It could have helped me immensely if I were more mindful and conscious of not exceeding the contractual maximum wordcount of my manuscript. I realize now that it’s the author’s responsibility to maintain an effective tracking system for monitoring their total wordcount — to avoid your publisher from discarding important content to get your manuscript approved and accepted.
As part of my series about “authors who are making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ramon Hervey II.
Ramon Hervey II is making his debut as an author with his new book, THE FAME GAME, AN INSIDER’S PLAYBOOK FOR EARNING YOUR 15 MINUTES. Throughout Hervey’s four-decade career, he has served as superstar manager and publicist for an impressive list of iconic entertainers and artists including Richard Pryor, Bette Midler, Paul McCartney, Little Richard, the Bee Gees, Vanessa Williams, Nick Nolte, and James Caan, among other. In THE FAME GAME, he offers his uncensored insight as a trusted confidant and insider of the hilarious, absurd, disappointing, and behind-the-scenes drama of his marquee clients and their trek to success and fame.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
I was born in Chicago, ILL, the eldest son of five children, (3 boys and 2 girls). My dad was a lifer in the military (Navy, Airforce) and my mother worked in retail industry. We moved around, but my parents raised me in Springfield, Ma, where I attended Margaret C. Ells Elementary School — one of the first integrated public schools in the city. My Dad was stationed at Westover Airforce Base at the time. They transferred him to Vandenberg Air Force Base when I was 12, so we moved to Lompoc, CA, where I attended junior high school, and later graduated from Cabrillo High School. I started authoring poems in my early teens and later became the Sports Editor for my high school newspaper. A few of my poems were published while I attended and graduated from Whittier College, Whittier, CA. (Richard Nixon is their most famous alumni).
When you were younger, was there a book that you read that inspired you to take action or changed your life? Can you share a story about that?
Probably, THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, by Mark Twain. His passion for adventure and lack of fear of the unknown inspired and motivated me to be adventurous, challenge myself, and to embrace the unknown, rather than fear it. I also loved the comradery and friendship he shared with Joe and Huckleberry on their runaway adventure. I often wondered if I would have the courage to do something that daring. I never matched what he did at that age, but I’ve always tried to push myself to be daring, adventurous and step outside my comfort zone.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I was a teenager, I had a paper route delivering a daily local newspaper via bicycle to about 70–80 people on my route. I would have to fold and wrap them with a rubber band to load into my bags that I hung from the handlebars on my bicycle. Every Wednesday, there was an advertising insert that had to add to every paper. Adding them was painstaking and time consuming. One Wednesday, a couple of my friends wanted to play football, but I was amid folding my papers. So, I told them I wouldn’t be able to play. But they convinced me that my customers wouldn’t miss the insert.
And if just folded up my papers, I could finish and deliver my route in enough time that we could stay play. I had already folded up about 20–25 papers. I didn’t add the rest. The next day, customers on my route besieged my route manager with complaints that they didn’t get their ad insert. I was naïve and had no clue they were so important. I lied and told him I put them in. Fortunately, the few customers who received their insert vouched for me. But I learned never to shirk my responsibilities, not to let my peers influence my decision-making, and that when you lie, more lies usually follow.
Can you describe how you aim to make a significant social impact with your book?
My inspiration and motivation for authoring my book wasn’t to spearhead or make a significant social impact. However, historically there are an incalculable number of significant stories and contributions of Black people to the fabric and evolution of American culture have yet to be told. It will continue to take a collective effort to change that paradigm. Many, many more stories by Black authors need to be published and exposed to the next generation, the generation after that, and so on. Black youth and mainstream audiences the to know that people of my color and level of success exist. And we exist, then hopefully in will give them hope, faith, and inspiration they can be successful as well. My book deals with the realities and liabilities of people giving up their anonymity to pursue success and fame in the entertainment business. One of my tenets of fame is, “Fame is not a destination. It’s an accolade.” It’s also a reward that is a byproduct of being successful. I hope that will resonate with people because I’ve never represented any artist or actor who became famous without becoming successful first.
Can you share with us the most interesting story that you shared in your book?
I’ve interacted and represented dozens of famous people in my career, and Madonna ranks as one of most iconic. I was managing prolific songwriter/producer/artist Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, and Madonna asked him to co-write, produce, and perform a song with her. The song, “Take A Bow,” became a number one smash hit. Madonna asked Babyface to make two TV appearances to perform the song with her, including the celebrated, “Sanremo Music Festival in Italy, which televised to over 20 million people throughout Europe. We flew to Monaco and drove an hour across the border in a caravan of Mercedes to San Remo, a small city on the Northwestern coast of Italy. As we entered the city on the road to the theater, masses of people had gathered flooded the road, were peering from balconies and screaming, “Madonna, Madonna, Madonna.” We became engulfed by fans trying to see which car she was in. Our caravan came to a complete standstill. I had never seen this level fan adulation before — it was bedlam. Babyface and I had our own car, and he was freaking out bit. He looked at me and said without pause,
“I never want be this famous.”
