I drove the Range Rover into work this morning. I wanted to drive my new Jag, but the snow is still bad here.
This morning, I was looking over Amelie’s Dad’s plans for the company and he wants to gut the company by selling off every single branch of his lingerie company. I didn’t like the idea, so I called him and asked him if he still wanted to maintain control of the company. He said he did, but he didn’t want to expose himself to the risk of a prolonged recession. I told him his best option was to franchise all his branches; we would pay for the building, the first stock, the equipment, advertising, and the support while the franchisees would take on all the risk. He loved the idea since the buildings and stock are already paid for. He’d still maintain control of the stock and the franchisees would just order from an available line up that he pre-approved. So I designed an ad for some lingerie trade magazines for franchises for sale. Hopefully, they’ll sell quickly. He’s got a lot of these stores all over the world, so hopefully we can sell them all before the recession gets too bad. I’ll have to travel to do photo ops with the franchisees when they buy it, but I signed up to do this job mainly for the travel opportunities, so that’s fine.
I get a one hour lunch break and brought my workout clothes with me, so at lunch, I went to Amelie’s gym and worked out for 45 minutes then showered in Amelie’s bathroom – you know, the shower with six spouts. What an experience that was. I’m really looking forward to getting clean every day in that shower.
This afternoon is more designing of the ad, then sending it off to a graphic design company to tweak and perfect it before we post it in the trade magazines. Tonight is a night alone.
-VIS
VINTAGE IN STEPFORD™ 
Sounds like you’ve hit the ground running- you certainly seem confident in what you’re doing. (Which, of course you should, with your qualifications and all). I’ll look forward to reading about your endeavours.
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Thank you! I look forward to continue to write publicly. 🙂
I have no problem with the job. It seems to be exactly what I was trained for. I’m honestly surprised the previous executive vice president didn’t suggest franchising to Amelie’s dad. Maybe he didn’t want his bonus. lol
-VIS
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I sometimes think I don’t have the head for business, though my mum was a noted business woman in our town and I know I’m a lot like her. I tend to think I’m more of a ‘creative type’ so the complexities of it aren’t my thing but maybe it’s more about confidence? You seem totally at ease, perhaps it would suit your nature even without the training?
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I’m the creative type too. That’s how I made my money, actually. A song I wrote was stolen from me and I sued the thief for 8 figures – and got it. So creativity has always been in my blood.
But in my younger years, I owned a series of businesses. They never made a lot of money, but that wasn’t for lack of trying – I had just chosen very niche fields to build businesses in. Not the greatest way to make tons of money in business.
I’m not sure. My confidence has always been high in practically every aspect of my life. I think that’s how I get so many women at my age. It’s just a natural confidence and people pick up on it. I was raised in a good home with two loving parents – maybe that did it.
-VIS
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I get that. I don’t think being creative and entrepreneurial are mutually exclusive, as I said, I think I have a business mogul in me somewhere, I just don’t have the confidence to embrace it so I lean on my creativity instead as it’s more comfortable. I feel like there will come a day when I’ll be in a position to see what I’m capable of though.
I was wondering about your law suit but I didn’t think it polite you ask. Congratulations on that win! Do you still write? Do you sing too?
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You never know what you can do in business until you start your own. You’d be amazed how resourceful you become once you do.
Thank you! I can’t say who I sued or how much I got other than to say she’s very famous and I got 8 figures because she literally stole all the music and lyrics note for note, word for word and my song is still her most popular song to date. She knew she’d lose, so she settled for upper 8 figures.
I still write music, yes, but it’s for my own enjoyment now. I don’t do it to perform or anything like that. I sing, yes. I’m way out of practice, but all of my songs are me playing the guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and vocals. It’s amazing what multi-tracking can do.
-VIS
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Wow! A man of many layers. I sing, or I used to, I’m obviously not famous, but I did do competitions and paid performances for a time. I can’t play an instrument, but I think that’s because singing came naturally and I didn’t need to explore anything else. I’ve always admired musicians though- being able to create something so beautiful for yourself must be incredible. I know the joy I get from singing came from a place where I felt that I was responding to the call of the music that was being played. Something instinctual that courses through your body with the notes. Primal; like wolves hearing each other howl and and answering in turn. Though I think I sounded at least a little more melodic than that 😅 These days I just sing for my son; easily my best and most treasured performances.
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I never really experienced singing as a primal or instinctive thing. For me, it was more intellectual. Writing a song and the lyrics is a big challenge and takes every bit of intellectual fortitude one has. So it was never an instinctual thing for me.
That’s what I do: I record my songs when they get completed, but I play for my grandson. He comes into my office and says, “what’s that?” pointing at my guitar. I tell him what it is and he says “play it please” so I play for him and sing while he dances. It’s much more rewarding than recording or playing live ever used to be.
-VIS
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