Episode 2 - If You Live in Hope, You Die in S**t

Summary

Once Upon A Con – Episode 2: "If You Live in Hope, You Die in St"**

Release Date: February 12, 2025
Host: Caroline D'Amore
Producer: iHeartPodcast

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Episode Overview

In the riveting second episode of Season 1 of Once Upon A Con, Caroline D'Amore delves deeper into her harrowing encounter with David Bloom, a seemingly influential and benevolent businessman who ultimately orchestrates a complex scheme to defraud her and her business partners. This episode, aptly titled "If You Live in Hope, You Die in S**t," chronicles Caroline's journey from trust and hope to betrayal and determination to seek justice.

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Recap of Previous Episode

The episode opens with a brief recap of Caroline's initial interactions with David Bloom, setting the stage for the unfolding drama. Caroline expresses her feelings of betrayal, stating, “Why would you do that to me? When I thought we were friends” ([02:42]).

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Introduction to David Bloom

Caroline recounts her first encounter with David Bloom at Villa Carlotta, a prestigious high-end apartment building. She describes him as the "Wall Street Whiz Kid" with notable connections and an aura of credibility.

"He looked like a guy in his early 60s, kind of short, maybe like five'five or five'six with a thick shock of silver hair. He really seemed like the life of the party."
— Caroline D'Amore ([04:20])

David impressed Caroline by showing genuine interest in her business, Pizza Girl, an organic pasta sauce company she founded. His warmth and apparent sincerity made him an immediate mentor figure.

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The Investment Pitch

David proposed an enticing investment opportunity tied to the anticipated IPO of Soho House, a private social club with deep ties to billionaire Ron Burkle. Convincing Caroline of his authenticity, David promised substantial returns, leading her to invest alongside her business partners, Beck and Aaron.

"If you can only put together $1,000, that'll help you out. But if you can put together more, it's going to be worth 28 or 29 times whatever you put in in a couple months."
— David Bloom ([09:00])

Caroline recalls the optimism surrounding this investment:

"David offered to use his close connection with billionaire Ron Burkle to help get my Pizza Girl pasta sauce on the shelves of a giant supermarket chain."
— Caroline D'Amore ([11:00])

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The Dinner at Craig's: A Turning Point

The pivotal moment occurs during a dinner at Craig's, a celebrity hotspot in Los Angeles, where David failed to discuss business matters despite the meeting's purpose. Instead, tensions flared as David sowed seeds of distrust among the partners.

"David was planting in me that you guys weren't substantial enough investors, and he was planting in you guys that I wasn't living up to whatever standards I needed to live up to."
— Caroline D'Amore ([30:14])

The dinner ended disastrously with Beck and Aaron storming out, leaving Caroline isolated and questioning the once-trusted mentor.

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Manipulation and Isolation

Post-dinner, David adeptly manipulated situations to further isolate Caroline from her partners. He whispered doubts into her ears about Beck and Aaron’s capabilities, making them question their roles in the business.

"David started dividing us, whispering things into my ear about Beck and Aaron not being the right business partners for Pizza Girl."
— Caroline D'Amore ([24:34])

Caroline reflects on the psychological tactics employed by David:

"David was so good at what he did. He fooled us, too, in the beginning. He was strategic about it."
— Aaron Coote ([20:31])

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The Betrayal Unfolds

As weeks progressed, David’s true intentions became evident. Promises of meetings with influential figures like A.C. Gallo of Whole Foods were mere facades to deepen the deceit.

"I was hanging out by the pool, doing some work on my laptop. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and all of a sudden I noticed David Blum..."
— Caroline D'Amore ([04:00])

Caroline's trust was further betrayed when the supposed meeting with the Whole Foods president never materialized, and David vanished with the invested funds.

"It was like a game I'll just play. Like, if you're so excited about it. I don't even know if I met him at that point..."
— Caroline D'Amore ([37:19])

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The Aftermath and Seeking Justice

Realizing the depth of the con, Caroline took decisive action. She recorded a critical conversation with David Bloom, which she later submitted to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, marking the beginning of her pursuit for justice.

