Chapter 7
My first month at Streamline, I stayed completely behind the scenes.
No streaming, no showing my face, no interviews, nothing.
I was focused on building the whole system from the ground up.
Starting from scratch, I set up Streamline's content rating rules, streamer evaluation process, and the whole brand onboarding pipeline.
David gave me full authority, and a core team of eight worked with me to build everything from the ground up.
I brought in two old partners, Linda, who'd been with me for years, became the head of streamer operations, and Cathy Young, a former brand manager from Cosmique, joined as the brand business director.
The team got up to speed in no time.
During the day, we'd brainstorm and refine our plans, and at night, we'd crunch the numbers and tweak the rules.
After twenty days of nonstop overtime, Lily barely recognized me anymore.
But the results were obvious.
In just one month, Streamline had forty percent more brands coming on board, and twelve big-name beauty brands signed up.
David met with me once a week, never late, never wasting a second.
Every time, it was just, "Any updates?" "Need me to step in?" "Carry on."
He was so concise, it was like talking to a robot.
But one day, things were different.
After the meeting, I was about to leave when he suddenly called out to me.
"Grace," he said.
"Yes?" I replied.
"About picking up Lily from kindergarten, you can adjust your meeting schedule if you need a set time for that. I'll coordinate things with the team," he said.
I froze for a second.
'Wait, how did he even know about that?' I wondered.
I think I only casually mentioned it once at a team dinner, just said I couldn't pick up Lily lately because I've been working late.
"Okay, thanks," I said.
He nodded and buried himself in his paperwork again, like he'd just tossed out something unimportant.
As I walked out of the conference room, I glanced back at the closed glass door.
I didn't think much of it.
Back to work.
*****
It was my fortieth day at Streamline.
An industry news item started making the rounds: Radiant Media's Q3 earnings report showed a massive loss of 23 million dollars.
The main reason? All the top brands had pulled out en masse.
Cosmique was gone.
That same week, two other international brands I'd worked with, BelleVie from France and Hanami from Japan, pulled out too.
The reason was basically the same: they'd lost confidence in the quality of Radiant Media's streamers and how the whole operation was run.
Honestly, once I left, they just didn't believe anyone else at Radiant Media could handle it.
Emma took over my slot and streamed six times in a row.
Her best stream only hit 1 million dollars in GMV.
As for me, even my baseline for a single stream was 17 million dollars, no less.
Someone in the industry group chat posted a screenshot of Emma's stream.
Only twelve thousand viewers online.
The caption: [You can't become a top streamer just by having connections.]
The replies were all jeers and ridicule.
I kept quiet.
But I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel satisfying.
That same afternoon, I got a call I didn't see coming.
It was Edward's secretary from Radiant Media.
"Ms. Nolan, Mr. Lane would like to meet with you to discuss a potential collaboration," she said.
I thought I must've heard wrong.
"Collaboration? What kind?" I asked.
"Mr. Lane said it's about some kind of partnership between Streamline and Radiant Media," she answered.
I leaned back in my chair and let out a laugh.
A month ago, he was giving me hell over the phone.
Now, he's asking his secretary to arrange a sit-down about teaming up.
Guess in business, enemies never last.
"Let Mr. Lane know, Streamline has pretty strict requirements for brands joining us, and right now, Radiant Media just doesn't meet our criteria," I said.
I hung up.
Damn, that felt good.