January 31, 2024 • 57 mins
Join us on this week's episode as we jump into the topic of Automation, AI, and marketing alongside Christina Anderson and Steven Stouffer. Christina's leap from education into technology and Steven's ascent from accidental admin to SaaS leadership underscore the transformative power of automation and a passion for learning in shaping careers. As the conversation steers toward AI's expanding role in marketing, we shed light on the critical balance between human ingenuity and AI efficiency. We highlight the importance of a hands-on approach when integrating AI-assisted content creation, ensuring that quality remains paramount over quantity. To maintain the level of quality we discuss the art of prompting AI for top-notch content and how new admins should be strategic with their AI prompts instead of just asking basic questions like, "Write me a blog about...".
Wrapping up, we dive into career development with heartfelt advice for emerging admins. Touching on the power of community, the necessity to challenge imposter syndrome, and the unique learnings one gathers from user groups and tech conferences. Whether embracing the grind at a startup or widening your horizons through speaking engagements, the insights from this episode are bound to resonate with professionals at any stage.
Christina is the Marketing Strategist at Sercante. As a Certified Pardot Consultant, Salesforce Marketing Champion, Trailblazer Community Leader, and Former Host of the Pardot Life Hacks Podcast, she enjoys sharing valuable content with the rest of the ecosystem to help others advance in their careers and achieve their goals on the Salesforce platform. An experienced marketing leader for Salesforce consultancies, Christina collaborates with the Sercante marketing team to advance the mission of the business and shares her strategic expertise with clients, partnering alongside sales and marketing teams to accomplish their objectives.
linkedin.com/in/anderson-christina/
Stephen is the VP of Digital Transformation & Innovation at SaaScend, leading a team of marketing operations experts to help go to market teams scale their revenue operations. From the humble beginnings of accidental admin to SaaS leadership, Stephen has spent his career harnessing the power of Marketing Automation, AI, and Salesforce trying to make sense of a data-driven world!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
Good morning and good afternoon.
My name is Jacob Catalano andwelcome to another episode of
Admins of Tomorrow.
Over the last few weeks, we'vehad the pleasure of hearing from
so many inspirational adminsabout their journey through the
ecosystem and what new adminsshould be on the lookout for.
Learning from other people'sexperiences is ultimately how
(00:35):
I've had the opportunity to growas much as I have in my career.
But taking the time to focus onthe technical has been just as
important.
I know I've said it on the showbefore and I'll probably say it
again, but there are so manyresources around the technical.
I don't always like taking thistime to have an episode just
dedicated to the technical, butwhat I really like to highlight
(00:59):
in these situations are thegotchas.
What's going to trip you up?
What should new admins be onthe lookout for when they are
starting to use these solutions?
From there, you can go on blogsand you can find how to YouTube
videos to really learn the moretechnical, but the gotchas, to
me, are so important and key.
(01:19):
So that's why, on this week'sepisode, we're going to dive
into the topic we've tiptoedaround for a while AI and how we
can use it to automate our workand be more efficient.
Like I've said, it's my passionto tell stories that help
people grow and develop.
So today we have the pleasureof sitting down with two admins
who have truly earned theirplace in becoming marketing
(01:41):
champions.
We get to sit down withChristina Anderson and Steven
Stover and hear about theirjourneys in the ecosystem, but
also talk through how they useAI in their day to day, whether
it's predictive or generative AI.
I'm excited to learn how we canuse AI together and help new
admins succeed in their jobs andultimately become more
efficient.
(02:01):
So, without further ado, let'smeet Christina and Steven.
Christina is the marketingstrategist at Cercante.
As a certified part-outconsultant, salesforce marketing
champion, trailblazer,community leader and former host
of the part-out life hackspodcast, she enjoys sharing
valuable content with the restof the ecosystem to help others
advance in their careers andachieve their goals on the
(02:23):
Salesforce platform.
Steven is the VP of digitaltransformation and innovation at
Cessend, leading a team ofmarketing operations experts to
help go to market teams scaletheir revenue operations From
the humble beginnings ofaccidental admin to SaaS
leadership.
Steven has spent his careerharnessing the power of
marketing automation, ai andSalesforce, trying to make sense
(02:45):
of a data-driven world.
So let's not waste any more time.
Dive in.
So thank you both for takingthe time out of your busy days
(03:07):
to join me for the admins oftomorrow podcast.
I'm really, really excited totalk through today, really just
shining a light on your journeysin the ecosystem, but also
talking a little bit around atopic we've all been hearing a
lot about at Salesforce eventsand in all the fun blogs you see
in the ecosystem about AI.
(03:28):
So AI analytics and how we'veseen that Salesforce has had
predictive AI and Einsteininsights for a long, long time
now in the ecosystem, but we'renow seeing a deeper rise on the
generative usage of AI and someeven more advanced predictive
insights, insights that areconnecting with all sorts of
(03:51):
other systems.
So this is really beneficialfor the marketer, but it's also
beneficial, I believe, for thenew admin.
So I would love to dive on in,dive in headfirst, as I say, and
kind of start off with each ofy'all's journeys and how you got
involved in the ecosystem.
So, christina, I'd like tostart with you, kind of talking
through what got you startedworking with Salesforce and kind
(04:13):
of what was your passion tokeep diving forward and driving
deeper and deeper into theecosystem.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
First of all, thank you so muchfor having me on the show,
jacob.
It's an honor to be here.
But so I definitely want to goall the way back to the way
beginning, because it'll giveyou more of a sense of like who
I am, why I am the way that I am.
But so I actually I used to bea Spanish teacher.
(04:40):
Way back I was a middle schoolSpanish teacher, did that for a
couple of years that's actuallywhat my original college degree
is in and I just felt that itwasn't what I wanted to do for
the rest of my life and, as aresult, a couple of years in, I
made the decision and I justsaid okay, I am going to resign
(05:04):
and I'm going to go intobusiness.
So at that point I was reallythinking about how could I make
these organizations seniorsomething more than a teacher?
So then I thought I startedthinking about all the
administrative and office andmanagement skills that I had
available to me and I actuallystarted applying for all these
different executive, assistantand office manager positions as
(05:28):
a result, because if you canmanage a classroom of like 24
seventh graders that don'tnecessarily want to be in your
class, you can manage an office,believe it or not.
So doing that, I actuallylanded an executive assistant
position at a tech startup indowntown Buffalo and was there
(05:51):
for about a year and the companyactually closed and shut down.
And at that point my partnerwho's now my husband he had a
position available for his jobout in the New England, new
Hampshire area.
So I started applying topositions out there and I
actually landed an executiveassistant position to the
(06:14):
founder and chief marketingofficer at what many of you
formerly knew as Cheshire Impact.
And I started working for KCCheshire and I got to give him a
shout out because that'sactually where my entrance into
the Salesforce Seeker system allstarted.
So for those of you, some ofyou may know they were a
(06:39):
Salesforce part of focusconsulting agency, and so at
that time I knew nothing aboutSalesforce, nothing about Farda,
knew very little, like I had,you know, some knowledge of
marketing, but not to where I amtoday.
And KC he took me under hiswing as and was my mentor, and
(07:02):
then also Jennifer LynchSchneider she was on that team
as well.
She took me right under herwing is, yeah, under her wing as
well, and so then I was helpingout being assistant to the
chief marketing officer, helpingout with different marketing
activities, just started directlike writing for them on social,
(07:24):
started it, and then I gottrained in creating part emails
and then started handling all oftheir webinar communication for
all their different events.
They were doing like a webinara month and then we did wait
even more than that at the time.
So I started learning all thisand then I started just getting
(07:47):
a real passion for it.
He at the time was doing thehardcore marketing show podcast.
I then started helping out withproducing those episodes,
listening to all of those CMOstalk strategy.
I started reading all thesemarketing books and then I
started just diving intotrailhead and then I got my part
(08:09):
of part of that specialcertification and eventually
also got my part of consultantcertification.
But that and then there's evenmore than that.
There was a podcast, but I'llstop there and and you hand it
back over to you or we can diveinto Steven's background.
But yeah, that's that's how Igot to start.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I love that and I we definitely want to dive into
Steven's side because I Irealized after doing some light
LinkedIn stalking because I haveto do that a lot nowadays I
realized y'all used to worktogether at Sassan, so I
definitely want to talk a littlebit about that as well.
But I do find it interestingthat your journey was accidental
(08:51):
, but then it just was.
It was all around the marketingstrategy.
This was meant to be justsomething that was not as
Salesforce focused.
I've talked to a handful ofpeople who you have the
accidental admin where they justkind of their company bought
Salesforce and they lucked intoit and then the other people who
actually learned aboutSalesforce went through
trailhead, did the training andthen found their first admin,
(09:14):
architect, developer job.
So I find it interesting thatthis was more marketing focused.
And then you found thatmarketing arm of Salesforce and
just latched on for dear lifeBecause, honestly, that's very
similar to my story.
So I really enjoy hearing thatthat I'm not the only one.
Steven, kind of curious ifyou're in a similar boat as
Christina and me of being amarketer and kind of latching
(09:37):
into that, or if you werealready in a different kind of
neck of the woods.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, a little bit different, yeah, so this is now
back in 2012, 2013.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I was actually old days.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, yeah, like almost pre marketing automation,
like marketing.
The term marketing automationreally wasn't very common back
then.
It was really like emailmarketing or like marketing
specialist kind of the termsthat were used, which is weird
to now think about.
It's like now we got likemarketing ops and rebops.
So I was actually a front enddeveloper.
(10:16):
I was a web developer, so I didlike e commerce stuff way back
in the day.
I, you know, I I'm like rightout of high school, by the way,
so it's like I worked at best byduring high school, if you can
imagine.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I can absolutely imagine this sales course much
imagine.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah, selling computers at best by.
But no, like, my first kind ofreal job out of high school was
a web developer and I worked fora sporting goods company and I
kind of managed their e commerceplatform.
But I wanted to do somethingdifferent and I wasn't sure what
.
So I actually landed aninternship down in San Antonio,
(10:54):
texas.
I grew up in Michigan, so thiswas like a big move for me and
it was an internship in themarketing department, but it was
a data analyst position.
It was nothing to do with themarketing side of marketing it
was.
It was all the numbers,spreadsheets and I was reporting
on email marketing, so that themetrics of open rates, click
(11:18):
the rates, campaign performanceetc.
And I was like I'm going to dothat for part on sales force.
So that's how I kind of wasintroduced to it.
But I actually was not on theadministrator side, I was just
the numbers guy and I was theintern numbers guys, so like
like three people removed fromactually doing anything
meaningful in the.
So it was an 18 monthinternship and my manager at the
(11:41):
time, who owned part up, endedup leaving the company and they
kind of did an audit of who wasthere at the university at the
time and they're like well, allright, steven, you're the next
best person who knows Pardot.
