tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36531490434832968512024-03-18T23:04:41.283-07:00Cheryl's BlogCherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-45133408826388580542016-10-03T19:49:00.000-07:002016-10-03T20:38:53.980-07:00How I'm Staying Connected to Dreamforce from 3K Miles Away!<span style="font-size: large;">It's that time of year again, my favorite time of year, it's Dreamforce time! Unfortunately this year I had to make a tough decision not to attend Dreamforce. I will tell you; it was one of the toughest decisions I've had to make in a long time and some tears were shed. But I do know it was the right decision for me at least right now. You will see me at the NYC World Tour and most certainly at DF17!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Without further ado, here are the ways I'm staying connected to #DF16!</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Success Community/User Groups</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It's no surprise that this is first on my list as it's an excellent way to connect with the community outside of Dreamforce. <a href="https://twitter.com/HollyGoldin">Holly Goldin-Firestone</a> wrote an excellent blog post on this very topic <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/09/dreamforce-year-round-salesforce-user-groups.html">here</a>. In addition to that, User Groups around the world are hosting Dreamforce Outpost viewing parties! I'll be hosting an Outpost party in NYC you can sign up for <a href="https://dreamforceoutpostnewyorkcityny.splashthat.com/">here</a>. If you're not in NYC, you can see the whole list of parties <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF16/registration/?d=7010M000002IGbf">here</a>.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Twitter</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Twitter was one of the first places I connected with a majority of the Salesforce community outside of Dreamforce. I remember leading up to Dreamforce '11 some of my Salesforce friends talked me into signing up for Twitter, I've never looked back. To make it easy for myself and you, I put together a list of some great people to follow at DF16. Click <a href="https://twitter.com/CherFeldman/lists/cheryl-s-df16-list">here </a>to subscribe to the list!</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Salesforce Live</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">One thing I'm super excited about is how many sessions are being streamed this year! You can see the schedule and register <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/09/watch-dreamforce-16-salesforce-live.html">here</a> to watch many sessions from work or home! I'm glad I have two screens at work. Screen 1: work, Screen 2: Dreamforce. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Periscope</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If you haven't signed up for this nifty app, you definitely should! It's a great way to see real time what's happening through someone else's eyes. When you sign up, you can choose to follow people you're already following on twitter. When they start broadcasting, you will get an alert on your phone, and you can also see that they are broadcasting on Twitter. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Snapchat</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I'm pretty new to snap chat, but I've been following the Dreamforce Snapchat the past few days and have gotten some cool sneak peeks at the setup for Dreamforce. I feel like I know some big secret now. Ooooh. I hope there is a Dreamforce Story I can follow from NYC. If anyone knows let me know! </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Facebook</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Over the past few years, my Salesforce family has become part of my regular life, and I have befriended many from the community on Facebook. I've already seen some Facebook Live Streams and great Posts. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Salesforce World Tours</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The world tour will make stops in Tokyo and NYC in December! As you can imagine, I'm super excited for the World Tour in NYC, and I hope you'll join me. More details can are <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/events/" target="_blank">here </a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Even if you weren't able to go to San Francisco for Dreamforce, you can still have fun! If there are any other ways you are connecting to Dreamforce virtually that I haven't listed here, please leave a comment! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Much Love <3</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Cheryl</span></div>
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<br />CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com84tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-67304723457858390512015-10-27T06:25:00.000-07:002015-10-27T06:26:12.835-07:00Why Adding a Field Isn’t Always that Simple & The 5 W’s of Salesforce Administration<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I know what you’re thinking. You’re reading the title saying to yourself “C’mon Cheryl, yes it is, in just a few clicks I can add a field. What are you talking about?” In theory, yes, you are correct. However, I wanted to share an example from a recent User Group Meeting that may not be so simple. One of our new members--who is also a new admin--was asking for help adding a field. The admin’s sales team requested a field called Billing Frequency on the Opportunity with 4 Choices: Annually, Quarterly, Monthly and Ad Hoc. <br /><br />After discussing the request with her it became apparent the technology wasn’t the problem, it was the requirement itself. She showed me their org. They had three opportunity record types with three page layouts and nine profiles. She wasn’t sure which opportunity record type this field should be on, where it should go on the page layout, or who should have access. We looked at the record types and page layouts and we could make an assumption, but we all know what happens when you assume…<br /><br />I explained that she needed to refine the requirement for the field with the sales team. I helped her draft an email asking everything she needed to know to a new field. She sent the email while still at the user group meeting and approached me after one of the presentations as the sales manager had already responded. It turned out the field should only be on two of the three record types, it should always be required for one of the opportunity record types when it’s closed won, and should only be required for a certain opportunity type when it’s closed won. There was also a requirement that only sales and sales management should be able to change this field, and all other users would have read only access to the field.<br /><br />The sales manager also asked if he could get an email anytime an opportunity was closed with a Billing Frequency of Ad Hoc. He also asked if there was a way she could load the data in for any closed opportunities from 2015 for one of the record types.<br /><br /><b><i>After reading through her email with her the simple additional field requirement became:</i></b><br /><br />· Add a field to two record types and page layouts <br /><br />· Set up field level security for the field<br /><br />· Create a validation rule to require the field in the certain circumstances<br /><br />· Create a workflow rule and email template to fire when an opportunity was closed where this field was filled in with a certain value.<br /><br />· Extract opportunities with criteria mentioned in above validation rule with ID’s so sales could update spreadsheet<br /><br />· Load data into the Billing Frequency Field<br /><br /> <br />From the above you can see why adding a field can be more than a simple request, especially if you are adding a field to an object with multiple record types, page layouts, with multiple profiles. <b>This is why I always use the 5 W’s of Salesforce Administration when reviewing enhancement requests from users:</b><br /><br /> <br /><br />· <b>Who</b> - Who wants the request, who should be able to use or view the new configuration.<br /><br />· <b>What</b> - What will they do with the data collected in the configuration? What is the long-term goal?<br /><br />· <b>Where</b> - Where should this configuration be available?<br /><br />· <b>When </b>- When should this configuration be available, when should it be required?<br /><br />· <b>Why</b> - Why do they want this new feature, what is their end goal and how will they use it and how will it benefit our business?<br /><br /> <br />When the admin I mentioned above started asking her business users the 5 W’s of Salesforce Configuration, she was able to assist them faster and more efficiently. She was able to determine what was needed upfront by asking the right questions.<br /><br />What questions do you ask your business users when they submit a request to make a change in Salesforce? I would love to hear from you!<br /><br />As always, thank you for reading!<br /><br />Cheryl</span>CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com94tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-74427768116396761912015-10-20T09:40:00.000-07:002015-10-20T09:41:27.470-07:00How to SABWA When You're Not in the Same Location as Your Users<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you’ve heard <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeGerholdt" target="_blank">Mike Gerholdt</a> speak then you’ve heard him speak about SABWA, <b>S</b>alesforce <b>A</b>dministration <b>B</b>y <b>W</b>alking <b>A</b>round. I love this practice, but it got me thinking what if users aren’t in a location that’s in walking distance to you or what if you are a Salesforce Admin that works from home? Can you implement this practice? The answer is <b>YES!</b> I know this because I have done it and wanted to share a few tips. Over the past 11 years I have supported Salesforce end users in all 50 states and in over 30 countries. It’s so important as a Salesforce Admin to maintain a connection with your end users regardless of location and time zone, which is why being a SABWA admin, is such a great practice. <br /><br />It is going to be even more important for us as Awesome Admins to SABWA as we start rolling out the new Lightning Experience to make sure we do this to make sure the new UI is working for our users and they know how to use it and know where to go to get their questions answered. <br /><br />Here are some practices I have implemented to interact and connect with users not in the same location as me: <br /><br /> <br /><b>Hold Office Hours with a Tool that Allows for Screen Sharing and Video</b><br /><br />I supported users in the Americas, EMEA and APAC it was sometimes really hard to support users in the other regions due to time zones, however I didn’t want the users in other time zones to feel left out so I setup weekly Office Hours meetings where the time rotated each week. For example the first Friday of every month office hours were held at 10 AM EST, the second Friday of every month Office Hours were held at 1 PM EST, Third at 4 PM EST and Fourth at 9 PM EST. Having the meeting at different times allowed users from all regions to be able to join easily.<br /><br />I got to know so many users in so many different countries this way. I also always made sure to use video on my meetings so the users could put a face to the voice. It made it almost like I was there in their office helping them but I was in my office in New York City and even sometimes in my apartment. <br /><br /> <br /><br /><b>Join Departmental Meetings </b><br /><br />Pretty much every department has weekly or monthly meetings; so ask to join, even if it’s just to listen. It was great to understand what different departments were doing overall not just with Salesforce so I could keep that in mind when writing requirements or designing solutions. I was once on the Order Management and Finance Monthly Meeting and they were discussing how Order Management reps needed to manually enter some new information from the billing system on the Sales Order after they finished processing it. I heard some grumbling on the call about how manual it was going to be. I made a note to myself to talk to our integration developer about bringing this information over via our already existing integration between sales orders and our billing system. After discussing with our integration developer, we found that the data they were going to manually enter after completing a sales order was in a table we were already were connected to and we would just need to add fields to Salesforce and to the integration to bring them over, the estimate was less than a day of development work. Everyone including my VP and our Product Owner saw the value immediately and we put the story in the next sprint to get the integration updated.<br /><br />I immediately called the business leads in finance and order management to let them know we could automate this data entry and we were going to put the story for the enhancement in the following sprint. They were so thrilled that this could be done. They didn’t think it could be, but they were very happy they were wrong. It was a great feeling to come to their next meeting and announce that they no longer had to enter the information manually that we were able to add this feature for them and save them about 1.5 minutes per order which would save order management about 300 minutes per week. This meant orders were being billed and fulfilled that much faster for our customers.<br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Random Calls to End Users</b><br /><br />I regularly spoke to our product owner and business leads as part of our change management & agile processes, but sometimes even our business leads weren’t aware of issues or challenges with end users. I would block out an hour in my calendar every Wednesday and call 3-4 users randomly. It was a great way to get to know people and listen to their challenges. I can’t tell you how many times I would call an end user and because so much of the business was using Salesforce for their processes they would give me feedback I never even thought of. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I once called a Sales Rep that was frustrated that they didn’t have a clickable link to another system like they did for other systems which passed the account name so they didn’t have to copy paste or manually type, it would bring up the correct record(s) in the other system so they could easily find what they were looking for. I had no idea sales was even relying so heavily on this other system. When I reviewed this request during our Change Advisory Board meeting everyone realized how much time that could save sales. We had the new custom link out to the business users the following day. <br /><br /><br /><b>Send Surveys</b><br /><br />Many of us manage survey tools such as Get Feedback, Form Assembly or Clicktools within our Salesforce org to send to customers as part of the customer service process, but what about end users? This was a great way to get feedback from end users. We allowed the surveys to be anonymous if they chose, however, we required them to tell us what type of user they were so we could group the feedback by Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Legal, Sales Ops or Finance & Order Management. <br /><br />We sent these out every other month to all of our end users and included a link to a survey form when we closed out cases so they could give us feedback on a particular issue or about anything in general. <br /><br />Many features added to our backlog were because of these surveys. These surveys really showed our end users that we were listening. It was great to send our weekly release email and highlight the items that we released that were ideas from our end users.<br /><br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>I hope this helps some Awesome Admins out there who work remotely or sit in different offices from your end users that you can still <b>SABWA</b> without actually walking around. I would love to hear from you if you have implemented some things to work with end users you may not sit near. <br /><br /><br />As always, thank you for reading and I hope to see some of you at the Salesforce Tour in NYC on November 18th!</i><br /> <br /><br />All the best!<br /><br /> <br /><br />Cheryl</span></div>
CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-10096473742189433122015-08-30T17:41:00.000-07:002015-08-31T05:20:33.266-07:00Falling in Love...With Service Cloud<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I fell in love with Salesforce Service Cloud nearly a decade ago in 2006. I was working at a startup managing an org as a Solo Admin with around 50 users, which were mostly from Sales and Marketing. There were a few departments within customer support: Service Center, Field Service and Engineering. Each of these departments had a shared Salesforce license they could use to login to see what the customer purchased or where they were in the sales process. However, these shared licenses only gave them read only access.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Service Center Team sat in the office answering customer calls and emails. The Service Center was also responsible for handling escalated issues, meaning if they couldn’t resolve an issue through the phone or email and it needed to be escalated, they would make sure the question or issue was being resolved in a timely manner by Field Service or Engineering. Everything they were doing was tracked in spreadsheets or emails.<br /> <br />The Field Service Team was out in the field servicing our customers on site. The service visits were both routine visits and from service calls. Everything this team did was tracked in a separate set of spreadsheets. These also weren’t real-time so we had instances where two field service members would end up on the same property in the same day because data was only getting updated once a day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />My first few months at this startup company were really spent getting the Sales and Marketing teams up and running on Salesforce. I had to do major cleanup of roles, profiles, fields, objects and data. I also rebuilt all of their reports and dashboards and helped them define KPI’s. It was around that time that the company moved into a bigger office. Up until that time Sales and Marketing sat in one office and Customer Support and Engineering sat in another.<br /> <br />When we moved into our new office we were put into quads of desks. My quad mates were the Service Center Manager, the Field Service Manager and the Accounting Manager. On the third day of being in our new office, I walked into what seemed to be Customer Service chaos. Everyone seemed to be running around and upset. When I asked what was going on, I was told that the master spreadsheets that were saved on the shared drive with customer visit and call information had been corrupted. They had a few local saved versions, but they were a few days old, so they were trying to piece the data back together. The information contained in these spreadsheets contained critical data for these teams that tracked who had an open issue, who was attending to it and when a customer last had a service visit.<br /> <br />I offered up my services to help restore the data in the sheets based on emails and notes. As I was looking at the data in the spreadsheets something clicked in my head. This information belonged in Salesforce. These teams were working with the same customer data as Sales. Why should customer data be in all these separate places? I remembered something I heard about at a Salesforce event that finally made sense to me at that very moment, “A 360-degree View of Your Customers.” That is exactly what we needed to have and I was determined how to figure out how to use Salesforce to give us that 360-degree view.<br /> <br />Later that day as most of the chaos settled I started to do a bit of research on how customer service used Salesforce. I found some really good articles on the help section from Salesforce about Cases, Web to Case and a brand new feature called Email-to-Case. I had never used Cases before, but I thought, what the heck, why not try it out and see what the data would look like with a few of our customers.<br /> <br />I looked at the spreadsheet and configured their process right into cases. I was excited to see that cases operated like Leads, Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities, which were the objects I was most familiar with at that time. I could add fields; have page layouts and record types. In a few hours I had a working prototype of what I thought would be a good solution for the Service Center team. I loaded cases from a few of the customers that called in frequently to see what the data looked like. I created a couple of reports so I could show them how they could look at the cases in a detail view or at a high level through a metric.<br /> <br />A few days later, when things seemed to be a bit calmer I approached the Service Center Manager and asked if I could show her something in Salesforce. I showed her what I built out with cases and explained the idea of web to case and email to case. I also showed her some documentation about CTI systems, Self-Service Portals and connecting Salesforce to them. The Service Center Manager loved everything I showed her. We spent an hour or two each day over the next week perfecting what I had built and showing a few other people on the team.<br /> <br />Since the Service Center Team was using a shared license that only had read only rights we needed to purchase 15 licenses to fully get them on board. Our plan was to build something out and “wow” the management team so they would sign off on this expense.