Salesforce Admins Podcast

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re finishing our two-part Dreamforce series, featuring the Admin Evangelist Team as we highlight resources at https://admin.salesforce.com/dreamforce17

Join us to learn about how you can keep up to date with Dreamforce if you can’t make it this year, and how you can stay connected after the party’s over. There’s so much going on and so many great resources that these tips will be useful even if you’re coming to San Francisco.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with the Admin Evangelist Team.

The Keynote

“You don’t have to physically be in San Francisco to enjoy all of the incredible content and things happening at Dreamforce,” says Gillian. And even if you do go to Dreamforce, you can’t be in two places at once so there’s plenty to catch up on once you get back.

For Mike, the thing he always looks forward to is Marc’s keynote. It’s not always easy to get in the room, but whether you’re in San Francisco or at home, you can tune into Salesforce Live to catch the keynote and a lot of other great content. Actually, streaming is one of Gillian’s pro tips for people coming to Dreamforce, because it’s a lot more enjoyable than waiting in line for the main keynote room.

If you want to know when a stream is starting, you should follow Salesforce Live on Twitter (@SalesforceLive) and keep up with the #DF17 and #AwesomeAdmin hashtags. The Salesforce Live team also does interviews and panels throughout the week that will help you get a behind-the-scenes look at everything that’s going on. Another great option is Periscope— check in with the SalesforceAdmns handle or even just other attendees to get in on the action.

Keeping Up with all the Sessions

Mike’s got a lot planned for the Admin track sessions, and the great news is that almost everything, except roadmap content, is being recorded. Both the talk track and the screen will be recorded, so you can get both the audio and visual components. They’ll be posted at http://salesforce.com/video, but allow a little time for the team to get everything together and posted.

Even if you’re not coming to San Francisco, connecting locally is a great option. Look for your local user group, and chances are that someone went to Dreamforce and has some stories to tell. There’s also the Dreamforce Global Gatherings happening this November and December with a custom agenda for each group and (of course) swag.

What to Do When You Can’t Be Everywhere at Once

For LeeAnne, it’s all about making sure that you have something to follow up on once the hubbub has died down a little bit. “Whether or not I’m attending Dreamforce in person or remotely, I always like to jot down sessions that sound interesting to me or that someone tweeted about so I know to go find those later.” Checking in with the Dreamforce for Admins group is also a good idea, as it’s sure to be active with all sorts of interesting content. Whether you’re going or not, it’s a good idea to take the time to look at the Dreamforce site and make yourself an agenda of things to keep track of and catch up on.

One important thing to remember is that there is just so much content that comes out that it’ll take you awhile to digest. It really is meant to last all year, so pace yourself. Each session has recommended Trailhead Badges, so you can listen to the session and then complete the badges each week.

The Most Important App You Will Ever Download

Finally, it doesn’t matter where you are but you must download Dreamoji today if you have an iOS device. All of your favorite characters are on it, from Cloudy the Goat to Astro. It also has location sharing and calendar integration to help make your Dreamforce experience great, and it also gives you the ability to watch Dreamforce live broadcasts straight from the app.

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 Apple Podcasts 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: Get_Ready_for_Dreamforce_Part_2_with_the_Admin_Evangelist_Team.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:03am PDT

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re starting a two-part episode featuring the Admin Evangelist Team to help all the Admins going to Dreamforce get ready for what’s coming. Next week, we’ll focus on what you can do to keep up with what’s going on if you can’t make it out to San Francisco this year.

Join us to learn about what to pack, where to go, and how to plan for your Dreamforce experience. Make sure to check out the end for a special bonus section on where to eat— after all, nobody wants to get hangry.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with the Admin Evangelist Team.

The Packing List

Dreamforce is just around the corner, so we wanted to get Mike, Gillian, and LeeAnne together to talk about the ins and outs of how to navigate this massive, amazing event. The first thing we go into is planning, and LeeAnne is a master: “If you spend time up front with planning for your trip then it gives you a lot more flexibility to enjoy your time when you’re there.” You don’t want to be thinking about your packing list once you’ve landed, you want to be there and part of what’s happening.

LeeAnne’s top five tips:

  1. Wear comfortable shoes. You’re going to be on your fit for at least 15 hours, so definitely sacrifice fashion for comfort. Says LeeAnne, “I look at a day of Dreamforce as a 10-hour hike.”
  2. Pack light during the day. You most likely won’t actually need your laptop during the day, so avoid a backpack if you can so you don’t have to worry about leaving something behind.
  3. Bring a water bottle so you don’t have to buy water.
  4. Bring snacks in case you need to hold off on lunch. Only you can prevent hanger.
  5. Bring a battery pack so you’re not stuck by an outlet charging.

