Closed Doors and Opened Windows, My Nielsen Journey, Written by Bambi Lynn

Nine years this week was my anniversary of being part of the Nielsen family. What a journey and a story that must be told. Nine years of growing and learning and becoming the best version of myself. Moments that took my breath away and times that tears fell uncontrollably because I saw or felt something that was inhumane but, yet life changing for me. I was taken on a journey of "changing lives one door at a time" a phrase I coined in the beginning years of my career.

I received a call when I was at the New York State fair with my sons. I was confused by the phone call and the number so curiosity killed the cat, and I picked up my phone and answered the call. There was a Nielsen recruiter on the other end, telling me they received my name from another Membership rep that works for the company. I had no idea who Nielsen was and started telling the woman on the other end. I had a job with the census bureau, I worked full time for them with part time benefits. She talked to me for a few minutes, and I then hung up. My sons told me God opened up a door, so I should follow through to the hallway.

Not sure of all of the details that led me to a hotel where I was met with two people that would interview me, Laura Steele and Mike West that were part of the Buffalo market. I was overwhelmed with emotion as I loved my Job with the bureau, but Nielsen would be giving me a car and also allow me to use a corporate card to buy gifts for the people I would interview. I talked about my passion for people and how I was on a mission to change people's lives by hearing and giving empathy for the lives they had or are living. I was so thrilled that the job was mine if I wanted it that I had such a skip in my walk while I was walking out of the hotel that I fell at the door. I would be given a job that would give me more people to see and to meet and they were paying for it. This would be my first real job that was full time.

I think it's a great time to tell you my story, so you will know what this opportunity would mean to me. I had been a single mom, raising the last two of six children in our home in Buffalo, I was in the last stretch of my homeschooling years of being my children's teacher with a GED and tenth grade education. I had gone through two divorces that left us living in poverty, with a yearly income of 13,000 to 20,000 a year. We struggled and I struggled with keeping up with the bills and finding the money to buy the things my children needed. I was a wounded mom and person. I was naive in so many ways, like I knew nothing about computers or the tech world. I struggled with knowing my worth. For someone to see value in me was huge.

I went to training in Tampa Florida, the only second time I had flown on a plane. I felt like a fish out of water when I got to the hotel for my two weeks' worth of training. We all met at the hotel lobby to be driven over to the main office. I introduced myself and asked where everyone was from and things about each one of their lives. When we all got out of the van and walked to the training room, there were seven of us. Our trainer came to the door and asked if Bambi was in the room. I got up and at that moment everyone thought I was part of the hospitality department and then realized I was being trained also. Our trainer was Shayna. When I walked outside the door, she told me that she received a call from my manager, she then told me the gift I had couldn't be trained, but she was here to train me in all the technical stuff. I felt really special that someone took the time for me. I was like in kindergarten with all this training. Not knowing how to turn on a phone and had no idea what a hard drive was. I would end those two weeks as the second highest score and bonus points for how I wrote my "thank you" note. I would also be voted the most to succeed and the first one who made it to COE, circle of excellence. I left that training with new friends and a purpose, To Change lives at every door I would knock on and to be part of the top 5% my first year.

My trainer came out the week after Christmas, Kim Ries was my trainer, and we hit the ground running. I remember my first sign, an older couple that were remodeling their kitchen and the back half of their house. We sat and interviewed for a couple hours. My goal wasn't just the sign but building a relationship with the home that would leave an impact on both of us. I was so excited after that evening; my trainer told me I was a natural. Now the technical stuff was harder than I even imagined it to be. The systems would go down, wouldn't transmit to headquarters and you could lose all your data, it also could take hours for you to get everything you needed to accomplish. I wanted to give up more than once during those early days. But I knew I had a gift, and I wanted to change lives one door at a time. I took my trainer the first year I made it to COE. I wanted to honor her for all the hard work she put into me those days of training.

My first month on the job, my commissions were 6700.00 I was overwhelmed with emotion when I was told how much bonus money I would be making. I had to pull over the side of the road and lift my hands up to heaven. I imagined all the things I was going to do for my children and knew my house would be paid off in no time. I hadn't seen that much money ever and couldn't comprehend none of it for a poor girl and mom who didn't know how I was going to put food and clothes on my children. God had been faithful and was my Jehovah Jireh, A God who provides. Then I found out the state almost takes 35% for taxes. That's a different story. I was shocked and disappointed but more determined to make sure I worked harder.

