Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Domenique Buxton, VP, Executive Creative Director for the Trailblazer Ecosystem and Trailhead Brand at Salesforce. Join us as we talk about the history of the colorful cast of Salesforce characters and where you can find some “Hidden SaaSys.”
You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Domenique Buxton.
Domenique’s title is a bit of a mouthful these days, so she usually prefers to just say she’s Astro’s mom. But if you want to know the real history of Salesforce characters and mascots, you have to start with SaaSy. For those that didn’t get a chance to behold them in all their beauty, they were a “no software” symbol with arms and legs. “If it wasn’t for SaaSy, we wouldn’t have any of the other characters,” Domenique says, and you need to understand that SaaSy could dance.
In 2014, Domenique was helping plan Developer Week. They always tried to make these events fun and that year, they decided they were going into space. Salesforce1 had just been released and it felt like new galaxies were out there waiting to be explored. And so, a charismatic astronaut named Astro was born, but as Salesforce changed so did their outfit: a racecar driver for Lightning, a raccoon for Trailhead, and it wasn’t long before Astro had some friends.
“The characters are like a big brand hug,” Domenique says, “all the characters want to help and be there for you to light the way. The characters are like beacons where they’re shining lights on ways to move forward.” The characters in many ways are essential because they make Salesforce feel more welcoming like you can do anything, and that there’s a community there to support you and have fun along the way.
As Domenique says, creating a character for each role is all about celebrating purpose: why we do what we do and shining a light on all the fantastic makers that comprise the Salesforce community. “The characters’ journey has been towards purpose, and their purpose is to help you unlock yours,” she says.
If you have sharp eyes, you may have noticed something familiar in Salesforce’s creative content over the years. Domenique and her team loves putting in some “Hidden SaaSys” whenever they get the chance. The rims on Astro’s moped, for example. “It’s an Easter egg, but it’s also a nod to where we’ve come from,” she says.
One thing that might be on the horizon is an in-person Cloudy appearance. The thing is: we need your help. Make some noise on Twitter and let the world know that the people are crying out to meet Cloudy. “Cloudy is the secret sauce,” Domenique says, “she knows everything about the cloud and makes the whole thing work.”
Mike Gerholdt: Welcome to the Salesforce Admins Podcast, where we talk about product, community, and career to help you become an awesome admin. This week, we’re talking with Domenique Buxton, VP executive creative director for Trailblazers and Trailhead, about the history of our Salesforce characters, along with some Easter eggs that the creative team includes, and… Well, just a host of other things. Let’s get Dom on the podcast.
Domenique Buxton: Hello, hello.
Mike Gerholdt: Hi, Dom.
Domenique Buxton: Hi.
Mike Gerholdt: Your title’s a bit of a mouthful, but…
Domenique Buxton: It sure is.
Mike Gerholdt: I think we can narrow it down to you’re Astro’s mom.
Domenique Buxton: That’s right, yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Let’s get started there. Not a lot of enterprise platform companies have characters. Where did Salesforce characters start?
Domenique Buxton: Oh my gosh. Well, they actually started before I came on the scene, before Astro was a twinkle in my eye. It was Sassy. Sassy was the one that started it.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: They were there for Marc and Parker on their journey with no software.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Disruptive for its time, still rippling…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Through the industry these days. If it wasn’t for Sassy, we wouldn’t have any of the other characters.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah, I remember coming to my first Dreamforce 2009 and seeing Sassy dancing on stage. It felt very surreal.
Domenique Buxton: You’d never seen a mascot like Sassy before, I would think.
Mike Gerholdt: No.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: I mean, outside of a baseball game.
Domenique Buxton: Right. But the shape of it.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: It was something from our logo…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: That grew arms and legs and started to dance around. That was unexpected, right?
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: It was a little something to just turn enterprise software on its head and just be different, or really maybe just show that we have a fun side, and that fun side continues, and that paved the way for Astro to join and all the other friends.
Mike Gerholdt: Now, Astro’s full name is?
Domenique Buxton: Astronomical.
Mike Gerholdt: Astronomical. I think that’s very cool. Astro’s a they.
Domenique Buxton: Yes.
Mike Gerholdt: Right? All of our characters have pronouns.
Domenique Buxton: Yes.
