Week four. We are four weeks in, and if the first week taught us that growth doesn’t knock politely, week four taught us that neither do the strangers. Or the dogs. Or the men trying to recruit us into the automotive industry.

But let’s start from the beginning.

Life on Turf: People, Surprises, and the Full Spectrum of Dogs

There’s something that happens after a few weeks on the turf — you stop being surprised that people are surprising. You tell yourself you expect the unexpected, right up until a man gets dragged past you down a residential street by a dog the size of a small car, and you realize that no, actually, you were not prepared for that. Michael stood there, watched it happen, and moved on — because at this point in the summer, that’s just a Tuesday.

What made it better was what came later: the smallest dog any of us have ever seen. Confident. Unbothered. Living its best life. He thought about both dogs for a while. Somewhere between those two animals is probably a decent metaphor for this summer, though we haven’t quite worked out what it is yet. Michael also spotted two gorgeous vintage cars — a Buick and a Chevelle — parked at the curb like they’d driven in from another decade. On a day like that, you take the beauty where you find it.

The Bag, the House, and the Walk of Mild Shame

Parvin had a solid interaction at a house this week, said his goodbyes, and walked away with the confident stride of someone who had just nailed it. He got halfway down the block before realizing his book bag was still inside — the family had taken it in. Which meant turning around, walking back up the same driveway, and knocking the same door to ask for his own bag back. The family was gracious. Parvin was humble. The bag was retrieved. We have been informed this will never happen again, and we have chosen to believe him.

Hugs, Beards, and a Career Pivot Nobody Asked For

Matthias, meanwhile, was having what can only be described as a variety show of a day. It started with a Ukrainian woman opening her door and, before he had much of a chance to say anything, pulling him into a real hug. The kind that comes from genuine warmth, from someone who perhaps recognized something in the face of a young person far from home, still showing up, still knocking. He said it was one of those moments that just stays with you, and we believe him completely.

Later, a man offered him a job at a car dealership on the spot — no interview, no process, just a sincere offer extended on a residential doorstep in South Dakota. Matthias said no, though the alternate timeline where he said yes has kept us entertained for days. And then, as if the day needed one final chapter, he met a man with the biggest beard any of us have ever seen. Not big in a casual way. Big in a way that suggests a decision was made years ago and has never once been reconsidered. There’s something almost inspiring about that, if you think about it long enough.

The Gifts That Keep Coming

And then there is Liisa. We have to talk about Liisa, because at this point it would be irresponsible not to. Week after week, at door after door, something happens that simply does not happen for the rest of us. This week, a family gave her a fancy water bottle. A good one. Unprompted, unearned in any technical sense, just offered — because apparently that is what Americans do when Liisa shows up at their door.

The rest of the team is out here running every technique we know, and Liisa is out here being gifted quality hydration equipment by strangers who met her four minutes ago. We have stopped trying to explain it. We have accepted it as one of the fixed truths of this summer, like the heat, and the long drives, and the fact that Parvin will probably leave something behind at least one more time before August.

Sunday at the Falls

Every week needs a moment where you step away from the doors and just breathe, and this week that moment came on Sunday at Falls Park. Sioux Falls, as it turns out, is named after something genuinely worth naming a city after. The waterfall sits right in the middle of the park, loud and completely unbothered by everything around it — the kind of thing that makes you stop mid-sentence and just look.

What It’s Really About

What week four gave us, more than anything, was a reminder that this summer keeps feeling bigger than it looked on paper. We came here thinking the job was about what happens at the door. Turns out the door is just the beginning — it’s everything behind it that matters. A hug you didn’t see coming. A bag retrieved with a smile. A man and his dog going somewhere urgent. A water bottle handed over for no reason other than kindness. And a waterfall on a Sunday afternoon, reminding you that some things are just beautiful, simply and completely, without needing to mean anything more than that.

The books are the reason we knock. The people — and the occasional waterfall — are the reason we remember.

By the Numbers

Behind the retrieved book bags, the enormous beards, and the mysterious gift-giving tendencies of the American public, there is an unyielding mountain of hard work. A few strange encounters on the turf have never once stopped Team 7UP from putting in the numbers — and this week was no different.