"The recording I made that David consented to of me Talking to the CEO of Whole Foods, A.C. gallo, is just unbelievable. I actually submitted it to the Los Angeles district attorney's office."
— Caroline D'Amore ([32:42])

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Emotional and Financial Turmoil

The emotional toll on Caroline and her business partners was immense. Beck and Aaron expressed feelings of betrayal and helplessness, highlighting the psychological manipulation they endured.

"If you live in hope, you die in shit."
— Beck ([23:27])

Caroline acknowledges the challenging dynamics and the loss of trust within her close-knit group, emphasizing the personal and professional ramifications of David’s deceit.

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Conclusion and Tease for Next Episode

The episode concludes with Caroline dedicating the podcast to her late mother, Bonnie Major, underscoring her resolve to stand up for herself. A tease for the next episode promises further uncovering of David Bloom's schemes as he orchestrates another high-stakes move involving a trip to Texas.

"Next time on Once Upon a Con, David gets us all to board a plane and fly to Texas for the opportunity of a lifetime."
— Caroline D'Amore ([33:42])

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Caroline D'Amore: “If you live in hope, you die in shit.” ([23:27])
• Aaron Coote: “David Bloom was so good at what he did. He fooled us, too, in the beginning. He was strategic about it.” ([20:31])
• Beck: “We look after ourselves. It's, you know, that's the only thing we can control. The rest is just, you know, it might be luck, but it's just a lot of waiting and hoping.” ([23:42])

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Key Takeaways

• Trust and Betrayal: The episode underscores the fragility of trust and how it can be exploited by skilled manipulators.
• Psychological Tactics: David Bloom's strategic manipulation highlights the importance of vigilance and due diligence in business partnerships.
• Resilience: Caroline's journey reflects resilience and the determination to seek justice despite profound personal and financial setbacks.

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Stay tuned for Episode 3 of Once Upon A Con, where the stakes heighten, and Caroline's quest for truth intensifies.

Transcript

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[Caroline D'Amore]

Glow Previously on Once Upon a Con. Why would you do that to me When I thought we were friends.

[Cindy Crawford]

We are friends.

[Caroline D'Amore]

I got scammed by a professional con artist who was a neighbor of mine at the Villa Carlotta, a really high end building where I thought I was safe.

[Cindy Crawford]

This is a place where people work in this industry and, you know, rely on their reputations to get jobs, whether it's acting, consulting, video editing, what have you.

[Caroline D'Amore]

A man I trusted with everything I had scammed us all. Why would you say that to me? Why.

[Cindy Crawford]

Cook your words salt and pepper.

[Caroline D'Amore]

I'm Caroline D'Amore, and this is Once Upon a Con. Episode 2 if you live in hope, you die in shit.

[Tom Hamilton]

And bloom. Was there during lockdown?

[Caroline D'Amore]

No. So he came probably like a year after I was there. I'm talking to my bff, Hammy, about the first time I ever met David Blum at the Villa Carlotta. I was there for like three years. So he came, like halfway through, towards the end of my stay. It was April 8, 2021. I'll never forget that day as long as I live. I was hanging out by the pool, doing some work on my laptop. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and all of a sudden I noticed David Blum on the other side of the pool holding court with some of my neighbors. They're all laughing with him and having a good time. He looked like a guy in his early 60s, kind of short, maybe like five'five or five'six with a thick shock of silver hair. He really seemed like the life of the party. You hear him laughing from across the pool, like, you know, talking to everybody. It seems like he knows everybody. He walks over to me, had heard that I had this company called Pizza Girl, and he had gone and bought my sauce at the supermarket next door and was so impressed with my company, you know. So Pizza Girl is the name of my organic pasta sauce that I started selling back in 2020. I'm Italian, and this sauce is a guarded family recipe, and it tastes amazing. Pizza Girl is also the nickname they called me when I was a kid helping my dad deliver pizzas. And you know what? It kind of stuck. I've been pouring my blood, sweat and tears into Pizza Girl ever since. Little did I know that having my life story out there on the Internet and in magazine articles and news reports.

