Chapter 8

David

The board meeting was anticlimactic since nothing could be said on the record about the potential takeover of Morgan Fletcher Investments. The board officially tabled the buyout offer for further review.

Grace predicted that Morgan Fletcher would take that as a ‘no’ and potentially begin efforts to initiate their own takeover. David found it unfathomable that they could pull that off, but Grace assured him that she’d seen it done before.

With the business drama out of the way, David had to leave to do interviews for the movie. After the board meeting, he had one last meeting with Grace, Ava, Brook, Phyllis, and his dad, Rob.

“So, who’s your guy?” Rob asked.

Everyone wanted to know who might have the seed money for the buyout of Morgan Fletcher.

“Ron Pennington. He’s one of USC Athletics’ largest boosters; he usually gives them about fifty million a year. Ron makes his money in the trucking business and is now semiretired. His daughter, Jennifer Tuttle, runs the day-to-day for her dad,” David said.

“Do you think he would be interested?” Grace asked.

“I know it’s a big ask, and he and I aren’t really friends, but on the merit of what we’re going to do, he just might.”

“He’s just an acquaintance?” Ava asked, sounding doubtful.

“I met him at a booster event, and we made a connection. I keep him updated on both the baseball and football fronts. We talk or text at least once a week. I’m having a ‘welcome to campus’ get-together for our new football recruits and their families, and he plans to attend.

“I happen to know that he’s not really enjoying being retired. Still, he tries to stay out of what’s happening at his company out of respect for his daughter. Ron only gets involved if there’s a major issue,” David said.

“Let me understand this. You know ‘a guy’ who can stroke an annual fifty-million-dollar check for college sports and is looking for a new challenge?” Brook asked.

David rolled his eyes.

“Sound like anyone we know?” Brook asked Ava.

They both looked at Grace. David and his dad chuckled at their interplay.

“I’ll call him and let him know to expect your call,” David said to divert Grace from throttling her favorite granddaughter.

“Let me know when a call would work for him,” Grace said.

“Actually, it might be best if you rented a jet and let me fly you all to LA to meet him,” David suggested.

“Don’t let him con you,” Rob chuckled. “His office wizard, Megan, called and left a message that the guaranteed money for the opening of Devil May Care was deposited in his account.”

“Guaranteed money?” Ava asked.

“It’s part of my contract,” David said. “At different stages of a movie’s production, there are incremental payouts. I received a signing bonus, another payment when the film started shooting, and so on. The last payment of guaranteed money became vested when it opened in the theaters. Later, I’ll be paid royalties based on my shares in the film. That’s based on its gross profits. Fingers crossed, I’m hoping that one’s a big payout,” he explained.

He then smiled at his dad.

“Now I can replenish my jet fund.”

“About that. I tied up all your money in different trusts that you can’t touch until you’re thirty,” Rob said with a straight face.

David knew that wasn’t true, but he wasn’t about to give his dad the satisfaction of having a meltdown. While his dad expected him to be responsible, it was his money, not his dad’s. David knew that buying a jet was probably a bad investment unless he partnered with others to share one. He didn’t fly enough to justify it when he could easily borrow or rent a jet.

“You know what’s best,” David said nonchalantly.

Brook hit him again. She was awfully brave for not having Cassidy around to protect her. Brook might end up over his knee if she kept it up.

Of course, that would lead to them making up ... David returned from his flight of fancy.

“While I have you all here, I want to make a suggestion and also discuss a possible business we should start,” he said to change the topic.

“Is he always like this?” Grace asked.

“It’s not just him,” Brook chimed in. “David’s grandfather was in politics and known as a dealmaker. Rob took the idea of a field house for Lincoln High athletics and had it done in record time. So, David comes by it naturally. If he says he has an idea, I would listen.”

“Thanks,” David said.

He hadn’t realized that Brook had been paying such close attention. It felt good to have her support him like that.

“Tell me your suggestion first,” Grace said.

“Who handles my investments?” he asked.

Everyone looked at him for a moment. Finally, his dad answered.

“I guess that would be Megan and myself.”

Megan Crowley was his Girl Friday. When they’d all left to move to California, she’d stayed to run the office that oversaw all of David’s personal interests. Those included his farms, restaurants, and acting and modeling jobs.

“I’m not talking about my people. I am asking who at Holistic Wealth Management handles my accounts,” David clarified.

“I don’t really know,” Grace admitted, looking confused.

“I’m sorry. My question wasn’t meant to put you on the spot. I would be surprised if you did know. My point is that I don’t know. And if I don’t know, what about the rest of our clients?”

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Grace said as she finally understood what he was talking about.

“Our potential client pool is finite. I’m talking about people with enough money to invest with a wealth management company. Those individuals also have a lot of choices about who they will allow to handle their money. I know that we work hard to recruit new customers. What are we doing to retain them?” David asked.

“Your mom always says it’s easier to keep a customer than to go find a new one,” Rob shared.

“Let me draw another analogy: college recruiting. The coaches work hard to get a player to verbally commit. But until they sign their National Letter of Intent, the school has to continue recruiting them because other schools don’t just give up contacting their players. Even after they sign, they can transfer if the coaching staff doesn’t make the player feel wanted.

“I mean, if I didn’t know what Morgan Fletcher’s long-term plans were, I could be swayed by their laser-focused approach to making me more money,” David explained.

“Oh, dear God, I’m screwing this up,” Grace said when she realized David’s point. “To begin with, I don’t seek advice from my management team to the point some of them might be willing to bail. Now, I’ve taken our customers for granted as well.”

In the retail business, salespeople didn’t usually build relationships with their customers. There was a large enough client pool that if one didn’t come back, they weren’t missed.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Rob interjected to assure Grace. “You’re fixing the first issue, and most of our current client base knows either you or David. This is something we can fix.”

“We should hire a customer relationship management company,” Phyllis suggested.

David held up his hand.

“Sorry, but I’ll let you figure that out later. I have to do some interviews before I go to dinner tonight. Let me tell you about my business idea.”

He then told them about his stats class and how Target could determine whether a woman was going to have a baby based on her buying patterns. That had turned into a project where he used data-mining techniques to help his mom’s real estate business.

“My mom now has enough buyer and seller leads that she’s going to hire several new agents to handle them,” David shared.

“What’s your business idea?” Grace asked.

“I look at what we’re doing for my mom as a proof of concept. With big data, you can mine it to find out all kinds of stuff. That information, and the means I’ve been using to get it, are in my control. Today, information is power,” David concluded.

“How would we figure this all out?” Ava asked, bringing up the obvious question.