Steph Herrera is the co-founder of PepUp Tech and has a long history in the Salesforce community. After starting out at Dell, Steph developed a passion for computers and eventually coding. From there, she got involved with a variety of projects like Maris.

However, what Steph is most famous for is something that has made an indelible impact on our community, Salesforce Saturdays. Tune in to dive into the story behind Salesforce Saturdays, what it looks like today, and much more from Steph.

Show Highlights:

• How Steph ended up in tech.
• How she got introduced to Salesforce and decided to make it the backbone of her career.
• Steph’s story of co-founding PepUp Tech. 
• What PepUp Tech is doing right now.
• Where the idea for Salesforce Saturdays came from.
• How they keep it structured with 60 chapters running.

Links:

• Steph on Twitter: @steph_herrera_
• Steph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph360/

Episode Transcript

Steph Herrera:
I actually love movies, films, and wanted to act and write and produce. Then I had a daughter at a very young age and I had to pay the bills, so I went and worked in retail.

Josh Birk:
That is Steph Herrera, co-founder of PepUp Tech. I’m Josh Burke, your host of the Salesforce Developer podcast. Here on the podcast you’ll hear stories and insights from developers, for developers. Today we sit down and talk with Steph about her long history in the community, starting things like PepUp Tech, getting involved in things like Merivis. We’re going to start with one of the things that she is most famous for and something that has an indelible impact on our community, Salesforce Saturdays. This will be a two-parter, but to kick things off, let’s start right where that cold quote ended and begin with her early years.

Steph Herrera:
No, not intentional at all. I was really good at retail. I did sales. I was always top salesperson in retail. My husband at the time actually worked at Dell. We just moved to Round Rock, which is right outside of Austin, and that’s where Dell was located. He was working there and he pushed me to go do sales at Dell. I didn’t want to. I was like, “I don’t even know how to use a computer. I’ve never used one in my life. You’re crazy.” At the time, it was when the Dell stock was splitting and they were making Dellionaires of people and everybody wanted to work there.

Josh Birk:
Oh, wow.

Steph Herrera:
So it was just one reason he wanted me to go there. He was like, “You’re really good with people. I think you should go try.” Just basically just to shut him up as we do with our partners and to get him to leave me alone, I went and interviewed and somehow I got the job at Dell doing sales, selling computers, even though I’d never, ever used one before in my life. So yeah, that’s how I ended up in tech.

Josh Birk:
So in a very side door kind of way, it sounds like you just started learning the hardware I guess.

Steph Herrera:
Yeah, basically. Yeah. The nice thing about Dell is they put you through a three-week intensive training program. So I was in a class of about 20 people, majority of them had college degrees. One guy left his job at NASA just to come work at Dell.

Josh Birk:
Wow.

Steph Herrera:
Every single day they tested us on product knowledge. They tested us on how to navigate the system, which was a DOMS based system, so for our computer nerds out there. Then also onto sales techniques. Every single day we were tested and every single day everybody knew how we scored because it was a very competitive environment, which was intentional. Every single day I scored in the top three in every category. It was something I was naturally good at and didn’t even realize, started to really enjoy.

Josh Birk:
So what made you move on from that? I mean, you’re at Dell, you’re going to become a Dellionaire, you’re really good at sales. How are you transitioning out of this?

Steph Herrera:
Unfortunately, I came in as a temp, so I didn’t get to be a Dellionaire. I came on as a temp and did sales as a temp for about a year and a half. Then I did home and small business sales. I did online sales. I did e-commerce. I was part of the first e-commerce team to sell computers to people online.

Josh Birk:
Oh, wow.

Steph Herrera:
Yeah. Dating myself a little bit there. So yeah, I was at Dell for nine years. I did sales and then I did order processing. I was an executive assistant for a while. So I did a little bit of everything at Dell.

Josh Birk:
Gotcha.

Steph Herrera:
Then being in Austin, the startup world was exploding and a lot of people were leaving Dell and going to work for small startups. They were just like, “You really need to go work for a startup and see how the other side lives.” About that time I felt like I’d done everything I could at Dell. So I did. I went to a startup and that’s where I discovered Salesforce. The company that I was working for was using Salesforce. What’s crazy is I found the job on a Craigslist ad paying $20 an hour for sales support.

Josh Birk:
Oh, wow.

Steph Herrera:
Yeah, I was a single mom. I needed the work.

Josh Birk:
Okay.