And I'm like no, no, no, no,I'm the numbers guy, like I'm
not an administrator.
So, like, in pure accidentaladmin fashion, of course, they
(12:06):
give it to the three month inintern to be a full-blown
administrator of Pardot.
And I went kicking andscreaming.
I wanted nothing to do with it.
But the rest is history,because I, of course, I became
the administrator.
I just fell in love with Pardot, fell in love with Salesforce.
I worked in a few different.
(12:27):
I won't walk you through all thecompanies I worked for, but I
also worked with Chesh adifferent time than Christina
did, but I went through Chesh,which was the first agency I
actually worked at.
That's where I learned Marketoin addition to a little bit of
HubSpot, and then I also appliedmy Pardot knowledge at the time
.
But yeah, I've worked foruniversities, nonprofits,
(12:52):
financial systems.
I worked at Credit Union for alittle bit startups all the way
up to like a multi-billiondollar orgs.
I worked at Yellow Pages forabout three years and then now
I'm at Syscent, which is arevenue operations agency, so
similar to Chesh.
Chesh was a little bit morefocused just on marketing
(13:12):
automation.
Syscent were like kind of fullRevOps.
So we support, you know, in theCRM side, integrations, data
services, marketing automation,of course.
So I lead the team of RevOpsfolks at Syscent here and we do
integrations and all thingsRevOps.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That's I really like the early on call out of.
I'm the numbers guy, I'm theperson who's China.
Just you tell me what you kindof report you need and I will
build it for you.
But there's not a finer personto be in the admin kind of role
than that, because so often dowe forget, as admins, that we
(13:51):
are?
We are the reporting people.
We are the people who make surethere's clean data, things are
organized.
Yes, there is the stereotypicaladmin of you're making sure the
right users are in the systemand the right permissions are
given and take it away, but atthe same time, like I am the
numbers person, I always thinkanalytics and the clean data are
(14:13):
so paramount in making sureeverything's organized,
regardless of what system you'rein.
I used to be a HubSpot superuser and what clean data in
HubSpot does the same thing asclean data in Salesforce.
Like you need good, organizedinformation in your system.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
So kicking and screaming, but yeah, I'd say
that in like the front enddevelopment kind of roots really
helped me out too, becausethere's a lot of marketers out
there who build emails and buildforms and build landing pages.
But the minute that you need todo a lot I like custom CSS or
JavaScript work you typicallyhave to tap another person,
which is totally fine becauseexperts in different areas.
(14:51):
But it allowed me to kind of bethat Swiss Army knife.
So when I worked at the startup, like there wasn't a person to
tap, it's like I had to figureit out.
So not only was I building theemails and landing pages, I was
doing the HTML on the email side, I had to do it in tables.
On the website side, I wasdoing it in divs and doing
bootstraps.
So, yeah, being a numbersperson and being a little bit
(15:14):
more on the technical side,specifically within front end
development, I think isinvaluable when it comes to, you
know, building marketingautomation programs that scale
nicely.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Completely agree.
Diving into the main topic oftoday, AI analytics and how we
are using that, combined withautomations, to make the lives
of marketers easier, the livesof admins easier.
That isn't limited just to kindof our speciality in marketing,
that is for the whole gambit ofadmins.
How do you believe currentstate AI, Einstein is crucial
(15:50):
for the scalable growth of acompany?
And then, on the other side ofkind of the future of AI, what
we're gonna be seeing goingforward with some of the more
advanced Einstein features, whatwe're gonna be able to see with
integrations into data cloud.
I'm curious for new admins whatwould be some of the main
things they should be on thelookout for.
(16:11):
So I'd like to start withSteven on that one.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Sure, yeah.
So the marketing GPT thatSalesforce is releasing is
really interesting.
I think new marketers shouldlook we're really, I mean well,
new marketers specifically butmarketing GPT that Salesforce
has is just like an amazinghelper tool.
(16:35):
So like if you're just tryingto do some ideation or content
generation, like I can't tellyou as a marketer myself, like
how often I just look at a blankpage on my screen and I'm just
like I kind of know where Iwanna go, but like I don't even
know where to get started.
So, having something like AI tocreate that first draft or you
(16:58):
can just type in some ideas forsubject lines or body of content
, or even now image generationwithin Salesforce, where you're
like I have a rough idea of whatI want but like I don't know
how to get started, I look at AIand marketing GPT as like the
launch point of an idea that youcan then polish and kind of
(17:21):
make a little bit moreprofessional or tweak it towards
your tone of voice or whateveryour branding is.
So like I'll like open up ascreen be it marketing GPT, or
open AI or chat GPT or bar orwhatever it is and just start
typing like this is what I wannado.
Write me an email that's 150words where you're writing in
(17:46):
this tone of voice for thiscompany, for X, y, z products.
Here's a few product ideas andlike this is what I want my CTA
to be.
And then, before you know it,boom, there's an email, and it's
probably not like the bestemail out of the gate, but it's
a starting point, right it's.
You're no noun, you're no longerlooking at a blank screen and
(18:06):
you can ping pong it against afew people internally and, like
now the ideas are flowing andyou've made a thing from pretty
much nothing.
So how I think about it?
It's like the best 24, seven inturn to create a first draft
for anything, be it subject line, contents, ideation, literally
(18:29):
just coming up with ideas, orfull blown nurture programs.
And Salesforce is integratedand, of course, within data
cloud.
So you've got even segmentationnow as a way to like have AI
powered segmentation andrecommendation of who should
receive what, not to mentionbeing able to do like exhaust
(18:54):
tracking, so like if someone'shad too much communication or
not enough communication to beable to kind of keep up with
that.
It's just invaluable.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
So I really like how you went through that of the
generative side of it, justbecause we've talked a lot about
you need to have a clean datain your database, because we've
for so long kind of lingered onthe predictive insights and how
we use the fields whether it befrom campaign insights that you
(19:23):
get out of the box with Einsteinor even some things like key
account identification thatyou'll get in Einstein to just
use that as variable tags orhelping with your dynamic lists.
So I like how you focus alittle bit more on the chat or
they're sorry, not chatmarketing GPT side of things,
just because the data's alreadythere and it's providing those
insights you don't have to have.
(19:44):
I mean, it's good to make sureyour database is clean, but you
don't need to rely so heavily ona clean database to get that
content generated.
It's there, it's your helperday one.
So I really like that kind offocus.
Christina, I'm kind of curiousfor your perspective.
Similar question what do youthink marketers should be
thinking about?
What do you think new adminsshould be thinking about when it
(20:06):
comes to getting started withAI in the ecosystem?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I would honestly challenge everyone, like, take a
step back and think about theprocesses that you do on a daily
basis and think about, okay,where are the areas where we can
be more efficient?
Salesforce is coming out withsome amazing innovations, as
Stephen had already justmentioned, but even in that
(20:35):
marketer, the admin role,thinking about even, like, what
other AI tools are already outthere, because AI is getting
integrated into almost everypiece of software it feels like
we're using, like if you useCanva, if you pull that up, that
(20:55):
has AI in it.
If you're using I don't evenknow if Asana has it in it or
not, but it very well might JustGoogle Calendar and Grammarly
and Lavender, like.
I know that they're a saleshelp or sales email writing tool
, but basically, like, ai ishere, it's never going away.
(21:17):
It's just going to be anintegral part of how we do it.
We do and the people that gettheir start by.
If they haven't already started,I recommend that you start even
just playing around with it,diving in, because what's going
(21:38):
to set you apart is howefficient you're able to be, and
AI allows you to be moreefficient with your time, as
Stephen said, like it helps himget started with generating
content.
It like just getting thoseideas out.
That is just one example of away that AI can help assist you.
(22:00):
But if you look to see, okay,like what are the daily
processes that I'm doing?
And then just start searchingwhat tools are out there, what
tools does Salesforce have froman AI perspective that I can
start using to help me be moreefficient in my job, so then
(22:22):
that way I can focus more onhigher impact initiatives.
And when you are more efficientin those daily tasks, that also
frees you up to be morecreative and think of different
ways that you can better engageyour customers or just innovate
a new product Like it just opensup so many more possibilities
(22:45):
for you.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I completely agree with that.
I love that kind of overview ofit.
What do you think is adifferent or another kind of
misconception or something thatpeople are kind of overblowing
when it comes to AI, things thatpeople should probably take a
step back and rethink?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
So the first one that comes to mind is but I feel
like a lot of people alreadyknow this potentially it's just
the idea that if you're using AIto generate content, it can't
be a copy and paste situation.
There has to be humaninvolvement and craft.
(23:26):
There's so many times now whereI'm just talking with other
marketers and if you look atsomeone's site and you're
thinking, wow, I can clearlytell that chatGPT wrote this.
That is not the experience thatyou want to give to your users,
to your audience, to the peoplethat are reading.
(23:48):
So again, generative AI isgreat, but it's not a
replacement for that.
Writer.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
You think that you don't need to say, that you
don't need a call to out,because everyone knows you do
need to call it out.
That's a wonderful call out.
I was talking with someone justlast week and they were saying,
yeah, we have budget to hire anew copywriter, but we opted
just to go with chatGPT insteadto save some money, because we
really need to say yeah, that'sexactly what I said, stephen.
That's an oof moment.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
And I would take it even a step further from what
Kristina said, and I'll add thatAI can just be flat out wrong.
So not only should you just becareful of not copying and paste
, but you need to fact check it,because 1 plus 1 could equal 3
in AI land.
Or you could convince itthrough a prompt generation that
(24:46):
1 plus 1 equals 3.
You could be like, hey, is 1plus 1 2?
And it'll say, yeah, it's 2.
And then you could say no, Idon't think it is, I think it's
3.
And then be like, oh, I'm sorry, you're right, it is 3.
So, like, the amount of how easyit is to trick AI is not very
difficult.
So, yeah, you need to factcheck it.
(25:08):
And then I would almost say thecontext behind your prompt is
almost more important than theprompt itself.
Right, so you can say, hey,write me an email that hits on
this product, this product andthis product, but unless you
give it the context of the toneof voice, who you are, what the
company is, what the productsand services that you offer,
(25:30):
before you ask it to write theemail, you're going to have a
really bad email and you'regoing to be able to look at it
and tell immediately that it'sAI.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
I have to give out a shout out to Amber Jere Amal.
I hope to sorry.
I hope I'm saying your lastname right.
She did a great Marjeevanpresentation on how generative
AI is the calculator for contentmarketers, and what Steven was
saying about the prompt.
It just reminded me of thatpresentation and how you almost
(26:00):
have to think of your prompt aslike the formula that you're
giving to the AI tool for it tothen spew out that answer for
you.
Okay, so the better you are atwriting that prompt, the more
high quality of a responseyou're going to get.
But then to Steven's point.
(26:21):
Yes, fact checked, fact check.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah, it's.
