Mike Wheeler

I am the founder of Velza Training & Consulting for AI and Salesforce Implementations and Consulting Services!

I am the first instructor to teach Generative AI on the edX platform. My courses consistently reach best-seller status across Claude, NVIDIA, ChatGPT, Microsoft, Salesforce, Prompt Engineering, Context Engineering and AI.

I am also the author of the 'Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator Study Guide' published by O'Reilly Media, released October, 2025.

I am passionate about helping you become a 'Creator in a Consumption World'

I gravitate towards tools and tech that empower the non-technical to build and create amazing things online.

That is why I was drawn to amazing tools and platforms, such as Salesforce, ChatGPT and more.

After Thousands of Udemy Survey ratings for my courses, the students have spoken:

"Are you learning valuable information?" 99.6% answered YES

"Are the explanations of the concepts clear?" 99.8% answered YES

"Is the instructor knowledgeable about the topic?" 99.9% answered YES

Before discovering Salesforce, I worked as a Technical Writer, Trainer, and built blogs using Wordpress. Once I found Salesforce, I saw it as the quickest path to building world-class web and mobile applications for businesses and consumers.

I've attained 9 Salesforce Certifications along the way: Force Developer (retired), Salesforce Administrator, Salesforce Business Analyst, Salesforce Associate, Salesforce AI Associate, Salesforce Advanced Administrator, Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant, Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant, Salesforce Platform App Builder.

Feel free to connect with me through the various social profile links on my profile here. 

Here is my recommended NVIDIA Certification path:

Start here: NVIDIA Associate tier (foundational)

NVIDIA-Certified Associate: AI Infrastructure and Operations (NCA-AIIO)

NVIDIA-Certified Associate: Generative AI and LLMs (NCA-GENL)

NVIDIA-Certified Associate: Generative AI Multimodal (NCA-GENM)

Then advance: NVIDIA Professional tier (core)

NVIDIA-Certified Professional: AI Infrastructure (NCP-AII)

NVIDIA-Certified Professional: Generative AI LLMs (NCP-GENL)

NVIDIA-Certified Professional: Agentic AI (NCP-AAI)

Then specialize: NVIDIA Professional tier (focused tracks)

NVIDIA-Certified Professional: AI Networking (NCP-AIN)

NVIDIA-Certified Professional: Accelerated Data Science (NCP-ADS)

NVIDIA-Certified Professional: OpenUSD Development (NCP-OUSD)

Why this order

AIIO grounds you in the infrastructure and operations everything else runs on. GENL adds generative AI. GENM extends that into multimodal across text, image, and audio.

The Professional tier mirrors the Associate tier: AII builds on AIIO, GENL-Pro builds on NCA-GENL, and Agentic AI is the advanced capstone on the agent wave.

Here is my recommended Salesforce Certification Path, for those of you just starting out, with no prior development experience.

1. Salesforce Certified Platform Foundations

3. Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator

4. Salesforce Certified Agentforce Specialist

5. Salesforce Business Analyst or Salesforce Platform App Builder or Data Cloud Consultant

Other routes would be that of a Consultant (Sales Cloud and/or Service Cloud) or Advanced Admin, or Architect, or Developer.

For those of you with prior development experience, you can start at either Platform App Builder or Platform Developer I. Please note that it is always a good idea to at some point grow strong on the fundamentals of the platform to round out your understanding of Salesforce, such as attaining the Admin and/or Foundations certifications.