I met Summer through LinkedIn. She had started posting and building her own brand, and I found it inspiring and honestly a bit brave, because it’s something I hadn’t done myself. So I asked her to come on the show.

Summer is a sales executive and level four apprentice with experience across B2B technology, property and hospitality. Right now she sells hardware leasing into the education sector, which she’ll tell you is not easy over the summer holidays. She’s also doing all of this while finishing her apprenticeship.

In this episode we talk about:

• The hard parts of starting early. Keeping friendships going when your classmates are out on a weekday afternoon, moving from eight weeks of summer holiday to 28 days of annual leave, and the comments she got for choosing an apprenticeship over A levels. I share a bit of my own start too, a night shift in customer service straight out of college.
• Staying organised without getting stressed. Getting in early to beat the traffic, what Parkinson’s Law taught her about long to-do lists, and her 30-minute bursts of calls, about four a day. I add my own thoughts on buffer time and the pins example from Atomic Habits.
• What she loves about sales. Every day is different, and the skills (negotiation, customer service) are valuable in almost any industry.
• Burnout, honestly. Summer is open about how drained she felt in her first months, and about being too tired to talk to the friends she loves after speaking to 70 people in a day. We talk about what helps, from time blocks to getting out of the house at the weekend.
• Her lessons for anyone just starting. No one is coming to save you. Start building your brand from day one. Make yourself valuable by doing things your coworkers don’t, like topping the call board, running the company TikTok and collecting customer reviews. And advocate for yourself, because no one will hand you a gold star.

If you’re at the start of your career, in sales or not, I think you’ll take something from this one.

Tell us what you thought in the Spotify comments, or send me an email like you always do, and I’ll pass your feedback on to Summer. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn, where she shares her insights every day. Next episode is coming next week.

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