Meet Ann Weeby, the SVP of Trailhead at Salesforce, and learn how she’s helped plug thousands of people into the Salesforce ecosystem. Ann defines her career by service and impact, from her military service to building the veterans program for Salesforce, and shares some of the lessons that have shaped her journey.
Meet Ann Weeby, the SVP of Trailhead at Salesforce, and learn how she’s helped plug thousands of people into the Salesforce ecosystem. Ann defines her career by service and impact, from her military service to building the veterans program for Salesforce, and shares some of the lessons that have shaped her journey.
Quote
“My career has always been about service and impact. How do I help people? When I got to Salesforce, I started thinking about how can I help more people?”
Episode Timestamps:
*(1:34) - Ohana Origins: Meet Ann
*(7:43) - What Does the Ohana mean to Ann?
*(10:08) - What’s Cooking: Ann’s Current Role at Salesforce
*(15:09) - Future Forecast: What’s in Store for the Salesforce ecosystem?
*(16:43) - Advice for Aspiring Trailblazers
*(18:04) - Lightning Round!
Sponsor
Inside the Ohana is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.
Links
[00:00:00] Intro: Hello and welcome to Inside the Ohana. This episode features an interview with Ann Weeby, the SVP of Trailhead at Salesforce. Ann defines her career by service and impact from her military service to building the veterans program for Salesforce, which has since helped plug thousands of people into the Ohana. In this episode, Ann shares some of the lessons that have shaped her journey and that she's using today to help uplift. But before we get into it, here's a brief word from our sponsor. Inside the Ohana is brought to you by qualified, qualified as the pipeline generation platform for revenue. Teams that use Salesforce intelligently grow your pipeline by understanding signals of buying intent and having realtime conversations learn more over on qualified.com. So please enjoy this interview between Ann Weby and your host, Dan Darcy.
[00:01:26] Dan: Welcome to Inside the Ohana. I'm Dan Darcy, chief Customer Officer at Qualified, and today I'm joined by Ann Weeby. And how are you?
[00:01:34] Ann: I'm great. I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me, Dan.
[00:01:36] Dan: Well, I want to dive right into our first segment, Ohana Origins. How did you discover Salesforce to really start your journey?
[00:01:52] Ann: So, I was at Dreamforce as a customer, as an attendee in 2014. And so the Salesforce had brought a bunch of military veterans with kind of like an expo path, and they were launching this initiative to do job training. And so I was there and I heard about this great initiative. I actually got to a network with some friends and I said, who runs this? they said, we don't have anyone yet. And that was in October of 2014. And then in February of 2015, I was hired to run that initiative.
[00:02:22] Dan: That is awesome. So I mean, gimme the details like what are the dets, what was your job at the time, your title? And what was your initial impression?
[00:02:31] Ann: Yeah, so I started at salesforce.org, so I worked for SuzAnne DiBianca and Ebony Beckwith now. So Ebony and SuzAnne hired me to really lead an initiative that a few executives has had the idea to do that. Isaid, we need more Salesforce admins, and they, they wanted me to come in and train the military community to. Salesforce admins, and so a manager of workforce development at salesforce.org.
[00:02:55] Dan: I remember those times in 2014. It was where exponential growth was starting to happen at Salesforce and it, it was pretty crazy, you know, in, in terms of bringing that in. Tell me about your Dreamforce experience. How was it when you first discovered and, and came to Dreamforce? Like, I'm curious as to what that was.
[00:03:13] Ann: I was blown away. I was in the nonprofit world. I was in the government world. I mean, Salesforce knows how to throw a party and impress people, and so it was just fun. It was great networking, and you could see the job opportunity. I'm a workforce development nerd at my heart, helping people access. You know, jobs and careers. Mm-hmm. and just having these inviting folks just saying, come in, let us teach you that access was just absolutely unbelievable.
[00:03:36] Dan: It's time for you to brag a little because I, I know you've had just such incredible success during your time at Salesforce, and obviously you're currently the senior Vice President Trailhead. What would you say is one of the biggest successes you've had that you're most proud of while working at Salesforce?
[00:03:55] Ann: Yeah, I mean, I think the, like I said, when, you know, 2014, this was an idea to try and help people get jobs in the ecosystem and there wasn't really a, a roadmap to do it. And I got to, I got to help build that. I got to really bring it to life. And so I've personally helped thousands of people get jobs in the Salesforce ecosystem and it's just, you know, they have meaningful. , they have great salaries, they're working at great companies. And to watch all of these people just thriving is so exciting.
