El Aprendiz


This is my last post from Bogotá, at least for a few weeks. I'm sitting in the airport, loving the free wireless, ready for the beach (although my flight is now delayed due to storms in Cartagena).

Anyway a great story to share. Today I stopped sulking about the slow pace of everything, and insisted instead on hitting the phones to knock on some doors, some new, some not. First to knock, first admitted, right? One sponsor I've been trying to get a hold of is Aviatur, Colombia's largest travel agency. Seriously, they're like the Starbucks of travel agencies, they're so ubiquitous. But I had no contact with them, and one of my contacts in Bogota sent me the name of the president, Jean Claude Bessudo, and urged me simply to call him. Just call Aviatur, ask for the president, and ask for a sponsorship. Well, that's the coldest of a cold call I've ever made, but I was in a mood, right?, so I called. They put me through to his secretary, who informed me Sr. Bessudo would be out until the afternoon, but if I left my cell number, he'd call me later. So I left it, and promptly started making other calls.

There's another thing about Jean Claude Bessudo: He's playing the Donald Trump role in the Colombian version of "The Apprentice." Right, and so in this bizarre parellel world that is Colombia, I was calling Donald Trump right out of the blue.

A few hours later I was wrapping up some work and getting ready to head to the airport when my phone rang; it was Bessudo.

BESSUDO: (All in Spanish, of course, but I'm translating/paraphrasing) Sr. Kelley?
ME: Yes?
B: This is Jean Claude Bessudo. How can I help you.
ME: Oh, I... I'm organizing this festival in Cartagena, it's going to have music and food... Like jazz mixed with Colombian... Tourism! You could sell packages--
B: Stop. Just put it in a proposal and send it to me. My e-mail address is... (Screams away from phone) Hey what's my e-mail address??
PHONE ON HOLD
SECRETARY: Sr. Kelley? Sr. Bessudo's e-mail address is...

As you can see, I bombed. And in true Trump fashion, Bessudo made me pay. But I think I got too much of a kick out of the whole thing to feel too rejected, and so I dove right into the proposal letter, and I laid it on thick, the all-out sell. Trump would have been proud.