Salesforce Admins Podcast

This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, it’s time for our monthly retro for September. In this episode, we celebrate State Fairs as we go over all the top Salesforce product, community, and careers content for September. We’re joined by Jennifer Lee from the Admin Evangelist team.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation between Mike and Jennifer.
Podcast highlights from September.
Jennifer wanted to highlight our episode with Rebecca Saar to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the Admin Main Show. We put a fair amount of Easter eggs in the opening video, so take a second look if you missed them because they go by pretty quickly.

• Behind the Dreamforce Admin Main Show with Rebecca Saar


Blog highlights from September.
Jennifer, AKA, “The Blog Monster,” put out several great blog posts this month from her new home at . She’s got one covering Winter ‘22 for admins and what you should feature to your end users. There’s another one helping you get up to speed with Slack integrations and all the nifty things you can do since the acquisition. Finally, Mike was excited to hear from admins all over the world in Ella Mark’s exciting blog post.

• Jen’s Winter ’22 Salesforce Release Highlights for Admins and Users

• How Admins Can Connect Salesforce and Slack

• What Being an #AwesomeAdmin Means to Admins Around the World


Video highlights from September.
As always, you should check out the Salesforce Admins YouTube channel for How I Solved This, Did You Know, Expert Corner, No Silly Questions, and more. For Jennifer, J. Steadman’s guide to combining Slack and Workflow Builder was a major standout. There’s also a fresh video from Hayley Tuller about using Custom Metadata Types with a BANT model.

• Did You Know: Supercharge Slack with Workflow Builder

• How I Solved This: Build BANT Opportunity Scoring with Custom Metadata Types

Dreamforce highlights from the Admin team.
The main takeaway from Dreamforce was that Flow is the future. There were tons of highlights from throughout Dreamforce to show all the changes to help us move off of Process Builder and Workflow Rules and step into a new world of automation. Make sure to catch up on everything you missed on Salesforce Plus. Some highlights:

• The Admin main show

• The Dev main show

• The first Architect main show

• True to the Core

• The Platform Keynote, Platform Keynote: Create and Automate on the #1 Low-Code Platform

• The IT Leader’s Guide to the Salesforce Platform Roadmap

• Soledad O’Brien’s interview with Parker Harris


“I know there’s a lot of admins out there who have not used Flow yet,” Jennifer says, “but know that we’ll be providing content to help you along the way—you’re not on this journey alone.” 
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• Mike: @MikeGerholdt

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Direct download: September_Monthly_Retro_with_Mike_and_Jennifer.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Rebecca Saar, Senior Director of Admin Marketing at Salesforce and host of the Admin Main Show for Dreamforce 2021. We’re checking in before a jam-packed week.

 

Join us as we talk about the Admin Keynote, Easter eggs, and how to get the most out of Dreamforce 2021.

 

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

Dreamforce is next week!

 

For the 2021 Admin Keynote at Dreamforce, we’re excited to have a hybrid experience where we’ll have a live audience of Trailblazers on Howard St in San Francisco and thousands more tuning in from home. We’ve got a new platform called Salesforce Plus that will really uplevel the viewing experience, so grab the popcorn.

 

“We’re looking at what is the next chapter of Awesome Admin,” Rebecca says, “and how we can make sure admins are successful in their role and continue to drive that innovation at their companies and be at the forefront of the newest technology.”

 

As you might know from our last episode with her, Rebecca is a big fan of Easter eggs. We don’t want to say too much but pay close attention to the opening video—they go by fast and there are a lot of them.

 

Rebecca’s #1 piece of advice is to really take the time to look through the schedule ahead of time and sort out which events you really want to make time for. There’s an “add to calendar” widget next to everything on schedule, so get organized and make the most of Dreamforce 2021, and be sure to block out Wednesday morning for all of the Awesome Admin events.

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Full Show Transcript

Mike Gerholdt: Welcome to the Salesforce Admins Podcast, where we talk about product, community, and career to help you become an Awesome Admin. This week we're talking with Rebecca Saar, Senior Director of Admin Marketing, and your host for the Admin Main Show at Dreamforce 2021, The Future of Admin Success. That is next week, folks. It's going to be so exciting.
This episode's going to get you prepared for the main show. And be sure to check out the previous week's episodes that we have with Jennifer Lee and Jay Steadman, to help you prepare for the other two episodes in our Admin Viewing Block for Dreamforce. But today we're talking Admin Main Show. So let's get Rebecca on the podcast.
So Rebecca, welcome to the podcast.

