In this episode, Joe Houston, a Senior Renewal Manager at Salesforce and social media sensation, shares valuable insights on personal branding and achieving a healthy work-life synergy, even with multiple ongoing projects.
Joe Houston is a Senior Renewal Manager at Salesforce with an impressive 16-year sales career, excelling in multitasking roles. Beyond his professional achievements, he's a content creator, social media influencer, and ambassador on multiple platforms. Despite juggling numerous commitments, Joe maintains a sharp and focused demeanor without complaints. In this episode, Joe shares valuable insights on personal branding and achieving work-life synergy, even with multiple ongoing projects.
Quote:
“Time management is extremely important and I don't think that people put enough emphasis and enough planning and strategizing into it. That's one of the things that's great about Salesforce, right? They're always looking ahead. They're always planning, and for my current role, it's extremely important that I plan out my time and I really understand how long it takes me to do a certain action.”
Episode Timestamps:
*(02:00) - Ohana Origins: Joe’s introduction to Salesforce
*(08:00) - What does the Ohana mean to Joe?
*(10:30) - What’s Cooking: Joe’s booming social-media presence
*(19:00) - Future Forecast: What’s in store for Joe’s side hustles?
*(22:00) - Advice for aspiring content creators and leaders
*(23:00) - Lightning Round!
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Introduction: Hello and welcome to Inside the Ohana. This episode features an interview with Joe Houston, a senior renewal manager at Salesforce, and a social media sensation. Joe's impressive career spans over 16 years in sales, during which he has excelled in multitasking roles. In addition to his professional achievements, Joe has established himself as a content creator, social media influencer, and ambassador across various platforms. [00:01:00] Despite his numerous commitments, Joe never complains about being too busy and always maintains a sharp and focused demeanor. In this episode, Joe shares his valuable insights on personal branding and achieving a healthy work-life synergy, even with multiple ongoing projects. But before we get into it, Here's a brief word from our sponsor. Inside the Ohana is brought to you by qualified. Qualified is the pipeline generation platform for revenue. Teams that use Salesforce intelligently grow your pipeline by understanding signals of buying intent and having real time conversations. Learn more over on qualified.com. So please enjoy this conversation between Joe Houston and your host, Dan Darcy.
Dan: Welcome to Inside the Ohana. I'm Dan Darcy, chief Customer Officer at Qualified, and today I'm joined by a great friend and also high school teammate, Joe Houston. Joe, how are you today?
Joe: Hey, Dan. I'm, I'm doing great, and, you know, thanks for [00:02:00] having me on. I'm, I'm looking forward to this.
Dan: Yeah, well, I mean, just a little humble brag here. Joe and I both went to one of the greatest high schools at San Mateo County, and probably arguably California, where we had some greats like Tom Brady, Barry Bonds, Lynn Swan, Greg Jeffries, you know, just to name a few. Alright, so I wanna dive right into our first segment, Ohana Origins. Joe, how did you discover Salesforce and start your journey?
Joe: You know, it's, I, I'll, I'll, let's take a step back. Tech wasn't really a field that I thought I was gonna get into. I grew up kind of in entertainment, dancing and acting and doing those types of things. But as a kid, I also kind of really had an affinity for technology. So, I, I pretty much it, I mean, to the point that I, you know, taught myself how to code from books from the library, right. But really kind of where that journey started is I got an internship at Oracle [00:03:00] and I was working alongside one of your previous podcast members, Robert Zimmerman. And, you know, uh, really what happened was that I was interning there. They gave me a bunch of accounts, and this was in the renewals department. They gave me a bunch of accounts to renew that just, they were not responsive. And I took the time to kind of learn what Oracle was and learn more about it. And I was able to bring in a significant amount of money in a short period of time.
Joe: And then, you know, they offered me a permanent job and then here we are. I. But kind of the interesting thing is that time was during the dotcom time and there was a lot of new companies and technology was starting to really take off a little bit more. And there were new companies coming out and people were rapidly leaving Oracle going to all these different companies, and a lot of those companies were starting to fail.
Joe: And here's the fun fact, you probably didn't know. Someone from Salesforce actually called me on my desk line at Oracle and said, Hey, you wanna come over to Salesforce? There's a lot of your colleagues that have, have come over. It's a great place. And you know, I, I took the interview, but I kinda was like, eh, I don't know about this [00:04:00] whole startup thing, eh, well, fast forward, Suzanne, Mike, darn.
