Below are the 12 most recent journal entries recorded in bluberry637's LiveJournal:

Saturday, June 25th, 2005
12:54 am	Life and times of an assistant manager Ok guys, so it's been nearly a month. I wonder if anyone still checks this, or wonders what I've been up to in my Vector career. Being an AM isn't as peachy as I assumed it to be. It's hard managing my schedule, I wish I had a personal assistant, hah. But I know in my mind, heart, and soul that I am truly growing as a person and using this experience to my advantage. To be an AM you must be selfless, it is in fact a selfless position, in which your needs are put second while you put the office and everything that encompasses the office, first. I want to belive I can handle this. I really do. At the same time, I want to go and sell my heart out. It's hard for me to get excited talking with other older reps about selling, the way I used to, knowing that I don't have time to do appts. With Louis abdicating from AM, that means more work for the rest of us. Sigh. Perhaps I'm saying this as an excuse, I don't know. I have half of me battling with the other. One side says, "you REALLY don't have time as you thought," and the other is saying, "you're blinding yourself with excuses." Execution, execution, that's all the office really talks about. And it's true, but it's easier said than done. What I need to do, is simply focus my business on the whole real estate aspect of the job, some uncharted waters that I have yet to test. Seriously, if I can out execute this facet, at least, I'll be shipping big, and still have a lot of time on my hands. I've been telling myself to do this real estate stuff, it just never gets done. I gotta plan it out, in GREAT detail. So anyway, I hung out with James and Diana today, talked the business, like we always do. It's becoming a weekly habit of ours, to meet up and talk business. I love your prospectus Diana, mine needs a serious makeover. I was extremely tired from the Hamilton graduation today. James... he has something about him that bothers me, I don't know what it is. The way he puts things in perspective I suppose. He seems to idolize Louis like he is some sort of Cutco God who is this big closer. Honestly, Brandon agrees with the fact that Louis had some good leads last year, and he didn't work that hard. He has absolutely no sense of work ethic. I remember when I first started, Mike would commend me for my work ethic. Mike actually stopped by the office today, we chatted for 2 minutes. I've been thinking about talking with him about my situation about how I changed from before and how to return to that once highly motivated rep, but I just don't want Brandon to think that I can't go to him either. I need motivation. It seems as if nothing excites me or drives me. I want to believe that something does. I have all these reasons why and goals I remember writing out. Perhaps, it's something as simple as reading them to myself everyday until it is imprinted in my mind. I need to rethink things, maybe plan things out, that usually helps me get inspired. But this real estate thing... I have somewhat of a plan to carry out, it's a pretty 50-50 chance it will work, but hey who knows right? Well, this is me as of yet. God help me. Current Mood: busy (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 8th, 2005
3:04 pm	La la la A lot of things have happened since last entry, sorry again for not updating you guys. But I have been redicuously busy with everything. Division meeting.. I ended up getting 3rd. Freakin LeMaster, got 1, we were like less than 200 bucks away. Aiya. Last night was the SLDM with So. Coast division. Santa Monica arrived very late, hehe. But I took some notes, got recognized also in front of everyone, which was cool. Jeremy Miller was there. We waved at each other, but didn't really talk. The meeting was held at this K1 Speed place in San Diego. I rode down with Louis and Andrew, the two Whiggas. Louis blasted his rap music, but then after a while we played this Movie game, it was pretty fun. I didn't really expect playing one of those road trip games with them. After the meeting, Brandon met with all the leaders. He was angry for the most part, cuz everyone was screwing around I guess. But then, he singled me out and compared me to Becerra, how I took a lot of notes, and how that was exactly what Mike had done before, and how he was like a sponge. I didn't even notice he noticed. Then, he went to talk to just the AMs, but allowed me to leave early from that meeting. I met up with my other peers, Amy and Diana and we got ready to go race car driving. I convinced both of them to do it, hehe. Man, go carts are pretty dangerous. I got reallly hyped up, that when I started off, I crashed into two people. Hahah.. it was pretty crazy, I'm glad I didn't get kicked out though. The second time we raced, it was pretty fun, I was more careful. I didn't really crash into anyone, but I can't believe freakin Alexis beat me. She can't be that good of a driver. Hmm.. we need to do this more often. Last time I went go cart riding was at Golf n Stuff, but that doesn't compare to last night. It was totally extreme, they even made us where these really cool helmets with a visor, I kinda felt like Samus from Metroid, hehe. I am really really behind on my goals. It's bad. I really need to start focusing. But it's hard when you keep in mind school and all this other crap I have to deal with. My grandma is in the hospital, and it's scary, because we were really close. I need to be there for her, but at the same time, can't forget about all my other duties I have. I'm gonna visit her today, no working for me. 'Til next entry... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 29th, 2005
