Quite the hiatus I’ve been on here. I’ll do a lil’ update on my life and my very odd, grueling job for the summer.

I am currently sitting in an artsy little coffee shop in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. How did I get here, might you ask? Well, the story begins in November 2020. I reconnected with my childhood best friend via a very long, rambling, “everything under the sun” type of phone call. She is one of those friends who you could lose connection with for a few years and pick up right where you left off, no matter how much each person has changed and grown. I am endlessly grateful for the deep-rooted friendship we have been able to sustain despite distance and our different paths in life.

Anyway, the phone call. She told me she had taken a job selling pest control door-to-door and had sold in Detroit, Michigan all summer and became one of the top “rookie” (first-year) reps in the region that year. Basically, the girl is an absolute badass woman who deals with muggy hot summer days, angry homeowners, and the mental and emotional rollercoaster of facing rejection 99% of the day. She was telling me about it and I was like, “geez, someone would have to be insane to willingly put themselves through such a hellish experience.” I signed my papers to join her in Michigan the following summer a few weeks later.

Lots of preparation and work goes into getting ready for summer sales. You have to commit a pitch to memory so well you could recite it in your sleep. You have to be prepared to think quickly to address customer objections, build value, and close them. I think door-to-door is one of the weirdest jobs because you literally walk up to a random person’s door, introduce yourself and your product quickly but clearly, and attempt to convince them to purchase a service that they likely haven’t given any consideration just a few minutes before they met you. Sometimes when I’m signing someone up at their door, I have a moment of realization that this stranger just met me five minutes ago and is handing me their credit card. Sales is a job like no other — the majority of it is a psychological game between yourself and the potential customer. It’s really interesting to witness how the fundamentals of persuasion, trust, and communication skills are at play during every interaction.

Even though I started training months prior to getting out to Michigan, I felt like a socially incapable buffoon who had no business knocking on strangers’ doors when I finally got out there. I vividly remember my first neighborhood. After shadowing my friend for a few hours that day, she gave me my own neighborhood and told me to go knock it. I remember feeling an all-consuming wave of anxiety that she was throwing me into the deep end and expected me to swim. I realize now that tough love is the only way to truly grow in this field because you must be immersed in it to figure out how to survive. Anyway, the first day looked like this: I go up and knock on a door. The homeowner answers, usually annoyed that there is a random person trying to talk to them about bugs at 8 o’clock at night. I shakily introduce myself, they show hesitation or a hint of disinterest, and I quickly say ‘no worries have a great night” and awkwardly leave their doorstep. Quite the salesperson right there, wow.

It took me a while to learn the tactics of hurdling objections, maintaining interest, and being a little “sharky” in brushing past smokescreens and actually confidently making a sale. People can sense hesitation or nervousness and will never buy from someone they don’t trust. Even if I feel like I am a nervous wreck internally, the key is looking cool as a cucumber. Truly a “fake it ’til you make it” type gig. I still have a TON to work on, but now I feel a lot more confident in what I do.

Well, why the hell am I in Missouri? We ran out of area to knock in the Detroit region and would have to re-knock a ton of areas by the end of the summer, so we hightailed it to KC and joined with a smaller Aptive sales team down here. Honestly, I have never given the state of Missouri much of a thought until I found myself living here. For about a week when I first got here, I couldn’t even remember the name of the state I was living in. I am definitely impressed with the area — it’s quite beautiful here. The rolling hills of green, lush foliage surprised me because I thought it was going to be flat and dry like Kansas. One thing that I don’t enjoy is the suffocating humidity. I am a dry-heat Idaho gal, so I still have yet to adjust to feeling like I went for a swim whenever I go outside. Sometimes, when I am knocking and people open up their door to a glistening, grungy-looking young woman trying to speak to them about their bugs, they look a little horrified and ask if I need water or something. I’ll take what I can get out here I guess.

The job’s not glamorous and I would be lying if I said didn’t miss the freedom of being able to go on spontaneous camping trips and even have the luxury of having more than one day off the entire week. We usually work from 11 in the morning to 9 at night, work half days Saturdays, and get Sundays off. It’s entirely commission-based, so there are a few days when I have worked for free because I made no sales and that’s kind of the worst feeling ever. I miss having mountains to retreat to, I miss the assurance of having a constant, steady flow of income if I just show up to work, and I really miss my family.

Door-to-door has taught me a lot — in more ways than I thought it could. I have learned (and am still continuing to learn) how to push forward through constant rejection, move past an unpleasant encounter, keep a level-head after securing a sale, and celebrate the small victories every once in a while. I have learned how to maintain my self-confidence after feeling dehumanized by a stranger. I have met so many incredible people, both on my team and on the doors. I have learned that if I consistently work hard, the opportunities for financial freedom abound. Sometimes when a day is especially difficult, I just have a conversation with someone on the doors to feel human again and reset. My social skills have grown immensely through the exposure of knocking on hundreds of doors a day. The things I have learned so far will only help me in my future career as a nurse because I have learned how to speak to people from different backgrounds, ages, and everything in between.

I don’t regret coming out here, even though I complain about it more than I probably should. Even if it’s just for a summer, I have seen a lot of the real world that I never would have touched had I not left my safe little nook nestled in the mountains of Idaho.

Next time someone knocks on your door and tries to sell a product, give my anecdote a little thought. Give them some compassion, treat them like a human, and geez grab ’em a water because they’re probably severely dehydrated.