I definitely recommendlistening to that session as
well, that from our dream, andit's a really, really good one
which kind of thinks the roof.
Just because I when I was firstgetting started with the
podcast I'm a horriblecopywriter, I'm a horrible
content writer, I can talk.
That's why I chose testing as amedium.
So I have had to like look intogetting some assistance from
(26:47):
from friends who are copywriters, but also like getting started
with chat, gpt and using thesession to kind of put things in
perspective of oh, it caneasily churn out one plus one
equals, and I think I would.
I'm with you 1000%, both of you,on that.
You, you do have to becognizant and you can't rely on
chat, gpt, marketing, gpt toreplace your copywriter.
(27:10):
You can't copy and paste it tothat end.
Kind of pivoting a little biton the similar topic, knowing
that AI can do so and we do needthat human element.
This is more for Steven.
What do you think?
Some say governance, but kindof what standard should be put
(27:31):
in place for kind of teamslooking to implement AI to make
sure they are following properbest practice internal rules
from, like a data managementside?
But also when you're using thisAI, you are making sure what
you're putting out is accurate.
So I'm curious your take onkind of governance and
standardization on that front.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yeah, that's.
That's a good question, and Ithink that this is being defined
like right now, not only inevery organization, but even
within like our governments,like our governments right now
are assigning like I think it'slike chief of a, like AI or AI,
or like I think the UK was oneof the first to actually appoint
(28:13):
a minister of AI, so like thisis all being defined right now.
So I think, at its at its core,like, if you have a dedicated
DPO, a data processing officerwithin your organization, go
talk to them.
If you don't, don't listen tome, or if you listen to me, go
talk to them.
Yeah, first, let you know, getyour direction from internal.
(28:33):
But I think there's a fewthings to consider.
One where your base determinesregulations.
So like, if you're in the EU,you got GDPR, so you should not
be feeding any sort of PII typedata into artificial
intelligence.
And what I mean by that is, ifyou're having it process data or
(28:54):
you're having to augment yourdata or correct data, be very
mindful with the type of datayou're giving it.
Right.
If you're going to give itemail addresses and you're
asking AI to validate an emailaddress, that that might raise a
concern.
But if you're feeding itsomething like state information
or zip code information orcountry information, that might
be okay.
Just be careful not to send itlike IP addresses and first name
(29:16):
, last name email addresses, sothat would be like thing.
Number one is just be mindfulof where you are.
If you're in the UK, of courseGDPR.
If you're in Canada, you've gotCastle and of course here we've
got can spam, which basicallyis you can do whatever you want
in comparison to GDPR.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
So, yeah, just be mindful of the data you're
sending it.
And then I would also say ifyou are leveraging data within
your business, that has to beclean.
So if you're going to befeeding it information, you need
to make sure that theinformation you're feeding it is
correct.
So duplicate contacts,duplicate accounts, like it's
(29:58):
like getting back to the basics,like you can't use this.
You shouldn't even be thinkingabout using AI If you've got a
data problem and you have a dataintegrity problem within your,
your database.
So I would I would definitelysay, audit that.
You should, you should alreadybe auditing it, probably on a
quarterly or at least a semiannual basis, making sure that
your contact database is cleanand everything is related the
(30:21):
way that you want it to be.
Otherwise, getting utility outof AI is going to be a little
bit of a nightmare when you plugsomething like advanced, like
Einstein analytics or you knowthose.
Those dashboards aren't goingto mean much if things aren't
connected properly.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
That makes complete sense and, as you were saying,
that made me think of aconversation I had with an admin
A few weeks ago at one of theworld tour events and it was
around.
We mentioned it on one of theepisodes a few weeks ago, but
was around.
Oh hey, I'm an admin, we have ateam of 500 and we have about a
(31:01):
little under a million recordsin our database and things
aren't clean.
Oh, I'm just a standard adminbut I'm also having to be the
person to clean all this dataand I'm a solo adminning a huge
org with a lot of data andthings aren't clean.
How many people should be on myteam to clean this up?
What should I be thinking about?
(31:21):
Can I do this alone?
So I kind of want I had ananswer for that question, but I
want to pivot that back to bothof you on this one kind of what
is your take about we again wetalked about earlier the admin
role has been seen in theecosystem.
As you are admin, you are ownerof all things Salesforce.
How should a solo admin take ondatabase cleanup and installing
(31:46):
admin and kind of being thatdata management cleanup person?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Well, christina is looking at me.
So I mean, if you're a soloadmin and you're responsible for
the database, I think my big,the biggest thing that I see
admins fail at isn't notcleaning the database, but not
not communicating how big of aproblem it is to leadership.
(32:16):
Because this is what happensthe admin goes to their manager
and they're like hey, I want tospend a week cleaning it up,
some of the database, like youknow, some data that's messy.
Their manager says no, there'sno, like you can't dedicate a
full week just to do data stuff.
You know, work on this instead.
And then that admin goes like,oh, okay, with their tail
between their legs and theyfocus on other stuff and it gets
(32:38):
punted down.
You know, the can keeps gettingkicked and then at some point
you grow in in the organizationto the point where it becomes
such a big problem.
And then all of leadership islike well, wait a minute.
Like we can't do forecastingfor pipeline because there's six
opportunities and they're allclosed one and they all have the
(33:00):
same value and it's skewing areally like like what the heck?
So I think that we got to bevery clear on what the issues
are and then really communicatethe impact right, instead of
just going to your manager andsaying, hey, I want to clean up
data.
It's like hey, there's thisproblem, it's impacting this,
this and this, which is going tocause this problem down the
(33:23):
road.
I want to mitigate this beforeit becomes a real issue.
Let me just dedicate seven daysto clean this up and then we
don't have to worry about itlater.
Then your manager can make alittle bit more of an educated
like.
Oh, okay, like I understandthat.
Like go ahead and go clean thatup.
So we just got to startcommunicating this, I think
differently across theorganization and then for bigger
(33:44):
organizations you know there'sother admins involved like you
need to all get in a room andagree that there's a problem and
then like fix it together.
You know, if one source of datais causing the headache, it's
probably being shared with threeother systems.
So making sure those other youknow those other system
administrators are also on board.
(34:05):
But yeah, if you're a lone wolf, like try to at least once a
quarter or maybe like twiceannually, review the data and
kind of go through that exerciseand try to clean things up.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
That's way better than my answer was.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Oh, okay, what would you come up with?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
It was a variation of that and that it was just.
You need to be able to havemore people on the team for just
to understand that.
For one admin, that equates to500 users and X number of
records in the system, and thereneeds to be some sort of
formulaic way of knowing that ifyou're going to be sane and
have work life balance and makesure you aren't so burnt out
(34:47):
that you just hate your life,then you have to automate things
but also put things in a way sothat you can manage that
formula.
It's going to be different forevery company, but it's not
realistic, and I'd like yourpoint of you have to be able to
communicate that, though, toleadership, that it's not
realistic, because a lot oftimes, people are going to come
(35:08):
back and say that's your problem, not mine, and that's just the
unfortunate reality.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Well, another thing too is I would recommend folks
to be curious.
I think that any hallmark oflike, a really good system
administrator is a very curiousperson, and what I mean by that
is, let's say, you spend an houra week fixing a state value
because you state codesinternally, right, but then this
like full Texas TEX yes, likepops up, right, but you use TX
(35:36):
for your routing role and youspend an hour a week fixing that
value.
You could continue to spend anhour fixing that value every
single week.
Or if you were curious enough,you'd be like now wait a minute,
where are these records comingfrom?
And then fix it at the source.
So I think do yourself a favorand follow things downstream or
I guess it would be upstream andcorrect it there, versus
(36:00):
continually spending time doingmanual work.
Like if you're auditing yourweek and you're spending five
plus hours doing manual things,I think it's worth noting those,
documenting them, and then,like Kristine mentioned earlier,
finding ways to be moreefficient with your time.
And if that includes AI, great,or maybe it's using up works or
(36:22):
hiring an intern or hiringanother person, like what you
would recommend, but like unlessyou really truly know where
those issues are and what'scausing problems?
Like you can't fix them.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah, completely agree, taking that mentality of
we have to think smarter, notharder, in a nutshell, to the
other end of AI, which, in myopinion, is all about the
analytics.
So we have all this wonderfuldata, we're automating it, we're
letting AI help us out, butthen we actually are putting
(36:54):
that into numbers, putting thatinto things that are measurable.
Turning it to you, kristina,kind of thinking through the
analytics side and how formarketers, for admins, what are
some of the main challenges youthink people are facing, we're
going to be facing, when itcomes to taking this information
, analyzing it and then puttingthat into actionable process,
(37:18):
actionable uses for teams togrow and be successful?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I think a lot of times, marketers don't
necessarily think back to thehigher level questions that
they're trying to answer.
For example, what are the likehow many deals in the pipeline
have actually been impacted oraffected from this campaign?
(37:45):
How many customers did weactually generate from this?
Or how many leads came in?
How fast are people goingthrough the funnel based on the
campaigns that they're heading?
Those are the underlyingquestions that should
(38:05):
essentially guide you in settingup your analytics in your
reports in a way that you canunderstand and try and glean
insights from.
So then that way, you know okay, where should I be spending my
money?
Is, if we are a little slow onour forecast, like if we're
(38:29):
behind on our forecast, is therea campaign, a type of campaign
that we can spin up quickly thatwe could get the most bang for
our buck, because we know thatwhen people interact with this
type of campaign, they're morelikely to become a closed one
customer or opportunity within amonth.
(38:50):
So that's probably what I wouldsay as well.
I know that not everyone is asknowledgeable about the
analytics tools that are outthere, like marketing cloud
intelligence, crm analytics.
I understand that it does takea little bit, but I don't know
(39:17):
If you need to go to a workshop.
There are training toolsavailable and courses available
out there.
If you are working with a thirdparty expert partner, bring the
questions and the reportinggoals that you have to them, so
then that way, they can helpcollaborate with you in terms of
(39:38):
building out a reportingprocess in a system that is
standardized across your team.
So then that way, you can allget what you need.
Ai aside or not, those are thefundamentals that are going to
help you get the best insightfrom your data.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
I like how you ended it by saying those are the
fundamentals, because we do haveto remember, keep it simple,
stupid kiss model.
When we look at AI and all thereports that are coming from AI
and all the analytics you'regoing to get from AI, I worry
and think to your point thatpeople are getting kind of
(40:21):
overwhelmed and they're notremembering what are the actual
things I need to measure to besuccessful.
What data does my business needfor me to know if things are
good, bad or we need to reviewand work on some things?
So I like how you over viewedthat and you dove through the
kind of we have to get back tothe fundamentals and we have to
(40:41):
remember what the end goal isand how all of this relates back
to a KPI.
On the similar end, of how theAI and how the data points feed
into your reporting analytics.
Same thing for integrations andother systems that can plug into
(41:03):
Salesforce, whether they're AIrelated or not.
