Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we’re back with the monthly retro. In this episode, we go over all the great blog posts, videos, and all the other Salesforce content from April.
You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation between Mike and Gillian.
For Mike, “What Admins Need to Know About Salesforce Releases” was a must-read this month. It gives you the release timeline, links to resources, and everything you need to get ready. Gillian points to Mia Pacey’s blog about delivering business value.
Mike had a blast talking with Mark Ross about how he and his team make Flow documentation. If you haven’t checked out his podcast, the Wizard Cast, it’s worth taking a listen. Another great episode from this month is our episode with Jen Lee about strategy and how to roll out new automations in your organization.
LeeAnne Rimel’s “Expert Corner” is a great new series that gives you the experience of meeting with a subject matter specialist at Dreamforce or TrailheaDX. You should also check out “No Silly Questions,” where Gillian tries to answer any question submitted by the community or brings on an expert to help her get to the bottom of it.
Gillian Bruce:
Welcome to the Salesforce Admins podcast, where the April showers bring May flowers edition of the monthly retro for the month of April. I am your host Gillian Bruce. And in this episode, we’ll review the top product, community and careers content from the month of April. And to help me do that, I am joined by none other than Mike Gerholdt. Hey, Mike.
Mike Gerholdt:
Hi, Gillian. Is it spring yet? Because it froze in a lot of places this week.
Gillian Bruce:
Well, in San Francisco flowers are blooming. It’s not very sunny. It’s pretty gloomy still, but the flowers are blooming. So I feel like that does mean that spring is happening.
Mike Gerholdt:
The fun thing is in the Midwest, we all look like lunatics because we’re outside with sheets, covering our plants because we had a late frost. And so, I always giggle because it’s like the one-time in the Midwest you figure out how many spare sheets and buckets you have in your house to cover plants with.
Gillian Bruce:
Gosh, that’s amazing.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah.
Gillian Bruce:
That’s amazing.
Mike Gerholdt:
Here comes the frost. Oh no, my tulips are going to…
Gillian Bruce:
Got to tuck in the tulips.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yep. Cover them up or the frost will just, I don’t know.
Gillian Bruce:
That is amazing. Well, I mean, it’s an exciting time. There’s changes happening. I think the world is feeling a little bit more optimistic overall. So, it’s overall a much better spring than it was last year. How about that?
Mike Gerholdt:
I would agree.
Gillian Bruce:
So we had a lot of, again chock-full of content this month. April did not disappoint. And it was automation April in many ways, as I’m sure we’ll cover. Mike, what is a blog that you’d like to highlight from this month?
Mike Gerholdt:
So, I feel your must read if you didn’t already read it, was put out on April 15th from LeeAnne, who’s on our team. What admins need to know about Salesforce releases. So easily, one of our more popular blog posts for the year, but it gives you the release timeline. It gives you links to all of the resources, including the release resources page. To me, it’s spring. We’ve got Cloudy dancing with a heart. And we’re reading release notes and that’s very exciting to me.
Gillian Bruce:
It is all kinds of new fun things to play with in Salesforce world, which is always exciting. And yeah, I mean, it’s kind of your one-stop shop for everything you need to know about the release because depending on all of the things you like to do to prepare, I mean, there’s just a zillion resources. And so, it’s a really good place to just go and get what you need.
Gillian Bruce:
So good highlight. I wanted to highlight a post by one of our amazing trailblazers, Mia Pacey, who I actually got the opportunity to work with in making an episode for the Australia, New Zealand Salesforce live event a couple months ago. Mia is awesome. She not only has been on the podcast before, talking about her campfire model, but this is a blog post where she really talks about six ways Salesforce administrators can deliver business value and breaking it down.
Gillian Bruce:
We do some of these posts every once in a while about some career inspirational content. I think this was really great. It’s not super long, but it really brings together these six steps that every everyone can use, whether you’re an admin or not. But it’s especially helpful in terms of maybe it’s spring. You’re figuring out better ways to reach your users or thinking about your own priorities… Prioritize. I swear I know how to say words. Priorities.
