team boatright.

"ive had 200 people walk through my door telling me that they would be the perfect candidate for this position, but none of them was a "Will". they were businessmen with all types of degrees and experience, but as soon as Will walked through my door, i forgot about every one of them." -- CEO of forestry systems, inc.

i've known Will for a long time and never in my life have i ever seen him as excited and happy about a job. his new job is probably ranked up there with hunting, fishing, his truck, and (of course) me :)
he stumbled upon the company almost by accident and went in to interview even after he discovered that it was an office job (which he has always told me he would never want to have). the position was in the sales department - selling handheld computers that have completely revolutionized the timber and logging industry. the handhelds do all of the gps coordinating, mapping, tracking, and analysis of large plots of land that was previously done by hand and poor estimation. they can tell exactly how much lumber the company can get out of any type of property, and also the locations that are prime for the pickin and the ones that need to mature a little longer. after his interview i helped him do a little bit of research about the company, the industry, and their competition. well....at least i thought that i was helping him. as it turns out Will has an inner businessman side of him that i never even knew about! his report was truly inspiring and i was not the only one who thought that because as soon as he went in for his second interview he got the job! Pat, his new boss, was so impressed with his knowledge of the forestry industry that he put him in a research and development position for a new timber cruising handheld that is only in its prototype stages. he asked Will to use his experience and understanding of the companies that make up the industry to add new features and components that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. Will worked with the IT guy and by the end of last week had developed three new features to implement into the final product. he told me about his thought process and how well the company responded to his innovative ideas - they started working on the application technology that very same day! i was so proud of him and even got a little teary when he was telling me about everything. most things he says go right over my head, but what i do understand is that this job is going to change our lives. he has done well for himself in all of the previous jobs before this one, but the type of jobs that he did were starting to wear on him, mostly physically but mentally too. this is the opportunity of a lifetime and i am so happy that he has found his niche in the business world.


which leads me to the team boatright part of the story....


for my graduate marking class, our senior project is to develop a multi-level marketing strategy for a local business, working with a professional marketing executive. i was chosen as project manager for my team - apprentice style! :)  after all that i had learned from Will, i asked him if he thought it would be okay for me to use forestry systems, inc. as the selected business to do the project for. he thought it was a great idea and the plan was set in motion. i met with his boss today and went over the specifics of what the project entails and how the end result will benefit his company. at first he was a little skeptical; i think he has very strong opinions about people involved with his company "thinking outside the textbook." i reassured him that this was not going to be a cut and paste project, but that we would be doing intense research and strategizing to expand his customer base and potentially gain access into a new target market all together. i was hoping for a little more enthusiam, but i think this is just going to be one of those things that i have to prove it, instead of just trying to convince him with fancy marketing/textbook words. the benefit of team boatright should not be underestimated! not only will i be able to learn a lot of in-depth information from Will, which will in turn make my project awesome, but he will also learn a lot from me and will be able to use all of my marketing guru knowledge when he goes out into the business world and sells his genius new device. when Will told Pat a little bit about me last week, he expressed a slight interest in bringing me on as part of Will's timber cruiser department. hopefully this project will show him that team boatright could become one of his secret weapons to dominate in the forestry services industry.


in other good news, i had submitted an essay to glamour magazine as part of their annual "real life read" competition. out of thousands of applicants, i got second place! although my essay will not be featured in the magazine, i was contacted by one of the editors requesting an interview with me. she said that deciding between myself and the winner was extremely difficult, and even though i didn't "win" per say, she still wants to do a piece on me, and how Will and I got to where we are today. she told me how compelled her staff was by "our story" when she called me last night for the interview. the staff members at the magazine who are assigned to the feature are going to do some supplemental research and will be in touch with me soon to put all of the final pieces together. i almost cannot believe this is really happening!


so...... i guess you could say that things have been looking up for us lately. we had a great weekend over on bronco lane with grandma and grandpa gertz, dad, michael, sara, corey and the adorable (10 month old) isaac. i had such a great time with everyone, especially my dad. we could not stop laughing... although i noticed that when him and Will get together, they are usually the ones who laugh the most. when it comes to teasing me, they are great together. it reminds me a lot of how my brother and dad used to pick on my mom a lot (lovingly of course) when i was growing up. and all she had to do to get them to stop was put on a pouty face. i have taken lessons from her and have found that i can pout my way into getting an apology (even if they're still laughing about it) and lots of hugs from my two favorite men.