Pecking Order, page 42
“The setup is simple,” he had told his investment groups. “You give the customers flyers and website maps for the locations, and we keep working a dedicated crowd with special guests and events until you get tired of making money. And if you ever do get tired, I can either buy back your percentage or find another investor.”
Ivan no longer bothered to overpitch his projects and services. His momentum of success allowed him the confident luxury to take or leave money as it came. With Mike Adams continuing to double-check the accounting numbers of his business plan and proposal writers, just as Thomas Jones had told him, Ivan allowed the numbers to speak for themselves. And the influence of his website allowed him to continue to push whatever pet project he chose to.
However, his idea to utilize the allure of sexy young women in all of his nightclub properties caused a strong rift between him and Lucina.
“Are you trying to copy what Hooters does? I find that to be very distasteful,” she told him at his downtown apartment.
Ivan grinned at the suggestion. He remembered the competitive struggle Catherine Boone had had with the women who worked at the Hooters chain when he first started.
He said, “Naw, we’ll keep them dressed way more tasteful than that. And their dress codes would fit the themes of each club. So, just like we have our Hispanic theme at the Latino Club, we’ll have a ski lodge theme at the Ice Mountain, a cheerleader theme at Jock’s, and a colorful island theme at Paradise.”
It all made sense to Ivan. He liked developing a variety of ideas just to see which one would earn the most support from its dedicated customer base. But Lucina blasted the idea.
“That all sounds very generic and degrading,” she told him.
Ivan argued, “Well, welcome to America, Lucina. Generic is what works for regular guys drinking beers all night. Not everybody’s gonna be impressed by that upscale shit. It intimidates them. But these regular pretty girls, who still need someplace to work, can find steady employment with us with plenty of tip potential.”
It was another argument of quantity versus quality, and Lucina was not going for it.
She snapped, “Well, I don’t want to be a part of that.”
In fact, she was not a part of many of the new projects Ivan was developing. And he didn’t want to be a part of throwing concerts with Randy & Ralph. He still didn’t trust them. They began asking too many intricate questions about his website operations for them to be trusted, especially since they had their own website. Ivan felt they were trying to duplicate some of his marketing ideas. He figured he could make the same amount of money as he would from concerts by promoting the various club properties he had invested in. He was also more in control of the numbers there. However, Lucina was eager to deal with her old partners.
Nevertheless, without Ivan’s website promotions, Randy & Ralph remained cold to Lucina’s inclusion in their plans. That led Ivan to think of other ideas where he and Lucina could find common ground. He came up with brand-building events where they would focus less on the paying crowds and work more on sponsorship vehicles. They would be paid to create the support of a large section of the population, while being backed by strong product branders. Lucina would then have limited economic risk, and she could continue to earn from fresh ideas and a strong supportive following.
“That’s the wave of new big business anyway,” Ivan had told her. “The bigger companies can afford to sponsor any-and everything now.”
“Yes, but they often take much longer to pitch,” Lucina argued.
Ivan thought, There she goes with her impatience again. She didn’t have a proposal-writing team like Ivan had. Nevertheless, he figured that his team was her team.
He told her, “All we have to do is sit down and explain everything to my guys, just like how we worked on the proposals for the events we did last year.”
“Yes, and they took forever to happen.”
“But they did happen, and they all went over well. We just tap into the same sponsors, like we did with my second birthday network party this year. I mean, do you want to keep making money with me or what?”
Lucina seemed to be fighting against him more than working with him. Ivan couldn’t understand it. She was losing out on major deals and income in the process.
Finally, she told him, “Ivan, you don’t know everything. And I can’t stand that you think you do. You’ve only been out here for a couple years now, and already you think you’re some kind of tycoon.”
Ivan grimaced. He said, “You know what? I went through all this before with you, and it’s the same fucking jealousy over and over again. You do this every year. It’s like you only want to do your own ideas, but business don’t work like that, man.”
“I told you before, I’m not a man, Ivan,” she nitpicked.
Ivan paused. He said, “Well, maybe if you were a man you wouldn’t bitch about so much of this small shit! And maybe that’s why you lost so many of your partners before. But all I’ve been trying to do is work with you.”
Those were hard, chauvinistic comments for him to state to her, but Ivan felt he needed to say what was on his mind whether she could handle it or not.
Lucina paused and stared at him. She took a breath and said, “You know, I look at you now, and I tell myself, Lucina, you’ve created a masterpiece.” She said, “But I don’t even think that I like it anymore.”
Immediately Ivan thought of defending himself by reminding her that his ideas were just as profitable and innovative as hers were, and even more so. He had generated more long-term money for them. But he quickly realized that the argument would have been frivolous. It didn’t matter. Lucina had been a major contributor to the entire mentality of his success. And without her, he had no idea how far he would have gotten in the first place. He could have been locked into throwing small black network parties for years.
