 Hey everybody, this is Christian Buckley with another MVP Buzz Chat. I'm talking today with Belinda. Hello. Hi, Christian. How are you? I'm doing well. So it's always great to get to meet, uh, MVPs outside of my small ecosystem of SharePoint people, teams people. Why don't you introduce yourself for people that don't know who you are, who are you, where are you, and what do you do? Okay. I am Belinda Allen. I currently live in Charleston, South Carolina, and I lived in New York City longer than anywhere else in my life. So I like to think of myself as both Southern and Northern or Yankee, as we would call it down here. So that's a little bit about where I am. My husband's definitely Southern. My dad was a Marine, so I think of myself as being just, you know, a citizen of the United States in general. I'm an MVP in the data platform space, particularly Power BI. I've been one for 10 years. That was my goal 10 years. I made it. So I think I would still probably be a little sad if I didn't make 11 now that I hit 10, but it got here faster. What was your original, what was the original MVP data platform or has it evolved? Good catch. Good catch because Power BI has only been around for a little over five years, six years actually. I started out in the dynamic space. I was a Dynamics GP in VP, and so I worked with ERP systems. I did a lot of reporting. I kind of fell into Power BI completely backwards. So when Power BI first came out, you remember it was actually a spot in SharePoint online that utilized some features inside, some power features inside of Excel. And I was like glue on that. I was just on it like nobody's business. So Microsoft actually is the one who kind of redirected me and said, oh, look at the shiny object over here. And I turned and looked and there was Power BI and it was still at that point. And I'm like, yay. And then when they came out with full Power BI, they just completely, they didn't really completely drop me from GP, but they said, here's your focus now BI. And I'm like, yay. And although the GP team at Microsoft still considers me a GP MVP. And so they include me in a lot of topics there, which is helpful because I, you know, it's interesting. Seth Godin, do you know who Seth Godin is? Of course. Okay. So marketing undergrad and a marketing person, I think you have to know who's that marketing major. Yes. Okay. So Seth Godin is he is of my 2000s, like Tom Peters was pre 2000. He is the marketing guru of the 2000s and the current time. So Seth Godin had made a comment. I was watching him present at something I can't remember. And it's actually been since COVID. So, you know, you get the opportunity to attend a lot more virtual conferences that you would have never gone to otherwise. So I was attending one and he said something about you really have to someone was asking him like, well, what can I get into? What can I do? He goes, you have to be remarkably specific. And that stuck to me. So that actually pops up in my to-do list every day to be remarkably specific. And now for those of you in the US, you'll recognize this. I sing it every morning to the jingle of lucky charms, you know, be remarkably specific. And so now you probably will too. But that kind of stuck to me. So I thought, what is my remarkably specific? Because that was kind of how I fell into becoming an MVP in the first place. And so I thought, well, well, duh, it's Power BI for the SMB market, which covers everything from like a complex one user system to just below enterprise. Like that is my niche, ERP or accounting, distribution, warehousing, manufacturing, all of those things with Power BI. That's my remarkably specific. So I tend to focus on the GP space and the business central, the dynamics business central or dynamics nav space. So those are my two main areas. It's funny, I don't know business central to use. I've never had nav on my machine, but I'm very familiar with their data set. So I dig in the data all the time for that. So that is kind of how I ended up where I am now. So I typically only do Power Platform and that mostly Power BI, but I do dabble in Power Apps and Power Automate as well. Also about 12 years ago, I became an MCT of Microsoft certified trainer. I took a hiatus off in the middle, but I'm back at that because I love training. I love learning and I love sharing what I've learned. So that's, that's a little bit about me in a nutshell, who I am and what I do. So. Well, it's interesting that you say to be remarkably specific in the SMB space, where again, if you think of the size of organizations and what they want to do, it's actually a much broader space to, you know, they're less focused because you have to think about and SMB is generally a large enterprise as it, you know, having been an employee in a large, the very large company, 100,000 plus employees, you're able to go be very niche, very specific and go deep into something that's a very small scale. Whereas an SMB, a small mid-sized company, you really have to have expertise in the full range of and be thinking of end to end. What is the solution I need to provide? Right. There are less, that's