Here's What My Trip To Africa Taught Me About B2B Sales!

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Hey folks. Um, if you're watching this, then I'm on my new camera. Um, I'm kind of doing this. I don't want to say it's a throwaway video, but I'm not answering questions in this video because I just came back from Africa and I have a bit bit of a different setup. So, I'm just going to use this video to kind of talk a little bit about my trip to Africa. So, hopefully that's interesting. It's not software engineering related necessarily, but just kind of a catch-up video. Um, that way if I check out the audio in the video for this one, it's not necessarily throwaway. Um, if it's not perfect kind of thing, but at least I know what to tune. So, why am I on a new camera? Well, I just went to Africa, like I said, and uh when I was traveling between two of the locations, um I I brought my vlogging camera so that my wife would be able to record videos while I take pictures.

And uh I guess I left my camera at one of the the hotel rooms in Africa. And so I noticed like basically after a day of traveling to the next location and then it took me like four four attempts I think on the fifth one they responded actually um but four attempts leading up to that uh to contact the hotel and they were like oh like we can't your camera is not here we don't see it and I'm like pardon my language like that's kind of because like what do you What do you mean the camera's not there? Like I literally left it in the room. So, um it was there because it's not with me. Anyway, um instead of making a big deal about it while traveling in Africa, um I just said, "Okay, well, I guess time to get a new camera." So, this one is upgraded.

Um we'll see if the video comes out any better. And uh I actually when I get back to making normal YouTube videos at my desk, I should be able to use this camera as an upgrade. Um so we'll see how that goes. But um it's a little bit different because my my other one just had uh sort of like a fixed built-in lens. And this one actually has the the removable ones like my my Sony Alpha uh that I have for like taking pictures in my normal YouTube videos. And so it's kind of cool. I I should be able like I've already tried it out like I can interchange my other lenses with this one. And I'm just hoping the quality and stuff is better overall, but we'll see. So yeah, I was in Africa for uh just under two weeks.

I guess before getting into some of the Africa details, um another funny thing leading up to it is uh if you've watched my my recent videos leading up to my Africa trip, my car that I'm in right now uh was having some issues. In fact, it had issues on the road right about here where I'm driving. And you can't probably tell cuz it's dark, but I was going up this hill that I'm currently driving on. And what ended up happening is that um the car on its own went into neutral. So literally coming around this corner right here, it was just revving like uh way higher than that. Um so it was probably I don't know topping out uh right at red line. And I was like, "Well, what the hell is going on? There's no power, but it's revving really high." And so I looked down and I was like, "Wait a second." Like the car is the car's in neutral.

And um like so obviously, and maybe it's not obvious if you're uh if you don't know too much about cars, which is fine, but um instead of being in drive or in a particular gear, the shifter showed that it was in neutral. and like my hands uh are up at the steering wheel. So like I didn't do that. It did it on its own. At the same time uh like leading up to this the check engine light had come on. Um, and so it seems like I don't know, like not necessarily exactly limp mode, but like a protection mode is what I interpreted as like if the check engine light was on, the car doesn't think that something's right and it's protecting itself.

But the really bizarre thing is that usually when a car goes into limp mode or some type of protective state, this is in like generally speaking for vehicles, um what it would want to protect against as well is like high RPMs for the engine because if you're blasting more fuel into the engine and trying to get it to to operate faster, like that's probably not what you want to be doing if you can't trust that things are safe. So, kind of a bizarre thing, right? Like those things don't really agree with each other. I thought it was limp mode of some sort, some type of productive state because it took it out of drive. Um, but it wasn't limiting the RPMs. And so, I had pulled over, um, you know, turned off the car, turned it back on, still had a check engine light, and just kind of putted my way home uh cuz I was only a couple minutes away.

So, um, I brought it into the Mercedes dealer for service and, you know, uh, I actually it's it's super close to where I live. I I really enjoy the service, uh, sort of rep that I have there. Uh, they've always been super awesome for me. And uh you know I guess within a day like the next day basically uh it was a weird time to get it brought in but the next day uh they let me know like they sent a video which is super cool. They kind of walk through they're like hey we noticed that um you know when we were checking the the logs on the from the the car computer that you had a misfire on one of the cylinders. And I was like, "Oh, that's weird." Cuz depending on, again, if you are familiar, um, usually if from my experience, if there's something wrong with uh your ignition coils or spark plugs or there's misfiring, you get like a rocking sensation depending on the layout of the the motor.

