Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we have another episode from the DC World Tour with LeAndria Streeter, Salesforce Consultant at Slalom, to learn about the work she does in the community and how you can apply change management principles to your own life.
Join us as we talk about how she got confidence from the amazing DC community, how she made the transition into her first admin job, and LeAndria’s tips for overcoming imposter syndrome.
You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with LeAndria Streeter.
“When I was growing up I wanted to work in tech and be an engineer, but I also wanted to be a hairstylist,” LeAndria says, “I’m obsessed with all things beauty and health-related and so I was going to find a way to do both.” When she was starting out her career, she worked as a conference coordinator and meeting planner for a nonprofit. “As everyone who works at a nonprofit knows, you kind of wear a few hats,” she says, “so in addition to planning events, I also managed all of the platforms from event management to their database.” When LeAndria was put in charge of their Salesforce implementation, she fell in love and never looked back.
“When we were looking for a solution to replace our dying database, I was tasked with doing the research,” LeAndria says, “and very quickly, all of my research pointed to Salesforce.” Working with a consultancy, she made sure to ask them to teach her how to admin as they deployed the implementation. That set her on the path towards becoming a fulltime admin.
LeAndria was still at her old nonprofit, filling the role of three people and doing all of the things, but she wanted to focus on Salesforce. To find her first fulltime admin position, she used Power of Us Hub, which is basically the Trailblazer Community for the nonprofit sector. That put her in touch with the local DC Community Group where she could level up her skills, get her certification, and land that first job.
Imposter syndrome affects everyone, especially when they change careers. “Growing up in the South as a young black girl, you’re not really encouraged to listen to your heart and pursue your goals,” LeAndria says, “it wasn’t until I got here to DC and started working in this very ambitious work environment that we have that I started to become a person who really believed in myself and my career aspirations.” Connecting with community members helped her gain the confidence she needed to know that she could be a fulltime Salesforce admin and make the transition.
When it comes to actually making that change in your life, LeAndria says the first thing you need to do is truly believe that a career in tech is possible for you. “You don’t just wake up one day and believe that you can do anything,” she says, “it’s a process and it’s intentional.” At WITness Success 2018, LeAndria gave a talk deconstructing that process of changing her beliefs.
One of the first steps LeAndria advises is to take the time to visualize your success: doing the work you want to do, taking the vacations you want to take, living the life you want to live. “Take stock of how you feel when you’re in that state. What does that person look like? What expression do they have on their face?” Once you’ve identified those feelings, LeAndria says you need to realize that you are that person.
It’s not instantaneous, but you need to work at truly embodying those beliefs. Take time to unplug and sit with your feelings, which could be anything from meditating to journaling. As admins, we’re in the business of adoption and change management, but sometimes you need to apply that process to yourself.
Today, through a connection she made at the 2016 World Tour, LeAndria is a Salesforce Consultant, bringing it back around full circle. “My entree into the Salesforce world was through the help of a consulting firm, and now I’m in the position to be there for others in the same way,” she says. She also gives back through her work with the Women in Tech community and the WITness Success Conference. It lets her put on her old event planner hat again and help people change their lives, one belief at a time.
Gillian Bruce: Welcome to the Salesforce Admins Podcast where we talk about product, community and careers to help you become a more awesome Salesforce admin. I’m Gillian Bruce and today, we have another episode that I was able to record while I was at the D.C. World Tour not too long ago. Today, we’re talking to LeAndria Streeter. LeAndria is an amazing community member, especially in the local D.C. community. She’s currently a Salesforce consultant at Slalom where she helps enable others to be awesome admins at different companies.
Gillian Bruce: She is incredibly passionate about the community. She is doing big things both in the women in technology community and the D.C. community, and I wanted to get her on the podcast to share a little bit about her journey and to help inspire you with some of her thinking about change management for your personal life. So without further ado, please welcome LeAndria to the podcast. LeAndria, welcome to the podcast.
LeAndria S.: Thanks for having me.
Gillian Bruce: Well look, again, a long overdue podcast guest. I think it was … Was it two, three years ago that I first met you in D.C.?
LeAndria S.: Yeah, I think it was 2017.
