Adult Site Broker Talk Episode 36 with Anna Lee of 2049 Entertainment

0 (8s):
This is Bruce Friedman of Adult Site Broker and welcome to Adult Site Broker Talk where every week we interview one of the movers and shakers of the adult industry, and we discuss what's going on in our business. Plus we give you a tip on buying and selling websites. This week we'll be talking to Anna Lee of 2049 Entertainment. Adult Site Broker

1 (34s):
is proud to announce ASB Cash, the first affiliate program for an adult website brokerage with ASB Cash you'll have the chance to earn as much as 20% of our broker commission, referring sellers and buyers to us at Adult Site Broker. Check our website at asbcash.com for more details. First of all, today let's cover some of the news going on in our industry. The content creators arrested by South Carolina police over public videos that were uploaded to an adult website, have released a video via Facebook tearfully, apologizing for their actions in the video.

1 (1m 21s):
The couple now identifying themselves as Eric and Lori Harmon spoke directly to the camera after their second arrest. Last week, the Harmons had been originally arrested by local police and charged with multiple sex crimes, including obscenity. After police were tipped off about public sex videos. They had allegedly shot in Myrtle beach and other locations and uploaded to an adult site. The Horry County prosecutor, no, that's not horny County, by the way, is charging the couple with multiple charges of indecent exposure. And also with participation in preparation of obscene material, part of South Carolina is rarely enforced obscenity statute, which considers all filming of sexual acts illegal. I'd like to think I was a good person to visibly moved.

1 (2m 3s):
Lori Harmon told her Facebook audience. I was just having some fun. That's what I thought I was doing, but it was wrong. It's against the law and I should not have done that. And I'm truly sorry. And I hate this because of my family or my kids having to go through this, her husband, Eric also charged for the videos added that they did not want our kids to see this or even know about this, but the media is blasted us all over the world. And of course our kids found it. They are teenagers, Lori Harmon set on the verge of tears. They can see it. It hurts because they're my babies and I love them. And they're hurting with me at this point.

1 (2m 43s):
Larry Harmon broke down and started sobbing. I'm here to apologize. She continued. I've learned a lesson. I'm not going to do it again. If anything, please reach out to me. I'd really like to make it right for you all because that's not how I want to live my life. I was just having fun and I got out of control and this was a huge wake up call. And I'm awake. I've been awake for days and days and days, but we're sorry please. Lori Harmon concluded the original January 16th arrest occurred after officers were tipped off to videos showing the couple of performing sex acts inside a glass gun Dola at the Myrtle beach.

1 (3m 23s):
SkyWheel within view of the public and at a community pool in the surf side beach area of Horry County. Sometime during December, 2020, the alleged indecent exposure was not witnessed or reported by anyone at the time of the incident. And the investigation by local police seems to have only consisted of reviewing the videos allegedly posted by the couple to the adult site spokesperson for Oregon democratic Senator Jeff Berkeley has confirmed that the new version of the CIS, a bill, he co-sponsored last year, we'll ensure that the rights of consensual actors in the adult industry will continue to be protected right now, Senator Merkley and his staff are in listening mode.

1 (4m 6s):
Deputy communications director, Martina McLennan said in response to questions about the new version of CYSA, the stop internet sexual exploitation act intended to prevent the uploading of pornographic images to online platforms without the consent of the individuals in the images was Cohen reduced last December by Merkley and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, but it died without passing the committee stage. Before the end of the last Congress, a revised version of the bill is expected to be re-introduced during the current Congress, McLennan said that Merkley's office, this is currently conducting research to gather more information feedback about how this proposed legislation could affect content creators and others online, to ensure that the rights of consensual actors in this space will continue to be protected.

1 (4m 56s):
Atlanta Evans, president of adult performers, union APAC was one of the stakeholders earlier this month held a meeting with Merkley's office to advocate for the free expression of rights of the adult performers who had vocally criticized the phrasing of CYSA on January 20th, APEC released a statement stating the meeting went very well with Merkley staff being responsive, concerned, and open to hearing our opinions about the legislation. When the meeting came to a close, the APEG statement concluded, we were offered the opportunity to stay in communication with their staff to be involved as the building shape for future legislative intentions, we will maintain an open dialogue to be sure when CYSA returns, it protects our workers as opposed to harming them.

1 (5m 43s):
Pineapple support will host stocking your relationship toolkit with Hart. That's spelled H a R T and it's a webinar about how to manage relationships as an adult content. The event sponsored by team skeet will be led by licensed mental health counselor. Nikki line. The webinar will focus on the innovative harmony Arion relationship tools or heart methodology to equip attendees with the building blocks for developing healthy and meaningful relationships. Every healthy relationship is built on a foundation of knowing your partner trust and vulnerability set line heart will provide these building blocks for you to develop them in your relationship, as well as identifying toxic patterns that can develop over a course of a relationship pineapples support founder lay a tenant said Nikki is an incredible kink aware and poly friendly counselor with extensive training and experience in her field.

