Hub Heroes: March 2018

The Power of Us Hub is an online community for Salesforce.org customers, certified partners and staff. The Hub is a place for you to get answers, build your Salesforce skills, share your expertise and connect with others in the nonprofit, higher education, and K-12 sectors who are using Salesforce!

Every month we feature members of the Power of Us Hub who help other members become more successful — they become “Hub Heroes”!

For the month of March, we are proud to highlight the community contributions of Trish Perkins and Scott Williams. Thanks to Trish and Scott for all you do! Want to nominate someone who has helped you in the Hub? Nominate a helpful Hubber!

We ask that our Hub Heroes share two truths and a lie about themselves — take a look below! Head to the Power of Us Hub, meet Trish and Scott, and see if you can solve their “two truths and a lie!” See you in the Hub!

Trish Perkins

HandyCapable Network, Inc.
Twitter handle: @travelertrish

1. Two truths and one lie about you!

• I have crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a sailboat.
• I have climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.
• I have been around the world 4 times.

2. Why is community important to you? What motivates you to contribute?
Why is Community important to me:
The sense of belonging to something bigger than me, of belonging to something that makes me a better person, and of belonging to people who value me for who I am and what I can contribute. When I’m in my Ohana, I’m home.

What motivates me to contribute:
I contribute because I stand on the shoulders of so so many other people who have contributed to me, who encouraged me, who supported me, who taught me, who made me laugh when that was just exactly what I needed. Because I have received so many gifts, I can’t turn away where there is some small offering I can make to another.

Scott Williams

Twitter Handle: @EmbraceYourData
1. Two truths and a lie about you!

• I once received a piece of mail addressed to Reverend and Mrs. Farm Animal, but did not open it or keep it, which I regret to this day.
• I am an excellent liar
• I was once chewed out by Casey Kasem, and pretty much had it coming.

2. Why is community important to you? What motivates you to contribute?
“I can’t say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.”

Daniel Boone in all likelihood wasn’t talking about the Salesforce platform, but he may as well have been. The Salesforce platform is vast, and so sometimes I think about it in geographical terms. Perhaps you’ve spent a lot of time exploring formulas and reports, but suddenly you’re faced with a need to travel into permissions. You can easily spend three days wandering in that new territory. Heck, it’s easy enough to get stumped for a few hours or days even in familiar territory, when you think you know the route but it just doesn’t get you where you need to be. That’s where community comes it – a post to the Hub quickly connects you with someone who knows the ground you need to cover, or who is in the midst of a similar journey, and who can point you down a promising trail, or write out step by step directions to get you where you need to be.

It’s always exciting to help someone past a problem on the Hub. Most people who post are excited about the power of the platform, and come with innovative concepts to advance their organization’s mission. When I suggest a solution, I’m optimistic that the person I help is going to be able to take what they’ve learned, and push their own abilities to create more solutions. And when I’m able to help out a seasoned consultant, I know that I’m saving their client money, and helping to advance the client’s mission. Plus, I’ve just always loved puzzles, and the excitement of finding an elegant solution.

Thinking more broadly about community, I often reflect on the value of communities I’m part of offline – the large group of parent-friends, with whom we go camping several times a year and support in so many ways; our PACT camp community, made up of families who have adopted trans-racially; the music community that kept me afloat during college and still gives me joy and connection to this day; and the DC area pickup soccer community, that has connected me with so many people of different backgrounds. I am fortunate to be connected to so many people in so many ways.