Girly Geek Of The Week: Meagan Diegelman

Welcome Meagan Diegelman – Girly Geek of the Week!

I really didn’t do this on purpose, but here is another #GGOTW who works at Slalom Consulting!  Meet Meagan!  She is a WIT/Girly Geek Co-Leader in Houston, a traveller, and a self taught #RockStar Consultant who gives excellent advice!  Oh, and she is learning to code!

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Me:  How & when did you start working with Salesforce?

Meagan: This is a great story! (Truly!) I was working for a small freight brokerage startup about 6 years ago, there were 5 of us and I was the Customer Service Rep, the only one.  We were working in true startup fashion; in this tiny little shared office with broken desks and nasty carpet.  Anyway, I was so busy with work, barely able to pay my bills and just all around not happy in my job, I knew this was not my forever career.  One day my boss asked me to learn this “new software tool” that he thought would work better as we grew than Google Docs, we were managing our clients in Google Docs (It’s okay to roll your eyes at that, I have many times since).  I told him I simply didn’t have the extra time. His comeback was so perfect I can still hear it, “Meagan, if you learn Salesforce you’ll have an employable skill for the rest of your life.”  I remember thinking something like that would be good to have on my resume as a backup plan, so I started teaching myself Salesforce.  I still had my other job tasks to complete each day so I spent many nights and weekends learning Salesforce, this was pre-Trailhead so information was more scattered.  As the company grew, so did my role and the amount of time I got to spend on Salesforce.  As it turns out, that “employable skill” is now my passion.  I knew from the start I would never be passionate about freight but I had no idea that learning this “new software tool” could make me so happy.  I will forever be thankful for that push from my old boss.  That is amazing and congrats on being driven to learn Salesforce on your own!  I am like your old boss, constantly telling people the value of a Salesforce career!  It is my passion as well! 🙂 ❤

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Me:  What’s your current role working with Salesforce?

Meagan: I’m a Salesforce consultant for Slalom Consulting.  Right now I’m working on a project where I wrote my first code!  I enjoy working as a consultant because it challenges me to learn how to apply Salesforce in different industries for unique business problems. Congrats on the code! 🙂

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Me:  What is your favorite thing to do in Salesforce and why?

Meagan: I love finding new ways to automate a process that makes a user’s life a little easier or provide new analytics to help a manager see their business in a different way.  Seeing a user’s eyes light up when they realize something is possible that wasn’t before is so fun.  I also love teaching others how to administer Salesforce, its empowering to know how much you can do without being a super technical person.  Seeing someone feel that empowerment is awesome.  I couldn’t agree more and is also one of my favorite things about working with Salesforce – being that rockstar for the users!

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Me:  Are you currently certified? And if so what certifications do you hold?

Meagan: Yes, Dev 401 and ADM 201.  I’m trying to decide what’s next Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, learning more code…there are so many choices.  Good Luck on BOTH! 😉

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Me:  What are some of your aspirations and/or goals when it comes to Salesforce?

Meagan: To know all the things.  Really though, right now I’m focusing on learning as much as I can and getting more involved in the community. I’m learning to code with RAD Women and through David Liu’s blog (www.sfdc99.com) but I haven’t had the “ah ha” moment where it all clicks yet, I’m hoping for that soon.  I’m not convinced that I want to be this super crazy advanced developer that builds complex code all day, I’m not sure that’s who I am, but I’d like to know more than I do now.

Seeing how getting a pic with Saasy is a completed goal, I KNOW you will complete all the rest of your goals! 😉 Seriously though, Extra Good Luck with learning to code!  that is one of my goals as well 🙂

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Me:  Do you have any advice for women working with Salesforce?

Meagan:  Be yourself, ask lots of questions and get involved in a way that interests you.  Geraldine Gray once closed an email to me with “Be brave.  Have fun.  Drink margaritas.”  It’s short and to the point but sums up a lot of the way I approach Salesforce and the Houston Girly Geeks chapter.  In order to grow we all have to be brave and do the things that scare us.  But if we’re not having fun and enjoying our careers, what’s the point?  I will say, this is one of the most supportive and positive professional environments I have seen, so take advantage of that support and give back to it when you can.  Excellent advice! I love it and so true!

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Me:  What kinds of things are you involved in, and/or do you like to do outside of the Salesforce world?

Meagan: My husband and I love to travel as much as possible; everything from trips to different countries to day trips here in Texas.  I also enjoy all things water; the lake, the ocean, boats, swimming, you name it!  I’m on the Slalom MS 150 cycling team, we’re training to ride 150 miles in 2 days to support MS.  When I have time I enjoy cooking new recipes to share with my friends and family.

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Me:  Are you part of a Girly Geeks Chapter?

Meagan: Yes, I co-chair the Houston Girly Geeks chapter.  If you’re not in a Girly Geeks chapter you should look into it and if there isn’t one in your area you should start one.  Colleen Burnsed, the other co-chair, and I have always felt that a Girly Geeks meeting is a success if two people show up.  Since we’re both always there, all of our meetings are a success!  What I’m trying to say is if your area doesn’t have a Girly Geeks chapter, find a co-chair that you’d enjoy getting to know better and start meeting once a month.  The rest of it will work out as you advertise the meetings in the Success Community, on Twitter and LinkedIn.  Very True! and the Chapters are a great Salesforce support system.  I have met some of the most amazing women with my Raleigh Chapter! ❤

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It was a pleasure getting to know you Meagan and thank you very much for sharing!

You are definitely an inspiration!

For those of you that want to follow Meagan, here are her links:
Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/meagandiegelman
Twitter handle: @MegDiegs
Sfdc Community link:   https://success.salesforce.com/0053000000BMHhR