Pecking Order, page 25
Jeffrey laughed and said, “Man, you already know that. You’ve been around them.”
Ivan joked, “And I couldn’t talk to them about a thing while they had the girls all around them. But maybe I can get through to them now.”
“Good luck on that,” Jeffrey told him. Then he stuck his hand out to Ivan’s to shake. He said, “I’ll definitely be calling you, Ivan. But let me get back to my lady before she starts to complain.”
Ivan laughed back and said, “Yeah, you don’t want that to happen. So just call me up, man, we’ll talk. You need another business card?”
At first Jeffrey hesitated. Then he said, “Yeah, give me a couple of them.”
Ivan pulled out his business cards and handed a few over.
When it was just him and Lucina again, she immediately asked her partner, “So, what did he want to talk to you about?”
“Business,” Ivan told her.
“Did he mention any parties?”
Ivan looked at her, confused. Obviously she had had a different kind of discussion with Jeffrey. Ivan hadn’t talked about a party with him at all. And since he didn’t want to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, he figured that maybe the middle of a party was not the right place or time to talk about it.
He asked her, “Can we talk about it later?”
Lucina stared at him and didn’t have a choice. They had other people to meet and talk to there. So she nodded and agreed. “Okay. We’ll talk about it later.”
Ivan continued going through the motions of meeting and greeting for the rest of the evening. When the clock had fallen on the other side of midnight, he was more than ready to pack it up and ship it in. Nevertheless, Lucina still wanted to talk to him about his business conversation with Jeffrey Morefield.
“You told me later, and now it’s later,” she reminded Ivan at the end of the party. They had collected another three thousand dollars just from showing up and bringing a crowd. But after Lucina had sent her girls home, she was not willing to let Ivan off the hook so easily.
Ivan told her, “When I said later, I meant like tomorrow or the next day. Because I’m tired right now, Lucina.”
He realized she was used to having her way, but so was he.
“Well, do you need a ride home?” she asked him.
Ivan paused. He could use a ride. It was only up the street and around a few corners, but it beat having to walk.
“Yeah, that would be nice of you,” he told her.
Ivan walked with Lucina to her parked car, and she drove him to his apartment building in near silence. But once they arrived, she parked in a no-parking area instead of dropping him off out front.
Ivan asked her, “What are you doing?”
She looked him in his eyes and said, “I’m coming up with you.”
Ivan hesitated. Okay, what does that mean? he asked himself. He was tempted to ask her why. But he didn’t. He was curious.
“Okay,” he agreed with a nod.
“Welcome back, Ivan,” the security guard greeted him on their way in. He nodded to Lucina and said, “And good evening.”
Lucina only nodded at him with a weak smile.
Ivan asked him, “Your shift don’t end at midnight?”
“Yeah, but the guy on the next shift is running a little late,” he answered.
Ivan said, “Well, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah, it happens.”
Lucina walked inside with him, stepped into the elevator, rode it up to Ivan’s floor, and still hadn’t said much.
Ivan continued to think along the way. Am I gonna find out what she’s about now on the personal level? Is she just doing this out of the blue? Is this, like, her regular MO? I mean, what is on her mind right now?
Once they stepped off the elevator, he finally asked her. “What’s on your mind, Lucina? You’ve never been this quiet before.”
She said, “I’ll tell you inside,” and kept him waiting.
Ivan opened his apartment door with his key, and Lucina walked right in to inspect the interior decorating job. Ivan watched her with patience, allowing her to see whatever she wanted around the room.
When she finished her walk-through, Lucina nodded and said, “He did a pretty good job.”
“Well, you knew that already. Why else would you suggest the guy to me? Lucina Gallo selects nothing but the best, right?” Ivan asked her sarcastically.
His comments led Lucina right into her present thoughts on their partnership. She responded, “So, why am I allowing you to continue pulling me into doing these small, meaningless parties instead of us going after the much bigger money out there?”
Her unexpected bite caught Ivan off guard. His lighthearted smile turned into a fast frown.
So that’s what she came over here to do, he realized. She’s ready to have another business tantrum with me, and at one o’clock in the morning to boot.
Instead of adding fuel to Lucina’s fire, Ivan calmed his nerves with a cool-water approach. He said, “We are just six thousand dollars away from a twenty-thousand-dollar-a-week goal. That means we can both clear forty thousand dollars a month without sweating the risk or all the extrahard work of these big parties. I mean, I got this idea from talking to you,” he told her.
Lucina argued, “No, you did not get this small party idea from me. You came up with this tedious tactic all on your own, and now me and my girls have been attached to these small, nothing parties at least five times a week for months, without promoting one big party. Not even on New Year’s Eve!”
She was pissed. But Ivan failed to see the problem. The parties were all easy, everyone was working regularly, and everyone was being paid. Ivan was even tempted to laugh out loud at her tantrum. It just didn’t make any sense to him.
