hollywood billionaire

Chapter 309 Careerist

"Mr. Braun."

Han Yi took two steps forward and leaned in front of the desks of Blair Shuman and David Cohen.

"I hope I didn't interrupt your schedule."

"Not at all, Mr. Han."

Scooter Braun, who was enjoying the California sunshine by the pool, glanced at John Travolta, who was napping on another sun lounger next to him, and Kelly Pugh, who was taking a selfie in the pavilion at the far end. Reston and Yael Cohen Braun showed eight white teeth.

"Just came out of the conference room, where are you?"

"I just entered the conference room."

Han Yi tapped the table of his desk with his knuckles, and his voice was still polite and gentle with a smile, but it was obvious that he did not want to have such unnecessary greetings with Scooter Braun anymore. .

Time is running out, and he must quickly resolve the immediate troubles, because there will be more unknown difficulties and obstacles waiting for him before the music festival officially opens.

"Listen, ah... I'm in Las Vegas right now, following up on the progress of the Mad City project. I heard... that Kanye has some updates on the riders he's hosting?"

"Some small updates, yes." Scout threw aside the small decorative umbrella on the glass and took a sip of margarita. "It was a request made directly to us by the artist. What's the problem? Yes, Mr. Han? I’m happy to help.”

"The problem now is that in the entire Las Vegas, there are no five presidential suites... to be precise, there are no five suites."

"This is great news, Yi, congratulations!" Scooter Braun raised his head and laughed twice, "The hotel is sold out, which is always a sign of a successful performance."

"I hope so, there is still a lot of work to be done." Han Yi stared at his fingernails, pondered for a moment, and then continued, "The reason why I called you, Scout, is to communicate with you personally. This question. Because the objective conditions do not allow us to provide more rooms, I want to see if the artists can find suitable accommodation for the newly added team."

"This may be a bit..." Scout smacked his lips, his voice sounding a little embarrassed, "You know, Mr. West has always had very high requirements for his travel standards. If the organizer cannot meet his conditions 100%, it is estimated that It may have an impact on his cooperation and the final completion of the performance.”

Scooter Braun's words were equivalent to directly putting the threat on the table.

He knows how important Kanye West, as the finale guest on the last day, is to the final presentation of Mad City. If Kanye now announces that he cannot participate in Mad City due to "force majeure", there is no way Han Live can find a superstar artist who can take over Kanye's headliner position in two days. The ensuing negative publicity and refund controversy will not only make Mad City a complete failure, but will at least cast a stain on the music festival held in its first year.

This is the core factor that makes Scooter Braun confident.

You ask him for anything, and he can pull the trigger at any time.

"Are these newly added entourages important to Mr. West?" Han Yi frowned, and the deliberate smile on his face faded a bit.

"Critical."

"Since it's so important, why didn't Mr. West put them in from the beginning?" Han Yi deliberately paused for a few seconds, "You know, it's the rider version that both of us signed and confirmed."

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Han. My client just told me yesterday that we need to add these entourage members. They are very important, but Mr. West's ongoing Saint Pablo tour is more important." Scooter-Booth Lawn narrowed his eyes slightly and replied in a calm voice, "Since August, my client has been completing the target at a speed of 20 concerts per month. He is so busy that he doesn't even have time to communicate with us... You know, although I am Mr. West's manager in name, in reality my role is just that of a marketer. He will only contact me when he needs me."

"and……"

"For this tour, we originally planned to stop in Las Vegas and reserved the venue with the T-Mobile Arena. It was just to participate in the Mad City Music Festival, so we had to regretfully cancel it... Mr. Han, please You can rest assured that we really attach great importance to this performance. The request in terms of reception is also to allow the artists to worry less and invest more."

Do you take this performance seriously?

Of course you take it seriously.

The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas can seat 18100 people at full capacity, and all tickets were sold out, which only generated US$210.7 million in revenue.

Even if Kanye can get 95%, even if the performance costs nothing, his final share will only be 200 million US dollars.

And what Mad City gave him was US$400 million.

Fully twice as much.

After giving so much and still nit-picking over the minutiae, who is the one making trouble unreasonably?

"I understand, Scout, and we value Mr. West's presence."

I thought so in my heart, but I still had to maintain the politeness on the surface, especially when the music festival was about to begin. Han Yi held the phone further away from him, took a deep breath, and then put it close to his ear again.

