What happens when a valet and hotel bellman becomes a successful sales executive? Join your host Tommy Heitz as he takes you on a journey through his life, revealing how he navigated his way from the service industry to a rewarding career in sales. From his humble beginnings, dealing with the pressures of the service industry and cultural biases, to learning the important lessons of attention to detail, customer service, and soft skills, Tommy offers a candid insight into his personal development and growth.
Ever wondered what it takes to make it in the world of sales? Tommy shares the gritty details of his transition into sales, highlighting the importance of diligence, understanding your product, and managing client relationships. But it's not all smooth sailing - he opens up about the struggles with management dynamics, and how he learned to stand up for himself and not be afraid of obstacles. Tune in to hear how Tommy turned the challenges of his life into stepping stones to success, inspiring listeners to strive for growth and resilience.
What happens when a valet and hotel bellman becomes a successful sales executive? Join your host Tommy Heitz as he takes you on a journey through his life, revealing how he navigated his way from the service industry to a rewarding career in sales. From his humble beginnings, dealing with the pressures of the service industry and cultural biases, to learning the important lessons of attention to detail, customer service, and soft skills, Tommy offers a candid insight into his personal development and growth.
Ever wondered what it takes to make it in the world of sales? Tommy shares the gritty details of his transition into sales, highlighting the importance of diligence, understanding your product, and managing client relationships. But it's not all smooth sailing - he opens up about the struggles with management dynamics, and how he learned to stand up for himself and not be afraid of obstacles. Tune in to hear how Tommy turned the challenges of his life into stepping stones to success, inspiring listeners to strive for growth and resilience.
Do you ever lift your head up from your phone, look around and think to yourself my God, everything is weird. Well, we do a lot. This is the Observation Station, a unique, entertaining and hilarious podcast. If we observe it, we talk about it. Anything and everything, anything and everything. Let's get weird and let's have some fun. This is the Observation Station and now your host, tommy Heights.
Speaker 2:
Well, welcome back everybody. How are you guys doing? So? It's another episode here at the Observation Station. Glad you guys took the time here to see about the self reflections of a growing man. So that's what today's topic is going to be. So the podcast is where we explore the complexities of life, business and personal development. I'm your host, tommy Heights, and today we have a particularly introspective episode, like I was saying, titled self reflections as a growing man. So we'll be navigating through my own life, from my humble beginnings to my current role as a sales executive. So it starts from the early days and let's start by turning back the clock.
Speaker 2:
My first job was a valet and parking cars. It may sound simple, but it's far from it. The job taught me the importance of attention to detail. So one wrong move and you could be responsible for damaging a luxury vehicle. It also taught me the value of customer service. A smile, greeting or even just opening the door for somebody can make all the difference in their day. And moving on, I worked as a hotel bellman and the hospitality industry is a masterclass in soft skills. So you learn how to read people really quickly, to anticipate their needs before they even articulate them. So you're not just carrying bags, you're also carrying the reputation of the hotel on your shoulders, and there's a lot of trials and tribulations that go along the way of that. Especially, you know, when you're a hotel bellman or valet, you're not treated always the best, even if you're in a luxury hotel. A lot of times you're kind of just thrown off to the side as a service worker, and you can really see the difference from when you're staying at the hotel and you're actually being the bellman at the hotel. So you can see from kind of the surface like, oh, this is fine, this is a bellman, you know whatever. Though, when they're in the back office, sometimes they can be where their boss is yelling at them hey, you didn't do this, you weren't quick enough, they're waiting for their bags. It could be everything that you did right. It's just the boss doesn't want to be nice to you because you're a bellman. I mean, what do? They can easily replace you. So I mean, let's not gloss over the challenges.