Joe: I should have made that. So, you know, I, I ended up staying at Oracle and then I continued my journey at another FinTech company, advent Software, s SS n C technology, as it's called now, where I actually worked with Mike Maglio, who is the s u p or. Renewals sales now. And so, you know, I stayed in contact with Mike. I had always wanted to work at Salesforce. I attended probably so many dream forces, even not working at Salesforce that I just really wanted to work at Salesforce. And so, you know, I continually applied and I kept looking and something came about and here I am.
Dan: Awesome. I love that story. So tell me a little bit, like, what year was it? What was your job, your title, what was your initial impression of Salesforce coming in?
Joe: Yeah, so started in November, end of November, 2015, and I, you know, I was at that point in my career where I was ready for a new challenge. I think at the company that I was at. I kind of had hit that, that tier of where I could go, [00:05:00] right?
Joe: And Salesforce presented a challenge to me, Salesforce was a place I always wanted to work. But that experience coming in was just, you know, they use this term, it's like drinking from the fire hose. There's so many moving pieces and so much going on. But the one thing I have to say is the, the culture was very embracing.
Joe: Everyone was there willing to help. And that wasn't something that I had experienced at a lot of other companies that I worked at. But it was also a lot because things moved really fast at Salesforce and things were moving fast, right? And so I had to kind of. Pick it up and go and really get going. But it was something I embraced because that work ethic kind of reminded me of Oracle in some ways in that people really were on top of their stuff and so that was something that was kind of missing from the previous places I had been. And I was like, happy. Right. So excited to work there, but it was a lot of information to take in out a little bit of time.
Dan: Joe, what would you say is the biggest success you've had? While working with [00:06:00] Salesforce or something that you're really proud of thus far?
Joe: You know, it was the opportunity to speak on the main stage at Dreamforce and open up the C S G keynote, but not just once.
Dan: Can you explain what C S G stands for for everyone?
Joe: Sorry, I. Yeah, the customer success group, so the renewal segment that I'm in is under the customer success group, and I was able to basically open up the keynote for the customer success group at Dreamforce. Two different, on two different occasions.
Joe: In addition to that, I was able to wear a custom suit each time that I actually make.
Dan: Well, tell me, tell me a little bit more, like what did you do on stage?
Joe: You know, so it, it's, it's interesting. I, I think this is, I talk about this synergy and the ability to kind of bring a passion of mine and, you know, my work life together, you know, so it. In the initial year, I, we had kind of a Wizard of Oz theme and I was essentially Oz and I came in and [00:07:00] really hyped up the crowd, you know, it was later in the day and got the crowd hyped up and ready to go, and really spoke about what we were planning to deliver and got them excited to be prepared to hear that. And you know, the second year it was more of the same and it was well received. In fact, the suit that I wore last year to Dreamforce, Went extremely viral. Mark Benioff retweeted it and it got over 2 million views across all platforms, including LinkedIn.
Dan: That's awesome. I love that story. Now, if you could go back and really just talk to Joe Houston, who's just starting out at Salesforce, what advice would you give to yourself?
Joe: You know what I would say that, you know, right outta the gates, be myself. I think, you know, you start a new company and you have this idea of how you want to be perceived, and you tend to kind of hold back a little bit, right? You tend to be a little bit cautious of the things you say and what you do, which is understandable, but I think I probably would have.
Joe: Allowed [00:08:00] myself to be a little bit more authentic right outta the gates. And I, I think that would've maybe opened up some different opportunities which have now presented themselves, but that probably would be the one thing that I would change.
Dan: How would you describe, you know, the ohana and like, what does it mean to you?
Joe: You know, it's really interesting. I, I think the Ohana has a very, very unique culture and, and what I mean by that is, It's a very positive energy. I, I got a lot of energy, like people know that about me. I'm full of energy, but the energy there is one of truly embracing ohana and family, you know, ohana meaning family and feeling. There's no one that I can't talk to, right? Whether that is a C-level exec or you know, a VP or whoever it may be, everyone is very open and and willing to have a conversation with you or give you their time or assist you. I. Helping on your career journey or just kind of hanging out and chatting, you know, and I think that's, [00:09:00] that's really a culture that you don't see, and especially for a company of that size,
Dan: You know, that's one of the, the values I love most about, you know, the Ohana and the community is really, I mean, you said it well, being able to approach everyone, everyone's in it, to win it with you, and is there to help you be a better person as well.