[00:04:24] Dan: Yeah. I mean that's, uh, that's awesome. But I'm curious though, too, and I'm gonna press on this just a little , is there, is there any particular moment that you were like, Man, that was awesome.
[00:04:35] Ann: You know, I had a really cool opportunity this April. You know, I benefited from an Inc network of people who cared a lot about me, mentors and sponsors and bosses. Mm-hmm. , and I knew how powerful it was to be in a room. And so I d I launched the military summit as kind of a culmination of all of the work. And I brought 70 leaders from all around the military community, all. Into San Francisco and put them in a room. And I said, you know, we look at this. I said, you know, stand up if, if we've helped you get a job through our Salesforce military program. And the room was, you know, half standing and these people came to work at Salesforce. They were so, they said, I didn't know about this company and now here I am, thriving. And it was just absolutely inspiring to see not only how we helped the ecosystem and help people get certifications, but you know, these colleagues now are part of my network and, and really incredible. So, Brett Taylor came in, he spoke on the last day and really closed out the session and just deeply understood the value of what veterans bring to the company. He deeply understood. The business for the government business, which is something that we've worked really hard on. And so that was kind of a marquee moment April of this year where we just said, wow, look, we've, we've changed some of the culture to make this a military friendly company and some of the nicest, smartest veterans in the business and military spouses work here.
[00:05:58] Dan: I, I wish you could see I've got chills. See that? That's an awesome moment and that is something to really be proud of, just hearing the impact that you've had there. So now on the opposite side of the spectrum, what would you say is your biggest lesson learned?
[00:06:13] Ann: You know, some of these initiatives start with big personalities. They start with, with leaders or you know, sea level inspiration and you just can't. some of this work to a single person, and so really making sure that you triangulate and that there's investment from across the business that they're, you know, when, when people leave and move on with their incredible careers, that these, the work and the initiatives, Uh, can change.
[00:06:38] So I'm lucky to have a lot of people that did a, did a stay at Salesforce and supported the work, but ultimately it, you know, it stays at Salesforce and I, I, I had to learn that lesson. Yeah.
[00:06:49] Dan: Well, I mean, is there any particular lesson that you, you, if you, you know, just going back and talking to Ann, just starting out with Salesforce, what advice, you know, and what lesson would you give yourself?
[00:07:02] Ann: Pace myself. I came in just ready to, to change the world. I saw all of the resources, the access, the incredible megaphone that Salesforce had. I'd been in the nonprofit world and I was just ready to go, but I learned you can bring yourself out and you can't do it all with with a small team. And actually, you were the one that took me aside probably about a year into my career and said, you're, you're trying to do everyth.
[00:07:27] You're trying to be the, the head of marketing, you're trying to be the head of, uh, product. You're trying, you gotta focus. And your advice was gold because I really stopped doing things that weren't serving me and started focusing on the things I could uniquely do, and that was a game changer.
[00:07:43] Dan: Well, thank you for that. I didn't have you on this episode tlow up my ego. . But I mean, that's one of the things I'm most proud about. You and I, I said this earlier, was just that you, you did focus, you were able to take, you know, that military charge and really give it a huge platform within Salesforce and that, and I mean, look at to where it's led you to today. So kudos to you. So like, , this is all part of it. I want to ask you also about the meaning of Ohana, and I asked this of all my guests because everyone describes it just a little bit differently, but I'm curious as to how would you describe the Ohana and what does it mean to you?
[00:08:21] Ann: Yeah, I mean, I started my, my career really in the, in the military and I was surrounded by people that share the same values as me. And I think, you know, people. , you've been in the trenches with really a cook community. And that's what I found again at Salesforce. I think it's a shortcut that just drive describes people sim, you know, similar to you that you work next to, that you depend on and that you become friends with. And so my, that's what it's really become. Both for my work at Salesforce and in the ecosystem. Just this huge net of people that I rely on and am inspired by.
[00:08:55] Dan: Now, before we get into our next segment, are there any special stories or ohana moments that are a little behind the scenes, uh, that you wanna share?
