Salesforce Trails and Trials
Helping Salesforce pros start, elevate, and maximize their careers.
Episodes
March 18, 2025 • 60 mins
In this episode of Salesforce Trails & Trials, host Jon Cline welcomes Kay Stoner, a seasoned tech professional, to discuss her unique journey and her innovative approach to artificial intelligence using personas. Kay shares her early aspirations as a writer and her background in cultural anthropology, explaining how her interest in understanding people and cultures unexpectedly paved the way for her career in technology. She recou...
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March 11, 2025 • 51 mins
Discover the secrets to Salesforce success with Paul Pierce, a 20-year ecosystem veteran! Learn how to transform soft skills into hard cash by mastering storytelling, discovery, and the art of the demo. Paul shares insights on crafting compelling narratives, conducting effective discovery at every client interaction, and delivering impactful software demonstrations.
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Key Takeaways:
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Storytelling: Use stories about your customer o...
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This episode covers the Admin Skills Kit, differing definitions of "technical", and imposter syndrome. It provides advice for career growth, clear communication, and sharing knowledge while overcoming self-doubt.
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February 25, 2025 • 59 mins
This episode explores Jackson Hull's unconventional path from washing windows to becoming a Salesforce Business Analyst (BA). It emphasizes the value of soft skills, mentorship, and strong relationships in the Salesforce ecosystem.
Key aspects of Jackson's journey include:
* Early influences: His childhood interests in music, video games, and writing helped him appreciate how smaller elements can combine to create something imp...
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February 18, 2025 • 65 mins
This episode of Salesforce Trails and Trials features Pranay Joshi, who shares his journey into technology and Salesforce, emphasizing curiosity, continuous learning, and embracing change, especially with AI. He discusses his experience with Salesforce, from initial adoption to recognizing its broader potential beyond sales. Joshi highlights the importance of adapting to industry shifts and encourages leaders to empower their teams...
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February 11, 2025 • 46 mins
This episode of Salesforce Trails and Trials features a conversation with Bill Appleton, CTO of MetaZoa. Appleton, a lifelong software developer, discusses his career, including creating early App Exchange apps. The discussion covers challenges for Salesforce admins, like managing complex orgs and technical debt. They also discuss using AI to address these issues, emphasizing tools for org transformation, metadata management, and s...
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February 4, 2025 • 44 mins
This episode of Salesforce Trails and Trials features Jon Cline of People First Method, discussing how to turn soft skills into hard money. Key points include: non-technical skills are crucial for project success; leadership and communication protect against AI; a cohort-based approach helps change ingrained habits; and people often have self-limiting beliefs. The program emphasizes a "people first" approach, and helps people overc...
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January 28, 2025 • 25 mins
This episode delves into Salesforce's Agent Force, stressing the importance of measuring ROI by comparing current costs with potential savings. Agents are valuable for handling routine tasks, augmenting human capabilities in support, sales and development roles. The discussion also explores how AI is reshaping developer roles and career paths, highlighting the need to learn AI tools in development and the importance of career progr...
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January 21, 2025 • 50 mins
This podcast episode of "Salesforce Trails and Trials" features Jeff Loven, a Salesforce professional, discussing his career journey. Loven details his transition from a 17-year career in church leadership to a successful role in the Salesforce ecosystem. He emphasizes the importance of both technical skills acquired through programs like Talent Stacker and soft skills developed through the People First Academy, DevPod for Salesfo...
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January 14, 2025 • 47 mins
Salesforce executives seeking qualified partners must prioritize those with strong communication, project management, and stakeholder engagement skills. Look for partners who emphasize continuous deployment, use artifacts like test plans for clarity, and engage front-line employees to align solutions with real-world needs. The best partners model collaboration, invest in intangible skills like leadership and problem-solving, and fo...
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December 24, 2024 • 51 mins
This episode of Salesforce Trails and Trials explores crucial soft skills and emerging trends in the Salesforce ecosystem. The hosts, Jon and Erik, begin by discussing the impact of proximity in virtual communication, emphasizing the need to be mindful of personal space on video calls. They then delve into a project anecdote highlighting the importance of explicit communication and avoiding assumptions, using the example of a visua...
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October 23, 2024 • 50 mins
This episode of the "Sales Force Trails and Trials" podcast offers advice on acing a Salesforce job interview by leveraging soft skills. The hosts emphasize the importance of thorough preparation, including researching the company and its goals. They suggest demonstrating tenacity by showcasing problem-solving skills and a commitment to overcoming challenges. Finally, the hosts recommend highlighting emotional maturity by demonstra...
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August 23, 2024 • 29 mins
This episode explores if a Salesforce career is right for you. The Salesforce market is growing but is becoming more competitive. The episode emphasizes the importance of soft skills, such as communication and leadership, in addition to technical expertise. To evaluate if this career path is a good fit, listeners are encouraged to consider their learning style, comfort with change, and preferred work environment. The episode highli...
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This podcast episode, hosted by two Salesforce architects, focuses on the importance of intangible skills for success in the Salesforce ecosystem. They discuss the impact of AI on the industry and how Salesforce Ben is releasing an article addressing the high rate of project failures due to non-technical reasons. Citing the FoxMeyer Drugs case as an example of a project failure, they stress the importance of involving all stakehold...
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March 13, 2023 • 49 mins
Zachary Pals, a philosophy major, unexpectedly found a fulfilling career in the Salesforce ecosystem. After moving to Los Angeles and working various jobs, he connected with John Klein through a chance encounter while moving a couch. Jon introduced him to Salesforce and Trailhead. Zachary initially balanced Salesforce work with bartending, but eventually committed fully to Salesforce, joining Jon's Salesforce Experience Academy and...
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February 18, 2023 • 56 mins
This episode of Salesforce Trails and Trials celebrates the podcast's one-year anniversary. The hosts, Jon and Erik, discuss the exciting new features in Salesforce for Slack, enabling seamless integration and workflow automation. They emphasize the crucial role of clear org ownership, highlighting the pitfalls of expecting functional users to handle Salesforce administration and the risks of unclear code responsibility. Finally, t...
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March 22, 2022 • 43 mins
This podcast episode, titled "Overcoming the Dev-First Mindset in Salesforce: Why Configuration and Clicks Beat Code in Most Business Applications", features a discussion between two Salesforce architects about the drawbacks of approaching Salesforce implementations with a developer-first mindset. They argue that while custom coding offers flexibility, it often comes at the cost of maintainability, upgradeability, and the ability t...
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January 18, 2022 • 49 mins
This podcast episode of Salesforce Trails and Trials opens with a cautionary tale about an untrained system administrator who accidentally deleted all the list views in a Salesforce org. The hosts emphasize the importance of limiting the number of system administrators and using delegated administration to reduce the risk of such incidents. The conversation then shifts to development best practices including the use of Salesforce F...
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November 9, 2021 • 63 mins
This podcast episode focuses on the importance of User Acceptance Testing (UAT) in Salesforce projects. The hosts emphasize that UAT offers freedom for both consultants and clients by promoting accountability, ensuring successful outcomes, and exceeding expectations. The conversation also explores technical aspects of Salesforce, such as the Metadata Dependency API, the retirement of Workflow and Process Builder in favor of Flow, a...
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September 27, 2021 • 51 mins
This interview features Tyler Cobbett, president of Sales Team Performance Incorporated, as he shares his career journey with Salesforce architects John and Eric. Starting from humble beginnings in the mailroom and as an intern at IBM, Tyler discovered his passion for understanding business problems and finding software solutions. He transitioned from sales to consulting, recognizing the importance of empathy and communication skil...
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