[Cindy Crawford]

What makes your sauces unique?

[Caroline D'Amore]

Well, it's all locally sourced ingredients. It's literally like homemade in a jar. Would come back to bite me in the ass. Enter David Blum, a mega rich, successful businessman who had just moved into my building. He had had this Story that he was staying at the Villa Carlotta because he was going to buy it. He had this house supposedly that was right below the chateau. I remember that. This story of how the chateau, it's the only house where the chateau has to deliver food. The chateau I'm talking about here is the Chateau Marmont. A world famous hotel in the foothills of West Hollywood. A super wealthy neighborhood where stars like Johnny Depp and Katy Perry have homes. So that's where David Blume told me his house was. I even saw pictures of it. I had no reason not to believe him. After all, he just moved into the Villa Carlotta and was hobnobbing with all my wealthy accomplished neighbors, some of whom were paying ten grand a month to live there. I'm the one who actually felt like an imposter, you know. Cause I was only paying a little over two grand. Remember I got that Covid Rent special? David Blum seemed like the real deal to me.

[Tom Hamilton]

And he knew your boyfriend at the time, and he knew everything and everybody. So it was like a perfect playground for him.

[Caroline D'Amore]

He just had a big presence and everybody seemed to know him and like him. So I had no reason to think anything, you know. And it was very well known. I mean, I was on the hills and, you know, a lot of my personal life was already out there. It was known that I went through a divorce. It was known that I had this company that I was trying to get off the ground. And he comes to me with like, he's heartbroken knowing that I'm heartbroken. And we kind of bonded on that. And he was like my ex girlfriend. She broke my heart. Now it just devastates me. I even remember one day he cried actual tears to me about how sad and, you know, you know, lonely he was. I felt for this man. And then he really showed interest in pizza Girl. Being that I was this like wild party girl that everyone kind of knew of as just this party girl, it meant a lot to me. I had to fight to like, be taken seriously as a CEO and as a businesswoman. I've really had to overcome all of that, you know, that time in my life for sure. So to have this businessman, you know, respect my business side, he never hit on me, which was refreshing. You know, he really just seemed like. He said, if you ever need advice, I'll take meetings with you. I'll kind of mentor you. Exactly. So we would start taking meetings down by the pool. I was looking for funding, so I showed him, you know, my deck.

[Tom Hamilton]

That was the sweet spot. Was like, treating you as, like, a reputable business person. That's what was like. That's what made your ears perk up with him.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Yes, absolutely. He really showed an interest in pizza Girl, in me as a businesswoman, and that felt fucking amazing. And he definitely did his research on my industry because, you know, he had mentioned his clothes. Close friendship with Ron Burkle. Ron Burkle is this billionaire supermarket titan. He's one of the richest men in the world. And David Blume convinced me he was good friends with him.

[Tom Hamilton]

And what's even weirder about the Ron Burkle of it all is, like, we're all sort of like one degree of separation away from Ron. You know, I've been to his house for dinner. Like, it. It felt so close, and it felt like he actually had this forged friendship with him, and like, he just ran with it.

[Caroline D'Amore]

I had met Ron years ago, a person that I was kind of dating a little. He was best friends with him. You know, I was even on his private jet one time million years ago. So I knew. I knew of him. And he was like, let me reach out to him and see if there's any way he could help you in any way. And I was like, holy shit. Like, wow. Like, I can't even believe it. Even just a meeting would be incredible. Thank you so much, David. He would show me text messages from Ron, and he'd be like, oh, I'm talking to Ron right now. He's like, oh, he remembers you, pizza girl. And then he'd be like, oh, I'm gonna send him this picture of you. Oh, Ron's laughing. He says, hi, pizza girl. And I was like, oh, that's so cool. I never thought twice, like, should I call my friend who knows him and, you know, and confirm? I'm like, but no, that's bizarre. You know what I mean? Like, I never thought of that at all. And for the record, I googled David Blume a bunch of times during our friendship. And I found David Blum, the journalist.

