My free time and internet usage has been limited at best. Sorry for the short blogging hiatus, but I will be actively blogging again in the near future.

A couch. love seat. living room table. lamps. dressers. beds. It’s starting to feel like we actually live here. Which is hard to say considering all we ever do here is sleep. We put in about 10-11 hour days during the week and a 12 hour day on Saturday. That being said I worked over 60 hours this week at absolutely no pay. Not fun, but I’m finding my groove and should be back on the horse next week.

Saturday we celebrated a co-worker’s birthday. Also, it was the day that everyone hit their first sale. The two people left to ride the horse threw down their deals before 5pm Saturday, one of which was the birthday girl. That coupled with our furniture meant a good day for everyone.

Today was our only day off this week. For some reason I was nominated to be the non-manager driver, so we drove the 15 passenger van into San Diego and spent the day walking around and window shopping, everyone made a small list of things to pick up once we start rolling 5 deals a week (which is the 100k per year mark).

This week should be an exciting week as more reps are making their way into the scene. I will update when possible.

It started with our correlation where we went over a series of door pitches, home walk-throughs, and closings – similar to what we’ve been doing since we started training – to wrap up any last questions before we were sent off. Then, equipped with our clipboards and smiles we were each assigned an area, about 5 square blocks in a community right outside of San Diego, still within city limits.

Myself, along with two others were the first to be dropped off. I had from Hydra to Capricorn between Sagittarius and Virgo. It felt like a nice spot when I reached it. It was about 3pm and I took a walk around my area before I knocked on a single door, letting anyone I saw outside know who I was and what I was doing, and that I might be popping in. It was very overwhelming at first but after my first couple of doors I was a lot more relaxed.

My first door was answered by an older lady, likely mid 80s, that opened the door just enough to poke her head out and rudely say “You’re bothering me” and slammed the door in my face. Could have been worse, I thought. Throughout the day I encountered a lot of houses with no one home, and plenty of ones where they were just pretending no one was home. Many dogs, most of which were extremely intimidating. There is no question I am going to be bitten by a dog this summer, I was already threatened with one today. Many rude encounters but also some pleasant people that allowed me to force myself into their home. But all the crazy stuff aside, the highlight of my day was definitely getting my first sale!

It was around 4pm when I decided to start at one of the corners and knock down and up another complete street. First door on this block I knocked and Mike came to the door. Picture Mike. About 230 lbs, solid muscle, tattoos all over his body, and topped off with a tongue ring. A little intimidating, but without hesitation, my pitch was text book. I was a junior advertising director with General Electric building some brand name recognition in the area before our sales teams came through. Clearly this house was a great candidate for an advertising home and after asking a couple qualifying questions I pulled the look-up side step approach into the door and managed to get the door closed behind me without objection from Mike.

Holy shit. I can’t believe that worked. I was standing in the first house I had been in that day. Wasting no time I quickly explained how the wireless door sensors protected his house like no other. Already having a Brinks system installed, he was on a month to month contract already. Not only did I manage to convince Mike to leave Brinks, but was able to do so at a higher monthly cost. Matching his basic system of door sensors and motion detectors, I added a glass break sensor and new G.E. panel with the two-way voice feature. I could feel him start to actually want this new system. I played the Canadian card and was awed by his huge collection of assortment of guns, noting the differences in gun laws between Canada and the US.

After wrapping up the walk through and overview, we easily transitioned into the paper work and the close. My palms were getting sweaty. The paperwork was an area we didn’t really cover in detail, since we assumed we likely wouldn’t hit it today. Getting him talking about his huge obsession for dune buggies was an easy way to break the silence while I fumbled with the paper work. I found out that Mike has in fact seen “In the Army Now” – my only real knowledge of dune buggies.

Signed sealed and delivered. The technician was scheduled to arrive about an hour after we received the final “herbie” handcock on the contract. So after about 10 minutes of him showing me all his cool stuff around the house and sharing a cold drink I decided I best be getting back to work. I walked out of the house, and not wanting to knock directly next door I went around the corner and took a deep breath. That was probably the easiest $325 I’ve ever made. Not bad for 45 minutes in a crazy guy’s house.

