Welcome to the refreshed Champion Spotlight series, where we speak with one of our current Marketo Champions to learn more about their background, their favorite things to do in Marketo Engage, what they wanted to be when they grew up, and more! This time, we spoke with @Vladislav_Vagn1, who is a Senior Marketing Automation Administrator at Mitel. Let's get to know Vlad a bit better!
Company: Mitel
Title: Senior Marketing Automation Admin
Location: Dallas, Texas
Hometown: Yaroslavl, Russia
What was your first job?
I worked as an animal care technician at a no kill animal shelter in Dallas. It is still one of my favorite jobs that I have had.
How and when did you get started with Marketo? What was your first role and initial reaction to the platform?
I got an internship at Mitel while in my senior year in college. As part of the internship, I was introduced to Marketo, helping to execute email campaigns. At first, I thought the system was too big and confusing but once I started to get the hang of it more and more, I started seeing more potential of what we could do within the system. After my internship was over, I got the opportunity to take on Marketo full time and have been doing it since.
What is your favorite thing to do in Marketo and why?
My favorite thing is when somebody comes to me with a problem and I can use Marketo and my knowledge of the system to help solve their problems. I love setting up new processes or simplifying old processes so that other people feel more comfortable using the system and get a benefit out of it.
Through out your Marketo career, what are you most proud of?
It is hard to pinpoint one thing. I will say one of the things I am proud of was creating a process in Marketo that allowed our data agency to use Tableau to marry the data from Marketo to our web data to analyze email performance past just opens and clicks.
What piece of advice would you give to someone who is just starting a career with Marketo?
Don’t be scared to break something. We have all been there. I understand Marketo can feel overwhelming when first starting out in the system and that can cause people to be afraid to mess something up. That fear can prevent learning. I think that making mistakes and learning from them is just part of the process and most things in Marketo can be fixed. But do always double-check everything!
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I had this 90s Sylvester Stallone movie on VHS where he played a rock climber so naturally, I was obsessed with being one. Unfortunately, there were no mountains in the part of Russia where I grew up nor in Dallas where I moved to. When I got older, I did take this on as a hobby so you can find me at a rock-climbing gym on most weekends.
What is one goal you would like to achieve in your lifetime?
I had plans to get my private pilot license this year but that was delayed due to Covid-19. I hope once the flight schools start opening up full time, I can join one and start flying.
Have any questions for Vlad? Ask them below!
Connect with Vlad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladislav-vagner-seo/
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