloud and the GM at the time, Mike Rosenbaum said, I want you to write a new narrative for the Sales Cloud, like our flagship product. And you know what? I completely bombed . I just didn't write the narrative. And I, I have since redeemed myself many times over. But back in the day, I didn't have the ability to think differently at that moment about that product. But it was a gr great learning moment in my career because, you know, when you have those things, Think you're gonna get this job.
[00:08:32] You feel like you're entitled, you think you've done the work and then you don't get it. You kind of find all these reasons like why you didn't get it and not, not to blame other things but excuses almost. And I had a mentor, her name's Lela Seka. She doesn't pull any punches, you know, And she was listening to me, kind of drowned in my styles and she said, You know what kid? Like everything in life is half your fault. And it was like a life changing moment for me cuz I, when she said, I'm like, Oh yeah, like they're even not gonna get the jobs. Cause I didn't write a great narrative. I own that. And it's funny, I've like taken that on in life to everything I do now. It's like how I raise my kids. It's how I manage my teams. It's how I think about any success or failure. It's like, what can I own and what can I do different was a life changing moment. I have to think, Layla the next time I see her.
[00:09:14] Dan: I, I love that. I mean, if you could go back and talk to Jamie just starting out with Salesforce, what advice would you give to yourself?
[00:09:21] Jamie: I mean, well, one, it was a pretty good route, so I'd be like, Do what you did . The advice that I would give myself, and I constantly give this to anybody who's looking for just career advice, which is do the job that needs to get done. Not the job that you have. Like Salesforce is a world of opportunities. That's why I had so many different roles. It wasn't because there was something wrong, it's cuz anytime there was something that needed to be fixed, I would just go do it. And then eventually someone would say like, Do you know what? This should be your job. We should build an asset like the SMB team. We had done four acquisitions: Related IQ desk.com, Sales Cloud with Service Cloud, we're all selling to the same buyer. It was crazy. We were marketing against ourselves, so I went to Stephanie Bahai and said, Hey, we should just make one team and bring our products together and market to small businesses under one voice. And she was like, Right, Onnia, go do that. You know? So I, I feel like in life, don't just do what you're told. Do what needs to get done and it will reward you.
[00:10:13] Dan: Well, and a key point there too, just thinking through that, and I love that lesson, is really around the narrative that you brought to the projects that you kind of took on and, and the firefighting that you did.
[00:10:23] Jamie: Oh my gosh, that's one of my favorite narratives, which was find, win keep. We help you find customers, win customers, and keep customers. I think it's still on the website. And it was like Nelson Hong, he worked on it with me. I'll give him props. Like, you know, when you write a narrative and it can stand the test of time, you know, you're, you've really hit them. And that was one of those, that was one of those moments. It was impactful.
[00:10:42] Dan: I just got chills because that's what a great feeling. I know that feeling and it's incredible. Now, so I want to ask you, you know, you talked about Nelson. You brought up a lot of names in here, you know, and I know a lot of those names. I want to ask you about the meaning Ohana, and I asked this of all my guests because everyone describes it a little bit differently, But I'm curious, how would you describe the Ohana and what does it mean to you?
[00:11:06] Jamie: Well, you know, there's a song about that Dan. [Sings song] That's kind of a joke, but when we were in Salesforce, like we talk about Ohana a lot. It meets family. It's talking about your ecosystem. But I will tell you, since I have left Salesforce in the year so that I've been. I actually really appreciate, and I'm so grateful I was part of that Ohana because it was something really special and hard to create. So for me, Ohana, it's like about people, whether it's your employees, your customers, your partners, your family, like it is everybody kind of rallying around a cause that you believe in. And in this case it was software, but it was more the software, right? It was how Salesforce can help your business, how Salesforce could help the world, how you could drive change, do good. To have that sort of energy and belief that you were rooted in like it, it really is powerful. It is a powerful thing and I now looking back, like I have friends for life from Salesforce. I put you in that bucket. You're welcome.
