Mama said there'll be days like this!!!

jwagner75

I am going to post this once to get it off my chest, and than I am going to put on my big girl pants and GET OVER IT…….

Ok had this hostess today, booked from a girl I work with, great. Girl I work with etc. very excited that her friend is having show, she will get the stoneware discount etc. etc. we talk about this all week at work. This lady has all these friends, family, coworkers, knows the whole town.

Well this hostess has been a challenge, hard to get a hold of, I sent her invites with minis all the bells and whistles, go out of my way for her, and she tells me she needs more invites. I already had given her 25--- she says they are coming. I send her more. We go back and forth on recipes; nothing is good enough for a crowd this size. Today is the show; it is over 50 miles away one way, the show is outside. Her husband is a chef, blah blah, everything had to be approved to his standard. It was very long hostess coaching back and forth for weeks. I get nervous, having to cook in front of a chef and all his friends. I make a dish ahead because of the large amount coming and show up at 2:05 for our 3:00 show, she tells me she has had some cancellations due to the rain we had on Friday and Saturday, some kids games got moved to Sunday, not a big deal my daughter soccer game got moved. I made it work. Ok so I start to set up on her patio all is good, she sits down with a glass of wine and her cell, she is on facebook and looks like more are not coming. I say oh that happens, do not worry, it will be great if it is just you and I and some good food, we both laugh. Now she originally said she had like almost 30 people coming. Remember had to send out her extra invites, make additional food.

Well long story short two people showed up, one was her next door neighbor and saw me setting up and walked over, was never even invited, thank god she did because she ordered, and wants to have a show in Oct. The one invite lady is having a tastefully simple show on Thursday and spent the entire show and I mean the entire show over talking me, and that is hard because I am loud and talk a lot. About tastefully simple and the bacon bacon dip and on and on, invites ME, invites the neighbor, she would have even invited the dog if she could. She had invites with her in her purse that she kept pulling out and showing. Host spends the whole show on her phone looking at facebook and talking to people that she said backed out of coming to her show, and telling them they sucked. Honestly it was hard not to just laugh. I made my food like any other show, had the neighbor guest help, the one guest said she owned everything, including our new stuff and refused to look in the catalog. Ok my show usually last 45 minutes than we do orders something along that line, all depends. Well I do all that I do, show is over, the neighbor lady orders, and the one guest she has finally opens her folder, she begins to page thru the book very slowly listing out loud all the things she has and never uses. I was all like you should be a consultant, wink wink. No comments.

Ok so at this point, it is say 5:00 I have been there for three long hours outside and really want to start to drive before it gets dark since I am not too familiar with the area. I start to clean up some, I do not normally do this, usually I take orders, than while people are talking/leaving I pack up and haul out my gear. Well the lady is still looking at the catalog, trying to find something she does not have, because as I heard she has everything, and cannot spend a lot saving it for some bacon bacon dip. Ok I could go on and on…but here is the wrap up:

Hostess, ignored the show the whole time, cell phone attached to her fingers at all times.

Hostess husband. AKA the great chef, missing in action, think he was at the bar watching the eagles game, since the hostess was texting/arguing the whole time with him.

Annoying one invited guest finally found something a bake ware item for 10 or 12 dollars on sale, cannot remember. I think her total was around that. I hope she gags on her bacon bacon dip. Ok that was mean. But it really was in my head.

Neighbor lady, very nice booked a show, I think she felt sorry for me because of the other two, placed a nice order and left like a normal guest.

Ok so I know I rambled but here is the kicker……… so hostess looks up from her phone when she hears that neighbor lady is booking, I was like oh I will mail everything out to you, send you emails, we can do something festive because it is end of October with pumpkins. Etc. I will do this and that and the hostess says oh wait………………………… she goes into her house and comes back out with my priority envelope with her hostess binder in it and ALMOST ALL OF THE 40 invites still pretty in their white envelopes all ready to be handed out…..I almost snatched it from her. The $6.10 shipping was glaring at me in the heat. I was either having a heat stroke or a moment of madness….but instead I just politely took it from her and said I would have to redo the invites with the date. But honestly I am not sure she ever took it out of the envelope.

So long story short, she is still $88 dollars from $150. And no I asked her, she has no more outside orders, just the two one ordered a citrus peeler, and the other ordered a corn cutter. I sent her the website on all her invites with the second page saying if you cannot make it use this order form. I hostess coached, I thought I did everything right.

What do you guys think I could have done different? And also this is the real reason for the posting, do you guys think it was rude of me to pack up before the only real guest placed her order. I mean I was there for over three hours. I can only think of so much to say.

