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I love how today’s guest, Ze Frank, describes what he does: He creates online play spaces.

He is the creator of zefrank.com, colorwars, The Show (one of the Internet’s earliest and most popular video blogs that inspired peeps like Gary Vaynerchuk), young me/now me, and many other online play spaces.

And he has a brand new project called Star.me.

And Ze has, to put this lightly, super fans. People that follow him (hopefully not in real life) and are seemingly down to participate in nearly everything he does. I wanted to know what the heck his magic sauce is and set to find out in this interview along with all the juicy details of Star.Me.

About Today’s Guest, Ze Frank:

Ze Frank (pronounced “Zay”) is one of the most influential online entertainers, turning out one online hit after another for years. He brings audiences an experience they will never forget, a truly entertaining and yet insightful look at how technology and creativity intersect, especially in web design, marketing and new forms of media.

He has frequently appeared at such annual technology events as Pop!Tech and the TED Conference and his online projects have attracted international attention. He created a series of video commentaries for Time.com entitled That Makes Me Think of …

Ze has unique experience doing new media design and marketing for important customers, helping them understand how to create contagious and viral media, how to leverage social media, and how to think about creative development in general.

He has filmed a pilot for the Discovery Channel and written a feature film script for Universal Studios. He was Artist in Residence at MSN, helping them develop strategies for creating and maintaining online community spaces – his specialty.

He serves on the advisory board of Bazaarvoice.com and Buzzfeed.com and consults to a wide range of clients on a wide range of issues, from the future of television to online marketing to social media.

Ze has been an adjunct at New York University, Parsons The New School for Design, SUNY-Purchase, and has guest lectured at Pratt Institute and the Royal College of Art in London.

Connect With Ze (and tell him you saw him on RISE!):

On His Website
On Twitter
Check Out Star.me

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Yes, of course there is much more to it than that, but today’s guest Grace Helbig has a freakin’ awesome job. She hosts Daily Grace and is the in-house video blogger for My Damn Channel. I was lucky enough to hunt down Grace to give us all the inside scoop about who she is, what she is paid to do and all the work that goes into it, PLUS a few improv and “getting better on camera” tricks. Enjoy!

About Today’s Guest, Grace Helbig:

In Grace’s own words:

I’m Grace. I was born and raised in beautiful southern New Jersey. I have a mom, a dad, a step mom, a step dad, two brothers, two step brothers and I work in a button factory.

I don’t. That’s from a childhood song rhyme thing.

I went to Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. Never heard of it? Yeah, that’s about right. Oh, man this is getting so cynical. This isn’t how I wanted this to go at all. Eeesh.

I graduated in ’07 with a BA in Contemporary Arts. Go arts! After college I was house-sitting for a bit and started vlogging as a way to document the experience. Vlogging is Video Blogging for you olds. Shortly after, Michelle and I moved to Brooklyn and I started working in the project management department of a television network. It was nice. Then I quit. To wait tables.

Oh, and to pursue comedy. Go arts!

All the while, Michelle and I kept vlogging our experiences in Brooklyn: moving, moving again, getting a dog, that dog dying, getting a new dog…

We were just like Sex in the City.

Then I got a call from MyDamnChannel. They were looking for an in-house vlogger and I was looking to stop dropping baby back ribs all over the floor of Houston’s. We tested the relationship for a couple of weeks and voila! We were in love! Mushy, dot com love! I’ve been vlogging for them as Daily Grace for almost three years and it’s been pure magic. You are my Doctor Dolittle, MyDamnChannel.

No, wait, wrong reference.

I am your Eliza Doolittle and you are my Professor Henry Higgins.

There we go.

In addition to vlogging I’ve been improvising on a house team at the Peoples Improv Theater called Borealis. We perform every Wednesday night as part of SUPER FREE WEDNESDAYS at 9pm! If you’re ever in the city you should come! It’s free, you gungan!

I’m also an actress and writer, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Connect With Grace (and tell her you saw her on RISE!):

Watch Daily Grace on YouTube
Follow Grace on Twitter
Check Out Her Personal Blog

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There is a lot we can all learn from today’s guest, George Watsky. Regardless if you are looking to make it as a performer or a creative entrepreneur, George is a whiz when it comes to the art of performing, building an audience, and earning a living from his craft.

A few tidbits:

• George is a writer and performer who believes in the equal power of the tear and the belly laugh. Born and raised in San Francisco and now based in Los Angeles, he aims to cross-pollinate the stage, screen and stereo with work that speaks to both the humor and frustrations of modern life.
• His YouTube video, Pale Kid Raps Fast, has (now) over 11,000,000 views.
• George was featured on Season 6 of “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry” on HBO.
• Touring while finishing his college education on a condensed schedule, George has performed at conferences and universities in more than half the states in the US and two in Australia.

