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“It’s Monday, ladies and gentlemen, and you know what that means.” The words fill the air, replacing the whispers. He doesn’t have to speak up or use a microphone because no one dares to speak over him.
He walks as he talks, never pausing, but never taking his eyes off his audience. “It’s time to turn words and pictures into money. It’s time to earn that vacation to Paris you promised your wife, or another payment on your Lamborghini, or maybe an extra special trip to the champagne room next weekend.”
He walks toward the crowd, and they part for him like the Red Sea for Moses. Stepping up to a guy in his mid-thirties with a receding hairline, he says, “Frank, I read your script over the weekend for that up-and-coming tampon brand. Genius. So genius that I think I need a box.”
The crowd chuckles, and I can’t help but feel a bit of cringe for him. But the crowd is eating it up, and Frank’s got a grin a mile wide. Emery continues to walk and stops in front of another man wearing a sport coat and jeans. “Have the rest of you seen the photos of Demon Tequila? I’m not sure if people are going to buy the tequila to drink or use it for decoration.”
There are cheers as he continues to walk through the crowd, and I’m reminded of a cult leader walking through their flock, each person hoping that he’ll lay hands on them and give them just a few seconds of attention.
Then he stops in front of the first person I’ve seen with their head down. A man in his late forties is staring at the floor in front of him, and when Emery touches his shoulder, he almost winces.
“John.” The room is silent as the man slowly looks up from the floor. When his eyes meet Emery’s, it’s like he’s looking at his executioner. “Samurai Barbecue has dropped us as their advertising firm.” The words come out slowly, and I know the look he’s giving John. It’s that one where you feel like he’s staring into your soul. “What went wrong?”
John stumbles over his words for a moment before finally saying, “They found a lower cost advertising firm, and I couldn’t convince them they would make more with our firm. I tried.”
That’s rough. I know that the advertising business is cutthroat, but public humiliation like this feels like something that should have been left in 1990.
Emery nods as he gives John’s shoulder a tight squeeze before turning around. “I’ve been rich, and I’ve been poor. I remember struggling to pay my rent. I remember my beat-up foreign car that only started when it wanted to. I remember how women looked at me when I walked past in clothes with holes in them.”
He walks back to the front of the crowd as he talks, each step making him seem even taller than he is. “I’ve been rich, and I’ve been poor, and I choose rich. I don’t even know how much my mansion cost. If one of my cars doesn’t start, I have a dozen others to choose from. I know exactly how women look at me when I walk by in a ten-thousand dollar suit.
“I say that I choose it, and I mean that. I didn’t start Aspire by doing what everyone else did. I didn’t accept a job where they wanted me to copy what works. I broke the game with Aspire. I’m still breaking the game. Every single fucking day.”
I can’t help feeling the speech get to me. I want to be rich too. I know what it’s like to be poor, and even though I felt like Emery’s act was cringey only a few minutes earlier, I feel like listening to him could show me how to be as successful as him.
He glances at me with that smile that doesn’t end before turning back to his followers. “This week is your week to choose to be rich. Each and every one of you knows the bonus structure. You know exactly how much money youcouldbe making, so go out there and break some fucking barriers. Show every one of our clients just how badly they need us.
“Become their drug of choice. Because we’re magic, people, and they need to understand it. We’re the ones that can turn the entire world onto them. Or we can work for their competitor and destroy them. If they need their fucking coke dealer more than they need you, then maybe you need to go sit next to John while he cries about his lack of bonuses this month.”
Jeez. That second jab at John pulls me out of the cult-like spell he has on the crowd, and I see him like I did on Thursday. A handsome man that wears a mask everywhere he goes.
The crowd erupts in applause, though. I look over at John, and even he’s clapping and acting excited. Maybe he is. Maybe when you’re under Emery’s spell, even public humiliation doesn’t deter your love for the man who’s larger than life.
Emery stands there with that smile on his lips until the crowd calms down, and then he says, “I have exciting news. All of you have heard the whispered comments about how we don’t have our fingers in the ChitChat game strongly enough. Well, I’m fixing that starting today. Everyone, welcome Madison Carter to the team. She’s our first step toward dominating social media just as much as we’ve dominated every other form of advertising.”
As he waves me over to him, the crowd goes crazy. Just like fans at a concert, people are jumping up and down yelling. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. When I stand next to him, he whispers to me, “Just smile and wave. You don’t need to say anything.”
I do exactly that. This is not what I expected on my first day at Aspire. I’d imagined smiling coworkers talking quietly over ad mock-ups and people watching videos, taking notes. Not a freaking speech from corporate David Koresh.
We continue to stand in front of the crowd, and I take a deep breath as they finally start to calm down. This is going to take some getting used to, but there has to be something to working for a company where so many people are this explosively energetic.
At the very least, Emery Brooks is very good at one thing. Making a stupid amount of money, and that can’t be a bad thing. Can it?
Chapter 5
Emery
Madison crosses her legs as she sits down, a practiced movement that makes her skirt rise only to above her knees. Nothing risque at all, unlike most of the women I spend time with.
She looks a little flustered sitting across from me in my office. That’s no surprise. Everyone does after their first weekly meeting, and I’m sure that it has something to do with the fact that I berated John for losing Samurai Barbecue. They weren’t a big client, but my employees need to be reminded that failure is not acceptable at Aspire.
And Madison needed to see it even more than the rest of them. At most companies, a new intern is given some leeway in learning the ropes, but not here. I can’t have any of my employees thinking that there’s room for failure. Even someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. Which is one reason I’ve never hired someone straight out of college before.
Madison’s different, though. She may not have very much experience in advertising, but she has more experience building a name from nothing on social media than nearly anyone else in the industry. Most people who get to her stardom level leave the industry and build a business out of that stardom. For some reason, Madison decided to join the corporate world instead.
“What’d you think of our Monday morning meeting?”
She chews her lip as she stares at me. She’s trying to figure out how to say whatever’s on her mind without breaking etiquette.
