Speaker 0: Alright. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the third annual MarDreamin’. Um, give me a moment to just share my screen here. Alright. And we’re live. Um, I’m thrilled to be your host for this opening session and keynote, um, and get us kicked off here this morning, um, or this afternoon or this evening, depending on where you’re joining us from around the world. Um, thank you for being here. Thank you for being a part of this. Um, we’re really excited to get get started here. Um, I wanted to start with a special thank you to all of our sponsors. These are the folks that make this all possible. Um, we have, um, almost 3,000 people joining us, uh, from 64 countries across the world. Uh, it’s 69 sessions of content, um, on how to grow your marketing strategy and maximize your investment in the technology that helps you execute on that strategy. Um, so huge thank you to the sponsors and partners that have joined us in spreading the word about this and, uh, making this a successful event. Um, I also also have to give a shout out to the folks at Sercante who are working tirelessly behind the scenes, um, to pull this all off. So Sarah, Angelica, Marcos, Amber, our marketing team, uh, thank you for all the blood, sweat, and tears you put into making this a great, um, event for everybody that’s participating here today. Um, a few housekeeping reminders before we dive into the main content of our keynote. Um, Genius Bars, um, if you’re not familiar with those, um, those are one on one consultations with an expert. Basically some free consulting. Um, so if you’d like to partake in one of those, um, you can schedule your appointment by finding the Genius Bar booth in the sponsor and resources tab. Uh, those run from eleven to 1PM Eastern every day. We also have tracks this year that are organized by product area. Um, so Account Engagement AKA Pardot, Engagement, Salesforce Analytics. Um, if you’re new to the platform and new to some of these tools, I’d suggest popping around across a couple of different tracks and checking out a little bit of each of those. Um, most of those have themes that apply really regardless of what platform you’re using, uh, so I know you’ll find value as you peruse, um, peruse those tracks. Also, in the bottom right corner of the screen, um, you should see a note on what track you’re on. Um, as each session wraps up, um, it will automatically load the next session in that track, um, for you, um, but you can switch up, um, what track, um, actually, it looks like bottom left corner. Apologies. Um, but you can toggle that track and go to a different track or session. The number one question that we always get is will this be recorded? Uh, and yes. It will be recorded. Uh, we want all this great content to be available to you, uh, long after this three day marathon is over. Um, so within twenty four hours of wrapping up, uh, the recordings will be live on this platform, um, and we’ll be we’ll also be working to post those elsewhere, um, so those can live on in perpetuity. The one exception to the recording, um, rule every year is the product, uh, roadmap keynote. Um, that one is not recorded because it’s full of forward looking statements and sneak peeks of where the product is going. Um, so that one will not be recorded. That one you need to watch live. Um, if you haven’t played around with the agenda builder, um, definitely dive into that. Um, you can pick sessions. You can easily add them to your calendar from the agenda tab. Um, and I also just wanted to to, um, mention that our closing keynote on Friday, um, we’re gonna be talking about Genie, um, and how that impacts B2B marketing, uh, and giving away some awesome swag, um, to those who are able to attend live. Um, a few key sessions I wanna call out today. Um, at 11AM 11:05AM Eastern, we have a great panel, um, an Ask Me Anything session, uh, focused on marketing operations. At 01:40, we have a does it integrate session talking about all things API, which I’m very excited about. Um, and then again, the final session on the day on all things CDP, um, that is gonna be a great great session. And another one that we’ll be giving out some amazing swag, um, some amazing swag at. So with that, um, let’s get to the main keynote content, uh, which is all about belonging, how to build a support network, and how to find your people. Um, you might be wondering why we’re talking about this, um, why we’ve chosen this topic to kick off the week. Um, and if you’ve been here before, um, you may know that MarDreamin’ is about creating a space, um, for people who are doing marketing on the Salesforce platform to learn, network, and grow with each other. Uh, we’re gonna be hearing from some of the best technologists and marketers out there, uh, people with insight to share about Pardot, Marketing Cloud Engagement, Datorama, Interaction Studio, Mobile Studio, and just about everything in between. Um, and across all of these products, there’s one theme that I’m noticing a lot lately, and that’s that we need more connection and we need more support just in general. Um, this is coming into focus even more with a push for platform unification across Marketing Cloud and across analytics tools. Uh, the scope of our technical worlds as marketers is expanding. The role for marketing in a lot of our organizations is expanding, uh, and leaning on each other is gonna be one of the best ways to not just achieving the technical outcomes that we want, but also just making this a field where we wanna come to work, we wanna do work, we can thrive and enjoy the things that we’re doing, um, every day. Um, again, belonging and community might sound like kind of a strange topic to lead into a technical conference with, um, but I think it’s a pretty big deal. Um, and the first reason is that MarTech and some of those MarTech is just underappreciated in a lot of orgs. Um, the hard thing about our space is that when you do your job really well, it looks super easy. So when we go to Dreamforce, we go to industry conferences, and we see these amazing examples of brands that are running totally integrated campaigns, delivering the exact right message at the exact right time, non-marketers are looking at that and they’re like, oh, yeah. That makes sense. That’s which that’s what we should do. We have the technology to do that. Great. Um, but the marketers in the audience know there’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that goes into executing something like that, um, and executing it right. Um, we know that, like, there’s a lot of data wrangling behind the scenes, a lot of, like, fighting with the little white one and Outlook that won’t go away, a lot of trying to convince sales to get on board with what it is that you’re building, um, and that’s not visible, um, to the folks inside of our organizations a lot of times. Um, also outside of our organization, it’s really hard to get feedback. Um, there aren’t a lot of people who can say, yep, you’re doing a great job, um, or really see the work that it is that you’re doing. Um, and I think that this got a lot worse during the pandemic. Um, events, user groups, conferences used to be a great way for us to connect and meet other people in our space, um, but that kind of that was taken away from us and we’re kind of in a rebuilding mode there to figure out, um, figure out what’s next. Um, across the entire workforce, um, belonging is an issue. Um, so much so that Ernst and Young actually did a research project on that and collected some of the data that you see on the screen. It’s a human need to connect and feel like we’re a part of something, and almost 80% of us say that we feel lonely in the office with a full 40% going so far to say as they feel full on isolated. Um, and I I would be willing to bet that if you took, uh, like, marketers as a subset of this, I think it’s actually those numbers probably would be even a little bit higher. You might be thinking to yourself, okay. So we’re lonely at work. We suffer from a little isolation, um, in the office. That’s not that big of a deal. I clock out at five. I see my friends and family. It’s fine. Whatever. Um, but we spend a lot of time in the office realistically. Um, and if you’re not feeling supported and connected, that does actually take a toll on your psyche and a toll on your physical health. Um, I think most of us understand, like, physical risks like exposure to radiation, exposure to cigarette smoke, physical toxins, um, but it’s harder sometimes to appreciate the impact of social and psychological toxins and what that does to you on a day to day basis. Um, but Cigna actually did some research on this and found that loneliness is as toxic as smoking it’s the equivalent basically of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Um, so pretty pretty crazy stuff when you think about it. So how do we change this is the million dollar question. Um, in this session we’re gonna be talking through kind of three themes, um, asking three questions on what the future of this could look like. So chapter one, we’re gonna be talking about the future and what could be, uh, what might a supportive community look like, what’s the vision for how we could come together, um, and for this section, um, we’re gonna be interviewing the one and only Gilda. In chapter two, uh, we’re gonna move from from the future state to the current state and look at what are some of the tools and resources that exist right now, uh, that you can take advantage of to build connections and grow in the community. Um, we’re gonna have a mini panel, um, Tyler, Najee, and Kirsten, um, to share some quick thoughts on that. And then finally, in chapter three, uh, we’re gonna get into bridging the gap between the future, which we covered in chapter one, current state, which we’re talking about in chapter two, and just how we bridge that gap. So Toni v Martin is gonna be Toni v Martin is gonna be our featured speaker there, um, talking about how we can contribute to be to building belonging and being the change that we want to see in the ecosystem. Um, so let’s put our dreamer hats on for a second, um, and think about what a supportive community could look like. Um, so in the chat, um, I would love if you could post, um, your thoughts on what kind of social, psychological, and even just practical help would make you feel supported, um, in the overall Salesforce ecosystem in the marketing community. I’ll give you a minute to put some of those in there. And I have to mention that, um, for for participating in some of these exercises, we are gonna be choosing a few lucky swag winners and announcing those at the end. So a little incentive if you’re still waiting for your coffee to kick in this morning, um, to chime in in the chat. I’m just gonna take a peek here at some of the answers that we’re seeing come in. Yep. Steven says peer review of solutions. Love that. Someone to go to with questions from Catherine, that’s great, coaching and mentoring, one to one meetings with member with other folks in a role like mine, knowledge sharing, networking sites, love all this. Regular meetings with sales teams, yep. Newbies newbie guides for new starters. Water cooler talk, love it. Some awesome ideas here. I’m gonna be capturing these and sharing these in the blog because there’s some great great content here. I will give another, like, ten seconds or so. Empathy. I love that one. Alright. Give me one second to fix my screen again here. Um, so I I kind of pre sourced a few answers to this question from, um, some folks on the Circante team, um, but these are some of the themes that I I heard coming up consistently. Um, you wanna feel supported. You wanna feel understood. Um, I know I know who to go to for help. Um, even just spotting somebody from across the room at a conference, like I’m pretty bad at names but I’m pretty good at faces and being able to look across the room and say, hey, I know that person or I’ve seen that person before. Um, goes a long way to just being able to feel like, hey, I found my people. I’m in a space where I’m understood and people get me. Um, it’s also, I think, having somebody to cheer you on. So, like, when you do have those wins and you build something you’re really exciting about excited about, having someone to celebrate that with with and then someone to shake your fist to the clouds with when a feature isn’t working the way that you expected or, um, your product enhancement isn’t getting prioritized and just having a place to talk about what it is that you’re working on. To me also I think psychological safety is a big part of being a part of a supportive community. So we need to be able to ask for help without feeling dumb. Um, we need to be able to speak up, um, and say, okay, this isn’t working for me, um, and not feeling like you’re gonna be ostracized or excluded in some kind of way. Um I think also just being able to disagree with official experts is a pretty big deal, so not just trusting like the official best practice but, um, being able to bring new ideas and challenge kind of how things are are working in the current state. I think another critical piece to keep in mind is that everyone is at a different place in their journey. Uh, we have folks here that have been on these platforms for twelve years, we have people that are just considering purchasing one of these products, Um, so it it runs the full spectrum in terms of experience, longevity, exposure to different parts of the platform. And I feel really strongly that, like, we don’t want a community where there’s only two, three, four, or five people that are capable of answering hard questions, capable of writing blog content, um, answering questions in the Trailblazer community. We want everybody to be a part of this thing and everybody brings different experiences to the table. We all have something to learn, we all have something to teach. Um, so to me success looks like everybody supporting their peer group, um, and maybe the folks that are just kind of one or two steps behind them in terms of knowledge development. Um so getting knowledge from the community but then also paying that forward, um, for folks that are still kind of growing that skill set. Um so I’d like to invite the one and only Gilda to the stage to share her thoughts on this. For those of you who haven’t met Gilda, um, everywhere the ecosystem, um, and Gilda, in your role on the product marketing team for Salesforce, you’re super plugged into the community. Um, you’ve grown the marketing champions program into a a super vibrant active group. You push for listening sessions and advisory boards and I feel like you’re always cooking up something new. Um, you’ve also been dubbed the fairy swag mother because you sprinkle surprise and delight over the marketers that you work with, which is amazing. Um, and so I’d really love to dive into your perspective on this topic. Um, can we start with just kind of a very basic question? Um, how would you say you define the word community?

