It hit me

You can feel it. It's that elusive thought. That next great idea you have. You spend your days thinking about that single thought. It's like sitting in your room all day thinking about how you are going to spend you lottery winnings before you win them. You see the end, but never see what it would take to get there.

This week is a week that makes you question why you do what you do. [Thanks @muse012]

I have just gotten back to work from a lovely 4 day weekend. It's always hard bouncing back from more than 2 days off. It's like your body adjusts to not working, so by the time you get back you are tired. I'm not sure it is that I am tired, or that customers at work are really as pissed off as they have ever been. It's not very often to get a customer to tell you that they think you are lying, but to have back to back to back customers say the same thing? That's eerie.

So it's weeks like this that makes you think to greener pastures. There is nothing like cleaning up a mess that you did not create to help you think about doing something else with your life.

Truth be told, every job I have held I have started to feel that 3-4 year itch. Is there something better I could be doing? Is there something that has a better work/life balance? It's just past my 3 year anniversary with my company now, and with a inundation of customers who feel it necessary to take out their frustrations on me, it got me thinking again.

After a few blog posts later, a friend of mine offered a suggestion. She recommended a book. I took her up on her advice and started to read. She was absolutely correct. It struck a chord with me. I find inspiration in the words in this book. It makes me think that somethings CAN happen, but I need to find MY thing first.

So tonight while I was walking the dog, it hit me. I have been trying to write a book for sometime, but every time I start writing, I lose that scent. I have equated writing something longer than a blog post to finding lost children in the woods. But this is different now. I have written the better part of a book already and didn't realize it. I went back and looked at all my blog posts. If printed it would represent 250 + pages of 8 1/2 x 11 paper.

That is a ton. But the book I am now working on isn't just printing my blogs. It's about telling story. I have come together and started reading what I have, oh and by the way, I have officially written three times more than any other idea. I have so much material, and it has been at my finger tips the whole time. It's like the dude who invented the little plastic tips on shoelaces must have felt when he came up with THAT idea.

I will let you know how it goes. I haven't had this much inspiration before and it hasn't been so easy to write before. I find myself constantly coming up with the next part of my story.

When it hits you, it knocks you down. Just wait, you will want to buy this book of mine. So if you are, or know someone who is, a book publisher, literary agent, or otherwise, let me know. I will pitch you my book idea.

Until then, I have to announce that my latest guest canceled on me, so I am scrambling to put together the next podcast. Julie gave me the best idea and since some other people seem interested in helping me out, I will open it up to YOU.

Next Thursday July 30th I am going to be calling fellow Twitter pals, Facebook Pals, and blogger pals and I want you to tell me a true story in 2-3 minutes [this isn't a hard time limit]. I am going to record it and edit it down to a show. If you live near me, we can have you over and you can do it right here in the Couch Potato Studios. If you are interested, let me know via e-mail [it's on the right hand column of the blog] and we can set up a time I can boot up Skype and call you or you can stop by and sit down and hang over some beers. I am off all day so I got nothing but time on that particular day. If I get enough material or volunteers, I can sut it up and use it in multiple shows through out the rest of the season.

The inspiration never ends.

In other news. At least for today, you just read a blog written by the #1 Sales man in my district at work. I am in the top 10 in the whole state of Ohio. At least for today. It makes me feel good.

Facebook, Twitter, and the Blogsophere. Not just for dicking around

April is quickly coming to a close. This month I have seen the power of social networking on a whole new level. Many times when people say social networking, they think Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and maybe Adult Friend Finder.

Over the past few months I have been experimenting with FaceBook and Twitter as a sales tool. I have been in sales for quite some time. From my days as a showing intern on a radio sales call, to slinging checking accounts and Home Equity Lines of Credit, to selling Burgers at Chili's, to selling myself and my ability to give you an unique voice for your commercial, to now cell phone solutions, I have tried it all. I have been to formal networking organizations, to just calling my friends to help me out.

Out of all of these ways to grow your influence, grass roots self promotion has always worked for me. I learned a long time ago that embracing your company's business model is the key to success. No matter the industry, no matter the product, embracing your company's model is your key. The best advice I have ever heard also ties into that, once you stop drinking the kool-aide, leave. Quit. Do something else.