<br /> <br />The following week, I sat with the Service Center Team manager in the CEO’s office along with the COO explaining to them everything we built and our proposed plan. Phase I was going to be getting cases up and running, a data migration of existing calls, setup of web to case and email to case. Phase II was going to be creating an escalation process and bringing on Field Service and Engineering Teams. Phase III was to look at doing a self-service portal and CTI integration. The CEO and COO loved everything we built so far and our phased project plan. We got sign off on the additional licenses for Phase I and Phases II and III would be put in the budget for the following year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Building out Phase I took about two weeks including the data load. It was really exciting to see Service Center Team members entering cases while they were on the phone as well having the ability to see if a customer had any open cases with us right when they called. No guessing, no searching multiple spreadsheets. Everything was right there for them on the screen in Salesforce.<br /> <br />The changes we made for the Service Center also ended up having a very positive impact on Sales. In the past, Sales Reps would sit with Service Center Team members to understand if any of their clients were calling in or if any had issues that were up for renewal or a good candidate for a new product or upsell. Sales no longer had to do that. They had the information at their fingertips. It was immediately apparent to everyone in the company how efficient Salesforce was making our Service Center Team.<br /> <br />A few weeks after our go-live with Phase I, the CEO and COO met with me and told me to go ahead and purchase additional licenses for Field Service and Engineering and start work on Phase II and they would see about getting budget for a portal as well as a CTI phone system for Phase III. Phase I had proven to them that the spend now would save money in the long run due to the efficiency it brought the teams supporting our existing and expanding customer base.<br /> <br />It took just another few weeks to have Phase II rolled out which allowed us to have escalation process right on Salesforce as well as gave a unified system where Marketing, Sales, Service Center, Field Service, and Engineering were looking at the same customer data. It was an incredible experience for me to see the value of my work right in front of me.<br /> <br />About a month after we went live with all of the service teams on Salesforce we started building out monthly and weekly metrics. I used to do all of the reporting for the company so I knew that the average “Time to Solve” for Service Center was just over 2 business days. After having these teams on Salesforce for just over a month it was brought down to less than a day. The average “Time to Solve” was 6 hours, I did the numbers three different times, just to make sure. When I clicked “Run Report” and saw those numbers, that’s when I knew, I was in love. I had become the biggest fan of what was known in 2006 as “Salesforce for Service & Support”, now known as the very robust Service Cloud. The amount of efficiency I could bring to end-users was nothing short of incredible. Not only did I become a fan, so did my end-users. The customer service teams loved Salesforce and actually helped me get to my first Dreamforce in 2006, but that is a story for another day.<br /> <br />Eventually my career grew and a few years later I was bringing thousands of customer service users onto Salesforce at a billion dollar financial services firm, building out self service using portals and communities, integrating with entitlements systems and lots of other fun complexity. My favorite projects over the past 11 years of working on the Salesforce platform mostly involve Service Cloud.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />I even rolled out Service Cloud for a team I was managing a few years ago where we were managing thousands of Salesforce Users. We used it to manage requests and our internal escalation process. Service Cloud can bring efficiency to teams doing any kind of support work, not just customer service.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Now, a question for you, the reader, when did you fall in love with Service Cloud? I would love to hear your story.<br /> <br />As always, thank you for reading. See you all at Dreamforce!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> </span>CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-54408320697775460272015-04-13T18:19:00.002-07:002015-04-15T10:37:34.560-07:00My Awesome Admin Heart<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My Awesome Admin Heart</span></u></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br />This was originally posted on my Facebook last month while I was expressing some random thoughts. Some friends encouraged me to turn this into a blog post, I hope you like it.</i><br /><br /><br /><b>I will forever and always be a Salesforce Admin. I do not care how far I move up in the world, my heart and soul will forever be with the <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/chatter/groups/GroupProfilePage?g=0F9300000001oVp">awesome admin community</a>.</b><br /><br />I have been that person spending my Friday night figuring out a formula or validation rule that just was not working. Then, I was that person jumping for joy at my parents’ house, my apartment or even at my desk when I finally got my formula or validation rule to work!<br /><br />I have been that person on the phone with end users at 9 PM helping them through a problem. Then, I was that person tearing up at my desk reading a thank you card from the user I helped. I not only helped them, I taught them. <br /><br />I have been that person cleaning up data; making it pretty and designing validation rules to make it useful. Then, I was that person presenting my efforts in front of executives, getting nods and smiles for my dedication to clean data. <br /><br />I have been that person almost in tears heading to a user group because I had a boss that was screaming at me to do something that I didn't know how to do; walking out of the meeting with renewed hope when someone helped me. Then, I was that person moving onto a job where I was appreciated for the knowledge I gained within the community. <br /><br />I have been that person who built an amazing solution in an afternoon in the best platform in the world wowing end users. Then, I was that person that realized Salesforce was the only platform I ever wanted to work on.<br /><br />I have been that person accepting an award from business users for my design and implementation of a large-scale solution. Then, I was that person presenting an award to others who have built even better solutions. <br /><br />I have been the person who was yelled at when something I built didn't work as expected (oops should have tested it in sandbox first). Then, I was the person that learned from my mistakes and implemented a better process, admitting that I could have done better. <br /><br />I have been that person taking a phone call from another admin in my local community helping them sort through a formula field they could not build. Then, I was that person who realized that serving those in my local Salesforce community was my calling and my duty.<br /><br />I have been that person wiping away tears of a new admin at a user group who had Salesforce thrown upon them not knowing what to do next. Then, I was that person who realized I could help these new and next generation admins by sharing my knowledge and things I have learned over the past decade. <br /><br />I have been that person who planned my whole weekend around a Salesforce release going live in sandboxes so I could play with the new features. Then, I was that person who found the Salesforce community on Twitter, realizing I was not alone in my plans. <br /><br />I have been that person who begged my manager to send me to Dreamforce. Then, I was that person who brought back so many ideas that my boss became so excited about Dreamforce he allocated budget for both of us to attend the following year. <br /><br />I have been that person who helped another admin just because. Then, I was that person that told them to pay it forward. <br /><br />I have been that person who shook in fright before presenting at a user group meeting for the first time. Then, I was that person being asked to interview for positions solely based on my presentations at user groups.<br /><br />I have been that person who realized that presenting at a user group was not so bad, so I decided to lead one. Then, I was that person who decided to lead three.<br /><br />Through the good the bad and the ugly I have been a Salesforce Admin. Forever and always an Awesome Admin. <br /><br /><br />Thank you for reading.<br /><br />Cheryl</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">PS - Here are my upcoming speaking engagements:</span></b></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">4/16 - 9:00 AM - <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/nyc-salesforcecom-april-2015-user-group-tickets-16262196668" target="_blank">NYC Salesforce.com User Group</a> - Process Builder and other Awesome Admin Tools</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">4/23 - <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/events/worldtour/chicago/" target="_blank">Salesforce World Tour Chicago</a> - You can find me in the Admin Zone </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">4/30 - 6:30 PM - <a href="https://0415sfdcfinserv.eventbrite.com/" target="_blank">Financial Services Salesforce.com User Group</a> - Householding/Spring '15 Features</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-411688051447378192014-11-17T19:44:00.000-08:002014-11-18T03:10:33.650-08:00Dear Salesforce Product Management...Thanks For The Wings!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Dear Salesforce Product Management,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Before you start reading, I want to let you know that this
isn’t another post telling you all of the ideas you need to implement
yesterday, this is a post to say thank you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I sit here writing this post just after playing with Lightning Process
Builder and re-building a fairly complex process we currently have in
code.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was able to re-build 90% of this
process that updates cases and inserts new records when certain things happen
on a case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I could reach out and hug
you through my MacBook I would.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">After sitting here trying out my new process in a developer
org I started to think, really started to think why I love Salesforce the
company and the platform so much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s because
of tools like this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is because people
like me, who have zero coding experience can easily build out a huge complex
process in less than an hour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I re-built
most of this in 43 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, I timed
myself, because I was curious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This brought me back to why I first fell in love with the
Salesforce platform and why I think the company has been so successful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is because Salesforce has made its
platform configurable to a businessperson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Someone who really understands his or her business can set the platform
up pretty quickly and easily to meet business needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My thoughts naturally turned to my own career path wondering
what my career would have been like if Lightning Process Builder had come
about seven or eight years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, I
started to think about the people I met at Dreamforce this past October who are
just starting out their Salesforce Admin careers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some aren’t full time Salesforce Administrators;
actually most of people I met after my sessions or in the Admin Zone were their
company’s Salesforce Administrator plus something else (secretary, operations
analyst, office manager, etc.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
realized that this isn’t just a tool to help automate business process; this is
a tool for career path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guarantee
you there is someone sitting at their job right now, who isn’t happy, who
catches on, gets certified and gets a better job; a higher paying job; a job
that they love where people treat them with respect because they are the
subject matter expert for a tool that that their company relies on to do
business.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Each time you build something like this for Administrators
and Developers to use, you aren’t just making the platform better, faster and
easier to configure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are giving
someone his or her wings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wings to a
career path, wings to fly out of a job they maybe stuck in because they need to
pay bills, take care of their families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I’ve had my wings for just over ten years now and my career
is soaring at over thirty thousand feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If it weren’t for the Salesforce platform I may still be answering
someone else’s phone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If anyone in product management reads this, please take a
moment to go into the <a href="http://success.salesforce.com/" target="_blank">community</a> today and see what you have built, what you
have really built.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look at all of the ideas posted, the conversations happening in the various groups,<span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span>and
the people helping each other on Answers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We exist
because of you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Thank you,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Cheryl Feldman<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Owner
of Awesome Admin Wings</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="mso-element: comment-list;">
<div style="mso-element: comment;">
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CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-48346827048426961562014-10-06T21:35:00.002-07:002014-10-07T06:08:06.650-07:00My Sessions at Dreamforce<h2>
<span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am so excited for Dreamforce 2014! This is the first year I'm presenting and I'm presenting five times! Here is the list of sessions where I'm presenting. </span></span> </h2>
<br />
<u><b>Monday</b></u><br />
<a class="name" href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_Sessions#/session/a2q30000000ia6BAAQ">Admins and Business Analysts: Agents of Change
</a>
<br />
<div>
<div class="when">
1:00 PM -
1:30 PM
</div>
<div class="where">
Moscone Center West,
Admin Theater Zone </div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
<u><b>Tuesday </b></u></div>
<div class="where">
<a class="name" href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_Sessions#/session/a2q30000000hZIiAAM">So You're a Salesforce Admin..Now What?
</a>
</div>
<div>
<div class="when">
10:15 AM -
10:35 AM
</div>
<div class="where">
Moscone Center West,
Admin Theater Zone </div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
<a class="name" href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_Sessions#/session/a2q30000000hMtpAAE">Why Button Click Developers are the New MacGyvers
</a>
</div>
<div>
<div class="when">
11:15 AM -
11:45 AM
</div>
<div class="where">
Moscone Center West,
Community Lounge </div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
<u><b>Wednesday </b></u></div>
</div>
<div class="where">
<a class="name" href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_Sessions#/session/a2q30000000hZITAA2">Kicking a Hole in the Glass Ceiling
</a>
</div>
<div>
<div class="when">
11:00 AM -
11:40 AM
</div>
<div class="where">
Hilton San Francisco Union Square,
Plaza A </div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
<u><b>Thursday </b></u></div>
<div class="where">
<a class="name" href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_Sessions#/session/a2q30000000hYr7AAE">Hands-on Workshop: Introduction to Point-And-Click App Building on Force.com
</a>
</div>
<div>
<div class="when">
8:30 AM -
11:00 AM
</div>
<div class="where">
Moscone Center West,
2020</div>
<div class="where">
<span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="where">
<h2>
<span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-size: large;">These are sessions that I will be attending and you should too!</span></span></h2>
</div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
<u><b>Monday</b></u></div>
<div class="where">
<a class="name" href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_Sessions#/session/a2q30000000iH0WAAU">Success Community Keynote
</a>
</div>
<div>
<div class="when">
9:00 AM -
10:00 AM
</div>
<div class="where">
San Francisco Marriott Marquis,
Golden Gate A,B </div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
I'll be in the Admin Zone at Mascone West for most of the day, so come by and say hello, especially since it will be my Birthday :) </div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
<u><b>Tuesday</b></u></div>
<div class="where">
<a class="name" href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_MyAgenda#/session/a2q30000000hvpuAAA">Welcome to the Customer Success Platform with Marc Benioff & Special Guests
</a>
</div>
<div>
<div class="when">
1:30 PM -
3:30 PM
</div>
<div class="where">
Moscone Center South,
Main Keynote Room </div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
<a class="name" href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_MyAgenda#/session/a2q30000000ir9aAAA">Dreamforce Gala
</a>
</div>
<div>
<div class="when">
6:30 PM -
10:00 PM
</div>
<div class="where">
Civic Center,
Civic Center Plaza </div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
<u><b>Wednesday </b></u></div>
<div class="where">
<a class="name" href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_Sessions#/session/a2q30000000iXVOAA2">Salesforce Admin Keynote
</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="when">
9:00 AM -
10:00 AM
</div>
<div class="where">
Hilton San Francisco Union Square,
Grand Ballroom B</div>
<div class="where">
</div>
<div>
<div class="where">
<a class="name" href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_MyAgenda#/session/a2q30000000hMhFAAU">Complete Customer Intelligence Driven By the Best 3rd Party Data
</a>
</div>
<div>
<div class="when">
5:00 PM -
5:40 PM
</div>
<div class="where">
San Francisco Marriott Marquis,
Yerba Buena - Salons 10, 11, 12 </div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
<u><b>Thursday </b></u></div>
<div class="where">
<a class="name" href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_MyAgenda#/session/a2q30000000hvsnAAA">Marc Benioff & Parker Harris Q&A
</a>
</div>
<div>
<div class="when">
2:00 PM -
3:00 PM
</div>
<div class="where">
Moscone Center West,
Product Keynote Room
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="where">
See you in less than a week!!</div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
Cheryl</div>
</div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
<div class="where">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-67316651786789449232014-09-30T10:25:00.002-07:002014-09-30T13:12:35.125-07:00We Are Admins…Hear Us Roar<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF14/" target="_blank">Dreamforce 2014</a> is going to be epic and not just because
Bruno Mars is performing.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s going to
be epic because history is going to be made right in front of our eyes.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For the first time ever, Admins are going to
have a place to call our own; a place where you can grow as an admin, get your
questions answered, get help on that formula field or validation rule, or think
about what’s next in your career path; a place where Admins are appreciated and
recognized for your achievements on the Salesforce platform, where you will
realize that you aren't just a Salesforce Admin, but an Awesome Admin.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The place I’m referring to above is the Admin Zone. If you are a Salesforce Admin, want to be a
Salesforce Admin, or a Developer that is looking to do more with clicks you
need to be in the Admin Zone as much as possible. There are so many great sessions and things
to take away from the Admin Zone that you will be able to learn everything from
<a href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_Sessions#/session/a2q30000000hYr7AAE" target="_blank">creating basic apps</a> to being a <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_Sessions#/session/a2q30000000hMtpAAE" target="_blank">MacGyver Admin</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In addition to this history-making Admin Zone, we are going
to have a <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_Sessions#/session/a2q30000000iXVOAA2" target="_blank">Keynote</a>! Our
very own Admin Keynote on Wednesday, October 15<sup>th</sup> at 9 AM, this is
when the real history will be made. This
is where all of us Admins will Roar together with one loud voice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It doesn’t just stop there, the Admin Keynote will have surprise
Guest Speakers, Salesforce swag, Awesome Admins that you know and love from the
Salesforce Community. I am telling you,
as an Admin, this Keynote is not to be missed.