1 (6m 42s):
As relationships can be especially challenging as an adult performer, it's essential to understand and develop tools that can be used to nurture and sustain positive and healthy relationships. It added the stocking. Your relationship toolkit with heart webinar will take place via zoom. This coming Friday at 9:00 AM Pacific time, it's scheduled to last one hour, but may go longer for more information and to access the webinar link, visit pineapple support.org. And I'd like to add that adult site broker is a proud sponsor of pineapple support. Now let's feature our property the week that's for sale at adult site broker.

1 (7m 22s):
Actually our property the week this week is a reminder, just a reminder that we always have some private listings available. In addition to what you see on our website and in our newsletters, we have pay sites, escort sites, tube sites, and other types of sites available in these cases. The owner of the site is usually expressing the utmost care to make sure that the identity of his reverse cider company does not get out into the public domain. These are also generally larger listings with big revenues. If you're interested in finding out more about our private listings, please complete our buyer's NDA on our website to see if you qualify now, time for this week's interview.

2 (8m 5s):
My guest today on adult side, broker talk is Anna Lee of two Oh four nine entertainment. Anna, thanks for being with us today on adult side broker talk,

1 (8m 15s):
Thank you so much for having me here, Bruce.

2 (8m 17s):
It's a pleasure. Now let's tell everyone a little about Anna. She's been in the adult industry for 20 years. You don't look that old in the early two thousands. She, she had a web based cam and phone sex service. Many of you know her as the former president of other vers makers of red lights center and the virtual world web in 2015, she started hollow film productions, which is the parent company of hollow girls, vr.com. There Anna was its president and executive producer hollow girls VR won the first AVN award for the best VR and best VR sex scene in 2017.

2 (8m 60s):
She's also received multiple nominations since then in 2019, she launched two Oh four nine entertainment, Inc. A virtual reality production company that creates cutting edge, immersive inclusive, engaging content in live action, film, audio, and digital animation formats. That's both innovative and entertaining while incorporating the latest in film and sex technology applications. Try saying that three times the company is on a mission to press beyond the status quo of the typical VR production and raise the bar for everyone at the intersection of the adult industry and virtual reality.

2 (9m 41s):
The company has already earned two nominations for best VR scene at both the 2020 X biz and AVN awards. Congratulations now, besides working on more of their own projects, two Oh four nine is one of the top VR production studios, and they're currently in full-time production for various other studios. So Anna, I just gave kind of a capsule about your company. Tell me why. Tell me, I guess, I guess we're done. No. Tell me, tell me what I left out. Tell me more about your company

3 (10m 15s):
2049 entertainment. And I call it 24 nine was actually, it was birthed after I saw the movie blade runner 2049 and sort of the, the idea and the driving force behind it is I really want to create truly immersive experiences and currently with the technology that is available publicly and in my hands, and that I'm able to talk about VR is sort of where, where we go from here. So this is where the company is right now. We're producing the highest quality VR adult films right now that we can, for both myself, I'll be launching two sites this year, as well as for other studios, but you know, 20, 49 as its namesake is, you know, like its namesake is, is, this is just the beginning for us.

3 (11m 6s):
What I'm really focused on is creating very immersive, very intimate. Like I said, reality experiences or mixed reality, if you want to call it or other reality that it's going to incorporate kind of what you're seeing right now with the VR, but then as well, enable other technologies. So you truly feel like you're having an experience and kind of the lines are blurred. You know, the fourth wall is broken and you're like, what's going on? Is this real? Is this not? Yeah. So that's, that's, that's what the company is doing and working towards, but obviously with COVID, you know, we kinda, we're kind of just kind of feeling it out, like everybody else's and seeing what we can do, what we're doing quite well.

3 (11m 47s):
And I'm so grateful for that, so. Sure.

2 (11m 49s):
Well now, now being in Canada, I'm sure that helps you production wise because obviously you're not in the cluster-fuck that's known as the United States of America and Canada. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And thank God, thank God either in my, in my, in my home country. And so that has definitely given you an advantage. How, how much of an advantage is that and how has that helped you?

3 (12m 28s):
It's an incredible advantage. Just straight up. It's an incredible advantage because I am, I have the capacity let's say, or the offers to shoot as much as possible. The one limiting factor is we do lack the talent. Canada is not necessarily known for a place where actual production happens. Production typically happens in Los Angeles. Although, you know, a lot of the big adult companies are here. A lot of the production happens, so we are lacking in talent, but that's something that is also part and parcel with what I've been working on the last few months is really developing the talent pool here and really showing yeah. And really, you know, guiding them.

3 (13m 9s):
I'm shooting a lot of first-timers and my job is amazing. I have a dream job.

2 (13m 15s):
Well, you create, you created your own dream job.

3 (13m 19s):
I, you know, what I did, AA is so funny. I was like sitting on the couch the other day, looking around and I shoot out of my house. Now I ended up my house. I completely converted my house into 2049 entertainment studios and offices and post-production facility and everything during this year. And you know, I was sitting around looking around, I'm going, wow. Like, yeah, no, I completely created my dream, my dream jobs. So yeah, I feel very fortunate, but yeah, that's, you know, while we, while we don't have the same issues COVID wise, I mean, we're very, very careful don't get me wrong. It's still an issue. But, you know, while we don't have the extent to the extent of the issues that the, that my American counterparts have.

