Justin Barss is a Salesforce MVP who is also a Non-profit Technologist cheerleader and coach. He is the Director of Sales at Now It Matters and has 4 certifications.
We’d like to know more about the fun side of the MVPs! And from what we heard, so do a lot of people in the community. Welcome to the Proust for Salesforce experts.
I get the chance to define what working within the Salesforce community is like and exhort others to volunteer, serve, invest and partner with others throughout the Salesforce ecosystem.
Q: How did your love for Salesforce start? Was it a conscious choice or did the whole universe just conspire and make it happen?
Like many nonprofit admins, I was offered Salesforce as a tool to help organize fundraising and volunteer management. As I began to experiment (i.e. trip over) the Contact – Account model and had a hard time with many of the initial NPSPv1 feature sets. I slowly started to grow my knowledge with the Nonprofit Google Groups and Youtube videos I could find about the use of Salesforce with nonprofits.
As I began to get the sense of Custom Objects, how to adjust the Page Layouts, Search Layouts and other features, I began to specialize and customize much of our work at the nonprofit within Salesforce. I loved learning about the different ways I could measure and analyze the data that I was recording and then review that data with our internal team – this was anything from Maintenance Requests to Mileage Logs to Fundraising Reports.
Q: What is your current role?
Currently, I’m the Director of Sales at Now IT Matters. I work with an awesome team of Senior Consultants that specialize in bringing expert solutions to the nonprofits and businesses with whom we partner.
Q: What does being a Salesforce MVP mean to you?
I think it’s an honor and a gift. It’s a chance to focus on the investment, goodwill, encouragement, and support that I have received over the years. I offer it to the others in as many formats and processes possible. I get the chance to define what working within the Salesforce community is like and exhort others to volunteer, serve, invest and partner with others throughout the Salesforce ecosystem. I think most of what being an MVP means was learned when I was first becoming a consultant at Now IT Matters and experiencing the community of all of the nonprofit consulting partners and the Salesforce Foundation (Salesforce.Org) community at Sprints, World Tours, User Groups, and those conversations trying to best figure out a solution with a friend.
Q: If not a Salesforce expert, what would you have become?
I believe I’ll go back into some sort of role in ministry at some point – serving and encouraging others in their skills and abilities – whether in a church or somewhere less churchy.
Q: Which blogs/channels do you follow to get your Salesforce elixir?
Salesforce Admins channel/blog; Salesforce.org Youtube channels; I keep up with Twitter and try to keep my learning curve with all of the great content coming out from other MVPs.
Q: What’s next in line for you after the coveted MVP title?
Grow and mentor others! Travel the world and grow the Ohana 🙂
Q: How has your journey with the Salesforce platform and non-profits helped you in giving back to the community?
Oh wow. This is like the equivalent of 30 morning cup of coffee meetings to detail these stories. I think much of my journey (think Lord of the Rings styling) has to do with knowing who you journey with. My team at Now IT Matters has been an incredible source of camaraderie, fun, excitement and growth for me. I moved straight into Now IT Matters after leaving a church community that I had worked with for a number of years. “Giving back” was the ethos that most of us from the nonprofit sector have already signed up for. The sweet thing for me was the unique way we try to do it at Now IT Matters.
After our church plant closed in 2013, NiM was a great place to “land” at first and then launch me into a journey that is still not over yet. I believe much of it has to do with growing and developing brilliant staff. If I can do that with my teammates at NiM, who is to say I can’t do that with my clients, or with Admins I know in the community, or in coaching circles when I travel? I hope to pass on and share as much knowledge I can in helping folks grow in their Salesforce career.
Q: What has been your most memorable Dreamforce experience till date?
Hmmmm. Probably dressing up as Nimmy (the Now IT Matters mascot) and riding across the Golden Gate Bridge a few years ago. It was very memorable.
Q: Other than Salesforce, what does your world look like?
I live in the mountains of Virginia, teaching my kids basketball, learning how to grow in my marriage, and figuring out ways to sow into the community around me here where I live. My highlights are usually chopping wood, building a fort with my kiddos, or traveling to somewhere fun on a summer adventure!
Q: What’s something about you that you think would surprise others?
I am generally pretty boisterous and try to be full of surprises. But for the most part I’m a guy in my mid-30’s who has received a great deal of investment from quality people around me. My greatest hope is to have a similar impact on as many as I can – personally, professionally and through the impact of my work as a consultant. It is a gift to work in this space and to work with the people in this community.
Q: Anything we missed?
Maybe Nimmy. He’s not an MVP yet but he’s out in the Ohana leaving his mark…
Justin Barss is a Salesforce MVP who is also a Non-profit Technologist cheerleader and coach. He is the Director of Sales at Now It Matters and has 4 certifications.
Salesforce Certifications
