February 14, 2024 • 54 mins
This week we dive into how admins can prioritize self-care with our guest, Katie Villanueva. Katie's candid narration of her struggles with burnout and her ascent to a solo senior Salesforce admin is nothing short of inspiring. The Salesforce ecosystem is ripe with stories like Katie's, and this episode peels back the curtain on the human side of our tech-driven lives.
The weight of mental health awareness is often overlooked in professional environments, yet it's a cornerstone of our well-being. We discuss the importance of having open and honest conversations with each other in the community and emphasize the critical role of setting boundaries to ward off burnout. From sleep to exercise to community engagement, we explore the self-care strategies that can help admins find balance. We also share insights into maintaining flexible boundaries in professional settings, a topic of immense relevance to us in the Salesforce arena.
Katie Villanueva is a solo Senior Salesforce administrator who is passionate about making a difference in the world of technology. Her commitment to learning and continuous improvement has helped her stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in the Salesforce ecosystem. Katie loves to configure, create flows, build best practices, and capture clean data. Katie is the Mental Health + Illness Community Group leader, 6xs certified, a RadWomen Who Code graduate, and has presented at various Dreamin’ events, Dreamforce, and as a keynote speaker. In addition to her technical skills, Katie is a self-proclaimed super nerd who loves comic books, Dungeons and Dragons, is an Olympic style weightlifter, avid CrossFitter, and yoga instructor. She enjoys spending time with her husband, dogs, and fainting goats.
Salesforce Mental Health + Illness Group (Virtual)
Salesforce OhanAbility Group
linkedin.com/in/katie-villanueva
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Good morning and good afternoon.
My name is Jacob Catalano andwelcome to another episode of
Admins of Tomorrow.
It's been a wonderful month ofFebruary so far and I'm excited
to dive into this week's topicof Salesforce and self-care for
new admins.
So we've touched on this topica little bit in past episodes,
where we dove into burnout andimposter syndrome Kind of around
(00:37):
how new admins can findwork-life balance and feel
comfortable having a voice intheir jobs and their roles.
This week I want to dive intoself-care and talk through how
we can better identify andultimately own what causes that
burnout and anxiety in theworkplace.
So who better to share theirstory than the leader of the
(00:57):
Mental Health and IllnessSalesforce Community Group?
So today we have the pleasureof sitting with Katie Villanueva
to learn about their journey inthe ecosystem and how they've
navigated burnout and worked toprioritize their mental health.
As a solo admin Now, I've hadthe pleasure of hearing Katie's
story and sitting in on multiplesessions of hers throughout the
years, but nothing sticks outto me more than the first time I
(01:20):
heard her speak at SoutheastDreaming in 2022 as a keynote
speaker.
I was absolutely blown away notonly by her honesty and
openness when talking about asensitive topic, but ultimately
was inspired by her passion ofgrowing personally and
professionally as a Salesforceadmin.
So, like I said, I'm excitedfor everyone to hear Katie's
story.
(01:40):
So, without further ado, let'smeet.
Katie.
Katie is a solo seniorSalesforce admin who is
passionate about making adifference in the world of
technology.
Her commitment to learning andcontinuous improvement has
helped her stay up to date withthe latest trends and best
practices in the Salesforceecosystem.
Katie loves to configure,create flows, build best
practices and capture clean data.
(02:01):
Katie is the Mental Health andthe Illness Community Group
leader, six times certified, anda Rad Women who Code graduate.
Katie has also presented atvarious Dreaming events
Dreamforce and as a keynotespeaker.
So let's not waste any more timeand dive in.
With that being said, love todive right on in.
(02:36):
We talked I mean we talkedabout like how we met and I
didn't realize.
Kate mentioned to me, whenevershe and I were just kind of
talking after the fact that,yeah, that event was your first
branch into the ecosystem.
So I would love to dive in alittle bit on kind of your
(02:57):
journey prior to that event alittle bit more as well as kind
of since then, so kind of divinginto the before that.
How did you get into theecosystem?
So what was your start and whatwas your background becoming an
admin before you kind ofdeveloped this identity of the
queen of championing mentalillness, mental health and the
(03:22):
ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You're making me blush, yeah, okay, so funny
story.
I'm from Chicago.
I went to school in Kentucky tobe a farmer.
I ended up graduating in radioand worked in public radio for
nine years and then the economycrashed and radio is really hard
(03:45):
business to not only land a jobin but to stay in, and the
economy was not helpful withthat at all.
So unfortunately, like manyothers, during that time I got
let go from my position and frommy role and couldn't get back
in, just could not get back in.
(04:08):
Radio is my first passion.
It was the first time I tappedinto a career where I got
excited about coming to work.
Every day I was beingchallenged while also really
honing in on processes.
(04:29):
With radio you're on a 24 hourclock.
You do this at this time onthis day and you do this, and if
you don't, people in thetri-state area are going to hear
your mistake.
Thousands and thousands ofpeople are going to know you
messed up.
So early on I also learned it'sgood to reach out for help.
(04:54):
Don't hide it and go tosomebody who's going to help you
before that mistake hits theair.
So and there's just skills thatI realized that I carried over
into this job but it was veryprocess oriented but I couldn't
get into.
I couldn't go back to radioafter that.
(05:16):
So I kind of couch surfed for awhile.
I had no job.
I refused to move back with myparents.
I said I'm going to make this,I'm going to make it on my own.
And I was living with friendsand I took a job as a nanny with
somebody I never met before andthey let me live in their house
(05:37):
.
It was yeah, it was.
I didn't know when or how mylife would come together and
didn't imagine it would cometogether in this way.
But I moved to Louisville, Igot a job.
I finally just took the firstjob I can get and that was
(05:57):
refinancing home mortgages.
And then I took the second jobI could get because I burned out
on that, and that was workingas a data analyst in the energy
business.
And then I hated that.
So then I went to insurance.
I swear we're coming up toSalesforce, I promise.
And then I went to this cloudbased software as a service with
(06:20):
insurance payments, and I was acall center person employee.
I worked at a call center andit was brutal and it sucked.
But they use Salesforce and itwas really hard at the time
because I had to know somethingabout this cloud based software
(06:44):
that I knew nothing about.
And then I had to work within acloud based software that I
knew nothing about and it wasincredibly exhausting
emotionally and also havingpeople on the other side of the
phone with you yelling at youand I can't answer questions and
.
But I hated that job and I gota job through networking at my
(07:13):
last company where I was at forseven years and I was a
salesperson Again, jump Shiptook whatever I could get sales,
hate sales, but I did it andthey had Salesforce and they
didn't know what to do with it.
They bought it, had somebodyimplement it for them and they
(07:35):
had no idea how to utilize it.
It was actually on the choppingblock.
The company was going to getrid of it and I come in and I'm
like, oh, I know how to use thisand it's that classic story of
super user turn admin and Ibecame a solo admin and I jumped
into Trailhead and I taughtmyself because nobody at the
(07:57):
company could tell me what to doand, like I said, I was a COVID
baby.
I got into Salesforce duringCOVID, so I was completely
isolated from the community,from what resources were out
there.
Nobody was there to guide meand I figured it out, thank God
to Trailhead, and I was actually, you know, I kind of it was
(08:22):
really bad.
The org was so bad they had no,everybody was an admin.
And so, yeah, it's that storyand I jumped in and I started
making changes, whether theyliked it or not, and thank God,
I was kind of knack for itbecause I really could have
screwed up their business.
But it made sense to me andthey liked the changes that they
(08:43):
were seeing and it was lowhanging proof, like page layouts
, just more functionality, stufflike that and, you know, hiding
things that other peopleshouldn't see in anyway.
So they offered me the job.
They said why don't you do thisinstead?
Because you're really bad atsales.
So I did that and I did thatuntil that user group, like I
(09:11):
said, started back in 20.
Let's see what was last year.
Last year was 22, 21.
So it was 21.
It started and then I wasintroduced to the community and
now I have a job, my dream jobat 10K and I'm their first
(09:34):
dedicated solo admin, stillriding the solo admin boat, but
I'm excited to be there andworking with them, because I'm
going to learn so much.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
That's amazing, and so we've talked about too.
You had met the user group inthe Louisville area, and then
you learned about a Southeast US.
So for the Atlanta area,carolina's area, for Kentucky,
(10:03):
for that area, this wholeSoutheast Dreaming event, and I
was there.
I'm from Dallas, so I usuallygo to Texas Dreaming, but I had
the ability, through my company,to go speak, and so I got to
stand at the event, and I hearthree amazing stories, yours as
one of them, about gettingstarted in the ecosystem a
little bit, but more about yourpassion and your interest, and
(10:27):
we talked about how one of thequestions was around how can we
make Salesforce more diverse,and you had mentioned, because
of your passion and yourbackground, around shining more
of a light on mental illness andmental health.
To be completely honest, this isa topic I'm very interested in,
(10:50):
just because I know so littleabout it.
I am so intrigued to learn fromyou and learn from others
throughout this conversation andthis whole podcast journey.
Since that event, though, youhave been able to get a gold
hoodie.
You have created a user group Ithink the only user group, at
(11:12):
least through the user groupcommunity.
I could be incorrect.
Hopefully someone can factcheck me but I believe it's the
only user group online and it'sthe Salesforce mental illness or
mental health and illness groupin the ecosystem, and so talk
to me a little bit about gettingthat group started and why that
means so much to you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, man, getting that started.
So everything came organically.
Like I said, I was surprised bythe response.
I was scared of putting myselfout there.
(11:53):
I was scared of not backlash,because nobody would backlash me
to my face if they didn't likewhat I had to say.
But what kind of effect wouldthat have on job opportunities,
with me telling all those 100 orso people in that room that I
(12:14):
have bipolar disorder?
I'm not normal, I'm not right,and it was scary to come out and
do that, but I'm still the sameperson.