If you’re an Admin, this is where you need to be to show the world how
awesome it is to be a Salesforce Admins and that we are the heartbeat of our
Salesforce implementations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If all of that wasn’t awesome enough, what if I told you
that you could be in the front row of the Admin Keynote?! Be up close and personal with some of your
favorite admins, including Mr. Button Click Admin himself, Mike Gerholdt! <b>I have the honor of giving away two front-row
seats to the Admin Keynote! </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>To enter the contest to win one of two front row seats you
will need to do <b><u>ALL</u></b> of the following:</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Make sure you’re registered for the Admin
Keynote </span><a href="https://success.salesforce.com/Ev_Sessions#/session/a2q30000000iXVOAA2" style="text-indent: -0.25in;" target="_blank">here</a></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Comment on this blog post telling me you want to
be in the front row of the Admin Keynote</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Share this blog post on <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AwesomeAdmin&src=tyah" target="_blank">twitter</a> or the <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/chatter/topics/TopicPage?id=0TO300000004TST&ref=catalog" target="_blank">community</a>
with the hashtag #AwesomeAdmin letting everyone know that you want to be in the
front row of the Admin Keynote.</span></span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Winners will be selected at random on October 10</span><sup style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">,
2014.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Looking forward to seeing all of you at the Admin
Keynote! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As always, thank you for reading!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cheryl</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-66360570968746914622014-08-27T20:45:00.002-07:002014-08-27T20:45:49.960-07:00Packing for Dreamforce<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Recently, I watched the Road to Dreamforce webcast on Admin
Success and boy was it amazing. They
talked about everything from top five sessions for admins, the new admin zone
and packing for Dreamforce. If you
haven’t checked this series out, you can watch all of the episodes <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF14/videos.jsp" target="_blank">here</a>. A new episode airs live
every Tuesday at 11 AM PST. While you
are watching the episodes live you can tweet with the hash tag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RoadToDF14&src=typd" target="_blank">#RoadToDF14</a> and they will answer some questions live! These live episodes have been so much fun, I
really try to block out my calendar so I can watch them live, but if you can’t,
they are recorded and available usually within a few hours of airing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the exciting items announced during this episode is
that they are having a “Pack your Bags” contest where you can win a Premium
Dreamforce Pass!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Per the <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF14/help.jsp#premiumpass" target="_blank">Dreamforce website</a> a Premium Pass is “The Dreamforce Premium Pass is an
upgraded pass available to any full conference Dreamforce registrant looking
for exclusive VIP perks.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All you have
you to do is tweet your packing list or a picture of your bag you are packing
for Dreamforce with the hashtag #DF14COS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In case you’re curious, COS stands for Circle of Success, you can read
more about Circle of Success <a href="http://blogs.salesforce.com/company/2014/08/5-reasons-salesforce-admins-cant-miss-dreamforce.html" target="_blank">here</a> (see #3).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6RxLhyphenhyphen7ZAvMZgpFGuF6l_84jbFoo_DYQfIxsPucTUUYI6PajZkVpERPmBVB_8oixg5Grw-6JFS5Sb8xWbLHYme3LVlctWxKFJ_r99ZSUkl5PW09c3CqEXwVU8L8S9A-vWglQl1q6srYo/s1600/cf+dreamforce+bag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6RxLhyphenhyphen7ZAvMZgpFGuF6l_84jbFoo_DYQfIxsPucTUUYI6PajZkVpERPmBVB_8oixg5Grw-6JFS5Sb8xWbLHYme3LVlctWxKFJ_r99ZSUkl5PW09c3CqEXwVU8L8S9A-vWglQl1q6srYo/s1600/cf+dreamforce+bag.jpg" height="400" width="331" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dreamforce 2014 will be my sixth Dreamforce, and even though
I’ve been before, I always struggle with what to pack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am definitely one of those people that if I
could, I would pack my entire bedroom and bring it with me, but since I’m only
allowing myself one checked bag this will not be possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know, I know, first world problems!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What to pack had already been on my mind even
before this Road to Dreamforce episode.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was already tweeting asking people what types of shoes they were
bringing and it if it was too early to shop for Dreamforce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess I’m not alone in my thoughts, because
others tweeted back that they were also already shopping and preparing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In response to a few of my tweets, I had some people asking
me some specific questions on what I was going to pack, as well as I had people
tweeting me after this episode asking me what I was going to pack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figured I would use this contest as an
opportunity to help some other people who haven’t been to Dreamforce before or
those who are just struggling with what to pack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am dividing this up into a few separate posts so you can
get to different topics easily.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://cherfeldman.blogspot.com/2014/08/clothes-outfit-ideas.html" target="_blank">Clothes with some outfit ideas</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://cherfeldman.blogspot.com/2014/08/shoes.html" target="_blank">Shoes</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://cherfeldman.blogspot.com/2014/08/makeup-hair.html" target="_blank">Makeup & Hair</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://cherfeldman.blogspot.com/2014/08/suitcase.html" target="_blank">My suitcase, accessories and other essentials</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://cherfeldman.blogspot.com/2014/08/electronics.html" target="_blank">Electronics</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As always, thank you for reading and I hope you find all of the related posts helpful!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cheryl</span></div>
CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-41005474553585639532014-08-27T20:43:00.000-07:002014-08-27T20:43:00.430-07:00Packing for Dreamforce - Clothes & Outfit Ideas<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Before I get into what I’m packing clothes-wise and some outfit ideas I figured I would tell you about my style. I would describe my style as classic with some trendy mixed in. In addition to my style, I should probably tell you that I am plus sized, not that someone who isn’t won’t find this useful, but I thought I would put it out there. <br /><br />When you are going through your closet to pack for Dreamforce, keep a few things in mind:</span><br />
<ul><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">
<li>Dress nice, but comfort is going to be key</li>
<li>It’s San Francisco in October</li>
<li>You will be walking a lot</li>
<li>Temperature varies in session rooms/outside</li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><u><i>The Staples</i></u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />When I start to pack, I pull out what I call my staple pieces where I will build an outfit or outfits around. I like to have a few pieces that can mix or match with other things that can be re-used on different days so I don’t have to pack as much. Without further adieu, here are my staples:<br /><br /><b><i>A Blazer</i></b> – last year I brought a standard black blazer</span><br />
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as well as a teal blazer. A blazer can be matched with a nice pair of black pants to create a more formal look or paired with jeans to dress up a more casual outfit. The other advantage of a blazer is it can also act as a jacket if it gets a little chilly walking between locations for sessions. It can also be taken off if it’s particularly warm in one of the sessions. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Most </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">importantly, blazers look good on pretty much everyone. You can see a picture to the right of an outfit idea showing my teal blazer, the same one I wore last year, with some dark jeans and a white top. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><b><i>Sweater Dress</i></b> – Oh how I love thee oh comfortable</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYtnI3eA0BfocAr1hltDBPFaUOXNJHkYkwS5WTm2h5tE4phqbdp5bdaHMnmm_P2sR0NxW-H2PD8wGETFXXvkL8PTznQse2_vWVapP-Gb2cgGGKLgnXgw47tn9RJPJuoDDBfO2jtbDHgY/s1600/IMG_2798.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYtnI3eA0BfocAr1hltDBPFaUOXNJHkYkwS5WTm2h5tE4phqbdp5bdaHMnmm_P2sR0NxW-H2PD8wGETFXXvkL8PTznQse2_vWVapP-Gb2cgGGKLgnXgw47tn9RJPJuoDDBfO2jtbDHgY/s1600/IMG_2798.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></span></div>
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sweater dress. If this makes it into your bag, I would recommend bringing one that is short sleeved. Lesson learned last year, I brought two with me: the one pictured below, and a long sleeved one. I overheated in the long sleeved version. The sweater dress I’m showing I actually purchased just before Dreamforce ’12 and it’s seen much love since then and will be making its third appearance at a Dreamforce. I pair this with black leggings, a belt and black boots. You can also dress this up with a chunky necklace or a scarf, which is what I have done in the picture below. This is such a comfortable but cute outfit. I wore it all day at Dreamforce ‘12 and ’13 and even went straight to the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert with no issues. <br /><br /><b><i>A suit</i></b> – I’m presenting this year, and I know for<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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some of the presentations I will want to wear a suit, others I may wear a blazer and nice pants. The suit pictured is from Lane Bryant (from last Fall), it’s a mix of brown and tan and I have paired it with a cranberry colored dress top that can be worn on its own should I want to take the blazer off. The suit I wore last year to an event was a charcoal, which I paired with a purple top underneath. I may bring both this year since I’m presenting a few times. Once I have my schedule ironed out I will know more. <br /><br /><b><i>Black pants</i></b> – Black pants, they go with pretty much everything and you probably already have a favorite pair. I wore my black pants on two different days last year. I wore them the first time for the Girly Geeks event on Sunday and a second time on the last day of Dreamforce. I wore different tops with the pants, so it was like a whole new outfit, but I only had to bring an extra top.<br /><br /><b><i>Dark washed jeans</i></b> – I have a pair of dark washed, extremely comfortable but nice jeans that I like to pair with blazers. Because the jeans are a dark wash you can get away with wearing them in a business casual setting. I actually wear these to work all the time with a blazer or a nice top. <br /><br /><b><i>A cardigan</i></b> – As I mentioned above the temperatures can vary in session rooms. In the same day last year, I was in one session where it felt like it was 80 degrees and in another where I was freezing. It’s always good to have a sweater that you can easily fold up and put in your purse when you don’t need it, but also have it handy in case you are cold. Cardigans work perfectly for this scenario. I will be bringing a black cardigan with me since it will pretty much match everything. <br /><br />After I have my staples picked out, I pick out other pieces such as tops and shoes that can coordinate with them. If you’re interested in seeing more details on some other pieces I will be bringing let me know, and I will write a follow up post. <br /><br />I hope this post helps some of you and gives you some ideas on which items from your closet will make it into your Dreamforce bag. I would love to see what you are bringing, so write a post, take a picture or make a list and tweet it out with the hashtag #DF14COS so you can enter the contest too! <br /><br />Looking forward to seeing you in October and as always, thank you for reading.<br /><br />Cheryl</span></div>
CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-26773453485997571932014-08-27T20:42:00.000-07:002014-08-27T20:46:19.694-07:00Packing For Dreamforce - Shoes<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let me start this post by telling all of you my nickname, Cheryl Shoes. My friends made this name up for me when I was 19, and it kind of stuck. If you can’t already tell by that nickname, I love shoes! Shoes are like art to me. It’s the way someone can express himself or herself through footwear. I have lots of different kinds of shoes, but as far as Dreamforce goes, I pack shoes with the two C’s in mind…comfortable and cute.<br /><br />I give a lot of credit to women who can rock heels at Dreamforce; I am unfortunately, not one of those women. I tried wearing heels at my first Dreamforce. The space wasn’t nearly as big as it is now, and my feet were killing me after the first day. After the first day of sessions, I bought a pair of black flats. I knew after that experience that for any future Dreamforce, it would be flats only. <br /><br />So, for Dreamforce ’14 what will I be bringing? Below is a picture of some of my flats that may make it into my bag. I will have to finalize my outfits first before I make the final shoe decision, but I do know of a few pairs that will definitely make it into my bag. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br /><b><i>Black Boots</i></b> – I am so glad I had these with me last year since it rained a lot. The black boots shown below I purchased just before Dreamforce last year, and they held up really well. Mine are from Torrid, which in case you are not familiar is a plus size clothing store, but they also carry shoes. If you struggle with wide calves, I recommend checking this store out even if you are not plus sized - their boots have a wider calf than other brands. I will pair these boots with my sweater dress and they can be paired with jeans or other pants if it gets rainy, so my feet don’t get wet. <br /><br /><b><i>Black dressy flats</i></b> – I have a few pairs of black flats, patent leather, black leather and suede. Last year I brought just my black leather flats with me. I’m thinking that I may bring my black patent leather flats with me. They look really cute with black pants or jeans and they are really comfy.<br /><br /><b><i>Coach Sneakers</i></b> – I bought my first pair of coach sneakers just before Dreamforce ’12. I was looking for a pair of sneakers that were dressy, but still gave the comfort of sneakers. These were perfect. Two years and miles of pavement later, they are shot. I just purchased a new pair, which you can see in the back right of the below picture. They definitely fit the two C’s, cute and comfortable! I will probably wear them to travel, as well as anytime during Dreamforce where my feet need some extra support. If you’re looking for a pair of these or any other dressy sneakers check out DSW, that’s where I got mine, and they were about $30 less than what Coach has them for on their website. <br /><br /><b><i>Flip flops</i></b> – I recommend bringing a pair of these to walk around your hotel in. Sometimes putting on your socks and shoes can be a hassle if you just want to run out to the ice machine or even just to walk around your room. I personally don’t like the idea of walking barefoot in a hotel, but that’s just my quirk - I do not judge others who do it.<br /><br />This list may change based on what I end up packing. I can certainly update you on what shoes are in my bag as I’m packing for Dreamforce if you’re interested. I hope this post helps some of you. If you love shoes too, definitely share what shoes you are packing for Dreamforce. I’m always looking for ideas and shoe-inspiration. Don’t forget to tag what you share with the hashtag #DF14COS so you can be entered into the contest!<br /><br />Can anyone else believe Dreamforce is less than two months away?! I’m getting excited! As always, thank you for reading.<br /><br />Cheryl</span></div>
CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-60665437288881090172014-08-27T20:41:00.000-07:002014-08-27T20:41:35.359-07:00Packing for Dreamforce - Makeup & Hair Goodies<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you haven’t read my blog before, let me start by telling you that I am a makeup artist on the side. I used to do hair and makeup full time prior to my career as a Salesforce Admin and Business Analyst. If you’re curious as to how I got here, you can ready my story <a href="http://cherfeldman.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-best-thing-i-built-on-salesforce-my.html" target="_blank">here</a>. With that being said, I love makeup; I might love makeup more than I love shoes. If were given a choice as to which I loved more, I couldn’t choose! It would be like picking a favorite child. As I mentioned on my previous post about shoes, shoes are a way of expression to me, for me makeup is the same. With all of that being said, as far as Dreamforce goes, I don’t go too crazy. It is technically work, although for me, it’s my favorite time of year. I love it more than Hanukah, Christmas and my Birthday combined!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Before I get into this, I want to post a disclaimer; I would never ever tell anyone they have to or should wear makeup. As I mentioned above, I have loved makeup for as long as I can remember and it is always a key component of packing for me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When choosing products to bring with me on any sort of trip, I think about a few things:</span><br />
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<li>What type of event is it</li>
<li>What types of looks will I be doing</li>
<li>Will I be doing anyone else’s makeup</li>