3 (14m 0s):
Yeah. I've been very fortunate that the work has come to me, which has been wonderful. And initially I thought would be a little bit, you know, I, I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but it's been going well, a lot of hard work. And like I said, where w the one thing that we are lucky is talent. And that's what I've been diligently trying to do is build up the talent pool here and, and, you know, we're doing all right, we'll do it. Okay.

2 (14m 24s):
Sure, sure. There's talent everywhere. Now, VR is in kind of a unique position now, while it's been adopted a lot more widely in recent years, it's still not a huge percentage of the industry and what they do now. Now, where do you see the technology now? Where do you see it going in the future and how do you see your company being a part of it?

3 (14m 48s):
Well, let me back up a little bit and say this. So one of the, think the limiting factors of virtual reality is the problem that we have with the adoption of it was a couple fold. Here we go. So the first one was definitely people having a bad first experience just to say it very plainly, you know, when you get those cardboard headsets, like everybody was giving out in the early days, just for, you know, for fun in the swag bags. Sure. If that's your first experience of VR, you're like, I'd rather look at some tubes set on my phone. You know, if you're a consumer, honestly, the barrier to getting off, straight out the barrier to getting off with it with a VR headset, there's a lot of hurdles you've got to jump through.

3 (15m 31s):
It's not easy. You know, you want to actually sit down and enjoy a scene and it, you've got to invest in plan. It's, it's, you know, it's not simple and they're cumbersome and they're heavy. And primarily they're used for family entertainment at this juncture. And, you know, it's a little weird to be taken the kids Oculus, you know, but you know, these are all straight facts. So these are the limiting factors. The other problem, I think, is on the producer side and I'm guilty of this myself in the early days. A lot of the area VR content, especially in the beginning was simply shot like regular content, but just with the VR camera. And I think that was a big limiting quasi killer for us because why shoot something that's supposed to be immersive in a non-immersive way, even though it's POV.

3 (16m 24s):
And even though the girl's looking at the camera and these, all these other elements, producers are often trying to flip the, flip the scenes over pretty quickly. And I understand that, you know, I get it. You have to balance, you have to balance your budget and time versus, you know, your, your craft, so to speak, right? You gotta, you gotta be. So, you know, you, sometimes you gotta let some things go, but I, I find that the biggest mistake we made as producers and I, like I said, I'm including myself in this category and I'm guilty of it. Myself is, is, is not paying attention to what, the reason why we're doing it. Why are we shooting this in VR? And what can we do to make this feel like an experience over some kind of porn that you could easily watch by logging into any site?

3 (17m 12s):
And so that's what 20, 49 specifically we focus on. And, and you'll see that in, into the sites going to release later this year is that we're going to be focusing a little less on the sort of conventional setup, the conventional thing that you've been seeing so far and really focus on what are the elements that we can do to make this, make this more immersive, make this feel more real. And those are things that I was experimenting with my first release, which is black box. I really experimented with the quality of sound and the taking away of, of sort of the visual aspects and just having the girl by herself in a black room, nothing else, one light owner.

3 (17m 53s):
How does that feel? How intimate can we get? How much are your senses thrust towards what is happening to you versus watching a porn? And so that's something that I really, really took a lot of time with that series. I did 14 episodes like that, and I learned a lot from it. It wasn't perfect. It was far from, it did well. It's still doing well. Thank God. I'm so great for that. It actually helped me during COVID, but I think one of the reasons it did was I, it was, it was, it was a sort of an experiment and a focus on how can we make essential, wonderful, pornographic experience that you could still get off to, but really, really play with the idea of your sensory experience with just a headset on.

3 (18m 40s):
And so those are the things I really focused on. Like I said, using audio, using your, your site, which are the only two things that I have at my arsenal ready, unless you're going to attach yourself to a peripheral, right? Like, like a haptic device or something like that, you know, but that's something that I really, really focused on was to, how can we play with that and sort of move away from this standard everyday run of the mill or the scene, which I love doing. I love sets. I love, I love berries. I love going crazy. You know, I love scripts. I love that shit. It's all, I don't love it, but I, if we, if we're going to do an in VR, we need to do it in a way that's going to let itself to the medium.

3 (19m 21s):
Sure. You know, like you go to IMAX to watch an IMAX movie. You don't go to IMAX to watch Rocky horror picture show, although it would look cool, but you know what I'm saying? Like you don't, you don't, you don't go there, you go there for an IMAX experience. And so the same thing when you're putting on a headset like this, it's cool that you could watch whatever you want on the headset, squeak and watch Netflix, but that's not why I bought it and buy it for that. I bought it to be immersed. I bought it, I bought it. So I could feel like I'm really there. And then I'm fucking this chick and the, you know, and that's, I hope I can talk like that. I bought it, you know, so that I can have that experience. And so that's something that, you know, that I think is, was a great limiting factor.