Speaker 2:
Being a 29 year old man, I'm Hispanic and have European heritage, so I'm Polish, german and El Salvadoran. I've had to navigate a complex landscape of cultural expectations and biases, so sometimes when you hear, oh, this guy is from El Salvador, even though I look like a white guy. They're like, oh, is this guy? They think it's funny to say MS-13. Well, I'm not a gang member, so I'm not any of these people that you see on the news that are getting rounded up by the thousands put in jail. It's not just because I'm from El Salvador doesn't mean that, you know, I'm affiliated with that. People think it's funny. So sometimes when I say I'm from the Chicago land area, they're like, oh my God, it's shy back. It's like, okay, well, these people have never been, you know, outside of their house in Kansas. So you know. But I've had to do the different complex landscapes of people's personalities.
Speaker 2:
You know a lot of things happen, especially when you're not making a lot of money. You're facing financial struggles, balancing multiple jobs and trying to further my education skills. There were times, it seems, the stress was unbearable, but each of the obstacles served as a stepping stone shaping me into who I am today, especially who you're seeing speaking into the microphone, not so timid, can stand up for myself in situations that I need to and make it clear that I'm not here to just be stepped on. I don't have to be rude, but you have to have self respect and dignity for yourself. From there I transitioned to sales. Now, the beautiful thing about being in the sales industry is you can make your own paycheck, depending on kind of how you have yourself set up in the compensation structure. So if it's a 1099 position, it's a little bit more kind of difficult to start making money immediately, because you have to build up your client base though… If you are W2, from there you have a base and then you have commissions on top of that.
Speaker 2:
There's all different ways of doing things in the sense of how you have a sales job. It all comes down to how diligent you are in your process, product knowledge and really it comes down to management too. If you come into a new job, there's always somebody above you. You need to have it where you make sure that your manager is happy with what you're producing for the company. But when you go to the manager and you want to ask for a little bit of help so that you can make sure that you're producing as much as you want for the company in the back of your head as an employee and the manager just kind of have it, snuffs it off. I'm too busy, I'm too busy, I'm too busy, and two and three weeks pass where they're too busy and their assistant can never find a time on the calendar. It's like, well, this is my direct manager, this is not my CEO, so I need to have somebody I can ask for help. I'm not going to be having it where I will be asking my coworkers constantly for help to take them away from the mojo of making calls, being in meetings and doing what they need to do to provide for themselves and their family. That's not what I'm here to do. My job is to be a solo man, but also for the team. So it's a very stressful environment, but the payout if you can make it work can be just phenomenal.
Speaker 2:
Sales is something that you can. You just live and breathe it. You can't just have it where. You come in there and you see Wolf of Wall Street and go oh shit, you know I'm going to be the biggest man on, you know, on the Wall Street or whatever it is. I mean, look, you have these people that watch that movie. Try to come into the financial services. Have no idea how difficult it is to start gaining clients from having zero people on the book that they're just having it, where the movies just take you from segments of people's stories. They don't go through all the day in and day out ups and downs of people's lives, you know, if they go bankrupt or if they went through a divorce, lost their kids, house, business, it could be a slew of things really.
Speaker 2:
I mean you talk about all the different ways that people can sell. Maybe it's door to door, it's consultative, there's. You know, the sky's the limit. The way I do it. I reach out to people. I'm a hunter and a farmer, so that's what they call it in the sales world. A hunter is one that goes out and eats what they kill. The farmer really just takes the accounts and makes sure that they're serviced and if you need to upsell them that's part of the sales process too is to have it where you're taking care of current clients and getting that new business. That's the whole point of how I was able to grow from having no experience in the sales world to coming in with just an associates degree because I did not get my full bachelor's degree. But the nice thing about being in this industry, it doesn't matter what you have. You could have a PhD in whatever that doesn't help you out with closing the deal.
Speaker 2:
When it comes down to the deal, making it where it seems hey, oh well, let me see how I'm going to present this product to this client so that they not only have it where it's going to make their life easier. We can have it in a way where they're not only saving money in all the processes and efficiencies that are having the problems, but you can have it where they look like a hero to their bosses because they brought in a technology that just made everybody's life easier. You have to know who you're selling to. What it is that you're talking to in the sense of is it a decision maker? Is it just somebody who's kicking rocks? Those are a lot of things. They're what's called lessons that are learned At the time.