Mike Gerholdt:
You should prioritize your priorities, Gillian.
Gillian Bruce:
Yes. As you come into the rest of the year and figuring out what you want to do with your job. So, pretty good the post there, you should check it out.
Mike Gerholdt:
I love the post, Gillian. I actually used it in an answer to the Des Moines user group that you and I were in, in April. Literally, number one on the post, align your goals to the values and the mission of the organization. Boom, drop the mic moment.
Gillian Bruce:
Yeah. I mean, it’s something that we should probably talk more about.
Mike Gerholdt:
We could probably do a whole podcast on it.
Gillian Bruce:
We probably could. Probably could. But hey, you mentioned user groups. Shout out to all of our trailblazer community groups because yes, I have dropped in on quite a few in the last month and it has been so amazing to actually connect with people in the community that are doing amazing things and coming together.
Gillian Bruce:
I mean, shout out to Akron, Ohio, shout out to San Diego who just launched a brand new user group that I just joined. Shout out to Des Moines, shout out to Columbia, Maryland. Oh, and shout out to San Francisco. I joined the San Francisco one, nonprofit user group.
Gillian Bruce:
So, if you haven’t yet attended a user group and you’re listening to this podcast, get on it. It’s so fun. It’s so easy right now too, because all of them are virtual. So you can literally just look at the calendar and drop into a user group. It’s a really fun way to connect with other community members.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah. And especially user groups you normally wouldn’t attend to because I don’t know too many people that would fly into Des Moines, Iowa to attend the user group, although you should. I’d be happy to tour you around Des Moines.
Gillian Bruce:
Yeah, in one of your fast cars.
Mike Gerholdt:
Or anybody in the Des Moines user group would. Yeah. Oh, we got a racetrack just outside Des Moines. We could go to a race.
Gillian Bruce:
Vroom, vroom. It’s going to happen at some point, Mike.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yes. Let’s have a user group there. Iowa speedway.
Gillian Bruce:
Well, we didn’t just have blogs, Mike. We also had some podcasts.
Mike Gerholdt:
Much like we’re doing now. We can talk podcasts about podcasts. So, we had automation, automation, automation podcasts. And I had a really fun time talking about Flow documentation with Mark Ross. And it was fun to get him on the podcast because he’s working at Salesforce now. You might know him from the wizard cast that he does.
Mike Gerholdt:
And it was just a really great way to bring some of that perspective of what that Flow documentation team does. And for you as an admin to sit down and really write down as a best practice, the flows that you’ve got documented. Listen to the approach that Mark and his team take to doing that documentation. And sneak peek or hint, I guess it’s not really a peak because it’s an audio podcast.
Gillian Bruce:
Sneak listen.
Mike Gerholdt:
Sneak listen. That sounds weird. “Hey, what’d you do last Thursday night?” “I sneak listened to a podcast.” “Oh great.” But I would say to listen to the podcast, I asked Mark, “What’s the one thing you feel is foundational to understanding flow?” And his answer, I still remember it, and I think that’s the reason you should listen to the podcast, on top of he’s a really great guy to listen to and has a lot of brilliant ideas to share.
Gillian Bruce:
So many. It’s a good teaser, Mike. I like that. It’s a very good teaser. If you want to know the answer, listen to the pod.
Mike Gerholdt:
It’s a secret listen.
Gillian Bruce:
Well on that note, we also had another amazing automation expert join us on the podcast. And that is Jen Lee, who, if you don’t know who Jen Lee is, well, it’s time you get to know Jen Lee.
Gillian Bruce:
She is an incredible automation champion. She is regularly part of automation hour. In fact, she helps organize it. She’s an MVP. And she had a lot of great insight to share about automation strategy, about how you build out and roll out automations at your company. I love one of her terms she uses is the happy path. “You can’t always just think about the happy path.” And so, that made me smile when we talk about that.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah.
Gillian Bruce:
But yeah, definitely check out that episode. Especially if you’re thinking about expanding your use of Flow or starting Flow for the first time. It’s a really, really great starting ground to think about how you approach building those automations within your organization. So, give it a listen.
