“I judge dance competitions on the weekend.”
Me: “Wait, really?!” I felt like I had hit the jackpot. At first, I planned to have a very straight-laced initial meeting with a professional salesforce implementation partner. By the end I found myself working with the most down to earth relatable team.
In this post you’ll learn:
- How Shannon and Cloud Adoption Solutions (a Salesforce partner) has been a resource for me
- The way in which Shannon is changing the Salesforce adoption game
- What a virtual dance competition is like
- 3 resources she uses professionally and personally to maintain work-life balance
When I first sought to work with Shannon J. Gregg and her team at Cloud Adoption Solutions, I knew it would be a great opportunity to utilize my skillset with a well-known Salesforce partner.
What’s Salesforce you ask?
Salesforce is a customer relationship management solution that brings companies and customers together.
Salesforce.com
This is a well-known platform for many medium-to-large-sized companies. In addition, I myself used it when I worked at The Ailey Studios to track customer information while managing studio rental invoices. As such, I was excited to add Cloud Adoption Solutions, a Salesforce implementation partner, to my repertoire.
The goal was to revamp their SEO and make them shine like the stars they are. However, I wasn’t expecting to, in a matter of a few short weeks, find inspiration from such a warm and supporting team. Particularly a mentor like Shannon, a female entrepreneur paving her own lane.
The bonus for me: She’s also a tech person who loves dance!
Furthermore, her guidance and expertise have been a huge help to me. Not only did she trust my knowledge and plan for a successful SEO project, but she also created a safe space for me to test my “America’s Next Best Keyword Competition” explanation of SEO and keyword research.
I am thrilled to interview her and provide others with a chance to benefit from her guidance as well.
And now featuring… Shannon J. Gregg
First, take me through a day in your life… what does an average Monday look like for you, both professionally and personally?
I like that question because women so often think about how we integrate work and life, we don’t compartmentalize the way that men do. Mondays start with a team meeting where we talk about the big strategies for the week and specifically what everybody is focused on.
Also on Mondays, usually I’m working a lot with our partners, I do governance with all of our clients, I check in on our utilization rates. One Monday a month, I close out the month before looking at our profitability and growth versus last year and versus our goals. It’s the day that I see if we’re on track to plan for the rest of the week.
Monday nights are my favorite. We have a really nice family dinner, we talk, listen to music, we have dance parties – Monday night can feel like Friday night.
So tell me, why did you start your business and how does your passion still drive business growth today?
There were 2 “major rivers” that catalyzed me to start the business:
First, I started realizing there was no one out there talking about the human aspects of Salesforce. In my previous role, I was working with companies that were using Salesforce relatively well but there were adoption issues. As these companies started acquiring other companies, I was going in ahead of time on the due diligence committee asking how can we harmonize your sales process with ours.
Salesforce got wind of this and asked me to speak at conferences. Then people started asking “can you help my company?”. I realized there was a market gap, something we could do that was different from other salesforce partners: the component of the people, process, technology triangle.
The tipping point
Second. The day I got the courage to quit my job, I had a team of all women. I went into the president’s office to discuss a couple of issues (budget, technology, etc.) and he picked his head up from his desk and said “If you’re coming to tell me any of that ‘me too’ movement shit, I don’t want any of it.”
Pause for the muted gasp I had while interviewing Shannon on Zoom.
I said I don’t have any “me too” shit but if I did you better believe I’d be bringing it to you. As I was walking out I said I can’t represent these women who depend on me to lead them and allow them to be put into positions like this. That was when I gave my 4-week notice.
It was a crazy story but I don’t want it to overshadow what I was already working on. I worked with a business coach for 6 months – I was ready I just hadn’t pulled the plug. That was the moment I said “it’s now”.
Living her life her way
At what point did you realize that you started living the life you wanted?
As entrepreneurs, we’re never satisfied but that’s a feature, not a flaw. But specifically, there was a day that my daughter had a program at school and I blocked off time to attend. I would not have been able to ask my boss at a corporate job “I have to go watch my daughter sing in a school cafeteria”. As women in corporate positions, at least previously, we don’t bring our whole selves to work.
So tell me about the PhD that you’re the first in the world to get!!!
I did my MBA through Point Park University and they are thoughtful about courageous conversations and something they did well was force people to open their eyes past their own direct perspective.
When someone called me about a new PhD program they were starting, I was initially like “no, I don’t want anything to do with that. I don’t need any more school.” However, I saw a woman I really respect say that she was entering and realized maybe I should think about this.
The program is called Community Engagement. It brings together social impact and features of leadership for nonprofit organizations.
I did my dissertation on my passion for Salesforce adoption and how can I make that appealing to nonprofit organizations. I used 3 theories: change management, adult learning, diffusion of innovation – how does an idea spread.
Let the competition begin… virtually
What’s your connection to dance? And how does a virtual dance competition work?
I danced my whole life. After college, I joined a circuit for “open dance” and compete (even today) with a team we call “Mom Jazz”. I started judging about 15 years ago and about 6 years ago I got invited to judge Dance World where people come from 71 countries. Virtual competitions this year have been a little different. Studios will get a code word and have a 10-minute window to record themselves saying the code word then performing their routine and submit on Dropbox. The judges get together on Zoom to score at the same time. Then event producers put the award ceremonies online.
The disconnect has been devasting to so many people however, the nice by-product is that the judges are giving grace – they are maintaining social distancing in the studio and understand there may be technical difficulties.
What are three tools or resources you wouldn’t mind sharing that help run your life?
- Book: “Mindset” by Carol Dweck
- NPR Podcasts: This American Life, Hidden Brain, and Freakanomics. The former two are centered on research and a nice way to learn
- Salesforce: She really loves it!
What’s one thing you wish you learned earlier in life that you live by now?
Just ask, because you’re at no if you don’t.
Last, what are you excited for in 2021?
Concerts and business networking events.
Bonus: Do you have a favorite Spotify playlist or podcast?
In conclusion, Shannon is awesome and you should follow her journey!
Shannon earned her BA from the University of Pittsburgh, her MBA from Point Park University, and her PhD in Community Engagement with a dissertation topic of CRM user adoption. Book Shannon for speaking engagements here or learn more about Cloud Adoption Solutions here.
