21. Cancer Diaries - A Year in Review 2022

The title of this blog alone gives you a clue that this year did not go to plan. It's usually around this time of the year that I reflect on what I have achieved. I'm going to do the same for this year as, believe it or not, there were some silver linings. Let's dive in.

I made a strong start to the year by scooping the User Experience Designer certification in early January and later, attained the Business Analyst one in July.

I put on my best Radio 4 voice (and accompanying face?) with a few Podcasts; Admin to Architect and MVPerian Talks, discussing what makes a successful project delivery and user adoption. 

In February I embraced the continued virtual Salesforce Community meetings by joining the Newcastle Women in Tech to deliver a presentation on my career journey and then over to the Cotswolds group to present how to create a Centre of Excellence - a new talk I had curated and had plans to extend further. 

My content writing also took a spin out in the early months with pieces on gender inequality in hiring and Salesforce career conversations for International Women's Day.

And then I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in April and my creativity took a back shelf position for a few months while I got to grips with my new found health challenge.

Who am I kidding? Behind the scenes I was still contributing to the London's Calling community conference which we held in June. Even though I sported a new look that could have come from the uniform of middle management of the Death Star with my grey cap, I was delighted to have enough energy to be on stage with my fellow organisers and deliver another successful event. 

London's Calling sparked a week of Salesforce events, as London World Tour was in hot pursuit the following Thursday. The obligatory Tour warm up meetings for Admins and Developers were held on the Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Us Admins were back to celebrating our big events with cake, the first time since the pandemic. I was also invited to attend a feedback meeting along with other MVPs with Salesforce CMO, Sarah Franklin and UK CEO, Zahra Bahrololoumi on the Wednesday afternoon too. 

London World Tour was a busy event for us Admin Group Leaders, with 2 speaking slots on the bounce in the expo theatres; the first on 'Meet the Admin User Group' and the second, 'Specialise, what will you skill focus be'. I also given a special treat to meet keynote speaker from the day, Benedict Cumberbatch. Cancer has its perks at times!

During the summer months, feeling more stable with my cancer treatment, I was able to say yes to more content contributions for a variety of sources and provided thoughts on the following subjects: Dreamforce tips, certification preparation tips, a Salesforce MVP feature, how to build a brand image, and user adoption.

How does a girl celebrate her 50th birthday? At a DevOps conference, of course! The girl had to sing for her supper (cake actually) as a member of a panel discussion on 'Salesforce pressure cooker, the heat is rising'. I was rewarded by being presented on stage with the most amazing cake afterwards. The Gearset team have great cake game!

A few weeks later I was on my first flight in 2.5 years heading back to San Francisco for Dreamforce. A much missed event which really only works best when in-person so you can catch up with friendly faces and absorb yourself in the true theatre that Salesforce brings. I had a busy schedule for the event with 3 speaking commitments and booth duty too. The London Admins were on form again as we took our 'Specialise' talk on tour to the States. I followed this with 2 other talks; Supercharge your career with Community Groups and a Circles of Success talk on Data Quality Blues.

I continued with providing content as requested up until the end of the year, covering subjects such as; implementation tips for a hiring guide, how sharing in a community can build your skills and help your career. I have also become a technical reviewer for Packt and am adding my feedback on a book that is currently in progress and is due to be published in 2023. My last engagement of the year was a panel session with the Architect Club on the subject of Adoption enablement. We then enabled ourselves to the pub afterwards for some Christmas cheer.

This year did not go to plan, but this year's plans did not go to waste. I was hit with a massive curve ball of a cancer diagnosis but I didn't let it stop me. Sure, plans were adapted but these things happen all the time, especially with project delivery. I think of Theory of Cake (if you don't know, then buy my course: Delivering Successful Salesforce Projects) and how, whatever happens, deliver something, even if it wasn't what you originally planned. And that's what I did. I kept going and it was the Salesforce Community, along with my family and friends, who supported me through this difficult chapter. It is thanks to you, and this rather special group of people who have kept my spirits up, who have laughed and cried with me along this journey. It's not over, but its good to be cancer free and I'm looking ahead to 2023 which will be a much better year; how can it not be? Cheers!

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