[00:12:03] Dan: I do too. Well said. Now, before we get into our next segment, are there any special stories or ohana moments that are a little behind the scenes that you wanna share?
[00:12:11] Jamie: Dreamforce, obviously everybody knows Dreamforce and loves it and, but what happens behind the scenes at Dreamforce? Insane, right? You, it's, it's months of work and prep and innovation and trying to be shiny, which was a really fun Salesforce term. Like when you would show up with an idea and someone would say, Be more shiny. You're like, How have I being any shinier? But it was crazy. So when I, you know, I told you earlier about customer success. When we launched the Success Cloud, Dreamforce was where we had our pumpkin out party, where we launched Blaze, our narrative and all. We had to fight really, really hard to get a keynote, which, you know, once you get a keynote you gotta fill that room and it's hard, It's nerve-wracking. Like what if they go to the sales cloud or what if they don't like me?
[00:12:49] You know, it's kind of like, it's a hard thing. I remember thinking like, how are we gonna fill this room at the same time? Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. Maria Martinez is from Puerto Rico. So she said, You know what, on top of this, I want to raise a million dollars for Hurricane Maria victims. And we're like, Okay, no problem. Let's do that too. You know, let's think about it. But I, I appreciated it cause it was Salesforce, you know, in the business of doing good and it mattered. So we thought, how am I gonna do this? So we went and reached out to Luis Fonzi, which, do you know who a Louis Fonzi is? Do you know what song he sings? Oh, Pop Culture Fail! Despacito. Very big hit. So at the time it was totally everywhere on the pop chart. He's from Puerto Rico. We said, Hey, we want you to come and help us raise a million dollars. And Maria called him and he said, No problem, I'll be there. So now all of a sudden we have a keynote with Louis Fonzi singing Despecaito, which was highly unusual at the time, this is very unique. I remember the night, actually, the night before we were doing a dry run and he was dancing on stage singing Despacito with his dancers, and I had to stop it and say, excuse. Mr. Fonzi, like, could you please ask the dancers to do less grinding? Like too much? Not, Okay, this is a tech conference. You know, things you'd never thought you'd have to say, but I did. And then next day comes, he's got his dancers all ready to go. And I remember being back behind the seams being like, God, I hope people come to the sink. And I walked out. And I just saw an entirely packed room, filled with press, filled with customers, filled with employees like waiting to get in here, and it was by far one of the, one of an incredibly proud moment. But what was so exciting was this ability to break, do good, raise a million dollars, which we did deliver this new message. And like bring joy to so many people. It was a really cool moment. Also one of those behind the scenes things that you're like, Honey, let me tell you what I did today. Like, it was really incredible.
[00:14:42] Dan: I, Well, I have to say that is probably the best ohana moment I've had on the show so far. So, I mean, cuz it has everything packed into it. So I want to get into our next segment. Jamie, you are now the CMO at GoTo. I want you to talk about how you got to where you are and what your journey's been like.
[00:15:13] Jamie: One, I'll just say leaving Salesforce was really hard. I get asked about that all the time, like, why did you leave Salesforce? And I'll tell you the day that I resigned, I called my boss Brian, Mom and I cried excessively for 30 minutes while resigning. He's like, Hey, you seem pretty sad. Like, don't do it . I, I know. But it's time. It was time for me. So go to, We sell to small and mid-size businesses, technology that helps 'em work from anywhere, right? And we help you connect and support your customers. So pretty fundamental tools that you needed post pandemic and beyond, right? And two, helping small businesses. Is something I've always had a passion for. This company kind of reminded me at Salesforce when I started 2000 people on that road to growing post a billion multifaceted portfolio with 13 different products, and they really needed a marketer to come in and bring a new narrative. Build out their new brand in the market and also go drive a ton of pipeline. And that's, that's what I did. And this time I wanted to go on the journey again, but I really wanted to do that from the executive suite where I could bring all those things that I learned from Salesforce. But also learn some new skills, which I absolutely have.