Mike Gerholdt:
If you created a path and just named it Happy, would you have a happy path?
Gillian Bruce:
Well, a happy path might not always be happy.
Mike Gerholdt:
I know. What if every stage was sad? These are the things that keep me up at night.
Gillian Bruce:
Well, when you’re up at night, you can watch some videos.
Mike Gerholdt:
I could. We should talk about videos you should watch. I love the new series that you and LeeAnne have going. You’ve got no silly questions going. LeeAnne has Expert Corner. I just watched the Expert Corner build integrations with clicks, with MuleSoft Composer, product manager, Ashley Simons. I’m going to say Simons. Could be Simons. Is it Simons?
Gillian Bruce:
That’s a good question.
Mike Gerholdt:
It looks the same to me in the Midwest. If you ever wanted to be like, wonder what it’s like to be on a hangout with LeeAnne as an evangelist and ask her questions, this is what it is. These are such cool videos. And at 27 minutes, block time on your calendar, grab a quick sandwich and sit down and watch this. Just take a break from the day. They’re so cool. And I watched it and I was like, “This is what it’s like to be on a hangout with LeeAnne.”
Gillian Bruce:
Yeah. It’s such a cool way to get that insight with a product manager and really go into all the questions that you may have normally gotten from maybe let’s say a session at Dreamforce or [crosstalk 00:10:05] DX.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yep.
Gillian Bruce:
And this is a really, really fantastic series. So, take advantage of that. You mentioned the silly questions. We had a really fun one come out and actually featured LeeAnne. So, this is a series. If you have not checked it out yet, it’s literally, the videos are two minutes long. I attempt to answer any question that the community submits via a video. And if I can’t answer it, I get an expert to.
Gillian Bruce:
So this last one was about how to create sandboxes with your professional edition Salesforce organization. So LeeAnne showed us a great little quick demo. And if you’ve got a question that you think might seem a little silly to some people, I promise you, it’s not. I want to know what that question is. So please, please, please send them my way.
Gillian Bruce:
We’ve got all kinds of new ones, fun ones coming your way. It could be about product. It could be about career, it could be about whatever about Salesforce you want to know. So, send those questions my way.
Mike Gerholdt:
And Gillian will go to the greatest depths of the organization. She’s not afraid to email anybody.
Gillian Bruce:
It’s true. Yeah. This is true. I mean little sneak peek here. We’ve got some very senior executives being featured answering some of these questions coming up soon. So, get excited for that. It’s always fun to put them on the spot and make them record a video.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yes. I’m excited for these. Okay. So, if you listened to last month’s March pod, we did Mike’s March crazy guessing game. And Gillian, you did pretty well on getting the questions right. They were fun questions.
Gillian Bruce:
I mean you also made it easy. I mean.
Mike Gerholdt:
I don’t know. Not really.
Gillian Bruce:
All three of them were correct. Right. Wasn’t that the…
Mike Gerholdt:
No. Only one question had that way.
Gillian Bruce:
Oh, okay. Right.
Mike Gerholdt:
This month I thought I’d go a little different route because in April, specifically on the first week, we play April Fools’ on each other, to wrap out the month of May. I thought I would give you two stories of an April Fools’ prank gone wrong and you get to pick which story you think is true. Only one of these is true by the way.
Gillian Bruce:
Oh, I’m so excited.
Mike Gerholdt:
It’s going to be great.
Gillian Bruce:
I love hearing about very good April Fools’ pranks because by the way, when they’re bad, they’re real bad. This is exciting.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah, well these are interesting April Fools’. So, one of them is true. I’ll storytell to the best of my abilities, the two. And then you tell me which is first. So we’ll start off. Story number one, for April Fools’ Day in 1980 Boston TV News producer, Homer Cilley, spelled C-I-L-L-E-Y, produced a television broadcast about a hill in Milton, Massachusetts that had begun oozing lava and spewing flames.
