Podcasts about Revver

Sarah Wagman Ellenbogen is the co-founder and CEO of DigiFresh — who have created tools that allow for the merger of traceability and accountability with marketing and storytelling — in a way that feels organic to the brand and entertaining to the customer. After a career for building amazing partnerships between brands and technology organizations like Revver, YouTube, and Google, Sarah has now turned her focus to helping consumer brands tell their stories, and ultimately, witness them gain more trust and grow their customer relationships.If you're interested in how the origin stories of goods are becoming more important for driving consumer decisions, what future awaits us, and how “good” is always the side to be on, then dive in and listen. She and Rob will take you there.This episode is guaranteed to paint a picture of a marketplace lush with accountability. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

2011 Annual Report   Big Cat Rescue is more than just a place that provides permanent care for big cats.  It is a movement;  a change in the tide of human perceptions and is the combined effort of more than 54,000 supporters.  If you are one of them, you are a Big Cat Rescuer and the following is the great work YOU did!  If you haven't helped yet, you can do so now at the top right of the screen or here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/donate   Big Cat Rescue's Mission Statement:  Big Cat Rescue's dual mission is to provide the best home we can for the cats in our care and educate the public about the plight of these majestic animals, both in captivity and in the wild, to end abuse and avoid extinction.  We are Caring for Cats and Ending the Trade   Advances:  With your help we are winning in the battle for compassion! Up until 2003 the number of requests for rescues we had to turn down due to lack of space or funds had roughly doubled every other year, to 312 that year. We feared it would double again to over 500 in 2004. Instead, it has steadily declined since then thanks to the passage of a federal bill and several state bills that restrict the ownership of exotic cats. This year there were only 15 big cats who came to our attention as being abandoned and we were able to take in 10. We offered to take all of the cats who were cougar size or smaller, if their owners would contract to never own another exotic cat, but the rest refused.  We just do not have enough Senior Keeper staff to take on more lions or tigers than the three we took this year.   Volgistics became our new time tracking service on Jan 1, 2012 and has replaced our use of Freshbooks.  Everyone seems to like the big buttons and easy check in and check out process.   Animal Care:   By the end of this year, 106 of our 119 animals are over the age of 12 and 89 are over the age of 15. This is well beyond how long they are designed to live in the wild and much older than most zoo cats.  This is a testament to the excellent animal care we provide, but we are dealing with many more age related illnesses and are losing more of our big cat friends every year.   Rescues:  With the help of some very special donors we were able to rescue Amanda, Arthur and Andre; 3 tigers who had been rescued in 2003 from NJ and sent to Wild Animal Orphanage in TX, which collapsed in 2010.  Max the baby bobcat came to us after the RI DNR seized him from an illegal owner.  5 servals, Zoul, Zouletta, Zimba, Santino and Doodles, who had been kept in a NY basement for 14 years were rescued.  Another serval named Kricket was also brought in from VA when her owner could no longer keep her.  We were also able to help with the placement of another serval, a bobcat and did a lot of rehab consultation work via phone and email.   One of those bobcats was Rufus who came in to a Rehabber on Dec 5 weighing 4 lbs, with a broken jaw, split canine and comatose.  They figured he had been hit by a car, but at 4 lbs couldn't believe that he survived.  After he woke up from the coma he was pretty loopy, but they figured the impact had done brain damage.  They had to wire the jaw shut, tube feed him and removed the broken canine. He is now about 7 lbs, is eating solids on his own and doing much better but appears to be blind.  He was having bad and frequent seizures, but those have almost subsided.  They have asked if we can give him a forever home if his eyesight does not return and we stand ready to help.  On 12/21/11 we had another perfect USDA inspection.   Education:  Our website, BigCatRescue.org underwent a painful renovation from a static html site to a WordPress CMS site during 2010 and 2011.  All of the page names had to be changed to fit the new system which meant a huge drop in traffic and initially a huge drop in inbound links, although, by the end of the year we had gained more than a thousand more inbound links than we had before, so it is going to prove a worth while move.  The site was completely down in the Spring and Summer, but has been stable since August 2011 now.   Our website is primarily an educational tool and according to Alexa we are ranked 464,891 worldwide and 128,777 most visited website in the U.S.  We have 1,104 other sites linking to us.   Our web site addresses local and global concerns about environment and has over 8,347 pages of information, movie clips, sounds, safe interactive online games with a conservation theme and photos. From 1/1/2011 until 12/31/2011 the site was visited 338,715 times, resulting in 764,943 page views.  In any given week the visitors will be from more than 200 countries outside of the U.S. as you can see from this breakdown:  United States 279,011, Canada 17,495, Poland 7,679, United Kingdom 7,610, Australia 2,848, India 2,123, Germany 1,578, France 984, and the Philippines 858 to name a few.   The information provided has helped wildlife rehabilitators identify animals and obtain proper care instruction, helped officials in smuggling cases to identify rare species of exotic cats being illegally traded and those are just a few of the ways that we know the site has had an impact this year.  For search engine optimization reasons we launched BobcatRehab.com  to make it easier for bobcats in trouble to find us.   We offer about 200 outreach and field trips per year and have committed to offering 12 of them for free each year to lower income schools, but have given 18 such free tours this year and expect that demand will continue to rise with the cost of transportation.  Even when we offer the tours for free, many schools cannot come because they cannot afford the $200.00 fee for their busses.  Our Education Department has been writing grant proposals to raise the money needed for the buses.   Big Cat Rescue has been in the press 326 times, in 42+ states including AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, GA, FL, HI, IA, ID, IO, IN, IL, KY, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WA, WI & WV and dozens of programs of national or international coverage or in countries other than the U.S.   Award Winning Sanctuary:  PC Magazine Names Big Cat Rescue in Top 12 Favorite Charities 2011.  “Big Cat Rescue, which takes in retired circus lions and tigers, also rescues other big cats from people who tried to keep them as pets, and otherwise offers sanctuary to large cats that are not eligible for release into the wild. It's focused on educating people about the unsuitability of the animals as pets, working toward passing laws against roadside zoos, and shutting down breeding programs like the exotic pet trade. They also take in injured wild cats and rehabilitate them for release. The group has a video cam set up in the sanctuary, and they regularly post videos of the big cats. The cats eat a massive amount every day, naturally, so Big Cat Rescue relies on donations and paid tour groups to support them.”—Arielle Rochette  PC Magazine   • 2011 Winner in Toyota's 100 Cars for Good  Big Cat Rescue was given a beautiful Toyota Tundra for being the top voted charity during their competition week. • 9/2/2011  The Tampa Bay Business Journal awarded Big Cat Rescue in 3 categories:  Best Black Tie Event  Favorite Retreat and Team Building Venue and Second Best Fundraiser • The Tampabay Business Journal selected Big Cat Rescue as a semi-finalist for Non Profit of the Year for 2011.   Legislation/Education:  The steady increase in legislation banning private ownership represents recognition by our society that private ownership leads to massive abuse.  Social values evolve.  It took decades to ban slavery in England and for women to win the right to vote in America.  Those ideas started out as “radical” and were held by a small minority.  Gradually more and more people understood and agreed until they became a part of our value system that we take for granted today.  The same trend is happening with private ownership of exotics.  Gradually more and more people are realizing that this simply leads to widespread abuse of these animals.  The best evidence of this is the accelerating trend in state laws.   Just since 2005 eight more states have passed some level of ban. Sweden, Austria, Costa Rica, India, Finland, Bolivia, Greece, China, the UK and Singapore have all banned or restricted the utilization of big cats in circuses-it's time for the U.S. & South Africa to do the same!   14,539 new subscribers joined as an AdvoCat to speak out for the cats at CatLaws.com in 2011 bringing our total number of AdvoCats to  54,447 who sent 134,431 letters to lawmakers and decision makers to protect big cats.   Animal Abusers Exposed, Shut Down and / or Fined:  Big Cat Rescue enabled several under cover operations to gather evidence of exotic cats being abused, bred without regard for where they may end up, violations of the Animal Welfare Act that pertains to the cruel treatment of big cats and endangering the public.  This information was presented to the authorities along with affidavits and supporting evidence that we hope will bring an end to much of the suffering in the facilities we selected as being the worst abusers.   • Inside Edition exposed Joe Schreibvogel of GW Park and the fact that at least 23 tiger cubs died at his facility. • The BBC's Show called America's Most Dangerous Pets with  Louis Theroux suggested their show should have been named, America's Most Dangerous Pet Owners. • Animal Planet's Fatal Attractions interviewed Carole Baskin in Tigers Unleashed about dangerous exotic animal owners including Savage Kingdom's Robert Baudy and Lost Creek where Haley Hilderbrand was killed by a tiger while posing with the cat for her high school yearbook photo. Many of the worst breeders, dealers and tiger-tamer-wanabees were finally shut down between 2008 and 2010 but it appears that USDA did not pursue any of the exotic animal abuse cases in 2011.     Fundraising and Marketing:  We overhauled (OK, Jamie overhauled) our online stores at http://www.bigcatrescue.biz/ and on eBay and greatly increased our sales by doing so.  We currently operate 300+ social networking sites.   Big Cat Rescue was reported favorably in the news 326 times in 2011 which in a 19% increase over 2010.   Some of the national press included shows on  CNN,  MSNBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery and the History Channel in addition to such publications as USA Today, National Geographic and the New York Post and major media coverage in several other countries as well.   Google awarded Big Cat Rescue a grant of $40,000 per month in free AdWords. People who love animals love to share their photos and stories.  In 2008 Big Cat Rescue unleashed a Chat Big Cats community.   Members can post their own blogs, or join in our forums and contests. It is a YouTube/ MySpace styled community made up entirely of animal lovers. By year end there were 2,847 members and 34,359,740,539  videos, songs, photos and blogs posted to the site.  (blows my mind too!)  Get in on the action free at http://www.chatbigcats.com   Best Viral Video Award:  YouTube.  We ended the year with 35,442 subscribers and 37,492,151 views.   By year end we had 323 videos posted on YouTube and other popular sites like google, Blip, MetaCafe, Revver and others.  http://www.youtube.com/bigcatrescue   YouTube Mini Clip Site:  DailyBigCat was launched Nov. 20, 2010 to provide a channel for the mini clips we upload directly from our iPhones.  By year end this site had 2,563 subscribers and 166,724 views.   Our MySpace account now has 7,551 friends. myspace.com/1BigCatRescue We surpassed 54,000 fans on Face Book .  We also enhanced our presence on Care2.org and many other such sites.  We now have 500+ contacts in our LinkedIn presence here:  linkedin.com/in/BigCatRescue Big Cat Rescue now has an Endowment Fund to provide a secure future for the cats. The Fund resides at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay.  We initiated a program with Capitol One so that you can choose one of our beautiful cats for your credit card image and 1% of all of your purchases will be donated to Big Cat Rescue at no cost to you.   Saving Wild Places for Wild Cats:  Big Cat Rescue funded a $5,000 GPS tracking collar program that will be monitored by researchers with the Snow Leopard Trust. Founded in 1981, the Snow Leopard Trust is the world's leading authority on the study and protection of the endangered snow leopards. This collar will allow researchers to track a wild snow leopard in order to study its habits and territory needs.  A GPS tracking collar has been placed on one of the cubs of Khashaa, a female and mother snow leopard, within the study area. The cub, a male, is already pretty big at one and a half years old. We find this so exciting because it will help us begin to answer some of the unanswered questions about snow leopards, including information about dispersal patterns.   Big Cat Rescue has been working with WildTracks this year to provide images of our tigers' paw prints for entry into their computer program which can determine who a cat is by their tracks when there are enough tracks submitted to use for comparison.  Learn more and see photos of the print collection at http://bigcatrescue.org/2011/today-at-big-cat-rescue-sept-22   Big Cat Rescue offered to sponsor the first ever Florida Panther Festival if they agreed not to use any live cats at their exhibits.  They did not take us up on the offer to sponsor the event, but did assure us that they would not exploit cats this way.  Our camera traps have been set in various locations to monitor wildlife populations and poachers in the area.   Helping Others: After delivering a couple of free webinars for the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), Patty asked if we would host their first in person 2 day Workshop. Howard Baskin presented on our fundraising streams and the history of Big Cat Rescue, Jeff Kremer presented on donor recognition while giving the group of 20+ attendees a tour, Chris Poole spoke on social marketing and networking, Patty Ragan shared the value of hiring a coach, Kari Bagnall illustrated how to get the most out of a tabling event, Patty Finch taught grant writing, teaching your board how to be helpful and how to avoid “founder's syndrome” and I shared how we use google Apps, how we manage over 100 top notch volunteers, why it is important to have a plan and stick to it.   Big Cat Rescue later hosted HSUS Sanctuary CEO's for their annual retreat and gave them an inside look at how we operate.  In both the GFAS and HSUS workshops we shared our Intranet site along with all of our training documents and all of the assets to create a “sanctuary in a box.”  All of these tools are included on our website behind a $1.00 pay wall so that anyone who wishes to improve their facility has access to everything we do.   Big Cat Rescue also helped the Humane Society Legislative Fund in their work to end puppy mills because the same laws would protect cats and kittens from use in kitten mills as well.   Big Cat Rescue provided our CatLaws.com service to Animal Coalition of Tampa in their efforts to send a powerful message to the Hillsborough County Commissioners on two subjects.  1. Was to fund the voucher program for spaying and neutering dogs and cats for low income owners.  2. Was to ban the cruel practice of chaining dogs.   As with every year we supplied Free Passes, Certificates for Feeding Tours and Keeper Tours, and Two For One Passes to many other animal causes to use in their fundraising efforts.  We donate primarily to those organizations that are providing services to cats of all sizes.  We do donate to some human related fundraisers as well, but animal causes make up 3% of all charities and yet compete for less than 1% of all donated dollars.   Officers and Members of the Board of Directors in 2011 and meetings: CEO and Founder  Carole Baskin (not compensated by BCR) President and Chairman of the Board Jamie Veronica (not compensated by BCR for her role as a Director) Secretary & Treasurer Howard Baskin (not compensated by BCR for his role as a Director) VP Director Lisa Shaw (not compensated by BCR) Director Mary Lou Geis (not compensated by BCR) Pamela Rodriguez (not compensated by BCR), Darren Kipnis (not compensated by BCR), Vincent Pavese (not compensated by BCR), and Keith Lawless (not compensated by BCR).  These members met for quarterly board meetings at the sanctuary.  The board met 5 times in 2011.   Paid Staff:  Operations Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Gale Ingham Staff Manager, Editor & Creative Director Jamie Veronica Gift Shop & Guest Services  Honey Wayton Intern Recruiter & Data Management Chelsea Feeny Education Director Dr. Beth Kamhi and her assistant Willow Hecht Vernon Stairs Cage Builder and Maintenance Scott Haller Cage Building Apprentice and Maintenance Videographer and Social Networking Chris Poole Director of Donor Appreciation  Jeff Kremer Assistant to Operations Manager and Staff Relief Person Jennifer Flatt, CFO Howard Baskin, PR Susan Bass and  LaWanna Mitchell is an independent contractor who works remotely on web issues. All of our animal care is done by volunteers or by staff who also volunteer time before & after work.   Volunteers:  Big Cat Rescue had 96 volunteers at the end of 2011 who clocked in 37,556.09 man-power hours in addition to staff, 25 interns (12,700 hours) and Volunteer Committee member hours. Our interns came from 9 states and 6 countries. Volunteers and interns provided roughly the equivalent workforce of 24 more full time staff.   Staff and Volunteer Training:  We want to say a special thank you to all of our staff & volunteers who have just completed their 10th year of service to the cats.   I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/   I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

