Salesforce Admins Podcast

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re talking to Salesforce Developer Evangelist, Greg Rewis. Greg has been a developer for a long time, spending fifteen years with Adobe before joining the Salesforce developer team a year and a half ago.

Greg has been a great asset to the Lightning Now Tour by teaching developers how to make cool ideas come to life on top of the Salesforce platform. Join us as we discuss how Admins can work together with developers to build new and interesting Lightning components. 

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Greg Rewis.

Learn by doing.

Greg believes that if you’re not being challenged, you’re not really trying. As he explains, “I always go back to learning by doing,” He says that when you fall, you learn, and that developers should just take that leap.

“Next time you’ve got a task, you have to think about it as ‘there is no time like the present. Let’s just dive in and let’s try to do this.” He advises developers to turn on Lightning in a sandbox and to try and develop it that way. “Even if you’re not over on Lightning yet, maybe you’re able to struggle your way through and get something going. Don’t be scared. You’re in a sandbox so you can’t blow anything up.”

Take advantage of the Lightning Experience through the Lightning Now Tour.

As Greg explains, the Lightning Now Tour allows developers the opportunity to be exposed to the Admin experience of Lightning in order to make them more aware of what Admins actually do and vice versa. The tour teaches developers what it takes to build a Lightning component. The tour also encourages the transition from Classic to Lightning by teaching developers how to put Lightning components into Visual Force to display on Classic.

“You don’t have to dive into the deep end of Lightning component development,” says Greg. “You can keep using Visual Force to develop on Lightning. When you come to the workshop, you’ll learn how to make it look like Lightning so that it won’t look like the old Classic pages,” he says. Greg explains that the tour will show you how to take advantage of the whole Lightning experience.

Step out of your comfort zone.

When asked why developers need to attend the tour, Greg replies, “there are a lot of advantages to stepping out of your comfort zone, to walking away from the Visual Force playing field for a little while, and playing over in the Lightning component arena.”

“All new features are being done on Lightning, so you’re going to be able to leverage new features more easily when you’re doing ‘native Lightning component development,’” he says.

You, too, can be a developer.

Greg believes that there are a lot of Salesforce developers out there, but that there aren’t enough who are qualified to do Lightning development. “Everywhere we go people are showing up in every city that we go to, to learn how we’re doing this. This tells us that there is a demand.” Greg says that there are lots of opportunities if you are a really skilled developer. “You can be one of the few who is pushing the envelope and moving this forward in your own organization.”

Many Admins and business owners think that they don’t have any developers who are skilled in Lightning development. Greg says, “First of all, your developers can get up to speed, it’s not rocket science. Second of all, if you need it fast, you have a wide-open playing field of available talent, and they are called web developers. They already own the skills of HTML, CSS, and Javascript and all they need to learn is the server-side Apex aspect so they can pull the data out of Salesforce and put it back in.” Greg believes that the framework is there. If you have a web background and an affinity for learning, you can teach yourself how to be a Salesforce developer.

For more insights, make sure to follow Greg on Twitter (@garazi).

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. to @SalesforceAdmns to help us get more Awesome Admins on the podcast. We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do, and it helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: LightningDeveloper.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:22am PDT

Today we’re at the Lightning Now Tour in Houston to talk about Salesforce project managers, and we had a quick opportunity to speak with Eric Jacobson between his many presentations. Eric is the Senior Director of Platform Product Management at Salesforce and his mission is to bring Lightning to Admins. He will share with us what the Lightning Now Tour is all about, he’ll explain how easy the transition to Lightning is, and he’ll also give tips to help you prepare to roll it out to your organization.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Eric Jacobson.

What is the Lightning Now Tour?

The Lightning Now Tour is not so much about marketing information, but more about helping customers understand Lightning. The idea is to discuss in-depth what the philosophy behind Lightning is. Admins will get an opportunity to see the road map of where Lightning is at right now, to where it will be going in the future. “We decided to create an event to get hands-on with our customers to help them take that big step,” Eric says.

A lot of Salesforce customers had heard about Lightning, they had seen pictures, and they knew what Lightning was, but they were missing the necessary steps to enable themselves to go from being aware of Lightning to actually turning it on in their organizations.

Eric explains that the event goes deep into the hands-on experience of going from Classic to Lightning. “We talk about all the great capabilities that you have now in Lightning, that you’ve never had in classic. We also discuss techniques and strategies for moving from Classic into Lightning.” He goes on to describe that they “ask you to bring your laptops and we give you an organization where you can start to bring that organization from Classic into Lightning.”

Don’t be afraid of Lightning.