[00:09:04] Ann: I think one is general Colin Powell was on our board at, at Salesforce and in building this military program, you know, we say, oh, we have support from the top. And you'd see executives in our ranks. But we had support from General Powell too. I got to have lunch with him before a board meeting one time and get advisement on what we were building. And he said, you know, , he said, officers are gonna be okay in the military. There's enlisted in an officers. And he said, take care of the enlisted. And don't promise people that they can go too. . Like really, if you're gonna tell people that they can access this training and these careers, make sure they can, you know, to really take care of them. And some of his wisdom that he shared that day during that lunch is foundational in what we've done. And we took this commitment to train 40,000 military veterans and spouses, and after he passed away, we doubled it to 80,000 and. , we are, we, we do what we do at Salesforce, not just because veterans make great employees be, but because it's been really inspired by General Powell as well.
[00:10:08] Dan: I think that's something, you know, I, I will take and learn from this as well too, is just don't, don't overpromise, right. Really focus on the fundamentals and of, of what you're trying to achieve and making sure that you're gonna do what you say you will do. Yep. I thought that sounds really. So let's get into our next segment. What's cooking, Ann, you're now the SVP of Trailhead at Salesforce, and I want you to talk about how you got to where you are now and what your journey has been like to get to your current role.
[00:10:45] Ann: Yeah, I mean, my story, it's, you know, in my career has always been about service and impact. Like how do I, how do I help people? And when I got to Salesforce, I started thinking about how, you know, how do I. more people. And so I've really been lucky to have the, the right managers who believed in me and gave me big, big meaty challenges and more responsibility and a lot of room to, to innovate. And so, you know, I feel like everything I've done got to be built in a way that was scalable. And so it wasn't just, For, you know, the military work wasn't for a community, it was for the ecosystem. It was for all adults. And so right now, as the head of Trailhead, I really took this job because I can have more impact. And so right now I just have this opportunity to, uh, help and train and support more people than I've ever had, which I think is just, I, I, I couldn't imagine it. I'm thrilled to wake up every day and do this.
[00:11:39] Dan: Well, I mean, well, great opportunities come with also great challenges, so I'm actually really curious to, to hear what, what are you, what challenges are you seeing now and, and how are you applying what you've learned from Salesforce, you know, to help solve those challenges?
[00:11:54] Ann: Yeah, it's a really dynamic environment right now. Certainly, you know, I'm learning to do more with less, you know, that's a, that's a lesson you get in the nonprofit world. It's a lesson you get in government and so, You know, it's, it's, again, it's that lesson of focus, right? You can't do everything and now you're being told, you know, don't do everything great. Let's, you know, let's focus. How do we automate and scale things? I think a lot of the way I've been doing things is it's human work. It's human capital work, but it doesn't mean it has to be always high touch. And so thinking about ways to really delight people using our technology and automate things. And then, you know, the biggest lesson from Salesforce is trailblazers at the center. Everything we do and if we think about it with, from that perspective, I think that that's, that that's the right way. There's a lot going on in the world, but when you wake up sort of in service of our trailblazers, we can do anything.
[00:12:46] Dan: Yeah. You know, when you, when you say doing more with less, you know, it brings up a good thought too, that you just actually even said it earlier. , which is what are those resources that can also help you make bigger impact, right? In thinking through, thinking through how those resources can help you kind of do more with less. So yeah. So what is next for you and how are you shaping the future?
[00:13:07] Ann: Yeah, I mean, I'm really grounded in this culmination of work, all of this, all these lessons that we've taken from, you know, helping to diversify the, the ecosystem. And at Trailhead we're constantly innovating and we're, you know, we're not gonna stop. We we're grounded in. How do we help people learn? How do we help them earn credentials? How do we help them connect? And so, you know, we we're truly helping people where they are. And you know, that, that's the future is just really helping people in, in a, in sort of new, new, more scalable ways. And so watch, watch out for trailhead.
[00:13:43] Dan: Great. I mean, you know, one of the things I think is gonna be tough, especially with this environment, is, is the last piece you said around connection with, you know, jobs. Obviously we're seeing layoffs happen in the technology sector. How, how are you thinking about, you know, helping others within the Salesforce ecosystem connect with each other?
[00:14:00] Ann: Yeah, it's, I, I agree. It's just so critical right now. We also, we can, we can feel so lonely sitting home behind our screens, I think. job placement and support has never been something that's super scalable. It's always something that's been needed to be grounded in a one-to-one experience. Mm-hmm. , you need a mentor and so I've personally been doing, you know, one-on-one conversations. I've been leaning into the V T O aspect and really I'm supporting people and giving hope. There are, there are industries hiring, there are companies hiring. Yeah. And so, really, Stories of people that, you know, found their dream job that started a company in this economy. I think there are a, a lot of great opportunities in showcasing that and showing people it's a great time to invest in themselves and learn is how we've been able to connect. So I, I plan to be out at a bunch of the community events right soon and to, to show up online and I'm going into the office too.
