Bagel Poke

Injury incurred: scratches in two places on my right eyeball.

Inflictor of pain: Madeleine Rhodes McMillen.

Weapon of choice: toasted bagel.

My morning started unexpectedly early, when Maddi decided to wake up at 5am, 2 and a half hours earlier than her usual wake time. I was up til 2am; so I was functioning with 3 hours of sleep. I'm not sure if it's the lack of sleep, but I didn't even see this coming. At breakfast, Maddi accidentally poked me in the eye with a toasted bagel. And because I didn't see it coming, I didn't even try to blink. My eye was wide open. It hurt! I don't know if she realized that she caused my pain, but when she saw that I was hurt, she opened up her arms and gave me a hug - made getting stabbed in the eye totally worth it!

Although it bothered me, I didn't think anything of it and went through my day as usual.

The Nygard VIP shopping event was today, and I got to go for a couple of hours to check it out. It was a definite learning experience.

Three things I learned today; I need to be prepared on how to engage with people when I've been given a golden opportunity (the store manager has been talking me up to her clients), the first thing out of my mouth needs to offer something of value and can't be an obvious sales solicitation (even though people know I'm selling something), engage - because the worst they can say is 'no'.

Considering that it was in the middle of the day, on a week day... the shopping event went pretty well. I was there from 2 to 4pm, and although it wasn't a crowd of shoppers, there was a steady stream of them. In the two hours that I was there, there were at least 6 shoppers that tried on clothes and every one of them bought something. Megan, the store manager, is amazing. She makes sales look so easy and effortless. I have much to learn.

As each of those 6 shoppers walked around, I said hi to them but searched for how else I can engage with them without taking them away from their shopping experience. I couldn't think of anything that sounded suitable so I just remained passive for most of my time there and let them come to me if they were interested. Towards the end, I relaxed and was chatting with one of the last clients as she tried on clothes. When she headed towards the counter to pay, I heard myself say, "don't forget to pick up a gift voucher for my glamour photography sessions at the front." I got her interest and she stopped to ask me more about it. That was my opportunity to engage. I showed her some samples of my work, generated a real interest and a potential client out of her.

I really am quite uneasy with sales, but I knew it can be done without being pushy and in a way that services the potential client. I've heard it a million times, good sales is really just good customer service. You are not there to sell, you sell by meeting a need your potential clients have. I have been on the receiving end of this kind of sales plenty of times. I just need practice on how to be on the offering end of it.

Before I left Nygard, I asked the manager and the other staff what the response has been to the vouchers they gave out. They said people were impressed and thought the images on the cards were really good. I suspect the rest of the VIP shoppers will be going to pick up their gift bags after work hours today and over the weekend. We'll see how this goes as my first marketing campaign. If nothing else, it was a great learning experience and the start to a great partnership with the Nygard store.

By the end of the day, I could barely open my right eye. Luckily, it didn't bother me too much while at the shopping event. I stopped in at the nearby drop-in clinic and found out that I got 2 scratches from the bagel poke and now have to wear a very fashionable eye patch until I go back for a follow up doctor's visit tomorrow. Such a sexy look! Fortunately, no permanent damage and it won't affect my vision. Thank goodness, because vision would be important for a photographer.