Tag Archives: Life Lessons

Doug’s Dubious Debut in Sales

I’ve been in sales of some sort for a long time.  Almost 25 years actually.  I took a long and winding road to get to Frameable Faces Photography where I’ve spent the last seven years with Ally and this is by far the most fun “job” I’ve ever had.  It doesn’t feel like work at all most of the time.  For years working in a corporate environment I always dreamed of the day when my clients would actually come to me and be happy to do business with me.  No cold calling, no massive RFPs, no representing a shabby product that I barely believed in, no politics and stupid bosses who couldn’t even keep their time zones straight or were having affairs with the incompetent staff responsible for supporting my accounts (true story), no territory issues…. the list goes on and on.

Dubious Debut

Okay Doug – calm down – it’s over.  That was way in the past.  You’re good now.

The fact is as much as I hated that environment for many years I was able to navigate it and I was pretty “successful” for a long time.  I sat in “high level” meetings with CEOs of Fortune 50 companies, and “low level” meetings with cashiers at dry cleaner shops, and everything in between.  I closed big deals, trained, hired, and fired people.  Yeah – I was a real “big deal”.  Yuck.  When I joined Ally I took the good I learned, left behind the bad I wanted no part of, and I’ve used it all to build a community here at our studio.  It’s our own and I love it.  I love marketing our business.  I love social media.  I LOVE live streaming on Periscope.  Fulfilled and alive, I feel like a “big deal” again – for the right reasons.

Dubious Debut

But it didn’t start that way.  No one steps into the business world fully polished and accomplished the very first time.

Dubious Debut

Dubious Debut

My first sales job was over the summer in Ann Arbor while I was still in college at The University of Michigan selling latex medical gloves to medical practices.  My dad spent decades in sales so he got me all set up – took me to TJ Maxx (!) and bought me a couple of short sleeve dress shirts and a couple ties, got me some business cards printed up, gave me a few sales tips and turned me loose.  I meticulously made up three boxes of samples for small, medium, and large gloves with each glove in a baggie with a color coded sticker on each bag.  My first stop (and first sales call ever) was at a Veterinarian’s office near the corner of Packard and Platt.  They were pleasant and I left them a couple samples and was told I could call to follow up.  I left and went to my next stop feeling proud of myself.  When I got to the next stop I noticed I didn’t have any of my samples.  Annoyed I turned around and went back to the vet’s office to grab them.  They claimed they hadn’t seen them.  I knew that was impossible since it was my only stop and I was convinced they kept them for themselves (I was still young).  Man was I mad.  I pulled away steaming and trying to figure out what to do about it when I pulled up to the intersection.

Keep in mind that back in those days the car I was driving (a brown Pontiac Phoenix inherited from my Grandpa Louie may he rest in peace) had this thing under the door handle called a key hole that you actually had to put your car key into and turn to unlock your car.  So it became clear that with my briefcase in one hand and the samples in the other I obviously put the samples on top of the car as I fished around for my keys when I initially left the vet’s office.  I found this out because when I pulled up to the intersection of Packard and Platt it was completely covered with latex gloves……

A dubious debut indeed.  Everyone has to start somewhere.

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Frameable Faces Photography
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Frameable Faces Photography is a small biz retail mom & pop shop of Doug&Ally Cohen located in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Of America!
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Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
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Facebook: http://facebook.com/frameablefaces
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Being “Frameable” is an attitude, a community, a way of life – a life you would want to celebrate and display on your walls for all to see!  Tell us… ARE YOU FRAMEABLE?
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When You Fell Did You Get Back Up? Our Top 8 Wipeouts

Top 8 wipeoutsThis post really has nothing to do with photography, but there might be a life lesson in here somewhere by the time you are done laughing at us.  I poke fun at Ally for being a clutz but I’ve had a few good spills myself over the years.  So here we go with our top 8 wipeouts in no particular order (even though I saved the best for last – don’t cheat)….

