I'm no Longer "Tableau Tim" I'm Now Just-Tim

0:00So, I'm no longer Tableau Tim.

0:03That feels pretty wild to say, but um if you've been watching this channel for a while, you've probably seen that I've been

0:08Traveling in a in in a direction of change for the last few months, but this change feels extreme and probably needs some context.

0:15Hence this video.

0:16I just want to sort of get this out there in the open.

0:18Given I've had a few questions and also I think it deserves proper context.

0:22And I also want to clear up m some some strange facts that have, you know, been milling around within cells.

0:28So here we are.

0:28The short and simple version is that I've stepped away from the Tableau Visionary Program, specifically a Salesforce community engagement program.

0:35And as a result, I've decided to change the name of the channel away from a Salesforce trademark.

0:41And so it's gonna be just called just him.

0:45It's just literally my name, but Tim.

0:47com is not available, so just Tim felt more appropriate.

0:49There is a longer version though, and I think it's worth telling the story properly and getting the context out there, but

0:54you know, just off the top, and this is not a big falling out.

0:57This is a decision I made.

0:58Uh it wasn't something that Salesforce ever asked me to do.

1:01It's something that I've decided to do, given a reflection that would have set off a reflection that was set off by a chain of events, let's say

1:08And so uh here I am.

1:09I still love Tableau.

1:11I'm still gonna be using Tableau, I'll still be making Tableau videos, but n nonetheless, I think this context is necessary and I kind of want to get a few points out there as well.

1:18Now there is also a newsletter version of this which

1:20I think is much more succinct, has all the points I want written down.

1:24Uh the point with the problem with doing a video is that sometimes as you're making the video, you kind of go off script.

1:30The newsletter is like the polished version of what I want to say.

1:33So a link to that is also below.

1:35You can check it out on LinkedIn or on my newsletter homepage as well.

1:38So what's caused this change?

1:39A couple of weeks ago, Salesforce raised a concern around my involvement in the Sigma Influencer program.

1:45Now

1:46Influencer programs are very, very common in the social media space.

1:49I think it will shock most people to know that I have a channel the size I have and I've never had sponsorships on the channel.

1:56It it's been a deliberate choice that I've made.

1:58People have approached me about sponsorship, even if it's just, you know, sponsoring a specific video.

2:02But I've always managed that very, very carefully because I try and sort of strike this balance of

2:07not coming across as someone who sips the Kool-Aid.

2:10I I like to maintain this level of independence around what I think is good and what I think is um not good about products.

2:18And so

2:18Whenever I've had those conversations, I've always made it challenging for the sponsors because I've always sort of led with the fact that listen, let's separate my opinion about the product from what you want to get out.

2:29And often that's not what my sponsors are in it for.

2:32They're in it to sort of

2:33get the voice of the creator to say in their authentic voice why their product is good.

2:39And sometimes that works, but sometimes

2:41I'm just very wary of coming across to you, my audience, as being disingenuous.

2:45Now, the specific newsletter that kicked it off was a line I added to my previous newsletter.

2:51where I mentioned that I had not yet been sponsored by Sigma, but I will be in the future.

2:55I think some people at Salesforce read this as I had been sponsored.

2:59And so to this day, even to the point I'm having this video

3:02I've not yet received a single penny from anyone ever as a sponsor.

3:06I'm still something that I'm exploring, even though I have been approached by

3:10Other companies, um Sigma are not the only ones, there are many other companies who want to have that conversation, especially this year since I gave out that signal that I wanted to do that.

3:18They're not the first and they won't be the last.

3:20And so um when Salesforce raised this objection about the influencer program, their specific note was around

3:28the payment aspect of it, and then specifically the endorsement of a competitive product, specifically signaling it as a best-in-class tool in the industry.

3:38And I have to say, the way these programs are written is that

3:41Sometimes those aims are obviously the aims of the company, but they don't always have to align with the creator.

3:47For example, I've been in the Tableau Visionary program.

3:50for a long long time and I think Salesforce would say that part of the reason they have that program is to try and uh establish Tableau as a leading analytics provider.

3:59That's just the standard goal of the AIMS

4:01But if also if you've also been sort of seeing my content over the last three years, um you'll also know that I've also been very critical about instances where I don't think that is the case, Tableau Next being the most recent example.

4:13So

4:13Uh like I don't shy away from being critical, but I also think I'm very fair about the way I do it.

4:20I don't raise critique that I haven't yet validated or haven't yet seen.

4:24And I don't point in a direction where, you know, I potentially read into assumptions about how the product has landed that way.

4:30I simply look at what's in front of me.

4:32and I say what I say.

4:33I don't then run off and say a bunch of things about the people, about the company, or anything like that.

4:38So I've always really worked hard to keep a healthy balance.

