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Transcript

from your peers webinar on the topic of how to apply and stand out as a champion.

I’m Susan Aziz and I’m thrilled to be your host today. I lead our customer programming for ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Experience Platform, including the Champion program, and I’m joined by my co-host today, Kelsey Biondich. Kelsey, over to you. Hi, everyone. It is so great to be here. I am Kelsey Biondich. I’m a senior manager on the Adoption Marketing team, and I’ve been with ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ for just about seven years by way of the Marketo acquisition. So I’ve spent a lot of my career building these powerful customer programs, just like the Champion program, and we’re super excited to share more information with all of you today. So you can see the agenda on the screen. We’ve got a great session lined up with some incredible speakers. We’ll be sharing insights into the program, its impact, and what makes a truly standout application. But before we dive in, I know my co-host Susan has a few housekeeping items for you. So, Susan, over to you.

Awesome. Thank you, Kelsey. So over the next few slides, I’ll be sharing some housekeeping information, but in the meantime, I’d love for everyone to take advantage of the chat. We have an awesome chat moderator here to help answer any questions, so don’t be shy. Drop your thoughts and questions in as we go. But to kick things off, let us know in the chat where you’re joining from, what you’re hoping to learn today, if anything specific caught your eye about this session, and just for fun, are you team sushi or team pizza or neither? That’s okay. I’ll go first. I’m based in New York City, and I’m a foodie at heart. If I had to choose, I could eat sushi for the rest of my life. I’m really excited to see your answers roll in.

All right. While you’re sharing in the chat, just a couple of quick housekeeping notes. We are recording the session, including the sushi versus pizza debate, and we’ll be posting the recording and slides in the community afterward, so you can revisit anything you missed. Also, don’t forget to make the most of the chat. It’s one of the best parts of being here live. Feel free, again, ask questions, share your own insights, and connect with others today. And lastly, we’ll be launching a few quick polls throughout the session today. We’d love to hear from you, so please take our polls. One last quick note, you’ll find the resources box with all the links to the Champion Program applications. They’re organized by solution, so feel free to explore those as we continue our webinar today, or save them for after the session. Let me take a quick look at the chat to see if I’ve missed anything. Pizza. Looks like pizza is the winner so far. Where are my sushi fans? Just kidding. With that, I’m going to let our speakers introduce themselves.

Be sure to share sushi or pizza. I’m going to have Mary Alice, then Gatai, followed by Wilson and Enrico come off mute and say hello.

Hi, I’m Mary Alice Orr, and I work at Alliance Bernstein, which is a financial asset management firm based out of Nashville, Tennessee, where I also reside. I’ve been there for six years overseeing digital product management, focusing on AEM, Marketo, and ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Target. I’ve been an AEM champ for two years. Super passionate about being a part of this community. It’s really truly a group of amazing people and has been amazing for my career and has been truly a career highlight for me, so love this group of folks. I’m a musician also on the side for fun, and I would say pizza for sure, 100%. I’d love a little sausage sprinkled in there as well, so that would be my vote.

All right, Gatai, over to you.

Hi, I’m Gatai Ben-Ami. I’ve been working with the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Stack for long enough that it was still called Omniture. I currently work for Accenture, and I do a lot with CJA, CJA Implementations, ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Analytics. Right now I’m working with a team that’s doing a lot of Target and ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Analytics work as well. I really do love being a champion. It’s a tremendous community, a huge amount of resources and opportunity to display thought leadership. I live in Seattle. I have a kiddo who turns 12 next month, and I have a Corgi, and she might hop in the picture at some point. I’ve got a Sphinx cat as well.

Are you team sushi or pizza, Gatai? Oh, pizza, definitely pizza. I love pizza. I make pizza. I worked for a good year to get my own pizza crust recipe right. I’m very, very happy with it.

Awesome. Lots of pizza fans. Wilson, over to you. Hello, everybody. My name is Wilson Faurie. I’m a director of digital marketing platform at Cox Communications based here in Atlanta. I’ve been with Cox for close to 11 years, and then coincidentally is the time that I’ve been working in the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ platform. So since AM 6.1 implementing here in the system in the company. So currently I manage the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ platform, and then we are getting all the products very soon. But we have the entire stack, and I’m also responsible for the front end, back end, middle layer infrastructure and cloud for our site and the applications that we run through it. The thing of being the champion is that we’re going to talk more today, but it’s a fantastic group of people. You’re going to be surprised that when we posted a question on a Slack channel, you get within less than 30 minutes answers from different parts of the world. So it’s a good, fun group of people. That’s a very important thing to say. And then I’d love to share our experience with folks here on the call today.

Oh, and I am a sushi guy. Team sushi.

Hi, y’all. I’m Rico De Leon. I’m a senior manager of marketing operations at JAMA Software based out of Dallas, Texas. Let’s see, five time champ and working in Marketo, Marketo engaged for over 10 years.

