Like Leon, UFC President Dana White was an absolute marketing wizard.
Although the two had never crossed paths and operated in completely different fields, Leon greatly admired Dana's talents.
To put it bluntly, they were cut from the same cloth.
A hotel bellboy who became the president of a multinational fighting promotion without investing a single cent.
Dana created a typical inspirational myth.
It took him ten years to turn a nearly bankrupt promotion into an industry leader.
All this started with a fighting reality show called The Ultimate Fighter.
This show unprecedentedly combined fighting and reality TV.
Showing the audience the entire process of fighter selection, training, competition, and drama for free.
This innovation was a huge success.
Leon's inspiration to produce a hip-hop reality show under the Vibe banner while riding the wave of hip-hop music also came from this.
Without hesitation, he instructed Phil: "I'm very interested in this. Reply to Dana's email and tell him I'll be at the Rogers Centre in two days."
"Why did you agree so readily this time?" Phil sneered. "This isn't your style. You know you won't get any payment."
"I've told you many times, you need to look at the long term," Leon said helplessly.
Phil had many flaws.
Alcoholism, greed, no filter...
But Leon could choose to ignore these shortcomings given his outstanding business ability.
What disgusted him most was the old geezer's shortsightedness and always presumptuously guessing his thoughts.
Phil wrinkled his nose disdainfully. "Dana inviting you this time isn't just as simple as presenting an award to the fighters."
"What?" Leon perked up, playing with the Knicks championship ring on his middle finger. "Does he want me to be the brand ambassador for UFC?"
"Something like that."
"Go on, don't keep me guessing."
Phil stood up and paced unsteadily around the office. "Ever since Brock Lesnar went into semi-retirement, UFC's performance has been declining repeatedly. They haven't been able to find a new flagship figure."
"And your name currently has the biggest traffic in the entertainment industry, almost becoming synonymous with a street tough guy."
In March of this year, UFC's parent company Zuffa acquired Strikeforce, completing the unification of the MMA field.
It seemed like the empire was secure, and the company's future was bright.
However, with the retirement of the promotion's biggest star, Brock Lesnar, the show's PPV sales continued to slump.
The similarity between running a fighting promotion and a record company is that even signing a hundred lukewarm singers is far less important than having one flagship superstar.
"How much is Dana willing to pay?" Leon stared at Phil with interest.
Inviting him to the scene before was just a mutually beneficial act for exposure.
Major commercial sports leagues like the NBA and MLB often invited entertainment stars to watch games live.
The event organizers used stars to increase attention, and stars used the event platform to gain exposure and followers.
But endorsement was an out-and-out commercial act.
Black and white, real money was essential.
"Actually, it's not exactly an endorsement..." Phil shook his head. "Dana's ideas are always very novel; I don't know how to tell you."
"Did alcohol burn out your brain so much that you lost your language ability too?!"
"Alright~" Seeing Leon stand up, Phil quickly waved his hand. "He wants to establish a brand new championship title in your name..."
"WTF..." Leon was a bit confused.
UFC championship titles are divided according to the weight class the fighters compete in.
Featherweight, Lightweight, Middleweight, Light Heavyweight, etc...
Establishing a brand new championship title in his name was really an abstract concept.
Leon wanted to ask further, but Phil indicated he wasn't clear about the specific details either.
They could only figure it out when meeting Dana officially.
At 6 PM, the lights in the company gradually went out.
Only Aisha, who was in charge of finance, was still working overtime.
After days of observation, Leon found that Aisha often received some mysterious calls while working.
Although she deliberately lowered her voice during the calls, Leon still noticed.
Since she used Spanish throughout, he didn't know the content of the calls.
He was too lazy to guess.
At least Aisha managed the company's finances in an orderly manner; as for what role she played privately, it had nothing to do with him.
"Damn it..." Leon stretched on the swivel chair.
Staring blankly at the ceiling.
Ever since falling out with Robbie, he hadn't properly vented the surging "positive energy" in his body for a long time.
This seriously affected his work efficiency.
He picked up his phone and scrolled through the contacts.
His gaze locked on Beyoncé's name, and the heroic image of the Texas cowgirl galloping with a whip immediately appeared in his mind.
He was just about to dial, but hesitated.
According to what Phil said before, tabloids were already hyping up scandals about him and Beyoncé.
