Victoria's Secret: Customer Experience and Word-of-Mouth

Saturday I hung out with my BFF Chris and two of her friends at happy hour. This looks like it has the potential to become a regular monthly routine.

I'm sure the good folks over at Kona Grill in The Domain don't mind as long as we're throwing back margaritas, wine, and every appetizer on the reduced price happy hour menu.

When it was time to go, Chris announced she had to head over to the Apple store. Perfect. We could walk together since I had to stop in Victoria's Secret which is before you get to Apple. As we were walking, I told her I was redeeming my free panties coupon. Chris being the saver she is wanted to know how I got it.

They mailed it to me. Somehow I'm on their list. Baffles me since I never shop there. Other than using my annual free panty coupon. I did buy a bra in Vegas, so maybe I gave them my mailing address at that time. No, that can't be the case because before I even went to Vegas I was receiving their catalogs in the mail. The ones with real clothes that you wear on top of their thongs, bras, and panties.

That reminds me. I haven't received one in ages. Not that I bought anything anyway, but I really liked looking at the pictures. Not of the women in thongs, bras, and panties. But of the clothes they wore over them.

We walked in on the Pink side of the store. Two employees were standing in the doorway leading to the un-Pink side. They didn't miss a beat with their conversation which had to have been personal because when I said excuse me so we could pass through, they looked up and said, "that's ok...", and kept talking.

Maybe there's a rule that employees working on the Pink side can't greet folks who are going to the un-Pink side.

I found a young lady and told her I was looking for hipsters. She led me back to the Pink side, rattled off something about the sizes on top and others in the drawers and then she left. Chris commented that she'd spoken so fast she didn't understand a word she said. Obviously, I didn't either because I started looking around for someone else to help me. 

This time I tell the employee - a different one from "Speed Talker" - that I had a coupon for free panties. She asked to see it and took me back to the un-Pink side. Turns out my coupon wasn't for hipsters. It was for hiphuggers. My bad.

She pointed to at least three different tables and pretty much said, "help yourself", and proceeded to walk off.

Not so fast Missy...I have a question. I didn't say that, but I was thinking it. As she tried to scurry past me, I asked another question. She answered and started to walk away again. 

Ok...was Hurricane Irene scheduled to make landfall in the bustier section and she was in charge of evacuations?

Oh - I forgot this part. In between answering on the run, she did manage to ask if I also had the other coupon to get $10 off. Turns out, she's a master at the upsell but lacks basic customer service skills.

Do you honestly think I want to give you my money when you can't even give me your time?!

Me: Um...do you have better things to do other than help me?!

Her: Oh...no, I didn't know you had more questions.

Me: You can't know if you walk away before I can even ask!

Her: Oh..I'm sorry. It's just that I have to get back to the register. 

Please enter into evidence Exhibit A. Exhibit A is the register. There are already three people behind the counter and NO ONE IN LINE!!

At some point during this fiasco, Chris leaves. When I get to my computer, I have a Facebook post on my wall telling me to look at her status update.

Please enter into evidence Exhibit B. Exhibit B is an example of the kind of word-of-mouth you don't want for your company:

Just watched Donna give the customer service smack DOWN in Victoria's Secret!! Don't mess with the lady, friends!

Please. Treat me like I matter even if  I'm only coming in to buy free panties.

photo: Steve Rhodes

The Unemployed Entrepreneur® Talks To Miss Coupon Diva

photo courtesy of misscoupondiva.com

This past Friday I went from doing the sit-down version of the electric slide to crying my eyes out in a span of 15 minutes.

Why was I electric sliding  at 8am in the first place? Because I got a tweet from my friend Zara...made me do the happy dance when I read it.

Immediately after that I sent an email to someone I've been wanting to work with. Actually, it's someone I wanted to hire to represent me. I gave him my vision - the big picture - which I haven't shared with anyone. Not even  my sisters. He asked questions, good ones. The best one being about revenue. The note I sent Friday morning was a link showing him what can happen when a blogger crosses over and gets the attention of mainstream media. A tv show. Not a drama filled reality train wreck, but a show that allows you to do what you love and get paid for doing it.

He responded back immediately telling me he wasn't the person for the job. As a result of not having experience in the industry, he said he couldn't ensure my success. I hit reply and proceeded to let him know had I not thought he could do it, I wouldn't have asked. The tears had started to flow before I hit send.

My plan was to cry myself to sleep. It was all of 8:35 a.m. I'd been up for two hours. 