[00:16:23] Dan: So what challenges are you seeing now and and how are you applying what you learned at Salesforce to those challenges?
[00:16:28] Jamie: You know what's perfect, Dan? Like I have no problem. So next question, oh, this is easy. No, it's actually really hard. It's been really challenging, but I've learned… of all the lessons from at Salesforce, we were a group of, not typee personality, everybody was different, but people who were really motivated really fast moving, really like wanted to win. It's, it was a mindset and I think that's something that I've tried to bring to go to. So I always use the saying, Yeah, this is by Brian Mellon. I'm really quoting him a lot today, but this notion of better, better never best. I'm sure you, you use that many times, but I use it every day at my organization and I'm just really trying to push and drive and build that mentality. Actually within the first 30 days at being at Go-to, we rewrote their values and one of them has moved fast and it's literally better, better never best like on the website.
[00:17:16] Dan: So what is next and how are you shaping the future?
[00:17:19] Jamie: Well, one, when I joined the company, it's name was Log Me In and now it's go-to, so one of the most important things that I, I also brought this from Salesforce and one of the really important things that we did was rebrand the entire company. It's, it's a completely transformed business in the last 18 months, starting with the name, the logo, the value prop, the narrative. It's a completely different narrative of the company that I started at to where I am today. Like, And I think at Salesforce we always did that, right? It was a messaging first company, really driving a forward looking state, putting that message in market and then bringing the rest of the company with them. I would say the other thing is thinking about diversity and equality, and I was really lucky because at Salesforce stuff in 2015, I was a vp. I was a tech and product. And that's when we really went through that first diversity exercise, if you will, around women equality. And if you remember Lela and Cindy Robbins, they went, you know, to Mark and said, Hey, we women are underpaid.
[00:18:16] Like we need more women in the, in the C-suite and we need more diversity. And because they did that, It really changed the trajectory of my career for, for better. I, I got equal, I was underpaid, I was got equal pay. But two, I was part of a high potential women's organization in Partners org, where he kind of brought together senior female leaders that were at that VP stage. I'm invested in growing them in their career, which was amazing for me. I got exposure, I got incredible mentorship. So now that I've gone to a smaller company, people are always asking like, how, How do you bring, How do you bring this diversity like DNA into an organization? I always kind of start there. Now we can't, we don't have to recreate exactly what Salesforce did, but this notion of bringing in awareness. Like putting together data to help show your story and then taking action is something that I've really tried to bring into the DNA of Go to. It was already there, but really expanding on it and taking from what I learned from Salesforce to impact and bring more diversity into our workplace has been. A huge initiative of mine. I love it.
[00:19:17] Dan: So let's get into our final segment, The Future Forecast. Jamie, what do you envision as the future of the Salesforce ecosystem? Well,
[00:19:34] Jamie: You know, , somebody used to say a very wise man like, can't stop. Won't stop. I mean I just think Salesforce ecosystem is gonna continue to grow and thrive and it's impressive to wa build inside. It's an even more impressive to watch from the outside and it's amazing. I, you know, I work in a private equity company. There's a lot of portfolio. And like Salesforce. Salesforce, Salesforce. It's just a common term almost that is used. And so I, I think the future is to continue to grow, expand, and there's really nothing, nothing in the way of Salesforce in my opinion.
[00:20:09] Dan: Give us a prediction of what you think actually the company Salesforce is gonna look like in the future.
[00:20:14] Jamie: It's a different world, right? It used, it used to be all about growth. Now I think we're thinking about mar growth in a, a responsible way, like margin efficiency, profitability. I hate to be all financial and kind of boring here. You know, it's a different world. And what I always am looking for is how do I use a technology first strategy human second, right? To drive down efficiency. So I think Salesforce is, is already done a lot here, but as they continue to grow and pioneer, thinking more and more about data and technology and automation and how you can bring more digital touch points and reduce the need for human interaction even more, like keep pushing, keep pushing there because I think that's where the world is going and what we need now more than. They're the pioneers. But I think there's, there's a lot, still a lot to do in that space, and I think Salesforce is me, the person to crack the code.
