Excited for episode #5 of The Influencer Economy, with my guest Jamie Wilkinson. Jamie and I had an awesome chat about media, video , and making stuff on the internet. It was so good, I had to divide it up into two different episodes. The conversation is a fascinating glimpse into the world of where the film industry

Jamie is currently the CEO and co-founder of VHX , a direct distribution platform where creators can sell videos, TV, film and content directly to their fans. They are paving the way for creators to connect with their fans, and empowering a generation of artists to generate revenue around their passions.

In the first episode we chatted about VHX, and and early successful project they worked on with the comedian Aziz Ansari. They helped Aziz distribute his comedy special via the platform, which made six figures of revenue within the first day.

Jamie is also the co-creator of Star Wars Uncut and won a Primetime Emmy – for “Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Media Non-Fiction in 2010. The film is an amazing crowd-sourced re-creation of the original Star Wars film.

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https://twitter.com/ryanjwill

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

How to Aziz Ansari and VHX teamed up for his comedy special

How Indie Game The Movie partnered with VHX and created a blueprint for how to self-distribute a film

How Camp Takota distributed their movie via their YouTube followings

What types of risks filmmakers can take to keep the rights to their film

How the future of film is direct communication and collaboration with the film’s audience

How to launch a film brand, create a film, and build audience ahead of your film’s release

How Star Wars Uncut was created and crowdsourced from the community

How one Tweet can change your career path, and how Andy Baio Tweet’ed the Indie Game the Movie filmmakers about VHX and the rest is history

That the next generation of filmmaking is fans and creators directly communicating throughout the filmmaking process.

Watch Star Wars Un-Cut:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ezeYJUz-84

Follow @JamieW on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/jamiew

Watch Camp Takota:   https://camptakota.vhx.tv/buy/camp-takota

Watch Aziz Ansari's comedy special:  http://azizisbored.tumblr.com

Watch Indie Game The Movie:  http://buy.indiegamethemovie.com

Checkout VHX: https://www.vhx.tv/

Adam Kovic and Bruce Greene are the hosts of Machinima's Inside Gaming. The show reaches 7 million views per month, and has built a loyal and staunch gaming following. I was excited to have these guys on the show, as I have known Adam for years, from my days at Machinima. While I have gotten to know Bruce since he joined Inside Gaming 1.5 years ago.

On the show, we talked about Adam's early days at Machinima, where he did everything from building chairs to editing shows. He eventually became the host of Inside Gaming, a show that has now evolved to a mix between "Mystery Science Theater," and "The Soup."

The two of them have great senses of humor and we chatted about their day in and day out work for the show. They are modern day creatives in that they are hosts/editors/producers, and have lots of hyphens in their roles/responsibilities.

To succeed in the gaming/YouTube world, we talked about how you have to have passion, and be dedicated to the brand that you're working for. We chatted a bit about how Adam went to visit gaming jaugernaut and past guest Burnie Burns of Rooster Teeth, and how that inspires his work for Inside Gaming.

We also talk about their loyal audience, how the show gets produced, and how their fearless leader Joel Rubin keeps them forging ahead at Machinima.

In this video you'll learn: What it's like working in the gaming industry. how to get a job in the gaming industry, what it's like working at a start-up, how to work in the YouTube video world, how to get a job at a YouTube company.

Follow Adam on Twitter: twitter.com/adamkovic Follow Bruce: twitter.com/brucegreene Follow Inside Gaming:twitter.com/insidegaming Find them on YouTube:www.youtube.com/user/InsideGaming

Taryn Southern epitomizes the modern day actress who is an entrepreneur.  She has created her own path towards an entertainment career in the online media world, which includes a YouTube following of over 400,000 subscribers.  While she has had reoccurring roles

TV shows like "New Girl," "The League," and "American Dad."  We are excited to have her on the show.  

Originally from Wichita, KS, Taryn moved to L.A. working with most L.A.-based media online companies.  From MySpace, to Verizon, to eventually YouTube she quickly embraced the digital video world.  As a writer, producer, and actress -she has created her own opportunities. 

In 2007, Taryn produced and starred in the first social media integrated original series, Project MyWorld for DirecTV, where Taryn traveled the world to meet her MySpace friends.  And as a singer, Taryn’ debut comedy album, On My Face, hit #11 on the iTunes Comedy charts.  She is a jack-of-all trades in how she has built her online business. 

In 2012, she invested her own money in a YouTube channel, and founded her own production business.  She says the key to YouTube success is not only relying on YouTube for money, but also making your money from opportunities that come from YouTube.  

In this podcast, you'll learn how to build a YouTube based career, how to work as an entrepreneurial actor, how to build a personality-based media company, how to create your own creative career as an actress, and how to produce/act/build your acting career through online media.    

She also realizes that the end game isn't just TV and film.  She can be highly diverse in her media career, while controlling the work that she does.  It’s fascinating to see how she connects directly with her fans online, while working as an actress in 2014.  We’re happy to have her on the show.

Follow Taryn: http://twitter.com/tarynSouthern

https://www.youtube.com/user/TarynSouthern

http://instagram.com/tarynsouthern

We’d love to hear what you think www.influencereconomy.com http://twitter.com/ryanjwill and leave a comment or question below. 

On episode 2 of The Influencer Economy, we're happy and proud to welcome Shira Lazar to the show.  Shira is the founder and host of the Emmy nominated show What's Trending and an inspiration in the media and YouTube world.  In order to launch her career, she defined her own 'beat' as a journalist, essentially creating the news category that "bridged the gap between Silicon Valley and celebrity."  

Shira is the essence modern day media entrepreneur in every sense, and she has creatively and instinctively built What's Trending to serve over 2 million views a month on YouTube, and 20 million views per month across all their syndicated platforms.  We talked at length about her career starting in Canada, and how she moved to L.A., building her career on her own terms.  It was a fascinating conversation and snapshot into the life of a modern day media/social media entrepreneur and online social media businessperson.   

This podcast will teach you:  How to build a start-up media company, how to become an entrepreneur, how to build a modern day media brand, how to create and instinctively build a successful business online.  

Shira goes into detail about how to be a leader at a start-up, gives advice to future creators and aspiring entrepreneurs.  Shira feeds off of collaboration, and works hard at nurturing relationships, while thinking about how to play the long game in friendships/work relationships.  She kicked-off her career in Canada, and came to Los Angeles as a producer/host/broadcaster/creator - working as a freelancer in the broadcast world.  She has not forgotten her roots as a mult-skilled founder at What's Trending.  She has the ability to relate to the biggest YouTubers like Toby Turner, and can switch into tech/start-up mode with Mark Cuban at the drop of a dime. 

She interviews people for a living, and her start-up business is inspired by her passion and curiosity around meeting new people.  Achieving her success did not come easy, and as an early vlogger helped transform the medium into what it is today.  Vlogging was barely a word when she started creating videos.  She was an early voice in covering online 'viral video stars' for CBS back in 2008, when no one else was speaking to them.  She created and identified an emerging market, where people on the internet were become personalities in the news world.  Shira pioneered the 'human interest stories' beat around interviewing web personalties like 'The Double Rainbow Guy" or "Antoine Dotson."  These stories are now common place on national news like the Today Show or CBS This Morning, influenced by Shira's work.  

We also dig into the format of What's Trending, and how she runs the show, books guests, promote the episodes, and interviews her guests.  What's Trending is a modern day media brand, and this podcast is a great listen for anyone passionate about media, or someone who wants to understand what it's like running a social media start-up enterprise in 2014.  Shira is a true pioneer in the influencer economy.