industryLIFE: Do You Love Me or Do You Love What I do?

When it all began, he was so smitten. She was a cutie, who seemed like a cool around the way girl. He was an out of work DJ.  He didn't have much going on at the time, but he tried his best to get her to talk to him. She wasn't interested, but kept it friendly enough to make him think that someday maybe they could hook up.

As time went on... she was offered an internship at a company out of state, which she took.  That lasted for about a year.  While she was away, the DJ set out to become "World Famous". His skills on the turntables were carving out a nice name for the young man! Before you knew it, he was building his brand and getting where he wanted to be.
Now as luck would have it, the young woman was wrapping up her internship, and decided to return to Atlanta to complete her studies. When she settled back into the city, she could not help but hear about the DJ, who had tried so intensely to make her his woman, because now he was everywhere! From celebrity parties, to charity events, if a DJ was needed he was on the bill.

Eventually they bumped into each other, and thanks to his current status, this chick decided she was NOW interested. Not much had changed about him, except for the amount of money that he was making, and his status in the industry. However, the people around him began to wonder if her intentions were honorable.

Time went on, and this still very humble guy, had no idea what his public image was doing for his love life. Immediately the woman began to make it very easy for the dude. If he wanted to take her out, she NOW had time. If he wanted to come by for visit, he was NOW welcomed. Eventually, things got intimate, and before long, they were an item.

Time passed, and soon people forgot about how this union had began before her internship drew her away.  All except for a select few who could still see past, and all the fake "love" she was NOW showing.  After some time, news came that they were having a baby. AWWWWW!!!  Dude was excited. He was going to be a dad!

In an attempt to do the right thing, he began making plans to buy a house for his family. He also began to adjust his schedule to be there for them. Then, he finally made the decision that it was time to make the relationship official, and get married.  Now while he was planning all of this, the woman, was making other plans.

Since she never really liked him in the first place, and was only there for the perks.  She was having major reservations about being with this dude in a house, or a marriage!  As the arrival date for the baby drew closer, there was a huge shower planned to welcome the bundle of joy. When the people who didn't trust the relationship from the beginning arrived, they noticed just how foul this chick really was!

She was down right mean & disrespectful. She was nasty to his friends, and even nastier to him! Everyone just watched in shock while the elephant in the room whispered, "She does not want him, she wants the fame & money!" And the elephant was right!  Now sometime between the house being bought, the baby coming, and the shower, he popped the question... and she answered with a big fat NO!

He was devastated... He had so many plans to make this work, but that was the last thing on her mind. To her, he was just a paycheck. A easy way to generate income so that she wouldn't have to work. She didn't want to marry him, she wanted to marry his money!!!

Heartbroken, the DJ decided not to go backwards, he wouldn't give her the satisfaction. He pulled himself up by his boot straps, paid her the child support, became a good dad to his son and moved on with his life.

Eventually she tried the same move with another dude. But wouldn't you know it, he had a surprise for her. He was already married with a family, and wanted nothing to do with her, or the baby she was expecting! Thank God she did finish her education because she NOW had to get a JOB!!! 

industryLIFE: Spouses, Side Chicks, Groupies & Jump-offs

In the world of sports, you will at sometime come in contact with the wives, significant others and the infamous jump-offs. Often you will come into the players and athletes lives with little to no introduction which in turns has the spouses, significant others and even the jump-offs giving you the side-eye. They don’t care how many degrees you have, how you have your own man, how you don’t even think this one is cute; they will give you the side eye and if you wanna keep your job, you will have to build trust with them.

I once had a client who I had come aware of years before. He had been a major player at Georgia Tech and when the draft came, they came for him. By the time he and I began working together he had moved on to the Miami Dolphins and was married with three or four children. He wanted to get more exposure back home in Atlanta so he was referred to me. We worked out a great plan to get him radio, TV and special appearances. At first we kept our working life at the office but one day on our way to an event he had forgotten something and needed to make a stop by his house. When we arrived, I told him that I would just wait in the car but he vetoed that idea and said get out, plus my wife needs to meet you. I agreed. When we entered the house there was an eerie calm, it felt as if someone had been watching us as we sat in the truck before coming in…. Well the wife came down from the top floor of the immaculate house, as she walked down the stair case the scowl on her face was not warm and well wishing. Her eyes looked like daggers and she was looking at me. He hardly paid any attention and just said something like yeah, this girl I told you about that works with my agent. She do our Marketing.” Well I turned back to see if that would break the ice queen stare, it didn’t. A bit weary, I walked over to her, extended my hand and formally introduced my self. She hit me with “Hi”, no handshake. OK then I thought as he disappeared down another stair case. She and I just stood in the kitchen. I was hoping she would just say something; ask me whatever question that was burning through her eyelids but nothing. I keep smiling when ever I looked in her direction. Finally he comes back and says let’s go. I grab my bag and head for the door. His wife screams, what time are you coming back and he say, later. (WTF).

Being a woman who has had her heartbroken before, I was disappointed in him and told him he could have at least given her a kiss before we left, he replied fuck her. Ok….As we drove to our destination I began to ask more about his personal life and he basically told me they weren’t in love and doing the marriage thing for the kids. I was speechless but it wasn’t hard to tell.

Now since he was a veteran NFL player, who had been married for almost as long as he had been in the league, his wife had seen it all. She’d had the groupies calling her house, she’d hired private investigators, she’d moved out and most importantly she didn’t trust any woman around her husband. She was apart of a crew of women whose men were professional athletes. They all had the same style, same high priced designer bags, same stylists, same attitude – stank as hell but could you blame them. They had the rings, the kids, the house, the cars, the money but their man was somewhere else doing God knows what else with someone else.

One night as our firm was courting a young athlete and the sports agent set-up a night for the vets to take him out to see Atlanta and told me I needed to tag along. We all met at the office then picked the rookie up and headed to the infamous Magic City. Luckily a guy I knew from undergrad was managing the club and because I came in with all that potential money, my drinks & food was free. (I was quite happy with that deal!) Now what I didn’t know is that one of the dancers had an on going relationship with one of the players who was out with us that night. I’m not sure how long they had been involved but I did know she didn’t like him bringing what seemed like sand to the beach. The guys were in VIP and I killed time by seating at the bar with my guy friend and going over to check on the party. Somewhere in the evening I had to go to the ladies room. When I finished in the stall I walked out to three young ladies fixing their make-up. As I made my way to the sink, one chic bumped me. Side stepping it as an honest mistake, I was quickly informed that it wasn’t when one chic said, “So you with (bleep)?” Knowing exactly what it was at that point and replied, “Yes.” The other chic said, “So what are you to him?” I laughed and asked “why, cause you are not his wife, so why are you asking?” The chic that bumped me chimed in and said because we wanna know.” I just looked at them and walked out of the bathroom, right over to VIP and told him what had just went down in the bathroom. He laughed....

Get the rest of this story when you pick up your copy of Industry Life & Times ebook series, Vol. II