1:34 am	Long Time No Update Sorry whomever reads this, I haven't updated in quite some time. I've been awfully busy these days: work and school. Yup. I finally got my FSM promotion published in the newsletter, which was cool. My name... no one else's was on the top, I felt somewhat accomplished. This Saturday is our division meeting for family and friends. I think I'm going to invite my sister, her pseudo-bf, Frank, and my mom of course. I believe I'll be getting my AM promotion then as well. I didn't write a letter to Dave yet, but Brandon said that we would get our promotions at the meeting, pretty exciting, huh? I cannot wait 'til school is over so I can focus on selling more. Summer is here, and it's time to redeem myself from last campaign and show the company what I'm truly made of, yeah? I'm still kind of bummed out about the All-American Scholarship, I missed it by 5 people. And it's pretty much my fault, because if I fixed a problem order two days ago, instead of waited 'til Thurday, I would've gotten it. Damn my ability to procrastinate! Sigh. I really wanted it too. I guess there's Summer campaign, but Summer is more competitive, and plus I told Mike I would win it for him. And the entire last week, Brandon kept pumping me up and asking me who he was talking to, and I would reply, "An All-American Winner." Ugh, I'm pissed at myself. I let myself down. Sure I worked hard, but when it comes down to it, nobody cares, all that matters if you were top 25. AHHHH!! I want to play the drums and release my anger!!! Anyway, happier note.. I finally got the key to the office. Brandon presented me one, and I felt so honored. Wow, I have access to the office, I have power and authority, jk. Man...free cable...free access to internet/printer...free access to the phone and no bill to pay... haha what else? Maybe I can hold some late night parties there... hehe just kidding. I think Brandon would kill me if he found out. This AM thing is gonna be fun, just that I'm worried cuz SMC doesn't get out til June, and Brandon expects us to be working hard in the month of May. I was a little down at Management Prep meeting today, when Brandon was talking to Louis and Ginny about conducting interviews, and how they had to memorize it ASAP. Is it that he doesn't think I'm capable of it? He told us that when Mike first started he wanted to do PDI, but Brandon made him focus on recruiting. My situation is sorta the opposite, I want to run an interview as well. But Brandon told us to trust him, and that he has to develop us properly, or at least something along those lines. Anyway, I suppose then, I could sell some more. Well, that's about it for now. I have absolutely no demos for tomorrow, aish. I need to get some set up!! Must get #1 in Push contest! Please God, give me strength. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 9th, 2005
6:16 pm	"Goodbye love, just came to say goodbye love, goodbye" Like the title? It's actually from RENT, the broadway musical, good song. Anyhow, Wednesday was eventful. It all started at the team meeting, I had arrived 15 minutes til, which sort of angered Mike and Brandon, they want Key Staff to be there an hour before, yikes. The room was filled with current and past reps in Santa Monica's history of being an office. That was exciting, there was one cute face I noticed, his name was Derrick, he did Vector over the summer. The meeting started, Louis gave a talk, and so did Mike Mallery, also fairly cute guy. Manager Mike gave a closing talk about his experiences at the Santa Monica office. I was about to cry. His last paragraphs gave tribute to some of the reps at the office, he mentioned Brandon, Louis, Matt, and....me. I felt special, he didn't talk about everyone. "Stephanie, she's like a little sister to me. I can't stand her," the audience laughed. "I remember one night at TGIFs, only three weeks into the business, and I was already talking to her about management. Her eyes lit up. And I was talking to her not as a new rep, but on the same level. Behind all the shyness, I could tell she wanted it." His farewell speech was touching, and I wanted to jump right out of my seat and hug him in the middle of it. But of course, I had to restrain myself. The meeting ended, I hadn't gotten a chance to meet all the old reps. Paola bought cake, I told her to make it say Good Luck DM Mike. It was a tres leches cake, which was fairly interesting. I don't know if I'd eat it again, hehe. I made an iniative to talk to Derrick, and get to know him. He currently attends CSUN, works at Best Buy, majoring in Marketing, and lives in LA. After the meeting, we were to all meet up at Donnie's pad, for a little shindig-get-together-farewell party. Me and Justin drove down together to Ladera Heights, the "Beverly Hills" of Inglewood. It was mostly just old reps when we had arrived. There was a keg outside, with extremely flat beer. I took a little. Jaime arrives, Ginny, then Mike and Paola, Matt, Vincent, Arthur, James, Mike Mallery, Louis, and finally Brandon. Some of the old reps I met included Amy Thompson, Liz, Mike Shaver? (I think that's his name), Chris, and of course Derrick. It was a typical guy's house, no real food, plastic cups scattered all over the floor, a calendar of models in