You made a call out earlier inthe episode, which I liked, of
you don't have to use.
There's so many AI tools outthere.
Whether it's Canva, which I'veused personally, photoshop has
AI functionality.
They have all these softwaresand things that you can
integrate AI with.
I'm curious your take on whatshould add new admins and
(41:29):
marketers keep in mind whenbringing those systems into
Salesforce and trying to bringthem in to your strategy.
Bring them into your reportingand analytics and combine that
all together.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
So from the content development side, you should
definitely test and usegenerative AI, especially if you
are someone that deals withwriter's block.
it speeds up that creationprocess.
But one thing that I wouldthink about, too, is like so, if
(42:09):
you're bringing it into youroverall marketing processes,
first of all, just be carefulhow you're integrating it to
Steven's point, just like thattrust that you have with your
data, making sure that you'renot sharing confidential
information.
And then also, too, if you areusing generative AI for any type
(42:34):
of content generation.
I mean, I have also alreadyseen marketing teams start to
actually call out when they useit and why they're using it.
Yeah, for example, I subscribedto this newsletter called the
Schim.
They were doing this wholewrapped overview of 2023 and how
(42:57):
AI was just so present andeveryone's conversations, it was
everywhere and they actuallyjust said, okay, we're going to
do.
We asked AI to create thissummary paragraph of its journey
and its presence in 2023.
And it was hilarious becausethen they wrote their own
(43:19):
version of the paragraph andshowed the difference.
And, stephen, I actually thinkyou had this idea before when we
were back at the send, andcorrect me if I butchered this
idea, but I think you said whatif we had generative AI?
create this email campaign andthen we had a human, create the
(43:41):
other email campaign and thenyou ate and then you test them
to see which one performedbetter and then you share those
results because it'll show thedifference between the two, what
the discrepancy is where.
But that was a very fun way, orfun idea, to be able to engage
the community about, like howwe're using generative AI and
(44:05):
content and what you should becareful of, and like what is the
difference between like thehuman and the AI.
So those are some things to bethinking about too, that if you
are going to use it in yourmarketing at all, like actually
thinking about when it might beright to actually to like full
out, blown, call it out and andthink about how that could add
(44:29):
to the experience.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
I love that idea.
I'm I'm very curious because II'd like to think I'm smart and
I could catch that if it was.
I'm also really dumb and I feellike I'd be the person who's
absolutely fooled and be like ohmy gosh, the AI, there's no way
, and I select the human one asthe AI and vice versa.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
Well, and I think that's an important distinction
too, because there's a lot ofclick bait out there and the
reason why it's click bait isbecause it works.
That all because it contributesto a high open rate.
And a high click through ratedoesn't mean that it's like
quality clicks, quality opensRight.
So like if you say, write me anemail that's going to get me
(45:12):
the maximum number of opens, youmight get a subject line that
is very different than what youprobably would think is the
right subject line.
So I think you need to kind ofput everything through the lens
of AI.
Isn't like the silver bullet toget you high opens or clicks or
you know whatever it is.
You have to make sure you giveit like the right tone of voice
(45:33):
and like you actually have adocument and your business for
what your tone of voice withinyour organization is to feed to
AI, to give it the context itneeds.
You can't just unleash AI to anintern and have them start
generating emails because, toChristina's point, you're going
to be able to tell it's writtenby AI, because it's going to be
(45:53):
just so generic and roboticsounding.
That's a good call up.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
So, with all of that being said, we've had a lot of
really wonderful conversation.
We're nearing the end of ourfun interview.
The last thing I always end thepodcast on is a question which
I will ask each of you.
The focus again of this podcastis all about the admins of
(46:17):
tomorrow, and so I always liketo end on this question because
it's a nice little way of tryingto highlight something that
future admin can learn from andnot make some of the same
mistakes we did went through.
So I'll start with Christinaand Steven.
You be thinking about yourquestion, but it's what would be
your one main regret you hadwhen you were first getting
(46:40):
started in the ecosystem thatyou wish you could go back and
change.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
OK, now I must say I'm going to preface this with I
don't have many regrets itcomes to my career and my
journey, because I don't knowI'm my personal belief
Everything happens for a reason.
I have those that are veryclose to me know that I've been
on a bit of a roller coasterride since transitioning into
(47:07):
the Salesforce ecosystem.
But one thing that and I stillhaven't done it yet, but I'm
hoping to possibly do it thisyear is one thing I wish I would
have probably done sooner isspeak at a community conference
or or even just a user group,because I got involved early in
(47:32):
podcasting and then doing avirtual user group.
When COVID hit and started upthe, it was back in that day, it
was a part of life X user group.
But I always felt that,especially because I was the
marketer like before getting toSir Conte, before that, I was
(47:55):
the marketer that was at theconsulting agency Right, and the
consultants, they aretechnology experts and they like
sleep and read this stuff allthe time.
So because of that and to yourpoint about imposter syndrome,
jacob I always felt that I wasalways second guessing Any time.
(48:18):
I felt like I was answering aquestion in the community.
Or like providing a solution andsaying but like, oh, like so
and so might have a betteranswer, because they've been in
hundreds of thousands of orgsand they have dealt with
companies of all differentshapes and sizes.
So to that I would say that getinvolved in your local community
(48:43):
conferences, like if you andfind something that you're
passionate speaking about, thepassion has got to be there,
because when you're passionate,it will show, you'll get excited
.
You'll naturally get excitedabout what you're speaking about
, and then your audience isgoing to be that much more
engaged.
And you never know who in theaudience is going to learn
(49:06):
something for the first timefrom you or just even sharing
your perspective.
No one has had the exact sameexperiences as you.
So, like in my firm believethat everyone has something to
learn from everyone.
So, yes, if I could go back tomy former self, younger
Christina, starting out rightout of Fishtail, the single
(49:28):
source ecosystem, I wish Iprobably would have taken an
opportunity or had likesubmitted to speak, but
hopefully I might do that thisyear.
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
I always really appreciate when people call out
the desire to speak at events,speak at user groups, Just
because the very first step thatwe had was with a former
colleague of mine, Hailey Tuller, and her.
The big conversation we had wasaround figuring out how you
learn and one of the best waysthat she's found to learn is by
(50:02):
teaching other people.
So going to a user group event,going and writing a blog, going
to a conference and just kindof putting it out there and it's
for.
I love your reasoning.
No one has had the exact samelife experience as the one you
have had and you have insights,you have stories to share that
can help other people and knowto our like, and just being
(50:25):
willing to give that back to theecosystem is so important.
So I love that call out and Ihope future admins take
something away from that.
Steven, your turn.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
Yeah, I want to say older Steven, please do not send
that email that went to 2million people with Lord Mism
Text and it out in a Marketo,that I did that at Chesh, like
six years ago, seven years ago.
Don't do that.
But in more serious, I think,permission to make mistakes you
(50:57):
know I joke about that one emailis probably my biggest mistake
I've ever made in my kind ofemail.
We've kind of all sent thatemail by accident.
That was mine right.
So, like permission to makemistakes, I kind of joke 50% of
what I know is from me failingat something and then the other
50% is someone else failed on mybehalf and I learned from them.
(51:19):
So not being so hard onyourself when you kind of hit up
against the wall.
And then also a lot of what Ilearned was because I said yes
when I wanted to say no.
Someone asked me to dosomething I was super
uncomfortable with.
They asked me to build anintegration and I had no idea
how to do it in Zapier, right.
(51:40):
But I said yes, I figured itout, I learned Zapier and then,
sure enough turns out, I got athing for integrations and that
really took my career in adifferent path, a single zap.
You know, five, six, sevenyears ago.
So, yeah, like, get comfortablebeing uncomfortable.
Say yes when you want to say noand don't give yourself such a
(52:04):
hard time when you make mistakes, because that's how you learn.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
I really enjoy, though, the call out of being
uncomfortable.
It's okay to put yourself insituations that you
traditionally wouldn't want to.
Speaker 3 (52:18):
I will add one more, because I remember someone
asking a similar question onanother talk that I had and it
was the biggest career hack thatI personally have ever
experienced is actually workingat an agency.
So like, if you have anopportunity to work at an agency
, you will experience like hypergrowth, Like it's a catalyst
(52:40):
for skill use cases, seeingdifferent organizations and how
they're structured.
So if I was just starting out,I would actually go back to
Steven and also say, like youknow, take that opportunity to
work at an agency.
Luckily I did.
I worked at Chesh but likeevery person who I consider just
a master at what they do maybenot all of them, but almost all
(53:01):
of them at one point orcurrently work has worked at an
agency.
So you get to see so much stuffand you get to work in so many
different tools that youwouldn't otherwise have the
opportunity to have if youworked at a single company.
So I would also slip that inthere.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
I was going to say I got a tag on to that Also to
like consider it like, if youcan't get involved in an agency
I know that like job security,whatever your situation is like
if you can do it but considerpotentially also working at a
startup, because at that pointyou'll have a lot of lean teams
(53:45):
and where you wear manydifferent hats and you get to do
a lot of different things andyou also get to be a part of
starting a lot of first timeprocesses and or even just
implementing new orgs andsetting up new integrations Like
that as an admin and gettingyour processes down.
(54:10):
At that state too, if you can't, if you haven't been able to
get into an agency yet, that isanother good way to really start
to develop your craft.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
That's a good call out.
That is a really good call out.
It's a lot easier to get into astartup and get into that space
as well.
As opposed to the agency side,some of those agencies can be
really competitive to get a footin the door too.
So I think that makes completesense, and I think also we're
nearing the end of our time.
(54:42):
So again, thank you both sovery much for being a part of
the podcast.
I really appreciated y'all'sjourney, y'all's insights for
the new admin, as well as yourtake on AI and how things are
going to be shaping up for thebetter in the ecosystem with it.
But also we have to be preparedfor all the hassle that comes
(55:03):
with managing good, clean dataand being on the lookout for
junk data we may get thrown infront of us.
So thank you both again so much.
I appreciate your time andhopefully we'll be chatting more
in the near future.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
Yeah thanks for having me.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
And that concludes another episode of Admins of
Tomorrow.
A special thanks to our guests,christine and Steven, for being
on the show.
I loved hearing how they usegenerative AI to help with
content creation.
Personally, I've been usingChat Sheet PT for a long time to
help me with ideas.
When I'm just looking at ablank word doc and nothing's
coming out, just like Stevenexplained in the show, we just
(55:52):
have to remind ourselves thatwhat's generated shouldn't be
copy and pasted directly on toour blog, on to our email, and I
really appreciate that reminderto use AI as a starting point
and not for the entire piece.
So if anyone's interested, youcan connect or follow both
Christina or Steven on LinkedInto find their most recent blog
posts and content in theecosystem.
(56:13):
Thank you again for taking thetime to listen and support our
podcast.