“This is one of the few opportunities where you get to have hands-on experience with the Lightning product and evangelist team. You’re getting a close connection with us and are then able not just to hear where we’re going from a roadmap perspective, but also to ask the questions that are burning in the back of your mind. You’ll also get to try it with the support of a team ready to look over your shoulder to help you through those questions,” says Eric.

A lot of people attend the Lightning Now Tour, and it is a wonderful networking event.

“Every participant that comes is doing an exercise. You are doing the equivalent of a Trailhead trail live with us in the room, so you’ll earn a Trailhead badge that is only available if you come to the Lightning tour.”

Run the Lightning Readiness Check.

Before coming to the tour, Eric encourages everyone to assess the organization that they have right now. “We have a great tool for that. Not everyone knows this, but we have a Lightning Readiness Check. Even if you haven’t moved to Lightning yet, from setup, there is a tool there that will basically let you assess your readiness to move to Lightning. It gives you a nice PDF report. Run that report, read through it, and it will give you some idea as to where you are today and things that you might need to look at. There’s a variety of modules that we’ll encourage you to look at, but ideally, everyone will go on to do the whole migrating to Lightning trail — that’s the real way to do it!”

For more insights, make sure to follow Eric on Twitter (@esjacob).

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. to @SalesforceAdmns to help us get more Awesome Admins on the podcast. We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do, and it helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: Lightning_Now_Tour.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:59am PDT

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re speaking with Jean Velonis, Senior Salesforce Admin and Women in Tech (WIT) Leader. Jean has over ten years of experience as an Admin and recently has joined the planning team for WITness Success, a conference for women, by women.

Join us to hear about Jean’s experiences transitioning from marketing into an Admin role, and how that led to a unique process of trial and error. We discuss the importance of learning to code, the difference between being on an Admin team vs. going at it solo, and Jean’s plans for the upcoming WITness Success conference.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Jean Velonis.

Love at first login.

Jean came to the Salesforce Admin world as a marketer, originally working with leads for a finance company. As Jean puts it, “I fell in love at first login with Salesforce back in 2006.” Opportunity knocked when Jean got to move into a more technical role by taking over Salesforce reporting, opening up a whole new world of possibilities.

The difference Trailhead makes.

Jean and Mike met at Dreamforce 2009, which brought up the difference between learning Salesforce pre-Trailhead compared to learning it today. There was no certification test, everything was self-taught, and you couldn’t Google everything.

In order to troubleshoot, you had to sift through documentation and try to patch together a solution on your own. Luckily, things have come a long way since the days of the tiny help box in the corner.

Learn something new every day.

At the end of the day, being a Salesforce Admin means connecting people, not just in your business organization, but in your community to help each other out. “Where I work, we’re lucky enough to have an internal development team. I work with the agents downstairs, the sales reps upstairs, the engineers are on my floor, the product team’s there. So it’s about connecting all those people and being able to build out something really awesome.”

Jean’s goal is to learn something new every day. A new challenge for her for this year is learning to code, or at least to better understand how to copy and paste.

Jean has a lot of experience as a solo admin, including a company with over 800 users and overseas vendors. Recently she’s had the opportunity to be part of a team, saying, “it’s nice to have somebody who understands the trials and tribulations of being an Admin.”

Empower women in technology.

Jean is on the steering committee for the the WITness Success Conference, a one-day event coming soon to Chicago. “It gives ladies an opportunity to learn, network, grow, and get inspired, possibly find a mentor if that’s something that they’re looking for. We just want to be able to help all of the women in tech, in Salesforce excel at their careers and be recognized for what they do.”

If you want to find out more information about Women in Tech and WITness Success, you can visit their website, follow them on Twitter, or follow the core planning team: Jean, Kyla Longe, Jocelyn Fennewald, Melinda Smith, and Melissa Hill-Dees.

For more insights, make sure to follow Jean on Twitter (@jeanvelonis)

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. to @SalesforceAdmns to help us get more Awesome Admins on the podcast.

We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do, and it helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: Jean_Velonis.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:48am PDT

Certification is a big part of success and today we’re talking to Sophie Westbrook, senior marketing manager at Salesforce University, who says that there are twenty-three possible Salesforce certifications you can master.

Her marketing team is about two years old, and Sophie’s role revolves around brand, messaging, and evangelism for Salesforce University. She is all about building Salesforce fans and believes that there are endless opportunities out there for Admins. We are excited to pick Sophie’s brain about all the different qualifications you can acquire as a Salesforce Admin and technical architect.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Sophie Westbrook.

What Salesforce University means.

Salesforce University is the official training program of Salesforce. It focuses on in-depth instructor-led training where a customer can come into a physical or virtual classroom to interact with students, peers, and a certified Salesforce instructor who walks them through various exercises.