Dan Levitt is the founder and CEO of Long Haul Management. We discuss how Dan paid rent while making only $6,000 a year out of college (many side hustles), beating me in an office rap battle, Disney's big miss in digital music, executive producing one of YouTube's premium original series, and what it's like to represent some of the biggest sports and gamer personalities on the Internet.Subscribe to our newsletter. We explore the intersection of media, technology, and commerce: sign-up linkLearn more about our market research and executive advisory: RockWater websiteFollow The Come Up on Twitter: @TCUpodEmail us: tcupod@wearerockwater.com---Chris Erwin:Hi, I'm Chris Erwin. Welcome to The Come Up, a podcast that interviews entrepreneurs and leaders. Dan Levitt:I chose the safer Disney route. Again, I needed to pay the bills. But I made a promise to myself. Every day, I saw someone else doing what I wanted to do. They were the AbsolutePunks of the world. Or there were other people who turned the music blog into an A&R career, or leveraged it in other ways.I'm good at seeing gaps in the marketplace and where could you go in it. I made a promise. The next time I see it, I'm fucking going for it. Chris Erwin:This week's episode features Dan Levitt, the founder and CEO of Long Haul Management. Dan grew up in Boston with an early love for music and yet-to-be-discovered bands. So, after wrapping a few acts in high school and interning at Philly radio stations during college, he kicked off his career by moving to LA with absolutely no job prospects.But after a few A&R gigs at Columbia Records and Disney, Dan was early to see how digital and YouTube were going to transform the music industry. So, he left traditional media and kicked off his digital career, joining one of the early YouTube multichannel networks, company called Big Frame.We actually worked together there. And in less than nine months, I actually had to lay him off. Dan struck out on his own, positioned himself as the YouTube guy for the music industry and started his own talent shop, Long Haul Management.Some highlights of our chat include how Dan paid rent while making only $6,000 a year when he first moved to LA ... You'll crack up at some of his many side hustles ... when he beat me in an office rap battle, executive producing one of YouTube's premium original series, and what it's like to represent some of the biggest sports and gamer personalities on the internet. All right, let's get to it. Dan, thanks for being and the podcast. Dan Levitt:Thanks for having me. Chris Erwin:Awesome. I believe that you're a fellow East Coaster like myself. So tell me, where did you grow up? Dan Levitt:Sure, I'm from a nice suburb of Boston, Newton, Massachusetts. Literally voted safest city in America back when I was younger. So, nice Jewish suburb of Boston. Chris Erwin:Got it. It's funny. I went to underground at Tufts in Medford/Somerville. I think, while I was there, it was rated one of the most dangerous mafia-driven neighborhoods in the Northeast, or all of the US. So, quite the opposite of you. What was your household like? What were your family and parents doing? Dan Levitt:So, one, my parents are both from South Africa. They moved to the US in, I think, '77. My dad went to school for engineering, and then got a job in Boston, and then eventually started his own software business that really had a bunch of ups and downs. Mostly ups, and then fortunately sold to IBM right before the big bubble burst there. So, the timing was fortunate. Dan Levitt:And then my mom was artist. So, had all kinds of different things she would do in the art space, be it theater, be it actual prints and displays and stuff. Chris Erwin:Okay, very cool. It's funny. I've known you for about a decade and I had no idea your parents were from South Africa. Look, you're an entrepreneur. You've built out an incredible talent management firm. We're going to get to that in a bit. But you have entrepreneurial roots in your family. Dan Levitt:It's interesting now. I remember my dad would come back ... I think maybe at the height, he had 50, 60 people. Maybe more. I remember growing up, he'd come back from work and we'd be watching a Celtics game. It was the most exciting game ever, especially, they were really good back then. Dan Levitt:And he would fall asleep, and I'd be like, "How in the world can you possibly fall asleep during this game?" And now, I'm like, "Yep, I get it." Yeah, I could totally get how you could be so wiped out the day that, no matter what is on TV, you're just out. Dan Levitt:I mean, what was really interesting is, my parents went through a kind of messy divorce. We don't need to get into that but that's a whole fun story. But what's interesting is, when they separated, he stayed with a friend for a bit. And he went from sleeping in the basement of a friend's house to selling his business to IBM in a year. Dan Levitt:There were a lot of times that people told him, because the business had some challenges over the years, there were a lot of people that told him that he should declare bankruptcy with the business. But he stayed with it. And eventually, it worked out for him. I'm sure, hopefully, some of the resiliency I have, learned from him. Chris Erwin:Wow. Awesome. I have to ask. Being from Boston, a lot of media professionals from Boston have a pretty strong Boston identity. I think of Dave Portnoy in Barstool Sports, and Bill Simmons from The Ringer. Do you think of yourself like that, or your total West Coast transplant now? Dan Levitt:It's not just specific to Boston, but especially in the Northeast, there's a certain intensity and, I think, an edge that you can have, where in Boston, in traffic, if someone cuts you off, you scream at each other. And that's just acceptable and that's how you vent, right? Dan Levitt:In LA, it's much different than that. I'm in LA now. On the West Coast, people are more scared of confrontation. If you scream at someone, that's a really big deal. I think there's just a certain firm mentality that you have where it's pretty hard to bother me or get under my skin. Dan Levitt:I have thick skin. I do think part of that is just growing up in a culture where people are so up front with that. I also think, to a certain extent, growing up in cold climate where the weather is pretty brutal, and you just have to plow through it, does give some sort of mental toughness. Chris Erwin:I think that's totally right. I think there's this saying. I hope I'm not butchering it. But it's, "In New York, when people are saying, 'Fuck you,' they're saying, 'Good morning.' In the West Coast, when they say, 'Good morning,' they're saying, 'Fuck you.'" Dan Levitt:Yeah. I mean, but it's more so ... I remember in one of my first PA jobs in LA, I had a disagreement with another PA about the way things should be done. And then later on, I was brought into the office by my supervisor and they're like, "Dan, you were screaming at them. Why?" Dan Levitt:And I was like, "I wasn't screaming at them. I was telling them something they didn't want to hear in a certain tone. If I was screaming at them, they would know. Everybody would know." So, that was really the first ... I just moved to LA and I was like, "Shit, I got to really be cognizant of how I talk to people out here. They're going to think I'm a fucking lunatic," which, to a certain extent, is true. But maybe I need to slow play that a bit. Keep my response- Chris Erwin:It's part of your je ne sais quoi, as they say. Nothing- Dan Levitt:Yeah. I mean, you know me really well. But for people who just meet me, I can be a lot. Chris Erwin:Yeah, so let's actually talk about how you got to where you are today. I think, trying to get a sense of, was there a glimpse in your early days of you entering entertainment, becoming a talent manager? I think about things that you had mentioned that you were looking at unsigned bands in high school in the '90s. Tell me about that. Dan Levitt:My skillset is, I'm really good at seeing patterns and seeing where things are going, right? Before they get there. So, I think that's what I'm best at, be it entertainment or trends. I've done okay in the stock market, investing and stuff. So, specific to your question, yeah. Dan Levitt:My first real strong passion was music. I heard Green Day and it changed my life. And I was like, "This is it." And then I definitely have the personality type where if I'm into something, I'm all the way fucking in. So, if I like Green Day, okay, I need ever record they've ever had. Dan Levitt:So, I started, the mid '90s or so, music was starting to shift to digital, right? So, you used to discover bands on the radio, and then around that time, there started to be primitive websites. Around when Napster first came out, there started to be people who would put MP3s online, right? Dan Levitt:So, now here are these blogs that are hosting MP3s. So, they would be posting bands that would be signed to record labels. And I would like these bands. I'd find then, I'd like them, and then they'd get big a year later. It was like, "Oh, I'm pretty good at knowing which bands are going to be big later." Dan Levitt:And then, one site in particular started focusing on unsigned bands, and I said, "Oh, these unsigned bands are pretty good. I think they're going to make it." And then they would get signed and they would make it. So, I saw, "Hey, I'm pretty good at ... " Dan Levitt:And I started learning more about the industry. And at that point, originally, my job was to, "Hey, I wanted to work as a music direct on the radio helping find the songs." And then I realized, "Hey, actually the best way I can help musicians is to work at a record label." So then, it was my dream to be an A&R guy to sign a band and help them break. Chris Erwin:And any genre focus? What types of music were you listening to? Was it Green Day punk? Stuff like that? Dan Levitt:More like the new metal, like the Korn. I know you're obviously a huge Limp Bizkit fan. That kind of stuff. Chris Erwin:Three Dollar Bill, Y'all Dan Levitt:Sure, exactly, right? Around that time was the Linkin Parks of the world and that kind of stuff. That was really the scene that I was into. I still had an appreciation for more pop music and stuff like that. But really, the rock, I would say, is the genre that I was into and certainly having a great moment then. Dan Levitt:Yeah, so then there were a few sites. And I remember trying to email people, and bands, and managers, and see what I could do. But I was just a kid in high school. Again, this is, I'm downloading songs over a dial-up modem. Chris Erwin:DSL. Dan Levitt:Yeah, exactly. This was not how easy it was today. That was the dream. But I didn't know anyone at entertainment. There was no path to it. I was like, "Could I start my own record label and fund it?" But that seemed so far from being feasible. Chris Erwin:Yeah, were you reaching out to any of these bands direct, or was it, you're just thinking about what you want to do after college? Dan Levitt:Yeah, I had a buddy from summer camp who was, at the same time ... This is the late '90s. He started interning at record labels in New York and started getting a bit of traction. So, we were talking about, "Hey, maybe we should start our own label." And there were one or two bands that we approached. They didn't really respond. It didn't go anywhere. Chris Erwin:Oh, I would've loved to have been a fly on the wall to hear the pitch of you pitching a band in high school to sign with you. Dan Levitt:I forget what the value proposition was, but that band didn't really go anywhere. They probably should've given us a shot. Chris Erwin:You're doing this in high school, and then you end up going to Temple University in Philly. Does the dream start to take form there? What happens? Dan Levitt:No. I wanted to be a bit more conservative. And I was like, "Hey, I know I want to get into entertainment. I know I want to be on the business side. What's interesting to me is the intersection of art and commerce. But these jobs are going to be really hard to get. So, as a background, why don't I get a business degree, just to give me some kind of stability and baseline of knowledge?" Dan Levitt:So, I went to school at Temple. There's all kinds of story. My dorm room burnt down freshman year. Just the craziest shit happened. Chris Erwin:Wait, did you cause that or was it somebody else? Dan Levitt:No, no. Well, it's a point of contention. My roommate was lighting candles for some reason at 10:00 in the morning. But the fire marshal said it was electrical outlet. It's a whole thing. But anyways, went to Temple. Actually, before I left, I interned at a radio station in Boston. Then I interned at radio stations in Philly because that was really the only ... Dan Levitt:There weren't record labels in Boston, at least that I was aware of, in Philly. So, I just interned at radio in hope that I could make my way up there. But then I saw, man, the radio jobs ... I mean, and this was back then. I could only imagine now. Radio's not glamorous at all. It's really bare bones. The budgets are next to nothing. No one leaves these jobs. The jobs didn't pay great. Dan Levitt:So, I realized, "Hey, I thought I wanted to do radio, but this is not for me." And then that was more like, "Okay, I want to work for a record label." That was the dream. Be an A&R guy. Chris Erwin:In graduating Temple, which I think is around 2004, do you go immediately ... Do you have a job lined up? Like you're going to a record label. You're pumped going to the big city? Dan Levitt:I don't know why. I wasn't really actively hustling for a gig. I guess I assumed, "Oh, the college sets up some interviews and stuff." Nothing. So, a couple of my buddies went there. Temple has a really good film program, so most of my friends actually weren't on the business program. They were more on the film side. Dan Levitt:So, a couple of my buddies were moving out to LA to get started in their careers. So, I knew the music industry at that time was really New York or LA. And the last winter in Boston, the high was like eight degrees. I'm not one to complain about the cold, but I was too fucking cold. Dan Levitt:So, I was like, "Do I move to New York with no gig where it's crazy expensive and the weather's brutal, or maybe I should I try LA and see what it's like over there." So, I moved here without any job, and hoping that I'd figure it out. Chris Erwin:So, you're showing up without a lot of savings. No clear job prospects. Moving with a couple friends but don't really know anyone on the West Coast. So, there's a timeline here where it's like, "Hey, I got to figure something out probably in the next couple months," right? Dan Levitt:Totally. Maybe a couple grand. Thankfully, at least rent back then was a lot less than it is now. I think me and my buddies got a house in Glendale ... well, maybe Eagle Rock area or Glassell Park for maybe $1,000 between us three. It was pretty inexpensive. I had some cost but I had a little bit of room to work with there. Chris Erwin:Yeah, so you show up with maybe a couple suitcases. You're in LA. What's your mentality? Are you pumped? Are you excited? Are you also scared? And then what do you start doing to sow your roots? Dan Levitt:Really, it was just like, "Okay, I have a business degree. Surely, I can get an entry-level job somewhere doing marketing." And just nothing. Barely interviews. Fucking nothing. So, I was just like, "All right, let me just ... " Couple of my buddies started PAing, so I did some PA gigs. Dan Levitt:But even in those gigs, you really have to hustle. You have to networks. And the gig ends and then you've got to get another job. And then that one ends. You got to get another job. I didn't really want to jump from job to job. There's late-night shoots. It would mess up my sleep schedule. Dan Levitt:I was a much different person. I was a lot lazier. I didn't think things would come to me. I just thought it would be easier. Chris Erwin:It's funny to hear you say that, because who you are now, who I have seen you evolve from since the Big Frame days in 2013, right? When you left. You are such a go-getter. Eye on the ball. Laser focus. Massive hustler. So, I guess this was an important experience for you to train that muscle and change your mentality. Dan Levitt:For some background, I am not a type ... Now, I'm probably type A, but I promise you, I was not type A. For context, I don't know what my GPA was in high school. Maybe a 2.3. It was not good at all. At all. I was a bad student. For context, in second grade, I already wasn't doing homework just I couldn't be bothered to do it. I could do it. Dan Levitt:I could pass everything and do it well. For some reason, it wasn't interesting to me. Probably wasn't until after I left Big Frame when I really had to figure stuff out for my own. But I had to really flip that switch and become that person. There's some people who just born type A. That's been a constant evolution for me. Chris Erwin:But your first job, you do get an A&R job at Columbia Records, which is part of Sony Music, I think in March 2005. How did that come to be and what was that experience like? Dan Levitt:Oh, this is a great story about how this ends. The buddy I mentioned earlier who was interning at record labels, he was able to move up. I think he was actually probably the youngest A&R guy in Sony history, at least at the time. He helped get John Legend signed and Coheed and Cambria. So, after John- Chris Erwin:Favorite band, Coheed and Cambria. Jersey band in the metalcore punk-ish type scene. Love them. Dan Levitt:Yeah, I think that was one of the first things he got signed. And then after he helped get John Legend signed, who they had passed on maybe five or six times, then they started, "Oh, maybe we should listen to him." He got promoted. At the time, the music industry was really going through an interesting transition. This is 2005. Dan Levitt:So, this is after the height of the boy band and rock. CD sales are declining now, relative to all-time highs. What was happening was, you were seeing a lot of executive turnover. So, a lot of execs who got these amazing lucrative deals in the good old days were getting or not renewed. So, there was a lot of turnover. Dan Levitt:So, what happened was, at that time, most of the A&R people for Columbia Records were in New York. But they needed someone lower level in LA to go see shows for them, especially at that point, the live shows. Especially in rock and other genres is a big part of a band's success. Dan Levitt:They didn't really have anyone lower and my buddy knew that I was still hustling. I'm working retail at that point. I'm working at The Vitamin Shoppe just to pay the bills, right? Because I didn't want the hustle of the random PA gigs. Keep in mind, I'm still applying for marketing jobs at a Nestle's and other more consumer products. Dan Levitt:I'm applying at entertainment too, but everyone is entry ... And this is even worse now. An entry-level job, they want you to have experience. I didn't have any work experience. I had a couple internships. So, I'm just working retail. My buddy is basically able to get me a job working for Columbia Records, but part-time, right? Dan Levitt:So, I'm basically working at The Vitamin Shoppe during the day, and then at night, going out and doing A&R for Columbia Records, albeit, in a part-time capacity. And I'm just fucking praying that no one I know from the music world comes into the store. Dan Levitt:So, it's really a one foot in, one foot out. And I'm basically just trying to do what I can to find the next great act for them to sign. So, that I can get recognized, and that I can do this full-time, and quit the soul-sucking day job. Chris Erwin:How much were you making as an A&R exec at this point? Dan Levitt:I might have been making maybe $125 a week. I think it was definitely between six and seven grand a year. So, not by any means enough to pay the bills, but not terrible, especially back then as a side. Keep in mind, if you look at it from an hourly perspective, I'm not really doing much. Maybe I go to one or two shows a night. Dan Levitt:By the way, I'm on the guest list for shows. I can walk into The Viper Room and the people there know me. I can just go in. So, I'm seeing amazing shows. I'm meeting people in the industry. I'm meeting managers. Meanwhile, anyone I meet, I'm trying to see if I can work with them. Dan Levitt:I'm applying for job after job. Entry-level manager assistant, $24,000. I'm applying. At that point, I have Columbia Records on my resume, and still barely getting bites. Even then, for whatever reason, I wasn't getting the gigs. It was a really, really tough time. Dan Levitt:It's worth noting, this was before the tech started. This was before SoundCloud. This is before some of the first music startups. So, there really wasn't much opportunity to get a gig somewhere. I interviewed at some of the music marketing companies like Streetwise. Dan Levitt:And this is building street teams and digital street teams. I wanted to do all that shit. I had some experience and still couldn't get in. Columbia Records. So one, it's kind of laughable now, but I discovered Arctic Monkeys extremely early. They only had three songs online. No one had heard of them in the US. No sales. Nothing. Dan Levitt:So, I have a bunch of buddies that I would send songs to. This is when The Strokes are first hitting, right? I find them on one of the music blogs that I like. These songs are ... I'm into them but I don't love it. I send it to a bunch of buddies and universally, everyone of them