How was Dreamforce 2019 SO long ago?! We’ve literally begun the countdown to Dreamforce 2020. In an attempt to overcome our Dreamforce blues, over the next few weeks we’re going all nostalgic on you and throwing it back to one particular Salesforce event that we can’t stop reminiscing about.
During Dreamforce week, there were some pretty epic Dreamforce parties, and our San Fran office was home to one of them. As well as opening the doors to more than 200 members of the Salesforce community, we invited a panel of Salesforce VIPs into our hub – including the man behind THE biggest Salesforce blog on the internet – Ben McCarthy. He’s also known as Salesforce Ben… we’re guessing you might have heard his name once or twice?
The man behind the brand - who is Salesforce Ben?
Just in case your internet connection’s been down for the past five years, let’s just refresh your memory on the man behind the blog – or as Stephanie called him, ‘the wizard behind the curtain’. Salesforce MVP Ben McCarthy set up his blog in 2014 and since then he’s established a massive following in the Salesforce community. As the most popular Salesforce blog on the planet, Salesforce Ben offers a whole world of relevant and engaging content for all Salesforce professionals – no matter who you are! In addition to founding the popular Salesforce blog, he is also Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Nymble, an ISV on the AppExchange.
Stephanie spoke about the power behind Ben’s brand, ‘He’s done such a great job with his brand that nobody really knows about him, he’s like the wizard behind the curtains.’ A statement that completely shows off the value of Ben’s work and his online presence within the Salesforce community. In fact, many of our attendees, including fellow panellist Sheldon Simmons, were shocked when this Salesforce legend opened his mouth and out popped a British accent!
But as one of the biggest names in Salesforce, there’s no way Ben would be on the other side of the Atlantic when Dreamforce was taking place!
Salesforce Ben’s legacy
Salesforce Ben covers everything from popular Salesforce interview questions, advice on technical issues, Salesforce careers advice, and insights into the latest Salesforce news. We’re so used to hearing his expertise through carefully crafted content on his blog – so to hear him sharing his wisdom in person was very cool.
When he sat down with us, Ben shared the story behind his brand – giving us the lowdown on how everything started. He spoke about importance of social media and the benefits creating an online network within the space.
How did it all begin?
'I started Salesforce Ben five years ago now when I was a solo admin and I was basically just documenting tips and tricks and things that I found online that weren’t on –Trailhead wasn’t available back then and stuff like that and it kind of just snowballed.’
A Salesforce community hub
Ben’s at the heart of the online Salesforce community – there’s zero doubt about that. And the great thing about this is Ben’s been able to make his blog even richer and provide even more varied insights from a whole host of authors within the space.
‘We’ve kind of pivoted it from my personal blog to being more of a community blog. About 80% of the content is powered by guest posters which I’m massively thankful for. I do kind of regret calling the blog Salesforce Ben because I get a lot of the credit when it’s a lot of other people that write on the blog - which is fantastic! And now we’re all about sharing Salesforce ideas, putting content out there.’
This has totally allowed Ben to take his blog to the next level – with so much mad respect for this man and his craft, he’s now created a Salesforce hub that allows people from all cornerstones of the community to share relevant expertise from their specialist area. In fact, we’ve even been mentioned a few times thanks to our advice on Salesforce careers.
Empowering Salesforce careers
If there’s one thing we know about the Ohana, it’s that we care about what we do. Everyone in this crazy community wants to make a difference – so what drives Ben to uphold his incredible Salesforce community?
‘I’m really passionate about getting people into the Salesforce ecosystem. I was very lucky - I landed a graduate job straight out of University in Salesforce so I feel very thankful for that. I know what a great career it is for a lot of people, so I focus a lot of the content around that and getting people in and letting them know what a fantastic career it is.’
Shining the spotlight on more superstars
Ben wasn’t the only rock star in attendance during our VIP edition of Salesforce Saturday – we’re guessing there’s another few names on our line-up that you might be keen to hear from too:
- David Liu– Founder of SFDC99 – Salesforce Technical Architect, Google
- Gemma Emmett Blezard– Founder of Ladies Be Architects, CEO, Architect Club
- Rakia Finley– Founding Partner, Copper & Vine
- Hector Perez Jr– CRM Strategy and Platform Lead, Amazon Web Services / Founder & Board Member, Merivis
- Sheldon Simmons– Salesforce Consultant, PolSource
If that list is now giving you total FOMO – don’t panic. We’ll be sharing expert insights from the rest of our awesome guest speakers! So, keep your eyes peeled on our social channels to make sure you don’t miss out.
And remember, it’s easy to keep up with our Salesforce community so that you can access our exclusive Salesforce careers insights – just fill out the form below!