Gillian Bruce: 2017? Yeah, I think that was … Because we were giving you the Awesome Admin Award, which has then evolved into the Golden Hoodie. Right?
LeAndria S.: Yes. It has evolved.
Gillian Bruce: You are based here in the D.C. and we’re here in D.C. for the D.C. World Tour this year. I always love coming back to D.C. It’s one of my favorite communities to visit. I would love to introduce you a little bit to our listeners for those who don’t know you.
LeAndria S.: Awesome.
Gillian Bruce: My first question I’d like to ask to get into that is, LeAndria, what did you want to be when you grow up?
LeAndria S.: Oh, what did I want to be growing up? When I was young, no lie, I wanted to work in tech. I wanted to be an engineer, but I also wanted to be a hairstylist. Yeah. I’m obsessed with all things beauty and health related. Yeah. I was going find a way to do both.
Gillian Bruce: Well, in some ways, you could engineer hairstyles, right?
LeAndria S.: Maybe. Yeah. True.
Gillian Bruce: Because there’s some structure and planning things to happen. Right?
LeAndria S.: Yes. Right.
Gillian Bruce: Maybe?
LeAndria S.: Yeah. Maybe.
Gillian Bruce: Yeah. Just stretching that a little bit maybe, but …
LeAndria S.: There’s some math and chemistry there, right?
Gillian Bruce: Totally. Especially when you’re thinking about hair dye and all kinds of stuff. Okay. All right.
LeAndria S.: Yeah.
Gillian Bruce: Perms. I had a perm when I was a kid, did not look very good.
LeAndria S.: Yeah. That was a little before my time, but that’s okay.
Gillian Bruce: That’s okay. You just [inaudible 00:02:54].
LeAndria S.: It’s all good.
Gillian Bruce: All right. How do you go from knowing actually at an early age that you were interested in technology, that you’ve been wanting to be an engineer and a hairstylist to now working in the Salesforce ecosystem. Tell me a little bit about your career trajectory.
LeAndria S.: Sure. I’ve always enjoyed social events and actually my first career was as a conference coordinator and meeting planner for a nonprofit organization. As everyone who works at nonprofits know, you wear a few hats. In addition to planning events, I also managed all of the platforms from event management to their database. Of course, like at most organizations, the need arises for a new CRM solution. I was tasked with managing the Salesforce implementation project and fell in love and never looked back.
Gillian Bruce: Wow. I love hearing these stories because people find Salesforce in very interesting ways. That is one of the more interesting ways, I think in being a more of the social events side. Then, “Oh, by the way, you’re also in charge of keeping track of all these things in the system and, oh by the way, now you need to figure out a new solution,” and here you are discovering Salesforce.
LeAndria S.: Well, it was a small organization and I was the young person on staff so naturally, I was … Of course, I know what I’m doing when it comes to tech. Right?
Gillian Bruce: Anything with the computer, clearly you know what you’re doing.
LeAndria S.: Yeah. Clearly I know, and I happen to know.
Gillian Bruce: That’s great. You had this passion for technology that from a young age, you knew that you were interested, so that’s great. Tell me about how you discovered Salesforce and what that was like and why you went with Salesforce as the system that you were going to use?
LeAndria S.: Sure. When we were looking for a solution to replace our dying database, we were … Well, I was tasked with doing the research and very quickly, all of my research pointed me to Salesforce and we made a connection with salesforce.org, and they paired us with an amazing consulting company. Shout out to Bigger Boat Consulting. They were the consulting firm that we hired to help with our implementation and because I quickly was so narrowed by this amazing tool and wanting to really understand the backend of it, what I asked the consultants to do is teach me how to configure the backend, and teach me how to set up the pages and basically recreate our former database in this newer platform and through learning how to become an admin by being coached by this amazing consulting team, quickly the light switch went off and was like, “Yeah. I want to do this forever and ever.” I pretty quickly realized that I wanted to become a full-time admin.
Gillian Bruce: That’s great. I love that you were like, “Hey, don’t just be the consultant that comes in and builds the thing and leaves us. I want to know how you’re building it and I want to learn how to do it myself.”
LeAndria S.: 100%, yeah.
Gillian Bruce: That is really cool and it’s great that you had a partner that was into that and was willing to teach you and show you the ropes. That must’ve been a really cool experience and like you said, the light went on.
