Work has been great...I'm ecstatic about winning our PCE trip and enjoying all that comes with that. Last week our company decided to make a few changes...so now I have a new manager and a bigger territory...Augusta, GA has been added to my territory that already included St. Augustine, Jacksonville, Lake City, Brunswick and Savannah. I am excited to have a few (7) more accounts to tackle in Augusta, but not looking forward to the distance...Augusta is about 5.5 hours from my house. :( I'm hoping to make friends with people who have Masters tickets (a 2013 goal) and work out a productive travel schedule...hopefully flying up there. We'll see how it all goes. For now, I feel blessed to have a great job and to work with great people. Bring on Augusta!
Part of gaining Augusta meant losing a few of my favorite accounts. These accounts will now be serviced by my counterpart in Georgia. I made great friendships in these accounts. I am going to truly miss the amazing people I met and befriended. Hopefully our paths will cross again soon! That is probably the hardest part of my job...making great relationships and then having some aspect of my job changing...product, territory, focus, etc. Luckily there is always Facebook to keep us connected!
In other news, Grant and I had a great St. Patrick's Day with our friends. It started off with a BodyFlow yoga class with a couple of my friends. I'm typically not the group fitness girl...or yoga girl, but I found the class challenging, yet relaxing. I'll definitely give classes a little more love.
Sorry about the lack of photos for this post...I didn't bring my camera out this week. I'll try and do better next week! :)
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
My New Vanities!
We've redone almost everything in our house since we moved in a few years ago. The project that we/Grant has been working on for the past few weekends is installing new vanities in our bathroom. Our old vanities were builder-grade kitchen cabinets. They were very low, and over 20 years old, original to the house. We waited to put in new vanities until I found new ones that we both really liked. Here are the before and after photos.
Before:
During:
Grant first had to rip out the old vanities...one at a time so we still would have one sink to use. Sharing one sink for the past few weeks has made me appreciate our double sinks that much more!
Then, Grant fixed the wall behind the vanity, primed and painted it. He patched the tile floors and then installed the new vanities.
After:
Before:
During:
Grant first had to rip out the old vanities...one at a time so we still would have one sink to use. Sharing one sink for the past few weeks has made me appreciate our double sinks that much more!
Then, Grant fixed the wall behind the vanity, primed and painted it. He patched the tile floors and then installed the new vanities.
After:
Do you see Reagan making an appearance? :)
Penelope hanging out inside the vanity. :)
Thanks for all of your hard work, Grant. I LOVE our updated vanities so much and love you even more! :) Now can you fix the garbage disposal?! ;)
Saturday, March 03, 2012
Call me asap
When you get a text message that says "Call me asap" it sends your heart racing...especially if that text message is from your boss. Well, that is the text message I received on Wednesday morning. I thought for a second what does he want...is it good? is it bad? Then, I called him.
My boss answered and we exchanged pleasantries. Then, I asked him, "So, what's up?" He replied, "How much vacation time does Grant get?" I knew then that this was a good "Call me asap" moment. I said, "Enough to go on a Mediterranean cruise?" Then my manager replied, "Good, because you won President's Circle of Excellence for 2011."
For those of you not in the pharmaceutical sales world...which is most of you...each company that I have worked for has had an incentive trip called President's Council or President's Circle of Excellence (PCE). These trips are earned by finishing the year in the top 3-5% of all sales reps. Last year I knew I was in the hunt.
I came to this company a little over one year ago to launch their new antipsychotic. My sole goal the first year was to win PCE. We created business plans and wrote down our goals. I wrote down that my goal was to win PCE. One of my colleagues wrote down that her goal was to make quota. I asked her why not strive to be the best? She was concerned that if she did not make that goal she would get in trouble or get evaluated against not making her goal. I've learned over the years to always set high goals and this experience solidified that learning. Long term I want to advance my career into management and beyond and I knew that winning PCE during the launch year of this new drug would establish myself as a leader at my new company.
I tracked my progress versus my peers all year. I had consistent top performance, but also had a very high quota and knew that as I continued to finish above quota my quota would only go up, and make it more difficult for me to win PCE. It came down to the last week of 2011. I remember striving to make each day and each call count last year. I would be driving home, and detouring to make that extra call, hoping that it would bring me that much closer to winning PCE. I had many superstitions during this time as well. Once I saw that I could really win I began wearing a bracelet from my Aunt Dorothy each day. My company sent out a postcard encouraging us all to strive for PCE. I put that postcard in my car and looked at it daily. I saved inspirational fortunes from fortune cookies. One in particular stated that my consistency will lead to reward.
When the final numbers came in I thought I had lost by 1.02% or about 109 pills...the narrowest of margins. I had accepted defeat, but in the back of my mind I hadn't totally given up hope as my company hadn't published the winners.
After that call with my manager, I called Grant. He answered while at work. I asked him if he had anything going on at work in the end of April. He said no. I said that's good because ... WE'RE GOING TO EUROPE!!!!!! I think I screamed it. I was so excited...and still in shock.
