Last night (Wednesday May 18, 2011) I attended my first WFG group meeting at the office in Laguna. I went there after work so I was a little late, the meeting started at 7 but I didn't get there until a little after 7:30.
It was a little odd.
I opened the door to the office and Allison called me in. There were people sitting in chairs in the hallway outside of the offices - Allison, Ron, a man I later learned was Sheldon (one of the principles), an older gentleman named Jack who I didn't really get to talk to but I think is another new person probably one of the H&R Block people that Ron mentioned, an Asian woman who I did not meet but is one of Ron's trainee's, a woman who looked like she may have been of Eastern Europe descent who I did not get the name of but may also be another HRB person, and one other man who I did not meet but appears to be someone on Ron's level. Zed was giving a presentation on a white board set up on a chair at the front of the group.
Shortly after I got there, we split up. The other trainee's went with their trainers and Sheldon took me to a different room so he could show me some power point demo's. He started first by telling me a little about himself. One thing that stands out about Sheldon is that he is black, you don't see that a lot in Orange County and it is a good indication that at the very least, even if nothing else they are saying is true, at least they are not racists. Sheldon mentioned how he was going to karaoke after this and we talked about what songs he likes to sing, we also talked about his son who is going on his second tour as an entertainer on a cruise ship (I need to remember to ask Sheldon how his son got the job so I can pass that info on to Tommy).
Sheldon gave the demonstrations which were a mix of data on why people need this help and how much it is possible to make helping them. It wasn't a hard sell by any means but maybe it should have been a little harder. One thing I noticed is that Sheldon who is a principle (whatever that means) and has been doing this for over 11 years (Sheldon was an electrical engineer for over 20 years before this, he looked really young for his age) wasn't wearing an expensive suit. Sheldon talked about how quickly he could pay off a car working for himself but didn't mention what kind of car he had or if why he was doing so good did he even need to finance a car in the first place. It may make sense if the rate is low but why not mention that. It was my first time meeting him so I decided not ask him pointed questions, I just listened amiably and gave the appropriate head nods and "uh-huhs" I am thinking here of the scene in Boiler Room where Ben Affleck slides his Ferrari keys down the table in front of all the recruits.
A couple of thoughts as I was rewatching the Boiler Room clip - that is a pretty good way to start out. The majority of the speech was about how well he was doing. He did start out by kicking the guy out who laughed at the other guy for sitting in the wrong seat which was a nice touch but then he went into how much he made and what he drove, etc Second thought, I will be a pretty good trainer, better than what they have now. Even if being filthy rich isn't my pitch, it does have to be part of it and it has to be in the beginning, say it get it out there, prove it and then move on. Sheldon made a point that worked for me, when he was talking about making all this money, he said some people can't even imagine that making that much money, that's OK, think about making enough to get the monkey off your back, you can always go up from there if you choose.
From there we went back out into the hallway. The other new people were still in the offices with their trainers so I sat there with Zed (I thought it was Zeb but it sounds like Ron calls him Zed) who was going over some call possibilities at the front of the room, Allison, Phil, and Sheldon. They were discussing a sales pitch that Zed went on with his dad who is a veterinarian and sales pitches that are given at Laguna Village. After a few minutes, Allison checked on the other rooms to see how long they would be. Ron finished up a couple of minutes later but the other trainer was still going. Ron went over the convention in LV in July and we wrapped up about 9.
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