Wednesday 18 January 2012

I love this internship. YUP… I. LOVE. THIS. INTERNSHIP. I say that in common then capital letters coloured red because I LO…just kidding I won’t repeat myself again just so you know my name is Taniqua, last name Thompson, first Management Intern. And I truly understand my grand mother’s wise words “What is for you will be for you”. My aunt said “when you get there you to find someone that is so cool…man” in her fake American accent. I honestly felt like I flew there, I was cruising in open skies to The POS People location  in Barbarees Hill. Met the amazing team consisting of  Ms.White (Office Manager), Ms. Mapp-Watson (Founder and Director of Social Initiatives), Mr. Watson (The Owner) and Ms. Alleyne (Sales Representative). When I met Ms.Mapp- Watson the first word that entered my mind was uncontainable. She believes anything can be achieved through consistent and smart approaches to tasks. Work smarter not harder, that about sums it up.
The first assignment ever was to make a commercial sales pitch to companies about SEED. Let me explain SEED and the commercial sales pitch. SEED stands for Small Enterprises for Education and Development which deals with companies supporting and helping to develop youth through community outreach activities, companies will be taking on the position of role model and demonstrating socially consciousness. My first three commercial sales pitch which I had to bring the second day which I thought were fabulous, detailed, informative were too long and BORING. Yup thought I was so concise but then Mapp- Watson explained very delicately that she liked one part of my pitch and that was “this is an amazing opportunity” so my first second task became shortening my well thought out pitch from 1 minute to 30-35 seconds “A New York minute, which is 28 seconds, I’ll give you 5 minutes” said Ms.Mapp-Watson. Well 30 was considerably better than 28 seconds. Why 30 seconds? This is the amount of time that businesses actually listen. Understand that these business people have learnt the art of turning off your voice, in other words you would be selling your idea and after 30 seconds they will hear utter gibberish. And then I was more than nervous to make those calls. But the single most important thing to remember is obviously the Sales Pitch but I’m talking about being respectful; learn to listen and appreciate people’s time. And so I quote Crimeson “From de time I know dat I could walk  my mudda tell me certain things I shouldn’t talk”. I take that to mean watch what I say to others.
Made those calls for a week and I felt proud that I had people thinking about considering the presentation and I wanted to schedule them but unfortunately it is a work in progress. A challenge is what it is and I’m going to work towards overcoming and then mutilating that challenge. The next activity was the fundraising venture, Bake Sale at Jordans, Fitts Village on Saturday 14th, 2012. I was sleepy and swaying on my feet; Ms. Mapp- Watson was upbeat and ready and that rubbed off on me, the pone and cupcakes sold with the biggest appeal being our fabulous fishcakes. Big up to Ms. Alleyne!! Shout out to Jordans’ customers, you all are awesome. We achieved funding for MicroMacro and got the word out there about the Micro Macro Internship, SEED and The POS People. Mr. Watson congratulated me on the commendable effort and divested some wisdom on entrepreneurship and what young people are capable of when they plan and execute…getting back to the ground and digging in the dirt was how Mr. Watson described it. It was a learning week and I hope persons reading this blog benefit from my experiences and you know I can’t wait to see how this week goes, as I said ….I LOVE THIS INTERNSHIP!!   

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