So he allowed her to walk away without a response from him. In business, he could do just fine now without her. He knew plenty of pretty party girls of his own now. He had his own brand name, his own marketable ideas, a monster of a website, a hardworking staff, a business team, executive-level friendships, and access to plenty of personal capital as well as investor support. But on the social side, even though he had never touched Lucina intimately, he felt a great void in her absence.
She doesn’t even care about that part, he mused. I’m just a damn business partner. And now she’s made enough connections of her own to do her own thing, too.
The reality of Lucina moving on from him had hurt Ivan the most. And in the end, he felt he was only a prop for her. But how much, if any, of his thoughts could he expect to share with a relative stranger on a boat ride?
So Ivan answered his companion’s question on the yacht with simplicity. “I’m just thinking about how I still want to buy one of those houses up there one day.”
“Are any of them for sale?” she asked him.
Ivan nodded. “That’s a good point. I guess I need to find that out.”
I should just buy one now, he thought. I got enough to afford it now. However, he didn’t want to share that much information. He didn’t want to cloud the woman’s mind by having her naturally include herself in his future plans. Because there would be none between them. Ivan didn’t feel anything for her.
She smiled at him anyway. “I would love to see what one of those houses looks like up there myself.”
I know you would, Ivan thought with a grin. He saw no point in expressing that to her, either. He just planned to enjoy the rest of his peaceful boat ride away from the office.
WHEN IVAN RETURNED to the eighth-floor office of Ivan David Enterprises in Mission Valley that next morning, Jeff and Paul had breaking news for him. Ivan had mimicked the setup of Hutch & Mitchell Accounting by renting an entire floor with cubicles out in the center with main offices and conference rooms surrounding them. Jeff and Paul shared a corner office with their computer equipment, Ava Tate had a second corner office for editorial, Eddie K. had a third corner for sales, and Ivan’s executive office was in the final corner at the farthest end from the receptionist booth. In between the corner offices were smaller spaces for all of his business team members, including Mike Adams.
Thomas Jones had sold their close-to-campus hub for four hundred thousand dollars to a fraternity organization, who liked the setup so much that they had the furniture included in the sale price.
Ivan stopped by Jeff and Paul’s office that morning to hear their urgent update. Both of them had upgraded their wardrobes since their move into a more professional building. They both wore sports jackets and button-up shirts themselves now, and without Ivan asking them to do so. They just figured it was time for them to look the part of creative executives. With the remarkably increased revenue of the website, they would earn nearly a million apiece before taxes that year. And for their first full year out of college, they would do tremendously well for themselves.
Jeff told Ivan, “Jacari contacted us while you were out of the office yesterday. She said she has a break to come back home soon. She’s just getting back to New York from a month over in Italy.”
Ivan nodded and said, “Damn. So she’s really blowing up with this modeling thing.”
“Yeah, she’s a San Diego superstar now,” Paul commented. “But there was some flack recently over her name. A lot of Native American bloggers were saying that “Jacari” was not an authentic tribal name. They were saying that her real name is Kaya.”
Ivan shrugged it off. “Does it really matter? She took up a one-word model name, that’s all. What’s wrong with that? People do stuff like that all the time in L.A.”
“Yeah, well, she said something about her father wanting to meet you, too,” Paul commented.
Ivan looked at Paul relaxed behind his fine wood desk and repeated, “Her father wants to meet me? About what? I haven’t met or even touched his daughter yet,” he joked.
They all laughed.
Paul said, “No, I think he wants to talk to you about doing something with the website. She told him she owes her popularity all to us.”
“Yeah, and she said her father owns a casino on the reservation or something,” Jeff filled in.
Ivan nodded again. “A casino, hunh?” He smiled and began assuming things. “So, he must want us to give them the big IDPromotions.com brand treatment.”
“Maybe so,” Jeff commented.
“Well, when is she supposed to be heading back this way?”
“She said in a couple of weeks,” Paul answered. “She said she needed to get back to her apartment in New York and make sure everything is in order there first.”
“All right, well, just let me know when she gets back out here,” Ivan responded. With that he left their office and walked down the hall toward his own.
“How are you doing today, Mr. David?” a college intern addressed him as he headed to his office. Natalie was a communications major in her sophomore year, with dark brown skin as smooth as satin and ultra-white teeth. She had a bright Colgate smile. But Ivan grinned at the idea of her calling him “Mr. David.” He was the official boss more than ever now, at thirty years young.
He said, “Don’t call me that, you make me feel like a college professor. Just call me, ah…boss,” he told her with a shrug. He didn’t want them all calling him Ivan, either. It was too informal. At least calling him boss had a slight angle of sarcastic humor to it. And he could deal with that.
Natalie laughed and said, “Okay. Well, how are you doing today, boss?”
On second thought, Ivan didn’t like the sound of that, either. Calling him “the boss” was a privilege that Jeff and Paul often used. However, they had built up the company brand with him from its inception. He figured he owed them that right. But with his new employees and interns, the sarcasm was not earned.
Ivan grimaced and said, “Ah…on second thought, ‘Mr. David”s not that bad. Let me hear you say that one again.”
