Hey there, listener! Thank you for checking out our older seasons! We're adding this note on the top of the show notes to keep you up-to-date with the show. Connect with Jen Amos and get bonus content when you subscribe to our private podcast show, Inside the Fort by US VetWealth, at http://insidethefort.com/

Last Updated: September 2, 2024

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082: Technology careers and the flexibility to work remotely with Tatiana Cooke

4.2 Million Salesforce jobs are predicted to be available by 2024. Military spouse and Salesforce CRM Consultant & Mentor Tatiana Cooke share how to attain an actual CAREER in technology while having the flexibility to work remotely.

Learn how you can earn an internationally recognized certification, be empowered to work anywhere anytime using cloud technology, and transfer your existing skills into a new career by visiting https://cloudscouts.com/

The Trailhead Military program https://veterans.force.com/s/

Trailhead https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/home

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Connect with our co-hosts Jen Amos jen@holdingdownthefortpodcast.com and Jenny Lynne Stroup https://jennylynnestroup.com/ or jennylynnestroup379@gmail.com

November 2020, Jen Amos and Holding Down the Fort Podcast was awarded “Media Professional of the Year” at The Rosie Network Entrepreneur Awards! Check out her acceptance speech at https://therosienetwork.org/entrepreneur-awards

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Jen Amos 0:00

All right. Hey everyone. Welcome back to season four of holding down the fort. I am your co host, Jenn emos, also award winning podcaster. And I also have my incredible co host with me, active duty military spouse, mental health advocate, and mom of two boys genuine strip. Gentlemen, welcome back.

Unknown Speaker 0:17

Hey, thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

Jen Amos 0:20

Yeah. And I love that we both are using the same brand of microphones, by the way, like, I feel like we're twinsies today.

Unknown Speaker 0:26

So this is we're so fancy here.

Jen Amos 0:30

We try to be there's some days. I mean, I recently just got a whole new laptop. So because I felt like my internet was like really choppy. And I was like, Oh, it's not the internet. It's my laptop. Like, never buy just a tip. Everyone never buy refurbish stuff, you find something wrong with it. And luckily, I got a good deal on my new laptop. So I'm like, Okay, cool. Like, this is gonna be like my video audio recording laptop, I won't touch it for other than for those reasons. And then I have my throw around like other laptops that I can kind of take with me as I go. But anyway, that's the update on my technology, not that anyone cared. Let's go ahead and bring our guest today, we have a Salesforce CRM consultant and mentor as well as military spouse, Tatiana cook, Tatiana, welcome to the show.

Unknown Speaker 1:12

Hi, guys. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Jen Amos 1:15

Yeah, we're really happy to have you considering how we have a mutual friend. So you know, of kimbra hill with Berg force. And I'm curious to know, how do you two know each other?

Speaker 1 1:25

Well, we've actually talked before about the program that I've started cloud scouts, which is in place in order to help people get into the Salesforce career field. So it's basically a Salesforce career accelerator. It's three weeks long, and helps people military or not, we, you know, we don't discriminate, helps people get into the Salesforce ecosystem, and get them into good sustainable jobs.

Unknown Speaker 1:52

Mm hmm.

Jen Amos 1:53

I really, really like that. Although I know that Salesforce is essentially a household name. For people that are hearing about Salesforce for the first time, give us a little summary of what Salesforce is about.

Speaker 1 2:04

So Salesforce is a cloud software that allows companies big or small, to manage their accounts and contacts, their leads, their campaigns, anything to do with their business. So basically, Salesforce sells these licenses to companies, just any company that's getting started. And then the opportunity on our side as Salesforce consultants or administrators is to customize that for that particular company. So whether you are you know, Michelin tire or, you know, Hulu or Atlanta Braves or somebody smaller, like just a local dog walking company or dog grooming company or nonprofits, it really caters to anybody at any size based off in the licensee strip. Mm hmm.