Let’s see what else. So definitely been working in Marketo as well as owning our marketing tech stack here at JAMA Software. In terms of sushi or pizza, I’m like both because technically Dallas is landlocked. So sushi pizza is my answer and that’s what I’m sticking with.

I love it. Amazing. Well, it seems like there’s a lot of pizza fans, but.

All right. Moving on to Kelsey. Wonderful. All right. So let’s start with a quick overview of the champ program. This is why we’re all here today. So the champion program is an application based program that takes place once a year. And ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ’s most knowledgeable and passionate customers get the chance to apply to become a champion like the folks we have on the call today. If you are selected, these individuals take on a really exciting role. They become thought leaders and product influencers. They share their technical know how, best practices and strategies with the broader ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ community, including both customers and partners. Now, this is not a brand new initiative. The program actually started back in 2011 and it’s inspired by the well-known Marketo champion program. But since ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ’s acquisition of Marketo, we definitely saw the value in the program. And so we’ve since we’ve expanded to multiple other solutions across experience cloud. There are so many great benefits to being an ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ champion. And you’re going to hear more about that from our amazing panel of champions a little later. But before we get into that, I wanted to highlight a few benefits right now. So first, this program will give expert ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ users and partners a platform to really shine. It’s a great opportunity to showcase your thought leadership, build your personal brand within the industry. Second, champions get to collaborate directly with our product teams. That means influencing roadmaps, joining beta testing programs and even helping with some certification programs. And then lastly, it’s all about connection. Champions get to network with a global group of product experts and grow their professional communities in a really meaningful way. So whether you’re looking to lead influence or just connect with other experts, this program has something for you.

All right. Talking about program eligibility and kind of what we look for in a great ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ champion. There are really two core qualities that stand out for us, and that’s experience and passion. So let’s start with experience. Champions are people who have deep hands on knowledge of ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ products. They’re practitioners. They’re the folks that are in the tool every day who really roll up their sleeves and know the ins and outs of these tools and technology. And then secondarily, there’s passion. So we’re really looking for people who genuinely love sharing what they know. And whether that’s helping people in the community, mentoring other peers who are just getting started on their learning journey or just being excited to talk shop. Champions are the natural knowledge sharers. So if you’ve got both of those experience and passion, then you’re already a really strong candidate. But if you’re thinking about applying, there are also a few bonus points. These aren’t required, but they help you stand out a bit. So number one, have you been participating in our amazing ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ User Group program, which are customer led meetups that take place virtually and in person all over the world? We’ll share more resources about that a little bit later.

Have you participated in any ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ events or industry events, either in person or virtually? Are you active in experience like community or marketing nation? Have you been recognized with the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Experience Maker awards? I think I saw a few veteran winners of the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Experience Maker awards in the chat. So be sure to ask some questions about that. And then lastly, have you been contributing to a personal blog or sharing insights regularly that are available to the broader community where other people can learn from your expertise and your knowledge? All right. And lastly, I would be remiss not to mention that outside of the core program benefits, there are some exclusive opportunities that come with being an ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ champion. These are the kinds of opportunities that we feel make the program truly special. And if you talk to any of our champions today, I think a lot of the things listed here will kind of resonate and stand out to them. First, we have an annual ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Champion Forum. So this is an exclusive invite only just for our champions two day event held at ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ HQ. It’s a chance to connect in person with your fellow champions, dive into personal and professional development sessions and collaborate directly with our ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ product leaders. It’s a really powerful experience that brings the community together in a meaningful way. Next, there are a lot of speaking opportunities. So champions often get the chance to present at major ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ events like Summit. We have an amazing program called the Skill Exchange webinars and also Developers Live. It’s a really great way to share your expertise, build that public speaking skill and get your voice out there in front of a global audience.

Finally, there’s also early access to innovation. Champions get to partner closely with our product teams, participate in beta testing, and you’ll be some of the first people to try out new functionality before it even hits the market. So you’re really helping to shape the future of the products that you use every single day in your roles. And of course, I know people are going to ask about this one. It’s a hot topic, but we have custom swag as well. So champions get some seriously cool gear. We’re talking custom shoes and jackets, a lot of other unique items that help you stand out and identify yourself and show off that champion pride. So whether it’s the exclusive events, the speaking gigs, the swag and early access, being a champion really does come with a lot of amazing opportunities.