I took a position on the SWAT team less than a year after I was hired. My sons were leaving for the military, and I needed to do something to help me survive the empty nest. I spent 6.5 years on this team. I traveled to over 30 markets across the country. I met amazing people. I was part of an amazing team that was like family. We would work together, vacation together, and share each other's sorrows, through health issues and deaths, and we also went through the pandemic together. I would grow as a person and friend. I was blessed with a manager that cared and would get the best out of us. Tanner would grow in himself with all of us. He would stretch us to greatness, and we always felt like he fought for us and was in our corner. We would laugh and cry as a team together, we sacrificed our lives and one year would sacrifice everything for the company, because we were told we were the best of the best. I would make it to CEO two more times on this team. I would learn more about myself and my abilities to strive in my role and would become someone that people respected. I also learned about how great managers aren't great because of what they did for themselves but how they sacrificed for their team. I had that in Tanner and no one else has ever been able to measure up to his sacrifice in making you feel liked you mattered.

One thing about this job, you had to be confident in yourself and the ability you had in changing lives by getting them to open the door for you and letting you in. I was a master of cute little gadgets and little trinkets to get people to laugh and let me in. I was someone people came to ask, "what ideas do you have up your sleeve today" I was creative in my approach. I had fun walking around the stores, finding things to get the attention of my homes, gum, that said, "going the extra mile with tv viewing "picture frames "your turn to frame the ratings with your viewing" gain laundry detergent," Gain a chance to make a difference" Dot candy," Your turn to connect the dots with the tv ratings" the list goes on and on and people would use them all across the country. I would be a guest speaker in many meetings across the markets sharing my passion. I knew our homes were the tree trunk of the company and without them the branches could never survive. So, it was always important to me to always give them the white glove treatment and make sure they knew how important they were to us.

Every home would change me. Every story would transform my belief system, and every person would impact my life in ways I could have never imagined. Every time I would sit at their tables I would walk away a better person than when I knocked on their door. I saw things that you couldn't believe unless you saw it with your own eyes. I sat at a kitchen table, that as the woman was pouring out her heart a roach fell on me from the ceiling, I have been in a home of a young mother who had five children and only a mattress on the floor for them to sit on, I have held an elderly woman who found out she had brain cancer again and this time they didn't give her much time to live. I have climbed the steps to a condo where you can look out the window and watch the dolphins play in the ocean. I hugged a man who was transitioning into a woman and her family had walked away. I needed her to know and feel the love of a mother even if I was a surrogate one at that moment. I was in the home of a mom who two weeks earlier had ran in the middle of the night with only the clothes on her back and blind daughter to get away from her abusive boyfriend. We sat outside and cried together over both of our bravery's of getting away. I was made part of people's lives by being invited to their homes, their births of grandchildren, their pain and loss that they shared with me, I was part of their family pig roasts, and also went on hikes with others. I was the first phone call made when life hit them hard and when life blessed their socks off. I could write a book in itself of the changing of these events in my life with these hundreds and hundreds of people who opened up their doors to me and changed my life dramatically forever. I know I am who I am because part of each one of them have been embedded into my soul.

This comes to December of 2023 where my team was asked to come on a call, where we were told they would be dissolving the SWAT team, now known at that time the SWIFT team. We were shocked because we had become family. We were connected but now asked to be part of other teams where we had lived. We all felt displaced and not knowing where we belonged. This was a very hard transition for me. I became part of a market that in the two years had gone through over twenty membership reps. I called some and asked questions., I realized when speaking to the manager that memberships rep came to this market where careers were ended. I was always a good performer, and never once did I not receive a merit raise each year for my impact on the company. I had made six figures the last four years and was well liked with managers and other membership reps and leaders across the country. But I couldn't get my numbers up and figure out what to do differently. I called my top performing friends and talked and asked for ideas. I knew it wasn't my ability to get the job done. I became discouraged as it wasn't just about the money, loss of travel, or signing homes. for me it was about the people I felt like I wasn't impacting anymore, I felt I was falling into a depression because my purpose of "changing lives one door at a time" was crumbling before my eyes. I wasn't given any help or advice, just told that I knew how to do the job. I persevered every day by getting up and doing my job. but still couldn't get the signs I needed. I was put on a performance review and told just, if you need any help just reach out. There wasn't anything to reach out for. I couldn't sign homes anymore. I knew my time was coming, that I would not be employed anymore, and I came to work that out in my heart.

I am an author, and I know that chapters need to end in order for another chapter to begin. I know that chapters can't go on forever. I know that bigger plans can't happen until after you close that chapter and walk into another one. I have grown so much from this chapter of my life. I have succeeded through things that were hard, but I was pushed to achieve. I could walk away from this chapter in my life and bash some of the things that happened. I could reveal some of the inside secrets and some of the management styles that aren't favorable, I could also put blame that I felt I was set up to fail. But my success is in the people I touched during these almost nine years. My success isn't in money and fame but in the people who impacted me in ways that they became part of me.I close this door and open the window to the next adventure. I am prepared because of the people who believed in me and never gave up. The window is opened up wide onto my next adventure. See you in the next chapter.