Rebecca Saar: Thanks, Mike. Glad to be here.

Mike Gerholdt: Now, I know you probably haven't forgot, but our avid listeners have been waiting at the edge of their seats. Because the last time we chatted, we talked about Green Goddess dressing, and we played dressing or destination, in case you wondered. And I fooled quite a bit of the team as to what was a dressing and what was a really fun bed and breakfast.

Rebecca Saar: Yes, yes.

Mike Gerholdt: And you actually tweeted out that you tried Green Goddess dressing, which I recently just saw on a few of my favorite television show cooking episodes. So what have you tried since?

Rebecca Saar: Ooh, good question. I mean, I haven't been going many places these days, because ... trying to stick to COVID rules. So most of the things I've been eating are very much in our vicinity. Very much leaning on pizza, takeout, that kind of stuff.

Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.

Rebecca Saar: And just, I really like a good toast, I got to say. Like toast with butter.

Mike Gerholdt: We could do a whole episode on toast.

Rebecca Saar: Yes. Yes. And if anyone knows me, I'm always talking about how butter makes things better.

Mike Gerholdt: Yes. I'm with you.

Rebecca Saar: And so, I just, I love ... I could really always just eat toast and butter and be happy.

Mike Gerholdt: Okay. Level of toastness, where are you at? Like, are you dark and crunchy? Are you just barely even starting to get a gold sheen to it?

Rebecca Saar: It definitely ... medium to crusty, crunchy, dark. I don't like it when it's not toasted enough, like when it's just barely warm, because then the butter doesn't melt properly. I really need that butter to melt, and then hear that crunch, I think that's what it's all about.

Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. I'm a very light toast. Very light toast. I'm really weird with the butter though. I like warm butter, so that it doesn't tear the bread. So that when it goes on, the bread stays ... it doesn't pierce it. It really bugs me when you pierce bread when you butter it. Cold butter bugs me.

Rebecca Saar: Yeah. Cold butter is the worst when it doesn't melt properly. I don't know if it's a European thing, but we keep our butter not in the fridge.

Mike Gerholdt: Right. Do you keep your eggs not in the fridge? That's a European thing too.

Rebecca Saar: We do keep the eggs in the fridge, but only because we buy them refrigerated. So I think-

Mike Gerholdt: Right.

Rebecca Saar: Yeah. I don't know. That's a good question. Because the butter-

Mike Gerholdt: It's a very European thing too, right?

Rebecca Saar: Yes, it is.

Mike Gerholdt: I mean, the chickens don't have a refrigerator. I've been reminded of that when I've been across the pond. Like, they are just out.

Rebecca Saar: Yep. Yep.

Mike Gerholdt: Okay. Well, great. So this isn't a cooking podcast, but I kind of like to switch it up and keep it real.

Rebecca Saar: Keep me on my toes?

Mike Gerholdt: But just, we're all family, that listens to this podcast. But we're here to talk about the main show at Dreamforce this year, which is going to be a little different. So Rebecca, tell us what's different about Dreamforce this year.

Rebecca Saar: Yes. Yes. Let's talk about Dreamforce and the Admin Main Show. I think what's very exciting is that we are going back to a live experience with Trailblazers in attendance. Back in San Francisco, on Howard street, where Dreamforce has always been in the past. So it's going to be surreal to be back at Dreamforce in a live experience way. Having a stage. And then having seats and people.
And I'm just really excited that we're going to have that ... I feel like that energy that you only get when you get a bunch of Trailblazers together. That's going to come back and that's when I'm super excited about. That's going to make this a little different than we've seen in the past.

Mike Gerholdt: So it's called The Future of Admin Success. What was important for you to highlight in this main show?

Rebecca Saar: Yeah. So this is really important to me, and I think to our team, and hopefully to all of the admins listening here. We've been on quite a journey as Awesome Admins, and even as the admin relations team, growing the role and really celebrating and elevating it. And now we're looking into the future, right?
And we're looking at, what is the next chapter of Awesome Admin, and how can we make sure admins are successful in their role? And continue to drive that innovation at their companies and be the forefront of the newest technology, and really be that leader in their company> and so this main show is all about admin success and what that's going to look like in the future. And today.