less specific. Yes. You're exactly right. There are a few SMB, Microsoft partners that focus on a particular niche, but that is not, that's the exception, not the rule. So the rule is you basically, I mean, I did, I don't do a lot of manufacturing. I'll do some manufacturing reports, but I work with partners who tell me, you know, this is the data you need. I'll, you know, I'll data model it and have them verify it, but they're usually giving me guidance when it comes to that. But I, when you're talking about core accounting, the SMB space is pretty core accounting with distribution, you know, some of the business rules may be a little bit different, but it's all pretty much the same on like enterprise where it can get very different, very fast. I remember one time, so my husband and I worked together. Well, we still kind of do, although we take a little bit of different directions. He doesn't work with Microsoft products, but any longer. But when we both worked with ERP systems, he was on a plane one time sitting with a tier one ERP person and they were focused on accounts payable and we, when he got back and he was telling me about it, I mean, we just both laugh because the concept of just doing that one thing is just mind boggling to an SMB partner of ERP systems. So yeah, it is kind of all over the place, but you have to have that like all encompassing knowledge to be able to help them on anything to think about how it's going to reflect another one because their data set is nowhere near as large. So you can't really get, if you're focusing on especially Power BI, you can't get really, can't get really nitchy in a particular business area. So you have to really be a little more all-encompassing when it comes to that. But there are really more core accounting situations that just go beyond general ledger information. So they are a little bit, a little bit more, but you're right. That does kind of break the rule remarkably specific, but I'm a huge Seth Godin fan. I also love Simon Sinek. He just blows my mind. So he wrote the book, what was it? Not Find the Why. Leaders Eat Last was one of the best ones. It was one of my favorite all-time business books, but Behind the Why. Oh, I can't believe it. I can't remember, but he's awesome. I'll need to go look that one up. Yeah. If you ever get a chance to see him in person, then you speak, you have to. He's absolutely remarkable. Leaders Eat Last is an amazing book, because he starts out telling a story about how the military does. It's like when they're eating chow. That's what they're talking about. When they're eating lunch or at the mess hall, they let all of the lower ranking soldiers in first, and then the brass eats last. And so it's kind of an interesting thought process, but he's pretty cool. I follow him on Facebook, too, because he occasionally will put just like a one word blurb out there. And one of the things that I've always, and I still try to remember to tell people is people buy benefits. They don't buy features. I mean, we've been told that by the Great Plains people, the GP people, the Microsoft people for the 30 something years we've been in business, and that is absolutely true. Nobody buys features. They just buy what's going to make their job easier and what's going to make the company prosper. And so he put something out there very similar to that. And so that's become part, his quote specifically has been, I mean, that was the gist of it has become part of my topic of the year for 2022, which is user adoption and for Power BI. And so that's like that and diversity. Diversity has been my topic, my MVP topic. That's one of the things I've been working on with Microsoft for last year and this year. And it's really more for gender marginalized people, particularly women. And Kristen, you've been to MVP Summit. You know how different the percentages are from into women there? I mean, it is astounding. So and ladies, you should really work on becoming MVP and go to the MVP Summit in person because if you've ever been to a sporting event where the ladies restroom line is like a mile and a half long and the guys just walk in, it is just the opposite at the MVP Summit. So I kind of like laugh and wave it on the way into the ladies room. But that's a sad account there. But yeah, so and people of color and people who are differently abled. And so and anyone who's part of the LGBT community, which I also consider gender marginalized. So these are the focus of people that I work on. But then my topic of passion for this year is user adoption. Well, there's a well, first, I have to say that so since you brought up Seth Godin to so there's three books that I would always recommend whenever I had I managed teams of people over the years. There's three books that I would purchase. In fact, I have multiple copies of all three of them. And I've given them out, I've given them to my children to go and read. But from Seth Godin our purple cow. Yes. And then my my favorite, which is all marketers or liars. I know he altered the title and updated that still. But those two books, which are all about being different, standing