Pecking Order, page 8
He continued, “The oldest rule in business still applies, Ivan: money talks, bullshit walks. So you’re gonna have to put on a tough coat of skin real fast and get used to telling a lot of people no.”
Ivan grinned and reminded him, “I told you no, several times. I just wasn’t into joining things then.”
Thomas nodded. “That’s good. A lot of people who make it big are not joiners. They always got their own ideas. But they do understand when they need to join.”
“Yeah, like I joined up with you now,” Ivan told him. It had been perfect timing for both of them. However, Ivan didn’t feel like hearing a business lecture from Thomas in the middle of the party. He planned to cut their talk short until a better time.
He said, “We’ll talk about it. But let me finish meeting some of these people in here before they leave.”
Thomas looked and noticed a line forming in the background to speak to the young promoter. He shook his head and knew better. He said, “All right, but you’re gonna need an assistant for all that real soon. A good gatekeeper.”
BY THE TIME IVAN had spoken to the dozens of businesspeople who wanted to meet him, it was well after nine o’clock. He felt drained. He had barely slept the night before while preparing his mind and body for the event. But when he observed Ida admiring him from behind the counter with a smile, he felt an extra tingle of energy to extend his night if needed.
Right on cue, Catherine stepped out in front of him in her yellow dress.
“So, what are you doing afterward?”
Ivan was caught off guard. “I, ahh…I really don’t—”
“You wanna go get a drink?”
Catherine looked as sexy as ever and was begging for his personal attention again.
Ivan used his peripheral vision to notice if Ida was watching them. She appeared to be counting their take for the evening behind the cash register.
Yeah, she saw it, he told himself. She’s only counting that money to play it off. She already knows how much they made tonight.
He focused back on Catherine. He answered, “I’m a little tired in here already. Then I would have to drive back home afterward.”
“Not if we have somewhere to go. We can take it wherever. I don’t start work until Monday,” she hinted with a sledgehammer.
Shit! Ivan panicked. She was making things awkward, just like he knew she would. He still didn’t want to deal with her on a physical level anymore.
He said, “You’re not gonna hate me for saying no, are you?” He was hoping she would continue to take the mature road.
Catherine paused and kept her cool. She told him, “You do what you wanna do, Ivan. I’ll be just fine.” When she turned to walk away, she tossed an obvious eye toward Ida behind the counter.
Ivan caught it and shook his head. Women, he thought. You can’t live with them, and I’m having a hard time living without them.
As soon as Catherine walked out the door, Ivan thought about speaking to Ida again. She walked away and headed back toward the kitchen before he could make his move.
Just my luck, he thought. So I end up home alone again. At least I got a pocketful of money and people know me this time.
Once Ivan turned to gather himself to leave, Ida was there to whisper into his ear. She approached him swiftly from the back room.
“It’s tough juggling so many women, isn’t it?” she assumed.
He was caught off guard again. He chuckled and shook his head. “It’s not even like that. You see I’m all alone now, right?”
Ida looked at him curiously. She asked him, “Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
She grinned and said nothing else before walking away from him.
Ivan stood there feeling useless.
Is she toying with me or what? he asked himself. Ida seemed interested enough to engage him, but to what extent? Maybe I just need to back off and see if she gets in touch with me on her own, he thought.
With the party winding down and the restaurant preparing to close at ten o’clock, he felt no reason to remain there. Thomas and most of the Urban League members had already left. So Ivan walked back toward the kitchen to let Ida and her mother know that he would be leaving.
Ida walked into him before he made it back.
“Oh, hey, I was just about to come and get you,” she told him.
“Come and get me for what?” He wanted to hear her intentions.
“Well, I wanted to take my mother home and then see what, you know, you were getting into. But I have to warn you, I can’t stay out too late,” she told him.
Ivan smiled. “Me either. I still have to work in the morning.”
“I know that’s right. Bills are bills. But anyway, I was just gonna come back out and ask, you know, what you were doing.”
