Rookie Season
Good morning today is Thursday April 27th. Welcome to Episode 10 of the View 112 Podcast! Ya girl is officially up on iTunes and I could not be more excited. Allow me to introduce myself if this is your first time listening to the View 112 Podcast. I am Jeanita Morris. I am a 39 year old business professional with 17 years of experience living and working in the Washington, DC area. I am a person who loves to create and pursue personal challenges for myself and this year I’ve decided to challenge myself and pursue my life long dream of being a writer. The View 112 Podcast is another outlet and platform for my writing. I talk about being a business professional while building a writing business. Other passions of mine such as football, travel, and exercise are bound to pop up on here as well. I enjoy meeting other business professionals and entrepreneurs while finding out their keys to success.
For this 10th Episode, I’m going to discuss keys to being an eager rookie. I found this cool definition for the word rookie: “A rookie is a person in his or her first year of a sport, or someone who is new to a profession, training or activity”. I thought of this as tonight is the NFL draft and as a big time NFL fan, I’m excited to see what moves will be made tonight during the NFL draft. As fans we celebrate these college players as they join the realm of professional sports and officially became rookies. Well paid rookies at that. It got me thinking that rarely any other time do we celebrate rookies. When you call someone a rookie it is typically not the most glowing term. But we all start off as rookies somewhere and in something. For me, its this space. While I am a veteran professional in sales and leadership and have a few years or blogging experience, I am a true rookie at podcasting and content creation as a side hustle. Being rookie doesn’t have to be all about making mistakes and hard lessons (though they are bound to show up). There are some enjoyable aspects to the learning and growing process. Here are my tips to survive rookie season:
Do your homework and be prepared. It is already understood that rookies have a learning curve and mistakes are to be expected. Minimize mistakes by be being thorough and prepared. At work, show up to meetings knowing your numbers and product. Have some great ideas and questions. In my rookie freelance world, before I jump out and ask for help, I ensure I have tapped into all the resources available to me on my own first. I don't want to waste anyone’s time by not being prepared and ready. Always be ready. When meeting with your boss or a mentor show up with all the information you can possibly have, anticipate needs and show up with solutions.
Remember, you’re in the room for a reason. I recall the first business meeting I attended as a Sales Manager. Like a good rookie, I was prepared to present and had done my homework on all areas of the business. During that first meeting, I listened to everyone else in the room and only spoke up when asked a question regarding my specific department. I had a ton of ideas and thoughts, but offered no insight or ideas as I was too intimidated to speak. I sat quietly diligently taking notes. After the meeting I typed up an email to send our VP with some ideas and thoughts based on my notes from the meeting and sent it to my mentor (who was in the meeting) for her thoughts. Thank God for mentors. She called me immediately and asked why did I not share these thoughts during the meeting. She reminded me that I was hired and in that meeting as a contributor for a reason, and that reason was not to simply take notes on the minutes of the meeting. Furthermore she pointed out that sharing this email with my VP would accomplish two things: 1. make me look like a sneaky brown nose that went straight to our boss instead of building relationships with our peers and 2. waste time and productivity compiling this email when I could have just simply mentioned these things during the meeting. Her final words really stung my ego. She said: “Aren’t you the Sales Manager? Why aren’t you out here selling making money instead of wasting time?” Needless to say I didn’t send the email and I’ve never forgotten: you’re in the room for a reason.
Sit Down, Be Humble. (shout out to Kendrick Lamar) I’m here for acknowledging progress and the little wins. Especially when its a big first: first big fish account, first completed presentation, first episode up on iTunes (hey!) 👋. When you’re a rookie, these little accomplishments are great confidence builders and help build momentum. But don’t get out here and start thinking you are better than you actually are. As a Sales Manager, I was famous to throw on a quick Jay Z song and rap my heart out one my way from closing one deal and heading to my next sales call. Soon as I pulled up to the next spot, I quickly remembered this is a new deal not closed yet so time to turn the Jay Z off. If I didn’t close a deal, I would ride in silence to my next sales call. Jay Z when you win, silence when you lose. No one likes to deal with an out of control ego…not your peers, not your clients, and certainly not the team of people that report to you. Remember they are a big part of executing everything setting you up for success. Even if you’re an individual contributor, someone probably helped you prep for that presentation, or listened to you practice that speech, or fact checked your report. Remember that and thank them.
None of us do things alone. I’m grateful to each and everyone of you listening to this podcast or reading it on view112.com. Often I run my ideas, post, or podcast by someone before posting. I appreciate all the advice and support. To all my NFL fans out there, my Washington Redskins have the17th pick in the draft and I have no clue what they will do. It seems like we need a lot of help. I hope this rookie class is stellar for my squad.
Thank you for listening. Please subscribe and give your girl a review. I’d love some feedback! You can check out my work on jeanitamorris.com, connect with me socially on Instagram @jeanitasmorris as well as Twitter @jeanitasmorris.