were like, "This is the best thing you've ever sent." Dan Levitt:And I was like, "Really? Wow." So then, I pitched them to Columbia Records and they're, "Oh, this is cool. It's this cool indie rock thing. But it's three guys in the UK. There's no sales. There's no history. It'd be really hard for us to fly them back and forth. But thanks for bringing it up." Dan Levitt:I didn't really know that I had to keep following up. "Hey, there's starting to be some noise." I didn't know. No one taught me how to do A&R or how to pitch, had to follow up. Again, it's not like I'm going into an office. I'm just remote because I still had the day gig. Dan Levitt:So, anyways, eventually there were Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen, a few things that I pitched that ended up hitting eventually. And then it got to the point where Sony Music was having a weekend where they were bringing in ever Sony Music employee to New York to do this whole song and dance about their roster. Dan Levitt:So, I basically request vacation time from my dad gig to go to New York. Again, Columbia Records is paying me $125 a week, but they're flying me to New York and put me up in a fancy hotel. Chris Erwin:It's like half your salary. Dan Levitt:Oh, no, by far, they spent way more on this. I mean, anyways, it was a weekend in Greenwich, Connecticut with the A&R team. So, I get called into the head A&R's office on the Friday. He's like, "Hey, Dan, I have some great news for you. Thanks for everything you've done. We're going to make you full-time. We're just waiting to hear from accounting on how much that's going to be. We'll get back to you." Dan Levitt:And I'm like, "This is what I've been fucking working my whole life for." And then right afterwards, we get on the bus to go to Greenwich, Connecticut. And Columbia had just brought on Steve Lillywhite, the producer who produced all the big U2 records, Dave Matthews. Albums I fucking grew up on. I'm shooting the shit with him now. Dan Levitt:We go to the head of the label's house, and there's all these Korn, and Rage Against the Machine, and all these albums that were so meaningful to me. All the plaques. It was a weekend where I felt like I was one of them now. My whole life, I've been trying to get in, and now I'm finally in. Still today one of the best weekends of my life. Dan Levitt:And then I fly back and it's Monday. And I'm back in the day job. And I'm just waiting for the phone call. I'm just waiting for the phone call about how much more money it's going to be. I'm so fucking ready. I get the call. "Hey, Dan, we have some bad news. We're not going to have room for you anymore. Sorry, but thanks for everything you've done." Chris Erwin:Wow. Just fast like that? Almost no emotion? Just, boom. Dan Levitt:No, no, to his credit, he was really apologetic. But I was fucking shellshocked because the call I got where I thought, "Okay, this is the phone call. I'm about to quit. I'm about to quit day job," was just the carpet ripped out from under me. Dan Levitt:I had the day job but at least I was grinding at night, hoping to get somewhere. Now, that was taken from me. And now I'm like, "Fuck, I'm about to be 25 with a business degree, working retail. This is not how I thought shit was going to go." Dan Levitt:So, it ends up being revealed later on, it wasn't clear at that time, but basically, Columbia Records was bringing on Rick Rubin and he wanted his own people. But it was just a gut shot at the time. Chris Erwin:So, Dan, you get into a few side hustle. And I think one of them culminates in you doing chat room marketing for cream cheese. But tell us a couple highlights here because I think some of these side hustles, like swap meets, is still involved in your life today. Dan Levitt:It's always fun for me, trying to figure out new ways to make money. It's a lot easier now with the internet and stuff. It wasn't back then. I was a big focus group slut. I would do anything. Promote anything. So, I would get really good at filling out focus group surveys. Dan Levitt:I knew how they wanted you to answer, and so I would do ... For example, I've been paid to eat tofu. I've been paid to eat gum. I've been paid to eat McDonald's breakfast sandwiches. I got paid to play a Xbox Kinect before it came out. I've been paid to look at marketing materials. Dan Levitt:I've been paid to play with phones, and gadgets, and look at Cirque du Soleil. All kinds of stuff. Especially in LA, I'm sure this is the case in maybe a lot of big cities, but there's a lot of companies that do focus groups both in person. And I was just a maniac. Dan Levitt:There were a few Twitter accounts that popped up from those. It's like, "Hey, if you're this and you're this, fill it out." So, I would just ... whatever I could to try to get in. Chris Erwin:And this was paying the bills for you, so this was important. Dan Levitt:I think one year, I made maybe eight grand doing it. My first couple years in LA, I might have made only $20, $30 grand, so it was pretty significant. There was a store in LA that, on Sundays, would sell clothes, some vintage, some new, for a dollar. Dan Levitt:I would go and I'd buy most of the men's stuff. I'd list it on eBay. Basically, anything I sold it for was profit. I ended up getting fired from The Vitamin Shoppe. That's not really an interesting story. There was a company doing ... This would be summer 2008. They were doing experimental digital marketing. Dan Levitt:So, they were basically going into chat rooms essentially spamming message points. But then also, you had to have one-on-one conversations with people where you'd have to work in talking points, which was really fucking hard. Especially, how do you work cream cheese into a conversation organically? But I got fucking really good at it. Dan Levitt:So, within two days, I got so good at it that, by the end of the first week, I was promoted to the night shift manager. So, you would drop the campaign talking points into the chat. But really, it was all about these one-on-one conversations because basically, this agency would take those conversations, chop them up, make them clean, and then share it with the brand, and, "Hey, look, we're doing this subtle marketing for you." Chris Erwin:What was one of the lines that was something that you custom crafted that you were known for? Dan Levitt:This is really interesting psychology. What everyone else would do was, they would try to hit up a million people to try to find one, and try to work it in. They would brute force it. I took the opposite approach. I was like, "I'm going to ask other people online about themselves, and then just as conversations go, they'll flip it. And they'll ask me about myself." Dan Levitt:And then I'm like, "Oh, yeah." Put one of the common ... "Oh, what do you do for work?" I'm not going to say the brand's name but it's a city where I went to school. But it's like, "Hey," we couldn't say, "I work at." We had to say, "I work with X cream cheese company." "Oh, really? I love cream cheese. Cool." Dan Levitt:And then it's like, "Oh, what do you use it on?" "Oh, I can use it for cheesecakes or stuff like that." Or there's another site that's harder to use but you could actually see people's images. Think Myspace era. It wasn't Myspace but similar. Dan Levitt:So, I would identify people that I thought, based on physical attributes, might be interested in cream cheese. And I'd just message them and chat with them. But man, that was one of the funnest jobs I ever had, more so because, as a guy, it's not so bad. You're mostly talking to girls. As a girl on the internet trying to talk to guys about cream cheese, the kind of shit that they would hear was just- Chris Erwin:Probably a dark rabbit that we will not go down. So, Dan, then you head to A&R at Disney around September 2008. How did that come to be? Dan Levitt:My roommate used to do HR for Disney, right? So, keep in mind, at that point actually, I'd left the cream cheese job. And I'm working in a movie theater. I'm making $8.50 an hour. I got my side hustles. So, I see a job posting for A&R coordinator. Dan Levitt:I ping my roommate and I'm like, "Hey, do you know the recruiter for this gig?" And he did. It was someone he used to work closely with. So, I was able to customize my resume and it went directly to the recruiter from a friendly ... I remember the weekend I saw the job, I was in Chicago for a wedding. Dan Levitt:And I remember holding back my friend for an hour, so I could tweak it before we went and got pizza. I applied on a Friday. And then I got back and basically, I think that day, the recruiter called. I had a phone interview. And basically, the next Friday, I had a gig. Chris Erwin:Wow. That moved very fast in contrast to your other stuff. Dan Levitt:Unheard of for Disney. And the salary was in the mid-40s. Again, I had a Columbia Records gig, but it paid next to nothing. And now, I have an A&R job at Disney with a real fucking salary and amazing benefits, and it happened so quick. And I had been out here for five years grinding. Just grinding. Chris Erwin:Did you feel you had made it at that point, like, "I've made it. I'm here"? Dan Levitt:It wasn't that I made it. It was that I made it out of retail because to this day, I ... There's absolutely nothing wrong with working retail, I did it forever, but I don't want to do it again. I don't want to interact with the public. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe how fast it happened. And just like that, my whole world changed. Dan Levitt:I was so appreciative and so thankful to have a gig that provided some stability that was in a industry that I wanted. You meet someone, you tell them you work for Disney, it changes the perception of you, right? And certainly for me, who'd been trying to get a real industry gig, it was fun to ... I knew that I had the chops, and it was finally someone recognizing it. Chris Erwin:Hey, listeners, this is Chris Erwin, your host of The Come Up. I have a quick ask for you. If you dig what we're putting down, if you like the show, if you like our guests, it would really mean a lot if you could give us a rating wherever you listen to our show. It helps other people discover our work and it also really supports what we do here. All right, that's it, everybody. Let's get back to the interview. Chris Erwin:After this, you end up going to, call it, the YouTube revolution of Big Frame. So, I'm just curious, while you're at Disney, was there anything about emerging media, digitally native artists that you were focused on during those four years? Trying to sense a through line here. Dan Levitt:After I left the Columbia Records gig or got let go, I saw these people who had these music blogs that were starting to go with their own reputations as tastemakers. So, I thought, "Oh, maybe I should do that for myself. Maybe instead of working for a record label and being a tastemaker, maybe I should do that on my own, with my blog or something." Dan Levitt:But I didn't really have the technical prowess to do the blog stuff. It seems like, "Oh, it should've been easy." Blogs and stuff were not easy back then. So actually, I started doing online video. I bought an HD camera. This must've been very early YouTube days. Dan Levitt:But I actually, with a buddy, recorded some HD music industry podcasts where we talked about music industry news and stuff. But I think I would post it on YouTube, but sadly and stupidly, because YouTube didn't monetize then, I put it on Revver where they did monetize. R-E-V-V-E-R was sort of a YouTube competitor at the time that did monetize. Dan Levitt:And I was like, "Oh, I want to make money doing this," so even though there's more audience on YouTube, I put it there. And nothing happened that I didn't ... It was hard relying on my buddy, who was great to schedule this. I didn't stick with it. So, I didn't stick with it. But I was doing it semi-consistently. Dan Levitt:But then when I got the Disney job, I asked if I could continue doing it, and they were like, "No, you're doing A&R for us. You obviously can't be talking about acts that aren't signed to Disney." So, I put that on the side and then I saw the early podcast boom. Dan Levitt:Again, I'm listening to Bill Simmons. I'm listening to Carolla. Saw the podcast thing happening. So, while I'm at Disney, especially I'm a couple year in, it was a decent job but my department is pretty strict. I wasn't given the freedom that you would think an A&R guy would have. It was a lot more administrative. Dan Levitt:It was a glorified assistant, right? It wasn't an A&R role. They truly did not care about my opinion for acts in my estimation, especially the label side. I worked for the publishing side. I tried to get in with the label guys and it didn't really work. Dan Levitt:A couple years in, I'm starting to think, "Okay, I got to get out of here." This was great, but I'm like, "I'm going to be a 30-year-old A&R guy who's never got anything signed. And if lose this gig ... " And again, this is the industry especially 2008, 2009, 2010, sales are going way down. Dan Levitt:This is when streaming is just starting. So, I'm trying to meet whoever I can, right? So actually, this is when SoundCloud first starts. I was up for a gig there. I had some friends record some messages recommending me. I had a great relationship of amazing songwriters and artists that I was an advocate for, that hadn't really made it or were just starting to. Dan Levitt:I tried to get at SongKit and all these things that were starting. I actually tried to get a job at Spotify. I'm actually one of the first 500 people in the US to have a Spotify account. I had an account for two years before it launched. Chris Erwin:I think what I'm hearing is that you've also applied to every single music company, I think, in the world by this point. Dan Levitt:Yeah, but especially the good ones, right? I loved what SoundCloud was doing. Really at the time, they were so innovative. And they were solving their big problem, which was hosting audio. The role that I wanted was helping artists get on the platform and figure stuff out. Dan Levitt:So, around that time, again, I always believed in YouTube. I was doing it for myself. And then obviously Justin Bieber broke. And I'm looking on YouTube and I'm seeing these kids who are doing mid-tempo acoustic ballads, because that's all they can do, because that's what you do when you start. Dan Levitt:But they were doing covers and building an audience. And I was like, "The originals aren't that good. And I know all these amazing songwriters and producers that right now getting cuts in a major label system, because it's a fixed game, because the heads of the A&R start separate publishing divisions. And those people get the singles." Dan Levitt:So, I was like, "What if I actually brought some artist development into this YouTuber space where these people have done the hardest part. They've built an audience," right? There was one day on Twitter, the YouTube Creators account on Twitter posted that they were having an event at ... This is before the YouTube Space ... at YouTube's offices where they were talking about what makes a video successful on YouTube. I said, "That'll probably be good for me to know." Dan Levitt:I went and Sarah from Big Frame, who we both know well, was on the panel. She was talking about how she started a business and she was managing YouTubers. I was surprised that this was a thing, that there was enough of a business for there to be managers. Dan Levitt:Not only that, really smart ... Sarah is really impressive. I was like, "Wow, this is wild. I had no idea this kind of scene was happening." And then someone else actually asked about music. "What should the labels do?" And she was like, "Oh, the labels have no idea what they're doing at all." Dan Levitt:And then I went up to Sarah afterwards. I was, "Oh, I work for Disney Music." She's like, "Oh, I'm so sorry." I was like, "Oh, no, you have no idea how right you are." Actually, for an anecdote about how truly out of touch, in my experience, they were ... Dan Levitt:So again, through my relationships, I was one of the first 500 in the US to have Spotify. The Spotify had their agreement. They had a few test accounts for people in the industry to get to try it. I had one. I went to the head ... maybe the number two at Disney Music. Dan Levitt:And I was like, "Hey, I got this cool thing, Spotify. Have you seen it? Have you tried it? Do you want an account?" He was like, "Oh yeah, I'm not worried about that. I don't need one." It was so clear to me this was the future and they couldn't be bothered. Dan Levitt:Even, again, I'm still kind of green, right? But I saw that, hey, by the way, when they did the Spotify deal, Universal was distributing Disney, right? Universal got equity. Warner got Equity. Sony got equity. Disney didn't get equity but Universal leveraged the market share for distributing Disney for equity in Spotify. And I asked them, "Why did you do that?" I'm a fucking coordinator and you don't have- Chris Erwin:You're seeing where the industry is headed. And the vision at the top of Disney, or particularly for the Disney Music division, they just don't get it. So, you're like, "They're not going to get it." At your level, you're not going to be able to influence them. Chris Erwin:So, you're saying, again, "I got to make a move. I got to get out of here. The future is changing and I want to be a part of it." Dan Levitt:I think the big thing was, I saw what happened in podcasts. I didn't have to but I chose the safer Disney route, right? Because I needed a gig. I needed to pay the bills. But I made a promise to myself. Every day, I saw someone else doing what I wanted to do. They were the AbsolutePunks of the world, or there were other people who turned the music blog into an A&R career, or leveraged it in other ways with all these podcasts blowing up. ** Dan Levitt:And I promised myself, I was like, "I'm good at seeing gaps in the marketplace and where could you go in it. I made a promise. The next time I see it, I'm fucking going for it." Chris Erwin:I love that. Dan Levitt:That's why, when I met Sarah and I saw ... I was like, "This YouTube thing is fucking next. No one in the music industry realizes it. Let me get in. At worst ... " After that conversation with Sarah ... The follow-up week, we had lunch somewhere. Dan Levitt:And after that conversation, I was like, "Sarah, hire me." She was like, "I can't now but we're doing raise soon. Let's stay in touch." Then afterwards, I was like, "This is fucking it. I fucking know it. I need to get in here no matter what." So, I started being very aggressive. Chris Erwin:This is probably, thinking in a Big Frame timeline, the company was founded in, I think, the second half of 2011. And they officially raised funding from the Google Original Channels program and a seed round, I think, in early 2012. And you come in the second half of 2012. But yeah, Sarah's talking about they had to get funding lined up. I jointed Big Frame, I think, in July of 2012. Dan Levitt:But at this point, after I had lunch with Sarah, I'm like, "Okay, this is it. I need to get into this space," right? So, at the time, there were three companies, right? There was Maker, there was Big Frame, and Full Swing. Those were the three big ones, right? Dan Levitt:When I stepped back, I looked. At the time, Maker was far bigger and the hot company at that point, right? The one that had the most buzz. The one that had the most resources and stuff. So, I decide that I want to ... Sarah's great but let me see if I could get a job at Maker. Dan Levitt:I have a meeting with whoever's running their music dept. And this guy, he was cool. He was okay but did not have the level of sophistication or music knowledge that I had, right? And I think, especially, it's worth considering, at this point, the space is so new, there's no one with Sony and Disney A&R. The level of traditional level of music in the space at all. But I decide I'm going to go for it. Dan Levitt:I meet with him. It's a decent interview. And then I decide I really want to go out of my way to show them that I want this, right? So, at the time, Maker had 100 employees. So, the next day, I send over 100 Krispy Kreme doughnuts to the Maker office with a note, "Let's make sweet music together." Chris Erwin:How did that touch work out for you? Dan Levitt:I got a second interview. Literally, people in Maker are Tweeting about it, right? And I thought, "Look, at worst, it'll be memorable and maybe they'll think about me in the future. And at best, if I get the gig, everyone's going to like me from day one, because I'm the doughnut guy." Dan Levitt:Again, I'm real fucking desperate to get out of Disney at this point. I see the writing on the way, especially, one thing to mention is that at this time, we're talking 2012, the publishing division had merged with the record labels. And essentially, the head of one of the record labels was now the new music group boss. Dan Levitt:I was at Sony after the Sony BMG merger and I saw people getting picked off one by one. And I saw the same thing happening at publishing. I said, "This was a merger, the record side won, and the publishing people are going to go one by one." As soon as I saw the first domino fall, I was fucking on it. So, I definitely feel like there's an ax going over my head slowly descending. Chris Erwin:Yeah, so the timeline is compressing. You got to make moves. Okay, so after Disney, do you then apply to Big Frame? What happens next? Dan Levitt:Yeah, eventually, I end up ... I apply to Big Frame. I meet you. Chris