LeAndria S.: Very cool. Yeah. Very quickly. Very quickly right away, I was like, “I want to learn how to do what you’re doing.” Not only was it great for me personally in learning how to become an admin. I was able to save up my company a ton of money by doing it myself.
Gillian Bruce: Well, I’m sure they loved that.
LeAndria S.: Yeah. They did love it.
Gillian Bruce: All right. Now, do you then get that title of being an official Salesforce admin or are you still also doing all of the other things that you were doing?
LeAndria S.: I’m still doing all the things. Yeah. I was definitely at a point doing the work of two to three staff members and working very long hours and not really seeing much of an adjustment in pay. I sought out full-time Salesforce admin roles by leveraging the Power of Us Hub, making connections in the community and very quickly, I was able to find my first full-time Salesforce admin role.
Gillian Bruce: That’s awesome. The power of the community and this is something that comes up a lot in connecting with community and having that as a way to find your next opportunity. I mean, that’s huge. That really demonstrates what is possible. The Power of Us Hub, can you tell us a little bit more about that? Because we haven’t talked about it a ton on the podcast.
LeAndria S.: Sure. The Power of Us Hub is essentially the Trailblazer Community for the nonprofit’s sector. Again, at that time, working in a nonprofit, that was the community that I first got to know and connect with and first connected with groups in the Power of Us Hub online. I connected with a fantastic admin study group in that community and then eventually connected with the nonprofit community group here in Washington D.C. and very quickly, those resources helped me up level my skills, helped me earn my admin certification and helped me land my first job.
Gillian Bruce: That is so awesome. Okay. Now, you’re stoked. You’ve landed your first job which is amazing because even to take that initiative and realize, “Hey, I am doing the work of two or three people. I’m not getting compensated appropriately.” To take the initiative to recognize that and do something about it is actually a big deal and that’s hard for folks.
LeAndria S.: Yeah. It’s difficult.
Gillian Bruce: Yeah. Before we actually get into the next, what are some of the things that helped you get over that hump? Because I think a lot of us especially women struggle with the confidence and kind of imposter syndrome and all that. What are some things that helped you get over that hump and be like, “I’m going to do something about this.”?
LeAndria S.: Sure. To your point about having imposter syndrome and just having all the fear and not feeling sure about yourself, I was the poster child for that persona. Growing up in the South as a young black girl, you’re not really encouraged to listen to your heart and pursue your goals and to pursue things that are really hard. It wasn’t until I got here to D.C., and started working in this very ambitious work environment that we have here that I started to become a person who really believed in myself and my career aspirations. This was the first time that I pursued something completely foreign to me, something that I found ambitious and I was really, really afraid. I definitely was very insecure in my ability to pull this off. Again, it was the community members who I connected with who helped me gain that confidence and knowing that I was able to do the job of Salesforce admin full-time, and so it’s the people in our community that helped me get over the hump and conquer those fears.
Gillian Bruce: That’s awesome. Another thing that I know that you’ve presented on in the past is this idea of changing your beliefs to enable you to do bigger, better, different things. Tell me a little bit more about that because I think this will be a good segue, right? You’ve learned a lot of lessons especially in that moment. Tell me a little bit more about some of the things that you’ve learned and maybe what some other people might be able to glean from your experience?
LeAndria S.: Sure. While I was in this process of changing careers and in facing my fears and just doing what felt really courageous, risky things. Definitely, throughout this process confronted with those old belief systems that were instilled throughout life leading up to that point and having to confront those things is really hard, and so through having these experiences in the community, connecting with people in tech who believed in me and helped me believe in myself and lots of therapy and coaching.
Gillian Bruce: Hey, we got to get help and you can’t do it alone.
LeAndria S.: You can’t do it alone. Yeah. Through those experiences, I just realized that that process of being intentional about adopting the beliefs that you need to have about yourself and about the world is critical and it’s a requirement if you are going to pursue goals that seem big and scary to you. You have to believe that they are possible and that you don’t just wake up one day and believe that you can do anything. It’s a process and it’s intentional. I wanted to present my thoughts and my experience to the community. At WITness Success 2018, I prepared a talk where I deconstructed that process that I went through of changing my beliefs and presented that and it was received really well.
