I was first certified way back in 2011, only five months after my first login. I was sent along to the Administration Essentials for New Admins course about a month after starting a new job. I wasn't even hired to be a Salesforce Admin—that just sort of happened, #AccidentalAdmin. I knew I no longer wanted to be in a sales role, so the company kindly found me something else to do. Salesforce was my "out," but I knew NOTHING about it. I had to learn a lot. And fast.

After the class, I studied in my spare time for four months before sitting for the exam. Even though I passed, I felt like it was only my driver's permit—I was legal to be on the road, but still had so much to learn through actual experience. Too bad Trailhead wasn't in existence yet! Back then, I wore many hats, so it felt like it took me a long time to dig deep into the full capabilities of Salesforce. One day, I had an epiphany...I could actually make a career out of this Salesforce biz! Me, personally, as it didn't actually matter that I didn't have a technical background or formal education in MIS or coding. It was a revelation.

So I was Salesforce Administrator certified. But...Dreamforce came and went four more times...and I still had no additional certifications. #Complacent.

I've always been, and still am, a solo admin. My position is within a specific line of business (wealth management) rather than on an enterprise I/S team. So certification was never expected of me. I guess the biggest thing that had been holding me back was self-doubt. “I don't have a technical background...I probably can't do it...It's too hard...I don't have enough time...A tech job isn't for me...” Any of these sound familiar? I came up with every excuse in the book—until, that is, I went to Destination Success 2016.

At Dreamforce 2015 I found myself holding a postcard about Destination Success, a dedicated Salesforce training event being held in Las Vegas. Living in Phoenix, and being only a 45-minute flight away, I automatically started thinking, “Oooh, Dreamforce 2x per year!” And it's VEGAS! I imagined networking, parties, hands-on training. And all this turned out to be true, but I guess I didn’t realize when I first signed up that the event was so geared towards getting everyone certified, too.

The focus on certification became clear the Sunday before the event started. There was no partying or chilling out as everyone was busy studying! The Monday exam session came around and...I failed. My instructor for the week, Kevin Corcoran, told me failure is part of the process. So I continued on the Advanced Administrator track. I learned, I studied, and...I fell flat on my face. A few times, actually.

That exam was probably the most difficult of my life! I hadn’t ever NOT passed a test until then. The doubt started to creep back in. “Maybe Salesforce just isn’t for me,” I thought. Eventually, though, I learned that not passing is part of the process and it really is okay. If the exams were easy, then the certifications themselves wouldn’t have much value.

It took me a good few months after #DST16 to come to terms with my “failure.” But eventually, I got back up, dusted myself off, and tried again. And that's when it happened. I passed the exam (finally!) and became Advanced Administrator certified.

Another year went by, and I found myself back in Vegas for Destination Success 2017. My first Destination Success experience was the kick I needed to stop being satisfied with being “just okay” at my job. So for my second Destination Success, #DST17, I decided to find my knowledge gaps (especially as we had exam section-level feedback), and do something to level up my career!

My 2017 expectations were more reasonable than the prior year. I was fine with the idea of using the exam sessions as a sort of “pre-test.” Sales Cloud Consultant and Service Cloud Consultant were my certification goals. This time, I exceeded them! I went home with THREE additional certs to my name, as I also obtained Community Cloud Consultant. Plus, I had a go at the Architect track’s Sharing & Visibility Designer exam. Well, you don't know if you don't try, right?

Now, I am anything but #Complacent. I've participated in a beta class for a new cert I hope to sit for and pass when it gets launched. I may even get the opportunity to co-teach, then eventually lead, this new class to students at the University of Phoenix as part of the Academic Alliance program. Imagine that! A little more than a year ago, I was struggling with being the student, and now I'm potentially on my way to becoming the teacher for a class of as many as 50! I may also look into teaching the Admin Essentials and Certification Preparation for Platform App Builder classes. Not to mention my new goal of becoming Sharing & Visibility Designer certified, too.

What knocked the certification complacency out of me, you may ask? It had a lot to do with my certification heroes:

• David Liu—his post about being able to obtain five Salesforce certifications without having to know how to code was a real inspiration to me. David is the reason I'm going to try the Developer track next. Oh, and he's added 12 (yes, 12!) new certs to his portfolio since #DST17.
• Michael Drzewiecki—went from 10 certs to 14 at #DST17. He studies like crazy for an exam, gets hands-on, tries things, even breaks things, and refuses to accept failure. He might not pass an exam the first time, but he will work tirelessly until he does. He reads more, tries more in a Dev org, asks for help, whatever he needs to do, and then sits for the exam again. He works to become a master of the material.
• Jeanette Jett—passed an exam every day at #DST17—she went home with five new certs! She did exactly what she needed to do to prepare to sit for the five exams. She set a goal—a huge goal—then made it happen through a lot of pre-work, hard work, and determination.
• Daniel Peter—has always been my certification hero. He's not a Salesforce MVP for nothing! Daniel teaches, helps, and inspires, not to mention he's one of the most highly certified people in the Salesforce ecosystem.

Personally, I now have a job title that I'm proud of, Sr. Salesforce Administrator. But I'm looking forward even further and have plans to attend Destination Success 2018 to take the Developer track. I can just picture it now...me, being Platform Developer I certified! I may even try some of the Marketing exams while I'm at it.

The biggest piece of advice I can offer you is to set (huge) goals for yourself and then go get them. Write them down. Be accountable. Be okay with failure, but always get back up and try again. It'll be hard work, but worth it. There are so many resources available to help anyone become successful as a Salesforce administrator or developer. The certifications wouldn't be worth anything if everyone was able to obtain them easily.

The only thing that was standing in my way was me. My certification portfolio tells the story best. One cert, #Complacent, then five new certs in just 10 months. And I'm not stopping there. I'll be at TrailheaDX '17 later this month to continue my learning and kick start my developer certification journey...perhaps I'll see you there! How's your cert portfolio looking? And what are you going to do to better it?

Misty's Certifications:
Salesforce Certified Administrator September 19, 2011
Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator May 13, 2016
Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder July 22, 2016
Salesforce Certified Sales Cloud Consultant March 2, 2017
Salesforce Certified Service Cloud Consultant March 8, 2017
Salesforce Certified Community Cloud Consultant March 10, 2017

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