In our second blog series of Incredible Salesforce Certification stories, Jeff tells us how his love of Salesforce led to his whole family becoming certified. They now have 12 certifications between them!

My journey with Salesforce started in 2008, when I took a position as VP of Sales with a company that was already using Salesforce. I'll admit, I'd never used such a valuable tool before—it seemed like a magical app to me! My previous experiences with CRM systems were that they were better than Excel, but not by much. Being server-based, they were prone to losing data when servers or backups failed. Yet here, even as a standard Salesforce user, there were things that I could do that I'd not even known were possible with mouse clicks. I remember being amazed that reports were so easy to create, and that they were run in real time. And the data was actually correct!

My next role was as an SVP of Sales and Marketing for a company that was using paper files to track sales. I worked for the President, so when I posed the idea of implementing Salesforce to him directly, he replied that as long as IT did not have to own it, he would approve. My answer? "That's fine. I'll support it myself!" And so started my first exposure to the world of being an untrained Administrator.

At that time, Trailhead did not exist, so I was learning while doing. Now that I look back on it, there was a wealth of untapped Salesforce potential. I didn't really understand reporting, for example, and I would export our sales reports and then do my formula calculations and formatting in Excel to finish the report.

Skip ahead to 2011, and my wife and I made some life-changing decisions. I became an independent consultant, passed my Administrator certification, and also became a Registered Salesforce Consulting Partner. I went on to do many Salesforce implementations, consulting projects, and training sessions with companies of all sizes and industries.

Along the way, I added Sales Cloud Consultant, Force.com Developer, and Advanced Administrator certifications to my portfolio. I then decided to go down the instructor path but knew I needed more enterprise-level experience. At this time, our oldest son was a junior at Ohio State. I asked him if he'd like to learn Salesforce and get certified as an Administrator as a way of increasing his job market value. So we traveled together to Chicago and he took the Administration Essentials for New Admins (ADM201) course. I went with him and would quiz him in the evenings after his class day was over. A couple weeks later, he passed his exam and has since added the Developer and Sales Cloud Consultant certifications.

About that time, my wife was getting tired of hearing all the Salesforce discussions and not being able to participate. As it happened, I was ramping up to become certified to teach that same ADM201 course, so I posed the idea of practicing my teaching with her to benefit us both. I must have done something right, as she passed her Administrator certification!

The next summer our youngest son came home from college, and he had the choice of working a landscaping job in the Ohio summer heat, working in a restaurant, OR learning Salesforce. He made the choice to learn Salesforce. I took it as an opportunity to practice my ADM201 delivery, and he too then passed his Administrator certification exam.

So now our family has a total of 12 Salesforce certifications between us. My wife, Donalee, helps me with certain projects and can go with me when I have local customer meetings. She is also the sole Salesforce Administrator on a volunteer basis for a nonprofit called Behold Israel. Our oldest son, Wyatt, got out of college last year and has had multiple job offers due to his Salesforce certifications and experience. He works as an Admin and contributes to a variety of projects as a consultant. He also assisted me recently when I taught the ADM201 class to a group of military veterans here in Cincinnati. Our youngest son, Carson, is in school at The Ohio State University—but he continues to work on his Salesforce skills and has already built up a small customer base that he does importing and other Admin work for.

Becoming “Family-certified” has been a wonderful journey for us. The best thing is the ability to have in-depth discussions about Salesforce, where everyone can understand and contribute. It's also been a great opportunity for the boys to kick-start their careers. What's next? We have been working with our dog Daisy, and she is on track to test in the next few months. The cats? Well, some things just can't be done.

Jeff's Certifications:
Salesforce Certified Administrator February 4, 2011
Salesforce Certified Sales Cloud Consultant December 27, 2012
Salesforce Certified Force.com Developer April 19, 2013
Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator November 18, 2013
Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder June 2, 2016
Salesforce Certified Service Cloud Consultant June 17, 2016

Donalee's Certification:
Salesforce Certified Administrator August 7, 2015

Wyatt's Certifications:
Salesforce Certified Administrator August 22, 2014
Salesforce Certified Force.com Developer July 30, 2015
Salesforce Certified Sales Cloud Consultant August 2, 2016

Carson’s Certification:
Salesforce Certified Administrator July 22, 2016

If you’ve been inspired by the Susich family's story, learn more about how you, too, can become a Salesforce Certified Professional.