- Chapter 4
When her alarm went off Liz could barely move. She felt like the world was beating a drum right on her head. But she knew she would need to get up and pull herself together. They had their first meeting with the client today.
Liz sent off a quick text to Harrison to apologize for not being able to talk long the night before. She had told him she was exhausted from the flight, but she knew he could tell she had been drinking.
By 8:30am Liz had made her way to the lobby and procured a nice large cup of coffee. She stood there waiting when Ricardo made his way downstairs.
“Wow, you clean up nice.” He said as he noticed Liz.
“I’m not just a first class lush.” Liz joked. “I’m also an amazing marketing designer.”
“That’s why I picked you.”
Ricardo and Liz made their way to the office of their new client. Palomino Enterprises. Liz felt surprisingly energized considering how her previous day had gone. She didn’t even feel that horrid jet lag that everyone talked about when traveling.
“So I’ll just sit quietly and let you do the talking?” Liz asked.
“Yep. I’ll show him the designs and talk about the project timeline. Should be a quick meeting. Then we can get started on the local campaign.”
“Great.”
As Liz and Ricardo entered the conference room, they were both surprised by the number of people that were there. Ricardo had intended to meet with just the marketing head, but instead they were faced with over a dozen people.
The CEO of Palomino Enterprises greeted them as they entered the room. The other officers of the company introduced themselves as well as some key marketing department employees.
Ricardo went right into action. Liz was impressed that nothing seemed to faze him. She sat there in awe as he went through their presentation. He quickly put all the executives at ease with his humor and obvious knowledge of the project.
“And this is the designer?” The CEO asked as he looked at Liz.
“Yes, Sir. I’m Elizabeth Cleveland.”
Liz made a concerted effort to look the man directly in the eyes and tried to appear confident.
“Could you tell me why you chose the skyline as the background in the ad?” The CEO asked.
Liz looked at Ricardo for an answer but quickly realized she knew the answer.
“I thought it would show off your global size and the fast pace of your corporation.”
“Great. I like that.” The CEO said.
“Do you think we could incorporate some other major city landmarks into the ad?” The Marketing president asked.
“Sure. I could redesign it.” Liz felt confident in her design work and more comfortable than she thought she would in front of the large group of mostly men executives.
“Great. Let’s look at the new skyline, say by the end of the week?” The CEO said as he looked at Liz and then over to Ricardo.
“Sure no problem. We will get those done and some mock-ups of the rest of the campaign.” Ricardo said as he turned off his power point and started to gather his things.
“I think we would like to do a simultaneous campaign in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. Could you get us the mock-ups for all three campaigns? Thanks.” The CEO said as he signaled for the crowd of executives to disperse.
“Sure thing,” Ricardo said as he shook the CEO’s hand. “We look forward to working with you on this project.”
Ricardo didn’t look like he understood the magnitude of what the CEO had just said. Liz stood there in shock as she shook all the executives hands and waited for them all to leave the room.
“Ricardo. He just tripled our project!” Liz said as panic started to take over.
“I know. Isn’t that great?” He said with a smile. “Triple the money too. This is going to kick start your career like crazy.”
Liz just stood there staring at Ricardo. It was going to be hard enough to get the new design finished for the Australian project, but now she had do one for the United States and England!
Liz felt a panic attack coming on. The room started to get smaller and smaller and before she knew it she was lying on the ground and Ricardo was standing over her waving some papers to help cool her off.
“Liz. Liz. Are you alright?” Ricardo said as Liz started to open her eyes.
“It’s too much Ricardo. Get someone else. I can’t do it.” Liz said as she stayed laying on the ground.
Ricardo smiled and lay on the ground next to her.
“I wouldn’t have picked you if I didn’t think you could handle this. Your designs are amazing. Your work ethic is ten times as much as anyone else in the office.” Ricardo said as he continued to lie on the ground next to Liz.
Liz felt comforted by Ricardo and hopeful that his confidence in her was not misplaced.
“You do know we are lying on the floor right now,” Liz joked.
“Yep.”
“Do you think we should get up?”
“Yeah. You’ve got a lot of work to do,” Ricardo smiled.
Ricardo helped Liz up off the ground and they gathered their belongings and headed to their new office.
Liz felt a surge of energy and quickly started working on the changes to the original skyline. She felt like if she could at least get that one done she would have more confidence that she could finish the other two by the end of the week.