Impossible Foods – Apprenticeship Week 4
If you’re paying really close attention, you’ll notice that my weekly update has skipped from week 2 to week 4. I’m here to confirm that week 3 did, in fact, exist, and it was a great week of work — but life happened, and while having a busy schedule and dealing with a family emergency, I pushed aside my weekly update post. Have no fear, I am back in the swing of things and look forward to documenting my journey with Impossible Foods, and my California adventure in general.
Back to business. I have officially completed a month of work with the Inside Sales team here at IF, and it has truly been an incredible start to what could be a great, continued opportunity. I am firmly established within the flow of daily operations and feel as if I am becoming a significant contributor to our team’s (and the company as a whole) success. With each call I make, I get a little bit more confident. Even amid a work overload caused by sampling issues (won’t get into much detail but it has made life more hectic), it feels as if each day goes more smoothly than the last; however, I know I must be careful not to get complacent. There is still so much I have to learn — and I’m excited to do exactly that.
Now that I am taking more responsibility in regard to daily tasks, I am eager to find ways to improve both the quantity of leads I can reach, and the quality of my work. As I’ve briefly mentioned, our sales process is sort of in an incubator stage, and everyone acknowledges that there is room for improvement. I’m excited to accept the challenge of improving something that is still fairly foreign to me. I won’t be able to help out while my knowledge is still surface level — I have to dig deeper, really dive into what it takes to embody not only the Impossible brand, but just the brand of a salesman in general. I never thought of myself as someone especially wired for sales, and there’s been an adjustment period (still in progress… likely forever) to become the best version of myself for my role. Thankfully, I have an excellent team established around me to support me and help me do just that.
This upcoming week is a short week due to the holiday, but I’m still gearing up for a heavy workload. Due to the issues we’ve had with sampling, our backlog of work is starting to come into play, resulting in a kind of “double up”. This is a really good opportunity for me to demonstrate value beyond what is expected of me as the new guy, and I’m ready to take the next step from that “new guy” to just another member of the inside sales team, and then to an integral part of what makes the inside sales team run (apologies to fellow Praxians Haley and Leah, it’s only a matter of time).
Outside of work, I’m really excited for the time off for Thanksgiving. My lovely girlfriend will be visiting for almost an entire week, and we are going to spend time exploring San Francisco, Redwood City, and wherever else we decide to adventure to. It hasn’t been incredibly easy to navigate a long distance relationship so far, especially since it is so new to the both of us. Luckily, we both prioritize communication and patience — she’s sacrificed a good amount of happiness while I’m out here working with Impossible Foods, but every single day she is supportive and encouraging as I make my place. Couldn’t possibly ask for any more than that, or for anyone else besides her.
Until next week!