All right. That was amazing. Thank you, Kelsey. Hopefully you are all as excited as we are. And we know that customers have a lot of questions about what makes a strong application, which is why we’re having this session today. So without further ado, let’s hear from our ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ champions. We’ll start the roundtable with the first question. So what would you say to someone who’s unsure if they’re qualified enough to apply? Let’s start with Kitai, followed by Rico and then Wilson and Mary Alice. So when I first applied, it was because my manager kind of made me and I thought, we’ll see what happens. And then I got into the interviews and some of the people in interviews were really, really incredibly technically qualified people. But the thing one of the things that made me stand out this somebody has been mentioned earlier was that I was running a tick tock all about ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Analytics, doing tips and tricks, guides, things like that. I was the only voice on TikTok at the time doing anything on ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Analytics. And also, it’s not just about the level of skill. It’s also a lot about your passion. Like I really clearly care about ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Analytics. I really am an ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Stack super fan. I keep stacking up the certifications and things like that. And I really am an evangelist for it. I believe in the product and I push it. And a lot of that came through. So all of your public advocacy, anything like that, that really, really will help you stand out above the pack, because there’s a lot of people who are very good at the tool. But how good are you at making sure that people know how good the tool is? If you can get those two things and show that you really want to help support a community of users, that really helps you stand out regardless of your technical qualifications.

I’ll chime in on that. Like any marketer, definitely have a bit of imposter syndrome. So I understand the trepidation, especially wondering if you’re qualified enough. But look, if you have the minimum requirements, especially the expert certifications and the in-depth experience in the platform, I think going through that application process will give you the experience of at least applying. You’ve got to put yourself out there. So I say that that’s the biggest step for pushing yourself to go through the application process. In or out, I think it’s going to set you up for success. I think we’re all coming from different experience levels, but you get to a point where people start turning to you. And if you love helping people, I think that’s a big enough push to get that first application going. Wilson, what do you think? So when I talk about swag, here’s my jacket, ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Experience Managed Champion. So it’s hot here, but I’m doing effort to use it. But my experience when I joined, I was recommended by our account executive at ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ and folks that we’ve been working. And I am a great example that if you think that I’m not qualified and then reclamation about the imposter syndrome. I’ve said no, I don’t have a technical background. I cannot write a piece of code unless I use chat TPT. But the point that I have, I want to say is I’m a great example because I was very open and very transparent with the group in 2023 on the forum, the Champions Forum in San Jose. But I felt welcome because the group appreciate a different perspective from the executive side, from the business or the user, different user perspective. So and then in no way, shape or form, I felt like excluded from the nerd group or from the very highly technical folks. So and then it is a place that we can really help others with our perspective, but we can also teach. And you need to be really humble and be open to listen and hear. And it’s a great place to be. But don’t be shy if you say, oh, I’m not a expert, very expert in this area, but I want to learn and I think I can contribute in so many ways. Go for it. Everybody has a chance. Marialis, you? Yeah, I mean, I think I’ll just echo a lot of what’s already been said. But I you know, my first response to it is apply. Just if you are nervous that you’re not going to make it. We all were nervous we weren’t going to make it. I think probably everyone here would say that we didn’t think we would. I remember applying. I had been sent the recommendation by my CSM and just kind of was like mulling over it. I was like, I don’t know if this is even like, am I even going to get a chance here? But I did. And I remember the day that I got the email saying that I was in. I couldn’t believe it. I was so excited. But I think that that’s part of it is that the people that are in this program, for the most part, are so genuinely excited to be here and to be a part of this group. Like, you know, the people that want to make it count and are really interested in this work, the platforms themselves, this community, this greater global marketing technology community. I think that comes through when you apply, if that’s who you are. So if you didn’t make it, you know, a couple times around, don’t stop applying because you never know like when that could potentially change. And I would just say, make sure you showcase what makes you interesting. What are you going to bring to the table and really kind of lean into that? I think the majority of folks that are part of this group, we joke like we meet people sometimes that are not part of champs, but we’re like, that person’s a champ. Like we can tell because they have that secret sauce of like nerdiness and openness and are very supportive of the whole community. And I think that’s that’s really what makes the community special overall. So.

Love that. Thank you for sharing. Awesome. If you have not taken our poll, please do and let us know what solution you’re interested in becoming a champion for.

Awesome. Next question. What are your top no fluff practical tips for someone applying to be an ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ champion? Let’s start with Rico.

Sure. I mean, you’re going to you’re going to hear a common a common theme here, but like on top of like listing your experience, there’s a lot. I think that I actually mentioned that a lot of that. A lot of people have a similar portfolio with their experience. So I think the no fluff, like if I’m being completely honest, as you got to be yourself, something that I keep hearing is I’m too much of an introvert to get a champion or, you know, what’s the best way to get a job. Whatever. But I always say if you can express your personality on that application, you’re always going to be able to find the types of people that you can help out and and and and teach the way through whatever whichever platform you’re on. So I say be yourself. Understand that this program is about championing the platform and yourself. So think of the ways that you try to impact the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ community at large and how you can impact your fellow users.