“There are a number of other programs that Salesforce University has. There are private workshops that they can do for training credits, an admin proficiency pack (a fast-track to becoming an administrator), and the whole certification component,” Sophie explains.

This year, there are twenty-three certifications, whereas last year there were ten. Salesforce has drastically grown the number of certifications that they offer due to new products and demand for roles.

Volunteer to get experience.

Sophie advises that you should have at least six months of experience with an application before testing for certification. However, getting the experience you need to take on a Salesforce role is a bit of a Catch-22.

Sophie’s advice? “Volunteer your time at a non-profit organization. Trailhead is also a great way to show some of that expertise as you work your way towards a certification, and you can show that you have these badges to start to prove your expertise in that way.”

She also believes it is vital to network with the community. “Try and get people to help with tips and tricks on how you can work towards certification,” she says.

The certification journey.

Salesforce University has come up with an excellent way to help people develop the base knowledge they need to get certified.

“We’re starting to provide a lot more resources. We just recently introduced something called Certification Journeys. They’re free and are basically a guided approach to helping you on your way to getting certified. We’ve curated a bunch of resources including free online training, trails, and help topics that we are pointing people toward.”

You can find these exam guides through downloadable e-books — they start with the basics and work up to more advanced concepts, because Sophie understands that not everyone is on the same Salesforce journey.

Be mysterious about your exams.

These certification exams can be quite difficult, so Sophie advises Admins not to share the news. “Don’t tell people you’re going to sit for the exam. That’s just more stress when you get back to the office.”

Another very helpful tip from Sophie to take on this certification challenge, “Download the exam guide and start going through it. In it, we basically outline what is covered in the exam from an objective perspective. You see the weighting of the exam as well. Go through that exam to see what’s being covered, and from there start looking for your resources. We have training that supports that preparation.”

For more insights, make sure to follow Sophie on Twitter @srwestbrook  as well as Salesforce University @SalesforceU.

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. to @SalesforceAdmns to help us get more Awesome Admins on the podcast.

We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do, and it helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: Sophie_Westbrook_Salesforce_Final_Audio.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm PDT

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we’re speaking with Leyla Seka. Leyla is the EVP of the Salesforce AppExchange, which she has worked on from the very beginning and has helped build from the ground up.

She’s got some great advice to share for Admins, builders, and individuals on how to be leaders in their organization. She’ll also let us in on some of the trends that she’s seen in app building and give us some tips that she has learned along her amazing path, both before and after joining Salesforce.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Leyla Seka.

The future of apps.

According to Leyla, the focus on artificial intelligence is fascinating because as apps are getting smarter, it makes it easier for us to think about the data we're getting. “We should stop talking about it as data and start talking about it as information. With AI coming on board, it's not just raw data anymore; it is becoming this intuitive thing that's going to help us derive insights in a really interesting way.”

As for the next 5 to 10 years? “I see the AppExchange becoming a place with a lot more components and different types of pieces that might put together what we’ve traditionally thought of as an app container, but more about creating an interface that allows people to process information in a way that makes sense for them.”

Building apps for value.

The attitude of ‘I can build an app just to prove that there's an app that can do this’ has changed since app stores were first introduced. Leyla believes that apps are becoming a lot more practical than they have been in the past. “We're finding that apps are now really being driven by the purpose.”

In the early days of the AppExchange and the dawn of app stores, apps were often created because everyone wanted to prove that they could create something. Leyla believes that anyone can build anything if they have the right motivation and skillset. “Nowadays, it’s a matter of building apps that really are going to shift and change the way businesses and individuals are running the show,” she says.

Don’t let your internal dialogue stop you from getting what you want.

Leyla admits that she almost walked away from Salesforce because she felt like a change and didn’t know that all she needed to do was ask for the position she wanted. “I talked myself out of an opportunity that was right in front of me. All I needed to do was ask for it, and I got it!”

Leyla advises that you should be aware that you have an internal dialogue that you’re always running in the back of your head and that you should not let that stop you from getting what you want. “Have a little faith. State what you want. Just ask.”

Be true to yourself.

People need to think more about their own brand and how they present themselves at work. To Leyla, it is important to stay true to herself. Her friends are often amazed at how similar she is in her personal life to how she is in her professional life.

“I didn't want to be in an environment where I felt like I had to wear a suit or be super tight. That's not really who I am as a person.” According to Leyla, being authentic to yourself, knowing what your voice is, and not being afraid to use it are very important factors to consider for yourself.

For more insights, make sure to follow Leyla on Twitter (@LeylaSeka)

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. to @SalesforceAdmns to help us get more Awesome Admins on the podcast.

We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do, and it helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

 

 

 

 

Direct download: Personal_Branding_with_Leyla_Seka.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:56am PDT

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