February 7, 2024 • 57 mins
Have you ever wondered what sparks the change from an accidental admin into a pioneering CEO? Heather Black's narrative is a testament to such a transformation, and she's here to share her compelling journey with us. As the CEO and founder of Supermums, Heather's story is one of passion, innovation, and the magic that happens when opportunity meets a deep-seated passion for nurturing talent.
This episode peels back the layers on the importance of the soft skills admins need to grow and evolve in the ecosystem. We celebrate the strides taken to address gender diversity in tech, close the gender pay gap, and reflect on the power of high-quality mentorship and training. The conversation is a rich tableau of strategic insights for anyone looking to make an impact and drive change in their field.
The goal of Supermums is for admins to not only gain the technical knowledge to be successful but also create a relationship with a seasoned mentor in the ecosystem. The importance of finding a mentor and understanding the skills needed to become a "Super Salesforce Consultant" as outlined in Heather's new book is something all admins can find inspiration from. The ripple effect of sharing knowledge is palpable as we honor the mentors shaping futures and friendships within this unique ecosystem. Heather's enthusiasm for writing shines through as she discusses her journey from blog posts to published author, tackling essential topics like burnout, work-life balance, and personal well-being. Join us as we unravel the threads of a narrative woven with wisdom, heart, and an open invitation to contribute to a movement reshaping the landscape of tech.
Heather Black, is the CEO of Supermums and an experienced Salesforce Consultant and Trainer. Starting out as a freelancer she then grew and managed a Salesforce Consultancy Team and has overseen over 700 projects with 350 clients. Her Consultancy won the EMEA Salesforce .org Consultancy Partner of the Year Award. She spends her time educating and supporting students by teaching the Consultancy Skills Course.
Supermums is a global social enterprise, which was established to accelerate the careers of women within the Salesforce eco-system through training and recruitment services. Since 2016 it has supported over 1000 trainees and over 200 employers to find super talent.
linkedin.com/in/heather-black-salesforce-women-in-tech-speaker/
Purchase Heather’s Book -> “Become a Super Salesforce Consultant”
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Good morning and good afternoon.
My name is Jacob Catalano andwelcome to another episode of
Admins of Tomorrow.
I'm so excited to say ourepisode count is finally hitting
double digits, and words can'tdescribe the excitement I have
to see this podcast andcommunity grow.
Like I've said before, I lovetelling stories and learning
from the experiences of others,which is why this week we're
(00:37):
going to start the first episodein our Admins Spotlight series.
Now, up until now, each weekwe've had a thing that
ultimately is around, somethingthat will help admins grow, and
a guest to really speak on thosetopics.
And while I do believe thisseries will continue to help
admins, I wanted something thatis purely dedicated to diving
into the story of our guests.
(00:57):
So today we're sitting downwith Heather Black, ceo of
Supermums, and we're going todive into how they got started
in the ecosystem but ultimately,why they continue to grow and
give back to the community.
I'm so excited to shine aspotlight on Heather's story, so
, without further ado, let'smeet Heather.
Heather Black is the CEO ofSupermums and an experienced
(01:19):
Salesforce consultant andtrainer.
Growing out as a freelancer,she then grew and managed a
Salesforce consultancy team andhad overseen over 700 projects
with 350 clients.
Her consultancy won the EMEAsalesforceorg consultancy
partner of the year award.
Supermums is a global socialenterprise which was established
to accelerate the careers ofwomen within the Salesforce
(01:40):
ecosystem through training andrecruitment services.
Since 2016, it has supportedover 1,000 trainees and over 200
employers to find super talent.
So let's not waste any moretime and dive in Awesome.
Well, thank you so very much,heather, for joining us today.
(02:12):
I really appreciate you takingtime out of your day and evening
to sit down and kind of have aconversation with us and kind of
put this admin spotlight on youand your company, supermums.
So thank you again for beinghere today.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Thank you for having me.
I always loved doing thesethings, so absolutely my
pleasure.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Love it, love it.
Well, as someone who is in thepodcast space, is in the kind of
Salesforce content creationspace yourself I really
appreciate you kind ofsupporting an up and coming
podcast of the ecosystem.
You were someone who I had metat Dream Forest this most recent
year and really got the chanceto learn about what you are
(02:52):
doing with Supermums and really,really enjoyed the idea of this
is a company out there tryingto go out of their way not only
to help the next generation ofadmin, but to help mothers,
women in tech, and try to growthat ecosystem and grow that
space, which is something thatwe, I believe, need more of a
(03:14):
voice, more of a space in.
So, with all of that being said, I usually like to start these
interviews out diving into howyou got started in the ecosystem
, what led you to be where youare today, and kind of tell us a
little bit about of yourcurrent state, where you
currently are at.
So would love to dive into thatfirst.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
From A to Z of my life.
It feels like a day in the lifeof, doesn't it?
So I became an accidental admin, probably like maybe quite a
few of the listeners on here, Ithink.
You suddenly find yourselfusing Salesforce and going, oh
my gosh, how do I use it?
But I was running a nonprofitat the time and I was probably
(03:55):
like many nonprofits.
We download the 10 freelicenses and then we sit with
those free licenses and have aclue what the system can really
do because we don't know whereto start, and it was actually
through.
After having it for a year,another nonprofit demonstrated
to me how they used it and that,for me, was the light bulb
(04:17):
moment.
I was like, oh my goodness,this is amazing, like we
absolutely need to implementthis.
My nonprofit and I was lookingto grow a team and we needed a
system where we could seeeverything that everybody was
doing and who we were talking toand tracking everything.
And I went through that processof speaking to a nonprofit,
(04:37):
speaking to a Salesforceconsultant.
I then went on a Salesforceadmin course and learned the
basics and then, from then, Iwas really hooked and became the
admin myself because I thoughtit was a really good idea at the
time, even though I was runningan organization, but I really
enjoyed building it and I foundthat techie side of myself which
(04:58):
I'd never had before I did ageography degree.
I went from doing a geographydegree into economic development
and helping people witheconomic development.
It's about employabilitystrategies and helping people
into work and it's aboutentrepreneurship and helping
business startups.
So my background was reallyhelping look at boosting
(05:21):
economies around the UK and soI'd work on business startup
strategy development andemployment support strategies.
And with my first nonprofit, itwas about helping young
professionals age 18 to 30 starttheir own business, and so that
was the business that I wasrunning at the time and using
Salesforce, we were able totrack all our interactions with
(05:44):
those young professionals andover the course of seven years
we worked with 10,000 youngprofessionals and I grew the
organization and I put a lot ofemphasis on the fact that
Salesforce helped me to grow it.
Through using Salesforce, wewere able to improve our
reporting and our impactmeasurements and we were able to
(06:04):
win more contracts.
We were able to market properlyto people, we were able to grow
as a team and it actuallyhelped me grow my nonprofit from
100k to 1.3 million in a yearand so it was reallya
significant lever in helping usgrow.
And I'm sorry I forgot to pointaround compliance.
It obviously helped us meetcompliance requirements for a
lot of the contracts we werewinning.
(06:25):
So it had, like this, enormousimpact on the growth of our
nonprofit and we did incrediblywell and I built the system
through doing the admin.
I did the admin course, I didthe advanced admin course and I
did a consultancy skills courseall within three to four months
of starting out, and that helpedme understand how to design the
(06:47):
system and how to build it andwe went from four staff to 40
staff and it was an incrediblejourney that we went on with it
and that's how I really got intoSalesforce and I think it was
during that time that I sawother nonprofits really need to
know the value of this and tosee how it can transform their
(07:09):
delivery, how it can help withtheir fundraising, with their
delivery, with their impactreporting.
When I was looking at atransition, the reason for my
career shift, if you like, wasbecause we were government
funded for a lot of the programswe were running and there was a
change in government in the UK.
(07:31):
So the funding streams came toa halt, so it became very hard
to run the same sort of programsat the scale that we were
previously doing, unfortunately,and so I was at point where I
was about to have a family moveout of the city and needed to
transition.
And because I loved learningabout Salesforce, I wanted to
find out more about how I couldhelp with the nonprofits with it
(07:52):
, and so I spoke to other peoplein the industry, understood
what the skill sets were.
Having never worked in theseskills, I was like what's
business analysis?
What's you know?
What is our gel projectmanagement?
And I just did a deep dive andstarted asking all these
questions and researching it all.
And because I'd run a businesspreviously and because my
(08:14):
background was in businesscoaching, a lot of those skills
felt quite transferable overinto becoming a Salesforce
professional and help othernonprofits implement Salesforce.
You know we call it businessanalysis, but in many ways it is
asking questions for businessand understanding their
management processes and theirreporting needs, and so I did do
(08:34):
a lot more formalised training.
I trained up in changemanagement, business analysis,
had gel project management,obviously other additional
certifications, but that allowedme to start on my journey of
being a freelance Salesforceconsultant, and I grew from
being a freelance Salesforceconsultant and getting more work
than I could manage myself.
(08:56):
I then grew a Salesforceconsultancy of 20 people around
me when we were all working withnonprofits.
So over the course of theperiod of running for
consultancy we worked with 350nonprofits and delivered about
700 projects over that time.
So I learnt an incredibleamount, had such a great
experience, you know, learntwhere projects go wrong, learnt
(09:16):
where they go right, you know,worked on all different clouds
and solutions and for me, Ireally loved the variety.
You know I get my personalitysuits, you know, having
different projects going in,learning new stuff, setting it
up, coming back out and thensort of allowing them to sort of
crack on with managing theirsystem.
And so I really, you know,really enjoyed that journey, got
(09:38):
a lot out of it.
But what I one of the challengeswe found on the way was that
there was a in growing myconsultancy, there was a real
shortage of talent and equally,for the customers where we'd
implement Salesforce, they thenwould also struggle to hire
internal admins, for example.
So that generated the idea forSupermums.
(10:01):
It was through that sort ofmixed experience of going.
Okay, you know we need moretalent in this space.
There's loads of mums like mewho could do this job, work
flexibly and earn well, andthat's why I decided to launch
Supermums, which is seven yearsago now, and we started with
(10:21):
three people on the first courseand now we've had over 1300
people go through the programglobally.
It just went, accidentally wentglobal we just because the
course was virtual.
It just attracted people fromall over the world and, yeah,
it's been an amazing journey andbut I really love teaching and
training and helping people, butwe've got a team of over 20 and
(10:44):
Supermums now globally too.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That is such an inspirational story to hear.
You've been working with andleading Supermums for seven
years.
You had lead being a CEO ofanother non-profit for many,
many years prior to that.
In that kind of very eventfuljourney you are constantly
(11:07):
looking for that next thing,next thing and constantly trying
to grow and be not only justgenerally successful, be at the
top of the top to be able to seeexponential growth year over
year.
I'm curious, just because Ilove the numbers you are giving
out of.
From the start to finish, youhave now exponentially grown the
(11:29):
number of projects, number ofteam members you have brought on
.
What's your passion?
To keep moving things and keepseeing that exponential growth,
to never slow down and realize,hey, there's COVID in the way or
there's a lack of people in theecosystem in the way, I'm just
going to hurdle over that.
What's your drive?
To keep pushing that forward?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
It's interesting because with my first business I
had this massive desire to takeit internationally and to grow
these numbers.
And when I launched theconsultancy of supermums, I had
a family at this point and forme it was all about having an
eight hour job.
I had a part time and workingflexibly and I didn't have
(12:15):
necessarily the same desire togrow things.