Now with this economic panic, the slow nationalization of our auto industry [RT @SenJohnMcCain President purposes government/union takeover of GM and Chrysler – Lenin would be smiling...] getting an edge in the sales business is how you continue to grow. Many people spend their time calling cold calls trying to find that one person who needs a new phone, and they are banging their head against the wall. They are meeting answering machines, and leaving voicemails that no one is going to listen to. They stagnate and like lions picking over a dead carcass, they are all feeding on the same dieing animal, the walk-in customer. I won' lie, I have gotten my fair share of walk-ins, but many of my new sales have been from my ability to create my own customer traffic into my store.

I am in retail, I can't leave my store during the day and prospect for new business. So when I am not at work, I am prospecting. That woman holding the iPhone in the grocery store trying to get a signal, I have talked to her, handed her my card, and said, please let me help you. That woman signed on 3 lines this month and got a better phone.

I am giving you the answers to the sales IQ test. Shameless self promotion. This month I have started to really use the technology at my finger tips to make myself money. This month, more than any month prior, I have pulled more new lines of service from my personal network on FaceBook than any other month. I have used Twitter to keep that network briefed on my progress and I have sent up SOS.

This past Friday, as I started to hit the final stretch of the month, I told my network I needed 15 new activations by Tuesday. I asked for help. With in minutes I had Direct Messages in Twitter, FaceBook, and my e-mail with names and phone numbers of people who have been looking. I got a new lead from one person that garnished me 7 new lines of service. That took care of about half of the activations I needed. I got 2 more from another. I one person who added lines on for her parents. This is networking, and shameless self promotion at work.

Last night I drove to Pittsburgh from my home to deliver 2 BlackBerrys to a friend of mine who put me over the edge. I not only hit my goal, but I was put well over the mark and ahead of the other sales reps.

I can remember a few months ago when I was a manger sitting in a meeting sending out FaceBook messages to friends whom I haven't connected with in a while, and I got put on corrective action. Now that I no longer work for that manager, I made sure she knew that I took FaceBook and put it to work for me. I am now making an impact on a team that needed someone to change the game. For the first time in a year, my location is now over their gross activations goal. For the first time in even longer, I am a rep who made 100% to gross activations.

FaceBook and Twitter can be tools. They are also fun ways to keep in contact with your friends, which is the main purpose of these sites. My friends understand what I expect and I make no secrets that I love the company I work for.

If everyone could love their job as much as I love mine.

At the end of a long day

This weekend in retail is what we insiders call the 'mad dash'. It's when last minute shoppers run to the mall and shop and shop and shop and shop. The weekend before Christmas is historically worse than Black Friday. The volume is higher, the hours are typically longer, and the deals this year seem to be better.

Retail this time of year is the equivalent to 14 hour shifts at the plant. I am one of the fortunate that was blessed with the ability to bullshit, so I make a great salesman. My Grandfather, Father, and anyone before me in my family had to work. I don't have to work. I mean I go to work, but I get paid to talk all day. I get paid to tell people what they want. How awesome is America?

Well today was a pretty long day. I worked from 1pm to 11:3opm tonight, and I am beat. Not as much as the wife is right now. I came home and I find my 6 year old passed out on the couch, my daughter's friend sitting on the couch disappointed that her hostess couldn't hang much past 10pm, my dog running around the house all freaked out, and my wife is sitting the chair worn ragged from the kids and dog. This is Audrey's first sleep over, so the wife wasn't sure what to expect. I think she bit off more than she could chew. The next one, I don't think I am going to be allowed to work.

Of all the times I wish I had a camera ready, it would have been tonight when I got home to capture that scene. I wish I could have gotten it, but you win some and you lose some.

After changing into some comfy clothes, putting Audrey and her friend to bed, I poured myself a drink. Isn't always nice at the end of a long day, to have that one drink you always love?

Bourbon and water is my poison. I am pretty sure my wife needed it more than I. I'm sure if she could have found the corkscrew, the case of wine we just bought would have been gone.

**of you hadn't noticed I added a FaceBook badge to my FaceBook page. Feel free to add me**

Things In Life.

I am sitting at home watching House on USA, and I am reading and writing a lot.

This evening I have managed to read 15 different blogs, comment most of them, send an e-mail to the author of one blog of note, and update my FaceBook page. I subscribed to 2 new blogs of the 15 I have read.

I have decided what I am. I am a voyeur. I love to watch people. I guess reading all the blogs of note is the internet equivalent to sitting in a dark room with a long lens snapping photos for my own sick perversion. I like to see what other people think about their surroundings.

I have no idea where I was going with this, and I will retreat back into my blog reading.