Every week through (at least) April 2020, I will be outlining my apprenticeship experience as an Inside Sales Rep for Impossible Foods. Each week’s post will recap what I’m learning, what I’ve accomplished, and overall how I am growing and progressing as both a professional, and as an individual. Writing these posts is not only a great way for me to document my experience to look back on in the future, it also allows me to publicly share my successes and failures during my first venture into the professional tech world. Let’s do this.

Weeks 11-15

Okay, okay, I have a bit of explaining to do. To make a long story short, life happened over the past month, and I allowed writing to fall down my list of priorities. Today I’m here getting back on the horse to quickly catch up on the varied developments that are taking place within my apprenticeship at Impossible Foods, and my life here in Redwood City. 

What I am learning at work:

Day to Day

Sales is a give and take relationship, and if you’re on my side of the equation, naturally it leans towards give. I’m not complaining — I honestly really enjoy the process. I get to hear from people from all over the country (world, even) from different walks of life. I listen to their problems, their needs, and sometimes just their stories they’ve been telling for the last 20 years. At the end of the day, more often than not the person on the other side of the phone knows that I’m just doing a job, and we’re just two humans with the opportunity to connect. That by itself would be enough for me to find fulfillment in my daily routine — being able to tack on the fact that our work at Impossible Foods is championing a movement towards agricultural sustainability makes it that much sweeter. 

Big Picture

Time is going by so quickly. I’m well beyond halfway through my apprenticeship, though I still feel like the new guy every once in a while. It’s crazy how days seem to just slip by when you don’t make a conscious effort to get the most out of each moment. I’ve been struggling these last few weeks with remaining as motivated as I was to start, which I think shows when you consider I haven’t written in a month. 

I’m telling myself that it’s good that I was able to realize I was in a rut to make myself feel better, but the only thing that will really make me feel better is to actually be more cognizant of the things I’m dedicating my time to, along with keeping my mental state in check. 

What I am learning outside of work:

I’m going to blow your mind here — living is expensive. Life in the Bay Area is expensive. Who knew? Certainly not me. 

This isn’t a new lesson, obviously, but lately, I’ve been relearning the importance of really staying on top of spending habits. For the first time in way too long, I went through my expenses to see if there were any unimportant or recurring charges that I could nix going forward. I’m embarrassed to say there was a lot more than I expected, but that’s mostly good news — I found multiple subscriptions that I was paying for and either not using at all, or not using enough to justify paying for the service, so I freed myself from those payments going forward. I know this is a pretty simple thing that I should have been doing from the start, but now I’ve learned a lesson and should have a little more money in my pockets moving forward. 

What I’m creating:

• A career development plan (covered a bit later).
• Updates to our sales/email content. We are constantly revising things like our sales approach, tone, resources used, and even word choice.
• Lately, I’ve been thinking about my own personal process when it comes to sales, specifically concerning note-taking. Right now I’m trying different methods, working to develop a healthy and successful routine when it comes to documenting each and every call I make. 

What I’m currently working on at Impossible Foods:

I just mentioned that we are always working on updating our content, which if you ask me is a cool mechanism that exists within our team. I really value being able to speak my mind and contribute to something tangible. 

We’re in the midst of a lot of changes at Impossible right now. In my last post, I briefly mentioned that our team was undergoing a brand change — we have officially changed from Inside Sales to Customer Advocacy. There aren’t a ton of immediate changes taking place but over the upcoming weeks, new structures/teams/responsibilities will begin to form. Also, we are switching platforms so I will have to learn a completely new system. It’s a little daunting, but at the same time, it’s exciting to realize that I can play a significant part in how our team learns and implements this new system. 

One quick cool note — our team will be adding new people over the next few weeks along with the other changes, and I get to be a part of the interview process! I really appreciate being a part of a team that has leadership that demonstrably values individual opinion and makes time to connect with each person.

How I’m improving myself:

These past few weeks, I was tasked by Impossible Foods to put together a career development plan. I spent some time reflecting on the things I’ve accomplished so far and where I want to go from here — which, if you’re anything like me, isn’t easy. It’s always hard for me to project for the future, especially when I’m the primary focus.

Thankfully, I was able to discuss my plan as it came together with my boss Gabrielle, who helped me shape my ideas into a tangible plan with actionable steps. It’s exciting to know that you have people who are willing to invest their own time and energy into you and your personal/professional progress — a characteristic of Gabrielle (and my team as a whole) that I am very appreciative of. 

Weekly Praxis Monday Recap:

This past week featured 3 guest speakers who work for a popular Praxis business partner, PandaDoc. They spoke at length about their varied experiences at the same company, and it was really cool to hear about PandaDoc from a new perspective. A good friend of mine works in their UI/UX division, so being able to hear from the sales team as well was an awesome insight into how they operate with their clients. The lessons they imparted to us have been helpful since they spoke with us, one of the most prominent being a lesson I’ve known before, but always appreciate being reaffirmed — sales is a numbers game. If you don’t commit the time and energy that sales require, don’t expect to wow anyone with your success.

What’s Next: 

This week is a fairly normal week, except Gabrielle is out of the country on vacation. I’m looking forward to getting through my workload every day while spending extra time on our content and making sure our processes are running smoothly. Also, now that my career development plan has been approved, it’s time for me to begin looking at those actionable steps I mentioned previously to achieve my goals. Whether I’m spending time cultivating leadership skills, technical skills, or just making connections within the office, I’m really eager to continue our team’s success as we move forward as the Customer Advocacy team.