bikinis on a cabinet in the kitchen, and a stereo placed on the kitchen counter. Haha, the usual. I brought in some drinks I stored in my car, mostly the ones from the minibar at KOC, hehe, good times guys. Mike puts me in charge of ordering pizza, aish, why me. So I had to dial 411, which gave me a number, I hate the freakin Dominos hotline, they make you listen to this recording FOREVER, then it turned out that that certain branch did not deliver to us. So I had to in turn call 411 again, aiya. So finally I order three large pizzas, and collect the money, two bucks from everyone. My philosophy is that the money collector never has to pay, hahah, but shhh... they don't know that. So I'm walking around the kitchen, and Louis comes up to me, and says, "Where the fuck are the pizzas?!" in her jerk-like tone. I pause. "Why don't you shut the fuck up?!" I replied very slowly and sternly. He's taken aback and the entire house is quiet, with the group in the corner, oooh-ing at me. I turned to them, raised up my hand in a sort of apologetic manner as I walked towards them. I didn't want them to get a bad impression of me. Mike, who was sitting on the chair asked Chris what just happened, Chris told him that I just told Louis off. Mike then gave me a high five. Paola leaves around this time. Pizza arrives, we all dig in. I got a slice and a half, I was happy. Ginny, who's still hungry decides to make some ramen, so she does. Standing with others in the kitchen, and next thing you know, the Frankie J song comes on, "Obsession." Mike, outside in the backyard peeps his head through the sliding door into the kitchen, and stated his hatred for the song. "This song is gay." "You don't like Frankie J?" I asked him. "He's gay too," and he goes back out. Ramen's done, so we take it out to eat. Matt had gotten some chicken from Popeyes, and was sharing it with Mike. I took a piece, and sat beside Mike. Mike gets his phone to call Paola. "Just to see if she got home okay." I didn't ask you, Mike. I don't need an explanation. Still sitting between the two guys, Mike pinches my cheek, like he always does. "Noone's gonna do that to me anymore," I sadly said. "Matt, remember to pinch her cheeks for me. You gotta pull James' hair, and don't forget to slap Louis's head." I'm Matt's and Mike's personal masseuses, and Brandon's and Mike's personal back-scratchers, by the way. So Matt asked for a massage, and Mike wanted one when he was done. Derrick leaves, and I casually get his sn, hehe. I hinted to Mike that I was interested in him. "He's a good guy. Did you get his number?" "No, just his screen name, I'll eventually get his number." "He's cool, if you go for potheads." "He's a pothead?!?!" I was surprised. Man, that sucks. The night went on, others left, we still partied. Ginny was really buzzed, and Brandon was getting drunk as well. I forget what happens before this point. But all I remember was that I went outside, and saw Mike sitting on a bench by himself, so I took the liberty of sitting beside him. Two other people were outside as well, Matt and Justin, I think, I didn't pay too much attention. So, I sat next to Mike. I don't know what overcame me, but I just had this urge to hug him, so I kind of just threw myself on him. "I'm going to miss you" He kissed the side of my head softly. I can't remember what occurs right after, but that we're outside on the bench, really close. Flashing forward, I go back to the corner table, where Chris and Matt were. "I was going to tell you, but you have something on the back of your shirt," Matt said to me. "Yeah right," I told them. "Seriously you do," Matt replied. Freaking out, "What is it?!" I tried rubbing my back on Matt, to get it off. "I don't know. What are you doing?!" I walk towards the front door, where no one can see me, and took off my blouse. Of course, I was wearing a spaghetti-strap underneath. No, I wouldn't get naked like that, I wasn't THAT drunk. Anyway, I checked the stain out, it seemed like it was some pizza stain. Anyway, I showed it to the guys, and tried rubbing it off with my saliva on my fingers. "Stephanie, put your shirt on right now!" It was Brandon, yelling from the kitchen. I don't think I was toooo revealing, just perhaps, a tad bit sexy, haha. I go back to the front door so no one can see me. "Damn it, Stephanie, put your damn shirt on right now!" Brandon repeated. "No!! You can't make me!" I yelled back. "Stephanie!!" That was hilarious, Brandon cracks me up, he acted like he was my dad, haha. I walk into the kitchen, still with my blouse not on, and Brandon sticks his massive body in front of me, as if to hide me from everyone. I decided for Brandon's sake to put on the blouse. It was one of those zipper blouses, so I didn't really zip all the way up. Brandon wanted me to scratch his back, so I ended up scratching it. "Brandon says you're a really good back scratcher" Ginny said. "Really?!" "Yeah, he told me." I ended up massaging his arm as well. "Wow you're good," Brandon said. "Really?" "Yeah." Maybe I should be a real masseus. That's a real compliment coming from Brandon, his sister is a masseus so I'm sure he gets massages all the time. Plus, that's all he did at Thailand, when he went on vacation, haha. A bunch of guys are in the kitchen, finally they end up talking about the calendar girls. One of the girls, that Donnie liked particularly was laying on her side, with her ribs sticking out, which was somewhat disgusting. The guys were debating who was hot/not. Mike later