Here is exactly how the raw data from Week 4 shook out compared to our cumulative, all-time stats so far:

Metric	Last Week
Doors Knocked	4 409
Calls Made	1 953
Demos Done	1 284
Sitdowns	479

Let’s keep growing

Week five is already here. The doors are already waiting. Somewhere out there is another Ukrainian woman, another man with a beard, another family who is going to hand Liisa something wonderful for no reason, and another dog — large or small, we genuinely cannot predict — who is going to make someone’s afternoon very interesting.

We wouldn’t have it any other way. Here’s to week five, and to Team 7UP, still standing. 🚪✨

— Team 7UP

Goodbye, Rapid City

They say true growth happens when you leave your comfort zone. They also say that if you spend more than three weeks knocking on doors in one place, the locals start recognizing you and inviting you to their barbecues – which is terrible for our sales metrics.

Sunday officially marked the arrival of The Great Migration. We spent the early morning hours packing up our entire lives, our massive boxes of books, and whatever lingering fragments of sanity we had left. It was a morning soundtracked by emotional, deeply grateful goodbyes to our absolutely saintly host families in Rapid City. These wonderful people took us in, tolerated our erratic direct-sales schedules, and treated us like their own. Saying goodbye was genuinely tough.

Leaving them felt less like a standard moving day and more like Christopher McCandless heading Into the Wild – except, you know, we had air conditioning, a fleet of sedans, and a trunk full of educational literature instead of a tragic lack of preparation. We traded the rocky peaks of Rapid City for the uncharted territory of Sioux Falls. The trek across South Dakota wasn’t just a drive; it was a transition into a wild safari of the weird, the wonderful, and the flat-out baffling.

Tales from the Turf: Cats, Roof Dogs, and Collapsing Bicycles

Matthias had the kind of week that belongs in a book. It opened with him rounding a corner and finding a cat in the middle of eating a squirrel – calmly, on a front lawn, in broad daylight. He stood there for a moment, recalibrated his understanding of American suburbia, and knocked the next door anyway. Later, a group of Native Americans stopped him on the street and asked for a photo, telling him he was simply too cute to walk past without documentation. He is not handling this memory modestly, and we fully support that. Somewhere in between, he found his favorite car – a vintage beauty in someone’s driveway that looked like it had been waiting specifically for him – and climbed right in.

While Matthias was discovering his modeling potential, Gabriel was capturing the true “Duality of Man” on the turf. He balanced his poetic side – taking breathtaking, cinematic photos of the South Dakota sunset – with his chaotic side, pairing those pristine skies with high-sass selfies and a hilarious photo pointing his backside directly at the camera to summarize his feelings on a tough rejection.

Liisa’s week produced the quote of the summer. She was walking her route when she looked up and saw two dogs standing on a roof. Not the porch. The actual roof. Just up there, watching the street, completely unbothered. Her reaction was immediate: “I knew that in the States things are different, but I did not know that they were this different.”

Luise, meanwhile, encountered a doorbell that sounds like the opening of a horror film – not a chime, not a friendly ding, that sound – and then had her bicycle fall completely apart under a well-meaning prospect who had confidently offered to fix it, declared it repaired, and taken it out for a test ride to prove his work. Full structural collapse, mid-ride, while Luise watched from the driveway. There is no photo of the exact moment, which is the only real tragedy.

Michael’s week had a quieter energy – good sky, a squirrel on a fence that looked like it owned the whole street, and a selfie with a talking parrot at someone’s door. Not a parrot making vague noise. One that made eye contact and spoke. As someone on the team put it: we came to sell books and ended up making friends with a bird.

And then, as if to bring everything back to earth – leadership arrived and filmed themselves dancing to “Wiggle.” Full commitment. Zero irony. Every single second of it.

By the Numbers

Behind the talking parrots, the imploding bicycles, and the roof-dwelling canine security guards, there is an unyielding mountain of hard work. We absolutely refused to let the anticipation of a 350-mile relocation slow down our momentum during our final days in Rapid City.

Here is exactly how the raw data from Week 3 shook out compared to our cumulative, all-time stats so far:

Metric	Last Week (Week 3)	All Time So Far
Doors Knocked	5 130	11 247
Calls Made	2 251	5 028
Demos Done	1 465	3 244
Sitdowns	551	1 139

Sioux Falls: Your Turn

New city, new doors, new stories already forming at the edges. Week 3 reminded us that growth doesn’t always happen at the destination – sometimes it happens on the drive, in the goodbye, in the first night somewhere new where you’re figuring it out anyway. Mari, Liisa, Luise, Parvin, Matthias, Gabriel, Michael – seven different versions of the same summer, happening inside one team of independent leaders.

