Silver. Gold. Platinum!

Chicago! What up, what up!?

Hope everyone's doing alright--I am on day #25 of my official new life in Springfield, Missouri (AKA "Miss-er-uh" ) and can already say I miss y'all back home. (Do accents transfer over writing like that?)

Anyways, I've got quite a few stories for you surrounding the new gig as well as adjusting to life along the Mason-Dixon line. Some of them are dramatically different, some just a few things I've noticed. Nothing bad at all, just unfamiliar. And new, unfamiliar surroundings just seem funny at first--no matter who you are. When I was in New York, it was the constant need to pepper in a F-bomb into every conversation. For all I know, they could have been talking about going to Church. Didn't matter you were gonna get that F-bomb from them.

But life has been great. No way I can complain--besides the fact that I get a little homesick here and there, but that's just part of growing up I guess. I have been attending Bud Light Platinum launch parties, showing the Region VP around my territory, going to the Missouri State Suite for basketball games, and gearing up for the nationwide conference in New Orleans next month. Mardi Gras falls on Tuesday, February 21st this year and considering I will be there February 26-29, I can either count on the place still being completely rowdy...or absolutely trashed. I'm going with the latter (not gonna lie, I had to google whether I should use "former" or "latter" here...whatever). Regardless, it's going to be a blast hearing more about the future plans and seeing just how well Bud Light Platinum has been doing.

Well I moved down here New Years Day and started work Jan. 3rd by going on a truck, delivering kegs, and starting at 6am. No that's not my job, but I have to do that to learn about the wholesaler from the inside-out. Plus, I get mad street cred from the drivers and sales reps and it really helps to get to know the market and the retailers. Well Ryan...then what is your job? I've heard this many, many times and I used to have a hard time answering this because I wore so many different hats. But after a month on the job, I've thought of a good way of putting what I do.

First, I am the liaison between four wholesalers (which are independent businesses) and the brewery (Anheuser-Busch). I would say that's 30% of my job. The rest of my job is a game. It's the strategic placing of price points, packages, objectives, and missions. There are many different levers I can pull to help sales in my market and I see it all as a game I play against other competitors in order to win and gain market share and margin. Call it lame, but if you do not see your job as a competition--how can work be fun? And how do you avoid complacency?

So Ryan...what's Springfield like?

It's great. It has the feel of a college town, but with 150,000 people. It's a giant grid, so learning all of the new streets was easy. Here are just a few observations regarding my new habitat:

• Driving here is a lot different--People tend to drive quite slower than I'm used to. No really guys, you have no idea how many times I just cut someone off for the sole purpose of feeling like I'm home on I-294 at 5:00pm on a Friday
• When people ask what my last name is, naturally I respond "Hansen". Now I'm used to hearing "Ohhh, like the band" or "ohhh like Mmm-Bop" or "Ohhh, like the energy drink" (yeah I really do get that, A-B owns a majority stake in Monster which is owned by Hansen). But here I've gotten "Ohhh, like the Directory". Yes, apparently the Yellow Pages here is the Hanson Directory. That's a new one.
• The average age of a newborn's parents here has to be 18. I have seen so many young parents at Walmart with their kids, it's unbelievable. Some of my observations may be because I am just more likely to observe new surroundings now, but just an observation I have made. Maybe it's the same back home and I didn't notice before...maybe not. But the upside for them? They are all inside Chuck E. Cheese at 8:00pm on a Saturday night having the time of their life. How do I know that? I was actually there just for fun winning mad tickets on Time Crisis. Well that's just not true, but I did drive past after getting out of Best Buy on Saturday night. Seriously, Chuck E. Cheese's was bumpin ha ha.
  
• When I tell people I am new to town, I will always get asked where I am from. It's kind of funny but I never realized just how proud I am to be from Chicago. But Ryan...you're NOT from Chicago, you're from Bloomingdale--you can't say you're from Chicago if you're from the suburbs. Isn't that the common response back home if you're talking to someone that lives within the city limits? My response to that is that I put mustard on my Gene & Jude's hot dog, I "talk funny", drive fast and talk faster, and I live and die by the Cubs & Bulls. As far as I'm concerned, I am Chicago.
  

There are many, many more examples of things I have noticed, but I will post more as I go I guess.

But anyways, I know you all might be getting sick of me talking about it, but Bud Light Platinum comes out January 30th....in 5 days!! I can't speak enough about how much of a game changer this beer is going to be. Not only is the liquid good, but it's a badge people will carry around the bars. The sleek, hip bottle plus the great marketing campaign going behind it are enough to ensure you that it will be my beer of choice, besides the greatest and highest quality beer made of all time: Budweiser.

Lately, I've taken more time to become familiar with my territory of Southwest Missouri. My territory includes Lake of the Ozarks (e'erybody better come down for at least a week to party here--it's great. Just google "Lake of the Ozarks Party Cove", that will answer any questions), Lebanon ("Leb-a-nun"), Springfield, Nevada (actually pronounced "Neh-VAY-Duh", not "Ne-VAH-duh" like Vegas), and yes, Joplin.

I spent time in Joplin, Missouri last Friday and let me tell you...what an eye-opener. For those of you that don't know, Joplin is the town that was hit with a horrible tornado last year which devastated the community. I remember hearing about it on the news and thinking how horrible it was, but it's just that it was so far removed from home it almost didn't seem real. Well, let me tell you...it's mad real. I drove through the town and the devastation looks like the tornado hit yesterday. Still lots or wreckage and crushed hospitals. Now, of course they cleaned it up some, but how can you clean up a town in just 8 months. It wasn't the wreckage of broken pipes, houses, lumber, etc that got me..it was seeing things within that wreckage like a shirt, refrigerator, and household items that made it seem so real. I didn't take any pictures, but go ahead and google Joplin tornado and it will look the same as it did when I went through Friday. There's a very dramatic YouTube clip of the tornado hitting a gas station...and to think that I was just in the rebuilt version of that gas station on the same land really was unbelievable. Here are a couple of pictures of Joplin:

Makes you thankful for all that you have.

But on a happier note, I have been attending Bud Light Platinum Launch parties at night these past couple weeks and the turnout and feedback have been great. Here are a few pictures I have taken from the Bud Light Platinum Facebook Page:

Exciting stuff!

Sorry for the long post, more to come soon!

I'm trying to make a trip back home soon to see everyone, looking forward to going Platinum with ya!

--Ryan