And so, um, it's to me it's especially in this car, because it's happened before, that is a very, um, I don't know, like, uh, familiar feeling because you literally feel the car kind of, uh, jiggle back and forth. It's like the whole thing kind of, uh, moves that way. And that wasn't happening. So, um, I was like, okay, that's not what I was expecting, but cool. Uh, good to know. And they said like there was still warranty for the coil pack. So, they got that all switched over. Um, so I got to switch lanes here. This guy's not driving the speed limit. Um, so great. Like, it's uh, you know, let's let's get the coil pack swapped over. It's under warranty. Excellent stuff. Um, but I'm watching this video and I'm like, it's a 3inut video and we're just over a minute in. So, like there's got to be more and and yeah, there was more.

So, they had said that that seems unrelated to shifting into neutral. Okay. I mean, I agree. Like, I don't I don't think that was the same symptom, but good that they noticed and they could, you know, basically do that for free. Um then they go on to say that it looks like um at some point there was some type of uh fluid or spill that had happened on the shifter. And as a result of that, they've they basically said they've literally had a couple of uh AMG GTs that were brought in over the past couple of years with this basically exact same type of symptom where there was a a neutral shift and the shifter itself had at some point some type of spill and over time had caused some type of issue. Um so, you know, I didn't recently spill in the car. Um I've actually never spilled uh like aside from like on myself directly like on my chest kind of thing.

Uh I've never spilled like into the car. Uh and not to blame my wife, but there's been a couple of coffee spills once upon a time. So I don't know why out of out of any time now that that would have been the case and caused an issue, but hey, that's what they're suggesting. And so, you know, they're going to replace the shifter. Cool. And I tell them, hey, look, I leave for Africa for two weeks at the end of the current week. So, you know, I need to to know like I don't care if you have the vehicle for longer, but like I'm physically not going to be in the country. And so, they said, "No worries. Like, it'll be done by the end of the week anyway. Not a big deal." And so end of the week comes, you know, I still haven't been contacted.

It's Friday, midafternoon. So I call and I because I need to make sure like, hey, look, like I have a loaner vehicle from you. I don't have my vehicle back and I'm about to be gone. And so I get a hold of uh I guess like a a sales rep or someone else there. And basically what had happened was that my service rep had gone on vacation which is totally fine. Obviously people are allowed to take vacation. They handed it off to the next service rep who also went on vacation. Um and then I guess there was no other handoff at that point. So, the person who I had contacted said that they saw a note that mentioned that my car would be ready on the Monday because they ordered the wrong part. Now, again, I don't care because I'm like, I'm going to be gone, right?

But no one had contacted me and I still have this laner vehicle. And so the person that I contacted was like, "Oh, I need to talk to a manager or another uh basically like service uh rep. I can't remember what the the title service associate." Um, and I said, "Well, great. Like, can you can you go do that?" And they said, "Well, there's only like two other people here and they're they're basically both busy." And and they're not really giving me they're just kind of telling me that. So I'm like, well, I explained the situation again and I said, "Can you give me an ETA?" And they said, "Well, no, like an ETA to call me back." So I said, "Like by the end of the day." And they're like, "Oh, for sure. Like by 6:00 p.m. when we close, someone will call you back." No one called me back.

Um, so Saturday, which was the next day, I tried calling in again. uh dealerships closed. So, I texted the number I had for the service rep and just said like, "Here's a paper trail everything that's happened. Um, I'm gone to Africa for 2 weeks like I told you. Um, sorry." Like, I don't know what to say. So, pretty pissed off. Um, not not at the original service rep I had because not not his fault, right? like he handed it off to someone else for him to go on vacation. But um a really disappointing like handoff from that team. Like it feels I would personally be kind of embarrassed if I had uh you know been managing some type of uh activity like that and it just kind of fell off completely. like there was no one responsible, no one contacted, people couldn't even follow up when I called in.

Just like overall a pretty uh terrible experience. Um but car works I was kind of weirded out because when I picked it up when I came back the other day, um I was driving and it didn't sound the same. like it it sounded like it was in comfort mode permanently even when I put it into sport mode. So something seemed kind of off but already this morning it feels fine. So I don't know that was the car story. Africa itself was amazing. Uh was very fortunate that uh friends of Leah and I uh the husband of the couple had had basically planned uh the stops that we would go to. So we didn't have to plan anything. just had to sort of uh you know pay and show up and so it was great. We were in uh Tanzania and stopped at a few different locations uh to basically go on safaris which was uh which is truly amazing.