Gillian Bruce: Well, again, another scary thing to do, right?
LeAndria S.: Oh, so scary.
Gillian Bruce: We talk about being vulnerable, right?
LeAndria S.: Yeah. 100%.
Gillian Bruce: That’s a very personal story to share, and you are all out there and so being able to do that.
LeAndria S.: Oh, yeah.
Gillian Bruce: I’m sure you will be doing this presentation again by the way. I have a feeling.
LeAndria S.: I’m sure.
Gillian Bruce: What are some top takeaways from putting together that presentation about changing your beliefs to do big things that you might want to share with some folks that might find themselves in a similar spot?
LeAndria S.: Sure. The first thing I encourage everyone to do is visualize yourself in the place that you want to be in. Visualize yourself in that future job that you are pursuing or on that amazing vacation that you want to take and just take stock of how you feel when you’re in that state. What does that person look like? What kind of expression do they have on their face? What kind of coffee are you having at work? What does the mug look like? Just take stock of how you feel in that state and then just work on believing that, like believing that you are relaxed, believing that you’re confident in your skillset, believing that you can pass the admin exam. Whatever it is that you’re feeling or whatever you’ve needed to accomplish to get to your destination, identify those feelings and then over time, just work on actually believing those thoughts and those feelings and making them a part of your life.
Gillian Bruce: I love that. It’s very clear. I love the idea of it does, it takes time. You got to work at it.
LeAndria S.: You got to work at it.
Gillian Bruce: You got to keep thinking about it. You got to keep pushing it because it’s not just an instantaneous thing.
LeAndria S.: Exactly. Yeah. In terms of it not being instantaneous and actually the process of embodying those feelings and those beliefs, I know we’re a technology company but my next tip would be to unplug a little bit and just sit with yourself and just whether your processes to journal or meditate, you have to unplug and just sit with your feelings and just slowly work through that process of adopting new beliefs. It’s not always easy, but it’s very doable. I’m definitely a testament to that.
Gillian Bruce: Yeah, you absolutely are. One of the things that just struck me as you’re talking about this is as admins, one of the things that we’re charged with a lot is adoption, user adoption, change management. Right?
LeAndria S.: I love change management.
Gillian Bruce: Right. You’re an expert at it because what you’re talking about is change management for yourself and what you believe, and getting yourself to adopt these new ideas about what’s possible and being in that space and visualizing. It’s very similar to, “Hey, users. Look at the way your job could be. You see that visualization. Now, let’s get you there.”
LeAndria S.: Yes. It’s possible.
Gillian Bruce: Yeah. That’s really great. Okay. I want to get back into your career story a little bit.
LeAndria S.: Sure.
Gillian Bruce: Because you have transitioned into getting your full-time admin role, which is very exciting, but that’s not where it stops.
LeAndria S.: Oh, no.
Gillian Bruce: You are now in a much different place now. Tell me a little bit more about that next step. You’re now in a full-time admin role. You’re like, “Yes, I did this thing. I took a risk.” What then happens for you?
LeAndria S.: Sure. In that admin role while I was very happy to finally be working as a full-time Salesforce professional, I wanted to achieve more. Again, just having that belief that it’s possible in the back of my mind, I actually attended World Tour back in, I think that was 2016, and connected with a major Salesforce partner. Without really intentionally doing so, ended up landing a consulting role there. It was definitely very special full circle moment for me because my entree into the Salesforce world was through the help of a consulting firm and now I was in the position to be there for others in the same way.
Gillian Bruce: I love that full circle story.
LeAndria S.: Yeah.
Gillian Bruce: Yeah. Now, you get to be the enabler that got you in the first instance.
LeAndria S.: Exactly.
Gillian Bruce: Wow. One thing that caught my ear a little bit was that you say, “Unintentionally, I got this consulting role.” Were you poached?
LeAndria S.: I was not poached.
Gillian Bruce: Were people like, “Hey, I know who you are. You’re so great. Please join us.”?
LeAndria S.: No. I was such a nobody.
Gillian Bruce: Please. Please.