3 (20m 3s):
And I think why our sector hasn't been more successful even though I've worked in the mainstream sector because of my abilities. And because of the time I've spent working in VR film, mainstream is even farther behind that. So we're like way leaps and bounds ahead of, of regular film when it comes to VR content. Of course, that was our big problem.

2 (20m 27s):
Okay. And of course you can swear, come on. This isn't, this is an adult industry podcast, we're we, we, we're certainly not limited on the four-letter words. In fact, we encourage them, but it's you still, do you still feel the technology holds you back?

3 (20m 48s):
Well, I mean, my mind is, is 20 years from now. Like the biggest stuff I want to do is I'm in 2049, literally, like it's beyond, but, but I am looking at stuff, talking to people because half the time I do is I I'm a one woman showing, honestly, right now I do absolutely everything. And one of the things I do is I do have to spend time with the R and D sector, myself created R and D sector. And that's checking out the new technologies because what I am doing right now in the current iteration of it is not what I want to be doing forever. You know, I don't want to be making a boy, girl VR, porn, GFE style, like the rest of my life.

3 (21m 30s):
I would die. You know, it's fun right now. It's great. I'm so grateful that I have it and I have a good sign, but it's not something I want to focus on. Ultimately, my ultimate goal is to create an experience that you can, you can barely decipher between real or not, and that could be an experience doing anything. So the technology I'm looking at, right, the technology I'm looking at, you know, imagine you could have your favorite star on the couch with you and you look over and it's your body. Or it could be somebody else's body, if you don't, if you hate yours. But, you know, I would like to see myself with somebody, with, you know, somebody that, you know is a performer or whatever.

2 (22m 7s):
Like who, who would you want to see yourself with?

3 (22m 10s):
Honestly, a Kiana raves. And I love Keon. I would love to have Kiana Rees in my house. You know, like with me, instead of me looking down and I've got this massive Dick, you know what I'm saying? Like, although that's cool to try out. And if I could, I, you know, I would fully have a male experience one day. Why the hell not, you know, try it out. Right. But there you go. Why not? God? Of course, no. Oh, you know what a woman is the idea. If she says that she never, wasn't curious about, would it be,

2 (22m 45s):
Hey, there you go, darling. There you go. So, so what about the, what about the adult industry and you and I have certainly been around the block for awhile now. God, Darlene, you're not still, still, still beautiful. You know, we we've been around actually about the same period of time. I think, I think maybe you a year or two more, but it's pretty close now. Where do you, where do you see this industry going? What's a, what's a hat.

3 (23m 21s):
That's a really good question. All right. Where do I see this going? Well, when it comes in terms of content, definitely the hands are, are, and the way everything is going is going towards the individual creator content creator. I may be totally off on this because I don't have these statistics, but I, I D I dare take a guess that probably tech talk is a little bit more popular than certain streaming services with the younger demographic. I'm not talking about my mom and stuff. They don't know how to use the phone, but, you know, but I'm talking about the, the, the soon to be, or the current consumers that are coming up with the money, with the money and these people like short, fast self-created clips.

3 (24m 9s):
And this is, you know, going into the only fans, it's the same thing. Right? And so that's something for me, as well as a content producer, ultimately, who does not do her own content with herself, how do I, how do I continue to stay viable? Even though my love and my focus is VR, but it's a very labor, intensive process. It's not an easy, I pick what the hardest thing to do.

2 (24m 32s):
I mean, it's the most expensive, most expensive too, because of that,

3 (24m 37s):
Exactly the hardest the, the technology is constantly changing. I keep having to re up my equipment every two minutes and it's like a huge barrier to entry on this. I'm a basket case, whatever I am. I like, I like pain. Apparently, obviously I'm not into that crowd, but yeah. So how do you, how do you save out? So I think right now, the current trajectory where we are on is, is the one that you're sort of seeing is, is the younger generation is coming up with these, with these self-produced homemade, but it's, it's, it's made still with an excellent quality. And I mean, the phones nowadays are high.

2 (25m 16s):
Oh, I was going to say the camera's on iPhones are great.

3 (25m 21s):
They're better than a camera. You could go buy from Sony. Well, not really, but like, you know, very close. And then some of the editing apps and the Photoshop apps, like I look at my skills and I'm like, okay, so I could have Photoshop this on my phone far faster than I could have even opening the stupid file on my computer. Right. Like, it's, it's amazing. And mind-blowing, and I think honestly, that's where everything is going, as people are churning out content so quickly, but it's almost like the MTV era again. And I, you know, and this is where, where my age, when I was in college and stuff is the advent of the music video and how quick and flashy that was and how cool that was and how it's evolved.

3 (26m 2s):
And now I don't ever see a music video on TV anymore. It's always on YouTube. Right. So I think that's where everything was going. I think, I think, like I said, things like only fans and stuff, especially because of the pandemic. I mean, that's just, they just gave them a huge boon and I think it's going there, but what's going to happen after that is, that's a good question. Maybe we should look at history and see kind of what's in terms of entertainment, how, how things went there, you know, and

2 (26m 33s):
Check, check 19, 19. Right.

