The Dreamforce paradox… 🤔
The Dreamforce paradox… 🤔
If you’re there – you’re probably somewhere between overwhelmed and energized. 😅
You’ve been to amazing sessions.
Met incredible people.
Your brain is full.
Your feet hurt. 👣
And you’re wondering how you’re going to remember everything you learned.
I’m not there (and yes, I have SERIOUS FOMO looking at all the picturs and posts! 😭), but I know what’s coming next…
In a few days, you’ll be back at your desk.
Back on client projects and back to reality.
And you’ll think: “Wait, what was that thing someone mentioned about Data Cloud (cough) I mean Agentforce Data Cloud 360 With Bells and Whistles? 😬 Who was that person who had the EXACT same problem I’m dealing with?” 🤷♀️
This is the #Dreamforce paradox: Incredible learning. Incredible connections. And then you go home.
But what if it didn’t have to end? 💭
Piyusha Pilania – our new #GoldenHoodie 😍in the Dreamforce Breakdown t-shirt – is somewhere in Moscone right now.
Maybe at a session.
Maybe at the Salesforce Ben Influencer Meetup at NC Square Booth #507. Maybe just walking around.
Find her today or tomorrow.
Well, before you leave San Francisco!
Because the #ZenClub offer ends when Dreamforce ends – Thursday, October 16. That’s it. ⏰
This is about what happens after the conference high wears off.
It’s about having a community of people who absolutely GET IT.
When you’re telling them your horror story, your tale of woe, your catastrophe – they’re nodding their heads going “Been there. I know EXACTLY what you mean. Here’s how I dealt with it. Here are the things to look out for.” 💪🏻
These are people who understand your challenges and who can help you implement what you’ve learned at Dreamforce.
Go find Piyusha and get that Dreamforce rate.
Join Zen Club.
📢BONUS: If you’re wearing a Dreamforce Breakdown t-shirt, definitely find her! You might walk away with one of my books (Salesforce Discovery 101, Successful Salesforce Projects 101, or Salesforce Consulting 101). I poured my heart, sweat, tears, and battle scars into those books. Go get your free copy! 📚
Make these last few days count.
I might not be there in person, but through Piyusha and Zen Club, I want to support you beyond these three days.
Find her and join our community.
Let’s make sure Dreamforce is the beginning, not just a moment. 🌱
See you there! 🥰
Look for this shirt at #Dreamforce! 👕 😍
Look for this shirt at #Dreamforce! 👕 😍
This is the Dreamforce Breakdown T-shirt – the winning design from the Shirtforce competition. (BTW, Shirtforce is an amazing organization supporting nonprofits and getting people to conferences so they can learn! ❤️)
Piyusha Pilania designed the concept and I did the doodles – it’s at #DFPSquared collab! 😁
She’s my friend, business partner, partner in crime, and Zen Club co-founder. And she’s speaking at FOUR sessions during Dreamforce: 🤩
🍩 Discover Salesforce Channels inside Slack
🍩 Level Up Your Career with 100 Days of Trailhead
🍩 LWC Basics for Admins and Developers
🍩 Unlocking Agentic Productivity with Slack Actions
She’s brilliant and incredibly approachable.
And she gets what it’s like to be a consultant in the trenches, dealing with real client projects that don’t always go according to plan.
Also she’s got the scars and singed eyebrows that I have too. 😅
Over my last few videos, I’ve shared sessions I’d be excited about if I were going – data strategy, implementation, architecture, DevOps, AI, Agentforce, and how to survive #DF.
Dreamforce is incredible for learning. But the real magic happens when you take that learning back to your desk and apply it to real-world projects.
How many of us actually do that? 🤔
I’ve been to those Tony Robbins UPW sessions where you get fired up to make (dietary and fitness) change… and then go back and continue eating all the same crap as before.
It’s not so easy to sustain change when you’re on your own. 😬
But I’m determined to help people make REAL changes – especially those in project delivery and tech.
Whether you’re a business analyst, Salesforce admin, configurator, developer, QA, project manager, CRM platform owner, product owner – if you’re involved in project delivery and need a place to talk about your specific scenario and ask for help, Zen Club is for you.
It’s a membership community for people who want to discuss real-world challenges with others who understand
👉🏻Real problems
👉🏻And have real solutions
👉🏻with real support from people who’ve done it before. 💪🏻
During Dreamforce ONLY, we’re offering #ZenClub membership at a special Dreamforce price that won’t be available afterwards.