What was the “aha moment” or series of events that made you decide to bring your message to the greater world? Can you share a story about that?
I had been mildly contemplating writing a book about for a while. I knew I didn’t want to write a memoir but hadn’t locked into a theme/concept that would enable me to tie in all the professional stories and experiences that I felt could be compelling. My girlfriend at the time posed a joint challenge that every morning at 6:30 am for three weeks, we’d call each and commit one hour to accomplishing one of our goals. My goal was to complete an outline for my book. I achieved my goal, and that preliminary outline fueled the first iteration of my book proposal which I later rewrote, refined, and edited countless times before sending it out to literary agents and publishers. It took over three years to write and get my book published, but those three weeks convinced me that convince me and gave the self-confidence needed to face the daunting challenge of becoming an author.
Without sharing specific names, can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
I can’t single out one person that I’ve dramatically impacted, but my friends, business associates, and people that I don’t know who have read my book have enjoyed reading my book. Maybe, I helped them feel enlightened about the behind-the-scenes aspects of dealing with famous people that mostly go unnoticed, especially for the average person who isn’t privy or has the kind of access that usually comes with the roles I’ve played for famous people.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
I’m not on a crusade to solve problems for anyone. What I’ve tried to do is advocate and educate people about lessons I’ve learned in my area of specialization. There are certain ethical tenets that I feel are viable and effective in all aspects of life and business. So, whether you’re an entertainer, politician, community leader, or public figure, I feel it’s important to be authentic, transparent, honest, and equitable when you’re engaging with the public at large, fans, or constituents. All people, regardless of their race, culture, gender, or religious beliefs, are human beings who deserve respect and to be treated justly and equally.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
A strong leader needs to be compassionate and successfully advocate, motivate, inspire, encourage, and uplift his/her/she subordinates, team members, family or loved ones to be the best they can be. A leader can’t provide leadership simply by talking about it. Leadership requires taking actions that people can emulate. It also requires maintaining respect, integrity, critical thinking skills, and the ability to consistently treat people with the same healthy dosages of compassion and equitability whether they fail or are successful. Lastly, leadership requires an unwavering commitment to be an avid listener. You can’t be successful leader if you don’t take the time to try to understand and build an emotional connection with people that demonstrates that you care about them. In terms of leadership, I can’t think of anyone who fought harder, more passionately, and inspired more people to fight for non-violent civil rights, justice, and freedom than Martin Luther King, Jr.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
- That memory would fail me daily. In every chapter of my book, I sought to deliver authentic and transparent accounts of everything about which I was writing. I strived to lace every story with the specific timeframe that everything happened. However, at times I discovered I was off by a year or two. So, I had to backtrack and revise key story elements to reflect the correct timing.
- The ominous task of trying to avoid writer’s block and having the discipline to write every day. The goal wasn’t to write the same amount every day, but to develop a consistent routine of giving your ideas and thoughts life as you contemplate them. There were days I wrote for just an hour or two, other days I wrote for 8–10 hours. And whenever I missed a day or two, I lost thoughts and feelings that I never recaptured in the same way they organically entered my mind.
- There is no way to achieve perfection as an author, or to reach a point where you feel there isn’t a better way to express one of your thoughts or convey a message more succinctly. Albeit meeting the mandated deadlines set by your publisher to get a book into production, it could be an ever-ending process. You must reach a point where you feel in your heart that you’ve given your best — and allow yourself to enjoy a moment of gratification that you completed it.
- Once I started writing, I couldn’t turn off the emotional anxiety and mental adrenaline that inherently comes with authoring a book. It was impossible to mute or marginalize all the thoughts that were incessantly racing through my mind or separate them from all the regular thoughts the most people normally deal with every day. And it’s estimated that the average person makes an average of 35,000 decisions per day.
- It could have helped me immensely if I were more mindful and conscious of not exceeding the contractual maximum wordcount of my manuscript. I realize now that it’s the author’s responsibility to maintain an effective tracking system for monitoring their total wordcount — to avoid your publisher from discarding important content to get your manuscript approved and accepted.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” Matthew 12. Even though it comes from the Bible, it supersedes all religions, races, cultures, gender disparities, and LGBTQ inequities. If all human beings could truly adopt and abide by that mantra it could be a pathway to eradicate a plethora of historical and universal social injustices that continue to undermine the possibility of ever living in a world where freedom and justice for all truly exists.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I’ve always wanted to meet former President Barack Obama. I’ve met four US President’s, but I didn’t have a private lunch with any of them. Barack Obama attained a goal that I never dreamed or imagined could happen in my lifetime. But in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, November 4, 2008, watching him make his victory speech at Grant Park, Chicago to a quarter million people and millions of people the rest of the world as the US President-elect is one of the most memorable and cherished nights of my most cherished moments in my life.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
They can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and on check out my website, www.herveyandcompany.com.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Social Impact Authors: How & Why Author Ramon Hervey II Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.