Personal Selling

This quarter, I am taking a Professional Selling course with Dr. Miller.  One of the assignments is the follow the five golden rules(Reminds me of Willy Wonka's five golden tickets!), and keep a journal about it. Being as it is 2010, I decided to save the trees and keep a blog/journal about my experience in following the five golden rules.  The rules are:

1. Set Goals, either short term, long term, professional, or personal
2. Practice listening.
1. Vow to listen as much as you talk
2. After you reach that 50/50 point, make it 2/3 listening, and 1/3 talking
3. Compliment someone everyday, and actually mean it.
4. Tell someone you love them. And mean it.
5. Everyday, before you go to bed, tell  yourself one thing that you did that day that you are proud of.

Sounds so simple, but I really think that there are valuable lessons to be learned here, and I'm sure that they can be applied to selling, as well.

So, right now, it is the 2nd week, and I want to start with the goals.

• Short term: get a 4.0 this quarter, along with saving up to take the trips I've been wanting to take.
• Long term: Graduate from RIT with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, majoring in Business Management, double minoring in Marketing and Philosophy.  Attend RIT's MBA program.
• Professional: Obtain a federal co-op, a co-op pertaining to social media, work in social media marketing or human resources, become a professor, and/or start my own business.
• Personal: Work on being more outgoing- I tend to seclude myself in times of uncomfortableness.  Also, make room for getting back in touch with nature and religion.

I think these goals are feasible, and having them open to the public will definitely make me want to achieve them.  I think that one of the things that tends to go wrong is that people set goals in their head, and forget about them the next day.  Having the goals written down is one of the most important steps of following your dreams.

As for the communication/listening/speaking part, I have noticed that I tend to stay on the quiet side of conversations, especially if I do not know the people or if I cannot follow the conversation.  I think I already have the 2/3 listening and 1/3 talking part down.  So now to work backwards, I would have to act more extroverted and making conversation with people that I do not know.  I usually think of myself as a fantastic conversation end-er.  Haha. (how about that weather?) But it's now time to rid of that mindset and start anew.  Now is the time to network, because now-a-days, it is about who you know, not what you know.  This activity could actually be beneficial to me and my future career. (And accomplishing my goals!)

So over the weekend, I tried to start talking more.  I have noticed that I tend to immediately keep my sentences short and return the question back to my peer, so over the weekend, I tried talking more. It was freeing, in  a way, but I was also cautious that maybe I was talking too much, or too much about myself.  I am not one to brag, and I am genuinely curious of other people's stories. Hmph.. something to work on.

In high school, I used to compliment people all the time.  I stopped doing it once I got to college- someone told me that they thought I was fake when I did that, so that immediately shut me down and stopped me from doing that. I used to be able to just see someone walking by and be like, "I adore your necklace!" No time like the present to start complimenting people again. I do love the feeling that you get after you see their smile when you compliment them.  It's almost like a pay it forward deal, in an emotional, psychological way.

As for something I am proud of- it's difficult and easy to do at the same time.  I have a few classes with people that I am not fond of, and I was proud of how I was able to be the "bigger woman" of the situations and hold a conversation with them.  Maybe it is time for a challenge and maybe I should start trying to mend some broken bridges, or bring closure to some friendships.

Love is a funny thing-- there are several kinds.  If there was one thing I hate of my generation, it is how loosely they use the word love.  "I love ya" does not mean "I love you!"  The problem is, I would say I love you to my friends, but it's a different kind of love, and I do not know how they would respond. (Note, most of my closest friends are guys) I mean, I love them, but I am not in love with them like I am with Andy.  I think it will be a matter of trying to figure out how to say it without them feeling weirded out by me saying it. But on the flip side, if they loved me back, it wouldn't be awkward?

For now...Ciao