[Cindy Crawford]

Wildfires are raging across the American West.

[Caroline D'Amore]

David Blum, the economics professor. And it's projected to rise to more than 400 million by the year 2050. David Blume, the artistic director of New York's Queer Urban Orchestra. But I never found my neighbor, David Bloom, the wealthy businessman I recently met.

[Tom Hamilton]

I can relate to that name because my name, Tom Hamilton. It's like a John Smith. It's like a David Blum. Like, there's a million Tom Hamiltons. There's Only one Caroline D'Amore so it's like a Google search into you and it's like an open book of your life. Shows, movies, things you've done, whatever, your personal life, all of it. But like when you have that sort of generic name like a David Blum or David Grant or like there's so many different paths and outlets in a Google search will just be so full of things from all around the world, you know. And so that's. I think he kind of skated by under it, just his simple name.

[Caroline D'Amore]

And I was very upfront and honest about everything. I said, david, how come when I Google you nothing shows up? And he would say, well, people like Ron and I, the only place we want to be known is the bank. He was like, we don't want anybody having our information.

[Tom Hamilton]

Totally flying under the radar. This is how money people really are.

[Caroline D'Amore]

And then he had this story about his ex wife who was in politics, who I was able to Google and I did see photos of them together, and she's this beautiful woman in politics. And that totally validated him to me, you know, and he said that she tried to wipe him from the Internet or help wipe him a little bit from the Internet because they were being reached out all the time for investment and whatnot. So all of that made sense to me. I really thought I had not just a friend, but a mentor and someone who really looked at me like a, you know, know, a legit businesswoman. For the first time, I thought David Blum was an angel from heaven. He offered to use his close connection with billionaire Ron Burkle to help get my Pizza Girl pasta sauce on the shelves of a giant supermarket chain. And I remember he said to me, he knew I was financially strapped. I was so broke after my divorce, I was truly left with nothing. And when I said that on the hills, I had people being like, how dare you? Like, you're like this, like rich girl. Like your dad pays for this and that and that's. It's actually not true. Okay? My dad can't pay for this and that, and I was left with nothing. I had a terrible divorce where I just finally gave up and said, take everything. And he did. You know, I got no child support, no alimony, and had to figure out how I was going to make money every month. So when David came along, he said he was going to be my investor, he's going to invest in Pizza Girl, he's going to hook me up with Ron Burkle. But in the meantime, he was like, you need some fast cash. He goes I'm a really good investor, and I have this ipo. Just round up as much money as you can. It's for the Soho House going public. And you can look and see that the Soho House was about to IPO. You know, SoHo House is a private social club that's popular with rich people and celebrities. They have locations all over the world. And in mid-2021, they were gearing up to go public. And since David's good friend, billionaire Ron Burkle, was part owner of Soho House, David was offering to get me in on the ground floor of their ipo. He was like, you know what? If you can only put together $1,000, you know, that'll help you out. He was like, but if you can put together more, it's going to be worth 29 or 28 times whatever you put in in a couple months. And I was like, wow, that's. He's like, so let's get you this so that you can survive until, you know, the investment and the deals with Ron and everything come together. I took out money from my company. You know, you put in 2,500 in your own. I remember.

[Tom Hamilton]

I Venmoed you.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Yeah. My God.

[Tom Hamilton]

Venmo to nowhere.

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[Caroline D'Amore]

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[Aaron Coote]

We'll get you taken care of.

[Cindy Crawford]

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[Tom Hamilton]

You know, I was like, all right, I guess I'll. It's like a game I'll just play. Like, if you're so excited about it. I don't even know if I met him at that point, but I remember how hyped you were on him and the Ron Berkle of it all.

[Caroline D'Amore]

So I convinced my boyfriend at the time, my friends and family and my business partners to go in on this incredible investment with me. And we all managed to come up with $35,000 cash. And I gave it to David Blum to invest in that Soho House IPO with the understanding that that 35,000 would be worth nearly a million dollars in just a few months.