But I think by talking about itthere was such a need that I
(12:35):
didn't expect and such anoverwhelming response.
I felt encouraged to talk aboutit more and I felt and I saw
the need that it needed to betalked about.
People really want to talkabout it.
They just don't know how.
And so what had happened isthat I just kept on submitting
(12:55):
to conferences and they kept ongetting accepted and I was like,
wow, that's crazy.
And so with each conference,more and more people kind of
gathered and connected, and thatis what communities are.
(13:16):
We had a big enough group ofpeople that were like, hey, I'm
interested and I want to do this, and I identify as this.
We were able to bring it toSalesforce and they saw that
they did hear my talk and theydid hear what content I was
(13:36):
putting out there around it andthey were agreeing with me and I
think I posted this on LinkedIn.
A multi-billion dollar companydoesn't have to listen to one
person and doesn't have to takestuff like mental health and
(13:58):
mental illness.
They could have just easilywalked away and said this is
nothing to do with that, so theydidn't have to take that into
account.
So it was kind of luck that theyagreed with me or maybe not
luck, but they also saw the needto, and Gilda was a huge part
(14:18):
of that.
Gilda was and the Trailblazerteam the community team, came
out to see what it was about.
Gilda gave them the buzz andthey were like let's check it
out.
And then we were all on thesame page of wow, look at all
these people coming and talkingto the sessions and we want this
.
So I do want to say when Gildaand I were talking and the
(14:41):
Trailblazer community teamtalking about building this
group, jen Vo, who actually cameto my session at Witness,
submitted a chatter group formental health and they said, hey
, jen's doing this and I waslike what?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So they got us in touch because I had never met
Jen or talked to her much and wecame together on the name
Mental Health and Illnessbecause I wanted to include that
in this chatter group so that'swhere the name comes from.
And then it just turned intothis virtual user group and has
(15:23):
since actually spawned othervirtual groups.
There's the People Leadersgroup now, which is for a user
group for people who manageothers, and then also there's
the Ohonability virtual group,which is for a community of
people with neurodivergencies.
So we work together a lot withthe Ohonability.
(15:46):
They're fairly new, but we'vemet and we want to work together
Because people have come to meand they said hey, I have autism
or I have ADHD and it reallyweighs on my mental health and I
need help with that.
Or I can relate to what you'resaying and but I don't know
(16:11):
anything about ADHD or autism,but I do know depression and
anxiety and they feel thosefeelings.
So this Ohonability group helpswith that side.
That isn't something that I canrelate to but want to support.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
With that being said and knowing you've built these
amazing groups and we absolutelywant to make sure we're calling
out and giving shoutouts to allof the other amazing groups out
there.
I do have a couple of questions, though, just around being an
admin in the ecosystem, havingbipolar disorder or just really
anyone who's going throughmental health struggles or
(16:51):
mental illness but again,understanding for admins, why is
mental illness awareness socritical?
Being an admin in the ecosystemand just trying to be a
community member in thistrailblazer community?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Well, first thing, why is it important to be aware
of mental illness in theecosystem?
There's lots of answers forthat one.
But, as I said in the adminkeynote at Dreamforce last year,
(17:27):
I have bipolar disorder and Iwant every awesome admin out
there to know that they can doit too.
And there is nothing tostigmatize.
And it's so important because Istruggled ooh, I'm getting
carried I struggled so much inmy professional life and adult
(17:48):
life with what I was goingthrough and I didn't have any
role models.
I didn't get diagnosed tilllater, but even then, who comes
to mind when you think ofbipolar disorder?
Who's successful?
And I'm not saying that I wantto be that person.
(18:11):
I'm saying we need that person.
I needed that person to be outthere to tell me that I can do
it and I still struggle.
So I'm still not that person,but I want to tell others the
things that I needed to be told.
So representation is a big dealand it goes a long way.
(18:35):
And when we also to answer theother half of your question of
having the mental illness inyour day to day job or how we
deal with that, it took a whilefor me to embrace my diagnosis
(18:56):
and once I embraced it, all theenergy that I put into rejecting
it and struggling with myselfturned into something really
positive, and that's a lot ofpositive energy to feed into
something and it just anxia and書andenden impressive.
(19:17):
Embracing myself was like apiece of the puzzle I never had
before that medication andexercise and healthy eating and
yoga and all the things you cando to help your mental health.
It wasn't going to solve thestruggle that I felt on a day to
(19:37):
day Because I was alwaysstruggling, not necessarily
hating myself, but feeling,feeling pity for myself.
Why, why does it have to be me?
But once I embraced it, it hasa lot of energy to change
directions and it did change mydirection.
And so for people to embracethat in their.
(19:59):
It's not who they are.
Your diagnosis is not who youare.
It's something you have.
But when you know how, when yourecognize it and address it and
work with it and still believein yourself and have confidence
in yourself, you can besuccessful at your work.
(20:20):
You'll know how to work with it.
You'll be educated.
You can educate others on howto work with you, and it doesn't
have to be.
It doesn't have to be.
I don't know weight that thatdrowns you.
So it's important to have thoseconversations and just spread
(20:43):
that awareness, because we'reall professionals trying to get
through the day, trying to makeit to Friday, and sometimes
getting through an hour isdifficult, so it's not going to
go away.
So you might as well just faceit, talk about it and, and, like
I said, make meaningfulconnections, find your support
(21:06):
and get educated.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I completely agree.
Again, as I said before, partof the reason why I want to have
these conversations on thepodcast selfishly is I want to
learn how to not just navigatethe conversations themselves but
like understanding just howthey affect people and how we
all can kind of grow in theecosystem together, so that
(21:31):
there isn't a situation wheresomeone feels as if they have a
leg down because you're right,it does not define who you are,
and I know a couple people whohave been diagnosed with mental
illnesses and they are 10 timesmore productive than I am and a
thousand times more intellectualthan I am, and it doesn't have
(21:57):
to be your crutch, it doesn'thave to be something to hold you
back With.
That said and this is again anassumption on my part, so I
would love for you to correct meif I am giving an incorrect
thought.
I'm okay to be told hey, you'rewrong.
My assumption has always beenwhen you have been diagnosed
with something like eitherbipolar disorder or an anxiety
(22:20):
disorder, you have to whetherthrough support systems, through
therapy, whatever it be youhave to figure out how to tackle
that, and some of that comeswith setting boundaries with
your employer.
How do you think admins andpeople going through this,
whether you're in the Salesforceecosystem or not.
(22:40):
What's a couple ways thatyou've experienced setting those
boundaries with your work tobasically say I can get my stuff
done, I can still be a top tieremployee, but I also need to be
completely transparent with youin that things may not be in
your time frame.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah for sure, that's a million dollar question,
isn't it Like?
As soon as I started speaking,that was probably the number one
question I had.
I was like this is my firstpresentation.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
On the spot go.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, solve the world's problems, and I don't
have an answer for that.
I don't, but that's why I'm notgoing to have all the answers
and I don't pretend to have allthe answers and I'm also not
licensed and all that otherstuff.
I can only share my experiencesand encourage the community to
talk to each other.
We have people in the communitywho are in leadership roles, we
(23:33):
have people who are juststarting out and we have people
in the middle.
When you connect those people,we can find ways to work with it
and find a solution and spreadit across the ecosystem.
So part of this user group'sgoal is to have those
conversations and find thosesolutions.
(23:53):
I haven't found it yet, but Ithink talking about it more
openly has helped and has givensome people confidence as far as
how I handled my experience inthat boat.
I, for it was my job, where Iwas in sales, so I got diagnosed
(24:14):
when I was at the call centerand so my mind was on fire.
I was.
I had struggled with suicidalthoughts, not only because my
work life was bad, but mybipolar was out of control.
I was not on any medication.
I'd gotten off ofantidepressants because we were
(24:38):
going to try and have a familyand I just wanted no medication
in my body and it didn't.
It didn't seem like it washelping anyways.
So I was at the lowest point inmy life, even lower than when I
moved in with, with people Ididn't know, and at that time I
(25:01):
and I say this in my talk, soit's not no secret I I have self
harm tendencies and you know,if goes unchecked it will lead
to.
It could lead to suicide, itcould lead to suicide attempts
and I was having suicidalthoughts and I know that that
was the road I was heading down.
(25:22):
And I had a situation where myhusband had to take me to the
hospital and that was like awake up call for me.
I hadn't reached out for help,but I needed to get kicked in
the butt again to try againbecause it's exhausting.
I understand why people quitand are like this is my life.
But I did that and I got intouch with a really good
(25:45):
psychiatrist who diagnosed meand gave me my medication, and
the medication made me feelfoggy, tired.
It wasn't, not the, it wasn't.
I'm still on that medication.
It wasn't a bad medication forme, it just was the adjustment
to that medication.
And when I got this new job, Ididn't tell them I had my polar
(26:06):
disorder.
I just told them hey, I'm onthis new medication.
It makes me tired, a little bitlethargic, if I don't show
excitement for the things thatI'm doing, or you know, please
don't take it the wrong way it'sjust a byproduct of medicine
and that was the start of it.
(26:27):
It just set an expectation ofmy behavior and then, little by
little, the more I got to knowthe people, I felt safe and I
felt like I was able to open upmore and eventually I just came
out.
Hey, remember that medicinethat was on.
I'm bipolar and so luckily, Iwas in a great place.
(26:52):
A lot of the folks on theleadership in leadership also
had family members who struggledwith mental health and mental
health and I found it a verywelcoming atmosphere and
supportive.
But that changed.
So, like that's the first timeI owned it, I started looking
(27:15):
for jobs at the end of last yearbecause I needed to move on and
learn more things and it wastime and it was scary to leave
that job knowing that anybody inthe ecosystem may identify me
as the girl with bipolardisorder and a lot of companies
(27:42):
didn't know, obviously, but Istill told them anyways Because
at this point I had embraced it.