Gillian lives about a mile from Moscone, so she has some local insight. Early November in San Francisco is actually summer there, and it’s been quite warm lately. Check the weather, because you might be surprised. Along with warm temperatures in the daytime, it can get quite chilly at night so layers are key. Also, obviously, a light raincoat is clutch.

Plan for Swag

When it comes to Dreamforce, you also need to have a plan for swag. LeeAnne’s goto is to bring a packable tote bag, so in case you want to bring a hundred T-shirts or a giant Astro doll home with you there’s an extra bag you can check or carry on. As Gillian puts it, “If you leave Dreamforce without a new piece of swag you did something wrong.”

Some people even plan a particular day of Dreamforce to be their swag day. It can be helpful to strategize, as you’ll want to include time in your schedule to drop your new prizes off at the hotel before the evening events come around. This is especially key if you’ve been killing it in the Trailhead area.

Discover the Admin Theater

Mike managed and planned the entire Admin track this year— 130+ sessions of incredible content for Admins and by Admins. One element of the track this year is Admin Theater, masterminded by Gillian. It’ll be in Moscone West in the Trailhead area, right in the center of the action.

The Admin Theater will have 62 individual sessions covering a range of topics from how to use Lightning Login to Process Automation Showdown and Trailhead Bingo. The content is grouped into different themes, so if you come to the theater and see something you’re interested in you should stick around because there’s more to come.

The first day is going to be dedicated to discovering Lightning and extending Salesforce. Tuesday will be all about Security, Analytics, and Data Management, covering everything from best security practices to working with Einstein and tidying up your Org. Wednesday will be about rolling out and optimizing Lightning, where you can learn how to use Lightning Actions and hear stories about what a rollout is actually like. Finally, on Thursday, we’re bringing the Dreamforce theme of Personal Empowerment to life with an amazing lineup of content to develop your skills as a Salesforce Admin.

Breakout Sessions

One floor above the Admin Meadow, in Moscone West 2002, 2002, and 2006, are 70 breakout Admin sessions to complement what’s going on in the Theater. As you’re building your sessions, it’s important to remember that we always hold room for walk-ins. Not everyone who signs up can make it, so it’s worth it to show up and see if you can get in if it’s important to you.

If a session is too full and it’s just not happening, Mike’s tip is to mark it as something to follow up on. Have a plan B so you still get the benefits of a live session. You can always watch the breakout sessions that you missed later, so this way you really get the best of both worlds. There’s so much great stuff to see at Dreamforce so you have to be OK with the fact that you probably won’t be able to make it to everything.

When you’re going to a session, you want to take some time to figure out whether there is an opportunity since you’re live in the room with an expert. As Mike puts it, “You want to think about if there are specific questions you can ask the presenter that will be very helpful for everyone in the room.”

Don’t Miss the Admin Keynote

Finally, don’t miss the Admins Keynote featuring our own Gillian K. Bruce and LeeAnne Rimel. It’s the only keynote built entirely for Admins, and as LeeAnne says, “We really really think about you while we’re building it. What’s important for our Admins to see and what we want to do to involve them in our keynote.” Wednesday at 5pm in Mascone West in the Keynote Room on the top floor. See you there.

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 Apple Podcasts 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: Get_Ready_for_Dreamforce_Part_1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:07pm PDT

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re speaking with Kelly Walker, Senior Lightning Adoption Consultant at Salesforce.

Join us to learn about the power of Salesforce Optimizer, why Console Apps are so important, and where to go to find out everything you need to know about Lightning at Dreamforce.

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

Making the Grade

Growing up, Kelly always thought she was going to follow in her aunt’s footsteps and become a teacher. She graded tests and papers and even taught her own fake class on holidays and snow days. “If you were bad in my real class you were definitely bad in my fake class and, let me tell you, your grades suffered.”

These days, Kelly is a Lightning Adoption Consultant reporting to Salesforce Admins Podcast superstar Mike Orr. She works with customers to help them understand why they should move to Lightning, and what steps they need to take to implement a successful rollout. This means that she’s still teaching, just maybe in a way she didn’t envision when she was in 4th grade.

She hits the road with the Lightning Now Tour, working with Admins to understand how the Lightning Experience changes things. She also does a fast track for sales, “It really helps you understand all of the great features that are available to you in Lightning Experience and how to customize those for your users.” A version for Service Cloud users is also on the way soon.

The Secret of the Salesforce Optimizer

Kelly is a big fan of the Salesforce Optimizer: “It’s the one tool that I feel is under-utilized because so many people just don’t know about it, so I try to recommend it everywhere I can.” Like the Lightning Readiness Report, you can run the Optimizer in your Salesforce instance to generate a report that gives you metrics on everything from usage and storage units to unassigned custom profiles and page layouts, helping you do some spring cleaning.