Steph Herrera:
Yeah. So I answered a Craigslist ad. I was interviewing in a coffee shop and the president of the company actually happened to be in there doing a meeting and could overhear my interview and really liked what I had to say and hired me on the spot pretty much. He became part of the interview and hired me on the spot. I was working for him directly and supporting the sales team. So he had set up Salesforce and got the bones of it set up and he is like, “Here, I want you to own this. I want you to figure it out. This is your baby now.” That’s how I got into Salesforce.

Josh Birk:
We need a term that goes beyond the accidental admin.

Steph Herrera:
Yeah. Answering a Craigslist ad for $20 an hour.

Josh Birk:
Then basically being told, here’s Salesforce. It’s almost like you’re an unknown soldier. Here’s your gun. This is yours now. Keep it oiled. We’ll bring it out when we need to.

Steph Herrera:
Yeah. I did. I fell in love with it because when I was doing sales at Dell, I was using Excel spreadsheet to keep up with everything. I had one of the best close rates on the team because I kept up every detail of my customers in a spreadsheet. So every time I made a phone call back, it was as though we had just talked and they were just blown away about how much I knew. But I kept up with it all in Excel. When I saw Salesforce I was just like, “Wow, if I’d had this tool when I was doing sales, I would’ve made so much more money.” So I fell in love with it.

Josh Birk:
That is such an amazing twist on the usual story that I hear. It’s like developers fall in love with it because they don’t have to set this thing up or do this thing. They can just go in and code and see things happen. This was the tool you didn’t even know you wanted.

Steph Herrera:
Yes. Yeah. I’m very data driven. I mean, I had my Excel spreadsheet, I used that. I used that baby, I was using it to close deals. I was a closer on my team. I had a very good close rate.

Josh Birk:
Nice.

Steph Herrera:
So I the data that I could see and pull from Salesforce for my sales team, oh yeah. I was loving it.

Josh Birk:
So when did you decide Salesforce should be not just as a tool that you want to use but as something that’s like a backbone of your career?

Steph Herrera:
So that was back in 2007, 2008. I started going to user groups. Every time I went to a user group, I sat next to developers and I got really intimidated. It was like, I’m not a developer, I don’t belong here. I didn’t understand the language. So I backed out and the startup I was with, I went to a second startup for the same company but for a member of the board, and went to a second startup. Unfortunately that one didn’t survive and they gave me a heads up because they knew I was a single mom. They’re like, “Hey, we’re not going to make it. You should start looking for a job.”

Josh Birk:
Oh, wow.

Steph Herrera:
So I wanted to go back to Dell, but they were doing layoffs. So I was like, well I guess I’ll try Apple. This is what I know. Computers is what I know, selling computers is what I know. I’m really good at it. So I went to go work for Apple for about a year and a half. I was there while Steve Jobs was at the helm. It was an amazing learning experience.

Steph Herrera:
To be able to work at Dell and work at Apple and see the differences between the processes, see the differences between the product, to see the difference how they train people, I learned a lot. Just to be able to see everything that Steve Jobs, what he touched, what he changed, and to be able to see it from the inside out and be very familiar with the work of Jony Ive and what he created, the beautiful products he created. So it was huge for me, but I was missing Salesforce and the pay wasn’t great, honestly, at Apple. The pay wasn’t great.

Steph Herrera:
So I updated my resume, this is back in 2011, it was at the end of 2011 and I applied for three different Salesforce jobs and got offers on all of them. I took the one that paid the most, which was almost a 50% pay increase over what I was making at Apple.

Josh Birk:
Oh, wow.

Steph Herrera:
Which isn’t saying a lot because I wasn’t making a lot at Apple. Yeah. So after that I was just like finally, I’d been living paycheck to paycheck at that point. Like I said, I was a single mom, I was working two jobs. I was doing Apple during the day and you couldn’t work remote. They wanted you there on site. So in the evenings I was doing medical billing every day, seven days a week. The only time I took off was on holidays. I did that for almost two years and I was just tired of it. I was fed up.

Steph Herrera:
Went and started doing Salesforce in 2012 for Renew Data and the pay was much better. After about a year I could finally quit that second job and was making decent money to where I wasn’t living paycheck to paycheck anymore. So that’s when I was like, okay, I’m good at this. People want to pay me to do this. At Renew Data, I was working hand in hand with the CEO. He was picking my brain on how to solve problems with Salesforce. I would tell him, I was like, “I love working for you.” He’s like, “No, you don’t work for me. We work together.” I just was really fortunate to get to work for him, Jim Blayney.

