Louise Lockie's Letters from London

I am sure everyone is bored of me telling them that May is my favourite month, but it is, and here is why: The sun comes out in London and life feels slightly lighter. In the UK we get two extra days off work (two Mondays no less). It is my birthday month (read as an excuse for meeting up with friends and family). It's when the Salesforce World Tour road show hits London. World Tour in London is a big deal.  A rather small percentage of Salesforce users and professionals, even employees, from London get to attend Dreamforce, the cost of flights and accommodation involved make it a tough sell. This means that World Tour becomes to the main event of the year. It sells out weeks in advance, before we even get to May. As an active member of the London community for a number of years now my World Tour week (yes the fun spreads over the entire week) is always chock-a-block. I am asked to be involved in a number of ways and I am only too happy to say yes to everythi...

Exams are odd things and affect people differently, I have known several incredibly intelligent people who just don't do well in the exam situation. Yet exams are a part of life for the average Salesforce professional and it is definitely better to go into the test centre feeling prepared. At the time of writing I have six Salesforce certifications. Several were achieved in the last year and I feel that I have developed a technique and approach in this time, which I will now share. I answer these questions -  Which certification should I tackle next? When will I be ready to sit the exam? Where should I take it? How should I prepare for the exam? How should I tackle the exam? Which certification should I tackle next? Here in 2018 there are 25 different Salesforce certifications, grouped into 6 different roles and tracks. Whereas it used to be obvious which cert to go for next based on whether you were an Admin, Developer, or Consultant, now we have more options and ...

Let's start with a question. Why do we take Salesforce certifications? To get that job which requires a certified candidate? To add to the number of certifications your partner employer holds? To prove to your peers and bosses that you are the subject matter expert? Because everyone seems to be doing it these days? Who doesn't love a good exam? I believe the best reason to take a Salesforce certified exam is to prove to yourself that you are an expert in your field, that you aren't 'winging' it. In short, to silence your inner critic . The London Women in Tech user group, which I lead with Jodi and Freya , kicked off 2018 with an event entitled Changing Our Relationship with the Crazy Lady Inside . It was led by Nic Conway and Danielle MacLeod of Somebody Inside , who helped the 70+ strong audience identify and control the 'crazy lady inside', their name for the internal voice which questions our abilities and can fill us with self-doubt. ...

My last post of 2017 was all about the importance of setting ourselves goals. If you missed it please check it out here . The final paragraph was entitled Take Time to Look Back and Celebrate Successes , so I am now taking my own advice and publishing (and celebrating) my 2017 highlights. Though 2017 has sped past at Lightning speed (do you see what I did there?), when I cast my mind back to the beginning of the year, it seems like an absolute age ago. So much has changed, yet so very much has stayed the same. However, each month there was something to celebrate: January saw me make the trip to Leicester to speak at the User Group there. It was the first time I had attended a user group outside of London (where we have 8), and it was a great experience to see how other groups are arranged. I sat on a panel as well as delivered a presentation on end-user training. I was also thrilled to be featured on the Salesforce Admins' website in their Admin Stories series here . I ...

I've blinked and another year is over. I know I am not alone in feeling this way but I just don't know where the time goes! Which also forms a handy excuse for not achieving all you had hoped to accomplish in the past year. Blaming being busy and the time flying by is instinctive, but just a short moment of self reflection is enough to remind you that excuses are easy to make, but are not going to fill you with purpose and pride. Now I am not saying my 2017 hasn't been successful, I have achieved a huge amount this year and I am proud of all of it. Sometimes, however, that can be an issue in itself, it is tempting to be content with the levels you have reached, and not push yourself that bit further. Which is why I am setting my goals for 2018, and why you should too. I'm mapping out what a successful 2018 will look like for me, and planning the steps I need to take to meet these goals over the next 365 days. The Importance of Goal Setting In the recent pa...

Dreamforce 2017 was, of course, epic.  Highlights? Oh yes, I have a few: Number 1 -  Presenting on the Dreamforce stage For the second year in a row I had both a Theater and a Breakout session to prepare for. Once again I found the experience extremely rewarding and received great engagement and follow up questions from the audience. Standing room only at my Breakout session Number 2 - Michelle Obama Marc Benioff's Q&A with Michelle Obama's was worth every minute we had to wait in order to secure and then keep our reserved seats. No photos were allowed which meant we could focus on being inspired by the sense she was talking about equality. Number 3 - Being Awarded a Golden Hoodie Having received the #AwesomeAdmin award at the London World Tour in 2016, before #LifeWithGoldie existed, I was fully inducted into the club when the team retrospectively awarded us with our sparkly hoodies. Number 4 - Meeting Parker Harris Parker wa...

If you either couldn't make it to Dreamforce 2017, or couldn't clone yourself and get to all the sessions you wanted to, then you are probably patiently waiting for the team to load the videos of all the content you missed. Me too! Luckily the team have been super speedy this year and a ton is already online. So here is my hit list, I will add to it as the content is released: Equality Keynote: Art, Activism, and Impact  (opening) Interviews with special guests at the opening of the Equality Keynote, with Tony Prophet. Equality Keynote: Art, Activism, and Impact A conversation with creative and engaged problem solvers, artists and innovators. Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and President of Emerson Collective, will.i.am, founder & CEO, i.am+ and renowned artist JR discuss how they are using innovative approaches to raise awareness of critical issues and develop solutions to address problems. Equality Summit: Authentic Leadership Hear how powerhouse leaders, Jane...