[00:14:54] Dan: Great. Well, as you can see behind me, I'm, I'm also in the. Every day. It's fun. But that's awesome to hear that you and and Trailhead is helping try to really connect each other and help the folks, you know, find those roles that are in the different industries.So it's awesome. So I wanna get into our final segment, the Future Forecast. What do you envision as the future of the Salesforce ecosystem?
[00:15:27] Ann: Oh man. I think the Salesforce ecosystem has an opportunity to just be the one of the most diverse job markets in in the world. This microcosm of excellence. I think the work that we do across. Nonprofits and Salesforce and the ecosystem to help underrepresented folks in, in tech is going to change things and just allow entrepreneurs and technology solutions that other markets can't touch. Mm-hmm. , because of this work that we've done. So that's what I'm really excited about, is just changing the face of technology through the Salesforce ecosystem.
[00:16:03] Dan: Can you give us a prediction of what you think Salesforce is gonna look? in the future, what is Salesforce gonna look like in the future?
[00:16:07] Ann: And in some ways that's impossible. It's up to our customers. I'm so inspired by what our customers are, are, are doing and innovating. I love a lot of the values work that we do and the way, you know, our, some of our nonprofits and our higher ed institutions have really leaned in to help donors and to help impact. To help E S G. And so I think really to watch this space around sustainability good for the world. And that's where Salesforce will start to, to really show up and make an impact both our people and our technology.
[00:16:43] Dan: Ann what advice do you have for any aspiring marketing leaders?
[00:16:47] Ann: Oh man. I'm new to the marketing org. Mm-hmm. And I'm so thrilled to be there. I'm in on the digital and strategy team now, and I think it's just all about embracing the technology, get close to the f the, the front end, get close to the back end. The engineers and the, and the product team, they're just such exciting work. Going on around automation learning, personalization, our ability to, you know, with C D P, to capture information and really serve and delight our customers. So I think it's a really exciting moment to be in marketing, especially in this technology forward moment.
[00:17:21] Dan: So I'm gonna take that same question, but instead of marketing leaders too, I want you to, you know, what advice do you have for aspiring trailblazers out there, or even current trailblazers that are out. .
[00:17:31] Ann: Yeah. If you are an aspiring trailblazer, we are thrilled that you're bringing your talent to the Salesforce ecosystem. Dig into Trailhead and, and learn. Really embrace all of the free resources that we have. Connect with one another. We are here for you. You didn't fall upon a website. You fell into a community that wants. To support you that wants to help you get through that super badge that wants to help you find, meet your first hiring manager. Don't do it alone. Really, really embrace online, in person connecting with one another, and we are going to succeed together.
[00:18:04] Dan: Now before letting you go, let's have fun with a quick lightning round. You ready for this? What's your favorite Salesforce product experience? Not Trailhead?
[00:18:24] Ann: Oh, come on. We're we're an experience Trailhead.
[00:18:27] Dan: There you go. That's true. That's true. Favorite Salesforce character.
[00:18:30] Ann: I'm classic. I'm gonna go Astro.
[00:18:32] Dan: Favorite brand of anything besides Salesforce? Hmm.
[00:18:36] Ann: Athleta, I love, I love a good athleisure brand.
[00:18:39] Dan: Nice, secret skill that's not on the resume?
[00:18:41] Ann: Secret skill that's not on the resume. I can, uh, pack a Conex box like you wouldn't believe. I'm the my military roots.
[00:18:48] Dan: Nice. Now you just run front row seats to your dream event. What is it? Taylor Swift. Nice. . I mean, those tickets are so hard to come by. They're so hard to come by. Well, and this has been just so much fun, but before I let you go is let the listeners know where they can find you. And is there anything else you'd like to share or plug today?
[00:19:07] Ann: Yeah, you can find me in the Trailblazer community. I'm, I'm in there LinkedIn, Twitter. Feel free to connect. Then just thank you to everyone who's just investing in themselves and giving us feedback on On Trailhead. We do. We do this work together and we're so grateful to have you.
[00:19:21] Dan: Awesome. Thank you, Ann for great interview. It's great seeing you today. Thank you.
[00:19:26] Outro: Inside the Ohana is brought to you by our friends@qualified.com, the conversational sales and marketing company that's on a mission to transform the way B2B companies sell. Go to qualify.com to learn more. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment to rate and review it. A friend. Thank you for listening.