Sioux Falls doesn’t know what’s coming. Same team, new town, more journey ahead. 🚗

Well, we made it. Seven days in, and Team 7UP is still standing – sunburnt, slightly blistered, but standing. If you’d told us a week ago that knocking on a stranger’s door could feel like both the scariest and most exciting thing we’ve ever done, we might not have believed you. But here we are, and what a ride it’s already been.

Welcome to our first official blog post from the road. Grab a coffee, settle in, and let us take you through Week 1 of our Southwestern Advantage summer.

Life on Turf: Mornings, Miles, and Mental Gymnastics

Our days start earlier than most of us are used to. Turns out “door-to-door” really does mean door to door, and by the end of some days, our legs were filing official complaints.

The weather this week couldn’t make up its mind. One day we were melting under a relentless sun, sweat-soaked shirts and all, and the very next day we were pulling on jackets against a sudden cold snap, with a bit of rain thrown in just to keep things interesting. South Dakota, it seems, likes to keep us guessing.

But here’s what surprised us most: every single door – yes, no, or “please don’t come back” – taught us something. Sometimes it was about our pitch. Sometimes it was about ourselves. And sometimes it was simply a reminder that rejection isn’t personal, it’s just Tuesday.

The People Behind the Doors

This week really hammered home that this job isn’t about selling – it’s about people. Every one of us walked away with a story, a lesson, or at least a good laugh.

Liisa reflected on something we all felt deeply this week: how having an amazing team makes everything easier. “It makes the mornings and nights funner,” she said, “and it’s like a reminder that we are in this together, while each of us is writing their own story.” Honestly, hard to put it better than that.

Matthias had one of the funniest moments of the week – a dog that wanted to be pet non-stop, to the point where he genuinely couldn’t leave the doorstep. Between giggles, he shared the bigger lesson he took from the week: having a positive attitude and not being too harsh on yourself is what helps the most. “At least with me,” he added with a grin.

Michael had a quieter but powerful realization this week: he found himself genuinely grateful just to be alive. He met so many amazing people that it made everything worth it – sometimes, he said, one person can turn an entire day around.

Liisa also came back with quite the haul this week – two bibles, a statue of Jesus, and a Christian-themed under-plate mat, among other things. She’s joked that at this rate, she’ll be “really religious” by the end of the summer. We’re not entirely sure what the families are trying to tell her, but we love the generosity (and the comedy).

And then there was Matthias’s encounter with a very enthusiastic dog who decided he simply could not leave – the pup wanted pets and wanted them forever. Matthias laughed it off and said the real lesson of the week wasn’t about the dog at all: it was learning to keep a positive attitude and not be too hard on yourself when things don’t go perfectly. Words to live by, honestly.

And then there’s Gabriel and Michael’s new favorite hobby: standing at the door and dramatically yelling “IS ANYBODY HOME?!” the moment a knock goes unanswered. What started as a joke has now become a full bit, complete with sound effects and increasingly theatrical delivery. No word yet on whether it’s improved their numbers, but it’s definitely improved team morale. Also, would you rather eat a pound of a brick or a matter baby? 😉

As you can see in the photos, these moments – funny, heartfelt, or completely unexplainable – are what make this week feel real. Strangers becoming part of our story, one doorstep at a time.

Mount Rushmore: A Surreal Detour

On Sunday, we took a trip to Mount Rushmore – and wow. Seeing those faces carved into the mountainside in person hit differently than any postcard or photo ever could. There was something almost surreal about standing there, in the middle of our first big adventure away from home, looking up at a monument to ambition and legacy.

As you can see in the photos, the views were stunning – but more than that, it felt like a much-needed reminder of why we’re here: to challenge ourselves, grow, and create something we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.

Sunday Reflections: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Our Sunday trip to Rushmore doubled as our team reflection day – equal parts adventure and gut-check. Standing in front of something so massive and permanent made our own first-week wobbles feel a little smaller, and our goals for Week 2 a little clearer: more confidence at the door, faster pivots when things don’t go to plan, and continuing to lean on each other – because, as Mari reminded us, we’re in this together.

