Saturday, August 30, 2008

Attracting Your Desire


Met with two philanthropic partners to discuss the reception of an upcoming event. The event is an auction of 100 IKEA clocks that have been transformed into 100 works of art by various celebrities and professional artists. After reviewing the celebrity list, Jesse (one of our partners) said, "you should try to approach Ne-Yo about creating a timepiece." I said, never heard of Ne-Yo. Tell me more... He went on to talk about this R&B/ hip hop artist that was young but sophisticated, living in the ATL but worldly, hip hop roots with R&B sound, clean cut, yet hip. So I left the meeting, not giving much more thought to this Ne-Yo. The very next morning, my boss's assistant said that my boss wanted to know why we were meeting with Ne-Yo, a hip hop artist for lunch and what was on the agenda. After explaining that I had never heard of Ne-Yo prior to yesterday, I was certain, we were not meeting with Ne-Yo. It turns out that our meeting was with Simon Malls at Neo, a new restaurant at the Mansion on Peachtree. As I was driving to the meeting with my boss, I told her how comical this was that before yesterday, I never heard of Ne-Yo and now he has come into my life two days in a row. I predicted (out loud) that for some reason, Ne-Yo and I were destined to meet even though, I still didn't even know who he was or what he looked like. As soon as I got back to my office, I searched Ne-Yo and landed on his myspace page. I listened to his music and couldn't believe how musically diverse and talented he was, like an old soul in a young person's skin. He was like a cross between Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin and John Legend. I was so inspired by his music, I ran into one of my co-worker's office and asked if they had heard of Ne-Yo. Apparently, he is someone that all the 20 somethings know and once again, I was out of the loop. I restated again, that I must be destined to meet him for some reason. Literally, four days later, I received an email inviting me to a private reception, the Network for Net Worth, with you guessed it, Ne-Yo hosting. I rsvped to the event and invited Jesse and other philanthropic partners to join me. The networking event was being held at Dolce, another partner of ours that we were in the midst of organizing a bowling party with at their Ten Pin Alley property. When I asked William at Dolce about the networking event, he said they were not the organizers, just the venue, and that he would reserve the perfect table for us. We decided to go early, have dinner, and catch up on each other's lives. We were so deep in conversation, that we hardly realized when Ne-Yo's two Managers bumped into our table and introduced themselves. I never mentioned my story to either of them, but one of them sat with us for sometime as he waited for Ne-Yo to arrive. He was about to leave us to finalize details of Ne-Yo's arrival. I told him that I really wanted to meet Ne-Yo, but I could not wait much longer cause it was already past my bedtime. These urban musicians' night just begins when mine ends. Ne-Yo's manager reiterated that he would be arriving any minute. He gave me his cell phone number and told me to make sure to call him before leaving. I called him from across the room when I had too much networking and told him we were leaving. He said Ne-Yo had just arrived and they were bringing him to our table first. They were there in seconds and I could hardly believe that just 10 days earlier, I had never heard of Ne-Yo and now he was right before me. I told him about our clock project and he said he would love to participate, we talked, hugged each other (everyone does that in the South) and got our picture made together. As I was leaving, he said don't forget to get the clock to me tomorrow, so I can participate. I told his managers, I would text them in the morning. The next day, we connect, and I am delivering a clock to Ne-Yo's studio and touring this up and coming, soon to be R&B sensation's private studio. I believe he has the potential to be the next Michael Jackson without all of the drama. I am still in awe of how simple it is to state something out loud and then it happens. You really do have the power to attract your desires. What are you doing to attract yours? Would love to hear your story.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great story about a great evening at Dolce hope to see you this Sept 9 for the next networking event