He said, “Lucina, if you need more than thirty, forty thousand easy dollars a month right now to satisfy you and your girls, then I have no idea what you’re all spending it on. The Fashion Valley Mall? Because that’s good money in my book. Maybe you need to hire me as your accountant, too,” he quipped.
Lucina told him, “That may be good money for you, but my goal is to make much more than that. And now that football season is over, half of the money will be replaced by, what, two more small cow parties?”
She continued, “My girls and I have had enough of this. That is why I wanted you to meet with old friends and new investors tonight to move us closer to doing much bigger concerts. Now, what did Jeffrey talk to you about?” she asked him again.
As Ivan listened to her rant, the picture became clearer for him. Lucina and her girls had obviously been around a lot more hard cash than he had. Nevertheless, they had not learned how to build on it, so they had unrealistic ideas of how real wealth was accumulated.
Just to make sure his theory was right, Ivan asked his partner, “So, you asked Jeffrey and some of the other people in there to invest in another party with us?”
Lucina said, “Not just a party, Ivan, but huge parties. We need to get them excited about making big money,” she told him.
Ivan looked away toward the window and shook his head. Lucina hadn’t learned enough about how the rich liked to operate. As an accountant at a well-respected California firm, Ivan figured he knew a lot more on the subject.
He told her, “Lucina, those people are not thinking about investing in parties. And you can’t get their money by asking them for it. I don’t care what you explain to them. Rich people invest only in what they understand. So you have to talk to them in their language. And they really don’t care about you telling them about it, they want to see it.”
He said, “So the best way to attract investors is by continuing to make your own money first. You flip forty thousand a month into eighty thousand. You flip eighty thousand a month into one-sixty. You flip one-sixty into three-twenty. And you keep it going. Then, before you know it, they’ll start calling you up. That’s how it works. But you can’t sit around talking to them about it,” he explained to her. “You gotta show them the hard numbers.
“But we’re just getting started here, Lucina. Give it some time.”
She looked at him and snapped, “You’re just getting started. I’ve been doing this for years. And I must be honest with you, Ivan. I am running out of patience with all of these small events, and I am losing my passion to continue doing this.”
Ivan said, “Well, let your money work in some other avenues, then. I’m getting involved in real estate now. You could ride that horse with me. And what about my website? You told me you wanted to help bring in ad revenue for that. But you and your girls have sold, what, four or five party ads in three months? And I was giving you thirty-something percent on that.”
Lucina responded, “I’ve noticed you spend far too much time concerned about your website now.”
“I thought you said you liked my website,” he argued. “Were you lying to me about it?”
“No, I do like it. But if you were to spend half the time preparing parties that you spend preparing your website, then we could make a lot more money together.”
Ivan had to stop and think about that. His IDPromotions.com website was a long-run game, where the parties had made him much more money in the short run. Nevertheless, smart money people were long-run people. And they were asking more about his website than his party promotions. Even Jeffrey Morefield was more interested in the website. But Ivan decided not to rub that in his partner’s face. He realized that Lucina was still a valuable asset to him. So he needed to manage some of her legitimate concerns.
He said, “All right, I got a guy now who can link us up with music performers and producers from Dr. Dre’s camp in L.A. Now, I haven’t done any business with him yet, but if we can invite, like, Busta Rhymes, Eve, Xzibit, and people like that as our special guests for twenty-thousand-dollar budgets, and charge twenty-five dollars a head, plus VIP at the door, with a capacity of two thousand and up, we could make, what, thirty, forty thousand a night?”
He continued, “But we don’t need any outside investors for that. And if you really wanna work your way up to the concert level like you say you do, then we’re gonna have to learn how to create, manage, and finance the bigger parties for ourselves. So, again, I don’t know what you spend your money on, but if you want me to move back into the bigger party game, then you have to be willing to put up your own ten or twelve thousand for half the risk.”
Lucina calmed down and nodded, agreeing to it. She told him, “I also know A and R reps who could get us access to plenty of entertainers.”
“That’s good,” Ivan told her. “But for right now, we just want to get their general appearance and promotional prices, and not that performance or concert shit. Because that’s a whole ’nother ball game. You feel me?”
Lucina nodded. She was satisfied with where their conversation had ended.
“I feel you,” she answered him.
Ivan joked on romantic instincts. “So, I guess you can spend the night and make up with me now, right?”
It all came out so smoothly Lucina was unable to feel offended. Instead, she smiled at him and asked, “Would you say that to me if I were a man?”
Ivan smiled back. “But you’re not a man.”
“Nevertheless, this is business,” she told him, “and I like to keep it that way.” She walked toward the door and said, “Good night, Ivan. I will call you tomorrow to begin making plans for the next level of parties.”
When she walked out of the door and closed it behind her, Ivan took a breath and wondered about her. He nodded to himself and mumbled, “Yeah, she likes me. She just likes the money a little bit more right now.”
And I can’t complain about that, he mused. I like this money right now, too.