Speaker 1: Um, well, first of all, thank you for having me. Um, let’s think about the definition of a community. You know, community for me is more than just the feeling of belonging, but it’s a structure for creating value. Right? In a simple way, if we compare community to an audience, you build an audience, you help people. When you build a community, you help people help each other. You know, it’s a subtle, but it’s a massive difference in the mindset. So for me, when we have this community, it’s it’s more than just me building a community or it’s more than an organization building a community, but a community, we are helping each other with growth, career trajectory. We are helping each other with expanding our knowledge. We are helping each other to feel like we’re part of a family. Because, you know, some people may have, you know, a large family, but others, this community is more than just a place where they can go and get knowledge and, you know, cross collaborate, attend events, but this community is their family. So with this family, they feel like they belong somewhere. They’re giving value and they’re giving back. It’s a good feeling that they have. So for me, that’s how I look at a community, and that’s why I give so much of what I can give to the community so that it’s not just me helping, but it’s that person also then turning around and helping somebody else.

Speaker 0: I love that. That’s amazing. I love the the vision of like helping us help each other, um, and that really being like an amplifying and multiplying effect on the whole thing. Um, that’s a really cool thing to think through. Um, what would you say is your your vision for, like, the Salesforce marketing community? Like, how would you what do you wanna see this community become?

Speaker 1: I would love for it to be a knowledge sharing engine. Right? Because when I look at the growth of marketing, um, well, if I take back, you know, I’ve been in the ecosystem for over fifth eighteen years now, and I didn’t have a community when I first started out. I didn’t have a place where I felt I can go to find the knowledge that I needed. I was taking risks, but I was taking it on my own. And I didn’t have anyone to kinda text and say, yo, what do you think of this? Right? Or anyone to call or video chat or, you know, have late night conversations and, like, brainstorm on things. Right? So when I look at this marketing community, I want it to be this knowledge transfer knowledge sharing engine. Right? And what I mean by that is, I know a lot of people like, well, Gilda, what can I do to be a part of this community? The world is your oyster. Do anything. Right? Share whatever knowledge you have. You may think that no one cares, no one’s listening. There’s one person out there that needs to hear what you have to say, whether it’s something on mental illness, whether it’s something on this is how I was able to, you know, build a blueprint, or this is how I was able to share my metrics, or this is how I was able to use my voice. These are all things that we in marketing want to hear and want to know about. So for me, I want this marketing community to continue to share their knowledge, continue to raise their hands, continue to co-partner with others on, you know, in whatever program they’re working on. Right? Not only that, but a lot of times we’re in these organizations and people would tell me there’s only one seat. Who said that? Why is there only one seat? Let’s start making room for others to grow. Let’s start amplifying each other. Let’s start being each other’s advocates and mentors and sponsors. Right? It doesn’t take that much time in the day to raise your hand and to say, you know what? I got you. Right? It doesn’t take that much time to send an email and say, you know what? This person is doing a really good job. I wanna advocate for them. I wanna be their sponsor, their mentor. I wanna help them along the you know, within within their career trajectory. So I wanna see the marketing community continue to be there for each other because we’re all we got. Right?