NO DOES SOMETHING TO ME

It never fails. Whenever someone tells me no, I get this urge deep down inside to go even harder...after a snot slingin' session of course. And his no wasn't a no like, "You really should give up this dream of yours". He wasn't doubting my abilities, he was questioning his own. Even still - I didn't like hearing the word no.

Early on in my working career, I was told I wouldn't make it to management because I didn't have a college degree. What people failed to realize is that I've always had an entrepreneurial drive. They were looking at my lack of formal education as something that would hold me back and I always pointed to my hands-on experience and real-life scenarios to get me up the ladder. While others were in the classroom learning how to do it, I was actually in the trenches doing it.

When I decided to get my real estate license, I was told over and over again I wouldn't pass the state exam on the first try. The instructors had statistics to prove it. I proved them wrong.


IMPULSE HAPPENS FOR A REASON

I don't know what the reason is, I just know you should act on it. I went to Facebook and saw an update from Miss Coupon Diva, Joyce K. House. That led me to clicking and going over to her page. That led to another click which put me on her website.

End result: within minutes I had picked up the phone and called the number on her contact page.

I was clearing my  throat, preparing to leave a message when she answered. I assumed someone who has the amount of national exposure she has doesn't answer their phone. Joyce admitted during our conversation she rarely answers - it has nothing to do with my assumptions. She went on to say that everything happens for a reason.

I wanted to know how she'd gotten the amount of media exposure she had. But first I burst into tears and told her I was about ready to give up. She responded with a frank yet calm, "Well why would you want to do that?!"

She went on to tell me she'd done it all herself. She shared that recently she bartered with someone to help her out and suggested I do the same. I told her I hadn't taken that route because of how reluctant some people are to the idea of doing it. She responded in that same authoritative tone, "Well move on to the next person".

We talked for over half an hour. Exchanging stories of how we'd both been helped and done wrong by people whose only intent was to help themselves. She told me about ways she's been giving back and her plans for doing more.

She gave me advice and told me to start contacting radio stations. Something I haven't done. She told me to start couponing again (I confessed I got really lazy and stopped). I gave her my word that I would.

I told her maybe I had a fear of reaching out to the national media on my own. That perhaps I thought the only way I could get to that level was by hiring a professional. She told me that made sense and she reinforced that I could do it. I believed her. Not because she was telling me something I wanted to hear, but because she was telling me from her own experiences. That made all the difference in the world.

Here's a clip of Miss Coupon Diva on TLC's  show Extreme Couponing:

Education Reform

Seventy-two hours into the new school year and 

I'm already wishing for a snow day.

insert my local station and school district above

It has nothing to do with all the trees sacrificed year after year so I can have mounds of papers to sign and boxes to check off. 

The fact that dry erase markers were on the school supply list and the teacher doesn't even have a dry erase board isn't an issue. That did not irritate the hell outta me at all.

It's really simple.  Relatively trivial.

I'd much rather be doing this

lots and lots of this....

obviously she's not a blogger. we all know bloggers sleep standing up.

I think the entire education system needs to be revamped. 

Starting with hours of operation. 

No parent should be forced out of bed when it's still night time outside just so they can force their children out of bed who didn't even want to go to bed in the first place.

Why don't we just build special schools for children of bloggers?! 

No. They wouldn't ride the short bus or wear helmets. 

The school would be open 24/7. Blogger hours. 

You'd drop your kids off when you got good and ready, pick them up when you felt like it, and wouldn't get labeled neglectful or lazy or told you don't have a real job so you should be homeschooling anyway.

I'm gonna draft the petition and get the ball rolling.

Right after my nap.

news photo: sparking phoenix

sleeping photo: brenda's basics

No Fish Sticks, Febreeze or Faking

If you've been hanging out here with me for a while, you may have noticed the tone of my blog has changed.

I'm no longer writing from the perspective of an entrepreneur and coach. I've transitioned into sharing my story and journey as it relates to my evolution and all aspects of my life. 

To put it plainly: Don't expect tips on marketing, branding, speaking, etc. If that's what you want, you can find that content in my articles for The Work at Home Woman and Forbes.

What you will find here is more of what I've been writing about these past few months - the relentless pursuit of my dreams despite obstacles at every turn, the new things I'm trying and the great people I'm meeting, and more lifestyle oriented stuff.

Am I turning into a mommy blogger? Hell no. Or a fashion blogger? Not even. Will I start doing fish sticks and Febreeze giveaways? The thought of such makes me dry heave.

I'm merely showing you my individuality and how non-one dimensional I am.

Why the change? 

