My Focus Group Adventures

This past week I was in Chicago for some focus groups, and as usual I came home with some entertaining stories.

In my second group of the day there was a woman who seemed a little distracted. I would ask her a question and the answer I received was about 5 minutes long and never actually answered the question. So, as usual with people like this, I tried to steer clear of her during the remainder of the conversation, only letting her speak occasionally and cutting her off when she was running too long or getting off topic. When the group was over she came up to me and started apologizing for being "unnerved." She then proceeded to tell me that she had found her neighbor dead that morning, "staring her right in the face." Ummmmm... Didn't really know how to respond to that. So I just told her that I appreciated her comments and that I thought she did a great job in the group, especially considering what had happened. And then... we hugged it out. Yup, that's right, she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a huge hug. The way people open up to me completely amazes me sometimes. You might as well call me Oprah.

After the groups were over we went to dinner with the client. Now, this wasn't just any ol' dinner at the local Sizzler. By client request, we went to Gibson's (a bling, bling steakhouse). How did I know it was bling? Two things clued me in... first, ALL the customers were white businessmen over 50 - seriously, my client and I were pretty much the only women in there besides the waitresses. Second clue, the waiter brought out a plate of raw steaks to show us the cut and size of each of the featured meats. I couldn't stop laughing to myself. I felt SOOOO out of place. And to make matters worse... I ordered FISH. So, here I am this 24-year-old GIRL sitting amongst these men eating their big fat steaks. It was like one of those children's puzzles... which one of these things doesn't belong?

The final story actually happened back here in LA at my groups yesterday. In one of the groups was this woman (50-ish) who represented the exact reason I no longer fake bake and why I remain adamant about wearing sunscreen on my face 24/7. She was pure leather - I'm not kidding. This picture to the right should give you a pretty good idea of what I was looking at for 2 hours (though, the lady in the group was fully clothed). I should look back at the tapes of the groups, because I'm pretty sure I was just staring at her the whole time. Ladies, it's just not worth it! Do the spray-on.

More focus group adventures soon to come...