So to add to that, and then it probably tied up to the first question as well. It’s don’t pretend to to not be something and then don’t add details on your application that you cannot. There’s no proof, but you cannot show later as a practitioner or expert on the on the on the products and be ready to to contribute and learn at the same time. Like I mentioned, and then this group is a fun global with a different background. You’re going to find people with more technical aspects, some more business, some more on the development development, some more on the architecture side. But it’s a very group, very diverse group. Everyone is welcome. And I think we need someone that it’s a think about somebody who is fun to work because we work hard when we meet together, when we prepare for event or we go to our office hours. And it’s good to have different perspectives and then be also humble. I mentioned that before to ask for help. And then I’m sure you’re going to get help and willingness to teach others as an even if it’s a competitor, because we have people that work in different companies that they they do implementations and then they sometimes could be trying the same business. But it’s impressive how you can you can contribute to a problem that I didn’t know that that type of approach to do. And sometimes you have a snippet of code that people post for you. And the other thing is don’t think that you are not good enough. So go do it. It was a surprise for me that I got accepted. I’m going to the third year, hopefully. And on my first year without having technical knowledge, I got I was voted by my champion peers as ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ champion, ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ champion for AEM on my first year. So that’s a big surprise. And it is really a recognition from the from the community that when you put some effort, you participate, you engage, you advocate about the products. And then remember, we’ve known of our champions. We don’t work for ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ. And we still dedicate a bunch of time. And then because it’s something one of the criteria is the passion. How can we put time dedicated? Because at the end of the day, when you participate in a beta program or participate on the trial or you participate on a product review, it’s so good to see that ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ get our feedback that we present on those programs, either on the Champions Forum or other events, that when we see one feature that we said, oh, I liked I recommended this, you know, we’ll help. At the end of the day, we are all as a client or as a user. We are getting benefit from those enhancements. And when you say I contributed for that is a fantastic thing.

So I’d like to add that as a very practical tip, just show examples of stuff you’ve done as advocacy. So I was able to throw in the username for my TikTok and people got to see that. And they and so you could see that there were articles I had written and I’ve expanded that the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Champions program has allowed me to really do a lot of thought leadership. And a lot of writing, a lot of public appearances, but just give practical examples of how you are advocating for the tools, whatever tool you’re doing or showing innovative ways that you’ve used it. Either of those things is going to show that you’ve got a deep passion for it. I have an old story about, you know, knocking two years off a dev cycle by just sort of hacking ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Analytics in a way that was not not intended. And but but yeah, just show what you show what you love about it, show why you think it’s a great tool and show how you were showing other people how you think this is a great tool. I always think that ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ has the absolute best tools of anything. They’re always best in industry whenever we have the best in breed sort of RFP.

I always wonder why, because we should just go with the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ stack because that’s best in breed every time and it works together so well. And if you can take that passion and show that you’ve got that passion and show that to the people and put that in your application, that’s what really matters. Passion. You’ve got to have the skills, of course, but you probably wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have the skills. But you also just have the passion, interest, the desire, the willingness. Make it clear that you want to help and give examples of that.

Yeah, I would I would second, third, fourth, all of that, I guess.

I think, you know, practically.

Showcase your best self and really come to the table showcasing that you want to be here. The other thing I will say is, like I kind of started to touch on this, the majority of people that join these groups really want to be a part of Champs. I will say some sometimes I think there’s folks that join because they’re they’re interested in the sort of the accolade of being a part of this group, but they don’t really participate once they get in. So I would say, you know, if you really want to be a part of this group, be a part of it or don’t apply. But the people that do want to be a part of it, I think it’s going to really come through that you want to be here so long as you put your best effort in across the board.

Showcase again, what makes you feel like what what’s special about you? What’s the thing that you bring to the table that nobody else can? I work on the product side. So similarly to kind of what Wilson was saying, it’s like, you know, I wasn’t technically a technical person in the role. I went to school for web development, so I know how to code, but I don’t do that in my my current role day to day. But, you know, there’s a lot of things that I’m involved with in training internally and I showcase evangelism internally at my firm and I try to do it outside. So whatever it is that you’re doing that you’re kind of advocating for the tools somewhere, showcase that ability as well.

Great tips. Love them all. Awesome. And the chat is going off. We love to see that. Great. Moving on to the next question. When you applied, what did you highlight in your application that you believe made you stand out? Let’s start with the time. Again, just the fact that I was already displaying thought leadership, I think was one of the things that made me stand out in that interview session. Everybody else around me was highlighting a lot of experience and a lot of really advanced technical skills. And that going through that, those really advanced technical skills, I was certain that I was not going to get a call back. But there were four people in that interview. Three were talking about really high advanced technical skills. And I was talking about how I brought different companies into ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ. I was talking about how when I was working for Avalara, I advocated for switching to ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ and that when the sales guys showed up, they had the easiest sale ever because they just got to sit back and let me talk because I was there ready for it, knew everything. And they were just basically sitting back and letting me do the work for them. It was the easiest sale they’ve ever made. I was talking about how I was going on TikTok and talking about the advantages of this. I had a really, frankly, I should have edited way better, but it was a long series of why ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Analytics was better than Google Analytics. And I can talk about that subject endlessly because the difference just keeps getting bigger and bigger. And I was talking about the more innovative ways I use that. So going back to that story, someone came in, asked about ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Analytics for a promotion system. I knew we’d had to undo our old promotion system for privacy concerns. And then I can’t go into all the details, but I laid out a solution and I was like, I’m sorry, it’s going to be manually fulfilled, but that’s the best I can do on such short notice. And they said, all we want to know is about tagging. We had a two year timeline. And so I guess we’ll get this done in the next month. And that sort of thing where you’re using the tool innovatively, whether that’s AP, like I’m getting my cert on RT-CDP right now, and I’m thinking of all the cool things I can do already. So maybe I’ll be a champion for that in the future.

