Just a side track I guess on what may be a rhetorical question but a question nonetheless:
On Dec 26, 2007, at 2:18 PM, Eddie Codel wrote: > How many > people do you think it takes to put out a daily Rocketboom episode? In context of your show on Podtech, along with the very nice budget that you had, as well as all of the business worries on someone else's watch, I would suggest just two, as you had. I think three is a great production number for a team but your budget would of been able to support more talent, it was up to you to determine the creative side I think. Over time, the success of the show is pretty much in your hands. Its all about the content and what you can do with your time. Of course there are a huge mound of barriers and bureaucracies and things that are truly not fair that get in the way, but I still think, at the end of the day, its what you can produce, content-wise that must build its own support. It seems like this must be the perspective or mind-set that you would need to be the most effective under the situation of deciding to go with a network like Podtech. Correct me if Im wrong, but I always saw Podtech as a record label that supports artists, not entrepreneurs or business people. It was meant for the people who dont want to deal with all the business, they just want to do one thing: make great content. If they just can do that one thing well, they are entrusting the record label to do the rest. Its more intertwined than that really, but thats the gist of what I mean to say. The record label of course expects or at least hopes that the artist will make some kind of work that allot of people will want to see. With Rocketboom in particular, we do not have the support of a network. So its different, we do all of the business and try to grow everything ourselves. Along with some help from Josh Kinberg and Kenyatta Cheese, I pretty much did the whole thing daily myself for the first 6 months with Amanda Congdon pitching in a couple of hours per show. Eventually we we were both doing it full time. While I had some editing support here and there, after one year, I hired a full time editor. So after one year, we went from two to three. The growth of the audience and the demand for time to grow the business supported the growth of additional people. From an artistic perspective, it's very draining to research, write, direct, edit and publish every day by yourself (keep this point in mind, I'm about to drive it home). Then, we hired Ellie to help assist me with all of the business stuff (she is still with us and has way grown out of that role). After Amanda left, I eventually hired support to help get the whole business together, tight, up to date and clear. Now we are growing as we manage other projects as well. We were and still are in a start-up mentality which is a different kind of place to be for us, compared to an artists who just needs a place to do their art. The thing I figured out over time - and this is the main point I wanted to share - is that it only takes one or two but you have to factor in endurance. Its not a sustainable kind of lifestyle for the long term. Because the content must strike a chord in people which justifies the budget, the budget should go up and down depending on prospects and historical performance. While I have always been outspoken about Podtech, my theory has only been on one angle, which is content; I think Robert has that down and continues to invent his own direction as he goes, but no one else on Podtech seemed to strike a chord with people in a way that was memetic for some reason. While I have very little idea and almost no opinion on the inner-working of Podtech, Eddie, I think perhaps in theory, you had two people who were capable and you also had the rest of the business taken care of for you (you were prepaid) - you had full times sales, web support, community, all kinds of stuff that you didn't have to deal with on a day to day basis that others do. If you were looking for help and direction, why not try to study Scoble more closely on what he does. At least he does whatever he he does well so to having him around on a daily basis would be a huge resource. Isn't it traditionally the case that people have mentors who help them to grow their craft? If not by support, by method? Anyway, setting all of that aside, how many people do you think it should take you to do what you want to do? [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
