Salesforce Admin Scott Shouse helps develop business processes for the largest event provider in the
The Follow-Up Blog highlights industry trends, insights and keys to success from today’s top sales leaders and executives. Today we caught up with Scott Shouse, Salesforce Admin at Eventbrite, which powers ticketing and registration for more than two million live event experiences each year, making it the world’s largest online selection of events.
Scott Shouse is currently the Salesforce Administrator for Eventbrite working on setting up the Salesforce integration for the world’s largest provider of online events. He is charged with gathering requirements, business process mapping, and implementing the designed Salesforce integrations. Scott has a unique background with an MPA in Drama from Oklahoma City University and a BA in Music & Theatre from College of the Ozarks. I caught up with Scott via email this past week to learn more about his experience using mapping business processes into Salesforce.
MH: What is your role at Eventbrite and how are you impacting the business at a high level? Why did you choose to do this?
AK: My title at Eventbrite is Salesforce Administrator. My primary focus is to manage the migration of the Ticketfly Salesforce instance to the Eventbrite Salesforce instance as well as providing senior level advisement on new feature/package creation/installation.
Of your past professional experiences, which has been the most important in preparing you for what you are doing today? Why?
My prior job at Zenefits probably set me up for the best success. There I learned how a large team needs to be set-up to function and work correctly. What the organization structure needs to look like, what things you need to consider when building on the Salesforce platform and what processes you need in place to handle a multi-admin/developer organization.
Can you tell me about a time or event in your life where you had to deal with adversity? Where things didn’t go as planned? How did you overcome these obstacles? Did this learning help you out in your professional career?
Zenefits again is a great example. Often we would get requests from people that had no idea what they were asking for and why we had to say no. Dealing with those rejections became a sticky point with some departments and it really set up me on how to phrase and deal with difficult internal customers.
What Salesforce add-ons is Eventbrite currently using? What have you found good & bad about each? What other add-ons are you thinking about integrating?
We have a LOT of Salesforce add-ons. Too many to review in one sitting. I would say the biggest learning is to really investigate any 3rd party integration and do your due diligence, regardless if the integration is a fully-fledged installed package or just an oauth-level integration. You really need to understand the burden the add-on will put on the system, what objects they touch, and how this affects your overall architecture. Some departments add new programs willy nilly without asking the Salesforce team and these add-ons occasionally have to be removed because they are consuming too many API calls, or they are causing a burden on a particular object. The most important thing is to research and ask questions — and check it all out before installing on the live production org.
How has the sales and business development software changed since you started your career? Is it getting better? What do you think the future of sales software is?
I would say that the most notable change is the migration of applications from being on-premises to the cloud, as well as opening up the app eco-system to allow robust 3rd party integrations. I think broad tools will eventually fade away and add-ons will become more and more specialized, allowing 3rd party integrations that specialize in other areas to work seamlessly together.
What do you wish you had learned before you were 30 that you didn’t, and had to learn later? What advice do you have for your younger self or for those who are thinking about making a career change or going to start their own company?
I would have started saving more money for retirement at an earlier age :) As for career change, I would say, never stop learning and being open to change. I started my career in store retail, moved to real estate appraisal, did some construction project management, tech project management and business systems — and then landed at my current gig of being a Salesforce Admin. Enjoy the journey!
Anything else you’d like to share with The Follow-Up Blog community? This could be what’s coming up for your company or you personally, or it could be your thoughts about how college/grad school or your first job impacted your journey to success!
Learn as much as you can, whenever you can. Teach yourself if you can’t find someone to teach you. Alway have initiative. Don’t wait for someone to hand you something, you’ll never get anywhere waiting on someone else. Your career is ultimately in your hands, even when you feel like it’s not, so make the most of both the good times and bad.
Thanks so much for the opportunity to learn about your journey from a store retailer to a Salesforce Admin at one of the hottest startups in Silicon Valley Scott! If our readers are interested in the leader in online events check out Eventbrite. And if you found this interview on The Follow-Up Blog helpful, please applaud and share with your colleagues!