Erwin:You said that you sent a video as part of your application, right? Dan Levitt:Right. Right. There was a job. I think, after Google acquired Next New NOW, they had a strategist role that I applied for that I didn't get. But I knew that, if you looked at my resume, you would see traditional media. I really wanted them to understand that I got digital culture. Dan Levitt:So, I made a video in addition to my resume, a fun video that played on the memes or the trends on YouTube at the time. The video was like, "Hey, I'm a big fan of YouTube. It's not just people doing the cinnamon challenge," and then it cut to me doing that, "or getting hurt," Then to me getting hit by 20 dodge balls from different angles. Chris Erwin:I actually think I vaguely start to remember this now. Dan Levitt:Yeah. Chris Erwin:Oh my God. Dan Levitt:I just knew that, especially having applied for so many gigs at traditional companies and not getting my resume seen, I wanted to make sure that in the future when I applied for a job, I was being extra. I was really going out of my way to show that I was serious about it. And also, especially with digital, that I got it the culture. That I got the space. Dan Levitt:That I'm not some stuffy guy. I really wanted to show that I was a believer in the space and to differentiate myself. Sarah actually told me after I was hired that the video did ease some of her concerns that it was going to be a more stealthy music guy, because especially at that time, the music industry and the MCNs, it was really contentious, right? Dan Levitt:It was Sony and some of the publishers having seen Myspace grow, and build, and get a huge valuation. It was very much a new emerging trend the music industry sees as a threat. And that dates back to sheet music but that's a separate tangent. Chris Erwin:Well, and to be clear, at least from my vantage point, I don't think there was any worry that you were going to be a traditional stuffy music guy, because I remember, I think, this is me and Jason Ziemianski were working on building out the different content verticals for Big Frame. Dan Levitt:Which was so smart to do. Chris Erwin:Yeah, so smart. So, we had Wonderly. We had Forefront. We also had a music vertical. We had an LGBTQ vertical and maybe one or two more. So yeah, we're thinking about music. I remember I'm in the back room. This is when we were on the Sunset Boulevard office, the old National Lampoon building. Chris Erwin:I mean, you come in for an interview and there was a window between the back room and the front. Jason pointing at you and he's like, "That's who you're going to interview. That's Dan." I remember looking at you and I had never seen anyone that looked like you. You were in a shiny silver suit. So, one thing that I thought- Dan Levitt:Yeah, the shiny suits. The famous shiny suit. Chris Erwin:Yeah. One, I thought it was weird because I was like, "Okay, this is digital video. People were a bit more casual. Jeans and T-shirts. He's in a suit. That's kind of weird. But then second, it wasn't just a normal suit. It was just something I'd never seen before." Chris Erwin:And I was like, "All right, this guy's a character." And from where I came from, I was just like ... I'm from traditional East Coast finance. So, I was started to discount you in my head, but also realizing I'm biased. I'm like, "Maybe this is the people that we want. I've never encountered someone like this but maybe this is the thinking and the pedigree that we want." Chris Erwin:So, then I remember sitting with you on the couches in the front. And you're mile-a-minute telling me your story and I'm drinking from a fire hose. I remember peppering you with questions. I don't even know what they were. But fast forward, we end up liking you and we hire you. Chris Erwin:All right, we hire you at Big Frame and this is in October 2012. What do you remember from those early days? What are you working on? Dan Levitt:I just remember being so excited, man. Sarah and you guys believing in me especially. Again, I'm pretty good at knowing where things were going. And just you guys just, "Hey, great. Music is the big thing on YouTube. Dan, figure it out. Figure out the opportunity." Dan Levitt:The belief in me was so amazing. Also, I'm coming from working at four years at Disney where, at least with my direct supervisors, I didn't feel like I was being treated as an adult. Everything was micromanaged. I was essentially chained to my desk. Dan Levitt:And moving into a role where it just felt like anything was possible. I remember getting there and there was really next to no musicians signed at all, right? I think you guys hadn't signed them because you didn't know what to do with them. There were a handful. Dan Levitt:And then I was like, "Hey, I have this idea for a music show." I knew that I would need to get a good song out of each of the talent that we'd had. So, I was like, "Hey, I know all these amazing songwriters and producers who know YouTube is next or I'm telling them. They're excited that I'm making this leap." Dan Levitt:And they're like, "Hey, YouTube's a thing. What should we do?" So, I just remember Sarah and I and you talking about this show idea. And then a week later, we had money from YouTube to do it. So, it was the biggest mind fuck because my entire career, I heard, "No." Literally, my 20s was hearing the word no. Dan Levitt:And literally, I can honestly say in the first month at Big Frame, I did more than in my 10 years at traditional. It was that quick. And I've really only heard, for the most part, heard, "Yes," ever since. But you can do so much more in the space. There aren't the same gatekeepers at Disney. If you try something new and it doesn't work, you lose your job. Chris Erwin:This flip a switch where you're like, "Okay, within the first month at Big Frame, I'm hearing, 'Yes,' and money is behind it"? So, do you start thinking, "Oh, if I'm a go-getter, there's a lot more I can do here"? Dan Levitt:I don't know that it was even that cognizant. It was more that I didn't really know which direction to go in. So, I was like, "Okay, there's a lack of artist development." One, that show ended up taking a lot more time. Chris Erwin:And you did that with Dave Days, right? Dan Levitt:Yeah. Chris Erwin:Called, the Writing Room. Dan Levitt:It's still up on YouTube, I think. It was great and we were all really happy with the songs and the shows, and got into artist development. And then while I was there, I realized, "Hey, before I go out and start signing people, I need to understand how YouTube works, especially in music where SEO is so important," because at the time, it was very much cover songs. Dan Levitt:And some of the biggest creators on the platform were doing cover songs, right? So, I needed to know how SEO worked. There was someone who was working at YouTube who reverse engineered the algorithm, and had done all this A/B testing to figure out how to grow channels. Dan Levitt:It was on the audience-development side, and that was MatPat. He had his channel, which maybe, I think, was a couple hundred thousand subscribers. But I didn't care. No one really cared much or paid much mind about his own channel. Dan Levitt:But he and I very quickly hit it off, because at that time, a lot of the managers, more so than other MCNs ... And the reason why I went with Big Frame, because I did get offers from all three, was, you guys wanted to be more high touch with a smaller roster, right? Dan Levitt:So, at that time, you guys actually were having some of the top talent on the platform sit down with MatPat, or just Mat at that time, who would basically tell them, "Hey, here's what you should be doing," and they wouldn't listen to him. But he was doing those one by one. Chris Erwin:And just to be clear, Matthew Patrick, who's now a huge YouTuber that Dan manages, he was an employee at Big Frame early days. Dan Levitt:He was a co-worker. Now he has maybe just under or close to 30 million across 4 channels, and is just one of the top channels on the platform, especially who's been able to do it for a decade. And has, probably, one of the most challenging formats where every video takes at least 100 or 200 hours in terms of scripting and post. Dan Levitt:It shouldn't work, but through pure determination and really thoughtful approach, it has worked. Anyways, he's working there. And quickly, we hit it off because, instead of just dropping the talent and him saying the same things over to talent that don't listen, I was like, "Hey, tell me. Do a knowledge transfer to me. I want to know this stuff, so that I can tell all my clients and be respectful of his time, and also learn. Dan Levitt:"I'm curious for myself. I want to know, how does SEO work and what are things I can do to grow my clients, so that we're providing value. And then once I know that, cool, let me go out and let me try sign some of the best and brightest." Dan Levitt:I thought that it would take me a while before I permeated, at least the music scene, on YouTube. By two or three months, based off of the work I was doing with one or two artists, I guess I should've went, "They all know each other. They would all collab. They all talk to each other." Dan Levitt:So, in a very short amount of time, I created a great name for myself as someone who's ... especially at that time, with the exception of Big Frame, it was scale, scale, scale. Just sign channels, get them into CMS, Comscore, Comscore. That was not Big Frame's approach. Dan Levitt:So, Big Frame really had a great reputation and I wanted to help further perpetuate that. So, not only was I helping people grow their channels, but I was setting them up with songwriters and producers, helping them figure out the different revenue streams. Dan Levitt:One of the challenges at that time was, the contracts that we had were more, at that time, standard MCN deals that only participated in ad revenue. And for most creators, that's fine, right? Because the ancillary revenues, the merch touring, and brand deals, and stuff were't there, or they were just starting. Dan Levitt:On the music side, especially then when it was confrontational with the publishers, the ad revenue is shared. So, the CPMs and the ad revenue was a lot lower take-home for the artist, and in turn, Big Frame. However, they were making significantly more and a lot more on downloads and streaming. Dan Levitt:So, I noticed, "Hey, I'm giving you advice and I'm helping you grow your channel. But we're only participating in, essentially, the least profitable revenue stream." So, I recognized, "Hey, at least in music, if we're going to be ... " And probably more broadly because we saw at time peak, and some other platforms come up that weren't YouTube. Dan Levitt:Some of the talent was trying to do stuff on their own and sort of getting exploited. And I realized, and I went to Sarah and you and said, "Hey, we might want to think about having our contracts be more robust and 360 if we're going to have this more boutique roster." Chris Erwin:Oh, I remember those conversations where we had, I think, a very short, minimal contract. Only participated in AdSense off of YouTube. Then a lot of push from the team saying, "Hey, we're doing all this work. We're impacting the 360 business of this talent. One, the company needs to get paid for it." Chris Erwin:And also, because you guys were thinking about, as talent managers, "How do you participate? What's your incentive?" Look, contracts is a whole separate thing, because I remember then the contract became like 12 pages. And then people were saying, "This is crazy. You got to make it simpler. No one's going to sign." But that's another tangent. Chris Erwin:Anyway, okay, you identify this. We start to rejigger the business. And yeah, you start building out our music vertical. Dan Levitt:It was going really well. I mean, we were getting the best talent. We just weren't monetizing the way that we wanted yet. And I was waiting on these management contracts to come in, so that we could get that ... Again, that process took longer. We were basically building ... Dan Levitt:We would've had all the best ones, right? Some of them had deals that they signed before that were, "Hey, as soon as this term ends, I'm going to join." Chris Erwin:So, I think this speaks to some mutual challenges, right? And frustration where we're trying to sort out the contracts. We're trying to sort out the business model. We're realizing at Big Frame, the music vertical is not directly making a lot of money relative to the cost that we're putting into it. Chris Erwin:Also, this is a point where I think there is some headwinds facing the MCN industry. We were having some challenges raising the needed capital and floating working capital. So, we had to make some changes. There was a discussion around, "Okay, probably going to have to shut down the music vertical, and we're going to have to let Dan go." Chris Erwin:This is something you and I talk about for the past 10 years. I remember being in the room when that conversation happens, because it was between me, and you, and Jason, I believe. Dan Levitt:I was really the first person let go. It was a growth stage. And then I was probably the first casualty, right? And to your credit, I was not surprised, because maybe a month or so before, you were like, "Hey, Dan, have you actually looked at some of the numbers in terms of what we're paying you and what you're bringing in?" Dan Levitt:Again, that seems blatantly obvious that I should've been but I wasn't. I came from a role that was very administrative and I kept doing what I knew. It wasn't clear to me that, "Oh, I'm actually responsible for ... I should be ... for my own P&L within this larger entity." Chris Erwin:In reflecting on that moment, and I don't actually think I've ever shared this before, but I think there's some realizations where, one, I think I was learning a lot about the digital entertainment industry, right? I had a very traditional background MBA. And there was a lot that I ... Chris Erwin:I knew about business and I knew that revenue had to be more than cost to get the profit. But I think I didn't understand the nuances of how this industry worked, of how you recruit talent, how you invest in a team, and figuring out the right business model. And I think listening to our talent managers, like yourself, could've been something I did with more focus and intent. Chris Erwin:But I think it was a mutual value exchange. We're all learning and I think this helped set up a lot of talent managers for success of thinking about running a sustainable business. Thinking about top line versus bottom line. And I know that there was some conversations where, yeah, I was giving clinics to you and some of the other members of the team like, "Let's sketch out some numbers and see what works here. Chris Erwin:"And it's not working. How do we get there?" And I feel that you've taken that to your new business, which has obviously been paid off in spades for you. Dan Levitt:I think me and the other talent managers there, we kind of went in wide-eyed where we knew the opportunity, and we knew where we saw things were going. But I don't think any of us had run this kind of a business like that or thought through that kind of stuff. Dan Levitt:It's just like you're trying to build the plane while you fly it. The other thing is, you obviously know this and you hear some of the stories from me and other, it's really hard dealing with talent. It's really hard dealing with talent. Especially then, one thing that I don't hear discussed as much, and I think for someone like me, who worked with traditional talent for a while, the digital talent's different, right? Dan Levitt:So, for me, working in music as an A&R guy, if I meet an artist or a musician, at least back then, they've heard, "No," a million times, right? And they understand the value of a team. On the YouTuber side, especially back then, especially early on, but it's still the same now, especially with the new breed of creators who are really fucking savvy, a lot of them don't understand the value of a team. Dan Levitt:They've hit a time when everyone's catering to them, especially the OG YouTubers who got in when you could just have deceptive thumbnails and stuff. They were not as receptive to advice that, potentially, they should've been. So, in addition to figure out how to make a business model of this thing as it's emerging, and especially, music is a lot harder in brand deals than beauty and other verticals, it was challenging. Dan Levitt:And it's compounded by, the job in working with talent is essentially to keep the unaccountable accountable. Chris Erwin:Look, I feel for you guys because I think you're working really hard dating over the past decade to figure out the business models that work for this new talent. And I think that's still happening together. And different from traditional managers, this feeling of you're always on. Chris Erwin:So, the internet doesn't shut off. It's 24/7. And you could be dealing with a brand deal that goes awry on a different timezone. And you're getting up at 4:00 AM. Or there's a YouTube channel take down that's impacting a brand deal, or a video that's meaningful to talent. And that happens at midnight, you got to be on it with a plan, a solution, and a call into the platform. That's unique. Chris Erwin:And look, that's a separate podcast to talk about all those stories. I think the collective Big Frame managers will write a book. But I will the challenge that you guys face in managing digital talent. For me, having run the talent organization and overseeing the talent managers, that's also hard because at the top, we tried to bear the burden of that stress, and give you guys the tools, and empower you. Chris Erwin:You guys demanded a lot because your talent demanded a lot. And it was admittedly hard. But I think it was a beautiful journey to go through together and we learned a lot. Dan Levitt:Yeah, I can't believe it was only eight months. I was only there eight months, which is surprising. But man, in that eight months, the professional development that I had was so far beyond. I remember saying to Steve Raymond, who was the CEO of Big Frame at the time, I remember telling him, "I'll never work for a big company again if I can avoid it." Dan Levitt:I like the startup culture. I like the fact that we're making it up, and we get to try new things, and make mistakes and do stuff. So far, I haven't had to. Chris Erwin:Before we go on and we talk about your transition to Long Haul, I think we'd be remiss if we just didn't tell one story about the upstairs rap battle. This still gets me to this day because you ended up as the winner. It pains me to this day. So, tell the listeners a quick context for our rap battle. Dan Levitt:Yeah, I don't know the origin of it. I think there might have been two. I don't know. I don't remember how it started but I think we were just ... We throw friendly jabs back and forth. And somehow, it cultivated in, "Hey, we're going to do a rap battle." Dan Levitt:I remember spending half the day writing out my stuff. I just remember the whole team was there and they were filming it. We got to find a video of it somewhere. But yeah, there was a rap battle and I was victorious. I know I went at you for ... Dan Levitt:I remember one line. You had a Ford that was giving you a bunch of challenges because all you could afford is a piece-of-shit Ford. That line really, while not being the most creative, really hit with the audience. Chris Erwin:Yeah. I think, in rap battles, you just get a sense, because like you said, everyone was watching. They were filming. Crowd's reacting. And if you track the energy, you just know who's winning. And I remember at the end with that line, the crowd just was like ... Chris Erwin:It just felt like, "All right, Dan has one this." I think we were kind of even throughout throwing these different jabs. I remember working on my script for a couple weeks. I was frustrated because I was like, "That line is ... That's not a special one. He just said Ford and afford in the same sentence." But it didn't matter. It was over. So, look, massive credit for you. Dan Levitt:You're going against a music industry professional. There were no ghostwriters but it's to be expected. So, if Chaz or anybody else wants to come for the throne, they know where I'm at. Chris Erwin:So, Dan, okay, after this let-go moment, what are you thinking about? What's next for you? Dan Levitt:When I took the gig, I knew it was going to be a roller coaster. I knew it was riskier, right? But again, I felt, "At worse, if it doesn't work out, at least I will presumably have positioned myself in the music industry as the YouTube guy. And because I know YouTube is going to be a big thing, I should be okay. I'll figure something out." Dan Levitt:And that's exactly what happened where, as soon as I let go, I hit up all my people. In that eight months, people did start to notice. Some people. I was very fortunate that, within the first month, I got two gigs doing consulting for two different startups that wanted to work with digital creators, particularly musicians, that actually paid more for a lot less work. So, I sailed up for the first time. Dan Levitt:Now, it's like, "Okay. Now, I'm actually making more money than I was at Big Frame and I have way more free time. So, what could I be doing?" And then around that time is when MatPat crossed a million subscribers. We hadn't talked in a while but there was that mutual respect, right? He's noticed that I was doing more for talent and being thoughtful. Chris

