This internship has been hard, but rewarding in many ways. Searching for an internship I knew that I wanted to learn something new that was going to benefit me in the long run and help me add new skills to my resume. With this internship, I did that.
At this job I have worked with incredible people. All with great personalities and all whom love their jobs. My little cousin asked me in the first week why I wanted to work at a newspaper. Her exact words after this question were, "Don't they just write gossip in the paper for people to read." I had to giggle and tell her that I am selling advertising to show on the pages that have stories, and that the stories are things that have happened to people in our community. She then asked if I wrote gossip in advertising too.
Sales is not what it's all cracked up to be. Each year I host a fundraiser 5K walk/run to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis research and to help find a cure. I have to go around to businesses and ask for sponsorships, donations, silent auction items, and tshirt sales. In this situation the word no does not happen. People have known my mom for a long time because her and my dad both have been in this community since they were little. When my mom was diagnosed 8 years ago we had our community above all else standing behind us ready to support us. This was the only sales experience I had in life, was visiting businesses in my very own community where there was no known stranger. When I talked about this in my interview Phil was very impressed. I had never thought of this as sales. With that I thought I would be perfect for the job. My experience and the true duties of this job were nothing like I thought they would be. Also, it has made me slightly despise sales all together.
I struggle with asking others for money because I know how tight people's budgets often are. I know that sometimes they have troubles making ends meet at home, with their business, and with their personal wants and needs. Especially in Maryville, MO where most businesses that are going to run ads are locally owned and run. These owners have worked hard to establish a name for themselves. I am almost too understanding to sell ads because I found myself saying, "it's okay, don't feel bad that you can't buy an ad this week, I know things are tough right now."
Making the decision not to continue with this job after the internship was a very stressful decision (my scalp broke out in hives and I cried at least 3 times a day). Nobody knows what happens next in life so making a large decision like this is hard. I knew that I was not going to miss the commute or the job, and I had come up with a list of pros and cons of the job, but I will miss the people that I got to know while there. The short weeks that I participated in the internship with the Maryville Daily Forum, I made friendships with people in businesses all over southwest Iowa and Northwest Missouri. I also created a bond with the other employees from within the newspaper office. Things like this are never easy but they have to happen. With that internship under my belt I have moved on and was offered a job in the business office at Clarinda Regional Health Center. I appreciate this job just that much more because it's something that I love and adore, and also what I am going to school for. I finally feel like I made the right decision and this internship helped me grow personally and professionally in my career.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Week 3: 40 hours
Last week was a record week for me in my advertising sales position. I had the entire front page of ads and half of the back page, and many in the middle as well. I had a lot of luck with selling ads, even through one of the busiest weeks I have ever experienced.
During our freshman semesters of school, finishing our general education and university requirements, we learn an array of different things. We learn how to run a computer, how to read each others body language in psychology, the basic human anatomy in biology, the places of the world in geography and where we stand politically during introduction to politics and government. Biggest of all... we enter into speech class. My particular class had more than 50 students in it. Speaking in front of others has never been a problem for me but it is a 102% adrenaline rush. Your blood pressure spikes, your heart races crazy fast, and your palms start to sweat.
All of those things are what I experience daily in this job. I walk into a business, not wanting to buy something from them, but wanting them to buy something from me. Does that seem any bit ironic to you? We ask people to spend their hard earned money, to advertise in a newspaper. I walk in with my head high, (I'm actually on crutches right now so sometimes it's down) and I ask them about their business and how things are going. I give them a comforting feeling that I care about their business and I am only there to do what is best for them and what is in their best interest. I tell them all about what we have to offer and give them the options. If you get a yes, I want to throw your first up in the air and scream "I ROCK!", if I get a no, I say thank you and walk out just like I do a thousand other times throughout the day.
Sales can teach you a lot about who you are and what you are capable of. When I found out I had to have an internship to graduate I knew that I wanted to do something where I was going to learn. I didn't want to do something I already knew how to do I wanted to expand my resume skills and be able to grow within myself. 120 hours into my internship and almost finished I have definitely grown and learned so much about myself. I have learned that I do not take rejection well and it is something I haven't had to deal with before. I have learned that I too, much like a child, get welts of tears in my eyes if someone says no too aggressively. I have learned that I enjoy a "pat on the back" when I do something worthy. I have learned that stress consumes me in a weird way and makes me crazy. I have learned that hearing a compliment can really make a person's day better.