[Beck]

That was the start of the cancer that David Bloom kind of planted.

[Caroline D'Amore]

That's Aaron Coote, my business partner. I didn't even know what I PO stands for.

[Beck]

It stands for intelligent people Only.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Clearly.

[Beck]

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Oh, wow. You're an asshole. Aaron, along with his wife, Rebecca Williamson.

[Aaron Coote]

Everybody calls me Beck, invested in Pizza.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Girl and became my partners. I actually first met Beck and Aaron at the Villa Carlotta.

[Beck]

We'd sold a company about a year before, maybe, and several people had come to us for looking for investment or looking for partners. And we'd said no to everyone. And then our mutual friends said, you need to talk to Caroline. She's got something good going on.

[Aaron Coote]

We were At a place where we were actually looking to invest in a company we thought had potential. Generally what we do is we invest and then work in a company. We feel like that's the best way to make our money.

[Caroline D'Amore]

And it wasn't long until David Blum infiltrated their lives too, thanks to me.

[Aaron Coote]

I remember you saying, my friend David, my friend David, my friend David. A couple of times. The first time, I didn't think about it, but because it came up a couple of times, I'm like, my friend David. Who's this David that's suddenly your friend? I didn't know whether you'd known him for a long time or who this David was, but he was murdered. Remember, he was fixing your credit for you.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Yeah. So because I used to be somewhat of a party girl when I lived in Vegas, my credit was bad at the time. David told me he owned a credit repair business, one of the many businesses he said he owned, by the way. And he said he could fix my credit no problem. And then he actually did. My credit score improved dramatically. So that just reinforced to me that David Blum was who he said he was. I mean, if he could magically improve my credit score like that, what other magic could he do?

[Aaron Coote]

David Bloom was so good at what he did. He fooled us, too, in the beginning. He was strategic about it.

[Caroline D'Amore]

So by this point in 2021, I had known David now for a few months. He became like a father to me, offering me advice and direction with my company and helping me get in on this phenomenal investment opportunity with Soho House. Then suddenly, one day, David tells me he wants to invest $2 million in Pizza Girl. I was ecstatic. And so were my business partners, Beck and Aaron.

[Aaron Coote]

Of course, we believed him. Villa Colada was full of people who really got to know each other well because they lived together. There was an innate trust. And that's how we'd met Caroline. So then she met this guy who was mentoring her. It made sense. And he then, you know, dangled the carrot of, like, he would wanted to invest in the business. Bottom line, everybody that lived at Villa Carlotta had money and connections and were doing amazing things. So whatever we thought of him personally, we were very careful not to blow any opportunity.

[Caroline D'Amore]

And that's the thing. Beck and Aaron never liked David personally. They thought he was kind of weird.

[Aaron Coote]

He was the centre of everything. Like wine nights on Friday night. It was all around David.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Everybody was.

[Aaron Coote]

Everyone was around David. David was the center of everything. It was bizarre. How does this guy, like this sort of uncharismatic like, guy that drinks from 9am he starts having his vodka, but.

[Caroline D'Amore]

He'D never seen wasted, which is interesting. And he was drinking so heavily. And I used to talk to him about it because I cared about his health. I'd be like, David, this isn't right. Like, I feel like you're getting older. And I would literally try to help him, not harm himself.

[Aaron Coote]

I started to get really suspicious when he would name drop people that I actually knew and I would say. And I started pushing him on it and say, oh, yeah, I've known them for years. I saw them last week. And I would see a little panic in him, but it just gave me an odd feeling. And also, in his quest to make Caroline, you know, put her on the pedestal, make her the center of everything, he would push me out more and more.

[Caroline D'Amore]

I had no idea that we were all quickly becoming victims in David's psychological chess match where the end game was to isolate us all from. From each other. So it did feel as if what he was saying was like putting me on a pedestal. Right when it felt like at the time. Cause I wasn't aware of what was going on, that you guys were kind of kicking me down a notch. Right? So I think that's where the.