If anyone has any feedback,questions or topic suggestions,
we would love to hear from you.
So please don't hesitate toconnect with us on LinkedIn,
twitter or email us atinfoadminsoftomorrowcom.
Also, if you or someone youknow would like to be on the
podcast or would like to give ashout out, please go to our
(56:34):
website, adminsoftomorrowcomforward slash, share your
thoughts and fill out our formto be on the show or give
someone a shout out.
Now.
I say this every week, but itreally does mean the world to me
that we've had so much supportand so much engagement over the
last two months.
Speaker 3 (56:50):
So if you've, enjoyed this episode.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
Please go on to wherever you're listening to the
show and leave a review.
Give us five stars and share itwith your fellow trailblazers.
The more the audience we get,the more content we can bring
out to the ecosystem and helpother new admins grow and
innovate.
So once again, I'm JacobCatalano, your host, signing off
.
We appreciate you for listeningto admins of tomorrow,
(57:13):
trailblazing the next generation.
Good morning and good afternoon.
My name is Jacob Catalano andwelcome to another episode of
Admins of Tomorrow.
Over the last few weeks, we'vehad the pleasure of hearing from
so many inspirational adminsabout their journey through the
ecosystem and what new adminsshould be on the lookout for.
Learning from other people'sexperiences is ultimately how
(00:35):
I've had the opportunity to growas much as I have in my career.
But taking the time to focus onthe technical has been just as
important.
I know I've said it on the showbefore and I'll probably say it
again, but there are so manyresources around the technical.
I don't always like taking thistime to have an episode just
dedicated to the technical, butwhat I really like to highlight
(00:59):
in these situations are thegotchas.
What's going to trip you up?
What should new admins be onthe lookout for when they are
starting to use these solutions?
From there, you can go on blogsand you can find how to YouTube
videos to really learn the moretechnical, but the gotchas, to
me, are so important and key.
(01:19):
So that's why, on this week'sepisode, we're going to dive
into the topic we've tiptoedaround for a while AI and how we
can use it to automate our workand be more efficient.
Like I've said, it's my passionto tell stories that help
people grow and develop.
So today we have the pleasureof sitting down with two admins
who have truly earned theirplace in becoming marketing
(01:41):
champions.
We get to sit down withChristina Anderson and Steven
Stover and hear about theirjourneys in the ecosystem, but
also talk through how they useAI in their day to day, whether
it's predictive or generative AI.
I'm excited to learn how we canuse AI together and help new
admins succeed in their jobs andultimately become more
efficient.
(02:01):
So, without further ado, let'smeet Christina and Steven.
Christina is the marketingstrategist at Cercante.
As a certified part-outconsultant, salesforce marketing
champion, trailblazer,community leader and former host
of the part-out life hackspodcast, she enjoys sharing
valuable content with the restof the ecosystem to help others
advance in their careers andachieve their goals on the
(02:23):
Salesforce platform.
Steven is the VP of digitaltransformation and innovation at
Cessend, leading a team ofmarketing operations experts to
help go to market teams scaletheir revenue operations From
the humble beginnings ofaccidental admin to SaaS
leadership.
Steven has spent his careerharnessing the power of
marketing automation, ai andSalesforce, trying to make sense
(02:45):
of a data-driven world.
So let's not waste any more time.
Dive in.
So thank you both for takingthe time out of your busy days
(03:07):
to join me for the admins oftomorrow podcast.
I'm really, really excited totalk through today, really just
shining a light on your journeysin the ecosystem, but also
talking a little bit around atopic we've all been hearing a
lot about at Salesforce eventsand in all the fun blogs you see
in the ecosystem about AI.
(03:28):
So AI analytics and how we'veseen that Salesforce has had
predictive AI and Einsteininsights for a long, long time
now in the ecosystem, but we'renow seeing a deeper rise on the
generative usage of AI and someeven more advanced predictive
insights, insights that areconnecting with all sorts of
(03:51):
other systems.
So this is really beneficialfor the marketer, but it's also
beneficial, I believe, for thenew admin.
So I would love to dive on in,dive in headfirst, as I say, and
kind of start off with each ofy'all's journeys and how you got
involved in the ecosystem.
So, christina, I'd like tostart with you, kind of talking
through what got you startedworking with Salesforce and kind
(04:13):
of what was your passion tokeep diving forward and driving
deeper and deeper into theecosystem.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
First of all, thank you so muchfor having me on the show,
jacob.
It's an honor to be here.
But so I definitely want to goall the way back to the way
beginning, because it'll giveyou more of a sense of like who
I am, why I am the way that I am.
But so I actually I used to bea Spanish teacher.
(04:40):
Way back I was a middle schoolSpanish teacher, did that for a
couple of years that's actuallywhat my original college degree
is in and I just felt that itwasn't what I wanted to do for
the rest of my life and, as aresult, a couple of years in, I
made the decision and I justsaid okay, I am going to resign
(05:04):
and I'm going to go intobusiness.
So at that point I was reallythinking about how could I make
these organizations seniorsomething more than a teacher?
So then I thought I startedthinking about all the
administrative and office andmanagement skills that I had
available to me and I actuallystarted applying for all these
different executive, assistantand office manager positions as
(05:28):
a result, because if you canmanage a classroom of like 24
seventh graders that don'tnecessarily want to be in your
class, you can manage an office,believe it or not.
So doing that, I actuallylanded an executive assistant
position at a tech startup indowntown Buffalo and was there
(05:51):
for about a year and the companyactually closed and shut down.
And at that point my partnerwho's now my husband he had a
position available for his jobout in the New England, new
Hampshire area.
So I started applying topositions out there and I
actually landed an executiveassistant position to the
(06:14):
founder and chief marketingofficer at what many of you
formerly knew as Cheshire Impact.
And I started working for KCCheshire and I got to give him a
shout out because that'sactually where my entrance into
the Salesforce Seeker system allstarted.
So for those of you, some ofyou may know they were a
(06:39):
Salesforce part of focusconsulting agency, and so at
that time I knew nothing aboutSalesforce, nothing about Farda,
knew very little, like I had,you know, some knowledge of
marketing, but not to where I amtoday.
And KC he took me under hiswing as and was my mentor, and
(07:02):
then also Jennifer LynchSchneider she was on that team
as well.
She took me right under herwing is, yeah, under her wing as
well, and so then I was helpingout being assistant to the
chief marketing officer, helpingout with different marketing
activities, just started directlike writing for them on social,
(07:24):
started it, and then I gottrained in creating part emails
and then started handling all oftheir webinar communication for
all their different events.
They were doing like a webinara month and then we did wait
even more than that at the time.
So I started learning all thisand then I started just getting
(07:47):
a real passion for it.
He at the time was doing thehardcore marketing show podcast.
I then started helping out withproducing those episodes,
listening to all of those CMOstalk strategy.
I started reading all thesemarketing books and then I
started just diving intotrailhead and then I got my part
(08:09):
of part of that specialcertification and eventually
also got my part of consultantcertification.
But that and then there's evenmore than that.
There was a podcast, but I'llstop there and and you hand it
back over to you or we can diveinto Steven's background.
But yeah, that's that's how Igot to start.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I love that and I we definitely want to dive into
Steven's side because I Irealized after doing some light
LinkedIn stalking because I haveto do that a lot nowadays I
realized y'all used to worktogether at Sassan, so I
definitely want to talk a littlebit about that as well.
But I do find it interestingthat your journey was accidental
(08:51):
, but then it just was.
It was all around the marketingstrategy.
This was meant to be justsomething that was not as
Salesforce focused.
I've talked to a handful ofpeople who you have the
accidental admin where they justkind of their company bought
Salesforce and they lucked intoit and then the other people who
actually learned aboutSalesforce went through
trailhead, did the training andthen found their first admin,
(09:14):
architect, developer job.
So I find it interesting thatthis was more marketing focused.
And then you found thatmarketing arm of Salesforce and
just latched on for dear lifeBecause, honestly, that's very
similar to my story.
So I really enjoy hearing thatthat I'm not the only one.
Steven, kind of curious ifyou're in a similar boat as
Christina and me of being amarketer and kind of latching
(09:37):
into that, or if you werealready in a different kind of
neck of the woods.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, a little bit different, yeah, so this is now
back in 2012, 2013.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I was actually old days.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, yeah, like almost pre marketing automation,
like marketing.
The term marketing automationreally wasn't very common back
then.
It was really like emailmarketing or like marketing
specialist kind of the termsthat were used, which is weird
to now think about.
It's like now we got likemarketing ops and rebops.
So I was actually a front enddeveloper.
(10:16):
I was a web developer, so I didlike e commerce stuff way back
in the day.
I, you know, I I'm like rightout of high school, by the way,
so it's like I worked at best byduring high school, if you can
imagine.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I can absolutely imagine this sales course much
imagine.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah, selling computers at best by.
But no, like, my first kind ofreal job out of high school was
a web developer and I worked fora sporting goods company and I
kind of managed their e commerceplatform.
But I wanted to do somethingdifferent and I wasn't sure what
.
So I actually landed aninternship down in San Antonio,
(10:54):
texas.
I grew up in Michigan, so thiswas like a big move for me and
it was an internship in themarketing department, but it was
a data analyst position.
It was nothing to do with themarketing side of marketing it
was.
It was all the numbers,spreadsheets and I was reporting
on email marketing, so that themetrics of open rates, click
(11:18):
the rates, campaign performanceetc.
And I was like I'm going to dothat for part on sales force.
So that's how I kind of wasintroduced to it.
But I actually was not on theadministrator side, I was just
the numbers guy and I was theintern numbers guys, so like
like three people removed fromactually doing anything
meaningful in the.
So it was an 18 monthinternship and my manager at the
(11:41):
time, who owned part up, endedup leaving the company and they
kind of did an audit of who wasthere at the university at the
time and they're like well, allright, steven, you're the next
best person who knows Pardot.
And I'm like no, no, no, no,I'm the numbers guy, like I'm
not an administrator.
So, like, in pure accidentaladmin fashion, of course, they
(12:06):
give it to the three month inintern to be a full-blown
administrator of Pardot.
And I went kicking andscreaming.
I wanted nothing to do with it.
But the rest is history,because I, of course, I became
the administrator.
I just fell in love with Pardot, fell in love with Salesforce.
I worked in a few different.
(12:27):
I won't walk you through all thecompanies I worked for, but I
also worked with Chesh adifferent time than Christina
did, but I went through Chesh,which was the first agency I
actually worked at.
That's where I learned Marketoin addition to a little bit of
HubSpot, and then I also appliedmy Pardot knowledge at the time
.
But yeah, I've worked foruniversities, nonprofits,
(12:52):
financial systems.
I worked at Credit Union for alittle bit startups all the way
up to like a multi-billiondollar orgs.
I worked at Yellow Pages forabout three years and then now
I'm at Syscent, which is arevenue operations agency, so
similar to Chesh.