That was my first day in a nutshell. Tomorrow will be lots of training and questions from today, coupled hopefully with some more time on the doors. As the days get longer my opportunity to blog will become smaller, so bear with me if I go days without appearing online.

Since we’ve gotten here we normally travel in a very large group – about 15 or so reps plus trainers – anywhere we go. This being said, when we swarm in, all wearing the same shirt I might add, they don’t skip a beat. 15 prepaid cell phones, all activated on the spot, please? Sure, no problem. I was very impressed with Radio Shack when we stormed in for our phones.

Another similar situation was this morning when we marched into Wells Fargo unannounced to open 18 checking accounts. No hesitation, no delays, we were organized and began processing without skipping a beat.

On another note, we get to knock our first house tomorrow. Am I prepared? I hope so. I will post about it tomorrow.

I made it. Well, we made it. The flights were event-less. It was my first experience with the new Air Canada individual en Route entertainment so I enjoyed a couple movies, Jumpers and Bucket List, both at my own pace, along with a lot of Just for Laughs TV shows. Departing Halifax at 6am AST, and with a 2 hour stop over in Montreal to clear customs, I arrived at the LAX airport at 11:30am local time and was greeted by 34+ degree, sunny weather.

Equipped with a phone number and a name – that was suppose to get me a ride to San Diego – I took on the airport with a smile. Smiling is something that comes naturally to me, but after a short while and a few calls it quickly faded. What did I learn? an 8 hour wait in the Airport before the shuttle was to take us to San Diego. It seemed I arrived at the worst time. Just too late to catch the other couple guys heading to the beach for the day, and very much too early for this wait to be something I could consider acceptable.

Needless to say I quickly escaped from the sweat shop that was my jeans and sweater and changed into a more manageable attire. The next 8 hours, that actually turned into 10 hours, were a little bit of a blur, but they included running the battery in my laptop completely dry, 2 or 3 hot chocolates from Starbucks, a Subway sub – which was extremely cheap in comparison to home – and lots of trips to the bathroom, which with two big suitcases is not an easy task I might add.

The heavily Spanish-accented notice that came across the intercom about once every 5 minutes reminded me time and time again that I was in fact a prisoner to these two suitcases, unable to leave them outside of my vision or “proper authorities” may confiscate them. So wherever I went, for 10 hours, followed two awkwardly-carried suitcases and a backpack.

Finally things fell together and the 8 of us who were suppose to meet up did so, and took off for San Diego. It’s impressive how upbeat a group of 8 sales-people are, especially considering how tired we were. And so here I am, after the sleepless Saturday night getting pulled together, 8 hours in the air, 10 hours roaming around LAX airport, and the 2 hour shuttle ride, I sit half asleep at our temporary stay at the Lafayette Hotel and Suites.

Tomorrow? Training. Essentials Shopping. And moving into our not-yet-furnished apartments. Go air mattresses!

But I have arrived, safe and sound in San Diego. Tired, but excited. More will follow.

Plane ticket is booked. Visa papers are on schedule. Door-to-door sales pitch is being finalized.

Door-to-door sales? Yes. I will be selling security systems with a team of 12 or so guys and girls from around Halifax. After landing in California on the 27th of April, we’ll be taking care of the nitty-gritty, such as opening new bank accounts, getting a local cell phone, and stocking the place with groceries and essentials. Then we will be hitting the streets later that week.

When I tell people I will be selling door-to-door, as imaged, I receive a variety of responses. Most people don’t believe that a company is willing to fly us down and house us for a summer to sell, it must be a scam. Others think it’s a horrible idea and no base wage equals no money made. I’ve heard everything from only ex cons that can’t get any other job do door-to-door sales to “you will likely get yourself shot.”

Luckily there are those that think it’s a great idea, and a great experience. Personally, I think it will not only be a great experience, but a great opportunity to see part of California while making some decent cash. Not to mention new friends and a great time.

So the countdown is on. 13 days and I will be waiting for my connecting flight in Montreal. Now if only these exams would be over so I could start getting excited.