Ivan nodded. He thought, I wanna be doing you, but of course, he couldn’t say that to her. Instead, he told her, “I’m open. It’s whatever.”
“Okay, so, I’ll call you as soon as I drop off my mother.”
Ivan held in his smile to hide his eagerness. “All right, you do that. But actually, I wanted to tell your mother bye for myself.”
Ida looked him in the face and cooed, “Aww, isn’t that so sweet of you. Come on back.”
He chuckled and felt like a member of the family.
WHEN HE WALKED OUT of Carol’s Soul Food Restaurant, slightly before closing time, Ivan stopped outside his car, looked around, and sniffed the night air.
Yup, he told himself. I can get used to this. This feels good.
He drove off for the highway and slid in the upstart rapper 50 Cent’s groundbreaking CD Get Rich or Die Tryin’. It was a perfect title for Ivan’s present state of mind.
However, as soon he arrived at home and began to feel good about meeting back up with Ida, she called him with bad news.
“Ivan, I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to make it back out tonight. It’s already ten thirty and I’m exhausted. So I wanna make it up to you this weekend. Is that all right?”
What could a guy say to that? He had to agree to it.
“Hey, it’s all good, we’re all worn out. Just call me tomorrow and we’ll figure something out,” he told her. Quick and to the point was the best policy. That way he wouldn’t sound disappointed.
But when he hung up his cell phone, he was.
“Shit! I’ll just have to wait for tomorrow, then,” he lamented. Not that he expected anything major on their first date, but just knowing that Ida wanted to extend the night with him was sexy. But, with the prospect of his extended evening gone, he felt anxious with unused energy.
I hate when I feel this way, he admitted. Now I won’t be able to sleep good tonight.
“Unless I call Catherine back,” he joked aloud. He shook it off and laughed. “Nah, that wouldn’t be right.”
When his cell phone went off a few minutes later, Catherine was calling him.
Ivan read her cell number before he answered. He couldn’t imagine another positive phone call from her after he’d turned her advances down twice in a row. But he wanted to hear her out anyway. So he answered his phone.
“Hello.”
Catherine wasted no time digging into him. “You know, I tried not to say anything about this, I really did. But it’s really fucked up how you treated me tonight after I gave you the idea to start off with a small after-work network party. So I hope you’re enjoying yourself. And by the way, thanks for the gratitude.”
She hung up on him before he could get a word in. Ivan sat there in his usual spot on the sofa and wondered if he should call her back.
What the hell am I gonna say to her? he wondered. It’s probably best to go ahead and do her tonight. That’s what she really wanted, right? That would have been her thank-you.
Only he couldn’t force himself to do it. He knew that if he did call her back and went through the process of pleasing her, he would create more guilt for himself that she would use against him later. So Ivan forced himself to leave it alone.
AFTER THE SUCCESSFUL NETWORK PARTY, the IDPromotions.com website was loaded up with an event photo gallery, a spotlight section on Carol’s Soul Food Restaurant, pop-up floaters on where else to eat, where else to drink, where else to party, what else was hot in San Diego, an event calendar page, and floating announcement banners.
Ivan went online to check out his new website three times a day, morning, afternoon, and night, just to admire it.
“I don’t know how they do it, but I’m loving it,” he commented. Jeff and Paul had designed the website’s energy and sizzle. The vivid pop-ups made sure that you never got bored. And with Ida being so open to advertising, it gave Ivan plenty of confidence that others would follow suit. Jeff and Paul were sure of it. So they plugged in an “Advertise Here” pop-up on the site.
But instead of taking advertisement money immediately, Ivan wanted to create a waiting list so they could adjust the prices. By making them all wait, he could see who had the longest money and serious intentions. As with most advertising vehicles, long-term deals and up-front money would receive the best rates.
