Mitch's 15-minutes of Fame

Below is an article that was written about Mitch for the upcoming summer of selling in Chicago. This is posted on the APX Alarm Systems website but we just copied and pasted it for everyone to enjoy!
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Mitch Watkins: Sales Pitch Anyone? --by Jessica Stewart April 8, 2008



Provo, Utah - One of the few first year reps that Brown Region Manager Devin Arp will talk about his hopes for is new salesman Mitch Watkins.
Watkins is a neighbor and friend of Arp’s, who has make some of the biggest sacrifices and taken the biggest risks of anyone in the 2008 office.
Mitch, who has been working as a plumber for the past few years and had planned on continuing on in that career, has recently bought a house and has a young family to support. In making the decision to work at Apx, Mitch had to also decide to leave a steady job that was to be his career and put his trust in his manager’s training and counsel.
I ask Watkins what made him make such a 180 degree turn toward Apx’s alarm program, and he tells me that a big part of it was the potential for increased success.
“In my other job, I found that I was working really hard, I was one of the hardest workers at my job, and I really wasn’t getting much out of my hard work. I talked to Devin and found that Apx is a place where you get rewarded for your hard work because you basically set your own salary.”
Mitch also tells me that he’s making this move for his family.
“I want to be the best provider for my family, and I know that nothing is rewarded in life without taking a risk first. Obviously it is a risk to come out and sell during the summer, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take in order to be the best provider I can be for my family.”
And Mitch is already putting a lot of effort into the job preseason. Manager Devin Arp tells me that one of the reasons he is so hopeful for Mitch is his work ethic.
“Every week we do trainings at my house, and I tell him what to work on for next week, and he always does that and more. If I tell him to memorize something, it’s memorized - word for word.”
When I ask him about it, Mitch tells me that he really has been working hard to improve.
“After every training I do with Devin, I come home and just go over everything for like half an hour.”
Mitch also tells me that he is constantly doing sales presentations to his wife and in-laws. He also makes a pitch to every couple or friend that they invite to their house.
“It’s a little more comfortable for me to pitch a friend in my own home than it is a stranger on a doorstep, but you’d be surprised at the feedback. They always let me know how I can improve, and it really helps.”
Pitching his friends and family for practice? This guy is DEDICATED.
While Mitch was still working 50 hours a week and going to school, he was fitting in as much training as he could. Now that he has left his former job, he plans on spending even more time doing preseason selling and training with Devin.
“I really appreciate the time and the way Devin has been training me. He is more open to let me choose when I am ready to make pitches, and wants to find the most effective way for me to learn,” he says.
Watkins tells me that having watched Arp sell a few accounts and having sold one preseason account himself, he is feeling much more comfortable with his pitch, and is very excited for the impending summer.

The Living Aquarium

This was a pretty fun exhibit in Sandy, I think it's pretty new. It was worth checking out. I got a pretty cool shot of a jellyfish too!

The tunnels were probably their favorite part!

Ok, so it's not real, but it's still a pretty cool picture!

I thought it was hilarious that they have a tank of eels in front of them but Madison and Emma are more interested in Kenzie's crying.

This was pretty neat becaue the sharks weren't afraid to swim right next to the glass so you got a pretty good look at them!




Holding hands inbetween exhibits

More Zoo Pictures

We tried to get a good picture of all the kids on the cougar. Lets just say it didn't work...

Here are Emma and Madison (Madison is Emma's cousin) hugging.
They didn't quite know when to let go, so they took a tumble!

Our trip to the Zoo

We went to the zoo last week with the Williams and all the kids loved it. Emma especially loved the turtles. In the picture below she had gotten underneath the bar and was walking along the glass, following the turtle as it swam.

Max, Madison, and Emma in their animal hats (an elephant, giraffe, and turtle).

Poor Kenzie enduring the long day at the zoo.

More pictures of the girls

Emma just adores Kenzie!
Kenzie is such a chunk and such a cutie. It's nice that this picture displays both!! :)
Even though it looks like Emma is in "time out" she is looking at her toys that she stashs on the side of the refridgerator. Mitch likes to call it her "Toy Cache".

Emma walked around in Mitch's shirt for about 20 mintues and even then she didn't want us to take it off her.

When Emma gets excited she pulls out what we like to call her "squat and walk"! (I guess technically it's a "stoop and walk"!)

Kenzie started laughing the other day and it was so adorable we had to get it on video. But as soon as you pull the camera out the laughing stops, of course. We did catch a little in the very first couple seconds of the video, luckily!

Emma the Mother

Emma has become quite the mimicker as of late. She loves to get her baby (which we think she calls Kenzie also) and do with it what I'm doing with Kenzie. The other day I was wiping Kenzie's mouth off after she had spit up. Once Emma had observed this, she went and got her baby and started licking the baby's face and brought it over to me for me to wipe the "spit up" off of her baby. Now I think she is trying to mother not only her baby but all of her stuffed animals too. This morning I walked in her room and found her like this, trying to put her sock (from off her right foot) on her stuffed monkey.

Catch up!

It's been awhile since the last post so here's whats been going on at our house lately.....

Emma just doing her daily activities

Emma loves her Opa. Usually in the moring when I go in to get her out of her crib she is calling for me by repeating "Daddy, Daddy" over and over again. (She can say Momma but she still chooses to call me Daddy most the time.) But the other day when I went to get her out of her crib she was calling "Oooopa, Oooopa!" and when I came in the door instead of her Opa she was most definitely disappointed.

Kenzie's Blessing

It's hard to believe she is almost 3 months old now. She's such an angel.