As we grow older we start to find out things about ourselves that we were once not attuned to. We learn that we have qualities that we never paid attention to. I am only 20 years old but I have come to a point in my life where I analyze everything that I do, and learn more about myself through it.
I learned through this job that I cry a lot because I am an emotional human being. Many times I like to tell people, I don't cry, but when it comes to it, I definitely do.
I learned that working out every day helps me release a lot of anger and frustration that builds up inside of me, and without that I am an incredibly cranky person.
I learned that I am hard to please. I don't settle for whatever, I like things to be up to a standard that I have set. This isn't always a good thing.
I learned that I do not, "Go with the flow" or "Just let it happen". I actually stress about everything and need each tiny detail to be planned out.
I learned that I am not always 100% honest with myself or others. In my negotiations class we learned about when it is okay to lie in a negotiation. This pointed out to me that I often break many of the rules when it comes to when it is okay to lie.
I learned that when a business is struggling, or even if they aren't, the first funds to be cut to allocate elsewhere, are advertising funds.
I learned that having a relationship with people is half of the battle, and if they like you they will buy ads from you.
Each week I learn something new about myself and about others. I have began to appreciate other personalities and the way that people act. I realize that not every person is the same and they are all unique in their own way. There are not two people I see for advertising that are the same.
My mom has always said that she believe that every single person should have to be a waitress in their life so that they understand what they are going through and so that you respect them instead of act rude towards them. Just this last semester, 3 years into my degree, I learned about something called "the waitress rule". The rule is that you can tell a lot about a person based on how they treat their waitress. If they are rude towards the waitress, they are going to be rude towards you. If they are demanding, this is how they will be towards you. Many make the comment that it is because they are low level workers and should be treated that way when they mess up, but this is not true. Based off of what my mother has always told me I am going to add to it that everyone should have to experience advertising or door to door sales at some point in their life. It is equally as difficult and you deal with the same type of people, in a different setting, and instead of them being mad about their food, they are mad about their money.
During our freshman semesters of school, finishing our general education and university requirements, we learn an array of different things. We learn how to run a computer, how to read each others body language in psychology, the basic human anatomy in biology, the places of the world in geography and where we stand politically during introduction to politics and government. Biggest of all... we enter into speech class. My particular class had more than 50 students in it. Speaking in front of others has never been a problem for me but it is a 102% adrenaline rush. Your blood pressure spikes, your heart races crazy fast, and your palms start to sweat.
All of those things are what I experience daily in this job. I walk into a business, not wanting to buy something from them, but wanting them to buy something from me. Does that seem any bit ironic to you? We ask people to spend their hard earned money, to advertise in a newspaper. I walk in with my head high, (I'm actually on crutches right now so sometimes it's down) and I ask them about their business and how things are going. I give them a comforting feeling that I care about their business and I am only there to do what is best for them and what is in their best interest. I tell them all about what we have to offer and give them the options. If you get a yes, I want to throw your first up in the air and scream "I ROCK!", if I get a no, I say thank you and walk out just like I do a thousand other times throughout the day.
Sales can teach you a lot about who you are and what you are capable of. When I found out I had to have an internship to graduate I knew that I wanted to do something where I was going to learn. I didn't want to do something I already knew how to do I wanted to expand my resume skills and be able to grow within myself. 120 hours into my internship and almost finished I have definitely grown and learned so much about myself. I have learned that I do not take rejection well and it is something I haven't had to deal with before. I have learned that I too, much like a child, get welts of tears in my eyes if someone says no too aggressively. I have learned that I enjoy a "pat on the back" when I do something worthy. I have learned that stress consumes me in a weird way and makes me crazy. I have learned that hearing a compliment can really make a person's day better.
As we grow older we start to find out things about ourselves that we were once not attuned to. We learn that we have qualities that we never paid attention to. I am only 20 years old but I have come to a point in my life where I analyze everything that I do, and learn more about myself through it.
