What are the regulations around using third-party content in your media? The short answer: ask for permission or deal with the repercussions. There are all sorts of complexities when copyrighting and trademarking get brought up, no…
How should you handle independent contractors and freelancers? That answer depends on their necessity to you and your media production company. If you only want to hire employees, then freelancers or independent contractors won't be a facto…
What legal structure should you choose for your media production company? First, this isn't legal advice. If that is what you want consult a business, entertainment, or media attorney; business school or formal education; your nearest libra…
Why I chose to start a media company with a podcasting niche? Podcasting is ridiculously popular to learn and to teach from. If not an audience though, host and guests can learn together through a conversation, but also through the process of creat…
How to identify a niche for your media production company? That depends on what you care about; what skills you have; your upbringing; customs courtesies; and cultures you're familiar with, or even with which values you align. So that's ki…
How profitable is the media production industry? That's a heavy question. Namely because the media production industry as a whole is primarily an artform, not a consistently producing machine. Industry, here, is more a process. So then how …
How profitable are media production companies? That was the first question I looked into when I first started considering building a media production company. Money isn't the metaphorical root of all evil. It's a medium for transacting valu…
How do media production companies make money? I'll do you one better and answer with a question. How creative is the production team? That is the limiting feature into how production companies can make money. Think about it like this. The …
How much money does it take to start a media production company? This was an unfathomable question for me to answer at the start too. Especially when you think of other media production companies. Who do you think of? Warner Brothers? Sony?…
How important are the conversation prompts in an interview-styled podcast? That depends on the format of your podcast. If the flow and atmospherics are more closely associated with the informality of a group or conversation like a "That 70'…
How do you overcome anxiety when on-air? That was tough. I learned that breathing helps. Not to trivialize the obvious here, but it made a huge difference. I had to consciously become more consistently aware, sometimes multiple times during a reco…
How do you know what will work? I identified gaps in my process. I started with a direction, Down. I jumped head first instead of dipping toes. What I did have in the beginning was knowing that I learn better by doing. Reading the death scrolls an…
To build a global media production company, I chose to start with a podcast as a way to focus the message. I had no relevant experience in podcasting, broadcasting, digital communications, team building, or project management. I had low levels of co…