His new mixed tape, A New Kind Of Sexy, comes out August 1st. One super cool thing is you can get a new track from it free every Monday on his YouTube.

About Today’s Guest, George Watsky:

In addition to what’s mentioned above, George was the 2006 Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Champion, 2006 Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Champion, and performed in a record six consecutive Youth Speaks Grand Slam Finals. The last three of those audiences, all topping out at over 3,000, were the largest ever for poetry slams anywhere in the world. In 2009 Watsky was one of three poets who performed live on FOX at the NAACP Image Awards in honor of Russell Simmons’ lifetime achievement award, and in 2011 he performed live as a guest on the Ellen Degeneres Show on two separate occasions.

George has made strides to bring his poetic sensibilities to the theater world. His one-man show So Many Levels has been presented in Boston, San Francisco, Vermont, and at the Hip Hop Theater Festival Critical Breaks series in New York City. He has also been featured at the San Francisco and Washington, DC arms of the Hip Hop Theater Festival. He played the title character and co-wrote a 2004 adaptation of Dante’s Divine Comedy for the Living Word Festival and his stage play Harold’s Fall or King Will is the recipient of the 2009 Rod Parker Playwriting Fellowship.

Taking it to the page and stereo, George’s debut poetry collection and CD, Undisputed Backtalk Champion, was published by First Word Press in 2006. Edited by novelist Adam Mansbach, the book is currently in its fourth printing. As an emcee, Watsky has performed on both coasts with his band Invisible Inc. The trio’s self titled album, a blend of jazz and hip hop, features R&B sensation Passion. George’s self-released debut, Watsky, reached as high as #7 on the iTunes Hip Hop albums chart.

To read more about George, check out his bio on his website.

Connect With George (and tell him you saw him on RISE!):

On His Website
On YouTube
On Facebook
On Twitter

This Episode Of The Rise To The Top Is Exclusively Sponsored By HubSpot:

Today’s The Rise To The Top episode is sponsored by HubSpot, which has just published an amazing collection of 101 quotes from some of the most influential thought leaders in marketing. This ebook, titled “101 Awesome Marketing Quotes” is meant for you to read, embrace and share with your co-workers and friends who can use some marketing inspiration. Download your free copy today at hubspot.com/risetothetop.

Subscribe To RISE:

You can join the 100,000+ RISE enthusiasts and catch new episodes every week, featuring conversations with unique guests on TheRiseToTheTop.com, as well as iTunes (video and audio) and now on your television via Roku and Connected TV.

Have You Seen These Episodes?

• RISE #211: From Muhammad Ali to Adam Sandler: Learn How Graham Bensinger Landed Interviews With The World’s Most Interesting People
• RISE #210: Michael Stelzner On How SocialMediaExaminer.com Propelled From 0-85,000 Subscribers In Less Than Two Years
• RISE #209: Why Jason Calacanis Is Betting All His Chips On Web Video
• RISE #208: How To Create An Awesome Social Media Stunt: Advice From Digital Royalty’s Amy Martin
• RISE #207: Simple Nutrition Tips Anyone Can Put To Use With UFC’s Urijah Faber

Reminders:

The Rise To The Top intro song was brilliantly created by Ashkon. Check him out on Twitter and Facebook.

Show the world you are fluff-free with an official fluff-free t-shirt!

Have you nabbed a copy of my book Smarter, Faster, Cheaper: Non-Boring, Fluff-Free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business? You can grab the first chapter for free right here, and you can buy it on Amazon or anywhere books are sold.

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When it comes to the world of YouTube celebrities, Michael Buckley is right at the top. He is one of YouTube’s original partners with his show “What The Buck” that has over 1,000,000 subscribers (in fact his SECOND channel has around 250,000 subscribers!!). I knew I had to find out more for all of us, and I was able to track down Michael for today’s episode. Enjoy!

About Today’s Guest, Michael Buckley:

Buck won the YouTube award for Best Commentary in 2007. In 2008, he was one of the NewTeeVee Breakout Stars of the Year. (He actually won a YouTube bowling trophy once too). In December of 2008, he was featured on the front page of the New York Times and made several TV appearances to discuss his success and the YouTube Partnership Program. He has appeared on CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, FoxNews, the CW, BloombergTV, and E! He also hosts “Dear Buck” where he gives occasionally good advice to his viewers and Live Broadcasts on BlogTV.com every Thursday night at 7pm Eastern.