Mike Gerholdt: It started with Astro.
Domenique Buxton: Mm-hmm. Well, actually, remember.
Mike Gerholdt: Well.
Domenique Buxton: It started with Sassy and their pronouns are they/them as well.
Mike Gerholdt: Okay.
Domenique Buxton: With Astro in 2014, just the idea came about was because we were doing some really fun stuff for developers called Developer Week. It was in April of 2014, and we’d done it before and we’re like, “Let’s do this again, but this time we’re going to space.”
Mike Gerholdt: Ooh.
Domenique Buxton: We had a theme. We all love outer space, and so we were looking at the moon landing especially, because Salesforce 1 was the topic du jour, right?
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: It was this idea around having developers explore galaxies with us using Salesforce 1.
Mike Gerholdt: Hm.
Domenique Buxton: It was just a fun opportunity to just think about it in a whole new way.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: That was the origin. We’ve created a more fun origin story for Astro since then, but one thing led to another. Very organic in terms of how Astro went from a T-shirt into the hearts of the Trailblazer community.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm. We have Astro. I have Astro in a race car.
Domenique Buxton: That’s right.
Mike Gerholdt: Which I think is very cool.
Domenique Buxton: That was the second version that we did.
Mike Gerholdt: Oh man.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah, that was a screensaver when I first started at Salesforce. I thought it was so cool.
Domenique Buxton: Yes, Lightning was what we were sharing and celebrating, and we just thought, “Let’s have Astro again. Let’s have Astro do something different.”
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Astro was in the car. What was really fun internally that we did was we created just little Matchbox car packages…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Just with Astro on there and just saying, “Get ready, let’s go fast with Lightning.” That was super fun to build. That was exciting.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. What are you thinking when you’re creating Astro and putting them in different outfits at this time?
Domenique Buxton: I think about what does the community want?
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: I think it’s really important that something feels connected to what we’re doing. We make up fun things like Astro can fly, Astro can be anything that they dream to be, but we want them to be relevant to the conversation too, and so we try to put them in ways where they can be helpful and that they might bring a pump of delight to your day.
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: Maybe it could be really something unexpected, or maybe it’s something reflective of what’s happening in the community. Think about Tahoe Dreamin’.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: If you saw one of our friends…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: I would say Jillian or Leah, Sarah, Adam, wearing those rainbow jumpsuits.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Domenique Buxton: We wanted the characters to have fun like that too, and so that was really fun to just think about things in that way. You do something, the characters want to be a part of that too, and they want to reflect just the real story of Salesforce.
Mike Gerholdt: Right. Yeah, was it 2015 we added Trailhead? Astro got a new outfit.
Domenique Buxton: They sure did. 2015 was a really exciting year, because that was the year where we zipped up the Trailblazer hoodie for the first time.
Mike Gerholdt: Ooh.
Domenique Buxton: Yes, that was at the MVP Summit.
Mike Gerholdt: Okay.
Domenique Buxton: It was just the opportunity to really create a groundswell and just say, “We want to go in this direction. We want to learn in a new way.”
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: “We need your help.” I think about the beginnings of Trailhead, because I recall Josh Burke going around the country doing free workshops for…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: A very small amount of folks that could come fill a room, right? That’s how big your audience is, is how big many people you can bring into a room.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: You travel, you set up, you organize, and you basically deliver content to a set amount of people. The thing about that is that you’re only meeting so many people, and then by the end of the day-
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah, like a roomful.
Domenique Buxton: Right. Then by at the end of the day, are they really picking up what you’re putting down?
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: It’s really hard to know. Josh was really thinking about how can we quiz folks? How do we know that they’re picking this up, that they’re able to benefit from it?
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: That’s where Trailhead came in. There was a combination of things. The need to learn.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: The need to learn on demand.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: The need to learn and train many people.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Then there was just the movement…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Of just when you are working with passion and intention, you have that what we call “trail heart”, that trailblazer feeling, that was there. How do you bring an astronaut into the forest?
Mike Gerholdt: Right, right.
Domenique Buxton: It was this idea about, “Well, let’s think about this in a different way. Astro can be anything that they dream to be.”
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: That’s how Astro became a raccoon.
Mike Gerholdt: Ah.
