Student Athlete Gains Professional Confidence and Flexible Income Through Direct Sales

Speaker 0: My name is Katie Barda, and I am from Omaha, Nebraska. Yeah, so I had just graduated high school actually when I heard about vector through Instagram and so I was playing softball during the summertime. Then I was like a three sport athlete throughout my like high school years and so it was really busy. Didn't really have much work experience because I was just so overwhelmed with other things between school and sports. So coming to that summer, I realized I didn't have much of an income myself going into my freshman year college. So I found Vector Marketing. It was really flexible with my sports schedule because I was still playing softball. I was traveling that summer around a little bit across Nebraska, Kansas, that area. I So knew I needed something a little more flexible that gave me the ability to work, but also be able to do my sports and stuff that I already prior committed to. So, yeah. Yeah. For sure. I mean, definitely at the start. So my dad was very but it's like I guess the way I would say it now would be inquisitive. He was curious about it, didn't quite understand this. There was a lot of negativity around that. But he asked around, so one of his good friends, a family friend of ours, he's in the sales world, and he asked him about vector marketing. I didn't know this at the time. Like, I didn't hear about this until maybe a year or two later. My dad told me about this. He asked him about it and he's like, It's a really great company. Like, a lot of sales companies and big corporations know about it and the people they produce, if they do well, really have a higher shot later on in life of being a high quality pick for positions in some of these companies. And so my dad was like, Okay, kind of give it a shot. My mom, it's taken her a while to come around. She's still very curious about it. I think going to year end banquet my first year, so what about then? 2023, my dad went to dinner banquet with me and that kind of gave him a good perspective. The second year, I actually went to the parents' breakfast because that was right before I ran my branch summer. And so he got even more experience there and has really realized how much I love the company, how much I love the experience I've had and how it can also help me in my future. Yeah, I actually know exactly what talking about. Well, there's a couple, but one of my favorites. So I got a fenestrant, and I was working at event this fall. And so at this event, it was actually a gun show. And so this couple comes up to me and they're like, oh my gosh, we love Cutco. We've had it for forever. They're like, I'm like, cool. Have you had them sharpened? They're like, no. It has it's been a while. We don't really have anybody to come sharpen them. So I went out to sharpen them. Cutco has been in their family since 1950. Their original set of knives, they're telling me their whole story about how they passed it down. Like, I believe it's a current niece who has the, like, old set from the 1950s, but it's like a tradition. Every time someone either turns 18 or gets married, Cutco is given as a gift. So they all have sets. Just put in this past fall, I put in like a homemaker for a couple getting married and then another one this January for another, like, niece or nephew getting married again. So like, they've had Cutco for generations and generations, and they love it. That's one of my favorite stories to tell for sure. Yeah, so a few things surprised me. One thing was just the community we've built here. North Star is absolutely amazing. I adore my office, my division, the people here are really inspiring and they just wanna see you succeed no matter what you're doing in the company, outside of the company. They're my biggest fighters. They're like, Hey, you've got this, go do this, keep growing, learning all that. So that was really surprising, just the environment that I stepped into. It's been really amazing, like a really good surprise. But also just the growth I've experienced here. Like I never expected to be someone who was, I was pretty timid in high school. Definitely my manager talks about it. He's like, I would describe you as someone who like stepped into a room and didn't necessarily feel like you belonged. Like you're just kind of like hidden kind of like in on your shelf in your shell, like when you stepped into a room. And now he's like, you're so confident, like you feel like you belong in any place you stepped into. And just having that confidence and that experience is something that I didn't necessarily expect to get out of working here, but it's something that I'm forever thankful for. I feel so much more confident talking to people older than me, people younger than me. And some of the stuff I've noticed just after my branch summer this past year is talking to some professors now, being able to better negotiate or better explain what I need and how they can help me out and be able to having those more crucial conversations. So it's been really amazing just that growth I got. I mean, just gotta give it a try. It's like my first thing, you just gotta give it a try because you never know what's gonna happen. That's kind of my advice to going into a branch somewhere originally was I didn't necessarily want to do it, but they're like, just give it a try, look at all this that could happen. And you never know, it's like, it's an experience that can go amazing. And maybe some people don't always have the best experiences. But like, when you put yourself into it and you give it your effort, anything is possible. It's absolutely amazing. The community here is here to build you up. No one will ever shove you down and be like, hey, you can't do this. Everyone's like, hey, if you put in the effort, if you put in the work, we will figure it out. We will help you get there. And so that is one of my favorite things that I've learned is just the community build here. And so it's just the experience. Like I've become a whole different person and I have no issue believing like going forward, I'll continue to grow. And I know others will also succeed here. You put in your effort, you're going to get more out of it. So it's just really awesome seeing my growth and see growth of other people that I've met here as well. So it's been a really cool experience. Yes. You're all good.