2010 Annual Report   Big Cat Rescue is more than just a place that provides permanent care for big cats.  It is a movement;  a change in the tide of human perceptions and is the combined effort of more than 50,000 supporters.  If you are one of them, you are a Big Cat Rescuer and the following is the great work YOU did!  If you haven't helped yet, you can do so now at the top right of the screen or here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/donate.htm   Big Cat Rescue's Mission Statement: Big Cat Rescue's dual mission is to provide the best home we can for the cats in our care and educate the public about the plight of these majestic animals, both in captivity and in the wild, to end abuse and avoid extinction.  We are Caring for Cats and Ending the Trade   Advances:  With your help we are winning in the battle for compassion! Up until 2003 the number of requests for rescues we had to turn down due to lack of space or funds had roughly doubled each year, to 312 that year. We feared it would double again to over 500 in 2004. Instead, it has steadily declined since then thanks to the passage of a federal bill and several state bills that restrict the ownership of exotic cats. This year we “only” had to turn away 89 big cats who were unwanted by their owners. We offered to take all of the cats who were cougar size or smaller, if their owners would contract to never own another exotic cat, but they all refused.  We just do not have enough Senior Keeper staff to take on more lions or tigers.   By now everyone knows that communication and fundraising will be cell phone centric.  On April 30, 2009 we added mobile phone number collection to our contact forms and promoted this new request with the Animal Lover's Dream Vacation Giveaway. Our winners said, “It was the most fun we've ever had!”   Our new Intranet site established in January 2010 where all of our staff, volunteers, board and vet care professionals can interact and share information. This cloud based system was provided free via a Google grant and enables us to keep all of the sanctuary documents in a password protected cloud where Rescuers can log in and post their observations for the vet and can share photos, videos and stories with each other.  Our cloud can be accessed via a dozen or more computers at the sanctuary, Rescuer's home computers, smart phones and iPads.  Those who subscribe to the site, such as the CEO, President, Operations Manager and the Vets can see, in real time, as observations are posted about the cats.  This insures that there are always many eyes on the look out for ways to enhance the cat care at Big Cat Rescue.   Animal Care:  By the end of this year, 77 of our 115 cats are over the age of 15. This is well beyond how long they are designed to live in the wild and much older than most zoo cats.  This is a testament to the excellent animal care we provide, but we are dealing with many more age related illnesses and are losing more of our big cat friends every year.  Cats who required extensive veterinary care in 2010 were Alachua Bob, Bagheera, Bellona, Catera, Cha Cha, Cloe, Crystal, Freckles, Hercules, India, King, Narla, Nirvana, Pretender, Purrfection, Sarmoti, Servie, Snorkel, Sophie, Takoma, Tonga and Windsong. These cats were moved so they would have new neighbors and surroundings for their own enrichment: Freckles, Indian Summer, Modnic, Narla. Nikita & Simba, Peaches, Precious, Reno, Sundari and Thing. Even though we offered to rescue the 19 lesser cats and 3 lions and tigers who were in need of rescue in 2010, Skip, Angelica and Midnight, Rain and Storm the bobcats, Servie the serval, Narla, Freddy and Sassyfrass the cougars were the only ones who ended up here.  We found a rehabber for a bobcat in TN as well.  The rest did not come here because the owners refused to contract with us to never own exotic cats again.   Despite triple bypass heart surgery in August, Vern stayed busy this year with all of the maintenance issues and with these 32 cage improvements: Armani & Jade, Bailey & Moses, Bengali, Calvin, Cameron & Zabu, China & Khan, Crazy Bobcats, Despurrado, Diablo, Flavio, Freckles, Jefferson, Joseph & Sasha, King, Modnic, Nala, Natasha & Willow, Nikita, Nikita & Simba, Rambo, Rehab Bobcats, Sarmoti, TJ, Trick E and Windstar. On 3/18/10 we had another perfect USDA inspection.   Education:  Our website is primarily an educational tool and according to Alexa we are ranked 266,861 worldwide and 110,338 most visited website in the U.S.  We have 458 other sites linking to us.   We offer about 58 outreach and field trips per year and have committed to offering 12 of them for free each year to lower income schools, but have already given 25 such free tours this year and expect that demand will continue to rise with the cost of transportation.  Even when we offer the tours for free, many schools cannot come because they cannot afford the $200.00 fee for their busses.  Our Education Department began writing grant proposals to raise the money needed for the buses.   Volunteer Committee Member, Sharyn Beach, was published at Encyclopedia Britannica with the best statement ever written about why breeding white tigers is Conserving a Lie.   Our web site addresses local and global concerns about environment and has over 17,000 pages of information, movie clips, sounds, safe interactive online games with a conservation theme and photos. From 1/1/2008 until 9/9/2010 the site was visited 3,642,337 times, resulting in 8,197,155 page views.  In any given week the visitors will be roughly 33% from 218 countries outside of the U.S. as you can see from this breakdown:   United States 2,757,351, Poland 204,209, Canada 198,127, United Kingdom 127,246, Australia 40,618, India 24,496, Germany 17,428, Japan 13,023, France 11,017, Netherlands 9,593, Philippines 8,559, Singapore 8,545, Sweden 8,177, Italy 8,136, Brazil 8,024, Malaysia 7,793, Spain 7,779, New Zealand 7,740, Ireland 6,788, South Africa 6,697, Mexico 6,554, Belgium 5,994, Russia 5,986, Indonesia 5,627, Finland  5,364 and Turkey 5,248 to name a few.   The information provided has helped wildlife rehabilitators identify animals and obtain proper care instruction, helped officials in smuggling cases to identify rare species of exotic cats being illegally traded and those are just a few of the ways that we know the site has had an impact this year.   Big Cat Rescue has been in the press 694 times, in 31+ states including AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, GA, FL, HI, IO, IN, IL, KY, LA, MA, MN, MO, MT, NC, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, VA & WA and dozens of programs of national or international coverage or in countries other than the U.S.   Legislation/Education: The steady increase in legislation banning private ownership represents recognition by our society that private ownership leads to massive abuse.  Social values evolve.  It took decades to ban slavery in England and for women to win the right to vote in America.  Those ideas started out as “radical”, held by a small minority.  Gradually more and more people understood and agreed until they became a part of our value system that we take for granted today.  The same trend is happening with private ownership of exotics.  Gradually more and more people are realizing that this simply leads to widespread abuse of these animals.  The best evidence of this is the accelerating trend in state laws.   Just since 2005 eight more states have passed some level of ban. Sweden, Austria, Costa Rica, India, Finland, Bolivia, Greece and Singapore have all banned or restricted the utilization of big cats in circuses-it's time for the U.S. & South Africa to do the same!   Nationwide & Canada:  Dade City's Wild Things acquired a white tiger cub from G.W. Exotics, a notorious Oklahoma breeder, that they are marketing to the hilt in order to make money off her as quickly as possible.  To accomplish that they dragged her into PetSmart to drum up some business.  Almost 900 advocates responded to our alert and wrote to PetSmart demanding an end to displays of exotics like this, knowing the bad message it sends.  We're very pleased to share that PetSmart listened and  immediately responded positively.  According to corporate spokesperson  Margie Wojciechowski  at the Phoenix, AZ headquarters, she confirmed she had just come from a meeting and the company has “reinforced with our managers that no exotic pets are allowed on store premises.  There will be no live display of exotic animals for events.”     • FL Sept. 1, 2010:  The Florida Wildlife Commission passes final rules on the keeping of wild animals. • FL June 23, 2010: Thanks to thousands of letters from Big Cat AdvoCats the Florida Wildlife Commission agreed to change the wording of their Nuisance Wildlife rules so that bobcats who are trapped as nuisance wildlife may not be killed, but rather must be released.  While our 2,000+ letters asked that bobcats be removed from the list of nuisance wildlife we are still thankful that the FWC has decided to at least spare the life of bobcats who are trapped this way.  We will continue to educate the FWC and the public as to why bobcats are so necessary to our ecosystem so that they may soon be removed from the list of animals that may be trapped. • FL June 23, 2010: Animal AdvoCats vs Animal Terrorists. The FWC agreed to ban the practice of “fox penning” which was a blood sport in 16 locations in FL where foxes, coyotes and bobcats would be trapped or purchased from trappers to be turned loose in fenced areas for the purpose of training hunting dogs.  Packs of dogs would be turned loose in the pens and scored on how persistant they were in chasing the wildlife.  The FWC had rules that required hiding places for the wildlife, but investigators found that the operators would often block the access to the safety areas so that the foxes, coyotes and bobcats could be cornered and ripped apart by the dogs for the amazement and betting opportunities of the dog owners.  For the first time in the history of the FWC meetings that we have attended since 1993 there were more animal advocates than animal terrorists in the room to testify.  52 concerned citizens spoke up in favor of a ban while only 20 animal abusers / hunters spoke up in favor of continuing the blood sport as part of their “cultural heritage and God given right.”  As more of these egregious practices are exposed we expect the number of main stream Americans who show up and speak up to increase. • FL June 3, 2010: Thanks to thousands of letters from Big Cat AdvoCats the legislature amended Florida Statutes 379.374 Bond required, amount. (2) No person, party, firm, association, or corporation shall possess or exhibit to the public either with or without charge or admission fee, any Class I wildlife, as defined in s. 379.303 and commission rule, without having first guaranteed financial responsibility, in the sum of $10,000, for any liability which may be incurred in the possession or exhibition to the public of Class I wildlife. The commission shall adopt, by rule, the methods of payment that satisfy the financial responsibility, which may include cash, the establishment of a trust fund, an irrevocable letter of credit, casualty insurance, a corporate guarantee, or any combination thereof, in the sum of $10,000 which shall be posted with the commission. In lieu of the $10,000 financial responsibility guarantee required in this subsection, the person, party, firm, association, or corporation has the option to maintain comprehensive general liability insurance, with minimum limits of $2 million per occurrence and $2 million annual aggregate, as shall protect the person, party, firm, association, or corporation from claims for damage for personal injury, including accidental death, as well as claims for property damage which may arise. Proof of such insurance shall be submitted to the commission.  Effective July 1, 2010.  In 2009 there were 111 Class I possessors in FL who managed to escape the bond requirement because they claimed they were not “exhibitors.”  This new language was necessary to close the loophole in the 2007 law so that all “possessors” of Class I animals must post this minimal bond. • OH July 1, 2010: A deal struck between The Humane Society of the United States, Ohio agriculture leaders and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland will lead to major animal welfare improvements in Ohio on a raft of issues to protect exotic, domestic and farmed animals. The agreement includes recommendations from all of the parties for the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Care Board, the Legislature, and the Governor to ban the acquisition of dangerous exotic animals as pets, such as primates, bears, lions, tigers, large constricting and venomous snakes, crocodiles and alligators. • China October 27, 2010: The Ministry of Housing & Urban/Rural Development suggested in an official web posting that zoos should adequately feed and house animals, should stop selling wild animal products and serving wild animal parts in restaurants, and should stop staging circus-like trained animal acts.  The authorities report that zoos could be shut down for non compliance.  This is the first step toward permanent laws to protect the animals. • Germany June 17, 2010: The zoo director and three of the staff at the Magdeburg Zoo were convicted of cruelty to animals for killing three tiger cubs who were the result of a cross breeding tigers at the zoo.  The zoo had bred a Siberian tiger to a Sumatran tiger.  All of the tigers in the U.S. that are referred to as Bengal tigers are actually hybrids of Bengal and Siberian tigers as the result of the white tiger craze when Bengal tigers were inbred to the point of non existence in America.  A fine of 8,000 euros was suspended upon the condition that the zoo not kill cubs as the result of their own improper breeding plans.  The Magdeburg zoo case drew attention to the common practice of zoos breeding and killing animals to keep youngsters on exhibit. • Russia November 29, 2010: Russia is now filing a bill for an exotic pet ban like other countries have passed.  Despite Prime Minister Vladimir Putin having a pet tiger named Mashenka, the country is working on passing a bill that would restrict the ownership of monkeys, tigers, and crocodiles, because of their danger to the public and diseases they can carry, according to the bill that was submitted on Nov. 29, 2010 Thanks to all of you who wrote letters, attended town hall meetings and met with your lawmakers, the world is a little kinder place. Many of the worst breeders, dealers and tiger-tamer-wanabees were finally shut down.  Most of these collectors were fined or shut down by USDA or the state, or both in some cases: You can read the USDA reports and news stories at http://www.911AnimalAbuse.com 134,704 letters were sent via our CatLaws.com site in 2010 which is triple the year before.  We now have 44,606 members registered to help us with email campaigns. Thanks to all of our supporters being more aware of exotic cat issues and doing something about it, the wild cats had a lot of wins in 2010.  Only bans on the possession of private ownership of wild animals are fully enforceable but any step forward in restricting ownership is helpful.  For more details go to BigCatBans.   Animal Abusers Shut Down and / or Fined:  Many of the worst breeders, dealers and tiger-tamer-wanabees were finally shut down.  The following is from 2008- 2010.  Most of these collectors were fined or shut down by USDA or the state, or both in some cases: • CA:  Hesperia Zoo AKA Cinema Safari Zoo owned by Stephanie Taunton was put on probation and fined $30,000 by USDA. • FL: Horseshoe Creek owned by Darryl Atkinson was shut down by USDA and FL. • FL:  Wild Things' land owned by Kathy Stearns went into foreclosure and bankruptcy. • FL:  Amazing Exotics was shut down.  It was notorious for allowing contact between large exotic cats and the public for a fee.  The head of their tiger-tamer-wanabee program was Ron Holiday (real name Ron Guay) who gained fame in the HBO movie Cat Dancers and the book by the same name.  His career in dancing with big cats ended when a white tiger he had raised from a cub killed his wife and his lover within a few days of each other in 1998. • FL:  In 2010 Jeff and Barbara Harrod of Vanishing Species lost both their USDA and FWC licenses. • FL:  In 2010 Thomas R. Cronin of the Shell Factory was sanctioned by USDA for improper handling of animals, poor sanitation and lack of vet care. • IN:  Great Cats of Indiana, formerly known as Cougar Valley Farms, Inc., owned by Robert B. Craig and Laura Proper had their license revoked by USDA. • IN:  Ervin's Jungle Wonders owned by Ervin Hall was shut down by USDA for a three year term. • KS: In 2010 Clint Perkins of Riverside Zoological Park lost his USDA license to exhibit tigers and was fined for violations. • MO:  Wesa-A-Geh-Ya owned by Sandra Smith was shut down after a visitor lost his leg to a tiger. • MS:  Cougar Haven closed its doors for good, sending the last 3 big cats to Big Cat Rescue. • NC:  Metrolino Wildlife Park owned by Steven Macaluso was shut down by USDA. • NE:  Zoo Nebraska was ordered to find appropriate homes for their big cats and bears. • OH:  Pearson's L & L Exotics owned by Lorenzo Pearson was shut down by USDA following six years of violations. • SC:  In 2010 Robert Childress dba Quality Equipment was fined by USDA for lack of care for tigers. • TX:  Zoo Dynamics, owned by Marcus Cook was fined $100,000.00 • TX:  In 2010 Jamie Palazzo of Great Cat Adventures had their USDA license suspended for 3 years. • TX:  Wild Animal Orphanage closed their doors in September 2010 after investigation the Attorney General for fraudulent fundraising practices.  363 animals, mostly big cats and primates, are being disbursed to other sanctuaries.  Three of the tigers are coming to Big Cat Rescue. • Australia:  Craig Bush, the “Lion Man” was ousted from the Zion Wildlife Gardens by his mom.   Fundraising and Marketing:  Two Legacy Society donations over $100,000 each helped make this the best financial year ever for the sanctuary.  The first was a bequest from the estate of Terry Nordblom for $110,000.  The second was a matching grant of $200,000 in memory of William and Lois Modglin of Glendale, California.   Final financial numbers will not be available until after our annual audit in the spring, but estimates will be posted here in late January after we reconcile the December statements. 2010 began using Posterous.com to post to 16 of our major social networking sites at once.  We currently operate 333 social networking sites. 2010 we began using Traffic Geyser which increased our web traffic 24%.   Big Cat Rescue was reported favorably in the news 111 times in 2010 which in a 20% increase over 2009.   Some of the national press included shows on Animal Planet, Discovery and the History Channel in addition to such publications as National Geographic and the New York Post and major media coverage in several other countries as well.   The Fur Ball netted over $80,000.00! Over 650 big cat supporters had a blast at the Fur Ball; dining, dancing, playing the Wheel of Fur-Tune casino table and bidding in the silent auction and live auctions. Spirited bidders in the live auction won exotic trips see lions in South Africa, and many other wild and exotic places. We had 26,154 visitors this year. Our BigCatRescue.org website visitors rose to 1,660,550 but the site was temporarily replaced for two months.  During those two months (Jul-Aug) we did not have any tracking service on the replacement site.  We plan to re launch the replacement site in January 2011.  Google awarded Big Cat Rescue a grant of $40,000 per month in free AdWords. People who love animals love to share their photos and stories.  In 2008 Big Cat Rescue unleashed a Chat Big Cats community.   Members can post their own blogs, or join in our forums and contests. It is a YouTube/ MySpace styled community made up entirely of animal lovers. By year end there were 4,129 members and 107,374,194,388 videos, songs, photos and blogs posted to the site.  (blows my mind too!)  Get in on the action free at http://www.chatbigcats.com   YouTube.  We ended the year as the 6th most viewed Non Profit of all time and the 7th most subscribed Non Profit with 22,393 subscribers and 669,725 channel views and a whopping 20,685,511 upload views.  Up 500% from 2009.  By year end we had 412 videos posted on YouTube and other popular sites like google, Blip, MetaCafe, Revver and others. http://www.youtube.com/bigcatrescue YouTube Mini Clip Site:  DailyBigCat was launched Nov. 20, 2010 to provide a channel for the mini clips we upload directly from our iPhones.  By year end this site had 248 subscribers, 5,046 channel views and 25,812 total upload views.  Our MySpace account now has 7,625 friends. myspace.com/   We surpassed 36,000 fans on Face Book which is a 500% increase over 2009 as well.  We also enhanced our presence on Care2.org and many other such sites.  We now have 359 contacts in our LinkedIn presence here:  linkedin.com/in/BigCatRescue Big Cat Rescue now has an Endowment Fund to provide a secure future for the cats. The Fund resides at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay.  bigcatrescue.org/communityfoundationoftampabay.htm We initiated a program with Capitol One so that you can choose one of our beautiful cats for your credit card image and 1% of all of your purchases will be donated to Big Cat Rescue at no cost to you.   Saving Wild Places for Wild Cats Leonardo DiCaprio Protects Tigers:  Big Cat Rescue continued working with the International Tiger Coalition, which is a group of 40+ organizations committed to saving the tiger, based upon our unique ability to address the captive issues that imperil tigers in the wild.   The goal is 10,000 tigers in the wild in 10 years.  There are less than 3,000 in the wild currently and we are losing one per day due to poaching.  We persuaded ITC to keep US tiger farming issue as part of their mission to eradicate because legalized trade puts even more pressure on wild populations. What makes this initiative unlike all of the past programs is two fold.  40+ major conservation groups, including Big Cat Rescue, have joined forces with one common goal:  Save the tiger in the wild.  There have been other joint efforts, but none this large and never before has an entity as powerful as the World Bank been a committed partner in saving wild places for wild animals.  Big Cat Rescue sponsored the ITC booth at CITES and sponsored the attendance of the ITC Moderator, Judy Mills at the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.   Leonardo DiCaprio attended as well and met with Prime Minister Putin.  DiCaprio donated 1 million dollars to WWF's fund for saving the tiger.   23 FL Panthers died in 2010 but 90 were born according to FWC.  Big Cat Rescue is stepping up our support of local initiatives to save the Florida Panther.   Helping Others:  America's injured veterans have found Big Cat Rescue a place of tranquility where they can surround themselves with beauty and grace;  a respite from all that they have endured protecting our country.  It started with one group and now they come to visit quite frequently.  It's on the house and we provide lunch when we can as well by asking donors to contribute.  They have done their part in keeping Americans free and we are doing our part to fight for that same freedom for the big cats.   Then and Now:  Our CFO, Howard Baskin, compiled a ten year snapshot of the sanctuary and its growth.  This is just a comparison between 1996 and 2010. Wildlife on Easy Street to Big Cat Rescue  1996                  2010 Visitors                  85                         26,128 Total Expenses  $1,686,386 *    $1,363,443 Total Income    $0                      $2,245,798 Total Net Assets    $148,455           $4,881,165 Spent on Program Services   100%    83% ** *funded by Founder        ** 17% spent on Management and Fundraising combined   Officers and Members of the Board of Directors in 2010 and meetings: • CEO and Founder  Carole Baskin (not compensated by BCR)  • President and Chairman of the Board Jamie Veronica (not compensated by BCR for her role as a Director)  • Secretary & Treasurer Howard Baskin (not compensated by BCR for his role as a Director)  • Director Lisa Shaw (not compensated by BCR) Director  • Mary Lou Geis (not compensated by BCR)  These members met or plan to meet for monthly board meetings at the dates and places below: Monthly board meeting, Tampa, FL;  Feb 7, May 2, Aug 1, Nov 7   Paid Staff:   • Operations Manager & Volunteer Coordinator  • Gale Ingham Staff Manager,  • Editor & Creative Director  Jamie Veronica  • Gift Shop & Guest Services   Honey Wayton  • Intern Recruiter & Data Management  Chelsea Feeny  • Education Director Dr. Beth Kamhi and her assistant Willow Hecht  • Vernon Stairs Cage Builder and Maintenance  • Scott Haller Cage Building Apprentice and Maintenance  • Videographer and Social Networking Chris Poole  • Director of Donor Appreciation  Jeff Kremer  • Assistant to Operations Manager and Staff Relief Person Jennifer Flatt  • CFO Howard Baskin  • LaWanna Mitchell is an independent contractor who works remotely on web issues.  All of our animal care is done by volunteers or by staff who also volunteer time before & after work.   Volunteers:  Big Cat Rescue had 107 volunteers in 2010 who clocked in 56,411 man-power hours in addition to staff, 31 interns and Volunteer Committee member hours.  Our interns came from 10 states and 8 countries.  Volunteers and interns provided roughly the equivalent workforce of 30 more full time staff.   Staff and Volunteer Training:  We want to say a special thank you to all of our staff & volunteers who have just completed their 10th year of service to the cats.      I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/   I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