It's a part of me that's notgoing away and they can't change
it.
I can change it, I'm just gonnatell them up front.
And I was like, hey, there wasan interview with this company
(28:04):
that I had and it was with fivepeople.
Oh my gosh, my interview.
I was on a call with five otherpeople.
It was just me.
I want to talk about gettingGanged up on.
And they were all men, oh go,women.
And I Forgot exactly how theyasked the question.
(28:25):
They said is there anything youyou want to share with us or
tell us?
And the interview was goinggreat at that point and I said,
hey, I'm gonna call, I'm gonnacall address the elephant in the
room.
I'm the only woman on this calland you need to know I'm.
I'm emotional and you need toknow, on top of that, I have
(28:47):
bipolar disorder.
How does that make you feel?
Is this something that we canwork together with?
Is that something, not, thatyou can handle?
I don't even remember what Isaid, but I challenged them.
Yeah, if they were thatinterested in me and if I had
that much value to them.
Not only it's not askingpermission, is this okay to be?
(29:09):
I am who I am, but are youready?
Well, I got great feedback fromthem.
They're like oh, thank you,they were.
They were thank you so much forletting us know.
You know, you know this is afamily atmosphere, is what they
said?
It's just like it's nodifferent than somebody who had
a sick, sick parent or familymember that they have to take
care of, or if you, you know,have health issues that you need
(29:33):
to take care of, and that's howthey addressed it.
And they were like weappreciate you being up about it
.
I was like you know, and it wasa great interview.
They they even reached outafter my gold hoodie and I Hated
me, but like, that's, that'snot the reason why I didn't get
(29:53):
the job.
You know, I'm confident in thatand every interview going
forward.
It's just.
I think each person has to findtheir own comfort level with it.
With with 10k, I was reallylucky that they were one of the
first people in my first sessionever that I ever spoke to and
they knew from the get go and wetalked about it in the
(30:19):
interviews too.
You know, like you know, wetalked about.
You know, hey, I said, are youokay with this?
Like we're gonna do this, thisis something we're gonna have to
deal with.
And they're like no, and youknow what?
They didn't hold it.
Hold, think less of me.
They found value in in it andthat I'm able to speak up, and
(30:45):
they weren't afraid that Iwasn't gonna not say things when
things need to be said.
And that's what you want out ofsomebody who's working with,
somebody who's gonna own up,somebody who's gonna be honest
and give good feedback andConfident and strong of mind and
I, at least, that's what Ithink it brings by taking all
(31:06):
that ownership of your bipolardisorder.
It, taking ownership of it,adds to your character.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I'd always do it in a way where you can't be like
this is me and you got to dealwith it.
You got to do it as a you know,ensure and reassure.
You're a team player and Ithink it goes without saying
that I promise you You'llbenefit from my boundary.
You don't say that specifically.
That's kind of that's kind of alittle bit munch of you said it
(31:39):
that way.
But it helps you operate and ithelps you be a productive
member of the team and and ithelps Find solutions, to find
the best path for everybody,absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
It shows that, again to the point you had made
earlier, it's not you are incontrol of, it is not defining
you and by owning it.
You are saying this is just athing about me, like it's like.
I have blonde hair, I have darkhair, I have this, this Mental
illness that I'm working throughand it's just a part of me, but
(32:16):
it's not.
It is not me, and so I Thinkthat's good.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
I don't want to be only known as you know this as
as the, the person speaking outon bipolar disorder
accessibility.
I want to be known as anawesome admin who happens to
have bipolar disorder, and mygoals this year is to do some
technical.
I am working with a lot ofLatino women in the, in the
(32:45):
ecosystem, because I'm halfMexican, I'm very proud of that
and there's only two percent ofLatinas in tech 2%.
You know we talk about thenumbers with women and then we
take that and we water it downand then it's just so.
I'm, you know, speaking up andspeaking out about that and you
know, I'm an Olympicweightlifter, I'm a yoga
(33:07):
instructor, I'm many things, I'mmulti-dimensional and I Just I
want to share that with peoplebecause I want to also show that
you aren't your diagnosis.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Yep Also badass Olympic weightlifter okay,
that's really it's really cool.
But, I, I buy, see where you Icompletely agree and see where
you're going with that and andthat, again, it's is a facet of
you.
You are many, many other things,and I am very excited to hear
your technical sessions and kindof again, I use this podcast to
(33:43):
shine a light on people in theecosystem so that we get to hear
your story and, again, so thatyou get to be known as however
you want to be known as, notjust the one session I heard.
That was kind of fascinating,but, that being said, I do
appreciate that you have, I knowand have, a high level of
(34:03):
confidence you are going to havethe best technical insights in
the world.
I do think it, though it's it'sgood to have that voice for
Again to your point for latinasin tech, I had the chance of
interviewing Megan Tijuanarecently in the ecosystem, and
she helped start the latinas forsales force user group, and
(34:26):
being able to kind of hear herstory and kind of learn a little
bit about Not only just herspecific story but just starting
that group and what that groupis trying to do and trying to
add More people to the group, Ifind that just very.
I love to hear those storiesand love to learn about what
people are doing in theecosystem to help shine a light
(34:47):
on the smaller groups that don'talways get a voice.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Well, it's funny you say that because I'm speaking
with them next, next week.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Yeah, we're gonna be talking about mental health and
in the sales force ecosystem, aswell as work life balance.
But you know I made a LinkedInpost today that it's marrying
Two passions of mine.
So I'm excited To do bothbecause, like I said, I'm
multi-dimensional.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Love that a lot.
You mentioned though you'regonna be speaking with them next
week on kind of a work lifebalance Part of this episode
again sales force and self-care.
With work life balance comesburnout, and I can only imagine
that with dealing with a mentalillness, with dealing with just
struggles of mental health,having to manage the timeline of
(35:40):
recovery from burnout can beNot the easiest task in the
world.
So I'm curious your again toyour point we are not
professionals, we are armchairexperts at best.
We have our experiences and wecan go off those experiences for
you.
How have you been able toReduce the amount of time needed
(36:02):
to recover from burnout?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
How about this?
You know it's another goodquestion.
So how do you?
How do you bounce back from ananxiety attack?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, that is also.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Let's add that to the yes, I had that list,
absolutely I can't tell you howmany I've had at the workplace,
and then you have to Same daybounce back yeah.
Same minute, same hour, same and, and turn around and get back
(36:35):
in there and be, get back in thering, and all that leads to
burnout.
Yeah, it's, that's a hardquestion.
Well, first of all, I Thinktaking care of yourself is the
number one thing you can do toAvoid burnout and, like you said
(36:58):
, bounce back from burnout.
Like you can't Be everythingfor everybody all the time, and
my favorite saying is ifeverything's a priority, then
nothing's a priority.
You know, and you can work thatway and you can live that way,
so you can have one priority andthat's you.
You know what you need.
(37:19):
Sometimes you got to be honestwith yourself and and have that
conversation with yourself whatdo I need in this exact moment?
And if you need to be greedy,just like with your time or how
you're spending it or who you'reinteracting with, take that
(37:43):
boundaries are so important.
I said I'm a, I'm a.
I had a reputation at my owncompany that I am a boundary
holder and all things Salesforce, and, and and personally, when,
when things are getting hard,speak up.
(38:04):
You know, first thing I did atat 10K was hey, this is what I'm
not good at and this is whatI'm good at.
I set my boundaries, thatdoesn't mean I'm not going to
learn the things I need to learn.
I want to expand my boundaries,but this is where we're
starting.
That takes some extra pressureoff of me to perform in a way
that I've never done before.
(38:25):
That I need to learn and Ithink boundaries help protect
that mental health.
I'm still going to bechallenged in my new job and I'm
still going to not know how todo things, but I don't have that
extra pressure wearing me outfrom the inside out about how to
do it, because they know andI'm going to ask a million
(38:47):
questions because they alreadyknow.
And if they get upset whichthey won't because they're great
people I have my boundary and II set that expectation.
You need to guide me throughthis.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
So how did you define that boundary?
And it may not be a cleananswer, to be completely honest.
I just know that in my workexperience again, all the
questions and all the things Iasked derive partially from how
my my life experience I havealways struggled with
identifying that boundary.
I know I can say I'm going tostop work at five PM but then
(39:25):
that never happens because Ihave been working up until
within the last three years withmy current employer.
I've worked at very traditionalemployers who are very, very
strict about we need you in atthis time, you clock out at this
time, we need you here for this, and it's just a very I
consider old school mentalityand how things are operated.
(39:48):
So being able to set thoseboundaries was always really
difficult.
For it to be able to say, no, Ineed to work during these hours
, or I may be having some likepersonal things going on and I
have to deal with this and I canmaybe work from home, or I
don't know what those boundarieswould ever be.
Just because I also was a verymuch a people pleaser, I was
(40:09):
always looking to just jump inand say, sir, yes, sir, ma'am,
yes, ma'am, let's.
Oh, I, this isn't a doablething.
I'm going to make it doable andbend over backwards and work 12
hour days to solve problemsthat probably couldn't have been
solved.
But I found like weirdsolutions to like halfway kind
of sort of do it.
And so I'm curious for you howdid you identify what your
(40:33):
boundaries were?
What did you have to go throughto really figure that out?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
I'm going to bounce it back to you.
You said I have a hard timesetting boundaries.
Is that hard for you toidentify what your boundaries
are, or is it hard for you toput them up to the other people?
Speaker 1 (40:54):
That's a good.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
That's a good bounce back because I yeah, and I think
that's where people need tostart.
What's the hard part about it?
What do I need to?
It's just like a Salesforcechallenge.
What do I need to know to beable to execute this?
You know you, just like yousaid, I'm going to get off at
five, we all say it.
Do we do it?