I learned through this job that I cry a lot because I am an emotional human being. Many times I like to tell people, I don't cry, but when it comes to it, I definitely do.
I learned that working out every day helps me release a lot of anger and frustration that builds up inside of me, and without that I am an incredibly cranky person.
I learned that I am hard to please. I don't settle for whatever, I like things to be up to a standard that I have set. This isn't always a good thing.
I learned that I do not, "Go with the flow" or "Just let it happen". I actually stress about everything and need each tiny detail to be planned out.
I learned that I am not always 100% honest with myself or others. In my negotiations class we learned about when it is okay to lie in a negotiation. This pointed out to me that I often break many of the rules when it comes to when it is okay to lie.
I learned that when a business is struggling, or even if they aren't, the first funds to be cut to allocate elsewhere, are advertising funds.
I learned that having a relationship with people is half of the battle, and if they like you they will buy ads from you.
Each week I learn something new about myself and about others. I have began to appreciate other personalities and the way that people act. I realize that not every person is the same and they are all unique in their own way. There are not two people I see for advertising that are the same.
My mom has always said that she believe that every single person should have to be a waitress in their life so that they understand what they are going through and so that you respect them instead of act rude towards them. Just this last semester, 3 years into my degree, I learned about something called "the waitress rule". The rule is that you can tell a lot about a person based on how they treat their waitress. If they are rude towards the waitress, they are going to be rude towards you. If they are demanding, this is how they will be towards you. Many make the comment that it is because they are low level workers and should be treated that way when they mess up, but this is not true. Based off of what my mother has always told me I am going to add to it that everyone should have to experience advertising or door to door sales at some point in their life. It is equally as difficult and you deal with the same type of people, in a different setting, and instead of them being mad about their food, they are mad about their money.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Week 2: 40 hours
I would like to start this post out by saying that from a personal perspective I am a genuinely nice person and do everything I can to be that way.
I would like to follow that up by saying I am also a push-over and a people pleaser.
I grew up in an atmosphere where I was never punished, because I never did anything worthy of being punished for. I was a good kid, always have been, that did nothing to cause trouble for myself or others. My parents treated me as an adult because they wanted to teach me responsibility, which paid off when my mom was diagnosed with MS and I had to grow up very quickly, but that's a whole different story. I don't take getting yelled at well. I am also learning that I don't accept the word no very well. My eyes well up with tears like a child who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Wait.... I'm a salesperson. I hear the word no more than I will ever hear the word yes! What am I doing!?
That phrase, "what am I doing?!" crosses my mind at least 10 times a day....
This week I experienced my first angry client. Our paper comes out every Tuesday. This makes our deadline here in the office Thursday at 5pm. This client usually has another paper send us the ad that they ran in their paper, and we don't have to design an ad. I waited Monday-Thursday and called the client each day letting them know that I did not have their ad yet. Thursday at 5, deadline, she called and asked if I would drive to Shenandoah and take pictures for the ad. I got half way to the destination and she called and told me the other paper finally sent the pictures to go in the ad. I went back to Maryville and by the time I got to work it was 5:20 P.M.. I took the time to put together the ad with Lana (our ad design specialist) and we printed out the ad to proof it with The Valley News, the newspaper out of Shenandoah that sent us the pictures. In the rush that I was in to get out of there and to get the ad turned in I did not proofread as closely as I should have. We used a past template from their ads and ended up pricing a car wrong. There were no prices on any cars except for this one, which we had priced at $3,995, and it was supposed to be priced at $12,399. As I entered the business on Tuesday I got dirty looks from every person from within. I got to the finance office, had no idea about this mistake at this point, and asked the woman how she was doing and apologized to her for how difficult it was for us to get that ad completed last week. From there she lectured me and screamed at me for 20 minutes about how our ad was wrong. She exclaimed, "When I get the legal bill for false advertisement I'll be sure to send it straight to your house!" and "I don't even want to advertise with you anymore because you are not capable of creating a simple ad!". I sat and listened and never said any more than, "I am SO sorry".