Mike Gerholdt: And today. Now, when we had you on, way back in May, to talk about what you were doing with Learn MOAR, you talked about Easter eggs and how you really enjoy putting Easter eggs in things. So I was wondering if maybe I could twist your arm and you could hint at an Easter egg that could be in the main show for admins to look for.
I mean, there's obviously a lot. Hint, hint. But maybe like, one teaser you could give us?

Rebecca Saar: Well, it's like, you don't want to give it away. They're Easter eggs for a reason. But if you're to twist my arm ... for those, especially those watching online, I think, pay attention to that opening video. You'll see some fun Easter eggs there. But they go by real fast, so you have to be paying attention. But there are ... yes. You know we love Easter eggs. So there will be plenty throughout the show.

Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. I can't wait to see Twitter light up with screenshots of the Easter eggs because [crosstalk].

Rebecca Saar: Have your fingers ready.

Mike Gerholdt: I like to think I know what all Easter eggs are in there, but everybody's put in their own stuff. So, yeah.

Rebecca Saar: This is true.

Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. So to wrap up, as Admins prepare next week ... can you believe that? Next week. It's just like [crosstalk] hey, congratulations. It's fall, and now it's Dreamforce time. So next week, as Admins prepare for their three day viewing experience of Dreamforce, what to you, is the most important thing that Admins should know about Dreamforce?

Rebecca Saar: I think what's exciting about Dreamforce this year, is that anyone can watch it from anywhere. We are unveiling this awesome new platform called Salesforce Plus, which is going to make the viewing experience just so fun and so accessible for everyone. And so as Admins, be ready to just get the popcorn and have this amazing viewing experience on Salesforce Plus.
It's going to be a lot of content, because of the fact that we have this mixture of live and recorded content. And we have four channels and three days. So definitely look at some of the resources we've been putting out on the Admin social handles and on admin.salesforce.com to see what are some of the highlights you definitely want to make time for. On the schedule, there's an, add to calendar, for every episode and every show.
So just make sure you prepare your calendar and you're picking those things that are really important to you. And of course, add The Future of Admin Success Main Show and our two episodes that are going to be airing right afterwards. Just block out that Wednesday morning, I think that's the best advice.

Mike Gerholdt: You know what you could do? You could make some coffee or tea and toast.

Rebecca Saar: Yes.

Mike Gerholdt: And have just a morning with the admin team.

Rebecca Saar: Oh, I love that. Yes, exactly.

Mike Gerholdt: Fabulous. Well, Rebecca, I think we have given admins a lot to prepare. If you haven't listened to the previous two episodes that aired this month, those also highlight the two episodes for the admin block of programming ... I don't know how to call it that. In addition to what Rebecca talked about today. So go back and listen and hear from Jay and Jennifer on those.
So with that, thank you for being on, Rebecca.

Rebecca Saar: Thank you.

Mike Gerholdt: I will look forward to watching all of this fun stuff on Salesforce Plus next week.

Rebecca Saar: See you then.

Mike Gerholdt: So it was great to have Rebecca back since May, and to talk about all of the really cool stuff in store for the Admin Main Show at Dreamforce this year. Lots of Easter eggs, lots of Easter eggs. Now, if you want to learn more about all things Salesforce Admin, go to admin.salesforce.com to find more resources. Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't remind you that new podcast swag is up on the Trailhead store. So be sure to pick up some cool swag. Of course, the link is in the show notes.
Now just a quick reminder, there is no Admin podcast next week because it's Dreamforce week. There is so much cool content coming out that we want to make sure that you have time to be focused on all of that.
Now, stay up to date with us on social. We are @SalesforceAdmns, no i, on Twitter. You can follow Rebecca on Twitter, she is @RebeccaSaar. Of course, my co-host, Gillian, of the podcast, she is @gilliankbruce. And give me a follow as well, I am @MikeGerholdt. So with that, stay safe, stay awesome. Next week's Dreamforce. And stay tuned for the next episode, which will be the end of September, which is our monthly retro. So we'll see you in the cloud.



Direct download: Behind_the_Dreamforce_Admin_Keynote_with_Rebecca_Saar.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

For today’s episode of the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we’re bringing on Diana Jaffe, Product Management Director, and Jennifer Lee, Admin Evangelist at Salesforce. We want to give you a sneak peek at their upcoming Dreamforce session and how admins can automate apps quickly.

