Awesome Announcements!

A few weeks ago I posted about things that are happening Soon™ and that I would have a few announcements later that week. Well, I didn’t post because…reasons. That’s a good enough excuse, right? In all honesty, things got crazy real quick, so here it goes.

Announcement #1
I will be speaking at Dreamforce!!
YES! I will have a session in the Admin theater at Dreamforce! It will be 20 minutes and titled To CPQ Or Not To CPQ: How Well You Know Your Products Is The Question (hint, click the link and bookmark it). In this session i’ll be talking about the journey required to select your quoting solution and lessons I learned along the way.

I will also be on the panel for 5 App Stacks That You’ll Want In Your Salesforce Org. In this session, panelists will discuss their org app stacks, use cases, and how they helped.

Announcement #2
I will no longer be an #AwesomeAdmin
That’s right! I’m taking off the #AwesomeAdmin cape and moving into the Salesforce Partner world!

Shocked? Yeah, me too! I have truly loved and enjoyed my time at McGrory Glass, but I accomplished what I set out to do for them, and then some. As the saying goes “I came, I saw, I kicked its ass”. McGrory is a phenomenal family owned company that has an unquenchable passion for its product and employees, to the likes of which I have never seen before. There wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t feel like my opinion mattered or that I wasn’t cared about. They are by far the best in the world at what they do, and I will miss them all dearly.

But it was time to move on. My passion for knowledge, Salesforce, and helping people outweighed my complacency of being a solo admin for an org I worked hard to get into “maintenance” mode from “WTF?” mode.

On 10/2 I will be a Senior Salesforce Solutions Engineer for CSS Technical Solutions, a new registered Salesforce Partner! I’ll be the technical expert of a small team, doing a little bit of everything at first and spreading my wings a bit. This is the first time in my professional career where i’ve actually been nervous. Confident, but nervous. I think it’s primarily because i’ve never had control of my career, and was leaving jobs for various out of my control. Reasons like a change in compensation, bad bosses, work/life balance, etc. This time i’m fully in control from a position of desire instead of need, and i’ve never felt this way before.

I’m truly excited and ready to take on the next challenge! My new employer knows as well as I do I still have a lot to learn having been a solo admin for a single org (there’s always a lot to learn!) and need to refine some raw skills, but as Kevin Hart says….

Announcement #3
Honored to be named a Summer 17 Salesforce MVP!

I am still kind of processing this announcement. When I received the congratulatory email from the community team, I honestly thought they sent it to the wrong guy, and had to read it 3-4 times. I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

When I was just starting out,  an MVP reached out to point me in the right direction to learn Salesforce and build a career in the ecosystem. When I eventually landed my first role, I committed to myself that i’d pay that kindness forward however I could.

I’m truly honored to be nominated as an MVP and feel there are so many others out there that are more deserving, but title or not, i’m going to keep rolling. Speaking of which….

Announcement #4

Last, but certainly not least, the Trailhead4All fundraising campaign has moved. We shut down the GoFundMe site because the fees were too high, and I had to be an intermediary to get the funds to Philly Spark, the non profit we will be working with.

Spark has created their own fundraising page so ALL funds go directly to them with much lower fees. AND you can choose to donate the fee so 100% of your donation goes to them, or not. It’s a much better

Please consider making a donation at the Spark Lab Trailhead4All Fundraising Campaign Page, every dollar helps. If you are unable to make a financial contribution, we completely understand, but if we could ask you to exercise your ability to share it on ALL THE PLATFORMS, that would be most helpful.

Until next time, Trailblazers!!!