A MuleSoft Community Legend
A long time ago, in the far away land of Salesforce TDX23, a MuleSoft Community Legend was revealed…
The Beginning
Let us begin with a story that starts all the way back in 2014 and introduce you to Manik Magar. Manik was eager to expand his integration skills and decided to try out this new-ish thing called API-led Connectivity. He quickly fell in love with MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform, but realized there wasn’t much content or support in the ecosystem yet. So, Manik decided to document his own learning journey, share his integration challenges, and provide his own knowledge as he learned what worked, best practices, and definitely what to avoid as he developed APIs.
As he continued his content creation, he became the go-to MuleSoft expert for others learning MuleSoft or working to implement API-led solutions at their own companies. It became known that if you had a technical question, Manik was there to help you. He quickly achieved elevated status on the MuleSoft Forums and continued to expand his contributions. Manik was unstoppable and his recognition by others in the MuleSoft Community was only just beginning.
The MuleSoft Meetups
Manik’s fame in the MuleSoft Community grew rapidly (even though he is the most humble individual and will tell you otherwise.) He found that while helping individuals 1:1 was beneficial, there had to be a way to help more and more community members while also encouraging them to share their own expertise.
Thus, Manik dove headfirst into MuleSoft Meetups. We’re not talking just one single MuleSoft Meetup. Manik spearheaded multiple MuleSoft Meetup groups and created the uberly successful Online- English Meetup group. Did we mention he also frequently speaks at MuleSoft Meetups around the world? When the COVID-19 pandemic forced our MuleSoft Meetups to transition from in-person to virtual, Manik offered his support and experience with virtual events to all of our wonderful MuleSoft Meetup Leaders. He helped find speakers, promote events, and coached new leaders. Now, he was able to support hundreds and ultimately thousands of individuals as well as cultivate new outstanding contributors (or as we like to say— “More Maniks”).
The MuleSoft Ambassadorship
Simultaneously as he became an outstanding MuleSoft Meetup Leader, Manik was inducted into the first ever MuleSoft Ambassador cohort in 2018. This program recognizes the best of the best in the MuleSoft Community. It also encourages individuals to continue challenging themselves whether it’s by skilling up through new certifications or overcoming a fear of public speaking. Over the past 5 years, Manik has consistently improved professionally and personally. If he excels at writing a blog but struggles to create a presentation, he dedicates the time to become the best presentation maker there is.
As a MuleSoft Ambassador, Manik coaches MuleSoft Mentors and he has a 100% success rate of these individuals becoming future MuleSoft Ambassadors. The relationships he fosters and the encouragement he provides is unmatched!
The Events
One of the hardest things to do is walk up on stage and present. From MuleSoft CONNECTs to TDX and Dreamforce, Manik shines on stage. Whether it’s a small session or speaking in a keynote, he brings his best. When the MuleSoft Community first held a developer Meetup at MuleSoft CONNECT, Manik presented!
At TDX19, Manik represented the MuleSoft Community as one of our first Trailblazers.
At TDX22, Manik packed the house with a session on distributed tracing. Check out his presentation here. He sold out the theater again at Dreamforce22, where Manik showed how to architect solutions for observability! Check out his presentation here.
Manik also stopped by the MuleSoft Community booth MANY times to help explain the power of Mule and the community. His expertise far exceeds ours!
And he participated in multiple executive listening and broader community initiatives to represent Muleys in the broader Salesforce ecosystem!
This year, at TDX23, Manik shined during the MuleSoft Keynote and participated in some really fun Salesforce+ interviews! He also took time out of his busy schedule to support his mentee Nadina Lisbon as she presented during the Platform Keynote. Seriously, we had to pull Manik away to make sure he made his own commitments. He always puts others before himself!
The Content Creation
We would need to write a book to highlight ALL of the fantastic content Manik creates. There seriously isn’t a platform that he is not on helping others learn MuleSoft. When we launched the MuleSoft Community Twitch in 2022, guess who was the first guest? Manik.
However, one of our favorite contributions he’s made is DataWeave Battle Snake. It combines two beloved items: DataWeave (everyone’s favorite) and Battle Snake (so hard, yet so fun). You can learn how he built the game here and then try it out for yourself and try to beat others!
The MuleSoft Community Legend
Now it’s 2023, and Manik is now THE Manik. His outstanding contributions to the MuleSoft Community over the past nearly 10 years have shaped our community leader programs, inspired hundreds of individuals to share their own knowledge, and set a precedent for what makes an excellent contribution. Manik is the first to raise his hand to support others, and he’s the first to challenge himself to think outside of the box and create something new. Overall, on top of being an outstanding MuleSoft Community Leader. Manik is an amazing human. We are beyond grateful for his attitude and hard work, and he is more than deserving of becoming the one and only, MuleSoft Community Legend.
Become the next Manik
We are always looking for “More Maniks” and there are many ways YOU can get involved in the MuleSoft Community. Here are a few suggestions to get started!
