[October 2023] Fireside Chat & Day in the Life: AWESOME Admins | Architects | Developers Around the World

Many thanks to our AWESOME Admins, Architects and Developer Fireside Chat and Day in the Life panelists for sharing a glimpse of their Salesforce journeys and insights about AI and Admin skills for the future!? Joey Chan Jeanette Jett Jennifer W. Lee Gordon L. Oleh Mykytyn Ryanthony Baronda Erwin Bautista Ronald Defeo Amos Go Glenda Ninan

Our Day in the Life panel consisted of someone who started their SF journey as early as 2007 racking up 21 certs over the years and someone as recently as 2022 who is now a certified Developer from being an Occupational Therapist for 10+ years as well as Salesforce professionals working globally doing exciting projects with foreign governments and global financial institutions.

Although we didn’t get a screenshot of everyone who was off camera on the call last night, it was nice to see a lot of first-timers stop in to join us for our October meetup. During our chatter right before the call started, we learned that Salesforce is booming in Brazil. It was great to see people from the East to West coast as well as folks from Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong and the Philippines!

Most of us felt excited, great and good…but tired..and the big word for 2023 so far is feeling “accomplished” despite still being somewhat of a rollercoaster.? The majority of us present identify as Awesome Admins or Consultants.?

I loved how vibrant each of our panelists were and how colorful each of their stories were.? Here are some of the key things I took away from our lively conversation:

• If you think learning Salesforce via Trailhead is hard, imagine trying to learn Salesforce PRE-Trailhead through PDFs, RSS feeds on a 2 hr commute to/from work!? As the saying goes, where there’s a will, there’s a way – it’s possible!
• If you have a dream to start your own Salesforce consulting business, it’s possible! For one person it started as a 5 year goal to do market research and level up in the Philippines and for another person it was hitting the Trails and learning the trade with his brother in the Ukraine. Both very different paths that also led to being Salesforce MVPs.
• You don’t always need a college degree to do what you’re passionate about and sometimes the right training, like the RAD Women program, can be a catalyst to propel you into a role you’ll love and you end up being asked to inspire others by being asked to share your knowledge as a speaker/instructor for other programs, Dreamin’ and Dreamforce events – it’s possible!
• If you’re in a retail job (whether it’s Victoria’s Secret or selling shoes) and you mix in the marketing and finance knowledge you were encouraged by your parents to take up in college, while discovering your passion in helping clients solve problems and being keen on learning Salesforce configuration, you could end up being a Salesforce evangelist sharing how things are solved with others. Not everyone ends up getting that Golden Hoodie and MVP status while taking center stage with a blinged up belt as an Admin Keynote speaker in Dreamforce, but nothing is impossible!
• Sometimes you realize that your experiences in the nonprofit world and your passion to help youth development and maybe you have a knack for solving problems and taking that one week bootcamp to learn tech skills is exactly what you needed to make an impact at your company with dozens of tickets waiting for you to create impactful solutions, even little ones, one ticket at a time? Then you realize how important it is to have communication skills to explain things to C-level people who are more concerned with business strategy and impact vs how a flow functions..then you hone those skills and become a trusted advisor, an MVP and DF Speaker – it’s possible!
• Maybe you love math so much you get a master degree in applied mathematics…but your entrepreneurial brother who learned Salesforce pre-Trailhead starts a global consultancy and you struggle passing that one cert…but when you do, the world of enriching client experiences, solving problems and engaging in world-wide communities lights you up and you end up becoming a global speaker and MVP one day – it’s possible!
• Many projects in the global realm are using the core Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, so knowing those well is key, and lots of projects using Marketing Cloud, Revenue Cloud/CPQ and Experience Cloud are very marketable specifically now more than ever in the public sector especially for healthcare and financial services.
• Ultimately, hard work, determination, finding answers to solutions, being willing to listen and learn, communicating well with all levels and “reading the room” are key elements of being an AWESOME Admin, Architect and Developer.

"People provide data to AI. There is no AI without humans feeding it/teaching it.” ~Jennifer W. Lee

• Quotes of the day:? “People provide data to AI. There is no AI without humans feeding it/teaching it.” - Jennifer W. Lee “If you’re just going to be a data in/data out kind of person, then, yes, your job as an admin could be at risk, but there will always be a need for the admin who knows how to “read the room” (high communication and analysis skills!) and ask the right questions and to be able to use the AI tools that will be able to provide the answer in minutes.” - Gordon Lee

By the end of the call, there were some mixed ideas of some apps that could be built to solve problems…and unfortunately, we’re not quite there yet to have clones created for us to be in multiple meetings at the same time or robots that can fold laundry for the common household…but maybe we’re not too far from real time translations available for everyone at anytime interpreting anything so we’re able to communicate with each other on a whole new level!

Unfortunately, duty called Rakesh Gupta to focus on a critical deployment call.? And Kyle Battle wasn’t able to join us since his expecting wife was having contractions however, he generously offered membership to his Salesforce Anchor program ($189 value) as our grand prize and Jeanette Jett offered two Hootie prizes!

Despite my Mentimeter trivia question fluke, congratulations to this month’s winners!

?? Bragging rights winner - Oleh Mykytyn for answering the trivia question super fast!

??1st Prize - Membership to Salesforce Anchor program ($189 membership) - Van ? N.

??2nd Prize - Hootie plushie & FilipinX Force swag - Ronald Defeo

??3rd Prize - FilipinX Force swag - Ryanthony Baronda

??4th Prize - Hootie plushie - Rose Saludo-Hibbeler

Thanks again for everyone who joined us! Shea Perez Sheley Lee Larry Lee, CSM?, LSSGB Fabio F Bergami Regina Lawson John Sim, SCP, ACBA, PSM Gregory Massaro Jr. Anita Jones Maximilian Mallari Rose Saludo-Hibbeler Tonya Breidenbach Janeen Marquardt, MBA, PMP Crystal Belton William Anzueto Nerissa A. Hernan Villacreses Christine Simmons Esra Sen Brenda Duenas Nikita Barnes Tony Watson Michael Orias Pearl Lee Jessica Prka Crystal Agbalog, RN

Special thanks to Anthony Rodriguez ? and the Space coast Salesforce Trailblazer Group, Melbourne FL for sponsoring our Zoom calls and Lory Tibbetts, RN,BSN ?? and the Healthcare Heroes Force Group's support!

???? Hope to see you at the next virtual meet up as we have a dialogue about “Thanks” and “Giving” with some well known Salesforce community givers! Register for the November ??Fireside Chat here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vcuytqDIsH9zYX4pON-LsW4fRPGqIARdf

Also, check out these resources:

• Cloudjedi (Reach out to Joey Chan for more info)
• Redtag – Salesforce implementation & consulting (Read out to Oleh Mykytyn for more info)
• Salesforce Admins https://www.dhirubhai.net/showcase/salesforce-admins/ (Search for Jennifer W. Lee latest live episode and you’ve got to check out her bling belt at the Dreamforce Admin Keynote replay on Salesforce+ to also hear the cool automation updates!)
• The Salesforce Anchor https://kyle-battle-s-school.teachable.com/ (Reach out to Kyle Battle for more info)
• https://www.midwestdreamin.com/about/ (Planning to go next year? Reach out to Jeanette Jett for more info)
• https://trailblazercommunitygroups.com/salesforce-nonprofit-user-group-san-francisco-united-states/ (Reach out to Gordon L. for more info)
• https://admin.salesforce.com/blog/2023/automation-champion-with-rakesh-gupta-podcast (I don’t know about you, but reading Rakesh Gupta 's LI quotes inspire me daily!)