[Aaron Coote]

We had many of those conversations. You were like, why are you always so negative? And we're like, okay, we're just trying to tell you the truth. This is what the business is, and this is what it needs. And he's trying to tell you what you want to hear.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Right.

[Beck]

Like, several times, Caroline would say to me in tears that I thought this was my chance to be lucky. I thought this was my chance for someone to save me.

[Caroline D'Amore]

I wanted the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And I'm not ashamed to say it.

[Beck]

And it was heartbreaking to, you know, to watch. And in my head, do you remember what I said to you? The luckiest people are always the hardest workers. Yeah, I've always got to take a back to. We look after ourselves. It's, you know, that's the only thing we can control. The rest is just, you know, it might be luck, but it's just a lot of waiting and hoping. And my old school teacher used to say, if you live in hope, you die in shit. I find this part of the business quite triggering, to use a buzzword, because a lot of the times I felt unsafe because I had no say or. Or I didn't have a voice in. Or a strong enough voice when this other guy was manipulating his way into the business.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Aaron's right. David started dividing us, whispering things into my ear about Beck and Aaron not being the right business partners for Pizza Girl. I disagreed, but I respected his opinion. After all, he wanted to invest $2 million in our company, so I had to be diplomatic. But then things quickly came to a head.

[Cindy Crawford]

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[Aaron Coote]

We had a fight that night at.

[Caroline D'Amore]

A fancy LA restaurant off Melrose called Craig's.

[Aaron Coote]

He had his weekly table at Craig's.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Right.

[Aaron Coote]

Every Wednesday night, which was around the corner. It's the celebrity hangout. Oh, yeah, they knew him. The owner knew him. You know, he'd go. And that was one of the things you told me. You're like, you. You know, when you had your doubts, you're like, everyone seems to know him, though, like at that place. He's obviously been going there for a while. He's a regular. We in our minds, he'd been going there for 10 years.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Yeah, Craig's is one of the hot spots in la. I mean, the night we went, I.

[Beck]

Got paparazzi because you were with me, right?

[Caroline D'Amore]

Exactly. And like David, when you walk in there, he literally, he has this thing where he makes it seem like he has known everyone for decades. And he can do it to you, to me, to everybody in a room. He'll be like, oh, yeah, that's so. Hi. Yes, it's so and so. And he would pretend like he knew the owner and like, I know Craig. So it just never made me. Me ever think twice. So we all meet at Craig's in the summer of 2021 to discuss David's $2 million investment in pizza Girl. Beck and Aaron had put together a detailed proposal of where that money will go and how much of a return David can expect to see on his investment. But David never wanted to talk business, like, at all.

[Aaron Coote]

I was telling you, you shouldn't mix.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Business and pleasure and become friends.

[Aaron Coote]

Which is hilarious because that dinner was supposed to be the dinner about the business, about the investment. And Aaron and I had prepared, and he didn't bring it up.

[Beck]

So at that dinner, I'm sitting there waiting for our opportunity and waiting for the conversation to come up or waiting to try to segue in. And then I'm just watching the tension building and I'm watching Caroline and David and Beck all kind of starting to argue with each other. I'm going, job to do here, job to do. Like, let's keep our eye on the prize. And, you know, as it turns out, there was no job to do. The only one doing the job was David by kind of needling everybody.

[Aaron Coote]

And then, remember, he said to Caroline, they are so in the wrong. You should not discuss anything about your business at the table. And I'm saying, but hold on we came for it to, you know, if he's going to invest, he needs to know everything, and he will know everything.

[Beck]

That was a turning point for me that dinner.

[Caroline D'Amore]

David was planting in me that you guys weren't substantial enough investors, and he was planting in you guys that I wasn't living up to whatever standards I needed to live up to. Who pinned everybody against each other in one dinner to the point where Rebecca and I stormed out separately, and I wasn't sure if we were going to recover and if Pizza girl was going to remain, but he sat back and.

[Aaron Coote]

Let it happen, and he sort of built it to that point. Right. That it was going to have a blow up.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Yep.