Jen Amos 2:48

Very cool. I have to say that I love CRMs. I've definitely gone through like different variations. I mainly started with like the free ones, because that was like I was like, Well, I don't want to like pay a lot like you know for it. But no, I've definitely like upgraded to a program that my husband and I are very satisfied with. And so I appreciate, you know the value of a CRM system for businesses. And if people don't know what CRM is, which you should know, I'm just kidding. By It stands for customer relationship management that I get that correct, Tatiana? Yes, he did. Okay, cool. And yeah, it's really what it sounds, it's a way to manage your relationships with your customers. And so I like it. I don't like to remember things to be quite honest. And so if I can just put things in a CRM, if I can just make a note, and not even just like for transactional reasons, but even just saying like, Oh, so and so's birthday is on this day, let me go ahead and put that in my CRM, and so that I get reminded that it's your birthday, or it's about to be their birthday, and maybe I can send them something nice. Now, I definitely like I don't practice that right now. So I guess I should tell myself to do that. But it's little details like that, right? where it's like, it's more than just, you know, the transactional side? Would you like to elaborate more on that? Because we definitely are, I've definitely brought people on the show who are, you know, small business owners, or like, you know, solopreneurs independent contractors who are starting in business, or they do have a business, you know, talk a little bit about the benefits of a CRM if they don't even have one yet.

Speaker 1 4:14

So CRM does help keep track of any of your prospective customers. So your leads, so if you meet somebody on a plane, or you're getting leads from your website from a Contact Us form, or something like that, it'll put it into the system.

Speaker 2 4:28

Well, my sister actually works for Salesforce. So this is a she's an internal Yeah, my sister is the internal event planner for Salesforce. So she's the one that plans all the fun fancy trips that all of the people who sell the most Salesforce platforms or however that works goes to she's like the event person. And we've also been looking at Salesforce for work because of the work that I do. And it's fun because we've talked to Salesforce about how to think about I have found difficult about CRM is that they are in fact, meant for sales. And as someone who does outreach, which is very salesy, but doesn't have the same terminology, like, you know, we don't have leads per se or like certain products or whatever. And it's been really helpful. Salesforce has a great program to really customize it for the user and go through the training to say, you know, okay, so you guys do outreach, if you want to figure out who your biggest grant funders are. These are the buttons you need to push because the terminology isn't the same, but it'll do what you want. Yeah. Which is fun to learn.

Jen Amos 5:38

Yeah, well, I learned something new about you genuine. I didn't know you had a sister. So that's a few fun facts for me. Two sisters. Well, you have any brothers, his sister's oldest, amazing. Oh, wow. That's, that's incredible. So you got the most of it, I imagine. From your parents, I say that in all respect to your parents in case you listen to the show. So Tatiana, just kind of pick up where you left off. You know, we were talking so Daniel and was sharing kind of her experience or her knowledge of Salesforce and the fact that her sister worked for Salesforce. So is there anything you want to add upon that? Where we kind of get into the nitty gritty of you know, the benefits of a CRM?

Speaker 1 6:13

Yep. So I always say this, I always say that Salesforce is kind of like Excel on steroids, because puts everything into a relational database. So instead of having to have six different tabs, and then these macros or formulas and things like that, Salesforce is really easy to customize. And you can go from not having a system to having an incredibly robust system, and as little as four weeks. And so the training that I provide really helps people understand what it is to be a Salesforce administrator, and what it is to be a Salesforce consultant.

Jen Amos 6:47

Mm hmm. Awesome. I love it. Let's go ahead and talk about that. Because I know that you actively focus on helping people get into technology careers, and have the flexibility to work remotely. And obviously, I'm assuming this is through Salesforce. So tell us a little bit about that. You know, I mean, what even is a technology career? You know, maybe that can help spark our listeners, interesting. Oh, that might be for me.

