Another Day, Another Dollar

Well here we are at the mid-point of our summer. I took a stat call (accountability to see if you worked. It is where we tell people how many people we saw and how much we sold so) from one of the other managers and each night he would simply say, "Another day, another dollar." It got me to thinking about how much he simply just "clocks in" and "clocks out." He is a very consistent salesman and always works hard. I want to be more like him in the sense of consistency.

This week was tough for me, but I feel so much stronger now having gone through that. It sounds cheesy, I know, but it really does help so much just to take all the things that stopped me last week and change my thinking. "If you think what you've always thought, you'll do what you've always done, and you'll get what you've always gotten."

So here I am, ready for change. I want to be better and I want to have an impact on the first years that I work with. Over the pat few weeks I've been really trying to be a good example for them everywhere except in the selling books department. Here's my week to shine and show them how to sell a lot of books. That's exactely what I plan to do. I will have great news for you next week!

Also I switched HQ's again. If you want to mail me a care package with some food or vitamin waters then send it to: 4015 Greenway Ct, Portsmouth, VA 23707 :)

Thanks for reading!

I didn't forget

For those of you reading this blog, sorry to keep you all in such suspense. I'm sure you were are checking your computer frantically waiting to see how my week went. Just kidding.

Well it was very similar to being on a roller coaster. Monday was another burger day (100 units) then Tuesday was nothing, then Wednesday was 8, Thursday was 116, Friday was 0 and Saturday was 17. Crazy week but I feel like each week uncovers a new part of me to work on. For example last week taught me about consistency. Even though it was my best week ever, my days were still very up and down. This week consistency was amplified through my ups and downs of the days. I'm really looking forward to this week to prove to myself that I can be consistent if I control my thoughts. You see each time I have a zero day or one with low sales, it generally reflects my attitude towards the job. So this week I would really like to just have fun and work hard enough to make the money I need.

On another note, we got to go to the beach today. It was glorious! I tried to even out my book tan, (which is still pretty bad). I also moved HQ's this week and am now staying with an alum that does not charge rent. It's pretty sweet. We also get 50% off at Domino's because he works there part time. He is really quite an impressive guy. He works as an architect by day and then pizza guy at night. He is doing it to put his wife through grad school without paying any loans. Awesome huh? He's on Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University program. Anyway, I'm going to the mall now and I shall talk to you all soon. Peace

BDE which makes my BWE

So yeah, this week was absolutely crazy. My days went like this for sales:
Monday - 120
Tuesday - 52
Wednesday - 7
Thursday - 0
Friday - 103
Saturday - 157

BDE means best day ever and BWE means best week ever in case you didn't figure that out. This week was a big belief barrier week. Up to this point I've never sold more than like 300 or so units in a week. I think my best is like 357. Breaking through to 440 with three days over 100 units was almost mind blowing. I really felt good about doing the job and letting people buy as opposed to selling. To keep my mind occupied from thinking about how many units I sell during the day I think about my family. On Friday I just told myself that I wanted to work hard enough to be able to pay for my dad and I to play golf and to be able to take my mom out to eat. I focused on working hard enough to do that and did not care about how much I made. I knew that if I just did the work in the right way the units would take care of themselves and they did! It feels good, but it also makes me wonder what I am really capable of if I decide to fully immerse myself with this job.

I met some really awesome people this week and one mom actually Facebooked about me coming to her door. She was a sales trainer and coach. She wanted me to come back when her husband could look at the books. When I went back tonight they opened the door and let me right in and then bought books from me. It felt good to think I actually impacted someone enough to be remembered and news spread about me. haha. That sounds really like self-absorbed, sorry.

A few other side notes, B.o.B's new CD rules, Ben Rector is still awesome, the new iPhone...silly, and sleep: necessary right now.

The end of the Summer!

Ok so I don't know if I've talked about crystallizing my goals or not but basically it's breaking our big achievements into small mini goals. For example, I want to work hard from 8:09 to 9:31 every single day. So, working for almost 13.5 hours in a day seems daunting. So what we do is we break it down into two hour "goal periods." All throughout the day I just tell myself phrases like these to trick my mind into thinking that I only work two hours:
"I have the easiest job in the world because I just talk to moms and get drinks from 9-11."
"I have the easiest shift ever. I only work from 9-11, the 11-1 shift is way worse and I'm so glad that I only have to work from 9-11."
"It's super easy to work for two hours."
"I never work more than two hours at my job."

