Mike Wheeler: Rebecca, you had mentioned that whenever you had your first Salesforce job you were going to Dreamforce, and you were not certified yet. So a lot of people think they have to have certifications before they get hired. I think that you proved otherwise on that. And then also you overcame because you've come in relatively more recently, I guess about 3 years of experience now and over those past 3 years, especially, the market has gotten tighter. So can you speak to how you separate yourself from the quote unquote competition, and how you've been able to, you know, land that first role and then piggyback on to where you are now as well. Can you speak to, you know, getting certified after you have a job, how to land those jobs cause there's a lot of people out there that think that you know it's no longer attainable. So what would you say to those individuals?
Rebecca Youngquist: I would definitely say it's still attainable. I think that certifications are not a prerequisite to getting a Salesforce job. I do think, however, having, like somewhere indicated in your conversation, in your resume something just wherever you're looking for jobs, the fact that you are actively learning Salesforce like so like, those Trailhead badges, super badges. Even like, yeah, they're like they're certifications in like a pseudo kind of sense.
But that was game changing for me, because I was able to speak to a lot of the stuff that I was asked about in my interview, like on the LinkedIn posting for most of these jobs I've applied for the Sales Ops analyst along the way the Rev Ops, etc. My older sister told me to take a screenshot of that posting, and then look at the responsibilities and take what I did in the military, and translate what I did into what they were looking for. So like, for example, they were looking for someone who was good with data analytics like someone who could like identify KPIs and like do trend analysis. And I was like, well in the military, I was able to do trend analysis and data analytics all day. So like, here's my background. Here's my experience. I can translate it into this. And oh, by the way, I'm actively learning stuff on Trailhead, and I'm studying for my certification coming up, and I was able to leverage that with Promethean to after I got onboarded.
They actually sent me a $100 voucher towards my exam at the time, and they were like, "Here, go ahead and go get this certification." Since you've been studying for it already, so that was pretty cool.
So I definitely I don't think. And Nikki feel free to jump in whenever you want. But I think certifications definitely not a prereq for breaking into the ecosystem, especially like as long as you're not like, for very obvious reasons, you can't just go out there and say, I want to be a senior admin right now, like there's not that I think certifications again, are required for that, but having, like a background in Salesforce is incredibly critical. But to answer your question, yeah, the breaking into it definitely challenging. But being able to translate your now skills into what they're looking for, I think, is probably the way to do it, and then discussing Salesforce along the way.
Mike Wheeler: Okay, excellent. So, Nicole, I noticed you are a CRM Manager. Is that your title?
Nicole Looker: Yes, it is correct.
Mike Wheeler: Okay, so what other systems beyond Salesforce do you find yourself dealing with?
Nicole Looker: Oh, my gosh! Tons and tons and tons! So yes, I am responsible for everything Salesforce. So anything that happens in Salesforce goes through me first, and I say yay or nay, but I also do all the like project management for it, and the build and the development and the training and the enablement and all the things inside of Salesforce.
But we have a lot of integrations with Salesforce. So I work in HubSpot which we use for marketing. So we have HubSpot and Salesforce connected. And we pass the information back and forth.
I did an implementation of LeanData for lead routing and account management, and a lot of other more complicated processes, too. We also use Clearbit, and then, we use Apollo for contact enrichment and sales outreach.
We use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and then I think the biggest one is, we just did a Data Cloud implementation. Which I was the only one working on that with our implementation partner. And I can speak into more detail about that, too, since that's like the hot topic for Salesforce right now. But being able to do that implementation for a startup company was pretty incredible, and I've learned a lot.
We're using it in a different sense where like, we had a custom integration between our internal database that sends information from our internal database into Sales Cloud. But it was a little like spotty. It broke. It would take up a lot of API calls. We needed engineering to like fix things for us on it when it broke, or if we needed new things.
So what we have now is we have BigQuery connected to Data Cloud. And then Data Cloud sends information to Sales Cloud. And then we have it Sales Cloud to Data Cloud to BigQuery. So basically, we just built. We were using it as like an ETL tool to take information, transform it and put it in our destination. And it's pretty cool, and it's opened up a lot of new avenues for all the teams both that use Sales Cloud. And then everybody uses BigQuery for our reporting.
