It’s always harder to blog when I’m not on my normal schedule. And being that I’m at the Auctioneer’s Conference in Harrisburg, it definitely means I’m not on my regular schedule. I can’t say I mind the schedule change, but it is different to go from the college student who wakes up whenever they please to the professional whom is expected to be in a suit at 7am….it’s a bit rough.
With all this being said, though, the Auctioneer’s Conference makes me think a lot about people. To clarify, people in general. It’s always amazing to me as a psych major how people interact and work with others. Take a whole room of auctioneers for instance. We all come together for the common profession of Auctioneering, which would make a lot of people think that those people would have a lot in common. But when we break it down and look at the actual make up of that room, there are so many differences that you can hardly count. We talked in one of my classes last semester how so many researchers talk about the between group variability when in all reality, the within group variability can be rather large. Take that room for instance going back. I’m an auctioneer, that’s not a usual thing…a 22 yr old female….auctioneer. Most auctioneers are men and over the age of 45. Let’s be real here. Do I have a lot in common with a 45 year old male? No. This shows a huge amount of within group variability. Then compare me to a 22 year old black female. Yes, we will have our differences, but I can bet we have a lot of similarities as well (especially when you consider who is writing this blog).
People’s interactions amaze me though. I’m a people watcher. I could probably be one of those creepy people at my mall who just sit and watch people for hours, but instead I decide to use my own social interactions to my advantage to look less creepy. Psychology has made me notice quite a lot about people in these past few days. I’m going to talk about all these things because it’s really not all the interesting to go on a rant about it, but at the same time it is intriguing. One thing I know, though, that never fails almost every year I get hit on by a man that is wayyyyyyy too old for me. Tonight I got, “If I were about 40 years younger….” And I think to myself, “ughhhh” Either way, I still love being here because it’s fun first of all, and second of all, the connections that I’ve gained with others throughout the years have been awesome. I’ve also learned some pretty cool things from here.
When you search for “people” on the internet, the first result that returns to you is for People magazine. It makes sense I guess because it is a famous magazine. If you then add the word “understanding” in front of people, you will find some really interesting things. The first item that is returned is about the seven key ways to understanding people. So being the psych minded person that I am, I clicked on it. The second item that it calls to people’s attention is that most of social interactions are not explicit. Hallelujah, they hit the jackpot.
If there is one thing that you notice about people it is their body language and how they present themselves. The way they say something has a much greater impact than the content of what they say. At the convention today we had a speaker who talked about how people perceive you and that when people trust you is when you get more referrals and are more likely to do business. This also means that you only have to be a little bit explicit with one person to implicitly impact your business for months to come because of word of mouth.
I can tell you one thing, I was not cut out for the business world, so it’s probably a good thing that I do counseling. I’m not a dog eat dog kind of person. Do not get me wrong, I can be a competitive person, but I am by no means willing to step on the little people to get what I want. I want to help people realize that they can achieve their dreams by believing in themselves (within reason of course).
People are intriguing though, that is for sure. This is why I love the auction business. I get to work with the public and interact with people that come from all different types of backgrounds and all different levels of social education in life. Even though sometimes it may be a pain to work with the public, I’ve found that “killing them with kindness” is actually really effective and can make things better for yourself and them.
I talked to a friend today on the phone that works in retail and he frequently has issues with of the assistant managers constantly asking him why he is where he is and what he’s doing even when it is the right thing. It has been bugging him for a long while, but after talking to others he found out that he wasn’t the only one having issues. It’s comforting to be validated in your thinking, especially in difficult times. At least he knows that people are aware of it and that hopefully the issue can be fixed.
So don’t break a sweat, there’s all different types of people out there. Some that we may wonder about from time to time, some we may think are crazy, some that we click with and always seem to have smooth sailing and even some that all we do is bump heads with. It’s not easy just shaking things off especially for some people, but sometimes it is what’s best whether we like it or not.
Keep your cool, it could save you a lot of hassle. 🙂