Speaker 0: Yeah. I love what you said about the like, who said there’s only one seat? Because, yeah, what I what I found a lot is sometimes if you ask like, hey can I bring so and so along or this person’s actually an amazing fit for what you’re trying to do, like can we can we bring them into the fold kind of thing, Oftentimes, the answer is yes? Um, I mean, sometimes you have to twist some arms to to get, like, kind of broaden the reach, but, like, that mindset of, like, let me ask, um, is huge and awesome. I don’t, your face disappeared from me on the screen. Are you still, can you still hear me? I am. Okay, um so this is obviously something that is very near and dear to your heart, um And so I’d love to get get personal for a little bit and ask kind of where, um, this love for community came from. Um is there anything kind of in your background or in your career, maybe a time that you felt you didn’t feel that sense of community and belonging that makes you really passionate about this today?

Speaker 1: You know, I was before I started working at Salesforce, I’ve been with Salesforce just for three years, three and a half years feels like forever, but that’s because I’ve been a part of this ecosystem. So before I came over to Salesforce, I was a customer fourteen, fifteen years focused on just all things marketing cloud, implementation, onboarding, training, education, everything. But prior to that, I wasn’t and a lot of people are like, man, she’s bold. She has a voice. I didn’t have that. It took a lot of guts to feel confident enough to share my knowledge, to be so passionate about this community. And that was because I was working in an organization and, you know, I come with receipts. I hope it’s like my favorite line now because I know when my strong points. And I remember working in an organization, and I was being challenged by the might you know, by the majority of whether or not, you know, what I was saying was was valid. Um, I was trying to tell them that they were sending emails, but they would triple sending emails to each of these customers, but they wouldn’t believe me. And I remember writing an email around 4AM. There’s a reading. No. I don’t sleep anyways. Wrote an email around 4AM, and I wrote exactly what the issue was. I attached. I added screenshots. And I I said, you know what? I’m gonna let this email rip. Whatever happens, happens. And a couple of hours later, get to the office, and I get a a ping. And it was like, can you come upstairs? And I said, I’m getting my pink slip today. Because I sent this email, I finally got the coverage to use my voice. And boom, that happened. Right? I I went upstairs. They apologized because I was right. They were I was right. They were wrong. Um, but it was more than that. From that moment on, I said, you know what, Gilda? Why aren’t you sharing this knowledge with the rest of the world? Right? You could you get asked all the time by Marketing Cloud AEs to speak with customers and get share your feedback. But why aren’t you sharing this feedback? So I went on the Email Geeks, um, Slack channel, and there was a friend who I didn’t even know him, but I just kinda reached out to him. And I said, hey. I’m interested in writing these things. Do you think people would be interested? And he was like, I am. I was like, but you don’t even know me. He’s like, I know, but I was like, what you have to say when you say things in the email geeks community in the Slack channel. So from that point on, you know, I just let it rip. You know? I just became a little bit more confident in what I had to say and sharing it out because I may not think anyone’s listening, but there’s at least five or 10 people that find whatever piece of content. Um, and then from that point on, I just felt like I was part of a community of of a family that is there to support me, to uplift me, and, you know, a family that I can lean on whenever I need to.

Speaker 0: I love that story, and I can only imagine how, um, that walk upstairs felt. It’s like, hey, can you just come upstairs real quick? And you’re like, oh my god, where is this going? Um, but I’m glad that that was one of the experiences that led you to be who you are today because, um, this community would not be what it is without you.

Speaker 1: Thank you.

Speaker 0: Um, one final question, Gilda, before we, um, we move to chapter two. Um, are there any things, any ways that you’d like to see this community grow or develop in the next year?

Speaker 1: It’s this for me, it’s this community and for all communities. Right? It’s the the mean it. And what I mean by that is let’s be a community and mean it. Let’s be inclusive and mean it. Let’s be supportive and mean it. Let’s be welcoming and mean it. Let’s give back and mean it. Right? And I feel like a lot of people, they say they wanna be part of a community. They say they wanna give back. They say they wanna be supportive and welcoming, but they don’t mean it. Let’s do this as one we’re one Salesforce. We’re one community, but let’s do it and and mean it. Right? And I think the mean it means you’re standing by what you say. Um, it’s not something that you’re checking off a box of you know, on a sheet of paper. We don’t do what we do for popularity. It’s not a popularity contest. Me giving back to the community, you giving back to the community, I don’t do it for clout. I don’t do it for brand recognition. I do it because I mean it, and I want others to see that, you know, I’m a person of my word, but I do it because I mean it, and I want to do it. I’m not being asked by Salesforce to do any of what I do. And I just want this community the next couple of years as we continue to grow and continue to build and continue to support each other to mean it. Right? There is something behind that. I mean it. My word is bond. I have your back that you can’t find anywhere else. And I always say, you know, everybody’s replaceable when it comes to whatever organization we work, but what’s not replaceable is what that person brings to the table, the the characteristics, the fact that you can go to them, you can trust them because why? They mean it. Right? And I think that that is something that is strong and that as a community, when we we put our best foot forward, but we have to mean it in everything that we do and how we give back.

Speaker 0: I love that. Do it like you mean it. I’m gonna write that on a post it.

Speaker 1: Along with my yo. Because I send a lot of yos through text messages.