With no time to waste, Ivan planned a second meet-and-greet event with another friend and business associate of Thomas Jones. A Filipino owner of Raymond’s Hot Spot Lounge, a large new bar on San Diego’s southeast side, was willing to allow Ivan to keep a cover charge, as well as receive 25 percent of the bar.
Thomas said, “That’s an offer you can’t refuse, Ivan. Or else I wouldn’t have bothered you with it. Most of these owners want you to pay a bar guarantee after they charge you a rental fee to keep the door. But all he wants to do is let folks know that he’s there,” Thomas explained.
Ivan was skeptical of such a great deal so early in the promotions game. What glitters ain’t always gold. So he checked the place out, believing it was a hole-in-the-wall establishment in a dead location. But when he saw the place, he loved it. It was much larger than he expected, and the place was easy to find, with plenty of parking available.
“So, you just want me to turn this place out with a drinking crowd, is that it?” Ivan asked the owner.
Raymond was a short, handsome Filipino man with slick, combed-back hair who had married a black woman and liked to mingle in different crowds.
“If you can do it, let’s make it happen,” he challenged Ivan.
Ivan looked around at the place again and thought about it. Since his spot is new and he doesn’t have a crowd yet, he’ll use me to create one, and then he’ll act like the rest of the owners. So I may as well take advantage of this while I got it, he reasoned.
Even though he was new to the promotions game, Ivan was no fool. So he pitched his deal.
He said, “I’ll do it, but only if you let me do at least three more events the same way, my door and twenty-five percent of the bar.”
Raymond stopped and thought it over. Three events wouldn’t kill him. And just in case the first one didn’t do the trick, maybe they could use more.
“All right. I can do that,” he agreed.
That sealed the deal. However, Ivan was also skeptical of the crowd that came out to Carol’s in Old Town. An “Old School Eat and Greet Jam in Old Town at Carol’s Soul Food Restaurant” had a ring to it. Old Town was also a centrally located area. But a bar on the southeast side would be different, especially for an after-work crowd. Raymond’s Hot Spot Lounge was more like a Friday night sweatshop, not a meet-and-greet event in business attire. So Ivan had to brainstorm a minute to come up with the correct promotion for it.
After a few hours of writing ideas down and scratching them out over his coffee table, he decided to call it “Old School Jam Part II—A Throwdown at Raymond’s Hot Spot Lounge.” He used the same flyer layout as the first one, but with fiery reds and neon greens and blues to represent the sexy nightlife. Paul drew a new couple in party clothes, dancing with drinks in their hands. He and Jeff also added the tagline “Music by Red Face Lion” for the DJ.
The event was set for “9 o’clock Until You Drop” with a “$10 a Holler” cover charge on a “Friday Night.” The back of the flyer remained the same as the first one: “Who are you? What do you do? Let us know! @ IDPromotions.com.”
It was another attractive and workable flyer. Ivan thought so, and Raymond absolutely loved it. But when Thomas saw it over at the Urban League offices, he felt embarrassed to hand it out. He looked at it, flipped it over a few times, and winced.
“I don’t know about this new flyer, Ivan. It looks like you’re getting a little too, ah…hip-hoppy for the real old school.”
Ivan laughed and remembered how old Thomas was.
“Nah, man, this is a different crowd from an eat-and-greet event at Carol’s. This is a bar on the southeast end, Thomas. I gotta bring it how they’re gonna want it,” Ivan reasoned. He said, “They don’t want to sip no drinks on a Friday night wearing business clothes to a bar in the ’hood. They want to throw the drinks down, party hard, get sweaty, and take somebody home to make a baby.”
Thomas chuckled, but he remained reserved. “Now, you know you’re stereotyping a little bit there, Ivan. Some of us black folks still like a nice time out without all that funk and sweat.”
Ivan stopped and thought. He said, “You know what, you’re right. We do like nice affairs. So when I do a ballroom event for fifty dollars a plate and invite Jesse Jackson to speak, then I’ll promote it that way. But for a bar on the southeast end, this is how you promote it.”