[00:20:59] Dan: Yeah. Yeah. I love that point of view. So what advice do you have for aspiring marketing leaders out there listening to this?
[00:21:07] Jamie: You, you've picked a great field. I love being a marketer. So one well done. I do have a lot of advice. So one is the narrative is so powerful, so always think about your narrative and take an outside in perspective. I always tell my teams like the narrative is something a product marketer in particular will craft. But the places and the inspiration where you're gonna get it is from everywhere else, but you it is from your customer success agents on the front line. It's from your sales reps who are pitching every day. It is from your customers who are living and breathing and using your products. So it's a think about your narrative. But the second thing is customer first marketing. And I really, truly believe that, especially in a downturn economy, the most efficient thing you can do is have a customer speak on your.
[00:21:51] And put that everywhere. It's so much more powerful than you saying We're great. When you have a customer say, This is great, This has changed my business, this is driving impact, and think about how you put that everywhere from your website to your display ads, to your pitch decks, to your stage. Like your customers are your most powerful weapon. Use them everywhere. And like lastly, that least is get scrappy. Salesforce is so big. We had tons of resources, but we were so scrappy, innovative, beyond belief. Some of my favorite moments were my most disruptive, Like one time at Dreamforce, I needed to find a way to advertise our keynote. I didn't have people, so I made my whole marketing team dress up as storm troopers.
[00:22:29] Like, yes, we went to the following store, bought Storm Trooper costumes. There was one Whoopie. He was really tall. . They marched around the campus promoting her keynote. Julie Legal called me and hated me at the time. She ran Dreamforce and was like, Please call off your storm troopers . We, it's be, it's dangerous and I'm sorry for that, Julia, if you're listening, but I would do it again. Sorry again for that, Julie, but it was a cost effective way of driving awareness. Super disruptive. And at the end of the day, super fun. So I, I would say all those things are really important for marketers. And one
[00:23:03] Dan: Lastly, ask for forgiveness, not permission. There you go. Wow.
[00:23:07] Jamie: I didn't wanna say it, but a hundred percent
[00:23:10] Dan: All right, Jamie, before letting you go, let's have fun with a quick lightning round here. Lightning round. All right. Favorite Salesforce product?
[00:23:25] Jamie: Ooh, I'm old school Sales Cloud.
[00:23:27] Dan: Awesome. I know what this answer is, but favorite Salesforce character?
[00:23:32] Jamie: Blaze, obviously.
[00:23:38] Dan: All right. Favorite brand of anything besides Salesforce?
[00:23:41] Jamie: Nike. Especially now that my kids are all in sports like I do, I love Nike all day, every day.
[00:23:47] Dan: Secret skill, not on the resume?
[00:23:49] Jamie: Oh, I'm like a very good flower arranger if you can't tell from my wonderful display in the background. But I really like arranging flowers. That's my next job.
[00:23:57] Dan: That's awesome. And you just won front row seat tickets to your dream event. What is it?
[00:24:03] Jamie: Well, I mean, I do love all things Bravo and Bravo Con is going on this weekend, but I think I could afford that front row seat. So if I was gonna go with my dream, I would have to say Tom Petty concert. I wish I to go lap in time and go to front row of one of his. For sure.
[00:24:19] Dan: Jamie, this has been so much fun, but before I let you go, will you let the listeners know where they can find you? And is there anything else you'd like to share or plug today?
[00:24:25] Jamie: I mean, of course I would love to plug go to. So if you're a small business out there listening to this and you're trying to. About your tech stack and how you connect your employees and your customers and how you support them, definitely go to our website, check it out. No longer log me in. It's all about go-to. So check it out and definitely if you're looking for any other insights or you wanna see Jamie and Shannon adventures. Follow me on LinkedIn and yeah, cash me there.
[00:24:52] Dan: Thank you so much, Jamie.
[00:24:53] Jamie: This was awesome. Yeah, thanks for having me. It was great.