Montana.

On Friday, Zak and I went to a sales rally thing in Helena, MT.  It was an ok trip except for a few factors:

-waking up at 4:30 AM to meet at 5:30
-waiting half an hour for the rest of the people because a few people decided to come, even though they said they previous wouldn't be able to
-driving 4 hours to Helena
-being in Montana
-a 7-hour convention rally thing [this is a job, not a career]
-driving 4 hours in the dark, in a van a pedophile would have
-our boss going about 80 MPH on curvy mountain roads [I was on edge the entire time]
-sitting next to a 14 year old kid would was moving his head rapidly from side to side for like, the E N T I R E  R I D E  H O M E
-listening to the kid's suck-up of a dad kiss our boss's butt ["These mountains are beautiful, Jerry." "Thanks for driving, Jerry.", etc. *gag*]

 Like I said, it was an ok trip, but if we had a choice to go back in time and not go, we both would have not gone.  My favorite part was the people we saw.  They were extremely, uh, what's the word....sleazy? White trash-esque?  It was a collared-shirt event and it was just..interesting to see what the people's interpretation of that. Most of the guys had a combination of the following:

-gross facial hair
-multiple piercings
-tattoos
-shaggy hair
-those huge skater shoes that only 13 years old wear
-smoke scent

Either way, I would never have let 97% of the attendees into my house to clean my carpet.  Ugh.  One girl, though, was wearing a red cocktail dress with those fake chandelier earrings one can find at Claire's.  Oh, and there was a matching necklace.  But what made the look complete was not the fake blond hair complete with bangs, but the matching wing tattoos on her shoulder blades.  Ah, yes.  Classy.

But at least Zak and I had each other.  He mostly drew monsters while listening to tips on giving better demos, while I drank as much free tea as I could handle.  I must have used the restroom a dozen times while we were there.  Well, anything to get out of the meetings.

Our general feeling about Montana is...not for us.  I know some people love it, and I actually did enjoy the scenery while driving up there, but I am just so not a country cowgirl.  I am a city girl through and through who occasionally desires nature.  But Montana and I will never be friends.

Here are some pictures I took while driving there:

 

  

our 'being in Montana' faces

  

Working.

This week has been one of the longest, busiest weeks of my life.  Zak and I both started our new jobs on Tuesday.  Zak is now a salesman for the Kirby vacuum company, and I am the cute appointment setter.  (The girls who had interviewed for the job decided not to come back after lunch one day at training, so Zak told his boss I'd be willing to do it.)  Basically what happens is, we meet our boss, Jerry, and some of the other salesman at the set time and place.  We get into this beat up, old van (one has a backwards American flag on it + 1 broken door + 1 door that breaks sometimes, no carpet or heat unless the van is going fast; the other van just has a door that breaks if someone shuts it too hard, but it's a lot smaller) and drive around the area we are working in.  I try to get appointments not only for Zak, but for the other team members, for a vacuum and shampoo demonstration.  (Jerry likes to have girls knock on doors, he says they usually get better results that way. So, whatever.)  If I can get Zak an appointment I go in with him, to be his personal assistant.  He shows off the vacuum (he cleans, vacuums, and shampoos one room in the house) with several tests, and then shampoos the carpet.  The shampoo dries in under an hour, and we're usually done within two hours.  While we are shampooing, Jerry comes back to the house and if the people we're showing are interested in buying the vacuum, he tries to negotiate a deal with them.

So far Zak has done 6 demos-I've gotten about the same number of appointments-and has sold one vacuum!  The way we get paid is...Zak's supposed to do 60 demos a months (60 appointments for me), with an extra couple hundred dollars for each vacuum he sells.  And if a sale goes through on an appointment I set, I get a little bonus too.  It's not hard work, but it is discouraging at times.  Well, first off, it's winter, so it's hard walking around for a bit in the cold.  And we're still getting used to talking to people and getting in the house; we've tried a few different pitches, nothing golden yet.  But Zak had success on his fifth demo; the older couple actually had owned a few Kirbys before, so I guess Jerry worked out a trade-in deal with them.  It took awhile, but it was worth it!  Zak's been very close on a few other demos, two wives had to talk to their husbands, the other family had bad credit and we'll check back in a week to see if they got the cash together. 

And it seems that Jerry likes Zak, because he told him once he gets a few sales under his belt, he is going to be promoted to team leader.  His duties will include driving the van around, being observant enough to pick up and remember where people are, and helping the salesman close the deal.  For every sale his team gets, he gets a few hundred bucks.  And if he makes a sale, I think his bonus is doubled what it is now.  So that's great news!  We are just trying to get into a rhythm, so hopefully by the end of the month we'll be doing well.

I'm just trying to keep myself sane.  It's been hard for me to push myself out of my comfort zone and talk to people, and it's very discouraging at times.  But on the most part, I am happy to be with Zak, and I love going into the demos with him.  I'd like to think that I help the wives feel a bit more at ease.  And our boss, Jerry is great, he's a very nice guy and wants to help us out.  The hours are flexible, but we do end up going until 7 or 8 at night, which gets me nervous some days, since I'm still in school.  I may end up only working four days a week, but we'll see how it goes.  Our legs are getting worked over, especially Zak's, when he does a demo-all the up and down. 

We are just happy to have jobs for now, and hopefully we'll get better at it and start making some serious money.  And hopefully I'll be able to stay sane whilst working and finishing my last semester of college!