The Salesforce Optimizer is also super helpful if you’re trying to move to Lightning, especially in you run it in conjunction with the Readiness Report. “You really get a good idea of where the gaps are that you’ll be encountering, as well as where you can spend some time cleaning up your org and really planning your rollout project.” You can see what’s there and what’s actually being used to get a great idea of how things are working and where there’s room for improvement.

Lightning at Dreamforce

Coming up at Dreamforce 2017 there will be a dedicated Lightning area where you can take advantage of one-on-one consultations with Lightning experts in Moscone West (just up the stairs from the Trailhead area), so if you’re looking for Kelly you can find here there. She’ll also be offering some broader-based sessions geared towards Lightning Experience. There are a ton of activities planned, so don’t miss it.

If you can’t make it to Dreamforce, there are a lot of activities happening around Lightning that you might be able to check out. You can look up the schedule for the World Tours, as well as the Lightning Now Tour which has a lot of stops planned for Q4. There’s a free two-day workshop where you can hear from Product Managers about Lightning Experience and get some hands-on experience as well. As Kelly says, “We are trying to make Lightning everywhere.”

Beyond that, you can use Lightning in a Box to make the case for your company to make the switch. Finally, when you run the Readiness Report you can sign up for a consultation, which lets you put your questions to an expert, almost like office hours.

For more insights, make sure to follow Kelly on Twitter (@HeadInTheClowdz).

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 Apple Podcasts 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: Be_Lightning_Successful_with_Kelly_Walker.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:13am PDT

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re speaking with Jesse Grothaus, one of our newest Salesforce Admins from Vetforce.

Join us to learn about how Jesse applied the skills he learned in the army to his role as a Salesforce consultant, how a newcomer thinks about the Salesforce Ohana, and some great tips for preparing for Certifications.

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

A Made-for-TV Movie Journey to Salesforce

From a young age, Jesse knew that he wanted to be a Special Operations Soldier and, “sure enough, on my 18th birthday I was in the recruiter’s office.” He spent the next eight years doing his childhood dream job while also getting his degree through the army, which led him to tech. He started in tech support and moved into sales, where he first encountered Salesforce.

Jesse liked working Salesforce to build reports that could help his team, but his life changed drastically when he was involved in major car accident. He had to take two years off from work to recover, partially because of undiagnosed head trauma. His therapy for that required him to learn a new language and new skills, which is how he came across Vetforce and Trailhead.

Learning Salesforce was actually therapy for Jesse, and helped him in his recovery. Part of his condition affected his memorization and abstract memory, so he had to break down for himself, “how do we as humans remember and memorize things?” A wiki site called ArtofMemory.com helped him learn the techniques of professional memorizers, people who can memorize the order of 50 decks of cards. With that help, he passed his Certification and Vetforce invited him to Trailhead DX, where he made the connections that eventually landed him a job in Salesforce consulting. If they were casting the movie, Jesse would love to be played by Hugh Jackman.

Vetforce

Vetforce came to Jesse’s attention via a friend on LinkedIn, he saw something offering free job training for veterans involving Salesforce, which he had already had experience with through his previous job. The program is a part of the Salesforce Ohana Group and links to veterans in the workforce.

“I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but veterans have a big struggle in terms of getting good employment when they get out of the military. A lot of veterans get these awesome, amazing skills in the military but it turns out that ‘kicking down doors’ isn’t necessarily the best thing to put on your resume,” Jesse says. Salesforce wanted to help, so they started offering free training classes and curated Trailhead training courses to help vets get job placements.

In Jesse’s military work, he would advise high-level commanders in a particular region on psychological warfare strategy and tactics, “and now as a Salesforce consultant I’m often meeting with high-level business executives and giving them guidance on what I think they should or should not be doing based on their Salesforce organizations to help their business grow.” For Jesse, the most useful skill is “sitting down with leadership, looking at the big picture, and figuring out how we can contribute to their big picture.”

Trailhead DX

“I had no clue what Trailhead DX was until I was invited to come out,” Jesse says. He didn’t know what to expect. He knew there’d be some great talks, but the surprise was that on day one the folks from Vetforce promised him that by the time he walked out of Trailhead DX he’d have a job.

Being at a Salesforce event was so much more than Jesse thought it would be, “It was like drinking Kool-Aid out of a firehose.” The Ohana is a big part of that and is really what makes everything work so well. Jesse puts it well: “Salesforce doesn’t horde business for itself. It doesn’t try to hide its API or make it some big secret. Instead of competition, it encourages a family or gathering around it, and they’re very welcoming to everyone that wants to be a part of that.”

