I’m Gonna Be Pretttty Busy …

Hello again, friends! I hope everyone is well. Things are going great here in Lithia Springs! The weather is finally getting cold, giving us a little relief from the scorchin’ Georgia heat! Personally, I love the cold weather. I wish we had more of it around these parts, but it is what it is…

Last time I touched base, I was preparing to go to the annual MDP Workshop in Philadelphia. It was awesome! When we first got there, we split into three groups to do some team building activities. We had three different options to choose from – An “escape room”, a city wide scavenger hunt, or an art/wine class. I love solving puzzles and riddles, so naturally I chose the escape room. It was a really cool experience. They basically lock 10 people in a room and give you one hour to find clues so that you may escape. When we first went in, everybody started going their own direction and digging through everything to find clues. After a few minutes, we realized that the only way we were going to get out on time is if we came together as one and started working together. It was really interesting to see the shift that we made going from 10 individuals chaotically scouring the entire room to one single unit methodically searching for the next clue. We ended up escaping with 20 minutes left on the clock! Goal = Accomplished!

The rest of the week was also a blast. We stayed at the Chubb Conference Center and Hotel in Lafayette Hill, PA. It was such a beautiful place. What made it even better was getting to spend time with the other trainees from across the country. It’s nice meeting people who do the same exact thing as you and getting to hear about how their experience has been and what it has meant to them. It was also great getting to learn more about the company and meeting some of the people behind the scenes of the program! I can’t wait to go back next year.

Back in September, I had the opportunity to travel to Baton Rouge, LA to attend a career fair at Louisiana State University. My participation was kind of a last minute thing, so I was a little nervous going into it. I have never done any sort of recruiting before. After talking to a few of the attendees at the fair, I realized that all I was doing was bragging about my job (Which I really love doing – hence my blog posts!). Many of the students that I spoke with were seniors quickly approaching graduation, and had no idea what they wanted to do after. I was one of these students just a short time ago, so I felt like I could relate to them based on that. I enjoyed getting to discuss the program with them and watching their interest spark because they could tell that Hajoca really is something special. I am very passionate about this program, so sharing that with the students at the fair was pretty awesome.

I am now officially in the Profit Center Operations module of my training. In the operations phase, I will learn things such as pricing and purchasing, credit, and much more – basically what keeps the business going. I am super excited to learn this part of the business. I think that this section of the training is one of the most important, so I am gonna try to absorb as much as I possibly can during this phase. My training is going to be a little bit different than the typical program. Rather than moving to a new profit center to complete my second phase (inside and outside sales), I will be staying at Lithia Springs for the remainder of my time. I am beyond excited for this opportunity! I have an awesome Mentor here. He has taught me so much about the business, and I am eager for more! I will be his first Second-Phase Trainee, so we will be in it together! I feel very confident in my team as well, so I am looking forward to growing with them.

Well guys, that’s it for now! We’ve got inventory coming up in January, so I’m gonna be pretttty busy between now and then preparing for that. Be on the look-out for my next post. I’ll fill y’all in on how it goes. Until then, stay safe, and have fun!