"So, I have a proposal...can you see the mailbox now?"

"can."

"I just sent you a PDF file with a solution that we think is suitable... 27 Eagle Ridge Road."

"Well, it looks charming. Where is it?"

"The Summit Club, the most exclusive and private community in Las Vegas."

"Let's see... half an hour from the Strip? Isn't that a little too far, especially with all the festival traffic?"

"We will arrange two helicopters to pick up and drop off. There is a helipad to the west of the Circus Circus Hotel. After landing, the team can drive directly into the backstage, which takes less than two minutes."

"You have..."

"The parameters of the helicopter and the qualifications of the company responsible for the flight will be sent to your team later." Han Yi knew what Scout wanted to ask, "Seven bedrooms, seven and a half bathrooms, not only five The additional entourage can stay, and Kanye, Kim and his children can also live there and stay with their families."

"I never said that the newly added entourage is Mr. West's family...Mr. Han, where did you hear the news?"

"It's just a guess. It's one of my hobbies." Han Yi glanced at the employees around him who almost laughed out loud, "A 1400 million US dollar mansion is the most superior living environment that Las Vegas can provide. . Mr. Braun, you can send the house information to Mr. West and let him make his own decision. If that doesn’t work, we’ll find another way.”

"Okay, Yi. I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you. But you should understand my difficulty - being a manager for the most popular hip-hop artist in the world has never been easy. It’s an easy thing and it makes sense to put on a show with him.”

"I understand, Scout."

"It would be great if you can understand... Okay, I will ask Alison to communicate with Kanye and the others later, and I should be able to give you the final answer today."

"Fantastic. Thank you, Scout, and have a nice day."

"You too, Yi. Have a nice day, let's talk later."

Scooter Braun... really lives up to his reputation.

Putting the phone back in his pocket, Han Yi grinned and shook his head helplessly.

He and Scooter first met at Diplo's home studio. At that time, maybe it was because Justin liked the single "Cold Water" very much and wanted to promote cooperation, or maybe it was because in that project, Justin Bieber, as a special guest, did not have an advantage and had nothing to show for it. Space, so Scout's performance seemed quite normal, and even gave Han Yi a gentle and polite feeling.

After the meeting, although some negative comments about Scooter and his team were heard from Madison Beer, Han Yi's intention to cooperate has never wavered.

After all, no matter what, Scooter is the most successful music manager in the past decade, and he does have his unique features in artist management, career cultivation and business value construction. People management, and even the entire music business group, need talents with outstanding abilities like Scooter to join.

In the last life, Scooter Braun's outstanding performance as CEO of HYBE USA also gave Han Yi great confidence. After he took office, he quickly acquired 100% of the shares of Quality Control Media Holdings for the Korean entertainment giant, allowing HYBE to gain momentum in the European and American markets and directly reach into the core circle of the music industry. Later, he worked with HYBE founder Bang Shihyun to raise US$3.8 million in copyright acquisition funds for HYBE America, and continued to make waves in the copyright trading market.

From the most prominent manager in the European and American music circles to the shake-up leader of an entertainment group, Scooter Braun has a glittering resume.

But today, Han Yi saw another side of him.

According to the 2022 special report in "Business Insider" magazine, Scooter Braun's character can be summarized with a simple but rarely used English word: "Careerist."

Translated into Chinese, it means a person who does everything possible to achieve success in his career.

He can grovel for the opportunity to climb up, or he can go to war for a small gain. You can become the best friend of a noble person, or you can burn every bridge of friendship after taking advantage of them.

"I've never seen anyone burn so many bridges with so many people. Once something bad happens, Braun will abandon ship."

This is the evaluation of Scooter Braun by in-depth reporter Anna Silman, and this is also Han Yi's impression of Scooter after today's call. When he has an advantage, he will pursue and fight fiercely until he squeezes out the last bit of value from his negotiating opponent. But after they succeed, they will show a false expression of regret and blame all the troubles and inconveniences caused to others on the customers.

In other words, as a Machiavellian, Scooter Braun is a ruthlessly efficient executor and the favorite executioner of all bosses. However, his approach will bring him troubles in the short term. He has received numerous honors, but with a longer-term view, Scooter has not been able to truly rise to the level of a capitalist and trader like Jimmy Iovine and David Geffen.

Because he is too capricious, too practical and utilitarian, and too unforgiving of others, to the point of being disgusting and disgusting. You can give him an urgent task, but if you want to share core interests with him, it is estimated that not many smart billionaires will nod in agreement.