But they just naturally didbecause we delivered well
Through the consultancy 65% ofour customers through repeat and
referral business so we justnaturally grew from having a
good reputation of deliveringwell and doing good things.
And that's the same thing withsupermums.
(12:36):
Supermums we've grown.
Most of our new trainees comethrough recommendations and word
of mouth and it's justnaturally grown that way, which
is fantastic.
It's not to say we've not puteffort into growing it and
wanting to be bigger and bolder.
I think one of the things itmakes we love having an impact
(12:59):
and I think if we're a missionled organisation, we want to
make an impact.
It feels part of our DNA towant to reach more people and
make a bigger impact.
Why wouldn't you want to dothat?
But it's not driven byfinancial goals and we must
achieve XYZ.
Obviously it has to befinancially.
(13:24):
There has to be the financialsort of stack up there to make
it all work, but our team areincredibly passionate through
both the consultancy and thetraining organisation.
It is about the impact we makeand we love seeing the success
stories of where people are andsharing those, and we do a lot
on social media, but in turn,that then just attracts more
people to it.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
That makes complete sense.
You're absolutely right.
We have to make a profit onthings at the end of the day, or
, at the very least, break evenso that we can keep doing more
for the ecosystem.
There has to be goals.
There has to be something we'removing forward to.
I just am blown away at thepassion of Even if you're not
planning to blow goals out ofthe water, you still absolutely
(14:07):
are.
So I think that's so amazing tohear.
I want to talk now about whereyou are now with Supermums.
So you started this business.
It's been seven years, you said.
You started off with just ahandful of people, yourself
included, and now you have afull team and you have a group
of volunteers who are coming into help with the training.
(14:28):
I'm curious why Supermums?
Why focusing on this kind ofspace of mothers and individuals
and women in tech who are kindof finding that second career?
Why that market?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Absolutely, because I think I've built two businesses
previously around my ownpersonal experience Well, three
actually.
It's come from my story ofwhere I've been.
So the business I was runningaround youth entrepreneurship
was because I was a youngentrepreneur in that market and
I think with Supermums it wasbecause I could see I was in
(15:03):
that market, I could see othermoms around me who could benefit
and do that job and just peopleweren't aware of it.
But for Supermums there's threekind of core sort of impact
statements really around whywomen specifically, one is that
there is an issue around womenreturners and people, women
(15:25):
being out of work for a while,looking after kids and helping
them get back into the labourmarket.
That is an internationallyrecognised issue in that they
can be quite often overlooked,which shouldn't be the case, so
there is the need to get themback on the career ladder.
The second is that we need morewomen in technology generally,
because the gender balance is abit shocking.
(15:46):
So we need to tackle that.
And the third is about genderpay, the gender pay gap.
We want women to be earningmore, you know, an equivalent to
men.
I just don't understand whythere's even a difference, right
, you know, for the same job.
It shouldn't even be the case,so it's quite.
I just can't even get my headaround that it actually exists,
(16:08):
but we know it does.
So that's why the emphasis hasbeen on women.
But I've also been incrediblythankful that, you know, at
Supermums we do welcomeeverybody onto our training
courses and we've had, you know,men come onto the programme.
You know who are dads or notdads.
We've had other people come onthe programme who aren't parents
(16:31):
at all, who very, very muchalign with our mission and want
to support it and be a part ofit.
And we've had an incrediblecommunity of mentors join us as
volunteer mentors.
Again, lots of men are part ofthat because they really
recognise the need for Supermumsand what it is about and have
(16:52):
seen it because of their wivesand their situation and even
them as a dad right, and so themission attracts such an
overwhelming support from peopleand I think if we were just a
standard programme that was foreverybody, we wouldn't attract
the same support and alignment.
(17:13):
And you know we tackle fourdifferent sustainable
development goals which arerecognised internationally.
So it's important we keep withour mission of what we do and
you know, say everybody backs itbecause we're tackling some
very important points 1000%.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Knowing that and if the audience hasn't already
guessed, based on your amazingaccent, that you were based in
the UK, knowing the Salesforceecosystem in Europe, in the UK
knowing that is a smaller market, knowing that it's something
that the boom of Salesforce Ifeel like is just within the
(17:53):
last three or four years reallyhitting the UK and really
hitting parts of Europe, I'mcurious your take on what your
first steps were when you werestarting Supermums and you were
getting into the ecosystem ofseeing Salesforce for new admins
in the UK, in Europe, and howdo you think that kind of has
(18:14):
shifted and grown compared towhat it has been in America?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
Because I haven't got theexperience in the USA to compare
it to.
I mean, when I started, youknow which would have been back
like 12 years ago in theecosystem we had four
certifications, right, and itwas over 3,500 pounds to train
up because the only way youcould train up was through a
week-long course that was onsite and that was one of my
(18:41):
motivations for Supermums.
Trailhead did not exist when Ilaunched Supermums, you know the
only way to train up was tospend 3,500 pounds on being a
five-day course in an officelearning.
So you know that was mymotivation for setting up and we
took it to Salesforce and saidwe want to deliver Salesforce in
a flexible way, virtually,which means we need to bend your
(19:03):
course in a way that works forus.
And so we have worked withSalesforce to flex their courses
for our audience, which theywouldn't normally do.
So we flex their admin courseand we flex their marketing
cloud course to be delivered ina way that they wouldn't
traditionally do, to be anexception for us.
So you know we like to beshapers and influencers to meet
(19:25):
different target markets.
You know, in the UK we'veobviously seen Salesforce
continue to grow in.
The latest stats show thatSalesforce is still growing as a
company and organization.
You know their customerscontinue to increase and we're
still seeing.
You know there's an element ofcompetition for talent.
You know salaries are stillincreasing.
(19:46):
There still isn't enough talentaround.
I think how you skill up,though, is really, really
important, because there hasbeen a big emphasis on getting
new talent into the space, butthere has been a lot of a pop up
of a lot of different traininginitiatives that just focus on
this, the training in its purestform, and that, you know, do
(20:08):
trailhead for free and get somebadges and get a cert and you'll
get a job, and what we've seenis people who've just done that
not get a job, because, it don'tget me wrong, some people will
have done, but it depends ontheir background and their
confidence and theirtransferable skills.
With Supermums, you know we wereset up traditionally and, as
(20:30):
they, we accommodate and workwith, with anybody, but we
wanted to design a program thatwas very much for people who
have been out of work.
You know, or I, didn't havenecessarily the transferable
skills, and so, with our program, we developed a program that
included the training, includedreal life work experience.
It provided a one to one mentorfor somebody over the six
(20:51):
months of them studying andlearning, to meet with them
every single week.
It provided career coaching.
It provides the peer cohort.
So it's a very, very robustlearning and support program and
in order to kind of help peoplesuccessfully launch their
careers to meet these jobs inthe USA or in the UK or anywhere
else in Europe, it's reallyimportant that we have good
(21:13):
qualified talent, because salesforces and company in the
products will stall if they'renot implemented well or if they
don't have the right talent.
And so it's been incrediblyimportant to make sure that you
know, as talent providers, we'regenerating really good talent
because we want the salesful'srecommendations to be really
(21:33):
successful, because that's goingto power the growth of the
industry, you know, here orwherever it is in the world.
So you know, we have seen thatsort of, I suppose, the appetite
for training, the appetite forupskilling, you know.
But that has happened indifferent ways.
(21:55):
Different people have takendifferent paths, but we see from
them as we continue to deliverour core program because we
think that really sets people upfor success.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I love that and I really like how you made a focus
on having a mentor and not justrelying on the technical and
being able to really highlightsome of those soft skills and
being able.
You mentioned earlier one ofthe things you, when you were
going through your training, yougot project management training
and you had other pieces ofthat to help with the soft
(22:28):
skills that are really needed tobe regardless of if you go into
consultancy or if you are anin-house admin.
You really need those softskills to be ultimately
successful, to scale for growth.
So, with that being said,you've mentioned and kind of
also in that moment of pluggingall the amazing things that you
do with SuperMoms.
You have a podcast, mums, onCloud 9 and you also have a book
(22:52):
that has come out, becoming aSuper Salesforce Consultant,
which are two amazing resourcesfor anyone who is kind of
interested in diving into theecosystem.
Again, talking through the ideaabout being a consultant versus
an admin, for people trying toget, just regardless of the job
type, getting into the door.
(23:13):
You have these amazingresources.
You've given so many trainingsand implementations and been a
mentor for so many high levelnew admins.
What would be the top threethings you're trying to
recommend to your clients, yourpodcast listeners, to help them
get their first job, to helpthem kind of take that first
(23:35):
step in the Salesforce world.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
I have my three tips here foryou.
So the first is don't just getyour admin cert.
Do get valuable work experienceworking alongside somebody who
can verify your work and thequality of your work.
With SuperMoms, people come outwith three references they get
reference from the trainer, thereference from their mentor and
(24:00):
the reference from the personthat oversaw their work
experience.
So it's really important tohave those things on your CV and
get work experience, becauseit's incredibly hard to get that
first gig without it.
So join a program like ours orsomething similar to sort of
start building that resume.
Beyond just getting the admincert, I think the next stage is
(24:21):
to think about which career pathyou want to go down and to not
again just don't rely on youradmin cert to get your foot in
the door.
If you're wanting to go down asan admin and develop as an
advanced admin and develop thattrack, then you'd want to do
your app build during advancedadmin certifications, which are
(24:43):
pretty next step ones that isrelatively easy to get after you
get in your admin.
It's the hat trick skills thatyou need there If you're wanting
to work into an organizationwhere you're the solo
administrator or you want to gointo consultancy and to take the
responsibility for gatheringthe requirements and
(25:05):
prioritizing them so they meetthe time and budget available,
then I'd be definitelyrecommending getting those
consultancy skills, which wealso teach at Supermums.
We added this in as a courseafter a couple of years because
we just realized that peopleneeded these skill sets very
quickly, but it could also meanthat it would get them another
10k pay rise right, so it justmade absolutely sense to provide
(25:28):
it to them.
So doing business analysis andagile project management
training and change managementtraining, I would say, are
required if you're going to takethat responsibility.
On Working as a freelancesalesful consultant, I just
quickly realized that I couldn'tdo projects without them, which
is why I invested quite a bitof money in getting that
(25:49):
training, those certifications,behind me.
And the third thing is to reallybuild your network through your
network on LinkedIn andbuilding your profile.
Start to share knowledge andexperience.
Start to connect with otherpeople in the community.
It's one of the things that wealways say with Supermums is
(26:12):
we've got this massive alumnicommunity and we're like right,
go and connect with everybodyelse in this community.
Build that network, becausethey're the ones that are going
to be patting you on the backwhen you get your certification
and liking and celebrating withyou, and we really need that to
motivate ourselves and to justfeel that sense of satisfaction.
And I think that's one of thethings that a sales source Ohana
is absolutely amazing at isjust patting everybody else on
(26:36):
the shoulder and sharingknowledge and expertise, and I
think the more you can lean intothat and be part of it and
embrace it and use it as well,you know, in the best way for
yourself, it's going to buildyour confidence and make you fly
.
So they're my three tips forpeople really starting out.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Those are ideal tips, honestly, and those are those
are.
I really liked your first pointaround having the validation of
the work that you do.
That's not something you hearvery often A lot of people who
are trying to find that thatintentional kind of path,
whether it's their second careeror their first within the
(27:14):
ecosystem.