(41:15):
No, you know whatever, and it'snot necessarily like that.
Boundaries you know it's notboundaries protect your frame of
mind, so that five o'clock mayhit your mindset at three 30 and
(41:36):
you just got to get up and walkaway, or that you got it in you
and you're like I'm on a roll,I'm going to go, I'm enjoying
putting in these extra hours, sothat boundary may not hit you
later.
You, I think, also, when youset up your boundaries, don't
make them so, so brittle, so ina way where you can't be
(41:58):
flexible with with yourself.
But you know, and I canidentify when enough is enough.
That's the boundary, and Ithink you got to have that
internal talk with yourself,just like I asked you where's it
coming from?
How do we tackle that?
What's the challenge?
(42:19):
And then it doesn't just happenovernight.
Boundaries are like practice.
It's like it's like strengthtraining.
You just got to keep onpracticing it and practicing and
practicing it and it's justlike working out, it's it's not,
it's just something youdedicate yourself to and it just
becomes a lifestyle in thispart of your day to day.
(42:41):
So, helping with burnoutboundaries, but also, like I
said, taking care of yourself.
Get enough sleep.
I mean, I know this is eat.
Really.
You know, eat clean, don't eata bunch of crap.
You fuel your body with thefood you feed yourself and
that's what impacts your mood.
That helps you manage thestress and manage the load.
(43:04):
You're more equipped and alertand you know your mind is bright
and so you can bring on morechallenges and handle more when
you take care of yourself.
You know, work out, sleep, eatthat's my lifestyle, you know.
Again, I'm not, I'm an armchairexpert, is what you say.
But that's that's how I dealwith it.
(43:24):
That's how I deal with thestress and the load, you know.
And and the mental illness.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yeah, well, I've.
I've really enjoyed having thisconversation.
We're nearing the end of ourtime.
I I've thoroughly enjoyedgetting to learn more about your
journey in this ecosystem, aswell as the other things that
make you you with.
That being said, the lastquestion I always end us off on
I used to do a couple.
Now I have a kind of the sameone every time and I'm liking it
so far.
(43:52):
I always like to ask thequestion when you were starting
your journey.
You're either a professionaljourney or your Salesforce
journey, whichever one you pick.
But what was your biggestregret?
That you could go back to youngKatie and say let's tweak this
a little bit.
Let's change that.
And I like to highlight thisfor the new admin, bringing it
back to the premise of the showthe admin of tomorrow we I bring
(44:14):
this all together so we cantalk about our experiences and
our journey, and I love to hearpeople's kind of one regret, so
that maybe the next generationof admin can hear and think, oh,
I may be going through that.
Let's, let's switch it up.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yeah, um, number one thing that I wish I knew
starting my Salesforce journeyand I think I echoed it earlier
being in touch with thecommunity, get involved in the
community.
That changed everything for me.
Um it, it helped me do my jobbetter.
(44:50):
I learned at a faster pace.
It brought me theseopportunities to create change.
I've made new friends.
I've got all kinds of differenttypes of mentors in my back
pocket.
You know I've got um.
You know, technical mentors.
I've got professional mentors.
I've got um user group mentors.
(45:13):
Like you don't need just onementor for anything, you need a
multiple.
It's like a box of crayons, butyou have access to that through
the user groups and it justmade me better at at my job and
now I've got this awesome jobthat I absolutely love, and it's
(45:33):
all because of the things thatI've been doing in the community
and in the user groups.
Um, and how I was able to learnthrough through going to
community conferences andsitting in on those technical
sessions as well just asvaluable.
But I didn't know aboutcommunity conferences because I
wasn't part of the user groupsand I wasn't part of the
trailblazer community.
So, um, that was two years ofjust flying solo and and like
(45:59):
grinding through it on my own,uh, chipping away at a mountain
with a I don't know a spoon, afork, what's the saying?
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Whatever A little like a toothbrush, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
I can completely relate to that.
I totally.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I have a very similar story in that regard.
My one kind of pushback or semipushback to that, though, is
I'm curious your take on, yes,the community is extremely
valuable, and by no means am Isaying don't be a part of the
community.
I'm curious your take, though,on what should people do?
Just showing up, in my opinion,to a community meetup isn't
(46:34):
always enough, so what do youwould you recommend to someone
who is kind of on the fence, orhas been to a couple and they're
just like I'm not reallyfeeling good.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
Yeah, man, too bad people can't see us.
I'm nodding big time.
My head is going up and down.
I totally, I'm totally inagreement with you.
But you know what I would sayto that?
You get out what you put in.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
If you do nothing, you get nothing.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
Yeah, I knew nothing about speaking or whatever
before I volunteered to be aspeaker.
I just wanted to participate, Iwanted to be a part of
something.
I saw value when I wasintroduced to it and I was like
I got to get in on this becausethere's so much I can benefit
from.
So I jumped in with both feetand I kept on going and it was
(47:24):
really uncomfortable.
Let's not just make it magicalLike it all is going to happen
and work out for you.
It was uncomfortable.
I say this in my speech.
I actually am a naturalintrovert.
I don't like people.
I really don't.
They like, intimidate me, theyscare me.
What I like about publicspeaking is that I'm the only
one talking and I know my linesand I don't have to interact
(47:46):
with people and I don't havethat social anxiety because
that's it One way street.
But so it was really difficultto allow myself to be open and
to connect with people, and I'msure a lot of people feel that
way.
I cried on my first on my wayto my first user group meeting.
I was crying because I was soscared that I don't know I'd get
(48:11):
rejected or I wouldn't.
I didn't go for friends.
I didn't know I'd make friends,but like that I just didn't
know enough.
Maybe or that it was the rightplace for me, or that I'm just
gonna sit in the corner andnobody's gonna notice them there
and so poster syndrome hits youweird sometimes.
I cried on my way to the thebest thing that actually
(48:32):
happened to me, because I didn'tthink it was gonna work out for
me.
But so it is uncomfortable.
Yeah, embrace the suck.
Work through it.
You keep on going.
You start seeing the samepeople over and over and you
become friends with them and nowour user group is just like
you're walking in and you'relike at the bar.
(48:53):
You're like, hey, what's up?
You know how are you doing.
You know like it's just likeyou got your, your friends and
it's your club and you know weshould all have jackets.
Oh, we do.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
I mean I always tell people At the user group
meetings I go to is just getused to feeling uncomfortable,
be okay with being uncomfortable, but I prefer embrace the suck
a lot more, so that's gonna bemy new phrase I'm stealing it.
No shade for stealing.
But no, I completely agree andYou're absolutely right, you get
what you put into it.
(49:27):
If you are not going toparticipate or you're gonna sit
in the corner and just Kind oflike listen along, you're not
gonna get that full kind ofQuote, the college experience
kind of yeah, and I would say,if you're not uncomfortable,
you're not growing.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
So ask yourself do you want to grow?
Why?
Why spend your time on doinganything if you don't want to?
You're not anything.
That's really drastic to say.
But even with sales force, I'muncomfortable doing this.
I'm uncomfortable learning this.
I'm.
You know it's really sucksright now.
No, yeah, but you're onlygaining from it.
(50:03):
There's like no downside tothis uncomfortableness other
than being uncomfortable like.
Don't you want to benefit?
Yeah, and do it.
I think, not shying away fromit and going back to the I can
do hard things.
It builds character, you becomemore strong mentally and you
(50:24):
can take on harder and harderchallenges and, you know, be in
a better place because you canhandle it, because you put your,
you did the work, not the work.
I'm talking about work, thatI'm talking about the mental
work to With sand.
You know the uncomfortable, thesuck, the not knowing.
(50:46):
Maybe I don't want tooversimplify it and I don't want
to get gloss over or make itmagical like, oh, that's all you
do.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
And that is totally fair.
I mean with with anything we doin this ecosystem, with
anything we do around overcomingMental health and mental
illness.
Adversities there's alwaysgoing to be.
You have to put in the work,you can't, you have to hustle
hard and you can't just expectit to be a Snap your finger
overnight success.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
So I do appreciate that Acknowledgement that
carries over in all aspects oflife.
Yeah, you know all the work,the work you put in, you get out
, whether it's sticking to yourexercise resolutions at the
beginning of the year, or youknow learning a new thing, or
you know professionally,personally, how, how you want to
(51:33):
manage your relationships, orwhatever it's Put in the work
and you will get something outof it.
Speaker 1 (51:42):
I Can't express how grateful and thankful I am for
you joining today.
I've really enjoyed our time.
I've really enjoyed this wholeconversation.
I hope there are some adminswho are able to take away a lot
of positivity from this, and Idefinitely hope to have you on
again at some point in thefuture so we can talk about all
the other things that make youamazing.
(52:02):
Like I definitely want to diveinto the Olympic weightlifting I
am oddly fascinated at this.
So we're gonna.
We'll have some separate offlineconversations, but I do
appreciate you coming on in tokind of shine a light on this
topic around self-care oh.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Thank you for having me.
This is great.
I'm sorry I could talk for daysabout this, you know, so I hope
I didn't babble too much.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
No, it was.
It was nothing but Amazinginsights.
So thank you again and we willbe chatting soon.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (52:39):
And with that we conclude another episode of
admins of tomorrow.
A special thanks for our guestKatie, for sharing their journey
through the ecosystem and theways they've navigated
prioritizing self-care in theworld of tech.
I do want to call out, like wesaid on the show, none of us
here are licensed or trainedprofessionals.
These are our experiences thatwork for us.
But as we talk through howwe've navigated mental health
(53:03):
and mental illness, we are by nomeans telling you how you
should handle a specificsituation.
Also, as we mentioned in theshow, we will include links to
the sales force mental healthand illness user group and sales
force Ohan ability user groupin the episode Description.
Thank you again for taking thetime to listen and to support
our podcast.