Go find Piyusha, tell her I sent you, ask her about Zen Club!
📢📢BONUS: If you’re wearing a Dreamforce Breakdown t-shirt, show it to her – you might win one of my three books:
📚 Salesforce Discovery 101
📚 Successful Salesforce Projects 101
📚 Salesforce Consulting 101
Make the most of Dreamforce.
Connect with Piyusha and discover what Zen Club can do for you.
And please – look after yourself!
Hydrate.
Snacks.
Pace yourself.
Get enough rest.
If you’re staying close enough, take a nap. It’s wonderful. 😴
Have a great time. Enjoy Dreamforce! 🥰
(I’m not there so I can’t say “see you there” but I’ll be cheering you on from this side of the pond!)
#OnThePeiroll #SalesforceConsulting #Community
Take a pic of yourself with one of the cracking Shirtforce tee
Take a pic of yourself with one of the cracking Shirtforce tee to add another amazing shirt for your wardrobe! 😍
Not only that but you’ll be helping a good cause, sending people to dreamin conferences 🥰
How do you survive three days of non-stop conference energy
How do you survive three days of non-stop conference energy without completely burning out? 😥
The thing is… Dreamforce is exciting (no doubt abuot it!)
But it is also INTENSE.
Overwhelming.
Loud.
Exhausting.
And if you don’t take care of yourself, you’ll crash by Wednesday afternoon. 😣
Survival tips (especially for first-timers):
🍩 Connect with other first-timers – Tuesday Oct 14, 8-9am at Yerba Buena Gardens. Meet Misty DeRamus, ISTQB, CSM and Monica S.. These connections matter. ❤️
🍩 Comfy shoes – You will walk MILES. Save the cute shoes for dinner. 👟
🍩 Snacks and hydration – Target (789 Mission St) or Trader Joe’s (555 9th St). Stock up on YOUR snacks. And HYDRATE. 💧(thanks for your coffee crisps Kathy Waterworth 😍)
🍩 Find quiet spaces – Step outside. Sit in Yerba Buena Gardens. Take 15 minutes to just breathe. 🧘
🍩 You don’t need all the parties – If you’re exhausted? Skip it.
#Dreamforce will still be amazing tomorrow if you’re well-rested. 😴
🍩 Pace yourself – You cannot do everything. Choose what matters most to YOU. 🙅♀️
🍩 Recharge when needed – A 90-minute power nap might save Thursday. Take care of yourself. 🛏️
For my fellow introverts 💗:
You don’t have to go to Dreamfest. Find your people who want something different.
Like Katie Villanueva and the Mental Health + Illness User Group meetup: Game, Color, & Connect Tuesday Oct 15, 6-9pm at InterContinental Hotel lobby
Invest in connection without the craziness (omg it can get SO crazy!) 😵💫
Games, coloring, conversation – human connection at a manageable pace. 🎨 (link to join this meetup 👇🏻- make sure to set filter to “Most Recent” as LinekdIn hides comments with URLs 🙄)
Katie‘s shared openly about her fear of flying – how it took SIX YEARS before she could get on a plane. How amazing people like Stacey Whitaker, Joy Shutters-Helbing and Jennifer W. Lee literally held her hand at airports, kept her company on flights.
That’s the power of this community.
Safe spaces where it’s okay to say, “I need help.” ❤️
That’s what matters – not how many sessions you attended.
The RELATIONSHIPS. ❤️
This is what #ZenClub is about too – building spaces for tech folks who want excellence WITHOUT burnout.
Find Piyusha Pilania at Dreamforce (lookout for the Dreamforce Breakdown t-shirt) and ask about our Dreamforce-only offer to join the Zen Club 🫰🏻
Dreamforce is amazing but it’s also exhausting.
Give yourself permission to do it YOUR way and connect with people who fill your cup.
