Welcome Meighan Brodkey – Girly Geek of the Week!
Meet Meighan! What a total Salesforce #RockStar!! She is a freelance consultant <Currently looking for a FullTime Admin Position>, Stellar Salesforce Blogger <check out her blog ASAP and don’t miss the Salesforce Toolkit on her blog!>, Success Community Maven, has aspirations of becoming a Salesforce Technical Architect AND worked for Salesforce in the early days which lead her to working on the platform!
Me: How & when did you start working with Salesforce?
Meighan: It was totally random actually. Back in 2008 I was working as the Assistant Director of the Art Institute of Salt Lake City, and was feeling this pull to look for something that would be more fitting long-term for what I want to do. I had always been the go-to person for tech help, and really enjoyed that, so I started applying to tech related jobs.
There just so happened to be a pilot project for this company, “Salesforce”, where they wanted to have their smaller customers, typically less than 100 licenses, or larger companies on Professional Edition, engage for Success Plans. The role was to speak with these customers 2x a year to deliver a document that reviews how they can get more out of Salesforce, based on the “7 Domains of Success” we had customized calls directly with the admin/power users on how they use Salesforce, how they want to use Salesforce, and what they need help with. It sounded so cool, here was this opportunity to help companies, I love helping, and learned a TON about this Salesforce.com software. I think Saasy might have a breakdown calling Salesforce ‘software’ lol
I loved it. I learned so much with that position. Each day I was able to work with a different Salesforce customer to review how their business runs on Salesforce, what they struggle with, and help them create long-term roadmap strategies. Each customer was unique, different size, different vertical, but they all used Salesforce. Then, when you delivered this document you spent hours doing research for, with the recommendations for features, functionality, and more, they were ecstatic. They were so happy, it made you want to dig deeper and deeper into Salesforce to help them.
In addition to the fact that it felt good to make people happy every day at work, the ADMIN-201 training, my amazing mentor Susan Perdew, and I finally knew what I wanted to do when I grew up. I was going to work with Salesforce. Once the pilot ended, the company that was running the project, asked me to be their internal Salesforce Admin, and the rest is history. What an amazing opportunity that lead you on your Salesforce path! ❤
Me: What is your current role working with Salesforce?
Meighan: I am doing freelance consultant work for the time being; working with SMBs on Salesforce implementations and on-going administration. It is a lot of fun, a constant challenge, and always changing. I do miss having my own org, running a long-term strategy, and having/helping my own end users though, so I am looking for a full-time position. What I would really like is an org that is being taken over from end users, or fast growing, something that will be a challenge and fast paced. I love working with SMB customers! and I wish you the best finding that #AwesomeAdmin role! 🙂
Me: What is your favorite thing to do in Salesforce and why?
Meighan: That is a hard one. I’m torn between two things. First, I love to design solutions that make Salesforce functionality meet business requirements in simple, but not always, intended ways. It is so much fun to really dig in and make something that shouldn’t be possible, possible. Second, I love working with usability, usability for users and admin. Salesforce should be easy and intuitive for everyone, whether decreasing clicks or updating the setup to be more efficient, I love when I get to deliver an easier way to do things. Agreed!
Me: Are you currently certified? And if so what certifications do you hold?
Meighan: I am not currently certified. Back when I worked at Salesforce, I took the ADMIN-201 class and exam, but never kept up with my maintenance exams. I would like to be re-certified as an admin, and I am actively studying for my App Builder & Developer Exams. Good Luck!! 🙂
Me: What are some of your aspirations and/or goals when it comes to Salesforce?
Meighan: I want to be a certified Salesforce Technical Architect. I really, really, do. It is my dream job, and I make myself take time every single day to work towards my goal. Whether I work on completing new Trailhead modules or other online trainings/workshops, reading articles and guides, or reviewing questions from the community, each day I sit down and take the time to remember what my goal is and why, and then try and get a little closer to it. That is awesome! we need more female certified TA’s!!
Me: Do you have any advice for women working with Salesforce?
Meighan: The best advice for anyone in the Salesforce community is to keep learning. Try new things, participate in the community, and share your knowledge. When you know your stuff, you can do anything. You will find amazing help and camaraderie in the Success Community! ❤
Me: What kinds of things are you involved in, and/or do you like to do outside of the Salesforce world?
Meighan: What is this outside of the Salesforce world place you speak of? It sounds like a sad place to be. But seriously, I enjoy photography, camping, kayaking, the usual Seattle hobbies. I have seen 49 states on road trips, drove to Alaska for a long weekend to make that happen a few years back, so much fun. So you’ve been to my home state of DE! 😀
Me: Are you part of a WIT Chapter?
Meighan: I am a member of WIT Seattle but with the dates/times of events and transportation/work/location, I haven’t made it to the meetups in quite awhile. As soon as the stars align, I will be back.
It was a pleasure getting to know you Meighan and thank you very much for sharing!
You are definitely an inspiration!
For those of you that want to follow Meighan, here are her links:
Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/meighanbrodkey
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MeighanBrodkeyRocksSF/posts
Twitter Handle: @MeighanSF
Success Community: https://success.salesforce.com/profile?u=0053000000AmuOTAAZ
Blog: http://meighanrockssf.wordpress.com
AboutMe: http://about.me/meighanbrodkey
GitHub: http://github.com/meighan
StackExchange: http://salesforce.stackexchange.com/users/11653/meighanrockssf
SaaSyForce.com 