Joe: Absolutely. One, 100%.
Dan: Now, are there any special stories or ohana moments that really are just behind the scenes, you know, that really demonstrate that, you know, ohana that you just spoke about?
Joe: You know, I mean, I, I think the fact in general that we have employee resource groups, or what we call ERGs for, for many different things. You know, we have our African American group, we have our L G B T Q group, we've got our veterans, we've, you know, we've got all of these different groups that are, you know, actively doing things within our community. I think to me, That is one of the most important things a company can do, and you don't see that as [00:10:00] often. Right. And so for me, I think that is one of the things that I'm kind of proud about, and having that ability to be able to service people that are, you know, in my community. Right.
Dan: Yeah. I mean, community is such a strong thing. And I mean, I, I, I love what you just said, and. I wanna kind of pick a little bit more about the community and like about who you are. So let's get into our next segment. What's cooking? Joe, you're on the renewals team at Salesforce, but you also have a side gig. What, what are you currently working on?
Joe: Yeah, so Dan, I, I consider myself a busy guy, but I don't like to call it busy. I have fun in life. Right. So in addition to, you know, being a, working at Salesforce as a renewal manager, I also work with the major sports teams here in the Bay Area, San Francisco Giants, golden State Warriors, [00:11:00] and the San Francisco 49 ERs. So, uh, I've been doing that probably for about six or seven seasons each, for all of those tapes. In addition to that, I am also a content creator, social media influencer ambassador across multiple social media platforms.
Dan: I. I mean, that's awesome and incredible and definitely unique to Obvi, the Salesforce Ohana. But how did you get there? Like, you know, like, tell me about how, how, how did this all come about?
Joe: So it's really interesting actually. You know, I kind of jumped into Instagram. I. You know, back in, we'll say 2018, showing off my fashion. That was, that was kind of my, my niche at that moment in time.
Dan: Hey, just really quick, and for the folks who are listening to this, Joe is wearing an incredibly awesome blue blazer with some I. Flowers or floral? It's a floral blue blazer. How would you describe it, Joe?
Joe: Well, it's floral. There's actually a few cardinals on here. Believe it or not. Fashion is something that I'm passionate about. I've [00:12:00] always worn suits. I pretty much wear a suit every single day, or at least a blazer or jacket. I. You know, and that's also part of a brand that I have built within Salesforce as well, a guy with the suits.
Joe: But essentially what happened is during the pandemic, we were, you know, at home in lockdown, and in my free time, I just started making content, right? Going with TikTok trends or Instagram trends and making videos really to kind of entertain the community and make people laugh, right? Or have fun. And so what happened is that during that process, I just started filming everything that I enjoyed doing, and one of the things that I enjoy doing is camping, or a lot of people like to call it clamping.
Joe: And I made, you know, a video of my camping experience and over the course of the, you know, the year or two of the pandemic, I. I became better and better teaching myself how to create content, and I had a video that went viral. I had a camping video, glamping video that got, you know, [00:13:00] over 15 million views.
Joe: It went viral. Starting on TikTok. I went from 2000 followers to 45,000 followers in a matter of days. And then I had, you know, a lot of large accounts hitting me up, wanting to share my content. And so now, I mean, realistically, that content that I have been posting has. Billions of views at this point in time and is constantly being reposted.
Dan: I just want to take a step back here and think about this. I didn't realize that story. The pandemic was definitely a very, you know, trying time for a lot of people, but you made something of it and you actually entertained folks, even myself, you know about. The energy you brought and, and you, I remember you transforming your living room into an outdoor space, which was pretty awesome. So, I mean, I just wanted to say thank you, but this, that's an awesome story. So I want you to brag a little bit about your following. I mean, I think going viral and how getting 45,000, you know, followers overnight is pretty awesome. But what other fun stories do you got?
Joe: Yeah, so I [00:14:00] mean, you know, this really has morphed itself into something a lot greater. I am trending around almost 200 followers, 200,000 followers across multiple platforms. Lately, I've been going viral on YouTube and gaining of a hundred followers per day, or subscribers, as they call it. But's, what's really happened is I've also got a lot of companies reaching out to me, asking me to promote their brands, to promote their products everywhere from Amazon to the company, from the tent company. So, you know, this has really become kind of more of a opportunity to really brand myself in a different way. In addition, it's, it's a bit of an outlet. I get to do something that I'm passionate about it and really engage with the community, and in some cases monetize it as well. Yeah.