Speaker 1 7:12

Yeah. So there are a couple misconceptions here. First off, that everybody that works on Salesforce is working for Salesforce. And so that's sort of a misconception with the software technology as well. So a lot of times, Salesforce, builds the system and sells the licenses. But there's people that work at particular companies as Salesforce administrators, so they help develop that technology for that particular company. Or you can work at a small consulting company where you maybe have two or three different customers that your consulting company gave you. And you make sure that they're happy with their implementation, you keep up with them and log your hours. Or you can work with a large consulting company, which is where I'm working right now at Accenture, federal. And then you just work with one major client and help them and developing their software. So that's one thing. And then the second thing about being in technology is some people think that you need to code and that is one thing that Salesforce allows is that we don't need to code, everything that we do is what's called declarative, which is point and click. So basically, adding new fields so that they can track you know, the breed of the dog, or maybe the temperament of the dog, if we're talking about maybe somebody that rooms, animals, you know, you want to know, you know what kind of dog you're going to be engaging, what maybe a description of what the owner would like to see with that particular dog in the grooming session. And then we also create automation. But again, it's only by clicks. And there's no code involved. There are developers, but and you can move on to become a developer, if that's what you want. But everything that we do, you can do it with clicks, just like you can with a lot of these new software's that are out there.

Jen Amos 8:56

I like it sounds very user friendly, and customizable to the user, you know, to work for them kind of like how Jenny Lynn was mentioning with, you know, their company. It's not like at least in Jacqueline's position. She's not necessarily doing sales. And maybe sometimes with a lot of these CRM, they already kind of have their set terms, assuming that you do sales. So it's really I think it's really astounding that you really make it customizable, you know, depending on the business and what their goals are for their clients.

Speaker 1 9:23

Yep. And the other thing is that it adheres to different departments. So whether you're in marketing, whether you're in sales, whether you're in services, and you're processing, you know, issue tickets, or what have you. Salesforce is really one stop shop for all of your needs. And that's what they try to do. They've been around for about 15 years, and they've been purchasing all of these add ons. They just bought tableau, which is a really amazing AI reporting tool, and integrating it into their product offering. And so yeah, the training that I do, I've been doing it for years for eight years, just independently on my own at night, you know, with friends and friends and family, but this year, I've actually gone on to do it more formally with my company called Cloud scouts calm. And with cloud scouts, the way that the training works is that I make no assumptions. And we have people that are right out of school. Right now in my current class, I have a 71 year old man and a 61 year old woman. And so it doesn't matter from where it just matters that you have a propensity to want to learn, and you have a passion for doing it. So the first week of the course, is really just how to use the software, why companies are using it. And just the best practices to manage your leads, your accounts, your contacts, your deals, your cases, and just really the best practice on why companies use the software and why it is so critical to somebody's growth, right? Because we can't just work on spreadsheets forever, because it's not sustainable. But and then the second week, we go into the backend. So we start to say, How do I add a new field here so that they can start tracking this? Or how do I change the page layout so that it makes more sense, those sort of custom configurations that are all declarative, meaning that you just have to point and click just like you would point and click in Facebook or anywhere else that you're pointing and clicking on a computer. And then the third week is Test Prep. So we do a lot of questions and answering and talking through practice questions. Because we want people to get comfortable and familiar with the you know, test taking skills. Some people haven't taken tests, since you know, they came out of school or college. And so that is really critical for the training. There is a certification that sort of culminates with this, which is a Salesforce provided certification. It is $200. And it's 60 questions. And I think you only need to get like 40, right. And then if for whatever reason you don't pass on your first time, I didn't pass on my first time eight years ago. But for whatever reason, if you don't pass on your first time, it's $100. retake. And so that is really, my passion is for people to get this hard skill, because I came out of a business school and didn't really have any hard skills, right. It's like, I can do Excel, I can do PowerPoint, but I don't have something that sets me apart. And Salesforce, you know, is a hard skill. They have about 4.2 million jobs coming up in the next five to 10 years. It's on my website, the exact numbers are on my website, but the growth is incredible. And then the flexibility to work from home and have that work life balance is the second thing that makes it such a great, incredible opportunity.