out, being remarkable. And then the other one is around being authentic and the authentic voice in the storytelling and they really do go well together. The third, if you've not read it, I just absolutely love it. It's my favorite, which is Marcus Buckingham, which is first break all the rules fantastic, which is all about it's a great leadership book. It's my management style, which is the managed to people strengths, not their weaknesses. And it's kind of against this idea that there's this the concept of the well rounded employee that your employees must be good at everything like no, I want them to be lopsided. I want them to be crazy lopsided. And I want to give them as much as I can of the things that they're most passionate about, and that they do the best at, and then structure a team around everybody being lopsided, but then working together to deliver the whole. And those teams outperform those where everybody is balanced and well rounded. Absolutely. I always have what I have a lot of balloon isms or theory, personal theories. And one of them is that everybody has a pocket of power. Now that also goes with everybody's weird. So, you know, everyone who thinks like, oh, I'm the only one who maybe gets embarrassed to ask a question. I want to ask question because it embarrasses me to ask a question. I'm not like that. But I have family members who are like that. And that's okay. I mean, everybody's got their weirdness. I am definitely a weirdo in a lot of different ways. And then everyone's got their pocket of power, something that they're really good at. And it's usually something they're passionate about too. So I love that. That's really cool. I'm going to I'm going to check that out. It's a great. It's an easy read. It's a good, good book. And then I mean, there's other ones that are fantastic out there. Like I love the goal by Eli Goldrad is a fantastic book and others. But yeah, it's one of mine. If I open up the cabinets behind me, I'm sure you'd have half the books as well behind there. But no, it's a great space. Well, so kind of last question here. So we talked about a little bit like your path. I'm sure you've had the conversation when people say like, what is the right path to become an MVP? Like, what is your guidance? How do you do you mentor people actively? And what can I do give people? I do. First of all, they have to figure out what what they're really excited about. And and well, to begin with, they have to be someone who wants to make the compute community better, because that's really what the program is about. And it's, it's Microsoft doesn't give this out to people who are smart, right? They give it out to people who are passionate about making the community better. And so in a lot of cases, they'll say, well, I don't really know the product well enough. And I'm like, well, then you're the perfect person. Take the world on your journey with you. Let them learn it with you. That's perfect. It doesn't that I mean, that's just a perfect way to do it. I say that again and again to people and they don't that doesn't seem to translate. They don't understand like, I need to develop my level of expertise. I'm like, no, that's exactly what you say. There are through the journey. There is someone out there, no matter what level you are, there are people out there who are looking for information who are at your same level, whether it's I know what power BI is, but I don't know anything about it to Oh, I'm a high end developer who's doing, you know, creating custom visuals to embed and you know, whatever, whatever. So yeah, there's all levels. So and then the other thing is you have to find out what your, what, what activity you're comfortable sharing it. So some people blog other people's like answering forum questions. Some people present. Well, back when we first became MVPs, you could write a book and pretty much be assured an MVP status. I don't think that's the case anymore. So you have to figure out where your spaces and where you're sharing, you know, do you make videos? What do you do? Like I am not a forum contributor. I've tried multiple times. It doesn't interest me. I like reading forums when I'm looking at questions, but it's not a Belinda activity. Yeah, you know what? Maybe it's the marketer in us. Maybe we just like to hear our own voice. I don't know, but I prefer my voice does sound great. I think so too. Mate, I like to present. I like doing videos. I do a lot of different activities via YouTube. So those are things that I'm very comfortable with. And I know not everybody's comfortable with that, nor should they have to be. So just find where you're sharing opportunity is. I mean, it could be working with high school students. I mean, there are some programs where you could teach some extra courses to different high schools in the area. That's something very common with Microsoft. One of my passions is training. I am also speaking of the diversity I've got. My goal is to, Microsoft is saying 100, but I'm saying 75. My goal is to get 75 people of diversity certified in Power BI, particularly with a data analyst. And I am, looks like by