Mike Wheeler: Very nice. So I noticed that you have the Data Cloud Consultant certification as well. So it's always helpful to have a project you're working on to help inform your studies and vice versa. So what's the big takeaway from attaining that certification? Any advice for those aspiring to get Data Cloud certified?
Nicole Looker: Yes, so I was fortunate enough that we happened to be doing the implementation, and I was able to sit in on the course that Salesforce offers. So I was luckily my company did fund that for me to make sure that I was capable to do the implementation with our partner, and then handle the enhancements that we're working on thereafter.
But honestly, Salesforce did a fantastic job with the Trailhead and the studying materials on Trailhead for the Data Cloud exam, and it's very, very helpful. There are like some development orgs that you can build now. And that was where, like, I was able to get hands on, like, actually connecting the data streams, building the data models, doing the mapping, pushing it back, understanding the difference between profile and other, and like the different categories that you have to build in your data model. And all of those things are what is asked about on the exam cause they want to make sure that you understand, like what you're doing and why. And the different technical terms inside of Data Cloud.
There are a lot of different use cases for Data Cloud too. I think ours is like a little bit different than like what Data Cloud was originally intended for. So I think it's gonna open up but the materials on Trailhead, I think, are very, very valuable for anybody looking for a way to try to study and get it organized for the exam.
Mike Wheeler: Excellent. So tell me a little bit, and both y'all feel free to chime in about your upcoming session for Mile High Dreamin'. How did that come about? What's the main takeaways you're going to be discussing? And how did you come to decide that you know what we want to present at this conference?
Nicole Looker: Yeah. Well, do you wanna go Becca or want me to?
Rebecca Youngquist: I was gonna say, that was totally your idea. Nikki called me on a Sunday afternoon, and she was like "Becca. How do you feel about trying to speak at Dreamforce this year?" And I was like, you know what? Why not like? That sounds great cause like at the time like I didn't know if I was going to Dreamforce yet or not. With spoiler alert I am. I'm very excited. But we were originally building our proposal around, speaking at Dreamforce, to talk about being siblings in the ecosystem, and being prior military, being women in the workplace, all the things that like we had to like bring to the plate and then Mile High Dreamin' opened up. And it's like up in Denver. And Nicole is like, you know. Actually, why don't we just like send our proposal over to them first? See if they like it, and then it'll be kind of like a trial run, because Mile High Dreamin' is at the end of August.
And then Dreamforce is mid September. So we were like, let's just let's see what happens. We'll submit it, and then, if we get like turned down both times like, oh well, we'll try again next year, and then Nikki gives me a call. What was it? Friday? Like 2 o'clock in the afternoon, like when they announced the speakers. She was like "Becca. Oh, my God! We're speaking at Mile High Dreamin'."
So the whole idea was number one, like, we're both in like senior level positions now. So like we've seen a lot. I'm coming from an enterprise background. Nicole's coming from a startup background. So we had a lot to like bring to the table on, like our different experiences, like with the like kind of the two different sides of the ecosystems. And I do know that there's many other sides to like Salesforce. But those two sides specifically, enterprise versus startup. And then we were like, well, we have this cool story about how we like grew up with our mom in like coal cracker town in Pennsylvania. We had no idea like what was out there in the world, because a lot of the people where we come from. They end up just staying there, and they don't really do a whole lot. But we knew we wanted to go out and do stuff, because our parents kind of like put that into our brains, and we like made it out into the world. We were on opposite sides of, like the East Coast for a long time that somehow managed to end up in Colorado in the exact same career field in the exact same industry cause we're both in SaaS startups now.
And we were like, that's a that's like such a cool thing to be able to talk about and say that my sister is my best friend in real life, but also she's my best mentor in Salesforce, because whenever I have a problem, I call Nicole, and I'm like Nicole. I need help. I don't know why this is happening. ChatGPT keeps giving me the runaround today. Please help me out, Nicole. Give me something to like go off and like vice versa, too, because, like, I've seen things that she hasn't, and she's seen things that I haven't.
