Vanilla Ice Cream story at Panamania on July 25th

Vanilla ice cream covered in Chocolate

  It was amazing Sunday evening and I decided to get an ice cream from a truck on Queen Street near Nathan Phillips Square.

   I walked over and got in line and waited for my turn to place my order. There was a lady in front who order a medium ice cream and was proceeding to attempt to pay for it, she opened up her purse and began to look for something, she keep on looking and looking.She took stuff out and kept on looking and looking, It must of seemed like 5 minutes and then all of sudden she just walked away and left  the ice cream lady hanging with the melting ice cream.

   She say " Any one want this?"

  The lady behind me say "I will take it!"

  We looking at each in little bewilderment and kept on going in evening journey

 Moral of the story: Patience is a virtue even if its waiting for ice cream!

         

Journey to Planes, Trains and Automobile & Hotels!

                                                                        
                 Many years ago the was great comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles with Steve Martin and John Candy (see below).

               Recently I had my own experience in doing all 3! 

          I had a business event to attend in Atlanta and it involved doing the follow. Driving from Toronto to Buffalo on Tuesday evening staying at hotel overnight  and take a flight in the morning to Charlotte then connecting to Atlanta.

           Had a local representative pick me and take me to hotel and then set up for the event happening the next day.

           Weather was warm for both days and I was still thinking I was in Toronto! wearing to layers of clothing. Had a great time at event and enjoy the amazing BBQ

            Thursday evening I was driven back to the Airport in Atlanta where I took the Plain Train to the desired section. Being early I had a great dinner at Phillips Seafood (amazing food and service). Took a flight from Atlanta back to Charlotte ran to catch to my connecting flight to Buffalo.

 Reached Buffalo and took shuttle bus to hotel and stayed overnight and drove back to Toronto on Friday Morning

 Moral of the story: Watching the movie may be interesting taking part in the journey is awesome!




      

                                                            

                                                                               

Jim Pagiamtzis at the Plane Train in Atlanta Airport

Jim Pagiamtzis at the Phillips Seafood Restaurant at Atlanta Airport

Shrimp at Phillips Seafood

Salmon with fries at Phillips Seafood

Jim Pagiamtzis thumbs up at Phillips Seafood

On the way back from Atlanta Airport at 8pm

                                                                                            

Driving back to Toronto from Buffalo on Friday morning

(True)Story is insights in human interaction..

 Last  Friday evening I was at the Esso gas station in the Finch and Dufferin area toping of my car with gas for the weekend and my upcoming trip to Buffalo.

 I put in my card, swipped my speed pass and attempted to put gas in my car. Nothing happened. I repeated the process and still nothing.

 On the other side of the car port. The guy was yelling and screaming out loud about the situation. "They take my money and they don't give me gas!"

 I reach over and said just be patient and try again. He says to me how are you so patient? I said yoga, pilates and meditation do that to you! 

 He started to chuckle a little and next thing you know gas started to flow..

 We had another short brief conversation on the weather, economy and world peace and before you know it we were on our way in different directions . 
 
Moral of the Story. Patience is a virtue and you may make some friends along the way.

Spotlight: Hanan Pereira

1st:

You have been business owner for a couple of  years. Can you share on business success lessons from you journey?

I bought a business that I've had no prior knowledge or experience with it. A distribution company that sell variety of products to cafes & restaurants such as paper/plastic cups, all kind of plastic trays, chemicals, paper products and some food . We had a warehouse, a delivery truck and of course employees. I had to start selling about 350 items from day one, created relationships with existing and new customers as well with suppliers. Huge task that people are astonished how did I took the risk and managed doing it.

I have an extensive experience in sales and marketing, a people person and good management skills.  I had a dual role of  operations & sales manager. The learning curve was very short, I worked more than 12 hours a day and eventually succeeded to triple the sales. I eventually the sold the business after four years.

The lessons from this journey - one has to be a risk-taker plus having a skills-set  of creativity, flexibility & an ability to build and maintain personal relationships, all the above helped me tremendously  along the way to achieve my targets.