4:42And so faced with the option of

4:45continuing in the program but having to step back from those kinds of conflicts of interest, I've simply made the decision of walking away from

4:54From the Visionary program.

4:55A few days, I think, from being nominated to be in the Visionary Hall of Fame, which sucks.

5:00But nonetheless, I think it was a decision I had to make and I think it's the right one.

5:04Because on reflection

5:06When I think about it more, I also realize that actually, you know, for the last five years, uh I've been part of a program that also hasn't necessarily been sort of, let's say, clear about

5:16the way that it goes out to its ambassadors, to its members around their involvement.

5:21And so in the UK, there's a very specific way that social media works.

5:26And I actually have to say that different countries have different rules on this point

5:29Depending on the social media rules in your country, any sort of endorsement, any sort of interaction with a company that

5:38exchange either monetary value, access, anything like that is considered sponsorship.

5:44So if I have to reflect on my involvement in the Visionary Program

5:48At least when it started, these rules weren't so crystallized.

5:52But now, over the last three years, they have become very crystallized.

5:55And I think maybe in the visual program there's been a missed opportunity to highlight that

6:00when people are, for example, going to conference, but not highlighting that they're getting free access to the event when people are speaking at Tableau events, but they're also not a s um sharing the fact that they get access to the product to be able to talk about the product

6:13And that exchange means that those people get placement, they get exposure, they get career access sometimes, and that balance in itself is quite blurry.

6:24It can go anywhere from the spectrum of, you know, direct payment for posting a piece of content all the way to where we are in the Tabovisionary program where it's kind of blurry, kind of getting payment.

6:34But it's not in monetary terms, no actual, you know, number in your bank account for you to get audited and seen.

6:40So needless to say

6:42I kind of realize actually if I want to keep on making content the way I do with an audience that I have and the scale of audience that I have, actually I need to do a better job of keeping these two separate.

6:53So I decided to step away from the visionary program

6:56And given I had the rule book thrown at me once, I thought it was also a good idea not to give Salesforce a second chance to come at me again by telling me to get off a trademark.

7:05Hence, tabletum is no more.

7:07I want to touch on one thing, which is I'm gonna call it leverage or yeah, let's just call it leverage

7:15I've made over six hundred videos.

7:17Um I I passed that milestone literally just a few videos ago.

7:21And what you don't see behind every single one of those videos is the huge personal cost that goes into that.

7:27It's time, investment, energy.

7:29Some of that is a little bit of sacrifice, you know, choosing to do this over something else.

7:33And that's a personal decision.

7:35I would never change any of it.

7:36And I never did any of it because I wanted to be in the program.

7:39Um it'd be a pretty inefficient way to go about being in the program if I'm briefly honest.

7:44So the videos uh were a thing of passion, a thing of energy, and when I started it, I saw a gap.

7:50I saw

7:51a gap that wasn't being filled by Salesforce or Tableau themselves, and I saw a gap that wasn't being filled by anyone else.

7:56And so I put this tremendous amount of energy to prove a point, to make a statement, to say, hey

8:01Videos can be a demonstrable net positive to the community and here's how to do it to a high standard.

8:09And so I'd like to think that I helped

8:11Kick start this Tableau video community as it were.

8:15Yes, other people have made videos before.

8:17I went back and I've looked at all those attempts and I think it wasn't until I set up this sort of really structured beat

8:24to covering new features that other people really saw the playbook of how to do this.

8:29So I saw people copying thumbnails.

8:31I saw people sort of taking the same approach.

8:33And then I started to see what I wanted to see, which is people taking it in their own direction.

8:37And the community has massively exploded.

8:40There are people who make videos about Tableau and other technologies.

8:43that go well beyond anything I could have imagined and they do it in their own unique way and in their own take.

8:48And they don't have the same view can, but if you watch some of that content

8:51It's just as good.

8:52They just simply haven't had the time to build up the same sort of momentum and audience that I have.

8:57And also YouTube is changing.

8:59Like there's so many different things going on with social media.

9:02So I was lucky to hit it at a very specific time.

9:05But what people don't see is that even if I post a video that's critical of Salesforce or critical of Tableau, what I've always done is made myself available to Salesforce or Tableau to step to those comments.

9:17So

9:17You might see me writing a very critical piece about Salesforce, but I also then have to stand behind those comments to Salesforce and I offer my time to the product development team.

9:26Sometimes

9:27three to four calls a month when it's super busy.

9:30When it's quiet, maybe it's just one call a month.

9:32But I make time and I have always made time for anyone who works on product, UX.

9:38product development, the sales teams, uh the marketing teams.

9:42I've worked with pretty much every possible aspect of the Salesforce org.

9:47Even had Mark Benioff uh drop me a DM in my ex account

9:51Unfortunately I ghosted in.