Domenique Buxton: It was just that idea about going on a wild adventure, and just thinking about how you can be in an office, but then when you’re doing something for yourself, thinking about personal growth through Trailhead and through goal setting and things, you do your best thinking outside sometimes. I felt like that was why we needed it to feel like you were outside.
Mike Gerholdt: Gotcha.
Domenique Buxton: To break down the barriers of boring…
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: And training, and make them feel like you were meant to do it.
Mike Gerholdt: Right. It’s crazy. It’s great. You mentioned friends, so when did we add Cody?
Domenique Buxton: Well, it was actually that year.
Mike Gerholdt: Was it?
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. In 2015…
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Fall 2015 was a big deal, because if you came to visit us in 2014…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: I want to say, wasn’t the first year of the admin zone?
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Then we…
Mike Gerholdt: We had superheroes.
Domenique Buxton: Oh yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. Podcast booth.
Domenique Buxton: That’s right.
Mike Gerholdt: I know.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: I remember. You had fun games and stuff there too. I remember one time.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah, we had a super-de-duper party.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. Yes, that’s right. The space was never big enough.
Mike Gerholdt: No.
Domenique Buxton: I think that that’s…
Mike Gerholdt: The space has never been big enough for admins.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah, never. That was really trippy. When we came to 2015, I want to say it wasn’t debut.
Mike Gerholdt: Okay.
Domenique Buxton: But it was close because we were starting to just kind of gain momentum with Trailhead.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: We had a guy running around in a bear suit and…
Mike Gerholdt: A literal, I mean…
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: It looked like a bear. Right?
Domenique Buxton: It sure did.
Mike Gerholdt: They had a T-shirt on.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: I know I had to hug them.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. I don’t know if it smelled like a bear.
Mike Gerholdt: No, it smelled like a bear. Yeah. It’s hot in Muscote West. It smelled like a bear.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. We’re very authentic.
Domenique Buxton: Oh yeah. We were going for authenticity for sure. We had, 2015 was a big year because we had the bear running around.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: We had a very, very, I would say, now famous stuffed goat.
Mike Gerholdt: Hm.
Domenique Buxton: At this show.
Mike Gerholdt: Yep, that’s right. I remember that.
Domenique Buxton: Yes. Right then and there, we knew that Astro needed friends.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: That was where it became that we had Cody for developers.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Cloudy for admins.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: And of course, Astro. Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Cool. Yeah, I remember the bear suit. It was literal. I also remember Adam Solomon going around dressed like a…
Domenique Buxton: Ranger.
Mike Gerholdt: A ranger. Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: I’m going to tell you something that… Just the thought of that is… I remember it.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: A lot of people remember it.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah, I remember it. I remember it. I remember going to get that suit. Yeah. I actually went to Costumes on Haight and got the whole…
Mike Gerholdt: Wow.
Domenique Buxton: Thing together.
Mike Gerholdt: Rig.
Domenique Buxton: It was just like, Yeah. New job description everyday.
Mike Gerholdt: Now we have Astro. We have Cody. To some extent, we have Cloudy, which got named she and Cody is a he. Correct?
Domenique Buxton: Yep. Mm-hmm.
Mike Gerholdt: We have these characters running around and suddenly you have to incorporate them. What are you thinking about? I have to do all this creative stuff…
Domenique Buxton: How do they…
Mike Gerholdt: Now I’ve got to put these characters into it.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: What is your intentionality? What are you thinking?
Domenique Buxton: Well, just imagine flying a plane at 36,000 feet and you’ve got to draw the map of where you’re going while you’re flying it.
Mike Gerholdt: Right. Sure. Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Or you’ve got to build the plane while you’re flying it.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: That’s another metaphor.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. We use that one a lot.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. That was essentially what we were doing because we were finding that people were asking questions and people were wondering, “What’s their name?”
Mike Gerholdt: “What’s it mean?”
Domenique Buxton: “What does it mean?”
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. That was a thing for me. From 2015 to 2018, I was working very quietly in the background, just trying to make this all work and getting everybody files to work with.
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: Because it was a wave after wave of just importance of how… Just the transformations that were happening with Trailhead for Trailblazers, they were blowing us all away. We want to keep up the momentum and the excitement of this, because this is exciting.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: That was where we were just writing the story. Einstein came along in 2016.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: It was just this thing that just started to really just say, “These are not characters that are just going to be on a T-shirt and nothing else. They need a story, they need a purpose.”