Once I got in my car and pulled out of the business parking lot I started bawling. I cried the entire trip home and called my boss and told him I had to go home because I had been yelled at and needed to fix my makeup. I called my boyfriend and cried the whole drive expressing how I was not cut out for the job. I questioned my choice of career, my school major, everything about the decisions I had made leading up to this point. I did not feel like I was cut out for this job. I am not a mean person, I don't do well with negotiations or arguments, although I am working on them in Negotiations class right now. I felt like a tiny speck of dirt for the rest of the day.
I knew it was my fault and that I had messed up but I had never been embarrassed in front of a group of people like that before or yelled at in such a way for what I had done. I knew that I was going to get in trouble when I got back to work, because we now have to run a free ad for this business. When I returned to the office Phil was very understanding and not upset with me at all. We all make mistakes and have to learn sometime. I learned the hard way.
The only thing that helped me get past this situation was realizing that I am never going to please everyone and this probably won't be the last time that I am yelled at by someone, despite their ad being right or wrong.
I did have good things happen to me this week. I sold more ads than I had in the past weeks. I upped my sales by $1,000. I built relationships with people whom I am becoming more comfortable with after each visit, and I opened 2 new accounts in Clarinda that had not run ads in the past.
The talking aspect of this job fits me to a T. I can sell things to people when I see the light of them and believe in them as well. Everything is great except for the psychological portion of this job. I still find it hard to enjoy this job some days but it is a rewarding challenge on the other days. I hope I gain confidence in myself soon so that I can be better at the job that I am doing. I am currently reading The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy and he says if you aren't the best at something, practice 1000 times until you are the best at it. These are my intentions with this job and I will keep practicing until it does fit me psychologically.
Life is a mental game, and I'm here to play.
I would like to follow that up by saying I am also a push-over and a people pleaser.
I grew up in an atmosphere where I was never punished, because I never did anything worthy of being punished for. I was a good kid, always have been, that did nothing to cause trouble for myself or others. My parents treated me as an adult because they wanted to teach me responsibility, which paid off when my mom was diagnosed with MS and I had to grow up very quickly, but that's a whole different story. I don't take getting yelled at well. I am also learning that I don't accept the word no very well. My eyes well up with tears like a child who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Wait.... I'm a salesperson. I hear the word no more than I will ever hear the word yes! What am I doing!?
That phrase, "what am I doing?!" crosses my mind at least 10 times a day....
This week I experienced my first angry client. Our paper comes out every Tuesday. This makes our deadline here in the office Thursday at 5pm. This client usually has another paper send us the ad that they ran in their paper, and we don't have to design an ad. I waited Monday-Thursday and called the client each day letting them know that I did not have their ad yet. Thursday at 5, deadline, she called and asked if I would drive to Shenandoah and take pictures for the ad. I got half way to the destination and she called and told me the other paper finally sent the pictures to go in the ad. I went back to Maryville and by the time I got to work it was 5:20 P.M.. I took the time to put together the ad with Lana (our ad design specialist) and we printed out the ad to proof it with The Valley News, the newspaper out of Shenandoah that sent us the pictures. In the rush that I was in to get out of there and to get the ad turned in I did not proofread as closely as I should have. We used a past template from their ads and ended up pricing a car wrong. There were no prices on any cars except for this one, which we had priced at $3,995, and it was supposed to be priced at $12,399. As I entered the business on Tuesday I got dirty looks from every person from within. I got to the finance office, had no idea about this mistake at this point, and asked the woman how she was doing and apologized to her for how difficult it was for us to get that ad completed last week. From there she lectured me and screamed at me for 20 minutes about how our ad was wrong. She exclaimed, "When I get the legal bill for false advertisement I'll be sure to send it straight to your house!" and "I don't even want to advertise with you anymore because you are not capable of creating a simple ad!". I sat and listened and never said any more than, "I am SO sorry".
Once I got in my car and pulled out of the business parking lot I started bawling. I cried the entire trip home and called my boss and told him I had to go home because I had been yelled at and needed to fix my makeup. I called my boyfriend and cried the whole drive expressing how I was not cut out for the job. I questioned my choice of career, my school major, everything about the decisions I had made leading up to this point. I did not feel like I was cut out for this job. I am not a mean person, I don't do well with negotiations or arguments, although I am working on them in Negotiations class right now. I felt like a tiny speck of dirt for the rest of the day.
