Ivan obliged. He said, “Basically, one of the biggest things I did learn from studying the Bob Johnson deal with BET is that it’s very hard to compete with big business by yourself. So Bob had a lot of deals going on even before he sold BET. With that in mind, you’ll find that the rich continue to get richer by buying other people’s companies. But that’s a hell of a risky game to play. And just a couple of bad moves can lose you billions of dollars. So instead of being the buyer, as a brand identifier, you become the finder of the next hot thing: Google, YouTube, Facebook. And if you can’t afford to invest in the company outright, then you do a marketing and promotions deal for a piece of the company and become wealthy that way.”

Levonia commented, “Yeah, but it sounds like you would still need money to compete with that. It takes a lot to market a new brand.”

Ivan countered, “Not necessarily. All you really need is a strong name and a desire to network. I’ve already been talking to my football and baseball friends about it. It’s the next level of endorsement. You use your name and popularity to make something else popular, and then you take it to the venture capitalists or the big deal makers and get your piece of the pie. That’s a way in which you keep your personal risk low while making money off the bigger deal.”

He continued, “The only risk you take is choosing the right people, companies, and products to get involved with. The rapper 50 Cent did it with his interests in Vitamin Water, which ended up selling big to Coca-Cola. That made him a lot more money than just rapping and selling clothes. But when I do it, I’m not just thinking nationally, I’m out to identify hot new brands globally. I want to become the guy that the big money people can count on. And my partner…she’s set up to help me to do it,” Ivan added.

“You’re talking about Lucina Gallo?”