From Manual Labor to Professional Sales Success and Financial Independence

Speaker 0: Hey. I'm Zane Boomervath, and I'm from Seattle, Washington. So I started with Vector when I was 18. And prior to that, I had just worked, manual labor, making less than minimum wage because I was doing it with family and family friends. And I actually found Vector through my high school DECA club, which is a business club. And I just wanted the opportunity to gain skills that were relevant to what I wanted to do in my career because I did not plan to have a career in manual labor. Right. Right. Yeah, in part. So when I was with DECA, I ended up going to their competitions. Went to one of the conferences in Orlando, and Vector had a booth there at, like, a a career fair, basically. And I just signed up. They said sales and marketing positions available. And I said, that sounds cool. And I signed up for an interview. It's pretty crazy when I look back on it. It's, very fortuitous, and I I'm very grateful for it because I can't I wouldn't be where I am right now if it weren't for that, like, five years ago, over five years ago. I have and still do from my friends. I was very fortunate that my parents supported it. My parents have always been very supportive of what I want to do. But my friends are always pestering me like, dude, you're still selling knives? Like, what? You're still just working for them? And I'm like, I mean, first of all, it's fun. Second of all, I make really good money. And I don't know. I think I think part of it's just you gotta whatever you do, you're always gonna have haters. You gotta ignore the haters and just you do you. And if it's working, keep doing it. I'll be honest. It the the booth itself didn't really make that much of an impression on me. Like, I just remember vaguely signing up at the booth. But I'd say the first time I said yes was in the interview. Because when I went to the interview, I had kind of in my head like, oh, I'm just gonna do this for interview practice. I'm not necessarily gonna take a position. Just wanna practice. And, when I was in the interview, I think the things that really stood out to me were, A, the income opportunity, certainly making more than minimum wage, more than less than minimum wage. And, I really liked that you are compensated for higher levels of performance. Because in an hourly job, you could be the best worker at Safeway, or you could be the laziest, just sitting in the break room all day, slacking off, and you're still making the same hourly rate. Whereas with jobs like Vector, you get paid for how well you perform and how hard you work. And consider myself a hard worker, so I like the idea of being better compensated. Damn right. Okay. I've got a okay. I've can I share two? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I will. So one of my best customer stories is actually from my grandma. I had been with Cutco for about six or eight months. She lives all the way across the country from me, so we finally got to go visit her. And I hadn't talked to her about Cutco because they're not very technologically inclined and like I said, live across the country. But when I got there, I was helping her prepare a family dinner or something and I was pulling out her knives and I realized that she had Cutco. I was like, grandma, when did you get these? She goes, oh, I got them back in, I don't know, like, 1952. I was like, holy. Like, I know cutco lasts a long time, but that was just a that really made it resonate with me that, like, holy moly. My own grandma has had these things for seventy years. And another really great customer experience I've had is there's a couple people that I've I've met through Cutco that are my customers, but I've developed, like, almost a family like relationship with them. Like, I've gone over and had dinner at their house with my girlfriend. I still call them even though they live in Florida now. So it's just it's awesome to meet really cool people through selling knives. What surprised me the most was the community within Vector and within Cutco. Aside from customers, I've made so many amazing friends through that that other in other employees of, of Vector. And the amount of support you receive, it's not a very, like, cutthroat, like, oh, I'm doing better than you. I'm not gonna share how I got here with you. It's a very supportive, like, hey, I want you to come along for the ride too. Here's what I did. So hopefully, you can get here someday. Yeah. I mean, I referenced this earlier, but being paid for your value is huge. If you're good at the job, you get paid more than somebody who's lazy and is not as good. But also, like you just said, the flexibility really matters and has mattered even more in the past. I recently graduated college, so I'm no longer a student. But when I was, having the flexibility to choose my own hours instead of just being assigned a set schedule by a a manager was invaluable because I could work around classes. I could work around my social events. I could work around all the other, frankly, more important things in my life, like my real human connection, life events that I didn't have to skip because I could move move around my work. Yeah. I've always been really extroverted, but I think since being with Vector, I've learned to take that more that extraversion in a more professional and, like, take it in a direction, if that makes sense. Meaning, rather than just having a conversation that flows here and there like I would with someone I meet at a coffee shop, I've learned to be able to persuade people and present something in convincing way. And I've learned how to, frankly, manage myself and manage my finances, manage my money and my life, quite a bit better than when I was 18. So I feel more in control. Mhmm. I keep coming back to this, but first thing is the income opportunity. After graduating, I had other offers at other sales or marketing positions, and, most of them didn't match up to the income I'm able to make while here. And the other things I mentioned earlier, which are the community. I love the people that I work with. And I've learned that that's a really, really big part of a good job. I have some friends who have great jobs on paper, but then they really dislike their coworkers or their manager. And so it kind of makes their job miserable. And I think I have the best of both worlds in the fact that I love what I do and I really enjoy the people that I'm around. Yeah. I actually ran into this. So after being with Ketco for Vector for a while, I did convince one of my best friends to give it a try. And the reason I gave him, and I would give anyone else, is it prepares you for life. Obviously, I'm sure there's other vehicles that do something similar. But I feel that what I've learned with Vector has made me more prepared for being an adult, you know, living on my own, eventually raising a family, like being financially responsible than any class I ever took in college. So just the preparation and like you said earlier, it helps me live my life more intentionally. Yes. I do.