If you have any feedback,questions or topic suggestions,
(53:24):
again we'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
So don't hesitate to connect with us on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
Twitter or email us at info at admins of tomorrow
calm.
Also, if you or someone youknow would like to be on the
show or you'd like to givesomeone a shout out, please go
to our website admins oftomorrow calm forward slash,
share your thoughts and fill outour form.
And Lastly we say it every week, we're gonna keep saying it if
you enjoyed this episode, pleasedon't forget to subscribe and
(53:48):
leave a review.
Every listen, every reviewmeans the absolute world to us
and helps us grow and find awider audience, so please go to
Apple podcast, spotify, andleave us a review and share it
with your fellow trailblazers.
Once again, I'm Jacob Catalano,your host, signing off.
We appreciate you for listeningto admins of tomorrow,
(54:10):
trailblazing the next generation.
Good morning and good afternoon.
My name is Jacob Catalano andwelcome to another episode of
Admins of Tomorrow.
It's been a wonderful month ofFebruary so far and I'm excited
to dive into this week's topicof Salesforce and self-care for
new admins.
So we've touched on this topica little bit in past episodes,
where we dove into burnout andimposter syndrome Kind of around
(00:37):
how new admins can findwork-life balance and feel
comfortable having a voice intheir jobs and their roles.
This week I want to dive intoself-care and talk through how
we can better identify andultimately own what causes that
burnout and anxiety in theworkplace.
So who better to share theirstory than the leader of the
(00:57):
Mental Health and IllnessSalesforce Community Group?
So today we have the pleasureof sitting with Katie Villanueva
to learn about their journey inthe ecosystem and how they've
navigated burnout and worked toprioritize their mental health.
As a solo admin Now, I've hadthe pleasure of hearing Katie's
story and sitting in on multiplesessions of hers throughout the
years, but nothing sticks outto me more than the first time I
(01:20):
heard her speak at SoutheastDreaming in 2022 as a keynote
speaker.
I was absolutely blown away notonly by her honesty and
openness when talking about asensitive topic, but ultimately
was inspired by her passion ofgrowing personally and
professionally as a Salesforceadmin.
So, like I said, I'm excitedfor everyone to hear Katie's
story.
(01:40):
So, without further ado, let'smeet.
Katie.
Katie is a solo seniorSalesforce admin who is
passionate about making adifference in the world of
technology.
Her commitment to learning andcontinuous improvement has
helped her stay up to date withthe latest trends and best
practices in the Salesforceecosystem.
Katie loves to configure,create flows, build best
practices and capture clean data.
(02:01):
Katie is the Mental Health andthe Illness Community Group
leader, six times certified, anda Rad Women who Code graduate.
Katie has also presented atvarious Dreaming events
Dreamforce and as a keynotespeaker.
So let's not waste any more timeand dive in.
With that being said, love todive right on in.
(02:36):
We talked I mean we talkedabout like how we met and I
didn't realize.
Kate mentioned to me, whenevershe and I were just kind of
talking after the fact that,yeah, that event was your first
branch into the ecosystem.
So I would love to dive in alittle bit on kind of your
(02:57):
journey prior to that event alittle bit more as well as kind
of since then, so kind of divinginto the before that.
How did you get into theecosystem?
So what was your start and whatwas your background becoming an
admin before you kind ofdeveloped this identity of the
queen of championing mentalillness, mental health and the
(03:22):
ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You're making me blush, yeah, okay, so funny
story.
I'm from Chicago.
I went to school in Kentucky tobe a farmer.
I ended up graduating in radioand worked in public radio for
nine years and then the economycrashed and radio is really hard
(03:45):
business to not only land a jobin but to stay in, and the
economy was not helpful withthat at all.
So unfortunately, like manyothers, during that time I got
let go from my position and frommy role and couldn't get back
in, just could not get back in.
(04:08):
Radio is my first passion.
It was the first time I tappedinto a career where I got
excited about coming to work.
Every day I was beingchallenged while also really
honing in on processes.
(04:29):
With radio you're on a 24 hourclock.
You do this at this time onthis day and you do this, and if
you don't, people in thetri-state area are going to hear
your mistake.
Thousands and thousands ofpeople are going to know you
messed up.
So early on I also learned it'sgood to reach out for help.
(04:54):
Don't hide it and go tosomebody who's going to help you
before that mistake hits theair.
So and there's just skills thatI realized that I carried over
into this job but it was veryprocess oriented but I couldn't
get into.
I couldn't go back to radioafter that.
(05:16):
So I kind of couch surfed for awhile.
I had no job.
I refused to move back with myparents.
I said I'm going to make this,I'm going to make it on my own.
And I was living with friendsand I took a job as a nanny with
somebody I never met before andthey let me live in their house
(05:37):
.
It was yeah, it was.
I didn't know when or how mylife would come together and
didn't imagine it would cometogether in this way.
But I moved to Louisville, Igot a job.
I finally just took the firstjob I can get and that was
(05:57):
refinancing home mortgages.
And then I took the second jobI could get because I burned out
on that, and that was workingas a data analyst in the energy
business.
And then I hated that.
So then I went to insurance.
I swear we're coming up toSalesforce, I promise.
And then I went to this cloudbased software as a service with
(06:20):
insurance payments, and I was acall center person employee.
I worked at a call center andit was brutal and it sucked.
But they use Salesforce and itwas really hard at the time
because I had to know somethingabout this cloud based software
(06:44):
that I knew nothing about.
And then I had to work within acloud based software that I
knew nothing about and it wasincredibly exhausting
emotionally and also havingpeople on the other side of the
phone with you yelling at youand I can't answer questions and
.
But I hated that job and I gota job through networking at my
(07:13):
last company where I was at forseven years and I was a
salesperson Again, jump Shiptook whatever I could get sales,
hate sales, but I did it andthey had Salesforce and they
didn't know what to do with it.
They bought it, had somebodyimplement it for them and they
(07:35):
had no idea how to utilize it.
It was actually on the choppingblock.
The company was going to getrid of it and I come in and I'm
like, oh, I know how to use thisand it's that classic story of
super user turn admin and Ibecame a solo admin and I jumped
into Trailhead and I taughtmyself because nobody at the
(07:57):
company could tell me what to doand, like I said, I was a COVID
baby.
I got into Salesforce duringCOVID, so I was completely
isolated from the community,from what resources were out
there.
Nobody was there to guide meand I figured it out, thank God
to Trailhead, and I was actually, you know, I kind of it was
(08:22):
really bad.
The org was so bad they had no,everybody was an admin.
And so, yeah, it's that storyand I jumped in and I started
making changes, whether theyliked it or not, and thank God,
I was kind of knack for itbecause I really could have
screwed up their business.
But it made sense to me andthey liked the changes that they
(08:43):
were seeing and it was lowhanging proof, like page layouts
, just more functionality, stufflike that and, you know, hiding
things that other peopleshouldn't see in anyway.
So they offered me the job.
They said why don't you do thisinstead?
Because you're really bad atsales.
So I did that and I did thatuntil that user group, like I
(09:11):
said, started back in 20.
Let's see what was last year.
Last year was 22, 21.
So it was 21.
It started and then I wasintroduced to the community and
now I have a job, my dream jobat 10K and I'm their first
(09:34):
dedicated solo admin, stillriding the solo admin boat, but
I'm excited to be there andworking with them, because I'm
going to learn so much.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
That's amazing, and so we've talked about too.
You had met the user group inthe Louisville area, and then
you learned about a Southeast US.
So for the Atlanta area,carolina's area, for Kentucky,
(10:03):
for that area, this wholeSoutheast Dreaming event, and I
was there.
I'm from Dallas, so I usuallygo to Texas Dreaming, but I had
the ability, through my company,to go speak, and so I got to
stand at the event, and I hearthree amazing stories, yours as
one of them, about gettingstarted in the ecosystem a
little bit, but more about yourpassion and your interest, and
(10:27):
we talked about how one of thequestions was around how can we
make Salesforce more diverse,and you had mentioned, because
of your passion and yourbackground, around shining more
of a light on mental illness andmental health.
To be completely honest, this isa topic I'm very interested in,
(10:50):
just because I know so littleabout it.
I am so intrigued to learn fromyou and learn from others
throughout this conversation andthis whole podcast journey.
Since that event, though, youhave been able to get a gold
hoodie.
You have created a user group Ithink the only user group, at
(11:12):
least through the user groupcommunity.
I could be incorrect.
Hopefully someone can factcheck me but I believe it's the
only user group online and it'sthe Salesforce mental illness or
mental health and illness groupin the ecosystem, and so talk
to me a little bit about gettingthat group started and why that
means so much to you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, man, getting that started.
So everything came organically.
Like I said, I was surprised bythe response.
I was scared of putting myselfout there.
(11:53):
I was scared of not backlash,because nobody would backlash me
to my face if they didn't likewhat I had to say.
But what kind of effect wouldthat have on job opportunities,
with me telling all those 100 orso people in that room that I
(12:14):
have bipolar disorder?
I'm not normal, I'm not right,and it was scary to come out and
do that, but I'm still the sameperson.
But I think by talking about itthere was such a need that I
(12:35):
didn't expect and such anoverwhelming response.
I felt encouraged to talk aboutit more and I felt and I saw
the need that it needed to betalked about.
People really want to talkabout it.
They just don't know how.
And so what had happened isthat I just kept on submitting
(12:55):
to conferences and they kept ongetting accepted and I was like,
wow, that's crazy.
And so with each conference,more and more people kind of
gathered and connected, and thatis what communities are.
(13:16):
We had a big enough group ofpeople that were like, hey, I'm
interested and I want to do this, and I identify as this.
We were able to bring it toSalesforce and they saw that
they did hear my talk and theydid hear what content I was
(13:36):
putting out there around it andthey were agreeing with me and I
think I posted this on LinkedIn.