9:52But nonetheless, I've worked with pretty much every element of Salesforce to try and better the product, try and better the company.

10:00And that's a cost you don't see.

10:01And that actually sits behind all of this.

10:03And so

10:04It kind of fills me with a bit of dismay that given all of that sort of open access and you know back and forth and the the simple ability to be able to stand to this content.

10:13That you know, this one engagement that didn't happen is what's used as a signal to say, hey, we're not sure about you know where you're going.

10:22But what it does show

10:24Is that at least this has always been the case even before Salesforce acquired Tableau?

10:30Is that Tableau always felt like it had leverage, right?

10:34And that leverage comes from

10:36a perspective of understanding that the tool that you're making is at a place of prominence in the analytics industry.

10:43So

10:44There was a point in time where that was absolutely valid, but the analogy I'd like to give here is it's a bit like Yamaha telling pianists that they should be grateful for the platform that they've been given because if Yamaha didn't make the world's best pianos,

10:58uh these musicians wouldn't make the world's best music.

11:02It's kind of a strange balance and I've had this argument sort of played back to me and I don't jive with it.

11:06I I I just let the argument sort of come across.

11:08But I I don't buy that at all.

11:10Um in fact l let me let me let me get something.

11:12Hold on.

11:13Alright, my hands are full.

11:16This is my YouTube pine.

11:18I got this for a hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube.

11:22Along the way, I was recognized.

11:25multiple times the Visionary Program and ultimately by Salesforce with the Golden Hoodie.

11:33I communicated in that order because that order matters.

11:37I was here first for my audience, and there was never a point in this relationship.

11:42where leverage existed for Tableau or Salesforce.

11:45I didn't need the recognition.

11:46I was gonna do it anyway.

11:47In fact there are many content creators on YouTube with far more impact and reach than I do.

11:52Specifically on Tableau.

11:53I'll call out data with bar as an example.

11:56Who have been, yes, recognized as an ambassador, but they don't do it for that.

12:00They've gone and exceeded that specific milestone.

12:03So it's always interesting when

12:06Salesforce approached me and this was the move they made.

12:10And it assumed they had leverage in this situation as if as if I didn't have some other choice.

12:16And also the timing of it was a little bit off.

12:18I mean the few days to go before the visual announcements,

12:21Potentially me being in the Hall of Fame.

12:23I don't actually know because, you know, like I pulled myself out of the program before they said anything.

12:28So for all I know, I could be sat here big-headed, but

12:31You wouldn't have needed to approach me if you hadn't nominated me to be in that selection.

12:37So this point I make about leverage is to highlight that

12:42For those who are still in the programme, it's very strange to me that Salesforce thinks it has this leverage.

12:47It's strange to me that

12:50Salesforce and Tableau think that what the people in the program do could be done better by them.

12:57I don't think that's the case at all.

12:59In actual fact,

13:00I think a large majority of the people in the program offer far more to the program than they get back from the program.

13:08And I say that in the nicest possible way, and I don't want to talk on their behalf.

13:12If I just give a simple example, I look at Tristan and what he's doing with LadataViz.

13:16His innovation there is keeping Tableau current.

13:20Tableau desktop is current because of the innovation that Tristan is doing.

13:23If I look at the extensions that have built been built by Salesforce, then just not as good.

13:27They're just not as exciting.

13:28The ideas and the innovation coming out of the community and partners, I should add, is just far more

13:34Energetic.

13:35I even call this out in my newsletter.

13:36I said that the place where the most energy and innovation is happening is outside of Salesforce.

13:41In my opinion, there is innovation happening within Salesforce, but it's just headed in a completely wrong direction.

13:46And I think

13:46You know, time will bear that out.

13:48I'm happy to put my hands up and say I'm wrong when that doesn't.

13:51But needless to say

13:55When I got when I had this conversation, I I was genuinely shocked and surprised.

14:00And so for that reason, it just made so much logical sense to step away from the program and to understand that all of this

14:08can just be a lot simpler if I'm not part of the program.

14:12The final thing to add here is that I think we live in a world where

14:16Many companies have many tools.

14:19Like I'm a consultant.

14:20I have been for 12 years.

14:22Um I can't go into specific instances.

14:25But at least in the last three years, it's been uncommon to see Tableau on its own in any organization.

14:32I've seen it alongside Power BI.

14:34I've even seen it alongside

14:36Other more modern tools.

14:38I have an instance in my head now where Tableau and Sigma are in an organization at the same time and the use cases that are being used for both of them make perfect sense.

14:48And it's surprising to me that at a time where you want people to be championing the best of what's possible with your product and how it hooks into other places.

14:58I don't think it's viable to expect your program members to be single tool minded.

15:06You know?

