#StoriesFromTheStoreFront - Episode #3

"Hell to the Yeah!"

We make from $13-$14.35 an hour. It ain't a lot. Fortunately, this ain't Boston, New York, or California, so it's doable, but it's not sexy.
 
What do we do to make more money? Wait for a raise? Well...no, because the raises happen every MAY, and three of us just started working in November, and that doesn't make a YEAR. So...I tell the boss, who I like a lot, that that doesn't work real well, having to wait a year and a half to get a raise! She says she'll look into it. She doesn't know I will ALSO be looking into it.
I ask her, "So what else can I do to make more money?" and she says, "Keep selling!"
 
The fact that she has just told me that I am doing over 100% better than the company average and that that makes me the #1 Salesperson there...well, I'm left not having much to say. But I'm thinking, "Gee, I'm so glad the commission is inredibly smaller than a bread box." But I really DO have to cool my jets, because I've only been on the phones for 4 weeks, come tomorrow, and 4 weeks to become the best in our group...well, who knows what else might happen.
 
That was yesterday.

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Today I go into work, and my Lead Supervisor tells me that she is upping my goal. I'm like, "What does that MEAN?" I'm totally confused. She says, "I don't want you trying for $1,000 a day." I say," I try for $1,000 OR MORE." She is unimpressed. She says, "No, I want you going for $2,000 a day...because you're just that good," and she walks away. Mic drop.
 
Okay...so my first thought is, "And how am I supposed to *make* that happen? Go out in the street, maybe, and ask people to call me." There really seems to be no way for me to try harder, though I feel - I swear I do - all of my muscles in my body tighten, as though preparing for the starter gun of a race.
 
And that's when a lovely thing happens. I realize that my habitual let-me-try-harder-because-clearly-I-can-control-every-fecking-thing reaction is garbage. I *literally* CAN'T do it.
 
So I think, "Well, then, how am I supposed to try harder? How am I supposed to aim higher?"
 
And I get a mutha-feckin ANSWER! HALLELUJAH! I have a realization that is borne of a kind of internal vision. I realize it's a kind of allowing. A kind of simple knowing that that path is clear for me, I can do this, I just reach for it, and then I let it happen. And see what happens!
 
You know what? On Thanksgiving, I brought in about $340. That means I made an extra $3.40 that day. And it was a TEN hour day! The calls were shit.
 
Another day last week, I made an extra $4 and change. Some days have just been slow. That's sales. Whatchu gonna do?
 
But today, I have this moment of seeing, internally, third-eye-wise, that the path is clear. It reminds me of Martha Beck's work that has to do with consciousness - she's exceptionally cool. But I digress.
 
And after that amazing moment, I end a long day - a day that ends up including 1.5 hours of overtime - with an extra $35, which is like a double and a half pay hour.
 
I am left feeling like a combination of Superwoman and John Gotti. My co-worker Joe - arguably the absolute sweetest guy on earth, 27 years old, and my sparring partner in who-can-make-the-most-money-today - stops by my desk as he's getting ready to leave, and he looks at my sales sheet. His eyes get wide when he sees that I've brought in $2,000 so far today, and his mouth drops open and he smiles and he says with cheerful frustration, "I hate you." I hug his arm as I continue my call with a man who will ultimately buy a pair of emerald earrings for his girlfriend who he calls his "hero", because she served for 5 years.
 
Tomorrow I will have to tell Joe that I ended up with a $3,550 day. And Joe will "hate" me again. I netted a cool-as-hell umbrella for selling a couple of diamond necklaces 2 weeks ago and getting the largest daily sale to date for that department. Maybe I'll get a pen outta this one!
 
The fact is, I'm good at this because I connect, and because I've learned how to sell over the past year of selling. And because I don't know why. Why is it that sometimes this person gets the big jewelry call, and that one doesn't? I don't know.
 
And I also don't "know" why that magical moment happened today and seems to have led right into a remarkable sale day.
 
AND...I'll take it! And I'll let it continue. And hell to the yeah!