And it's it's like a cool relationship that we were like, really excited to share like it'd be like, look at, look like what happened like how this like transformed our careers. And then additionally, something that I didn't know about until I was working on my second certification is that Salesforce has a whole military program dedicated to veterans and shout out to Vetforce. I'm not sure what they're called anymore, because when you type in Vetforce now, it pops up Military for Salesforce.
But Vetforce. If you're a veteran in United States Military, you can sign up for their program. You take their prescribed trail and they give you a free certification voucher to take your certification, and if you fail it the first time they give you another one and say, "Oh, try again," so you would get two free tries to take your exams like to get certified like they're paying you to get certified. And then, on top of that Salesforce for Military partners with all of these, like major companies to get you automatic interviews. So like, if you're military like, and you're looking to break into the ecosystem like that. Is your avenue right there it is free. All it takes is for you to dedicate your 40 hours a week of like if you're not working 40 hours of studying and training and doing what you need to do and like getting ready for interviews. And like that was a game changer, and the fact that I didn't get talked to about that when I was talking to like my VA coaches and whatnot on the way out, and I was mentioning Salesforce. No one knew about that. It wasn't part of the thing, and I found out, I think in like December. It's like 2 months after I got my admin cert and I was like man if I would have known that like oh, my gosh! So we wanted to talk about that. And like kind of how we utilize, like our resources, that we had available the free ones provided by Salesforce. And then, like your courses, too, like like there's all these things that like you can use to get certified if you put in the time and the effort, and then you can see what happens. Nicole's been in Salesforce for what? 7 years now Nikki?
Rebecca Youngquist: And I've been in it for 3 years, and I slapped on a senior title this year, which is almost unheard of because a lot of the postings that you'll see today are like must have 5 to 8 years of experience to be a Salesforce senior admin and it's because I happen to have had, like my sister as my mentor who gave me all these resources, and then I discovered all these other resources along the way. So like, I'm kind of like you, Mike. I've been anybody who has a pulse, I'm like, do you wanna do Salesforce like? Look how cool this is free like it's totally free. You just have to want to do it.
Nicole Looker: I'll also chime in here, too. I actually had a mentor through the Salesforce mentorship program right before I got my first but, like product ownership, like my, I was a sales operations analyst was my title, but I really owned Salesforce in that role, and his name was Russ Feldman. So if Russ, if you happen to be watching this too I think Salesforce does offer that, and I think getting a like if you can, and have the time to apply and dedicate to that, it's really helpful, because you do get paired with people who are much more experienced than you, and I think me being brand new, and I think at the time he owned his own Salesforce consultancy. So I was able to like, pick his brain about the different things that he works on, and what like clients look for and different, like avenues that he's been down so definitely like taking advantage of that like was really fun and very interesting, and he also helped help me tailor my resume at the time. There are also a lot of folks out there now who are very good at resume tailoring. Becca introduced me to one when I got laid off last year, actually due to like business restructuring as well. Her name was Megan, and she really helped me like fine tune my resume, with all of my Salesforce skills to make it like showcase, everything that I've learned and know.
So I think, like during our presentation at Mile High Dreamin', it's just really opening up the eyes of everybody who is there about what is available, what's free. You might just have to put some like time in. But there are a lot of different things that you can be doing to showcase your individual abilities, what you bring to the table how you can like make the company grow and just making sure that everybody is aware of all of those.
Mike Wheeler: Excellent. So I guess. Kind of to round this out. What's next for both of you? What either next certification next skill, whatever that may be what's on the horizon for you both?
Nicole Looker: Well, I think Becca and I probably are both in the same boat here, where we've been exposed to the wonderful world of Salesforce development recently. In Data Cloud, we have a lot of Apex scripts and different Apex jobs that we're running to make sure that all of our stuff is working correctly, and I know Becca was just telling me yesterday about all the Apex triggers that she's been working on so I think we're probably both gonna be heading down that route to get more proficient on the development side. So I think Platform Dev One is probably on our horizon for sure. And that one will probably take a little bit of time and effort, and we'll be using all the resources that we mentioned to get those certs.