He had a falling out with Taylor Swift over Kanye West, but was eventually fired by the former. When they acquired Big Machine Records, they thought they had captured Swift's seven-inch record, but they were stunned by the latter's remastered album.

Han Yi originally thought that these were just two or three mistakes in Scooter Braun's long and glorious transcript.

But after today's small and medium-sized confrontation, he had a new perspective.

These mistakes are the concrete manifestation of his fatal personality flaws.

It’s time to readjust the way you get along with him and change the way you use him.

"It should be fine, Blair, first communicate with Airbnb and ask them to help reserve a room... If there is no reply by night, I will urge Scout again." Han Yicheng said to Blair Schumann and Adam Cohen Nodding, he immediately turned his attention to Jacqueline, "I estimate that there is a high probability that Kanye will accept my proposal and live directly with the Kardashian family in the villa on Eagle Ridge Road. By then, the two presidential rooms will be vacant. Suite, you can see if there are any important customers who need to maintain relationships, and you can grant it to them."

"Okay, Mr. Han." Jacqueline Beto nodded, "I hope Kanye will agree to our solution."

"He will definitely do it." Han Yi smiled at her, "Scout will convince him."

"It sounds like you trust Scout." Zhao Youzhen whispered in Chinese, which sounded like a reminder.

"I just don't trust him, so I made this judgment." Han Yi gave Zhao Youzhen an ambiguous reply, shrugged, and smiled at everyone, "Okay, don't let one artist affect the preparations for the entire music festival. ...Jackie, Ori, you are back just in time, please take me to visit Mad City's 'Campaign Headquarters'."

"No problem, Mr. Han." Jacqueline Berto responded crisply, "The artist executive team is all here. Blair and Adam are the general controllers of artist team liaison and schedule coordination... Ah, yes, Tim - Piccirelli, who you haven't met yet, is our resident representative here for Crown Transportation in Las Vegas. For this festival, Crown Transportation is providing transportation for all artists and staff to and from the venue, hotel, and airport. Transportation."

"Mr. Han, I have long admired you." Tim Piccirilli, who had been looking around for a long time, quickly came forward and extended his hand to Han Yi, "Crown Transportation is honored to provide services for your event."

"Hello, Mr. Piccirelli." Han Yi politely shook hands with Tim, "Are those buses parked in front of the hotel yours?"

"That's right, that is our passenger bus that can carry 56 people. It is specially used to transport volunteers and security teams... Today they came to the venue for rehearsal." Tim replied with a smile, "For the behind-the-scenes execution team, we prepared The 28-seater shuttle bus will be more comfortable and equipped with desks and Wi-Fi. The extended limo bus prepared for the guests is not on site today, but you will be able to see it during the artist's rehearsal tomorrow. We will provide it for everyone. Each artist is equipped with a Lincoln MKT extended city car. Each car can seat 10 people. The guests’ core accompanying team can all ride in the same car, which improves efficiency and shortens commuting time. Others are slightly peripheral. For the team, we use a 13-seater Mercedes-Benz van. No matter how large the team is, three vehicles can handle it.”

"Tim and the others are very professional." Ori Blistan added next to him, "Anytime you need a car, even late at night, you can just make a phone call and you'll be downstairs in five minutes, which is faster than Uber."

"Thanks for the compliment." Tim bowed and his smile grew wider, "We often serve music festivals, and almost one-third of the artists at EDC this year were picked up and dropped off by us, so we have a complete and mature process in place. …One week before and after the music festival, we will have two commercial vehicles and two full-time drivers staying at the executive team’s hotel 24 hours a day for the organizers to dispatch.”

"Sounds very professional...Thank you very much for your efforts, Tim. I hope we have a pleasant cooperation with this music festival and can renew the contract with you every year."

"This is also our most sincere expectation, Mr. Han."

"Thank you again, Tim..." Jacqueline nodded and smiled at Tim, and then turned her gaze to the middle-aged white man with a short hair who was not the tallest but definitely the burliest in the crowd. "Except for the traffic team, We are also fortunate to welcome the soul of the music festival's security team today, Jeff Spendel. He is the vice president of BEST Crowd Management Company. He is usually based in Minnesota. Yesterday, he flew in to ensure the smooth holding of the event. Coming to Las Vegas.”