Chesh was a little bit morefocused just on marketing
(13:12):
automation.
Syscent were like kind of fullRevOps.
So we support, you know, in theCRM side, integrations, data
services, marketing automation,of course.
So I lead the team of RevOpsfolks at Syscent here and we do
integrations and all thingsRevOps.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That's I really like the early on call out of.
I'm the numbers guy, I'm theperson who's China.
Just you tell me what you kindof report you need and I will
build it for you.
But there's not a finer personto be in the admin kind of role
than that, because so often dowe forget, as admins, that we
(13:51):
are?
We are the reporting people.
We are the people who make surethere's clean data, things are
organized.
Yes, there is the stereotypicaladmin of you're making sure the
right users are in the systemand the right permissions are
given and take it away, but atthe same time, like I am the
numbers person, I always thinkanalytics and the clean data are
(14:13):
so paramount in making sureeverything's organized,
regardless of what system you'rein.
I used to be a HubSpot superuser and what clean data in
HubSpot does the same thing asclean data in Salesforce.
Like you need good, organizedinformation in your system.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
So kicking and screaming, but yeah, I'd say
that in like the front enddevelopment kind of roots really
helped me out too, becausethere's a lot of marketers out
there who build emails and buildforms and build landing pages.
But the minute that you need todo a lot I like custom CSS or
JavaScript work you typicallyhave to tap another person,
which is totally fine becauseexperts in different areas.
(14:51):
But it allowed me to kind of bethat Swiss Army knife.
So when I worked at the startup, like there wasn't a person to
tap, it's like I had to figureit out.
So not only was I building theemails and landing pages, I was
doing the HTML on the email side, I had to do it in tables.
On the website side, I wasdoing it in divs and doing
bootstraps.
So, yeah, being a numbersperson and being a little bit
(15:14):
more on the technical side,specifically within front end
development, I think isinvaluable when it comes to, you
know, building marketingautomation programs that scale
nicely.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Completely agree.
Diving into the main topic oftoday, AI analytics and how we
are using that, combined withautomations, to make the lives
of marketers easier, the livesof admins easier.
That isn't limited just to kindof our speciality in marketing,
that is for the whole gambit ofadmins.
How do you believe currentstate AI, Einstein is crucial
(15:50):
for the scalable growth of acompany?
And then, on the other side ofkind of the future of AI, what
we're gonna be seeing goingforward with some of the more
advanced Einstein features, whatwe're gonna be able to see with
integrations into data cloud.
I'm curious for new admins whatwould be some of the main
things they should be on thelookout for.
(16:11):
So I'd like to start withSteven on that one.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Sure, yeah.
So the marketing GPT thatSalesforce is releasing is
really interesting.
I think new marketers shouldlook we're really, I mean well,
new marketers specifically butmarketing GPT that Salesforce
has is just like an amazinghelper tool.
(16:35):
So like if you're just tryingto do some ideation or content
generation, like I can't tellyou as a marketer myself, like
how often I just look at a blankpage on my screen and I'm just
like I kind of know where Iwanna go, but like I don't even
know where to get started.
So, having something like AI tocreate that first draft or you
(16:58):
can just type in some ideas forsubject lines or body of content
, or even now image generationwithin Salesforce, where you're
like I have a rough idea of whatI want but like I don't know
how to get started, I look at AIand marketing GPT as like the
launch point of an idea that youcan then polish and kind of
(17:21):
make a little bit moreprofessional or tweak it towards
your tone of voice or whateveryour branding is.
So like I'll like open up ascreen be it marketing GPT, or
open AI or chat GPT or bar orwhatever it is and just start
typing like this is what I wannado.
Write me an email that's 150words where you're writing in
(17:46):
this tone of voice for thiscompany, for X, y, z products.
Here's a few product ideas andlike this is what I want my CTA
to be.
And then, before you know it,boom, there's an email, and it's
probably not like the bestemail out of the gate, but it's
a starting point, right it's.
You're no noun, you're no longerlooking at a blank screen and
(18:06):
you can ping pong it against afew people internally and, like
now the ideas are flowing andyou've made a thing from pretty
much nothing.
So how I think about it?
It's like the best 24, seven inturn to create a first draft
for anything, be it subject line, contents, ideation, literally
(18:29):
just coming up with ideas, orfull blown nurture programs.
And Salesforce is integratedand, of course, within data
cloud.
So you've got even segmentationnow as a way to like have AI
powered segmentation andrecommendation of who should
receive what, not to mentionbeing able to do like exhaust
(18:54):
tracking, so like if someone'shad too much communication or
not enough communication to beable to kind of keep up with
that.
It's just invaluable.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
So I really like how you went through that of the
generative side of it, justbecause we've talked a lot about
you need to have a clean datain your database, because we've
for so long kind of lingered onthe predictive insights and how
we use the fields whether it befrom campaign insights that you
(19:23):
get out of the box with Einsteinor even some things like key
account identification thatyou'll get in Einstein to just
use that as variable tags orhelping with your dynamic lists.
So I like how you focus alittle bit more on the chat or
they're sorry, not chatmarketing GPT side of things,
just because the data's alreadythere and it's providing those
insights you don't have to have.
(19:44):
I mean, it's good to make sureyour database is clean, but you
don't need to rely so heavily ona clean database to get that
content generated.
It's there, it's your helperday one.
So I really like that kind offocus.
Christina, I'm kind of curiousfor your perspective.
Similar question what do youthink marketers should be
thinking about?
What do you think new adminsshould be thinking about when it
(20:06):
comes to getting started withAI in the ecosystem?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I would honestly challenge everyone, like, take a
step back and think about theprocesses that you do on a daily
basis and think about, okay,where are the areas where we can
be more efficient?
Salesforce is coming out withsome amazing innovations, as
Stephen had already justmentioned, but even in that
(20:35):
marketer, the admin role,thinking about even, like, what
other AI tools are already outthere, because AI is getting
integrated into almost everypiece of software it feels like
we're using, like if you useCanva, if you pull that up, that
(20:55):
has AI in it.
If you're using I don't evenknow if Asana has it in it or
not, but it very well might JustGoogle Calendar and Grammarly
and Lavender, like.
I know that they're a saleshelp or sales email writing tool
, but basically, like, ai ishere, it's never going away.
(21:17):
It's just going to be anintegral part of how we do it.
We do and the people that gettheir start by.
If they haven't already started,I recommend that you start even
just playing around with it,diving in, because what's going
(21:38):
to set you apart is howefficient you're able to be, and
AI allows you to be moreefficient with your time, as
Stephen said, like it helps himget started with generating
content.
It like just getting thoseideas out.
That is just one example of away that AI can help assist you.
(22:00):
But if you look to see, okay,like what are the daily
processes that I'm doing?
And then just start searchingwhat tools are out there, what
tools does Salesforce have froman AI perspective that I can
start using to help me be moreefficient in my job, so then
(22:22):
that way I can focus more onhigher impact initiatives.
And when you are more efficientin those daily tasks, that also
frees you up to be morecreative and think of different
ways that you can better engageyour customers or just innovate
a new product Like it just opensup so many more possibilities
(22:45):
for you.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I completely agree with that.
I love that kind of overview ofit.
What do you think is adifferent or another kind of
misconception or something thatpeople are kind of overblowing
when it comes to AI, things thatpeople should probably take a
step back and rethink?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
So the first one that comes to mind is but I feel
like a lot of people alreadyknow this potentially it's just
the idea that if you're using AIto generate content, it can't
be a copy and paste situation.
There has to be humaninvolvement and craft.
(23:26):
There's so many times now whereI'm just talking with other
marketers and if you look atsomeone's site and you're
thinking, wow, I can clearlytell that chatGPT wrote this.
That is not the experience thatyou want to give to your users,
to your audience, to the peoplethat are reading.
(23:48):
So again, generative AI isgreat, but it's not a
replacement for that.
Writer.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
You think that you don't need to say, that you
don't need a call to out,because everyone knows you do
need to call it out.
That's a wonderful call out.
I was talking with someone justlast week and they were saying,
yeah, we have budget to hire anew copywriter, but we opted
just to go with chatGPT insteadto save some money, because we
really need to say yeah, that'sexactly what I said, stephen.
That's an oof moment.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
And I would take it even a step further from what
Kristina said, and I'll add thatAI can just be flat out wrong.
So not only should you just becareful of not copying and paste
, but you need to fact check it,because 1 plus 1 could equal 3
in AI land.
Or you could convince itthrough a prompt generation that
(24:46):
1 plus 1 equals 3.
You could be like, hey, is 1plus 1 2?
And it'll say, yeah, it's 2.
And then you could say no, Idon't think it is, I think it's
3.
And then be like, oh, I'm sorry, you're right, it is 3.
So, like, the amount of how easyit is to trick AI is not very
difficult.
So, yeah, you need to factcheck it.
(25:08):
And then I would almost say thecontext behind your prompt is
almost more important than theprompt itself.
Right, so you can say, hey,write me an email that hits on
this product, this product andthis product, but unless you
give it the context of the toneof voice, who you are, what the
company is, what the productsand services that you offer,
(25:30):
before you ask it to write theemail, you're going to have a
really bad email and you'regoing to be able to look at it
and tell immediately that it'sAI.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
I have to give out a shout out to Amber Jere Amal.
I hope to sorry.
I hope I'm saying your lastname right.
She did a great Marjeevanpresentation on how generative
AI is the calculator for contentmarketers, and what Steven was
saying about the prompt.
It just reminded me of thatpresentation and how you almost
(26:00):
have to think of your prompt aslike the formula that you're
giving to the AI tool for it tothen spew out that answer for
you.
Okay, so the better you are atwriting that prompt, the more
high quality of a responseyou're going to get.
But then to Steven's point.
(26:21):
Yes, fact checked, fact check.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah, it's.
I definitely recommendlistening to that session as
well, that from our dream, andit's a really, really good one
which kind of thinks the roof.
Just because I when I was firstgetting started with the
podcast I'm a horriblecopywriter, I'm a horrible
content writer, I can talk.
That's why I chose testing as amedium.
So I have had to like look intogetting some assistance from
(26:47):
from friends who are copywriters, but also like getting started
with chat, gpt and using thesession to kind of put things in
perspective of oh, it caneasily churn out one plus one
equals, and I think I would.
I'm with you 1000%, both of you,on that.
You, you do have to becognizant and you can't rely on
chat, gpt, marketing, gpt toreplace your copywriter.
(27:10):
You can't copy and paste it tothat end.
Kind of pivoting a little biton the similar topic, knowing
that AI can do so and we do needthat human element.
This is more for Steven.
What do you think?
Some say governance, but kindof what standard should be put
(27:31):
in place for kind of teamslooking to implement AI to make
sure they are following properbest practice internal rules
from, like a data managementside?
