Vala Afshar, now chief digital evangelist for Salesforce, admits he had never posted a tweet, wrote or blog or a book until his early 40s. He got his undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering that led him to have a successful career. He landed his job at Salesforce after several months of conversing with a senior executive via X (formerly Twitter.” Now, he has become a prolific thought leader and Salesforce’s chief storyteller. He has close to 1 million followers on X, has written more than 600 articles for various publications, including ZDNet, hosts a weekly podcast, DisruptTV, and has a best-selling book, “Boundless: A New Mindset for Unlimited Business Success.”
Vala shared dozens of insightful thoughts about his life and success. Here are three pieces of advice:
- Develop your personal brand and your digital footprint. Your personal brand is your digital footprint plus your digital exhaust. You can learn so much more about people by what they’re posting. He said that you should avoid using social media to criticize and trash individuals, organizations or companies. “So, if you go through my Twitter feed, or any social presence, you will not find me speaking negatively about anything,” he explained. “I do think you have to be mindful. I am a representative of a public company. I’m an executive at a public company. I am absolutely mindful that everything I share could either help or tarnish the brand of Salesforce. That’s an awesome responsibility. That’s true for all executives listening in all the companies that you represent.”
- Build better habits. Afshar said, like athletes, executives must create habits to become resilient, confident and embrace change. “Building a strong brand, building communities, building trust: there’s no shortcut to any of this,” he said. For me, the act of being active every day is how I build strong habits. Habit is motivation and inspiration and prompt.” The X app is on his phone, so he is prompted to use it. If you want to drink eight glasses of water a day, put a water bottle on your desk to remind you to fulfill that task.
- Leave people better. As a leader, if you leave everyone better than when they started, then you’re on the path to leadership, Afshar said. “If you’re motivated to help others achieve success, then you’re potentially on the path to being a good leader.” He added that you should be teachable, adopting a beginner’s mindset. He stresses that the key is having the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn. “This is difficult work,” he said, “and if you don’t have the proper mindset and the proper culture and proper processes the technology itself is not going to help you achieve your boundless goals.”
Listen to the Take Command Podcast Episode with Vala here!