I really highlighted that it wasn’t just I really knew how to use the tool. It is I highlighted I knew how to expansively use the tool and I knew how to advocate for the tool. So that’s how I stood out.

So adding to this, in my case, one of the I’ve been working the ecosystem in the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ ecosystem for 10 years plus. And one thing that I’ve done throughout the years is helping ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ with either one to one to customer reference calls or one to many to talk about our experiences as a customer experience as a practitioner. So that was one thing that because we got good feedback and then call to other things. But I put that as the biggest highlight is my contribution only internally to help the company to adopt all the products that we have in the stack, but also with potential clients at ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ. Because when I do that work with them, and I think that was appreciated from ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ is I wish I had that opportunity to talk to customers to know they were the pitfalls or things that I should be aware before I move to the cloud. On the second year that I applied for the champion, I was able to again, go back to my bragging sheet and then I start adding, hey, I spoke at the summit because I was invited and I was the finalist of the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Experience Award, Experience Makers Award. So those are things that you built with those references and with the knowledge that you share and learn from others.

Awesome Wilson. I’ll add to that.

I think, you know, I’ve said it already, we’ve all been kind of saying it showcasing your passion is, I would say the number one, like put time and effort into the application. So definitely like spend the time and actually think through the questions that they’re asking you and really put time and effort into that would be one of my pieces of advice. I would also say showcase anything that you do have experience in if you have certifications of any kind. At the time, I don’t, I think I was actually I guess certified in am at the time. Also, I had done some like all access pass certifications and classes I don’t know if you guys are aware of all access pass but it’s a great way to kind of learn all sorts of different tools within the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Stack which was something I was interested in. And I got to do that kind of an on demand way and receive certification for some of that so I showcase some of that. I also talked about things I was doing internally at my firm which was, again, kind of like training courses around am so we actually have like our own version of like a component library within am that we built as a separate site, and we do internal trainings for all of our stakeholders regionally as well as any new hires and we spend a lot of time on kind of that learning and development so I talked a little bit about that. And I also express and it’s coming up in the chat so I’m just going to touch on this for a second that, you know, there’s ways to enhance the platform or enhance the way that we use it that isn’t necessarily always the way that ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ frames it to everyone. So, you know, we had customizations for components for templates and things that sometimes there wasn’t necessarily a ton of literature out there for that.

And so I talked about how we were kind of introducing some of those things so if you’re wondering like, you know, is it okay to talk about the things that maybe need improvement, I would say yes of course it is that’s why we’re here, like, the people that speak on skill exchange are going to tell you the real scoop of what’s really going on and what you what you want to hear on, and the opportunities to be able to do that and to speak with the product teams at ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ is part of this program so if that’s also an interesting interest to you. I would definitely highlight that as well.

Rico, what are your thoughts on the passion, or the on any of it. I’m going to go back to a little bit there, there, there’s an interesting concept especially start thinking about thought leadership, and the application process and sometimes like reading into a lot and consuming a lot of the thought leadership, it could really paralyze you from applying. So I that was that was the approach that I took going in is being of an earlier level, you know, very fairly early in my Marketo experience. So I did get involved with crew chats, and at the time we were putting out sort of these types of webinars where we would talk about you know the things that we were encountering in our day to day work or maybe like what we encountered at summit. So I often came in with the voice of sort of the earlier user. And so I really I really leaned into that and of course, the hack I guess if you want to call it that was, I just use self deprecating humor in the application just to like, really say hey I remember that guy because that guy always has his foot in his mouth but honestly, just reference the stuff that you’re putting out there in the wild especially around your platform, and hopefully your personality does come through.

Awesome. Thank you all for sharing.

Love that everyone had such a different experience when it came to applying, but there’s so many commonalities and I encourage all of you to apply passion is key.

Okay, moving on to the next question. How can someone show impact or expertise, even if they don’t have a large public presence.

Mary Alice, you want to kick us off. Sure.

