That I'm in this book?
Seriously! Early in my career - when I had NO career- I was THE wacky job search gal. The story that's in this particular book is a short summary of my biggest stunt, crashing a Harvey Mackay seminar to pass out my resumes. Now that I've done a bit of public speaking myself, I realize just how generous Mr. Mackay was to me.
It all started in college ...
when my long term college boyfriend and I were deciding where we might move after we graduated. He did this giant study of all kinds of metro areas based on lots of stats like population size, library size, educational institutions, etc. The study included Seattle - which won, as I recall, but was dismissed as being too far away! The second place city was Minneapolis, and in prep for our eventual move, I began researching companies, interviewing and learning all I could about the local economy. Harvey Mackay and his Mackay envelope company was a BIG part of the economy - or at least got a lot of press since Mr. Mackay was at the prime of his writing/speaking career - just hitting with Swim With the Sharks: Without Being Eaten Alive : Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition. I read all his books, and felt as though we were cut from the same human cloth, or something. He recommended sales tactics like keeping records of the interests of your clients, personal details, etc. and then remembering and acting on them! If your client enjoys tennis - by golly - send them some tennis tickets! I'd never heard a businessman recommend such things - things that I just did naturally - and, mind you, normally FREAKED people out with! Many people I've known in my life have become creeped out by me remembering details about them and later acting on them. It always made me feel crummy and as though I was some sort of a freak - and occasionally still does. Might be because I sometimes remember odd things and then act on them. One time in particular, a boy I was dating ALWAYS complained about how he had terrible, threadbare towels and that all he wished for was a nice fluffy towel. I just happened to be at KMart a few days later, and saw a super special on towels, so I picked him up 1 or 2 and dropped them off at his dorm with a note. You know, he completely freaked and told me I was weird. Friendship/dating over.
But I digress. I was so wild about Harvey, because Harvey put forth that this kind of detailed attention was not only abnormal, that it might help me succeed in business! Clearly, he was my hero...and being the motormouth you all know I am, I told EVERYONE about this amazing guy who said I would succeed in business with my freakish towel-buying ways! Required additional information here is that the college boyfriend and I parted ways, decided against Minneapolis due to the cold and the crappy job market and I settled down to the only job I could find after graduation. This found me in North Canton, OH. doing some desktop publishing/telemarketing for a few months, until (happily, it was an awful place to work) I was laid off and began working 3 fill in jobs.
A girlfriend phoned me at job #2 one Sunday afternoon excitedly telling me that Harvey! was speaking the following day in CLEVELAND! (only about 90mins from me). Oh the joy! ".then the realization that THIS was an opportunity of capital proportions and that clearly I must come up with some way for Harvey to notice/meet/hire me or something. My brain spun and spun through all the stupid stuff I could think of (send a pizza to his green room") until I had the capital realization that he wasn"t my target " the audience was. Yeeeessss, the audience of local NE Ohio business people who were attending the same speech I was, who paid good money to hear my hero speak! I needed to get THEM to notice me and, of course, give me a FABULOUS job. After hours of further spinning, I decided the best thing to do was to make hundreds of copies of my resume with a clever coversheet, go early and find some way to distribute them to the crowd. I figured even if I got caught I would do directly to the _media_ (well, I was young!) and make a huge story about how this famous businessman treated me like crap!
So, I literally emptied my checking account on the ticket to the speech and the resume copying (I think I got about 200 copies), showed up at the venue and just started putting my resume on every seat in the arena! Well, it didn"t take long for someone to approach me and ask what I was doing".and I responded with a (great) lie! "mumblename in the box office assured me that I could distribute this information as it"s merely informational and not in any way attacking the speaker today". "Oh", they said, "I"d better go clear this with my supervisor. Who did you say authorize this, again"" "mumblename, in the box office" I repeated. Off they toddled, and on I continued, placing a resume on every chair as fast as I could go. I figured if I could just get far enough they would be less likely to make me stop or would be harder to re-collect them all before things got underway. Shortly thereafter, the supervisor came out, I repeated the story, and they left to check with "Mr. Mackay's people". Ooohhhh boy.
The supervisor returned shortly and asked me to follow backstage, that "Mr. Mackay wanted to speak with me" OMG! Terror strikes! While we were walking back I asked if I needed to stop off and call my parents so they knew what police station to come pick me up from, that since they live several hours away I"d better let them get started now or I'd wind up staying overnight. The supervisor said something like "They're not going to have you arrested, they just want to talk to you".
We arrived at the destination (turned out to be center stage) just as Mr. Mackay walked onstage for his final soundcheck. He strode over, reached out his hand and introduced himself and proceeded to tell me how what I was doing was EXACTLY what he tries to tell young graduates and job seekers all over the country that they HAVE to do to stand out in the terrible job market - to be creative and gutsy and get themselves out there, differentiated from the competition!!!!!!!!!! My heart soaring, my ears roaring, I mostly heard him say that he needed to get the pronunciation of my name correct so he could mention me by name in his speech and could I sit down front so they could find me with the spot easily" Oh, and follow this nice fellow (his press guy) who will take you out to the lobby to YOUR OWN TABLE where you can distribute your resumes and where employers can come interview you at the break and after the seminar!!!!!!!!
Honestly, it was crazy. I supplied my table and sat down, my head in a whirl, he talked, and then I heard my name I stood up - he said all the stuff he said to me, how only courageous, creative young folks would be successful and that even the successful people in the room could learn something from me - my only wish that there was someone there with me to assure me it was real. At the break, I got up to head out to my table when I heard my name being called! A friend of our family ran across the rows and hugged me....best of all I had a WITNESS!
I staffed my table, talked with an unknown but large number of people and left with a few job offers. I shouted, giggled, and cried with joy all the way home. Home to my answering machine tape FULL of employers wanting to talk to me. They were all for sales jobs - of course everyone wanted the go getter out there selling their product, and ultimately I accepted a job as a Xerox salesperson with a well-known local firm. I quickly realized that sales wasn't my thing... but that was just fine. By then I had enough confidence in my weird ideas to try them and continued to search with a few unconventional bits thrown wherever I felt they'd go over. While interviewing with Urban Outfitters, I sent them a macaroni art thank you letter and for another marketing role I mocked up a USA Today front page headline, photocopied it full size with my inserted story and mailed it both as a mailer and as a thank you letter. I followed my creative urges, got more and more confident and had a lot of fun.
Some time later, again - while working a night job , I got a phone message while I was on break that a reporter from the Associated Press had called. We connected on the phone, he interviewed me about my un-conventional job search tactics, I was in the story that went out on the wire which, ultimately, Bradley Richardson, the author of the JobSmarts book found in his research and decided to include in his book.
The weirdest part" How I found out I was in the book.
A few years after the actual event, I was working at a small software firm in Ohio. We brought in a young guy from Washington D.C. to interview for an internship. He and I met during his interview day - really hit it off and began dating long-distance even though he didn't get offered the internship at our company. He continued to look for a job, and through the course of our discussions, I encouraged him to be creative, to think about a 'stunt' or something to get some positive attention or buzz. He was reluctant to try it, so I told him my story hoping that I could convince him. When I finished he kept muttering that my story sounded soooo familiar but he couldn"t place it " he thought he had seem it on television or read it in a book or something. I worried that he thought I stole it from someone else or was making it up. A few days later the book arrived in the mail with the page marked that included my story. He finally remembered where he read it, sent me a copy, and sure enough... it was me!
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