2^nd

Sales is an ongoing journey and process of implementation. Can you share some sales strategies?

I believe sales is an art and to be a successful sales person, you must love communicating with people, be a great listener and problem solver, be genuinely interested in helping customers and looking constantly as to how to serve them better and address all their concerns & demands.

Those who lack patience or don't have the above abilities "under their skin",  wouldn't not succeed in fulfilling this job, those are the ones who wish just to close the deal as quickly as possible, and move on to the next customer, with no interest at all in following up with the old ones or referring back to their requests...

If you aren't willing to call back your customer within 15-30 minutes (very uncommon response time in Toronto) or respond to his email within that time frame - I foresee that within short period of time, he would turn his back on you!

Hana Pereira

h_perahia@hotmail.com

Experience of putting together model of Prowler (sportscar)

  It was spring of 2012 and I was coming back from the gym when I came across a yard sale on Palmerston Avenue (Annex area in Toronto). They were selling various items from records, toy etc.

 Few items caught my interest that day from a fancy remote control car, 20 pieces of personal development audios and box with incomplete model of prowler. I made an offer for everything and went back few hours later to pick them up. (will share the story of the rest of the item on a future blog)

 I had never put together a model as far a could remember and I was interested in the challenge. (At that point at didn't realize the true challenge I was going to have to complete this project)

 Few weeks later I got the box and proceeded to open the box and to my surprise and horror (yes at the same time!) all the little tiny pieces that had to put together. Luckily there were instructions!

  I scanned through instructions to get an idea how this model was going to be build. It looked very straight forward in the diagrams, building it was going to be an interesting journey.

  I began to put the model together, from the engine (which was the most complex part), under carriage to the exterior body. Each piece need to be glued and carefully placed in the correct position.

The glue was very sticky and my finger were always sticking to each other, at certain times it got really annoying. I did run out of glue and made a few trips to reload. I did take my time to put it together and in the end I was satisfied with my project.  It wasn't entirely perfect like the box showed but close enough.

 As you will see below the original was purple and after a few weeks I painted it red to give it a different look.

  In the end I learned three things.

  1st  Instruction were very useful

  2nd Patience is important

  3rd  Having the end in mind that I WILL finish this project was priceless!

  The last two pictures are of  yellow prowler that I saw in Bay and Yorville area July 2012. It is a amazing look car

                                                Model Prowler (purple) with baggage holder

                           

                                                Model Prowler (red) with baggage holder




                                                    

                                               Real Prowler on Yorkville in Toronto
                                           
                                               





                                             

                                              Real  Prowler on Yorkville in Toronto

Movie Review: Door to Door

   An inspiring movie to watch based on a true story of Bill Porter the traveling salesman. He sold Watkins products door to door for many years.

  William H. Macy does a sensational portrayal of Bill Porter, from his mannerism to the emotions he went through in his journey.

 Through persistence and determination he succeeded in doing it through walk and talking a great deal.

 Moral of the story:

 Strive for you dreams and believe in your ability and you will achieve them!

"Macy delivers the goods. An unforgettable character. An inspirational movie." -Noel Hoslon, New York Newsday


 For more information on Bill Porter click on link below:
Click here

IPAD Success in less than 90 days!

In early May, I had made a decision that I needed more than wanted the the new iPad. It was a great goal to accomplish  by July 31^st.


Learning the great principles of   100% intention and 0% Method  I put the actions in place.

Only 1 Rule:
 I was only to be done by buying and selling various items, As explained below


There were couple of things that happened that made this an achievable goal.


First here was Cash $ Max (Cash Converters) that had just opened up in the my area and I had made visits to learn more about what they sold and items they were interested in buying.


Speaking with Ile Naumovski (Store Manager), Matej and Laurie they were very helpful in understanding the buy and negotiating process.


In early May, I started my quest to the IPAD prior to July 31st which was in less than 90 days!