Speaker 0: Alright. I’m gonna pull the slides back up here, and we are gonna talk about, um, chapter two, so kind of navigating what is in the community. Um, so we touched on a little bit about kind of what community feels like, what it could look like in the future, um, how that’s gonna grow, and I wanna talk a little bit about, um, the current state of the community and some of the tools, um, that we have available. Um, and my screen is not sharing. Let me give it one more try. Alright. There we go. Oh, hi. That’s what I need to do. Okay. Um, so let’s dive into community tools. Um, the first thing I wanted to highlight is the marketer career path on Trailhead. Um, if you haven’t looked at some of the career content that they put together on Trailhead, there’s some really great stuff out there. Um, so customized learning paths based on different roles. Um, I keep pushing them to come up with an entrepreneurship, um, career path because I think that would be amazing content that would help grow and bring the ecosystem forward. Um so plug for that. Um a few content creators to follow. Um so the spot is I originally started then Circante kind of took it over and now it’s sort of become a community in and of itself. Um, so dozens of folks contributing content of what they’re building on, um, the Salesforce platform, um, tips and tricks, how to articles, um, wish lists for the future. Uh, we have a lot of content there. Um, the drip is also one of my favorite blogs. Uh, it’s part of Salesforce Ben, uh, and run by Lucy Maslon. Just some fantastic content and really in-depth, um, looks at some of the things that are coming out on the platform. Um, How to SFMC is another great one. Um, several contributors to that, posting lots of things on, um, what’s new with Marketing Cloud. And I’ve included a link to this deck, um, that we’ll make sure makes it into the wrap up materials here, but this is a a blog from the drip on the top 35, um, Salesforce marketing blogs. Um, so lots of places to go for, um, great content. Next up, the Trailblazer community. Uh, if you’re not familiar with this, um, oops. Sorry. My screen share is not cooperating exactly. Um, Trailblazer community, if you’re not familiar with this, this is like the OG backbone of Salesforce Ohana. Um, so it’s built off of Chatter, um, but lots of groups where, um, you can find peers, post questions, um, and I’ve highlighted a few of the groups here on the right, um, that are probably most relevant to the audience here. Um, since the the Slack acquisition, actually even before the Slack acquisition, um, there are some great Slack communities that have been spun up by different community members. Um, so Kardashians, um, is a very active one focused on Pardot users, Um, How to SFMC, um, more focused on the Engagement side of Marketing Cloud. Um, and then Ohana Slack is focused all across the Salesforce platform, um, but lots of great knowledge sharing taking place there. User groups, um, these are many of these are just kinda getting back into the swing of things post COVID, but, um, there are groups for almost any kind of flavor of the community that you can imagine. So women in tech, developers, we have product focused ones, Salesforce military, um, dev groups, architect level groups, um, lots of ways to connect within the user group community. Uh, Tableau also has a very vibrant community of user groups, um, so definitely worth checking out if you’re more involved on the analytics side of things. Um, community events. Um, obviously, we’re all at one today, um, but Salesforce also maintains a community event calendar. Um, I think we’re up to about like 30 or so dreamin’ events taking place worldwide, um, and it seems like every time you turn around there’s another one, uh, being spun up. So still a few more, um, taking place in November, um, and then things get rolling again pretty quickly, um, in January, February with other other content. Um, Salesforce events are also another spot where you can find other users, connect with, um, AEs, connect with product folks, um, and they’ve recently announced, um, they’ve recently announced the Connections date. I forgot to put it in here, but, uh, that’s in early June. Um, Dreamforce next year will be in September, and then the New York World Tour is the first of the World Tour Series, which are kinda like little mini Dreamforces, I would say, um, a day long. Um, but those are definitely worth checking out. Um, Salesforce also does have a few kind of official recognition programs. Um, the Marketing Champions one is definitely the most active in our space, um, and it’s an annual renewal process for that. Um, and then the MVP program, um, is one of the older Salesforce recognition programs, um, but they’ve recently launched a bunch of changes to the program including, um, your a five year term limit as an MVP, uh, which I think is great because it, uh, will bring new faces into the ecosystem and make sure that there’s lots of room at the table for new, um, folks to be recognized. We also have a few community source recognitions. Um, so the MarDreamies, um, we’re gonna be doing the award show for that, uh, this Thursday evening. Um, so try to join that if you can, um, but looking for some of the best kind of work examples on the platform. And then the Brandy’s is a new initiative that Gilda launched and her team launched, um, and it’s about good spotting in the ecosystem. Um, so we’ll share instructions on how, uh, to nominate folks for that if you wanna be a part of that. Alright, um, so that’s a kind of a quick overview of some of the resources and structural things that exist, um, to support the community today. Um, I’d like to invite three new faces to the stage, um, Najee, Tyler, and Kirsten, um, to share a little bit about how they’ve navigated, um, this beautiful ecosystem, um, and have used some of the tools that, um, that we just touched on. Um, so the first question, um, that I love to pose to the panel, and I’m actually gonna I’m gonna exit the screen share here so that we, um, yeah, so we can see everybody’s faces a little bit better. Um, yeah, the first question I’d like to pose to the panel is just, can you tell us about how you got your start in the ecosystem? And Tyler, I’d love to start with you if you if you’re up for that.

Speaker 2: Sure. Absolutely. Um, I’m gonna start by taking one back to a much more simple time. Uh, we’ll go back to August 2001. Some of you might have been in elementary school, uh, middle school, high school, or maybe even graduated. Uh, for me, I just graduated high school, uh, in June. I turned 18 in July, um, and I headed off to basic training in August, and and the unthinkable happened. Um, I’ll spare the details as many of us have very detailed memories of what really happened that day. And it’s not really something I like to discuss. Not it. Bring that up to bring the vibe down or anything, but be ten years later

Speaker 0: there,

Speaker 2: um, I just got out of the army. I was computer graphics techno. Told you in my opinion.

Speaker 0: Tyler, you’re cutting out a little bit for me. So maybe you do you wanna try killing video to see if it improves audio?

Speaker 2: Wanting to offer online branded websites, uh, for the clients to go go to a place I was

Speaker 0: Can you hear me, Tyler? These are the realities of our our virtual connection. Hey, Tyler. Can you can you still hear me?

Speaker 2: Kill my

Speaker 0: Um, well, let’s, um, Najee, let’s go back.

Speaker 2: Are we coming back?

Speaker 3: Yes.

Speaker 2: Okay. Super weird. Um, sorry. Um, I’m showing green bars across the across the across my connection here. I’m not sure what’s happening. So, uh, oh, yeah. Um, got my first real job at a printing company. Um, they let me go. Um, I tried for a few more months to get another web developer job because that’s what I thought I wanted to do. Um, and then I landed a job at a prestigious health care provider, uh, working on the internal and external websites. Yeah. I was super happy. Uh, about three months into that job, I got a piece of paper that was dropped on my desk with a login password and a URL. Uh, that URL was exacttarget.com. Obviously, I had some questions. What’s this? It’s yours now. Why? Uh, you know HTML. Right? Uh, next big or next thing I know, I’m attending back to back to back in person training sessions with Brian Richardson under the ExactTarget Academy. Still have all those certificates. Um, and I started attending user group meetings and getting introduced to people who are doing some amazing things with this new thing to me called email marketing. Now almost twelve years later, here I am, a 2020 Salesforce marketing champion, a certified Salesforce marketing cloud consultant, and a trailblazer community group leader myself.

Speaker 0: That’s amazing. And I can definitely relate to the, hey. Here’s this shiny thing that we bought. Can you figure it out? And dropping it off on a post it on your desk. Like, little do you do you know in those moments that those become, like, kind of career defining pivot points. Um, Kirsten, I I believe you have a similar experience with this newfangled thing called email marketing. Um, can you share a little bit more?

Speaker 4: Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks, Andrea. So, uh, definitely similar to Tyler. Uh, I didn’t start out sending email from the womb, um, like maybe kids these days. Um, if you know me, I love sports. So I played soccer growing up in college and still try to do to this day. Um, the reason why I’m sharing that is, like, after graduating college, I took a gig. No no surprise working in sports. But, um, after, you know, I don’t know how many countless dizzy bat challenges and making sure the, uh, marching band, uh, played during the media time out. It was a little stressful to say the least, and I decided I needed a more corporate job. Um, uh, it was with a tech startup company, and they too handed me a login, um, to an email tool and asked me if I could figure it out. Um, I said, sure. Why not? I would never, um, backed down from a challenge and so basically began to teach myself how to code, how to build emails. I mastered the VLOOKUP function in Excel, uh, and was basically sending manually every send, um, click reports to our sales team to to follow-up. Um, so definitely, I’m very, uh, happy that those manual days are are no longer in technology and my skill set have been able to to grow with each other throughout the years.

Speaker 0: That’s awesome. And, Najee, can you tell us a little about your story? Yeah. So I actually have

Speaker 3: a degree in psychology, and I wanted to do all of this neuropsychology. And as you guys already know, to do all of that, like, it takes, you gotta go to years and years of school. And I had already had my, um, I’d already had my daughter right out of college. So I’m sitting here, and my sister’s like, why don’t we get in technology? And I’m like, but why? I don’t like technology, and I don’t like typing, and I don’t like anything to do with technology. And she was like, yeah. But I think it’d be a good you know, it’s a really good idea for when you wanna work from home, and she gave me all these great plethora of, like, benefits. And so I said, sure. Well, best decision ever. I I started coding websites. Uh, my first job was building, uh, websites for large financial companies. And one of them said, hey. Could you build emails? And I was like, emails aren’t why they’re not coded. And they were like, actually, they are. There there’s code in them. And I was like, that’s weird. And, um, fell in love instantly. I, uh, have been obsessed with emails for the past seven, uh, years now. It has been my thing. And so, um, while at another job, they asked me to start building emails in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. And And I said, well, I’ve never really heard of this platform before. And I said, well, I gotta learn it, and I’m sure there are other people who need to learn it. And so I decided to make a post on, uh, Women of Email called, uh, forty five days of email, um, forty five days of emails. And it was literally Monday through Monday, every day, we’re gonna study Salesforce Marketing Cloud. And the the the audience was excited to do this. This it actually grabbed a lot of attraction, and that is when I met my mentor and my one of my favorite people, Gilda. She’s a big big part of my growth and how I got into the community. But, um, once I did that, yeah, I basically, uh, started to express to Gilda that I love volunteering. And she was was like, well, have you met this person? Have you met this person? Well, what about this person? And as you guys already know, when you start talking to Gilda, there’s none it’s it’s just up and up from there. So, basically, that is that’s basically how I got my intro into the Marketing Cloud, and it’s been, uh, great ever since.