A lot of times, you'll see thepeople go on like fiverr or
upwork, and they'll go on andthey'll say, hey, I'll work for
free to get that, and I thinkthat is that's usually why I've
recommended to people If youdon't have enough previous job
experience to get you that firstjob in the ecosystem with your
certs and trainings, just try tofind a free gig, implement
(27:36):
something, figure out how youcan complete a project, just to
have it on your CV.
With that said, though, thething that I like, how you
called out, is get the referrals, get the references, be able to
have written confirmation andor verbal confirmation from
those people that say, no, no,they did do a good job, and let
(27:57):
me explain why they did a goodjob and let me explain how they
helped you grow, and I reallythink that's not talked about
enough.
The other thing that youhighlight in there was about the
community and how being able tofind people who you can learn
from and help build you up andfind your own personal Ohana.
(28:18):
With that being said,especially with women in tech
and those kind of smaller nichegroups within the ecosystem.
I'm curious to take on what doyou find the most valuable thing
about being a part of thecommunity outside of just the
traditional networking?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I think I mean I just love the fact of how different
people are giving back to itit's like even on this podcast
and having different people.
I think people being involvedin the community means that
they're either being a mentor,they're writing blogs, you know,
they're contributing topodcasts, they're sharing
information internally and Ithink if you, if you delve into
(29:00):
that community, you're justgoing to be learning things all
the time, and I think it's aboutminding the gaps.
I invest a lot of time andmoney in learning from others
and it helped me obviously avoidmistakes and to get it right.
But sometimes it's come, youknow, gone oh gosh.
I need to learn that becauseI've realized I don't know
something or I've made a mistakeand I'm like how do I do that
(29:23):
better?
So I think it's about leaningin and learning from as many
people as possible.
So you are the best you can beand that's why I wrote the book
you know, become a SupercellSouls consultant because I
wanted to share everything thatI'd learned in a very digestible
form on an affordable basis.
That you know, this is the A toZ of running a project.
(29:44):
These are things you need toknow and you know, for people
that follow me.
They can obviously take awaythe knowledge I've got, but I'm
one of, like many others in thecommunity that are giving away
knowledge and expertise.
So it's just about leaning in,learning from them, you know,
and through those learningopportunities I mean certainly
through people joining Supermumsthey've found job opportunities
(30:06):
together and networked betweeneach other.
So it's a way of finding jobs.
It's a way of building newfriendships and peers, because
maybe it's a completely newindustry and you don't know
anybody.
It means you can go to localevents together.
You know, it's just aboutlifting you up and making you
know the more successful we arein our jobs, the happier we are.
Right, and it's all about beinghappy at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
I couldn't have said that better myself.
It's all about being happy andfinding Honestly I'm going to
put that on like a tagline forthis episode it really is.
We do all of this to find thathappiness and to find that joy,
and it is amazing that so manyof these ecosystem find that joy
myself included in giving backand finding outlets to help,
(30:49):
whether it's someone who isstruggling with a technical flow
or Apex solution when it comeslike development, architecture,
or it's just help For me.
I find that I can help best ifI'm giving back to the next
generation, the people who wereme 10 years ago when I first got
my foot in the door.
And so, with that being said,the whole premise of Supermums
(31:14):
and kind of your enjoyment aboutthat company is the concept of
mentorship and being able tohave people come in, whether
they are an employee or they'revolunteering their time, and
they are helping someone getstarted out.
What do you think makes a goodmentor in this ecosystem?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Interesting.
So we only take people on tobecome mentors if they've got
two years of practical adminexperience, so they've got the
skills and knowledge to be ableto give back to somebody else.
We created a structured programwhere there's very set
deliverables each week and sothere's homework set for the
(31:53):
mentees and the mentor checks it.
There has to be that commitmentand accountability for the
mentor that they can make thatcommitment, they can understand
the homework, they can reportback on it.
So that is part and parcel of agood mentor relationship.
I think mentoring programs andecosystem have failed before
(32:15):
because there hasn't been aformula of how a mentee and
mentor works together, which hasthen sort of lost the momentum.
There's no structure oranything like that.
So we've always had a verystructured program and some of
our mentees were just doingmentor awards actually.
But some of our mentors havementored 13 people over the
years, which is phenomenal.
(32:35):
So they're like our top winnersat the moment in terms of the
number of mentors.
I suppose we call it a winner.
They will win.
We don't know, can't obviouslydisclose who they are yet, but
it's about giving time, it'sabout committing time to it,
it's about understanding whatthey're trying to do.
We also at Supermoms teach thementors and how to be a mentor
(32:57):
and also coaching skills, so weprovide a whole toolkit on how
to be a mentor.
So we require everybody to gothrough that content before they
start mentoring, because ittells them how to form a
relationship, how to set thefoundations, how to communicate
back and forth, particularlybeing mindful of different
(33:18):
people's learning styles ormaybe their emotional state.
And from the mentors that we've, the mentors I've spoken to
they quite often change theirstyle and their technique
depending on the mentee thatthey're with right, because
different people are verydifferent in their learning
style and what they're needingand whether they need more of a
confidence boost or whetherthey're more technical, and so
(33:41):
it is about being amenable tothat.
But I think it's about havingthat opportunity where you learn
how to be a great mentor and acoach and with that they can be
skills you can take into yourown job roles, going forward to
help you get that promotion andthings like that as well.
So it's not just something thatI think you should do, ablib,
(34:02):
and it's a minimum effort.
Really, I think certainly ifyou want to do it well, you kind
of have to put two feet intothe ring and I've certainly been
amazed.
We've had over 160 people signup to be a mentor over the time
with us globally, and hats offto them.
They've done an amazing job,meeting with our trainees one to
(34:25):
two hours a week over sixmonths.
I mean that's an incrediblecommitment and we're incredibly
thankful for that support theybring in.
But they come with their twofeet in the ring because they
want to give back and they feellike the proud parents.
I feel like a proud parent to1,300 people.
They feel like a proud parentto their mentees and they've
made friends.
(34:46):
They go on holidays together.
They maintain theirrelationship, in many cases over
six months.
I love hearing all thesestories.
It's lovely.
It's not just a task, itbecomes part of your life really
.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
That is too cool and I really, really enjoy that.
It's just that it is arelationship.
It's not treating it as somekind of notch in a belt or a
resume builder.
They're doing it just becausethey want to give back and they
love meeting new people andmaking relationships.
I'm loving the comment you madeabout their taking a holiday
(35:26):
together and they're going onvacations and everything.
That is too amazing and I lovethat you have created this in
the ecosystem.
I really really enjoy it.
Shifting back to, though, kindof I want to talk a little bit
about your book Becoming a SuperSalesforce Consultant.
I have this podcast for adminsof tomorrow.
(35:48):
It's for the freelanceconsultant, but it's really for
anyone who wants to be an admin,whether it's in-house or not.
I'm curious your take this isthe tagline for the book, which
I find really fascinating isSupercharge your Career with
this A to Z guide on how to leada Salesforce project.
I love that because we saySalesforce Consultant, but it's
(36:08):
really for anyone and everyoneunder the sun trying to
implement something withinSalesforce, whether it's
in-house or not.
That being said, there arecertain skills that you've
highlighted earlier in theepisode about being a consultant
versus just an in-house admin,I'm curious what do you believe
the skills that you get fromthis book, from consulting?
(36:28):
Where are some of the skillsthat you get from that that you
think admins should pick up onand really really run with?
Speaker 2 (36:35):
and hone In.
Whatever guys you are operatingas a Salesforce admin, you're
going into an organization andyou're going through a process
with a group of people whereyou're going to design, build,
test and train people in a newway of working using technology.
(36:58):
Now the skills you need forthat whole journey have to
include not just how do I buildSalesforce in a flow.
They have to involve businessanalysis, agile project
management and change managementand DevOps as the four key hat
trick skills which I talk about,which work quite nicely.
(37:20):
Abcd you couldn't really makethat up if you tried, but then I
was super impressed.
I mean, the whole point is iswe go into implement new
processes for an organization,so we have to have a process
about how we implementSalesforce and so sitting down
and thinking about the A to Z.
I'm also equally proud that Idid manage a chronological
(37:40):
process from A to Z ofimplementing a Salesforce
solution, and so the book flowsin that way.
The book flows from looking atthe core skills that you need
and then looking at all thesteps you would take, from
inception through to adoptionand roll out, and then
(38:02):
appraising your how well did Ido and what should I do next in
my career and so I take peopleon that journey and I've had
some absolutely amazing feedbackfrom people reading the book.
I had some people who were mysort of test readers, if you
like, and they ranged from acomplete newbie in the ecosystem
and they were like, oh, this isamazing because it just helps
(38:24):
me understand everything thatI'm going to need to do or learn
.
You know, whether I do it nowor in the future, I can
understand, like the wholeprocess to more experienced
consultants who you know it waslike a therapy session for them.
I think I found it like quitetherapeutic writing the book
because you know it's not, asyou mentioned earlier, it's not
(38:46):
easy.
You know there are lots ofthings that can go wrong, and so
on every section of the book, ato Z, I talk about the problems
that could you could be facedin each of those areas and say
this is what could go wrong andthis is how to get it right.
And that's how I start everysingle chapter, because it makes
people aware of.
You know, if you just tell themthis is how you do it, people
(39:09):
don't always listen as to why,why should I do it this way,
whereas if you explain, theconsequences are what could go
wrong?
Because many of us have probablyexperienced that because we
didn't mind the gap or we didn'tknow.
You know, it's not, it's notour fault.
We don't always know thesethings obviously in advance,
because we go, oh, actually Icould learn how to do that
better.
But you know, the reality isthat we, you know people can
(39:31):
mind the gap by reading the bookand just being really you know,
sort of go get that oversightearly on.
And so we have to.
We have to practice what wepreach.
We have to deliver a process tothe client for delivering his
elsewhere project, and this A toZ takes them on that journey.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
That I love how you're you called out.
You it's a matter of not justfollow this and you'll be okay,
and just it's giving that prosand cons list at the beginning.
I want to ask, though, just outof my own curiosity, why call
it become a super sales forceconsultant as opposed to super
(40:10):
sales force admin?
What is that kind of reason forfocusing on the consultant
terminology as opposed to theadmin, and what's that kind of
benefit of thinking of thingsfrom that consultant mindset?
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Well, I've got my next book coming out next year,
which has become a super salesforce admin.
So I've always talked, I'vealways talked about the four,
the four roles and the fourdetails of a sales force admin.
So that's the other book, so wehave that coming out and that's
much more the strategy around.
You know being proactive as asales force admin.
(40:43):
There are four roles, the fourhats that you need to wear, and
there are four details youshould be doing on a, you know,
daily, weekly, monthly,quarterly basis.
It's much more practicallyapplied from you know how you
manage a system.
Now, obviously, there's nooverlap between the two because
some of those, those four hatsone of them is the BA project
management hat, right, sothere's no overlap between the
(41:05):
two books, but with the salesforce consultant one, I think
those consultancy skills lendthemselves to a whole range of
different job roles.
You know you could be the salesforce consultant, you could be
the admin, you could be theproduct owner, you could be the
executive sponsor and you will.
You know there's so manydifferent job roles but actually
(41:28):
, at the end of the day, you areoperating as a sales force
consultant.
A sales force admin operates asa sales force consultant.
They might not call themselvesthat, but that you know,
principally they are if they'releading a project through that
whole life cycle.
So it that this current firstbook focuses more on those key
consultancy skills, whereas thesecond book will focus more on
(41:48):
the admin practicalities.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
That's fantastic.
That's really, really cool, andwe'll definitely make sure to
keep an eye out for the nextbook too.