I do have a question, but just thought I'd check in with jennylyn. See if you had any thoughts, I'm fascinated to learn this is all I mean, my sister works for the company, she doesn't do this side of Salesforce. And so I am enjoying listening because all of these words are new for me. And I don't have a ton of business hard skills, my PowerPoint, Excel, Word document Master, but CRM is all new. so fascinating.

Yeah, I love it. So Tatiana, I am curious to know, you know, you've been working with them for eight years now is what what I'm hearing, you know, for the military spouse that is kind of looking for that type of job. Tell us like how much maybe you kind of appreciated the lifestyle of having to work remotely from what it sounds like, with Salesforce. Like, how does that look like for you? And how much do you maybe let's say appreciate Salesforce for allowing you that opportunity? Right?

Yeah, so working on on software like Salesforce. I mean, my days are a little bit crazy. I've got a four year old and a seven year old, the four year old was crying. And I really, you know, as long as my clients are happy, and as long as my customers are happier, my manager, I've done the work that needs to be done. It doesn't matter if I stayed up all night doing it or did it in the morning, it doesn't matter. And I can really manage my calls as well. So, you know, it's hectic, but I get up, I get ready, I get the kids to school, and then I come home and I work. And then I pick up one kid and then I work some more and I might be on a phone call as I'm driving, you know, or, and, or I might be on vacation and still taking calls. So it's really nice because I have that flexibility. And in the military. You never know when you're going to have that minute with your husband, you know that girls like you never know if he's coming home if he's not coming home. Yeah. And so this, it just allows you that flexibility to work whenever you need to, and the ability to be a mom and be a contributing member of your household. I just don't know what's gets better than that. It's just it's the best thing ever. And I want it for everybody. I want it for everybody. That's my biggest passion is I want people to have that work life balance and to be independent and feel strong and feel like they're contributing in a meaningful way because one of the biggest issues with us as military spouses We're moving. I used to live in Virginia Beach. And then I lived in Dallas. And then I was in San Antonio. And now I'm in North Carolina, Fort Bragg. And you don't have that continuity, and you don't have that peace of mind. And you don't have that career sometimes. And this is what it is Salesforce is a career is a career. And it's not, you know, a get rich quick scheme. It's a hard skill with a career with a lot of demand that makes you feel invaluable. Even though you've, you know, committed your life to this person that you love that's in the military, a man or woman, you still feel like you can contribute. And I think that it can help with you know, just how you feel about yourself and how you feel about where you are, and, and what you stand for, and what you contribute, and what you have for yourself outside of your marriage and being a military spouse.

I just feel like I need to take your entire bit. And this is like the reason why people should work remotely, you know, or this is the benefits of working remotely. And knowing that it's possible to have a career genuine, I saw you nodding a lot. So just, you know, as always, I need to check in with you if there's anything you want to add.

I mean, she nailed what it's like to be a military spouse and tried to have a career as someone who had a more traditional career path prior to what I do. Now. I mean, I was a teacher, you have to license in every state, it's several $100, every time you move, and it's you know, depending on what state you're in, it's a several month long process. And by the time you get your license and paid all that money to get a job, you're probably already up for new orders again, and you just have to and so you have the flexibility to do something that literally moves with you, because it doesn't matter where you are is super important. As a military spouse, and all the same. I mean, I went several years where I didn't have a job outside my house. And they were really hard because I've worked since I was 13. I've always done something and to go from being a well educated person with a Master's making real money to staying at home with two toddlers wasn't the best mental health space for me. Right, you know, so to have the ability to do something that not only boosts your family income, but also, you know, helps you kind of be who you really are is super helpful. And I guess my question to you is, did you come in through like the vet force program? Like I know, Salesforce has a very has a military component to what they do.