This matter had already reached JAY-Z's ears.
The good news was that no media outlet had provided solid evidence, only exaggerated text descriptions.
But this matter also sounded an alarm for Leon; it's better to be low-key when being a homewrecker.
Shortly after scrolling past Beyoncé's name, his gaze locked on Ariana Grande.
Since being injected with "positive energy" by Leon, this girl had improved rapidly.
Besides the regular long phone calls every night, she would also attach some risqué selfies.
Most of the time only wearing underwear.
Sometimes directly covering with hands as a substitute.
Trying every way to make herself look more mature and sexy.
"Little A, are you home now?" Leon dialed and asked.
"Leon! OMG, you actually called me first!" Ariana couldn't hide the excitement in her words.
"Changing face after pulling up pants" is pure scumbag behavior, and Leon always did this.
He rarely took the initiative to call Ariana.
"What are you doing?" Leon asked.
"Writing songs, practicing piano..." Ariana's volume suddenly became as small as a mosquito. "And practicing those yoga moves you taught me."
"You are already excellent enough, no need to work so hard."
"No, compared to Robbie, I'm not enough!" Ariana said. "You once told me, this circle is cruel; only by putting in much more effort than others can you not be eliminated by the market!"
Hearing this, even Leon couldn't help blushing, especially when the other party's tone was so sincere and serious.
"The harder you work, the luckier you get" was a catchphrase Leon often used to PUA employees.
Currently, Apocalypse Music employees basically had some work experience.
Having struggled in the industry, they had long been numb to such rhetoric.
It seemed only Ariana took it seriously.
Ever since Leon promised to produce a new album, this girl's life was like being fully wound up.
Performances, creation, vocal practice, dancing, fitness...
These things almost filled her life.
Even Leon had to sigh; this girl didn't look like a woman in the entertainment industry at all.
She was simple, stubborn, stubborn to the point of being a bit silly.
At least for now.
The two had already "communicated deeply," so there was no need to probe.
Leon said straight to the point: "If you hit a bottleneck in your creation, I can provide you with some guidance."
"Really?!" Ariana's excitement was about to overflow from the phone. "Now?!"
"Of course, if you need."
"I want it!"
Half an hour later, Leon's Porsche 997 parked downstairs at Ariana's luxury apartment.
The two first did some simple yoga exercises to warm up.
Then in the sauna room, they wrestled like savage Vikings.
The large amount of sweat secreted made the humidity in the steam room double that of usual.
Thoughtful Leon also carefully guided Ariana on "vocal warm-ups."
The other party's screaming voice penetrated the wooden walls of the steam room, lingering throughout the apartment.
By the time the two walked out of the steam room, they were exhausted.
Their bodies had shrunk a circle due to dehydration.
Leon lay on the pink sofa in the living room, holding an ice beer in one hand and playing with Ariana's small feet in the other.
"The sales momentum of Senorita seems to have slowed down..." Ariana curled up in Leon's arms like a docile Ragdoll cat.
Leon saw through this girl's little thoughts at a glance.
Making requests to men afterwards seemed to be something women all over the world would do.
It was like an instinct.
Currently, the physical sales of Senorita had broken through 1.2 million copies, and breaking through 2 million copies within the year was a sure thing.
The growth of streaming sales was much faster, mainly due to the rapid expansion of the Spotify platform.
In the future, streaming platforms might completely replace traditional records; this was the consensus of most people in the industry.
"Don't rush..." Leon's palm climbed from the sole of her foot to her thigh. "Your first album will come soon."
"Mmh..." Ariana nodded, hesitated for a moment, then asked softly: "Did you have any problems with Miss Robbie recently?"
"Where did you hear that?"
"Some gossip magazines, and your fan community." Ariana said, "I browse your fan community every day."
"Shxt..." Leon was speechless for a while; sure enough, there are no walls that don't leak wind in the entertainment industry.
However, he couldn't be bothered to refute rumors about this matter; in his heart, this was already an established fact.
The fueling of gossip news would only accelerate the time of official announcement.
"Yes, Robbie and I are done."
"Wow..." Ariana opened her mouth wide, unable to believe Leon said it so bluntly.
"I mean, if you are here to persuade me, or criticize me based on gossip news, then you can shut up..."
