Text from Becky this morning: "Good morning sunshine! How are we this morning?" Possibly sent in response to the previous post. Possibly sent in response to tipsy text message sent by me from the casino last night. Not that I would send a friend a drunken declaration of my plan to win money and get a purse like hers. For the record, I am feeling just fine.

I only go to one or two trade shows per year, but today while talking to a couple of our new people, I realized that I've learned some stuff over the years.

1) people will be convinced that because you're at a booth, you know the answers to everything about the show, even if it has nothing whatsoever with what you do.

2)people will be convinced that whatever you are storing behind the booth is much better than what you've put out. It never occurs to them that it is just boxes of the exact same crap that is already on display. I had a guy dart behind the booth and snatch an issue out of a box this morning, and then look mighty surprised to see me standing there giving him a quizzical look. Yeah buddy, this is where we keep the real investment advice. All the rest of the stuff is just for show. Um, hi. That thing you just took? There are 200 of them hanging in a bin on the wall two feet away from here. All free.

3) This is the first year I've worn flats. I HIGHLY recommend it when you are standing for 12 hours per day. Even if someone did say to me today, "wow, you really are short without heels on aren't you?" Yep. Vertically challenged and proud. My own mother recently had the same revelation while looking at my vacation photos. But my feet, while still sore, are approximately 1 million times better than this time last year.

4) You can go out and drink and have fun with your co-workers. 2 drink limit, stay hydrated, and get to bed early. I wrote my goofy post last night, read a couple of chapters of my book, and was in bed by 11:00. That allowed me to be up at 5:30, perhaps sleepy, but mostly ready to go. Tonight I plan to be asleep even earlier as I am so tired I'm practically floating. I did have a nice business dinner tonight, but it was all professional and alcohol free. See? Am responsible.

5) Don't take the rude people personally. A guy was so anxious for his free newsletters this morning that he half shoved me out of his way. Someone else had me call customer service to look up the expire dates on his newsletters, and then announced he was going to cancel most of them. But way more nice people come along and tell you interesting and sweet stories and totally make up for the jerks. I love getting to meet our customers in person.

6) If you start getting bored, make up stories about the people you see going by the booth. Blue shirt guy was a bush pilot in Alaska. Pony tailed man was a folk singer with a minor hit. And so on and so forth.

7) Never underestimate the power of a mid-afternoon Starbucks run. I have never been happier to see an iced grande skim chai coming my way.

Now I must go soak my feet and then it is bed time. Do I know how to have a good time in Vegas or what?

Posted by Bad Penguin at May 14, 2008 12:18 AM

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