comes to the kitchen, and Brandon asks him where his drink was. "I'm okay." "Pussy," Brandon scoffs. "Get your cup," he commands. Mike fetches his cup, gives it to Brandon, and Brandon pours in some of his into Mike's. "If you ever get tired of Santa Monica, you can work for me at Whittier," Mike said jokingly. "You know, if we trained more people, I would've let you go," Brandon nonchalantly said. "Really?!" "Yeah." I grinned as Mike and I became close again. Side by side, he put his hand on my waist. Everyone is chatting, making jokes, I stare at the reflection on the sliding door of me and Mike, me smiling, noticing the location of his hand. He later asked me for a back scratch, and we walk around to the counter outside the kitchen and I give him one. Back at the kitchen, the song, "More than words" comes on, and both Ginny and I acknowledge how good the song is. Brandon, very much buzzed, turns to me, and tries seranading me the song, replacing a lot of the words with "na's" and mumbling. It's almost 1AM, I have school the next morning, I don't want to leave. I talk to Mike Mallery who was also fairly buzzed. I took him field training once, good guy, great personality, just that he has a girlfriend, and seems very loyal to her. I rested my arm on his shoulder, even though hes taller than me, and we chatted about some random things. I massaged the back of his neck, I suppose I was sort of taking advantage of the moment. Anyway, Ginny comes by as well. "You Asians and Filipinos, you're wild," Mike Mallery stated. "I don't know what it is, but I know deep down inside you guys are crazy. Especially, you, Stephanie, the more conservative, the more wild." I blushed. Haha. He gave us both a group hug, and kissed our heads. Man, what a guy, haha. Manager Mike, who was somewhat still there, reaffirms the fact that I was wild. "I'm buck wild!" I replied back, as he turned his head and gave a cute giggle. It was finally time to leave, Mike wanted to walk me out. I tried getting Justin's attention, but anyway, Mike and I went out. Chatting, we didn't want to say goodbye. We were at my car, Justin finally comes running out, he's fired up. I guess Brandon gave him some words of encouragement. We leave the premises, and depart back to LA. Throughout all the tickling and times our hands ended up clasped somehow in each other's, it was a night not to be forgotten. Sometimes I wonder, he has a girlfriend, but it doesn't seem that way. I don't want to be a homewrecker, but it just seems that me and him have a lot more fun, I don't know. I called him yesterday, he was the first one I told about my official FSM promotion. He had just sold a 1081 that day also, and was hanging out with some friends. I let him go, to hang out with his friends. "I gotta go" "Call me everyday. Bug me all the time, okay?" "Haha, okay." I remember as I first started as a rep, he would always tell me to bug him. 'Til we meet again, Mike. Current Mood: nostalgic (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 31st, 2005
10:07 am	Summer Management Prep Apologies on my behalf of not updating sooner. The prep meeting took place at the Torrance office this time. I'd been there before with Diana to do phone time. Their office is quite cozy, quite small. It makes me thankful to have ours, and excited that we'll be moving to a new office as soon as Brandon returns, which I am truly anticipating as well. The prep meeting started off with drilling for skill the on campus interview. Managers, SMs, AMs, had been going up, with the exception of Louis, but towards the end, Mike announces, "Next up, Stephanie." I paused, and tried to comprehend if he really did call me up, perhaps I misheard. "Stephanie, come up," he repeated. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" I replied somewhat dumbfounded clenching my approach in hand. I was to be Mark Anthony's "student" and I admit I gave him somewhat of a hard time, and acted stupid saying I was introverted and my communication skills were horrible. He ended up laughing, and there were giggles amongst the others who were there. He was a bit sketchy, I admit. Then there was a short intermission, for after every three people who went up, Amber would mediate a quick discussion for the others to give comments and critique. I was standing, nervous as hell. Dave Madrid had just arrived, holy crap. "You're gonna be fine. Just read it, but don't talk to fast," Mike whispers in my ear with a squeeze of my arm to get my attention. All I could do was take deep breaths and give long exhales to try and calm my nerves down. Finally it was my turn to go up, the first actual newbie, and low and behold Mike calls up my notorious partner in crime, Diana Arbas to be my student. How did I know he would do that. The Filipino Duo. Heh. The approach went fairly well, I suppose, for my first time. I got some good comments, just need to memorize the approach and smile more. Then our roles reciprocated and I was the student for Diana. She was so funny. "So what high school did you go to?," she asks as I pretend to fill out the app. "Cerritos High School." "You're from Cerritos? I'm from Cerritos too!!!" "Whoa! What a coincidence!!" Haha.. So after that, Dave gives us a talk about preparing for the summer time. He was basically giving us a rundown of month to month, and emphasized the fact that it was going to be REALLY HARD. Honestly, I think I am ready. I had my training during senior year of high school, doing so much, and I suppose you get