The next step was I had cd's of my own and my brother's that were available, books and few DVD's. This was good inventory to start with.


2nd  Yards Sales and referrals

 In my local area there are lots of yards sales every weekend from May to September where all sorts of items are up for sale. Electronics, dvds, books etc.

I got really good at negotiation and patience in buying items for a low price and selling for more at Cash Converters. From radios,phone, digital cameras,electronic cords  and dvds.

I also got referrals from friends who had were interested in trading items (will explain the importance of this soon)

3rd  The Universe listens

 You may call it luck, fate or being at the right place at the right time. I call it the universe listen and great things appear. As I headed to the gym I would take various routes to get their throughout the neighborhood. It amazing the things that I found  dvd's, books, electronics, cables even jewelry!

As I mentioned earlier I learned few good lessons in this experience.Which were

Negotiating

When negotiating I had to be patient and relaxed when discussing how much items were be sold and their actual work.

Reality

When I went to yard sales had to remind myself that this was a "Yard Sales" not a retail outlet! Many people thought they were "in business" and had ridiculous prices for times. I simple would say " I will make you an offer for this... or I would pull out my loonies and toonies and put in the my palm and say " I will offer you this much.." Majority of the times it worked, sometimes to well and I wish would have made a lower offer!

Costs

Many of the items were used for many years but for some reason they were charging as if they were new! This was very perplexing in the beginning and I had to be patient. There were selling DVD's for $3 to $5 each and which was way to expensive, I would simple offer them a bulk price for all and they would come back to reality of their worth.


Would go about once a week to Cash Coverters and would sell them the items. Early on in the experience I had shared with them what I wanted to get out doing this. They were extremely supportive and encourage in achieving this goal.

I learned a few negotiating tips from Matej (assistant manager) on how to handle bulk purchases. Been patient and relax was important and having a calculator was an important tool to have.

One experience I had in June I purchase approx 200 dvd's from a street vendor in my neighborhood for $75. I double my investment for this purchase. Didn't realize there were blu-rays,video games and box set in everything that I purchase. They pay more for those items!

Fast forward to the last week of  July. I was very close to my monetary goal to get the iPad. I made 12 trips to Cash Converters and on the last trip on July 30th I reached the target!

 Journey to the Apple Store (Eaton's Centre)

As I headed to the store on that Tuesday afternoon I felt excited and but overjoyed as I expected. Heading into the store, it wasn't super busy (it usually is!). Went to the New iPad section and began to try out the various features. I waited patiently and none of the Apple reps approached me to ask me if I need any assistance. It felt like 10 minutes had gone by when finally  Apple rep Patrick Collins came up to me and asked if I need assistance.

 Asked a few questions  regarding the ability to connect iPad to a my projector. I do training for a social media company in the Toronto GTA area.  He quickly said they do and showed me the device that connects to the project, its a a "dongle". I also required a case for it and there was a few types to choose from hard and soft cases to different colours. This took longer than expected! I ended up choosing the green hard cover case.

It was at this point I told Patrick about how I created the money to purchase the IPAD. He was very impressed!  He took it a step further and said he would share it with his fellow employees in the evening and would was interested in getting copy of this article. That was easy answer "of course"

Would like also to thank Kyle Jones for getting started experience from getting my apple ID, going through the start up questions and answering my questions.
 
That evening I had a Patio Power event that I hosted in Dowtown Toronto. I shared this story to participants at the event. Used the IPad to take videos and pictures of the event!

Moral of the Story:
We can achieve anything we want small to large scale goals. It's all about setting up the goals,taking the next step and creating  momentum to achieve it. 

Special Thanks goes to

Cash Converters at 570-B Bloor Street W (Across form Honest Ed's) Ile Naumovski, Matej and Laurie
Apple Store at Eaton's Centre 220 Yonge Street Space @3110A Toronto,On Canada M5B 2H1
647-258-0801  Patrick Collins and Kyle for an amazing experience!