Being Inspired by Blog Series – Kevin Bacon by Eric ,Girly Geek By Lauren ,Admin Hero By Brent & the Answers Community forum of which I have been part from a long time,I decided to put a blog series on our awesome Salesforce Answers Community Leaders.
I hope that Salesforce Community Members,Learners,Aspirants,Experts and others will get motivated and inspired by the Stories of our Community Leaders and will help them know better our Leaders who are addicted to answering their questions.
Special thanks to Eric and Phoebe for helping me for getting started.
So here I am with my First post in this Series introducing our Salesforce MVP-Geoffrey Flynn (Thanks to him as well).You can connect with him on Twitter , Success community, Linked In .You can check his blogs on his Website as well(They are Awesome,Trust Me).
Tell Us About Yourself ?
I’m a Salesforce consultant living in Toronto, Canada.
I’m relatively new to the platform having only been working on it since 2011. I started out by being told I was in charge of implementing this new platform, worked with a consulting company to implement it at my company, and then went to work for that consulting company. The rest is history.Other than Salesforce I love to golf, hang out with my wife and baby, and work in my backyard.Long term I can’t really see myself doing anything but consulting, I really enjoy telling people what to do and knowing that they are paying for that information. I don’t know what the future holds but in an ideal world I’ll be retiring earlier than the average bear and golfing every day while living somewhere in the country with a piece of land big enough to build my own personal driving range. I’ll probably still be answering questions on the community as well.
When Did You Start Answering?
I started answering in the fall of last year. I had poked around, and dipped my toe in from time to time under other usernames, but I didn’t really get involved and understand the reward of participating until last year. I started out answering a few questions, gave a few wrong answers, but also noticed that there were other people giving answers that I knew were incorrect so I started answering more of them, especially around reporting. Approximately 7000 answers, and 950 best answers later, the rest is history.
What Inspired You To Do So ?
It gets addictive, especially when you starting getting personal thank you notes over private message. The community has helped me a lot, and I’m happy to give back. Seeing some people give wrong answers – especially around reporting and cross-filters – is enough to keep a closer eye on things and make sure people are getting the correct answers all the time.
The amount that I have learned is astounding. I had no idea how many amazing solutions were out there until I started doing this.
How Do You Feel Contributing To Answers Community?
Contributing and knowing you are helping others is more than enough motivation to keep going. Being rewarded as an MVP and knowing that I can personally reach out to the likes of Steve M, Deepak, Jeff M, Chris D, Chris E, Michael G, Mayank S, David Liu, Sharif (just to name a few) is a priceless privilege and honour. The recognition is a nice bonus, but helping others and making new connections is the main benefit. I also just genuinely enjoy it.
Any Tips For Our Community Users & The Contributors?
It’s not a race. Take the time to formulate a good answer, not just the first answer. Also don’t ask for the best answer, they come on their own. If you have to ask you probably haven’t given a very good one. If you have more than 10 answers for every best answer, you aren’t doing it properly.
People come for help so make sure you are actually helping them. Linking to the first google result you can find and immediately asking for recognition for doing so isn’t helping anybody.
Don’t be afraid to push back on people and provide a different approach for problem solving. People don’t know what they don’t know, it’s your job to also give them options based on your own experience.
Don’t cherry-pick. Screenshots of reports take more time than adding a missing comma to a validation rule, but both people are having problems, and both should receive the same attention.
What Would You Say To People To Inspire Them To Contribute To Answers Community?
If you’ve ever used the Answers community to solve a problem, appreciate how many other people are doing the same. Since you got your answer for free, think about trying to give back and paying it forward.
When I was an Admin at my first company I thought I knew a lot,I moved to consulting and realized how little I knew,I started answering questions and realized how little I knew,I became an MVP and again realized how little I knew.
I can promise you that you’ll be amazed how much you can learn just by trying to solve other people’s problems. You’ll be better for it.
Any Additional Point/Tips/Comments
Get a developer org and answer questions with that login. They are free and they don’t expire. If you move jobs your dev org can come with you
Think of questions you don’t know the answer to as a way of checking for yourself what the right answer is. Try it in a dev org, and make sure your solution actually works.