Mike Gerholdt:
He included fake warnings from then president, Jimmy Carter, and real footage from Mount St. Helen’s erupting that implied the Massachusetts volcano had fully erupted. April Fool read the card at the end of the segment, but hundreds of packed citizens flooded law enforcement phone lines anyway. Cilley was promptly fired for failing to exercise “good news judgment and breaching FCC regulations.” So that is your first story of an April fool’s joke gone wrong.
Gillian Bruce:
God.
Mike Gerholdt:
April Fools’ joke gone wrong, story number two, one of these is correct. In 2003, a rejected speaker from the National Institute of Lactose Intolerance decided to play a prank on the event organizers for turning down their proposed session.
Mike Gerholdt:
The night before the big banquet, the speaker and a couple of their friends, snuck into the event hall and switched the labels on the milk and non-milk cartons. What happened the next day was a disaster that caused the city’s treatment plant to shut down because of excessive toilet flushing.
Gillian Bruce:
Oh God, that’s horrible.
Mike Gerholdt:
One of those is a real April Fools’ prank gone wrong.
Gillian Bruce:
Oh my God. Wow. That second one is just such a powerful visual there.
Mike Gerholdt:
First one is Homer Cilley who produced a television broadcast about a fake volcano erupting in Massachusetts and was promptly fired for bad news judgment. And the second was a story of a rejected speaker from the National Institute of Lactose Intolerance switching milk and non-milk labels.
Gillian Bruce:
I mean, I really hope that the second one about the milk switcher is wrong because that just is so mean. And so just foul on so many levels. So I’m really hoping that that’s the made up April Fools’ joke gone wrong.
Mike Gerholdt:
Fake story? You are correct.
Gillian Bruce:
Yes.
Mike Gerholdt:
The real April Fools’ joke gone wrong was Homer Cilley, the Milton, Massachusetts television broadcaster creating a fake news segment about lava spewing out of a Massachusetts volcano.
Gillian Bruce:
I think it’s hilarious.
Mike Gerholdt:
And the second one was something I made up because I Googled National Institute of Lactose Intolerance.
Gillian Bruce:
I didn’t know that there was a National Institute of Lactose Intolerance. So I did learn something new.
Mike Gerholdt:
There is, and they have a call for presentations.
Gillian Bruce:
Hey, I mean, we should submit then sneak in and play a bad prank. No, I’m kidding. [crosstalk 00:16:02] But that’s great. I also love that the news broadcasters name was Homer Cilley.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah.
Gillian Bruce:
That’s pretty great.
Mike Gerholdt:
That’s also why I chose it. I was hoping to throw you off.
Gillian Bruce:
Yeah, it sounds like something you made up.
Mike Gerholdt:
“Oh, Mike, would probably make up a story and the person’s name is Homer Cilley.”
Gillian Bruce:
Yeah. That was pretty good, Mike. I appreciate the creativity there and sharing two very silly stories.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah. Well, we’ll see what May brings. I’m open to ideas for what we should do for May. I haven’t thought about that.
Gillian Bruce:
Yeah. I mean, I’ve never been a very good, successful April Fools’ prankster myself. I’ve always tried and failed, except for one year that I made my mother cry.
Mike Gerholdt:
Oh.
Gillian Bruce:
So, that’s a story for another time. But yeah, it was good times. But this was great, Mike. Thank you so much. What an amazing month we had of all of this great content, lots of automation goodness. Automation April has come to a close.
Mike Gerholdt:
It has. And onto May, with flowers.
Gillian Bruce:
Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt:
So yay. Love it. If you want to learn more about all things we just talked about in today’s episode, please go to admin.salesforce.com to find the links to the blogs, podcasts, and videos that we mentioned.
Mike Gerholdt:
You can stay up to date with us on social for all things admin. We are @SalesforceAdmns, no I, on Twitter. I am @MikeGerholdt and Gillian is @gilliankbruce. Remember to tweet if you have a silly question. So with that, stay safe, stay awesome. And stay tuned for the next episode. We’ll see you in the cloud.
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