Avon Sales Leadership

I started my Avon business on a whim shortly before this summer semester started.  I did not expect a whole lot from it, but figured for ten dollars I wasn't going to lose anything.

I remember my the thoughts that ran through my head as my district manager went through the Fast Start flier,
explaining how much can be made through Leadership. I thought yeah right I can't talk people into signing up for Avon...and figured I would just focus on my sales, getting to know products and providing a good customer experience.

And so I went on my way, happily telling everyone I am Joplin's newest Avon Representative, watching training videos and getting a feel for products.  Around  two weeks or so in to my Avon adventure I received a message through my Avon web site from a lady who wanted to sign up....I did not even know this lady....much less have a clue as to what to do. So I picked up my the phone and called the only person I could think to in a situation like this, Sherry, my district manager. Sherry was enthusiastic and couldn't wait to set up a time to meet with us.

I could have just gave the ladies name and number to Sherry and been done with it, but you see there is money to be made here...with this Leadership thing.

And so I began watching the leadership training videos too, and reading this and that and what not.
Up came our Sales meeting and I invited my cousin to come with me so that I didn't feel too out of place or alone. We had a blast, and even got to play with all the new stuff that was coming out. During the presentation Sherry told us about how much money people are making and we learned lots of information about Avon and the products that make up the Avon brand. I really like Sherry she has been with Avon for years and you can tell she really enjoys her job and she is great at what she does!

My cousin signed up for Avon that night.

Before I knew it I had another request to join my team.....Totally unexpected, but this Leadership opportunity was paying off really fast!

Before I knew it one of my new reps had a new rep of her own and I had a second generation in my team.
Next week I have appointments set up for two more ladies.

We have just began a new campaign, and I have to say I am proud to have the team I do, and look forward to everyone's successes...oh and the money, I look forward to it too!

Here is a link for more information on the Avon Opportunity
 and one about Avon and the causes it supports

The amazing Octopus

I ran across a video of an octopus stealing a video camera from a person today. It was too funny and got me to thinking how awesome the sea creature really is.

Octopus facts"
Their legs are attached to their heads
The largest type grows up to 600 pounds and has tentacles reaching nearly 33 feet long
They have a short lifespan of one to four years
It can camouflage itself
/www.factsmonk.com

Some will make a living area using rocks
They eat other sea creatures
They have three hearts
www.buzzle.com

Here is the video that encouraged me to use this topic
and here is some more footage of a octopus  hunting

Octopus mugs diver, steals his video camera

and here is some more footage of a octopus  hunting

hunting video

Awesome...I know

Yummy in my tummy

Broccoli Slaw is my new favorite food group. It is the perfect combination of veggies, crunch and sweetness. I've been paying 3.99 a pound for it so I decided to look up the recipe and make my own.  It was not a complicated task, and only took a few minutes to prepare.
Here are my easy to follow directions:

First take some bacon, two or three pieces and start them in the pan.
Then start cutting up lots of broccoli, cauliflower, onions.
Toss in a handful of sunflower seeds and raisins.
Then mix in some mayo to your preference and I like to add a bit of vinegar.
Crumble up your bacon and  toss it in.
Mix thoroughly and enjoy!

Vrooom Vroom

I'm pretty rough on my vehicles and I've went through a few of them in the nine years I've been driving.  I drive em like I stole em and tend to forget changing the oil and only replace tires when they are beyond bad.  Here is a tribute to all of my cars and what went wrong with them.

My first car was a white Dodge Omni with a hatch back and red interior it was pretty sweet, so sweet it got stolen.

Next was the only standard I've owned, a small blue Chevette which was a ton of fun to drive.  When it broke down on me on the highway I traded it for  my next car.

A blue Plymouth Reliant, and reliable it was for quite some time, I don't really remember what went wrong with it but I sold it for forty bucks just to get it out of my hair.

I paid a thousand dollars for my red Ford Tempo and it lasted me for a good three years.  I had to replace the transmission on it and it had a nice size dent from an old lady hitting me in Dillion's parking lot. I really cannot tell you how many tires I replaced before I had a much needed alignment done on it. I sold it for a hundred dollars after I bought my next car.

I paid just under two thousand for my white Pontiac Bonneville which has by far been my most luxurious car to date.  I knocked the passenger side mirror off the day after I bought it, but that car lasted me a little more than three years.  It died a few months back while my husband had it out fishing.

My Pontiac van was bought for me by my Mom, and it didn't last long because the transmission went out on it. That was a waste of twelve hundred bucks, espcially since it costs more than that to replace the tranny.

I now have a Toyota Corolla, I got a bargain on it and I'm the second owner. It's lasted about three months so far...we shall see what happens with it.

It seems like I'm missing something....I think there was a silver Cadillac somewhere in the mix.

With the thousands I've spent on all these I could be driving something a little nicer....not that I would keep it that way for long.

Nine Inch Nails

There is nothing better to me than the moments that I feel and hear nothing but the music that fills the air with vibrations and sound.