In real life, Buck lives in New England and enjoys going to Broadway shows, Diet Dr. Pepper, whitening his teeth (waiting for Crest White Strips to call!) and hanging out with his five small dogs. Michael was a very strange child who grew up to be a very strange adult. He had a subscription to TV Guide at the age of five and was devastated to find out that Julie and Barbara were not really sisters on One Day at a Time. His early years were spent acting like Batman or Wonder Woman (on a good day) and he also liked pretending to be all three Charlie Angles!

Connect With Michael (and tell him you saw him on RISE!):

Check Out His Show on YouTube
On His Website
On Twitter

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Time to get naked today on the show. Almost literally. Here is the deal on Keith and The Girl: Not held back by the FCC or anyone else, Keith and Chemda create hilarious talk shows 5 days a week along with a video podcast. Topics cover celebrity gossip, current news, pop culture and preventing robots from taking over the world.

To date, they have created over 1,400 shows and have millions upon millions of downloads and is constantly ranked as one of the top comedy podcasts online.

In this interview, I was lucky enough to hunt down Chemda and Keith to talk about the background of the show, how it grew and oh so much more. Enjoy!

About Today’s Guests, Keith and Chemda:

Keith Malley: After a mere year performing stand-up comedy, Keith Malley was the 2004 grand prize winner at the prestigious World Comedy Laugh Off in New York City. He immediately recorded his debut CD/DVD Coming of Age and vowed to record a new one-take only CD/DVD each and every birthday with all new material. He is about to perform and record his seventh stand-up show in April 2010.

Chemda: Chemda made her first professional appearance in 1995 on well-known reggae artist Dr. Israel’s second album. Since then, she was the lead singer and choreographer for Mighty Dub Katz; featured on Comedy Central aside comedian Jeff Ross; and, teamed up with Rhys Fulber (formally of Front Line Assembly) for Conjure One as writer and singer, with songs featured on ESPN and EA Sports’ FIFA 2002.

Along with recent European tours, Chemda completed a US/Canadian tour as the sole vocalist for Conjure One, performing in venues such as Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC and Irving Plaza, New York, NY. She has recorded vocals for the follow-up album to Conjure One entitled Extraordinary Ways.

Later that year, Chemda also wrote and sang on the album Patterns of War as part of the new dub band Dreadtone International. Chemda recently finished recording the CD for the rock opera Victory in Defeat and continues to write and collaborate with various artists around the world.

Connect With Keith and Chemda (and tell them you saw them on RISE!):

On Their Website
On Twitter

Video hosting

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About Today’s Guest, Jonathan Coulton:

I knew I had to have today’s guest, Jonathan Coulton, on the show when I got this email from fan of the show, Matt Monroe:

I know that you get hundreds of suggestions for potential guests, but I do think that you would find Jonathan Coulton – a singer/songwriter based out of New York – to be a fascinating interview. He’s an ex-computer programmer who quit his day job (while his wife was pregnant) in order to become a musician. He now has a huge, huge following via the web, and (from what I’ve been told) makes a very nice living selling songs and merchandise. Anyways, I think that you’d find him and his story to be interesting.

I had to find out more, so I looked up a few of his songs, such as: Baby Got Back and Code Monkey. I knew I had to track him down to find out even more, which led to this interview. Enjoy!

More about Jonathan Coulton (in his own words):

In 2005, I left my day job writing software to pursue music full time. To keep myself busy I released a new song on my website every week for a year in a project called Thing a Week. A few of those songs became big Internet hits (my folky cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back”, a funny video called “Flickr”, a song called “Code Monkey”), and I am now fortunate enough to make my living as a musician.

I write about a lot of geeky stuff because I am a geek. Some of it’s funny, but a lot of it’s not so funny, and even more of it is somewhere in between. I’ve been compared to They Might Be Giants, Barenaked Ladies, Loudon Wainwright III, and other musicians you REALLY LOVE.

I give lots of music away because I believe it helps my cause, and I love it when people use my music to create other stuff – music videos, pictures, remixes, etc. At the moment I’m unsigned, and I’m proud to say I’ve created this whole thing mostly on my own (with plenty of help from an amazingly supportive bunch of fans). But it certainly is getting busy…I will probably sell out and go Hollywood any day now…

Connect With Jonathan (and tell him you saw him on RISE!):

On Twitter
On His Website

Video hosting

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About Today’s Guest, Marc Maron:

He has been host of The Marc Maron Show, and co-host of both Morning Sedition, and Breakroom Live – all politically-oriented shows, produced under the auspices of Air America Media. He was also the host of Comedy Central’s Short Attention Span Theater for a year, replacing Jon Stewart. Maron has been a frequent guest on the Late Show with David Letterman and made 44 appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, more than any other stand-up performer.

