Banjo Player in The Windy City!

What an awesome city!  I have never been anywhere quite like it.  So many skyscrapers, nice people, A LOT of pan handling on the streets, and were I was, was pretty tourist-y so pretty expensive.  I arrived in Chicago on Tuesday afternoon, overly excited for the upcoming week.  When I checked into the Hotel, I walked into my 30^th floor room, overlooking the Chicago River.  I went down to the company check-in, they gave me $140 cash for spending money, and said I was welcome to hang out and enjoy the refreshments and cookies… Soo Cool!  I was asked to go to Chicago for a company trade show.  Each of the 53 markets in the entire company sent ONE person to set up a booth and represent their market for all of the upper field and managers to view and get a feel for what makes each market unique.  Some how I was selected to represent Tennessee.  The previous week we set up what the booth should look like and went over what to talk about and I got ready to go.  The best part was, I was not only going as a manager, but as a banjo player!

I set up the booth on Wednesday, after noon, and it looked great!  Then on the day of the show, I tuned up the banjo and played and talked to high-ups in the company for a few hours while they came in and out of the different booths from around the country.  I loved being able to play and talk to all these different leaders in the company that I have worked for, for the last seven years.  I also saw a few managers from California that I used to work with, and that was nice to catch up with them a bit.  The work part of this trip was amazing, and inspiring, especially when people started to find out that I was a Service and Training Manager, not a Store Manager.  Which, I realized was kind of a big deal, since they all were impressed with me.  I don’t want to brag or get a big head about any of it, but it was such a great experience for me, and I’m still blown away that I was asked to go, and feel like I did a pretty good job for Tennessee.

           

Now the hard part is coming back to the store after all this inspiration, and “Go Team!” attitude and having to deal with some everyday BS.  I hate being Micro-managed, I’m actually pretty good at my job, believe it or not, so just let me handle it.  Ok, I’m done venting now, The Windy City was awesome!