Certifiably Insane
Gemma Emmett
@gemziebeth
Chris Emmett
@chrisemmett
The Inspiration Behind 14 Certs in 5 Months

Who Are We?

Gemma
What I like:
• Being alive
• My husband Chris and daughter, Mollie (5)
• James McAvoy
• Salesforce and all the fun it brings to our life
• Being in this thing together
• Seeing Chris’ expertise and enthusiasm grow
• Helping others succeed
• Seeing the world
• Getting my nails done
• Equal respect for knowledge and experience
• Writing and reading
• Learning and achieving new things
• Game of Thrones
• Light switches
• Wine, if not, Tea

• My family
• Gadgets
• Anything with an Apple logo
• Home automation (no light switches!)
• Being creative
• Love taking photos
• Briefly a wedding photographer
• Like to blog when I can get inspired
• Learning new things
• Star…
• bucks
• Trek
• Wars
• Graphic novels
• Being super sensible and super silly (at the same
time!)
• Making a difference
Chris
What I like:

Chris’ Experience
Graduated university in 2005 – Just finished Student Loan!!!
• Jobs:
• Desktop Support Engineer
• .Net Developer (really really briefly)
• Project Technical Lead (ie only technical person on project)
• Project Manager (everyone left)
• PMO (got bored of running projects)
• Business Improvement [jack of all trades]
Discovered Salesforce in late 2015
When my employer moved away from SF, I pursued a new career path
A brief history

Gemma’s Experience
First started in 2008 as a Sales Operations administrator
• First started consulting in late 2009
• First project was Sales cloud for Woburn Abbey in 2010
• Notable projects to date:
• NOW TV, Financial Conduct Authority, Methods Corporate, UK National Audit Office
• Notable appointments: Capgemini, FinancialForce, Bluewolf
Mollie came along in 2012
Rudely interrupted by breast cancer in 2013
Bounced back a stronger person in 2014
A brief history

Getting Certified
What we did

2008 to early 2017
Gemma’s Certification Journey
Salesforce
Certified
Consultant
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Chris’ New Career and Trailhead
With no experience I was given a chance
Huge case of Imposter Syndrome
I had virtually no commercial experience
The solution? Get badges!!!
• Wanted to hit the ground running at my new job
• I hit Trailhead every evening during my notice period
• 2-3 badges every night
Civil war in the household (I’m still winning… Just)
• Drew inspiration from each other
• Encouraged by each other’s success

Back on the Horse
It started with a 1:1…
“I reckon you could pass PD1…”
Then went on to achievement
Then a blog post
Then too much space on the wall next to my new
certificate
So I planned to get to Application Architect by the
end of October
What inspired Gemma to tackle the Architect pyramid

Spurring Each Other On
Chris was starting his certification journey in August
• Planned to get 6x certified in 3 years
• Passed Administrator – Aug 2017
• Passed App Builder – Oct 2017
Gemma decided to take Salesforce up on the 2 free certs offer
• Aimed to get 2 from the System Architect side of the pyramid by Christmas
• Passed Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer – Nov 2017
• Passed Integration Architecture Designer – Nov 2017
We both took on Community Cloud on 24th November
• We passed!
Momentum built like a unstoppable train

Christmas With The Emmetts
Chris then passed
• Sales Cloud – Dec 23rd
• Service Cloud – Dec 24th
Gemma also passed
• Identity and Access Management – Dec 24th
• Becoming a System Architect
Just in time for a big celebration
All thanks to mutual encouragement
What you can achieve in a couple of child-free days

Aug to Dec 2017
Our Certification Journey
Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

What’s stopping you?

Yourself?

Why Are These Exams Important?
It’s not about getting as many certs as you can
This isn’t Trailhead!
This isn’t a competition
You’re only competing with yourself
It’s about being a better Salesforce practitioner
• Learn it
• Revise it
• Pass it
• Apply it
It backs up your knowledge and adds credibility to what you do

What Preparation Do You Need?
Do
1. Try to attend a test centre
2. Failure is an option. Use the feedback
3. Go online to find flashcards (eg Quizlet)
4. Treat it like a GCSE
5. Apply your study, even before the exam
Don’t
1. Cheat
2. Blag it
3. Underestimate difficulty
4. Ignore study and resource guides
5. Ignore the community

Blogs: Google your exam and see what others are saying
Share your success!
Tell everyone when you pass – LinkedIn, Twitter, Community groups, Tesco. Be proud of your achievement!
Offer to help
Join a Trailblazer Community group
#LadiesBeArchitects
• It’s a community that aims to empower women to take on the Architect journey
• We get together every month for a virtual study group
• Allies (men!) also welcome!
Tap Into The Community
Get Inspired

Thank Y u