So again, I really didn’t, I was not involved in experience league, really when I started I had, you know, some folks that I worked with internally that had done a bunch of am migrations and so I learned a lot from them I didn’t frankly I didn’t even know like experience League existed I would Google things I didn’t know or YouTube things I didn’t know and then a lot of those things actually led back to experience league and I didn’t even know that that was a thing until later on so I didn’t really have that kind of persona in any way I wasn’t, you know, a leader of a user group or anything like that. So again for me it was kind of showcasing knowledge and expertise internally and showcasing that passion wherever I went so when I was at summit I was just trying to connect and network with as many people as I could that was involved in these platforms to learn from them and see how I could get involved and then when the opportunity presented itself to apply for this, as well as get involved as much as I could. I just took that. So I think there’s ample opportunities once you are part of champs of how you can get involved so you don’t have to be a speaker, you know like you could post blogs on experience league, or you could kind of like post things to your, your LinkedIn group.

There’s all sorts of ways that you can, you know, kind of get into it, or you can help like supply topics or information for other people to speak on and get them involved so I don’t think you have to be kind of this huge public presence but I think it is sort of supporting the greater idea of what we’re all trying to do and what we’re all passionate about why we’re here. End of the day, you know, when we get together anytime this group of people whether it’s at summit or when we get together at forum we’re up until And learning is as much as you can but sharing that around and if you are consistently showcasing that value to other people you’ll get noticed in some capacity or another whether it’s from a champ user group leader community leader, you know, other people involved at ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ or elsewhere.

I think it’ll start to shine through either way. So, Rico.

I mean, I mean what what what’s even like a large public presence it’s like king of the nerds.

So, so look, this is this is what I think about when you’re thinking about expertise or impact. Have you participated in marketing nation experience Lee. If even if you’re not doing like formal presentations are presenting at like summit. Have you been part of q amp a sessions Have you done panel interviews. Have you participated in user testing or beta programs with a product team. Have you applied or won the experience makers awards.

Any of that stuff just think about the times where you’ve helped fellow users, it could be meetup groups locally it could be even the meetup groups that are virtual. So, take take stock of that list those items and there’s your expertise right there. I mean, that should that should give you enough confidence if you listed out your realize how much how much you’re doing for your own platform and for your career so just just use it.

So I want to. So I mentioned my tick tock a couple times, and I want to, I want to talk about the idea of a large public presence. So, on my personal tick tock where I was just making silly jokes I had about 35,000 followers on my professional tick tock where I was talking about ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ a lot. I had 200. So, I think it made me stand out. If you search on tick tock you’re probably gonna find one of my videos, but at the same time, it was not a large, let’s not call it large public presence was very small public presence in that. But what I think was impactful was talking about how at various companies I had advocated for ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ how I had led implementations how I had tried to get clients to purchase the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ stack, how I had convinced clients first the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ stack how I convinced people to expand it. So it wasn’t just a public advocacy, it was professional advocacy, and I think that if you can mention a sort of experience of that.

If it’s supposed to impact what it’s supposed to, if it’s supposed to impact your analysis and the way you’ve developed the website, if it’s supposed to your email marketing, whatever it’s supposed to be, any way you can demonstrate that you have shown stakeholders within your company that you have advocated for your product. That is impact and expertise. And that’s really important because again, there’s always somebody fighting to sell to sell your company something else.

Awesome. Great tips, guys. Okay, moving on to the next question. What guidance would you offer to a first time applicant who may not have much thought leadership experience yet, but is very excited to continue and get involved? Let’s start with Gitaai. Help your peers. That’s the first and foremost thing that I can think of. There are user groups, there are meetups, there are forums, anywhere you can do that, you just go out and help your peers. Thought leadership is this really cool word, and I do have a lot of thoughts. I had a really cool webinar a couple years back about data driven culture.

But when you’re talking about advocacy, it doesn’t have to be that you are the cutting edge individual who is going to pull your platform onto the next level and lead a revolution in that. Just the fact that you can help your peers answer any question, no matter how basic, is really, really great. If you can help someone figure out how to do a calculated metric that’s on a forum that hasn’t been answered yet, if you can help someone figure out how to build that segment they’ve been having a little trouble with any of that stuff, that gives someone else a tool that makes the tool more useful. And anytime you do that, anytime you help them increase their expertise, anytime you help your peers become more comfortable with the tool, you help make them advocates for the tool. That’s not necessarily something advanced, but it doesn’t matter because if people can’t, if we don’t have people out there helping people use the tool, just as it’s intended without any sort of expansion, then we don’t have growth of the tools, stability of the tool. Helping your peers is so much of what this program is about. I know if I have a hard question, I can pop into the Slack channel and I’m going to get an answer.

And it’s usually going to be with a German accent. My fellow ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ champs know what I’m talking about here. But I’m going to get an answer and everybody knows that. This is really not just an advocacy program for the program, not just for ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ. This is an advocacy program for our peers. This is a community building program. So anything you can do for that, that is a way to stand out, get yourself noticed, and I think is super important.