So I have two more questionsfor you, but the first one of
this and this kind of is goinginto your book a little bit more
what was the thing that droveyou to to write this book?
And then you, I believe, justhad this book launched.
I believe it was in November of2023.
(42:12):
Is that correct?
So this book is fairly recent.
You already have the next onelined up, ready to go planned
out.
You're getting it ready.
What's the?
Again?
Continuing to the thing wetalked about earlier, you have
this drive and passion to keepdoing amazing things in the
ecosystem.
What was your passion to writethese books?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
So I've always.
I think it's about finding yourmedium and I love writing.
I find that quite therapeuticin my way of giving back.
I've obviously done the podcastas well, but with the writing.
So I've been writing blogs forour website every single week
and we distribute those throughwhat we call the career boost
bulletin, which it kind of youcan sign up to on LinkedIn or
(42:53):
via our website.
And so we I write these blogsand share the content online and
through the salesals community.
And what I realized is that youknow I'd written all this
content but once it's kind ofgone out there for the week, as
a blog people we certainly havesome blogs that are optimized
and get found through Google,but quite a few that might not
(43:14):
get optimized.
And I've written all thiscontent and I thought, well,
actually that could all beturned into a book pretty easily
.
And so I sat down and in withinthree hours I had 30,000 words
that could sit in the book.
It was that easy.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
My jaw is on the floor for our audio listener.
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
I know, and it was all sat there on the website,
right, and I was like, oh my God.
So obviously I had to read orjig it, because I've got a
format for the book, you know,otherwise it would be a bit
random, right.
You know.
So that I sort of took a lot ofthat content, you know,
repurposed it and tweaked it,obviously have a very similar
style for each chapter.
(43:56):
But we had a lot of the contentand actually the additional
content I didn't have wascontent that I could or should
write anyway for the blog, andit was all in my training course
, because I deliver theconsultancy skills training
course at Supermums, and so Ipulled out some taster content
(44:17):
from that.
Obviously, we don't give awaythe whole course in any stretch,
but some of the content I hadwritten is part of what I teach,
so it's sharing some tasters ofthat.
And you know, it's been amazingactually having people who've
read the book have now come onthe consultancy skills course
because they're like you know,if I've got this much from the
book and imagine what I'm goingto get from the course.
(44:39):
I had some amazing feedbackfrom people all over the world
about the book and now they'reon my course, which is fantastic
.
So I was just like, actually,we create all this content and
it's really important to youknow, not let it go to waste,
and so by producing the book youknow it's out there for people
to buy it's in a much moreconsolidated format, it's
(45:01):
obviously got a very clearstructure to it and I think it's
a much better way of presentingit and obviously giving value
back as part of it.
And it's similar with thepodcast.
Really, I mean there was somepodcast episodes of content that
I pulled into the book and Ihave a plan.
I mean I've got two books to do, still one become a super sales
(45:24):
force admin, and we've got, youknow, a lot of content I can
still pull into that, as well asmore content to write, but also
about becoming a super mum inits own right, which is more
about the career and work-lifebalance piece, because we do
talk about that as super mums asan organisation, because I
think it's really important thatwe don't get burnt out and
there has been talk aboutburnout in the sales force
(45:47):
ecosystem, because I think wehave to blame ourselves, to be
fair, because I think we have tomanage our energy, our
boundaries.
We have to know where to say no.
We have to know, you know, thatwe're skilled enough to do the
job.
I think we have to takeresponsibility, and I did get
burnt out on my sales forcejourney and that's because I
wasn't managing my own stuff.
(46:10):
And so I talk about theambitious women mindset.
We've had quite a few blogs andpodcasts about the ambitious
women mindset and about managingwork-life balance and how you
do that.
So I also want to do a bookaround that as well, to just
kind of help.
I mean it will be called Becomea Super Mum, I imagine, because
(46:34):
it will fit with the theme.
But there's something to thatdegree.
But it's about managing thoseelements.
So they're the things that Ilove to talk about, and it's
just we can repurpose it andthen I speak about it as well,
right, so I speak about it onother podcasts and user groups
and so different audiences.
So you know it is what I enjoydoing.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
I definitely think the book around time management
and burnout adding in theirimposter syndrome as well kind
of I think it's very, verynecessary in the ecosystem right
now.
I just had Kate Godley comeonto the podcast and kind of
talk about her journey goingthrough the ecosystem, dealing
with burnout, dealing withanxiety, dealing with all the
(47:16):
stresses that come with being inthe ecosystem, regardless of
where you are at in your journey.
So I definitely think more andmore content in that realm is
hugely needed in this ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah, and you know, the thing that stands out the
most for me about this is when Istarted, and you know when I
started out, I mentioned thatthere was four certifications
you could do.
Right now there's so manycertifications and so many
different products.
It can feel really overwhelmingto people, and I think it's
(47:51):
really important to find yourlane and to kind of focus in on
your niche and to just to feelconfident in your goals and what
you're doing and then you'reable to not feel pressure or
nervousness about what otherpeople are doing, but to be able
to celebrate them, but to knowyour journey and, to be fair,
it's one of the reasons why alot of people join our course
(48:13):
because they get that parallel,parallel, parallelist, as I say
that word at Trailhead.
They get overwhelmed, theydon't know where to start, they
go down rabbit holes and they'renot feeling like they're
producing stuff.
So they come on the superman'scourses because they've got
structure and accountability inthat peer group.
And I think that's what peopleare finding is that they need to
(48:33):
find that sort of structure forthemselves and that support
network and to have one path tolook down, because otherwise it
can be overwhelming, and so Ithink there's a real risk of
that and it is.
And also you know you'refinding.
Going back to the admin job,you know people are then adding
business analysis into it,they're adding devops into it
(48:54):
and you know these differentproducts and people are
expecting, I think, far too muchfor just an admin salary.
Now they have to appreciatethat there's these additional
skills and that's a differentadditional salary, but equally
might be more than one persontoo.
So you know there is a roleeducating end customers and
(49:15):
people who are hiring talent tomake sure that they're just not
expecting too much from somebodyand, you know, making sure
they've got a blended team.
So really, really valuabletopic.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
I agree, completely agree.
One of my other guests justrecently kind of highlighted
that a little bit, and part ofit is we have to be able, as
admins, not only to identifythat you may need a secondary
role for this, but to be able tocommunicate to your leadership
as to why you need that.
It's less about telling them,hey, we need to hire someone
(49:48):
else, and then they'll come toyou and say, shove off, you're
silly, I don't got the budgetfor that, but it's being able to
truly sell and say this is why.
Because I am an admin, this isthe role of an admin, this is
why I should be doing.
If you need me to do more, lookat increasing my salary or we
hire a second person on, becausethat's not realistic for me.
(50:09):
In this admin bucket, myknowledge set to be doing things
that are two other career paths.
So we're nearing the end of ourtime.
I can't express howappreciative I am of you coming
on to the show and kind oftelling us your journey and
telling us about super moms inyour book.
The last question I end theshow with for all my guests is
(50:33):
something that I find very, veryhelpful for that next
generation of admin again takingit back to the premise of the
show, I always ask people whatis, what was your biggest regret
when you were first gettingstarted, that you wish you could
go back and change, andhopefully that's a piece that
maybe another admin can go andsay oh, I'm in that situation
(50:55):
right now.
Maybe I'll pivot and not gointo the same things.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Oh, what regret could I have.
It's an interesting one, isn'tit?
I mean, I think I've learnt somuch through the journey of all
the steps that I've taken.
I think my, in some ways,growing a Salesforce consultancy
(51:21):
made me step away from thething that I loved, which was
actually doing theimplementation for clients,
because growing a consultancymeant that I had to step back
from delivery and manage abusiness and do marketing and
sales.
And you know I have worn, youknow I can do those hats.
(51:41):
But it made me almost step awayfrom developing my Salesforce
sort of hands-on skills.
I mean, don't get me wrong, youknow I was overseeing projects
and being hands-on and I did alot of hands-on projects.
I did over a hundred of my ownprojects and then I sort of took
a more senior role.
But you know, I think people, ifyou're growing, if you end up
(52:02):
growing a consultancy because Iknow people say to me oh, you
know, I want to grow real lifethat's probably going to be, you
know, the stock of yourSalesforce expertise because
you're going to have to stepinto running a business mode and
you know I love, you know I'mrunning a business now, but it's
really important to me that Ihave the trainer side, like I
(52:24):
absolutely love deliveringtraining still and delivering
content and being able to havethat interaction with, like, the
audience, the customersdirectly, because I'd lose, like
part of you know, my soul if Ididn't have that, if I was just
running a business.
So I think it's just been reallymindful that you know if you
(52:48):
love doing the Salesforce workand actually implementing that,
stick in that lane.
You know, if you want to grow abusiness and step back from
doing the technical stuff andmove into, sort of you know,
managing teams and doing salesand alliances with Salesforce,
then grow a consultancy.
I think you know I say I wentthrough that journey but if I
(53:12):
could take it back I probablywould have missed out that bit
and just continue to deliver myconsult, you know, deliver
projects myself and then developthe training arm if I was to
reel it back a little bit.
But you know I learned so muchon the journey too.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
No, I love that.
It's because it's like you say,it's not necessarily a regret
because you did so many amazingthings by building this business
.
But you also have so manypeople who have said I'm going
to start my own freelance andwith that you have to be mindful
of at what point do youcontinue with the execution of
it.
But then you also have toremember you're marketing
yourself, you're marketing yourbusiness, and you have to, you
(53:48):
have to grow, you can't just letit stagnate.
So I mean, it's not necessarilya regret, but it is a good call
out for people trying to getinto the freelance and or start
their own business space.
So Well, thank you again fortaking the time out of your your
day to your day and evening tocome and be on the podcast.
(54:09):
For anyone interested in gettingHeather's book is available on
Amazon again.
It's become a super sales forceconsultant.
It's reached the number oneslot in eight different
categories across the US, uk andCanada and Australia, and it's
number 10 in India.
So definitely get yourself acopy while it's still on the
virtual shelves and be on thelookout for the new book
(54:33):
becoming a super sales forceadmin whenever that's available,
and also check out the podcastMums on Cloud 9.
It has a lot of great episodes.
There's, I believe, fiveseasons of it available on Apple
podcasts and Spotify, sodefinitely give it a good listen
.
Heather's, or anything you wantto call out before we jump off.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
No, it's absolutely pleasure speaking to you, jacob.
Thank you so much.
If people want to find out moreabout Supermums, you can find
us at supermumsorg, and that isMums M-U-M-S org.
Even though we do, we alwayshave a little competition around
how many web hits we get fromthe USA versus Amir, because
it's actually 40 40% split, sowe're definitely a global brand.
(55:15):
So if you listen to us on thewebsite, the USA may win the
competition for the week.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Very, very likely.
Well, we'll make sure to linkall of those pieces inside of
our episode description.
Thank you so much again,heather, for joining, and we'll
be talking with you soon.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (55:42):
And that concludes another episode of admins of
tomorrow.
A special thanks to our guest,heather, for being our first
guest of the admin spotlightseries and sharing their journey
through the ecosystem.
It was an absolute blast tolearn how they're helping new
admins grow and find their firstjobs in the ecosystem.
If anyone has any interest inlearning more about Supermums or
Heather's story, you can findmore information at supermumsorg
(56:06):
.
Remember that issupermumsmumsorg.
If you'd like to purchase thebook become a super sales force
consultant, you can find it onamazoncom or on the Supermums
website.
Thank you again for taking thetime to listen and support the
podcast.