Rebecca Youngquist: That. And then I think we also depending on how our time goes at Dreamforce. I don't think that I will be prepared enough to take my Platform Dev One. But we were looking at the User Experience one. And I'm thinking that that's gonna be probably like the next like stepping stone, and then be like, alright cool. Now I'm ready to get down and dirty and get this Platform Dev One because yeah, it's the same boat like what a lot of people and what I've never realized, and I probably should have listened more to you, Nicole. I'm sorry for that, but like, I never realized just how crazy startup companies are like they are like, hit the ground running like we want changes. We want it now, change management process. What's that? Put it in production right now? We need this now. And that has been like exciting but also terrifying. So now I'm over here like alright, I have to like, dial it back and refine and be a better like Project Manager on top of that, to be able to kind of like, get everything out the door and like not break something that's like. That's probably the fear it's probably the I'm not afraid of a lot of things in life, but taking down my Salesforce org on a Thursday afternoon to Boy, oh boy, imagine.
Mike Wheeler: Right? Yeah, you come from an environment of dealing with nuclear reactors. So there was no changing things in production there. I hope it was a lot of checklists, a lot of you know, multiple sets of eyes on things so.
Rebecca Youngquist: Correct.
Mike Wheeler: Well, man, I'm so excited for you both in your future, and excited for your presentation at Mile High Dreamin'. And so thank you so much any final parting, advice, or words of wisdom for those that have crossed paths with you today.
Rebecca Youngquist: Oh, gosh! You know, like I've been thinking about this cause I have, we have a couple of friends who are like pursuing Salesforce stuff, and, like our mom as well, is also pursuing some Salesforce stuff which is pretty cool. I think my biggest piece of advice and my lesson learned over the last couple of years was, do not chase the money in this field, because if you do, you are going to be sorely disappointed until you have the experience to fight for that paycheck that you think you deserve right, and then it sounds harsh. But like if someone, if you're out there looking to break into the system and you're offered a sales ops analyst job at $75,000 a year. You better say yes, count the blessings and jump right into it, because that is a beautiful salary range for an entry level job, and that'll get you started and where you need to go, and to not look at what everyone else is like earning in there, because chasing that money is not going to make you happy at the end of the day because Salesforce, I think Nikki alluded to it earlier, is you have to have the soft skills to be able to kind of succeed in here. But you also like need to like what you do right like. That's like something that it's a lot of feedback that I get on just my personality with people that I interact with. It is like when they feel like you care about what you're doing and you like what you're doing. They're more likely to come to you like with their problems, and they're more likely to like work with you better, and you'll be able to do your job a lot better, so I think. Don't chase the money and like what you do, and then you'll have a good time.
Nicole Looker: My two pieces are similar to Becca's, but a little bit different. Number one is like in Salesforce, you always have to be learning and growing like you can't just like expect that what you knew last week is what's gonna solve your problem tomorrow. Cause sometimes that's definitely not the case. It's always changing. They're growing. They're developing more competitors are coming up in the market offering similar things. So they're gonna be innovating and growing and making sure that they can keep up with the competitive landscape that everybody is experiencing.
So yeah, the learning part is definitely. Even now I learn something new every single day, especially being in a startup where the problems are crazy and chaotic all day long. You're always learning. And number two is like I just wanna like personally, say, thank you to every single person that I've ever interacted with, like my manager at DTCC. His name's Chase Watson. He, like, gave me the opportunity to like, go to Dreamforce, and get my certification, and dedicate time in my role to studying for the exams.
And then, even like my following roles at Octane with Brian, and then Privy with Brian. And then now, my manager. His name is Austin. They just all have really opened up the door for me to kind of just come in and do my thing, and they trust me to like, get it done. And then that's also another attitude that everybody should like have just come in, learn, grow, get it done, and you'll be on your way to bigger and better things.
Mike Wheeler: Excellent. Well, thank you so much, and let's stay in touch. Look forward to seeing what you do in the future.