used to the stress. And it's true, there is good stress, and there is bad stress. It's weird but I think it's the stress that keeps me going sometimes. Anyhow, Dave actually called me out and asked me a question. "How can you overcome stress, Stephanie, do you know?" I took a pause, and replied, "Time management." "That's exactly what I was going to say." Phew..it just creeps me out sometimes, he has so much authority, and I feel so, unworthy? Haha.. flashback to Wayne's World("We are not worthy, we are not worthy" with the whole bowing gesture). Amber gave a great talk about PDI, great, yet extremely, excruciatingly long. It was towards the end of this talk that I had to use the bathroom, but I didn't want to miss anything either. Dave wraps up the meeting, and actually calls out Diana this time, and mentions how she will be PDIing this summer, which is cool. I didn't really know he had that in store for her, because it is true that PDI is totally important, and that's why I decided to do PDI for the summer as well. Right when he said that, I turned to my left to look at her, smiling that we would be doing the same job. "Stephanie, don't you think Diana has an influence on reps?" I suppose he noticed me looking at her. "Yes." "Has she had an influence on you in what you've become?" "Yes," I replied with a grin. "Now Diana, don't be mad at her," he lightly scolded, as if we were two rivaled siblings and he our dad, it was weird. "Stephanie, I love you," Diana said in that jokingly cute tone she has. The crowd giggled. "I love you too," I replied in my goofy, yet heartfelt voice. Good times. Unfortunately, I didn't get to stay later and hang out with everyone at TGIF's I had to drive over to Glendale to practice for our first church service ever, hehe. 'Til next entry.. Current Mood: okay (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005
1:48 pm	Divison Elite? So, I just got a call from Mike about 10 minutes ago. He called to see how my day was, if I had a demo, etc. He had just gotten out of his staff meeting with Dave. And again, he tried to motivate me saying that I should be doing more demos, doing more phone time, being more urgent and such. I'll give him credit for trying. He even said that he was talking to Dave about me. Ergh. Before I would think to myself, "Man, Dave is gonna know who I am, I will get recognized." But now, it's like whenever I hear, "I was talking to Dave about you," it kinda makes me cringe. I don't know why, perhaps because there remains so much pressure. Mike told me that Dave said to him that I should be cranking right now, and such. Mike tried to tell me that I was better than what I currently am. He made me think back to the week I shipped almost 4K, good strategy, Mike. Yeah, it did make me feel a little better, I admit. And THEN, Mike goes, "No pressure or anything, but Dave was talking about you being on Division Elite." HOLY CRAP!! My mind was just like WHOA! No way would I ever be Division Elite, I mean it would be nice, but right now, at this point in time, my mind cannot handle this. I just visited my counselor the other day, to get added to my Accounting class. And it turns out, I'm taking 19 units. I totally didn't realize that, and maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I really need to concentrate on my school right now. I'm not doing too well in Astronomy and Korean. I feel so fatigued, but I can't complain. "Managers are never tired." Aiya, I wish I could do everything all at once, is it more than just time management? Maybe my life IS hard, but it sucks how managers fail to realize that. I'm giving a talk today, I should be stressing a little bit about it. It's about goal setting, well actually, goal planning. I gotta psych myself up for this. Hopefully it all turns out well in the end. Anywho, til next post. Current Mood: tired (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 21st, 2005
12:36 pm	I need to get FSM... and Jesse? Now an entry in regards to the divisional meeting and post-division meeting. It was decent, my push report sucked. But, bleh, whatever. I was anticipating the breakout, I thought Dave totally said those over 15,000 can go, then Ryan Casey tells me that it's for FSMs only. UGH!! Stuck in the freakin newbie breakout. Ginny said she would allow me to copy her notes. But damn, ugh, next time I will be in the FSM breakout for sure. Michael Mora... he needs to go down. Nothing really against him, just that, he started later than me, and is excelling at a higher rate than I am. I cannot allow that Napoleon Dynomite look alike to outship me. Anyhow, after the meeting, I went with many others to the TGIFs at LBTC. Me and Diana spent some good time in the bathroom, didn't we, Diana? Hehe.. I got to talk to Hans a little more, and talked to Jesse afterwards as well. I was known to Jesse as the "Trilogy Girl." I asked him when the next party was, he was like well, they have one every quarter, but there was some other party going on next week. Then, I found out that most of them you had to be over 21, and so he asked me how old I was. Whenever anyone asks me that, I always porcupine back and ask, "How old do I look?" Hehe... it's fun hearing people's responses. So, he goes, "19? No 20?" "Do I really look that old?" "How old are you?" "18..." Jesse found out from Hans that my major was accounting, and he replied saying, "Hey! You should join Alpha Kappa Psi!" Since it was a business frat, and all. He refused to tell us what he had to do for pledge