1. the online faking, plagiarizing, and guru bullshit is out of control. I want no parts  of it.
2. thieves can't steal my life or experiences. Even as a newbie blogger in 2008, my content was being ripped off and used by purported 6 & 7-figure online marketers and success coaches. Yes, I'm still bitter.
3. despite all the personal blogs out here, there's still a void. People want  genuine honesty. Not exaggerated truths for the sake of more pageviews. I'm filling that void.

I'm no longer the speaker who blogs. I'm the blogger who speaks as a result of blogging. Huge difference.

I like the space I'm in now. It took me a minute to get here, but I'm glad I finally arrived. 

Do I give a damn about what others think about this? You already know the answer to that. 

What can you do to help advance my mission? Just keep reading, sharing, and commenting. You're letting me know what you like and don't like. 

It is possible to write a personal blog with the reader in mind. 

Thank you for showing me how to do it.

Today's Video: Reverse Shopping Haul

I gotta be completely honest and tell you I just learned what a shopping haul video was. All this time, I've been calling them a shopping-show-your-stuff-how-to.

This is a bit different. Hence, the word reverse.

If you can't see the video CLICK HERE.

The store employee said they only take items that have been in stores the past 18 months. Not the case when you browse the racks. There was some outdated stuff up in there. I suggest they go through and purge it all and donate those items to Goodwill.

I didn't find anything there that I couldn't get brand new for the same price at Ross or on clearance at Kohl's. They paid about $2.68 for each piece they bought from me which is close to what you'll get at a garage sale.

If I see another shop around town, I'll stop in and give them a try.

How to Save $932 in 180 Days

This is an actual photo taken inside of my new car insurance company's office.

Fred Loya Insurance. It says it right there on the wall above the printer. And on the sign in redish letters.

My ex-company is Nationwide. My relationship with them started in 2005 when I broke up with State Farm.


It was an arranged situation..I was born into it. The divorce almost killed my mama.

ADVERTISING SUCKED ME IN

This is one of those rare instances when tv commercials really work on me. I kept seeing the ads where "real customers" were talking about how much they'd saved by switching to Fred Loya. Big bucks. No whammies.

I'm not filling out a bunch of paperwork and answering a bunch of questions to save $4.16 per month. The financial gurus will try to make it look more appealing by putting a larger number in front of you. Multiply $4.16 by 6 and let me know what you come up with.

THAT VOICE AGAIN

On my way home one morning from doing errands, it spoke to me and said, "Stop and go inside...in Fred Loya...you've been saying you were...you're almost right by it...TURN LEFT NOW!" That's not verbatim, but the conversations between us are always pretty much the same.

It starts off quiet and subtle. I try to ignore it. And then it gets all loud and aggressive.

LESS THAN 15 MINUTES BUT THEY AREN'T GEICO

Never quite understood why Geico tried to sell you on their process taking less than 15 minutes. Maybe because of the reasons I stated above regarding paperwork and interrogation. If Fred had tried to lure me in with real customers attesting to how quick the process was vs. putting at least a thousand dollars in savings in my face, I would've hit mute on the voice and went on about my business. The business of being policy raped by Nationwide.

Getting a printed quote - explained and highlighted in detail - was fast and painless. For once, I actually understood what I was getting.

DIFFERENCES AND LOSSES

I compromised on three things in order to get the savings:

• higher deductible (went from $500 to $1000) 
• no personal injury protection (PIP)
• no roadside assistance (cost me $3.33/month with Nationwide - this I'm gonna miss)

I have less bodily injury and uninsured motorist body injury protection. The property damage and uninsured motorist property damage coverage are the same.

Total savings: $155.33 per month

DATING UNTIL 2012

My policy expires in February 2012. Fred and I are going steady until then. When our six months are up, I'll weigh my options and decide on marriage. Until then - I belong to him. I have the papers to prove it.

How to Fix RSS Feed in Triberr

1. If you haven't heard of it, please google. Thank you kindly.

2. If you have heard of it and can't get your posts to appear in your tribal stream, keep reading. 

Blogging is the shiznit. Seriously. And this new crack a.k.a. triberr that @coffeeluvinmom turned me on to, is changing the game. 

Clueless? Read #1 and repeat.

Registering is super easy, but getting your feed imported proved to be a challenge for some. Thanks to Dan "the Man" Cristo ("the Man" is nowhere in his bio...just here in this post), me and others are in business and our posts are flowing the way they were intended. 

Dan was putting out Bonfires (again...see #1) and gave me these instructions:

• go to Tribes and click on your tribe (my tribe is Coffee Chronicles. go figure)
• click on Settings (right under the description box of your tribe & above tribe member avatars)
• scroll down until you see Selected RSS Feed (it's defaulted to Unassign)
• select your RSS feed (looks like http://blogname.com/feed OR http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogname)
• click Save Changes

To confirm you're good to go:

• go to Home
• click on the My Stream tab
• when your post has been tweeted, you'll see a pie chart to the far right giving you your stats

Disclosure: I'm so non-technical it hurts sometimes. I have faith your skills are much better than mine.