Speaker 2:
You don't want to have it where it's like well, I love all these failures. Everybody ever says can't wait to fail, can't wait to have it where I lose everything. No, but if you aren't just pushing it every single day, 150%, that way that you can never have it where to say I'm not pushing it, the whole thing is if your gut starts hurting and saying I'm not doing enough in my life. Well, that's where it's like. Okay. Well, what is it that I already know, because you always know what you're missing out on. It's not like I don't know. It's a long story. If you wrote it on paper, you know what it is. You got to embrace these challenges as opportunities for growth. Each trial is a lesson in disguise, teaching you something new about yourself and the world around you. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 2:
I was interviewing for a position and I think it was a final interview. Everything went well. Last second I get a call from the recruiter. They say to me I'm sorry, tommy, unfortunately that position was filled by somebody internally who had hired a friend or what not. I'm thinking, oh my God, I went through all of this. I was offered the job, ready to go. Then, last second, somebody comes in under me to get this job. Well, lo and behold, not too. Maybe a month later I get it, where I have another job that pays not only more. And then I hear back from the recruiter. I think that they wanted me back to try and get that job again because the guy who came in as an internal reference didn't even work out, because his background check had some things on it that weren't aligning with what the company wanted to have. That's a nice thing, too.
Speaker 2:
You got to have a clean background, good credit, because now these companies are checking that stuff Many times, especially if you're, like I said, struggling financially when I was at the start. There's a lot of different ways you got to keep your credit correct, especially something that nowadays many people don't take into consideration when you're trying to apply for a job, they look at it or an apartment, anything that has to do with money that you're having to spend on something a lot of times here, especially like an apartment where they don't want to have it, where you have low credit score, you sign a 12 month lease or more and you don't even pay the bills. Now the company has to sue you for the rest of the unpaid rent.
Speaker 2:
What are the key takeaways from this journey? Next, never underestimate the value of soft skills. Whether you're parking a car or closing a six-figure deal, the ability to connect with people is invaluable, and that I mean you know. Lastly, I mean the importance of adaptability cannot be overstated. The business landscape is ever changing, especially with the rapid in that advancements in technology, so being willing to learn and adapt is not just a skill, it's a survival tree and something that I was told as a young kid from my abuelita was Anytime that you are with somebody that is maybe saying, hey, I don't know if you're right for this or that, you know, you just always tell him I am willing to learn.
Speaker 2:
I am willing to learn if you're coachable. Some people might take you, even with less than desirable Prior experience, to whatever the position has asked for and say you know what, if the guy is gonna be coachable, we're gonna work with him or her and that way that it can be somewhere that grows at the company and not somebody. It's always just a pain to deal with and have to go back and forth and so you know Da da da, da da da on fighting with me and all this stuff. So that that's the main thing People want is a easy to deal with person. Sometimes you don't have the ability to be easy because someone's stepping on your toes a little too much and you got to kind of put your foot down. That's, that's it life. You have to stand up for yourself. Sometimes people think that they just run the world. So but yeah, with that being said, thank you for joining me on this reflective journey today.
Speaker 2:
I hope my story serves as a testament to the transformative power of perseverance, adaptability and continuous learning. And until next time here, the Observation station here is gonna be signing off, but the just to tease you for the next episode is the art of the Negotiation and mastering the deal. So if it's choosing a dinner spot or cultural nuances, we're gonna be Got a frog in my throat. So, alright, signing off. Talk to you later.
Speaker 1:
You've been listening to the observation station. We find everyday life and everyday situations hilarious. We hope you've enjoyed the show. We know we had a blast. Make sure to like, rate and review and be sure to tell a friend about the show. That would help too. See you next time on the observation station. You.