though. Hehe.. he is 1 out of the 3 white guys in the frat, funny. Hm... I wonder if he knows my real name. Anyway, he still reminds me for some reason like the lead singer in Green Day, perhaps it's the eyes or even the hair. Man are his eyes extremely big. Especially when he purposely widens them. He was staring at me with his bug eyes for almost a minute trying to freak me out, at least it seemed that long. What also is interesting about him, is that he speaks Japanese very well. The only white guy I know that can speak and act Japanese exceptionally well is Aaron Flores. I miss that guy, he was the former Key Club pres before me. Anyway, back on the subject, Jesse started talking to me about cookware, I suppose he sells a lot of it. He basically told me he just reads the manual and told me to see my old customers. I jokingly replied that I should go field training with you. But then I guess I sorta felt dumb, because he was like, "Why, so you can watch me read the manual?" Well, Jesse, my true intentions are to spend more time with you, but I didn't want to tell you. hee hee!! Man, I'm acting really giddy. Diana, Jesse, and I walked out of the restaurant, and didn't really properly exchange our farewells to each other. Jesse was busy escorting Diana to her car, thanks a lot Diana, hahah just kidding, I still love you. Anywho, when I entered my car, it came to my surprise that Jesse had parked several yards behind me. I let him exit out first, and I followed afterward. As he passed in front of me, I gave a beep of my horn and he waved back. I turned, and followed his white Civic with the Alpha Kappa Psi sticker, out of the LBTC. When we stopped at a stop sign, he ended up making a U-turn. I rolled my windows down, and asked him, "What are you doing?" "Following you." "I was following YOU!" I replied. "I don't know how to get out," he admitted. "Haha, okay, I think it's this way," as I pointed left, and he followed behind me. What a guy, he intrigues me. I hope I can get to know him more. Current Mood: giddy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 8th, 2005
1:12 am	The Right Time... Friday morning was like any other regular Friday. I had gotten finished with my Korean class and had made my way towards the cafeteria. Attempting to do homework, I failed and ended up putting my head down and taking a quick nap. Suddenly, my phone rings, to my surprise, it's Mike. I pick up. "Hello?" I ask in anticipation to hear his voice. Loud music in the background fills the receiver, as if Mike had purposeful turned up the radio for me to hear. I couldn't quite make out the song, perhaps one of the many oldie favorites of his. "What's goings on?" I ask him. He actually came up with that saying, in relation to my last name, and his own rendition to the "What's going on, what's going on" oldie song. Anyhow, he laughs back at me, and goes, "You know what Stephanie? We're a lot alike, me and you. That's why we get along so well, we're really similar." You really think so, Mike? I think to myself. "But then we're also bipolar. Bipolar because sometimes when I'm depressed you're happy, or you're depressed and I'm happy. We just gotta catch each other at the right time, you know?" Catch him at the right time. It never really crossed my mind to catch a guy at the right time. I was astonished to hear him say that we were a lot alike. I suppose that perhaps we are. Current Mood: pensive (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 3rd, 2005
9:58 am	A Good Day Tuesday was known as a "Good Day" at least in Brandon's terms. It was so exhilirating coming out from my first demo. I sold pretty big, at least upgraded pretty big. Anyway, from there I had another appointment, but man, was this lady tough. I dropped up from a promise order to an order. Her husband wasn't there at the time, but once he got home, she started getting all excited about the knives, and made him cut the rope and leather, and even showed him how the ice cream scoop melts the ice, haha. I was laughing inside. She had a butcher knife already, her mom I suppose had given it to her, but she didn't know we had white handles, and I guess she has this thing for the color white, but she wanted to know that if we sent in the butcher knife to get fixed/replaced if they can replace it with a pearl handle. So, hopefully they do replace it with pearl, because then she said she would buy more from me. Anyway, I spoke to Matt throughout the night, and after the appointments, he complimented me for doing a good job, and that Brandon was proud of me that night. I can't explain the feeling of joy, but I felt this sense of accomplishment, not just as a rep but as a person. I remember from the beginning when I first started, I had no sense of confidence, and would just back off if they told me "No." But, nowadays, it's a little more complex than that, and I firmly believe that persistence is key. Although, there is a fine line between being persistent and then being annoying. Hmm.. I'm still trying to find out where that line is, for at the same time, I don't want to be looked upon as some used car salesman. As far as that goes, I'm still experimenting. Mm.. I decided to call Mike that night. I saw him in the morning at school doing On-Campus Interviews, and got food for him, and just hung out doing nothing between my classes. So when I called him, it seemed as if I had woken him up, but I was still ecstatic since I didn't get a chance to talk to him yet. It turned out he didn't feel