the fair’s in dallas

I met the Oracle at the end of 2014 when I was in Austin, TX embedding in SXSW before I officially moved down here. Our first meeting was brief, and I was certainly intimidated. I didn’t have any female mentors aside from family — all (yes, all) of the attorneys at the law firm where I worked at the time were male. That all changed when I experienced Carlyne Majer.

To know Carlyne is to “experience” her because she is truly one of a kind. Carlyne grew up in East Texas and learned to fly planes at an extremely young age. I’ll never forget Carlyne’s speech on March 18, 2017 aka “Carlyne Majer Day” — she was honored on stage in front of thousands of people and said, “When I got to Austin I had nothing and knew nothing. It was the community of musicians here who taught me what I know.” I had nothing and knew nothing. Well, except for her wit, hustle, charm and instincts.

Working alongside Carlyne doing city relations and safety work was an absolute master class. Carlyne opened, ran and booked the Soap Creek Saloon in Austin in the 1970s, which was home to acts like Doug Sahm and countless tales. She’s seen some things, and isn’t afraid to speak up when the line is crossed.

One day, Carlyne breezed her way into my office and told me that I should be in a particular meeting. I explained I wasn’t aware of it and not on the invite list. She insisted that I needed to be in that meeting regardless of invitations. Her persistence became mine.

After Soap Creek, Carlyne managed bands, many of whom she got signed to major labels. One time she commented on my shoes saying she liked them, and that when she’d be in the meetings with label heads, and the only woman in the room, she made sure to have on good shoes. Her work as a manager was tough, she loved her artists and also had to be firm with them. “The fair’s in Dallas” she’d say to her artists, her team, and us. Basically, quit talking about what’s fair and do the hard work. It cracked me up to call Carlyne when I brought on the State Fair of Texas as a client, “Carlyne, the fair really is in Dallas!”

Managing bands led to a leadership role with the Austin Chapter of the Recording Academy. This is where Carlyne honed her government relations chops. More than anything, she loved working with the Latin acts.

I don’t remember how we started calling her the Oracle or who coined the name, but to this day the way she works is something like this: you explain a long convoluted situation, Carlyne asks 3-5 questions you never thought about, then she ultimately makes a recommendation that not only solves the issue you presented, weaves in a story about riding motorcycles on a solo trip in Mexico, and plants at least 2 seeds for other projects to be accomplished.

I actually bought my house from Carlyne. When we started the process she told me: “Listen, we aren’t using realtors. I’m going to teach you how to do a real estate deal so you can help other people do them too.” Oh yea, I forgot to mention she sold countless properties in East Austin.

You know when you can tell someone is looking out for you because they believe in you? That’s how Carlyne Majer makes me feel. If nothing else, I hope that I can be that person to others in my own way, even if I don’t have a gold star on my tooth like Carlyne or the best Texas accent in town.