Steph Herrera:
To be able to see what my skillset with Salesforce could do for me. That’s when I was like, okay, this tool can give me a life now. What I can do with this is valued by a CEO of a company who’s coming to me for help. That’s when I decided, I was like, this is what I’m going to do. Finally, I can afford to live, I can afford to take care of my kids. Yeah. That’s why. I was just like, I’m going to make Austin the strongest Salesforce community there is so that I can retire with this and I don’t have to worry about living paycheck to paycheck anymore. That was what drove me.

Josh Birk:
That’s amazing. Going back to learning sales at Dell, and Dell, they were kind of famous for being able to push computers.

Steph Herrera:
Yes.

Josh Birk:
Right.

Steph Herrera:
The stories, I could tell you. That’s a whole nother hour.

Josh Birk:
I did want to ask, are any of the stories about Steve Jobs true? Did he ever drive a motorcycle through the lobby or anything like that?

Steph Herrera:
So I was in Austin. He was in Cupertino.

Josh Birk:
Right, gotcha, gotcha. Okay. Got it.

Steph Herrera:
While I was working there, he was never on the Austin campus while I was working there.

Josh Birk:
Got it. Okay. Okay.

Steph Herrera:
Yeah.

Josh Birk:
Also, just the difference between those two cultures.

Steph Herrera:
Yes.

Josh Birk:
I remember a story which is possibly folklore, but it’s like Apple and IBM announced a partnership. There’s this story about one half the table is quality business suits and the other half is jeans and polo shirts. It’s just like the distinction couldn’t be more, but then you also have this really close relationship with another CEO. So you’ve had a wide diversity of experiences.

Steph Herrera:
I have.

Josh Birk:
Not just from a Salesforce point of view, but it sounds like you were just learning leadership.

Steph Herrera:
Yes, I did. I get really lucky that I got to work really closely with leadership at every company I was at. I mean at the time I was just pinching myself. Looking back now it’s even more surreal when I think about it and how closely I got to work with them and learn from them. It’s like an onsite MBA, if you will, hands on training. So I did and it was all because of Salesforce and what I was able to do with that. I remember when I created the very first report for the president at ESO Solutions, so it was Chris Dillie who had hired me and he was a president of business development.

Steph Herrera:
The president of the whole company, John Dillie, had asked for a report and Chris usually did them for him. So I did it and took it to him. He’s like, “Did Chris do this?” I was like, “No I did.” He’s like, “This is amazing, the information in here.” He’s like, “You did this?” I was like, “Yeah, I did.” So that spurred me on. I think that was my second week there when I had discovered Salesforce. So that really spurred me on and getting to get feedback directly from the C level at every startup I was at really gave me the confidence to keep going with it.

Josh Birk:
Well let’s move then into what feels like that drove for your next phase. Tell me about PepUp Tech and founding that or co-founding it.

Steph Herrera:
Yeah, so it started back in 2015. I had started Salesforce Saturday in 2015 and then had also started working with the Merivis organization in 2015. So in 2017 I went to Dreamforce and Mary Scotton had said, “There’s somebody I want you to meet. Her name is Selina Suarez. You all are very similar. You have the same values. I just want you two to just hang out.” Basically she’s like, “Meet me at the dev zone during Dreamforce.” She introduced us. She was like, “Just go hang out.” She basically set us up on a play date is what I call it, a play date.

Steph Herrera:
So Selina knew about Salesforce Saturday and what I was doing with it and she was starting PepUp Tech. She’d already done a couple weekend classes in New York and had already started creating the curriculum. We did, we hit it off that summer, or that Dreamforce. A few months later towards the end of 2016, she reached out and said, “Hey, I’m doing this thing called PepUp Tech. I’d like you to do this with me and be a co-founder.” At the time, like I said, I was already doing Salesforce Saturdays, already volunteering for Merivis. I was also leading those Salesforce Women in Tech chapter and we met every month and I was doing Salesforce Saturday every single Saturday and was really spread thin at the time.

Steph Herrera:
One goal I had made for myself is I wanted to share this with more people of color, especially Hispanic and African American, Black people. I wasn’t seeing enough of it and I was trying to figure out how to do that and she came calling. It was like, even though I had a lot going on, I felt a responsibility to do this. I let her know, I was like, “I can. I don’t know what my bandwidth’s going to be, but I’ll give you all that I can,” and that’s how it started.