Thomas looked at Ivan and asked him, “So, when did you become an expert on parties, after one damn event, Ivan?”
Ivan had to laugh at the audacity of it himself. After scoring just one lucky touchdown, the rookie receiver was already speaking as if he had been to five football Pro Bowls in Hawaii.
He said, “All right, you got me on that. I’m not the expert yet. I’m just following my gut on this. I’ve been around black people and enough parties to know a li’l something. I mean, I’m from LA, and my older brother partied hard all the time. So I guess I just picked up on a few things that I never had a chance to use before,” he explained.
Henry Morgan walked into the offices in the middle of their conversation and picked up one of the flyers to look at for himself.
“Hey, fellas,” he addressed them both with a nod. “So, this is your new event, Ivan?”
“Yeah. What do you think about that flyer?” Thomas asked him.
Henry studied it in detail before he answered. “It looks like it fits the audience.”
“And what audience is that?” Thomas questioned.
“You know, that Friday night, boogie-woogie-woogie crowd,” Henry answered. He even did a dance move with it.
Ivan broke out laughing. He said, “I’m trying to tell him, Henry. That’s the crowd that do their thing at bars.”
Thomas stopped the clowning. “Well, here’s my thing, Ivan: what crowd do you want to be known for? That’s the more important question.”
It was a good question, too. Ivan approached it from a different angle. He said, “The way I look at it, I want to have enough of a following for I.D. Promotions where I can promote different events to different crowds. My goal is to have three parties for three different crowds on the same night.”
The bigger ideas of Jeff and Paul were beginning to rub off on him.
Henry looked at Thomas and said, “Whoa, the man got big ideas. But I think it can be done. Especially how you have your website set up. You got it set up to appeal to a lot of different people.”
“That’s the point,” Ivan commented. “I want to be like a shopping mall for parties. That’s why I’m not really pushing me so much. It’s all about the brand.”
“Yeah, but you don’t want your brand confusing folks, either,” Thomas argued. “Because you can’t be all things to all people.”
Ivan said, “Well, right now I’m focusing more on black people. But who’s to say where you can go with it? San Diego is that kind of town. I even want to do some military parties.
“But you brought me to the table on this, Thomas,” he reminded him. “What kind of party did you expect me to throw at a local bar?”
Thomas answered, “Not one where you need a roomful of security and metal detectors, that’s for sure.”
Ivan said, “Now, whose stereotype is that?”
“Well, that’s what you’re gonna get if you push it that way,” Thomas argued. “You keep trying to invite everybody and see what happens.”
Ivan looked back at Henry. “What do you think, Henry?”
Henry shrugged. “Well, I wouldn’t go to that party, that’s not my crowd. But if you’re gonna throw a party in that area, then you need to make sure that it appeals to the people who live there.”
Ivan looked back at Thomas and concluded, “That’s all I’m saying.”
Thomas didn’t have any more to say about it. “All right. We’ll see,” he grumbled.
WITH A CAPACITY of nearly three hundred at Raymond’s Hot Spot Lounge, Ivan hoped to make two thousand at the door and another five hundred from the bar, more than double what he had made at Carol’s. Then he would ask Raymond for three to five hundred dollars for an advertisement banner on his website.
In preparation for his second event, Ivan spent additional money for liability insurance to protect his company from any nonsense that might occur at the locations. Then he promised to pay Red Face Lion out of the door and bar take, and also Ida, who agreed to show up and help collect the cover charge. Security was supplied by the lounge.
On the marketing end, Ivan had street teams pass out his flyers, specifically in the south and southeast San Diego regions, as opposed to all over the city like the first flyer. He expected Raymond’s to be a more localized event. He put his website on full blast to promote it. The word continued to spread about the website. And after the first month, Jeff and Paul were ecstatic about the new traffic.
“Dude, we’re getting nearly six thousand unique hits per day,” Jeff stated over the speakerphone. “It took us nearly two years to get half of that.”
