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Are you fed up with the corporate bullshit holding you back? Welcome to Invest in Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur Podcast. The ultimate launchpad for entrepreneurs ready to seize control and unleash their creative genius. Hosted by Phil Better, the podcast mogul, each week he's breaking the chains of conventional work with bold strategies, raw insights and inspiring success stories from the entrepreneurs who took the risk and invested in themselves. This is your call to arms. Invest in yourself, break free from someone else's rules and build the empire you deserve. Now, let's dive head first into today's explosive episode.

Welcome back to another powerhouse episode of Investing Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur Podcast. I am of course your host, Phil Benner, the podcast mogul, and we're diving into the deep, deep intersection of media innovation and education with an industry veteran who's redefining how we engage in content. Our guest is a true pioneer in the world of digital entrepreneurship and media influence. He's the Visionary founder and CEO of VidaFair or VET Affair, depending on how you want to mention it. A groundbreaking pay per stream video platform that's empowering creators and shaking up the video landscape. Before, he was a champion for educational reform and media freedom as the founder and executive director of Choice Media, the premier news source focused on school issue choices. With an impressive career spanning roles as a television producer, reporter, commentator on major newsletters like PBS and Bloomberg Television, just to name a few, he's brought sharp insight and compelling stories to audiences everywhere. And for those who appreciate a touch of satire, you might even recognize him from a few appearances on the Onion News Network where his comedic timing shines through.

Beyond these accompl compliments, he's also an award winning documentary filmmaker. His critically acclaimed documentary the Cartel peels back the curtain on corruption in the public public education system, earning him over a dozen film festival awards for its powerful message. So get ready for an enlightening conversation about challenges, rewards and the future of media and education with non other than Bob Bowden. Bob, thank you so much for being here Phil.

I did not know that a mogul was involved in this program. Now I'm going to pay a particular attention to my performance. I'm going to step up my game now that I know the consequences are so, so deep.

Oh, I'm pretty sure you're going to far superpede any expectations I have for this and my guest, my audience as well. But Bob, I'm very excited to talk to you because the future of media is something that's so important to us as we look to the future and I want to know. But first I want to know why did you decide to go into the 9 to 5? You, you had an amazing career. Why did you leave 9 to 5 to be your own boss, if you will. The entrepreneurial.

Sure. Well, I guess, I guess the. It might sound cliche, but it is true. I saw a need. I basically was at the, at one point in my career going to the film festival circuit around the country and you know, entering my film. But then in the films you're chatting with other directors who were there in the room or you're having drinks at the bar etc, and conversations come up and you realize some of these people, first of all, this great work that has nowhere to make a penny after really actually at all, you know, let alone. And they're lucky if they get into one local film festival and they invite all their friends and they maybe have that one screening and then they just go home and start over. So.

But it's not, I don't want to make it just about films. There's all kinds of video content made these days that should have a way for people to monetize it, which is just a fancy word for making money. And I saw a need in the sense that I just was not determining, not seeing the kinds of service that I would think I would want if I were a successful video content creator. I guess you could argue that there's an extremely top high tier of people who are getting millions of views per episode. You know, the, the Mr. Beasts or the Joe Rogans or there's a certain, I guess Echelon. Maybe those people do get multi million dollar Spotify deals or, or deals from sponsors, etc, but below that there's an enormous space of people who I think deserve a better way to make money from their work by, by setting a fair price and letting people pay it. So I wanted to build a platform to do that.

I love that, I love how you're looking at the little person. The person that may have that audience but not the size of the audience that that YouTube will let us will give those nice, nice dollars from those checks.