I love that you mentioned this is a program for our practitioners. It’s their community. It’s what they make the most out of. So love that you touched on that. Rico, any thoughts here? You know, what’s weird is, I had the exact same thought about helping others. So I think I’ll go in a little bit of a different direction. When we think about things like thought leadership, everybody’s instance, I’m assuming the what applies in Marketo applies to the other platforms as well. It’s like everyone’s instance is slightly different. And so many of the thoughts are like the concepts and the processes that we may develop may be derivative, everything’s derivative. So I mean, like, what’s the difference? If you have a concept that worked for you in your instance, write it out if you if you used or if you if you were guided by some blog posts or other articles that you found and experience league, cite those and say, this is what I did differently. There’s your first piece of thought leadership, honestly, the way that I try to tell people and I hate the word thought leadership from being honest, I like to think of myself as the student perpetual student of the platforms. So to keep my head from inflating too big. But I try to tell people in terms of thought leadership, you have to eventually put yourself out there or else you’re just going to have you’re going to be a thought leader for an audience of one. So, you know, you definitely have to at least make that first step. But don’t don’t let your lack of, you know, clout stop you from being a thought leader you are you work in this you work in these platforms every day, just put yourself out there.

Awesome. Wilson, any thoughts here? We have some aha moments. Oh, that’s an option. And then the one but it’s and then this is all the things that you have to keep. How did I help others in the community? I mentioned we are here to help the product and we’re here to help the community. So that’s the big message to send.

I love all these responses. Okay, next question. What are some of your favorite ways you’ve gotten involved as a champion? We can start with Rico.

Well, if you want the short answer, Summit, peer-to-peer networking, that’s, I, they say it’s a duty. I think it’s a privilege to be able to speak to peers and whatnot, and also mixed with the other programs and see what challenges that we may come across, you know, in our in our day to day work. Internally, in the champion program, there is a leadership council. So I’m part of that leadership council for the Marketo program. And I think that’s also been so important. Super rewarding. Just because you become a champion doesn’t mean that that imposter syndrome goes away. And so we always, you know, that same methodology of bringing others up and elevating people. We also try to apply to other champs as well. So those have been the real fun ways that I’ve got that I love about being a champion.

Yeah, so Summit is a no brainer there. And the best thing is we got like a first row seat, which for everybody that went to Summit, it’s like a really challenging for sent behind. So it’s really good. That’s one point. The ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Forum is almost there. We go to ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ headquarters for two days. And it’s like really everybody’s focused on one thing, but we have the work piece. And then, but we have also the fun part. Opportunity to speak at Summit or other events that ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ promote either locally. And then it’s interesting because after you either speak of a Summit or you share on a SKU exchange or participate on a customer reference, people kind of look at you as, oh, I think he can help or she can help me with some problems. And then you get some reference and it’s a good exposure for you. Right. At the end of the day, it’s a good exposure when people look at you as, hey, you are an expert. I can help you. That can help me. And but the other thing that is very interesting is it comes from you to be part of the community. And about the one opportunity that I see, I’ve been attending Marketo user groups and I am an AEM champion. And then when you had the opportunity to participate in other market, other user groups for other programs, it’s so good because one, they welcome you. And then you learn what other people are doing in their space. One more thing that I want to say is, of course, the swags that we get plenty.

It is the create the content for either Experience League or write articles for the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ business sites or their blogs. So and then that’s one thing that ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ does well to fully support. Going back on the previous answer about the public presence, I don’t have like a large I don’t have a TikTok or X platform that I can talk about this. I’m a little shy on that type of thing. But when ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ before Summit 2024. Yes. So they asked me to put up a three series of videos about cloud migration, our experience of cloud migration. And it’s so good because they help you from beginning to end. If you’re not comfortable with that type of thing, they help you. And then that’s only didn’t help me to put that content out there. But it helped me to prepare stuff that I need to do at work.

Awesome.

For me, I’ve went from sort of not having much exposure externally in the world of am to having a lot of opportunities through this program. So I was really lucky to have that I did a lot of interesting and fun things last year I got to speak on the virtual skill exchange. I got to work with with Susan and some other folks very closely on a perspectives piece around component a component playbook for scalability, which was really cool to work on it. I got to speak at summit. That was definitely again, a highlight for me just career wise to be able to speak there was was really fun and really cool to kind of share messaging and the big takeaway from that experience for me was the amount of people that came up and ask questions afterwards. And realizing like you have a positive impact for other people, which again, kind of going back to what everybody else is saying is a huge part of this. This is not just about you. This is the greater whole of this whole community and what you’re kind of helping to elevate it across the board with your knowledge, expertise, and also just your support of everybody else that wants to do the same thing. So all of that’s been really cool. I co chair an am user group with Wilson. So we we co chair the am southeast user group. So if you guys are interested in joining definitely check that out. But I think, you know, getting to do things like that or is also really fun.