[Aaron Coote]

We left, she walked out with him, and he was all like, oh, don't worry about them. That was another in for him.

[Caroline D'Amore]

When you guys stormed out, he was like, see what I told you? He was like, they can't. They're not right for this business.

[Beck]

This feels a lot more like therapy than a podcast.

[Caroline D'Amore]

I think it will be, honestly, at the end of it.

[Beck]

Yeah, I'm feeling stuff here.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Right. Me too.

[Beck]

It's pretty full on. Yeah. I don't know. I've felt angry. I've had tears in my eyes a couple of times, and it's. I feel like I have a voice that I didn't have within our dynamic.

[Caroline D'Amore]

Dynamic. At this point, no one had any idea who David Blum really was or what he was up to. And weeks after that dinner at Craig's where we all stormed out hating each other, David magically got us all back together and got us excited at the prospect of getting my Pizza Girl pasta sauce on the shelves of one of the most popular supermarket chains in the country, Whole Foods.

[Aaron Coote]

He kept dangling this carrot, which was what we wanted.

[Caroline D'Amore]

David had been promising that he was going to get us this very big meeting based on his relationship with Ron Burkle. So he says that Ron hooked him up with the president of Whole Foods, AC Gallo. He's telling me that, you know, AC Gallo and Whole Foods have this program for emerging companies, and they invest a little bit of money and help you grow within Whole Foods. And we actually found this online. It was something that you could find on the Internet. So he tells me that he is going to get this big meeting with A.C. gallo. Right. And that all three of us are going to be in this meeting. And shortly after that, while Beck and Aaron are conveniently for David out of town, David suddenly gets AC Gallo on the phone to talk to me. He starts telling me he's like, listen, these guys are so at the top that they don't do things the way that, you know, you're used to. I was like, why can't we do a Zoom meeting? Why can't we do. Especially at the height of COVID it's like everybody's on Zoom right now doing meetings, right? So he was like, no, listen, they're just so busy. He calls me and he goes, caroline, I need you to come up to my apartment. He goes, AC has this long drive and he's willing to get on the phone with you to talk about this, but you have to do it now. So my thought was, okay, I'm going to record this so that I can play it for Rebecca and Aaron, right? Or so that I can even transcribe it and try to remember every single detail. Because this is such a big meeting, right? That recording I made that David consented to of me Talking to the CEO of Whole Foods, A.C. gallo, is just unbelievable. I actually submitted it to the Los Angeles district attorney's office.

[Cindy Crawford]

A.C. a statement. I'm gonna you on speakerphone and introduce you to Caroline.

[Caroline D'Amore]

All right, hold on one second. Hi, Caroline. Hi, how are you? Next time on Once Upon a Con, David gets us all to board a plane and fly to Texas for the opportunity of a lifetime.

[Beck]

I've never been to a meeting in my whole career of walking in completely blind from or by the person who set it up with zero background other than Whole Foods are going to give us money. My question is why?

[Caroline D'Amore]

But things end up going horribly wrong.

[Aaron Coote]

Just feel like closing up. I just feel like I'm having a panic attack.

[Caroline D'Amore]

This podcast is dedicated to the memory of my amazing mother, Bonnie Major, who would be super proud of me standing up for my myself. Once Upon a Con is a production of AYR Media and 32 Flavors, hosted by me, Caroline D'Amore Executive Producers Aliza Rosen for Ayr Media, Alex Baskin for 32 flavors and Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Productions. Written by Jonathan Walton producer Caroline D'Amore senior associate producer Jill Piesnik Coordinator, Malena Kroljewski Sound design by Tim Mulhern Edited and mixed by Tim Mulhern Supervising editor, Victoria Chang Mastered by Victoria Chang Engineering by Justin Longer Beam, legal counsel for Ayr Media, Gianni Douglas. Our theme song, freshly Served, was written and performed by the incredible, incredibly talented Maddie Noyes and is available on her SoundCloud.

[Cindy Crawford]

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[Caroline D'Amore]

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