In his own words:

Since I was eleven, being a standup comic is all I ever wanted to be. I actually thought it was a noble profession. I remember being a kid and watching Rickles and Hackett on the tube, reading the My Favorite Jokes column at the back of Parade magazine every Sunday, listening to Carlin, Pryor, Cheech and Chong records with my little brother, going to Woody Allen movies, and staying up late on Saturdays to see the first season of SNL.

To me being a comic meant to be autonomous, angry, truthful, and funny. It meant being alive and present in the moment. It meant having the freedom to figure out and then be who I am in the purest way and to do it shamelessly in front of people, impose it on them and try to blow some minds in the process. It meant avoiding the soul death of the day job. Being a comic entitled me to live like a fucking gypsy until something clicked, and if it didn’t, who knows? I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few dispersed clicks throughout what I guess has been a show biz career of relative obscurity but with a real freedom from the bondage of mediocrity.

I have a hard time describing what I do or what I am up there on stage. I’ve been called: neurotic, a story teller, heady, cerebral, angry, brilliant, bad, a problem, a cultural critic, a satirist, fucking funny, an important voice, etc.

Recently a young woman who had just seen me came out on to the street, came up to me, excited, and said, “You were really great. You’re like Woody Allen.” Of course, I found a way to make that a negative and said, “Really? I think I’m a little angrier than Woody Allen.” In response she said, “You’re like an Iggy Pop Woddy Allen.”

Connect With Marc (and tell him you saw him on RISE!):

On Twitter
On His Podcast

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About Today’s Guest, Ashkon:

Check out Part #1 with Ashkon right here.

Born to Iranian immigrants in Northern California’s diverse East Bay, Ashkon is truly a multi-dimensional artist. A rapper, singer/songwriter and actor, his talent and appeal extend beyond those of your traditional performer. In 2006 Ashkon jumped onto the Bay Area hip-hop scene with his epic debut record The Final Breakthrough.

In 2008, Ashkon generated a great deal of buzz with his hilarious, yet helplessly infectious track, “Hot Tubbin’ (On the Late Night).” The video for the song became a viral sensation on YouTube, receiving more than 500,000 plays to date, thrusting Ashkon onto the cusp of the mainstream music world.

Ashkon had another huge Internet hit in 2010 when his Giants-related Don’t Stop Believing YouTube video became the official playoff anthem of the San Francisco Giants and to date has over 2,300,000 million views and has led to Ashkon being more involved with the Giants organization, including The Authentic Fan.

Connect With Ashkon (and tell him you saw him on RISE!):

On Twitter
On Facebook

Audio Only Player:

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About Today’s Guest, Ashkon:

Born to Iranian immigrants in Northern California’s diverse East Bay, Ashkon is truly a multi-dimensional artist. A rapper, singer/songwriter and actor, his talent and appeal extend beyond those of your traditional performer. In 2006 Ashkon jumped onto the Bay Area hip-hop scene with his epic debut record The Final Breakthrough.

In 2008, Ashkon generated a great deal of buzz with his hilarious, yet helplessly infectious track, “Hot Tubbin’ (On the Late Night).” The video for the song became a viral sensation on YouTube, receiving more than 500,000 plays to date, thrusting Ashkon onto the cusp of the mainstream music world.

Ashkon had another huge Internet hit in 2010 when his Giants-related Don’t Stop Believing YouTube video became the official playoff anthem of the San Francisco Giants and to date has over 2,300,000 million views and has led to Ashkon being more involved with the Giants organization, including The Authentic Fan.

Connect With Ashkon (and tell him you saw him on RISE!):

On Twitter
On Facebook

Audio Only Player:

Click here to download the audio file.

About Today’s Guest, Justin Halpern:

Imagine this one: Your funny stories about your dad end up becoming an international craze. One day you are writing funny musings about your dad on Twitter and soon after you write a New York Times bestseller…and then your stories get turned into a television show with William Shatner. That is pretty much what happened with today’s guest Justin Halpern. It is one heck of a story. Time to meet the man behind the Dad (errr, that sounded bad). Enjoy!

A bit about Justin:

In the summer of 2009, Justin Halpern created a Twitter account as a way to archive his father’s no-holds-barred, expletive-ridden words of wisdom. Within a month, @shitmydadsays became an Internet sensation. More than 2.5 million people currently follow Sam Halpern’s musings on Twitter and Facebook alone.

Justin’s first book, Sh*t My Dad Says (HarperCollins/ItBooks), a collection of essays about growing up with his unapologetically honest father, is a #1 New York Times bestseller.

Justin is also the creator of $#*! My Dad Says (WarnerBros/CBS), a sitcom starring William Shatner, Nicole Sullivan, Will Sasso, and Jonathan Sadowski. He serves as the show’s co-executive producer along with his writing partner Patrick Schumacker.