15:07There's gonna come a time when Databricks and their BI capability rivals tableaus.

15:14And when that time comes

15:16You're gonna want your visionaries, you're gonna want your ambassadors showing the best of both worlds, showing how Databricks and Tableau work together, rather than

15:24telling them, hey, they can't talk about database because the reality will just move on.

15:29Like w the world doesn't wait for Salesforce to realize where the industry is going.

15:34And so I also think that's an unrealistic ask going forward.

15:37It should be possible for someone to be on the program and also be working with other technology vendors from a place of fair reflection.

15:46And I'm not saying, hey, you know, we all don't have tribes.

15:49Of course, I get that we have tribes

15:51But it's really unrealistic to expect anyone on the program, uh, for example, to be only building tools for Salesforce, to be only working for specific programs.

16:00So

16:01I call this out as a way to kind of help those people in still in the program to kind of realize that I don't think it's right.

16:07I just do not think that's right at all.

16:09And you know, this specific example has shown me that maybe I I should have seen this coming.

16:15The final point I'll make is I think I've been lazy.

16:18I think I've been really, really lazy.

16:20And I mean this from a community perspective.

16:23I realized last week that it's not until actually, you know, I said I was stepping away.

16:28I realized this last week that I have been conflating my participation in the program.

16:34as analogous to being in the community.

16:37So what do I mean by that?

16:38When you're part of this program, you're added to a Slack instance that's internal to this community.

16:43So visionaries and ambastors all sit inside of this Slack community.

16:47What that gives you is this sort of immediate access to other people in the program.

16:50So you kind of feel like you're in the room, but

16:55Uh you know, I've not really contributed much and by contribution I mean in terms of relationships.

17:00I've just I've just sort of said, hey, because I'm in this room, I'm there for

17:03a member of this community and I'm therefore doing my part to contribute to it.

17:07But if anyone you know here knows anything about communities

17:11The easy bit is being in the room.

17:12The hard part is actually contributing and putting energy back in and then getting that energy back out.

17:17And although I've done that with individuals, I've not done that with the collective as well as I could have done.

17:22And I sort of was lazy about my involvement in the program.

17:25and took it to be like a replacement to that activity.

17:29And so one thing I'm going to try and do is try and push even harder to collaborate directly with people rather than relying on the programs that I've been part of.

17:37to be a catalyst for that.

17:39And I think that's something that I've learned as a point of reflection.

17:41And I just wanted to put it here because I think it's the most sort of appropriate place.

17:45Finally, a big thank you to you, my audience.

17:49YouTube is becoming a very challenging place.

17:51You maybe have seen that I've been trying shorts and for some bizarre reason YouTube pushes shorts like no one's business.

17:57I took a really long video that I did and I cut it up into shorts and YouTube is pumping that out like no one's business.

18:03Which I d which I don't get because I sort of think to to see and

18:07do what we do.

18:08You need to have a nice large screen.

18:11Uh it doesn't work well on your phone.

18:12And I've tried so many different ways, but um that is the way.

18:15So I'm gonna have to keep pushing to figure out how to get into that tall format rather than sort of the long form content that I do.

18:21But I'll still invest time in doing the long content.

18:24I'm taking a massive step back and rethinking everything.

18:28And so over the next two, three weeks.

18:30I've been teeing up conversations behind the scenes.

18:32I've got some pretty exciting conversation.

18:34Next week we're going to be hearing from a brand, not a brand new, but a new entrant into the data prep space.

18:40So

18:40check out there that when it comes in.

18:42I'm having conversations behind the scenes with other technology partners, some of which I've mentioned in my newsletters, others that are turning up out of the woodbook having seen my posts.

18:51So it's it's really, really exciting and invigorating.

18:54And I think I'm gonna spend a bit of time just defining what that means.

18:57What you'll see is you'll see things like my thumbnails change, go through a bit of change.

19:02I wasn't happy with my thumbnails for the last year and a half.

19:05Something went wrong with them.

19:06I kinda want to get back to the old one, but I I don't want to as well because you know that was an old Tim

19:10So we'll sort all of that out over the next coming months.

19:13And then on top of that, I have some really exciting projects that I'm working on, one of which is a learning platform I'm super excited to share with you

19:21Um so when that drops, I think we can take this learning journey into a whole new direction that I don't think people are ready for.

19:26I'm super excited about it.

19:28I'm working with two great individuals to bring that to market.

19:30So I'll keep that on wraps until we actually have something to share in a big way

19:34But yeah, that's kind of where I am.

19:36So I wanted to make this video.

19:38Like I said, check out the newsletter version.

19:40It's so much more concise.

19:41It says everything I needed to say, and it's probably going to be a lot shorter to read

19:44Anyway, thanks for watching, I'll see you in the next one, and this is the first video as just him