The best part of Dreamforce isn’t the keynotes or parties – it’s the real, human connections you make. 🌹
And I am already seeing photos of all the people I love 😍
Have fun but remember to take care of yourselves out there! 🥰
Agentforce sessions you can’t miss at #Dreamforce! 🤖
Agentforce sessions you can’t miss at #Dreamforce! 🤖
Agentforce is where Salesforce is heading, and your clients might already asking about it. If that’s true, here are two sessions I’d absolutely attend:
🍩 Team Agent Halos – “Hackathon Strategy for Winning with Agent Force” Wednesday 11:00am (that’s morning, not evening!) Moscone West, Level 3 Astra Theatre
My friend Janeen Marquardt, MBA, PMP and her incredible team (Joseph K., Zachary B., Vanessa Thomas, and Christopher Easter, MBA) WON this at TDX this year with a $100k prize! 🏆
These folks figured out how to build something that actually works, impressed the judges, AND solved a real-world problem. Learning from competition winners is GOLD. They’ll share their strategies, their process, their mistakes – the kind of practical AI implementation insight you can’t get from documentation.
🍩 Piyusha Pilania – “Unlocking Agent Productivity with Slack Actions”
Yes, my #ZenClub co-founder! She’ll be showing how Slack Actions enable
#Agentforce to automate tasks, streamline collaboration, and enhance productivity. This isn’t just AI for AI’s sake – it’s about making your team actually more productive. And Piyusha is an incredible speaker, so you’re in for a treat. 🥰
The thing about AI though…
Your client says “We want AI” and you’re thinking: Okay, where do we actually start? What’s realistic? How do we DO this? 😬
That’s where Zen Club comes in. It’s where we have those real conversations:
❓Has anyone actually done this?
❓What worked? What didn’t?
❓What problems did you encounter?
❓Technical issues vs human issues?
A lot of it is change management, but a lot is technical too. We’ve built this space to deep dive into any problems our members have and get real answers to real problems. 💪🏻
If you’re at Dreamforce, find Piyusha – she’ll be wearing her Dreamforce Breakdown t-shirt (her winning Shirtforce entry!). Ask her about our Dreamforce-only membership offer – it’s only available during the event, so don’t wait!
I’ve got major FOMO not being there, but please enjoy Dreamforce for me!
And remember:
💧 Hydrate
👟 Wear comfy shoes
😴 Don’t overstretch yourself (especially if you’re jet-lagged!)
❤️ Look after yourself
What Agent Force session are you most excited about?
“If I’m so great, why am I not in high demand?” 😔
“If I’m so great, why am I not in high demand?” 😔
Daniel asked this question during our conversation earlier today, and I know he’s not alone.
Daniel’s been in tech for over 20 years – a psychology and social work degree holder who brings deep expertise in delivering empathetic and joyful user experiences. He’s brilliant, experienced, and exactly the kind of human-centred practitioner we need.
And yet it’s been tough finding the next opportunity.
To specialize or go wide?
Is his brand of “empathy” is too fluffy for CIOs who just want outcomes?
Here’s what’s happening out there:
🥦 AI is quietly eroding junior positions
🥦 Companies won’t approve headcount unless they can prove AI can’t do it
🥦 We have AI talking to AI – candidates using it to apply, recruiters using it to filter
🥦 250+ applications within hours of posting a role
The result? Massive mistrust on both sides. 😖
But here’s what Daniel reminded me of:
In the AI era, human connection matters MORE, not less. ❤️
AI can help us breathe.
But it shouldn’t replace the deep human relationships that matter – whether that’s with donors in nonprofits, customers in crisis, or team members who are already stretched to 250%.
Daniel’s staying true to his brand: Delivering empathetic, joyful user experiences through a human-centred lens.
Not because it’s “fluffy” – but because it drives the outcomes CIOs actually care about: adoption, reduced support tickets, better data quality, systems that people actually USE.
If this resonates – remember:
🍩Your worth isn’t your employment status
🍩Sometimes the market timing just sucks (and it’s not you)
🍩Don’t diminish your struggles by comparing to others
🍩Keep putting your authentic self out there
Daniel – thank you for your authenticity and vulnerability. Your gifts matter. The world needs more people who lead with empathy. 🌹
And to anyone reading this who values human-centred design and empathetic leadership – Daniel’s looking for his next opportunity.
He’s worth talking to.
—> By the way, Daniel will be speaking at the next
#BadAssBA meetup that Vanessa Grant and myself co-lead on 28 October! Keep your eye out for the announcement! (the details to join 👇🏻- make sure to set the filter to “Most Recent” as LinkedIn hides comments with URLs 🙄)
If you’re in a good place, reach out to someone who might not be. If you’re not in a good place, please reach out to someone safe.
If you’re struggling and need someone to talk to: UK: Samaritans freephone 116 123 USA: Crisis line 988
You don’t have to go through this alone.
