We recently sat down with Thunder VP, Marketing & Marketing Cloud Practice Lead, Daniel Barnett, to learn a little more about our Marketing Maverick. Here’s what he had to say!

Q. Daniel, tell us a little bit about your role at Thunder.

Where marketing is happening, I won’t be too far from it. I wear multiple hats at Thunder — from beanies to truckers — and love diving in to help whenever and wherever I can. My role allows me to dabble in both our corporate marketing and delivery sides, helping our clients, internal and external, build out the engagement strategies of their dreams. I love both roles equally as they give me the opportunity to be creative and hands-on, making big impacts for both Thunder’s brand and our clients’ brands.

Q. What made you want to join the Thunder crew?

Thunder has such a strong culture and I joined to be part of it. I’ve been in the Salesforce ecosystem for almost 14 years and rarely does a firm come along with the compassion and authenticity of this group. Our CEO, Carter Wigell, set this tone early and continues to live that out to this day. Thunder strives to be a unique and fun brand for both our employees and customers, and that uniqueness was something I was immediately drawn to.

Q. You’ve been running Marketing practices in the Salesforce ecosystem for a while now, can you tell us about your experience prior to joining Thunder?

I began my Salesforce career as a business and marketing analyst back in 2009 at a company called Bluewolf, which was Salesforce’s original consulting partner. Like Thunder, Bluewolf experienced incredible success early on which really fueled its rapid ascent. Soon after joining Bluewolf, I noticed that many of Salesforce’s customers were integrating their CRM with really sophisticated Marketing Automation tools like Marketo, Eloqua and Pardot. I doubled-down on rethinking Salesforce services and how they could be tailored and personalized for marketers. What started off as a side hustle within my role quickly became its own brand within a brand. Year-by-year, we grew our team exponentially, servicing some of the world’s largest organizations across multiple continents. I’m so excited by the same opportunity for growth at Thunder as I did with Bluewolf 14 years ago.

Q. So, not to brag, but you have 13 Salesforce and Marketing certifications to your name (that we know of!)… how does all that expertise help you run a successful practice?

We interact with marketing, good and bad, all day long, every single day. It’s easy to lose your perspective, but our team really has the ability to influence how big brands engage with their prospective customers. My certifications have helped me roll up my sleeves, build empathy and really understand how Salesforce Marketing Cloud products can help our customers. As much as I love leading strategy, nothing makes me happier than being creative, building something that exceeds our customer’s expectations and makes their job a little bit more enjoyable. And I think this perspective is valid for our entire practice.

Q. We have to congratulate you on becoming a new dad! Which are more challenging, complex Marketing Cloud implementations or drowsy midnight diaper changes?

Thank you, and I feel obliged to plug Thunder’s generous parental leave policy that allowed me the time to spend with my family and welcome baby Noa to the world. It’s a great question because both tend to keep me up at night! However, while I can lean on my experience to do an amazing job for our clients, nothing is more challenging than trying to figure out why a baby is fussing, won’t sleep through the night or why she continues to toss her food across our kitchen (much to our dog’s delight). As complex as some MarTech implementations are, and boy, they can be mind-boggling, our clients generally tend to be clearer communicators of expectations than our 6 month old!

Q. Last one! As a leader at Thunder, what are you most excited about in the near future for the rapidly growing company?

Thunder has a culture of empathy and innovation. We’re filled with leaders who have spent their entire careers helping customers love Salesforce and who think about nothing but how to improve their experience on the platform. We innovate across every facet of our business from our methodology that dictates how we work with our customers, to differentiating innovation to help our customers find value in their investments even faster. I can’t wait to see what new things we develop and how we continue to push the envelope and find ways to reinvent Cloud Services.