The Sweetest Internship Ever
By Guest on Sep 14 Filed In Austin, Texas, Intern 2 Comments
-Post by Kyle Lloyd, Intern-Rock Star
Over the past several years, Sweet Leaf Tea has been my (non-alcoholic) drink of choice anywhere that I can find it. I remember reading the story on the label about how Clayton and David started the company and being amazed to see how far they’ve come. As the years have progressed, I’ve started to see Sweet Leaf Tea almost everywhere! I can buy it on campus, at gas stations, in the grocery store, at restaurants, etc. I was even able to get one while I was visiting LA! As a side note, Mango Green Tea is my favorite, YUM! What is your favorite?
I originally moved to Austin from the small exurb town of Marble Falls in January of 2004. I thought I knew what to expect, but I was completely wrong! This city is one of the most amazing places in this country. It’s a blue dot in a sea of red – without being too extreme. It’s full of vegetarians that eat meat, runners that smoke cigarettes, Prius owners that also own SUVs, a homeless transsexual that ran for mayor, hipsters that listen to country music, and original hippies that now work for the state. It’s a very “weird” and unique city and everyone here is welcomed to be the person that they truly are. What more could I possibly ask for?
I was never interested in following the traditional path of dorm-apartment-house-graduate. In fact, I have never been interested in doing anything traditional. I moved into my own apartment and began taking my basic courses. I started business school at Texas State in 2008. I’ve always known that I wanted to go to business school, because I’ve inherited the entrepreneurial spirit from generations on both sides of my family. I took my first marketing class with Prof. Murdoch at the beginning of 2008 and I was hooked!
>>FLASH FORWARD<<
I was sitting in a meeting this summer (2009) for my organization, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), and Prof. Vicki West presented us with an opportunity for a marketing internship at Sweet Leaf in Austin. This was too good to be true! I sped home, typed up a cover letter expressing my incalculable interest in the internship, and sent it away to Happy Mercado. Before I knew it, he offered me an interview and I nearly flipped my weave! The interview went extremely well and the three days I had to wait for a response seemed like an eternity!
I GOT IT!!! The first day, Happy introduced me to all the wonderful people that work in the office, and I knew that I was going to fit right in. They are all so warm and welcoming, including the CEO, Clayton and David the Co-Founder. I am on the 4th day of the semester long internship and it’s everything that I expected, plus some!
Last Saturday was my first event, the Lone Star Karate open (pictures below, I’m in the tan polo). Since I truly believe in the product, I naturally had no problem with teaching people about all the flavors, product attributes, Sweet Leaf’s history, and places for them to purchase the product. I even had one woman tell me, “You honestly just made my day! I am diabetic and I love sweet tea, but I have been unable to drink it. I was not aware of your product until now, but I can assure you I will be purchasing the Diet Original from now on – it tastes exactly like the real thing! Thanks you guys!”
I know that this internship is going to change my views about what working for a genuine company is all about. Every time I come in to work, there is always something new and different for me to work on. In fact, last Friday I helped out doing some demos at store grand openings and on Labor Day, I was at the Austin Triathlon promoting our products. Did I see you there? Keep checking back in to hear about all the exciting things that will be going on here at Sweet Leaf!
[...] me, Carolyn, and Jon (sadly Kyle was sick and missed out on the fun), the new Fall ’09 interns, worked tirelessly all afternoon at [...]
[...] all kinds of cool events around Austin and hand out free Sweet Leaf Tea. My first event was at a karate tournament, which was really awesome! Overall, I’ve been getting some great experience with the marketing [...]