I knew it was my fault and that I had messed up but I had never been embarrassed in front of a group of people like that before or yelled at in such a way for what I had done. I knew that I was going to get in trouble when I got back to work, because we now have to run a free ad for this business. When I returned to the office Phil was very understanding and not upset with me at all. We all make mistakes and have to learn sometime. I learned the hard way.
The only thing that helped me get past this situation was realizing that I am never going to please everyone and this probably won't be the last time that I am yelled at by someone, despite their ad being right or wrong.
I did have good things happen to me this week. I sold more ads than I had in the past weeks. I upped my sales by $1,000. I built relationships with people whom I am becoming more comfortable with after each visit, and I opened 2 new accounts in Clarinda that had not run ads in the past.
The talking aspect of this job fits me to a T. I can sell things to people when I see the light of them and believe in them as well. Everything is great except for the psychological portion of this job. I still find it hard to enjoy this job some days but it is a rewarding challenge on the other days. I hope I gain confidence in myself soon so that I can be better at the job that I am doing. I am currently reading The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy and he says if you aren't the best at something, practice 1000 times until you are the best at it. These are my intentions with this job and I will keep practicing until it does fit me psychologically.
Life is a mental game, and I'm here to play.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Week 1: 40 hours
If you ask what the most intimidating job in the business world is I'm sure you would get different answers from each and every person. My answer? Sales and Advertising Representative.
This week I began working for The Maryville Daily Forum and The Post out of Maryville, MO. I face many challenges in this job but I also have learned many new and good things.
I am only 20 years old, so many times in this industry I am overlooked. I often have to act older than my age, which I am fine with, and I have to be a big girl. This is my first time in the 'big-girl' world. The success outweighs the challenges and makes it worth it. There is no calling mom when people are mean, which they often are in this job. You have to take the things that people say with a grain of salt and not repeat them. Gain trust from people who have never known you before and most of all be brave enough to go into places that you have never been before and talk to people that you have never talked to before.
I have always had the personality that is capable of talking to people so this job is my cup of tea. My family always says that I could dial the wrong number and still talk to them for an hour on the phone. When I believe in something I will tell every person I see that they should try this or they should look into the product. Advertising is much like this. You have to learn to believe in your product and sell it to the people around you.
Through this job I have learned in one week that you have to keep an all time positive attitude and not let anything get to you. Sometimes you encounter a personality that clashes with yours, but you have to learn to get along with them. In this job you definitely learn how to appreciate personalities. I have already learned to love the 'easy' accounts that just do the same thing every single week and are easy going. They say yes when they need something and they say no politely when they do not need anything. Many people are like this. It's a simple yes or no from them because advertising is that easy, either you want it, or you don't. However, not all people feel this way about advertisers.
I am covering the southwest Iowa area, where I have grown up all my life. Which means that I know almost all of my accounts from previous encounters and because they have watched me grow into the young adult that I am. While this sounded like something to brag about and the best way to gain accounts, it has actually proven to make life a little bit harder. I have been 'on the job' for 7 whole days now. In these 7 days I have walked into businesses that I have been to before and I am welcomed with open arms. I then pull out my business cards and tell them what I am doing and I get the remark of, "Oh no, not an advertising girl."
Another thing that I heard quite a few times in the past few days was, "You have a brave job." I do feel brave when I do this job but I feel that all I have to do is walk in with a smile on my face and walk about the same way.
I will admit that I am not an easily satisfied person and I often have to take great leaps of faith not knowing if I am going to be happy with what I am doing. I took a great leap of faith by accepting a full time job position while still going to college as a full time student and I love this job and all that I have learned and done so far. I am not the type of person to sit at a desk all day long but I don't mind doing it for a few hours a day. Then I am out and about and in the hustle and bustle of the town and those surrounding.
A new skill that I have learned this last week was how to use an application on the Apple computer called 'In-Design'. In this program we create all of our ads. While none of our ads are fancy and take a lot of work, they do take time to assemble. I have an account that wants to run their ad for a month, but wants to change the template every single week. With the help of Lana (our ad assembler) I created the first ad to be proofed by the company.
(our ads are too large to place into this blog, but I can send you the work in an email if interested.)