LeAndria S.: No. I was just walking the expo hall and I saw a booth and just struck up a conversation with this person. I didn’t even know he was a recruiter and one thing led to another and the conversation just led to him asking me for my resume.
Gillian Bruce: That’s a good recruiter.
LeAndria S.: Yeah. By the time we had their followup conversations and my brain caught up to what was happening, I was like, “Whoa.” I have this amazing opportunity in front of me and so I leapt at it once again pursuing scary things. I had never before been through that long, arduous five-step interview process with a major consulting firm. Once again, I was faced with that process of doing scary things and just believing that I could do it and I landed that role.
Gillian Bruce: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Yeah. You talk about that visualization, right? It’s like, “Well, here you are with something you didn’t even visualize but you visualized probably what you wanted to feel in your career.”
LeAndria S.: Right. I visualized what I wanted to feel which is being in a position to help others be amazing admins.
Gillian Bruce: There you go, and then it happened. It manifested. That’s amazing.
LeAndria S.: Right. Yeah.
Gillian Bruce: One of the things we touched on a little bit in our chat is the power of the community. I know the D.C. community is phenomenal, super well-connected, really amazing vibrant activity. It’s one of the reasons I love coming to D.C. every year, and especially the women in technology community is very strong. You are involved locally with the D.C. women in technology groups, but also you’re pretty involved with the women in technology annual conference that’s put on WITness Success.
LeAndria S.: Yes.
Gillian Bruce: Can you talk to us a little bit about how you got involved in the WIT community, the Women In Technology community and then what’s it like taking on a leadership position? Tell us a little bit about WITness Success.
LeAndria S.: Sure. Long story. I’ll try to make it short. I connected with Toya Gatewood, infamous Salesforce MVP, shout out to Toya, in the online Trailblazer Community and she reached out when she was about to move to D.C. Fast forward over time, I connect with her at a Salesforce World Tour. Are we noticing a theme here? Salesforce World Tours are just amazing. We connected in person at a Salesforce World Tour where she introduced me to Rakia Finley who founded the Washington D.C. Women in Tech group. A few years after that, Toya asked if I was interested in helping revive the Women in Tech group because they hadn’t had any events in a while and because I was a career event planner prior to my …
Gillian Bruce: Committee asked. Good job, Toya.
LeAndria S.: Prior to my Salesforce consulting career, I said, “Sure,” because again, I love a good party.
Gillian Bruce: This is why we get along.
LeAndria S.: Exactly. Exactly. One thing led to another. I agreed to co-lead the group and I host my first meeting, but I forget to send out invitations so there was just the three of us at the first meeting.
Gillian Bruce: You wanted a planning meeting.
LeAndria S.: Exactly. We needed a planning meeting. That was in the Spring. By the Summer, we had meeting with attendees upwards in their 40s and 50s and today, we have over 400 members and the local Women In Tech community and the D.C. Ohana community in general is just booming. It’s amazing what has happened in just a few short years. Having said all that, of course through all of these connections that I’m making, I learned about WITness Success and just attended the first one as an attendee and again, wanted to contribute and lend my skillset as a meeting and conference organizer, and so ended up joining that team and have been helping out with their conference for the past two years.
Gillian Bruce: Yeah. Well, I bet when the WITness Success organizers heard about your background and that you were interested, they must have been very excited.
LeAndria S.: Yeah. That was an easy sell, not as I had to do as much convincing as I had to in former job interviews.
Gillian Bruce: That’s great. I love how you talked about the growth of the D.C. community and the D.C. Ohana because I think the first time I came to a D.C. World Tour was probably three, four years ago. We struggled finding admins to talk to and now, like you said, it’s booming. It’s amazing to see how connected everyone is. You had a big part in that, so thank you for helping revive some of that and inject that life and find a way to connect folks that were here.
LeAndria S.: It’s truly been one of the top joys of my life.
Gillian Bruce: Oh, that’s so awesome. That’s so great. We’ll definitely put links to both the WIT community here in D.C. and the WITness Success Ohana in the show notes, so people can learn more.
LeAndria S.: Awesome. Yes. Check us out.
Gillian Bruce: Because I love the WITness Success event too, and it’s a very, very special experience.
LeAndria S.: It’s kind of amazing.