well that day, still jet lagged perhaps from his Olean trip, he left the office early, and needed to get some rest. "Are you busy right now?" I asked him, hoping he would say no but feeling bad that I woke him from his slumber. "I'm never too busy to talk to you," he replied in his oh-so charming way that makes me melt every time I speak to him. He reaffirmed my thoughts about the business, and even brought up something long ago that I thought he would have forgotton. Then he said to me, "Remember that one night. That night at TGIF's..." Of course I remembered. "It was after your first division meeting, and we were outside talking. And I told you, that I could see you as an assistant manager some day, that you had to the potential to be something great. And you were all nervous and shy, remember?" How did he know since the beginning? Something I still long to ask him. What was it about me that made him predict such an outcome? We both said our good nights, and went our separate ways for the night. On top of everything I had been feeling up until that point, this topped it all. I don't think I've had someone have so much faith in me, someone who knew me for barely two weeks and can say that much about me. It perplexes me... He hasn't even left yet, and I'm already missing him. Current Mood: accomplished (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 27th, 2005
1:42 am	"Real" Field Training I had a demo on Friday, 6pm to be exact in Hawthorne. It was a co-worker of one of my mom's friends who bought a 903, when I did a demo at her work, pretty neat. Anyway, he walked by during the demo and seemed interested. When I called him to set up the appointment, he seemed a bit skeptical and told me he already had a set, but I assured him that I get paid just to do it. So I set up the demo, and after our team meeting, was instructed to take someone field training, Jaime, one of the newer reps. I haven't really ever taken a new rep field training before, and was kind of nervous, whether or not I'd be doing the right thing. I ended up agreeing to take him. Friday rolled around, and I picked up Jaime, he's 18 turning 19 in April, but a senior in high school, I suppose he started late. Nice kid. I got to know a lot about him, and we pretty much got off to a good start, it wasn't really awkward or anything. So we drive to the place, and the guy isn't there. The place is somewhat like a townhouse, and seems like everything is jam packed together, but man did they have a lot of DVDs. He finally came after thirty minutes, and I found out a lot about the customer, he was from Ghana, he had a heavy African accent, and since he did most of the cooking, I did the demo for him while Jaime listened. We were sorta pressed for time, and Daniel, the customer, kept hinting that he was a very busy man and had to go. So I tried to go through it as quick as possible, and finally closed on him. He was tough, he gave me the, "I need to talk to my wife" excuse twice, which I knew was total BS because he flat out told me that he is the one that does all the kitchen work and everything and relating to that sort. I sort of bombarded with reasons why he should buy something, and then he finally told me which knives he wanted, and unfortunately there was no ready set, so I just got him what he wanted, and got him a really good deal, and he finally said okay. Phew.. perseverance is key. Today I had a no-show, and this woman has rescheduled/no-showed three times now. And it's not like she's mean to me on the phone or anything. But, it sucks... she totally owes me big time now. Anyhow, after that I went home to eat yummy home food, and then my mom wanted to come along to one of my demos because it was with one of her old friends she hadn't told me about before. So at the customer's place, and we ate toron (very nummmy) and some soup, and my mom talked to her and her husband for a while, catching up and all. Thirty minutes later I begin the presentation. The thing I hate when my mom is there is that she always initiates side conversations during my demo and will ruin some of the presentation. For example, after the rope demo, when you say the reason why the edge works so well, my mom blurts out "Double-D!!" Aiya.. anyway, I ended up droppping up from a shears, fisherman solution, and pruners.. to a space saver and pruners giving the shears and solution for free. They're retired people too, but I helped another person own cutco, that in itself is rewarding. She even got me 5 yes's on the spot, which was so awesome. Finally, about two hours later, I meet up with Jaime a.k.a Jimmy, I think I will call him Jimmy from now, since everyone at his school calls him that. Anyway, we meet up at Carl's Jr in K-town to recap on my demo. I basically explained everything I did and the "why" behind it all. I hope he got something out of it. I feel sorry for him, I think he feels a bit neglected, because with Mike/Matt gone, he's also had some personal problems, and Brandon's busy with the brand spanking new reps. That's where I come in, he didn't even know about phone jams, so I think I'm gonna work on him. He'll be like my peon, or my padawon, and I'll be the Jedi knight, not yet master hehe. I would get so much satisfaction knowing that I helped someone succeed in the business. Til next entry... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 24th, 2005