3 (26m 38s):
But also too, I mean, where, like, you know, where are we going to go with this technology? And where are the where's that, where are the wearables coming in? And these are other things that we're looking to. And well, here let's look at this way, I'm gonna try and make a prediction right now based on, on some stuff. So right now everyone's locked away, you know, and we're all kind of producing our stuff at home. So what would be the next evolution? Well, eventually they hope that we would, we would get out route again. We're let out again. So maybe, maybe that's a turn in a push back to a different, different thing, you know, like, you know, and in terms of our industry, probably, probably escorts are gonna do, I don't know, strip clubs are probably going to be, do amazing when it can open up again.

2 (27m 25s):
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Anything, anything live, anything alive? So, so now lately the industry has faced some more legal challenges. No, no. Even though they're addressing user generated content, the long hand of the law of course is never far away. And all of this is certainly put a chill up on my spine and I'm sure it's done the same to you. How much does all this concern

3 (27m 52s):
That's concerning? It's concerning? I don't think I'm as concerned yet. Although I do have my IO and I'm not, I'm not ignorant to the fact that this is, this is big. You know what, to be honest with you, I haven't really thought about this one very, very much. There's so much other stuff going on in the world. It's kind of, if you know, it's crazy. It's like,

2 (28m 18s):
Well, as I, as I, as I talked to you the day after the U S Capitol was, was stormed, even though we'll be running this in some, in some weeks.

3 (28m 28s):
Yeah, yeah,

2 (28m 31s):
Yeah, yeah. Oh, that was the head. That was one of the, that was one of the heads of Coon on, by the way,

3 (28m 37s):
Oh Lord. It's the world is so nuts. Like the other day I heard that there the summer, was it the government or the Israel government, or somebody said that aliens exist. Right. And then,

2 (28m 48s):
Oh, Israel, Israel would never say that

3 (28m 51s):
Or say minister of defense went out and said that, that they exist. And here's the proof. And, and, but then at this point, all this, all this stuff, and I'm not trying to like, sort of segue off in from answering the question, but it's like Straight up, Bruce. I don't know what to think anymore because it's like, all these things keep hitting us left and right. And I I'm concerned, but I'm also concerned about my health. Right. No.

2 (29m 23s):
Good. I don't want to get

3 (29m 25s):
Concerned about the longevity of the economy and you know, so yeah. I am concerned.

2 (29m 31s):
Yup. I get ya. I get ya. That's a hard one to answer today. Oh, I understand. Look this week, there's a lot of questions that are hard to answer. I don't even know the questions. Quite frankly, let alone the answers. So what you, you address a little bit of this before, but I'll let you get into a little more detail. What makes you unique as a director?

3 (29m 53s):
Definitely. I think, well, number one, the way that I work with the talent, I actually went to theater and acting school. That was my primary focus for a long time. Yeah. And I, when I was a young and I was an actress, you know what adult, the adult industry was my waitressing job. I was a professional actor.

2 (30m 20s):
Do do, do, do, did, did you do, you said the adult industry was your, So you did some, so you did some adult. You did some adult work as talent.

3 (30m 33s):
Oh, I was running that company. Is there any of the phone company?

2 (30m 36s):
Oh, okay. Got it. Got it. Got it.

3 (30m 39s):
I mean, it was my wages and give, as I could see you as talents, you're damn pretty blessed. Blessed, blessed. But I was, I didn't want to be, cause I was an actress. I was an actress. I was doing movies. My first film was with Sean Connery actually. Exactly. So I did not want to be in an adult film.

2 (30m 59s):
I bet. I bet you, I bet you in. LAJ have had some conversations.

3 (31m 5s):
Actually. We haven't, I didn't know.

2 (31m 7s):
Oh my God. Why do you think they call him LA Jay. He was an actor for years.

3 (31m 12s):
Right? Did we have we never got around to that?

2 (31m 16s):
You need to listen to what the podcast he did with me. Okay. And talk to him about it. Talk to him about it. Yeah, definitely.

3 (31m 25s):
Yeah, no, I was an actress for years. I was on TV. I was touring. I was doing a bunch of shit. So there was no way in hell I could do, you know, bless my, some of the performers are some of my best friends, but there was no way I could actually be an adult film. So that was out of the question. But what I did instead was I ran Cortez and entertainment and that was paying my bills and I didn't have to be anywhere because it was remote. Like I was, I had girls from all over the world calling in and working for me. So

2 (31m 58s):
Pretty damn young entrepreneurial

3 (32m 1s):
Look, I met a girl at a party that taught me how to do all of it. That is literally, I was in acting school. I was in theater school and I met her. I went to a party and I met this woman and she had a beautiful voice. I go, you haven't, you have an amazing Wednesday voiceovers. And she's like, Oh no sex, a phone sex operator. No shit, no shit. I was like, I always imagined that was in like a dirty like call center. You know, where the, when you're smoking and shit like, and she's like, no, no, no, I do it for my house. Do you know now that because AOL had just come up and somebody had written a program that wrote the cult and this was 2001, 2000 and no 2000.