June 30th and looks like so far I'm, you know, getting, I'm prepping people and training them, you know, and working with them. And so I have a couple of programs that sorry, they're full right now. But I'm doing that. And so what, whatever your passion is, I mean, there are so many ways you could share with the community and help Microsoft help the world is what this, this program is all about touchy-filly. So and that's what we do. So you could see everybody does something amazingly different. Some people write free products, free tools, they share it open source. That's another way. I mean, you know, you write something cool, you let someone else brag about it, you get some credit for writing it. So whatever it is. So those are the things I say, you got to find, you got to take be willing to take people on your journey from where you are right now. It doesn't matter if you don't know something. If you don't know it, then all the better. And, and don't worry if your topic's different. I certainly have switched. I didn't even take a gap here. I mean, Microsoft switched me for me. I didn't have to do anything. They were like, the Microsoft people said, Oh, I thought, or the Power BI people said, I thought you were already Power BI in VP. And I'm like, no. And they're like, okay, you will be next year. And then that was it. I was switched. And so like, okay, great. That's, that's one great thing. There, there is so much that's going on. You might not really know what you want to focus on, get involved, be involved with your user group and just suddenly something may just, you know, you'll touch a nerve and you like, Hey, that's it. I like, I'm really excited about that. And then just go deep dive into that area. Yeah, you're a perfect example of that because SharePoint and teams. Okay, so my first experience with SharePoint pre SAS version, you know, the old SharePoint server. Of course. Oh, it was torture for me being a GP girl, trying to get that worked out. But I, you know, I did it. It was a struggle. And then when Power BI first came and was part of SharePoint online, I'm like, Oh, I can dig this. I really like SharePoint online. I love SharePoint lists. And so I was really excited about those two things. And but when teams came out, I'm the only one I know who thinks of teams this way. But I think of teams as a easier user interface for organizing your files and SharePoint. And so what it is, that's what it is. Yeah, it's the interface we always wanted for SharePoint. I know. Yeah. So that said, it would be easy if you were like a SharePoint MVP to all of a sudden become a teams MVP just because of that. And so, yeah, so I to me, that's what that's what that's what teams is all about, you know, and if I want to go directly into the files, I just go to one drive. I don't even I only go into SharePoint if I want to create a list. Hmm. Wow. I'm still utilizing SharePoint. I just use the list that, you know, from within teams, but but I do the same thing with it. When I sometimes I want to go in and modify something or change permissions and or look at something more closely. And that's when I'll go into SharePoint. So, you know, growing up within SharePoint, I rarely use SharePoint per se. It's usually via lists through teams. And now I love storing files in SharePoint because of that, because teams makes it the user interface is just simple. It's just simple. And so, yeah, in our company, we use which now it's just my husband and myself because like I said, he's cause I retired and me, I'm, you know, I'm doing just training now and having fun and coaching a little bit of coaching. So, yeah, I mean, it makes it it's a world of difference. I love storing stuff in teams. And then I can I can keep things I share with customers in one drive. All of our documents are in teams and they're organized and they're beautiful based on our teams that we set up in teams. And I love it. I think it's awesome. But we can get into like the things that are still lacking within teams in the SharePoint world. That's a whole nother conversation. But yeah, we're out of time. But you know, but I really appreciate the time to to get to know you and and you have a lot of the same friends and run the similar circles. That's how big the MVP world is that we've never met. Of course, the last, you know, we both became MVPs in 2012. And yet maybe after this is all over, we start getting back together. And we'll see each other at the next MVP summit. Absolutely. Yeah, there's like two or three thousand of us worldwide. That's it. And so it's small and it's large at the same time, because I don't know MVPs in a lot of other spaces. But but we all bleed over into other spaces. So we know people in common. A lot of overlap. That's a lot of for people that want to find out more about you get in touch. What are the best ways to reach you? So Ms. Belinda Allen, Ms. Belinda Allen is my website. It's also my Twitter handle. It's also how you could find me in LinkedIn. So Ms. Ms. Belinda Allen, all one word. Excellent. Well, it's great to connecting with you and we'll talk to you soon. I had a great time. Thanks.