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: That is what I’ve been investing in this whole time.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: I was thinking about this. I think about how there is no one at this company that can tell this story like I can.
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: Or Amanda Chung, on my team, can, or just Sarah Franklin. It just really… They’re so connected to it.
Mike Gerholdt: Sure.
Domenique Buxton: Colin Fleming, same thing. This is something that we’re working with every day. It’s a feeling that if we can’t tell the story…
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: No one’s going to know the story and it’s not going to mean anything.
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: Part of it, for me, with the storytelling is to turn the mic on you and say, “What does it mean to you? What is your connection to the characters? What is your connection to Cloudy?”
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Because I think it’s important to ask yourself that because it helps make a connection. The characters are a big brand hug. Our brand is a hug in a lot of ways with these characters.
Mike Gerholdt: That’s a really good way to summarize it. Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. It’s about leaving the door open for you, saving a seat for you. Those are the things that Astro does, but as a whole, all the characters want to help and be there for you to light the way. The characters are beacons…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Where they’re shining lights on ways to move forward. Cloudy is showing you the pathway to being a successful admin or just bringing a little delight to your day.
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: That’s important because the thing that has happened just by us having such a strong connection with our community is that these characters help to break the ice a little bit and just have conversations and just to say, “You can learn this,” or, “What do you want to learn today? I’m listening.”
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: I think that’s really important.
Mike Gerholdt: This is interesting. You’ve got characters and you have the only method of storytelling is through corporate marketing as opposed to… You think of these large studios that have characters, some well developed from the ’20s and ’30s. Well, they have Saturday morning cartoons and movies.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: You mentioned the community. What are some things that stand out to you that you’re like, “Wow, I’m so glad the community gave us this feedback on this character?”
Domenique Buxton: I think that community feedback’s really important.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Because these characters are for the community. We started them off or rolled them out or welcomed them into the family through the community. I think that it’s when you get to a level where you introduce a character and nobody knows why…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: That could be really scary. It’s really important to get community feedback and to listen to it to see where you have to make changes, which we had to do recently, actually. When we rolled out Brandy…
Mike Gerholdt: Hm.
Domenique Buxton: There was feedback and it was really interesting feedback because we were working with a character that is a fox.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Foxes have a lot of preconceived notions that they’re crafty, overly clever, and then there’s other kind of things like around foxy.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Just being foxy.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Say, “Oh, that Brandy, she’s a fox.”
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah, it’s very ’70s.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: You want to get away from that, right?
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: I want to smash all that…
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: And just say a character can be cute, but we have to be really mindful about ways to just not play into a stereotype of any kind.
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: We want to avoid that. We listened to the feedback. We made the character more fox like versus foxy.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: That was really appreciative. They say feedback is a gift.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: It was because…
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: I think that it’s important to know when it’s not working. I want to know, don’t you?
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. Absolutely. We have persona based characters.
Domenique Buxton: Mm-hmm.
Mike Gerholdt: Right? Cloudy, Astro. We talked a little bit about Ruth.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. Connecting a character to a persona…
Mike Gerholdt: Uh-huh.
Domenique Buxton: Is really empowering because it really is about celebrating the purpose of the admin, the purpose of the developer, the purpose of the architect.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Why we do what we do, and just shining a light on these fantastic makers…
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: These dreamers, doers, and just being able to have them have a seat at the table…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Is really important to be in the room where it happens.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: I think that is fulfilling to me as an artist, but I think for the audience, it’s really important that we deliver on it.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: The characters have, along the way, their journey has been towards purpose.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Their purpose is to help you unlock yours.
Mike Gerholdt: Hm. Oh.
Domenique Buxton: It’s a secret. You find…
Mike Gerholdt: I got goosebumps.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. You’re in a video game and you find an Easter egg or you find a secret…
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: And you just go, “Oh, this is what it’s about. That was exciting.”
Mike Gerholdt: Okay. Perfect segue. You should do podcasts. You should do a podcast on creative stuff. You mentioned Easter eggs.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: I know we don’t point Easter eggs out, but…
Domenique Buxton: Oh, no. Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: But you stick Easter eggs in stuff. What are some of the things that you do that maybe people have missed?
