I first heard about Salesforce in 2013 when I received a notice from our current Salesforce Admin that our revenue department would soon receive licenses. After my introduction to Salesforce, I continued to learn more about what the tool could do. To me, it didn’t matter if it was a cloud or feature that my company wasn't yet using—knowledge was certainly power, and I wanted to know what was possible on the platform. All of that knowledge presented me with great responsibility in 2014, when our Salesforce Admin left and I was nominated to take on the additional role. In the summer of 2017, I had an amazing opportunity to demonstrate my passion for Salesforce and lead our transition to Lightning—which I was able to implement in only 6 weeks. Now, I’m a Double Ranger and I get to mentor and support others through programs that I'm involved in, like TechBridge, Salesforce Saturdays, and the Lightning Champion Program.

Trailhead was a vital part of my journey in learning about Community Cloud and all the possibilities, from exposing Salesforce data to extending functionality with AppExchange packages. I presented the concept to my leadership team and they saw true value in Community Cloud for our organization. This led to my attendance at a local Community Builder workshop in Atlanta's Salesforce Towers and eventually to me building my company's employee community. With all the knowledge I gained from the Expand Your Reach with Communities trail and the Community Builder Workshop, I displayed true value at my organization all while empowering our employees with our new community.

Prior to Trailhead, it was a huge challenge to find time to research and learn about new Salesforce features and extend the functionality of the ones I'd already implemented. I managed more than 600 users as a solo administrator, and spare time was just not something that was readily available. However, with Trailhead's thoughtful structure of digestible learning modules (some as short as 20 minutes), I became empowered to expand my knowledge of Salesforce.

Knowing how instrumental Trailhead was in my journey to truly scale and manage such a large implementation, I knew rolling out all this greatness to my users was going to be vital to our success as an organization. However, I also knew that scaling Trailhead to all my users would be a challenge, as many were resistant to any technology that was presented to them. So instead of influencing the whole, I focused on rolling out Trailhead to designated super users. With Trailhead Tracker installed, we were able to enjoy some serious gamification, and I could assign out trails that I deemed useful at a user level. Trailhead allowed my department huddles to be much more productive—my super users now had a better understanding of the possibilities of Salesforce, and we were able to prepare our first official Salesforce roadmap for the entire organization.

If it isn't obvious by now, I've drunk the Salesforce Kool-Aid and can often be found in conversations encouraging others to do the same. Within the Atlanta area, I volunteer as a Salesforce instructor with organizations like TechBridge to train the next generation of Salesforce Admins. As soon as my cohorts are introduced to Trailhead, they are hooked just like I was! I also volunteer as a Salesforce Lightning Activation Champion, where I encourage and assist other Salesforce Admins to devise their Lightning Migration Plan. I'm also lucky to be centralized in Atlanta where we have a great Salesforce hub, which enables me to attend local Salesforce Saturdays and share and learn about others' journeys with Salesforce. We dig into work projects, form certification study groups, and level up with the assistance of Trailhead.

To me, being a Trailblazer is really a combination of two key points. First, it’s embracing the idea that you can thrive in this realm of possibilities. Second, it’s realizing that you don’t have to be at the finish line of your career to reach back and help others start theirs.

The Trailblazer Community is what I would consider to be Salesforce's Cerebro—a system to detect and connect you with Trailblazers not only in your own community but also all over the world. I've always worked at companies with very small teams dedicated to keeping our Salesforce implementation afloat, so it's been really helpful to engage with like-minded individuals within the Trailblazer Community. The community is so supportive—everyone is eager to problem-solve, connect, and inspire one another to achieve greatness.

As I journey into a new chapter of my career, I now have a vital need to become, as David Liu coined, “an Administrator who codes.” Trailhead will help me accomplish that goal.