Hope this helps...now go multiply your reach & get some bones!

Decide. Do.

The opportunity to auctioneer a live auction for charity was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

My friend Monica is the one who introduced me to the group hosting the event. My relationship with the local Interior Design Society chapter started as a result of her recommending me to come in and speak.

She popped the question about two weeks before the big day and told me I could get back with her in a couple of days. If I had put too much time into thinking about the fact I'd never done anything like that, it wouldn't have happened.

In my mind, I only had one choice: DECIDE. Right there on the spot. Not a minute later.

So that's what I did. I said yes to something that initially scared the shit out of me and could potentially ruin my chances of ever working with this group again. Or any other organization attending and seeing me for the first time.

You see all of those arrows shooting out of the green guy's head up there?! Yep. That's exactly how I felt. Not this time, but damn near every time I do something that seems crazy or impossible.

Why do I DO it? I won't ever know or reach my full potential otherwise. 

And guess what? Neither will you.

People jump out of airplanes, climb deadly mountains, and swim with sharks all the time. These are things that present a real danger! Stuff that can kill your ass if you make one wrong move. 

When you're weighing your options trying to figure out if you should or shouldn't, don't look at the worse case scenario. That's where you mess up. Look at the pros - not the cons. 

• I was introduced to more like-minded people. 
• I spent time giving back. Something I can never do too much of. 
• The overwhelmingly good feedback I received raised my confidence.
• I challenged myself and moved to a whole'nother spectrum of my comfort zone. 

Not bad. Not bad at all...and I didn't even mention the free margarita and nachos.

photo: Richard Scott33

How to Raise $3,000 in a $23 Outfit

You know how people get honorary college degrees and stuff? I haven't gotten one, but I'm kind of like an honorary member of the Interior Design Society Texas Hill Country Chapter. The president appointed me on Thursday night.

I've spoken to this group twice, most recently last month. Somehow, my name came up as the person to auctioneer their charity event. I don't think this skill set is listed anywhere on my Put Me to Work page. File it under other duties as assigned.

No, I didn't do the "fast talk". Despite that, I did manage to create a couple of bidding wars!

The temperatures here in central Texas have been consistently hovering around 100-and-close-to-burning-in-hell so picking the ideal outfit was just as important as figuring out how to fulfill my job duties. I looked at it this way: if I'm a total bomb, I better at least look like a bombshell. Or the equivalent. Whatever that may be.

Choosing accessories can literally determine if I'm going to arrive somewhere 15 minutes early or 10 minutes late. I've learned now that this part of getting dressed slows me down. Partly because of my mild-to-moderate OCD which makes me try on at least three different pairs of earrings and two different bracelet combos.

My neighbor friend Jamie started tinkering and launched Jewelry by Jamille. Everything is handmade. When she had her first trunk show I was flat broke and couldn't buy anything. When she had another one, I was less broke and came home with these beauties:

JewelrybyJamille.com

This was my first time wearing them and they were perfect, very light weight and comfortable.

Definitely a statement piece.

My photogs haven't quite mastered the full-body shot, but I'm sure we'll eventually get there.

Here's the complete outfit minus me. I really wanted you to see the contrasting hem on the dress:

Maxi dress and Steve Madden sandals from Ross

 Black maxi dress, $7.99; Steve Madden sandals, $12.99

Ross Shopping Pro Tip: the price of shoes are written on the bottom, rounded to the nearest dollar.


I bought these when gladiators were all the rage. I don't like the gladiator look that comes all the way up your ankle. Ross is my go-to place for keeping up with trends without going broker.

OUTFIT GRAND TOTAL: $22.71

That's 3Xs cheaper than this dress alone:

Camille maxi at soma.com $75

Here I am with my friend and fellow speaker Evelina Solis. She's a certified life coach, radio personality, and co-hosts a tv show. She was recently a spokesperson for Macy's National Hispanic Heritage Campaign.

I can truly say losing my live-auction auctioneer virginity was a huge success. Every item donated was sold and we raised just under $3,000 (in a few short hours) to go toward the makeover project for SafePlace.

There are so many ways to get involved and make a difference in your community.

Moral of the Story: Spend Less. Give More.

Guess what?! Due to the overwhelming response to this post, I started a personal style blog. But it's not just any personal style blog. Go on..click here to check it out!

Email Confession: Gratitude and Commitment