Looking Ahead

Week 1 taught us that growth doesn’t knock politely – it shows up uninvited, a little messy, and completely worth it. We’re tired, we’re learning, and we’re just getting started.

Here’s to Week 2, and to Team 7UP continuing to turn nerves into courage, one door at a time. 🚪✨

The beginning

There’s a moment – somewhere between the fourth role-play of the morning and the realization that you genuinely cannot feel your legs anymore – when you look around the room and think: okay, this is actually happening. That was Sales School in Nashville, Tennessee. Seven people who already knew each other, standing together at the edge of something genuinely bigger than anything we’d done before.

Welcome to the official first chapter of Team 7UP’s summer story.

The grind (aka: Nashville didn’t let us laze)

If you imagined Sales School as a breezy orientation with some motivational posters and a team lunch, we are here to lovingly correct that picture. The schedule was relentless. Early mornings, packed sessions, constant movement. The kind of week where you go to bed already reviewing what you’ll practice tomorrow, and wake up wondering if you ever stopped.

But here’s the thing nobody warns you about: the exhaustion felt good. Every early alarm, every rehearsal, every moment of stepping in front of the room when you’d rather disappear into your chair – it was all pointing somewhere. Experienced Southwestern leaders walked us through the real stuff: not just the product, not just the pitch, but the mindset. How to handle a door that closes fast. How to reset after a rough hour. How to keep showing up when showing up is the hardest part.

Team 7UP – seven youngsters, one crew

Our name isn’t just a fun reference (though yes, the fizzy drink parallel is very much intentional – we’re bubbly, we lift things up, and we go well with everything). 7UP means seven people, fully committed, moving upward together. And somewhere between the shared meals, the late-night conversations, and the moments of genuine “I can’t believe I just did that” – we became a team in the truest sense.

Mari, Liisa, Luise, Parvin, Matthias, Gabriel, and Michael. Seven completely different people with different backgrounds, different fears, and different strengths. By the end of the week, those differences weren’t dividing us – they were the whole point.

Gabriel: 
Watching our group come together over just a few days was my favorite part of Sales School. Seeing everyone buy into the vision, support each other, and push toward the same goal. That team spirit carried straight into the field, and seeing it show up in the hard moments made it all worth it.

Liisa:
My favorite memory from Sales School is all of us singing together in the ballroom. One of those simple moments that somehow says everything about who we are as a team.

Matthias:
My favorite moment was when we sat down and shared our WHYs - completely honest, straight from the heart. What surprised me most? I can make people laugh, and people genuinely enjoy being around me. That was something I hadn't expected to discover this summer.

Mari:
My core memories are the morning meetings full of fresh knowledge and the approach sessions - brutally difficult, but the moments I felt most alive. And the roommate ceremony is something I'll never forget

Parvin:
Getting a photo with Dave Brown and hearing him speak was my favorite moment - so many ideas, so much energy. What surprised me most was my own calm consistency. This work feels like part of me, and that quiet realization pushed me to want to go even harder.

Luise:
I was genuinely proud of everyone. Sales School isn't easy, and watching every single person keep pushing with a good attitude, day after day, meant a lot to me.

Michal: 
I loved every bit of the intensity. Sun, rain, all of it. Schedule and attitude above everything, always. But my favorite moment was assignment night, when we made a pledge to our roommates, like some kind of sales school sorority. Unforgettable.

June 2nd – Happy Birthday, Gabriel!

One of our favorite moments of the whole week had nothing to do with training. On June 2nd, right in the middle of Sales School, we got to celebrate Gabriel’s birthday. There is something genuinely special about spending a birthday surrounded by people who are becoming your people – in a city that doesn’t sleep, at the start of an adventure that’s just getting started. Gabriel, we hope your birthday in Nashville was one to remember. (We’re fairly sure it was.)

What’s next

Sales School is over. The real summer is beginning.

Somewhere out there, families are going about their mornings with no idea that one of us is about to knock on their door. Kids who might flip through our books for the first time. Conversations that haven’t happened yet. Doors we haven’t reached. Miles we haven’t driven. Versions of ourselves we haven’t met.

Team 7UP is ready. We are nervous and excited and everything in between, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.