I I think Lee and I both said it's not something we would have done ever because I don't know we had different ideas for places to travel like we really want to go to Europe still do. Um, but I don't think like an African safari was ever on our sort of road map. Um, so when the opportunity came up, we said it would be kind of stupid to not to not do it because otherwise we probably never would. And so we're both glad we did. Um, just really got to see some some really cool animals and have some some awesome experiences. So got to see, you know, got to see like a river crossing in the Serengeti. So we got to see a lot of uh wild the beast and zebra crossing. Uh we never fortunately we never saw um you know like animals being attacked, which is great.

Um that'd be kind of hard to watch. Uh we we get it like circle of life kind of thing. Um but I think it would have been hard to watch. It was hard to watch some of the river crossing because just by the the sheer number of uh wilderbees going over like this rocky terrain underwater like they're they're tripping. They're breaking their legs and ankles and stuff like that. You know, some of them are drowning. So like we you see a little bit of that which was uh you know that's hard to watch itself but fortunately you know no animals um like actively being uh killed which is great. We uh we did see um lions try to hunt warthogs. They they sort of failed at their their surprise attack, but it was super cool because we pulled up in the safari jeep and you can see them like hiding and waiting for the warthogs to approach and then and then ambushing.

But the warthogs all escaped. Uh yay for the wartthogs. That was a really cool experience. We saw uh up close, you know, several feet away a lioness eating a wilderbeast. Um it was already like it had already been killed sort of thing. Uh but again, really, you know, crazy experience. You know, her face is covered in blood. Uh just, you know, something I never never thought I would have seen that kind of thing in person. Um I saw we saw lions mating which was pretty wild. truly the circle of life happening. Um, you got to see hippos. So, at the one place we were staying between the the main building of the resort, I guess you call it a resort, um, and the the the rooms that we're staying in, there's a beachfront. This is on a place called Rabondo Island. And, um, you have to have a basically a guard walk you from the main place to your your unit at night.

And so, We we do this um and all three nights there were like they had said uh you know there's risk of hippos coming out of the water and all three nights there were hippos. So Leah and I were very excited to get to see the hippos out of the water because if you're not familiar with hippos. I'm not trying to sound like an expert cuz I'm certainly not. But um they stay in the water during the day because uh from protection from the sun for their skin. So all day they're in the water, that's why you basically only ever see their ears, nose, and eyes come up in the water during the day, but um when it's not, you know, middle of the day, um so like at night, generally speaking, they'll come out of the water to graze. So they were just past the beach and then sort of grazing on the grass.

Um super super cool. Um, so there was a a mom with her calf and we got to from a distance kind of follow them along the beach so that we could get back to our our room. Um, but again, you know, never would have an experience like that in my life. And then we also got to go um chimp trekking. So on Rabondo Island, they do uh rehabituation h I think is the word uh for these chimpanzees. And so you go into the jungle and uh you have chimp trekers with you and they try to like listen and and follow and find the chimps. And as you might imagine, chimps are uh very at home in the jungle. So they're always always ahead of you. Um so as you're getting close, they're they're keeping their distance kind of thing. So we only got to see them uh you know very much from a distance.

It's kind of like you see like an arm or a back or something in the in the trees in the distance. But uh a really cool experience to go trekking um and find some chimps. So overall uh super awesome trip. I think I have my my Africa uh safari fix for I want to say for for my life. Uh but who knows? Maybe Lee and I will end up going back in the future. Like I said, I think we want to get to Europe first. So, got to find a parking spot here for CrossFit. And I think that's going to be it. Um, hopefully this, if you're watching it like this video, hopefully turned out and the camera worked and everything. Really, there's no parking. Okay, we'll do another one more lap. I'll park across the street. Let's see. Here's a good spot. Um, and then I do have a couple of questions that were submitted.

So, you know, right after this one, you'll see me go back to Um, here I am. I got to get that locked in. I'll go get back to answering people's questions. So, thanks for watching this video on this preview. Looks pretty decent. I know I realize it was probably pointed over here for too long. Um, but I will lock that in and I will see you in the next video. Take care.