3 (32m 46s):
And she said, no, no, no, no. And she showed me how to do all of it. And I said, you know what? I could help you with this. I can help you manage this. And she said, cool. So that'd be ended up partnering up. And I ended up opening up cortisone with her and we worked together and I hired a lot of my friends, a lot of the actresses to work. And we were getting paid two to $4 us a minute of which I got at half the girls or the other half that was back in the day. Right. As you had to run the credit card through first

2 (33m 17s):
Well that's when $2 and four that's when $2 and $4 was $2 and $4

3 (33m 24s):
That too, there was no tokens. There was no nothing. And then as the technology got a little bit better, we introduced camming and I only was into the camming for a short time. There was only a year.

2 (33m 35s):
You would have been, you would have been one of the early ones, I think.

3 (33m 38s):
Exactly. And then, and then a company called night flirt came out and that's when I got out of the business, I looked at this thing and I was like, I can't compete with this. And so yeah, sold it. Well, I saw the potential in it. I saw that they had like, it was a bigger system and I was still half in the old school way and half in the new way. But by that time I had been, I was heavily involved with red light center by that time. So it was easy jump. It was easy to let go of that and just make the crossover. But yeah. So in the early days, adult, the adult industry paid my bills and I didn't have to go be a waitress like the rest of my friends, you know, cause you're acting jobs are few and far between, but I did really well on both sides for a while.

3 (34m 26s):
And then it slowly became where the adult industry started becoming more of my home. I liked being there more than I liked being in the, in the mainstream sets. And now it's come to where this is my main job now and has been for the last, at least 13 years. And my main focus since at least 2007 and the sort of the mainstream is now I come in as a guest under my adult persona, which is hilarious.

2 (34m 58s):
It's hilarious.

3 (34m 59s):
And nobody remembers over the back. He remembers about that, but going back. So what makes me unique is that, you know, sort of circle back here is my ability to coach and work with the girls to get very genuine performances. And I use a lot of techniques that I use in my days of acting. I still coach, my nephews are up and coming little Disney stars and I've been helping to coach them. So like, yeah, so this is the thing is working with the performers is my number one. My second thing is I actually know every aspect in and out of the entire process from editing to the marketing, to the affiliates, to everything. And so I, I'm in a very, very fortunate position of where I've had an opportunity to work in absolutely every aspect of production inside and out from, you know, it is the interim, you know, toe to tail and beyond I worked in everything, including selling, running the site, content management, coding, everything.

3 (35m 57s):
And so because of that knowledge, I have an advantage, I think over some of my, you know, some of my peers in the fact that some of them come in from just directing standpoint or some that come in from just a, you know, a technical film camera standpoint. And while they may be like really, really good at the focus thing they do, I'm looking at the whole picture. So when I go to shoot something, I've already seen it down the line all the way to the affiliates. And that's something that I think my counterparts don't necessarily have that ability to do. And I'm so grateful that I've had it because I've had the experience in both the business side and the production and, and, and then being a performer, not an adult one, but you know what I'm saying?

3 (36m 38s):
And then now becoming an editor because, well I've, since COVID I had to do something, so learner did it,

2 (36m 44s):
We gotta, we gotta stay busy. Now. Now what, or what's 2049 working on now and into, into, into the rest of 2021.

3 (36m 55s):
All right. So I am shooting for other studios currently and I love them. And then the thing I, the thing I love about working with the other students is this, when I started out in VR and when I started out in VR content production, one of the things that always bothered me was the competitiveness was people. This is, this is my prep proprietary camera. And I don't want to tell you the secrets. And that always bothered me because I'm a, I'm a firm believer. And I say this all the time, that the only way that we can truly succeed in this small niche market is if we band together, we work together. We pool our resources because why would I spend a hundred grand?

3 (37m 38s):
And some, you spend a hundred grand that we're just competing against each other and we don't get any further. We don't push anything further. I believe that collaboration, especially with new niche technologies is super, super important. The sharing of information, open source, all that shit. I'm really a huge proponent of it. Okay. And that's, that's also a big reason why I went on my own is, is, is because I wanted to be able to do that. And I'm very open with everybody I work with and they all know that I work with each other. Right. So it's, it's, you know, it's, it's the thing. So this is, I love that. I love that it's become now. It's not a, Oh, you worked for that company. So I can't talk to you. And there's this like rivalry. It's like, no, actually I'm working for all of you.

3 (38m 19s):
And we all talk to each other and this is great. And let's keep adding to the pot, the community pot, and just like, you know, keep growing the industry to get there. And so that's wonderful.

2 (38m 33s):
Oh yeah. I knew you're going to leave the other, any, any, any holdouts you're just going to leave behind quite frankly.