I feel better now that I stopped on the way home for a burger and coke. Maybe it was too much sun, but I really felt like I did something wrong. I guess I am just at a loss, because this show really cost me more than I could ever had hope to get out of it, I guess you have days like this.

raebates

Wow, you deserve a vent. Glad you're going to just move on. This host isn't worth your worry.

jwagner75

I know I know I promised I was going to get over it. But this is the same hostess that emailed me that she wanted me to bring with me all the simple addition dot collection, dishes, glasses, serving, because she wants wants to see if the dots would match her colors in her kitchen and see it all in person, I told her I could bring one or two items, but she kept insisting she needed to see it all, Back up the Uhaul, I am bringing my whole kitchen. So I do bring several dot items, because that is just how I am , and you know what she says.......................oh I decided to go with the red longaberger pottery instead. It is heavier. My words were oh that is nice. What else could I say....

pampchefsarah

YOU did not do anything wrong. In fact, you did more than necessary under the circumstances. I hope she paid you for the ingredients of the dish you prepared ahead. I would say she just wanted a free meal, but if her husband is supposedly a chef . . .

Call the future host and let her know the show won't qualify. Ask her if she wants to pay the little extra for additional shipping to make it an individual order, or if she wants to add the items to her wish list for her October show. If there's anyway you can get outside orders to add to it, turn it into your own show, and YOU take the host benefits!!

Sheila

You can host coach ALL you want. Some people have good intentions, but not the follow through to make it happen. Then there are some who just do NOT listen and will do it their way no matter what you tell them is proven to work.

I've only had one show that didn't make it. It was before I learned to Host Coach. She had around 6-7 guests, but kept telling them "Oh, don't worry about ordering right now, let's visit & you can take the catalog home & order later!!!" I was just in shock & didn't feel it was appropriate to correct her in front of the guests. Only 2 people ended up ordering "later" the rest changed their minds. She didn't have enough to make a show, so I added her 2 orders to another host's show when she finally gave them to me 2 weeks later.

I've had better odds since I started host coaching, but some still do not listen and do their own thing. I tried my first "mini catalog" as the invitation with my host this weekend. I gave her 40 of them. She had a pretty good turnout and her show is at $600 right now, but she handed back most of the mini-catalogs to me during the show!!! I was shocked that she still had so many. During our conversations the 4 weeks prior she was so excited about handing them out to drum up more attendance. I was blown out of the water that she didn't follow through with that.

And I had another one that asked if the kids could help, then basically had me babysitting while she & the TWO guests had their own little visit & didn't even pay attention to what we were doing. Her show ended up at $267.58 - so I made a $53 commission. BUT the hosts check bounced! She brought me cash for the amount plus the $25 bounced check fee that the bank charged & I gave her back the bad check. But 2 days later, I found out that a 2nd direct debit had also bounced so I had a 2nd $25 fee making my commission $28.52. Not my brightest moment. But my host coaching that I've recently started is really paying off. I took the online courses & bought the CD's off the supply order. My show average used to be $543.70, but the last 6 shows have an average of $899.13! A HUGE difference!!!

Just bless & release sweetie. Maybe the booking you got will turn out to be a $1,000 show!!!

And don't feel bad about packing up. I always clean up while the guests are looking at the catalogs. That way, there's not a mess laying around. But I put everything in my roll case dirty, then come home & do my dishes. The liner zips out & goes in the washing machine. So my clean up is maybe 5-8 minutes max. I usually leave the seasonings, cookbooks and tool turn about out, plus anything that's holding the food and the tool(s) to serve the food. I just put away the dirty tools that are no longer being used. Once most of them have checked out & the crowd starts to thin out, I'll transfer any left over food onto a paper plate or container belonging to the host & pack away the rest of the dirty dishes. I put away the cookbooks, seasonings and clipboards very last.

jwagner75

Thanks Sarah. That was great advice, I was not sure how to talk it out to her if she did not make $150. I was going to add some orders from my husband work, but did not know if I wanted to give her the credit, since she really did not care much. I will have to think of this one.

On the Bright Side I brought the leftovers home to my family and called them on my way home for some encouragement and they were waiting at my back door to help me carry everything, especially the left overs in to the house, to see everyone gathered over the kitchen sink, because I was trying to clean my stuff, eat every last bite made my day so much better. They were so excited to get left overs, normally my guests eat every last bite. I know now how to get them to help carry and clean. They made me smile as I put things away.

jwagner75

Sheila
That makes me feel better. I carried my dirty items out first, while she was still looking and than just slowly started to pack up the clean items, till only really she was left with her folder and my one bag with folder, calculator, pens, were left, she really did not get the hint, I was not really trying to rush her but she was the only one left, even the hostess went into the house. She left the dog out with us......Thanks for your reply.

