My Holiday Season – Wednesday

photo credit: tanakawho

It is Day Three of this crazy holiday party week. A former BNI member, Dr. Catrise Austin of VIP Smiles, held a 10 years in business/holiday party at the World Famous Apollo Theater. Since she was in BNI, she definitely knows how to network.  She referred me to a fellow dentist years ago, who then became a good client for me.
Now this was more of a party than the networking events on Monday and Tuesday. The DJ was screaming for folks to get on the dancefloor. The Awesome2 was in the house. Janice Combs (aka Diddy’s mom) was there – apparently, she is Catrise’s surrogate mom, and Catrise’s biological mom was in the house all the way from Flint, MI.

Catrise laid out a buffet for everyone and desserts such as cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies were served.  When the place filled up, she gave a thank you speech to everyone and the night continued on.  And a great night it was.

I ran into old friends such as Osayamen Asemota and Joe Charles.   And I met some cool people…Shola and Anita Bryant.  Shola then introduced me to Raoul Davis, Jr., who I hope I will become my new best friend.

Even though Catrise warned people not to turn this into a “stuffy networking business card hand out event,” I had to do what I had to do.

Tagged as: 10 year anniversary, a-marketing, Apollo Theater, Awesome Two, Catrise Austin, holiday party, Janice Combs, Joe Charles, music, networking, New York City, raoul davis, sholajoy.com, VIP Smiles