Author: Jean Velonis

My heart is racing. All those faces looking at us. “You’re the expert here, well they think you are at least.” The voice in your head telling you “well you got yourself here, no turning back now…” One long look at my support people in the audience and here we go!

Speaking at Dreamforce is a roller coaster. When Leslie, Meighan and I submitted our session we had high hopes we would get in. We waited, but didn’t hear back when sessions were chosen. We took like champs and started notes for next years submissions.

One day my phone was ringing off the hook… It was a busy day as I had just started a new path in my career. I had meetings back to back, but paused for a quick break. My phone rang again from the same number before. I answered and was surprised! Our session coach had been trying to get a hold of us. Our session had been selected after all. Holy moly!

Weeks of calls and prepping took place. We had friends and family listen to us mold our panel discussion. We really wanted it to be a conversation between three women in technology sharing stories and best practices. Our session was bookmarked over 800 times so Salesforce asked us to repeat our session. This added more prep and anxiety to my plate.

Thus it was finally the Monday of Dreamforce. All I could do was read my note cards and pace the speaker room floor. The three of us were a whirlwind of blue, coifed hair and nervous energy.  Once the timer started we were off on our stories of Org of Horrors, Developers are like car mechanics and fast paced rants on how amazing Salesforce is. We laughed at our memes and connected with the audience. Just like that 40 mins was up! Tuesday was much calmer for me. We had done this once now and it was just a repeat with a larger crowd.

I’m thankful for my support group: My husband, best friends Holly and Mike, Leslie and Meighan, and all of our friends for filling in the crowd. Plus a couple of amazing ladies at Salesforce that helped us review our session.

The rest of my Dreamforce was filled with connecting with my #Ohana that I interact with virtually. We have an amazing group of user group leaders, MVPs and this year students! I had the pleasure of speaking with young #Trailblazers just starting our their journey with Salesforce. In addition, I can’t wait for the next round of students to enter the educator program.

If you missed our session at Dreamforce we are hoping to take it on the road at one of the local Dreamin Events. But if we don’t catch you there here is the recording to our session: Secrets from Admins to Level-Up Your Developer Career

Dreamforce is coming, Dreamforce is coming!

Well unless you have been living under a rock you know this is the season for all the Salesforce nerds! Dreamforce is less than 35 days away. To help you get out of your shell here is a list of groups to help fill your calendar:

New to Dreamforce? There’s a group for that!

AKA New to Dreamforce

What to find other peeps that are like you? There’s a group for that:

Flyin Solo

Dreamforce Roll Call ( 2017 )

Dreamforce Newbie “Reunion” Breakfast

What to get fit at Dreamforce? There’s a group for that!

Dreamforce Community 5k Fun Run

Dreamforce Health &Weight Loss Challenge

Want to hang with other Women In Technology? There’s a group for that!

Women in Tech

Mom Force 

There are a ton of groups in the Salesforce Ohana! These are just some of the groups that I love to be a part of. And watch out for meetup announcements by setting your email settings in the group.

If you want to find me at Dreamforce you can bookmark my session here: Secrets from Admins to Level-Up Your Developer Career

I hope that you come cheer Leslie Gestautas, Meighan Brookey and me on at Dreamforce.

The road to TrailheaDX

The Phoenix crew was off to San Franscico!

We got out first look at Moscone West. They even let me ride Cloudy. (well “let” me was a relative term)

I got to meet some of the amazing #SalesforceOhana

Best of all Leslie Gestautas, Meighan Brookey and I cooked up a killer Dreamforce session to submit. AND!!!! It got selected! I hope that you come cheer us on at Dreamforce. Bookmark our session here: Secrets from Admins to Level-Up Your Developer Career 

I always start my blog posts with lists. It helps me write and outline my thoughts and what I want to cover in each post. Most may not know this but I’m dyslexic and have issues with dysgraphia; so I have a hard time with spelling and organizing my words.  I didn’t do very well in school with english or writing. I coped with it and found ways around my disability. So instead of writing all of my thoughts out at once I take small chunks, list them out and go from there.

I started the list below, trying to organize my thoughts for a post. Then I realized, well that is my post. A list of “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” Below is a list of things this year that I did because it alerted my inter voice of ” um Jean that sounds scary. What if you fail?”

Teaching

• Study Group
• Boot Camp Workshops
• Academic Alliance Partnership

Speaking at Events

• Customer Panel
• User Group
• Submitting Dreamforce Session Ideas

Learning

• More Certifications – App Builder, Sales Cloud Consultant
• Speak up for yourself in meetings
• Sit at the table every meeting

WITness Success

• Steering Committee

In the end, these things aren’t “scary” and I can do them. I hope my list sparks a thought of what you could put on your list. And, please do not feed the fears….

Like King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table, I’m so proud of the Phoenix Users groups for working together. 3 years ago Mike Norton @NortonMD , Marisa Hambleton @marisahambleton , and myself felt it a good idea to assemble a user group planning committee.

Marisa also got us organized with a calendar to track meeting dates and topics. Mike offered so much insight for me in the Women In Tech group as an ally. He has connected me with other corporate women in tech leaders. I brought to the table topics, scribe and Splash event planning skills.

In addition to the leaders coordinating and collaborating, we formed a group of community users to help with topics and resources for the user groups. Some of these awesome members have now taken on leader and co-leader responsibilities. Please join me in congratulating some of our newest leaders.

