After years of helping run two different family companies I decided to try a change and made a move into retail. I joined Barnes & Noble as a Bookseller and quickly moved around the store to take on many roles and responsibilities. When I was in the store I was focused on making connections with all of our guests, making each of them feel more important than they did when they came in. I will never forget my customer Tommy, I wrote a short story for our Barnes & Noble insider and my story was selected and featured. While working at GameStop I would host launch parties for different games or game consoles that were hitting the market. As a way to standout and gain traffic to my location, I would utilize the connections I’ve made over the years. For the launch of the NFL game ‘Madden20’, I realized I could standout in a big way; some months earlier I had a customer come into the store looking for action figures and it turned out it was two time Super Bowl champion Terrell Suggs. I contacted Mr. Suggs and asked if I provided the items to autograph, would he be willing to sign them to be raffled off throughout the launch event, he was more than happy to help. Once I had the items collected I took to my stores social media page and blasted it with pictures and hashtags to drive that traffic into my store. My store had the highest number of pre-orders for that game in my district and I was above the company average for pre-orders for that title. When the night of the launch arrived I had the highest turnout for a sports game my district leader had ever seen; I had different games and activities that could earn you a raffle ticket to win the signed items as well as some ‘Madden20’ related prizes. Creating events to bring awareness to a product or event has been something I have enjoyed doing and excel in with proven results.Find me on Twitch: twitch.tv/mazzaldaxFind me on Instagram: @theflowergirlm