My Mid-Way Point

What an exciting week it has been. I had my second visitor this week, Miss Sara Beth! After a “small” fender-bender in the taxi ride over, Sara made it safely to my doorstep last Saturday morning & we spent most of last weekend perusing open-air markets. Saturday we strolled through the Recoleta cemetario, checking out some of the local fare & outdoor music. Sunday we enjoyed the San Telmo feria, exploring the birthplace of tango. Sara ate her first parilla, indulging in choripan sausage & I partook with a lomo sandwich. Mmmm… not many things better than street food (which is not regulated by the food & drug administration as Sara learned one of her tours).

As is true for all good vacations, the main theme of week was FOOD! Whether cooking in or dining out, our meals dictated the rhythm of Sara’s trip. A few of the spots we were able to check out included Croque Madame (French Café), Gran bar Danzon (simply amazing), Las Cabras (una parilla or steakhouse), Cumana (Argentine food del campo), & Como en Casa (favorite neighborhood café). Not to mention the ice cream we had delivered from Volta (they may or may not have had my address on file :). Thursday night we had a unique experience at Jueves a la Mesa. We were invited into the home of an expat and new acquaintance of mine to share a meal with 13 complete strangers. It was a beautiful event. We ate all natural vegetarian food (which is very hard to find in this city) and listened to a local band share some of their art with us. This city attracts some truly beautiful people!

In the professional realm, I reached a very important milestone for my operation this week: 18 sales reps graduated from their 4 week training and hit the floor last Monday. Getting this operation up and running on my own has been a lot of work to say the least, but I am very proud to say that nearly 100% of the reps I recruited, interviewed, hired and trained are now driving revenue for the outsourcing project only 4 weeks into the operation. I continue to be challenged in this role & it has been incredible to learn all of the facets and stakeholders involved in running a small business. In the initial phase, lesson #1 was to know my market (specifically when doing negotiations and business in a new country). Lesson #2 over the past couple of weeks has been to identify and leverage my key stakeholders. Things move very quickly at Atento (our outsourcing partner) and the art of prioritizing, delegating, plugging holes have been key skills I’ve been able to capitalize on in the past month. I am now focusing on how to maximize the project’s potential by identifying and working with some of our key internal and external partners: “How can working with team X make this more successful for Google?” Once I am able to understand that and build process to ensure strong channels of support and communication, this ship just might really start sailing!