Episode 36 · Season 1
From Accidental Admin to Salesforce Evangelist | Mike Gerholdt
What actually makes a great Salesforce admin? In this episode of Salesforce at Scale, Greg Banks and Allie Nelson sit down with Salesforce evangelist Mike Gerholdt to unpack why empathy, user understanding, and community matter more than technical wizardry.
What you’ll learn
- Why empathy is the most important skill for a Salesforce admin
- How “SABWA” helps you design better solutions
- Why the Salesforce community is one of the most powerful learning accelerators in tech
Who it’s for
Salesforce admins, architects, technical leaders, and business stakeholders responsible for scaling Salesforce inside their organization.
Guest + credibility
Mike Gerholdt is widely known in the Salesforce ecosystem as a longtime evangelist and community leader. In this conversation, he shares lessons from his journey into Salesforce and insights gained from years of engaging with admins and leaders across the community.
Primary CTA
Follow the show and share this episode with a colleague working to scale Salesforce inside their organization.
Recommended Links
We cover
- Becoming an accidental Salesforce admin
- The moment configuration “clicks” for new admins
- Salesforce Admin by Walking Around (SABWA)
- Empathy and user experience in Salesforce design
- Thinking like an owner, not just an admin
- Designing Salesforce around real business processes
Chapters
- 0:00Intro & Mike Gerholdt’s journey into Salesforce
- 3:40Becoming an accidental Salesforce admin
- 9:12The moment configuration “clicks” for new admins
- 12:14Salesforce Admin by Walking Around (SABWA)
- 17:29Empathy and user experience in Salesforce design
- 24:19Thinking like an owner, not just an admin
- 29:50Designing Salesforce around real business processes
- 36:00Learning Salesforce skills step by step
- 44:19The power of the Salesforce community
- 52:01Why giving back strengthens the ecosystem
Mike Gerholdt
Salesforce
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