2008 Annual Report     A Year in Video by Jamie Veronicahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo4O2srCwX4 Big Cat Rescue is more than just a place that provides permanent care for big cats.  It is a movement;  a change in the tide of human perceptions and is the combined effort of more than 80,000 supporters.  If you are one of them, you are a Big Cat Rescuer and the following is the great work YOU did!  If you haven't helped yet, you can do so now at the top right of the screen or here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/donate.htm   Big Cat Rescue's Mission Statement:  To provide the best home we can for the animals in our care and to reduce the number of cats that suffer the fate of abuse, abandonment or extinction by teaching people about the plight of the cats, both in the wild and in captivity, and how they can help through their behavior and support of better laws to protect the cats.   Advances:  With your help we are winning in the battle for compassion!  Up until 2003 the number of requests for rescues we had to turn down due to lack of space or funds had roughly doubled each year, to 312 that year. We feared it would double again to over 500 in 2004. Instead, it has steadily declined since then. Read why, and about the offers we made this year and why their owners would not agree to our terms. http://bigcatrescue.org/000news/0articlesbybcr/2008AbandonedBigCats.htm   At least one big cat sanctuary has dropped “Feline” from their name as the new laws have caused such a dramatic decrease in the number of unwanted big cats that they are turning their attention to other animals. We are on the brink of no more abused and unwanted big cats.  This change only happened because of you, and I just can't thank you enough!   CFO, Howard Baskin was a finalist in the Tampa Bay Business Journal's CFO of the Year awards.   We became the first animal charity in the world to be qualified for and utilize Mobile Giving Foundation's Text 2 Give program.  Text tiger to 20222.  We discontinued the service in Dec. 2011 however as the carriers were constantly requiring us to change the text everywhere the call to action was posted and we often did not have access to places that reposted our videos.   Animal Care:  Rescued liger and 2 tigers.  What do we do when a baby Florida bobcat arrives that is still nursing? We find a domestic cat who is nursing kittens and hope she will “adopt” the baby bobcat.  Big Cat Rescue's version of Growing Up Bobcat takes you day by day through the challenges of rescuing a baby bobcat, hand rearing her and teaching her all she needs to know so that she can one day be set free.  Watch for Hope to be released in the spring of 2009.   Big Cat Rescue planned Chance the bobcat's escape for months. Last year a baby bobcat call came in as the third one in three weeks. He only had one eye and a lump on his belly the size of an orange. Big Cat Rescue was there to get him the medical attention he needed. Emergency surgery repaired the hernia in his abdominal wall. The swelling was the contents of his intestines and other internal organs that had spilled out of the muscled area and were rubbing away at the inner lining of his skin. The attending vet, Dr. Liz Wynn, believes that his hernia and missing eye were caused by some sort of trauma. The area where he was found is completely surrounded by development in West Tampa, but bobcats are often reported there and last year one was found as road kill. After months of recuperation and rehabilitation, Chance the yearling bobcat was released. Watch the movie and see his wild dash for freedom: http://bigcatrescue.org/video/00190.htm   As our population of exotic cats continue to age, we are dealing with more and more medical issues.  You may have seen some of these procedures on our You Tube site where we have dealt with abscesses, tumors and rotting teeth.  Our cats live about twice as long as cats would in the wild, so their parts begin to wear out, long before the cats are through with them.  Some of our 2008 surgeries have included draining a hemtoma on Windstar the Bobcat's ear, removing a cancerous growth from Trucha the tiger and treating a bite wound after her sister bit her.   Removing a non cancerous growth from her sister, Modnic the tiger, pulling what was left of Indian Summer's rotten teeth to stop the infection, treating a fracture to Cachanga Caracal's front paw and removing rotting teeth from King the tiger.  Shiloh went in to the vet for an evaluation of his rotten teeth and was found to be suffering from bone cancer.  He is the 19 year old cage mate of Indian Summer and was put to sleep to end his misery.   Most captive cats do not get the early nutrition they need for healthy bones and teeth because their owners pull them from their mothers to bottle raise them.  There is no substitute for their own mother's milk and their natural diet in the wild.  While we try to supplement their diets and feed them whole prey, it is always too little, too late.  These great cats were not designed for lives of captivity.  Our hope and your help will ensure a future where wild cats live in the wild and not in cages. Read tributes to our cats who have passed on at: https://sites.google.com/site/bigcattributes/home   Only 4% of our budget is spent on fundraising, so that is why it is so easy to see where your donations go.  The cats got lots of cage enlargements and improvements in 2008.   Our snow leopard cat-a-tat was built in 1997 and featured a freezer box that is air conditioned 24/7 where the snow leopards could choose to go when it got too hot.  11 years ago these enclosures were our most noteworthy and still offer more comfort than most, but due to their shape and location, there was no way to expand them as we have done with most of our other cats' cages. We have two snow leopards and three cage sections, but had no good way to shift the cats from one side to another.  After Shaq the black leopard passed away, It only took volunteers a couple of days to join Shaq's two sections to one section of the old snow leopard enclosure.  Volunteers then spent days painting the cages, landscaping and hauling in logs and lots of stuff for Chloe the snow leopard to enjoy.  Finally the big day came for her to gain access to her new area.  See her enjoying her new, enlarged space here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/video/00205.htm   It's like musical chairs but with big cats!  Windstar moved into the waterfall cage next to Aquarius the Fishing Cat.  Of all of our bobcats, Windstar loves pools the most, so while his cat-a-tat was getting some upgrades, he vacationed with a lake side view and a fish filled private pond.  Now that his enclousure has been remodeled he has returned to his home with its window view into the President's office.   Nyla leopard has been on the list to get an 8 x 12 concrete den, cleverly disguised as a fern covered hill, with a huge room addition since August of last year.  Her project kept getting pushed back due to the rescue of four tigers from a facility that was shut down by USDA in FL and 2 lions and 2 tigers who were rescued from Ohio.  Now Nyla has a hurricane shelter like all of the other cats and she is really loving it.   Snorkel was relocated up next to Auroara's old one acre enclosure next to Shere Khan and China Doll. He will be on the tour path now and rescuers are sure that he will enjoy his new digs. Snorkel is very social and loves to snort and chuff at keepers when they clean his Cat-a-tat or when they are feeding him.   When rescuers released Snorkel into his new pad, he excitedly toured the perimeter, checked out his swimming pond, jumped on top of his den to get a better view of his territory and then chowed down on some fresh grass growing in the enclosure. All the while Shere Khan followed Snorkel, watching his every move. Keepers dug out several large weeds that were growing in Snorkel's previous home and then loaded up Flavio into the tiger transport. What was old to Snorkel was brand new and fun for Flavio. He hopped right into transport and moved just one Cat-a-tat over. All the new smells will keep him busy for quite a while.   Moving all these tigers around does have a purpose. Now two empty tiger enclosures could be joined together to make a double tiger enclosure for Trucha and Modnic. The new enclosure gave them almost twice the room. At Big Cat Rescue there are a few empty enclosures that are set aside for projects such as these. This way as an enclosure needs to be maintained, repaired, replanted or whatever else, Keepers can relocate the resident feline to one of the empty Cat-a-tats. Because we rescued three more big cats this year, we only have one empty enclosure suitable for tigers and could really use a couple more spares for these moveabouts.   The operant conditioning program has become a crucial element in making these relocations go smoothly. Through the use of operant conditioning Keepers are able to get nearly any cat into transport or their feeding lockouts by simply rewarding the cats with their favorite treats. CleoCatra Bobcat has a new, duplex with elevated dens, lots of logs and thick green ferns and bushes.  When she moved out of her old, single sided enclosure, Vern was able to connect it to Cherokee Bobcat's single sided cage.  Now Cherokee has a big duplex, giving her twice as much space as she had before.  She already had lots of ferns and foliage, but now she has a lot more room to run.   We took down a lot of dead pine trees and have planted lush landscaping in cat-a-tats that were renovated to be a new home for Mac the Cougar, Bobcats Bobby Blue Rose and Indian Summer.  When Indian Summer moved, her enclosure was connected to Bobcats, Running Bear and Little White Dove's single cage.  That gave them a duplex and the best climbing tree in the sanctuary.  (Indian Summer is 19 and her climbing days have long since passed)  These younger cats (11 yrs) love to climb and now we frequently see them lounging high in their new tree house.   It took four years of raising funds and a year of permitting hassles but only 2 weeks to build the first phase of the 10 foot high concrete wall that will one day surround Big Cat Rescue.  See photos of this imposing barrier and find out who helped:  http://bigcatrescue.org/000news/0articlesbybcr/zoning.htm   The faithful followers of our site have probably noticed the new addition of pet related articles we have posted to benefit the lives of pets.  http://bigcatrescue.org/pets/000pets.htm   We launched a huge campaign to upgrade two of the largest and most expensive enclosures that housed Auroara, Shere Khan and China Doll the tigers.  See a slide show of the cage enhancements and the biggest of our cats having the biggest of times. http://bigcatrescue.org/000news/0articlesbybcr/TigerCages.htm   As Big Cat Rescue has become more successful in ending the trafficking of exotic and endangered wild cats we have drawn the wrath of the breeders and dealers. Our lives have been threatened and our vehicles vandalized. Twelve tires on our van, trucks and trailers were rigged to explode at high speeds over a 3 month period.  We mounted surveillance cameras around the property and on the rehab cages so we can monitor the bobcats without exposing them to humans. http://bigcatrescue.org/000news/0articlesbybcr/2008cameras.htm   Education:  On March 27th, 2008 Big Cat Rescue was honored to host almost 100 visitors from a very special audience. The American Animal Hospital Association was visiting Tampa for AAHA's 75th Anniversary Yearly Conference held this year in sunny Tampa, Florida.  This specialized group of attendees included veterinarians; practice managers; vet technicians, assistants and support staff; vet students, and family guests. Read more:  http://bigcatrescue.org/000news/0articlesbybcr/2008AAHA.htm   In April Big Cat Rescue was the featured story at Encyclopedia Britannica. Anita Wolff had contacted Jamie Veronica to ask for permission to use some of her photos and she suggested they contact Carole Baskin about some of the legislative work we are doing. Encyclopedia Britannica devotes an impressive section of their site as a source of information, a call for action, and a stimulus to thought regarding humanity's relationship with the animals with whom we share our planet. They support worldwide efforts to ensure humane treatment of animals, develop the understanding of their nature, promote their survival, and protect and restore the environment. We are honored to be a part of the great work they are doing to educate, inform and enlighten.  Read it here and see some of Jamie's photos they have put to use: http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2008/04/big-cat-rescue/   Our Education Department had to raise their prices to cope with growing demand, but our financial return continues to escalate.  We offer about 220 outreach and field trips per year and have committed to offering 12 of them for free each year to lower income schools, but have already given 30 such free tours this year and expect that demand will continue to rise with the cost of transportation.  Even when we offer the tours for free, many schools cannot come because they cannot afford the $200.00 fee for their busses.  Our Education Department began writing grant proposals to raise the money needed for the buses.   Huge gaps in U.S. regulations for tigers held in captivity could make the big cats a target for illegal trade, wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC and World Wildlife Fund found in the first-ever comprehensive report on captive tiger regulations across the United States. The report, “Paper Tigers?: The Role of the U.S. Captive Tiger Population in the Trade in Tiger Parts,” found there are no reliable regulatory mechanisms to keep track of captive tigers in the United States. Big Cat Rescue provided investigators with crucial data and enabled them to see how the lack of protective laws and enforcement are exploited by animal abusers in the real world. http://bigcatrescue.org/000news/0articlesbybcr/   Big Cat Rescue wants to end the need for big cat sanctuaries, but until that day comes we are involved daily in assisting other sanctuaries.  We help improve their ability to convey their message and assist with manpower, resources and guidance on issues such as fundraising, animal care, volunteer training and more.   On November 21st we began assisting the Parco Zoo Punta Verde in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy in a three-year study on Caracal caracal for the purpose of providing information on the species to expand the knowledge of the behavioral, social and pathological state of Caracal caracal in captivity and to create husbandry guidelines on species.  GoNomad.com posted letters from Big Cat Rescuers about animal interaction opportunities that exploit big cats as a way of educating tourists of the real issues involved in keeping big cats captive.   Modified our Children's DNA ID disks so that they can be used in MO as well as FL and distributed 140 via the Assemblies of God in Springfield.  Once a month all of our Big Cat Rescue Volunteers meet to share lunch, stories about the cats and to get the essential training they need to make Big Cat Rescue the haven it is for the cats. In April we had a guest speaker, Laurie Macdonald, Florida Program Director of Defenders of Wildlife, come and educate us about the issues facing the Florida Panther, bobcats, black bears and other native wildlife.  Our boots were lined up at the door as 70 or so of us sat on the floor, mesmerized by her slide show presentation that included some of our own cats as stand-ins for their wild cousins.   Love is the universal language and the one we speak best at Big Cat Rescue, but now our website, which is well over 5,500 pages of information, is available in Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.  Check out the google Translate box in the lower left hand side of every page of our site to translate the page into one of the supported languages.  The translations are far from perfect as this technology is still being developed, but we are happy to be able to reach so many more people around the globe.   Legislation/Education:  Thanks to all of you who wrote letters, attended town hall meetings and met with your lawmakers, the world is a little kinder place. Many of the worst breeders, dealers and tiger-tamer-wanabees were finally shut down.  Most of these collectors were fined or shut down by USDA or the state, or both in some cases:   • CA:  Hesperia Zoo AKA Cinema Safari Zoo owned by Stephanie Taunton was put on probation and fined $30,000 by USDA. • FL: Horseshoe Creek owned by Darryl Atkinson was shut down by USDA and FL. • FL:  Wild Things' land owned by Kathy Stearns went into foreclosure and bankruptcy. • FL:  Amazing Exotics appears to have been shut down.  It was notorious for allowing contact between large exotic cats and the public for a fee.  The head of their tiger-tamer-wanabee program was Ron Holiday (real name Ron Guay) who gained fame in the HBO movie Cat Dancers and the book by the same name.  His career in dancing with big cats ended when a white tiger he had raised from a cub killed his wife and his lover within a few days of each other in 1998. • IN:  Great Cats of Indiana, formerly known as Cougar Valley Farms, Inc., owned by Robert B. Craig and Laura Proper came under investigation by USDA. • IN:  Ervin's Jungle Wonders owned by Ervin Hall was shut down by USDA for a three year term. • MO:  Wesa-A-Geh-Ya owned by Sandra Smith was shut down after a visitor lost his leg to a tiger. • MS:  Cougar Haven closed its doors for good, sending the last 3 big cats to Big Cat Rescue. • NC:  Metrolino Wildlife Park owned by Steven Macaluso was shut down by USDA. • NE:  Zoo Nebraska was ordered to find appropriate homes for their big cats and bears. • OH:  Pearson's L & L Exotics owned by Lorenzo Pearson was shut down by USDA following six years of violations including the mauling death of his own two year old child. • TX:  Zoo Dynamics, owned by Marcus Cook was fined $100,000.00 You can read the USDA reports and news stories at http://www.911AnimalAbuse.com   Better laws were passed:   • CITES Decision 14.69: Parties with intensive operations breeding tigers on a commercial scale shall implement measures to restrict the captive population to a level supportive only to conserving wild tigers; tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts and derivatives. (Most of the tiger breeding in the U.S. is for photo booths and petting sessions. None of the breeding of generic tigers does anything to conserve wild tigers. Ask your lawmakers to uphold this CITES decision and end the breeding of tigers outside of the Species Survival Plans in AZA accredited zoos.)  • MO: Effective March 2008 MO Wildlife Code changed as follows:  Safety:  Because of the inherent danger and potential liability associated with the possession of bears, mountain lions, wolves and their hybrids, the Conservation Commission now requires owners of these animals to identify each individual with a microchip embedded under the animal's skin. The owners must also submit a blood or tissue sample for DNA analysis. All animals must be registered with the Department when acquired, born, at death, or when sold. This will aid enforcement of illegal sales of these animals and will help Department biologists distinguish escaped and released captives from wild animals.  MO Conservationist magazine Feb issue at magazine@mdc.mo.gov where Wildlife Code book for 2008 has been released. • Sheriff Kevin T. Harrison asks county to ban private possession of dangerous exotics. • December 11, 2008 Park Hills, MO bans most exotic animals, except small monkeys, within the city limits. • OK:  5/7/08 Gov. Henry signed Senate Bill 1463 into law last week. Sen. James A. Williamson (R-Tulsa) introduced the legislation which prohibits the use of computer-assisted remote control hunting of wildlife. The bill also makes it illegal to engage in, sell, offer for sale, assist in or provide facilities for computer-assisted remote control hunting. Thirty-eight states prohibit Internet hunting, and a federal bill introduced in the U.S. Congress – S. 2422 and H.R. 2711, the Computer- Assisted Remote Hunting Act – would end Internet hunting nationwide. • UT:  Internet Hunting Banned.  Gov. Huntsman signed Senate Bill 164 into law. Sen. Michael Waddoups (R-6th) introduced the legislation which prohibits the use of a computer or other device to remotely hunt an animal.37 states now prohibit Internet hunting, and a federal bill introduced in the U.S. Congress – S. 2422 and H.R. 2711, the Computer- Assisted Remote Hunting Act – would end Internet hunting nationwide. • USDA roared out in support of Haley's Act HR 1947 but Congress never took the time to hear the bill in 2008.  http://bigcatrescue.org/laws/zPDFlaws/USDAcommentHR1947.pdf • Iberville, LA:  Referring back to a law that has been on Iberville Parish's books since 1993, the LA Wildlife and Fisheries Dept. finally banned the notorious Tiger Truck Stop from using live tigers as a public display. Thanks to Sky Williamson and more than 11,000 letters from Big Cat Rescuers, the Tiger Truck Stop was finally ordered to remove the last remaining tiger from this truck stop cage in Grosse Tete, LA. This should have ended a sad history of 21 years of tigers in small concrete cages in the middle of this busy truck stop, but the owner filed a lawsuit to keep Louisiana's Wildlife and Fisheries from doing their job.  At year end we are still fighting to Free Tony the tiger at FreeTony.com   Directing the traffic to the legislative sections had to be more creative however, because by and large, people don't want to think about politics.  The cat's stories and their photographs had to be compelling enough to overcome this typical aversion to political matters and we feel that we have had considerable success in doing that since we have been able to track 728,656 visitors to our legislative pages in 2008.  1,653,788 legislative pages were viewed in 2008. 1,743,210 visits to our main web site bigcatrescue.org resulted in 5,794,358 pages being viewed.  Combined visitors were 2,471,866 who viewed 7,448,146 pages or 6,772 visitors per day who viewed 20,406 pages per day.  Our peak day in 2008 was May 13 with 9,340 page views on bigcatrescue.org alone.    The most popular campaign was to free Tony the Tiger from the Truck Stop and accounted for one quarter of all letters sent.   Carole filled in for Allen Green at the Public Interest Land Air Water conference that attracted 3,500 people from all over the U.S. who care about issues such as wildlife trafficking, climate change and other important issues concerning our planet's health.   At the Sept. 17-19 Florida Wildlife Commission hearing in Jacksonville discussed public comments on the Captive Wildlife Rules.  Of the 1,700 comments our supporters were 1,430 of them.  44,460 letters were sent via our CatLaws.com site in 2008 which is up 25% from last year.  We now have 42,826 members registered to help us with email campaigns.  That is up 9,542 in 2008.   Big Cat Wins Abroad:     • Brazil:  12/11/08 After ongoing efforts by many animal organizations an animal group in Brazil has successfully lobbied and a law has been passed banning all animals in circuses there. • Johor, Malaysia Bans ALL Commercial Hunting:  The Johor government banned all forms of commercial hunting.  Johor is home to the Endau-Rompin National Park, the second largest national park in Peninsular Malaysia. The state will lose some money in licensing fees — in 2006, it issued more than 2,000 hunting licenses — but that pales into insignificance when compared with the benefits of such a move. Johor wants to save the tiger. The ban would also help the Department of Wildlife and National Parks to collect data, train staff and curb wildlife crime. Classified as an endangered species, the tiger is fully protected. But its food is not. The ban should ensure that the population of animals that the tiger preys on — such as wild boar and deer — will increase. If the tigers have sufficient food, they are also unlikely to wander into areas with human habitation. • Australia:  August 3, 2008 Environment Minister Peter Garrett immediately banned the import of Savannah cats into Australia upon learning they were a cross between a Serval and domestic cat.  He said the Savannah cat posed “an extreme threat to Australia's native wildlife.” • Australia:  Craig Bush, the “Lion Man” was ousted from the Zion Wildlife Gardens by his mom.   Fundraising and Marketing:  Big Cat Rescue was reported favorably in the news 70 times in 2008.   Some of the national press included shows on Animal Planet, Discovery and the History Channel in addition to such publications and Encyclopedia Britannica and Women's World Magazine and major media coverage in several other countries as well.   The Fur Ball netted over $110,000.00!  Over 550 big cat supporters had a blast at the Fur Ball; dining, dancing, shopping in the Bargain Sale, tasting and voting in the cake contest, playing the Wheel of Fur-Tune casino table and bidding in the silent auction and live auctions. Spirited bidders in the live auction won exotic trips see lions in South Africa, tigers in Thailand, visits Paris, Brussels and London and golf at St. Andrews.  Roger and Wilhelmina Hopper  won the mountain condo vacation in the costume contest.  The men's and lady's Rolex watches donated by AvantGold were won by Trey Ashmore and Linda Colon.  The Wheel of Fur-tune raffle prize of $1000 Gift Certificate to AvantGold went to Richard Bosley and the King of Feasts cake contest prize went to Cakes Plus.  Watch the video of the night's fun and see if we caught you on film in the photos posted under the video. http://bigcatrescue.org/000archives/2008furball.htm   We had 24,734 visitors this year, compared to a comparably sized zoo that hosts 700,000 visitors annually.  With our annual budget approaching a million dollars a year, we have to be creative in our fund raising, so we turned to the 1,743, 210 web site visitors to bigcatrescue.org and on Valentine's Day asked them to shop in our new online store at http://www.bigcatrescue.biz/  On July 30th we began cross promoting the online store throughout our main web site.   Watch this new episode of Magnificent Obsessions starring our very own Scott Lope.  Lion Feeding Frenzy premiered with lots of interest sparked with each airing.  Scott has also been featured as the big cat expert in Untamed and Uncut and Monster Quest in the U.S. and U.K.   On 2/9/08 we added this Social Bookmarking option to every page of our site to encourage visitors to add us to their social networks.   People who love animals love to share their photos and stories.  On March 1st Big Cat Rescue unleashed a Chat Big Cats community.  It offers unlimited storage space for members' photos, videos and music.   Members can post their own blogs, or join in our forums and contests. It is a YouTube/ MySpace styled community made up entirely of animal lovers. By year end there were 785 members and nearly 2,500 videos, songs, photos and blogs posted to the site.  Get in on the action free at http://www.chatbigcats.com   In late December, 2008, we qualified for google Adsense ads to run on YouTube.  We ended the year as the 6th most viewed Non Profit of all time and the 8th most subscribed Non Profit with 4,265 subscribers and 111,015 channel views.  By year end we had 139 videos posted on YouTube and we began using TubeMogul to post to other popular sites like google, Blip, MetaCafe, Revver and others.  http://www.youtube.com/bigcatrescue   Our MySpace account now has 6,291 friends, 254,024,879 people in our network and our site has had 34,443 profile views. http://www.myspace.com/1BigCatRescue   We took our cats' faces to Face Book: http://apps.new.facebook.com/causes/68903 and enhanced our presence on Care2.org and many other such sites.  We added 134 contacts to our LinkedIn presence here:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/BigCatRescue If you live in the Tampa bay area, look for Big Cat Rescue videos on Brighthouse Channel 340 in the Pet Performances section.  Some of your favorite videos, like Hope the baby bobcat are playing there right now.   Big Cat Rescue now has an Endowment Fund to provide a secure future for the cats. The Fund resides at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay. Thanks to the generosity of our donors we were able to qualify for a 33% matching fund by raising $150,000.00.  The Community Foundation granted us a $50,000.00 match and this brought our total to $200,000.00 that can generate income to provide for the cats in years to come. http://bigcatrescue.org/communityfoundationoftampabay.htm   We initiated the Legacy Society. This recognizes supporters who have included the cats at Big Cat Rescue in their estate planning. For more info visit:  http://bigcatrescue.org/legacy.htm   We began offering Instant Bingo in our gift shop and created free bingo to play online as well as a site for non US members to play charity bingo where the big cats win every time the player loses.   http://www.bigcatbingo.com   On 7/31/08 our Google grant went up from $10,000 a month in free ads to $40,000.00 a month at a cost of only $1,500.00 to us.   Our Ink Recycling new supporter count was up 324% increase over September 2007 thanks to 235 new ink recycling supporters!!!  This came following a 1/2 page ad about it in the fall issue of The Big Cat Times.  On Sept. 15th we began distribution of newsletters from Dunedin to Sarasota in 20 CVS, Bally's, Sears, Blockbuster and Albertson's stores at a cost of $150.00 a month.  Read all of the back issues here: http://bigcatrescue.org/cat_tales.htm   Placed first paid ads in Cat Fancy, CATS, Dog Fancy and DOGS to appear in Dec. issue.   In November we began accepting American Express and Discover credit cards.   Thanks to your votes Big Cat Rescue was awarded the People's Choice Award by WEDU, our local PBS affiliate. More than 80 charities competed in a 16 county radius for this award, but Big Cat Rescue took 31% of the vote.  This is the second year in a row that Big Cat Rescue has taken home this coveted prize. We have been advised that we are finalists again for the award in 2009.   In the lead for America's Best Animal Shelter.  Winners to be announced in 2009.   Saving Wild Places for Wild Cats:  Big Cat Rescue was welcomed into the International Tiger Coalition, which is a group of 39 organizations committed to saving the tiger, based upon our unique ability to address the captive issues that imperil tigers in the wild.   The goal is 10,000 tigers in the wild in 10 years.  There are less than 3,000 in the wild currently and we are losing one per day due to poaching.  We persuaded ITC to keep US tiger farming issue as part of their mission to eradicate because legalized trade puts even more pressure on wild populations.   What makes this initiative unlike all of the past programs is two fold.  39 major conservation groups, including Big Cat Rescue, have joined forces with one common goal:  Save the tiger in the wild.  There have been other joint efforts, but none this large and never before has an entity as powerful as the World Bank been a committed partner in saving wild places for wild animals.   Harrison Ford, one of Hollywood's hottest actors, thanks to his latest Indiana Jones movie breaking records in theaters, is on the board of Conservation International and spoke at the June 9th launch.  Also in attendance were our friend, the beautiful Bo Derek, who won the Wildlife Guardian Award at the Fur Ball last year, and Robert Duvall.  HSUS brought Tiger Kids to the launch and this photo is from their participation as a ITC members.  See these celebrities up close and purrsonal in the most important roles of their lives in this video we shot and find out more about how the World Bank and the International Tiger Coalition plan to save the tiger. http://bigcatrescue.org/video/00206.htm   Other:  On 4/4/08 we had another perfect USDA inspection.  We were “green” before it was cool with our recycling, water restrictions and other steps we have taken to walk softly and leave only footprints, but things are going to get a lot greener, and yellower and purpler. Our friends at Biological Research Associates lovingly relocated 2000 pickerelweed, golden canna and gulf coast spikerush.  They spent an afternoon transforming the lake bank and by summer you should see a green three foot swath of native plants that flower in yellow and purple like irises and canas. Kevin Atkins, PWS Senior Project Scientist and Vice President of Biological Research Associates, who once worked with Belinda Wright in the wilds of India to save the tiger, has a deep affection for the big cats.  In reference to wild excursions and his upcoming trip to Africa he commented, “It's a beautiful planet.” http://bigcatrescue.org/000news/0articlesbybcr/2008Greener.htm   With more than 100 big cats on 45 acres, we are always in the process of refurbishing and replacing old cages.  Landscaping is another ongoing project whether it be hauling off tree limbs lost in a storm, to mowing acres of grass, to installing beautiful plants to give the cats shade, privacy and the excitement of the butterflies. Most of the trees and flowers at Big Cat Rescue were donated and this video thanks John Deere, Tampa Bay Nursery, Babs of Garden Magic, our volunteers and those of you who make it possible. http://bigcatrescue.org/video/00192.htm   Helping Others:  Big Cat Rescue offered a $5,000 reward for information resulting in the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for shooting a young, female tiger to death. Her body was found next to an apartment complex and I-35E in Dallas, TX on Christmas Day. This was our first offer of a reward to solve a crime and it generated leads but no convictions.  We donated thousands of dollars worth of our tours to other worthy animal non profits including Animal Coalition of Tampa, Boxer Rescue, the Humane Society, the Lakeland SPCA, the Largo SPCA, National Humane, and many, many others.   America's injured veterans have found Big Cat Rescue a place of tranquility where they can surround themselves with beauty and grace;  a respite from all that they have endured protecting our country.  It started with one group and now they come to visit quite frequently.  It's on the house and we provide lunch when we can as well by asking donors to contribute.  They have done their part in keeping Americans free and we are doing our part to fight for that same freedom for the big cats.  Offered to provide mounted cougar and a native bobcat who was road kill to the Florida Conservation Commission to use in their exhibit at the fairgrounds, if they would stop using live cats.   Then and Now:     Our CFO, Howard Baskin, compiled a ten year snapshot of the sanctuary and its growth.  This is just a comparison between 1996 and 2007. Wildlife on Easy Street to Big Cat Rescue   1996    2007 Visitors    85  24,574 Total Expenses  $1,686,386 *    $926,619 Total Income    $0  $1,509,284 Total Net Assets    $148,455    $2,760,047 Spent on Program Services   100%    86% ** *funded by Founder        ** 14% spent on Management and Fundraising combined   Officers and Members of the Board of Directors in 2008 and meetings: • CEO and Founder  Carole Baskin (not compensated by BCR) • President and Chairman of the Board Jamie Veronica • Vice President & BOD Cathy Neumann (not compensated by BCR) • Secretary Jen Ruszczyk (not compensated by BCR) • Treasurer Howard Baskin (not compensated by BCR) • Director Dr. Liz Wynn, DVM  (not compensated by BCR for her role as a Director)   Paid Staff:  Figures from 2007 as the final reports for 2008 are not in. Check back after April 15, 2009:  We went from 3 paid staff to 7 and now provide worker's comp insurance.  We are working to offer health insurance if enough of our staff opt for it.   • Operations Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Scott Lope $35,000.00 incl. bonuses • Staff Manager, Editor & Creative Director Jamie Veronica $24,700.00 (compensated but not for her work as a member of the board)  Gift Shop & Guest Services  Honey Wayton $22,800.00 • Intern Director & Lead AdvoCat Tiffany Deavor $25,000.00 Replaced by Kathryn Quaas in 2008. Education Directors Dr. Beth Kamhi & Coleen Kremer $14,000.00 combined • Vernon Stairs Cage Builder and Maintenance $35,600.00 • Jessica Allen took Bridget's place in Feb.  Chris took Brian's place May 1. • LaWanna Jones hired as an independent contractor 3/1/08 to work on web issues.  Debra Scott was hired as an independent contractor to do CapWiz alerts in July.   All of our animal care is done by volunteers or by staff who also volunteer time before & after work.   Volunteers:  Big Cat Rescue had 110 volunteers in 2008 who clocked in 39,902.57 man-power hours in addition to staff, intern and Volunteer Committee member hours.  Roughly the equivalent workforce of 23 more full time staff.   2008 The S.A.V.E. award for Scratch's Award 4 Volunteer Excellence.  The recipients were January – Becky Gagliardo, February – Rich Bluder, March – Mary Lou Geis, April – Sherry Levesque, May – Erin Newman, June – Scott Milshaw, July – Shiloh Grant, August – who?  , September – Rachel Pipitone, October – who? , November – who?  and December –  who?  Winners of the S.A.V.E. award are allowed to direct $500.00 to the cat project of their choice.   The Volunteer of the Year Award is Big Cat Rescue's most prestigious award.  It is also the hardest award to bestow as we have the best volunteers in the world and so many of them deserve our highest honors and praise.  This year's recipient was announced at the 2008 Fur Ball by Cathy Neumann, our Vice President.  Because of her outstanding service Cathy won the award herself so frequently that the only way to get her out of the running was to name the award after her and let her present it each year.  This year's winner was Becky Gagliardo.  Check out Becky's hero page to find out more about her. http://bigcatrescue.org/hero/beckygagliardo.htm   Staff and Volunteer Training:  On Jan. 25 Coleen Kremer, Dr. Beth Kamhi, Scott Lope, Jamie Veronica, Honey Wayton, Tiffany Deavor, Jen Ruszczyk, Jessica Allen, Barbara Frank, Dr. Liz Wynn, DVM, Howard Baskin and Carole Baskin met for a four hour crash course in People Mapping by Dr. Mike Lillibridge.http://bigcatrescue.org/000news/0articlesbybcr/PeopleMap.htm  Jamie Veronica and Dr. Liz Wynn completed the Safe Capture Course on Sept. 15, 2008.  We want to say a special thank you to four of our staff & volunteers who have just completed their 10th year of service to the cats:  Bill Lewis, Mary Lou Geis, Cathy Neumann and Scott Lope.  