Trailhead DX also gave him the push Jesse needed to get started and finish the Lightning Experience Special Superbadge, which took him about a week to get through. “After completing that, I was able to go pretty much directly into consulting positions for Lightning Rollout where I felt like an expert right off the bat.”

For more insights, make sure to follow Jesse on Twitter (@GrothausJesse).

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 Apple Podcasts 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: All_About_Vetforce_with_Jesse_Grothaus.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:05pm PDT

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re speaking with Evan Johnson, Principal Salesforce Administrator at Vivint Solar and the Salt Lake City User Group Leader.

Join us to learn about the power of Integrated Email, why you shouldn’t assume you know how your users work with Salesforce, and why new users are a great opportunity to implement Lightning.

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

If at First You Don’t Succeed...

“I got a random summer job working as a Customer Success Manager,” Evan says, which is how he came to Salesforce. He took the Certification course and failed it the first time, “but it was such a cool thing that I kept at it, did a lot of googling, and listened to your podcast.” Eventually, with the help of these resources and the Salesforce forums, he was able to pass the Certification and the rest is history.

Evan’s consulting jobs turned into his full-time job, and he’s been at it for 10 years now. “It’s a tough test,” he says, so just keep at it and you’ll pass it and go on to bigger and better things, like implementing Lightning, which Evan has done more than a few times, both in side-jobs and in his main job at Vivint Solar.

Discovering Lightning for Yourself

Evan has a ton of experience with Classic, but obviously he’s been involved in several changeovers to Lightning. When asked why there’s still so much resistance to Lightning, even though it’s been out for a few years now, he comes up with an example everyone can relate to: “Whenever Facebook rolls out an update, everybody is just so angry about it,” Evan says, “and then two days later everybody forgets, and they can’t even imagine going back.” It’s natural to be afraid or hesitant about new things.

To help himself make the transition, Evan started by implementing Lightning on his own, playing around with it in a sandbox to really get to know what it was all about. That was when he figured out how important Lightning will be to the future: “This isn’t just a new refresh of how it looks, this really is a fundamental shift for Salesforce in the right direction. This is a much more styling, but also the underlying technologies and platforms are moving in the right direction.” The bottom line is that if you don’t jump in now, you’re going to be left behind.

Why Lightning is the Future

Why switch to Lightning? Just look at the release notes: there are more and more Lightning changes and less and less for Classic. “If you want to start getting new functionality out of Salesforce, if you want to start using new features that are being released, I promise you this— Classic is not going to get you there,” Evan says. “There’s a reason why Salesforce is doing that, and it’s not because they want to make it look pretty. It’s because everything is going to work better.”

There are so many features in Lightning that you just can’t get in Classic. Maybe people are content with what they have, but they need to realize that they’re passing up amazing functionalities like Integrated Email or the Kanban board. These kinds of features make you ask yourself, “how did I live without this?”

For Admins, there are all these declarative things you can do in Lightning that weren’t possible before. For Evan, Lightning Components are such a game changer: “It’s almost like a brand new App Exchange.”

Evan’s Process for Rolling Out Lightning

For Evan, there are three phases to go through in rolling out Lightning. The first phase revolves around you: you need to learn everything there is to know about Lightning. Evan recommends taking a deep dive into Trailhead to learn how to migrate, learn about Lightning Features, and get comfortable. At this stage, it also makes sense to bring in some select users to figure out what their process actually is: “We pretend to know, as Admins, that we know how everyone uses the system but that’s simply not the case. You’re going to be amazed at how many different ways people are using the system and what kind of workaround they’ve got.”

Phase two is to put together a group of folks who are ready to jump in, whether that’s a small pilot group or a division that’s ready to make the switch. The way Evan did it the first time was by making the transition for a new division that was coming in. Because they didn’t have any Salesforce processes to worry about they were a perfect way in. It could also be a team that wants a specific feature— for Evan it was a sales team that wanted Konbon. It’s also a good idea to get an executive involved at this stage, “If you have executives that are going to push their team to use Salesforce and Lightning, you’re going to have a lot better chance of success at the end of the project.”

From there, phase three is a bigger rollout and also making sure you do the follow through to keep adoption up and everything running smoothly. You may need to force users to stick with Lightning, but the long-term payoff is what matters. Check in with your users constantly to see how things are going.

For more insights, make sure to follow Evan on Twitter (@EvanSFDC).

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 Apple Podcasts 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: Mastering_Lightning_Rollouts_with_Evan_Johnson.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:42am PDT

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