Josh Birk:
Wow. I want to go back to chronologically to Salesforce Saturdays, but sticking to PepUp Tech really quickly, tell me a little bit more of what you just said. Give me the mission statement. What is PepUp Tech doing right now?

Steph Herrera:
PepUp Tech, when we first started, going to Dreamforce especially back then, 2016, 2015, you just didn’t see a lot of people of color. When you did, it was the people working the event. It was the people holding the doors open, it was the people doing registration, it was the people serving food.

Josh Birk:
Gotcha.

Steph Herrera:
So for us, and what’s really neat about, with Selina and I, we come from two totally different backgrounds. She’s Puerto Rican from the Bronx. She’s got a degree. She’s got her MBA. It wasn’t easy by any means, but she did it. She did it.

Steph Herrera:
I’m a southern girl from Texas, West Texas at that, cotton fields. My grandparents worked the cotton fields. I worked at my first job out of high school. I don’t have a degree. I tried, but we don’t have trains and subways to jump on. I lived out in rural West Texas. I couldn’t get there. I tried, but I didn’t have a car and I was always having to bum rides.

Steph Herrera:
She and I came from different backgrounds and different worlds, but we had very similar reasons for wanting people of color to be in tech because it had changed our lives and where we came from and wanting to share that opportunity. Knowing that a lot of the reason you don’t see more of them in tech is because we don’t think we’re wanted.

Steph Herrera:
The media that’s out there, we’re not part of that. We’re not represented. Again, I was pushed into tech by my ex-husband. I went kicking and screaming. Then I got in there and I was like, whoa, I’m good at this. I never would’ve done that on my own. I knew that we had to go out and get them and show them that it was a warm, inclusive place to be and that they were wanted.

Steph Herrera:
That was one reason why I always took pictures of Salesforce Saturday was to show the diversity even within Salesforce Saturday, even though there wasn’t a lot of shades of brown, but we did have Indian. We had old and white and different backgrounds, different political leanings. Yet every time people would keep coming back and every time they wouldn’t leave. I mean I’d start them at 8:30 in the morning and it was supposed to go till 10 or 11. Then they ended up going like til one or two. People just didn’t want to leave and just show, tech can be different and it can be more inclusive. So that was a goal with PepUp Tech is to add more shades of brown to it.

Josh Birk:
Got it. I love all of that. I’m reminded of my discussion and my conversation with Jessica Murphy. She brought up, “When I was growing up, I had a visual image of what an engineer looked like because that’s what was in movies and that’s what was on TV. They had a haircut and they had a look and all this kind of stuff.” She was like, “I never really thought myself like that because I just never really saw people in that position.”

Steph Herrera:
Yeah, she’s from my very first outside of Austin chapter, was Jessica Murphy and Rachel Watson in Phoenix. They asked if they could do a chapter. Yeah, I love her story. Absolutely love her story.

Josh Birk:
So let’s get to the origin of Salesforce Saturday. Why would you want to spend, it’s a lot of energy obviously. What was the impetus there to be like, this is important?

Steph Herrera:
So for me, I knew that was the only way I would hold myself accountable. So I’d already started the First Women in Tech chapter again because based off that experience when I went to the user group and was just surrounded by developers. I knew what it felt like as a female to be intimidated and not speak that language. Even when they weren’t talking work, they’re talking guy stuff and not being able to keep up with that. So that was the whole point with the Women in Tech chapters when I started the first one in Austin, January 2014.

Steph Herrera:
So we were meeting once a month and it was all female and it was a safe place for us to come and learn and skill each other up. Well I had people in the community that were guys that were like, “Hey, what you’re doing there with that is really cool and I want to do that too. It’s not fair. Guys can’t come.” I remember I told one of them, his name’s Feross [inaudible 00:17:20]. He ended up reporting to me. I was like, you have me on speed dial, Feross.” I said, “Any way, the world is created for a man. There’s plenty of groups out there for you.” But that did stay with me.

Steph Herrera:
The next year I needed to get my Dev-401 certification and by that time I was managing teams and I wasn’t as in the weeds because as a manager you’re to scale yourself and provide air coverage. You’re more about strategic planning, so your team’s the one doing the work and in the weeds. So I just wanted to sharpen my technical skills and study. The only time I had to do was on a Saturday, because Monday through Friday I was dedicated to my job and had to do what they needed.