Domenique Buxton: I think the rainbow jumpsuits is kind of an Easter egg in itself.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Because that came from somewhere.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: I’ll say this. We do this thing with Sassy because we love Sassy.
Mike Gerholdt: Uh-huh.
Domenique Buxton: We want to put Sassy in things. We call it Hidden Sassys. It’s like Hidden Mickeys at Disneyland.
Mike Gerholdt: Oh.
Domenique Buxton: There are these just little things that we’ll do, like for the race car Astro that we did.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: The lightning astro.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: The second version that we did of that, we made sure that the rims on the tires had the no symbol.
Mike Gerholdt: Oh.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. We put Sassy as a sticker on laptops, on Astro’s moped. There’s just kind of all these little places that our friend shows up. I think that we even did something with Trailbed for April Fool’s one year.
Mike Gerholdt: Sure.
Domenique Buxton: I want to say that Astro had a little stuffed Sassy with them in Bed.
Mike Gerholdt: Aww.
Domenique Buxton: It was just those little hints, those little things.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: It’s an Easter egg, but it’s also just a nod to where we’ve come from.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm. That’s so neat. Okay, last question. When you are at an event, what is the one thing that always kind of chokes you up when you see about the characters?
Domenique Buxton: Oh my gosh. I might choke up right now just thinking about it. I think that a recurring thing that happens sometimes when I see my characters, I say, “My babies.”
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Last year at Dreamforce, when we were outside, the Foo Fighters came.
Mike Gerholdt: Oh, that’s right. Yes.
Domenique Buxton: They asked the… I’m going to cry because I was just thinking about it.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Dave Grohl is like, “Hey, get these guys on stage. Let’s go.”
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: “Let’s rock.”
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: They got up there and they all went up there and just rocked out. That was pretty significant for me as a human, being a part of the Ohana and just being the mama of the mascots and seeing that and just seeing how that thing that just broke my brain. It was amazing.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: It’s my pinned post on Twitter because I just love it so much and it was such a cool thing. Thinking about Taylor Hawkins…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Just getting to see that.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Just getting to be there in the moment.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: That was a moment that was unscripted and unforgettable.
Mike Gerholdt: Wow. Yeah. I remember watching that thinking, “Okay.”
Domenique Buxton: Mm-hmm.
Mike Gerholdt: “We have characters on stage with Foo Fighters.”
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Because that’s just… Welcome to Thursday?
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Wednesday?
Domenique Buxton: Yeah, they played…
Mike Gerholdt: Just another day.
Domenique Buxton: The Foo Fighters on their Twitter said…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: “Yeah, we have backup dancers now.”
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah, of course we do. Yeah. No, it’s great.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: I also will point out, I just love when I’m at an event and they’re out kind of wandering around and you happen to catch that moment when somebody first sees for the first time and they run up like, “I need to hug you or get a picture. Oh my gosh.”
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: They have this relationship.
Domenique Buxton: Exactly.
Mike Gerholdt: They’ve seen them everywhere. I can’t wait to see that happen when we get a Cloudy costume.
Domenique Buxton: Yes.
Mike Gerholdt: That’s the one thing I haven’t seen.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: I’ve seen Astro. I’ve seen Cody. We have Ruth.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: I’ve seen Sassy.
Domenique Buxton: Mm-hmm.
Mike Gerholdt: Very much. We need to get a Cloudy…
Domenique Buxton: You need to-
Mike Gerholdt: On that.
Domenique Buxton: I don’t know if it’s a poll or what that you need to run.
Mike Gerholdt: I think it’s some Twitter noise.
Domenique Buxton: Some Twitter noise, campaign.
Mike Gerholdt: Like you said, the community…
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Gave you a lot of feedback on the costumes and the characters and stuff.
Domenique Buxton: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: We need to hear from the community about why there isn’t a Cloudy…
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Up dancing on stage with Astro and Cody.
Domenique Buxton: I think you can actually create a campaign around that for your admins to get involved.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. They might do it themselves just listening to this podcast.
Domenique Buxton: They could…
Mike Gerholdt: They’re pretty creative people.