Speaker 0: That’s awesome. Uh, and yeah, Gilda is a connector among many many of her awesome traits. Um, so thank you all for sharing how you got your start. It’s it’s cool to hear how you each kind of had very different paths, but then also some common themes, um, in each of your experiences and kind of how you’ve navigated the ecosystem. Um, Tyler, I’d like to go back to something that you touched on. You mentioned finding user groups pretty early in your journey. Um, the next question I’d love to post to the panel is, um, what groups in the Salesforce ecosystem have been most impactful to you? Um, and Najee, could you kick us off with that one?

Speaker 3: Absolutely. So for me, um, within the Salesforce, uh, the e with the Salesforce Marketing Cloud ecosystem, I always have to say the Atlanta, um, the Atlanta Salesforce Marketing Cloud user group. Obviously, shameless plug, um, there. Um, How to SFMC, they’re a bunch of really smart I would they’re really, really smart people who love coding. So, yes, that’s a big, big part. Um, Sisters of Marketing Cloud is a really big group. Women of Email is wonderful. Email Geeks, particularly their accessibility sections. I’m I’m obsessed with accessibility, so this is a big deal. Um, I have to give major props to, of course, the Marketing Champions. They are the they’re top tier to everything we do. But last but not least, um, well, not last but not least, Bose. Bose is a big group. If you guys have your own businesses and things like that, Bose is a great group for you to join. And Black in Technology, the Salesforce, um, the Salesforce group is actually a really great group too, and that’s one that I belong to. We’re all very tight knit. We’re all family. We’re close together, and we really do support each other in every single way. So those are just a few groups. Sorry. I went on so far. So so many.

Speaker 0: Well, it’s great that there’s so many to list. I mean, I think that alone says says a lot about the health of the ecosystem. Um, Tyler, what would you say are some of the, like, standout groups for you?

Speaker 2: Um, Yeah. So, uh, for those of you who really I most of you don’t know me, uh, probably first time you ever heard my name. I’m I’m a little bit of an introvert. Um, and so here in Indianapolis, we have a pretty tight knit community that we, uh, we stick with. And I don’t just mean our Marketing Cloud community. Uh, I mean, our entire Trailblazer community. We have I know the groups have had some of the biggest impact on me, our local Salesforce group, our developer group, and our women in technology group. Um, they’ve not only inspired me to expand what I do in my professional career, but also inspired me to be a better community group leader. Um, and I I honestly can’t mention impactful groups and not include the Salesforce Marketing Champions group. Um, you wanna talk about a group of people that will push you to be better. Um, this group will do it. Uh, these are some of the brightest minds I’ve had the privilege to be around. And if you have the opportunity to speak with one of the Salesforce Marketing Champions, you do it. Um, they’re going to they’re gonna totally change your perspective on the things you do within Marketing Cloud.

Speaker 0: Yeah. I love that. And, um, I think a great question to also ask when you meet one of those people is like, who else should I talk to? Like, who else in this room should I meet? Um, and just seeing seeing kind of what connections come out of that. Um, and Tyler, if you if you were talking to somebody who is new in the ecosystem, what would you say is is like one tip for somebody who’s looking to build connections and build relationships?

Speaker 2: Yeah. It’s it’s super important to build these connections within the ecosystem, and the easiest way to do that is to be actively involved in the ecosystem. You know, go to monthly user group meetings, uh, either in person or virtually. You know, especially in today’s world, uh, most of these meetings are virtual, so it really just requires you to click a link and just absorb the content now just sitting at home or wherever you are. Um, attend special events like this, uh, participate in Twitter chats. You know, Gilda runs an amazing Twitter chat, um, on Wednesdays, um, I believe on the first Wednesday of every month. So today, actually, uh, there’ll be a Twitter chat. So engage with those Twitter chats, uh, and just be active. Um, you know, one thing that I’ve always found interesting is that the majority of us marketers tend to lean on that introverted side when it comes to putting ourselves out there. Um, but, uh, and it makes it really challenging to make connections. Uh, but I also noticed that these introverts become extremely extroverted when they start talking about marketing and marketing automation and Salesforce Marketing Cloud and everything that they do. Um, so get in these groups and start talking with people, like minded people like yourselves, and you’re gonna find yourself, you know, becoming more involved. And just the connections you form within this ecosystem will help challenge you, uh, to approach your own problems and solutions a lot differently. Um, there’s a lot to be said about diversifying your your community, um, because those those diverse mindsets are gonna take you from your box and move you into a much larger box with much more just different solutions than what you could possibly think of.

Speaker 0: I love that. Kirsten, what would your what would your tips be?

Speaker 1: I mean, I I think I

Speaker 4: I would say everything that Tyler said. Um, and I’d also like to just add that it’s it’s definitely a safe space. Um, so again, introverts, extroverts, um, people would probably be surprised that I’m actually, like, an extrovert introvert. Um, you know, I like to be with people, but I also like to be a hermit. Um, and also just like everyone feels just as awkward as you probably do when you’re starting up a conversation. You know? Hey. Maybe we all go to the Gilda. Um, maybe that will be, like, our, you know, safer, like, hey. Do you were you at that keynote? Do you know how to start up a conversation? Um, but just remember that, you know, everyone that’s now a friend, a connection was once a stranger, um, and so you’ve gotta start somewhere. So, again, this is a really, really safe space and community, so never feel like, oh gosh, I feel awkward. Um, you probably do, so does the other person, but once you start chatting, like Tyler said, um, I think it it it it you’ll you’ll be friends in no time.

Speaker 0: Najee, any any tips come to mind for you?

Speaker 3: Um, I would really say think of a problem. And when you think of a problem, be that solution. For instance, um, if you’re seeing that, hey. There’s not enough, um, people talking about the, um, building relationships with marketers or if there’s not enough people building relationships with and we wanna have conversations about data and solutions and solution architect groups and there’s not enough support for those people, be that solution. Create the group. I bet there would literally be a the largest group if we just had a Dungeons and Dragons of Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It would literally it would be insane. If we had a Minecraft of Marketing Cloud uh, market of Marketing Cloud or of, um, of. If we had a, I don’t know, moms who are tired of their bratty kids group for a week. Like, if you create the group, people are coming. That’s literally what it is. Um, find what you love to do and also find what the problems are, and then be the solution. That’s what I would say. I love volunteering. And because I love volunteering, out of that, I learned that, hey. I’m I’m meeting Gilda. And Gilda is saying, hey. Meet these other people who love volunteering. And I really, really love volunteering. So I really didn’t think I would actually meet other people who enjoy doing what I do. But there are people like Tiffany Spencer. There’s Debbie Klein. There are people who literally all around the world want to help. And it’s like, oh, you you like doing okay. Cool. We we all like doing okay. This is great. Let’s just become a group and, like, constantly help each other. And now we have things like Tech Forward. We have companies that Tony is doing, and there’s so many people who are literally out here for other people all because it’s literally what we like to do. And so you’re not alone. You’re not the only one who enjoys doing what you are doing. There’s just not a group for it yet. So be that leader. We’re all waiting for you to be that leader, and we’re waiting for you to say, hey. I like doing this thing. Do you like doing this thing? I’m gonna create this group for this thing. And if you’re gonna do it, I’m gonna join. And I promise you, we’re all gonna come. We’re all gonna join. We’re all gonna be there because we like doing the same things that you like doing. So we’re just waiting on you to raise your hand.