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For Dreamforce I stick to full coverage looks, similar to what I would wear to work, but something that I know will stay all day, won’t move and will photograph nicely. If you didn’t hear on the Road to Dreamforce episode on <a href="http://salesforcedemo.vidyard.com/watch/B6fgASO1n1WJ6WeZqAykfw" target="_blank">admin success at Dreamforce</a>, there is going to be a photographer available to take headshots in the Admin Zone!<br /><br />I posted a picture below of the products I will most likely bring with me. I’m not going to go into detail on each item, but for each category of makeup I will go into the type of makeup I chose and why.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br /> <br /><br /><b><i><u>Skincare</u></i></b> – When travelling, I typically only bring a few skincare items with me that are easy to use, effective and travel friendly.<br /><br /><b><i>Makeup Remover Wipes</i></b> – my favorite brand is <a href="http://www.target.com/p/neutrogena-makeup-remover-cleansing-towelettes-refill-pack-25-count/-/A-11536492?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=google_pla_df&LNM=11536492&CPNG=Health+Beauty&kpid=11536492&LID=17pgs&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=11536492&kpid=11536492&gclid=CjwKEAjwg_afBRD3rpChlqiKt1ESJACwY6Nk8IR1yKTgL4meX_yemg5lxW9fU1ecMsH8s6JyQNoqKRoCAcrw_wcB" target="_blank">Neutrogena</a>, these take off a good amount of makeup and never irritate my eyes. These are also great for touch ups. This is also more sanitary to use on others when doing makeup on other people, so you’re not potentially spreading bacteria in a bottle of eye makeup remover. <br /><br /><b><i>Daily Facial Cleansing Cloths </i></b>– Oil of Olay makes these, but to be honest, I always get the <a href="http://www.walmart.com/ip/Equate-Hydrating-Cloths-Everyday-Facial-60-CT/10322074" target="_blank">Wal-Mart brand</a> (they work the same). These are dry cloths that you can wet and have cleanser on them. They take off everything including waterproof mascara. <br /><br /><i><b>Moisturizer</b></i> – I usually just put some of my moisturizer into a little travel bottle and throw it in my carry on. The one I’m currently using is by <a href="http://www.target.com/p/garnier-moisture-rescue-refreshing-gel-cream-for-normal-to-combination-skin-1-7-oz/-/A-12758696" target="_blank">Garnier</a>. If you have dry skin check this line out, works just as well as some of the high-end brands.<br /><br /><b><i><u>Face Makeup</u></i></b><br /><br /><b><i>Primers </i></b>– The key to getting your foundation to stay all day is a good primer or primers for different purposes. Think about painting a wall, you prime the wall before you apply the paint so the paint applies evenly, same goes for foundation. I’m loving the <a href="http://www.sephora.com/veil-mineral-primer-spf-15-P210575?skuId=1319193&om_mmc=ppc-GG&mkwid=kmIWD5iZ&pcrid=50233217079&pdv=c&site=us_search&country_switch=us&lang=en&gclid=CjwKEAjwg_afBRD3rpChlqiKt1ESJACwY6NkeLzIa-7boZ-eWJmsUsXcVni2-fqzzY9wFr1cyC_p6hoCJn_w_wcB" target="_blank">Hourglass primer</a>, which I apply all over, especially in my dry areas. A lot of us struggle with large pores. There is nothing you can do to make your pores go away or to change their shape, but you can minimize their appearance. I really like the <a href="http://www.target.com/p/nyx-pore-filler/-/A-14584260" target="_blank">pore minimizing primer by NYX</a> for this. If you like <a href="http://www.benefitcosmetics.com/product/view/the-porefessional" target="_blank">Porefessional by Benefi</a><a href="http://www.benefitcosmetics.com/product/view/the-porefessional" target="_blank">t,</a> it’s almost an exact dupe for about 1/3 of the price. I just apply this where I have large pores (on my cheeks and forehead). <br /><br /><b><i>Foundation</i></b> – I’m going to bring my <a href="http://www.sephora.com/bareskin-pure-brightening-serum-foundation-P385364?skuId=1576644&om_mmc=ppc-GG&mkwid=oyeW1GZl&pcrid=49113168159&pdv=c&site=us_search&country_switch=us&lang=en&gclid=CjwKEAjwg_afBRD3rpChlqiKt1ESJACwY6NkMzvHMPUqKRymF8l6l-g_HFDeSFguqbWdSJSbNAMUrBoCpUbw_wcB" target="_blank">Bare Minerals</a> makeup with me. I love this foundation. You can build it up to a very full coverage or use it lightly for minimal coverage. What I love most about this is when you do make it full coverage it does last a long time. If you’re speaking and going to be under hot lights, Bare Minerals in most cases doesn’t break down where other foundations might. If you’re looking for a good drug store foundation, check out <a href="http://www.target.com/p/revlon-colorstay-makeup-with-softflex-for-combination-oily-skin/-/A-11127827?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=google_pla_df&LNM=11127827&CPNG=Health+Beauty&kpid=11127827&LID=17pgs&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=11127827&kpid=11127827&gclid=CjwKEAjwg_afBRD3rpChlqiKt1ESJACwY6NkTRvipZmP0maUXPuqnudNNDOzrJ7dZoha4EkS_huYrRoCvcjw_wcB" target="_blank">Revlon Color Stay</a>. This has been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember. It can feel a bit heavy on the skin, so if you’re not used to wearing foundation you may not like it, and it isn’t as travel friendly as Bare Minerals. <br /><br /><b><i>Concealer</i></b> – I use <a href="http://www.target.com/p/maybelline-fit-me-concealer/-/A-13660418" target="_blank">Maybelline Fit Me concealer</a>, it’s creamy and really brightens your under eyes. It’s an almost exact dupe for <a href="http://www.sephora.com/radiant-creamy-concealer-P377873?skuId=1478387&om_mmc=ppc-GG&mkwid=F13K04Ih&pcrid=49113162879&pdv=c&site=us_search&country_switch=us&lang=en&gclid=CjwKEAjwg_afBRD3rpChlqiKt1ESJACwY6Nk9t6MUyAG03JrOAz8SfSxJ9YRU_2Znz4ZkjMSN3wDXRoCA0Lw_wcB" target="_blank">NARS Radiant Creamy concealer</a> for about 1/5 of the price. <br /><br /><b><i>Setting Powder</i></b> – This is something I definitely wanted to touch on. If you know you’re going to be photographed, stay away from the white setting powders (<a href="http://www.sephora.com/hd-microfinish-powder-P210400" target="_blank">like Makeup Forever HD</a>), these can cause flashback. They are great for film, bad for photography. When I say flashback I mean your face appearing 3 shades lighter than the rest of your body. If you are looking for a good setting powder to set concealer or foundation with, get one that has some color in it. I recommend <a href="http://camerareadycosmetics.com/products/ben-nye-bella-luxury-powder.html" target="_blank">Ben Nye Banana Powder</a> for setting concealer. I use the<a href="http://www.sephora.com/bareminerals-original-foundation-broad-spectrum-spf-15-P61003?skuId=747410&om_mmc=ppc-GG&mkwid=Rmswpr3W&pcrid=50233217079&pdv=c&site=us_search&country_switch=us&lang=en&gclid=CjwKEAjwg_afBRD3rpChlqiKt1ESJACwY6NkjUyNhHQnuJjQGSEpIt7FJxoZoX8v1W5UjdGQPE0pDhoCGqfw_wcB" target="_blank"> Bare Minerals mineral foundation</a> to set the liquid version of their foundation. <br /><br /><b><i>Blush/Bronzer/Highlighter</i></b> – I typically like to bring one palette that I can use with various colors. The one you see in the picture is by Tarte. This palette was limited edition, so I won't be able to link to it. I will probably bring this or something like it with a highlighter and deeper bronzer for contouring.<br /><br /><b><i><u>Eye Makeup</u></i></b><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Eye Primer</i></b> – similar to what I mentioned above about face primer, the same goes with eyes. If you don’t use primer, eye shadow can tend to crease and by the end of the day it may look like you never even had shadow on. My holy grail eye primer is <a href="http://www.sephora.com/eyeshadow-primer-potion-tube-original-P284716" target="_blank">Primer Potion by Urban Decay</a>. I have tried so many other brands and this is the best one I’ve ever used. <br /><br /><b><i>Eye Shadow</i></b> – the palette I show here is the <a href="http://www.sephora.com/full-exposure-palette-P383775" target="_blank">Full Exposure Palette by Smashbox</a>. I will probably bring this or a palette like it so I have different colors to choose from, but are all in the somewhat neutral color family. If you’re looking for a drug store alternative to this, check out the new <a href="http://www.maybelline.com/Products/Eye-Makeup/Eye-Shadow/The-Nudes-Palette.aspx" target="_blank">Nudes Palette by Maybelline</a>. <br /><br /><b><i>Eye Liner</i></b> – This is probably the toughest product to get to stay all day. Even if a product claims to be “bullet proof” our eyes tear throughout the day, we sometimes rub them, and when we do that, off comes our eyeliner. I find that after applying a liner if you set it with some shadow of the same color it will last much longer. I tend use a <a href="http://www.maybelline.com/Products/Eye-Makeup/Eye-Liner/eye-studio-lasting-drama-gel-eyeliner.aspx" target="_blank">gel liner</a> on my top lash line and a <a href="http://www.mallybeauty.com/evercolor-starlight-waterproof-eyeliner-singles" target="_blank">pencil liner</a> in my water line.<br /><br /><b><i>Mascara</i></b> – You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get long, full lashes. My favorite mascara is by a brand called <a href="http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=xlsImpprod5050091" target="_blank">Essence</a>. It’s in a pink tube in the picture below. Its less than $5 at Ulta and performs similar to <a href="http://www.benefitcosmetics.com/product/view/theyre-real" target="_blank">They’re Real by Benefit</a> or <a href="http://www.sephora.com/diorshow-mascara-P40404?skuId=651323&om_mmc=ppc-GG&mkwid=wFFtUZfQ&pcrid=50233217079&pdv=c&site=us_search&country_switch=us&lang=en&gclid=CjwKEAjwg_afBRD3rpChlqiKt1ESJACwY6NkK8KeOvQDo_ncTF8Nz9ITgFnlZCgmFZ3vfVGNSVCFOBoCmzXw_wcB" target="_blank">DiorShow by Dior</a>. I can make my lashes look like falsies with 2-3 coats of this mascara. <br /><br /><b><i>False lashes </i></b>– For a very dramatic look I will wear false lashes. I will probably do this for the concert. My favorite lashes are the ones in the picture. I got them at IMATS earlier this year (makeup artist trade show) and they don’t have a brand on them, sorry. But if you are looking for false lashes I recommend the <a href="http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=xlsImpprod3190269" target="_blank">Demi Wispies by Ardell</a>. You can find them in most drug stores. <br /><br /><b><i><u>Lips</u></i></b><br /><br />I don’t plan on doing any crazy lip looks, so I will probably bring 1-2 neutral colored lipsticks and the same for lip-glosses. I featured a few in the picture below. The only other necessity for me is some sort of lip balm. When I talk a lot my lips get very dry. My favorite at the moment is by <a href="http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=xlsImpprod3490245" target="_blank">EOS</a>. You can get them at any drug store. <br /><br /><b><i><u>All about hair</u></i></b><br /><br />As far as hair goes, I’m doing something different this year. I’m not going to bring much hair product with me, maybe a dry shampoo, some hairspray and a few hair ties. I’ve decided I’m going to treat myself to the <a href="http://www.thedrybar.com/" target="_blank">DryBar</a> on Sunday the 12th. Even though I can give myself a killer blow out, in order for me to do this I need to schlep my dryer, my brushes, and product, which adds a lot of weight to my bags. For $40, I can get my hair blown out. If you haven’t been to the DryBar you should check them out. They have two locations in San Francisco. I’ll be going to the one in Union Square and already have my appointment booked. Typically I can get my blow out to last 3-4 days with <a href="http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=xlsImpprod3560065#" target="_blank">dry shampoo</a>. If you don’t know, I have very thick, coarse, dry, curly hair, so I don’t really have a problem with oily hair. If anyone wants to go with me, let me know and I’ll tell you my appointment time and you can book yours at the same time. It’s a lot of fun.<br /><br />I hope this post was helpful to some of you. If you have any specific makeup questions, please leave a comment below and I can answer. If you’re looking to have your makeup done by me, leave a comment below as well. There is no fee if you let me take before and after pictures that I can use for my portfolio. We will just need to plan ahead to make sure our schedules match up. <br /><br />If you love makeup like me, and are making your list of makeup essentials for Dreamforce share it with the hashtag of #DF14COS so you can be entered into the contest, too!<br /><br />As always, thank you for reading. See you soon!!! Dreamforce is almost here!!!<br /><br />Cheryl</span></div>
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CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-74212700547588572992014-08-27T20:40:00.000-07:002014-08-27T20:46:09.830-07:00Packing For Dreamforce - My Suitcase and Other Accessories<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Since the idea of this contest was to show your bag(s) that you are bringing to Dreamforce, you can see mine below. I always get compliments on my suitcase when I travel, so I thought I would share some details about it and tell you where you can get one too. <br /><br />I purchased the suitcase you see in the picture below for Dreamforce last year. I don’t travel that much anymore, so I had a crappy suitcase that was basically falling apart. I decided to treat myself to a new suitcase. I got this one from <a href="http://www.kohls.com/" target="_blank">Kohls</a>, the brand is <a href="http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-1576884/American-Tourister-Luggage-Roadshow-4-pc-Floral-Luggage-Set.jsp?ci_mcc=ci&srccode=cii_17588969&cpncode=36-4028640-2&CID=shopping15" target="_blank">American Tourister</a>, and it came in a set of three. There was the largest one, which you see in the picture, a medium size suitcase and a small travel tote. The whole set was on sale for $99 and it’s held up really well. I’ve taken 4 trips with it and no issues so far. I have also seen this brand at Wal-Mart and Target, so definitely check these stores for luggage sets if you need one. Another great place to find deals on expensive luggage brands is T.J. Maxx or Nordstrom Rack, you can find nice pieces there that are heavily discounted. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG128ew0D91uKGGxZaNiFUGM18ZLx9Ed8m67WCg0OdRfRRLgvMVXLD7AhVnNttAiLNRJfj66d58NYHvs9Ibtsa6Gl0PADjMKt7kRaq_hryotJ17mA7FcZ7oYrGBOwAmUoQQDhD6aPFDqc/s1600/IMG_2794.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG128ew0D91uKGGxZaNiFUGM18ZLx9Ed8m67WCg0OdRfRRLgvMVXLD7AhVnNttAiLNRJfj66d58NYHvs9Ibtsa6Gl0PADjMKt7kRaq_hryotJ17mA7FcZ7oYrGBOwAmUoQQDhD6aPFDqc/s1600/IMG_2794.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></span></div>
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<br /><br />The black Tory Burch bag you see across the suitcase is my favorite cross body bag. This was my splurge earlier this year at a Tory Burch outlet center in upstate NY. I recommend bringing a cross body bag that you can use at night or when walking around. This way it keeps your hands/arms free for other things while still being able to keep your bag close to you. This particular bag has a long cross body strap that can be removed as well as a shorter gold plated strap that can be used to carry this as more of an evening bag. This strap can be removed as well. If you are looking for a bag like this and looking for a more affordable option check out <a href="http://www.target.com/c/handbags-women-s-accessories/cross-body-bags/-/N-5xtboZ562x9" target="_blank">Target</a>. They have a great bag selection. I have a few nice bags from Target that can pass as a designer bag. I have a bag that looks similar to this, but in a different color that was less than $30 at Target. <br /><br />The last bag you see in this picture is my <b><i>Dreamforce backpack</i></b> from last year. I love this backpack so much. I carry my laptop and other office essentials back and forth between my physical office and home office all the time. It’s my favorite Dreamforce bag…ever. I will be using this bag to carry pretty much the same things I normally carry in it: my electronics and my notebooks, plus any items I want to carry on board with me. I tend to bring as much of my makeup on board with me as possible since some of it is breakable, and don’t want to risk it getting smashed in my bag. <br /><br />There are some other things that I wanted to mention that I feel are necessities for me, so here is my list: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Umbrella</i></b> – just in case it rains again, they did give out free ones, but it was nice to have my own with me. <br />Extra Ziplock bags – I always carry a few extra just in case </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Sunglasses</i></b> – I always wear my sunglasses when walking in the city during the day and it will be no different for me in San Francisco, it keeps wind and sun out of your eyes. If you are looking for cute and affordable sunglasses check out Forever 21, they have most sunglasses for less than $10. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Hand Sanitizer</i></b> – I keep this handy in my bag so if I am around a lot of people or touching something like a public stairwell I can get rid of any germs on my hands if I can’t get to a sink. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Hand Moisturizer</i></b> – Since the above can dry your hands out, I always keep this handy in my bag. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Tissues</i></b> – Those little purse packs can come in really handy when you’re traveling. <br /><br />I hope you found this helpful. Don’t forget to share your bag or what you are packing for Dreamforce with the hashtag #DF14COS so you can be entered in the contest, too! <br /><br />As always, thank you for reading.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cheryl</span></div>
CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com135tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-36724867634617552832014-08-27T20:39:00.000-07:002014-08-27T20:48:43.891-07:00Packing for Dreamforce - Electronics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Before each Dreamforce I go through the debate of, “Should I bring my laptop or should I leave it at home?” Last year, I decided to leave my laptop home and only travel with my iPhone and iPad. I will be honest, I did miss my laptop last year. I have never really brought my laptop to sessions, but where it does come in useful is if I have to respond to an email and it’s going to be a lengthy response, it’s much easier to type on my laptop. The other reason I missed my laptop was after some sessions I wanted to try out a feature that I just learned about, and I couldn’t really do that without a laptop. That’s when I missed my laptop the most.<br /><br /> <br />So, this year I’ve decided to bring the following electronics with me:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFHNx8sVdms61Xd_vksyh63aoFkDsbzWr0ME-lRLxOXTat9bEBLlbn2u8sbHrfA0NFSt2xeW6k4cBAG8lRKQmoDBTw5Xyh0zeg-h7I5PFiEDth-8R34hRU7idTLdukZoM7pFzkvoZ5f8/s1600/IMG_2810.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFHNx8sVdms61Xd_vksyh63aoFkDsbzWr0ME-lRLxOXTat9bEBLlbn2u8sbHrfA0NFSt2xeW6k4cBAG8lRKQmoDBTw5Xyh0zeg-h7I5PFiEDth-8R34hRU7idTLdukZoM7pFzkvoZ5f8/s1600/IMG_2810.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">iPhone – this is my personal phone</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Samsung S4 – this is my work phone</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">iPad – more for reading on the plane</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Laptop</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Extra battery power for smartphones – I have one by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Compact-Portable-Lipstick-Sized-Technology-Smartphones/dp/B00EET7UHE/ref=sr_1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1409196894&sr=1-1&keywords=anker+pink" target="_blank">Anker </a>you can see in the picture below. It works really well and it’s pink!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Headphones – mine are by <a href="http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/shop_online/headphones/audio_headphones/in_ear_headphones/index.jsp&Variant=mie2_headset" target="_blank">Bose</a> and I love them.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Charging cords</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F5TC1QM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A14L9DIA3NK9B0" target="_blank">Extra lenses for iPhone</a> – I recently ordered these from Amazon, they are supposed to make some really cool effects for pictures taken with your camera.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Apps – my necessary apps on my iPhone are – Dreamforce App, Salesforce1, SalesforceA, Google maps, Uber, United Airlines (airline I’m taking). </span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />I hope you find this helpful. What electronics are you bringing with you to Dreamforce? Is there something missing on my list that you’re going to bring? Tweet your list of what you’re bringing with the hashtag of #DF14COS so you can be entered in the contest, too.<br /><br /> <br />As always, thanks for reading.<br /><br />Cheryl</span></div>
CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-86447431741479338252014-07-24T12:52:00.000-07:002014-07-25T06:18:46.886-07:00The best vacation day...ever.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yesterday, July 23</span><sup style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">rd</sup><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, was the sixth day of my
vacation, and so far one of my favorite days.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No, I didn’t go to the beach or anything like that.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I attended the </span><a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/chatter/groups/GroupProfilePage?g=0F9300000001oKu" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">NYC Salesforce.com User Group</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and helped facilitate User Group Therapy sessions. You may be reading this and
looking at the title again, saying to yourself, “Didn’t she just say vacation
day?”</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, you read correctly.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A few weeks ago, I received an email from <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/profile?u=005300000045NMWAA2" style="mso-comment-date: 20140724T1006; mso-comment-reference: SA_2;" target="_blank">Kendra Webb-Scott</a>, the NYC Salesforce.com User Group Leader, stating that she was going to
be trying something new at the NYC User Group called User Group Therapy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The description of this read, “You asked, and
we listened! Our focus for the next meeting is all about YOU! One of the
biggest benefits of the User Group community is getting tips and best practices
from your peers to make the most out of your CRM. That's why we're introducing
User Group Therapy - an open forum session to allow all attendees to ask
questions, seek advice, share experiences and generally help each other out.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I read this, I immediately knew I wanted
to attend this and offer up to help out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I can’t think of a better way to give back to the community that has
helped me so much than to facilitate a session like this. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kendra had this broken out into three different 45-minute
sessions, which were held downstairs from the main area where the partners were
presenting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There really weren’t
specific topics, but each session had different facilitators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The session I was facilitating with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=37142279&goback=" style="mso-comment-date: 20140724T1008; mso-comment-reference: SA_3;" target="_blank">Jean Winget</a> was first at 9 AM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That first
session had around eight attendees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After brief introductions, we jumped right in and the questions and
comments just started flowing naturally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The questions included making sure the right people were informed about Opportunities,
building mobile apps, data integrity, tools for data cleansing, and some
general adoption questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
co-facilitator, Jean, is a database/data expert and offered up some great
advice on what to do if you have dirty data coming in from an integration, and