3 (38m 39s):
Right. Exactly. But for my particular,

2 (38m 42s):
Okay. I can PRI I can probably guess who they are, but anyway,

3 (38m 48s):
That's for another conversation, perhaps when I actually am able to see you in person, but yeah. So, but you know, myself, you know, urban here, I am shooting for everybody else. And it's like, I, the money is really where your content is. So I'm going to be turning my focus to shooting for two sides that I'm gonna open this year are two very different sites. One is going to be very much in the style of Anna Lee, which is what people have known. Very pretty, very soft, very DFE and another one's basically the opposite of that. And it's something that's going to surprise people. So, so that's what I'm working on. And I hope to launch both of them by summer, if not, no later than the fall.

3 (39m 32s):
No. Okay. Do that and keep

2 (39m 35s):
Me posted definitely a hundred

3 (39m 37s):
Percent. Trust me all are gonna, everyone's gonna hear about,

2 (39m 40s):
Well, good. Now, now you're always thinking a few steps ahead knowing you and, and what would you like to make with this company in the future?

3 (39m 52s):
You know what I really, really want to make like the ultimate goal, whatever make so, and I don't know if you saw blade runner 2049, the character, the character joy in it. She's a very, very main character. She's in a holographic AI girlfriend who the main character, the whole movie is about this guy who is he's. He thinks he's a replicant. Replicants are basically like clones. And they have like, they have like an end date. So they, they, they only live for so long, but they look like humans, like a pass, like humans, they know, but they, they kind of are born as adults. And they only live for like sort of short period of time. And then they're used for slave functions, linear functions.

3 (40m 34s):
This guy is, is a blade runner and he's actually replicant too. So he hunts his own kind. And the whole movie is he doesn't really realize if he too or not, because the lines are so blurred in this future. And he has the only significant romantic relationship he has is with this holograph who begins to be, who is extremely autonomous and she can live. And she can, she, he carries around in his pocket in this thing and she can go anywhere with him. And she was so inspiring for character to me, but I thought to myself, how fucking cool would that be? Like my whole family's on the East coast and I'm on the West coast. And right now the East coast is doing far worse than we are over here.

3 (41m 16s):
And I can't go and see them, even though there's work out there for me. Like, you know, I there's people I can go out there and shoot the Toronto isn't isn't in Toronto is in complete lockdown right now. So I'm not going over there. I haven't seen my family in a, in physically, in a long time. How cool it be if I could have my sister sitting at the table with me and we're eating together, you know what I mean? Like beyond just an iPad screen, how cool would it be for my mom and I to visit each other or whatever. And then, and then let's take it even further. How cool it'd be to have dinner with somebody who's no longer here anymore. And so that's where I'm going. And the adult industry, even though my end goal is not necessarily for sex purposes.

3 (42m 3s):
I think the path of which to get there is easily walked on via this route, because that's what you're going to use. A lot of this technology for. And we are the first to do a lot of these things, experiment with these things. So I think I'm in the right place with it, but that's my end goal is to create an experience with somebody that feels so real, like I said, in the beginning, but it goes beyond where you look across and while there's Chris Cornell having dinner with you, you know, and you can ask them questions or Prince or whoever, or your mom, you know, like, you know, and then if you want to, if you want to invite Keanu over later, but there's that too, right?

3 (42m 45s):
I, you know, so that's kind of where I want to really go ultimately. And so my aspirations or missions are beyond far beyond what I'm currently doing. Sure, sure. But everything I am doing is working towards that. And with the film, I really, that's why I want to focus with 2049. The content that they've produced for my own sites is I want to make sure I start moving away from the traditional 2d narrative style and move towards more of the experimental sort of like Mersive right.

2 (43m 16s):
When you, when you, when you start, when you started a full-scale technology company, you just make sure you just make sure I can buy some stock in that girl, because it sounds good. Now, now you're welcome. You're obviously well-connected in this industry who, besides canneries, would you like to partner and collaborate with in the future?

3 (43m 40s):
Oh God, you know what, everybody in some capacity like, Holy shit. I mean, there's some new guys and the old, you know, like everybody, like, because what I'm looking at has, has far reaching potential for every aspect of the industry. You know, it's not just cam girls fuck everything. You know, like it, it has far reaching aspects for absolutely every part of it from your affiliates to everything. And it's like the toys have to everybody, everybody right now though, currently with what, with what I'm with what I'm stuck with in terms of like, you know, being able to work with and the limitations of the technology.

3 (44m 25s):
Right. I would love to work with some of the bigger studios who are, have been hesitant to look towards the future, the sort of bigger budget, places that I think that we could collaborate and do something really amazing. Sure. And with that kind of, with that kind of marketing power behind it, if these guys took the chance, I think we could just absolutely revolutionize the way that entertainment is consumed. Just the same way that digital did it with Blu-ray. You know what I mean? Like you just, it's just, and I get really passionate about this as like, I wish sometimes some of the companies would take the chance and not be so afraid to try something a little risky.

