February 01, 2019

Julian

None of what is happening at Bloom would be possible without the incredible team behind it. With our Meet the Team Series, we will be introducing the individuals who are working hard to make all of this possible.

Now, meet Julian, our meticulous Data Migration Specialist:

Portrait of Julian, Data Migration Specialist

Where were you born and raised?
That question has two answers in my case. I was born in Santa Cruz, CA and then raised in Lompoc, CA, which is a great town if you're a fan of absolutely nothing.

What do you love most about Lompoc?
That I'm not there anymore… But to answer fairly, I liked how quiet it was sometimes. Anytime I went to a big city like Seattle, NYC, etc. I always felt grateful for the silence of living in a small town once I got back.

What is your role at Bloom?
Everybody knows me as the Data Migration Specialist. One of the biggest obstacles to switching ecommerce platforms is migrating years of history to the new platform, so I handle the task of migrating our clients' data from their old platforms.

I've noticed that the wineries most highly motivated to switch platforms tend to be on the most difficult ones to switch from. It can be an ugly process, and the essence of my role is to be the person who worries about this stuff so nobody else has to. My general goal is to make the process of becoming a Bloom customer as seamless as possible.

When I'm not working on migrations, I also contribute to the Bloom software itself, helping develop new features and platform integrations.

Whom in the world would you most like to share a meal with?
Sometimes I wonder what Gordon Ramsay would think about how I make scrambled eggs. Are they amazing? Are they terrible? I can handle the criticism, I just really want to know.

Who has inspired you most in your career?
It's really hard to answer this question. To some extent I've been inspired by everybody I work with now. Working with other people (especially other developers) who are more advanced in their careers than me reminds me that I always have more to learn but learning more is always within reach.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Hard question, but in 10th grade I wasn't doing well in my English class. I was a procrastinator and a perfectionist, and I wouldn't turn in assignments because I didn't want to unless I felt like I had done my best possible work. My teacher took me aside and lectured me something along the lines of “It's better to turn in something half-finished for half credit than nothing at all for no credit.” It sounds obvious, but being 15 it had never occurred to me before. That really stuck with me, and it started to sink in that the risk of failure is always the price of success. Once I started applying that, I also realized that the biggest obstacle to my success was most often myself. I think my teacher just wanted me to do my homework, but the impact of her advice went way beyond that.

How do you define success?
I think success is being able to accomplish your vision for the world. Whether your vision is just to have the home and the daily routine that makes you happy or to accomplish something really huge, I think success is finding out what your vision is and then making it happen.

If you could intervene during any historic event, changing history, what would it be?
I would go back in time 20 years and tell my five-year-old self to buy as many Lego sets as I could and never open them. One storage unit full of Bionicles and I could have been ready to retire at 30.