4:52 pm	Brandon's Back!! So Brandon's back from Puerto Vallarta, I wonder how it was. Unfortunately, Matt and Mike have left for their Olean trip, I really want to tour the factory someday, hehe. Brandon's only gonna be back for a couple weeks, because he's gonna be leaving for Thailand and will be staying there for about a month. Mike will be taking over in his place, I wonder how that will go, hopefully good, he'll step it up. Anyway, it's cool. Brandon asked me to come and do a demo for the training class, but I told him I wasn't sure if I could because I had class. He replied telling me that I could come afterward, so I did. I guess I came late, but I guess I ended up not doing it, that's okay I guess. I couldn't find all my knife sheaths anyway, I wanted to try to tell him that. But I guess he figured. Anyway, I'm at the office, right now, chilling with our new receptionist Nazi short for Nasreen. Gonna stay for phone time and then there's that Summer Prep meeting going on afterward. Diana gave me a call saying that she might stop by and do phone time at the office, sweet! Hehe.. it sucks, I need to set up more demos, I'm literally at zero for the week, not cool. Hehe, okay, well I guess I better go now, I'll try to update this as much as possible. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 16th, 2005
11:27 am	My First Entry Ever This will be my official first entry posting on Live Journal. These past couple weeks, I have felt inspired and motivated to start up a blog revolving around my work life, Vector. There are many reasons of course, but mostly due to a close friend in the business. I feel there’s just so much that I can express freely in speech, whereas on this journal, I have more freedom. Nevertheless, recent times have proven that falsely. I am part of the Santa Monica district office, led by the extraordinary Brandon. I invited Diana last Wednesday to go field training with me, the demo was a great success, and I’m glad she got something out of it. It should actually be the other way around, it feels so weird having a top FSM compliment you, when I’m still rather new. I dragged her along to our first ever Thursday meeting, where we were supposed to talk about on-campus interviews. But in turn, it became this Summer Management Prep meeting in order to prepare for the onslaught of reps for the summer campaign. Brandon totally opened my eyes, he is perhaps by far the best DM in Southland, and I’m glad to be serving under him. He basically gave us the rundown of the summer schedule, day-to-day for an entire week. There was going to be a number of jobs that we had to take part in, as part-time AMs. Me, an AM.. at 18… that is freaking awesome. I recall Brandon depicting each task: PDI, Interviews, OCI, etc. I remember him telling us, “Whoever does PDI would have to be just as good as me.” And Brandon is excellent at PDI, so is Matt, Mike.. well, he’s still learning. PDI is one thing that can make or break a rep, so it is truly an important aspect of the job. I remember, my good and bad PDI moments. The bad ones made me not want to PDI, and from that I have a chance to impact reps and help them out when they’ve had a bad day. I always look forward to PDI-ing with Matt, he cheers me up like no other, I can’t wait to see what he’s made of come April when Mike leaves. PDI… that will be my specialty. I hate to see Mike leave. He was a great asset to our team and I’m not quite sure how things will operate without his presence. I will awfully miss his hugs, and his light kisses on my forehead. What a crush I have on him, which might not necessarily be a good thing. I mean, business and pleasure, it’s neither realistic nor compatible. Honestly, he’s into those glamorous girls that wear the most make up and the tightest clothes, I would never be able to match up, like I would want to anyway. It’s funny how the other day Ginny stated, “I want to find a guy in Vector,” with her desperate plea to find someone. We’re all desperate in one time or another, but finding a guy in Vector? I don’t think that is such a great idea. Eileen of all people agreed with Ginny. Hmm.. in my opinion, a majority of the guys I have had contact with in Vector, maybe with the exception of a handful, are pigs. Specifically the hot, gorgeous ones, they possess nothing but cocky ego, and just want to tap some ass. I mean it’s true they’re ambitious, which is a turn on for me, but they’re just too damn overly confident and combined with the catalyst we call “horniness,” the outcome can be appalling. Hard to believe that Vector takes up so much of my life. Day in, day out, I find myself in contact with my manager or someone from Vector. I even went to see In Good Company on Saturday with Diana and Emilio from Downey. Man, is that movie so Vector related, I was actually paralleling the story line with Diana’s life. Haha, what a flick. It got me a little fired up, to sell and make my impact out there in the business, and rethink my goals and the reasons why I’m still in Vector. Louis, through his egotistical façade, he seems to also have this burning desire inside of him to sell 200k this year. He wrote his 200 reasons why, I’m number 53. I merely wrote 10 reasons why, but maybe I need a good 100 to keep me on my toes, wanting more, wanting that Excalibur sword, wanting a better lifestyle, wanting to be someone successful. This year is going to be different, no one has heard of me yet, but they will. I will be that stealthy ninja assassin that will strike when the time is right, and when the opportunity comes, I will be known. Current Mood: Motivated (1 Comment |Comment on this)