But also when you're using thisAI, you are making sure what
you're putting out is accurate.
So I'm curious your take onkind of governance and
standardization on that front.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yeah, that's.
That's a good question, and Ithink that this is being defined
like right now, not only inevery organization, but even
within like our governments,like our governments right now
are assigning like I think it'slike chief of a, like AI or AI,
or like I think the UK was oneof the first to actually appoint
(28:13):
a minister of AI, so like thisis all being defined right now.
So I think, at its at its core,like, if you have a dedicated
DPO, a data processing officerwithin your organization, go
talk to them.
If you don't, don't listen tome, or if you listen to me, go
talk to them.
Yeah, first, let you know, getyour direction from internal.
(28:33):
But I think there's a fewthings to consider.
One where your base determinesregulations.
So like, if you're in the EU,you got GDPR, so you should not
be feeding any sort of PII typedata into artificial
intelligence.
And what I mean by that is, ifyou're having it process data or
(28:54):
you're having to augment yourdata or correct data, be very
mindful with the type of datayou're giving it.
Right.
If you're going to give itemail addresses and you're
asking AI to validate an emailaddress, that that might raise a
concern.
But if you're feeding itsomething like state information
or zip code information orcountry information, that might
be okay.
Just be careful not to send itlike IP addresses and first name
(29:16):
, last name email addresses, sothat would be like thing.
Number one is just be mindfulof where you are.
If you're in the UK, of courseGDPR.
If you're in Canada, you've gotCastle and of course here we've
got can spam, which basicallyis you can do whatever you want
in comparison to GDPR.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
So, yeah, just be mindful of the data you're
sending it.
And then I would also say ifyou are leveraging data within
your business, that has to beclean.
So if you're going to befeeding it information, you need
to make sure that theinformation you're feeding it is
correct.
So duplicate contacts,duplicate accounts, like it's
(29:58):
like getting back to the basics,like you can't use this.
You shouldn't even be thinkingabout using AI If you've got a
data problem and you have a dataintegrity problem within your,
your database.
So I would I would definitelysay, audit that.
You should, you should alreadybe auditing it, probably on a
quarterly or at least a semiannual basis, making sure that
your contact database is cleanand everything is related the
(30:21):
way that you want it to be.
Otherwise, getting utility outof AI is going to be a little
bit of a nightmare when you plugsomething like advanced, like
Einstein analytics or you knowthose.
Those dashboards aren't goingto mean much if things aren't
connected properly.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
That makes complete sense and, as you were saying,
that made me think of aconversation I had with an admin
A few weeks ago at one of theworld tour events and it was
around.
We mentioned it on one of theepisodes a few weeks ago, but
was around.
Oh hey, I'm an admin, we have ateam of 500 and we have about a
(31:01):
little under a million recordsin our database and things
aren't clean.
Oh, I'm just a standard adminbut I'm also having to be the
person to clean all this dataand I'm a solo adminning a huge
org with a lot of data andthings aren't clean.
How many people should be on myteam to clean this up?
What should I be thinking about?
(31:21):
Can I do this alone?
So I kind of want I had ananswer for that question, but I
want to pivot that back to bothof you on this one kind of what
is your take about we again wetalked about earlier the admin
role has been seen in theecosystem.
As you are admin, you are ownerof all things Salesforce.
How should a solo admin take ondatabase cleanup and installing
(31:46):
admin and kind of being thatdata management cleanup person?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Well, christina is looking at me.
So I mean, if you're a soloadmin and you're responsible for
the database, I think my big,the biggest thing that I see
admins fail at isn't notcleaning the database, but not
not communicating how big of aproblem it is to leadership.
(32:16):
Because this is what happensthe admin goes to their manager
and they're like hey, I want tospend a week cleaning it up,
some of the database, like youknow, some data that's messy.
Their manager says no, there'sno, like you can't dedicate a
full week just to do data stuff.
You know, work on this instead.
And then that admin goes like,oh, okay, with their tail
between their legs and theyfocus on other stuff and it gets
(32:38):
punted down.
You know, the can keeps gettingkicked and then at some point
you grow in in the organizationto the point where it becomes
such a big problem.
And then all of leadership islike well, wait a minute.
Like we can't do forecastingfor pipeline because there's six
opportunities and they're allclosed one and they all have the
(33:00):
same value and it's skewing areally like like what the heck?
So I think that we got to bevery clear on what the issues
are and then really communicatethe impact right, instead of
just going to your manager andsaying, hey, I want to clean up
data.
It's like hey, there's thisproblem, it's impacting this,
this and this, which is going tocause this problem down the
(33:23):
road.
I want to mitigate this beforeit becomes a real issue.
Let me just dedicate seven daysto clean this up and then we
don't have to worry about itlater.
Then your manager can make alittle bit more of an educated
like.
Oh, okay, like I understandthat.
Like go ahead and go clean thatup.
So we just got to startcommunicating this, I think
differently across theorganization and then for bigger
(33:44):
organizations you know there'sother admins involved like you
need to all get in a room andagree that there's a problem and
then like fix it together.
You know, if one source of datais causing the headache, it's
probably being shared with threeother systems.
So making sure those other youknow those other system
administrators are also on board.
(34:05):
But yeah, if you're a lone wolf, like try to at least once a
quarter or maybe like twiceannually, review the data and
kind of go through that exerciseand try to clean things up.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
That's way better than my answer was.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Oh, okay, what would you come up with?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
It was a variation of that and that it was just.
You need to be able to havemore people on the team for just
to understand that.
For one admin, that equates to500 users and X number of
records in the system, and thereneeds to be some sort of
formulaic way of knowing that ifyou're going to be sane and
have work life balance and makesure you aren't so burnt out
(34:47):
that you just hate your life,then you have to automate things
but also put things in a way sothat you can manage that
formula.
It's going to be different forevery company, but it's not
realistic, and I'd like yourpoint of you have to be able to
communicate that, though, toleadership, that it's not
realistic, because a lot oftimes, people are going to come
(35:08):
back and say that's your problem, not mine, and that's just the
unfortunate reality.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Well, another thing too is I would recommend folks
to be curious.
I think that any hallmark oflike, a really good system
administrator is a very curiousperson, and what I mean by that
is, let's say, you spend an houra week fixing a state value
because you state codesinternally, right, but then this
like full Texas TEX yes, likepops up, right, but you use TX
(35:36):
for your routing role and youspend an hour a week fixing that
value.
You could continue to spend anhour fixing that value every
single week.
Or if you were curious enough,you'd be like now wait a minute,
where are these records comingfrom?
And then fix it at the source.
So I think do yourself a favorand follow things downstream or
I guess it would be upstream andcorrect it there, versus
(36:00):
continually spending time doingmanual work.
Like if you're auditing yourweek and you're spending five
plus hours doing manual things,I think it's worth noting those,
documenting them, and then,like Kristine mentioned earlier,
finding ways to be moreefficient with your time.
And if that includes AI, great,or maybe it's using up works or
(36:22):
hiring an intern or hiringanother person, like what you
would recommend, but like unlessyou really truly know where
those issues are and what'scausing problems?
Like you can't fix them.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah, completely agree, taking that mentality of
we have to think smarter, notharder, in a nutshell, to the
other end of AI, which, in myopinion, is all about the
analytics.
So we have all this wonderfuldata, we're automating it, we're
letting AI help us out, butthen we actually are putting
(36:54):
that into numbers, putting thatinto things that are measurable.
Turning it to you, kristina,kind of thinking through the
analytics side and how formarketers, for admins, what are
some of the main challenges youthink people are facing, we're
going to be facing, when itcomes to taking this information
, analyzing it and then puttingthat into actionable process,
(37:18):
actionable uses for teams togrow and be successful?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I think a lot of times, marketers don't
necessarily think back to thehigher level questions that
they're trying to answer.
For example, what are the likehow many deals in the pipeline
have actually been impacted oraffected from this campaign?
(37:45):
How many customers did weactually generate from this?
Or how many leads came in?
How fast are people goingthrough the funnel based on the
campaigns that they're heading?
Those are the underlyingquestions that should
(38:05):
essentially guide you in settingup your analytics in your
reports in a way that you canunderstand and try and glean
insights from.
So then that way, you know okay, where should I be spending my
money?
Is, if we are a little slow onour forecast, like if we're
(38:29):
behind on our forecast, is therea campaign, a type of campaign
that we can spin up quickly thatwe could get the most bang for
our buck, because we know thatwhen people interact with this
type of campaign, they're morelikely to become a closed one
customer or opportunity within amonth.
(38:50):
So that's probably what I wouldsay as well.
I know that not everyone is asknowledgeable about the
analytics tools that are outthere, like marketing cloud
intelligence, crm analytics.
I understand that it does takea little bit, but I don't know
(39:17):
If you need to go to a workshop.
There are training toolsavailable and courses available
out there.
If you are working with a thirdparty expert partner, bring the
questions and the reportinggoals that you have to them, so
then that way, they can helpcollaborate with you in terms of
(39:38):
building out a reportingprocess in a system that is
standardized across your team.
So then that way, you can allget what you need.
Ai aside or not, those are thefundamentals that are going to
help you get the best insightfrom your data.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
I like how you ended it by saying those are the
fundamentals, because we do haveto remember, keep it simple,
stupid kiss model.
When we look at AI and all thereports that are coming from AI
and all the analytics you'regoing to get from AI, I worry
and think to your point thatpeople are getting kind of
(40:21):
overwhelmed and they're notremembering what are the actual
things I need to measure to besuccessful.
What data does my business needfor me to know if things are
good, bad or we need to reviewand work on some things?
So I like how you over viewedthat and you dove through the
kind of we have to get back tothe fundamentals and we have to
(40:41):
remember what the end goal isand how all of this relates back
to a KPI.
On the similar end, of how theAI and how the data points feed
into your reporting analytics.
Same thing for integrations andother systems that can plug into
(41:03):
Salesforce, whether they're AIrelated or not.
You made a call out earlier inthe episode, which I liked, of
you don't have to use.
There's so many AI tools outthere.
Whether it's Canva, which I'veused personally, photoshop has
AI functionality.
They have all these softwaresand things that you can
integrate AI with.
I'm curious your take on whatshould add new admins and
(41:29):
marketers keep in mind whenbringing those systems into
Salesforce and trying to bringthem in to your strategy.
Bring them into your reportingand analytics and combine that
all together.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
So from the content development side, you should
definitely test and usegenerative AI, especially if you
are someone that deals withwriter's block.
it speeds up that creationprocess.
But one thing that I wouldthink about, too, is like so, if
(42:09):
you're bringing it into youroverall marketing processes,
first of all, just be carefulhow you're integrating it to
Steven's point, just like thattrust that you have with your
data, making sure that you'renot sharing confidential
information.
And then also, too, if you areusing generative AI for any type
(42:34):
of content generation.