Speaker 0: I love that. And I I I think you’re you’re spot on with saying, like, just put it out there and, like, see who, like, who who, like me, exists in this space. Um, if nobody raises their hand, then you know, okay. You’re the only one that’s in the underwater basket weaving plus Marketing Cloud, but um you never know unless you put it out there. Um Najee, you also told me about um an initiative that I wasn’t super aware of before um that Kate Villanueva started. Um, could you touch a little bit on that in the mental health and illness Trailblazer private group?

Speaker 3: So Kate is a thank you, Andrea. I appreciate that for bringing it reminding me. Kate is an is is an inspiration to everyone. She has created a safe space for those who do have mental health and who have mental health illnesses or who’s, um, who struggle in the in the Marketing Cloud in community with some form of, um, mental health difficulties. And she has started this group, and this group was needed. We needed this group so long ago. It didn’t make sense. Mental health has always been here. We just didn’t feel comfortable to speak on it, and she has created a space for that. So if you are that person who has, um, depression or anxiety, there’s a group for that. And if you’re an employer who’s like, hey, I don’t know how to work. I need more information on how to work with those who do have mental health because mental health is literally everywhere. It’s all over. It’s all it’s a part of everyone’s everyday life. There’s a group for that. And if you want to know that there’s someone, you’re not the only one, who happens to be having a rough day, maybe you’re in transition, maybe you’re just learning about these things, and you’re you’re feeling, um, you’re feeling the the pressures of trying to live an everyday life while also having to work, um, having to live with some form of a mental, um, mental difficulty. There’s a group for that and Kate has started that group. Please feel free to join her group. She’s phenomenal. She’s brought so much awareness to the community. Again, Andrea, thanks for bringing it back up because this is a it’s a big thing to bring for everyone to know that every single person is accepted here, and every single person belongs here regardless of what you, um, what your mental health is, what your disabilities are, visibly impaired, hearing and hearing and, um, hearing impaired, what is it, uh, cognitive impairments or motor impairment. Every single person is, um, is in is invited here. We’re we’re here for everyone, so love that. Thank you.

Speaker 0: Well Najee, Kirsten, and Tyler, thank you guys for making time for this and for joining us today. It’s been awesome to hear more about, um, your stories and how the community has played a role in that. Um, so really appreciate you guys joining us, um, for this session. Alright. I’m gonna pull the slide back up. Thank you, guys. See if I can do this successfully here. Okay. Alright. So we talked a bit of in chapter one about kind of the future, what we want the community look to look like. Chapter two, we talked about what is today, kind of what’s the current state. In chapter three, I’d like to talk about kind of action items, where we go from here and how we can bridge the gap from where we want to be in the community on a personal level, where we want the community to be overall, and what we can basically do to move forward to that future. Um, so one thing that I also just want to call out is, um, community is really something that we that I see as something that we’re all responsible for building together. It’s not something that we’re consumers of or that somebody else is building. We are the builders of it. Um and as Gilda said like we’re helping Salesforce is setting the framework so that we can help each other and continue to bring this forward. So I think a good question to think on is, um, how can you play a role in extending a hand to others? So if you want this to be an inclusive community, who can you include? Who can you invite to the table? Um, I think that’s a really, um, helpful way to kind of look at things. Um, one of the easiest kind of first steps to contributing to engagement in the community is to step up and bring questions. So things that you’re working on, anywhere you can ask for input, um, sharing technical roadblocks that you’re running into. Um, a few great for um, forums for that are the Trailblazer community, the Slack communities that we mentioned, um, and then any social channels. Um, it can be hard to put yourself out there and ask something. Um, the feeling of, like, not wanting to look like you don’t know an answer, um, is something that I think a lot of us have ingrained from childhood kind of thing. Um, but it’s worth it. Like making the effort and putting yourself out there is definitely worth it. Um, and if you’re asking a question, there have to be other people out there that are asking the same thing. Um, the corollary to bringing your questions is sharing your knowledge. So, of course, if people are putting questions out there, we need some answers. Um, I do see a lot of folks in the community who are asking questions, being a little shy about contributing answers to things that I’m pretty confident they know the answers to. So answer the call, put your thoughts out there, um, you know more than you think often, and even a wrong answer or just hey did you think about x y z can often be enough to set somebody on the right path, um, or at the very least spark an interesting discussion about something. Um, consider submitting to a u to speak at a user group or a conference. Um, how I built the sessions or, um, like hands on tactical types of sessions are always popular, um, and things that that, um, these organizers are looking for. Um, and if you’re interested in writing long form content or thought leadership types of pieces, I gotta put a shameless plug out there that the spot is always looking for guest bloggers, especially, um, hands on, um, user oriented content. Um, we also have opportunities to contribute to the roadmap and the future of the product. Um, so leaving product feedback and reviews on the AppExchange, um, commenting on on ideas. Um, within the last year or so, um, Salesforce also released the ability to, like, vote on specific features that are on the roadmap. Um, so taking time to, um, contribute to the vision of where that is going. Um, networking and getting to know people. Uh, we talked about events and how that that used to be a huge channel. Now it’s kind of like staging a comeback. Um, but also Twitter, LinkedIn, social media, um, those are great ways to, uh, find some familiar faces in the ecosystem. I will also say that if somebody doesn’t respond the way that you want them to, like they ignore your LinkedIn message, they ignore your Twitter DM, um, they’re busy at an event when you try to talk to them, don’t take it personally. Move on to the next person. Um, a lot of times, like, we don’t know what’s going on in somebody else’s life, and it’s hard to diagnose, like, why why somebody responded in a particular way. Um, also just looking for opportunities to spot good. So if you see somebody doing something awesome, you see a coworker that’s built something cool, look for ways to be their cheerleader. Um, the Brandy’s and MarDreamies are are two ways that we can we can do some of that. But even just kind of, uh, looking for for places to say, hey, you knocked that out of the park. You did a really good job. I received this email from you. It’s gorgeous. Thank you. Um, those are go a long way to sort of boost boost morale for somebody that’s in a similar place. Um, looking for ways to give back. So, um, these organizations on the screen are a few, um, that are involved in upskilling folks in the Salesforce ecosystem, and I know they’re always looking for trainers, people to contribute content, people to support their missions, um, so making time to get involved in some of these organizations can go can go a long way. Um, so those are a few kind of concrete action items, um, that you can take to find your people. Um, but I also wanted to touch on kind of what happens when it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. I I have to tell a story that, like, when I was first getting started in the community so I I started working in Salesforce back in 2010, and I was absolutely dying to speak at Midwest Dreamin’. Like, I never I wasn’t really familiar with the community. I hadn’t I didn’t realize there were a user groups in my area, uh, but I just built some really cool things, and I didn’t know anybody that was doing a similar job to me. And I thought in my head, okay, if I get accepted as a speaker at MAR Dreamin’, I can ask my boss to go because there’s a free ticket and, yes, it’s a few days away from work, but I think I can swing it, like, if I get accepted as a speaker. And literally all of my sessions were rejected. I think I submitted three. Um, And it stuck. Uh, the day that I got that rejection email too, I was I just had a really bad day at work and literally cried in the car on the way home. Um, so I just want to acknowledge that finding a place, building connections, it’s hard and there might be moments that don’t exactly go the way that you hoped, um, but it’s okay. Uh, keeping at it, keep reaching out, uh, and one day you’ll kind of take a look back and be like, okay, I’ve come I’ve come a long way. I’m in a really different place. Um, so I just wanted to share that story because it happens. Um, we’re all playing the long game. Um, community doesn’t happen in a single interaction. It’s not something that happens overnight. Um, and then another thing I wanted to also bring up is, um, the concept of asking for permission to do something. Um, and Gilda touched on this a bit in her comments. Um, but I’ve seen occasionally with kind of newer folks in the community that some of the programs that are intent intended for recognition and good finding like MVP, Golden Hoodie, Marketing Champion, it it turns into sort of like like some people perceive it as like you need this as a rubber stamp to get involved in the community, and that’s not what it is. Um, you don’t need somebody to shine a spotlight on you to do something awesome. Um, Um, I think a healthy mindset is you do you, and if somebody else sees that and pats you on the back, great. Um, but not getting disappointed or not thinking, like, oh, if only I was a Salesforce MVP, I could do x y z kind of thing. Um, some of the best tools and examples of innovation that I’ve seen lately, um, were created by people who just saw a need and took took action. Um, so Esha Garg created a Pardot Certification Boot Camp in India, um, that was amazing, very well attended, it’s recorded. It’s on YouTube. Awesome content. Um, Greg Gifford wrote a book on Salesforce Marketing Cloud, um, and now sells that on Amazon. Um, Brian Brian Richardson wrote a Pardot rap. Um, I think there’s a Marketing Cloud rap also that he wrote, uh, posted on YouTube. Um, and nobody like, the in these three examples, nobody asked them to do that. Like, nobody said, Brian, we need you to write a rap about our products. Um, But they just did it, and the community is better for it. Um, they’re great things that, um, I love seeing in the in the ecosystem. So for our final interview today, um, I’d like to invite Toni v Martin to the stage. Um, for those of you who haven’t met Toni, she’s the CEO, um, and founder of Systems2Success, um, which is a business that’s focused on helping, um, SMB small business customers thrive, um, with the Salesforce Essentials product. Tony’s also newly minted Salesforce MVP, the creator of the Virtual Business Analyst Summit, uh, and one of the people who helped design, uh, the new certification for Salesforce Business Analysts. Tony’s also a fellow Atlanta girl, but we’re actually both in New Orleans dialing in from our respective hotel rooms. So, Tony, thank you for joining us this morning.