Yeah, no, I did not. What happened to me was obviously, probably what happens to a lot of people, but I think like a month after I graduated college, I was starting my family. I was like, Hey, Mom, I waited, you know. And then, and then we moved to Dallas, and my parents company was using it, they had their own company, and they were using the software and the licenses were so expensive. And I was like, well, we need to use this. And so within six months, I figured out how to put all of their contact information, their customer information, their sensitive data, manipulate the program, so that they could pretty much do all of the processes that they were doing an Excel spreadsheets, and Salesforce. And I really saw the value in the opportunity that that had. And my husband wasn't even in the military at the time. So it was really great to get that experience.

Yeah, I just want to add upon that, I think to the average spouse who may not be aware yet that there are remote career opportunities out there. This is a dream come true, right? I mean, it's like, wait a minute, you're telling me that I can have a career, I can work remotely, you know, I can take this with me. I can be flexible, and it's very flexible hours, and I can still find that balance with my family. And my you know, and everything is Wow. You know, I mean, it sounds like a dream come through.

And I have even discussed the compensation. compensation is really what's crazy. So, I mean, right, currently just making six figures for clicking around in a system all day. I mean, I don't want to put it lightly. But I had a manager telling me that he's like, yeah, you get paid really well, just to click around and Mr. Modi. And I said, Yeah, I actually didn't vote, you know, and love. And if you decide to do independent contracting, you get paid $200 an hour. So even if you don't want to work full time for a company and as military spouses, we kind of have that flexibility because we don't need benefits because we have benefits with our spouses, but you could be working full time just get a customer to or like I said you could work at a company or you could work at a consulting company. I mean, the possibilities are endless. Just please look up Salesforce administrator on indeed.com. And then see how many job postings there are every day. I think the minute that I put my certification on LinkedIn that week, I had three job offers. Wow. And people are reaching out to you you're not sitting there filling out hours and hours and hours and hours of applications, trying to see if somebody will contact you, you know. And once you have that certification online, your inbox and your LinkedIn messages will not stop.

Wow, I feel like having the hard skills nowadays is sort of the new college degree. I mean, not obviously, like I have a degree genuine has two degrees. So I'm not trying to minimize degrees in any way. But I feel like, you know, we have this idea that, oh, when we graduate, like we're assumed to get a job, but it seems like nowadays, or at least in this situation, it's like having that hard skill is a great way to attract employers, you know, they know that you are specialized in something, right. And so that is something that is pretty, I don't know, it gives me hope, you know, for our community, Tatiana, and I very much appreciate you being on today to talk about this. So other than looking up Salesforce administrator on indeed.com, are there other ways people can learn more about these opportunities, other ways that they can apply.

So there are a ton of free resources. As I said, there's millions and millions and millions of jobs that are coming out of this software in this application that all companies are using. And the first thing I would want to point people to is trailhead.com. So just like you're going hiking in the mountains, trailhead, comm is a free resource. It's free modules for people to start learning Salesforce, you just go in there and you can start just do admin beginner, and you can start doing trails there. Also, as military, we have this additional benefit, which is military trailblazers, you can look up military trailblazers on Google and go to their website, but they actually offer they pay for all your certifications, there's 21 certifications, I do want to put that out there, the career growth and the career path for this is, like, immense. So if you want to go into marketing, if you want to go into retail, if you want to go into customer service, whatever it is that you might have a propensity for a background for or an interest in, Salesforce sort of allows you that flexibility to get into that sort of job. So yeah, trailhead.com, and then military trailblazers. They offer training, and then the mayor of his foundation is also a small nonprofit out of Austin. And they also provide cohorts once in a while, not once in a while, but ever so often a couple of times a year. That's just limited space. So so that's the one thing but with cloud scouts, we're coming up with a program that I think would help put people into that chair into what it would be like as an administrator, or an analyst to sort of give them that sense, because it's still hard to grasp what somebody would do in that role. And after discussing it,

yeah. Is there any way people can fail? me because I feel like this is like such a great opportunity. No way to feel

my biggest quote to everybody is if you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough. Because I didn't pass my first time and I cried, and my husband was like, why are you crying? Nobody cares. And I'm like, Oh, yeah. Like, I'm not in trouble. And you

know, that's true.