Gillian Bruce: It’s different and it’s one of those events that you come out of and you’re like, “Wow. That really had an effect on me. It was pretty powerful.”
LeAndria S.: Yeah. As an attendee, I was very inspired to meet other women like me or not like me, just from all walks of life who were … We have this professional passion in common, but just to hear so many different stories was so inspirational to me and I just knew I wanted to get involved. I definitely encourage everyone to make plans to attend WITness Success because it’s definitely one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had and I know it’s changed the lives of others as well.
Gillian Bruce: It’s for women and men, correct?
LeAndria S.: Yes. It’s for everyone.
Gillian Bruce: Everyone’s welcome. All right. Well, as we start to wrap up the podcast, I am going to ask you some lightning round questions.
LeAndria S.: Oh, fun.
Gillian Bruce: Yeah. Everyone listening, you should have seen the not fun look on her face when I said that.
LeAndria S.: Yes. I like planning and organization, so [crosstalk 00:24:52].
Gillian Bruce: This should be pretty easy.
LeAndria S.: All right.
Gillian Bruce: They’re pretty fun. They’re pretty silly.
LeAndria S.: I believe you.
Gillian Bruce: The first question is a this or that question.
LeAndria S.: Okay.
Gillian Bruce: Okay? Dine-in or delivery?
LeAndria S.: Dine-in.
Gillian Bruce: Dine-in. Okay. I like it. All right. Next question is a would you rather.
LeAndria S.: Okay.
Gillian Bruce: Okay. Would you rather have a rewind button in your life or have a pause button in your life?
LeAndria S.: It depends on the day.
Gillian Bruce: That’s fair.
LeAndria S.: I’m going to say a pause button. That’s what I need most of these days.
Gillian Bruce: I like it. Again, I’m going to date myself and you’re going to be like, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” But there was a sitcom in the late ’80s, early ’90s, I think it was … Was it Clarissa Explains It All where she could like [inaudible 00:25:37]?
LeAndria S.: Oh, yeah. I loved that show.
Gillian Bruce: Okay. All right. Yeah. You understand.
LeAndria S.: I understand completely.
Gillian Bruce: That’s great. Okay. Final question.
LeAndria S.: Okay.
Gillian Bruce: What would your perfect Saturday be like?
LeAndria S.: My perfect Saturday, it includes great food, friends in a D.C. rooftop. There’s just nothing like it.
Gillian Bruce: That sounds fine. Let’s go do that.
LeAndria S.: Yeah. Let’s go do that now.
Gillian Bruce: Sounds awesome. Well, LeAndria, thank you so much for sharing with us. I am so appreciative of everything you’ve done for the community and also congratulations on building an incredible career trajectory and like you said, believing in yourself and then sharing that with others to help them get over the hump as well. That is really powerful and I so appreciate you.
LeAndria S.: Can I say thank you, Gillian, because you’re one of the first Salesforce employees that I connected with and meeting you a few years back and winning the Awesome Admin Award was definitely a huge career highlight and definitely was very helpful to my career. Thank you so much for that amazing experience that I’ll never forget and now, thank you for having me on the podcast.
Gillian Bruce: Hey, my pleasure. We’re just recognizing you for the work that you’re doing.
LeAndria S.: Thank you.
Gillian Bruce: You were the one that make all this possible. But thank you, that’s very sweet.
LeAndria S.: Awesome.
Gillian Bruce: All right. Well, we’ll talk to you again soon.
LeAndria S.: Sounds good.
Gillian Bruce: Huge thanks to LeAndria for taking the time out of her busy day at the D.C. World Tour to sit down and chat with me. As you could hear, the world tour has been a very important event for LeAndria and her career in terms of connecting with others in the community and even connecting with new job opportunities. First thing is make sure you go to a world tour if you’ve got one in your nearby community.
Gillian Bruce: As Salesforce, we hit a lot of really big cities throughout the year so make sure you check our Salesforce events page to see if there’s one coming to an area near you, but for some of the other highlights from my conversation with LeAndria who I love sitting down and having the chance to connect with, she’s one of the first members of the D.C. community I connected with a few years ago. The first thing I wanted to highlight is the idea of getting confidence from the community.
