Welcome Kelly Kanches – Girly Geek of the Week!
I think I just found my long lost sister from another mother on the nerd level lol! Meet Kelly! She is another #SuperMom, #SoloAdmin, #AwesomeAdmin, Answers Community Leader, Super Volunteer and total SciFi Geek like myself!! ❤ I love her Admin ethics and her awesome advice for women! “Embrace your womanhood and inner nerd and use it to your advantage!”
Me: How & when did you start working with Salesforce?
Kelly: My first experience with Salesforce was as a user when I was in sales for LivingSocial 2011. I was completely blown away with what it was capable of. LivingSocial really leveraged SF to its fullest extent so I was fortunate to see an instance that was really fantastic. 🙂
Me: What is your current role working with Salesforce?
Kelly: Currently I am the Salesforce Administrator (and Gainsight and Pardot) for Prescribe Wellness. I work from home in Aiken, SC and my company is headquartered in LA. I feel so proud to have joined such a lovely team and they keep me busy! I love the daily challenges I am presented with and always end my day feeling like I have accomplished something and helped someone. #SoloAdmin ❤
Me: What is your favorite thing to do in Salesforce and why?
Kelly: I hail from a background in sales. I started selling Yellow Pages for AT&T (yes, people did that) in 2003 and stayed in sales as either a rep or manager until January of this year. My favorite thing to do is assist sales reps and managers in understanding their KPI’s and task management. I train as often as possible on how to leverage SF to “run your day for you”. My ultimate goal is to enable sales to get a higher ROI in their commission checks by what I can teach them and provide them in SF. I help sales managers understand how to build reports to look at activities and ratios to find gaps. This assists them with identifying where to provide additional training and support to individuals on their team. #AwesomeAdmin! this is excellent!
Me: Are you currently certified? And if so what certifications do you hold?
Kelly: Yes! One of my proudest days was passing my Admin 201 and Dev 401. I am studying for my Admin 401 and Pardot certifications now and will have them by the end of Q115. Good Luck I am sure you will have no problem passing them!! 🙂
Me: What are some of your aspirations and/or goals when it comes to Salesforce?
Kelly: My biggest goal is to one day be regarded as a true professional in the field the way I was recognized in the “sales” field. I hold many sales awards and was fully confident in my abilities. After changing careers I have found I have a lot to learn. I am very grateful for the Success Community who has helped me beyond measure. I hope to one day be on that expert level that so many of my idols are. You certainly will at the rate you are going helping others in the Community! Currently ranked #5 as an Answers Community Leader! WooHoo!
Me: Do you have any advice for women working with Salesforce?
Kelly: Take advantage of the gifts you are blessed with! Women have a special gut intuition, listen to it. Women also have a softer nature which can get you very far in communicating with people. I think communication is extremely important in a role like this as you are looking for not only input, direction, feedback, but also “buy-in” from users. Embrace your womanhood and inner nerd and use it to your advantage! YESSSS! Love this!
Me: What kinds of things are you involved in, and/or do you like to do outside of the Salesforce world?
Kelly: I am a Pintrest addict. I craft, sew, cook, paint, and whatever else just about anything I can find on Pintrest that strikes my fancy. I am also a HUGE Sci-Fi nerd. I love Star Trek, Star Wars, and ANYTHING about Aliens and space. My favorite thing to do is snuggle with my 3 year old daughter, order a pizza, and watch a Sci-Fi movie. She loves the as much as I do and I hope to create a tiny nerd version of myself. So far I am on track with that goal. I think you may be my nerdy sister from another mother lol! minus the craft,sew,cook part 😀 The Death Star over the changing table is my absolute FAV!! 😀
Me: Are you part of a Girly Geeks Chapter?
Kelly: Not…yet! I will join in! I love being a part of things to help out fellow women who love technology like I do. I think it is very important to support each other!
Kelly may not be involved with a WIT chapter YET, but she is involved in the following:
I am involved with the Mental Health of America Aiken, SC and each year I am a “Celebrity Chef” for their Aiken’s Cooking Event.
https://www.facebook.com/MHAofAikenCounty/
I also serve food and donate gifts for the annual Operation Santa Event
http://mha-aiken.org/ourprograms/operationsanta.html
I coordinate Spooky to be Hungry canned food drives for our local food bank Golden Harvest
http://www.updatefrom.com/vps/1309/our_community.asp
Prior to that I was a volunteer coordinator for Red Cross Blood drives in Helen, GA (my hometown)
I have also been a judge for the Stevie Awards for Customer Service http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/sales/general/427_2283_21522.cfm
It was a pleasure getting to know you Kelly and thank you very much for sharing!
You are definitely an inspiration!
For those of you that want to follow Kelly, here are her links:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellynwatson
Twitter handle: @kellykanches
Sfdc Community link: https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/userprofile/UserProfilePage?u=0053000000BggN3AAJ&tab=sfdc.ProfilePlatformFeed
Blog: https://experimentsinwifery.wordpress.com/
SaaSyForce.com 