Sheila

Awe, gotta love it when the family can lift your spirits!!!

Sheila

I don't make trips to the car, I just load it into my roll case. Then make one trip out when I leave. Either way, you want them to have enough time to look at the catalog but if they take too long what do they expect? You either have to clean up in front of them or sit there & stare at them. [insert the sound of crickets here] LOL

jwagner75

Sheila Do you only make one trip in, I seem to have to make several, I need to pack less. I would love to be able to fit everything in one trip.

beepampered

I pack up while people are looking all the time - and my shows aren't that short. Seems like people are always more busy talking than shopping. I don't think it's rude to pack up. I think you could even tell the guest that you need to get leaving. "I want to get home in time for dinner with my family so I'll be leaving in just a few minutes. Would you like me to call you to get your order later?" Of course, then, she might not order at all.

I get intimidated by certain people (chefs in particular) and so probably don't host coach as well. People who are ultra-confident make you feel small if you push so you might have backed off. I try to be specific with my questions "how many invitations did you send?" instead of "did you send 40 invites?" I think I get a more honest answer. I also ask hostess to CALL guests - not just email/facebook.

I like the idea of offer the neighbor to get it FREE at her own show. Then, you don't have to feel like you're giving such a miserable host anything.

lauriedip

Sheila,
what roll case? and i too would be interested in how you have one bag , one trip, with the products and all the paper work, etc.
educate us please!

Sheila

Yes. I only make 1 trip from the car & one trip to the car. I don't want to look like I'm moving in, but some hosts think I am anyway. I pack all the tools needed for the recipe(s) in the roll case. (I do the interactive shows, so most of the time we are doing 2 or 3 recipes so everyone can play. And when I say pack, I do mean PACK! I can get a lot of stuff in one roll case.) Then I have the bag that came with the kit sitting on top. In the side pockets are It has my host packets, pens, cookbooks, etc. In the center pocket is my catalog tote with all the clipboards (I usually take 15 unless I know more guests will be there). The catalog tote keeps them together & they don't get messed up as easily. I also put the tool turn about in it's case & sit it down in there. Then I also have a plastic grocery bag filled with all my spices & tied at the top so they don't roll out & drop it down in there. I wrap the handles for that bag over the handle for the roll cart to help balance it from falling. I carry a small purse & even sit it on top of everything. So I'm pulling one handed & have the other one open & available to shake the hand of the host, hold the door, etc. The less the host has to do, the better. Right?

If I have leftover room in the roll cart or carry bag, I'll add a couple of things from the newest collection to show as well. I knew Saturday's show was a couples show, so I took all the BBQ tools.

Sheila

The $80 one off the supply order. A cluster mate bought it, then decided she didn't want to do PC & sold it to me for $60. (She had used it 3 times, so it was still basically brand new.)

Nanisu

So I would tell her you were going to add her orders from her non show to another show...sorry she didn't qualify. I've done that before.

esavvymom

It's $90 now...... I had one similar with my Scrapbooking company. Very sturdy.

How big is PC's bag?? it doesn't show in the Supply Fact sheet.

Judybabe

Just bless & release sweetie

Love that. I need to use it in regards to this town.

All I can say is wow. just wow. you deserve all the venting you want!
I'm surprised the friend from work didn't show.

Sheila

Oh! It's been a while since I looked at the price. Thanks for the correction!

Inside dimensions: 11.5" deep, 17.5" across & 18" tall. It has outside pockets that you can use to carry order forms, catalogs, etc. It also has a divider that you can use inside to help cushion things and keep them separate. I took the liner out & use the towels & pot holders (which I'm taking anyway) to help cushion things that might get scratched. By doing that, I have more room to pack it full ... but you also run a higher risk of things getting broken if you don't pay attention to what you are doing in the packing & transporting process. My husband bounced it off a curb one night & I almost fainted. He's not allowed to touch it now.

BethCooks4U

You must be very strong. The bag gets heavy quick. I took it to shows at first but it's a pain if you have to deal with stairs or gravel driveways and I had to put the heavier things in a separate bag so I could lift it at all. Now I use it for fairs - it's great for those. I wish I could use it more...

Sheila

Oh, no! I'm not strong AT ALL!! I had a c-section in Oct '07 then another one in March '09. I have very little tummy muscles left and after 2 high-risk pregnancies back to back where I was pretty much on light duty ... I'm completely out of shape & will drive to the end of the street vs. walking. Sad, huh?