Forum and summit, of course, great ways to kind of mix and mingle with everybody. I think my, you know, one of my favorite parts of forum this past year was like the previous year we kind of were siloed more to our specific groups and this year we got to mix kind of with the rest of the champs groups and get to know them. And for me, I work on all these other platforms too. So I don’t just work on a am in my day to day world I work on on marketo analytics target work front. So being able to kind of convene with these guys and meet them and get to know them to outside of just my individual group is also a really cool experience, kind of an expands your network. And if you have, you know, questions, you can think of it almost as like, you know, free agency help, because you’re really connected to some of them, like the biggest experts in these communities with within these groups. So that part has also been really cool to be a part of. Oh, and karaoke karaoke at quorum. Awesome. Super fun.

So I’d say, again, community. But one of the things that I really, really liked was when we got to get together with the product team, and really help them understand how to structure the roadmap to make the product better. That was really, really cool, because we all had the same it was it was fun to be with other people, expressed like the needs that we had and watch the team get together and understand that and then begin prioritizing based on that. It was a really huge deal. And then as some of those improvements have rolled out over time, it feels really good to know that we were involved in that. But as always, just meeting other people, talking to other people, getting their perspectives, the community, just everything to do with the community is just one of the favorite ways I’ve gotten to be involved. And I just love these public appearances where I get to help my peers, where I get to share my skills. It’s just really, really a lot of fun.

Awesome. Thank you all for sharing. Love the karaoke. Can’t wait for this year again. Moving on to our, I believe, final question. Don’t forget to take our poll. We would love to hear from you again. But this is our lightning round before we end. What is the most important thing attendees should do when they leave here today? Wilson, we’ll start with you.

Well, first of all, review your bragging sheet. All those activities, exposure they have help advocate opportunity events. Create a bragging sheet that you can have it before you go to advocate. But then the next one is apply to the champion. Go to the resource tab. And I’m sure there’s plenty of places on LinkedIn and all the place that all the locations that you can go and look. But the resource tab on this has the link for your specific program that you want to go. So and that’s that’s what we need to do. And the third one is practical. Okay. You will be asked to sing and then accept you cannot sing that we are the champions from Queen because that’s my song.

And I can’t wait to hear it again this year. Mary Alice, what about you? How am I supposed to top that? So go apply, please go apply. Do not like, you know, not have faith in yourself or let imposter syndrome get to you. I, you know, be be bold, be brave, go apply if you are interested in this program. And if you don’t make it, maybe you will the next time and find ways that you can stay involved in this community either way would be my biggest recommendation, as I mentioned, you know, Wilson and I run a user group. If you have if you are part of a am or if you want to talk about something that’s like am functionality adjacent or an integration within am and you want to speak on it, like reach out to us on, you know, I put in my LinkedIn, I’m sure Wilson would be happy to connect with you too. But reach out to us if you’re interested in speaking like find find ways to connect with us to connect with other people in the community where you you can showcase those things. So even if you don’t have it right now that you can be prepared for the next time. But, you know, find just find ways that you can get involved, whatever that is and whatever that means to you. And actually that’s, that’s one other thing to just sort of touch on and that talks about gets talked about a lot in the champion program anyway. Focus on the thing you do well, don’t feel like you have to like kind of go after the opportunities that, you know, maybe it’s like the flashy opportunity or whatever. If you just want to write a blog, write blogs, if you want to just, you know, meet with support, you know, be a support member to other teams or people around you and that’s where you want to spend your time for advocacy focus on that. If you want to present find ways to do that, whether that’s, you know, like coffee chats, user groups, you know, the like, but kind of spend time and focus on the areas that you do well and let yourself shine in those places. Focus focus in those areas.

Rico and Gatai, any thoughts? First off, get a current headshot because at one point they, I didn’t have one and they pulled a 12 year old headshot off my LinkedIn for a caricature. So make sure it’s up to date. Because my sense of fashion back then was not as au courant as it is today. But go apply. Don’t let that imposter syndrome hold you back from this because it’s an amazing opportunity. Go apply.

I think without getting redundant, because they’re all great tips, I was going to make some sarcastic remark about calling your parents because they miss you. But if we’re going to be a professional about this, I would say call a mentor, call an old coworker and just if you haven’t touched base with them, just, you know, touch base with those people. It’s about it’s about connection. And I think talking to people that you’ve worked with in the past may give you a bit of a perspective shift because you’re, you know, stuck in your own head. So talk to a mentor, talk to an old coworker just about career and about, you know, what you’ve been doing. And maybe that will also help inspire, you know, your application questions.

Awesome. Well, thank you all so much for taking the time to attend our webinar today. Be sure to take our poll and apply to the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Champion program. Applications will close on June 10. Again, there will be a recording going out. It will be posted on the community on Experience League. So you’ll have all the information from today’s meeting and be sure to connect with all of us on LinkedIn. Thank you again. We’re super excited and have a great rest of your day. Thanks, everyone.