Rob goes into detail about the most important aspects of a new hire, developing healthy work relationships in the office, and the power of subtle wisdom.

In part 2 of my conversation with Sean, we dig into the 4 specific types of events, exploring what Facebook did that Friendster didn't, How YouTube outlasted Revver, and more.Find Sean online:Social Media: @seanammiratiToday's episode is brought to you by Sales Hacker. The world's smartest community of forward-thinking B2B professionals. Grab their latest expert-created articles, webinars, and podcast episodes at www.saleshacker.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to episode #555 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast.  Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast - Episode #555 - Host: Mitch Joel. When it comes to celebrity and athletes winning at social media, many point to Oliver Luckett. Oliver Luckett is a technology entrepreneur and currently CEO of ReviloPark, a global culture accelerator. He has served as Head of Innovation at the Walt Disney Company and co-founder of video sharing platform Revver. As CEO of theAudience, Luckett worked with clients such as Obama for America, Coachella, Pixar, and American Express. He has helped managed the digital personae of hundreds of celebrities and brands, including Star Wars, The Chainsmokers, Steve Aoki, and Toy Story 3. He recently co-authored the book, The Social Organism - A Radical Understanding Of Social Media To Transform Your Business And Life, with Michael J. Casey. Now, Oliver has left Hollywood behind as we chat from his new home in Reykjavik, Iceland. Enjoy the conversation... Running time: 1:05:37. Hello from beautiful Montreal. Subscribe over at iTunes. Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Six Pixels of Separation. Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook. or you can connect on LinkedIn. ...or on twitter. Six Pixels of Separation the book is now available. CTRL ALT Delete is now available too! Here is my conversation with Oliver Luckett. The Social Organism - A Radical Understanding Of Social Media To Transform Your Business And Life. ReviloPark. theAudience. Revver. Follow Oliver on Twitter. This week's music: David Usher 'St. Lawrence River'. Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast - Episode #555 - Host: Mitch Joel. Tags: advertising advertising podcast american express audio blog blogging brand branding business blog business book business podcast business thinker coachella david usher digital marketing digital marketing agency digital marketing blog facebook google itunes j walter thompson jwt leadership podcast management podcast marketing marketing blog marketing podcast michael j casey mirum mirum agency mirum agency blog mirum blog mirum podcast oliver luckett pixar revilopark revver social media star wars steve aoki the chainsmokers the social organism theaudience toy story twitter walt disney company wpp

