John Boonphitak - Finding Structure in Complexity
John Boonphitak didn’t see Salesforce as starting over – he saw it as the framework that finally brought his experience with systems, responsibility, and real-world problem-solving together. After struggling with fragmented self-learning, the Admin Academy gave him the structure, clarity, and context he needed to do his best work with Salesforce.
When John Boonphitak talks about Salesforce, he does not describe it as a career change.
He describes it as a moment when everything he already knew about work, systems, and responsibility finally had a framework and a technology that brought it all together for him.
Based in Texas, John has spent most of his working life inside environments where performance matters. Restaurants. Real estate. Service-led businesses where timing, coordination, remembering the little details, and trust determine outcomes. In those settings, doing something “well enough” is rarely enough.
“You see very quickly when systems aren’t working,” John said. “And you also see how much better things are when they are.”
John grew up in a family-run Thai restaurant business. From a young age, he learned what it meant to show up, adapt quickly, and take responsibility for outcomes, heading to his family’s restaurant to work, straight from school. In hospitality, there is no hiding from broken processes. If something fails, customers feel it immediately.
That environment shaped how John thinks about work.
Running his own restaurant later on gave him space to experiment. He adjusted workflows, tested ideas, and learned how small changes could either relieve pressure or create it. What mattered was not theory, but whether something worked in real life.
“I didn’t have the luxury of overcomplicating things,” he reflected. “You fix what needs fixing, or the business suffers.”
That same mindset carried over into real estate during the pandemic, when he had to pivot amid changes in hospitality.
As a licensed real estate agent, John worked across the entire buyer journey. Discovery calls. Negotiations. Coordinating with loan officers. Managing timelines and expectations for clients making life-changing decisions.
In that world, excellence is not optional.
Real estate moves fast. People are emotional. There are multiple parties involved, each with their own priorities and pressures. Without strong systems, even good people struggle to perform at their best.
Inside a boutique brokerage, John became increasingly interested in how technology supported or hindered that work. The brokerage used a specialist real estate CRM. It was functional, but imperfect. His mind started to wander what could be the perfect solution to bringing everything together, because John noticed bottlenecks straight away.
With an amazing work ethic and the ability to remember even the smallest details a buyer mentioned, John found himself thinking more deliberately about the kind of work he wanted to do long-term, bringing real estate and tech together. What stood out was not selling, but problem-solving. Understanding how systems work. Helping people perform at a higher level.
Salesforce caught his attention because it formalised that work.
Initially, John tried to learn on his own. Trailhead gave him access to the platform, but the experience felt fragmented. There was a lot to learn, but little guidance on priority, depth, or context.
“I wasn’t struggling because it was too technical,” John said. “I was struggling because I didn’t know how to organise the learning in a way that made sense.”
That changed when he joined the Get Force Certified Admin Academy.
What immediately stood out to John was not just the content, but the way it was delivered.
From the start, the Academy made it clear that Salesforce is not about memorising features. It is about understanding how businesses actually operate, and how technology supports people doing real work.
Dave Massey’s teaching style surprised him.
“He doesn’t teach one way,” John explained. “He explains concepts from multiple angles, so everyone in the room can find a way in.”
Live sessions blended practical examples, real-world stories, repetition, and humour. Concepts were revisited in different contexts, allowing people to absorb them in the way that worked best for them.
For John, that mattered deeply.
“Not everyone learns the same way,” he said. “The course didn’t expect you to fit into one mould. It gave you permission to learn in the way that actually works for you.”
Music tailored to get everyone in an upbeat mood at the start of sessions, open conversations, and an atmosphere that balanced energy with focus all played a role. John noticed how intentionally the environment was designed.
“It wasn’t accidental,” he said. “You could feel that Dave understood how people learn, not just what they need to learn.”
As the course progressed, John began to approach it with the same mindset he brought to business.
If he was going to do this, he wanted to do it properly.
He refined how he studied. He experimented with note-taking, repetition, and explanation. He treated learning Salesforce the way he would treat improving a business process.
“I realised that being good at this matters,” he said. “If you’re going to work with systems that affect people’s livelihoods, you have to take that responsibility seriously.”
Projects became opportunities to explore how he could use this in the real world to make businesses more profitable or successful, while delivering exactly what customers wanted- communicating and demonstrating how he can bring things to life through Salesforce technology. In his true professional style, John documented his work, created walkthroughs, and even recorded short demos explaining his thinking for his classmates to watch. These were not assignments for marks. They were exercises in clarity and how he’d use Salesforce in his area of expertise.
“I wanted to be able to explain why I built something a certain way,” he said. “That’s how you know you understand it.”
By the time John completed the Admin Academy and passed his certification, he did not feel like he had simply gained a new skill. He felt grounded.
Salesforce now had context, structure, and purpose.
“I don’t see Salesforce as starting over,” he reflected. “It feels like the tool that finally lets me do my best work.”
Looking back across his career, John sees a consistent thread. Restaurants taught him how systems behave under pressure. Real estate showed him how technology shapes outcomes when timing and trust matter. Get Force Certified gave him the framework to bring those experiences together.
What stood out most for John was how tangible the learning felt. The Academy was hands-on from the start, grounded in real scenarios that mirrored the kinds of problems he had seen in business, which brought the platform to life in a way self-study never had.
Learning alongside others mattered too. The cohort quickly became a team, studying together, sharing approaches, and supporting one another through challenges.
That sense of collective effort was reinforced by Dave’s constant presence. He consistently went the extra mile, taking the time to explain concepts in different ways and making sure everyone could move forward with confidence.
It echoed something John keeps written on his whiteboard, a reminder he returns to whenever the work feels hard: “Be grateful that you’re tired. Not because of someone else’s goals, but because you’re pursuing your own.”
John is now continuing his journey in the Salesforce ecosystem, drawn to roles where industry knowledge, system design, and human impact intersect. He is particularly interested in consulting and business analysis work within real estate and service-led industries.
He brings with him a belief that excellence matters. That technology should raise standards, not just automate tasks. And that is when systems are built well, people can do their best work.
John didn’t need more content.
He needed structure, context, and a way to learn that respected how he thinks and works.
If you’re capable, motivated, and tired of fragmented learning, the Admin Academy was built for people exactly like you.Salesforce isn’t about memorising features – it’s about understanding how businesses actually work and taking responsibility for the systems you build.
If John’s story resonates and you want to learn Salesforce with clarity, structure, and purpose, the Admin Academy can help you build that foundation.
