I am James Derflinger, a certified Salesforce Professional living in Murfreesboro, TN. I am married to my beautiful wife and have two amazing kids and two crazy dogs.
Professionally, I have experience in multiple industries. In the years before Covid, I worked in production and served in various positions and roles, eventually becoming the Technical Director for a video production company. I worked shows as a: Camera Operator, LED Tech, Project Manager, Crew Lead, and Driver. The one constant with production was that I always was placed in high-stress situations during live events, where mistakes are seen by hundreds or thousands of people and could have significant implications on the show. These roles taught me about stress management and dealing with chaos. While some of these gigs were local, most were on the road, and the travel was brutal at times with a family.
Before production, I worked for a small college; I started as an Adjunct Professor, where I taught various business and management classes and moved to full-time instructor quickly. My favorite parts of teaching were seeing the growth of the students and the aha moments when they finally grasped complex concepts. Eventually, I was offered the chance to run the business department, and I did that for a few years. This was the first time I managed a large group of people. I learned a lot about the difference between management and leadership in this role, as well as how to connect with the different personalities of my co-workers and students. This role is where I developed my servant leadership style of engaging my co-workers and students to enforce the idea that I am there to help them succeed.
After Covid, my wife and I agreed that I should not travel as often as I was pre-Covid in my production roles, and I transitioned from the industry. I took a local Linehaul position with FedEx and started to learn Salesforce. Since then, I have quickly become obsessed with Salesforce and love creating solutions to help businesses solve problems.