Dan: I mean, look, obviously, uh, you're very familiar with community such as Salesforce, right? And expanding beyond the Salesforce community. You're, you're driving a lot of goodness into the world. But, you know, thinking back [00:15:00] to obviously starting back at Salesforce, you've learned a lot of lessons. But what lessons would you say if you're applying any of those that you've learned working at Salesforce to, you know, the content creator role or to, you know, your sports role?
Joe: What are those lessons? You know, I, I. I think in general, time management is extremely important and I, I don't think that people put enough emphasis and enough planning in, in strategizing, and I think that's one of the things that's great about Salesforce, right? They're, they're always looking ahead.
Joe: They're always planning. I. For my career role, it's extremely important that I plan out my time and I really understand how long it takes me to do a certain action. And so as that relates to, let's use the sports teams, when, you know, I'm working at a game, it's, it's live entertainment, right? And it's a live game.
Joe: So there's a lot of different things that we do at certain timeouts. In certain periods in the game that we have to prepare for and we can't miss those. If a timeout happens, we have to be ready to go to execute that. And so, you know, when I look at time management at [00:16:00] Salesforce, there's a lot of moving pieces.
Joe: Things are constantly changing and rapidly and being prepared and what I like to call time blocking my day, right? So, I set a certain time to say, okay, I am gonna take an hour and I'm gonna do just this specific thing to make sure I get this done. And I really need to bring that piece into also my social media.
Joe: It used to be that when I started this, it was on the fly. I would just say, you know what? I'm gonna film a video today. It's no longer like that. It's almost like a job or a business at this point where I strategically have to say, I'm gonna go camping and I'm gonna fill in content, or I'm gonna make this piece of content and I have to write it out and script it and, you know, whiteboard it and, and you know, all of that. That stuff, storyboard it for that, that matter. So, you know, I think a lot of the things that I've learned at Salesforce are helping me with that as well.
Dan: I mean, that's, that's awesome. I mean, I, I don't know how you do it candidly. I mean, I, I, I, I see that completely. When you think [00:17:00] about, you know, Hey, I just po I mean, I'm in the post content when I feel like it, but I know that, you know, there's people who want to know or hear from you. And if they haven't heard from you in a while, they're probably like, what's going on, Joe? You know, so Absolutely. With folks aspiring to be content creators, how do you find the time or how, how are you balancing both of those with working?
Joe: Well, you know, I, I, I think people use this term work-life balance and, you know, I, I like to call it a work by synergy. And what I mean by that is, you know, you have to make time for yourself. You have to find a career that also allows you to do that, right? And so I would say for those that are looking to be content creators, I would say the most important thing is just get started. You know, if there's something that you're passionate about or something that you enjoy doing, or something you may take for granted, that's just a normal part of your day, start recording it.
Joe: You know? Or maybe there's something you wanna learn and you don't know anything about it. Take people on that journey [00:18:00] with you. What I have learned about social media and, and how it's changed quite a bit is a lot of the content, and maybe a lot of this was back during the pandemic as well, is that people just wanted to watch stuff to laugh and have fun.
Joe: And while people still wanna do that, I think it's transitioning to more of a learning, right? People wanna see things that they don't. Experience in their regular life and whether that is something they want to do or something they wanna live vicariously, that is the content that is going viral, right?
Joe: Those unique things or those things that I do. For me, I, I camp a lot, I just took that everyone knows about camping, but that isn't necessarily the case. And so you might be surprised that's something that you enjoy, that you do on a regular basis. Other people might find valuable.
Dan: Being authentic is what you're saying. And I, and I think that was some, one of the lessons too at Salesforce is really. Around bringing your whole self to work. So I love the work life synergy, you know, term that you brought up because I do believe it's like the person you are socially is per, should be this [00:19:00] person that shows up in the work life as well. Absolutely. Now let's get into our final segment, the Future Forecast.
Dan: So, Joe, what do you envision as the future of the workforce and, and the way I'm thinking about it, you know, like looking at you, how, I wouldn't call it a, a job because it's, it's something that's a passion of yours. How did that pop up? You know, you're working hard, but you're also creating content like you do today. Like how do you think about the. The future of the workforce?