I mean, I have also alreadyseen marketing teams start to
actually call out when they useit and why they're using it.
Yeah, for example, I subscribedto this newsletter called the
Schim.
They were doing this wholewrapped overview of 2023 and how
(42:57):
AI was just so present andeveryone's conversations, it was
everywhere and they actuallyjust said, okay, we're going to
do.
We asked AI to create thissummary paragraph of its journey
and its presence in 2023.
And it was hilarious becausethen they wrote their own
(43:19):
version of the paragraph andshowed the difference.
And, stephen, I actually thinkyou had this idea before when we
were back at the send, andcorrect me if I butchered this
idea, but I think you said whatif we had generative AI?
create this email campaign andthen we had a human, create the
(43:41):
other email campaign and thenyou ate and then you test them
to see which one performedbetter and then you share those
results because it'll show thedifference between the two, what
the discrepancy is where.
But that was a very fun way, orfun idea, to be able to engage
the community about, like howwe're using generative AI and
(44:05):
content and what you should becareful of, and like what is the
difference between like thehuman and the AI.
So those are some things to bethinking about too, that if you
are going to use it in yourmarketing at all, like actually
thinking about when it might beright to actually to like full
out, blown, call it out and andthink about how that could add
(44:29):
to the experience.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
I love that idea.
I'm I'm very curious because II'd like to think I'm smart and
I could catch that if it was.
I'm also really dumb and I feellike I'd be the person who's
absolutely fooled and be like ohmy gosh, the AI, there's no way
, and I select the human one asthe AI and vice versa.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
Well, and I think that's an important distinction
too, because there's a lot ofclick bait out there and the
reason why it's click bait isbecause it works.
That all because it contributesto a high open rate.
And a high click through ratedoesn't mean that it's like
quality clicks, quality opensRight.
So like if you say, write me anemail that's going to get me
(45:12):
the maximum number of opens, youmight get a subject line that
is very different than what youprobably would think is the
right subject line.
So I think you need to kind ofput everything through the lens
of AI.
Isn't like the silver bullet toget you high opens or clicks or
you know whatever it is.
You have to make sure you giveit like the right tone of voice
(45:33):
and like you actually have adocument and your business for
what your tone of voice withinyour organization is to feed to
AI, to give it the context itneeds.
You can't just unleash AI to anintern and have them start
generating emails because, toChristina's point, you're going
to be able to tell it's writtenby AI, because it's going to be
(45:53):
just so generic and roboticsounding.
That's a good call up.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
So, with all of that being said, we've had a lot of
really wonderful conversation.
We're nearing the end of ourfun interview.
The last thing I always end thepodcast on is a question which
I will ask each of you.
The focus again of this podcastis all about the admins of
(46:17):
tomorrow, and so I always liketo end on this question because
it's a nice little way of tryingto highlight something that
future admin can learn from andnot make some of the same
mistakes we did went through.
So I'll start with Christinaand Steven.
You be thinking about yourquestion, but it's what would be
your one main regret you hadwhen you were first getting
(46:40):
started in the ecosystem thatyou wish you could go back and
change.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
OK, now I must say I'm going to preface this with I
don't have many regrets itcomes to my career and my
journey, because I don't knowI'm my personal belief
Everything happens for a reason.
I have those that are veryclose to me know that I've been
on a bit of a roller coasterride since transitioning into
(47:07):
the Salesforce ecosystem.
But one thing that and I stillhaven't done it yet, but I'm
hoping to possibly do it thisyear is one thing I wish I would
have probably done sooner isspeak at a community conference
or or even just a user group,because I got involved early in
(47:32):
podcasting and then doing avirtual user group.
When COVID hit and started upthe, it was back in that day, it
was a part of life X user group.
But I always felt that,especially because I was the
marketer like before getting toSir Conte, before that, I was
(47:55):
the marketer that was at theconsulting agency Right, and the
consultants, they aretechnology experts and they like
sleep and read this stuff allthe time.
So because of that and to yourpoint about imposter syndrome,
jacob I always felt that I wasalways second guessing Any time.
(48:18):
I felt like I was answering aquestion in the community.
Or like providing a solution andsaying but like, oh, like so
and so might have a betteranswer, because they've been in
hundreds of thousands of orgsand they have dealt with
companies of all differentshapes and sizes.
So to that I would say that getinvolved in your local community
(48:43):
conferences, like if you andfind something that you're
passionate speaking about, thepassion has got to be there,
because when you're passionate,it will show, you'll get excited
.
You'll naturally get excitedabout what you're speaking about
, and then your audience isgoing to be that much more
engaged.
And you never know who in theaudience is going to learn
(49:06):
something for the first timefrom you or just even sharing
your perspective.
No one has had the exact sameexperiences as you.
So, like in my firm believethat everyone has something to
learn from everyone.
So, yes, if I could go back tomy former self, younger
Christina, starting out rightout of Fishtail, the single
(49:28):
source ecosystem, I wish Iprobably would have taken an
opportunity or had likesubmitted to speak, but
hopefully I might do that thisyear.
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
I always really appreciate when people call out
the desire to speak at events,speak at user groups, Just
because the very first step thatwe had was with a former
colleague of mine, Hailey Tuller, and her.
The big conversation we had wasaround figuring out how you
learn and one of the best waysthat she's found to learn is by
(50:02):
teaching other people.
So going to a user group event,going and writing a blog, going
to a conference and just kindof putting it out there and it's
for.
I love your reasoning.
No one has had the exact samelife experience as the one you
have had and you have insights,you have stories to share that
can help other people and knowto our like, and just being
(50:25):
willing to give that back to theecosystem is so important.
So I love that call out and Ihope future admins take
something away from that.
Steven, your turn.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
Yeah, I want to say older Steven, please do not send
that email that went to 2million people with Lord Mism
Text and it out in a Marketo,that I did that at Chesh, like
six years ago, seven years ago.
Don't do that.
But in more serious, I think,permission to make mistakes you
(50:57):
know I joke about that one emailis probably my biggest mistake
I've ever made in my kind ofemail.
We've kind of all sent thatemail by accident.
That was mine right.
So, like permission to makemistakes, I kind of joke 50% of
what I know is from me failingat something and then the other
50% is someone else failed on mybehalf and I learned from them.
(51:19):
So not being so hard onyourself when you kind of hit up
against the wall.
And then also a lot of what Ilearned was because I said yes
when I wanted to say no.
Someone asked me to dosomething I was super
uncomfortable with.
They asked me to build anintegration and I had no idea
how to do it in Zapier, right.
(51:40):
But I said yes, I figured itout, I learned Zapier and then,
sure enough turns out, I got athing for integrations and that
really took my career in adifferent path, a single zap.
You know, five, six, sevenyears ago.
So, yeah, like, get comfortablebeing uncomfortable.
Say yes when you want to say noand don't give yourself such a
(52:04):
hard time when you make mistakes, because that's how you learn.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
I really enjoy, though, the call out of being
uncomfortable.
It's okay to put yourself insituations that you
traditionally wouldn't want to.
Speaker 3 (52:18):
I will add one more, because I remember someone
asking a similar question onanother talk that I had and it
was the biggest career hack thatI personally have ever
experienced is actually workingat an agency.
So like, if you have anopportunity to work at an agency
, you will experience like hypergrowth, Like it's a catalyst
(52:40):
for skill use cases, seeingdifferent organizations and how
they're structured.
So if I was just starting out,I would actually go back to
Steven and also say, like youknow, take that opportunity to
work at an agency.
Luckily I did.
I worked at Chesh but likeevery person who I consider just
a master at what they do maybenot all of them, but almost all
(53:01):
of them at one point orcurrently work has worked at an
agency.
So you get to see so much stuffand you get to work in so many
different tools that youwouldn't otherwise have the
opportunity to have if youworked at a single company.
So I would also slip that inthere.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
I was going to say I got a tag on to that Also to
like consider it like, if youcan't get involved in an agency
I know that like job security,whatever your situation is like
if you can do it but considerpotentially also working at a
startup, because at that pointyou'll have a lot of lean teams
(53:45):
and where you wear manydifferent hats and you get to do
a lot of different things andyou also get to be a part of
starting a lot of first timeprocesses and or even just
implementing new orgs andsetting up new integrations Like
that as an admin and gettingyour processes down.
(54:10):
At that state too, if you can't, if you haven't been able to
get into an agency yet, that isanother good way to really start
to develop your craft.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
That's a good call out.
That is a really good call out.
It's a lot easier to get into astartup and get into that space
as well.
As opposed to the agency side,some of those agencies can be
really competitive to get a footin the door too.
So I think that makes completesense, and I think also we're
nearing the end of our time.
(54:42):
So again, thank you both sovery much for being a part of
the podcast.
I really appreciated y'all'sjourney, y'all's insights for
the new admin, as well as yourtake on AI and how things are
going to be shaping up for thebetter in the ecosystem with it.
But also we have to be preparedfor all the hassle that comes
(55:03):
with managing good, clean dataand being on the lookout for
junk data we may get thrown infront of us.
So thank you both again so much.
I appreciate your time andhopefully we'll be chatting more
in the near future.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
Yeah thanks for having me.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
And that concludes another episode of Admins of
Tomorrow.
A special thanks to our guests,christine and Steven, for being
on the show.
I loved hearing how they usegenerative AI to help with
content creation.
Personally, I've been usingChat Sheet PT for a long time to
help me with ideas.
When I'm just looking at ablank word doc and nothing's
coming out, just like Stevenexplained in the show, we just
(55:52):
have to remind ourselves thatwhat's generated shouldn't be
copy and pasted directly on toour blog, on to our email, and I
really appreciate that reminderto use AI as a starting point
and not for the entire piece.
So if anyone's interested, youcan connect or follow both
Christina or Steven on LinkedInto find their most recent blog
posts and content in theecosystem.
(56:13):
Thank you again for taking thetime to listen and support our
podcast.
If anyone has any feedback,questions or topic suggestions,
we would love to hear from you.
So please don't hesitate toconnect with us on LinkedIn,
twitter or email us atinfoadminsoftomorrowcom.
Also, if you or someone youknow would like to be on the
podcast or would like to give ashout out, please go to our
(56:34):
website, adminsoftomorrowcomforward slash, share your
thoughts and fill out our formto be on the show or give
someone a shout out.
Now.
I say this every week, but itreally does mean the world to me
that we've had so much supportand so much engagement over the
last two months.
Speaker 3 (56:50):
So if you've, enjoyed this episode.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
Please go on to wherever you're listening to the
show and leave a review.
Give us five stars and share itwith your fellow trailblazers.
The more the audience we get,the more content we can bring
out to the ecosystem and helpother new admins grow and
innovate.
So once again, I'm JacobCatalano, your host, signing off
.
We appreciate you for listeningto admins of tomorrow,
(57:13):
trailblazing the next generation.
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