Oliver Luckett is a bona fide tech mogul. Having starting multiple companies and worked for clients like Russell Brand, Steve Aoki, Charlize Theron, Mark Wahlberg, the Chainsmokers, and Pitbull, he knows branding online.   Oliver most recently sold his company theAudience, co-founded with Ari Emanuel of William Morris and tech entrepreneur Sean Parker. Prior, Oliver was CEO and co-founder of DigiSynd, a Walt Disney Company, and previously Oliver co-founded Revver, which helped kick off new media with their novel concept of the video rev-share. Prior to Revver, Oliver took the Norman Lear "Declare Yourself" campaign to the Internet and gathered more than one million new online voter registrations. Oliver still cherishes his bachelor's degree in French Literature from Vanderbilt University and recently moved to a home in Iceland.   Oliver’s Book The Social Organism: A Radical Understanding of Social Media to Transform Your Business and Life   Oliver’s Challenge; Reverse engineer the success that you hope to achieve.   http://www.goingdeepwithaaron.com/podcast   Connect with Oliver Twitter revilo@gmail.com   If you liked this interview, check out episode 123 with Tucker Max where we discuss the future of branding and how to write a book.  

Today we spoke about veetle, spreecast Google hangout, livestream, ustream, mailvu, eyejot, bombomb, vostit, videoemail, vostit, jivestream, benchmarkemail, goanimate, videoefx, xtranormal, twitch, screencast, camtasia, brightcove, dailymotion, youtube, blip.tv, vimeo, revver, veoh, hang w/, tout, cinchcast, tipcast, fightme, vine, powerpoint, prezi, animoto, googleawesome, onetruemedia, tripwow, slidemotion, stupefix, bloggingvids. All the tech, social media and blog headlines that Bloggers love, need and use everyday.

Jim Kukral and Steve Rosenbaum discuss the recent Revver payout as well as the newest YouTube craze.

BizIII - A Daily Podcast with Ideas Information Inspiration to help you make more money ... with Les Bain and Mike Hughes Friday, September 28th, 2007 Revver - revver.com - is a video service that shares revenue with the Video producers. Revver has announced that they have given a million dollars to the video producers in their first year. Duration: 3:33 Share This Show with a Friend Send a Story Idea to BizIII

In this episode we'll discuss some strategies for monetizing your design skills, whether it be selling a service, selling goods, or combinig with other companies to turn a profit. We also look at different ways to turn your designs into self promotion. Email Campaign: Send a letter in favor of RD to: editorial@commarts.com Keys to the Game: Choose tools in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign Selection tool (black arrow): v Direct Selection tool (white arrow): a Rookie Mistake Tip: There will be no resting on one's laurels! Exercise you brain and stay sharp with your brainstorming and creativity! Links from todays show: Bert Monroy Disc Makers In the Bullpen: Revver Todays show featured music by: The Descendents

Join us for Coffee with Chou. This is Chou Chou's new talk show where she will interview a few of the internet's key people and the hot hot celebrities! Today, Micki Krimmel of the internet video company Revver. Revver helps the independent producer make money on videos distributed over the internet. Buns, acts as sidekick on "Coffee"

Visual Effect: how we made Revver fly.

Revver has teamed up with Creative Commons to help raise funds for the Commons. It's simple in order to help support the cause just sit back and be entertained by this video below- This comes... 320x240 is the vodcast that scrubs the world of videoblogs so you don't have to. Join host Smithie Boho as he brings you the best in Vlog entertainment.