"Not a soulful person, Jackie, just a big guy who sits behind his desk and eats donuts all day long." Jeff held his belly in his hands and smiled like Santa Claus.

"When I was still at Caesars Entertainment, I worked with BEST many times and I have great confidence in their professional capabilities." Jacqueline explained to Han Yi, "Unlike other security companies, BEST is best at crowd management. , is a security service for special events, including concerts, sports events, industry exhibitions and summit forums.

"Yes, effective crowd management is not just as simple as having security guards at the venue." Jeff followed Jacqueline's words and said, "It requires professional planning, coordination and communication. Our team has systematically With training and tens of thousands of hours of practice, we can provide top-notch event security services for various types of gatherings, so that your audience can enjoy the performance with confidence.”

"We provide full security services at the Country Music Awards, AT&T Stadium and Dallas Cowboys games, as well as most of the Las Vegas sporting events of Caesars Entertainment and MGM Group."

"I feel relieved when I hear these names." Han Yi said with a smile, "Having experience in rugby matches with 100,000 people, I believe that an event of our scale should be just a piece of cake."

"The requirements for outdoor music festivals and stadium competitions are very different. If I have to say it, the former is actually much more difficult. Stadiums have clear movement lines, complete sets of safety regulations, and evacuation procedures that will not change easily, but for music festivals Said, all this has to be done from scratch." The first half of Jeff Spendel's sentence served to make their task as difficult and complicated as possible, "However, fortunately, if you have enough time, your company will Our work is also very supportive, so we are very satisfied with the final security effect... Before flying here, I even told Stephen...Stephen Chretier, the CEO of our parent company Garda World International, that this After this event, I must ask the photography team you are working with to get more photos so that they can be used as classic cases on our official website.”

"So confident?"

"We did our best within the budget. In other words, we completed a security system that exceeded the budget." Jeff sounded confident, "On-site security, roadblock security, and police dog patrol teams, a total of 450 people. Every day A team of 15 people is led by our experienced full-time employees, and even temporary employees with part-time salaries are professional security guards from various resorts in Las Vegas."

Las Vegas is the city with the highest hotel density in the world, and at the same time, it is also the city with the most dense security for tourists. For example, Bellagio has more than 10000 employees, 940 of whom are security guards. They implement a three-shift system to guard the safety of the resort hours a day.

With so many employees, it is natural that some of them have no work schedule on the 29th, 30th or 31st. Among them, many are willing to sacrifice their rest time to get the part-time security salary of US$16.88 per hour at the Mad City Music Festival.

The music festival's makeshift security team has far less stringent requirements than various five-star resorts. Basically, they don't need to do anything. They just stand at their posts and kill time. They take a fifteen-minute break every four hours and work for eight hours. Get paid $135.04.

Anyway, idle is idle.

"We also provide an admission service team. There are 150 people in total including handheld metal detector operators, temperature detectors, explosion-proof detectors, bag detectors, and ticket inspectors. With the cooperation of professional equipment, we can simultaneously Nearly 2000 tests have been completed, and even if people rush in at the same time, they can all be admitted in minutes."

"The guest service team consists of 100 people, mainly concentrated in our booth area, including 40 waiters and 20 VIP escort security. In addition, there are 25 full-time employees of BEST guarding various arteries, as well as a fully armed team. The emergency safety response team composed of 15 people is guaranteed to arrive at any incident location within five minutes - a fight? Before the second punch landed on the opponent's face, you were thrown out of the venue by our security."

"Of course, these are just the basic parts of our service package. This time, Mad City, one of the things that BEST is most proud of, has helped you save a lot of money on... government affairs."

"I know Jackie has been complimenting me on your administrative network and crisis management capabilities."

Han Yi and Zhao Youzhen exchanged a look. They had never been absent from every music festival preparatory meeting, and they knew very well what Jeff Spendel said was the most bragging achievement.

BEST Crowd Management Company, using their connections in Las Vegas, helped Han on the scene to close the gaping mouth of the city government a little smaller.

Of course, Nevada Senator Reuben Keehun was also responsible for this, but this was a hidden thread that Han Yi could not mention to anyone.

Without these two channels being unblocked, this very large music festival, which has repeatedly appeared on Twitter's real-time hot topic list, may still be stuck in the approval process.

This was the first time after Han Yi's rebirth that he used the wealth and power he had just accumulated to fight against the government.

How to fight?

(End of this chapter)