Later that day I called my manager again and left him a voicemail. "Hi, I think we talked earlier...that or I had this crazy dream...in any case please call me back and let me know if we did, in fact, talk. If that is the case, I have a few questions." He texted me back..."Becky, I got your message...we didn't talk...not sure what you are talking about." HaHa funny...he was kidding.
I still didn't share my news with many that day. I couldn't believe it was true until I saw my name in writing as a PCE winner. Yesterday I received the confirmation I needed. I got an email...well several...with the official invitation, a list of winners (me included) and a request for bio information. It's really happening. I am so excited.
On top of the recognition of a job well done at my company, PCE is a trip...a luxury Mediterranean cruise...for me and a guest. There are so many people I wish could come. I wish I could fill the boat with friends and family...but I can only bring one person...so, of course, I picked Grant. :)
Here is our itinerary...
Fri. Barcelona, Spain 5:00pm
Sat. Marseille (Provence), France 8:00am 8:00pm
Sun. Monte Carlo, Monaco 8:00am 8:00pm
Mon. Portovenere, Italy 8:00am 8:00pm
Tue. Livorno (Florence), Italy 6:00am 6:00pm
Wed. Sorrento, Italy 2:00pm Overnight
Thurs. Sorrento, Italy Overnight 6:00pm
Fri. Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 7:00am
Here is the boat...the Seabourn Sojourn:
My boss answered and we exchanged pleasantries. Then, I asked him, "So, what's up?" He replied, "How much vacation time does Grant get?" I knew then that this was a good "Call me asap" moment. I said, "Enough to go on a Mediterranean cruise?" Then my manager replied, "Good, because you won President's Circle of Excellence for 2011."
For those of you not in the pharmaceutical sales world...which is most of you...each company that I have worked for has had an incentive trip called President's Council or President's Circle of Excellence (PCE). These trips are earned by finishing the year in the top 3-5% of all sales reps. Last year I knew I was in the hunt.
I came to this company a little over one year ago to launch their new antipsychotic. My sole goal the first year was to win PCE. We created business plans and wrote down our goals. I wrote down that my goal was to win PCE. One of my colleagues wrote down that her goal was to make quota. I asked her why not strive to be the best? She was concerned that if she did not make that goal she would get in trouble or get evaluated against not making her goal. I've learned over the years to always set high goals and this experience solidified that learning. Long term I want to advance my career into management and beyond and I knew that winning PCE during the launch year of this new drug would establish myself as a leader at my new company.
I tracked my progress versus my peers all year. I had consistent top performance, but also had a very high quota and knew that as I continued to finish above quota my quota would only go up, and make it more difficult for me to win PCE. It came down to the last week of 2011. I remember striving to make each day and each call count last year. I would be driving home, and detouring to make that extra call, hoping that it would bring me that much closer to winning PCE. I had many superstitions during this time as well. Once I saw that I could really win I began wearing a bracelet from my Aunt Dorothy each day. My company sent out a postcard encouraging us all to strive for PCE. I put that postcard in my car and looked at it daily. I saved inspirational fortunes from fortune cookies. One in particular stated that my consistency will lead to reward.
When the final numbers came in I thought I had lost by 1.02% or about 109 pills...the narrowest of margins. I had accepted defeat, but in the back of my mind I hadn't totally given up hope as my company hadn't published the winners.
After that call with my manager, I called Grant. He answered while at work. I asked him if he had anything going on at work in the end of April. He said no. I said that's good because ... WE'RE GOING TO EUROPE!!!!!! I think I screamed it. I was so excited...and still in shock.
Later that day I called my manager again and left him a voicemail. "Hi, I think we talked earlier...that or I had this crazy dream...in any case please call me back and let me know if we did, in fact, talk. If that is the case, I have a few questions." He texted me back..."Becky, I got your message...we didn't talk...not sure what you are talking about." HaHa funny...he was kidding.
I still didn't share my news with many that day. I couldn't believe it was true until I saw my name in writing as a PCE winner. Yesterday I received the confirmation I needed. I got an email...well several...with the official invitation, a list of winners (me included) and a request for bio information. It's really happening. I am so excited.
On top of the recognition of a job well done at my company, PCE is a trip...a luxury Mediterranean cruise...for me and a guest. There are so many people I wish could come. I wish I could fill the boat with friends and family...but I can only bring one person...so, of course, I picked Grant. :)
Here is our itinerary...
Fri. Barcelona, Spain 5:00pm
Sat. Marseille (Provence), France 8:00am 8:00pm
Sun. Monte Carlo, Monaco 8:00am 8:00pm
Mon. Portovenere, Italy 8:00am 8:00pm
Tue. Livorno (Florence), Italy 6:00am 6:00pm
Wed. Sorrento, Italy 2:00pm Overnight
Thurs. Sorrento, Italy Overnight 6:00pm
Fri. Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 7:00am
Here is the boat...the Seabourn Sojourn:
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