Our Top 8 Wipeouts…

  1. Doug vs. his shoelaces.  This goes back to the summer of 1987 while playing high school football for North Farmington against Detroit Denby in a summer 7-on-7 tournament at Wayne State University.  Summer 7-on-7 tournaments are non-contact – no pads and no tackling.  I went across the middle for a pass and got hit hard by one of their linebackers.  I got up and squared off with him and all eyes were on us.  “What the H was that?” I yelled.  “So maybe I tripped” he said.  We stared each other down for a second – suburban kid vs. city kid, and then I turned to walk away…. and tripped on my shoelace and fell flat on my face.
  2. Ally shows her graceful side on the honeymoon.  Ally and I got married in 1996 and went first to Disney for 4 days and then on a week long cruise.  We were dressed to the nines for the formal dinner when Ally pulled a spectacular faceplant just outside of the dining room in front of about 100 people.  She survived and we laughed our butts off.
  3. Doug decides not to be outdone on the honeymoon.  I believe the story went something like this…  We were on our way to the tender to take us to the island from the ship when I realized I forgot something at the room.  I went back to get it while Ally waited only to find out I went the wrong way and ended up at the wrong end of the ship.  Not wanting to miss the boat (literally) I sprinted down the hallway of the ship in flip flops which I can now tell you is dumb.  My flip flop got caught and I went flying – I saved my fall by instinctively grabbing on to the rail and I sliced my right hand in the process.  When I finally got back to Ally my hand was covered in blood.  I still have a pretty nice scar from that one….
  4. Ally vs. a Bosu ball. This happened in the summer of 2012.  Three weeks before our daughter’s bat mitzvah Ally was working out and fell off of a bosu ball chipping a bone in her foot.  Luckily she was able to get away with wearing a bootTop 8 wipeouts
    Top 8 wipeouts

    Bosu ball

    Bosu ballfor a couple weeks and she was good to go for the bat mitzvah.  It wasn’t easy though – especially when we found ourselves deeper into a forest than we planned for a senior photo shoot and that hike was pretty tough on Ally in her boot with a still freshly broken ankle….  what a trooper!

  5. Doug “leads” the team through the hoop. As I am fond of pointing out (with love of course) Ally has never “saved” a potential fall in her life.  If she trips at all she’s on the ground.  As with my own honeymoon wipeout this was another one I “saved” but it was no less embarrassing.  For this one we go back to high school for our opening football game on September 5th (my 17th birthday)…  It was at Southfield Lathrup and I was a captain of the team so I led the team out onto the field and through the big paper hoop the cheerleaders had made for us to bust through.  However the girls didn’t notice that they were holding the hoop right over the edge of the paved high jump pit and I stepped right on the edge which sent me stumbling for about 7 steps through the hoop.
    Top 8 wipeouts

    Doug gets a sack

    I’m sure our opponents were very intimidated….  We still won though 17-7 and I even though I had an unfortunate fumble I did still have two sacks.  Here’s a picture of one of the sacks (I’m #31 in white).

  6. Ally on the sidewalk.  Ally was strolling along one winter day in front of the student union while she was in college at Michigan State when she went down hard on her butt on a patch of ice as she was saying hello to someone on the sidewalk.  Ally tried to play it off with her “cute little outfit on and cute little boots” as she tells it, but she was definitely a little embarrassed.
  7. Doug on the driveway.  Ice strikes again…  I slipped on a patch of ice on the driveway maybe about 6 years ago or so.  Legs went straight out and I landed hard on my butt – to the point where I was pretty sure I broke my tailbone.  It was bad enough that I went to the doctor for x-rays but there was no break.  I was sore for a couple days but no major injury.
  8. “Mmmmmm Strawberries”.  This is really the most epic of all of them.  We were up North spending a weekend with friends at their house in Boyne City.  We were hanging out on their dock on Lake Charlevoix when my buddy’s mom brought some fresh strawberries down.  It was a beautiful day and Ally was enjoying a perfect moment with her strawberries when the back leg of her chair slipped off the edge of the dock sending her head over heels and crashing upside down into the water about 5 feet below.  She survived that one without a scratch, but that was definitely one of the most intense moments of pure chaos I’ve witnessed.  Absolutely gut-busting hilarious.

There you have it.  The top 8 wipeouts.  I kept it to 8 in order to keep it even – I could have mentioned Ally’s dive on her first senior session or her tumble into a couple bikes at spinning class, but that wouldn’t be fair.  Hehe…

The point of course is that this post is a metaphor for life.  We all fall from time to time.  Life is not about whether you fall.  You will.  It’s about whether you get up, and hopefully you can laugh at yourself a little and enjoy the whole experience along the way.  What was your best wipeout?  Share it in the comments!

**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography
**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography is a small biz retail mom & pop shop of Doug&Ally Cohen located in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Of America!
************************************************
Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
************************************************
Snapchat: http://snapchat.com/add/frameablefaces
Facebook: http://facebook.com/frameablefaces
Twitter: https://twitter.com/frameablefaces
YouTube: https://youtube.com/frameablefaces
Instagram: https://instagram.com/frameablefaces
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/frameablefaces
***************************************­*******
Being “Frameable” is an attitude, a community, a way of life – a life you would want to celebrate and display on your walls for all to see!  Tell us… ARE YOU FRAMEABLE?
**********************************************
Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!