Joe: You know, I, I think it's Dan, I think it's really interesting because, you know, we had this moment where we completely went remote, right? And now we're regressing and coming back into the office and, and engaging, and I think it, it breeds itself for.
Joe: More options, right? I think now there is something to be said about being in the office and, and being able to turn to your colleague and ask a question or [00:20:00] just, you know, hang out and, and chat, right? And then you've got people that remote that that is their thing. From a content creation perspective, I think you're gonna see that more and more in the workforce and, and this hybrid of people that are not only creating content for themselves.
Joe: But they are promoting a, a brand for potentially a company that they work at with that content and being a little bit more involved kind of in that marketing of that company by showing kind of their own social brand. Right. And I think, you know, I go back to what you said about being authentic, the, the hybrid of being able to bring, you know, my authentic self to work.
Joe: You know, I wear my suits every day. I'm myself. The same person that you see at work is the same person I am outside of work. And I love that I've had that opportunity to really be able to do that. And, you know, it's, it's not something that's always easy, right? I think it's, it's easy to try and feel like you need to fit a mold or to follow a certain [00:21:00] process or, or follow a certain way of being at work in a different way of being, you know, at home.
Joe: But I, I, I think I'm really excited about the fact that I am at a place where I can do both.
Dan: Salesforce is a company that really does encourage you to perform the best for their customers as well as be active in the community. But can you give us a little prediction of what you think the Salesforce community is gonna look like in the future?
Joe: Well, I think, you know, traditionally people thought of technology and, and thought of software. As something that, you know, only certain people could do or only certain people could, could learn. But I think, you know, the ecosystem in the community is gonna grow and expand to a lot of other people. Myself included, perfect example, entertainment, brought in the tech right at a, at a moment in time when tech was kind of just getting off the ground, so to speak.
Joe: So I think you're going to see a lot of different types of faces. I think you're gonna see our younger generation, Embrace it a lot more and [00:22:00] really navigate the way of the future, not just for, you know, our communities in the technology space, but for the world at large.
Dan: Now you've given a lot of advice, you know, to everyone here listening and what advice do you have for the workers out there that wanna scratch, you know, maybe that passion of theirs? What would you say? You know,
Joe: I mean, the only thing that, that I can say, and, and this is my kind of my mantra for this year, execution, I. Action. Right. If you don't, if you don't take time and start and execute, and I can't emphasize that enough, you know, then you'll never, you'll never get there, right?
Joe: And so if you have a passion, don't be afraid. I actually, I mentor a lot of people during the pandemic and I, the discussion I had is, okay, well, what do you wanna do? What's your ideal life? What's your perfect life? What do you want to do? I think oftentimes, you know, you go to college and you get your degree and you never do what that degree was about, but that was at one point your [00:23:00] passion and your interest.
Joe: I. And I think now we are in a, a time where with the assistance of technology you can do and literally be whatever you want to be at this point, right? Obviously it takes hard work and focus and, and, and doing that, but, you know, I, I really wanna see, I think we can have a, just a better world and a better community if people will really lean into the things that they're passionate about.
Dan: Well said, well said before letting you go. Let's have fun with a quick lightning round. Are you ready?
Joe: Oh boy. Here we go.
Dan: Secret skill not on the resume or something that you haven't posted social that people know about.
Joe: I could talk like Donald Duck.
Dan: No way. Can you give us a little….That was awesome. Best way to spend an evening after work
Joe: You know, to be honest, I, I love to socialize. I consider myself a social hummingbird, so, you know, going to a, a nice, nice restaurant or bar with friends and hanging out and socializing is, is definitely one of my favorite things to do.
Dan: Favorite brand of anything?
Joe: That's a tough one. That's hard to say. I think I'll have to probably go with the tent company because I love that tent so much. I spend, you know, two or three times a month in that tent. Core equipment is the, is the company now.
Dan: You just won front row seat tickets to your dream event. What is it?
Joe: Believe it or not, even though he's no longer with us, it would be Prince. Oh, that's awesome. I would've loved to see it.
Dan: Joe, this has been really just awesome and so much fun. But before I let you go, I want you to let the listeners know where they can find you across all the social channels, and if there's anything else you'd like to share, A plug.
Joe: You can find me at Joe Houston Ssf as in San Francisco across all platforms, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. Definitely come out and check out my content and [00:25:00] please subscribe. Well, thanks
Dan: Joe. Great having you today.
Joe: Awesome. Thanks, Dan.
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