 

Join us as we talk about their upcoming Dreamforce presentation, Automate Apps Fast for Awesome Admins.

 

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Diana Jaffe and Jennifer Lee.

Go with the Flow.

 

Diana’s motto for this year’s Dreamforce is “Go with the Flow,” because of all of the new features coming in the Winter ‘22 Release. “Flow is the heart and soul of automation, and you can start small by moving a workflow rule over,” she says, “and we show in the episode how that can grow and expand.”

 

For Jennifer, one of the most exciting features coming for automation is MuleSoft Composer, which will allow you to use clicks, not code to set up integrations. Flow Orchestrator is also heading in a really exciting direction going forward, claiming its crown as the Flow of Flows. With all of the nesting and layering that is possible you can create every-more complex automations to tackle all sorts of new problems.

 

They go over everything in their upcoming Dreamforce session, so make sure you don’t miss out.

 

Lights, camera, action!

 

To record their Dreamforce episode, Diana and Jennifer both got to be “the talent” for the day. Jennifer had a small production team over to her place, where they worked on-location and could only run the air conditioner between takes.

 

Diana, meanwhile, got into Salesforce HQ for the first time since March 2020. She worked with a full-blown production crew—even the guy with the clapper thing. “It’s super cool to see people who are so good at their job in a totally different universe than what we do in software,” she says, “I love TV and movies and the nerd in me was trying not to giggle or be unprofessional.”

 

Why now’s the time to jump into Flow Builder.

“There’s a whole world of different options that can really match to you based on your business case,” Diana says, and the end of the episode gets into how you would decide between different automation choices based on what you’re trying to do.

 

“For admins out there who have been scared of using Flow Builder, now’s the time to start using it to build all of your automation—forget about Workflow Rules and Process Builder,” Jennifer says, “if you haven’t done automation, think about ways to automate your business processes and make life better for your users.” With the Slack acquisition, the sky’s the limit with what you can do on the platform to reach new heights of efficiency and collaboration. Most importantly, do reach out on Trailblazer Community, Twitter, or anywhere else to share your challenges and how we can help.

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Full Show Transcript




This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we catch up with Vin Addala, the Product Marketing Manager Senior Director at Salesforce. He gives us a sneak peak at the upcoming Dreamforce session, Build Apps Fast for Awesome Admins, and fills us in on all the latest developments in board gaming, too.

 

Join us as we talk about all the new things App Builder can do for you to make powerful, low code applications.

 

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

The App Builder dream.

 

You might recognize Vin from our last episode with him about dynamic forms and App Builder. “I wanted App Builder to become a one-stop tool for you to build low code applications,” he says, and they’re continually adding features to make it more and more powerful. They’ve added drag-and-drop components, fields, actions, and now dynamic interactions. The second thing Vin wanted to show in this Dreamforce episode is how all these different features come together to solve real-world problems and address real needs.

 

Vin’s team has added a lot of interactivity to the applications you can build with low code tools, but they wanted to take it a step further. “We wanted to create a low code framework where components can talk to each other,” so if you have a list of addresses, for example, you could have a map component that can take those addresses and map it. A low code app builder can create interactive elements on a page in way that was previously only possible for developers.

Balancing power and efficiency.

 

Coding events and interactions models can get really complicated—while there are a lot of models for how to do things, it can be hard to translate that into something accessible for the rest of us. “When I look at all these features and capabilities, I see how powerful they will be if I can democratize them and give that power to the admins,” Vin says, “but I have to do it in a way that will be easy to approach.”

 

Part of the challenge is making sure to balance the power of App Builder with safeguards to make sure you can’t break your org too severely. That means Vin needs to be careful about what features he has his team build, how far they go, and how they go about implementing them. “I really don’t want people to reinvent the wheel,” he says, “I want people to be focusing on solving a business problem than the nitty-gritty details of how to solve a business problem.”

Why Vin needs YOUR help.

App Builder is becoming more and more powerful with each release, so Vin wants you to take a second look at what it can do, especially if you haven’t checked in on it in a few releases. “Revisit any old assumptions you’ve had about App Builder and come back to it with a fresh set of eyes,” he says, “App builder is a lot more powerful than it ever has been in turns of helping solve and build turnkey business applications.” Give it a try and reach out to Vin and his team to let him know where they can improve to make it even better.

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