who you may want to reach out to at your company to help you fix it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ended the session by talking about some
great administrator tools that come out-of-the-box, such as workflow,
validation rules, visual workflow (flow), and of course, my favorite, publisher
actions!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the first User Group Therapy session ended, it seemed
that word spread like wildfire about what was going on downstairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I was gathering my things to head back
upstairs, I realized how big the group had gotten in the room; it more than
doubled in size for the next two facilitators, <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/userprofile/UserProfilePage?u=00530000005RF7M&tab=sfdc.ProfilePlatformFeed" style="mso-comment-date: 20140724T1118; mso-comment-reference: SA_4;" target="_blank">Ohad Idan</a> and <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/profile?u=00530000003rWkYAAU" style="mso-comment-date: 20140724T1119; mso-comment-reference: SA_5;" target="_blank">Carlos Frias</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided to stay because I
thought there might be even more interesting discussion, because Ohad and
Carlos both act as both admins and developers at their respective
companies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have always enjoyed hearing
their perspective on things, so I knew this was going to be a great
session.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second session started similarly with brief
introductions, then everyone just jumped right into it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first question was around Documents vs. Content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Various people in the room, including myself,
were able to answer questions on Libraries, some best practices on Libraries
and some benefits of Content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then,
someone in the room made a comment about the session in general, “I can’t say
the word workflow at my company, because I’m the only one who understands what
that word means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love that I can come
here and talk to others who know what that means and can talk about challenges,
ask questions, and see what others are doing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This started to lead the discussion around the path of community, not
just community, but The Salesforce community and how great it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carlos pulled up the <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/chatter/groups/GroupProfilePage?g=0F9300000001oKu" style="mso-comment-date: 20140724T1122; mso-comment-reference: SA_6;" target="_blank">New York User Group page</a> on
the Success Community and showed everyone how to access it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People
in the room started to share their stories of how much the community has helped
them over the years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carlos and Ohad
started to go through the different tabs on the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they got to the Ideas tab, more
discussion started to happen on why you should vote on ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ohad pointed out that they now put in the
release notes all of the ideas that were delivered in that release.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I talked about how one of my ideas was
delivered in this release, and how many Ideas points Salesforce Product
Managers released this past release.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
also talked about the power of the community, and how if outside of these
meetings if anyone needs advice just post on the New York User Group Page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once they got to the Answers tab, some of the
attendees started to recount <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/userprofile/UserProfilePage?u=0053000000235By&tab=sfdc.ProfilePlatformFeed" style="mso-comment-date: 20140724T1125; mso-comment-reference: SA_7;" target="_blank">Steve Mo</a><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span>answering
their question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a lot of
community love in the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the other major topics discussed was Chatter, on
successful rollout and adoptions. There was one name that must have come up
about five times during this discussion, and that name is <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/profile?u=00530000005omETAAY" style="mso-comment-date: 20140724T1126; mso-comment-reference: SA_8;" target="_blank">Becky Webster</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were several of us talking about some
of her great <a href="http://beckymaew.com/2014/05/01/using-your-inbox-to-keep-up-with-chatter-part-1/" style="mso-comment-date: 20140724T1126; mso-comment-reference: SA_9;" target="_blank">blog posts</a> as well as her <a href="http://beckymaew.com/2013/10/09/join-my-dreamforce-13-sessions/" style="mso-comment-date: 20140724T1127; mso-comment-reference: SA_10;" target="_blank">Dreamforce presentations</a><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span>from last year. We plan to post them on the
New York User Group page so everyone can watch because they are so
helpful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the community discussion, the second session wrapped
up with questions around communication and training to users and some best
practices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were so many great
suggestions in the room for the newbie admin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In my opinion, this is why these sessions were so successful. You had
people from all types of companies, in various roles, helping each other be
successful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://success.salesforce.com/profile?u=00530000009pmblAAA" target="_blank">Allister McKenzie</a> and <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/profile?u=0053000000AKX6oAAH" style="mso-comment-date: 20140724T1129; mso-comment-reference: SA_13;" target="_blank">Vikram Kamra</a>, who both have a wealth of Salesforce
knowledge and experience, facilitated the third session.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was actually Vikram’s first user group in
NYC, but even though he didn’t know anyone, he was completely willing to help
as many people as possible and share more than a decade worth of Salesforce
knowledge. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figured I had stayed for
the first two sessions, why not stay for all three? I’m so glad I did. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The third session went through even more
detail on Chatter, including some of the benefits and how to convince your
manager to let you roll it out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
were so many great suggestions around this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We also talked about the different types of Sandboxes, what a Sandbox is,
and how you should use it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I talked
about how our developers use the different types of sandboxes for our
development process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also encouraged
everyone in the room, after they make sure they are on the success community, to
go to <a href="https://developer.salesforce.com/" style="mso-comment-date: 20140724T1130; mso-comment-reference: SA_14;" target="_blank">developer.salesforce.com</a> and sign up for a developer org. It’s free
and you can play with all sorts of stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the morning, I had set a goal for myself that I wanted to
try and help five admins at the user group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Together, we helped around 40 admins of all levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We received extremely positive feedback about
these sessions, and Kendra has now made this a staple for the NYC User Group!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am so happy to have been a part of this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will never forget when I first attended the NYC User Group
and how happy I was to get help with my formulas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it weren’t for those people, I may not
have the career I have today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m hoping
that at least one person has the same feeling and maybe at the next meeting
they will help facilitate a session and pay it forward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After reading this, I’m hoping now you will
see why this was my favorite day of my vacation so far.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To me, this isn’t work, this is fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As always, thank you for reading.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cheryl<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">P.S. – if you haven’t attended your local user group,
definitely do so, you can see a list of all user groups <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/usergroups" target="_blank">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-32292929195981927742014-07-07T17:08:00.000-07:002014-07-08T10:34:53.626-07:00Do Experienced Salesforce.com Admins Need A Certification?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Making the decision to get certified</i></span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As some of you know I have been a Salesforce Admin/BA for nearly 10 years, but I was never certified. It's not that I didn’t want to, it's just that I never made time for it. A few community friends of mine, as well as post from Button Click Admin, convinced me I should do it for a whole myriad of reasons. I started on this venture because I honestly got sick of people saying, “You’re so good I can’t believe you’re not certified, just do it you’ll pass.“<br /><br />When I made my decision that I was going to get certified, I set a goal to be certified by July 31, 2014. I highly recommend putting a goal with an actual date around it otherwise you'll never take the plunge. You'll just keep saying next month or next year, which is basically what I did. I honestly made the decision because I was sick of people nagging me. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i> Studying and Practicing for the Certification</i></span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once my mind was made up that I was going to do this, the first thing I did was google “Salesforce Practice Certification Test.” Oh boy where do I start? There is some bad information out there. I remember taking one practice test and the first question on the test was clearly wrong. It only got worse as the test went on.<br /><br /><br />Here is an example of that:<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/6Gx_srNei3rWSy_lpg905ItqaFnVdWwJrx0wbJoV0Y7g8ZwwphuwI4c0UBw07QsVnWFhc1eVp82QWcS5Lv1StCaGhx-ripq1UEpvwNgThdHnTKlf8RPQFLqnMkKQEw46Xw" /><br /><br /><br />I gave up on finding a good practice site and joined the “<a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/chatter/groups/GroupProfilePage?g=0F9300000001rNS">NYC Cert Club</a>” which was members of the NYC User Group working together to get certified. Unfortunately my work schedule sometimes got so crazy I wasn’t able to make these sessions. Even though the sessions were recorded it wasn’t the same and I enjoyed the discussion and interaction I had with others. It's a great tool if you can make time for it, unfortunately I ended up having a mandatory meeting at the same time as this each week so it didn’t work out for me. I do highly encourage those who can carve out the time during their day to attend these. There are also certification groups on the community you can join <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/chatter/groups/GroupProfilePage?g=0F9300000001pLJ">here</a> (please keep in mind you will need to meet their qualifications mentioned on their page). <br /><br /><br />I started to take a different strategy. I <a href="https://developer.salesforce.com/signup">signed up for a new developer org</a> solely for the purpose of practicing for the admin exam. When I first started on this venture, I was using a configuration only sandbox tied to my org. Shortly after starting to study some out of the box features, I realized this was not the best approach since my org is so highly customized. Once I setup a free developer org, I found that it was even more beneficial for me, because I was able to see what Salesforce comes with out of the box. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I wasn't prepared for what was going to happen next...</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An interesting thing started to happen that I was completely unprepared for. It was an unexpected surprise. I was learning not only for the certification, but for the benefit of my company and well, my career. After I spent about 4 hours on a Sunday afternoon reading the help section and playing around in my developer org, I sent an email to my team highlighting some best practices and even about some features we could be using. I started to see the benefit of the certification right away. It wasn’t that I just needed this cool little icon on my Twitter picture, it's that I was learning about features that I wouldn’t normally look at. Features I didn’t necessarily have requirements for, but I started to figure out ways our business users could use them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />As I mentioned above when I first started this venture it was more about getting people off my back about getting certified rather than all of the benefit that could possibly come with getting certified. I think this was because I never really saw what the big deal was about being certified. My studying became more about how I could help better our implementation rather than a status thing or proving my knowledge to someone, which is what I prefer anyway and part of what drove me to keep doing this every Sunday. I was building my own knowledge as well as building our backlog.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Finally a Great practice resource</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was about a month ago when I came across a site called <a href="http://certifiedondemand.com/">Certified on Demand</a>. I was blown away. They offer free content as well as paid content. They have their site broken out into sections of the test. I decided to pay for a membership of $40.00. The first thing I did after paying for a membership is start taking the quizzes for each section without reading through the sections to see how well I did and what I needed to work on. Turns out on most of the quizzes I was scoring 90-100%. There were a few in areas where I hadn’t used or studied yet that I needed to work on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />When I was taking the quizzes and I got something wrong I would write down the topic(s) on a piece of paper near my desk and keep a running list. Every Sunday, I would dedicate at least one hour to knocking a few of these items off of my list. What I would do is open up my dev org, and the help, section and learn about the topic/feature and start to play with it in my dev org. I personally find that I learn better by actually setting up a feature rather than just reading or memorizing something from the help section. </span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Jumping in with both feet</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I looked at my calendar and June was halfway over. I decided to register for my exam, I figured if I had an exact date then I would push myself harder to spend more time studying. After I knocked all of my topics of my list and went through each one in my dev org it was the weekend before my certification. I decided to take the full practice test on <a href="http://certifiedondemand.com/">Certified on Demand</a>. You know what, all of the hard work paid off, first time around I got all but two correct! I looked at the two questions I got wrong and studied up and took it again Monday evening and got all but one correct. I started to google for more practice tests to cram the night before. I found some answers to practice questions on <a href="http://www.shellblack.com/training-and-certification/sample-test-questions/">Shell Black’s website</a> and got all of the questions correct! I finally felt ready. I was going to do this. I was going to pass my certification with flying colors on my first try.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Answering the original question</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am happy to say that as of July 1, 2014 I’m officially a certified salesforce.com admin. I don’t know if it makes me any better at my job, but I definitely learned a lot through this experience. <i><b>So, do experienced or veteran admins need a certification?</b></i> Absolutely. You may know everything about your org/implementation but there maybe features that you haven't touched that could be helpful to your organization. It's not just about your org it's about the platform as a whole. When you become certified you become more than just an expert at your company, but an expert on the overall platform. I used to never see the big deal, now I do. I know there are probably about a dozen people reading this rolling their eyes, yelling, "We told you so!" So to those dozen people, thank you for nagging me. <br /><br />I would like to end this post by encouraging all “veteran admins” who haven’t been certified yet to do so. I guarantee that you will increase your knowledge about Salesforce beyond your org. Go for it. I did and don’t regret it one single bit. <br /><br />As always, thanks for reading.<br />Cheryl<br /><br /><b><i>PS - If you think Salesforce should come out with a good practice test with questions and answers vote for my idea <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=08730000000kyfVAAQ">here</a>.</i></b></span><br />
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CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-4975860572233795842014-06-24T19:08:00.001-07:002014-06-24T19:12:09.944-07:00How PEMDAS Can Help Salesforce Admins<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was recently contacted by a friend from the New York City User Group. She was having trouble getting a validation rule to work correctly, she wasn't getting a syntax error, but the rule wasn’t firing at the correct time. She asked if I had a few minutes to help her through this so she could get this new validation in production for their users. I got on the phone with my friend and she emailed me their formula, which looked something like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> AND( Approval__c = false, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Test_Price_1__c > Test_Price_2__c +Test_Price_3__c *.3)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> After speaking with my friend it turned out what she was trying to do was have a validation that a record couldn't be saved if it wasn’t submitted for approval and the first price field was greater than 30% of the sum of the second and third price fields. She couldn’t figure out what was wrong, she was able to save the validation rule so it wasn’t a syntax error. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> What I ended up doing is quickly re-creating the fields in a developer org I have setup so I could play with the rule. She told me that when she was testing she was using 500 in the first price field and 400 and 500 in the 2nd and 3rd price fields respectively. In her head she was thinking the result should be 270 (30% of 900), so she should not have been able to save. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> After reviewing the calculation I realized what salesforce was actually calculating was 30% of 500 + 400 which equals 550 so that’s why was able to save her test record. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> After she told me all of this I blurted out one word to her “PEMDAS”! I heard a “huh?” on the other line of the phone. I started to explain to her the Acronym for the order of operations of Math and what her validation rule was actually calculating.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I went through that Parentheses will be calculated first, Exponents second, then multiplication and division, then finally adding and subtracting. Even though we were just on the phone I felt like I heard the light bulb go off in her head. She said she understood what I meant and realized the problem wasn’t in her syntax but in her math. She applied PEMDAS and re-wrote the validation like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> AND( Approval__c = false, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Test_Price_1__c > (Test_Price_2__c +Test_Price_3__c) *.3)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I was really happy that I was able to help my friend with her validation rule and pass on a great lesson from one of my favorite teachers of all time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After helping my friend I posted a facebook status sharing my re-found love of the PEMDAS Acronym. “Mrs. Baker would be proud (my 7th grade math teacher). I still use PEMDAS to this day when writing Salesforce formulas. And you should too!” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It was through this post that I had a bunch of friends I went to Junior High with comment and share they all still use PEMDAS in their everyday lives too! I also had some friends from the Salesforce world ask about PEMDAS which is what inspired this blog post. If you would like to read more about PEMDAS or math in general check out this article from the <a href="http://www.mathsisfun.com/operation-order-pemdas.html" target="_blank">Math is Fun website</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I would like to dedicate this post to my 7th grade math teacher, Mrs. Baker. PEMDAS is just one of the many lessons that Mrs. Baker taught me. Mrs. Baker was all about making sure she fostered the love of math in both girls and boys. She even had an afterschool program she ran called “Girls Count” which was open to girls of all grades in our Junior High. Looking back I thought this was just a fun thing to do afters school that would help me in math and make friends. I didn’t realize that some of the lessons she taught us about believing in ourselves, going after our dreams and showing us that we could be just as good at math and science as boys would still be useful over 20 years later. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I hope this post helps some of you out there in Salesforce land and that you’ll think of PEMDAS the next time you write a formula or validation rule in Salesforce.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> As always thank you for reading.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Cheryl</span>CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-25596276372957925482014-05-28T21:05:00.004-07:002014-05-28T21:05:59.128-07:00Let’s Have An Adminathon! <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">For the past few months I’ve had the opportunity to mentor 6 great women within the Salesforce community. Most are what I consider a Next Generation “NextGen” Salesforce Admin. These are your sales reps, secretaries, marketing professionals, customer service reps, power users, etc. that are passionate about the Salesforce platform but haven’t held a Salesforce Admin position yet. These NextGen Admins want nothing more than to be a Salesforce Admin, some even hold certifications but lack work experience or maybe have some work experience but lack the certification.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I’ve been mentoring these wonderful people and working with them to take the next step in their career, I started to see some common challenges. They may have knowledge about the platform but aren’t exactly sure how to apply it. Meaning how do they solve a business problem with their knowledge. How can we take what they’ve learned studying for their certification and show them how to apply it to everyday business problems. Admins rarely get requests of “Please create 3 roles where their records share with these 5 roles.” Admins get a request like “Setup these 10 users that need to do x,y,z and have access to records from these people at this point in time and by the way these other 12 users need to be able to do that too but they can’t right now for some reason.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’ve always said that Salesforce isn’t hard to learn its the analytical skills and business process that’s hard to learn. So, how can we teach that to these NextGen Admins? How can we as a community show what we’ve learned over the past x amount of years about problem solving and pass it along here. Yes, there are some great blogs and things that talk about solving a specific business problem, but how do we give these people real life experience? Showing the process of solving a problem and designing a solution using Salesforce. How we troubleshoot, what to take into consideration, the types of questions to ask, how to see what’s already implemented and looking at existing data. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">A few weeks ago I was racking my brain about this. I even went so far as to see if I could get additional interns on my team so I could bring some of these people on for a Summer so they could see what its really like and how we solve problems, communicate with users, manage expectations and requirements and all the things Salesforce Admins do. Unfortunately we don’t have the budget for that this year, but it did make it to the ear of my VP, so maybe next year. When I’m racking my brain about something and I just can’t figure it out, I tend to go for a walk to clear my head. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was standing on the corner of Wall St. and Broadway waiting for the light to change so I could cross the </span><span style="line-height: 27px; white-space: pre-wrap;">street</span><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">, when I saw a guy wearing a Hackathon T-shirt. It said something about a hackathon for social good and teaching others. I remember thinking that’s cool a hackathon to help non-profits or at least that’s what it seemed like from his T-shirt. As I was continuing my walk back to my office it hit me. I sat down on the nearest bench and wrote this word </span></span><b style="font-family: Arial; font-variant: normal; line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“Adminathon”</i></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on the back of my receipt from lunch. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">When I arrived home that evening I pulled that receipt out of my pocket and started to think about the vision for an Adminathon and how I would like to see this concept setup and run.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ideally I think it should be like a Hackathon, kind of, but no prize money. It should be about teaching, learning and helping others. What if we took problems from 3 non-profits (just making up a number here) where they didn’t have the money to solve. Form 3 teams (1 team for each problem) of experienced Admins along with some NextGen Admins and solve the problem. Walk them through exactly what we would do to troubleshoot, design and implement a solution. Teach people while helping a non-profit. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">I originally thought Dreamforce might be a good place for this, but I think it maybe hard to accomplish. I started to think about the Salesforce1 Developer Week that recently took place. What if there was a similar Adminathon Week. What if in each major city there was something like this throughout a one or two week period each year. Teaching Admins how to build completely declaratively solving real world problems for a real company using only Salesforce. Also, if we do this locally it will help connect aspiring Admins to more experienced Admins for mentoring and networking for the future that are local to them. This opportunity may lead them to a job for a company that’s hiring or a connection that may lead to a job. The possibilities are endless. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">The reason why I think something like this would be so helpful is when I’m interviewing someone I’m not only testing their Salesforce knowledge but their problem solving and analytical skills. I’m not necessarily always looking for the right answer in a question I ask, but interested to see how they got there. That tells me a lot about their problem solving and analytical skills. The key to being a great admin is to have all three of these things and I think with a combination of mentoring and something like this we can help people develop these skills. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now, I know what some of you are thinking how do we make this work logistically, how do we pick the Non-profits, how much time is involved and probably a whole list of questions I haven’t thought of. These are all questions that need to be answered that I do not have the answer to. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is just my idea, maybe you have a better one to help the NextGen Admins. I’m completely open to feedback and suggestions on any of my ideas. Do you think it could work? How would you implement it?</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">As always, thanks for reading, I do appreciate it. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cheryl</span></span>CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-35938443259424092382014-04-22T18:56:00.004-07:002014-04-23T03:49:24.561-07:00How I Got My Yes and Fulfilled My Dream of Becoming a Salesforce Administrator! <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since I posted my blog post last month on “<a href="http://cherfeldman.blogspot.com/2014/03/all-it-takes-is-one-yes.html" target="_blank">All it takes is one yes</a>”, the most common question I’ve gotten is how I went about getting my yes and how I was able to really make the jump from secretary to full-time Salesforce Administrator. In honor of Administrative Professionals Day I thought today would be a great day to share this story.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-63ec386b-8c46-b7a6-749f-c740aea23aaf" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I had made the decision that I was ready to move-on from my company the first thing I did was get a resume ready. I spent most of a weekend working on it. I spent a Saturday afternoon in the Library reading books on Resume and Cover Letter writing. I took out two books from the library that I thought would be useful guides for me. I spent about 2-3 hours writing up my Resume and Cover Letter. Once I had these written up I posted them on Monster and Careerbuilder. I was sure I had a good resume and cover letter and that someone would contact me. About two weeks had gone by and no real bites. I had also applied to a few jobs on both sites with very little to no response back. It was very frustrating.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I decided to reach out to a few friends from the NYC Salesforce User Group and send them my resume to see what they thought. One of my friends got back to me and told me that I wasn’t highlighting my Salesforce Experience enough. The way my resume was set up was that I had an objective then talked about my work experience under each job I had. Listed in two bullet points under my secretarial role that I was doing Salesforce Administration and explaining what I had done. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My friend sent me a copy of his resume and the first thing I noticed at the top was under the objective there was a skills section listing out in three columns his experience. Each column was for a different overall skill set and then listing out the specifics. Underneath that there was a list of different project accomplishments relating to both Salesforce and a few other systems he had worked on. Then underneath that was his overall job experience where he listed his title, company worked for and duration of the position. All of the meat and potatoes was as at the top of the resume. I really liked this format and I knew this format could call out my specific Salesforce skill sets without hiding them underneath a secretary title. I spent another weekend updating my resume to look like my friend’s resume. It was definitely time well spent. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That weekend I updated my resume on both monster and careerbuilder and applied to some open positions. My friend’s suggestions worked! That week I heard back from two of the companies I applied with and got a few calls from recruiters about open positions. I had two interviews setup! Hooray!</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would love to tell you that one of those two interviews lead to a job, but they didn’t. I completely bombed my first interview. I was no nervous. The person interviewing me was asking me extremely technical questions that I didn’t even understand. When I didn’t understand what he was talking about I would like down and say “no I don’t know how to do that, or no I’ve never seen that or dealt with that.” The person interviewing me told me to get a few more years of experience under my belt and then reach out to him. I felt like a complete failure. I started to second-guess myself and wonder if I was ready to move into a full-time Salesforce Admin role. I decided that I would go for the next interview a few days later and see how that went.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second company I interviewed with went a lot better. The role was for a salesforce administrator but instead of reporting into technology the role was reporting into sales operations. I understood all of the questions being asked and was able to respond to all of them. The person interviewing me told me that she really liked me and was going to set up a second interview for me with her boss and two of her colleagues. The second interview I had went great as well. I was able to answer questions and even call on my own Salesforce experience when they were talking about some of the challenges they were having. After following up a few times after my interviews the hiring manager told me they put the position on hold. She did tell me that if they hadn’t put the position on hold that I would have been their first choice. That made me feel really good and helped me to keep going.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I went through another round of applying for jobs on every job site I could possibly find. I also started applying for all Salesforce Admin jobs. Even if they said they wanted five years of experience I applied anyway. I decided it was better to get my resume out there even if I didn’t fit their qualifications exactly. That was one of the best decisions I ever made. I got more interviews this way. Let’s face it, in 2005, Salesforce had only been around for six years so not many people had five years of Salesforce experience. </span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was coming towards the end of the Summer and I was still interviewing and applying for jobs. I had interviewed with about 8 different companies and no offer yet. I learned something new during each interview, something that would make me better for my next. I learned how to answer questions better so I became more confident. I learned that it was ok to say “no I haven’t dealt with that situation exactly, but I know I can learn.” I was searching one evening on Monster when I saw a job for a Field Operations Manager/Salesforce Administrator for a start-up company in the NYC suburbs. They were looking for someone with 1-2 years of work experience and 1-2 years of Salesforce experience. I applied for the job.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few days after I applied for the position at the start-up I got a call from their operations manager. He wanted to bring me in the following week for an interview. That weekend, I was at a family barbeque telling my family of my upcoming interview and my Mom told me she had a really good feeling about this one. I did too. A friend of the family gave me some advice, she told me to walk in there like I owned the place, like the job was already mine. I decided to do just that. I was going to be confident, poised and knowledgeable on this interview. I decided that I was going to ask them what their biggest Salesforce challenge was and see if I could solve it for them. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the interview I was able to answer all of their questions and at the conclusion of the interview the operations manager asked me if I had any questions. I decided to go for it. I asked “What’s your biggest challenge with Salesforce?” </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He looked at me and I think was a bit taken back by my question. He turned the computer screen around on his desk and showed me the Administrator profile. They had 50 users and 28 were administrators because they couldn’t figure out why when they moved a user into a service role and profile they could no longer see accounts owned by sales managers. He then showed me his dashboard which had all of these error messages on it where reports weren’t rendering. He also told me that because there were so many system admins that they had duplicate fields, duplicate (similar) picklist values and a big giant mess. Essentially they had Salesforce for just over a year but the person who started the project of implementing it had moved on before they could finish so they had a lot of stuff that wasn’t working, people had too much access and they weren’t really sure what it could do. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I spoke to him briefly about his first issue with visibility, I explained org wide defaults for objects, sharing, roles and profiles. He seemed to get it. Unfortunately he had another meeting but he told me he did want to continue the conversation and bring me in for a second interview with his boss, the COO and a few others the following week.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead of sending a generic thank you for interviewing me email, I decided to send a plan over on how he could fix his Salesforce org and some things he could do right away to move people out of the admin role and eliminate so much risk. I also offered to take a day off from my current job and work with them so they could “try me out.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next day the Operations Manager called me. He couldn’t believe that I sent him everything I sent him in just a few hours after our meeting. He took me up on bringing me in the following week. I took a personal day from my current secretarial job and arrived at what I knew would be my next employer ready to get started on fixing their Salesforce org.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I spent a good part of the morning fixing their role hierarchy, creating sharing rules and moving users out of the administrator profile. By noon I had moved over 20 people out of the Administrator profile and you know what they didn’t even notice because they were able to see the correct Accounts, Contacts and Opportunities. After lunch I spent the remainder of the day fixing reports and dashboards so they would run correctly. I also added some more charts to the dashboard for some key metrics I thought they’d want to see. I also made a list of duplicate fields and ran reports on usage and sent them to the Operations Manager so he could let me know which fields could be merged. I also told him about the data loader and that once he made that decision that I could easily load the data on the back-end to the surviving field so no data would be lost on purging fields. </span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the end of the day the Operations Manager called me into his office. In his office was the COO and the CFO of the company. He was showing them everything I did in one day. They couldn’t believe it. The COO was so happy that her dashboards were running. The CFO was so happy that she could see all of the correct opportunities and didn’t have to be in an admin profile anymore. We spent the next 15 minutes going through my plan of how we could clean up the duplicate fields and picklist values. At the end of the conversation the Operations Manager got up and picked up a piece of paper off of his printer and handed it to me. It was an offer letter! The CFO went back to her office and came back with a check. Not only were they offering me a job, they were going to pay me for the day. I of course signed the offer letter right then and there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometimes all it takes is a little thinking outside the box to get your Yes. If you’re reading this blog and still waiting for your Yes. I’m here to tell you that I believe in you. I know you can do it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was so excited when I started this job. On my first day, they gave me business cards! I don’t know why that was so special to me, but it was. It was like you know you’ve made it when...you have your own business card. My first few months were spent re-implementing their org and fixing their issues. After that was complete I worked on some cool projects regarding routing and invoicing. You can see more about that on </span><a href="http://buttonclickadmin.com/youre-salesforce-admin-whats-next/" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">Button Click Admin!</a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As always thanks for reading and Happy Administrative Professionals Day!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cheryl</span></div>
<br />CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-40220932517093808562014-04-17T17:29:00.000-07:002014-04-18T05:27:55.720-07:00And Then My Worlds Collided…The Beautyforce Concept<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For as long as I’ve been doing Salesforce Administration
work I've always tried to figure out how can I make my two favorite things,
Salesforce and Makeup work together. I was never sure what that meant, but I
always thought it would be cool if I could introduce my makeup friends to
Salesforce somehow and my Salesforce friends to the world of makeup. I had pretty much resolved myself to the fact
that my worlds would always have to remain separate and I would never find a
way to incorporate makeup into Salesforce or Salesforce into makeup. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was sometime in late January when my team and I started really
looking at Salesforce1 and how our company could use it and what we would have
to do to get our company and our org ready to use it. We don’t have chatter on and I wanted to play
with some things with publisher actions to see how things would work
conceptually so I opened up a new developer edition org and started to build
out a custom object and create some publisher actions. I wanted to create something cool to test out
the power of publisher actions and the power of Salesforce1. At first I was starting to re-build my own
org more declaratively but that would be so time consuming and challenging I
wanted to start with something a bit simpler.