You know, and so I didn't pass my my certification. My first one, I think I have like four or five certifications now, but I didn't pass it the first time. And I just, you know, picked up my big girl panties and signed up for it. Two months later. I think it was my birthday when I actually took that test and was crying.

Oh, that's probably Yeah. Like another birthday present. I

wanted. Yeah, exactly.

My ticket in December. And then I signed up again, my biggest thing for people is get involved in the community. There's groups, there's Salesforce groups, and every single country in every single state in every single city. So you can also look up Salesforce admin group, Salesforce developer groups, get in there, start going to their meetings once a month, or whenever they're holding it. They have Salesforce Saturdays, where people go in and do modules together and get to know each other, somebody brings coffee. So get ingrained, it's free, everybody there is as excited and helpful as I am. We're all in this together. We all want people to succeed. And so networking, and then finally, sign up for that test. I didn't do any of my certifications without signing up for the test, because then you have to prioritize that time. And that's my biggest advice to everybody is just sign up for the certification. Like I said, it's $200. But if you go through the military Trailblazer program, it's free. And there's always discount codes. I'll send you a couple that I have right now. Yeah, please. Oh, yeah. Who put those on your website?

Send it all? Well, I know what my next career is going to be if podcasting fails, and I divorced my husband, that's not happening. But I'm just saying if they if stuff hits the fan, I think I know what to look into that.

Here's one more time.

Yeah, yeah. Thank God for a couple counseling gentlemen Any thoughts?

I know I just I appreciate the ease with which you explain that thing if I'm being completely honest there were still words you use that I'm like huh still fundamentally at 38 years old when two college degrees that is really still very much over my head but I mean I do appreciate you talking about all the resources Salesforce does have an extraordinary amount of things and I think for someone like me is find that a little too overwhelming so I appreciate you kind of narrowing it down especially for the military or community like here are three hard and fast to go to I'll also just throw a plug out there that within the Salesforce network the trips that they send people on because my sister's the trip planner are freaking amazing. I have been trying to figure out a way to like join her on one of those four years now that I don't have toddlers it might be a little easier to like come before come after and hang out and all the cool cities she goes to so I mean there's a lot of there for sure is a lot of opportunity that

teller you're getting your Salesforce certification and that you need to come on the next.

God so funny. There you go. That's it. That's all we need. Wow. Well, Tatyana You are a valuable resource to our community. Is there anything else any other things you want to give away or share with us for our listeners here at holding down the format's

that's what I want to give away. I want to give everyone here an outlet for any despair any, any mental health issues that they've been having any questions about, you know, who they are, what they're doing, or how they're contributing, this career field can work for everybody. It works wonders. And the demand is so high. I mean, you know, if you for whatever reason don't like a position, you can jump to the next one in 2.5 seconds, or come back around. So it really puts the power in your hands. And that's why I love empowering people with these capabilities.

Wow. Well, well, we already shared a couple of links already. But is there any any other links you want to throw our way? Obviously, you can email me all of this now include in the show notes, but anything else? I think we covered all our bases, right? Yes,

I think this is a great podcast to listen to and sort of get listen about what the opportunity go to trailhead comm maybe listen to some YouTube videos for military trailblazers, they used to be called that force. So maybe look at that. And feel free to reach out on LinkedIn, Tatiana cook, and with an E for excellence. And yeah, I'm here to help. I

want you to succeed. I love it. I'm so inspired. Like there are people that want to help. They do exist. Awesome. Well, Tatiana, thank you again, so much for your time here today. I'm sure that we'll have some listeners probably reach out to you sooner than later. and gentlemen, any closing thoughts from you before I do my closing statement that's always readily available for me now because I'm organized. Yay. No,

I think Tatiana shared all the information everybody needs.

Fantastic. Awesome. All right. Well, with that said to our listeners, we hope that today's episode gave you one more piece of knowledge, resource or relevant story so you can continue to make confident and informed decisions for you and your family. We look forward to speaking with you in the next episode. Until then, tune in next time.