I think that classes have helped me tremendously because I know what people need to look for in their target markets and how having a marketing budget and using it to it's fullest potential can really help businesses. Negotiations class this semester has helped me gain some confidence in going into situations like these with my head high and ground set so that I don't get pushed around.
This week was definitely a learning week for me. I am going to have to use my people skills and develop relationships with my accounts and help them put their trust in me. Advertising is an expense that most people cut when worst comes to worst and I need to show them what I could do with that money if they would find a place to stretch the dollar. My job is all about getting people what is best for them and that is what I really believe. Does my job depend on their money? Yep. But I want them to get the best for their business so that they can tell me thank you, not blame me and be mad at me for just asking for their money.
This week I began working for The Maryville Daily Forum and The Post out of Maryville, MO. I face many challenges in this job but I also have learned many new and good things.
I am only 20 years old, so many times in this industry I am overlooked. I often have to act older than my age, which I am fine with, and I have to be a big girl. This is my first time in the 'big-girl' world. The success outweighs the challenges and makes it worth it. There is no calling mom when people are mean, which they often are in this job. You have to take the things that people say with a grain of salt and not repeat them. Gain trust from people who have never known you before and most of all be brave enough to go into places that you have never been before and talk to people that you have never talked to before.
I have always had the personality that is capable of talking to people so this job is my cup of tea. My family always says that I could dial the wrong number and still talk to them for an hour on the phone. When I believe in something I will tell every person I see that they should try this or they should look into the product. Advertising is much like this. You have to learn to believe in your product and sell it to the people around you.
Through this job I have learned in one week that you have to keep an all time positive attitude and not let anything get to you. Sometimes you encounter a personality that clashes with yours, but you have to learn to get along with them. In this job you definitely learn how to appreciate personalities. I have already learned to love the 'easy' accounts that just do the same thing every single week and are easy going. They say yes when they need something and they say no politely when they do not need anything. Many people are like this. It's a simple yes or no from them because advertising is that easy, either you want it, or you don't. However, not all people feel this way about advertisers.
I am covering the southwest Iowa area, where I have grown up all my life. Which means that I know almost all of my accounts from previous encounters and because they have watched me grow into the young adult that I am. While this sounded like something to brag about and the best way to gain accounts, it has actually proven to make life a little bit harder. I have been 'on the job' for 7 whole days now. In these 7 days I have walked into businesses that I have been to before and I am welcomed with open arms. I then pull out my business cards and tell them what I am doing and I get the remark of, "Oh no, not an advertising girl."
Another thing that I heard quite a few times in the past few days was, "You have a brave job." I do feel brave when I do this job but I feel that all I have to do is walk in with a smile on my face and walk about the same way.
I will admit that I am not an easily satisfied person and I often have to take great leaps of faith not knowing if I am going to be happy with what I am doing. I took a great leap of faith by accepting a full time job position while still going to college as a full time student and I love this job and all that I have learned and done so far. I am not the type of person to sit at a desk all day long but I don't mind doing it for a few hours a day. Then I am out and about and in the hustle and bustle of the town and those surrounding.
A new skill that I have learned this last week was how to use an application on the Apple computer called 'In-Design'. In this program we create all of our ads. While none of our ads are fancy and take a lot of work, they do take time to assemble. I have an account that wants to run their ad for a month, but wants to change the template every single week. With the help of Lana (our ad assembler) I created the first ad to be proofed by the company.
(our ads are too large to place into this blog, but I can send you the work in an email if interested.)
I think that classes have helped me tremendously because I know what people need to look for in their target markets and how having a marketing budget and using it to it's fullest potential can really help businesses. Negotiations class this semester has helped me gain some confidence in going into situations like these with my head high and ground set so that I don't get pushed around.
This week was definitely a learning week for me. I am going to have to use my people skills and develop relationships with my accounts and help them put their trust in me. Advertising is an expense that most people cut when worst comes to worst and I need to show them what I could do with that money if they would find a place to stretch the dollar. My job is all about getting people what is best for them and that is what I really believe. Does my job depend on their money? Yep. But I want them to get the best for their business so that they can tell me thank you, not blame me and be mad at me for just asking for their money.
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