If you have any feedback,questions or topic suggestions,
we absolutely would love to hearyou.
So don't hesitate to connectwith us on LinkedIn, twitter or
(56:29):
email us at info atadminsoftomorrowcom.
We'd love to add a segment atthe end of our show each week
where we can give a shout out toan admin in the community, but
we can only do that if we hearfrom you.
So if you'd like to givesomeone a shout out, please go
to our website,adminsoftomorrowcom, forward
slash, share your thoughts andfill out our form to give
(56:49):
someone you know a shout out now.
If you've enjoyed this episodeagain.
We say it every week, but don'tforget to subscribe, leave a
review and share it with yourfellow trailblazers.
Each review and listen we getmeans the absolute world to us
and helps us keep the podcastgoing.
So, again, if you can leave usa review on Spotify, apple
podcast or wherever you'relistening to the show, and feel
(57:10):
free to share with your network.
Once again, I'm Jacob Catalano,your host, signing off.
We appreciate you for listeningto admins of tomorrow,
trailblazing the next generation.
Good morning and good afternoon.
My name is Jacob Catalano andwelcome to another episode of
Admins of Tomorrow.
I'm so excited to say ourepisode count is finally hitting
double digits, and words can'tdescribe the excitement I have
to see this podcast andcommunity grow.
Like I've said before, I lovetelling stories and learning
from the experiences of others,which is why this week we're
(00:37):
going to start the first episodein our Admins Spotlight series.
Now, up until now, each weekwe've had a thing that
ultimately is around, somethingthat will help admins grow, and
a guest to really speak on thosetopics.
And while I do believe thisseries will continue to help
admins, I wanted something thatis purely dedicated to diving
into the story of our guests.
(00:57):
So today we're sitting downwith Heather Black, ceo of
Supermums, and we're going todive into how they got started
in the ecosystem but ultimately,why they continue to grow and
give back to the community.
I'm so excited to shine aspotlight on Heather's story, so
, without further ado, let'smeet Heather.
Heather Black is the CEO ofSupermums and an experienced
(01:19):
Salesforce consultant andtrainer.
Growing out as a freelancer,she then grew and managed a
Salesforce consultancy team andhad overseen over 700 projects
with 350 clients.
Her consultancy won the EMEAsalesforceorg consultancy
partner of the year award.
Supermums is a global socialenterprise which was established
to accelerate the careers ofwomen within the Salesforce
(01:40):
ecosystem through training andrecruitment services.
Since 2016, it has supportedover 1,000 trainees and over 200
employers to find super talent.
So let's not waste any moretime and dive in Awesome.
Well, thank you so very much,heather, for joining us today.
(02:12):
I really appreciate you takingtime out of your day and evening
to sit down and kind of have aconversation with us and kind of
put this admin spotlight on youand your company, supermums.
So thank you again for beinghere today.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Thank you for having me.
I always loved doing thesethings, so absolutely my
pleasure.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Love it, love it.
Well, as someone who is in thepodcast space, is in the kind of
Salesforce content creationspace yourself I really
appreciate you kind ofsupporting an up and coming
podcast of the ecosystem.
You were someone who I had metat Dream Forest this most recent
year and really got the chanceto learn about what you are
(02:52):
doing with Supermums and really,really enjoyed the idea of this
is a company out there tryingto go out of their way not only
to help the next generation ofadmin, but to help mothers,
women in tech, and try to growthat ecosystem and grow that
space, which is something thatwe, I believe, need more of a
(03:14):
voice, more of a space in.
So, with all of that being said, I usually like to start these
interviews out diving into howyou got started in the ecosystem
, what led you to be where youare today, and kind of tell us a
little bit about of yourcurrent state, where you
currently are at.
So would love to dive into thatfirst.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
From A to Z of my life.
It feels like a day in the lifeof, doesn't it?
So I became an accidental admin, probably like maybe quite a
few of the listeners on here, Ithink.
You suddenly find yourselfusing Salesforce and going, oh
my gosh, how do I use it?
But I was running a nonprofitat the time and I was probably
(03:55):
like many nonprofits.
We download the 10 freelicenses and then we sit with
those free licenses and have aclue what the system can really
do because we don't know whereto start, and it was actually
through.
After having it for a year,another nonprofit demonstrated
to me how they used it and that,for me, was the light bulb
(04:17):
moment.
I was like, oh my goodness,this is amazing, like we
absolutely need to implementthis.
My nonprofit and I was lookingto grow a team and we needed a
system where we could seeeverything that everybody was
doing and who we were talking toand tracking everything.
And I went through that processof speaking to a nonprofit,
(04:37):
speaking to a Salesforceconsultant.
I then went on a Salesforceadmin course and learned the
basics and then, from then, Iwas really hooked and became the
admin myself because I thoughtit was a really good idea at the
time, even though I was runningan organization, but I really
enjoyed building it and I foundthat techie side of myself which
(04:58):
I'd never had before I did ageography degree.
I went from doing a geographydegree into economic development
and helping people witheconomic development.
It's about employabilitystrategies and helping people
into work and it's aboutentrepreneurship and helping
business startups.
So my background was reallyhelping look at boosting
(05:21):
economies around the UK and soI'd work on business startup
strategy development andemployment support strategies.
And with my first nonprofit, itwas about helping young
professionals age 18 to 30 starttheir own business, and so that
was the business that I wasrunning at the time and using
Salesforce, we were able totrack all our interactions with
(05:44):
those young professionals andover the course of seven years
we worked with 10,000 youngprofessionals and I grew the
organization and I put a lot ofemphasis on the fact that
Salesforce helped me to grow it.
Through using Salesforce, wewere able to improve our
reporting and our impactmeasurements and we were able to
(06:04):
win more contracts.
We were able to market properlyto people, we were able to grow
as a team and it actuallyhelped me grow my nonprofit from
100k to 1.3 million in a yearand so it was reallya
significant lever in helping usgrow.
And I'm sorry I forgot to pointaround compliance.
It obviously helped us meetcompliance requirements for a
lot of the contracts we werewinning.
(06:25):
So it had, like this, enormousimpact on the growth of our
nonprofit and we did incrediblywell and I built the system
through doing the admin.
I did the admin course, I didthe advanced admin course and I
did a consultancy skills courseall within three to four months
of starting out, and that helpedme understand how to design the
(06:47):
system and how to build it andwe went from four staff to 40
staff and it was an incrediblejourney that we went on with it
and that's how I really got intoSalesforce and I think it was
during that time that I sawother nonprofits really need to
know the value of this and tosee how it can transform their
(07:09):
delivery, how it can help withtheir fundraising, with their
delivery, with their impactreporting.
When I was looking at atransition, the reason for my
career shift, if you like, wasbecause we were government
funded for a lot of the programswe were running and there was a
change in government in the UK.
(07:31):
So the funding streams came toa halt, so it became very hard
to run the same sort of programsat the scale that we were
previously doing, unfortunately,and so I was at point where I
was about to have a family moveout of the city and needed to
transition.
And because I loved learningabout Salesforce, I wanted to
find out more about how I couldhelp with the nonprofits with it
(07:52):
, and so I spoke to other peoplein the industry, understood
what the skill sets were.
Having never worked in theseskills, I was like what's
business analysis?
What's you know?
What is our gel projectmanagement?
And I just did a deep dive andstarted asking all these
questions and researching it all.
And because I'd run a businesspreviously and because my
(08:14):
background was in businesscoaching, a lot of those skills
felt quite transferable overinto becoming a Salesforce
professional and help othernonprofits implement Salesforce.
You know we call it businessanalysis, but in many ways it is
asking questions for businessand understanding their
management processes and theirreporting needs, and so I did do
(08:34):
a lot more formalised training.
I trained up in changemanagement, business analysis,
had gel project management,obviously other additional
certifications, but that allowedme to start on my journey of
being a freelance Salesforceconsultant, and I grew from
being a freelance Salesforceconsultant and getting more work
than I could manage myself.
(08:56):
I then grew a Salesforceconsultancy of 20 people around
me when we were all working withnonprofits.
So over the course of theperiod of running for
consultancy we worked with 350nonprofits and delivered about
700 projects over that time.
So I learnt an incredibleamount, had such a great
experience, you know, learntwhere projects go wrong, learnt
(09:16):
where they go right, you know,worked on all different clouds
and solutions and for me, Ireally loved the variety.
You know I get my personalitysuits, you know, having
different projects going in,learning new stuff, setting it
up, coming back out and thensort of allowing them to sort of
crack on with managing theirsystem.
And so I really, you know,really enjoyed that journey, got
(09:38):
a lot out of it.
But what I one of the challengeswe found on the way was that
there was a in growing myconsultancy, there was a real
shortage of talent and equally,for the customers where we'd
implement Salesforce, they thenwould also struggle to hire
internal admins, for example.
So that generated the idea forSupermums.
(10:01):
It was through that sort ofmixed experience of going.
Okay, you know we need moretalent in this space.
There's loads of mums like mewho could do this job, work
flexibly and earn well, andthat's why I decided to launch
Supermums, which is seven yearsago now, and we started with
(10:21):
three people on the first courseand now we've had over 1300
people go through the programglobally.
It just went, accidentally wentglobal we just because the
course was virtual.
It just attracted people fromall over the world and, yeah,
it's been an amazing journey andbut I really love teaching and
training and helping people, butwe've got a team of over 20 and
(10:44):
Supermums now globally too.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That is such an inspirational story to hear.
You've been working with andleading Supermums for seven
years.
You had lead being a CEO ofanother non-profit for many,
many years prior to that.
In that kind of very eventfuljourney you are constantly
(11:07):
looking for that next thing,next thing and constantly trying
to grow and be not only justgenerally successful, be at the
top of the top to be able to seeexponential growth year over
year.
I'm curious, just because Ilove the numbers you are giving
out of.
From the start to finish, youhave now exponentially grown the
(11:29):
number of projects, number ofteam members you have brought on
.
What's your passion?
To keep moving things and keepseeing that exponential growth,
to never slow down and realize,hey, there's COVID in the way or
there's a lack of people in theecosystem in the way, I'm just
going to hurdle over that.
What's your drive?
To keep pushing that forward?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
It's interesting because with my first business I
had this massive desire to takeit internationally and to grow
these numbers.
And when I launched theconsultancy of supermums, I had
a family at this point and forme it was all about having an
eight hour job.
I had a part time and workingflexibly and I didn't have
(12:15):
necessarily the same desire togrow things.
But they just naturally didbecause we delivered well
Through the consultancy 65% ofour customers through repeat and
referral business so we justnaturally grew from having a
good reputation of deliveringwell and doing good things.
And that's the same thing withsupermums.
(12:36):
Supermums we've grown.
Most of our new trainees comethrough recommendations and word
of mouth and it's justnaturally grown that way, which
is fantastic.
It's not to say we've not puteffort into growing it and
wanting to be bigger and bolder.
I think one of the things itmakes we love having an impact
(12:59):
and I think if we're a missionled organisation, we want to
make an impact.
It feels part of our DNA towant to reach more people and
make a bigger impact.
Why wouldn't you want to dothat?
But it's not driven byfinancial goals and we must
achieve XYZ.
Obviously it has to befinancially.
(13:24):
There has to be the financialsort of stack up there to make
it all work, but our team areincredibly passionate through
both the consultancy and thetraining organisation.
It is about the impact we makeand we love seeing the success
stories of where people are andsharing those, and we do a lot
on social media, but in turn,that then just attracts more
people to it.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
That makes complete sense.
