Taking My Work With Me

For the last hour, I have been working on my DCD business.  I have made some phone calls, answered some emails from potential chocolatiers, and actually booked a  party!  This hour has been really very productive for me.  The exciting part of this hour, though, is that I am about 900 miles from my home.  My brother is getting married next weekend, so I am visiting my family.  In fact, right now, my dad is watching westerns on tv, while I'm drinking my tea and working on DCD.

I've also booked a party here in town with my parents.  Whenever I travel, I try to make a few phone calls and book a party.  Generally, people are more than happy to host a party, especially when chocolate is involved.  These out-of-town parties can be my favorites, because they are a great opportunity to sponsor other chocolatiers.  I'm always looking for a way to expand my team and certainly I can't book any parties out of these parties.  Also, they tend to be much more low-key for me.  I tend to just put out chocolate and we just chat and talk the entire time.  I love it.

I earned DCD's incentive trip!

Last year at National Conference in Baltimore (yes, it's a chocolate conference...pure awesomeness), DCD announced their first incentive trip would be to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.  We could earn points through sponsoring new chocolatiers and sales.  I am so excited that I was able to earn my trip in January with a full two months to spare (the promotion runs from August to March).

As soon as the trip was announced, I made a game plan.  Initially, I figured out how much in sales that I would have to do every month and realized that I probably wouldn't be able to make that quota.  I would need to also sponsor some new chocolatiers.  The best way to conduct sales and meet new people to tell them about our opportunity was to book parties.  I starting booking as many parties as I could.  In fact, I was able to have some personal bests for selling and sponsoring.

Ultimately, I earned the trip through a lot of dedication and work.  It didn't happen magically, but I think my trip will be magic.  I can't think of a better way to celebrate my hard work than on the beach with a white chocolate mango mojito.