Friday, February 6, 2015

Ocean Park

Today I made 27 dollars.

I started the day off feeling amazing. We played a game at the office where we write something that nobody would know about us on a sheet of paper and put it in a box. Jared would read the random information and we'd have to guess who it is. A lot of people nominated me for a lot of things. Especially Daltry. I'm starting to like that guy a lot. Seems like the more time I spend with people, the more I like them.

I'm partnered with Alexis, my first girl partner.

She's in her second week, so she's new, too, I guess. Most of the leaders are off to Dallas, so some of the newbies have to take on leadership roles. Alexis is my leader for the day.

She's nervous. She's ambitious, so she does too much. She starts talking to me, then she doesn't stop. She's chirpy, and she's literally trying to teach me everything she knows. Which is apparently a lot. When she asks me a question, instead of waiting for me to respond, she keeps powering on through. Every time I begin a sentence, she finishes it incorrectly. So incorrect it's pretty much the opposite.

She's not a good listener. She's not a good responder.

We go to Starbucks so she can get coffee. I decide to stay in the car so I don't have to hear her talk. I'm anxious about the day and I meditate on what I'm going to do. I think it's a good thing, but sometimes it can be a bad thing if I overthink things too much.

We go to a small plaza on Ocean Park. Alexis talks way too fast and makes a ton of mistakes. She breaks from the system, yet she drops a sale. Luck?

We then go to an area where everywhere I go, people tell me that people from our office already came to their stores three days ago. I make no sales. When I meet up with Alexis, she dropped another two bags. What.

We go to a work place, and Alexis drops on a woman in the elevator with us. She's a good talker, that one. I should've taken initiative, but I missed out. My own fault.

At the work place, I get treated with hostility like never before. People point at me, tell me to get out, and are just plain rude to me. They do not understand. I think Alexis dropped another bag.

Alexis is terrible at pace. She walks extremely slow, so it takes her forever to get to her car so we can move to the next location. When we're in the car, she spends 30 minutes talking about something not important instead of driving. She decides to get lunch, and I decide to stay in the car and eat from my lunchbox because I need a break. From her. She comes back with pizza to go, oh, and she dropped another bag.

I hate this territory, so I suggest we go elsewhere. Alexis has a bit of a follower's mentality, so she obliges. We go to Century City, somewhere we're not supposed to go to because we didn't mark it as territory.

Younger crowd, better responses. I make some pitches, no go. I see a model posing at the entrance of a store and I pitch on her and I drop. Sweet.

Literally next door, I enter, and another model is there. She looks at me and says "Ooh! You are attractive!" I know. I try to drop on her but she's not interested.

I actually get a girl in Armani Express to commit, but she can't buy because she doesn't have break for another 15 minutes. She asks me to come back. I decide to pitch while I wait.

I make the mistake of trying to pitch to a vendor. They warn me about security.

The next place I go, I get good responses, but the vibe is killed when they see two security guards waiting for me outside the store.

They tell me no solicitation. I tell them I'm a marketing, just promoting a brand. They ask me if I want to talk to the head honcho or if I want to leave. I want to leave.

It's fifteen minutes later, and I stop by Armani Express. I try to enter but I see a security guard eyeing me. When I finally have clearance to go, the girl tells me that she didn't bring her card that day. Impulse lost.

I call Alexis, but no response. When I meet up with her, she tells me she was busy getting two drops.

We go Westside Pavilion, somewhere I'm familiar with. When we enter, I see a girl I know from church, Sarah with her boyfriend (it looks like). I say hi but I don't have time to stop and chat.

We start from the third floor and go down. Alexis takes longer, so I take her side, When I finally reach the place where she's at, she's making two drops. If only I had taken that side.

Second floor, I get no love. I'm depressed and negged out. All day and only one drop.

I text my friends telling them I'm going to quit. That there's a 99% chance that I'll quit. I literally sit there for over an hour waiting for Alexis.

Alexis does a lot of prejudging and doesn't talk to everybody. That is a bad example for me. It makes me do the same. When we go the first floor, Alexis sense my negativity and decides to sit with me.

She tries to solve all my problems by telling me literally everything she knows, but her words are going in one ear and out the other. I'm trying to simplify things, not add more things to the equation.

I interrupt her and I tell her that I want to focus on one thing and one thing only: to get strangers to be comfortable around me. "How do I get people to trust me?" I ask

I propose I do some pitches to her. I tell her to critique me. I approach her as if I'm a total stranger and talk to her in a manner in which she feels completely comfortable.

This actually helps. I tweak my body language and tone, and decide to give the first floor a try. I get no 'yes's' but I notice that all my 'no's' were positive responses. People liked talking to me. They felt comfortable enough around me to tell me personal things about them. They let me show them our products. I felt liberated because I abandoned the system and acted as confident and indifferent as possible.

I'm certain that this method is the right method. I just need to meet more people.

We go outside and I try some stores. Again, more positive responses. People love me.

We go down the entire street and I get no drop. But my attitude is good. I leave nobody with negativity. There's only positive vibes. It's way less exhausting this way.

We cross the street, and Alexis tries to deter me from going into a dirty lot by saying "that's just dirt." I ignore her and pitch on a Hispanic guy putting something in his trunk. He doesn't say anything. I just put the merch in his hand, tell him the deal, then take it back. But he wants it, and I drop on him.

Down the street, I see a valet, and I go up to him. I use the same line I just used on the Hispanic guy: our product is like the Xbox for girls. It keeps them busy for hours. Works like magic. I get another drop. And a tip.

My momentum is good, but it's late and we got to go back. We go back, and we're one of the first people there.

I lost a twenty dollar bill today, but whatever. I think I figured it out.

Back at the office, Jackson, the new guy, brags to me about how he had sex last night with his girlfriend and how it helped him today. I think he just wants to brag. Which is kind of sad to me. Why does he care about what other people think. Perhaps he lacks true self-confidence.

I think I learned the meaning of true self confidence today.

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