I don't realy know Jason, we sat on the infamous VloggerCon TWiT
episode and this week I got his cell phone # off of his site and gave
him a call when he mentioned he was interested in Ask A Ninja. (We
didn't agree on anything, but there's cautious interest on both sides).

Jason is a guy who's been around for a while and knows how to make
money on the internet.

Sitting on the TWiT panel, when Andrew called Jason out, it was
interesting to watch everyone else's reaction. Everyone on that panel
had battle scars from the DotBomb era except for me and Andrew. There
was a lot of eyerolling going on in the direction of Andrew. My
approach was and is, these guys have something to teach us, shut up
and listen. Andrew's approach was more brash and courageous/naive.

There are some people on this list where making is not a priority, but
the lessons I'm taking away from the blow up at RB are this:

* Get everything in writing with your talent.
* If you are going to make a show with a host, be prepared for that
host to become wildly famous and be prepared to keep that person happy.
* Be serious about making money so you can grow your organization to
support the continued creatation of the content.
* Don't over promise equity in a company if you don't really mean it.

Also making money and personal expression are not mutally exclusive.
I'm amazed that Douglas and I can do whatever we want, and still have
the potential to earn a living. November 23, 2005 no one cared who we
were or what we were doing. Then we did AskANinja. But it wasn't
until we submitted the feed to iTunes on Jan. 7 that anyone paid
attention (we got featured on iTunes the next day).

We're still broke, but now we have an audience.

-K

--- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <steve_nesmith@...> wrote:
>
> It's ironic to me how much Calacanis is getting ripped in this forum
> yet his input has added some of the most spirited and practical
> exchanges Ive read since joining this group. My quick analysis is
> because he is hyper-entrepreneurial and this group tends to lean more
> grassroots at times. Love em or hate em, guys like Calacanis can
> bring attention/resources to vlogging. Remember, it was Calacanis and
> Scoble's blog remarks that really fueled the MSM's interest in
> the "Unboomed" story. My years in politics taught me that every
> grassroots movement still needs a couple highly paid lobbyists to
> attract attention and headlines. We are experiencing an evolution in
> this medium and some may not even realize it.
>