Steph Herrera:
When you own an instance, it’s not what you want, it’s what the business needs. So this was also a way for me to get to play in a sandbox and do what I want to do on a Saturday. So I just let people know in the community that I was going to be at Starbucks studying and anybody was free to join me and let’s study together. That’s how it started. Nyla Shawnee showed up and she and I studied. She studied for her Admin 201 and I studied for my Dev-401. Then the next time more and more people showed up.

Steph Herrera:
It was just basically, again with the goal of making the Austin community as strong as possible so that we had plenty of people who could do Salesforce so it wouldn’t go away. Again, it was a selfish reason because I wanted to do this forever and it paid the bills. I come from Dell, I come from Apple, I was on teams and I saw how you could skill each other up very quickly and succeed together. A lot of times when you’re starting out in Salesforce as an admin, a lot of times its just you. You don’t have a team.

Steph Herrera:
So this was replicating that for me, this was replicating that for others who you can’t turn to your buddy in the next seat and say, “How do you do this?” Because they don’t know. You’re the only one. So this was providing that team environment to skill each other up at a much faster pace, again, to ensure that there was talent that could work on the Salesforce platform.

Josh Birk:
Right. I mean you say selfishly, but you have been influential in helping many, many people get onto the platform.

Steph Herrera:
Yeah.

Josh Birk:
It’s a nice cycle.

Steph Herrera:
Yeah. Well, I was really surprised that, I mean people would show up on a Saturday. I was like, I thought I was the only crazy person that would do this. Apparently there’s a lot of us. The crazy one is going back to Steve Jobs if I can and his advertising. Yeah. There are a lot of us and we found each other and we continue to do it. It’s grown. We got over 60 chapters globally.

Josh Birk:
Oh, wow.

Steph Herrera:
Every time I travel I feel like I have a home to go to. There’s somebody within that particular country or city that has a tie to Salesforce Saturday and it blows my mind. It’s such a wonderful, comforting feeling to know that I’ve got people all over the world who share my values and want to skill people up and help people and do well for each other. So yeah, it’s a pretty mind blowing thing for me, but I do love it.

Josh Birk:
How much effort goes into right now, what’s the structure like to keep 60 chapters up and running?

Steph Herrera:
So at first it was a lot, but now there’s enough that it’s not just all me. Serge with the Netherlands, he started five and he’s what really got it taken off in the UK. Then Atul Gupta in India, there was five there. There’s those core people who were very similar to me who just run with it. Like Becka Miller in Houston, Michelle Bura in Atlanta, there’s so many.

Steph Herrera:
It’s just making sure, it’s the spirit of Salesforce Saturday is that everybody is welcomed. We go to them. We don’t make them come to us. We find out why they’re there. There have been a couple of times when there’s been some stuff that has come up that I’ve had to deal with that was quite stressful. But luckily I can count on one hand when that’s happened. So again, when people who do this, because I mean you get nothing out of it.

Steph Herrera:
I mean there’s no badge to Dreamforce, there’s no budget for food. The people who are doing this purely, it’s purely altruistic and they just want to help. So when you’ve got that spirit, it makes it a lot easier to scale. Again, it’s just about, it’s not a user group. This supplements a user group. A user group is necessary. This is different from that.

Steph Herrera:
It’s hands on. It’s opening up your laptop and we’re problem solving together and going the different ways to do it, or we’re helping them interview for a job. We’re helping them with the resumes or doing mock interviews. Whoever shows up, we’re doing our best to cater to their needs and what they’re needing at that moment. So keeping it not structured, keeping it unstructured and flexible and fluid like that I think has really made it so much easier for it to grow like it has.

Josh Birk:
So how does that work then to you. So unlike a user group, it almost sounds like the inverse of a user group. User group, very distinct times, usually the same time to go find speakers, bring the speakers in, have some pizza. This sounds like, wait to see who shows up and then just react to that. If somebody comes in and is like, “Hey, I’m only a beginner, I don’t have any code behind my belt. Do you have advice for getting into a job?”

Steph Herrera:
Somebody will jump in and help them. You get your regulars who show up and obviously talks shop. This community can talk Salesforce all day long, but when a new person comes in or there’s a problem, somebody always jumps up to help.

Josh Birk:
That’s our show. Now to find out things like Steph’s favorite [inaudible 00:22:44] tune in next week for the second part of the episode. We’re going to continue with things like her work with Merivis as well. Now if you want to learn more about the show, head on over to developer.salesforce.com/podcast where you can hear old episodes, see the show notes, and have links to your favorite podcast service. I want to thank Steph for this interview and as always, I want to thank you for listening. I’ll talk to you next week.