Before Leon could finish, he was interrupted by Ariana: "I won't do that!"
Immediately after, Ariana withdrew her thigh from Leon's embrace.
Kneeling on the sofa, with a serious face: "So, I have a chance now, right?"
Leon was slightly stunned, not knowing how to respond for a moment.
"What chance?"
"You know what I want to say..."
"I don't know." Leon quickly waved his hand to stop the other party from continuing.
Pulled up his pants, found an excuse, and quickly slipped away from Ariana's apartment.
Early the next morning, the Bang Bang MV shooting team gathered at the location in Brooklyn.
Shooting the first scene featuring Beyoncé.
David Fincher had a huge shooting team standing behind him.
Just the camera positions were as many as seven, and there were more than twenty miscellaneous workers holding black and white diffusers.
David glanced at his watch, and before the official shooting time arrived, he started setting up the street scene and arranging fixed camera positions.
Directing the position and expression of every dancer.
Showing strong professional quality.
What surprised Leon was the costumes on the dancers.
These performance costumes were all personally selected by David, and some were simply designed by him personally.
This forced Leon to agree that expensive things have their reasons.
Although the costumes in the MV during the inspiration refresh were bold and avant-garde, they still fell within the category of normal clothing.
For those fashionable girls in New York, that was just normal outfit for going out.
But David made some simple but bold upgrades to the costumes, exposing more skin to the air.
Many costumes directly used sheer lace materials; wearing them was more fatal than wearing nothing.
This made Leon couldn't help but have more fantasies about Beyoncé's performance costume next.
About half an hour later, Beyoncé's business fleet arrived at the scene, exactly at the agreed time.
This surprised David, who was used to Divas being late.
During the time he served as Madonna's go-to MV director, he had become accustomed to lateness.
"Hi~ Ha... Leon~" Beyoncé gave a passionate hug upon meeting, almost saying the nickname "Honey" in front of everyone.
The personnel on the set were too complicated, so Leon deliberately kept a distance from the Diva. "You look in great shape."
Jay-Z was already suspicious; exposing it now wouldn't be a wise choice.
Leon wasn't afraid of breaking up with JAY-Z; it was a matter of time anyway.
But a business breakup and cuckolding were two different things.
"I bring my best state every time I see you." Beyoncé tucked her hair behind her ear and punched Leon coquettishly.
"WTF..." Everyone on the set was confused by the ambiguous atmosphere between the two.
"I can't wait to see your performance later!" Leon said.
After some teasing, Beyoncé entered the nanny van used for makeup on the set.
Half an hour later, when she walked onto the set again, everyone's jaw dropped.
Beyoncé's makeup was exquisite as always; the visual impact mainly came from the costume.
To highlight her long, beautiful legs to the maximum extent, David prepared a pair of tight jeans.
While being thin, they hugged the skin so tightly there was almost no gap.
The boldest part was that two openings were cut out on the back of the jeans.
Leon had seen girls on the street trying this kind of jeans, but wearing them on Beyoncé was an effect of another dimension.
The exaggerated hip curve stole everyone's eyes, making breathing rapid.
The Diva spun around next to Leon without any taboo. "What do you think?"
Leon spread his hands. "Except perfect, I can't find any other adjective."
After David issued the start command, all staff surrounded Beyoncé holding cameras.
Standing or squatting, long shots, close-ups, tracking shots...
Not letting go of any angle.
Especially the cameraman squatting and following behind Beyoncé; at this moment, his job was the envy of all men in the world.
Beyoncé swayed her hips dramatically, singing and dancing on the graffiti-covered street.
Aura fully activated.
Her sharp eyes swept across the street; the whole city seemed to be her hunting ground.
Turning into a jungle filled with hormones.
"Dancers, hit the beat, follow Beyoncé's steps!"
"Male actors, don't just stare at the butt! Watch your movements, don't lose form!"
David basically didn't swear on set; in this regard, he was rare among directors.
But when the actors heard his voice, it was like getting an electric shock, immediately adjusting their state to be spot on.
"Simply amazing..." David, who always worked only with big names, couldn't help but praise.
Beyoncé being able to become the first female singer to establish a legendary status after the millennium relied not only on singing skills and dancing posture.
But also on that incomparably confident and powerful Queen aura.