Maybe something that didn't have to do with my day job. I started to
think of ideas that had to do with the Financial Services Industry but I wasn’t
sure if I wanted to go that route. I
happened to be working from home and decided to take a break from ‘Salesforcing’
and go back to organizing my lip products by color and type.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As I was sitting on my bedroom floor sorting my lipsticks,
lip glosses, lip pencils, lip primers and lip balms I was also entering
information about these products into a google doc so I know what I have as far
as product, what I thought of it and which skin tones/lip type it works best
on. It was so time consuming to do
this. I remember thinking “I wish they
had an app for this”. And BAM it hit me
like a pile of bricks. I could create something
in Salesforce1 to track this information.
And there it was. My longtime
dream of combining Salesforce and Makeup was sitting right there in front of me
and I didn’t even realize it. I decided
right then and there sitting on my bedroom floor surrounded by hundreds of lip
products that I was going to try and build this app. I wanted it to be more than just a place to
track makeup products. I had a flurry of
ideas running through my head of how Salesforce1 could work for makeup artists,
hair stylists, colorists, beauty bloggers/vloggers, salon owners and your
average makeup/beauty consumer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I wanted to run my idea by a few people so I reached out to
a few friends in the beauty/makeup community that I know and asked if they wanted
to grab cocktails over the weekend to talk about an idea I had. I had cocktails with three of my friends; a makeup
artist, a salon owner and a beauty blogger.
I told them of my idea and I explained Salesforce1 to them and showed them
potentially how it could work. All three
of them thought it would be an incredible idea especially my friend who does
blogging. She tracks everything in notes
on her iPhone and it’s not very organized or user friendly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My friend who owned the Salon thought it could be awesome
for different reasons. Right now he has
to have these large areas in his salon taken up with computers for scheduling
and for looking up color cards and client history and they take up so much
space. His dream is remove the whole
front desk and the ‘colorist console’ and replace it all with iPads/iPhones. He asked me if I thought the app could do
that. My brain really started to wrap
itself around this idea and I told him that I thought it could or at least I hope it will be able to!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My friend who is a makeup artist; we both are obsessed with
Uber. We take it all the time especially
after a late night in the city and we always say why isn’t everything as simple
as Uber. Why can’t I push a button on my
phone and everything be there in front of me less than 10 minutes? We’ve spoken about this idea before the idea
of having an app where someone is sitting at their desk at work and they decide
they need their makeup or hair done.
They can open an app request a type of beauty service at a specified
location and then someone picks up their request and does their hair, makeup or
whatever service they requesting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My friend, the salon owner turned to me and asked “So what
are you going to call this thing?” That
was a good question, I originally thought of makeupforce, but this was so much
more than that. It involves the whole
beauty world. A light bulb went off in
my head. I turned to my friends and said
“Beautyforce”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I left my friends that night feeling more energized than
ever about this idea. The next day I
jotted down everything I wanted in this app.
The list was huge; two full pages back and front in a notebook. I then decided this needed to be broken up
into separate sub-apps that fulfill a different use case, but all centered
around the same thing, beauty/makeup products and services.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Unfortunately for the past month or so I have been working 60
hour weeks at my day job, plus the Financial Services User Group, plus my blog,
plus mentoring so sadly this app got put on the back-burner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I resurrected it last week and started building it again and
have a shell of what it would look like from the first “sub-app” which would be
the one potentially used by both the beauty blogger/vlogger and regular
consumer. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"></span></o:p></div>
<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is a lot of work still yet to be done on this app and
a lot of it will need development to accomplish the overall vision I have. I just don’t have enough hours in the day to
accomplish this on my own. For those of
you who have helped me on the community so far you know that I’ve been working
on this from the hours of 11 PM – 1 AM a few days per week as that is really
the only free time I have. If anyone
would like to help me out with this let me know. I’m completely open to partnering with
someone from the community on this and sharing the overall vision of each
app. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here are a few screen shots:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6dV5FoniA20g_u3gxcKi8ES6hXnaXIiuzL0v8ccOxLSwH0N5-XicmsXdt5xspraac9rNhmSVJCxr7D6AMgYNJXp5rZarpxQmCPVerzAqwdoTg-TplnkFoj40ztDrDGjWk24bpm-6LZv8/s1600/photo+1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6dV5FoniA20g_u3gxcKi8ES6hXnaXIiuzL0v8ccOxLSwH0N5-XicmsXdt5xspraac9rNhmSVJCxr7D6AMgYNJXp5rZarpxQmCPVerzAqwdoTg-TplnkFoj40ztDrDGjWk24bpm-6LZv8/s1600/photo+1.PNG" height="320" width="180" /></span></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJG__FYAnW3MII0XlB8nC5gzjtGdrPxQKl0JZHUZQAL93RMEc7nRYqfnnOnF4GVdLe_mCdNLQp1oA_fhZ1YA5loLvChyphenhyphenHGJ1P8cIOL3fMhtW-7-8fK5FhPGRchNbRYi-jFP9xkJUxBFl4/s1600/photo+2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJG__FYAnW3MII0XlB8nC5gzjtGdrPxQKl0JZHUZQAL93RMEc7nRYqfnnOnF4GVdLe_mCdNLQp1oA_fhZ1YA5loLvChyphenhyphenHGJ1P8cIOL3fMhtW-7-8fK5FhPGRchNbRYi-jFP9xkJUxBFl4/s1600/photo+2.PNG" height="320" width="180" /></span></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ujwb__VIvPTyyRWq2WCr9pOPzuk-roF_gnUxpwEq8eaxCFR_bZg-lCypyDD4AB6d__K775vOuCLIzDQkMLM8OVHSHyypb7amDI3wxwpyGMIhbBE2CPApkhnYRhFaiCfGYMLWQWmpj-E/s1600/photo.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ujwb__VIvPTyyRWq2WCr9pOPzuk-roF_gnUxpwEq8eaxCFR_bZg-lCypyDD4AB6d__K775vOuCLIzDQkMLM8OVHSHyypb7amDI3wxwpyGMIhbBE2CPApkhnYRhFaiCfGYMLWQWmpj-E/s1600/photo.PNG" height="320" width="180" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Anyway, I would love to know what all of you think of the
overall idea and if anyone has built anything like this on Salesforce1. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As always, I appreciate you taking the time to read and
share your thoughts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thank you,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cheryl </span><o:p></o:p></div>
CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-20103835094629851352014-04-04T10:58:00.001-07:002014-04-04T10:59:22.219-07:00My Dream at Dreamforce & How the Salesforce Community helped Make it a Reality<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-c63d94d0-2dcf-8963-f1e1-dc8a5d19ba05" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you've read my <a href="http://cherfeldman.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-best-thing-i-built-on-salesforce-my.html" target="_blank">blog</a> about how I built my career on Salesforce then you already know that I’ve worked in the financial services industry for more than half of my Salesforce.com Admin/BA career. Prior to this I spent time with a B2C startup and a large Healthcare company. What this means is that approximately 85% of my career has been spent in a Highly Regulated Industry.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the Dreamforce ’13 highlights for me was the Financial Services Industry Day. I found the sessions really useful, informative and geared towards people like me. I remember thinking after each session “Yes, I go through that”, “Yes, I’ve dealt with that”, or “Yes these people understand me and don’t think I’m insane. Hooray!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After the day ended there were two people that I sat next to for most of the day through various sessions and we decided to grab something to eat. The nature of our conversation naturally turned to our Salesforce orgs. We all had similar roles within our companies, however we were all in completely different Financial Services sub-sectors. We had so many common challenges within our implementations or even with compliance or regulatory. After I left my two new friends during the walk back to my hotel I smiled to myself and thought “I wish I could talk to people like this all the time. I wish I could meet up with people from my industry a few times a year and talk shop. These are my people, they get me.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I was riding in the elevator up to my hotel a light went on in my head. There should be a Financial Services Industry User Group. Then I started to wonder if I could start something like that? Would Salesforce be supportive? How would I do that? Would anyone be interested in this?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The following day I was speaking with <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMitchell" target="_blank">Roger Mitchell</a> from <a href="http://www.silverlinecrm.com/" target="_blank">Silverline</a> about my idea for a Financial Services User Group to see what he thought. He was the first person I really vocalized this to so I wasn’t sure what to expect. He was extremely supportive and even offered to help me if I decided to move forward on this idea.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">About two weeks after Dreamforce I was still thinking about the idea of a Financial Services User Group and was wondering how Salesforce would feel about this type of group. I was attending a regular <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/chatter/groups/GroupProfilePage?g=0F9300000001oXHCAY" target="_blank">MVP Office Hours</a> session in December when <a href="https://twitter.com/jhoskins" target="_blank">Josh</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/jarrodmichael" target="_blank">Jarrod</a> mentioned if we ever had any MVP questions we could always tweet them. Later that day I took advantage of their offer and asked them if there were any MVPs in the Financial Services Industry. In a few short hours they had connected me with <a href="https://twitter.com/DeniseCarbone4" target="_blank">Denise Carbone</a> who leads the <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/chatter/groups/GroupProfilePage?g=0F9300000001oHHCAY" target="_blank">Chicago User Group</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/GeraldineGray" target="_blank">Geraldine Gray</a> whom I already knew from the <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/chatter/groups/GroupProfilePage?g=0F9300000001oES" target="_blank">Girly Geeks</a> events at Dreamforce. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Within a few days I had conversations with both Denise and Geraldine about my idea for Financial Services Salesforce User Group. They were both extremely supportive of the idea were willing to give me tips and general advice. Denise offered to connect me with <a href="https://twitter.com/mattybme" target="_blank">Matt Brown</a> at Salesforce about my idea. I had a very successful conversation with Matt a few days later! He thought it was a great idea and that there would be a lot of interest. All I had to do was let him know I was ready to move forward and he would get me setup.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After hanging up with Matt, I typed a quick email to Roger asking him if he had time to talk later this week about the Financial Services User Group and that I was ready to move forward. Roger got right back to me and told me to set something up and include one of his colleagues, <a href="https://twitter.com/MaggieRupel" target="_blank">Maggie Rupel</a>. We had a 20 minute conversation that went better than I could have ever imagined. Not only were they willing to help promote an event, but Silverline was willing to sponsor and host the event. I will never be able to communicate in words how much this meant to me. My little Financial Services Salesforce loving heart swelled with joy after this phone call. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After my call with Roger and Maggie, I reached back out to Matt and had him get me setup.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On my way down to the Saleforce1Tour in January I was making a list of all of the things I was going to have to do by February 27</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">th</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to get this User Group rolling. The list was mighty, long and overwhelming.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While chatting with a few people at the User Group booth I ran into <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAdamAdy" target="_blank">Adam Ady</a>, whom I knew from the Developer User Group in NYC. He mentioned to me he recently transitioned to a new role within Financial Services and he was thinking of trying to get a bunch of other Financial Services Salesforce people together to talk. I told him that “great minds must think alike” and that I needed some help. I asked if he would be my co-leader and he said “Yes!” We started to tell more people after the event about our newly formed User Group. There wasn't a single person we told that wasn't supportive or willing to help in some way. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shortly after the Salesforce1 tour ended I remember thinking Erica and Matt aren't joking when they talk about Salesforce having the best Community in the world. In just a few days I had so many people willing to help me and guide me. There were other User Group leaders offering their tips and suggestions, there were people sharing the link to the registration on their twitter or community pages. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had our first meeting as planned on February 27th and it was a huge success. A bigger success than I could have ever imagined when I was talking to Roger at Dreamforce. For the first time ever people in the Financial Services Salesforce world were sharing their ideas, experiences and challenges with Salesforce. And you know what, we were right. We all do have the same challenges and we are going to solve them together and be successful together. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/chatter/groups/GroupProfilePage?g=0F9300000001oYr" target="_blank">Financial Services Salesforce User Group Community</a> page now has over 400 members and we’re gearing up for our second in person meeting in early May as well as our first virtual meeting. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you to everyone who helped along the way. We couldn't have done it without you. This community really is like a second family. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks as always for reading and sharing,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cheryl</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-33339997112818737672014-03-25T21:03:00.001-07:002014-03-26T03:12:07.678-07:00All it Takes is One Yes<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last Friday evening I was winding down my work week and getting
ready to watch some Netflix when I heard my phone go off. I looked
down and saw it was a direct twitter message from a new friend that
contacted me because she read one of my <a href="http://cherfeldman.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-best-thing-i-built-on-salesforce-my.html" target="_blank">blog posts</a>. She was looking
for some advice. She is currently a secretary doing both secretarial
work as well as Salesforce Administration work. I really wasn't
doing anything that exciting so I sent her my phone number and told
her to give me a call.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few minutes later my phone rang and I could hear the sadness and
frustration in her voice. I asked her what was wrong. She started to
tell me that her manager told her that her secretarial duties were
more important than the work she was doing with Salesforce. They
were also not going to give her a raise this year even though she
took on a substantial amount of work by maintaining and configuring
their Salesforce org. Her manager isn't willing to pay for training
or help her get her certification. She has been going to a free
certification class on her own time in the evenings through her local
user group. Her dreams of attending the <a href="http://midwestdreamin.com/" target="_blank">Midwest Dreamin'</a> event were
also crushed. Her manager gave her the famous line of “you're just
a secretary.” I tried my best to provide some words of wisdom, but
I knew I had to help her, I just wasn't sure how. I promised that I
would get back to her if I figured out a way that I could help her.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once I hung up with my new friend I started to think back to when
I was a secretary. I remembered being a distraught twenty-four year
old hiding in a stall in a ladies room crying my eyes out. I had
just finished my first Salesforce project and my manager had promised
if I did that successfully he would put me on track for a promotion
to Salesforce Administrator. I had worked so hard on this project,
sales reps as well as sales management loved it. I had over a dozen
emails from various people within the sales department thanking me
for their new way to track customer visits and interactions as well
as all of their new dashboards.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The week after we rolled out the new functionality to Sales, my
manager put a meeting on my calender to discuss my “career”. I
was sure he was going to tell me that he was going to promote me or I
was going to be moved into another department to focus on Salesforce
Administration. Unfortunately I was completely wrong. My manager
told me that I was “just a secretary” that completed one small
project and that didn't warrant a promotion. He was also having
trouble grasping why I even wanted to do anything other than get him
coffee. He told me since he started managing me a few months prior he barely gave me
any hard work like my previous manager and I should be grateful that I have an easy job.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I felt so betrayed, like my whole world was crashing down around
me. All I wanted was to be a Salesforce Administrator. I held in my
tears until I left his office. I made a bee line for the ladies
room, locked myself in a stall and just cried. After I had no more
tears to even cry, I came out of the stall, dried my eyes, washed my
face and made my way back to my desk. I sent my manager an email
that I wasn't feeling well and was going home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I arrived home, I decided to call one of my heroes from the
Salesforce User Group I mentioned in my <a href="http://cherfeldman.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-salesforce-community-best-200-i.html" target="_blank">previous blog</a> to see what
they thought. I was so happy that he took my call. I explained to
him everything that happened with my manager and how betrayed I felt.
I will never forget what he told me. He said “Just because this
jerk said you're only a secretary doesn't mean you are. In my mind
if you completed that project on your own, you already are a
Salesforce Administrator. You should look for a new job.” I felt
so much better after speaking with him. I remember thinking that he
was right, I should look for a new job.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I decided at that very moment that I was going to fully build my
whole career on the Salesforce platform regardless of what anyone
told me. I knew what I wanted and I was going to go after it. I
won't lie, it wasn't easy. I had several “no's”, but I finally
did get my one “yes”. That one “yes” changed my life. I no
longer had a Secretary title. I was the company's Salesforce
Administrator with business cards and everything. I am forever
grateful for someone taking a chance on me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you're reading this and you're in a similar situation to where
I was or where my new friend currently is, I'm here to tell you that
I believe in you. You can do this and if you're doing things like I was doing in the Salesforce platform, you indeed are already a Salesforce Admin. I'm going to do my best to try and help you. I
want to see you get your “yes”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wasn't exactly sure until today how I was going to help the people reaching out to me. I decided today that I was going to share
more of my story, so I can help the community understand what it was
like for me as well as others in a secretarial type role that aren't
being mentored or compensated for their work, knowledge or skills. I'm
reaching out to the Salesforce Community with hopes of you helping me
help people that have a similar story to mine. If you or your
company are hiring for entry-level Salesforce Administrators please
send me an email </span><a href="mailto:cdfeldman80@gmail.com" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">cdfeldman80@gmail.com</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
and I'll connect you to the people that have reached out to me.