You're absolutely right.
We have to make a profit onthings at the end of the day, or
, at the very least, break evenso that we can keep doing more
for the ecosystem.
There has to be goals.
There has to be something we'removing forward to.
I just am blown away at thepassion of Even if you're not
planning to blow goals out ofthe water, you still absolutely
(14:07):
are.
So I think that's so amazing tohear.
I want to talk now about whereyou are now with Supermums.
So you started this business.
It's been seven years, you said.
You started off with just ahandful of people, yourself
included, and now you have afull team and you have a group
of volunteers who are coming into help with the training.
(14:28):
I'm curious why Supermums?
Why focusing on this kind ofspace of mothers and individuals
and women in tech who are kindof finding that second career?
Why that market?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Absolutely, because I think I've built two businesses
previously around my ownpersonal experience Well, three
actually.
It's come from my story ofwhere I've been.
So the business I was runningaround youth entrepreneurship
was because I was a youngentrepreneur in that market and
I think with Supermums it wasbecause I could see I was in
(15:03):
that market, I could see othermoms around me who could benefit
and do that job and just peopleweren't aware of it.
But for Supermums there's threekind of core sort of impact
statements really around whywomen specifically, one is that
there is an issue around womenreturners and people, women
(15:25):
being out of work for a while,looking after kids and helping
them get back into the labourmarket.
That is an internationallyrecognised issue in that they
can be quite often overlooked,which shouldn't be the case, so
there is the need to get themback on the career ladder.
The second is that we need morewomen in technology generally,
because the gender balance is abit shocking.
(15:46):
So we need to tackle that.
And the third is about genderpay, the gender pay gap.
We want women to be earningmore, you know, an equivalent to
men.
I just don't understand whythere's even a difference, right
, you know, for the same job.
It shouldn't even be the case,so it's quite.
I just can't even get my headaround that it actually exists,
(16:08):
but we know it does.
So that's why the emphasis hasbeen on women.
But I've also been incrediblythankful that, you know, at
Supermums we do welcomeeverybody onto our training
courses and we've had, you know,men come onto the programme.
You know who are dads or notdads.
We've had other people come onthe programme who aren't parents
(16:31):
at all, who very, very muchalign with our mission and want
to support it and be a part ofit.
And we've had an incrediblecommunity of mentors join us as
volunteer mentors.
Again, lots of men are part ofthat because they really
recognise the need for Supermumsand what it is about and have
(16:52):
seen it because of their wivesand their situation and even
them as a dad right, and so themission attracts such an
overwhelming support from peopleand I think if we were just a
standard programme that was foreverybody, we wouldn't attract
the same support and alignment.
(17:13):
And you know we tackle fourdifferent sustainable
development goals which arerecognised internationally.
So it's important we keep withour mission of what we do and
you know, say everybody backs itbecause we're tackling some
very important points 1000%.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Knowing that and if the audience hasn't already
guessed, based on your amazingaccent, that you were based in
the UK, knowing the Salesforceecosystem in Europe, in the UK
knowing that is a smaller market, knowing that it's something
that the boom of Salesforce Ifeel like is just within the
(17:53):
last three or four years reallyhitting the UK and really
hitting parts of Europe, I'mcurious your take on what your
first steps were when you werestarting Supermums and you were
getting into the ecosystem ofseeing Salesforce for new admins
in the UK, in Europe, and howdo you think that kind of has
(18:14):
shifted and grown compared towhat it has been in America?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
Because I haven't got theexperience in the USA to compare
it to.
I mean, when I started, youknow which would have been back
like 12 years ago in theecosystem we had four
certifications, right, and itwas over 3,500 pounds to train
up because the only way youcould train up was through a
week-long course that was onsite and that was one of my
(18:41):
motivations for Supermums.
Trailhead did not exist when Ilaunched Supermums, you know the
only way to train up was tospend 3,500 pounds on being a
five-day course in an officelearning.
So you know that was mymotivation for setting up and we
took it to Salesforce and saidwe want to deliver Salesforce in
a flexible way, virtually,which means we need to bend your
(19:03):
course in a way that works forus.
And so we have worked withSalesforce to flex their courses
for our audience, which theywouldn't normally do.
So we flex their admin courseand we flex their marketing
cloud course to be delivered ina way that they wouldn't
traditionally do, to be anexception for us.
So you know we like to beshapers and influencers to meet
(19:25):
different target markets.
You know, in the UK we'veobviously seen Salesforce
continue to grow in.
The latest stats show thatSalesforce is still growing as a
company and organization.
You know their customerscontinue to increase and we're
still seeing.
You know there's an element ofcompetition for talent.
You know salaries are stillincreasing.
(19:46):
There still isn't enough talentaround.
I think how you skill up,though, is really, really
important, because there hasbeen a big emphasis on getting
new talent into the space, butthere has been a lot of a pop up
of a lot of different traininginitiatives that just focus on
this, the training in its purestform, and that, you know, do
(20:08):
trailhead for free and get somebadges and get a cert and you'll
get a job, and what we've seenis people who've just done that
not get a job, because, it don'tget me wrong, some people will
have done, but it depends ontheir background and their
confidence and theirtransferable skills.
With Supermums, you know we wereset up traditionally and, as
(20:30):
they, we accommodate and workwith, with anybody, but we
wanted to design a program thatwas very much for people who
have been out of work.
You know, or I, didn't havenecessarily the transferable
skills, and so, with our program, we developed a program that
included the training, includedreal life work experience.
It provided a one to one mentorfor somebody over the six
(20:51):
months of them studying andlearning, to meet with them
every single week.
It provided career coaching.
It provides the peer cohort.
So it's a very, very robustlearning and support program and
in order to kind of help peoplesuccessfully launch their
careers to meet these jobs inthe USA or in the UK or anywhere
else in Europe, it's reallyimportant that we have good
(21:13):
qualified talent, because salesforces and company in the
products will stall if they'renot implemented well or if they
don't have the right talent.
And so it's been incrediblyimportant to make sure that you
know, as talent providers, we'regenerating really good talent
because we want the salesful'srecommendations to be really
(21:33):
successful, because that's goingto power the growth of the
industry, you know, here orwherever it is in the world.
So you know, we have seen thatsort of, I suppose, the appetite
for training, the appetite forupskilling, you know.
But that has happened indifferent ways.
(21:55):
Different people have takendifferent paths, but we see from
them as we continue to deliverour core program because we
think that really sets people upfor success.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I love that and I really like how you made a focus
on having a mentor and not justrelying on the technical and
being able to really highlightsome of those soft skills and
being able.
You mentioned earlier one ofthe things you, when you were
going through your training, yougot project management training
and you had other pieces ofthat to help with the soft
(22:28):
skills that are really needed tobe regardless of if you go into
consultancy or if you are anin-house admin.
You really need those softskills to be ultimately
successful, to scale for growth.
So, with that being said,you've mentioned and kind of
also in that moment of pluggingall the amazing things that you
do with SuperMoms.
You have a podcast, mums, onCloud 9 and you also have a book
(22:52):
that has come out, becoming aSuper Salesforce Consultant,
which are two amazing resourcesfor anyone who is kind of
interested in diving into theecosystem.
Again, talking through the ideaabout being a consultant versus
an admin, for people trying toget, just regardless of the job
type, getting into the door.
(23:13):
You have these amazingresources.
You've given so many trainingsand implementations and been a
mentor for so many high levelnew admins.
What would be the top threethings you're trying to
recommend to your clients, yourpodcast listeners, to help them
get their first job, to helpthem kind of take that first
(23:35):
step in the Salesforce world.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
I have my three tips here foryou.
So the first is don't just getyour admin cert.
Do get valuable work experienceworking alongside somebody who
can verify your work and thequality of your work.
With SuperMoms, people come outwith three references they get
reference from the trainer, thereference from their mentor and
(24:00):
the reference from the personthat oversaw their work
experience.
So it's really important tohave those things on your CV and
get work experience, becauseit's incredibly hard to get that
first gig without it.
So join a program like ours orsomething similar to sort of
start building that resume.
Beyond just getting the admincert, I think the next stage is
(24:21):
to think about which career pathyou want to go down and to not
again just don't rely on youradmin cert to get your foot in
the door.
If you're wanting to go down asan admin and develop as an
advanced admin and develop thattrack, then you'd want to do
your app build during advancedadmin certifications, which are
(24:43):
pretty next step ones that isrelatively easy to get after you
get in your admin.
It's the hat trick skills thatyou need there If you're wanting
to work into an organizationwhere you're the solo
administrator or you want to gointo consultancy and to take the
responsibility for gatheringthe requirements and
(25:05):
prioritizing them so they meetthe time and budget available,
then I'd be definitelyrecommending getting those
consultancy skills, which wealso teach at Supermums.
We added this in as a courseafter a couple of years because
we just realized that peopleneeded these skill sets very
quickly, but it could also meanthat it would get them another
10k pay rise right, so it justmade absolutely sense to provide
(25:28):
it to them.
So doing business analysis andagile project management
training and change managementtraining, I would say, are
required if you're going to takethat responsibility.
On Working as a freelancesalesful consultant, I just
quickly realized that I couldn'tdo projects without them, which
is why I invested quite a bitof money in getting that
(25:49):
training, those certifications,behind me.
And the third thing is to reallybuild your network through your
network on LinkedIn andbuilding your profile.
Start to share knowledge andexperience.
Start to connect with otherpeople in the community.
It's one of the things that wealways say with Supermums is
(26:12):
we've got this massive alumnicommunity and we're like right,
go and connect with everybodyelse in this community.
Build that network, becausethey're the ones that are going
to be patting you on the backwhen you get your certification
and liking and celebrating withyou, and we really need that to
motivate ourselves and to justfeel that sense of satisfaction.
And I think that's one of thethings that a sales source Ohana
is absolutely amazing at isjust patting everybody else on
(26:36):
the shoulder and sharingknowledge and expertise, and I
think the more you can lean intothat and be part of it and
embrace it and use it as well,you know, in the best way for
yourself, it's going to buildyour confidence and make you fly
.
So they're my three tips forpeople really starting out.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Those are ideal tips, honestly, and those are those
are.
I really liked your first pointaround having the validation of
the work that you do.
That's not something you hearvery often A lot of people who
are trying to find that thatintentional kind of path,
whether it's their second careeror their first within the
(27:14):
ecosystem.
A lot of times, you'll see thepeople go on like fiverr or
upwork, and they'll go on andthey'll say, hey, I'll work for
free to get that, and I thinkthat is that's usually why I've
recommended to people If youdon't have enough previous job
experience to get you that firstjob in the ecosystem with your
certs and trainings, just try tofind a free gig, implement
(27:36):
something, figure out how youcan complete a project, just to
have it on your CV.
With that said, though, thething that I like, how you
called out, is get the referrals, get the references, be able to
have written confirmation andor verbal confirmation from
those people that say, no, no,they did do a good job, and let
(27:57):
me explain why they did a goodjob and let me explain how they
helped you grow, and I reallythink that's not talked about
enough.
The other thing that youhighlight in there was about the
community and how being able tofind people who you can learn
from and help build you up andfind your own personal Ohana.
(28:18):
With that being said,especially with women in tech
and those kind of smaller nichegroups within the ecosystem.
I'm curious to take on what doyou find the most valuable thing
about being a part of thecommunity outside of just the
traditional networking?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I think I mean I just love the fact of how different
people are giving back to itit's like even on this podcast
and having different people.
