The Salesforce Surfer Edition #2: From Surfboards and Waves….To Keyboards and Flows Part 2

As promised in the last edition, the photo is me surfing at about the age of 15.  A shameless gimmick, I know. But desperate times call for desperate measures!

And now our exciting saga continues……

After college, there was a hiring freeze in the world of Geographic Information Systems(GIS) so I turned to the old family trade to get me by for a while……Cars! 

As a teenager, my grandfather was building hot rods in the 30s, and, after returning from the War, he became a mechanic and car customizer. He was well known for his auto building expertise and his exploits on the race track. Both he and my grandmother(that’s right…I said my grandmother) dominated Southern California autocross competition in the late 50s and early 60s. My father, also a gearhead(auto enthusiast), built cars with my grandfather and raced vintage flathead front-engine dragsters in the late 60s and early 70s. Surf culture and hot rod culture went hand in hand back then and I lived at the epicenter of both. Growing up, when I wasn’t at the beach, I was usually at a car event. 

So, naturally, I fell back on what I knew and decided to open my own car business doing automotive cosmetic reconditioning for car dealerships all over Southern and Northern California. We would cosmetically refinish damaged or worn parts on cars. First, I started with refinishing vinyl in car interiors. I gradually expanded to include leather, fabric and plastics of car interiors as well.  Over time we branched out into alloy rim refinishing, glass chip repair, paintless dent removal, paint touch up, clear bra application and, finally, paint and body work on cars. We worked on everything from Toyotas to Ferraris, including many vehicles owned by celebrities.

The industry was booming and my business exploded. My staff grew to approximately thirty people and all thoughts of ever returning to GIS faded into the background. Since financial responsibility is the bedrock of a successful business, I built my business from the ground up, without borrowing money, by reinvesting my profits to fuel each new expansion. It was an incredible time of personal and professional growth as I learned every aspect of running my own business.

Then, in 2008, car sales deflated almost overnight with the recession.  The auto industry began to change, and not for the better. Corporations bought up family owned car dealerships as California grew more and more hostile to small businesses. Over time, craftsmanship, quality service, and honesty were exchanged for gimmicks, slick salesmanship, and payoffs. I no longer desired to play the game and I could see that my business was not going to provide the retirement that I had planned on.  Regrettably, I gradually began to downsize my business and, a few years later, a health scare led me to further cut back. 

Enter the Pandemic……I, like so many others, felt the time for change was ripe. I began my search in earnest.  I was looking for a career that did not require returning to school for an additional degree and could provide a decent income within a relatively short period of time. By happenstance, I was having dinner with my best friend from high school whose employer was using Salesforce. Knowing my individual talents, he recommended that I look into getting a credential to be an administrator.  That was the summer of 2021. 

I opened a Trailhead account and started exploring.  Within a short time, I knew I had found my new career.  I continued to learn part time on Trailhead while I started wrapping up my business.  By the beginning of 2022, I began devoting my full attention to Salesforce. Like many out there, I am a self-starter and an introvert by nature, but it became quickly obvious that I needed to find peers and mentors to propel my new career forward. However, I had relatively little success connecting with people through Trailblazer communities online and couldn’t find a local in person group, probably due to the pandemic. I had no real experience in tech and had zero social media presence. I barely even knew what LinkedIn was.

By chance, I read an article on Trailhead that suggested joining the Salesforce For Everyone Facebook group. I quickly became aware of the Talent Stacker Career Development Program. I instantly saw value there, especially with the community of peers/mentors and the volunteer experience once I became certified. I am a big fan of the Talent Stacker program and will provide a more detailed review in an upcoming installment. 

I joined Talent Stacker at the beginning of March and immediately joined a study group for my administrator certification. Two days after joining, I attended my first local Salesforce event where I met Bradley Rice and a group of other local Salesforce professionals, some were Talent Stacker members and others were not. In March, I ranked up to Mountaineer and completed my first two superbadges.

In April, I had a family medical emergency and was forced to take the entire month away from Salesforce.  I came back in May and began hitting the books hard, and meeting frequently with my study group. Meanwhile, I simultaneously expanded my network of Salesforce professionals and worked on my LinkedIn presence. In June, I continued my efforts, completed two more superbadges and passed my Administrator exam on the first attempt at the end of the month.

In the beginning of July, I ranked up to Ranger and started a comprehensive project provided by Talent Stacker to develop my new skills. My team of four took 65 business requirements from discovery and development to finished functional product. Two hours after we put the wraps on our final user training presentation, I began experiencing severe stomach pain. I was taken by ambulance to the ER with acute appendicitis where I was informed I had won an all expense paid trip to the operating room for an appendectomy. It took me a couple of weeks to recover from surgery and I’m now focusing my efforts on searching for a job and developing materials to showcase my Salesforce knowledge and experience.  Besides my much anticipated blog(roll your eyes here!), I am building a portfolio on the Salesforce Digital Experience Cloud which I’m hoping to showcase very soon.

Mindset Change: If a guy with no real background in tech, and little to no experience with social media, video conferencing, and LinkedIn can succeed in becoming a Salesforce professional in such a short time, so can I! 

Action Step: Sign up for a free Trailblazer account on Trailhead and begin exploring.  Take a look at the different career paths in the Salesforce Ecosystem.

You might be thinking……Hey, you aren’t even employed yet, why should I listen to you? That’s a legitimate question, but it’s only a matter of time before I secure my first position in the Salesforce ecosystem. 

To find out why, stay tuned for the next installment…….Salesforce Safari – The Endless Summer.  Join me as the real journey begins!