What I’ve learned? AFGE. AFGE? That’s “Another Effing Growth Experience.”
So we’re sitting at the bar at Circa last March and my client, a national sales manager, tells me my Encore Villa gig (see previous post) was the best corporate event in the company’s history.
I already knew that. I saved them $100,000 and launched their new EV-charger line, selling a million simoleons’ worth in 90 days. But I’m cool, so I say, “Let’s do it again. For the Super Bowl! Upstairs at Stadium Swim.
He’s cool too. “I’m in for fifty K.”
“Great!” (Lesson One: Stop talking after you close the deal.) And we go to dinner at Barry’s Prime.
Lesson Two: Get it in writing.
Lesson Three: Get my fee upfront.
A month before the event, he cancels.
Now, I’m a guy who grew up in very unstable environments, so I always have back-up plans. Yes, plural: sometimes back-up plans to my back-up plans.
So it was good I’d made a completely separate set of reservations and, since I’d been greasing palms, I flip the deposit. Phew. But wait! What?
My casino host quit? Ruh roh.
Okay, but are my reservations still good? Yes? Pass the CBD, please.
See, I still have a dozen folks flying in and those rooms I booked last August? They’re gold today, literally half-price for Super Bowl weekend. Should I have resold the cancels? Hmm.
Then the corporate guys are on the fence. “Well, we might go.”
Lesson Four: Bang head on desk. Repeatedly. ’Til numb.)
“Wait. The other sales manager is going and he wants two extra rooms.”
Oh! The ones I cancelled because of you? ARGHHH.
Well, it’s a good thing I’m on a first-name basis with the entire reservations department, so I take three back and they give me my original rate. How good? $875 for Super Bowl weekend Downtown Grand Gallery Tower kings, Friday through Monday, taxes and resort fee included. Today those rooms are $1,600. And I still have 11 reservations.
And did I mention that I employed my Super Bowl futures strategy? (Lesson Five: Hedging is a good bet.) I’ve won on the Super Bowl three years in a row (Bucs, Rams, Chiefs). I expected to blow this year, but guess what? Even though I had the Lions and Ravens, I’m still carrying the 49ers and am a 100% Brock Purdy fan. I am, however, nervous about the Taylor Swift effect and the very dangerous Chiefs juggernaut. Well … we’ll see.
To be continued …