Gillian Bruce: LeAndria talks about how she got her confidence from community members and getting support and getting her ready to get her first real admin job. That was a huge part of that. Then, that carried over into now what she’s doing as a consultant. That confidence carried her into that conversation with the recruiter from a partner at the world tour, then that led her to where she is today. Don’t underestimate what you have at the tip of your fingertips when you dial into the Salesforce community, whether it’s virtually or in person.
Gillian Bruce: Also, this idea of change management for yourself. We talk about change management a lot for your organization, but think about those principles and applying them to yourself. One of the things that LeAndria really likes to talk about is seeing it, believing it, visualizing it, understanding that it’s possible. Once you put a visualization behind it, it really does a huge thing to make that visualization seem possible in your life and that will help you get through some scary things like job interviews or maybe being in situations that you don’t feel qualified for.
Gillian Bruce: Tapping into that vision and then tapping into the confidence, and the community that you have will get you some big places. Also, when it comes to mentorship and coaching, be very intentional about how you pursue that because there’s again, a lot of resources available to you, but being intentional in trying to get to that vision that you have will really help you stay focused. One of the things that I loved hearing from LeAndria was that her visualization was helping others be amazing admins, which she didn’t realize she was going to be able to realize that the visualization in this role, that she now has as a consultant, but she is and that’s so cool because she wanted to help others be better at their jobs.
Gillian Bruce: Now, she has found herself in this role where she’s able to do so. Again, the power of believing it, visualizing it and making it happen. Now that she’s a Salesforce enabler for others, that has carried her into some other opportunities as well. What was really fun is hearing her story about how she was approached to co-lead the Women In Technology community group in D.C., and how she realized that was a great way for her to flex those party planning skills that she really loves, event planning skills.
Gillian Bruce: I know they’ve been put to good use. That has also carried her into being able to be a part, and an organizer for a larger event called WITness Success, which is a great community event. Again, you never know where these opportunities are going to come from, but connecting with your community is going to open up a lot of doors. If you want to learn a little bit more about some of the things we talked about in today’s podcast with LeAndria, I highly recommend you start with Trailhead. We talked a lot about her career trajectory from discovering Salesforce as a user to becoming a Salesforce admin, and then now a Salesforce consultant.
Gillian Bruce: There’s a trail on Trailhead that is fantastic for covering how to build your career in the Salesforce ecosystem, so make sure you check that out. Links are in the show notes. If you’re interested in the community event that LeAndria is a co-organizer for, WITness Success is an amazing community event. It happens every Summer. I believe this year, it’s in Nashville and I think it’s happening very soon. If you want to go this year, get on it, but it’s a great way to connect with other women in technology, people in the Salesforce ecosystem.
Gillian Bruce: It’s not just for women so men, you’re welcome as well. If you’re in the D.C. community, I highly recommend that you dial into the Women In Technology D.C. community group. I put the link to their group on the Trailblazer community in the show notes as well. If you’re in the nonprofit space, LeAndria talked a little bit about the Power Of Us Hub. I put a link to that as well in the show notes. That’s a place where you can get connected with nonprofit resources for admins working in the nonprofit space.
Gillian Bruce: There are some unique things that nonprofit admins need, and you can find that there as well as connect to others who work with Salesforce in the nonprofit industry. As always, you can find more great content including blogs, webinars, events, and even more podcasts on admin.salesforce.com. We talked about Trailhead a little bit. I think Trailhead is one of the best ways to prepare for your next Salesforce certification. I hope that if you have no certifications or 20 certifications, you have getting a certification on your list to get done this year.
Gillian Bruce: It’s one of the best ways to prove your skills as a Salesforce administrator and beyond. Use Trailhead as a way to prepare for that and go get that certification. Please also remember to subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends. The more listeners we get, the better content we get, the better ideas we get. Please make sure you subscribe, encourage all of your Salesforce friends to subscribe, that way you’ll get the latest and greatest episodes delivered directly to your platform or device of choice the moment they are released.
Gillian Bruce: As always, you can find us on Twitter, @SalesforceAdmns, no I. Our guest today was LeAndria Streeter. You can find her on Twitter, @lstreeter and myself, @gilliankbruce. Thank you so much for listening to this episode, and we’ll catch you next time in the cloud.
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