Live music wins me over every time. Since I cannot give up my life to become a groupie and follow all of my favorite bands through out the world,(and it's a damn shame I can't) I must settle for recorded music. My first choice is usually one of the following bands-NIN, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, hed(pe) or Lamb of God. If something else has caught my attention I'll go with that.

I'll pick NIN to elaborate on for this blog post. (starting to run out of ideas with all the writing for this class) I saw them live in St. Louis in 2004, I think it was. Queens of a Stone Age opened for them and they both put on great performances. I loved the light show NIN did and you can see it in one of the following videos.

NIN was formed in 1988 by Trent Reznor. The man is a musical genius, a modern day Bach. Trent is the head guy who is in control of every aspect of the music made by NIN, he is the singer, songwriter and producer. This not his only project as he also started the Nothing Records label which signed Marilyn Manson, in addition to producing the soundtrack for Natural Born Killers.

Learn more about the band at the NIN official web site.

You tube has some good videos take a look at these:

head like a hole from the first album
only has a great light show
closer may be the best known for the band, but I wouldn't recommend following the link if you have children in the room......

For a contrast check out the Ghost album released in 2008. It has thirty six tracks which contain no lyrics, it is purely instrumental. It was created in a ten week period by a variety of artist working together and is a very interesting compilation. Listen here

Trent Reznor has done an outstanding job at not only making music but documenting his musical growth throughout the years. The variety contained in the albums and the sheer amount of tracks ensures you are never bored.

Saturn

I love Saturn, and I wish I had time to write more.

The rings around Saturn are the only ones visible from Earth.

It is the second largest planet in our solar system.

We don't know exactly how many moons circle Saturn, but it's largest is bigger than Pluto.

Really the pictures say it all

here are a couple of my favorites:

moons and rings
Saturn

Check out this awesome video to see some great images

Sources
nasa.gov
fun facts

VENT TIME

Okay, so I like my retail job pretty well, but I'm going to take a moment to vent a bit about customers, co-workers and coupons.

Coupons are a nice thing that my company provides to customers. They save a lot of people a lot of money. That is all fine and good until you get the greedy people, customers who expect everything to be discounted and co-workers who will bend the rules to get more sales despite the trouble it causes.

Example: today I helped some women who were averagely nice until I didn't go along with this lady's request.

Customer "I bought this shirt before and used my $10.00 off coupon but I had to return the shirt because it was too small"

Me "okay"

Customer "Can I still use my coupon on this shirt?"

Me "Do you have a coupon to use?"

Customer "No I already gave it to you"

Umm, wait she did not give anything to me.

I go on to explain our return policy on coupons, if you exchange meaning return and rebuy the same item at the same time, you get the coupon benefit. We cannot use your coupon when you have already used it and we do not refund used coupons. Sounds simple enough, but then again I've had a few months of experiance with said coupons.

Customer "Well they do it for me all the time in another section, they just look it up on my card"

Poof like magic, yeah I understand.......

Me, getting a bit annoyed by this time,"I'm sorry ma'am, but we have no way to look up what coupons you have used, at this time there is nothing I can do about it"

Customer "Fine, Ill just go back there then"(mind you "the other section" is the one i previously worked in)

Me "Okay"

I'm not going to risk losing my job to save this woman ten bucks nor will I abide by her self appointed rules of the coupon.

So I call my manager to verify that I have not missed something here, (and to share the crazy woman story) she agrees that the woman is just trying to get an extra ten dollars off her total...big surprise.

So I go back to the department where the woman is headed, and see a co-worker who is known for bending the rules when it comes to coupons, I tell her about my conversation with the woman and manager and to expect something similar.

Later I go back to see what happened, my co-worker said she told the woman that it just wasn't possible to look up what coupons had been used...k...so a bit later anther employee tells me that what really happened was that the customer was told to drive home to another city and retrieve her receipt with the coupon on it and she would be issued the same discount.

Why does this bother me? Because the customer was encouraged to continue this behavior, because all of the time I put into the sell benefited someone else, and well, just because.

Another example:
Yesterday a woman's total was forty cents short of qualifying for her coupon, she gets huffy about it, but what can I do? It's not me saying no it's the register.

So as I'm walking out I notice her at another registar trying to use the same coupon, which still won't work (imagine that) well what does my co-worker do? Pulls out her own personal coupon from her purse and uses it for the customer. About two months ago we all got threatened with termination for doing this. I would just like to say to my co-worker-Way to go you have just encouraged this woman to keep abusing the coupon system and hassle the rest of us to provide the same courtesy to her.

Why does this bother me? It just does and I stayed five minutes late to ring this woman up.

I have had coupons thrown at me, been told I didn't know what I was talking about, and asked why we send out coupons if they don't work on anything anyway and been told "well it's cheaper at Wal-Mart anyway" (right, cause you know how much Calvin Klein they sell)

Why does this bother me? Despite the confrontational aspect of it, we don't have to give out coupons, we do it because we are awesome like that, but our customers have come to expect a discount on everything they touch and they don't care if we put our jobs at risk to give them a discount they don't qualify for. Co-workers who bend the rules take sells away from people who have spent time with the customer and therefore the rule abiding workers get questioned as to why they are not keeping up with so and so.

VENT OVER