A few of the other staff members overheard the awkward discussion from their cubicles. They began to hold in their laughs. Ivan was still trying to work out his position of power inside the office. He felt much more comfortable with it while directing his staff on the execution of new ideas. But acknowledging his leadership in a basic walk down the hallway to his office was different. He had rarely spent much time in the previous off-campus office, so being around his staff on an everyday basis was an experience he was still getting used to.
Natalie laughed and repeated, “How are you doing today, Mr. David?”
He said, “I’m good. How are you today?”
She giggled and said, “I’m fine.”
The whole scene made some of his staff members laugh out loud. They loved working for Ivan. He was loose, fair, and organized. And he paid them well, with plenty of party and retail perks from advertisers, sponsors, and club and event promotions.
“All right, everybody back to work,” he said to his amused staff.
When he reached his far corner office, he sat back in his high, comfortable chair and returned a few phone calls to potential investors.
“Yeah, Vance Wellings here,” his first contact answered over his speakerphone.
Ivan had expected a secretary to answer. But when Vance picked up the line himself, Ivan switched over to the receiver for more privacy between them.
“Hey, Vance, it’s Ivan.”
“Hey, Ivan David, the man with the million-dollar website,” he hinted.
Ivan chuckled. He said, “I think we’re worth a dollar more than that. That sounds more like a penny.”
Vance paused. He said, “A hundred million dollars? That’s what you think your website is worth?” He sounded surprised by it.
Ivan was only joking to him with random numbers. But once he thought about it, with his website well on its way to generating fifteen million dollars that year, and still based mostly on a San Diego market, a hundred million dollars was hardly a stretch for IDPromotions.com’s national potential.
Ivan said, “Maybe I spoke too soon on that number. Give us another year to expand past our Southern California region, and I may have to ask for two or three dollars.”
Ivan had become a pro at pitching the numbers. And he liked to stay above the strike zone. But Vance figured he was throwing a pitch ball at him.
He laughed out loud and said, “You won’t get any hits with that one. You got the catcher’s mitt waaay up high.”
Ivan laughed with him. He said, “That’s why I’m going back to the dugout to warm up. In the meantime, I gotta work on raising your strike zone.”
Vance laughed it all off. At least the young guy had a spirited personality.
Ivan asked him, “So, what’s the rest of your week look like?” to change the subject. It was his new philosophy to make investors chase him down with their intentions.
“I got a network event I need to fly to in New York at the end of the week,” Vance answered. Vance Wellings owned a military uniform supply company. He was an ironic contact from Eddie K.’s insistence on adding the U.S. military recruiter pages to the website. Vance was now attempting to invest in more civilian products for international marketing. He was nearly a billionaire who had not quite made it onto the Forbes 400 list.
“That’s a crazy coincidence,” Ivan told him. “My guys and I were just talking about New York less than three minutes ago.”
“Yeah, what about? You ever been there?”
“As a matter of fact, I haven’t,” Ivan answered. “But we got one of our biggest website stars ready to fly back home from New York soon.” He had no idea what day or week Jacari planned to return home. However, if he could offer her a private jet plane ride, he seriously doubted that she would turn the opportunity down.
Vance said, “Is that right? And you want me to be a private taxi for him, is that it? Well, how much are you offering to pay for his seat?”
Despite his first reservations about U.S. military connections, Ivan liked the straight shooting from those guys. There wasn’t much beating around the bush with the military types. They said exactly what they wanted to say.
Ivan responded, “Well, if you have room coming back in the jet for two, I’d like to meet her over there in New York and bring her back with us.”
What the hell, just go for broke, he figured.
Vance said, “So it’s a she? And now you wanna make a hot date out of it in New York. Is that it, Ivan?” he insinuated.
Ivan was rarely shy about asking. He chuckled at his nerve and said, “I figured I had to at least ask you, since you’re headed that way and back. You are coming back after a few days, right?” he questioned to make sure.
“In exactly a few days,” Vance answered. “But I’ll tell you what…” And he paused. “Okay. I’ll make a deal with you. You’re a networking kind of guy. That’s your business. And what better way for me to gauge what you’re gonna be worth than to see how you perform in New York’s Big Apple crowd?”
He went on, “Now, they’re definitely a different crowd over there. So you may want to get a pair of your best suits and ties out, preferably dark suits. And let’s say you bring your date to my network event at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan on Thursday evening. You do that and I’ll fly you guys back with me.”
Ivan said, “That’s a go. I’d like to feel out the New York crowd for myself.”
“Good. Then you’re gonna need a room there. I’ll set it all up for you.”
Just like that, Ivan was on his way to New York for a network party with a nine-figure man, and to meet up with an international model whose father wanted to meet him.
He sat back behind his desk and couldn’t believe his luck. Then he shook it off.
He told himself, “It wasn’t luck. It must have all been in the cards.” He didn’t even feel like making more phone calls after that one. Everything else would seem anticlimactic.