3 (45m 9s):
Cause I think that if they really were thinking and thinking beyond what I said, not just doing corn, like the way porn's always been done, but doing, thinking outside the box about the implications of creating an experience and how that would feel and how would that look, you know, that's that that's ultimately,

2 (45m 30s):
You're always going to have in any business, especially adult, you're going to have the big thinkers who look to the future and then you're going to have, the people are happy with what they're, what they've got. And then you go five years down the road and you see where each of those groups are. And I look back and I think about, I think about each group and I know where they are compared to where the first group is. So I hear you now. Now how about you? I know you're a real workaholic

3 (46m 6s):
Actually gotten really good at not being okay. Learning to balance.

2 (46m 12s):
Well, you got your, you got your studio in your, in your, in your home, which is obviously a clue right there. But when you do have spare time, what do you like to do?

3 (46m 22s):
It's going to sound really funny. I like to watch movies for real, you know what I've actually started doing straight up and it may not sound like a hobby other than hanging out with my dogs. My dogs are amazing. I've got two boys, two Frenchies. They are just the best. We have four, three of them, two cats as well,

2 (46m 45s):
Three of them, or three of them are rescues. So that's important here.

3 (46m 51s):
Yeah. Same here I work with, I used to, I used to volunteer to be on the board of rescue group back in the day when I was. But honestly I like watching movies. I like chilling. I like going for drives. I like going on road trips. I like, actually this is going to sound harsh nerdy. One of the things I've been doing in my house is, is I love to decorate. Like I love to like light. So I've actually lit my house. Like, like right now it looks like I either live. I live in the dream home of what I always wanted to live in when I was a kid. So that's not necessarily a good thing because the keyword was when I was a kid. So it looks like it could either be a strip club in here or a future house, depending on how you look at it.

3 (47m 38s):
But yeah, I've been lighting things and putting like lights in strategic places.

2 (47m 43s):
Put a stripper pole.

3 (47m 45s):
No, but I do have like pools in the corner for, for lighting and for like filming it, it

2 (47m 52s):
Put one in the middle, you know what I actually

3 (47m 55s):
Think I might get one and that might be my new hobby I might learn.

2 (48m 0s):
Oh God, I was, I was kidding. But yeah, go for it. You know,

3 (48m 7s):
Those girls are fit.

2 (48m 9s):
I, yes, yes, they are me too.

3 (48m 14s):
What else do I do? Other than that? I, you know, I started meditating and

2 (48m 19s):
I'm a terrible, I'm a terrible meditator. I can never stick with it. So I need it.

3 (48m 25s):
It's been really cool. It's, it's changed my perspective and my outlook on a lot of shit. And I'm like, I'm actually starting to dig it. Yeah.

2 (48m 34s):
You convinced me to try it again. My wife really wants me to do it. So yeah,

3 (48m 38s):
Pushed through it was really hard, but I was actually like straight up. I was going through a very bad breakup and it's okay. No, I'm not. I'm great. Yeah. I was going through a very bad breakup with someone. I I'd been with him one time and he is, was an addict. And so it was a very, very hard transition and a very hard time that I went through. And so I actually turned to it or initially just chill and to kind of not overwork and don't freak out. And since I've been doing it, my life has just, my quality of my life is better. Everything seems better. Everything is better.

3 (49m 19s):
Yeah. So there's that? I watch movies. I do yoga and I, I cook my dogs and talk to people online a lot.

2 (49m 28s):
Sounds awesome. Sounds awesome. Well, Hey aunt Anna, I'd really like to thank you for being our guest today on adult site broker talk, and I know we'll have a chance to talk again. My broker tip today is part seven of what to do to make your site more valuable for when you decide to sell it later, let's talk about some of the factors that influence the sale price of a website. Number one is almost always profit. It will be a multiple of the profit and that multiple is based on whether the profit is trending up or down and how fast it's trending up or down. I've seen valuations of as much as five times, although that's very rare. Normally it's in the two and a half to four times area.

2 (50m 9s):
I've also seen valuations of one time. If the profit is taking a nosedive, if a site hasn't been monetized, then it's all about the amount and quality of the traffic. If a sale is based on traffic, it will be a multiple of what the traffic would sell for on the open market. What are the sources of traffic direct traffic search

1 (50m 28s):
Engine, traffic and review traffic are the most valuable tube. Traffic, the least valuable is the traffic reliable and sustainable. What is the traffic history? And again, is it going up or is it going down in a rare case? The valuation will be based upon revenue. The same factors apply to that. A profit and the valuations will of course be lower than those of profits. How old is the website is the domain of.com or something else? Dot com is still King. What is its Alexa rating? How many inbound links are there? How much staff does it take to run the site? How many email addresses do you have in the case of a dating site?

1 (51m 9s):
This is very important. Another factor can be the reverse engineering cost. How much would it cost to build a site from scratch and drive the same amount of traffic to it and how much time would be involved? What is the lifetime value of a customer on the site next week? Next week we'll talk about how to buy a website and next week we'll be talking to Florin of Traffic Manager and Tube Advertising.

0 (51m 36s):
And that's it for this week's Adult Site Broker Talk. I'd once again, like to thank my guest, Anna Lee. Talk to you again next week on Adult Site Broker Talk, I'm Bruce Friedman.