Let's help these people get their “yes”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some people maybe reading this post wondering why I'm even trying to help these people reaching out to me. The Salesforce Community has given me so much over the past almost 10 years that I'm just trying to "pay it forward" a little bit. If I can give back 1/10th of what this community has given me through the years I will be a happy person. </span><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></b>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I would also like to be clear that in no way am I looking for any
compensation, as I do have a full-time job. My compensation will be the first phone
call I get from someone that I helped that is able to quit their job
and live his/her dream of being a Salesforce Administrator.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As always, thank you for reading!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheryl</span><br />
<br />
<br />CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-41291190271908537292014-03-13T03:10:00.000-07:002014-03-13T03:36:13.488-07:00The Salesforce Community & The Best $200 I Never Spent<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't remember exactly how I found out about <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/userGroups" target="_blank">Salesforce User Groups</a>, but I definitely remember the first one I ever attended. It
was sometime in early 2005 and I was still working as a secretary as
well as doing the Salesforce Administration work. I was trying to
get myself promoted within my company to just do Salesforce
configuration and administration. My new manager seemed open to it,
but only if I could complete a project. The project was for Sales to
track more information and have additional reporting and metrics.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had been working on this project for two weeks with the hope of
getting a promotion and a raise. I had about 90% of the work done
but I was stuck on two formula fields. I just couldn't get them to
work correctly. I had one that I couldn't save because I was getting
a syntax error and another that wasn't displaying the proper result.
After about two days of being completely frustrated I found myself on
my way to my first User Group meeting. On my way to the meeting I
stopped at an ATM and withdrew $200.00 for the purpose of potentially
paying someone to help me get my formulas in working order. I wasn't
sure what the going rate for a Salesforce consultant was, but I
figured the $200.00 would be sufficient and an investment in my own
career and future.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wasn't sure what to expect out of the User Group as I really had
never been to anything like this before. When I arrived, there were
nice people to greet me and tell me where to go. I sat down and was
delighted to find out there was going to be a presentation on
reporting as well as a partner presentation. I was surprised how
much I learned in just a few minutes of listening to someone talk
about some key metrics and reports admins should create for their
organizations. I couldn't believe that this whole thing was free. I
felt like I hit the jackpot.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the presentations ended they had a networking session with
snacks and drinks. I approached two people that were quite active in
the discussions during the presentation and introduced myself and
told them of my formula woes. They walked me over to an area where
we could get an internet connection and I setup my laptop. I showed
them what I was trying to accomplish and my error message. Within 2
minutes they helped me save my formula formula and correct my syntax
error! Hallelujah! Within another 5 minutes they walked me through
how to properly use one of the formula functions to get the correct
result in my formula. Hooray! I was in business and could move
forward with my project!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After my formulas were saved, I pulled out my wallet and asked how
much I owed them. I was secretly praying and hoping that it wasn't
more than $200.00. They looked at me really funny and explained to
me the purpose of the User Group. My new heroes explained that the
User Groups were about helping each other and their payment was to
see me grow my skill-set. I couldn't believe it I only had two more
small pieces to do on the project and then I would have completed my first Salesforce project!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It would be hard for me to articulate in words how my first User
Group experience made me feel. I have never forgotten that feeling,
the two people that helped me or the purpose of the User Groups. If
you are reading this and have never attended your local user group, I
highly encourage it. The <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/userGroups" target="_blank">User Group program</a> has evolved so much
since I first attended in 2005. There are so many groups in various
cities as well as groups specific to non-profits, developers and
verticals. I promise, it will be worth your time.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those of you wondering, I did finish my project and the Sales
teams loved it. Unfortunately, my manager didn't think it was enough
to warrant a promotion. I did eventually end up spending that $200.
I purchased a new suit that I could use for job interviews. If you
read my <a href="http://cherfeldman.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-best-thing-i-built-on-salesforce-my.html" target="_blank">previous blog</a>, then you know what happened next. Onwards and
upwards as they say!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would like to dedicate this post to those in the <a href="https://success.salesforce.com/" target="_blank">community</a>
leading user groups, answering questions, writing blogs, training
people and helping others. I have built my career on Salesforce not
only because its a great platform but because of the great community
surrounding it. Thank you. I wouldn't be where I am today if it
wasn't for all of you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See you at a User Group meeting Soon :)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheryl</span>CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-25742203028252388252014-01-27T02:56:00.000-08:002024-02-14T17:42:25.348-08:00The Best Thing I Built on Salesforce: My Career<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Dear Mr. Benioff,</span></span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">During the Q&A session on the last day of Dreamforce, I really wanted to ask you a question but I was too shy. I wanted to ask, “Did you know that you were going to change my life?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A few hours after Dreamforce ended I was still thinking about this question and more so the question of where would I be if Salesforce wasn’t invented? I was having a late night breakfast with some new Dreamforce friends at Denny’s and looked up and asked everyone sitting at the table with me, “What do you think you would be doing if Salesforce didn’t exist?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">My new friends went around the table, each telling their story. Everyone had some great ideas of cool stuff they might be doing in or out of the technology world. They turned to me waiting for me to speak and my answer was, “Probably a hair dresser, makeup artist and/or a secretary.” It was one of the first times I said it out loud. I never said it before because I was afraid or embarrassed of what people would think of me. I was concerned that they might think I wasn’t good enough to be the Lead BA at a large financial services company because I used to play with hair and makeup for a living. In the past, I would start telling my story at the part where I ended up on a Salesforce project in 2004, but not the part about how I ended up on the project in the first place. One of my new friends looked at me and encouraged me to share further.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">My story really starts back in 2001. I was working at a top salon in my area blowing out hair 10-12 hours a day. I was known for my blow outs. I would have people booking me weekly to get their thick, curly, unruly hair blown out smooth for a special event or just for the weekend. I was also working part time as a makeup artist on the side, which was my real passion, but the blow outs paid the bills. I would take any chance I could get to put makeup on someone. I loved that feeling when I would put makeup on a woman who didn’t feel good about herself who suddenly realized that she was beautiful. It wasn’t the makeup, it was that she saw herself, really saw herself. That was and still is my favorite part of makeup. I always tell women “I didn’t make you beautiful, I just made you look in the mirror.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It was a hot day in June when I was blowing out one of my regular clients on a Friday afternoon when I felt pain like no other in my right shoulder. I finished my blow out and let the salon manager know that I needed to cancel the rest of my appointments and head to the doctor. I knew something was really wrong. I was right. I had severe inflammation and a slight tear in my right rotator cuff. My doctor told me the repetitive motion of the blow drying had caused the injury and that I should probably look for a new career. I was devastated. I went back and spoke to my salon manager the next day who offered to give me an office job temporarily until I could find new work. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I ended up being really good at “office work” so my salon manager came to me and said that she couldn’t afford to keep a full time office manager but her husband was looking for a full-time secretary. She handed me an application and told me I should apply. I saw the name of the company on the application and remember thinking, “Corporate America brace yourselves, here I come.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">My corporate life started in August of 2001. I started out answering phones, taking messages, keeping calendars, setting up meetings and arranging large dinners and travel. All pretty standard secretarial stuff. My manager started giving me more things to do, including database entry and putting together metrics for inventory, cost of goods sold, and customer service. I loved the metrics piece. It was almost like I was telling our company’s weekly story in an excel spreadsheet. I prided myself on those reports. It was my favorite thing to do every week. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 2003 I was handling a lot of the sales and operations metrics for the company. The metrics came in various formats in which I had to scrub the data. The process would take me 3 days to put together the weekly reports for Friday’s review. So every review, we were viewing data from the week before. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It was sometime in late 2003 that I said to my manager, “Wouldn’t it be great if all of this stuff was in one system where we could just run reports?” My boss turned to me and said they were implementing something called ‘Salesforce.’ “You should be on that project,” he said. It wasn’t until I first logged into Salesforce.com in early 2004 that I realized the power of the platform. No one in my company showed much interest in it, but I immediately loved it! By clicking a few checkboxes I could add fields to reports, and alleviate helpdesk tickets that could take 3 weeks for a response! Within 3 days time I taught myself how to update report criteria and how to run my own reports. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I would spend hours each night reading about Salesforce. I immersed myself in the guide that we were given from our Salesforce implementation. In 2004, I convinced some disinterested people in IT to grant me Administrative access to our org. With that new authority, I created my first formula field that allowed us to drill further down into our contacts for information that we needed. That is the moment that opened my eyes to the power of what someone with little technology skills could do with Salesforce. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I knew this is what I wanted to do: I wanted to play with Salesforce all day and all night. But how could I do that? How could I make Salesforce my career? I searched Monster that night for Salesforce.com and there it was, my dream job. A start up company was looking for a Sales and Field operations manager to do reporting and manage their Salesforce org. Bingo! I applied, and I got the job!</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By early 2006 I was doing all sorts of crazy formulas, validation rules, workflow rules, data mining and building business processes in Salesforce. Even more importantly improving business processes by using Salesforce. I learned everything about each piece of our business: marketing, sales, client support, finance and how to make each team more efficient with Salesforce always at the center of the equation. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It was a cold rainy November day in 2007 when my big break came. A recruiter from a huge financial services company called me. A mutual friend had shared examples of some cool stuff I was doing in Salesforce. The recruiter wanted me to apply and interview for a job they had open. I did so, and I got the job! I was astonished! Me, a hairdresser/makeup artist/secretary was going to Wall Street to work on a large team to do Salesforce Administration. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Just over 6 years have passed since that phone call. I’m currently the lead BA on all Salesforce projects at a top Financial Services company in New York City. In addition, I run day to day operations, make sure issues are handled appropriately, and support our end users’ needs.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">At the conclusion of fully recounting this whole story at Denny’s, everyone encouraged me to share it, with the emphasis to give encouragement to those out there who want more themselves, and are wondering if they can make Salesforce a career. I hesitated to commit to writing my story down, as I wasn’t sure if I should. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I made up my mind to give an account of my Salesforce experience while attending the NYC Salesforce1 tour. I found myself telling it again at the developer meetup. A Salesforce.com employee overheard me and told me that there was someone who was working in an office manager role, that wanted to make Salesforce his career. This person struggled with understanding how to accomplish that dream. The Salesforce.com employee asked if I’d mentor this aspiring office manager, since I came from a similar place in life. Of course I agreed. I now realize that I need to tell my story. It’s not about ‘getting it off my chest’ or to impress anyone, but to help others. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If someone loves Salesforce, and is passionate in a similar way that I’ve been, if they want to make it a career but are not sure if they can, I’m here to say: If I can do it, they can do it! </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">You may have started reading this thinking that it is one of your numerous contributions to the non-profit world that changed my life. But no, it is not. It’s the fact that you started Salesforce.com. Salesforce changed my life. I could give you a giant list of things I’ve built on the platform, but what I really built on Salesforce.com was my career. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thank you from the bottom of my heart.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">All the best in 2014, see you at my birthday party, I mean Dreamforce.</span></span></div>
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Cheryl Feldman</span></span></div>
CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com433tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653149043483296851.post-7518117640473881972014-01-17T05:27:00.004-08:002014-01-17T09:26:39.749-08:00Potential Solution for Reporting on Salesforce Opportunity Approvals<span style="background-color: white; color: magenta; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To all who read this:</span><br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: magenta; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: magenta; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm not a developer, I have no idea how to write code, however I have a really good understanding of what a trigger is, when it should be used and etc. If you're curious, I'm a Technical BA at a large financial services firm here in NYC. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Here's our challenge:</b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We rolled out approvals on opportunities January of 2008. Our user base has grown immensely as well as our use of opportunities and enforcement of getting approvals on discounted opportunities.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As we are enhancing our approval process we need to be able to answer certain questions:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How long does it take for an opportunity to be approved? We currently do pull up some information from the approval process through field updates on the opportunity but that is not detailed enough. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We want to really break it down. How many times is an opportunity submitted for approval? How many times is rejected before finally approved. Why is it being rejected? How many times are users being forced to re-submit due to pricing or product changes (we have validation forcing users to do this). Who is the approver on the opportunity and how long does it take that one person to approve on avg? Who is the approver changed to? Since we really can't answer these questions with out of the box reporting, I think I may have found a solution which would require a custom object and some APEX.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have done some similar things with opportunity history reporting and case history reporting have found that these designs work well for us and how we need to look at the data. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I posted something similar on Salesforce Answers, but wanted to also put it here. Selfishly because I always wanted to start a blog, so I guess this is also my first post.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here is the design, would love feedback if you've done this before. Did it work? What challenges did you have? </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Design for Approval
History Reporting<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Problem: </span>Salesforce currently doesn’t allow for reporting or
metrics on approvals. Our business needs
to be able to report on how long it takes for one approval to happen, how many
times it was submitted/rejected/approved, how many different approvers it went
to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Potential Solution:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Add a custom object called “Approval History Reporting” to
be a child object of opportunities through a master detail relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Add the following fields to the custom object:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approval History Start Date/Time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approval History End Date/Time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approver – lookup to user<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approver Changed to – lookup to user<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Approval Status (picklist) – Submitted, Approved,
Rejected, Recalled<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To Approval Status (picklist) – Submitted, Approved,
Rejected, Recalled<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approver Comments text field<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Age = formula field to calculate Approval History End –
Approval History Start, show number in hours<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How this object will work<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Records will be inserted and/or updated when certain things
happen.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Scenario 1:
Opportunity is submitted for approval<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Upon initial submission of an opportunity to an approval
process a record will be inserted into the Approval History Reporting with the
following fields populated:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approval History Start Date/Time – Time opportunity was
submitted for approval<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approver – user selected as approver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Approval Status = Blank<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To Approval Status = Submitted<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Scenario 2:
Opportunity is Approved by Approver:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Existing record with To Status of Submitted will update to
have an Approval End Date/Time of the time the stage changed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">New record will insert with the following information:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approval History Start Date/Time – Time opportunity was
approved<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approver – user selected as approver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Approval Status =Submitted<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To Approval Status = Approved<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Comments = any comments entered by approver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Scenario 3:
Opportunity is Rejected by Approver:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Existing record with To Status of Submitted will update to
have an Approval End Date/Time of the time the stage changed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">New record will insert with the following information:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approval History Start Date/Time – Time opportunity was
Rejected<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approver – user selected as approver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Approval Status =Submitted<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To Approval Status = Rejected<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Comments = any comments entered by approver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Scenario 4:
Opportunity is Recalled by User:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Existing record with To Status of Submitted will update to
have an Approval End Date/Time of the time the stage changed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">New record will insert with the following information:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approval History Start Date/Time – Time opportunity was
Recalled<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approver – user selected as approver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Approval Status =Submitted<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To Approval Status = Recalled<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Comments = any comments entered by approver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Scenario 5: Approver
is reassigned<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Existing record that is submitted with no End time will have
the Approver Changed To lookup update to the new approver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Scenario 6:
Opportunity is Recalled and User Submits Again<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">New record will be inserted with the following information<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approval History Start Date/Time – Time opportunity was
submitted for approval<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approver – user selected as approver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Approval Status = Recalled<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To Approval Status = Submitted<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Scenario 7:
Opportunity is Rejected and User Submits Again<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">New record will be inserted with the following information<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approval History Start Date/Time – Time opportunity was
submitted for approval<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approver – user selected as approver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Approval Status = Rejected<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To Approval Status = Submitted<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Scenario 8:
Opportunity is Approved and user hits validation due to product/pricing changes
and is forced to submit again<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">New record will be inserted with the following information<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approval History Start Date/Time – Time opportunity was
submitted for approval<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Approver – user selected as approver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Approval Status = Approved<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To Approval Status = Submitted</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">** For Clarification on Scenario 8, our validation is on the stage. If a user tries to close and an opportunity hasn't been approved or products/pricing has changed they will be forced to submit again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One item to note is I'm also considering maybe adding a type field and inserting records when approvers change. I'm not sure if that's necessary right now but that maybe an option for anyone trying to get more reporting on approvers and how often they change. </span></div>
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CherFeldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09620551514821135992noreply@blogger.com25