I think people being involvedin the community means that
they're either being a mentor,they're writing blogs, you know,
they're contributing topodcasts, they're sharing
information internally and Ithink if you, if you delve into
(29:00):
that community, you're justgoing to be learning things all
the time, and I think it's aboutminding the gaps.
I invest a lot of time andmoney in learning from others
and it helped me obviously avoidmistakes and to get it right.
But sometimes it's come, youknow, gone oh gosh.
I need to learn that becauseI've realized I don't know
something or I've made a mistakeand I'm like how do I do that
(29:23):
better?
So I think it's about leaningin and learning from as many
people as possible.
So you are the best you can beand that's why I wrote the book
you know, become a SupercellSouls consultant because I
wanted to share everything thatI'd learned in a very digestible
form on an affordable basis.
That you know, this is the A toZ of running a project.
(29:44):
These are things you need toknow and you know, for people
that follow me.
They can obviously take awaythe knowledge I've got, but I'm
one of, like many others in thecommunity that are giving away
knowledge and expertise.
So it's just about leaning in,learning from them, you know,
and through those learningopportunities I mean certainly
through people joining Supermumsthey've found job opportunities
(30:06):
together and networked betweeneach other.
So it's a way of finding jobs.
It's a way of building newfriendships and peers, because
maybe it's a completely newindustry and you don't know
anybody.
It means you can go to localevents together.
You know, it's just aboutlifting you up and making you
know the more successful we arein our jobs, the happier we are.
Right, and it's all about beinghappy at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
I couldn't have said that better myself.
It's all about being happy andfinding Honestly I'm going to
put that on like a tagline forthis episode it really is.
We do all of this to find thathappiness and to find that joy,
and it is amazing that so manyof these ecosystem find that joy
myself included in giving backand finding outlets to help,
(30:49):
whether it's someone who isstruggling with a technical flow
or Apex solution when it comeslike development, architecture,
or it's just help For me.
I find that I can help best ifI'm giving back to the next
generation, the people who wereme 10 years ago when I first got
my foot in the door.
And so, with that being said,the whole premise of Supermums
(31:14):
and kind of your enjoyment aboutthat company is the concept of
mentorship and being able tohave people come in, whether
they are an employee or they'revolunteering their time, and
they are helping someone getstarted out.
What do you think makes a goodmentor in this ecosystem?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Interesting.
So we only take people on tobecome mentors if they've got
two years of practical adminexperience, so they've got the
skills and knowledge to be ableto give back to somebody else.
We created a structured programwhere there's very set
deliverables each week and sothere's homework set for the
(31:53):
mentees and the mentor checks it.
There has to be that commitmentand accountability for the
mentor that they can make thatcommitment, they can understand
the homework, they can reportback on it.
So that is part and parcel of agood mentor relationship.
I think mentoring programs andecosystem have failed before
(32:15):
because there hasn't been aformula of how a mentee and
mentor works together, which hasthen sort of lost the momentum.
There's no structure oranything like that.
So we've always had a verystructured program and some of
our mentees were just doingmentor awards actually.
But some of our mentors havementored 13 people over the
years, which is phenomenal.
(32:35):
So they're like our top winnersat the moment in terms of the
number of mentors.
I suppose we call it a winner.
They will win.
We don't know, can't obviouslydisclose who they are yet, but
it's about giving time, it'sabout committing time to it,
it's about understanding whatthey're trying to do.
We also at Supermoms teach thementors and how to be a mentor
(32:57):
and also coaching skills, so weprovide a whole toolkit on how
to be a mentor.
So we require everybody to gothrough that content before they
start mentoring, because ittells them how to form a
relationship, how to set thefoundations, how to communicate
back and forth, particularlybeing mindful of different
(33:18):
people's learning styles ormaybe their emotional state.
And from the mentors that we've, the mentors I've spoken to
they quite often change theirstyle and their technique
depending on the mentee thatthey're with right, because
different people are verydifferent in their learning
style and what they're needingand whether they need more of a
confidence boost or whetherthey're more technical, and so
(33:41):
it is about being amenable tothat.
But I think it's about havingthat opportunity where you learn
how to be a great mentor and acoach and with that they can be
skills you can take into yourown job roles, going forward to
help you get that promotion andthings like that as well.
So it's not just something thatI think you should do, ablib,
(34:02):
and it's a minimum effort.
Really, I think certainly ifyou want to do it well, you kind
of have to put two feet intothe ring and I've certainly been
amazed.
We've had over 160 people signup to be a mentor over the time
with us globally, and hats offto them.
They've done an amazing job,meeting with our trainees one to
(34:25):
two hours a week over sixmonths.
I mean that's an incrediblecommitment and we're incredibly
thankful for that support theybring in.
But they come with their twofeet in the ring because they
want to give back and they feellike the proud parents.
I feel like a proud parent to1,300 people.
They feel like a proud parentto their mentees and they've
made friends.
(34:46):
They go on holidays together.
They maintain theirrelationship, in many cases over
six months.
I love hearing all thesestories.
It's lovely.
It's not just a task, itbecomes part of your life really
.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
That is too cool and I really, really enjoy that.
It's just that it is arelationship.
It's not treating it as somekind of notch in a belt or a
resume builder.
They're doing it just becausethey want to give back and they
love meeting new people andmaking relationships.
I'm loving the comment you madeabout their taking a holiday
(35:26):
together and they're going onvacations and everything.
That is too amazing and I lovethat you have created this in
the ecosystem.
I really really enjoy it.
Shifting back to, though, kindof I want to talk a little bit
about your book Becoming a SuperSalesforce Consultant.
I have this podcast for adminsof tomorrow.
(35:48):
It's for the freelanceconsultant, but it's really for
anyone who wants to be an admin,whether it's in-house or not.
I'm curious your take this isthe tagline for the book, which
I find really fascinating isSupercharge your Career with
this A to Z guide on how to leada Salesforce project.
I love that because we saySalesforce Consultant, but it's
(36:08):
really for anyone and everyoneunder the sun trying to
implement something withinSalesforce, whether it's
in-house or not.
That being said, there arecertain skills that you've
highlighted earlier in theepisode about being a consultant
versus just an in-house admin,I'm curious what do you believe
the skills that you get fromthis book, from consulting?
(36:28):
Where are some of the skillsthat you get from that that you
think admins should pick up onand really really run with?
Speaker 2 (36:35):
and hone In.
Whatever guys you are operatingas a Salesforce admin, you're
going into an organization andyou're going through a process
with a group of people whereyou're going to design, build,
test and train people in a newway of working using technology.
(36:58):
Now the skills you need forthat whole journey have to
include not just how do I buildSalesforce in a flow.
They have to involve businessanalysis, agile project
management and change managementand DevOps as the four key hat
trick skills which I talk about,which work quite nicely.
(37:20):
Abcd you couldn't really makethat up if you tried, but then I
was super impressed.
I mean, the whole point is iswe go into implement new
processes for an organization,so we have to have a process
about how we implementSalesforce and so sitting down
and thinking about the A to Z.
I'm also equally proud that Idid manage a chronological
(37:40):
process from A to Z ofimplementing a Salesforce
solution, and so the book flowsin that way.
The book flows from looking atthe core skills that you need
and then looking at all thesteps you would take, from
inception through to adoptionand roll out, and then
(38:02):
appraising your how well did Ido and what should I do next in
my career and so I take peopleon that journey and I've had
some absolutely amazing feedbackfrom people reading the book.
I had some people who were mysort of test readers, if you
like, and they ranged from acomplete newbie in the ecosystem
and they were like, oh, this isamazing because it just helps
(38:24):
me understand everything thatI'm going to need to do or learn
.
You know, whether I do it nowor in the future, I can
understand, like the wholeprocess to more experienced
consultants who you know it waslike a therapy session for them.
I think I found it like quitetherapeutic writing the book
because you know it's not, asyou mentioned earlier, it's not
(38:46):
easy.
You know there are lots ofthings that can go wrong, and so
on every section of the book, ato Z, I talk about the problems
that could you could be facedin each of those areas and say
this is what could go wrong andthis is how to get it right.
And that's how I start everysingle chapter, because it makes
people aware of.
You know, if you just tell themthis is how you do it, people
(39:09):
don't always listen as to why,why should I do it this way,
whereas if you explain, theconsequences are what could go
wrong?
Because many of us have probablyexperienced that because we
didn't mind the gap or we didn'tknow.
You know, it's not, it's notour fault.
We don't always know thesethings obviously in advance,
because we go, oh, actually Icould learn how to do that
better.
But you know, the reality isthat we, you know people can
(39:31):
mind the gap by reading the bookand just being really you know,
sort of go get that oversightearly on.
And so we have to.
We have to practice what wepreach.
We have to deliver a process tothe client for delivering his
elsewhere project, and this A toZ takes them on that journey.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
That I love how you're you called out.
You it's a matter of not justfollow this and you'll be okay,
and just it's giving that prosand cons list at the beginning.
I want to ask, though, just outof my own curiosity, why call
it become a super sales forceconsultant as opposed to super
(40:10):
sales force admin?
What is that kind of reason forfocusing on the consultant
terminology as opposed to theadmin, and what's that kind of
benefit of thinking of thingsfrom that consultant mindset?
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Well, I've got my next book coming out next year,
which has become a super salesforce admin.
So I've always talked, I'vealways talked about the four,
the four roles and the fourdetails of a sales force admin.
So that's the other book, so wehave that coming out and that's
much more the strategy around.
You know being proactive as asales force admin.
(40:43):
There are four roles, the fourhats that you need to wear, and
there are four details youshould be doing on a, you know,
daily, weekly, monthly,quarterly basis.
It's much more practicallyapplied from you know how you
manage a system.
Now, obviously, there's nooverlap between the two because
some of those, those four hatsone of them is the BA project
management hat, right, sothere's no overlap between the
(41:05):
two books, but with the salesforce consultant one, I think
those consultancy skills lendthemselves to a whole range of
different job roles.
You know you could be the salesforce consultant, you could be
the admin, you could be theproduct owner, you could be the
executive sponsor and you will.
You know there's so manydifferent job roles but actually
(41:28):
, at the end of the day, you areoperating as a sales force
consultant.
A sales force admin operates asa sales force consultant.
They might not call themselvesthat, but that you know,
principally they are if they'releading a project through that
whole life cycle.
So it that this current firstbook focuses more on those key
consultancy skills, whereas thesecond book will focus more on
(41:48):
the admin practicalities.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
That's fantastic.
That's really, really cool, andwe'll definitely make sure to
keep an eye out for the nextbook too.
So I have two more questionsfor you, but the first one of
this and this kind of is goinginto your book a little bit more
what was the thing that droveyou to to write this book?
And then you, I believe, justhad this book launched.
I believe it was in November of2023.
(42:12):
Is that correct?
So this book is fairly recent.
You already have the next onelined up, ready to go planned
out.
You're getting it ready.
What's the?
Again?
Continuing to the thing wetalked about earlier, you have
this drive and passion to keepdoing amazing things in the
ecosystem.
What was your passion to writethese books?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
So I've always.
I think it's about finding yourmedium and I love writing.
I find that quite therapeuticin my way of giving back.
I've obviously done the podcastas well, but with the writing.
So I've been writing blogs forour website every single week
and we distribute those throughwhat we call the career boost
bulletin, which it kind of youcan sign up to on LinkedIn or
(42:53):
via our website.
And so we I write these blogsand share the content online and
through the salesals community.
And what I realized is that youknow I'd written all this
content but once it's kind ofgone out there for the week, as
a blog people we certainly havesome blogs that are optimized
and get found through Google,but quite a few that might not
(43:14):
get optimized.