Speaker 5: Thank you so much.

Speaker 0: Awesome. And, Tony, can you tell us a little bit about how you got your start in the Salesforce ecosystem?

Speaker 5: Yeah. So, actually, I am a marketer by, uh, background. So my first login was actually Pardot. It wasn’t even Salesforce as a fact. I don’t think a lot of folks know about me. Um, but I came to Atlanta back in 2008. Um, and so I was getting into marketing, public relations, those types of things. And I got a marketing enablement role, and I was acting as liaison between sales and marketing. And so we use Pardot and Salesforce, and I was thinking about kind of my career next steps, and that was the role that was most enjoyable to me. So I pursued the path as a business analyst. I’m also wondering if MAR Dreamin’ had been around back then, would I have stayed on the marketing path if I had had those resources back then? But it’s okay. We all we all end up where we where we need to be. Um, but that was kind of, you know, how I got into, um, um, being an accidental admin first and knowing that wasn’t a good fit for me. Um, I I’m not a configuration person. I’m more business process business process improvement. And so the BA path is is where I landed, but I do feel once a marketer, always a marketer. So I bring that lens to everything that I do for my business, for my branding, whatever I’ve done. It’s because of of my roots in marketing.

Speaker 0: I love that. Um, can you tell can you tell us the story of the Virtual Business Analyst Summit? Um, how did you start this, and what was kind of the motivation behind starting this?

Speaker 5: So, uh, the motivation was when I, you know, started on this career path, there were few, if any, resources dedicated to being a Salesforce business analyst. There were some resources for just general business analysis, but little to none for the Salesforce specific role. And I had all these questions. You know? What what’s the day today of a Salesforce BA look like? Um, what tools do they use? What methodologies? What is this agile? What do I need to know? What’s the user story? When do you write those? What makes those good? And I was complaining, as we do, about there not being any resources out there. And I was challenged by Mary Scott, who, um, was a former, um, you know, I don’t remember her title. I don’t know if she’s an architect. She was an architect at Salesforce, and she challenged me. She said, whatever you don’t see out there, why don’t you create it? And I was like, you know, that’s a great idea. So rather than me having a million informational interviews and reaching out to folks on LinkedIn, having one on one conversations, I thought, hey. I could present this to the world. I knew that everybody can’t make it to Dreamforce. Everybody can’t make it to, you know, in person events. And coming from the marketing, uh, world that I did, virtual conferences were, like, standard. And back then in the day, it used to be Telesummits, so you used to have to dial in. You would just be on this this, uh, bridge line, and, you know, you would hear all these speakers. And so I kind of combined all of my experiences to launch the summit because I knew other people were in the same boat that I was, asking these questions, wanting to know this information about this career path. And so that’s how I started it, and the response has has been phenomenal. We just wrapped up our seventh, um, summit this this past, uh, October. So that’s how it got started.

Speaker 0: That’s some that’s an amazing story. Um, and, Tony, what would you if if you were talking to somebody who’s kind of in the very early stages of looking to connect with others in the Salesforce ecosystem, um, what tips or suggestions would you have for people that are in in that spot?

Speaker 5: I would issue the same challenge that Mary issued to me. What do you not see that’s missing and and created? Um, I think that, you know, for people who are early, you know, a lot of us I think all of us are self taught. They’re they’re not teaching Marketing Cloud in in colleges, you know, by and large. They’re not teaching business analysis, you know, by and large. It’s not something that you get most of us stumble onto this. And so there’s so much imposter syndrome. And, you know, Andrea, you and I are our MVPs. Woohoo. We haven’t always been MVPs. You just shared your story about, you know, those rejections of of your three submissions for, um, Midwest Dreamin’. I failed my administrator, um, certification twice. So, you know, you see us today and, you know, you see us getting featured and recognized, but we started exactly where you are, frustrated. You know, Gilda talks about being fired. Right? Look at where she landed. So all of us start, you know, kind of with these backgrounds that aren’t, you know, perfectly pedigree, but you can add your voice to the conversation, and we need your voice. So I think the first thing is to just know that no matter where you are, you have something valuable to contribute. And that’s, you know, one of my goals with the summit is to make sure that it’s not just stacked with experts, MVPs. It’s everyday working folks just like us who are on the front lines. A lot of people, this is their first time ever speaking. Um, so it’s not about, you know, kind of who you know and and who you’re connected with. It’s really about what value you have to offer, um, that other people could could benefit. Um, you know, if you think about yourself as, hey. You know, I’m just getting started. You know, maybe I’m at a level two. Well, the person who’s at level zero can be helped by you. You don’t have to be at at level 10. So I think adjusting your mindset to to know that you all have something to contribute is is the first tip I would give.