So all that to say, I've done the same thing with my summer. Instead of working 12 weeks I am working 4 small three week summers. Tomorrow is a brand new summer and I don't have much time so I have to really go work hard to earn the money I need for the fall. I will be switching from Chesapeake to Suffolk tomorrow. I finished this week with about 230 units which is not a very good week for me. I hope to work a lot harder this week and just put my head down and work. They compare it to the analogy of swimming. When you swim it takes forever if you pull your head up and look at how much further you have before you hit the wall. If you just stay underwater and swim hard you will reach the end much faster. Well that is what I plan on doing this week. I want to be totally submerged into my job this summer and Oswald Chambers has been helping so much throughout my weeks here. If you have nothing positive to read in the mornings when you start your day I would highly recommend it. If any of you have any prayer requests you can send them to me and I'll pray for you during the week because I have a lot of time to myself. haha. Enjoy where you are!

Week 2 down

Well I tripled my profit from last week. Good news right? Not so much. We measure our book sales in units. Each unit is about $5 in profit. Last week I sucked and only sold about 100 units which is like $500. This week on Wednesday I had 84 units so I almost beat my week in a day. I feel like I have a lot of potential to live up to. I know I can do this job better because my best week last week was like 342. This week I finished with 308 units. My best day ever is 139 and I am going to crush that next week. This summer has so much to offer me not only in financial gains but also in growth. I am really focusing on doing things because I said I would. Over the past few years I feel like my integrity has slipped and some bad habits have formed. In high school I was such a straight edge student, but in college I let myself become complacent and stretch the boundaries. I want to use this summer as way to recalibrate the direction of my life.

I know all these blogs begin to sound cliché, but it really is true. There is no better feeling than finished a day of working hard all day even when you reallllly didn't want to. Each day is crazy but I am so glad I'm here.

Funny stories for the week: today I pulled up to a house and there was a German Shepard outside. I always jump out of my car and open the back door to get my bag out. Well the German Shepard came running at my car, but the owner said he was friendly. I let him smell me then went to open my back door to get my bag. The dog was friendly alright. He jumped right into my car and just sat there until the owner had to come over and drag him out of the car. His response was, "He has a thing for cars." Interesting day.

I also may or may not have stolen a "No Soliciting" sign. (Some bad habits from college are carrying over).

Girl Story

Alright, to relieve Kate's desire to hear the story I will explain.

I was sitting in a house and it was awesome. The dad, Bill let me in and we sat at his kitchen table. I usually build rapport with kids by getting them to come sit down and then tell them I'm with the military. It goes something like this,
"Hi, did your parents tell you what this is about?"
"Nope."
"Ok well I'm actually with the military and due to the events from the past few weeks your parents have enrolled you in a two week military program. You need to pack light for two weeks and then we'll do some push ups and head out."

Then the kids usually freak out or their parents bust out laughing. After that they are pretty relieved and cool. So then I started explaining what I am really doing and show him the books. His older college sister was in the kitchen with her friend while we were doing the military prank. They busted out laughing as well and asked where we were from. Then they went to the other room. So while showing the books we hear the mom yell from the other room, "Bill she wants to use your number."
Bill says, "What? She wants to use my number???"
"No, she wants you to get his number."

At this point I didn't know what his reaction was going to be so I just froze. There was a bit of awkward time until he finally cracked a smile and laughed. So I then proceeded to let out a nervous laugh and continue on with the demo. Well it ended up that they had already ordered the books in the past but he didn't know it. The mom bought them a few years back. So he said he was sorry but wasn't sure if they knew where it was. He said he wanted to call me in case he couldn't find the books. So I gave it to him. Well we usually have our phones off during the day so I cut it on at about 9:40. I had two texts. One said, "Hey cutie ;)." The other said, "Remember me from the kitchen?"

So that was kind of funny. I did respond to her texts for a minute but then decided it probably wasn't a good idea. So that's my story. I hope it was entertaining.

Summer is here

Well my summer has begun and Southwestern is kicking my butt. It's a good thing though. I feel as if I am going through this really tough week to have an awesome week next week. I have met some awesome people and the first years out here are doing great. My farmer's tan is showing quite nicely and there is kid here from Michigan that plays on the Ultimate club team at U of M. Obviously this is great news for me and his throw is soooo smooth.

I have a funny story about a girl getting my number while I was showing books to her dad. kind of awkward. I might have to tell it tomorrow though because i'm exhausted right now.