Domenique Buxton: I’m into that.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: How much fun wouldn’t that be?
Domenique Buxton: It would be amazing and full circle. Just thinking about how Cloudy was created is really special.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: In 2015 at Dreamforce…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Pat Patterson said, “Let’s take goat selfies.”
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: I’d never heard of a thing called goat selfies.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: This is before goat yoga…
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: And all these other kind of goaty things, the GOAT, and I was like, “Let’s make goat selfies.” It’s like, “Okay.” He had made the suggestion, the community listened.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: The community broke Twitter that year with goat selfies.
Mike Gerholdt: Oh, I had to get my goat selfie. Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: It was right at the top of the escalator.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Second floor. Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: You had to…
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. That character was truly created by the community. It was a call. The community answered.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: The community brought it.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. It’s so important to know why Cloudy is associated with admins.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: The admin community supports each other in really incredible ways and the community is there for each other, encouraging.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: I’ve never seen anyone do campaigns to get people to go to Dreamforce.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: I’ve never seen…
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Just the participation and the connections that are there. They’re real.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: I wanted that with Cloudy. Sure footed.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Supportive. I always thought that Cloudy was the quiet cool. Cloudy is the secret sauce.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Cloudy really is kind of the cloud.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Knows all things about the cloud. Those are the things that I love to share with your audience because that’s why… I just think she makes the whole thing work.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: What other big company has a goat?
Mike Gerholdt: I know. I know. Well, let’s talk about that because what other company we saw at Dreamforce this year has a rabbit in a magic costume?
Right?
Domenique Buxton: Yes.
Mike Gerholdt: Tell us about how that came about.
Domenique Buxton: Well, Genie is about just making real time customer magic.
Mike Gerholdt: Okay.
Domenique Buxton: Just these real time interactions. I think that when you hear, “Let’s have a character for Genie…”
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: If you deliver a genie that looks like a genie…
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: I don’t know if that’s necessarily really the assignment that we need to do.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. Right.
Domenique Buxton: We looked at it and were like, “How can we do this in a different way?” We thought about magic, and when you think about rabbits and magic.
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: You think, “Oh, pulling magic out of a hat, assisting a magician.”
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: Then it was like, “No, let’s not do that either. Let’s actually have the rabbit be the magic.”
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: This rabbit can fly. This rabbit can change sizes based on just what they’re working on, who they’re dealing with, and they’re kind of cool.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: They’re fun. It’s kind of a rabbit and it’s like, why not a rabbit?
Mike Gerholdt: Right. So you wake up Thursday, let’s just say you have your coffee and get some stuff done, and then that’s your day. You’re thinking about, “How do I make a character that represents magic, and can wear a costume, and it can change sizes.”
Domenique Buxton: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Okay. Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: That sounds like a ball of fun.
Domenique Buxton: It came together with a really cool team very quickly. These characters are not done by me in a small little corner of my office by myself.
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: It takes a village to make these characters. This is something where it’s a lot of brainstorming, sketching, working with some really talented folks…
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: To just kind of say, “Could it do this? Could it do this?”
Mike Gerholdt: Why couldn’t it?
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. Could it be purple?
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: All these different kinds of things. It was really a way to just do a stress test to say…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: “What works? What do you think about this?” We polled some members of our community…
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm.
Domenique Buxton: To just get to be a part of it and say, “Should we go in this direction, this direction, or this direction?”
Mike Gerholdt: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Who looks like is going to be the most fun to see all the time?
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Of the concepts that we tested, our rabbit won by landslide.
Mike Gerholdt: Wow.
Domenique Buxton: It was like, we know… Which is great to hear that feedback and to just make sure that we’re going in the right direction. I’m so appreciative of that.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. That’s very cool. It’s going to change. We’ll see all the things that Genie can do.
Domenique Buxton: I’m looking forward to seeing how they become part of our story because they’re telling a really interesting story of how all of our tech is just combining in magical new ways.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: That’s exciting.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: We bought in some really cool family members from Tableau, Mule, Slack.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: And just the other acquisitions that we have. Everybody’s bringing something to the table and it’s neat to just see what the conversations are and the collaborations are.
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: I’m excited by that and I feel like Genie is a step in that direction.
Mike Gerholdt: Have you ever pitched doing a Saturday morning cartoon?
