In another conversation from his blog, Tim Street talked with Miles Beckett, Co-Founder and CEO of EQAL, a social entertainment company best known for creating lonelygirl15 the world’s first online interactive drama. Both he and his business partner Greg Goodrich, EQAL’s President and COO, had other jobs a few years ago outside of the video and entertainment industry. Miles was a plastic surgery resident and Greg was an attorney practicing entertainment copyright and trademark law but both had ambitions of working in the technology and entertainment field. They left their careers and worked with Mesh Flinders, an aspiring filmmaker develop the idea that became LG15 which spun off KateModern and led to $5 million in venture capital to expand their offerings with new partnerships with traditional media companies and international brands like Paula Dean celebrity cook from the Food Network, CBS and CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker to explore the digital and social media space through multi-platform interactivity.

Miles says that while it’s a tough economy right now the time is ripe for independent producers and talent to create your own intellectual property and build your own brands. He said the important things are story and character, really interacting and engaging with your audience and finding them on every social network that they might be like Facebook and YouTube and bringing them back to your own site to control your user experience. He thinks people will be able to make money through advertising once that market bounces back.