A multi-billion dollar companydoesn't have to listen to one
person and doesn't have to takestuff like mental health and
(13:58):
mental illness.
They could have just easilywalked away and said this is
nothing to do with that, so theydidn't have to take that into
account.
So it was kind of luck that theyagreed with me or maybe not
luck, but they also saw the needto, and Gilda was a huge part
(14:18):
of that.
Gilda was and the Trailblazerteam the community team, came
out to see what it was about.
Gilda gave them the buzz andthey were like let's check it
out.
And then we were all on thesame page of wow, look at all
these people coming and talkingto the sessions and we want this
.
So I do want to say when Gildaand I were talking and the
(14:41):
Trailblazer community teamtalking about building this
group, jen Vo, who actually cameto my session at Witness,
submitted a chatter group formental health and they said, hey
, jen's doing this and I waslike what?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So they got us in touch because I had never met
Jen or talked to her much and wecame together on the name
Mental Health and Illnessbecause I wanted to include that
in this chatter group so that'swhere the name comes from.
And then it just turned intothis virtual user group and has
(15:23):
since actually spawned othervirtual groups.
There's the People Leadersgroup now, which is for a user
group for people who manageothers, and then also there's
the Ohonability virtual group,which is for a community of
people with neurodivergencies.
So we work together a lot withthe Ohonability.
(15:46):
They're fairly new, but we'vemet and we want to work together
Because people have come to meand they said hey, I have autism
or I have ADHD and it reallyweighs on my mental health and I
need help with that.
Or I can relate to what you'resaying and but I don't know
(16:11):
anything about ADHD or autism,but I do know depression and
anxiety and they feel thosefeelings.
So this Ohonability group helpswith that side.
That isn't something that I canrelate to but want to support.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
With that being said and knowing you've built these
amazing groups and we absolutelywant to make sure we're calling
out and giving shoutouts to allof the other amazing groups out
there.
I do have a couple of questions, though, just around being an
admin in the ecosystem, havingbipolar disorder or just really
anyone who's going throughmental health struggles or
(16:51):
mental illness but again,understanding for admins, why is
mental illness awareness socritical?
Being an admin in the ecosystemand just trying to be a
community member in thistrailblazer community?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Well, first thing, why is it important to be aware
of mental illness in theecosystem?
There's lots of answers forthat one.
But, as I said in the adminkeynote at Dreamforce last year,
(17:27):
I have bipolar disorder and Iwant every awesome admin out
there to know that they can doit too.
And there is nothing tostigmatize.
And it's so important because Istruggled ooh, I'm getting
carried I struggled so much inmy professional life and adult
(17:48):
life with what I was goingthrough and I didn't have any
role models.
I didn't get diagnosed tilllater, but even then, who comes
to mind when you think ofbipolar disorder?
Who's successful?
And I'm not saying that I wantto be that person.
(18:11):
I'm saying we need that person.
I needed that person to be outthere to tell me that I can do
it and I still struggle.
So I'm still not that person,but I want to tell others the
things that I needed to be told.
So representation is a big dealand it goes a long way.
(18:35):
And when we also to answer theother half of your question of
having the mental illness inyour day to day job or how we
deal with that, it took a whilefor me to embrace my diagnosis
(18:56):
and once I embraced it, all theenergy that I put into rejecting
it and struggling with myselfturned into something really
positive, and that's a lot ofpositive energy to feed into
something and it just anxia and書andenden impressive.
(19:17):
Embracing myself was like apiece of the puzzle I never had
before that medication andexercise and healthy eating and
yoga and all the things you cando to help your mental health.
It wasn't going to solve thestruggle that I felt on a day to
(19:37):
day Because I was alwaysstruggling, not necessarily
hating myself, but feeling,feeling pity for myself.
Why, why does it have to be me?
But once I embraced it, it hasa lot of energy to change
directions and it did change mydirection.
And so for people to embracethat in their.
(19:59):
It's not who they are.
Your diagnosis is not who youare.
It's something you have.
But when you know how, when yourecognize it and address it and
work with it and still believein yourself and have confidence
in yourself, you can besuccessful at your work.
(20:20):
You'll know how to work with it.
You'll be educated.
You can educate others on howto work with you, and it doesn't
have to be.
It doesn't have to be.
I don't know weight that thatdrowns you.
So it's important to have thoseconversations and just spread
(20:43):
that awareness, because we'reall professionals trying to get
through the day, trying to makeit to Friday, and sometimes
getting through an hour isdifficult, so it's not going to
go away.
So you might as well just faceit, talk about it and, and, like
I said, make meaningfulconnections, find your support
(21:06):
and get educated.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I completely agree.
Again, as I said before, partof the reason why I want to have
these conversations on thepodcast selfishly is I want to
learn how to not just navigatethe conversations themselves but
like understanding just howthey affect people and how we
all can kind of grow in theecosystem together, so that
(21:31):
there isn't a situation wheresomeone feels as if they have a
leg down because you're right,it does not define who you are,
and I know a couple people whohave been diagnosed with mental
illnesses and they are 10 timesmore productive than I am and a
thousand times more intellectualthan I am, and it doesn't have
(21:57):
to be your crutch, it doesn'thave to be something to hold you
back With.
That said and this is again anassumption on my part, so I
would love for you to correct meif I am giving an incorrect
thought.
I'm okay to be told hey, you'rewrong.
My assumption has always beenwhen you have been diagnosed
with something like eitherbipolar disorder or an anxiety
(22:20):
disorder, you have to whetherthrough support systems, through
therapy, whatever it be youhave to figure out how to tackle
that, and some of that comeswith setting boundaries with
your employer.
How do you think admins andpeople going through this,
whether you're in the Salesforceecosystem or not.
(22:40):
What's a couple ways thatyou've experienced setting those
boundaries with your work tobasically say I can get my stuff
done, I can still be a top tieremployee, but I also need to be
completely transparent with youin that things may not be in
your time frame.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah for sure, that's a million dollar question,
isn't it Like?
As soon as I started speaking,that was probably the number one
question I had.
I was like this is my firstpresentation.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
On the spot go.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, solve the world's problems, and I don't
have an answer for that.
I don't, but that's why I'm notgoing to have all the answers
and I don't pretend to have allthe answers and I'm also not
licensed and all that otherstuff.
I can only share my experiencesand encourage the community to
talk to each other.
We have people in the communitywho are in leadership roles, we
(23:33):
have people who are juststarting out and we have people
in the middle.
When you connect those people,we can find ways to work with it
and find a solution and spreadit across the ecosystem.
So part of this user group'sgoal is to have those
conversations and find thosesolutions.
(23:53):
I haven't found it yet, but Ithink talking about it more
openly has helped and has givensome people confidence as far as
how I handled my experience inthat boat.
I, for it was my job, where Iwas in sales, so I got diagnosed
(24:14):
when I was at the call centerand so my mind was on fire.
I was.
I had struggled with suicidalthoughts, not only because my
work life was bad, but mybipolar was out of control.
I was not on any medication.
I'd gotten off ofantidepressants because we were
(24:38):
going to try and have a familyand I just wanted no medication
in my body and it didn't.
It didn't seem like it washelping anyways.
So I was at the lowest point inmy life, even lower than when I
moved in with, with people Ididn't know, and at that time I
(25:01):
and I say this in my talk, soit's not no secret I I have self
harm tendencies and you know,if goes unchecked it will lead
to.
It could lead to suicide, itcould lead to suicide attempts
and I was having suicidalthoughts and I know that that
was the road I was heading down.
(25:22):
And I had a situation where myhusband had to take me to the
hospital and that was like awake up call for me.
I hadn't reached out for help,but I needed to get kicked in
the butt again to try againbecause it's exhausting.
I understand why people quitand are like this is my life.
But I did that and I got intouch with a really good
(25:45):
psychiatrist who diagnosed meand gave me my medication, and
the medication made me feelfoggy, tired.
It wasn't, not the, it wasn't.
I'm still on that medication.
It wasn't a bad medication forme, it just was the adjustment
to that medication.
And when I got this new job, Ididn't tell them I had my polar
(26:06):
disorder.
I just told them hey, I'm onthis new medication.
It makes me tired, a little bitlethargic, if I don't show
excitement for the things thatI'm doing, or you know, please
don't take it the wrong way it'sjust a byproduct of medicine
and that was the start of it.
(26:27):
It just set an expectation ofmy behavior and then, little by
little, the more I got to knowthe people, I felt safe and I
felt like I was able to open upmore and eventually I just came
out.
Hey, remember that medicinethat was on.
I'm bipolar and so luckily, Iwas in a great place.
(26:52):
A lot of the folks on theleadership in leadership also
had family members who struggledwith mental health and mental
health and I found it a verywelcoming atmosphere and
supportive.
But that changed.
So, like that's the first timeI owned it, I started looking
(27:15):
for jobs at the end of last yearbecause I needed to move on and
learn more things and it wastime and it was scary to leave
that job knowing that anybody inthe ecosystem may identify me
as the girl with bipolardisorder and a lot of companies
(27:42):
didn't know, obviously, but Istill told them anyways Because
at this point I had embraced it.
It's a part of me that's notgoing away and they can't change
it.
I can change it, I'm just gonnatell them up front.
And I was like, hey, there wasan interview with this company
(28:04):
that I had and it was with fivepeople.
Oh my gosh, my interview.
I was on a call with five otherpeople.
It was just me.
I want to talk about gettingGanged up on.
And they were all men, oh go,women.
And I Forgot exactly how theyasked the question.
(28:25):
They said is there anything youyou want to share with us or
tell us?
And the interview was goinggreat at that point and I said,
hey, I'm gonna call, I'm gonnacall address the elephant in the
room.
I'm the only woman on this calland you need to know I'm.
I'm emotional and you need toknow, on top of that, I have
(28:47):
bipolar disorder.