Domenique Buxton: I have.
Mike Gerholdt: Because, seriously.
Domenique Buxton: Well, how about this?
Mike Gerholdt: I feel like you have 30 episodes written in your head at this point.
Domenique Buxton: Oh my gosh. I would love to talk about this every day. It’s kind of like Green Eggs and Ham.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: I will tell this story in a box with a fox on a boat for the goat. I will tell this story anywhere and anyone wants to listen. I’ve got stories and I love seeing how these stories write themselves in a lot of ways because we’re all just in the ecosystem doing our thing.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: That’s all really exciting. I think it’s just kind of figuring out how to get those things done. We’ve made some pretty crazy things here at Salesforce, like animatronics.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: We’ve got our offices and lobbies look like a forest.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: We’ve delivered in really unique ways.
Mike Gerholdt: Our characters are there too. Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: They’re part of it.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: You walk through that door…
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: There’s Astro.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. In a Trailblazer hoodie.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. That’s right.
Mike Gerholdt: Yep. [inaudible] Dom, this is fun.
Domenique Buxton: I had fun.
Mike Gerholdt: It’s fun.
Domenique Buxton: Thanks for asking me to do this.
Mike Gerholdt: I know. Well, it’s good. We’ve added some characters since we last talked about this.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah, I was thinking about it. It’s been…
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: 2018 was the last time we did this?
Mike Gerholdt: 2018 was last time we talked characters.
Domenique Buxton: Oh yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: A lot’s happened since then.
Mike Gerholdt: Seriously, right? Holy cow. We’ve added so many more. We’ll just do this regularly, because I’m sure we’re going to add, and then when you get your Saturday morning cartoon series.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. It would be pretty amazing to do that. I think that one of the things that’s been really fun with the characters is to share them with my family.
Mike Gerholdt: Right.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah. Just imagine doing something like that, being able to turn on the TV and there it is. That would be… That’s the dream.
Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: That feels like kids. “Oh, I grew up watching the Salesforce cartoons.” Okay, great.
Domenique Buxton: Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt: I grew up with Transformers. Anyway, thanks for coming by.
Domenique Buxton: Thanks for having me.
Mike Gerholdt: We will do this again and we’ll look for more purple magic to be around.
If you want to learn more about all things admin, go to admin.salesforce.com to find more resources, including… Well, I didn’t mention any links in this episode, so you’re good, but you can get the full transcript. Of course we want to see a cloudy costume at a future event, but I need you to help tweet this out, so write this down. I want you to tweet out, “I want to see a Cloudy mascot.” And I need you to @ mention Christophe Coenraets who I’m going to give you his Twitter handle. It is @CCOENRAETS. Now, I’ll include a link in the show notes, so you can just click to tweet. You can click to tweet that as many times as you’d like. Not that you would do that like a hundred or 200 times, just saying, over a lunch.
Domenique Buxton: What’s the hashtag?
Mike Gerholdt: #AwesomeAdmin. We always use…
Domenique Buxton: Awesome.
Mike Gerholdt: #AwesomeAdmin. Yes.
Domenique Buxton: All right.
Mike Gerholdt: #AwesomeAdmin but I want to see a Cloudy mascot. Christophe Coenraets can help make that happen. Of course you can stay up to date with us on all things social. We are @SalesforceAdmns on Twitter. Gillian is on Twitter @gilliankbruce, and of course, I am @MikeGerholdt. So with that, stay safe, stay awesome, and stay tuned for the next episode. We’ll see you in the cloud.
Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Jennifer Cole, Manager of the CRM & Analytics Team at 908 Devices. Join us as we chat about business processes, Jennifer’s latest presentation at Dreamforce, and why it’s so important to understand everything about a problem process before you try to implement a solution. You should […]
Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Marti Pirkle, Director of Commercial Systems at Cloudmed, and Lisa King, CRM Architect at R1RCM. Join us as we round out our Best of Dreamforce series with a look at their Dreamforce presentation about how to migrate two orgs seamlessly. You should subscribe for the full […]
Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Louise Lockie, Salesforce Consultant and Trainer, and 6x Salesforce MVP. Join us as we chat about her amazing presentation from Dreamforce which covered how to embrace a permission set led security model in your org. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a […]
