My Weston Fitness Experience

Starting off at Weston Fitness I was extremely nervous because I knew I wasn’t walking into an Ad agency or anything obviously advertising related, so I was unsure of exactly what they expected of me.  Right off the bat the employees were super friendly and everyone introduced themselves.  It was easy to ask anyone for assistance (especially in answering the phone that wasn’t mine, but was still ringing right next to me!!).  I got an email with my own personal signature and title (Marketing Assistant J ) and a swipe card to enter the building.  As the weeks progressed, my shyness was tested because my boss is so outgoing and talks to everyone and it just takes me a little longer to “break out.”  I shadowed him for a few meetings and then was fed to the sharks.  Pita Pit was my first experiment.  Make them want to work with us…aka give us free stuff in return for our services which they might or might not be interested in.  It ended up being a success and I figured that if I look important and seem to know exactly what I’m talking about and what I can really do for them, then it’s a piece of cake.  Dressing in business casual attire really helps in my opinion.  People seem to respect you more and you stand up straighter in heels too.  I became a professional local business caller on the phone and extreme facebook friender.  It was my goal to at least double the friends Weston had by the end of the semester (which I did, even if facebook put a hold on our account a few times).  Incentives and Trivia really make facebook friends happy.  I also got put in charge of the Member Appreciation Days that happen once every month and this is where I learned about failure, which I HATE!  I set up vendors for the event my first month doing it and my mistake that I called them a week in advance to remind them and not a day before and the morning of to remind people.  I had to learn that other people don’t care if they confirm with you and then cancel the day of.  Basically it just made me look incompetent and it didn’t matter how much planning and organizing I put into the event to begin with, the day of was what counted.  I learned to send reminders and call as much as possible and to get in writing exactly what vendors agreed to, so I could send it back to them in the reminder.  I did work it out for the next event and was relieved.  Negotiating with local bars/restaurants was also a task that I needed to master.  I needed the future happy hour location to understand that if they supplied us with free drinks and/or food for an hour will make them money in the end because our members and their guests will stay and enjoy the ambiance of their fabulous establishment, which will in turn make them spend more money that night and return in the future.  Not only did I work with local businesses to get the Weston Fitness name and mission out there, but I also created the flyers that were distributed monthly.  This gave me a chance to work on Photoshop a lot, as I just touched it for the first time this past summer.

I enjoyed all the opportunities and new experiences that my internship gave me.  I was able to break out of my shell a little bit more and now I feel more prepared to step into the “real” world of NO more school! AHH!