How does that make you feel?
Is this something that we canwork together with?
Is that something, not, thatyou can handle?
I don't even remember what Isaid, but I challenged them.
Yeah, if they were thatinterested in me and if I had
that much value to them.
Not only it's not askingpermission, is this okay to be?
(29:09):
I am who I am, but are youready?
Well, I got great feedback fromthem.
They're like oh, thank you,they were.
They were thank you so much forletting us know.
You know, you know this is afamily atmosphere, is what they
said?
It's just like it's nodifferent than somebody who had
a sick, sick parent or familymember that they have to take
care of, or if you, you know,have health issues that you need
(29:33):
to take care of, and that's howthey addressed it.
And they were like weappreciate you being up about it
.
I was like you know, and it wasa great interview.
They they even reached outafter my gold hoodie and I Hated
me, but like, that's, that'snot the reason why I didn't get
(29:53):
the job.
You know, I'm confident in thatand every interview going
forward.
It's just.
I think each person has to findtheir own comfort level with it.
With with 10k, I was reallylucky that they were one of the
first people in my first sessionever that I ever spoke to and
they knew from the get go and wetalked about it in the
(30:19):
interviews too.
You know, like you know, wetalked about.
You know, hey, I said, are youokay with this?
Like we're gonna do this, thisis something we're gonna have to
deal with.
And they're like no, and youknow what?
They didn't hold it.
Hold, think less of me.
They found value in in it andthat I'm able to speak up, and
(30:45):
they weren't afraid that Iwasn't gonna not say things when
things need to be said.
And that's what you want out ofsomebody who's working with,
somebody who's gonna own up,somebody who's gonna be honest
and give good feedback andConfident and strong of mind and
I, at least, that's what Ithink it brings by taking all
(31:06):
that ownership of your bipolardisorder.
It, taking ownership of it,adds to your character.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I'd always do it in a way where you can't be like
this is me and you got to dealwith it.
You got to do it as a you know,ensure and reassure.
You're a team player and Ithink it goes without saying
that I promise you You'llbenefit from my boundary.
You don't say that specifically.
That's kind of that's kind of alittle bit munch of you said it
(31:39):
that way.
But it helps you operate and ithelps you be a productive
member of the team and and ithelps Find solutions, to find
the best path for everybody,absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
It shows that, again to the point you had made
earlier, it's not you are incontrol of, it is not defining
you and by owning it.
You are saying this is just athing about me, like it's like.
I have blonde hair, I have darkhair, I have this, this Mental
illness that I'm working throughand it's just a part of me, but
(32:16):
it's not.
It is not me, and so I Thinkthat's good.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
I don't want to be only known as you know this as
as the, the person speaking outon bipolar disorder
accessibility.
I want to be known as anawesome admin who happens to
have bipolar disorder, and mygoals this year is to do some
technical.
I am working with a lot ofLatino women in the, in the
(32:45):
ecosystem, because I'm halfMexican, I'm very proud of that
and there's only two percent ofLatinas in tech 2%.
You know we talk about thenumbers with women and then we
take that and we water it downand then it's just so.
I'm, you know, speaking up andspeaking out about that and you
know, I'm an Olympicweightlifter, I'm a yoga
(33:07):
instructor, I'm many things, I'mmulti-dimensional and I Just I
want to share that with peoplebecause I want to also show that
you aren't your diagnosis.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Yep Also badass Olympic weightlifter okay,
that's really it's really cool.
But, I, I buy, see where you Icompletely agree and see where
you're going with that and andthat, again, it's is a facet of
you.
You are many, many other things,and I am very excited to hear
your technical sessions and kindof again, I use this podcast to
(33:43):
shine a light on people in theecosystem so that we get to hear
your story and, again, so thatyou get to be known as however
you want to be known as, notjust the one session I heard.
That was kind of fascinating,but, that being said, I do
appreciate that you have, I knowand have, a high level of
(34:03):
confidence you are going to havethe best technical insights in
the world.
I do think it, though it's it'sgood to have that voice for
Again to your point for latinasin tech, I had the chance of
interviewing Megan Tijuanarecently in the ecosystem, and
she helped start the latinas forsales force user group, and
(34:26):
being able to kind of hear herstory and kind of learn a little
bit about Not only just herspecific story but just starting
that group and what that groupis trying to do and trying to
add More people to the group, Ifind that just very.
I love to hear those storiesand love to learn about what
people are doing in theecosystem to help shine a light
(34:47):
on the smaller groups that don'talways get a voice.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Well, it's funny you say that because I'm speaking
with them next, next week.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Yeah, we're gonna be talking about mental health and
in the sales force ecosystem, aswell as work life balance.
But you know I made a LinkedInpost today that it's marrying
Two passions of mine.
So I'm excited To do bothbecause, like I said, I'm
multi-dimensional.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Love that a lot.
You mentioned though you'regonna be speaking with them next
week on kind of a work lifebalance Part of this episode
again sales force and self-care.
With work life balance comesburnout, and I can only imagine
that with dealing with a mentalillness, with dealing with just
struggles of mental health,having to manage the timeline of
(35:40):
recovery from burnout can beNot the easiest task in the
world.
So I'm curious your again toyour point we are not
professionals, we are armchairexperts at best.
We have our experiences and wecan go off those experiences for
you.
How have you been able toReduce the amount of time needed
(36:02):
to recover from burnout?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
How about this?
You know it's another goodquestion.
So how do you?
How do you bounce back from ananxiety attack?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, that is also.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Let's add that to the yes, I had that list,
absolutely I can't tell you howmany I've had at the workplace,
and then you have to Same daybounce back yeah.
Same minute, same hour, same and, and turn around and get back
(36:35):
in there and be, get back in thering, and all that leads to
burnout.
Yeah, it's, that's a hardquestion.
Well, first of all, I Thinktaking care of yourself is the
number one thing you can do toAvoid burnout and, like you said
(36:58):
, bounce back from burnout.
Like you can't Be everythingfor everybody all the time, and
my favorite saying is ifeverything's a priority, then
nothing's a priority.
You know, and you can work thatway and you can live that way,
so you can have one priority andthat's you.
You know what you need.
(37:19):
Sometimes you got to be honestwith yourself and and have that
conversation with yourself whatdo I need in this exact moment?
And if you need to be greedy,just like with your time or how
you're spending it or who you'reinteracting with, take that
(37:43):
boundaries are so important.
I said I'm a, I'm a.
I had a reputation at my owncompany that I am a boundary
holder and all things Salesforce, and, and and personally, when,
when things are getting hard,speak up.
(38:04):
You know, first thing I did atat 10K was hey, this is what I'm
not good at and this is whatI'm good at.
I set my boundaries, thatdoesn't mean I'm not going to
learn the things I need to learn.
I want to expand my boundaries,but this is where we're
starting.
That takes some extra pressureoff of me to perform in a way
that I've never done before.
(38:25):
That I need to learn and Ithink boundaries help protect
that mental health.
I'm still going to bechallenged in my new job and I'm
still going to not know how todo things, but I don't have that
extra pressure wearing me outfrom the inside out about how to
do it, because they know andI'm going to ask a million
(38:47):
questions because they alreadyknow.
And if they get upset whichthey won't because they're great
people I have my boundary and II set that expectation.
You need to guide me throughthis.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
So how did you define that boundary?
And it may not be a cleananswer, to be completely honest.
I just know that in my workexperience again, all the
questions and all the things Iasked derive partially from how
my my life experience I havealways struggled with
identifying that boundary.
I know I can say I'm going tostop work at five PM but then
(39:25):
that never happens because Ihave been working up until
within the last three years withmy current employer.
I've worked at very traditionalemployers who are very, very
strict about we need you in atthis time, you clock out at this
time, we need you here for this, and it's just a very I
consider old school mentalityand how things are operated.
(39:48):
So being able to set thoseboundaries was always really
difficult.
For it to be able to say, no, Ineed to work during these hours
, or I may be having some likepersonal things going on and I
have to deal with this and I canmaybe work from home, or I
don't know what those boundarieswould ever be.
Just because I also was a verymuch a people pleaser, I was
(40:09):
always looking to just jump inand say, sir, yes, sir, ma'am,
yes, ma'am, let's.
Oh, I, this isn't a doablething.
I'm going to make it doable andbend over backwards and work 12
hour days to solve problemsthat probably couldn't have been
solved.
But I found like weirdsolutions to like halfway kind
of sort of do it.
And so I'm curious for you howdid you identify what your
(40:33):
boundaries were?
What did you have to go throughto really figure that out?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
I'm going to bounce it back to you.
You said I have a hard timesetting boundaries.
Is that hard for you toidentify what your boundaries
are, or is it hard for you toput them up to the other people?
Speaker 1 (40:54):
That's a good.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
That's a good bounce back because I yeah, and I think
that's where people need tostart.
What's the hard part about it?
What do I need to?
It's just like a Salesforcechallenge.
What do I need to know to beable to execute this?
You know you, just like yousaid, I'm going to get off at
five, we all say it.
Do we do it?
(41:15):
No, you know whatever, and it'snot necessarily like that.
Boundaries you know it's notboundaries protect your frame of
mind, so that five o'clock mayhit your mindset at three 30 and
(41:36):
you just got to get up and walkaway, or that you got it in you
and you're like I'm on a roll,I'm going to go, I'm enjoying
putting in these extra hours, sothat boundary may not hit you
later.
You, I think, also, when youset up your boundaries, don't
make them so, so brittle, so ina way where you can't be
(41:58):
flexible with with yourself.
But you know, and I canidentify when enough is enough.
That's the boundary, and Ithink you got to have that
internal talk with yourself,just like I asked you where's it
coming from?
How do we tackle that?
What's the challenge?
(42:19):
And then it doesn't just happenovernight.
Boundaries are like practice.
It's like it's like strengthtraining.
