Final Draft - Literacy Narrative

       My Palms Suddenly became sweaty. My face got so hot, I knew they could see the red in my cheeks. I knew the moment was approaching; will I have enough courage to ask? Am I ready to face the rejection if things don't go the way I planned? I was told this would be a possibility and from the very beginning I almost expected my attempt to fail. But now, in real time, the anticipation is overwhelming. I looked into my customers eyes, trying to decode their thoughts. The presentation was over, now it was time to ask for the sale - did they like my product? Did I sell them on it? ...The side of my Uncles mouth twitched up. He smiled. I knew this was it, the moment of truth. I opened my mouth to speak and in their eyes I knew they saw the question coming - "So do you want to go ahead and try that out today?" Nodding my head and sitting in silence waiting for their response, I thought back to my last day of training. My manager said "The first one to speak loses." She said it would be awkward sitting in silence awaiting an answer, but this was almost unbearable! Thirty seconds passed and it felt like time was moving through molasses! The ticking of the clock was distracting, almost mocking me as the seconds of silence turned into minutes - I almost lost my eye contact - I cleared my throat - They looked up, "Yea let’s do it" - and instantly an almost childish smile was glued onto my face.

  The first day of my first job ever was one of the most stressful and fulfilling days of my life. As a college sophomore at the age of eighteen I took on the job as a sales representative for Vector Marketing, A multimillion dollar Marketing Corporation that worked primarily with college students. They offered scholarships, internships, college credit etc. But the most interesting part...

They sell knives. The absolute best Knives in the WORLD - but knives, nevertheless.

I soon came to see that selling the knives was actually the easy part, to be honest; Cutco practically sold itself - pretty much a show and tell. The REAL job was connecting with my customers. At the end of the day my job was to work with my people face to face; not only learning how to properly communicate with another human being twice my age, but also being able to make them fall in love with me and buy the product in under an hour. Needless to say as an 18 year sophomore in college – I needed some work in this department.  I needed to get good at building rapport with my customers, connecting with them on another level and earning their trust and admiration. I needed to look with beyond the sale and really create a lasting friendship with these people. After all, our product was not cheap - Cutco is the top of the line - people will buy it because they see a need for it and they feel tied in to the representative’s goals. Whether it be a sales competition, scholarship for school, giving to charity, hitting a certain level of promotion or just winning a shiny trophy - the job was making sure MY goals turned into THEIR goals. Making them understand how important my goals were to me and communicating to them how this sale could get me one step closer, is what my customers bought into.

  So there I was, on a journey to further understand the human psyche.

 I never thought that a summer job selling knives and a quest to further understand people would quickly turn into the experience that would change my life and passions forever. After being promoted into management and learning how to teach others what my managers once taught me, I realized that in order to excel at my job I needed to constantly be growing myself and other around me. No longer working primarily with my customers, I shifted my attention to developing the lives of the reps who worked under me – working with my Team became my primary focus. The main thing selling Cutco offered was the ability to instill a passion for personal growth within anybody that would give the opportunity a chance. I quickly became immersed with the resources the company offered, and kept feeding into my obsession of being 'The Best Person I Could Possibly Be.' Books, Audios, Conferences, Seminars...it was all available to me and I took full advantage. However, the turning point in my career was when a mentor recommended I read a book she so cleverly presented as 'A Classic self-help book that will change the way you communicate with people forever.'

So of course, I was sold.

The book entitled "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie took my Communication skills to a WHOLE other level. This book made it all click. I FINALLY understood how to TALK to people - truly connect with my people. After reading this book a few times and implementing what it taught me, I saw change. Not only in the way I communicate with my customers, co-workers and reps, but how I communicated with my family and friends as well. 

Skills for Life.

The book is broken up into four parts including: ‘Fundamental Techniques in Handling People’; ‘Six Ways to Make People Like You’; ‘Win People to Your Way of Thinking’; and ‘Be a Leader: how to change people without giving offense or arousing resentment’.

I'm sure from simply reading the titles of this book you can see how I would find it appealing.

As mentioned above, this book made it all click for me – it all finally made sense. Connecting with people all came down to one very simple idea – putting myself into the other person’s shoes and looking at it through the other person’s perspective. The book made me realize than in order to be truly connected to people I needed to shift my mindset into having EVERY interaction through the other persons point of view – what did THEY want to talk about, listen to, feel like etc. Becoming genuinely interested in other people; Giving honest and sincere appreciation; being a good listener; remembering the other person’s name and keeping in mind that it was the sweetest sound in any language; talking in terms of the other persons interest and making the other person feel important – and doing it sincerely. These are all common sense ways to approach an interaction, yet, I hardly ever did them.  By simply changing the way I approach and go about a conversation I saw dramatic changes in the way I was perceived by others. My business and relationships took off and my passion in working with people was as clear as day. I abandoned my pursuit of working with animals and my dream of going into wildlife conservation. THIS is what REAL passion felt like. Working with people and impacting their lives, inspiring a person to be the best person they can be and pushing a person to accomplish something they never though they could was what I strived to do. Whatever profession I decide to go into, being a Maximum Potential Finder and Grower of people is what I want to become.

And so I leave you with this final though: 

What life changing conversation are you going to have, Text are you going to read, or job are you going to take, that will make you realizing the importance of communicating with other people properly? How will you go about your relationships with co-workers, classmates and loved ones from now on?  Realizing that every conversation and interaction you have is either positively or negatively impacting the other person will revolutionize the way you live your life and make you aware of the impression you are leaving to the people IN your life. Selling Cutco was the catalyst for my journey towards personal growth and awareness. Each person will have their own moment of realization – When will you have yours?