THE NEXT NIGHT, Ivan invited Christina over to his apartment before running out to another weekend event. Chris was not nearly as engaging as she usually was. She had a lot on her mind that Friday evening, and she would not allow Ivan to work in a quickie of sexual satisfaction.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her.
Christina had settled in on the living room sofa and would not budge.
“I just don’t feel like it tonight, Ivan,” she told him.
Ivan waited to hear more. Christina was a woman of layers.
She said, “I’m thinking about going back to school.”
Ivan looked at her and nodded. Higher education was on her mind.
He asked her, “How many years did you do?”
“Two.”
“And you would go back to school to study what?”
“Business administration,” she answered. She had thought about it in detail.
Ivan then wondered about Catherine Boone and how she was making out in her new job.
He asked Christina, “Were you studying business before, or you just decided you want to study it now?”
She faced him and said, “I just decided on it. I mean, I don’t plan to be a hostess at parties for the rest of my life. What kind of life would that be?”
Ivan nodded again in silence. She had a point.
She said, “But I may need for you to sponsor me.”
Ivan heard that comment and frowned. “Sponsor you? What do you mean?”
“I mean, help me to go, Ivan. Colleges cost money.”
Ivan said, “You got money to go. You get paid every time you host. You’re making a thousand dollars a week now, aren’t you? Plus you work at the Thai restaurant during the daytime now.”
She said, “Yeah, but that’s just enough to pay for my living expenses. You know I don’t share rent with Audrey anymore. She has her own place now.”
Ivan did the math and said, “You’re making more than four thousand dollars a month, and you’re talking about me sponsoring you to go to college. What are you talking about? I had to pay my way through college with half of that.”
She said, “Yeah, but I wouldn’t be able to work that much once I start. I would have classes, homework, and other things to do full-time.”
Ivan told her, “Yeah, that’s what all full-time college students do.”
He thought, I’m not treating this girl like she’s my child just because we’ve been intimate. What the hell is she thinking?
Christina stood up from her spot on his sofa and told him, “You know what, I can make it happen on my own. I’ve been doing that all my life now anyway. I just wanted to see if you would support me to do something more, that’s all. But now I know that you won’t.”
Ivan looked up at her and argued, “I support you as a friend, and I would help you out if you really needed it, but all this sponsorship talk…I mean, for what? You don’t need me to sponsor you. You can pay for school.”
“Okay. Bye, Ivan,” she told him as she headed for the door.
“Oh, now I’m wrong?” he asked her. “I give you steady work and income, and now I’m the enemy because I won’t pay for you to go back to school, too?”
“Whatever, Ivan. You can afford to do what you want. I’m just not a priority to you,” she responded. “So, thanks for letting me know that.”
When Christina walked out the door, Ivan stood up from the sofa himself and shook his head.
“Two nights of this in a row, hunh?” he stated. I guess this is what I need to get used to now. I’m supposed to make everybody’s dreams come true. Well, I haven’t even achieved my own dreams yet.
To add insult to injury, before he could walk out the door that night, his brother Derrick called him.
“I may need you to bail me out of a jam, li’l brother. What you got that you can spare for me?”
Ivan started chuckling to himself. You gotta be kidding me, he thought. He asked his brother, “Are you serious, man? I already got you on the payroll.”
“Yeah, and it’s all good for you to look out for me like that, but you already know most of that money is going into bills and my child support payments. It’s not like I see much of that money. So I need to be able to hold something.”
“Then find yourself a job to hold,” Ivan told him.
Derrick cut to the chase and said, “Look, man, are you gonna help me out or what?”
Ivan told him, “I’m already helping you out.”
“So that means no?”
There was a long pause over the line while Ivan thought it over. If I help him, I may as well sponsor Christina for college, too. Then again, he’s my brother. And that is a priority.
But instead of him agreeing to anything too soon, he told his older brother, “I’ll have to think about it.”
Part V
Bigger Fish
Thirteen
Setting Up Shop
THE IDPROMOTIONS.COM HOME OFFICE, near San Diego State University’s campus, was up and running by February 2004.
Outside of the remodeling and painting budget, Ivan had spent an additional fifty thousand dollars in office furniture, website equipment, and supplies.
Jeff and Paul walked into their master bedroom office on the second floor of the house and were hyperventilating.
“Oh, shit, man, to see it happen is just…I mean…” Jeff ran out of words.
Paul finished them for him. “It’s the shit.”
“Yeah,” Jeff agreed. “We’re gonna graduate this year in style. Hey, Mom, look at my new office,” he joked, aiming his small digital camera at himself behind his new desk.
Ivan watched him and laughed. He had set their twin desks on opposite sides of the room, facing each other. In between their desks were six small conference chairs arranged in an oval, two on each side and one at each end. Against the wall between two bay windows that looked out into the main street was a dual computer station with all of their needed equipment. And in all of the corners of the room were file cabinets.
Ivan told them, “Now, I know you guys like it all dark and cave-like, but you can both do that in here on your own.”