You just got to keep onpracticing it and practicing and
practicing it and it's justlike working out, it's it's not,
it's just something youdedicate yourself to and it just
becomes a lifestyle in thispart of your day to day.
(42:41):
So, helping with burnoutboundaries, but also, like I
said, taking care of yourself.
Get enough sleep.
I mean, I know this is eat.
Really.
You know, eat clean, don't eata bunch of crap.
You fuel your body with thefood you feed yourself and
that's what impacts your mood.
That helps you manage thestress and manage the load.
(43:04):
You're more equipped and alertand you know your mind is bright
and so you can bring on morechallenges and handle more when
you take care of yourself.
You know, work out, sleep, eatthat's my lifestyle, you know.
Again, I'm not, I'm an armchairexpert, is what you say.
But that's that's how I dealwith it.
(43:24):
That's how I deal with thestress and the load, you know.
And and the mental illness.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yeah, well, I've.
I've really enjoyed having thisconversation.
We're nearing the end of ourtime.
I I've thoroughly enjoyedgetting to learn more about your
journey in this ecosystem, aswell as the other things that
make you you with.
That being said, the lastquestion I always end us off on
I used to do a couple.
Now I have a kind of the sameone every time and I'm liking it
so far.
(43:52):
I always like to ask thequestion when you were starting
your journey.
You're either a professionaljourney or your Salesforce
journey, whichever one you pick.
But what was your biggestregret?
That you could go back to youngKatie and say let's tweak this
a little bit.
Let's change that.
And I like to highlight thisfor the new admin, bringing it
back to the premise of the showthe admin of tomorrow we I bring
(44:14):
this all together so we cantalk about our experiences and
our journey, and I love to hearpeople's kind of one regret, so
that maybe the next generationof admin can hear and think, oh,
I may be going through that.
Let's, let's switch it up.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yeah, um, number one thing that I wish I knew
starting my Salesforce journeyand I think I echoed it earlier
being in touch with thecommunity, get involved in the
community.
That changed everything for me.
Um it, it helped me do my jobbetter.
(44:50):
I learned at a faster pace.
It brought me theseopportunities to create change.
I've made new friends.
I've got all kinds of differenttypes of mentors in my back
pocket.
You know I've got um.
You know, technical mentors.
I've got professional mentors.
I've got um user group mentors.
(45:13):
Like you don't need just onementor for anything, you need a
multiple.
It's like a box of crayons, butyou have access to that through
the user groups and it justmade me better at at my job and
now I've got this awesome jobthat I absolutely love, and it's
(45:33):
all because of the things thatI've been doing in the community
and in the user groups.
Um, and how I was able to learnthrough through going to
community conferences andsitting in on those technical
sessions as well just asvaluable.
But I didn't know aboutcommunity conferences because I
wasn't part of the user groupsand I wasn't part of the
trailblazer community.
So, um, that was two years ofjust flying solo and and like
(45:59):
grinding through it on my own,uh, chipping away at a mountain
with a I don't know a spoon, afork, what's the saying?
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Whatever A little like a toothbrush, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
I can completely relate to that.
I totally.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I have a very similar story in that regard.
My one kind of pushback or semipushback to that, though, is
I'm curious your take on, yes,the community is extremely
valuable, and by no means am Isaying don't be a part of the
community.
I'm curious your take, though,on what should people do?
Just showing up, in my opinion,to a community meetup isn't
(46:34):
always enough, so what do youwould you recommend to someone
who is kind of on the fence, orhas been to a couple and they're
just like I'm not reallyfeeling good.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
Yeah, man, too bad people can't see us.
I'm nodding big time.
My head is going up and down.
I totally, I'm totally inagreement with you.
But you know what I would sayto that?
You get out what you put in.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
If you do nothing, you get nothing.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
Yeah, I knew nothing about speaking or whatever
before I volunteered to be aspeaker.
I just wanted to participate, Iwanted to be a part of
something.
I saw value when I wasintroduced to it and I was like
I got to get in on this becausethere's so much I can benefit
from.
So I jumped in with both feetand I kept on going and it was
(47:24):
really uncomfortable.
Let's not just make it magicalLike it all is going to happen
and work out for you.
It was uncomfortable.
I say this in my speech.
I actually am a naturalintrovert.
I don't like people.
I really don't.
They like, intimidate me, theyscare me.
What I like about publicspeaking is that I'm the only
one talking and I know my linesand I don't have to interact
(47:46):
with people and I don't havethat social anxiety because
that's it One way street.
But so it was really difficultto allow myself to be open and
to connect with people, and I'msure a lot of people feel that
way.
I cried on my first on my wayto my first user group meeting.
I was crying because I was soscared that I don't know I'd get
(48:11):
rejected or I wouldn't.
I didn't go for friends.
I didn't know I'd make friends,but like that I just didn't
know enough.
Maybe or that it was the rightplace for me, or that I'm just
gonna sit in the corner andnobody's gonna notice them there
and so poster syndrome hits youweird sometimes.
I cried on my way to the thebest thing that actually
(48:32):
happened to me, because I didn'tthink it was gonna work out for
me.
But so it is uncomfortable.
Yeah, embrace the suck.
Work through it.
You keep on going.
You start seeing the samepeople over and over and you
become friends with them and nowour user group is just like
you're walking in and you'relike at the bar.
(48:53):
You're like, hey, what's up?
You know how are you doing.
You know like it's just likeyou got your, your friends and
it's your club and you know weshould all have jackets.
Oh, we do.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
I mean I always tell people At the user group
meetings I go to is just getused to feeling uncomfortable,
be okay with being uncomfortable, but I prefer embrace the suck
a lot more, so that's gonna bemy new phrase I'm stealing it.
No shade for stealing.
But no, I completely agree andYou're absolutely right, you get
what you put into it.
(49:27):
If you are not going toparticipate or you're gonna sit
in the corner and just Kind oflike listen along, you're not
gonna get that full kind ofQuote, the college experience
kind of yeah, and I would say,if you're not uncomfortable,
you're not growing.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
So ask yourself do you want to grow?
Why?
Why spend your time on doinganything if you don't want to?
You're not anything.
That's really drastic to say.
But even with sales force, I'muncomfortable doing this.
I'm uncomfortable learning this.
I'm.
You know it's really sucksright now.
No, yeah, but you're onlygaining from it.
(50:03):
There's like no downside tothis uncomfortableness other
than being uncomfortable like.
Don't you want to benefit?
Yeah, and do it.
I think, not shying away fromit and going back to the I can
do hard things.
It builds character, you becomemore strong mentally and you
(50:24):
can take on harder and harderchallenges and, you know, be in
a better place because you canhandle it, because you put your,
you did the work, not the work.
I'm talking about work, thatI'm talking about the mental
work to With sand.
You know the uncomfortable, thesuck, the not knowing.
(50:46):
Maybe I don't want tooversimplify it and I don't want
to get gloss over or make itmagical like, oh, that's all you
do.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
And that is totally fair.
I mean with with anything we doin this ecosystem, with
anything we do around overcomingMental health and mental
illness.
Adversities there's alwaysgoing to be.
You have to put in the work,you can't, you have to hustle
hard and you can't just expectit to be a Snap your finger
overnight success.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
So I do appreciate that Acknowledgement that
carries over in all aspects oflife.
Yeah, you know all the work,the work you put in, you get out
, whether it's sticking to yourexercise resolutions at the
beginning of the year, or youknow learning a new thing, or
you know professionally,personally, how, how you want to
(51:33):
manage your relationships, orwhatever it's Put in the work
and you will get something outof it.
Speaker 1 (51:42):
I Can't express how grateful and thankful I am for
you joining today.
I've really enjoyed our time.
I've really enjoyed this wholeconversation.
I hope there are some adminswho are able to take away a lot
of positivity from this, and Idefinitely hope to have you on
again at some point in thefuture so we can talk about all
the other things that make youamazing.
(52:02):
Like I definitely want to diveinto the Olympic weightlifting I
am oddly fascinated at this.
So we're gonna.
We'll have some separate offlineconversations, but I do
appreciate you coming on in tokind of shine a light on this
topic around self-care oh.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Thank you for having me.
This is great.
I'm sorry I could talk for daysabout this, you know, so I hope
I didn't babble too much.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
No, it was.
It was nothing but Amazinginsights.
So thank you again and we willbe chatting soon.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (52:39):
And with that we conclude another episode of
admins of tomorrow.
A special thanks for our guestKatie, for sharing their journey
through the ecosystem and theways they've navigated
prioritizing self-care in theworld of tech.
I do want to call out, like wesaid on the show, none of us
here are licensed or trainedprofessionals.
These are our experiences thatwork for us.
But as we talk through howwe've navigated mental health
(53:03):
and mental illness, we are by nomeans telling you how you
should handle a specificsituation.
Also, as we mentioned in theshow, we will include links to
the sales force mental healthand illness user group and sales
force Ohan ability user groupin the episode Description.
Thank you again for taking thetime to listen and to support
our podcast.
If you have any feedback,questions or topic suggestions,
(53:24):
again we'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
So don't hesitate to connect with us on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
Twitter or email us at info at admins of tomorrow
calm.
Also, if you or someone youknow would like to be on the
show or you'd like to givesomeone a shout out, please go
to our website admins oftomorrow calm forward slash,
share your thoughts and fill outour form.
And Lastly we say it every week, we're gonna keep saying it if
you enjoyed this episode, pleasedon't forget to subscribe and
(53:48):
leave a review.
Every listen, every reviewmeans the absolute world to us
and helps us grow and find awider audience, so please go to
Apple podcast, spotify, andleave us a review and share it
with your fellow trailblazers.
Once again, I'm Jacob Catalano,your host, signing off.
We appreciate you for listeningto admins of tomorrow,
(54:10):
trailblazing the next generation.
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