And I've written all thiscontent and I thought, well,
actually that could all beturned into a book pretty easily
.
And so I sat down and in withinthree hours I had 30,000 words
that could sit in the book.
It was that easy.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
My jaw is on the floor for our audio listener.
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
I know, and it was all sat there on the website,
right, and I was like, oh my God.
So obviously I had to read orjig it, because I've got a
format for the book, you know,otherwise it would be a bit
random, right.
You know.
So that I sort of took a lot ofthat content, you know,
repurposed it and tweaked it,obviously have a very similar
style for each chapter.
(43:56):
But we had a lot of the contentand actually the additional
content I didn't have wascontent that I could or should
write anyway for the blog, andit was all in my training course
, because I deliver theconsultancy skills training
course at Supermums, and so Ipulled out some taster content
(44:17):
from that.
Obviously, we don't give awaythe whole course in any stretch,
but some of the content I hadwritten is part of what I teach,
so it's sharing some tasters ofthat.
And you know, it's been amazingactually having people who've
read the book have now come onthe consultancy skills course
because they're like you know,if I've got this much from the
book and imagine what I'm goingto get from the course.
(44:39):
I had some amazing feedbackfrom people all over the world
about the book and now they'reon my course, which is fantastic
.
So I was just like, actually,we create all this content and
it's really important to youknow, not let it go to waste,
and so by producing the book youknow it's out there for people
to buy it's in a much moreconsolidated format, it's
(45:01):
obviously got a very clearstructure to it and I think it's
a much better way of presentingit and obviously giving value
back as part of it.
And it's similar with thepodcast.
Really, I mean there was somepodcast episodes of content that
I pulled into the book and Ihave a plan.
I mean I've got two books to do, still one become a super sales
(45:24):
force admin, and we've got, youknow, a lot of content I can
still pull into that, as well asmore content to write, but also
about becoming a super mum inits own right, which is more
about the career and work-lifebalance piece, because we do
talk about that as super mums asan organisation, because I
think it's really important thatwe don't get burnt out and
there has been talk aboutburnout in the sales force
(45:47):
ecosystem, because I think wehave to blame ourselves, to be
fair, because I think we have tomanage our energy, our
boundaries.
We have to know where to say no.
We have to know, you know, thatwe're skilled enough to do the
job.
I think we have to takeresponsibility, and I did get
burnt out on my sales forcejourney and that's because I
wasn't managing my own stuff.
(46:10):
And so I talk about theambitious women mindset.
We've had quite a few blogs andpodcasts about the ambitious
women mindset and about managingwork-life balance and how you
do that.
So I also want to do a bookaround that as well, to just
kind of help.
I mean it will be called Becomea Super Mum, I imagine, because
(46:34):
it will fit with the theme.
But there's something to thatdegree.
But it's about managing thoseelements.
So they're the things that Ilove to talk about, and it's
just we can repurpose it andthen I speak about it as well,
right, so I speak about it onother podcasts and user groups
and so different audiences.
So you know it is what I enjoydoing.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
I definitely think the book around time management
and burnout adding in theirimposter syndrome as well kind
of I think it's very, verynecessary in the ecosystem right
now.
I just had Kate Godley comeonto the podcast and kind of
talk about her journey goingthrough the ecosystem, dealing
with burnout, dealing withanxiety, dealing with all the
(47:16):
stresses that come with being inthe ecosystem, regardless of
where you are at in your journey.
So I definitely think more andmore content in that realm is
hugely needed in this ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah, and you know, the thing that stands out the
most for me about this is when Istarted, and you know when I
started out, I mentioned thatthere was four certifications
you could do.
Right now there's so manycertifications and so many
different products.
It can feel really overwhelmingto people, and I think it's
(47:51):
really important to find yourlane and to kind of focus in on
your niche and to just to feelconfident in your goals and what
you're doing and then you'reable to not feel pressure or
nervousness about what otherpeople are doing, but to be able
to celebrate them, but to knowyour journey and, to be fair,
it's one of the reasons why alot of people join our course
(48:13):
because they get that parallel,parallel, parallelist, as I say
that word at Trailhead.
They get overwhelmed, theydon't know where to start, they
go down rabbit holes and they'renot feeling like they're
producing stuff.
So they come on the superman'scourses because they've got
structure and accountability inthat peer group.
And I think that's what peopleare finding is that they need to
(48:33):
find that sort of structure forthemselves and that support
network and to have one path tolook down, because otherwise it
can be overwhelming, and so Ithink there's a real risk of
that and it is.
And also you know you'refinding.
Going back to the admin job,you know people are then adding
business analysis into it,they're adding devops into it
(48:54):
and you know these differentproducts and people are
expecting, I think, far too muchfor just an admin salary.
Now they have to appreciatethat there's these additional
skills and that's a differentadditional salary, but equally
might be more than one persontoo.
So you know there is a roleeducating end customers and
(49:15):
people who are hiring talent tomake sure that they're just not
expecting too much from somebodyand, you know, making sure
they've got a blended team.
So really, really valuabletopic.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
I agree, completely agree.
One of my other guests justrecently kind of highlighted
that a little bit, and part ofit is we have to be able, as
admins, not only to identifythat you may need a secondary
role for this, but to be able tocommunicate to your leadership
as to why you need that.
It's less about telling them,hey, we need to hire someone
(49:48):
else, and then they'll come toyou and say, shove off, you're
silly, I don't got the budgetfor that, but it's being able to
truly sell and say this is why.
Because I am an admin, this isthe role of an admin, this is
why I should be doing.
If you need me to do more, lookat increasing my salary or we
hire a second person on, becausethat's not realistic for me.
(50:09):
In this admin bucket, myknowledge set to be doing things
that are two other career paths.
So we're nearing the end of ourtime.
I can't express howappreciative I am of you coming
on to the show and kind oftelling us your journey and
telling us about super moms inyour book.
The last question I end theshow with for all my guests is
(50:33):
something that I find very, veryhelpful for that next
generation of admin again takingit back to the premise of the
show, I always ask people whatis, what was your biggest regret
when you were first gettingstarted, that you wish you could
go back and change, andhopefully that's a piece that
maybe another admin can go andsay oh, I'm in that situation
(50:55):
right now.
Maybe I'll pivot and not gointo the same things.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Oh, what regret could I have.
It's an interesting one, isn'tit?
I mean, I think I've learnt somuch through the journey of all
the steps that I've taken.
I think my, in some ways,growing a Salesforce consultancy
(51:21):
made me step away from thething that I loved, which was
actually doing theimplementation for clients,
because growing a consultancymeant that I had to step back
from delivery and manage abusiness and do marketing and
sales.
And you know I have worn, youknow I can do those hats.
(51:41):
But it made me almost step awayfrom developing my Salesforce
sort of hands-on skills.
I mean, don't get me wrong, youknow I was overseeing projects
and being hands-on and I did alot of hands-on projects.
I did over a hundred of my ownprojects and then I sort of took
a more senior role.
But you know, I think people, ifyou're growing, if you end up
(52:02):
growing a consultancy because Iknow people say to me oh, you
know, I want to grow real lifethat's probably going to be, you
know, the stock of yourSalesforce expertise because
you're going to have to stepinto running a business mode and
you know I love, you know I'mrunning a business now, but it's
really important to me that Ihave the trainer side, like I
(52:24):
absolutely love deliveringtraining still and delivering
content and being able to havethat interaction with, like, the
audience, the customersdirectly, because I'd lose, like
part of you know, my soul if Ididn't have that, if I was just
running a business.
So I think it's just been reallymindful that you know if you
(52:48):
love doing the Salesforce workand actually implementing that,
stick in that lane.
You know, if you want to grow abusiness and step back from
doing the technical stuff andmove into, sort of you know,
managing teams and doing salesand alliances with Salesforce,
then grow a consultancy.
I think you know I say I wentthrough that journey but if I
(53:12):
could take it back I probablywould have missed out that bit
and just continue to deliver myconsult, you know, deliver
projects myself and then developthe training arm if I was to
reel it back a little bit.
But you know I learned so muchon the journey too.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
No, I love that.
It's because it's like you say,it's not necessarily a regret
because you did so many amazingthings by building this business
.
But you also have so manypeople who have said I'm going
to start my own freelance andwith that you have to be mindful
of at what point do youcontinue with the execution of
it.
But then you also have toremember you're marketing
yourself, you're marketing yourbusiness, and you have to, you
(53:48):
have to grow, you can't just letit stagnate.
So I mean, it's not necessarilya regret, but it is a good call
out for people trying to getinto the freelance and or start
their own business space.
So Well, thank you again fortaking the time out of your your
day to your day and evening tocome and be on the podcast.
(54:09):
For anyone interested in gettingHeather's book is available on
Amazon again.
It's become a super sales forceconsultant.
It's reached the number oneslot in eight different
categories across the US, uk andCanada and Australia, and it's
number 10 in India.
So definitely get yourself acopy while it's still on the
virtual shelves and be on thelookout for the new book
(54:33):
becoming a super sales forceadmin whenever that's available,
and also check out the podcastMums on Cloud 9.
It has a lot of great episodes.
There's, I believe, fiveseasons of it available on Apple
podcasts and Spotify, sodefinitely give it a good listen
.
Heather's, or anything you wantto call out before we jump off.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
No, it's absolutely pleasure speaking to you, jacob.
Thank you so much.
If people want to find out moreabout Supermums, you can find
us at supermumsorg, and that isMums M-U-M-S org.
Even though we do, we alwayshave a little competition around
how many web hits we get fromthe USA versus Amir, because
it's actually 40 40% split, sowe're definitely a global brand.
(55:15):
So if you listen to us on thewebsite, the USA may win the
competition for the week.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Very, very likely.
Well, we'll make sure to linkall of those pieces inside of
our episode description.
Thank you so much again,heather, for joining, and we'll
be talking with you soon.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (55:42):
And that concludes another episode of admins of
tomorrow.
A special thanks to our guest,heather, for being our first
guest of the admin spotlightseries and sharing their journey
through the ecosystem.
It was an absolute blast tolearn how they're helping new
admins grow and find their firstjobs in the ecosystem.
If anyone has any interest inlearning more about Supermums or
Heather's story, you can findmore information at supermumsorg
(56:06):
.
Remember that issupermumsmumsorg.
If you'd like to purchase thebook become a super sales force
consultant, you can find it onamazoncom or on the Supermums
website.
Thank you again for taking thetime to listen and support the
podcast.
If you have any feedback,questions or topic suggestions,
we absolutely would love to hearyou.
So don't hesitate to connectwith us on LinkedIn, twitter or
(56:29):
email us at info atadminsoftomorrowcom.
We'd love to add a segment atthe end of our show each week
where we can give a shout out toan admin in the community, but
we can only do that if we hearfrom you.
So if you'd like to givesomeone a shout out, please go
to our website,adminsoftomorrowcom, forward
slash, share your thoughts andfill out our form to give
(56:49):
someone you know a shout out now.
If you've enjoyed this episodeagain.
We say it every week, but don'tforget to subscribe, leave a
review and share it with yourfellow trailblazers.
Each review and listen we getmeans the absolute world to us
and helps us keep the podcastgoing.
So, again, if you can leave usa review on Spotify, apple
podcast or wherever you'relistening to the show, and feel
(57:10):
free to share with your network.
Once again, I'm Jacob Catalano,your host, signing off.
We appreciate you for listeningto admins of tomorrow,
trailblazing the next generation.
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