Speaker 0: Yeah. I love that mentality of, like, you you can help somebody. Like, you may not be able to answer every single question that you come across, but where you can contribute and where you can add value, like show up for the people around you and like be be a part of the solution kind of thing. Um are there any like misconceptions or myths about the community that you you’d like to call out?

Speaker 5: Oh, ton. Um, how much time do we have? So I think the first thing is that everybody doesn’t have to do what we’re doing right now. Everybody does not need to be on camera. Everybody does not need to speak. That is not the route to to success. Um, if you’re introverted, you know, blogging, writing, engaging on your social platforms that you prefer, um, you know, those are things that you can do. So don’t feel pressured to, you know, speak on stages or do, you know, conferences like like what we’re doing. You don’t have to do that. I know a lot of people are like, I hate going on camera. Well, what about podcasting? You know? So you you we do not have enough, um, Salesforce based podcasts. There’s a huge need for that. Um, there’s a huge need for for content in in every lane. So I think also the the misconception that, you know, somebody’s already done it. Like, you and she were talking about kind of all the the unique things about you that other people probably have in common as well. So, you know, I hate when people are like, oh, somebody’s already doing that. If you like mystery novels, don’t you read mystery novels by, like, 10 different authors? You know, you don’t just stick to one. If you like sneakers, don’t you wear it well, unless you’re a die hard sneakerhead. You probably wear brands multiple brands. So people who engage in, you know, kind of different arenas, like, there’s room for everybody. So that’s one misconception. Um, and just, you know, I think also looking at at people’s end results. So you have this three day conference. You know, I have a a multi day conference. You know, you don’t have to start with that. You could just start with a Slack group, you know, as as people were mentioning, um, or just, you know, kinda just, you know, Salesforce Saturday, going, speaking locally, connecting with people. It does not have to be a brand platform, um, for you to contribute.

Speaker 0: I love that. And it also doesn’t have to be a grand plan either. Like, you can just kind of start doing a few things, see what feels right, see who you connect with. Um, yeah. There’s there’s a lot of ways to get get the ball rolling. So, Tony, thank you for coming today. Um, I I I love what you’ve built with the Virtual Business Analyst Summit, and I love just kind of your ethos and worldview on the whole Um, any final words of wisdom or thoughts that you wanna share to wrap things up?

Speaker 5: Um, Yeah. A few. So, also, I wanted to to call out something that Gilda said talking about that audience of one. Um, you know, kind of not thinking about the masses is and just thinking about is there one other person who could be helped, um, by what I’m doing. But, uh, you know, I don’t wanna get too church lady on y’all, but I have a saying that your obedience causes ripples. And what that means is that whatever you’re led to do, it has a greater impact beyond just yourself. And when you are obedient to whatever that that inspiration is, that spark is, you just don’t know how that’s going to ripple out and affect other people. So you kinda have to do it because you might be a catalyst for someone else’s change. Um, for me, I’ve redefined kind of MVP to stand for mission, values, and purpose. And one of the biggest tips, I would say, is to remove yourself from the equation and think about service. Um, so, you know, when you’re thinking about serving people, it’s less about, well, how do I look? And I’m not qualified, and I don’t have these credentials. And it’s more about I have something to contribute. Someone even if it’s just encouragement. You might not have your certification, but you’re a super positive person who encourages other people, and you’re cheerleading for other folks when when they get theirs or when they solve a problem. That’s valuable. And when you think about it in that lens, you’re going to be so much more fulfilled and the work gets easier because it’s really not about you at that point. Um, I know for me, you know, with my summit, oh gosh, there’s a woman at Dreamforce, and, you know, she teared up, you know, saying that my son, it was the first time that she felt kind of recognized in her role. You know, this event, MAR Dreamin’, this is, like, you know, the the home and the focus for marketers who might not always feel, you know, as as recognized as some of the other Salesforce roles. So your service of, you know, creating what you thought people needed or wanted or or was missing, again, it it can start new jobs. It can keep people encouraged. We talked about mental health, you know, just being there for other people. Um, I think that I just wanna leave people with that that piece of remove yourself from the equation and whatever you’re you’re led to do. Don’t, you know, kind of focus on your shortcomings. Start simple, start small, start messy, and just get it out there in the world, and and someone’s gonna appreciate it. A lot of folks are gonna appreciate it.

Speaker 0: Tony, you’re literally giving me goosebumps. Like, I agree with everything that you’re saying, and I love that mindset of service and, um, just how you show up in in the ecosystem and in every conversation that we have. Um, so thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, and thanks everybody. Um, one final call to action that I’d like to leave everyone with. Set a goal. Um, I would invite you to set a goal of, um, reaching out to three people that you meet meet virtually at MAR Dreamin’. So if you see anybody in the chat that you’re just vibing with, if you hear an awesome speaker, um, follow them on LinkedIn, connect with them on Twitter, let them know, um, that you you saw them, you interacted with them, that you want to stay connected, um, and start thinking about how and where you can share your knowledge. Would you like to speak at MAR Dreamin’ 2023? Would you like to write some, um, content? Like anything anything you, uh, you can think of that you want to share with the ecosystem. And then thinking about, um, who you can you can support. So if there’s anybody that you know that, um, you can help build up or offer support to, any of those groups whose mission speaks to you, um, I would invite you to reflect on that a bit. Um, so one final announcement. So if you’re in the Atlanta area, um, so Najee mentioned this briefly in her comments, but she’s our ATL, um, Marketing Cloud User Group leader. Um, we’re actually hosting an in person, um, happy hour after party for MarDreamin’. So if you wanna eat some tacos in mezcal, um, there’s details here on the screen. Um, and then for our final, um, event, I would say, of this opening keynote, um, I’d like to invite Gilda back on stage now uh, to announce our winners, um, of our swag giveaway.

Speaker 1: Can you hear me? Mhmm. Okay. Um, so my name, my the nickname I think Andrea mentioned before is fairy swag mother, but I also go by the Olivia Pope of Marketing Cloud. So whoop whoop. Um, so I’m a big believer in swag. I love swag, and I’m not necessarily saying that we live vicariously through swag, but I like to kind of pop in here then surprise people. And what better way to surprise people than at this amazing event, MAR Dreamin’? So we would like to announce the three winners who will be getting some delicious items from our, uh, Trailblazer store. So Anthony Rodriguez, Crystal Brooks, and Mike Keffel. And if I said your name wrong, Mike, please, I apologize. These lucky winners will be getting something really special from the Trailblazer store. We will be contacting them after the event with more details. And let me just say, the next couple of days, we’re gonna be dropping in, um, questions here and there, and swag will always accompany those questions. So please continue to attend MarDreamin’ and attend the sessions. Um, we will be giving away some amazing swag throughout the rest of the next three days.

Speaker 0: Yeah. There really is gonna be a lot of swag over the next few days, which I’m really excited about. It just makes everything a little more.

Speaker 1: And you know what? The other thing is some of these swags are unique. Right? So you might be the only person in the entire ecosystem to have these, um, cool swags.

Speaker 0: Love it. Um, well, thank you all for joining today for our opening keynote. This is just the beginning of the awesome content that we have ahead for the next three days. So look forward to seeing you throughout the conference and, um, please use the hashtag, um, #mardreamin2022, um, to when you’re posting on social.