My first Post

Calllie in Cali.. I made it!

Here is something to catch ya’all up on life in California. In the words of Uncle John.. Yes all the nuts did roll to California! (90 percent of them living in San Fran) Needless to say… I feel right at home.

The 37 Hour Drive-
Coming out to California was quite the trip. It took a whole 4 days to get out here many starbucks coffee (which now I cannot afford) and about a dozen tanks of gas, Josh and I had a blast driving out here and even managed to find the world largest dream catcher to take a photo opp. The first night we stayed in New Mexico and it wasn’t too exciting.. so I’ll just skip to the night in Vegas. We drove around the strip for about an hour until we could figure out how to get to our hotel and by the time we did we were pooped and didn’t see a damn thing! Sooo our solution: Stay in vegas another night! So that we did.

We went sight seeing the next day. Wasn’t as drunk or successful at gambling as we would have liked but we had fun. Turns out in Vegas you have to actually know how to gamble in order to win anything. (who knew?) So I just played the game where I put chips down and she spun the wheel and I prayed it landed on my number.. easy enough. Lost 20 dollars and was over that. Then a day later we drove into San Fran and viola gas prices were high and I knew this was my new home! Sorry to be vague here… but it was 2 months ago.

Yelp Training:
So on my first day of training the first girl I met was named Suzanne and she was only the coolest girl in the world.. not only did she have the cutest shoes ever.. she was a Delta Gamma. So I knew I liked her. I met the rest of the “rookie” class and we all instantly bonded. Terrified of the first day, and eager to learn more about this thing called Yelp. Most of the first month they had classes set up for us to learn the product in and out. If I told you all of this… well then I would have to kill you.. No I am kidding… but it was a ton of information. Pretty much we all felt like our brains were melting and I had no idea how I was going to remember this all. I got really lucky and had a great group of people I was training with. All unique in their own way.

Here are some of my favorites: Jenna- Loud and Blunt, pretty much tells you what she thinks of you right off the bat. McKenzie-from Petaluma California, she is super nice and makes fun of Dennis constantly. Dennis- a guy from Vegas who I absolutely love and adore and has the best laugh you have ever heard, it is infectious. He worked at Yelp as a Lead Gen (sets appointments for the Senior Execs) and now is training in Sales. Courtney- A ex sales rep for go-daddy.com who lived in New York, Alex- A beauty queen/tom boy from Sacramento who I bonded with instantly and has invited me to her house for Easter. (there are more but those are my favs)

Anyway where was I.. oh yes training. So pretty much they fill your head with tuns of information the first month and then second months they put you to work on the phones. This is your reality check and you realize the fake conversations you have been practicing with your buddy are not necessarily the way things really go when you are talking to an owner.

Needless to say I have formed some thick skin and am now a human lie detector. If you are a worker who is screening your calls for the owner standing right behind you.. I know. If you are the owner that is pretending to not be the owner… I know. If you are trying to act like you cannot speak English…I know. And last but not least, If you are a person pretending to be a worker, who is actually the owner and you act like you can’t speak English…. Yes I know.

I made my first deal to a Korean Gym owner that had no idea what Yelp was, had no traffic on his page.. or any reviews. Pretty much the hardest thing you can sell when someone has no idea who you are, so I felt pretty good about that. I only sold him for a 6 month deal, but he said if he saw results then he would upgrade and add on his other location. So I have been watching his page ever since hoping he loves Yelp.. he will I know it.

At end of this month we are being put onto a real sales team! So instead of having a 5 k quota now I will have a 10 k quota. So seeing as I only sold 2.925 of my 5K quota, this shall be interesting. It wasn’t about the number this month, but I have a feeling next month it will be. I can do it, not going to be a problem. (more to come of this when I write the next one)

1420 Taraval
Now onto the living situation. I love the house I live in! It is beautiful and to have a backyard in San Fran is unheard of. I love my room it decorated it in Light turquoise and brown. I do sleep on an air mattress but I am not going to lie it is pretty damn comfortable. I made sure to buy a nice down comforter so I would trick myself into having a nicer bed. I have nice closet space and actually have two closets. One for shoes of course! I have the smallest room in the house, but it is perfect just for me. As for the rest of the house having 1 bathroom hasn’t been a problem b/c everyone else showers at night! This rocks my socks off b/c I am the only one in there in the morning.

Christie loves Zebra and animal print and her room is awesome. HUUGE walk in closets. Laura works with me and she loves to read and goes out a lot on the weekends. She reminds me a lot of the girls I hung out in college. Her room is simple a lot of decorations of when she went to Japan and taught English there. Diona is our new roommate and she is a student. She isn’t here much b/c she is at school and at work as a waitress, but she is outgoing and artistic and plays her keyboard up stairs. She is in the same circle of friends as Christie so it ended working out great.

As far as the rest of the house we have had some issues with the door. Our house is old built in 1906 or something crazy like that so a lot of things about the house are unique. One of the things I am not so crazy about it how the doors lock automatically when you shut them. I have gotten locked out about 2 times now. I have learned what businesses around our house have ladders to climb on the roof and gain access through the bathroom window, and to not ask the SF cops for help because they just laugh at you are only good for giving you parking tickets. I haven’t decided yet if our house is haunted, but seeing as it was built that long ago chances are pretty good.

We found all of our furniture on Craigslist and got some pretty amazing stuff. Our couches match even though they are not from the same person. One is suede and I am pretty sure it was brand new. We bought a kitchen table from lesbian couple and they hauled it for us. So that was a win for us. Haha. We decorated most of the house with zebra and black and white in the living room. We hustled a TV from Christie’s friend and her mom sent us all our kitchen appliances. So as far as the house goes we pretty much have everything we need. Thanks to craigslist our house now looks like a home.

Experiences in SF (so far)
Well SF is deff different from good ole STL. It is dirtier in some parts, there are more homeless people lurking about, and the chances of you getting high by just walking around are probable… and somehow I love it. (Not for those reasons)

I love SF there is so mush life here and you never know what you are going to run into. I love walking to the subway everyday because there is always some new street performer. It could be someone you may see on the next American Idol. The shopping is FANTASTIC, not that I would know because I can’t afford it, but they have the best window shopping around. The 1st time I went into the 3 story forever 21, I thought I died and went to heaven. The mall here is insane and 9 stories tall and has everything from Dolce & Gabbana to Prada. One day… I will be able to afford them!

What else is good here…

OMG how could I forget to mention the FOOD! I swear if wasn’t living off soup and rice then I would gain like 100 lbs. The smell of the food on the streets is crazy. So many delicious places to eat! I had the most amazing clam chowder down at the marina one time. It was the BOMB! Also so many great mom and pop restaurants… ohh and the sushi.. sushi sushi everywhere! It is great!

Luckily Yelp has a full kitchen and they have breakfast and lunch for us so I really save money on food. But every once and a while I like to treat myself and get something new!

As for tonight.. it is now my bedtime. Full day tomorrow..

More to Come...