“YEEEAAAAHHHH!” the crowd roared nice and long for him. Ivan got the biggest applause yet. Catherine was beaming at him right in front of the crowd in her standout yellow dress. And by the time Carol passed the microphone to him, Ivan was a nervous wreck.

He’d had no idea how it felt to be at the center of attention in front of a supportive crowd like that. Only a few of his friends and relatives were there to cheer him on at his high school and college graduations. And he had never done any public speaking. It was one thing to dream about having a name that inspired a supportive crowd, but it was something else to actually acquire it.

Ivan held the microphone in front of his first crowd of people and felt nauseous. Everything stood still and seemed deadly silent for a minute. He felt them all around him, awaiting his voice. Then he looked forward at Catherine. She was nodding her head to him to go ahead and speak. You’ve done it!

Shit! Here we go, Ivan told himself with a deep breath.

He opened his dry mouth and said, “I, ah, just had an idea…to do something extra. And sometimes you don’t really know how it’s all gonna come together, but you just try to go out and do it. So…that’s what I’m doing. And I want to thank everybody in here for coming out and showing that we’re alive.”

Once he got his nervousness out of the way and the people started cheering and clapping again, Ivan made sure to revert back to his calm business mode.

He said, “So, if you all don’t mind, I want to make sure that everyone signs the email list at the door, so that we can contact everyone and do this again.”

Jeff and Paul were cheesing like circus clowns. That was just what they wanted to hear from him.

“But I don’t want to take up too much more of your party time,” Ivan told the crowd. “So please, go back to eating, greeting, drinking, dancing, and just…having a good time.”

Part II

The Pros & Cons of Partners

Four

The Intimidator

AFTER IVAN FINISHED his short speech at his kickoff event, Thomas took the microphone back from him and addressed the crowd again for himself.

“There you have it, folks. Ivan David from I.D. Promotions. And you all remember that name, because we’re going to be doing plenty more events with him.”

Thomas looked back over to the DJ, a young Puerto Rican man in his midtwenties. He called himself the Red Face Lion. He had agreed to spin at Ivan’s first event for free. The trade-off was promotion from the website, and a promise from Ivan that he would use him for future events as they both built their business brands.