Gloria Gutierrez @Msgsquared  has join the Core Phoenix user group as a leader! She brings new content and wicked food ordering skills to the group.

Misty Jones @MistyRaeJones  has joined the Women In Tech user group as a co-leader! She brings mad style and social media skills to the group.

If anyone reading this blog would like to join the Phoenix planning committee please contact us!

Core Salesforce User Group: phoenix@salesforceusergroups.com

Women In Tech Salesforce User Group: phoenixwit@salesforceusergroups.com

Phoenix was struck by Lightning! Hats, shirts and code were flowing.

It was 2 days of awesomeness. We went through the Lightning Roadmap the first day. Here are just some of the things to come:

• Email quick actions
• Classic Email Templates available in Lightning
• Lightning Preview Pages from Classic
• Customize Parent Hierarchy columns (I love this one)
• Objects Manager update
• Applications have their own setup menu
• Evaluate your Org for readiness
• Record page customization, added analytics tab with charts

The second day we coded… That’s right, we coded. So I’m a declarative girl at heart. Our instructor Greg Rewis assured me that we were just cutting and pasting. Between Misty, Gloria and myself we managed to “code”.

In the end it was an amazing event with a bunch of Phoenix Salesforce community members. Plus we got a @trailhead badge to add to our collection!

This year I’ve had the pleasure of helping with the Certification Study Group that Deepa Patel (@dpcrmguru) runs in the Salesforce Community.

I first came across this study group back in 2015. I was super excited to see so many members in the community asking questions and helping each other to study for their Salesforce certifications. I already had my ADM 201, but it was nice to know this was available for so many community members.

When I made the decision to go for my ADM 211 certification, I knew just where to start! I was lucky enough to get in Tami Esling’s group. She was a wonderful session leader! She was helpful, inspiring and made a huge life long impression in my personal life.

We’ve completed 10 sessions so far! I know my members are learning so much from one another. The sessions are all run by Community members that are already certified. There are requirements to join a study group session. Trailhead badges and real world experience is necessary to keep up the the other members in the group.

Seeing members using their knowledge to assist others in the group to understand key principles that are needed to pass a certification is inspiring. In our last session I witnessed a member who had trouble with lightning explain perfectly how to use territory management to the member who explained lightning home components to him.

Sharing knowledge is power and this Certification Study Group has epic amounts!

Learn more about the Certification Study Group here: http://certstudygroup.com/

Destination Success was a wonderful success for me. I walked away with 2 brand new certifications and knowledge to get 2 more. What a whirlwind!

 Every morning there was a wellness walk with 30 of my best Salesforce friends. The first day we walked to the old school Las Vegas sign.

I enjoyed getting some fresh air and the blood pumping in my legs. I met all kinds of Salesforce groupies, from newly certified admins to veteran developers working on their architect certs.

We donated school supplies to the Las Vegas School District. I had to make room for all the SalesforceUniversity swag I was collecting. And the swag was flowing! Certified t-shirts, pins for your backpack, tech cord holders, mugs, Astros and the most coveted swag of all: a light book.

I went zip-lining down Fremont street! It was cold and windy but I beat out Msgsquared, Misty Jones and Melissa Linenberger.

2 of my rockstar admins from the Study Certification Group got their advanced admin and app builder certifications. Congrats to Donald Bohrisch and Genise Christianson!

I also got to hang out with David Liu. He was handing out red SFDC99 shirts.  We were super jazzed to wear them on #internationalwomensday I’m not sure that is what David intended us to use them for, but we loved the support none the less. 

His session on “The Transition from Salesforce Administrator to Developer” was so inspiring to hear from someone that has been through the process. David shared some great advice on navigating the trail from admin to developer and on to architect.

I can’t wait to finish up my consulting clouds and start on my path to developer.

Every night I scheduled networking dinners for 8. We dined at different restaurants in the hotel.

We always had a full table of Salesforce nerds. It was so nice to meet so many people interested in the same topic but different paths to get to where they are.

I met a lady who passed 5 certification while at Destination Success. I have to say I was blown away at her knowledge! All time rockstar Michael Drzewiecki walked away with his 13th and 14th certifications!

When it was finally time to go home we played one last round of Wheel of Fortune!

Until next year in Washington, D.C. Destination Success. Sign up here to be notified when registration opens.

Here’s the lowdown of Destination Success. #DS17 One full week in Vegas selecting your favorite track of awesomeness. 3 chances at certification tests. Monday before the training sessions start, Thursday after session complete and Friday morning before you leave.

This year I thought I would challenge myself. I’ve been studying the for the App Builder since Dreamforce. I’m taking the certification test on Monday morning, crossing my fingers for a win! For my sessions I signed myself up for the Developer track. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed but hopeful. I have no expectations for passing the Developer cert while I’m at #DS17. I do want to try my hand at the Sales Cloud certification. Added bonus: you can take any cert test you want.

This year Misty Jones (@MistyRaeJones), Monica Sanberg (@NotIsBlank) and I thought it would be awesome to network and meet others while we are there. Misty and Monica created Destination Success Roll Call for the community to start posting who they are, what they are interested in and the track they are taking. Everyone shares tips for studying and I started a google doc for dinner reservations. It never amazes me more than how quickly the Salesforce community jumps in to help one another.

I’m a self taught learner. I like the Salesforce training sessions as a kick start to learning. I do have realistic expectations when it comes to my learning style. #DS17 is going to be a whirlwind of a week! Learning, networking and certification galore! I can’t wait to see all of the community. Best of luck to us all!